ebooks

Barnes & Noble has just announced a new Nook, that e-reader brand that we sometimes forget still exists. The new model is the Nook GlowLight Plus, a follow-up to the original GlowLight, and while it might seem irrelevant these days, it has a neat feature that just might make it the perfect fit for some readers: it's waterproof. That's right, there's finally an e-reader that users can take into the bathtub without fear.

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An appeals court has agreed with a 2013 ruling by Judge Denny Chin that Google's digitization of 20 million books did not violate copyright laws. Google's snippet feature - or snippet view, if you prefer - shows only a tiny portion of any given book at a time. As such, it has been ruled that any reading of an entire book would be far too great an undertaking to consider realistic. "Snippet view," said the appeals court ruling, "at best and after a large commitment of manpower, produces discontinuous, tiny fragments, amounting in the aggregate to no more than 16% of a book."

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All seven books in the incredibly popular Harry Potter series have come to iBooks Store, Apple announced today. Available exclusively on Apple's digital marketplace, the books come as enhanced editions featuring artwork and annotations from author J.K. Rowling, along with interactive animations and custom covers. This marks the first time the Harry Potter books have been available digitally outside the Pottermore Shop, a site developed by Rowling with cooperation from Sony.

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Hoopla has announced a new deal with Dark Horse Comics, bringing some of the publisher’s titles to its own digital service. This follows similar deals Hoopla has struck with other publisher, first with D.C. Comics earlier this year, and back in August with Image Comics. As part of the newest deal, Hoopla will add Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sin City, and more.

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Amazon has released a set of updates for its Kindle devices that adds the company's own font, "Bookerly," following its debut earlier this year on the latest Paperwhite model. The font is more spacious and has been designed specifically for reading on e-ink displays, and replaces the previously used font "Caecilia." Among the other Kindle models getting the font update include the Kindle Voyage, Kindle Touch, Kindle 7th gen, and older versions of the Paperwhite. The updates also add several other enhancements to improve readability.

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The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan has decided that Apple's "conspiracy among the publishers to raise e-book prices" verdict will be upheld. The trial began all the way back in June of 2013 as brought about by the US Department of Justice. As a result of this ruling, Apple is expected to have to pay $450 million in damages, most going to consumers who've purchased e-books over the past several years. At this time it would appear that Apple's lawyers are seeking additional means for appeal.

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Earlier this month, Marvel and Amazon struck a deal that resulted in more than 12,000 comic books arriving on the Kindle store. Following that, DC Comics has announced a similar deal with Hoopla. Last month Hoopla announced an expansion of its digital comics offerings, and now the company has struck up a partnership with DC Comics that will see the latter company rolling out a couple hundred of its own works on the service. First will come an initial release of 25 graphic novels.

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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 just outed the latest version of its mid-range Kindle model, the Paperwhite, and it now has the single-best feature from the pricier Kindle Voyage model, while keeping its $119 price tag. The new Paperwhite has a 300 pixels-per-inch e-paper display, making text twice as sharp as the previous generation, and offering a reading experience that's much easier on the eyes. The new e-reader is available to order now, but Amazon says shipping will begin on June 30th.

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Following a similar investigation into Apple, the European Commission is now targeting Amazon with an antitrust probe over its ebooks business and potentially anti-competitive practices. As Amazon is the largest ebooks distributor in Europe, the EC want to focus on the company's contracts with publishers. Of utmost concern is an apparent requirement that publishers tell Amazon about deals with their competitors, specifically if they are offering better prices. The EC believes clauses like these "seem to shield Amazon from competition."

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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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