Calibre is an all-device eBook Manager that we have posted about often on SMR. I would like to introduce you to yet another option available with this spectacular free software. For quite some time, this software has had the ability, through user-submitted ‘recipes’, to scan popular Internet sites and compile the information/news into ebooks. What is new here is the ability to email those ebooks to your device wirelessly. This would include the Kindle, Kindle 2, and the Kindle DX, as well the just announced Nook 2, and the Sony Daily Edition. In fact, any ebook reader that has it’s own email address.
News Sources in Calibre
You have the ability to choose from quite literally hundreds of pre-built news source recipes, as well as the ability to build your own. You can schedule when you would like Calibre to gather and compile this news.
Calibre Content Server
All this work is accomplished by the Calibre Content Server, which you can leave running on your machine to do this automated work, or be ready to serve book in your library from remote, either via email or by direct download. For example, on the iPad this would be accomplished by the built-in link in the Stanza app to Calibre. You can, of course, USB dock just about any device (Apple, Android, WinMo, etc.) to the machine running Calibre and it will load the USB accessible drive into Calibre and let you bulk download ebooks to the device. Depending on the device, it can also automatically change the format of the ebook to match the device (as long as it is not DRM protected).
Automated Email Delivery
You can determine which news sources you want to automatically be emailed, and to what email address.
Arriving on the Kindle
As you can see, I have the Houston Chronicle sent directly to my Kindle 2 every day. It is nicely formatted and has embedded link to the different sections. And, its basically a fully automated process that doesn’t require me to do anything. Check it out in Calibre and see if it can work for you.
