Barnes & Noble working on a new Nook, finally going international

Barnes & Noble is reportedly working on a new e-reader device that could help the book publisher take on both Amazon and the international market.

Barnes & Noble’s line of Nook e-reader devices, which first debuted in 2009, are helping the company boost its digital sales of e-books. The Nook also helps Barnes & Noble compete against online retail giant Amazon, which has its own line of Kindle e-readers, as well as a healthy lead … Continue Reading

Audiobooks.com lets you fill your ears for $25 per month

For those who prefer to read with their ears, Audiobooks.com is offering unlimited streaming of audio books for a flat monthly fee.

For $25 a month, you can stream audio books onto any computer or mobile device through the Audiobooks.com HTML5 web app, which works on most major browsers. Since the books are stored on Audiobooks.com’s servers, you can pause in the middle of a chapter on one gadget and pick up exactly where you … Continue Reading

How schools are reacting to Apple’s entry into education

When Apple announced its textbook initiative on Thursday, there was a rush of excitement among educators. Textbooks from major publishers, which can cost $40 to $75 dollars in print, would be available as interactive e-books for $15 or less. The new iBooks Author application could turn anyone into a publisher, with its simple interactive e-book creation tools.

But then there was the small print: In order to buy and read these textbooks, each student will … Continue Reading

The dark side of Apple’s digital textbook utopia

As it did with music and cellphones, Apple today fundamentally redefined what a textbook is with the announcement of iBooks 2 and its accompanying iBooks Author software.

The benefits of iBooks 2 and its interactive textbooks were hammered home during Apple’s New York City press event today: they’re interactive, easily updated, portable, the list goes on. But now that Apple’s hype machine has calmed down a bit, the issues with the company’s grand plan to … Continue Reading

iBooks Author: Apple brings the magic of Keynote to e-books (hands-on)

Apple unveiled several new apps Thursday aimed at reforming the way educators deal with textbooks, but the most interesting bit of Apple’s announcement could be the introduction of the iBooks Author app, which lets Mac users with Lion OSX create digital books for free.

I decided to take the iBooks Author app for a spin to see if the app follows Apple’s mantra of simplicity and usability, and I’m happy to report that it lives … Continue Reading

iBooks 2: Apple’s stab at interactive textbooks (hands-on video)

Apple set its sights on education this morning when it announced a slew of new apps and services for students and teachers.

Among them was iBooks 2, an updated version of the company’s iPad e-reading app that adds support for interactive textbooks. Apple promises that iBooks 2 is a complete reinvention of the textbook as we know it. From my hands-on time with the app this morning, I’m not sure Apple has completely obliterated the … Continue Reading

Apple reinvents textbooks and curriculum with iBooks 2, iBooks Author, updated iTunes U

I can’t remember the last time anyone was so interested in education technology, but leave it up to Apple to whip up excitement. The company held an “education related” event at New York City’s Guggenheim Museum today, where many expected it to take on the textbook industry with new, interactive e-books.

And so it did. Apple announced iBooks 2, an updated iPhone and iPad app that will offer highly interactive electronic textbooks, as well as … Continue Reading

Apple to revolutionize textbooks with “GarageBand for e-books,” says report

For its big education-related announcement in New York City this Thursday, January 19, Apple may be planning to unveil new tools that would make it easy for publishers and authors to create interactive textbooks.

That’s according to Ars Technica, which points to sources that describe Apple’s plans for a “GarageBand for e-books” — in other words, software for interactive e-books that would be as easy to use as the company’s renowned music software.

Apple was … Continue Reading

Amazon: 4M Kindles sold in Dec., e-book sales up 175 percent

Online retail giant Amazon sold over 4 million Kindle devices this month — about a million per week — to help make it the most successful holiday shopping season ever, the company announced today.

Amazon launched a new line of Kindle products in November, which included the Kindle, the Kindle Touch and a seven-inch Kindle Fire tablet computer. Amazon is making little or no money on the devices, but it’s using them as a means … Continue Reading

EU investigates Apple and e-book publishers for “cartel” behavior

Apple is once again in hot water with the European Commission, this time over its pricing strategies with e-book publishers.

