[weisco]

I think that the PalmReader software is excellent. A very simple DRM system. All you need to unlock your book is to enter the credit card you purchased it with. If you lose your card number, you just have to goto your bookshelf on their website and they will update the unlock code.

Fair prices, reader works great, no-hassle DRM. With eReader Pro it rocks compared to MS Reader.

Thanks for letting us know about the free book a day!

[weisco]

I think that the PalmReader software is excellent. A very simple DRM system. All you need to unlock your book is to enter the credit card you purchased it with. If you lose your card number, you just have to goto your bookshelf on their website and they will update the unlock code.

Fair prices, reader works great, no-hassle DRM. With eReader Pro it rocks compared to MS Reader.

Thanks for letting us know about the free book a day!

[SteveHoward999]

So you could actually tell them any 16-digit number?

[BugDude10]

Steve: good thought! I'm not sure I like the idea of my credit card number being locked into the book somehow (no matter how much they assure me it isn't extractable). If I could purchase books, then change the unlock code to some other number I select, that sounds safer.

As an aside, maybe I'm just too accustomed to MS Reader, but I'm not all that impressed with the presentation of this app. I like the DRM concept better for this (a user-connected code) than for MS Reader (a hardware-locked code), and there seems to be a good selection of books at reasonable prices, but the book transfer-to-device process and just the general look of the app on the device don't impress me that much. The bottom line is the books, though, I guess (selection and price), so I might just pick it up anyway.

[Jorgen]

http://Great! A free download of the...ad found this!

The books they have given away so far are already free and available elsewhere without DRM and withour having to give anyone a creditcard number (see my posting above).

I would have preferred some free comtemporary ebooks or at least a Christmas discount scheme of some kind.

Jorgen

[sasjaa]

Personally I like the palm reader better than MS Reader. The ability to tap the top or bottom of the screen to scroll through the book is very handy. When using MSReader I forget sometimes and it puts me in highlight/bookmark mode which is difficult to get out of.

[Ed Hansberry]

Originally Posted by SteveHoward999

So you could actually tell them any 16-digit number?

No. They check against a formula.

Your CC isn't stored in the ebook. It is a one way hash. So when you put your CC into the eReader app, it goes through a complex calculation and comes up with a number. That number is also the same calc that eReader.com does to lock the ebook. It is almost impossible to come back to your CC# from that number. See http://www.aspencrypt.com/crypto101_hash.html for more info. Bottom line is it would require more computing effort and time to extract your CC than it would be worth based on the credit limit of your CC, and even then they still don't have the date, your name or the CVN number. On top of that, the ebook is stored on a secure server on their system and only downloaded to you via SSL.

I'd be worried far more about Billy Bob taking your CC info at Wal-Mart to charge your purchase.

[SteveHoward999]

Originally Posted by sasjaa

Personally I like the palm reader better than MS Reader. The ability to tap the top or bottom of the screen to scroll through the book is very handy. When using MSReader I forget sometimes and it puts me in highlight/bookmark mode which is difficult to get out of.

Why bother? Does your PDA not have a scroll toggle-switch? Use it to flip pages. Or the navigator joy-switch thingy works too. No need to use a stylus to turn pages. One-handed reading.

[kencarr]

:devilboy: :devilboy: theres always a gotga

[ctmagnus]

:confused totally:

Does anyone else have copyright 1996 on their 9/11 Commission Report?

[nategesner]

I can't believe people fall for these "free" programs. There are many web sites that have these same books and thousands more for free every day and free software that is better than the e-reader software. Oh, and no credit card required to read a book and you can transfer it as many times as you want, read it on your PC, convert it to other formats, etc. E-reader and their like are nothing but swindlers in my book.

They charge almost as much for an e-book as they do a hard-back version. For example, the hardcover version of "The Da Vinci Code" is only one dollar more at Amazon! How does an electronic version of a book cost more to create than a printed version with a hard cover? Why would anyone pay so much for so little? Granted, I enjoy reading e-books on a regular basis, but if I'm shelling out that kind of money, I want to smell the thing, press leaves in the pages to be discovered years later, or pass it among friends to enjoy. And I don't want the publisher asking to see my credit card every time I take MY book off the shelf to read!!!

Until they can fix this, I'll stick with the true free libraries and material no longer under copyright. Most of the classics are better anyway.