Mar 07

New Apple iPad Rolls Out.

Read about the Retina Display on Apple’s new iPad (Hi-Def) here at CNN.

Mar 07

Google Play leaps into the digital content provider arena.

Remember Google Books (or Google Editions)? Sort of launched and left a bland taste didn’t it?

Well it seems the web search giant is finally making a push into the digital content arena, and they’re bringing Google Books with them according to USA Today. The multi-content platform is called Google Play.

Mar 06

American Library Association asks Random House to reconsider nasty price hike

PublishersWeekly has a statement issued by The American Library Association (ALA) that laments Random House’s recent decision to hike the price of eBooks it sells to libraries by up to 300%.

Mar 05

Amazon Publishing to allow its eBook editions to sell outside the Kindle store.

Engadget has a story on Amazon Publishing about to sell some of its new titles as print editions and eBooks outside of the Kindle store.

It will be interesting to see how this develops since the eBook giant’s print editions were recently pulled from Barnes & Noble book shelves because Amazon refused to sell the eBook versions at B&N, too.

Mar 04

Stories to start Read an eBook Week

Read an eBook Week runs March 4-10th. So get out there and read an eBook. eBookWeek has more.

The Digital Journal offers an Op-Ed piece by Paul Wallis on PayPal’s sudden move toward censorship when it ordered its client eBook publisher/distributor Smashwords to remove questionable fiction books from its catalog.

The Sacramento Bee reports on more pleasant news for Smashwords in which the world’s largest distributor of digital and physical books Baker & Taylor announced that it would now offer 100,000 of Smashword’s Indie eBook titles to the Blio store.

PaidContent updates us on Random House’s generous decision to continue making its eBook titles available for lending at public libraries. They’re going to charge libraries as much as 300% more to stock their virtual shelves.

Mar 02

Democratized publishing under attack.

Mathew Ingram of Gigaom has a thought-provoking piece on the present and future of the eBook Revolution, as the corporate eBook giants battle for control of the briefly ‘democratized’ playing field.

I believe that the basic uncontrollable nature of digital products and the Internet will eventually put these ridiculous attempts at market domination in the past where they belong.

Mar 01

eBook retailers prepare for the next round.

Mobiledia continues their feature on the fate of eBook pricing. Part Two looks at how eBook retailers prepare for a power play in the eBook Revolution.

Feb 29

eBook Pricing Unfair?

Mobiledia has an in-depth look at the ongoing debate about eBook pricing . We know why the publishers want to charge more, and we know why the public wants to pay less. Will there ever be common ground? (Or will it be up to eBook Pirates and file-sharers to decide?)

Feb 28

Harry Potter goes digital in libraries.

For a woman who resisted digital publishing and eBooks, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is certainly going ‘all-in’ having made a deal with the OverDrive Platform via the Pottermore website to bring her Muggle-filled franchise to 18,000 public and school libraries in more than 20 languages.

Slashgear has the story.

Rowling seems to get the eBook Revolution and we wonder now whether she was fighting the flow or biding her time. Libraries worked to promote sales of her series back in the paper and hard cover days, why wouldn’t they work now?

Feb 27

PayPal goes to the dark side.

TechCrunch reports on PayPal’s outrageous bullying of eBook distributor and publisher Smashwords. It seems PayPal is getting into the censorship business.

They have demanded that Smashwords and other eBook distributors remove all works that contain references to bestiality, rape and incest or suffer the punishment of having all PayPal services removed. (Something that Smashwords’ president, Mark Coker says equates to shutting the business down.)

Smashwords is complying with this order’s deadline of Feb. 28 and I fear will live to regret rolling over on this. Just as PayPal will pay for this outrageous overreach into dictatorship.