OLLI Course: E-books

Course Description

- 2012 Fall; HIST115; Mon, 9am-10:30; Oct 8-Nov 5; Ashland; Room E; 2012 Spring, Medford; 2011 Fall, Ashland; 2011 Fall, AshMUG

- Sessions: 5

- Course URL: http://communicrossings.com/olli-course-e-books

- Are you curious about electronic books (e-books): what they are, how they work, when they arose and why you should care? We will learn about E-book history and formats and how to assess current eInk and tablet devices, such as Kindle, Nook and iPad -- and demonstrate eReader apps. We will explore self-publishing trends, tools and resources for authors. Depending on class interest, we will discuss impacts of E-books (newspapers, magazines, ...) on readers, authors, publishers, bookstores, libraries, schools and society. Internet required for student access to course materials. More about course topics and style below.

About the Instructor

- Steve Weyer has been fascinated by "hypertext/media" and electronic books for several decades. His 1981 PhD dissertation ("Searching for Information in a Dynamic Book") evaluated the use of an electronic history book by 5th grade students; he subsequently researched interactive encyclopedias. In 1995, he developed and distributed a hybrid book reader / web browser -- Newt's Cape -- for the Newton MessagePad. Now, he enjoys multiple reading options on his Apple iPad.

- Steve has 40+ years experience with computer software, including research and development for Stanford University, Xerox PARC, Atari, HP Labs and Apple on programming languages, education environments, electronic books and artificial intelligence. During the 1990s, Steve consulted on enabling technologies for pharmaceutical research, including document management. After moving to Ashland in 2006 (after first visiting in mid-70s), he’s been enjoying non-technical activities such as hiking, rock climbing, reading, theater, improv comedy, volunteering, and OLLI classes; at OLLI, Steve has offered CROSSWORDS and YOU, CROSSWORDS Practicum: Beginner, Evolution of the Internet, and an Internet Issues Community Lecture.

- Steve Weyer: Confessions of a technology addict Ashland Daily Tidings; Aug 29, 2012

Course Topics

- 1.  Introduction: Syllabus and Course Materials (below)

- Why E-books?

- History

- General Trends

- eReaders and Tablets: Introduction

- Features, Formats, Comparisons

- 2. eReaders and Tablets: Google, iPad, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Overdrive, Other

- 3. Publishing Business; ...

- 4. Authors: Writing, Self-Publishing, Selling

- Other Issues [Part 1]: Bookstores; Libraries; ...

- 5. Issues [Part 2]: ...; Learning, Textbooks, Children, Reference; Fiction, Literature, Book Clubs; Newspapers, Magazines

Course Materials

- These online pages will be used for course presentation & resources:

http://communicrossings.com/olli-course-e-books

- You will also find this link on the OLLI site: Course Materials

-- at least for the current term & course number.

- This online version allows you to explore items (articles, web sites) that we skim/skip or that you miss, or want to refer to later; it also allows me to update the course easily with new or revised items. It's scalable and mobile-friendly for smaller screens; it can even be used to generate eBooks. These pages will be updated during the course -- and afterwards if I offer it later.

- There will be no PowerPoint slides or paper handouts. For those who prefer to print, or to read offline on computer, tablet or eReader (especially apt for this class), you can download a .pdf or eBook version of this course. Note: includes active article links; however, page layout is rougher; updates will be infrequent; to keep files smaller, images are lower resolution in .pdf, 4 slideshow galleries are omitted in .epub and .mobi versions

- .pdf [270 pp.; 14.8 Mb; 8-Oct-2012; created using Safari and Preview]

- .epub [iPad, Nook, ...; 23.6 Mb; 8-Oct-2012; created from HTML using Sigil]

- .mobi [Kindle; 15.9 Mb; 8-Oct-2012; created from HTML using Calibre]

- I welcome feedback -- during class or via Contact Us (under Home menu) -- about particular topics/issues you'd like to discuss, about the pace and level of detail, etc.

- For most topics, I generally refer to Wikipedia, New York Times, vendor sites and other sources -- as good starting points (though certainly not the only ones) for exploration. Note: any images or other media provided on this site are for instructional/personal use and should not be redistributed. Photo galleries (under iPad and Authoring) should display properly in most modern web browsers (Internet Explorer (IE) users may experience problems and see a warning message). Other sites may limit article access by imposing a monthly quota, or requiring login or subscription.

E-books: Why?

- "Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn." ~Alvin Toffler, 1970

- reading experience: font size, links, definitions, search

- portability, e.g., textbooks, libraries

- new content, interactivity: multimedia, social,...

- cost and speed of publishing/distribution process for E-books, e-newspapers, e-magazines

- see: iPad demo, Features, ...

Paper

- "Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love." ~George Bernard Shaw

- "We notice things that don't work. We don't notice things that do. We notice computers, we don't notice pennies. We notice e-book readers, we don't notice books." ~Douglas Adams

- "I hate them [e-books]. It’s like making believe there’s another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of book! A book is a book is a book." ~Maurice Sendak

- "There is no future for e-books, because they are not books. E-books smell like burned fuel." ~Ray Bradbury

- tradition

- personal preference: smell of leather, feel of paper, ...

- convenience (no batteries required; however, you might need eyeglasses & lamp)

- availability of titles?

- loan to a friend

- anti-technology?

- Book Within a Book: Stick Hamlet Between Your Pages books as bookmarks; 10/17/2012

- Some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal letter to Oprah from Harper Lee; 10/15/2012

- Amazon’s Writing Is On The Wall For Physical Books 9/6/2012

- A Champion of the Book Takes to the iPad William H. Gass’s 1999 essay, “A Defense of the Book”; now publishes on iPad; 8/17/2012

- Are Books Printed With Disappearing Ink Really The Best Way To Make People Read Them? 7/12/2012

- Tablet Adoption Lowers Reading of Physical Books, Newspapers, Survey Shows 7/3/2012

- Book printed with disappearing ink eventually goes blank The publishing house hopes to promote its new writers by forcing people to read quickly; 6/29/2012

- A few thoughts on books, videotapes and DVDs passing on to the dustbin of history 6/22/2012

- The Antidote to e-Books Espresso POD; 6/11/2012

- Swapping Used Books Online: BookMooch; >PaperBackSwap; >TitleTrader

- How to Tell When You’re Over-Propped books as decoration; 5/17/2012

- Why Flipping Through Paper-Like Pages Endures in the Digital World 5/11/2012

- HP takes print away from town for seven days, laughs at 'print is dead' claim 5/11/2012

- Is This the World’s Most Expensive Bookmark? Voigt Dietrich book table; 5/2/2012

- Why do old books smell? 5/1/2012

- Clues from Onion A.V. Club Crosswords, ed. Ben Tausig:

13A / 17A. Something a kid can build only with the print (as opposed to the online) version of 65-Across

EXTRA STEPS / FOR A SLINKY

28A / 35A. Use for volumes of 65-Across in the kitchen

STABILIZING / WOBBLY TABLE LEGS

44A / 59A. Short dessert lover's application of 65-Across

REACHING FOR / A COOKIE JAR

65A. Encyclopedia discontinuing its 32-volume print version after 244 years

BRITANNICA

puzzle: [.pdf], [.puz]; solution: [.pdf]; 4/11/2012; Steve's OLLI Crosswords course

- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Civility In The Face Of Adversity 4/6/2012

- Britannica's halt of print edition triggers sales 4/5/2012

- We’re Using Way More Paper Than We Ever Have Before 4/3/2012

- Glory Be To The Window Seat: A Bizarre 'Spiritual' Defense Of The FAA's Airplane Gadget Ban 3/28/2012

- Opinion: Shutting down your gadgets at takeoff and landing: not such a bad idea 3/25/2012

- After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses (primary focus on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools); 3/13/2012

- Encyclopaedia Britannica drops print and goes digital only 3/13/2012

- 8 Unexpected Downsides of the Switch to E-books ;-) 2/14/2012

- Move to Digital: Lose Your Unwanted Books (sites and tools to help make your physical books disappear); 1/22/2012

- The Joy of Books (video; 1:52); 1/9/2012

- Disruptions: Norelco on Takeoff? Fine. Kindle? No. 12/25/2011

- DODOcase For The Kindle Fire Is Ready To Disguise Amazon’s Tab As A Hardbound Book 12/8/2011

- Paper Is More Forever 12/6/2011

- Selling Old-Style Books by Their Gilded Covers (papers, edges, embossing, design elements); 12/4/2011

- Clive Thompson on the Future of Printed Books (print-on-demand); 11/29/2011

- For Their Children, Many E-Book Fans Insist on Paper 11/21/2011

- Bullet-Stopping Books: Can Literature Literally Save Your Life? 11/8/2011

- Japanese house made out of bookshelves is reader's delight 6/20/2011

- Where do books get that amazing "old book" smell? [video: 2:06]

- 10 Strange Phobias: #10: Papyrophobia: Fear of Paper

E-books: History

A brief, selective history of publishing and e-book developments.

