Apple announces education event Jan. 19 — iTextbooks coming?

Apple is sending out media invitations to an event next week where it plans to make an “education announcement”, much to the dismay of many fanboys and fangirls hoping for information about the company’s next generation iPad.

The event, which is scheduled for January 19 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, is expected to be a low-key affair. The invitation, as you’d expect, doesn’t contain any details that would shed light on what the … Continue Reading

WSJ: Amazon planning tablet for October, touchscreen & cheaper Kindles

Amazon is planning to release its long-rumored tablet before October, in addition to two new Kindle models (one touchscreen, one cheaper than the current Kindle), the Wall Street Journal reports.

That’s bad news for those expecting an Amazon tablet or revamped Kindle this summer. But for Amazon, it will likely pay off more to spend time developing its new devices so that they’re truly different from the competition, like the iPad and Barnes & Noble’s … Continue Reading

Amazon teams up with Overdrive for Kindle library lending

Amazon’s Kindle e-reader will finally play nice with libraries. The company announced today that it will debut a Kindle library lending feature later this year with participation from more than 11,000 US public libraries.

The move has been a long time coming for Amazon, which doesn’t support the open ePub format on the Kindle — something that has made it difficult for libraries to take advantage of the device so far. It’s also a shrewd … Continue Reading

Apple by the numbers: 100M iPhones sold, 100M iBooks downloaded, $2B to devs

During Apple’s press event for the iPad 2 today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed some impressive new statistics: Apple has sold 100 million iPhone as of last week, users have downloaded 100 million ebooks via its iBooks store, and it just recently surpassed $2 billion paid to app developers through its App Store.

The news means Apple sold around 30 million iPhones since the end of the fourth quarter of 2010, when Apple sold a … Continue Reading

Get your Kindle on at AT&T stores starting March 6

AT&T has joined the ranks of Staples, BestBuy, and Target and will start selling Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Beginning March 6, shoppers keen on getting a hands-on experience with the device can hit an AT&T store nationwide.

AT&T will only offer the $189 Kindle 3G (the same price as Amazon’s website), not the megapopular $139 WiFi-only version. AT&T is not promoting the device with special offers or add-on deals either. Basically, the only upswing for consumers … Continue Reading

Could new Apple App Store restrictions spell trouble for Kindle? (Updated)

Apple may be considering more restrictions for its App Store, which runs counter to the company’s more relaxed stance over the last few months.

The company has reportedly told some developers that it won’t let apps access content purchased outside of the App Store, in addition to continuing its restrictions on in-app purchases, the New York Times reports.

If true, the news could have drastic implications for iPhone and iPad apps like Amazon’s Kindle application, … Continue Reading

Amazon launches Kindle Singles: for when a full ebook is just too much

Starting today, Kindle users on the lookout for quick and cheap reads can purchase Kindle Singles, Amazon’s short-format ebooks, which were first announced in October.

According to Amazon, each Single is “intended to allow a single killer idea — well researched, well argued and well illustrated — to be expressed at its natural length.” Like every Kindle ebook, Singles will be available to read on Kindle devices, as well as Kindle apps on the iPhone, … Continue Reading

With Google's involvement, digital newsstands set to make their mark in 2011

With Apple readying subscription options for digital newspapers and magazines, it was only a matter of time before Google took its own stab at a digital newsstand — and that’s exactly what seems to be happening now, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Google is apparently trying to court publishers for a digital newsstand that would work across Android devices, the paper says. Publishers are already selling iPhone and iPad versions of … Continue Reading

Amazon turns on Kindle ebook lending

As promised back in October, Amazon has just introduced the ability to lend Kindle ebooks, opening up a world of opportunity for Kindle users.

The feature, which is clearly aped from the rival Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader, lets Kindle users lend ebooks for a 14-day period. Obviously, while the book is lent out, the original owner won’t be able to read it. Amazon also says that it’s up to the book publisher or rights … Continue Reading

Amazon's new Kindle is its best-selling product of all time

Amazon still isn’t talking Kindle numbers, but at least we know its e-reader is a smashing success. The company announced this morning that its third-generation Kindle is its best-selling product ever, surpassing the final Harry Potter book.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pointed to the Kindle’s new $139 price point as a major factor in its success over color tablets like Apple’s iPad. “It’s low enough that people don’t have to choose,” he said. Amazon customers … Continue Reading

Amazon's Kindle sales to surpass 8M this year?

