EBook - SlashGear

‘eBook’ Stories

Apple accused of Japanese iBooks piracy

Chris Davies, Dec 14th 2010 Discuss [1]

Apple has been accused of selling pirated ebooks by Japanese authors in its iBookstore, with titles by high-profile authors such as Haruki Murakami and Keigo Higashino among the texts. According to a consortium of Japanese publishers, "some of the works have been deleted in response to requests from authors and publishers but a majority of them continue to be illegally distributed." Read The Full Story

Amazon WikiLeaks ebook back on sale as retailer denies hypocrisy

Chris Davies, Dec 10th 2010 Discuss [46]

The WikiLeaks Kindle ebook on Amazon UK has is prompting further controversy, with Amazon adding a statement to the product page and various reports that the author had taken the text down. However, at time of writing the ebook is still listed as available to buy, albeit with the added proviso that "This book contains commentary and analysis regarding recent WikiLeaks disclosures, not the original material disclosed via the WikiLeaks website." Read The Full Story

WikiLeaks Kindle ebook appears on Amazon

Chris Davies, Dec 9th 2010 Discuss [2]

No small amount of irony today, as a Kindle version of the full WikiLeaks cables turns up on Amazon. The site content itself was yanked from the online retailer's hosting arm last week, over allegations that the leaked cables contravene the AWS terms of service; however, as reviewers have been quick to flag up, that doesn't stop Amazon making some money on sales of the ebook. Read The Full Story

Google eBookstore official: iOS & Android apps, plus eBook Web Reader

Chris Davies, Dec 6th 2010 Discuss [0]

Google has launched its play for the ebook market, in the shape of the new Google eBookstore along with ereader apps for Android and for iOS devices. Offering over 3m titles - made up of new bestsellers and free public-domain ebooks - the Google eBookstore also supports an online eBooks Web Reader, with browser-based access to a cloud-store of content. Read The Full Story

Barnes & Noble finances released: saved by NOOK

Chris Davies, Nov 30th 2010 Discuss [1]

Barnes & Noble has announced its latest quarterly financial results, and the retailer has its digital arm to thank for its 1-percent year-on-year sales growth. According to the results, online sales - including NOOK and ebooks - increased 59-percent over last year, whereas in-store sales decreased by 3-percent. B&N now reckons it has around 20-percent of the ebook market. Read The Full Story

Sony Reader relaunch in Japan due December 10

Chris Davies, Nov 26th 2010 Discuss [0]

Sony is having a second stab at their domestic ereader market, with the WSJ reporting that as of December 10 two models from the company's latest line-up will go on sale in Japan. The Sony PRS-350 Pocket Edition and PRS-650 Touch Edition will be priced at around 20,000 yen and 25,000 yen ($239 and $299) respectively, and is in the midst of negotiations with Japanese publishers. Read The Full Story

Amazon launches Kindle ebook gifting

Chris Davies, Nov 19th 2010 Discuss [0]

Amazon has seemingly grown bored of waiting for people to actively adopt its Kindle ereading platform, and instead wants it to be foisted on unwitting gift recipients this holiday season. As of today it's possible to gift a Kindle ebook with nothing more than the recipient's email address. Read The Full Story

HTCSense.com app store tipped as HTC eye smartphone ebook/software market?

Chris Davies, Nov 8th 2010 Discuss [0]

HTC are tipped to be developing their own App Store, which would offer not only smartphone software but ebook and emagazine content. According to the Financial Times' sources, HTC is already recruiting "content editors" for the online store, with a core Taiwan-based team paving the way for around 100 people spread around the world. Read The Full Story

Adobe tweak Webkit for interactive digital publishing [Video]

Chris Davies, Nov 3rd 2010 Discuss [3]

It's been tempting for many to write Adobe off, as HTML5 gathers pace and criticisms of Flash grow louder; still, having seen what the company is doing with the Webkit engine and tweaking it for digital publishing purposes, we wouldn't speak too soon. The company has been demonstrating a prototype text-wrapping, dynamic page layout for digital text, where words automatically reflow around call-outs and images that can be dragged about the page with a fingertip. Video demo after the cut. Read The Full Story

Kindle sales rocket; ebooks outsell real books 2:1

Chris Davies, Oct 25th 2010 Discuss [3]

Amazon has announced record sales for their Kindle ereader, as well as that ebook sales are exceeding hardback and paperback sales by over 2-to-1. According to SVP Steve Kessel "it's still October and we’ve already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year"; that makes the Kindle the best selling product on both Amazon US and Amazon UK. Read The Full Story

eBook Lending for Kindle feature coming this year

Chris Davies, Oct 25th 2010 Discuss [1]

Amazon has confirmed that a "lending for Kindle" feature will be launched later in 2010, allowing readers to loan their Kindle ebooks to other Kindle or Kindle app users. As with Barnes & Noble's NOOK lending functionality, titles can be loaned once for a 14-day period, during which time the lender will be unable to read the ebook themselves. Read The Full Story

Kindle Singles target attention-short readers

Chris Davies, Oct 12th 2010 Discuss [0]

Does anybody have the patience to read a full book any more? That's obviously tongue-in-cheek, but the launch of Amazon's Kindle Singles - in-betweener texts that fall somewhere in the gap between a New Yorker feature and a full novel - does seem to suggest that the retailer is hoping to pick up would-be Kindle owners tempted by the hardware but not generally used to paging through a whole book. Read The Full Story