Google uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to do this and, while the resulting text will not be a perfect record of what’s on the page, Google says it now feels confident enough of its accuracy to launch this new service.

One limitation: it appears the only images Google is indexing at this stage are those that have been scanned into the PDF format. No mention of JPEG or other common image formats.

The service is a partnership between Vodafone and GoSpoken. com, a website dedicated to putting books on mobiles co-founded and co-funded by Andy McNab, the soldier-turned novelist, and Tony Lynch, now the managing director of the company.

Using High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology, a three hour audio book can be downloaded to a user’s mobile phone in three minutes.

Read the full story, “Vodafone Books on Mobile has strategy for mobile books“, on TimesOnline.

Among the new features of the PRS 700 is a touch screen with a stylus and on-screen QWERTY keyboard, the ability to annotate books, search for phrases, turn pages with a swipe (new) or button press—and to do this more quickly and largely flicker-free apparently—and a built-in backlight for reading in low-light conditions. The new unit will cost about US$400, a premium of US$100 over the lower-spec PRS 505, and is 10 percent heavier at about 280g. Its internal storage is sufficient for about 350 books, twice the PRS 505’s internal storage capacity.

The one notable absence is wireless. Sony says it’s committed to providing a future wireless option but hasn’t committed to a date. Encouragingly, its reason for the delay is its desire to have a more open system with multiple choices of carrier, bookstores, etc. That will certainly win Sony industry and hopefully consumer plaudits. While rival Amazon already offers wireless, which scores positive ratings for its usabilit, it comes at the expense of openness and means you have to support Amazon for the access to commercial content.

Just as interesting as the hardware announcement was Sony’s indication, via announced organisational  changes, that it’s ready to treat the Reader as a serious new product opportunity and get behind it. A single new US-based division will now take over the product. Currently it’s run from Japan and several groups oversee different components. Among its new marketing initiatives, Sony plans to hire 1000 people to do in-store demos of the ebook readers to help consumers understand what the products do.

See original press release for Sony PRS-700.

Unlike the iPhone, Google’s Android is an open software platform that will be available to any hardware of application provider who wants to create products for it. The first phone comes from Taiwanese computer make HTC and, in its US and UK market launches, is tied to the T-Mobile cellphone network.

This review from the Industry Standard offers a good look at the phone and its features. While not quite an iPhone killer in its first incarnation, it looks like a pretty good debut with lots of potential for development and expansion through third party activity. Maybe the mobile world is about to see a repeat of the Windows vs Mac battle that’s been a feature of the PC world for decades - the Mac is the slickest, most beautiful implementation but Windows is ‘good enough’ and has a huge developer and hardware following.

As well as running on mobiles, Android will run on PCs, Macs and Linux, further extending the range of devices that are likely to appear with Android under the hood.

In the ebook space, no sign yet of the open source FBReaderfor Android. The project website is still showing the pre-release v 0.2 dated May 8 as the latest version.

Newspapers are likely to give a big boost to ebook publishers by getting ebook reader hardware into consumers’ hands. Once they’ve got the gadget, there’ll be plenty of demand to fill it up with other digital publications, including ebooks.

The new device, from a company called Plastic Logic, is slated for a 2009 release. It’s based on the same E-Ink technology that drives the screens of ebook readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader. However, in keeping with the more expansive format that newshounds like, these readers are about A4 size, 2.5 times bigger than today’s paperback-size ebook readers. And it comes with wireless communication, another popular feature.

Newspapers will have one big advantage over book publishers in the initial stages of getting these devices into their readers’ hands. They’re already operating a subscription model that makes it financially more viable to sell or subsidise the hardware while it’s still quite expensive. If the advertising researchers and the circulation audit bureaus recognise these electronic subscribers in their numbers, it’s will further enhance its appeal to newspaper publishers. Pioneers in the digital magazine field, such as Zinio, have already done quite a bit of the preparatory work here. This is an important issue because advertising often contributes more than circulation revenue to publishers’ income.

Here’s a picture of the new device (left) compared to an Amazon Kindle (right) and Sony Reader (centre). For more information, check out this article.

It’s probably an acknowledgement by Apple that, notwithstanding CEO Steve Jobs’s scepticism, they need to keep an eye on this emerging market. The early appearance of ebook reader software, such as Stanza, on the iPhone’s top application downloads list, has probably pushed the category onto the radar for Apple and its successful iTunes store. iTunes has grabbed the lion’s share of the market for legitimate paid downloads of music and ebooks would be a logical extension if the market gets big enough.