Wikipedia: books; History of books; Publishing; E-book

Pre-'E'

- 7th millenium (BC)?: writing

- 3rd-4th millenia (BC)?: cuneiform; hieroglyphics; clay tablets; papyrus

- 2nd millenium (BC)?: libraries; scribes

- 5th century (BC)?: parchment

- 3rd century (BC)?: Dead Sea Scrolls Get New Life Online

- 1st century (CE)?: paper (China); codex (Egypt, Roman Empire)

- From Scroll to Screen

- 3rd century: woodblock printing (China)

- 6th century: scriptorium (European monasteries)

- 1040: ceramic & wooden movable type (China)

- 1230: metal movable type (Korea)

- 1440: printing press w/ metal movable type (Europe: Gutenberg)

- Printed books existed nearly 600 years before Gutenberg’s Bible movable type; 5/14/2012

- 1492: A Fifteenth Century Technopanic About The Horrors Of The Printing Press: De laude scriptorum manualium (In Praise of Scribes)

- 1731: Library Company of Philadelphia (US lending library)

- 1899: 19th Century French Artists Predicted the World of the Future in this Series of Postcards illustration shows books being ground up and fed directly into the ears of schoolchildren; 10/15/2012

- ...

1930s-1950s

- 1935: Smithsonian Paleofuture: The iPad of 1935

- 1938: World Brain by H. G. Wells. He imagined a time -- not very distant, he believed -- when every person on the planet would have easy access to a "World Encyclopaedia" that could help world citizens make the best use of universal information resources and make the best contribution to world peace: "The time is close at hand, when any student, in any part of the world, will be able to sit with his projector in his own study at his or her convenience to examine any book, any document, in an exact replica."

- 1939: How Paperbacks Transformed the Way Americans Read Half a century before e-books turned publishing upside down, a different format threatened to destroy the industry; PocketBooks; 8/12/2012

- 1945: Vannevar Bush: As We May Think, Memex [animation: 2:30]; "[The Memex is a] sort of mechanized private file and library...a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory."

- 1946: ENIAC

- 1947: Making Books (video; 9:55)

- 1959: [image: Home Electronic Library]

1960s

- 1960: Project Xanadu: "Hypertext", "Hypermedia"

- 1961: electronic book store in Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem: "I spent the afternoon in a bookstore. There were no books in it. None had been printed for nearly half a century. And how I have looked forward to them, after the micro films that made up the library of the Prometheus! No such luck. No longer was it possible to browse among shelves, to weigh volumes in hand, to feel their heft, the promise of ponderous reading. The bookstore resembled, instead, an electronic laboratory. The books were crystals with recorded contents. They can be read the aid of an opton, which was similar to a book but had only one page between the covers. At a touch, successive pages of the text appeared on it. But optons were little used, the sales-robot told me. The public preferred lectons - like lectons read out loud, they could be set to any voice, tempo, and modulation. Only scientific publications having a very limited distribution were still printed, on a plastic imitation paper. Thus all my purchases fitted into one pocket, though there must have been almost three hundred titles. My handful of crystal corn - my books... The robot that served me was itself an encyclopedia, in that - as it told me - it was linked directly, through electronic catalogs, to templates of every book on earth. As a rule, a bookstore had only single "copies" of books, and when someone needed a particular book, the contents of the work was recorded in a crystal. The originals - Crystomatrices - were not to be seen; they were kept behind pale blue enamel the steel plates. So a book was printed, as it were, every time someone needed it. The question of printings, of their quantity, of their running out, had ceased to exist. Actually, a great achievement, and yet I regretted the passing of books."

- 1962: The Robot Who Wanted To Know, Harry Harrison; A Filer is an amazingly intelligent robot and there aren't many being manufactured. You'll find them only in the greatest libraries, dealing with only the largest and most complex collections. To call them simply librarians is to demean all librarians and to call their work simple. Of course very little intelligence is needed to shelve books or stamp cards, but this sort of work has long been handled by robots that are little more than wheeled IBM machines. The cataloging of human information has always been an incredibly complex task. The Filer robots were the ones who finally inherited the job. It rested easier on their metallic shoulders, than it ever had on the rounded ones of human librarians.

- 1968: Looking at sci-fi tech as prior art: 2001: A Space Odyssey (tablet computing); video

- NLS (oN-Line System) (links, mouse, windows at SRI)

- FRESS (File Retrieval and Editing SyStem) (hypertext manuals at Brown Univ.)

- Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs. iPad 2 vs. Clarke's Newspad

- 1969: ARPAnet; (Evolution of the Internet: History)

1970s

- 1971: Project Gutenberg: digital library; e-books

- 1979: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams:

"a sort of electronic book [that] tells you everything you need to know about anything."

1980s

- 1981: Searching for Information in a Dynamic Book (dissertation). "Design of a dynamic book for information search" [paper: .pdf, 5.4Mb; video: mp4] Weyer, Stephen A. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies. 17(1): 87-107; July 1982.

- 1983: NoteCards

- 3 encyclopedia projects at Atari:

- Images of Atari Intelligent Encylopedia Project 1982

- Knoesphere: building expert systems with encyclopedic knowledge Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-83) Karlsruhe, West Germany, 1983. pp. 167-169

- "A prototype electronic encyclopedia" [paper: .pdf, 7.6Mb; video: mp4] Weyer, Stephen A.; Borning, Alan H. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems. 3(1): 63-88; January, 1985. (reprinted in Scanlon, Eileen and O'Shea, Tim (eds.) Educational computing: pp. 271-296. John Wiley, New York; 1986).

- 1984:Heretics of Dune; Frank Herbert; Taraza rather distrusted Archivists, which she knew was an ambivalent attitude because she recognized the underlying necessity for data. But Chapter House Records could only be viewed as a jungle of of abbreviations, special notations, coded insertions, and footnotes. Such material often required a Mentat for translation or, what was worse in times of extreme fatigue demanded that she delve into Other Memories. ...You could never consult Archival Records in a straightforward manner. Much of the interpretation that emerged from that source had to be accepted on the word of the ones who brought it or (hateful!) you had to rely on the mechanical search by the holosystem...

- 1985: desktop publishing

- 1987: HyperCard; Intermedia; Knowledge Navigator

- How Star Trek artists imagined the iPad (in 1987)

1990s

- 1990: Nora Barnacle and the Birth of the E-book Voyager Co.

- 1992: World Wide Web; Tim Berners-Lee

- first web site at CERN; 11/3/1992

- 1993: Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format)

- AT&T EO Personal Communicator (tablet)

- Newton Messagepad (w/ "Copperfield" book reader)

- 1994: Amazon.com

- Here's What an "iPad" Looked Like in 1994 (video)

- 1995: Newt's Cape: HTML (web pages) in a Newton E-book

- The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson described an interactive book that can teach lessons on many topics, entertain with games and provide virtual training for living in the real world.

- 1996: Online books pave the way for modern e-books

- 1999: Open E-book Publication Structure (predecessor to ePub format)

- Blogger: early weblog (blog) publishing tool

2000s-

- 2001: Wikipedia

- 2002: Microsoft Tablet PCs

- 2004: Google Books

- 2007: Amazon Kindle (E-reader)

- ePub (E-book format)

- Adobe Digital Editions(E-book reader app)

- 2009: Barnes & Noble Nook (E-reader)

- 2010: Apple iPad (tablet)

- 2011: E-books (this course): first offered; Ashland [Fall];

Ashland Macintosh Users Group (AshMUG), Dec 2011 (presentation)

- Michael Hart, a Pioneer of E-Books (Project Gutenberg), Dies at 64

- 2012: A Brief History of Textbooks, or, Why Apple's 'New Textbook Experience' Is Actually Revolutionary

- After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses

- ?: Future of the Book (O'Reilly); ...

