eBooks

Kindle App Removes Store Links from iOS

A picture is worth 1,000 words… Amazon has updated the Kindle app to reflect Apple’s new rules, namely that you cannot link to an external store in an iOS application. Will this impact buying habits? Only time will tell, but one thing is clear: we, as consumers, are losing. Spotify, Netflix, Rhapsody, NOOK, Kobo, Google Books and now the Kindle have all undergone dramatic changes that will require major adjustments to how we shop on an iOS device. Will this change how you shop for books? Will you be holding off on updating your Kindle app? Sound off in the…

eBooks, News

Star Wars Lost Tribes of the Sith Book #7 Released for Free!

A couple of weeks ago I highlighted that the first six Lost Tribes of the Sith ebooks were available on the Amazon Kindle for free. As was noted, these books were ALWAYS free, as they were more set up as tie-ins to the core Fate of the Jedi series. Regardless, it is a great deal for some decent Star Wars books, and now the 7th book in the series has been released – also for free! Here is the description: When the Sith ship Omen crash-landed on Kesh two thousand years ago, the crew encountered native barbarism and superstition. Now…

eBooks, Editorials

Borders Is Dead, and Are eBooks to Blame?

As you may remember, back in February Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This, in theory, would have let them reorganize, deal with their debts, and potentially walk away leaner, meaner, and ready to throw down against B&N, Amazon, and the rising ebook threat. In theory. The reality has turned out to be much, much sadder, as Borders will be liquidated, all 11,000 or so employees will be laid off, and a once-powerful bookstore will be a footnote in history. Needless to say, I’m very sad to see this occur, but I’m also not surprised. This was a long time…

eBooks, News

Dual-Boot Your Nook Color the Easy Way

Maybe you’ve heard here on Gear Diary that the NOOKcolor makes an excellent Android tablet. If you’re feeling confined by the stock operating system on the nook, even with its new app offerings, there’s always the option of trying a full Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) installation. However, this requires not only a bit of time and patience but a level of comfort with creating either a bootable SD card or <gulp> reflashing the internal NOOK memory. If you go with plan B, well, you’re a brave soul who doesn’t need B&N’s NOOK interface at all. But the stock NOOK reader is…

eBooks

Google Takes First Steps Towards Attacking Amazon

Looks like Google Books is taking some tentative steps towards being more than just a hobby. The folks at Google have fired a shot across the bow of Amazon, B&N, and Kobo by partnering with iRiver to offer an ebook reader with integrated Google Books access. According to the Google Blog: We built the Google eBooks platform to be open to all publishers, retailers and manufacturers. Manufacturers like iRiver can use Google Books APIs and services to connect their devices to the full Google eBooks catalog for out-of-the-box access to a complete ebookstore. You can also store your personal ebooks…

eBooks, Reviews

The Oberon Large eReader Sleeve Case Review

When I took the Oberon eReader Sleeve out of its packaging, Sarah exclaimed: “That’s not a case, it’s a work of art!” It is a work of art, but it’s also a very functional sleeve case that fits Kindle 2s, NOOKcolors, NOOKs, and any similarly sized eBook readers. From Oberon Designs: For those that like to use their E Reader without a cover, we’ve designed the Oberon E Reader Sleeve with extreme portability in mind. Lighter and thinner than our E Reader Corner Cover, our sleeve fits easily into a purse, backpack or briefcase. Our sleeve is leather lined and…

eBooks, Editorials

eBooks Are Not the Same as Music and Movies

Forbes today had a blog post that made me smack my face in consternation. First of all, it was clearly written by someone who has zero grasp of the publishing world, but more importantly, it ignored several more realistic issues in ebooks that need to be addressed first. What was the author’s argument that had me foaming at the mouth? Read on… Last December, Iwrote about an ebook killer app waiting to be built, and that I wanted for Christmas. I didn’t get it. But, with Apple’s introduction of iTunes Match, there’s a glimmer of hope that Apple (or Amazon or Google) could build my…

eBooks, Editorials

How to Spot an eBook Scam, or, How to Avoid MyPadMedia, TheReadingSite, and Their Friends

