The Reef SET is available in ebook format

by adamhanlon Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

New World Publications has announced the release of their Reef SET series of fish, creature and coral identification guides by Paul Human and Ned DeLoach in an ebook format. The series is for Florida, the Caribbean and Bahamas and joins their Tropical Pacific guides that were launched in ebook format earlier this year. The ebooks feature search functions, as well as the ability to create highlights, make notes and bookmark items.

All the New World Publications guides are available now for $29.95 each on Blio. Sales are currently restricted to the U.S, U.K, Canada and Mexico.

Press Release.

Announcing the release of:

Reef Fish, Reef Creature and Reef Coral Identification. Florida, Caribbean and Bahamas - ebooks.

Jacksonville, FL. September 2012 – Earlier this year we released the Reef Fish Identification – Tropical Pacific and Reef Creature Identification – Tropical Pacific ebooks. Now, we are presenting the full Caribbean REEF SET in ebook format. The 3 new ebooks are available on the Blio software platform for Mac iOS (iPad, iTouch, iPhone), Android tablets and Windows PC computers.

Species in each book are searchable through a page-specific table of contents as well as a scrolling tool bar. You can also directly access a subject by typing in a species’ name. Blio provides the ability to highlight text, bookmark items and even keep notes on photos (like when and where a particular animal is encountered). Where Internet access is available, further research questions can be accessed and answered on Google, Bing and Wikipedia with a single click.

The Reef SET is the most comprehensive and user-friendly series of field guides for marine life of the region. More than 2,000 underwater photographs identify 1,500 species from the Gulf of Mexico and Northern Florida south to Brazil. Most useful for a field guide, every effort has been made to group similar appearing species together for quick visual reference.

The Blio software platform is a stand-alone app, distributed by Baker and Taylor Inc., developed by KNFB reading technology. Blio is currently available as a free app through Apple’s iOS system and Android. The app comes pre-installed on all new HP, Toshiba and Dell laptop computers as well as T-Mobile phones. You can download Blio for free to your device and learn more about on the software’s website. Currently, the Blio app is available in the U.S, U.K, Canada and Mexico.

To view all 5 of our ebooks, go to the following page.

Each ebook is available for $29.95 US from Blio.com.

I guess I am in a complete minority. I am looking at the Pacific Reef Creature book and the Ipad Blio version (Retina display Ipad) (p. 323) and the chromidors sp 2 in the book is crisp and clean and the Blio version is not at all either crisp or clean. And the same is true of all the other pictures in the bloody book. We took it on a trip to Indonesia and most of the comments on having the book were not complementary to the photos. I don't know how to post photos in these comments but at least my copy is not very good. Bill
Posted by bvanant on 2012-09-13 19:19:14 No need for New World to apologize for anything, you can't make everyone happy. They made me happy! I am so pleased to see that they finally have their wonderful books available for my iPad. I have used the Tropical Pacific ebook a few times and it is great, but the Caribbean is where I dive most of the time so this is the one I will use a lot. Not having it on my Mac laptop is no big deal. I put it on my IPad because it's more conveniently portable that my laptop and that works out just perfect for me. At least they are moving forward into the digital world. These guides are the best in either format!
Posted by terriscott73 on 2012-09-13 18:35:10 Let's be fair here. Apple is using Ibooks as marketing leverage to sell IOS devices. Blio doesn't have a Mac app because they won't spend the money to develop a Mac app. I believe divers, in general, use more Macs than the general population, at least based on what I see on dive trips. It seems foolish to ignore this segment of the market.
Posted by saudio on 2012-09-13 10:11:52 A big thank you to everyone for your interest in our books, ebooks and marine life identification. As this is our first venture into ebooks it is still a learning process and not everything has a perfect solution or an easy answer. Blio is still working to fix their bugs with their international purchasing. Dennis - they are currently working on your individual issue and it is a priority for them. Although the Blio app is available for Windows PCs, Android Tablets and Mac iOS (iPhone, iPad and iTouch) it is correct that they do not yet have an app for the Mac OS. We are hopeful that Blio will have something in the future or there will be another good option for us to put our ebooks on the Mac. Unfortunately, even Apple's iBookstore is not yet available on a Mac OS. The resolution of the images in the books is a compromise between high quality and file size. Blio does compress the photos from the 300 dpi that they are printed in the book, but with 2,500 images in our Reef Fish Tropical Pacific book we understand that a choice had to be made in regard to downloading time and space on the device. The examples above are directly from the ebook. Again, we are working on solutions and are interested in giving you a product you want - Thanks, New World Publications
Posted by fishid on 2012-09-13 09:57:26 Based on my comment on this thread, I got an email from Eric which suggested that I try the mobile.blioreader.com site. This seemed to work, but I couldn't get my credit card transaction to go through. At least I hope it didn't go through because I didn't get the book! Arrgh. These are great books but they seem to have selected the wrong ebook vendor.
Posted by denniscloutier on 2012-09-12 21:53:34 Another important note about these books, they are not available for Mac computers. A real disappointment, and very surprising.
Posted by saudio on 2012-09-12 21:33:19 Be careful with these. The blio version text is fine but the illustrations are really poor; they screwed up somehow the PDF translation and the pics just don't look good expanded in any way. Bill
Posted by bvanant on 2012-09-12 21:06:58 Item isn't available in Canada. They claim it is but the website won't let you buy it. I've repeatedly been in contact with Blio and nobody seems to care. After much effort on this I've given up.
Posted by denniscloutier on 2012-09-12 07:58:21