The EC announced today that it has begun formal antitrust investigations into Apple and five major book publishers —  Hachette Livre, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Macmillan owner Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck — to determine how they arranged e-book prices.

“The Commission will in particular investigate whether these publishing groups and Apple have … Continue Reading

New publisher of computer books embraces e-books and authors, not DRM

For technical books, publishing has a nearly fatal lack of speed. E-books are increasingly popular, but they’re usually not produced until after the print edition is already complete. That makes about as much sense as posting Instagram photos of yesterday’s paper, and the results are often just about as usable.

A new company, Fair Trade Digital Exchange, aims to fix the problem by going straight to digital and publishing e-books on technical topics, like what’s … Continue Reading

Penguin restores most e-books to lending library services

Giant book publishing company Penguin Group has decided to restore its catalog of e-books to e-book library lending services, such as the one offered via Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and tablet devices.

As VentureBeat reported earlier this week, Penguin decided to yank all e-books from any book sharing service that used the OverDrive lending system — which includes Amazon and several public libraries across the country — due to concerns that lending would lead to increased … Continue Reading

Penguin Group yanks e-books from library lending services

Major book publishing company Penguin Group has pulled all of its ebooks from Amazon’s Kindle Library Lending program today, reports The Digital Shift.

Amazon forged a partnership with e-book distributor Overdrive’s system for its digital book lending program, which allows people to borrow books for a limited time. The Overdrive system is also used for several other e-book lending programs.

Penguin, however, claims Overdrive’s system isn’t secure enough and fears that it would enable piracy … Continue Reading

Cognito Comics reinvents storytelling with dazzling Operation Ajax iPad app

Cognito Comics today launched Operation Ajax, a dazzling graphic novel for iPad, in a bid to reinvent storytelling for the digital age. The app is free for a limited time.

Operation Ajax is a bold retelling of the book “All the Shah’s Men,” which recounts the CIA-led Iranian coup d’etat of 1953, that deposed  Mohammad Mossadegh, the elected leader, and ushered in the regime of the brutal Mohammad Reza Shah, who was largely seen to … Continue Reading

Got Amazon Prime and a Kindle? Now you can borrow one book a month for free

Making its ecosystem just that much sweeter, Amazon today announced that Kindle owners subscribed to its premium Amazon Prime service will be able to borrow one e-book a month for free.

Dubbed the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, it will give Prime members access to a library of thousands of titles, including over 100 former New York Times Bestsellers.

The service, first rumored back in September, is yet another perk for Amazon Prime members, who for … Continue Reading

Kindle users get first dibs on Steve Jobs biography

Not only do Kindle users get to avoid fighting through book store crowds to get their hands on Walter Isaacson’s new Steve Jobs biography, but they also got the chance to start reading it long before everyone else.

Amazon delivered electronic copies of the book earlier this evening to Kindle users who preordered it, several hours before the book was supposed to go on sale. At the time of this post, the Jobs bio still … Continue Reading

Amazon’s Kindle library lending is a go

Amazon announced today that its long-awaited Kindle library lending feature, which will be available at over 11,000 local libraries across the US, has finally gone live.

While Amazon is a bit late to the party — both Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Sony’s Reader already let consumers borrow e-books from libraries — the company appears to have made its library lending feature far easier to use than its competition.

To borrow a Kindle book from … Continue Reading

Amazon eyes Netflix-like e-book library for Prime

In what may end up being a Netflix for e-books, Amazon is currently in talks with book publishers to launch a new digital book library for customers of its premium Prime service, the Wall Street Journal reports.

If Amazon manages to convince publishers to sign onto the plan, which would grant Prime subscribers access to a collection of e-books for no extra charge, it could end up being as fundamental a shift for books as … Continue Reading

How Sony blew the chance to make a Kindle killer (updated)

Sony’s planned August update to its Reader line of e-book devices is the company’s last shot at reclaiming the market it pioneered in 2006. But it may already be too late.

Despite having a multi-year head-start, Sony’s Reader has lagged behind Amazon and its wildly successful Kindle for years. Even the last-generation Sony Readers — which added features that the Kindle doesn’t have, like a touchscreen interface — have failed to catch on much with … Continue Reading