- see Future

E-books: General Trends

- "A disruptive technology... is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology there." ~Wikipedia: disruptive technology; see also: diffusion of innovations; hype cycle

- "In economics, disintermediation is the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: 'cutting out the middleman'. Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediate (such as a distributor, wholesaler, broker, or agent), companies may now deal with every customer directly, for example via the Internet." ~Wikipedia: disintermediation

- "We'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure." ~Clifford Stoll, 1995

- Personal Tech > E-Book Readers (NYT articles)

- Pew surveys young Americans on e-reading, but the data is old 10/23/2012

- E-Books: The Next Chapter subscription reqd; The rush to e-books isn't without its obstacles, as questions arise about compatibility, sharing and pricing; 7/2012

- Every Successful New Technology Has Created Panic From Those It Disrupts 6/22/2012

- Capitalists Who Fear Change 6/19/2012

- 1-in-3 eReading Devices Is Used for What? "shame-reading" (erotic, young adult, sci-fi); 5/25/2012

- OnlineUniversities: E-book Nation infographic on right; 5/8/2012

- What Amazon's ebook strategy means disintermediation via internet; consumer-side retail monopoly; supplier-side wholesale monopsony (one distrib., many suppliers); eliminate DRM to survive? 4/15/2012

- The rise of e-reading Pew; 4/4/2012; A fifth of Americans have read an e-book in the past year. E-book readers read more than other readers, and are now spending more time reading. But they aren’t just reading e-books, they also read paper books. Also key: e-reader owners prefer to buy rather than borrow more than print readers do (61 percent vs. 54 percent). Where the reading action is: Forty-two percent read e-books on computers, 41 percent on e-readers, 29 percent on cell phones and 23 percent on tablets.

- The Way We Read Now the case for e-books; are some reading materials better suited to one platform than another? 3/18/2012

- Disruptions: Time to Review F.A.A. Policy on Gadgets 3/18/2012

- Electronic Mini-books that Allow Writers to Stretch Their Legs (Kindle Singles: long-form journalism between magazine articles and hardcover books); 3/7/2012

- E-books Can’t Burn NY Review of Books; 2/15/2012

- H-P Banks on Digital Printing Presses 2/14/2012

- Hackett bookish after Internet sale (MidnightSun Publishing: multi-platform, multi-format books); 2/9/2012

- The Bookstore’s Last Stand (Barnes & Noble); 1/29/2012

- The Book Beyond the Book (hybrid, enhanced print books with ancillary materials); 12/25/2011

- Sunday Dialogue: Reading Books in the Digital Age (NYT Readers); 12/25/2011

- Divisive Devices: When Couples Find Gadgets Interfere with Harmony 12/8/2011

- Windows author Ed Bott and partners launch ‘digital first’ book publishing company: Fair Trade Digital Exchange 11/30/2011

- Please let this not be the future of reading on the web (ads, buttons, clutter); 11/23/2011

- Facebook 'Idiot's Guide' Inadvertently Makes Case for E-Books (updating a rapidly changing topic); 11/13/2011

- The book is great technology, but it’s not good for everything (media; social; educational; e.g., cookbooks); 11/10/2011

- Our relationship with e-books: It’s too complicated (Balkanization, E-book hell; sharing notes/passages: OpenMargin, Readmill, Findings; sharing books, unavail features; DRM); 11/1/2011

- Books Unbound ("Books in Browsers" conference; what is a book?); 10/28/2011

- Room for Debate: Will Amazon Kill Off Publishers? 10/24/2011

- Does Amazon Want to Monopolize The Entire Publishing Chain? 10/12/2011

- Great digital expectations: Digitisation may have came late to book publishing, but it is transforming the business in short order 9/10/2011

- Seniors, Women Embracing Tablets, E-Readers 8/29/2011

- Ladies love e-readers; guys prefer tablets 8/25/2011

- Publishing Gives Hints of Revival, Data Show 8/9/2011

- Why Did Facebook Buy an e-Book Publisher? 8/2/2011

- E-Book Revolution Upends a Publishing Course (at Columbia); 7/17/2011

- New Report on Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors 7/11/2011

- The book is not dead, it's just shape-shifting 7/10/2011

- Complaint Box | How E-Readers Destroyed My Love Life 7/4/2011

- E-reader ownership doubles in six months (to 12%); 6/27/2011

- E-sales to imprints: Amazon's ambitious publishing plan 5/28/2011

- Why is the Nook Color a hit among women? 5/23/2011

- Publishers Speedily Churn Out Newsworthy Books 5/6/2011

- Will Book Publishers Ever Be Irrelevant? 4/12/2011

- Playing Catch-Up in E-Books 4/4/2011

- The E-book Generation (no, the other one) (over-50s; 3/26/2011

- How to get a book lover to consider an e-book reader (ereader cases); 3/17/2011

- E-Book Tarnishes The Reader-Book Relationship (privacy); 3/7/2011

- Pew: Generations & Gadgets (incl. e-Book Readers and Tablet Computers); 2/3/2011

- Is Your E-Book Reading Up On You? 12/15/2010

- Recent study shows six million e-readers owned in the USA 12/5/2010

- Blurring the Line Between Apps and Books 10/25/2010

- The line between book and Internet will disappear 9/10/2010

- Kindle, iPad Search for Niche in Differing Demographics 1/29/2010

- Amid iPad Mania, Will Bookworms Be Left Behind? 1/28/2010

- In An Era Of Immediacy, Why Fear The E-Book? (narrative bias, reader experience); 1/27/2010

- How E-Books Will Change Reading And Writing (words vs. language; length (Twitter); distraction); 12/30/2009

- A New Page Can the Kindle really improve on the book? New Yorker; 8/3/2009

- Kindle users skew older; does that impact news biz’s revenue hopes? 4/29/2009

- E-books now on NYT best seller list

- Are e-readers making books obsolete?

- Good E-Reader – ebook Reader and Digital Publishing News

- The Future of Publishing articles

- International Digital Publishing Forum (formerly Open E-book Forum: www.openebook.org)

E-books: Tablets and eReaders

The following sections discuss devices, describe features, provide initial comparisons, and review a few "major" eReaders and tablets from companies with associated eBookstores; "?" marks models that may be discontinued or not yet announced.

eReader

- eBook-only device

- black&white "eInk" display (diag. size); light*; buttons/keyboard; WiFi,3G?

- battery life: days, weeks; weight: ~8 oz.; ~$70-

- 5": Kobo Mini

- 6": Kindle (Keyboard; Paperwhite*); Kobo (Touch; Glo*); Nook SimpleTouch (Glowlight*)

Tablet

- eBooks (via eReader apps) and other apps (including 'enhanced' eBooks)

- color LCD display (diag. size); touch interface; WiFi,3G/4G? web/email access, apps, games, ...

- battery life: hours; ~$150-500

- 7": Kindle Fire; Kobo Arc; Nook HD; iPad Mini (7.9")

- 9": Kindle Fire HD (8.9"); Nook HD Plus (9.5"); iPad2, iPad w/ Retina Display (9.7")

Other Devices

- can be used to read E-books -- to be discussed briefly later

- smartphone, MP3 players: small (or no) screen?

- desktop, laptop computers: portability?

- non-major/non-publisher eReaders, general tablets: support?

General Discussion

- Personal Tech > E-Book Readers (NYT articles)

- Thanks to smartphones, we're now in the golden age of reading 10/12/2012

- Paper Or Plastic? (e-Readers still not satisfying, mature products); 3/9/2012

- An e-reader or tablet for Christmas? 12/6/2011

- The Word on E-Book Readers How to read between the lines; 11/2011

- Deciding on a Book, and How to Read It (NYT comparison); 8/11/2011

- Is a tablet or an e-reader better for students? 7/24/2011

- Nobody Needs a Tablet. So Why Are We Gobbling Them Up? 3/24/2011

- Are E-Books Cost Effective? The Pros and Cons of E-Books vs. paper: price; 12/7/2010

- Blurring the Line Between Apps and Books 10/24/2010

- What Kind of E-Reader Are You? Our guide to finding the best way to read books, mags, blogs, tweets, and newspapers; (chart); 9/25/2010

E-books: Features

Some features and assumptions to consider when deciding among tablets and eReaders:

you, the reader

readers' needs are different -- "one size does not fit all; your mileage may vary..."

evaluate hands-on if possible

Checkbox Syndrome: Why We Spend Money on Things We Don’t Need (and How to Avoid It) 5/15/2012

the eReader or tablet

more than the sum of its specifications and reviews

part of a "reading system", including you, books, stores, environment, ...

there are always design (and environmental) tradeoffs: no 'perfect' information system/device: desktop, laptop, tablet, eReader, smartphone, media player, wristwatch, ... even paper (including eyeglasses, lamp, shelves, search, ...)

battery life

hours (tablet); days - weeks (eReader)

weight, portability, travel

eReaders are lighter than tablets

Do Our Gadgets Really Threaten Planes? The ban rests on anecdotes, not on hard evidence—because there isn't any; 9/7/2012

The FAA is studying expanding device usage on flights but don’t worry, voice calls are off limits; 8/27/2012

Wearable Gadgets Upset F.A.A. Curbs on Devices 6/17/2012

The Mystery of the Flying Laptop (TSA screens laptops but not netbooks, tablets, e-readers, phones, ...); 4/6/2012

Q. When an e-reader is loaded with thousands of books, does it gain any weight? (A. yes, on the order of an atogram, or 10-18 g.); 10/25/2011

eReader: books only vs. tablet: enhanced books, apps, media

storage capacity for books, documents -- and apps, video, audio?

