Free Ebook-A-Day At eReader.com

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.ereader.com/promo">http://www.ereader.com/promo</a><br /><br />Through the month of December you can download one free ebook each day. Last year they did it for 12 days. Having been released from the shackles of Palm they have become more generous. :lol: <br /><br /><img src="http://www.ehansberry.com/pages/pocketpc/palmreader.gif" /> These are probably books that are out of copyright and normally cost a few dollars, which is the charge for formatting them. Still, this is much better than downloading raw text at Gutenberg and trying to get it into a nice ebook. Best of all, it works on the best ebook reader for the Pocket PC - the eReader!<br /><br />If you don't have the eReader application, they have a free version and a $14.95 pro version.

[reveric]

I just downloaded "A Little Princess". It would have been a few dollars! It will be great to read to my 7 yr. old who loves the movie and loves to be read to. I've never used my PPC to read to her before!

[Hx4700]

So, was there a book for Dec 1st???
Ron...

[ignar]

So, was there a book for Dec 1st???
Ron...

"Around the World in Eighty Days" was the one.

[ctmagnus]

iirc, I grabbed that one last year.

[Jorgen]

If you want Gutenberg ebooks formatted in a variety of formats (though not ereader) and without DRM, go to http://www.blackmask.com - free 365 days a year. The eReader DRM will haunt you the day you buy - say - a Sharp (which looks increasingly likely) or the next generation of hardware ereaders in 4-5 years time.

Jorgen

[Deslock]

FYI, they require a credit card (but don't tell you this until after you register). Had I known, I wouldn't have given them my email address.

Between that and DRM, I'll pass.

[PR.]

Your credit card is the number that unlocks the ebook.

Been using them for years, very good service just wish they would upgrade their reader to support WM2003SE

[panosasproulis]

The problem with eReader is that since they separated from Palm they stopped updating their software which is stuck to a version released last May. As a result, the reader does not support WM2003SE/VGA mode. :?

[Silencer]

Great! A free download of the already free 9/11 report. So glad I had found this! :devilboy:

[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]

Great! A free download of the already free 9/11 report. So glad I had 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]

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]

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.

[Jorgen]

Talking about free eooks and credit cards: Fictionwise has two free ebooks in multiformat (no DRM). If you have never bought from them before, you will have to make an account (and probably register a creditcard?).

Little Lady of the Big House by Jack London
Helen with the High Hand by Arnold Bennett

http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book&amp;bookid=27818&amp;id=24403
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book&amp;bookid=27811&amp;id=24403

They also have some "permanently" free ebooks here http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/freebooks.htm, including "Around the world in 80 days" ereader gives away.

Jorgen[/quote]

[sofene]

Talking about free eooks and credit cards: Fictionwise has two free ebooks in multiformat (no DRM). If you have never bought from them before, you will have to make an account (and probably register a creditcard?).

Little Lady of the Big House by Jack London
Helen with the High Hand by Arnold Bennett

http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book&amp;bookid=27818&amp;id=24403
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book&amp;bookid=27811&amp;id=24403

They also have some "permanently" free ebooks here http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/freebooks.htm, including "Around the world in 80 days" ereader gives away.

JorgenThis really blows the lid off.

[lapchinj]

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...
Yeah something like a MD5 Hashing Algorithm combined with random salt would probably use up Bill Gate's credit limit in electric alone. One-way for all intent and purposes is one-way and is so easy to implement that it would be a crime not to use. So "almost" is in reality is like saying "almost" over the horizon and so far we haven't seen anyone even come close to approching the horizon.

This is why when someone looses or forgets a password a new password has to be sent. There is no way to derive the password from the information on file. So while I've seen people get annoyed with a company not being able to send a forgotten or lost password we should be relieved that this type of information is not accessable even by the company who has it. So part of the bottom line should be that if somebody gets your credit card number it's probably an inside job.

Jeff-

[nategesner]

My favorite place for free books is www.memoware.com

[Hx4700]

Aaahhhh!!!!
I forgot this weekend about the free ebooks :cry:
Got the Startrek one today (12/07)
Can anyone tell me what I missed for Sat/Sun/Mon??
Thanks...
Ron...

[ctmagnus]

Saturday: The Secret Agent
Sunday: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Monday: At Christmas Time

[Hx4700]

Saturday: The Secret Agent
Sunday: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Monday: At Christmas Time
ctmagnus- thanks...
Unless you think Secret Agent is any thing great, I think I got back in the nick of time with the Startrek one.
Thanks for the info...
Ron...

[lisantica]

There's another StarTrek book today, 12/29, as the freebie.
Lisa

[Hx4700]

Got it. Thanks... Ron...