The new book from Activity Press documents the rise of the Internet in New Zealand and looks to its future as it becomes an increasingly vital part of our economic and social infrastructure. Its author Keith Newman is a long-time journalist and commentator on the communications and IT industries. The book was commissioned by Internet New Zealand, the body responsible for administering the .nz domain space and was launched last week at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington by the Honorable Judith Tizard, Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage.

It backgrounds the evolution of electronic communications in New Zealand from the telegraph and telephone, through to advances in computer and Internet technology which continue to transform government, business, communities and our personal lives.

From promising beginnings—New Zealand was the first nation in Asia-Pacific to fully connect to the US-based Internet backbone—the book questions what went so wrong that a nation of early adopters of technology and the Internet plummeted to the bottom of the OECD scorecard for broadband, research development and technology reinvestment. It looks at just why New Zealand has had to re-regulate the telecommunications market and, looking ahead, examines what happens when telecommunications, broadcasting, entertainment and computing converge on a common platform.

Connecting the Clouds: The Internet in New Zealand, ISBN 9780958263443, Paperback 230 x 170mm, 720pp, NZ$49.99

BTW, take at look at this video from Google which demos some Android features and applications from Google, especially Google Maps and StreetView, its new 360 deg location pictures, coming Downunder soon. Android is an open platform so Google is hoping there will be plenty of third party applications and, certainly, it looks pretty good - probably good enough to hold off on my iPhone purchase. Google is sponsoring a developer competition with US$10 million in prizes to spur third party development. I note, though, that there are no ebook readers in the first list of winning apps though, as noted, there’ll be at least one in the form of the FBReader which has already released an early (0.2) beta version. See some screenshots here.

It will be part of a larger, standardised 30-country research project which will be conducted every two years to look at social, political and economic impacts of the internet. The first international comparative report, including New Zealand data, is due out in September.

Below is a summary of the New Zealand report. The full report can be downloaded from AUT University whose researchers conducted the study (PDF format).

Highlights from the WIPNZ 2007 report

The benchmark WIPNZ survey was conducted in September-October 2007. A sample of 1430 New Zealanders has been analysed for their use of and attitudes to the Internet.

USAGE

• 78% of New Zealanders use the Internet. 6% are ex-users; 16% have never used it.
• 15% of users are online at home for at least 20 hours a week. A third are on the Internet
  for less than 4 hours, and two thirds for less than 10 hours.

DIGITAL DIVIDE

• In this sample, 66% of users with a connection at home have broadband, compared to 31% with dial-up. The younger, wealthier and more urban people are, the more broadband access they have.
• Internet usage is age-graded. The younger people are, the more likely they are to use it, the better their ability, the more important they rate it, the more they create content and socialize online.
• Higher household income clearly promotes greater Internet access, usage, ability and everyday reliance.
  The effect of area is complex, but the larger the settlement people live in, the higher tend to be their Internet ability, reliance and content creation.
• As an ethnic group, Asians have the greatest engagement with the Internet. Maori and Pasifika tend to have less access. Ethnic patterns are often complex and inconsistent.
• Gender is mostly not a significant indicator of Internet usage and attitudes.

RATING THE INTERNET

• New Zealanders who use the Internet rely on it heavily. 61% think it would be a problem if they lost access, while only 2% think this would make life better.
• As a source of information, the Internet is rated important by more users (71%) than are family and friends (56%), newspapers or television (52%).
• While a majority rate their ability on the Internet highly (44%), a significant minority (30%) rate it as not good.

ACTIVITIES ONLINE

• New Zealand users are active in content creation on the Internet such as posting messages (27%) and images (34%). 13% maintain their own website and 10% keep a blog.
• Most users access information on matters such as travel and health online. 59% look for news online weekly, and 34% daily.
  Many users conduct everyday business online, and 53% use their bank’s online services at least weekly.
• New Zealanders use the Internet to access government, mainly for information about services (47%).

SOCIALISING

Socialising is a major Internet use, especially among the young.

• 77% of users check their email every day.
• Every week 28% participate in social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.
• Most users say the Internet has increased their contact with other people, especially overseas (65%), few believe there has been a decrease.
• The Internet has increased contact overall with friends (according to 64%) and with family (60%), but 22% say they now spend less time face-to-face with the family they live with.
• A quarter of users have made friends online, and half of these have gone on to meet in person, especially men and those in their 30s.
• Concern about children’s safety online is high. Over 80% of households with under-18s have rules for their Internet use.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The benchmark WIPNZ survey was conducted in September-October 2007. A sample of 1430 New Zealanders has been analysed for their use of and attitudes to the Internet. The Final Report supercedes the interim report that was issued in December 2007.