Finding Your Book Interrupted ... By the Tablet You Read It On (distractions: e-mail, Facebook, videos, ...); 3/5/2012

Reading Books on a Tablet Is Dumb (single device vs. distraction); 3/5/2012

display

display area: phone (4-5"); eReader (5-6"); tablets (7-10")

contrast, brightness (indoor vs. outdoor use); optional light; fonts

resolution (pixels; ppi:pixels per in.)

iPad2: 1024x768 @ 132 ppi

Kindle Fire: 1024x600 @169 ppi

Kindle Fire HD: 1920x1200 @ 254 ppi

'new' iPad: 2048x1536 @ 264 ppi ('Retina display')

black&white (eInk) vs. color (LCD)

LCD vs. E Ink: Which is better for e-reading? 5/31/2011

How Electronic Ink Works

navigation

keyboard and/or buttons vs. touch (and gestures)

page turning, scrolling, Table of Contents (TOC), library, store

ease of search, definitions, annotation, bookmarks

networking

desktop(USB), WiFi, 3G-4G (cellular); bookstore-only or web?

online stores: book -- and app -- availability; samples; lending

file formats: open (ePub) or proprietary; Mobi; PDF; other?

how many apps available? from vendor only? security, e.g., screened for malware?

Android's Tablet Troubles 10/14/2012

How Compatible Are Rival E-Readers? 5/10/2012

Digital ecosystems: an in-depth comparison Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony: movies&music, reading, gaming; mobile, desktop, shopping, social, integration; 4/18/2012

Informal e-reader library comparison (book and periodical availability: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iPad); 10/28/2011

content: quality, adware (e.g., E-book 'missing content'? Amazon must do better); 9/30/2011

reliability, support; software upgrades

it's generally a good idea to wait a little while after a new model is first available to learn about any hardware omissions or issues, or software problems that can (or can't) be patched

OS and app upgrades may be non-existent / infrequent, esp. for generic devices

Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support 10/26/2011

additional unsupported features may be accessed by "hacking", "jailbreaking" or "rooting" your iOS or Android device

however, this requires technical skills, increases vulnerability to malware, and may void your warranty -- not recommended, and not covered here

DRM (digital rights management, i.e., copy protection)

usually specific to publisher, author and/or book: text-to-speech?

loan? print? email? copy/paste?

users "DRMed" if E-books do (incompatible across platforms);

authors "DRMed" if E-books don't (more difficult to create revenue)

Read E-Books On Multiple Devices 3/8/2012

iBook’s DRM Defenses Are Now Only for Show (Requiem); 2/25/2012

Our relationship with e-books: It’s too complicated (Balkanization, ebook hell; sharing notes/passages: OpenMargin, Readmill, Findings; sharing books, unavail features, DRM); 11/1/2011

Text To Speech (TTS)

Text to speech on the iPad Tutorial (with iBooks, etc.); 4/8/2010

Random House shuts down Kindle text-to-speech for their titles 5/15/2009

Disability groups demand full return of Kindle's text-to-speech 3/20/2009

Kindle Read-to-Me

Kobo, Nook: TTS not currently supported?

media: pictures, animation, video, audio (music, narration), esp. children's books

So Now What Will iPad Rivals Say in Their Commercials? (Adobe drops support for mobile Flash); 11/9/2011

Booktrack adds sound effects and music soundtracks to eBooks 9/7/2011

Vook digital book with video, ...

accessories, other hardware features

speed, camera, GPS, storage cards, ...

Is the iPad making men effeminate? ...sales of manbags are soaring, because men need somewhere to put their iPads. At the same time, women's bags are getting smaller?; 10/14/2012

Furniture Meets the Digital Age (adapting to E-readers and tablets; 3/29/2012)

Dressing Up an E-Reader for Style and Comfort (lights; screen management; audio enhancement; stands); 2/16/2012

Tablets: What Amazon and Apple know that all the CES tablet peddlers are still missing (services rather than features); 1/10/2012

total cost

device, books, advertising 'tax', subscription/carrier lock-in, accessories, ...

save money on older models / competitors' products discounted when new models are introduced

save money on refurbished models (w/ original warranty)

Kindle Fire HD: Amazon's anti-Apple profit engine Bezos: "We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices"; 9/6/2012

Why Not Carry Different E-Book Readers? 9/5/2012

"lifetime value" 10/26/2011; (razor and blades business model)

E-books: Formats

Introduction

- source document: created/edited by author, e.g., Word, Pages, blog

- destination document: final content or eBook read by user, e.g., ePub, Mobi, .pdf

- for discussion / recommendations of editing and conversion tools, see Authors section

- Wikipedia: Comparison of e-book formats; EBook Readers: File Format Support

- Why eBook Conversion Practices Are Failing Readers 3/29/2012

- The difference between ebook conversion and ebook formatting cover; images; headers/footers; line/section/page breaks; spacing & characters; ... 10/20/2010

- How You’re Gonna Get Screwed By Ebook Formats DRM, PDA legacy, apps; 3/10/2010

ePub

- EPUB (.epub) from International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF);

open format (except DRM); based on XML; extensible

- ePub can be incompatible across platforms when publishers add DRM (Digital Rights Management) or other extensions; see Apple (next)

- Wikipedia: ePub Editing Systems

- ePub standards body proposes new 'lightweight' DRM for ebook platform interoperability 5/19/2012

- International Digital Publishing Forum: ePub 3.0 10/11/2011

- How Can I Convert PDFs and Other Ebooks to the ePub Format? 4/5/2010

Apple

- Apple uses standard ePub -- except that it may add DRM for purchased books; its iBook Author tool may use extensions unrecognized by other readers; Apple-specific tools for iBooks: Pages, iBooks Author

- I’ma Set It Straight, This Watergate 1/24/2012

- How Apple is sabotaging an open standard for digital books 1/22/2012

- On the Proprietary Nature of the iBooks Author (iba) File Format (proprietary ePub extensions); 1/20/2012

- iPad and MORE ePub Best Practices 5/15/2010

- iPad eBook format; overview of the .epub file [video; 8:24]; 4/10/2010

- All about ePub, the ebook standard for Apple's iBookstore 1/31/2010

Amazon

- Kindle (.azw) from Amazon; proprietary format; based on Mobi

- Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP): create and submit Kindle compatible eBooks

- Kindle and ePub? "Kindle platform does not support the international ePub ebook standard. However, there is software available (e.g. Calibre) which can convert a non-DRM ePub file into the unprotected Mobipocket format that the Kindle can read. Additionally, Amazon offers a free program called KindleGen which converts ePub and several other formats."

- Amazon Throws A Minor Curveball With HTML5-Powered Kindle Format 8 (KF8; replacing Mobi7); 10/20/2011

- Web-based Kindle format good for comics, kids' books 10/21/2011

HTML

- Hypertext Markup Language (.htm,.html) (HTML; version 5); open format; used in web browsers

- source: for ePub converters, e.g., Calibre, Sigil, blog plugins, Newt's Cape

- destination: accessible on any device with a web browser

- this site is organized as a "book" (Drupal book module), i.e., Table of Contents (TOC), previous/next section, ...

PDF

- Portable Document Format (.pdf)

- public format (but controlled by Adobe)

- source issues: reflow text, extract images

- destination issues: fixed layout & page-size on smaller screens

Other Formats

- "app" (book embedded): flexibility vs. "standard" navigation (possibly different from eReader apps); less portable across models/devices/versions: developer/author may need to rewrite/retest

- Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf): public format (but controlled by Microsoft); source: for ePub conversion; destination issues: file, user interface (& maybe font) incompatibilities across Word versions/installations; app large, complex & expensive, though free alternatives are available (Open Office, LibreOffice, Google Docs, ...); user ability to modify the "book" could be disadvantage

- Wolfram CDF: Wolfram launches its own interactive document format 7/21/2011

E-books: Comparisons

This and the following pages present an evolving snapshot of devices, features, prices and companies -- be sure to check dates of reviews and comparisons. This is not a complete survey: there are many similar lesser-known eReaders and tablets (in addition to desktop and smartphones) that we will not discuss. Please let me know about any new products, rumors, or obsolete web links.

- Wikipedia: Comparison of tablet PCs; Comparison of e-book readers;

Comparison of Android reader software; Comparison of iOS e-book reader software

- The Verge Reviews & Comparisons: eReaders; Tablets Tech vs. Tech: Rollover a product and click the compare icon to add up to 6 products to your comparison, then click 'compare' to see side-by-side specs.