Around this time last year, the Gear Diary team tussled with the folks at MyPadMedia. They were less than thrilled with us blowing open their scam of $50 for “unlimited” eBooks that turned out to be free eBooks from Feedbooks and other sites. Unfortunately, either MyPadMedia or their cohorts have managed to spawn again, this time with “The Reading Site”, which sounds and looks suspiciously similar. Pay us up front, we promise you unlimited eBooks, and if you’re a website who wants to be an affiliate there’s a super fat paycheck for you. However, without even paying for the site…

eBooks, Editorials

The Danger of eBook Digital Rights Management

The most common complaints surrounding ebooks are probably digital rights management related. Either books aren’t cross-platform compatible, or there are arguments of fragmentation, and the biggest boogeyman of all fears that someone could flip a switch and deauthorize an entire library. That’s precisely what happened to one unlucky Teleread contributor. Douglas Cootey explains: My iPhone wouldn’t let me authorize any new apps that utilized Adobe’s DRM. I had run out of the allotted authorizations. By March of this year, I began to contact Adobe to fix the situation, but each web case was “withdrawn”, which is to say “dismissed without solving”. I called tech…

eBooks, Editorials

Wired Misses the Point on eBooks

Oh Wired. For a magazine based around technology, they really, really, missed the point in their latest article on ebooks. It’s chock full of ignorant statements and petty complaints, which is pretty disappointing. Not only did they spread misinformation and confusion, there are genuine drawbacks to ebooks that could (and should) have been addressed instead. Read on for Wired’s take, my rebuttal, and my list of eBook drawbacks instead. Wired says: 1) An unfinished e-book isn’t a constant reminder to finish reading it. My take: If you need a half-finished book to taunt you to finish it, you’re not reading the…

eBooks

eBooks Working Their Way into High School Curriculums!

eBooks have been an ongoing experiment in higher education since the first Kindle was released. There have been previous attempts to replace bulky textbooks with Kindle DXs and iPads, but nothing has really stuck. However, two school districts are giving ebooks another shot, one using NOOKs and the other iPads. I am incredibly jealous of the iPad school, but you’ll have to keep reading to find out why! First up, a school in Pennsylvania is issuing kids NOOKs loaded with their summer reading titles. I’m guessing these are probably NOOK WiFIs, but it’s a great idea. Kids don’t have to…

eBooks, Reviews

First Impressions: nook Simple Touch Reader

It is perhaps somewhat ironic that I have been reading eBooks of some sort or other on handheld devices for over 20 years, and yet have never owned a dedicated eReader. It is even more ironic that while I live in a house with two nook eReaders (wife and younger son), I have spent very little time with the devices. I attribute the former to my desire to always stay on the cutting edge of technology coupled with the relative newness of dedicated readers; the latter I attribute to a desire to allow others to learn and discover for themselves….

eBooks, News

Borders eBookstore Moving to Kobo

If you’re one of the five people who purchased eBooks through Borders, I strongly recommend you log into your account and follow their instructions to port your library to Kobo. Teleread is reporting that Borders is no longer operating their own eBookstore, and any attempts at logging in or purchasing will lead you to instructions on how to move to Kobo instead. This should be fairly seamless since Kobo was doing all the behind the scenes work on Borders eBookstore. Any Borders eBooks you might have should work fine in Kobo’s desktop and smartphone applications, and of course, those books…

eBooks, News

Zinio Magazine App Now Available in the Android Market

It took far longer than we hoped or expected but, as of this morning, Zinio’s app is live in the Android Market. That’s right, if you have a device running Android 2.2 or above Android Honeycomb you can now get hundreds (thousands actually) of magazines right on your Android device. Zinio is one of my favorite apps on my iPad, and it was one of the things most lacking for me each time I tried to make the move to Android. And there’s more good news. Thanks to Zinio’s commitment to being cross-platform, if you already have a Zinio account,…

eBooks, Editorials

Is Barnes & Noble Gearing up to Completely Kill eReader and Fictionwise?

