June 4, 2010

• A Message About Nook File Formats for Barnes & Noble Employees

  For the wonderful people at Barnes & Nobel:

  If you check my blog within the next 24 hours and this post is either at the top or near the top of my blog, you can have the answers to the question of the .pdb format.

  From Wikipedia:

  PDB is a container format for record databases in Palm OS, Garnet OS and Access Linux Platform. Its structure is similar to PRC resource databases. The PalmDOC eBook format is a special version of the PDB format.

  Which leads us to a short discussion of .prc and .mobi.

  Again, from Wikipedia:

  PRC is a container format for code databases in Palm OS, Garnet OS and Access Linux Platform. Its structure is similar to PDB databases. Usually, a PRC file is a flat representation of a Palm OS application that is stored as forked database[clarification needed] on the PDA.

  PRC files are also used by the Mobipocket e-book-reader (here sometimes referred to as MOBI format). The AZW format of Amazon’s Kindle reading device is in turn a DRM-restricted form of the Mobipocket format.

  On Palm OS, PRC files are used for applications, localized resources (overlays) and shared libraries.

  So from this, we can extrapolate the following:

  1. We know that the three formats that the Nook supports is .pdf, .epub and .pdb
  2. We now know that .pdb is very similar to .prc
  3. .pdb and .prc are both Palm OS file formats.
  4. .mobi is an e-book format that builds on .pdb and .prc
  5. Amazon’s Kindle uses a copyright-protected version of the .mobi file system.
  6. There has not been a lot of innovation in the e-book file format.

  Cheers,
  ProfessorTom

  • 11:01 pm
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