- iPad vs. Android Tablets

- ePub eBook Readers and Applications

- Gutenberg: MobileReader Devices How-To

- How Apple's iPad mini compares with Android tablets 10/25/2012

- The 7-Inch Competition Facing Apple’s iPad Mini Kindle Fire HD; Acer Iconia Tab A110; Google Asus Nexus 7; Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7; 10/22/2012

- Surface vs iPad vs Galaxy vs Kindle Fire HD: Battle of the $500 tablets 10/17/2012

- The 7-inch tablet advantage 10/10/2012

- Newly Enlightened E-Readers Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight; Amazon Kindle Paperwhite; 10/3/2012

- Ratings: Tablets & eReaders Consumer Reports; 10/2012

- The Difference Between Apple & Amazon In One Chart profit margins, media; 9/10/2012

- How the Kindle Fire HD Stacks Up to the Competition Kindle Fire HD; Nexus 7; iPad; Kindle Fire(orig.); Galaxy Tab 2.6.4; Kobo Arc; 9/6/2012

- Apple iPad Mini: 3 Ways Amazon, Barnes & Noble Can Avoid The Death Knell Lower The Price; Provide Discounted Services; Reflect The Company Identity; 8/12/2012

- E-Books: The Next Chapter Consumers Digest; 7/2012

- Kindle vs. Nook vs. iPad: Which e-book reader should you buy? 3/13/2012

- New iPad vs. the competition: by the numbers; Comparison Table (Kindle Fire; Nook; ...; 3/7/2012)

- iPad2 and Kindle Fire: The top 5 technical annoyances: common: WiFi connection issues; USB issues; iPad: LED display issues; microphone quality; screen issues; Kindle: one-click shopping issues; no parental controls; touchscreen issues; 2/22/2012

- Buyer's Guide to Tablets: What to consider when shopping for a tablet 2/22/2012

- Kindle Fire Display Doesn’t Stand Up To Nook, iPad 2 In Tests 12/20/2011

- Amazon Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 12/19/2011

- Review: Gift guide to e-readers, tablets, $99-$500 12/7/2011

- 2011's best E-book Readers Bookeen CyBook Orizon; Amazon Kindle & Kbd 3G; WHSmith Kobo Touch; Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1; 12/5/2011

- Kindle Touch compared to Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Touch, and Kindle 4 12/2/2011

- Kindle Fire and iPad 2 Fire is a terrific Kindle, but a weak tablet; 11/29/2011

- Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and Google Books: How to choose the best eBook store 11/22/2011

- Does the Nook Tablet have what it takes to extinguish the Kindle Fire? 11/18/2011

- Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet? I bought the… 11/13/2011

- Nook Tablet vs Kindle Fire vs Nook Color vs iPad 2 (comparison tables; 11/7/2011)

- Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire (comparison table; 11/7/2011)

- Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire: The Differences Add Up 11/7/2011

- Here’s the secret to Amazon’s, B&N’s tablet strategy (simplicity and reasonable prices, not specs; 11/4/2011)

- The Word on E-Book Readers Consumers Digest; 11/2011

- What You Get With $199 Tablets 10/11/2011

- Amazon's Kindle Fire Tablet vs. the Competition: Spec Showdown (Kindle Fire; Nook Color; Playbook; IdeaPad A1; Iconia Tab A100; Thrive; iPad2); 9/28/2011

- Beyond the Kindle, outside the Nook: What are the other e-readers? 6/16/2011

- Kindle vs. iPad: How to pick the best ebook reader 2/22/2011

- Which E-Reader Is Right For You? 2/2011

- IPS (In Plane Switching) Tablet Display Technology Shoot-Out Fire; Nook; iPad 2; 2011

- Choosing an eBook Reader (no tablets) [video; 3:05]; 10/4/2010

- Many more review articles in following individual device sections.

E-books: Google Books

Products

- Google Play: books; Nexus 7 Tablet

- eReader apps: iPad app [slideshow]; eReaders, tablets, smartphones, web browser

- Wikipedia: Google Play (digital content service); Google eBooks/Editions (ebookstore); Google Books (digital scanning library project)

- See also: Bookstores: Google

Reviews and Articles

- Google Books Ngram Viewer Gets A Larger Dataset, Now Understands Parts Of Speech tool to see how the usage of specific words has increased and decreased over time; 10/18/2012

- A 32GB Nexus 7 Will Probably Cost the Same as the Original 16GB Model 10/17/2012

- A $99 Nexus tablet could spawn a new race to the bottom, but is it possible yet? 10/17/2012

- Google reportedly planning to launch $99 Nexus 7 by end of 2012 9/27/2012

- Google Play Books update adds definitions, translations, and Maps integration for Android; 9/25/2012

- Google reaches landmark agreement with French publishers to digitize out-of-print books 6/11/2012

- Google Books Class Certified vs. Authors Guild; 5/31/2012

- Why Amazon Can't Win a Tablet Price War Against Google 3/31/2012

- What Will Google Gain From an Online Tablet Store? 3/30/2012

- Google Scales Back E-Book Affiliates Program, Drops Some Users 2/24/2012

- Google Books for Chrome gets offline support one less excuse for not reading the 'classics'; 12/22/2011

- Google plans to seek Books lawsuit dismissal (scanning, copyright); 12/5/2011

- First e-reader built for Google ebooks (iRiver Story HD) 7/11/2011; review [video; 42:31]; 7/21/2011

- 10 free Google books worth your reading time 7/3/2011

- Test-Driving Google eBooks: The Good, The Bad, And The Competitive Spirit 12/6/2010

- Introducing Google eBooks [video; 2:12]; 11/29/2010

- The E-Book Challenge: Amazon Versus Google 6/11/2009

- Offline reading (in Chrome)

E-books: iPad

Products

- apple.com: tablet: iPad w/ Retina Display, iPad2, iPad Mini

- features; support; user guide [.pdf]

- iTunes books (by category)

- selected book reader apps for iPad (free; note: an app, such as Kindle, will appear and behave somewhat differently from its respectively named eReader device): Bluefire Reader (like OverDrive, it can handle Adobe DRM, e.g., JCLS loans); Google Books; iBooks: FAQ, [video; 3:00]; Kindle; Kobo; Nook; OverDrive

- selected PDF reader apps: Adobe Reader; GoodReader; iBooks

- selected news reader apps: Editions; Flipboard; Livestand; News.me; Newsstand; Pulse News; Zite

- Wikipedia: iPad, iBooks & iBookstore, iTunes, Comparison of iOS eReader apps

- See also: Bookstores: Apple

Reviews and Articles

- Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition $329? quality; premium brand; 10/24/2012

- Which iPad Mini Should You Buy? White, 16M, WiFi (tethering); 10/24/2012

- Apple's Schiller defends iPad mini's price tag $329 too expensive compared to 7" tablets? cannibalize regular 10" iPad @ $499? 10/23/2012

- Apple announces its 4th generation full-size iPad with A6X chip, LTE, HD FaceTime and Lightning connector faster; same price; 10/23/2012

- Hands-On With Apple’s Petite New iPad Mini 10/23/2012

- iPad Mini: Everything You Need to Know 7.9"; 1024 x 768; 0.68 lbs; 7.2mm thin; 10/23/2012

- Apple iPad mini hands-on 10/23/2012

- New Apple iPad tops our tablet Ratings Consumer Reports; 4/2/2012

- New iPad vs. iPad 2: Which is the Better Deal? 3/30/2012

- For reading, the new iPad's screen is underrated 3/29/2012

- New iPad: Hands-On First Impressions 3/17/2012

- New iPad: A Polishing of the Old 3/15/2012

- New iPad review (With a breathtaking display and big hardware upgrades, does the tablet king retain its crown?); 3/14/2012

- Review: The third-generation iPad (Apple advances the ball with a better screen, camera, and cellular connection); 3/14/2012

- The New iPad Makes Apple’s Tablet Domination Clearer Than Ever 3/14/2012

- The New iPad: It’s in the Apps 3/7/2012

- Least Common Complaints about the iPad ;-) 4/26/2010

E-book Apps

- Hands on with iBooks 3 10/24/2012

- Apple announces new iBooks with continuous scrolling, better iCloud and sharing, says 400M iBooks downloaded 10/23/2012

- Adobe updates Android, iOS Reader, adds cloud storage Version for iOS adds comment, form printing, more; 10/16/2012

- Rovio’s First Book App, Bad Piggies Best Egg Recipes, Takes It Further Into Non-Fiction, Non-Gaming Territory 10/11/2012