If you have a big eReader or Fictionwise library, I strongly encourage you to do two things. One, download any books in your library and archive them on a hard drive or SD card, and two, download and store the appropriate software to read them on your smartphone or computer. Here’s the eReader download page if you need to track down their reading software. So why am I sounding the alarm? According to Teleread, the new NOOK Simple Touch Reader does not support PDB, the eBook file format used by eReader and Fictionwise. But both of those stores are owned…

eBooks, Reviews

B&N NOOKcolor Software Update and App Store Review

When I reviewed the NOOKcolor back in December, I was very impressed with it, and the device has only improved with time. B&N’s latest update is a dramatic one, adding Android 2.2, flash, an app store, and several other small tweaks and goodies. Is this update enough to lure users with promises of a more tablet-like experience? Read on to find out! (If you’re not familiar with the NOOKcolor, head over to my review to get a decent overview of where it started, since this article focuses mainly on the new changes and additions.) Section One, Apps: This…

eBooks, News

“The Final Edition” Looks at the End of the New York Times

Plenty of bloggers have ranted about the death of publishing and the end of newspapers…but did you ever consider what the newspaper might look like for that final run of the presses? It probably will look an awful lot like the brilliant website “The Final Edition“. The Final Edition is a satire, clearly, but it takes mocking to a whole new level. For example, check out their prose in the headline article “The New York Times, World’s Newspaper of Record, Closes Its Doors Forever“: The New York Times, since 1851 a chronicler of world history spanning three centuries has turned…

eBooks, Editorials

B&N and Amazon Planning Big eReader Hardware Refreshes?

Looks like B&N and Amazon aren’t resting on their past successes. Rumors are pegging both companies as having some refreshed hardware coming soon, possibly a tablet for Amazon and an original NOOK refresh for B&N! Let’s start with Amazon’s tablet. The rumor, admittedly unconfirmed, is that some sort of LCD-based device is coming from Amazon later this year to combat the incredible success of the NOOKcolor. Amazon has all the pieces in place for a fantastic device, with an app store, a tablet-optimized version of the Kindle app, plus the added bonus of Amazon MP3 and the new Amazon Prime…

eBooks, How to Do It Yourself!

How To View Free Books and Blogs on the Kindle

Now that the ad-supported Kindle with Special Offers (aka the Kindeal) is out, sales are apparently through the roof again. With that in mind, it seems a good time to bring up the question on many (some?) people’s minds – how do I get free stuff on the Kindle? Books There are a truly remarkable number of free digital books on the internet, legally. Everything eventually goes out of copyright and becomes public domain (and there’s a huge discussion following from that statement we’ll not get into today). Project Gutenberg is likely the oldest of the many free-text archives on…

eBooks, Editorials

The New York Times Ethical Dilemma

I love the New York Times “Ethicist” column, but this past weekend they ran a question that brings up many ethical dilemmas, including a conflict of interest for the Grey Lady herself. First, the question: I’m a 24-year-old freelance journalist who’s still somewhat dependent on my parents. And I’m on nytimes.com dozens of times a day. My parents are print subscribers and thus have access beyond the pay wall. Need I buy my own subscription? Also, if I buy online access, can I share the password with my live-in girlfriend, even if I move to New York for the summer?…

eBooks

In the Book Race, eBooks Take the Lead

Any debate that monster eBook sales versus paper books were a fluke born out of the holiday season has been put to rest. The Association of American Publishers is reporting that eBook sales not only tripled from last year, they also blew away paper book sales. Uh-oh…maybe B&N should consider going digital faster… I find this fascinating not just because it’s big news, but also because it fits with the conversations I’ve had with random people lately. Around my office, at dinner functions, etc., anytime books come up everyone says the same thing: “I/my friend/my husband/my neighbor just bought a…

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