[Athen] BLIO - free e-reader software

[Robert Martinengo]

Marla,

I have seen a demo of the Blio software and it does indeed look
promising. But what is more interesting is the business relationship
with Baker & Taylor (a large book distributor). My understanding is
that Baker & Taylor will convert publishers PDFs to work with the new
reader for free, and they will only make money from sales of the book
in Blio format.

This is important because it gives publishers an incentive to make
their books available in Blio format (which I believe is Microsoft's
XPS), and Baker & Taylor will be pushing the format so they can make
their investment back. DAISY has been around for over 10 years but
there are still very few DAISY format books available commercially,
whereas Blio should have thousands of titles available right away.

But, like with any new tech product, don't go by the press release.
Download a demo when it becomes available and try it for yourself.

Bob

On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 5:18 PM, Roll,Marla <mcroll at cahs.colostate.edu> wrote:

> Hello all,

>

>

>

> Our library is moving toward the idea of E Books at students requests.  They

> are not happy with any of the common e book readers on the market due to

> their tendency to be proprietary in nature.  They are very intrigued, as is

> our AT Center, in a new product called Blio.  Ray Kurzweil is the brains

> behind the product which makes it even more intriguing to  my office.

>

>

>

> If any of you know about it or can give/ share thoughts, I would very much

> like to hear from you.  On the surface, it looks very promising but I need

> and want to know more about it.

>

>

>

>

>

> Thanks for any help or thoughts you can share….

>

>

>

> Marla Roll

>

>

>

> ___________________________________

>

> Marla C. Roll, MS, OTR

>

> Director, Assistive Technology Resource Center

>

> Assistant Professor, Occupational Therapy

>

> 304 Occupational Therapy Building

>

> Colorado State University

>

> Fort Collins, CO   80523

>

> 970-491-2016

>

> mcroll at cahs.colostate.edu

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

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