- Kindle iOS app gains new layouts, rapid highlights New tools aid with print replica textbooks; 8/30/2012

- Kobo e-book reader upgraded for additional languages, Adobe DRM 8/15/2012

- BooksWing: book reading and management tool for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch The app enables users to keep track of what they are currently reading, and to store or share any thoughts, quotes, or pictures during reading. Support is also offered for creating a wish-list of books you want to own; 8/12/2012

- Kindle iOS, Android, and Cloud Reader apps now support children's books, comics, and graphic novels 6/14/2012

- Notes, Quotes, and iBooks (and other readers); 4/7/2012

- Load Up Your iPad with a Massive Library of Over 38,000 Free eBooks 4/5/2012

- MagicReader Flips Through PDF Pages with the Nod of Your Head, No Hands Required (via camera); 4/4/2012

- Barnes &amp Noble optimizes Nook app for new iPad (Retina display; more reading options); 4/2/2012

- Use iBooks Themes to Improve the Reading Experience on iPhone & iPad (Normal; Sepia; Night); 3/27/2012

- Quickly Transfer .mobi & ePub eBook Files to an iPad for Easier Viewing 3/25/2012

- Kindle iOS app gets multimedia playback support 3/22/2012

- Kindle 3.0 for iOS Released with New Library Design, Retina Text; 3/15/2012

- Seth Godin, Apple, Rejection, and Permission Marketing (links to books); 3/1/2012

- iBooks 2.1 Review New browsing experience impresses, though there are flaws; 1/24/2012

- Q&A: A New Look for iBooks (brightness; fonts; themes); 1/9/2012

- How to Read PDFs with iBooks 1/4/2012

- Getting started with your iPad 12/24/2011

- iBooks 1.5 Refines the Reading Experience 12/12/2011

- Font swap in iBooks 12/12/2011

- Stunning Beatles App Masquerades as iBook (Yellow Submarine); 12/12/2011

- Subtext: E-reading app makes reading social, and does it well 11/10/2011

- The Stanza Ereader is Back, Now with iOS 5 Compatibility 11/10/2011

- 5 E-book reader apps for iPhone and iPad iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Google Books, 3D Classic Literature Collection; 8/25/2011

- Kno for iPad gets 3D, video textbooks 8/22/2011

- Hands on with Kindle Cloud Reader for iPad 8/10/2011

- Which E-book app should I buy for my iPad? iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Stanza, Google; 6/29/2011

- Apple Updates iBooks to Add New Themes and Fonts 12/7/2011

- App Showdown: E-Readers (on iPad) iBooks, Kindle, Nook; 6/10/2011

- 10 free iBooks worth your reading time 6/8/2011

- The iPad 2, 5.1 Seconds and Smart Covers 3/11/2011

- How to download books on your iPad using iBooks 3/21/2011; [video; 3:41] 5/17/2011

- A Comparison of iPad and iPhone eBook-reader Apps 3/17/2011

- OverDrive, Bluefire, and the EPUBlic Library 2/18/2011

- Three tips for easier iBooks reading 9/21/2010

- The 10 Best Free E-book Apps for iPad 9/19/2010

- The iPad as a comic-book reader 5/20/2010

- Download Free E-books for your iPad/iPhone, Mac, PC [video; 8:28]; 5/9/2010

- Text to speech on the iPad Tutorial (with iBooks, etc.); 4/8/2010

- Reading Take Control Ebooks on an iPad (or iPhone or iPod touch); 4/7/2010

- Reading Books on the iPad iBooks, Kindle, and GoodReader; 4/5/2010

- iPad Marvel Comics & GQ Magazine [video; 2:28]; 4/5/2010

- iPad Book Reading Apps Demos: Part I: iBooks and Kindle [video; 9:29]; 4/4/2010;

Part II: GoodReader [video; 6:00]; 4/4/2010

- iPad Experience Series: Walk through three E-book readers: iBooks, Kindle, Kobo; [video; 16:03]; 4/4/2010

- Load Up Your New iPad with E-Books -- Without Going to the iBookstore 4/3/2010

- How the iPad Works: iPad as a Digital Reader

- some other reader apps: Cloud Readers (.pdf, .cbz, .cbr, .zip, .rar); Ebook Reader (ebooks.com);

PDF/Comic Reader Bookman Lite; Stanza; Wattpad eBook Reader

- Holiday-themed stories

News Apps

- Readtime Queues Up Stories to Read Based On How Much Time You Have 10/17/2012

- Instapaper creator Marco Arment launches The Magazine, a different kind of periodical for Apple’s Newsstand 10/11/2012

- Time Inc. to Sell Its Magazines on Apple’s Newsstand All You; Coastal Living; Cooking Light; Entertainment Weekly; Essence; Fortune; Golf; Health; InStyle; Life; Money; People en Español; People; People Stylewatch; Real Simple; Southern Living; Sports Illustrated Kids; Sports Illustrated; Sunset; This Old House; Time; 6/14/2012

- Yahoo Kills Livestand After Just Six Months 5/25/2012

- Just Show Me: How to use the Newsstand on your iPhone or iPad [video; 3:38]; 11/2/2011

- Yahoo finally ships Livestand iPad app 11/2/2011

- Report: Google working on Flipboard rival (Propeller); 9/16/2011

- CNN acquires iPad news app Zite 8/30/2011

- Editions by AOL: review 8/4/2011

- News.me review 8/4/2011

- Flipboard: A Great iPad App Gets Even Better 12/16/2010

- Reading newspapers on the iPad [video; 4:31]; 4/5/2010

Slideshows: Introduction

The following 3 slideshows illustrate selected apps on the iPad. Most screenshots are in portrait orientation, though most books/apps can be rotated to landscape. An iPad eReader app (e.g., Kindle) will appear and behave somewhat differently from its respectively named eReader device, e.g., access to an E-bookstore will occur via web browser and not directly "in app" (to avoid Apple's fees and policies). There are many apps included below for demonstration purposes; minimize the number of eReader apps you actually need and use in practice -- to minimize learning about different navigation controls, and remembering which app (and library) to access in order to find and read a book (there is no unified library across apps)!

- apps (eReaders: Apple): iBooks (books, .pdf), Newsstand

- apps (eReaders: 3rd parties): Goodreader (.pdf), Google, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Overdrive

- apps (enhanced 'books'): Alice, Crosswords, Epicurious, Leafsnap, Lonely Planet, Marvel, Seafood Watch, Shakespeare, Topomaps, Toy Story, SF Travel, Unesco, WebMD

E-books: iPad: iBooks and Newsstand apps

Photos and notes omitted. Online version: http://communicrossings.com/e-books-ipad-ibooks-and-newsstand-apps

E-books: iPad: eReader apps

Photos and notes omitted. Online version: http://communicrossings.com/e-books-ipad-ereader-apps

E-books: iPad: other book apps

Photos and notes omitted. Online version: http://communicrossings.com/e-books-ipad-other-book-apps

E-books: Kindle

Products

- amazon.com; eReader: Kindle (Paperwhite, Keyboard); tablet: Kindle Fire (HD)

- support: all Kindles; Kindle Fire (commercial) [video: 0:30]; Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

- Which Kindle is right for me?

- eReader apps for other devices: iPad [slideshow]; iPhone, Windows PC, Mac, Blackberry, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7; Cloud Reader (web browser)

- Wikipedia: Kindle, Kindle Fire

- See also: Bookstores: Amazon

Reviews and Articles

- Amazon updates Kindle Fire HD with kid-friendly FreeTime feature, says HD is ‘#1 selling product’ on its site 10/22/2012

- Amazon apparently discontinues Kindle Touch in favor of Paperwhite 10/22/2012

- Amazon Quietly Discontinues the Kindle DX 10/14/2012

- Amazon lays out Kindle Paperwhite limitations including uneven lighting and lack of audio 10/12/2012

- Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite sales make Amazon no profit 10/12/2012

- Syncing all books to Kindle apps and devices 10/10/2012

- Kindle Paperwhite Review 10/10/2012

- Old dog, new tricks: The $159 Kindle Fire review 10/4/2012

- Kindle Paperwhite review Amazon's fastest, most feature-packed e-reader; 9/30/2012

- Kindle Paperwhite Review Forget Everything Else, This Is the E-Reader You Want; 9/30/2012

- Amazon breaks down its Kindle Paperwhite light technology (video); 9/28/2012

- Amazon heads off app fragmentation on Kindle Fire, Android 9/24/2012

- Kindle Fire HD vs. Nexus 7: What’s the Best 7-inch Tablet Display? 9/20/2012

- Kindle Fire HD or Nexus 7? 9/17/2012

- Kindle Fire HD review: A big improvement from Amazon 9/15/2012

- More Soot Than Sparks From This Fire “the best tablet at any price"? no back camera, no GPS, no speech recognition, app availability; 9/11/2012

