Tag: ereader
Apple rejects e-reader because sexual material in classic literature
Apple have rejected ‘Eucalyptus — classic books, to go’ an e-reader which allows users to download free public domain books from Project Gutenberg, from their App Store because classic literature contains sexual references.
Bewildered programmers received the following notification from Apple: “Thank you for submitting Eucalyptus — classic books, to go. to the App Store. We’ve reviewed Eucalyptus — classic books, to go. and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains inappropriate sexual content and is in violation of Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement which states:
‘Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users’.”
Call me a stuffy old traditionalist, but I remember (by remember I mean – have read about) a time when if something was thought to be obscene we had something called a trial. Like, I don’t know, the trial of Penguin Books for publishing Lady Chatterly’s Lover – in 1959. If they weren’t guilty then, how, HOW can things have regressed to such a degree that a mobile phone manufacturer is preventing people from reading whatever they flipping please on their phones.
Apple go find a mirror and take a long hard look at yourself in it. Have a think about your ‘reasonable judgement’. What are you becoming Apple?
Amazon Kindle DX – bigger, thinner and still US only
All of America is laughing at Europe once again as Amazon launches the US-only Kindle DX reader.
The e-ink gadget has shot up to a 9.7-inch screen size while magically slimming down to a hyper-thin 0.38 inches and a weight of just 535g. It’ll now also deal with PDF files natively rather than having to convert them.
The screen is 250% bigger than the old incarnation, the battery lasts 20% longer and the whole device is 100% less ugly. You can download books over 3G and Wi-Fi in under a minute without paying any kind of monthly subscription and there’s already a library of over 275,000 novels as well as a wealth of newspapers after deals were struck with the New York Times and Wall Street Journal as well as magazines including The New Yorker and Time.
The Kindle DX packs 4GB (3.3 usable) of storage, it charges in four hours by micro USB and has a 3.5mm jack for audio playback. It’s available for $489.00 and is largely useless anywhere outside the US.
BeBook reader updated with touchscreen and Wi-Fi
So, here am I just about to nip off for a Friday night beer to celebrate/mourn the Shiny exit of the fantastic Susi Weaser and a certain mail drops into my box about the next incarnation of the superb BeBook reader to be unveiled in Germany at CeBIT very shortly indeed.
No pictures as yet but there are two things BeBook is adding which should keep its nose out ahead of the competition. First is Wi-Fi…
