ebooks

Where were these anti-textbook teachers when I was in school? Apple video touting its pro-e-textbook initative takes on the evils of heavy textbooks.

The U.S. Department of Justice joins the European Union in investigating whether Apple and electronic book publishers colluded to set ebook prices and avoid discounts.

Apple's new subscription system has the potential to make online magazine, newspaper, and other content subscriptions easy for users. Unfortunately, it places a lot of burden on publishers to conform to Apple's demands for near-exclusive access and charges them a 30% iTunes tariff.

Apple's statement on its controversial rejection of Sony's e-reader app for the iPad (and iPhone) raises more questions and concerns about the future of other e-reader apps on its iOS platform, which could be bad timing with so many other tablets about to hit the market.

Amazon's Q4 financial results include statements that ebooks for its Kindle platform are now outselling all print books (hardcover and paperback) from its online store. However, the company is still playing coy about how many Kindle devices it has shipped, perhaps because it hasn't really shipped that many.

Some people have been surprised that Barnes and Noble online sales figures for print books have fallen behind Nook ebook sales, but there are several concrete reasons why the company's well planned e-reader platform is gaining such momentum.

Two trademarks indicate next generation and kid-specific Nook models could be on the way along with possible services for study/education, cooking, and social network integration.

The third update to Apple's iBooks app lets users organize iBookstore purchases and PDFs into groups called collections (much as you would print books on physical bookcases). It also adds support for highly illustrated books (like children's titles) and the ability to print notes made about passages in individual books.

With the explosion in ebooks and ebook stores, you'd expect publishers to be raking in huge profits from electronic sales. But are they? According to a new survey, even the publishers themselves aren't sure.

With the launch of its ebook store, Google offers users a large selection of books (including obscure titles) and the ability to read those books on the web as well as on Android devices, Apple's iPad and iPhone, the Barnes and Noble Nook, and many other dedicated e-reader devices.

Amazon's self-publishing platform has the Internet's largest bookseller in hot water again. This time it's for taking free books from Project Gutenberg and collecting cash for them at the online store for its Kindle e-reader. Amazon itself isn't repurposing the Gutenberg texts--that's done by "publishers" using the company's self-service platform--but it is taking a cut of the proceeds from the sale.