Sony Reader now offers 500,000 free ebooks
For the past few years Google has been scanning literature that is now out of copyright protection (pre 1923). So they now have a library of 500,000 classics (fiction and non fiction) that can be accessed for free if your ebook reader supports the open platform ePub. However, the main ebook readers only support licenced formats, restricting the ebook formats that you can read.
Sony, having seen the power of the open source movement in action in the internet server market with Linux versus Microsoft, included the open platform ePub on their ebook reader. This means that Sony’s Reader has access to more 500,000 free ebooks, far more than any of the other rival ebook readers.
So now you can access works from Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Francis Bacon and loads loads more. This library of free books makes the Sony Reader very compelling.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Please note, we have tried to test the Google / Sony offering. However, on linking our test Sony Reader to http://ebookstore.sony.com/google-ebooks/?in_merch=Homepage_Google_ePub_Rt_1 we found that the service is not yet available in the UK