- Amazon backtracks, will offer $15 opt-out for ads on Kindle Fire tablets 9/8/2012

- Amazon’s Silk Browser Now Tracking User Behavior For New “Trending Now” Section…Wait, What? 9/7/2012

- Here’s the Rundown on Amazon’s New Suite of Kindle Fires and Kindle E-Readers 9/6/2012

- Amazon’s New Kindle Avalanche: Everything You Need to Know 9/6/2012

- Disruption Starts With A Foot In The Door: Amazon's New Data Plan Is Limited But Potentially Revolutionary 9/6/2012

- Amazon Announces First Kindle Fire Tablets Outside Of The U.S., Starting At £129 In UK, €159 In France 9/6/2012

- Amazon Updates Its Kindle Line of E-Readers 9/6/2012

- The Kindle Fire HD vs Kindle Fire: What's changed? 9/6/2012

- Amazon: 'We are pretty much done' with the Kindle DX 9/6/2012

- US State Department cancels no-bid Kindle contract 8/16/2012

- Apple-Amazon War Heats Up Tech Giants Scramble to Take Rival Ground in Phones, Tablets and Apps; 7/25/2012

- Amazon puts 50MB limit on 3G Kindle's 'free' experimental browser 7/24/2012

- Q&A: One Kindle Book, Two iPads 7/18/2012

- Improved Reading Experience? No Kindle iOS app; margins; fonts; 6/18/2012

- Kindle iOS, Android, and Cloud Reader apps now support children's books, comics, and graphic novels 6/14/2012

- Amazon updates Kindle app for Android with improved tablet support 6/13/2012

- State Department speaks out on Amazon Kindle deal 6/13/2012

- Why is the U.S. State Department paying Amazon $16.5 million for Kindles? 6/11/2012

- Amazon releases Kindle software update with better font, support for additional formats 6/4/2012

- What’s Behind the Drop in Kindle Fire Shipments? 5/9/2012

- Kindle Sales Plunge Made Amazon.com's Gross Margin Look Better 5/3/2012

- Kindle Fire Shipments Fizzle 5/3/2012

- Target, Unhappy With Being an Amazon Showroom, Will Stop Selling Kindles "showrooming"; 5/2/2012

- Target to stop carrying Amazon Kindle hardware due to 'conflict of interest'? 5/2/2012

- Amazon releases "Send to Kindle" desktop software for the Mac 4/25/2012

- How to Download EPUB, PDF, and Mobipocket to the Kindle Fire 4/22/2012

- Just Show Me: How to read Microsoft Office files on your Kindle Fire 4/18/2012

- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 review: The anti-Kindle Fire? expandable memory, dual cameras, and a full Android experience for only $250; 4/13/2012

- Kindle Touch 5.1.0 update adds international language support, landscape mode, and more 4/12/2012

- How do I update the software on my Kindle reader? 4/9/2012

- Kindle Fire update 6.3 now live, brings sharing, book extras, textbook replicas & more 3/29/2012

- Updated Kindle Android App Supports KF8 Files (which Means More Pretty Pictures; also "Send-to-Kindle" documents); 3/22/2012

- Kindle iOS app gets multimedia playback support 3/22/2012

- Kindle Fire Display Doesn’t Stand Up To Nook, iPad 2 In Tests 12/20/2011

- Amazon Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 12/19/2011

- As Kindle Fire Faces Critics, Remedies Are Promised (power/volume controls; privacy; parental controls; 1-click ordering; slow; screen size for regular web); 12/12/2011

- Kindle Fire Usability Findings (J. Nielsen); 12/5/2011

- Kindle Fire and iPad 2 Fire is a terrific Kindle, but a weak tablet; 11/29/2011

- The Kindle Fire, What Is It Good For? (media); 11/25/2011

- Amazon Denies Airport Security Ruins Kindle Screens 11/21/2011

- Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet: an in depth review 11/20/2011

- Amazon's Silk does little to accelerate Kindle Fire, HTML5 11/19/2011

- Does the Nook Tablet have what it takes to extinguish the Kindle Fire? 11/18/2011

- Kindle Fire Costs About $203 to Build, Teardown Finds 11/17/2011

- Taking Screenshots with Kindle Fire 11/17/2011

- Authors Guild Threatens Amazon For Daring To Allow Library Lending Of Ebooks 11/17/2011

- Amazon Beats Apple at Media Access 11/17/2011

- Fire in the hole! (Fleishman review); 11/17/2011

- A human review of the Kindle Fire 11/17/2011

- Kindle Fire, a Grown-Up E-Reader With Tablet Spark 11/16/2011

- Amazon Kindle Fire misfires 11/16/2011

- Amazon Settles With Discovery Over E-Reader Patent 11/16/2011

- Dear Amazon, usernames and passwords exist for a reason (Fire ships w/ account prelogged-in!); 11/15/2011

- Zinio now available on Amazon Appstore, brings 5,000 magazines to Kindle Fire 11/15/2011

- Review: Kindle Fire sacrifices to get under $200 11/15/2011

- Amazon Kindle Fire review (in depth: hardware, display, battery life, performance, software, browser, keyboard, music, video, book/newspaper reading, competition, accessories); 11/14/2011

- Fire Aside, Other Kindles Also Shine 11/14/2011

- Yes, You Can Install the Nook App on a Kindle Fire (tech-savvy users can still install select third-party Android applications outside the auspices of the Amazon Appstore); 11/14/2011

- Kindle Fire Has a Secret Ingredient: Amazon Prime 11/13/2011

- Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think (post-PC vs. post-web; Kindle as cloud-centric portal); 11/13/2011

- Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet? I bought the… 11/13/2011

- Wanted: A Kindle Fire Phone 11/12/2011

- Will Kindle Fire kill the $500 tablet? 11/12/2011

- Kindle Fire Newsstand to feature GQ, Wired and dozens of other magazine titles 11/11/2011

- Amazon, Now a Book Lender Kindle Owners Who Subscribe to Prime Service Will Be Able to Borrow E-Titles (1/month; 5,000 titles); 11/3/2011

- Apple Welcomes Kindle Fire Tablet and More Android Fragmentation 11/3/2011

- Amazon’s China Story Continues: Planning For Kindle, Kindle Fire Release? 10/28/2011

- Amazon's Kindle Fire Will Become To The Video Industry What The iPod Was To The Music Industry 10/25/2011

- Amazon adds e-readers to Trade-In program, ebook lovers pass the old Kindles to the Bezos side 10/21/2011

- Review: The 2011 $79 Kindle with ads and buttons 10/7/2011

- Kindle Fire demo [video; 4:39]; 9/28/2011

- Borrowing Kindle E-Books: A Hands-On Guide (public libraries); 9/22/2011

- Forbes: 1. Why Amazon Can't Make A Kindle In the USA; 2. Does It Really Matter That Amazon Can't Manufacture A Kindle In the USA?; 3. It's Not Just Manufacturing! 8/17/2011

- Amazon’s Cloud Reader Still Doesn’t Take the Web Seriously 8/10/2011

- Spam epidemic has reached ebooks, shocking no one (publishing free or pirated info); 6/17/2011

- In a first, a Nook beats the Kindle in our e-book reader Ratings 6/17/2011

- 12 classic books free for the Amazon Kindle 6/7/2011

- How to share Kindle or Nook books with friends (not all books eligible; time limits; book unavailable to you while loaned); 6/3/2011

- Nook Simple Touch compared to Kindle 3 6/3/2011

- How the Amazon Kindle Works

E-books: Kobo

Products

- kobo.com; eReader: Kobo Mini, Touch, Glo; tablet: Kobo Arc

- eReader apps for other devices: iPad [slideshow]; tablets: Android, Blackberry Playbook, iPad;

desktop: PC, Mac; smartphones

- Wikipedia: Kobo

- See also: Bookstores: Kobo

Reviews and Articles

- E-reading giant Kobo buys digital publishing tech firm Aquafadas to boost rich content offering 10/10/2012

- Hands-on with Kobo's Glo and Mini e-readers video; 9/19/2012

- Kobo Announces Updated Tablet, New E-Readers update to the Kobo Vox, called the Kobo Arc Android tablet; the Kobo Glo, which is the company’s answer to the Barnes & Noble Nook; and the Kobo Mini, a pocket-sized e-reader with a 5-inch screen; 9/6/2012

- Kobo Arc and Kobo Glo: Can a Tablet and eReader From an Underdog Upstage Amazon? 9/6/2012

