ebooks

Earlier this year, Walmart announced a partnership with Rakuten Kobo as the first step in a plan to launch its own ebook service in the US. The fruits of that partnership are now live in the form of Walmart eBooks, a new service that offers digital books, as well as audiobooks at a subscription rate that undercuts Audible. The service takes on Amazon, which has long dominated the ebook and ereader market in the US.

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It would seem that Apple isn't the only one looking to shake up the ebooks scene. Walmart, as odd as it may seem at first blush, announced today that it will begin offering ebooks in the US as well. It won't be doing this alone, either, as it'll be backed by Rakuten, an e-commerce company operating out of Japan.

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By now, Amazon's stranglehold on the ebooks market is fairly obvious. By and large, when people are looking for an ebook, they're going to Amazon, and while that obviously isn't true for everyone, it certainly is for many people. Apple is looking to do something about that dominance, renewing its focus on ebooks by working on a revamped Books app.

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In this age of podcasts and other forms of streaming media, the audiobook format has been growing in popularity over the last few years. Amazon currently dominates the market, however, with its ownership of Audible, but it appears Google is about to make a big push back. The Google Play store has revealed that it will soon start selling audiobooks alongside its existing media like movies, TV shows, music, digital books, and more.

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Kobo has launched a new limited edition Aura ONE ereader with expanded storage that can hold up to 28,000 ebooks. The ereader packs 32GB of internal storage, which isn't a lot when it comes to phones or tablets, but is quite substantial in the world of e-ink ebook readers. In addition to the huge storage, this limited edition model is also waterproof with a backlight that reduces blue light.

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The Kindle Oasis continues to be Amazon's newest flagship e-reader, with impressive features like waterproofing and a large, sharp display. But now the company has revealed that one of the device's best features is coming to the bottom of the Kindle line-up. The cheapest Kindle model will soon be updated with support for audiobooks from Audible.

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Amazon released what amounts to a full reboot of their Kindle app this week, for both Android and iOS. This new version of said app includes a fully redesigned inside and out, making a bunch of relatively small adjustments all add up to one major change. This version of the app taps into the Goodreads community, too, allowing users to learn from friends' reading habits and rate their own books on an already-established platform.

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If it has been a long while since you last used a library, you may be surprised to learn that many of them have a digital library that offers up digital goods to card holders. Among these digital goods are ebooks, which can be downloaded with the appropriate app for a certain duration before the file expires. This is all free in the same way it is free to rent a physical book, and Google just made finding this content easier.

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Kobo isn’t new to the ereader and ebook market, but it is new to the world of subscription ebook services. The company has launched its own ebook subscription option, giving voracious readers the option to pay a single monthly fee in exchange for access to tens of thousands of digital books. Such a service aims, no doubt, to compete with Amazon Unlimited, a similar subscription service, and other competitors.

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The Humble Freedom Bundle has come and gone, but it's ending its week-long run in success. The Humble Freedom Bundle was unlike any other Humble Bundle we'd ever seen before, offering nearly 50 games and books to benefit three charities: the ACLU, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Rescue Committee. The bundle apparently resonated with PC gamers, as it raised nearly $6.5 million by the time everything was said and done.

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It looks like the Humble Freedom Bundle has resonated with PC players. The massive collection of video games and books has managed to raise more than $4 million for three different charities - the ACLU, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Rescue Committee - in just two days. That makes it one of the most successful Humble Bundles ever released.

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Ever since it first got rolling all those years ago, Humble Bundle has offered a countless number of pay-what-you-want bundles for charity. If there was ever one that was too good to pass up, though, it might be the latest. Say hello to the Humble Freedom Bundle, an absolutely massive bundle that brings together dozens of books and games in one big package that benefits three very important charities: the ACLU, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), and the International Rescue Committee. What's not to love?

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