ebooks

Amazon's dominance of the fledgling e-book market will be relatively short-lived. For while sales of digital books are growing, so too are the devices on which to read them. With Apple's iPad heading to market this spring and a rumored Google tablet some time after that, Amazon is going to have a tough time holding on to the 90 percent share of the e-book market it currently claims.

According to Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang, the retailer will likely see its e-book market share slip from 90 percent to 72 percent this year and to 35 percent by … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--During its press conference on Tuesday morning, T-Mobile revealed that it will ship the upcoming HTC HD2 with an array of entertainment applications to really take advantage of the smartphone's 4.3-inch WVGA multitouch screen and 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and to provide users with a robust multimedia experience.

To start, the HD2 will be the first handset to support Blockbuster's On Demand video download application, which lets you preview and download movies on the go. Once purchased, you can watch the video on another other connected device, such as a TV, a Blu-Ray Disc player, or a … Read more

It's a good time to be a Dr. Seuss fan--and an iPhone or iPod Touch owner. Hot on the heels of last year's criminally overlooked "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and thoroughly entertaining Dr. Seuss Camera, Grinch Edition, Oceanhouse Media just dropped three new Seuss apps, starting with a spectacular e-book edition of "The Cat in the Hat."

Like "Grinch" before it, this book is animated, narrated, and interactive. Children can choose either "Read to Me" or "Read It Myself" mode, both of which produce the original book's artwork and text--but with a little panning and zooming to lend an animated feel.

"The Cat in the Hat" is not only a great diversion for bored children (and their harried parents), but also a learning tool. In "Read to Me" mode, each word gets highlighted as it's read. When the narration finishes, readers can tap different areas of the accompanying picture to hear the corresponding word spoken and see it "zoom up."… Read more

You've seen the film, probably with Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson; now read the original book, on your Kindle, for nowt. The works of Dickens and Austen are among 65,000 classics of English literature digitized by the British Library and coming soon, for free, to Amazon's e-book reader.

The titles were scanned on Microsoft's dime as part of its now-defunct Live Search book search project. They're all from the 19th century and are out of copyright. Amazon will offer the e-books to Kindle owners through its Kindle store in late spring or early summer, … Read more

In recent weeks, the stand-off between Amazon and publishers over e-book pricing has received a lot media attention. At issue is who controls how e-books are priced and what pricing flexibility publishers have when coordinating releases of their hardcover books with their e-book counterparts.

Many say the brouhaha was precipitated by Apple's iPad launch, which included a new e-book store (iBooks) with a pricing structure that appealed to certain publishers. In the wake of the launch, two major publishers, Macmillan and Hachette, have renegotiated deals with Amazon to move to an "agency model" that allows publishers to set prices for their e-books and give Amazon a 30 percent cut from the sale price. Word is that most--but maybe not all--of the "big six" publishers are interested in following suit with similar deals.

As any Kindle owner knows, Amazon has touted how it sells many new releases and all best sellers for $9.99. Under this arrangement, Amazon is willing to take a loss because it buys e-books from publishers for about 50 percent off the list price of the hardcover. For instance, if a hardcover lists for $24.95, Amazon buys the e-book for around $12.50 and sells it for $9.99.

On the surface, that may seem marginally crazy, but Amazon wants to attract people to its Kindle platform by offering the best selection of e-books at the best prices--and forcing competitors like Barnes & Noble and Sony to match those prices.

It's the old squeeze play, and though it may be a smart, cut-throat strategy that appears to have paid off so far, publishers have become gravely concerned that Amazon is gaining too much power in the quickly growing e-book arena.… Read more

Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader, which sold out over the winter holidays, is available online once again, the company said Monday.

The Nook is also expected to show up in most B&N stores by midweek.

After running out of the e-readers over the holidays, Barnes & Noble said it kicked production into high gear so it could ship the Nook to its stores by this week--in time for the next gift-giving holiday: Valentine's Day.

Those interested in buying the reader locally can check the Nook in-store Locator to see if any neighborhood Barnes & Noble store … Read more

After a weeklong public dispute over e-book pricing, the paper and electronic titles of publisher Macmillan are returning to Amazon.com's virtual store shelves.

The online retailer, in reaction to Macmillan demanding that some of its e-books be priced higher than Amazon's $9.99 standard, had "expressed [its] strong disagreement and the seriousness of [its] disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles."

The title takedown was indeed temporary. According to a Friday afternoon post by Publishers Weekly, "sources said an agreement has been completed, and the e-tailer has begun putting back the … Read more

We cover Amazon's capitulation to another publisher, and Google's book deal comes under assault from the Department of Justice. Jeff Zucker appears to lie to Congress and Sling implies AT&T lied about their app. And the $9.99 eBook is declared dead by Gizmodo and Rafe declares eInk dead. Just another day on the Internet.

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The $9.99 Ebook Is Dead: Third Major Publisher Hachette Dumps onAmazon http://gizmodo.com/5464742/the-999-ebook-is-dead-third-major-publisher-hachette-dumps-on-amazon

US Department of Justice … Read more

A new software upgrade is now available to owners of Barnes & Noble's Nook e-book reader. This is the second upgrade since the device launched in early December and it appears to be more substantial than the first, which arrived shortly after the product shipped and addressed a handful of small but pervasive bugs.

Barnes & Noble notes that version 1.2 "continues to improve Nook performance to provide enhanced overall reading experience and in-store connectivity for Nook customers to enjoy exclusive content and promotions in Barnes & Noble stores."

Here are the key updates, according to … Read more