eBook

It seems that the world's largest e-book seller-sometimes-publisher might be turning the market on its head. Word has gotten out that Amazon will be changing the rules of the game when it come to books in its Kindle Select library that are self-published and distributed through its Kindle Direct Publishing program. In short, mostly indies. Instead of a fixed amount per book sold, the new program will pay authors by the number of pages that a reader actually reads, a change that will have two-edged effects in this industry.

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Amazon has added audiobook reading to its Echo personal assistant, allowing the pillar-like speaker to regale owners with Audible ebooks. The update is the latest in a series of improvements to Echo which Amazon has pushed out, and follows Google Calendar integration which was installed late last month. Echo will also synchronize its place in each audiobook with Amazon's apps on other platforms, to make the listening experience effectively seamless.

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You expect different fonts in the books you read than on the Web pages you read, and so it is common for some fonts to only be found in books -- they're tailored for the long-form reading experience, and altogether visually pleasant. Apple will reportedly be switching up its system fonts for better readability, and Google is doing something similar with its Google Play Books specifically. The Internet giant has unveiled a new font specifically for ebooks, and it's called "Literata".

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Those who like to read digitally have likely heard of Oyster, the monthly subscription service geared towards avid readers. At $9.99/month, getting the most out of Oyster is easy if you read one or more books monthly. If you don’t, you might have wondered why you’re subscribing — why not just buy books as needed? It’s a crossroads many have found themselves at, but you no longer have to leave Oyster if you’re not interested in subscribing. Today, Oyster is launching an eBook marketplace, where you can buy digital copies of books.

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Kobo is looking to spank Amazon where it hurts, launching the Kobo Glo HD ereader with the same e-paper display as the Kindle Voyage, but dramatically undercutting it on price. Set to hit shelves from May 1st, the Glo HD uses E Ink's 300dpi Carta panel, just as the Voyage does, for smooth text and monochrome images. However, whereas the Voyage will set you back upwards of $199.99 depending on whether you mind Amazon subsidizing it by showing you adverts, Kobo will be asking just $129.99 for the Glo HD.

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Building an app starts with a concept, and idea, a vision. If you don’t have a guiding light in mind, you’re just doing. That isn’t necessarily creating. Idea to App: The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Making iOS Apps is a new book from Megan Holstein, who is also responsible for the website of the same name. Her book promises not to be a rehashing of the website, though; it’s billed as one that is full of fresh ideas, and a better walk-through of how to get from idea to app. To see if it accomplishes that, I decided to give it a read.

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During that magical transition period from physical music discs to digital files, you likely bought your first MP3 player and then stared down the massive pile of CDs filling your bookcase. Thus came the long process of ripping your physical media so that you could use it on the newest piece of technological marvel, and all was well in your world. We're seeing that same kind of transitioning happening with books, with many beholding their slim Kindle and likewise eyeballing all those heavy books lying around, but merging the two together isn't quite as simple.

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Last summer, Amazon introduced its Kindle Unlimited subscription ebook service, something that gives users access to hundreds of thousands of books for a flat rate via their Kindle. The benefits are obvious, and those who consumer a lot of books in a month will find it helps cut down on the monthly budget. As with many other services, Amazon hasn't been open about its statistics on the subscription option, but Nielsen has stepped in to fill that void, dropping some numbers to give an idea of how the service is used.

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Suddenly, and without much of the fanfare the actual dispute had, Amazon and Hachette have settled their differences. The two companies announced Thursday morning they’ve signed a new multi-year contract which will (naturally) see Hachette-published books on Amazon. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but both parties were complimentary of the agreement. In Amazon’s original complaint, they said their aim was to keep eBook pricing low. In announcing the deal, Amazon executive David Naggar noted “financial incentives” for Hachette to deliver on low-priced eBooks.

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The team behind Scribd want to make their service as accessible as possible. To do this, they've seen it necessary to expand beyond the Kindle - to move past the Amazon environment. To do this, they've decided, they'll need to open their platform to Audiobooks. According to Scribd, this $1 billion a year market is just ripe for expansion - 30,000 audiobooks are on the way to their service right this minute. This will be the single largest unlimited-access offering of e-books and audiobooks available in the world today.

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Amazon's negotiations with publishing companies don't often go smoothly (nor has it always gone smoothly with videos), something that has been demonstrated by the months of tussles between it and Hachette. At the heart of the matter are ebooks, and Amazon's desire to price them low -- something it has hailed as a benefit to authors, using numbers to back up its claims. Though the battle with Hachette is still ongoing, sources have cropped up saying it has struck a deal with Simon and Schuster.

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The ebook didn’t kill the paperback, and Amazon is counting on the fact that not only hasn’t the tablet killed the ereader, but that there’s still room for a premium model in the shape of the Kindle Voyage. Fronted by an incredible e-paper display, Amazon’s smartest screen illumination system to-date, and a bevy of software enhancements focused on readers, it’s certainly shaping up to be a great home for your digital 50 Shades. In a world of free Kindle apps and $249 iPads, however, the Kindle Voyage needs to do more than just pack in the pixels in order to justify its existence.

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