We knew that Amazon was making a killing with its $139 third-generation Kindles, but since the retailer doesn’t discuss Kindle sales numbers, it’s always been unclear just how well it’s doing.

Now it looks like the Kindle is set to surpass 8 million units sold this year, 60 percent more than many analyst predictions, two people familiar with Amazon’s sales projections tell Bloomberg. If true, it tells us that consumers are far more interested in … Continue Reading

Video dominates BitTorrent sharing, but ebooks are on the rise

It’s no surprise that video is the most popular type of content shared on the controversial peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent – according to one report, at the height of its popularity each episode of the TV show Heroes was downloaded five million times over the network – but the number of digital books and magazines that are available as ‘torrents’ is growing fast as well.

The statistics come from the Germany-based website TorrentFreak.com, which tracks data … Continue Reading

Amazon debuts Kindle for the Web on heels of Google eBooks

Signaling renewed competition in the e-reading space, Amazon today debuted a web-based extension to their existing Kindle platform with a new product called Kindle for the Web, which is nearly identical to a product Google announced yesterday dubbed Google eBooks, which is also a cloud-based ebookstore and reading webapp that lives within the browser.

Unlike Google’s dearth of reading devices, Amazon’s new service snaps into the same “buy once, read everywhere” experience that the existing … Continue Reading

Google launches ebook store with world's largest library of titles

Is this the end of Amazon’s ebook reign? Google is launching its new open ebook store today, simply called Google eBooks, with over 3 million titles, in a bid to take on the ebook world dominated by Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple.

As we reported previously, Google’s ebook venture will be more open than its competition. Consumers will be able to browse and search Google’s enormous ebook library, and they can read ebooks on … Continue Reading

Google to rock the ebook world with "Editions" store soon

Google’s long talked-about ebook store, Google Editions, is set to debut by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The store was initially supposed to launch this past summer, but sources close to the company say that it only recently cleared some legal and technical hurdles. Now Google is gearing up to launch Editions by the end of the year in the US and by first quarter 2011 worldwide, according to Google … Continue Reading

Amazon now lets you gift Kindle ebooks to anyone

I’m not sure what took so long, but Amazon today finally announced the ability to gift Kindle ebooks to anyone — just as you would any other product or service from Amazon’s online store.

The company says that the Kindle is “the most gifted item in the history of Amazon.com” but is still mum on specific sales numbers. While this announcement may help Amazon sell even more Kindles, the company stresses that no Kindle is … Continue Reading

Amazon lures newspapers and magazines to Kindle with 70% revenue share

Amazon announced today that qualifying newspaper and magazine publishers will soon be able to earn 70-percent from sales on the Kindle store.

The new revenue sharing plan, which will take effect on December 1, is clearly a bid to get more periodicals onto Kindle devices. To coincide with the news, Amazon also announced a beta version of its Kindle Publishing for Periodicals utility, which will help publishers easily bring more newspaper and magazine content to … Continue Reading

Amazon falls behind? Chinese e-reader maker Hanvon to debut first color E Ink device

Hanvon, China’s largest e-book manufacturer, will be debuting the first device to use a color E Ink display on Tuesday, according to a report by the New York Times.

The company will be demonstrating the color e-reader at the FPD International 2010 trade show in Tokyo, which is dedicated to flat panel display technology. In doing so, Hanvon will beat out Amazon’s popular Kindle e-reader, which is still stuck with a black and white E … Continue Reading

Tablet or e-book reader? Barnes and Noble announces the Nook Color

Only a few days after we declared certain doom for the Nook e-book reader, Barnes and Noble announced a color entry with the Nook Color — a device that sits somewhere between an e-reader and a tablet, but thankfully sticks closer to ereader pricing at $250.

The Nook Color is pretty much a 7-inch Android tablet, but don’t expect it to be as unrestricted a device as something like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Instead, Barnes … Continue Reading

End of the Nook? Amazon announces 14-day Kindle ebook lending

It was only a matter of time. Amazon will be introducing a 14-day lending feature for Kindle ebooks later this year, the Kindle team announced yesterday. The move brings the Kindle up to date with Barnes and Noble’s rival Nook e-reader, which has touted 14-day book lending as a key feature since it launched last year.

Just as with the Nook, Amazon says you won’t be able to read ebooks while they’re lent out. The … Continue Reading