- Kobo to Replace Google E-Books for Independent Booksellers 8/29/2012

- Manufacturer Of Buggy 'Kobo Touch' E-Reader Manages Customer Complaints By... Hiding All Online Reviews 7/26/2012

- Kobo eReader Touch Edition packs bags for Japan, books flight for July Rakuten buyout; 6/22/2012

- Google Play preloads on Kobo Vox; Books on Google Play launches in Germany 500,000 'Android Market' apps; 6/14/2012

- Kobo launches e-book self-publishing platform, “Writing Life” 6/5/2012

- Vox, Meet Big Box: Kobo eReader To Hit Best Buy Stores 2/15/2012

- Kobo Vox: A social, multipurpose e-reader and tablet 11/29/2011

- Kobo Touch Now Comes With Ads – $99 11/11/2011

- E-Reader Wars: $99 Kobo Challenges Barnes & Noble, Amazon social features, extras, ads (or not), and prices; 11/13/2011

- Kobo to become a publisher (complete publishing services for authors, including book editing and design; 10/27/2011)

- Kobo Vox 'Social eReader' to Battle Kindle Fire, Nook Color 10/19/2011

- Introducing Kobo Vox [video; 2:38]; 10/19/2011

- Kobo Pulse Aims To Offer New Twist On Social Reading 9/27/2011

- What Does Borders Shutdown Mean for the Kobo E-Reader? 7/20/2011

- Kobo eReader Touch Edition review 6/13/2011

- Moving Forward in E-Readers (Nook, Kobo) 6/9/2011

- Kobo Rides the Shockwave of Interest in E-books 5/8/2011

E-books: Nook

Products

- barnesandnoble.com; eReader: NOOK Simple Touch (Glowlight); tablet: NOOK HD (Plus)

- Nook Simple Touch: features & videos; support

- Nook Color: features & videos; support

- Nook Tablet: features & videos

- Compare NOOKs

- eReader apps for other devices: iPad [slideshow]; iPad, iPad(Kids), Android, PC, Mac

- Wikipedia: Nook, Nook Color, Nook Tablet

- See also: Bookstores: Barnes&Noble

Reviews and Articles

- Barnes & Noble Nook HD, HD+ vs. Nook Tablet: what's changed? 9/26/2012

- Barnes & Noble Tablets Aim for Niche Below iPad Nook HD; Nook HD Plus; 9/26/2012

- Going Beyond E-Books, Barnes & Noble Nook Launches Digital Video Store 9/25/2012

- Barnes & Noble to launch NOOK e-readers and digital bookstore in the UK this autumn 8/20/2012

- Why It’s Taking So Long to Bring the Nook to the UK market size; licensing; 8/20/2012

- Barnes & Noble cuts prices across its Nook lineup, vies for your budget tablet affection Color: $149; Tablet: $179; 8/12/2012

- Barnes & Noble Launches Web-Based E-Reader Nook for Web (desktop browsers only); 7/17/2012

- Finding a Missing Nook Book 7/2/2012

- Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight teardown reveals e-reader's light distribution secrets 5/31/2012

- The real story behind the big Microsoft and B&N deal 5/1/2012

- Barnes & Noble CEO: NFC (Near Field Communication) coming to the Nook Fortune; 5/1/2012

- Microsoft to Take 17.6% Stake in Nook Unit of Barnes & Noble $300M investment; patent settlement; Nook app for Windows8; college business; 4/30/2012

- Barnes & Noble’s Nook Unit Is Worth More Than Its Parent Company 4/30/2012

- Excitement Over B&N/Microsoft Teamup Is A Bit Premature 4/30/2012

- Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight LEDs and anti-glare; 4/27/2012

- New Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight coming early May for $139 (hands-on video); 4/12/2012

- New Barnes & Noble E-Reader Is Designed for Nighttime Reading 4/12/2012

- Barnes &amp Noble optimizes Nook app for new iPad (Retina display; more reading options); 4/2/2012

- Barnes & Noble offers to repartition Nook Tablet storage (concedes you may need more than 1GB); 2/22/2012

- Barnes & Noble unveils 8GB Nook Tablet for $199, slashes Color to $169 2/21/2012

- Barnes & Noble Declares Wimpy War on Amazon Publishing (blocking books published by Amazon); 1/31/2012

- The Bookstore’s Last Stand (27% of e-book market; future of publishing); 1/29/2012

- Nook From Barnes & Noble Gains More E-Book Readers 1/6/2012

- B&N CEO: ‘The Nook Will Continue To Be Barnes & Noble’s E-Reader’ 1/6/2012

- Barnes & Noble Considers Spinning Off Its Nook Unit 1/5/2012

- Barnes & Noble Ditch (Sterling) Publishing to Focus on eBooks and Tablets 1/5/2012

- Nook Tablet update closes sideloading loophole, lacks holiday spirit (only B&N apps); 12/20/2011

- Kindle Fire Display Doesn’t Stand Up To Nook, iPad 2 In Tests 12/20/2011

- Nook Color 1.4.1 update adds Netflix, comics, landscape reading, and more 12/12/2011

- Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet a worthy alternative to the Kindle Fire 12/7/2011

- Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet review 11/21/2011

- Barnes & Noble takes on Microsoft's Android patents 11/21/2011

- Does the Nook Tablet have what it takes to extinguish the Kindle Fire? 11/18/2011

- Nook Tablet forgets to use protection, lets outside apps in 11/17/2011

- Review: The Nook Tablet Is A Real Android Slate In Ereader’s Clothing 11/17/2011

- Nook Tablet's Superior Storage Has 1GB Gotcha (only 1 GB for non-B&N content); 11/16/2011

- Barnes & Noble Blows The Lid Off Microsoft's Android Patent Squeeze (Nook maker says Microsoft's "trivial" and "invalid" patents stifle open source innovation); 11/15/2011

- Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet unboxing and hands-on [video; 6:30]; 11/15/2011

- Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet? I bought the… 11/13/2011

- Barnes & Noble Claims That Microsoft Patent Shakedown Over Android Is An Antitrust Violation 11/9/2011

- Barnes & Noble launches in-store Nook stations 11/7/2011

- Nook Tablet: It’s Like the Nook Color on Speed (faster, thinner, lighter); 11/7/2011

- First Look: Nook Tablet is the value tablet to beat 11/7/2011

- B&N Sold “Millions” Of Nooks, Nook Color Is “A Top Selling” Low-Priced Tablet 11/7/2011

- Updated Nook Color shows a smart $249 tablet strategy 8/23/2011

- Nook vs. Nook Color: Which is the best fit for you? 7/6/2011

- 8 free Nook books worth your reading time 7/5/2011

- In a first, a Nook beats the Kindle in our e-book reader Ratings 6/17/2011

- Moving Forward in E-Readers (Nook, Kobo) 6/9/2011

- Nook Simple Touch compared to Kindle 3 6/3/2011

- How to share Kindle or Nook books with friends (not all books eligible; time limits; book unavailable to you while loaned); 6/3/2011

- Is the Nook Color a real Android tablet? 5/19/2011

- The Nook Enters Tablet Territory 5/3/2011

- Barnes & Noble adds apps to Nook e-reader 4/25/2011

E-books: OverDrive

Products

- OverDrive.com: no OverDrive-branded device

- formats: eBooks (ePub, PDF, Kindle); Audiobooks, Music (MP3, WMA); Video (WMV)

- eReader apps: iPad [slideshow]; OverDrive Media Console, Adobe Digital Editions, Kindle, iTunes, Zune, Windows Media Player; device compatibility list

- Wikipedia: OverDrive

Library2Go

- Jackson County Library: Download Books, Audiobooks & Videos (via Overdrive & Library2Go); [from Mail Tribune] "Learn how to use libraries' multimedia reader services. Jackson County Library Services will host introductory presentations on Library2Go, Jackson County Library's downloadable e-book, audiobook and video service.... Attendees will learn how their e-reader or audio device works with library software, and how to use it to access thousands of books anytime. There will be an introductory session to give an overview of Library2Go, as well as time for questions and one-on-one assistance. For information, call 541-774-8679."

- Library2Go: Oregon Digital Library Consortium

Reviews and Articles

- Penguin Suspends E-Book Availability to Libraries 11/22/2011

- Citing "Security Concerns" Penguin Pulls New Titles from OverDrive 11/21/2011

- Libraries Got Screwed by Amazon and Overdrive [video: 9:50]; (privacy); 10/18/2011

- OverDrive Adds Kindle-Format Titles to Library Ebook Lending 9/23/2011

- Kindle Connects to Library E-Books 9/22/2011

- In Run-Up To Kindle Lending Program, Libraries Beef Up E-Book Offerings 6/15/2011

- Public libraries' policies are evolving with e-books 6/8/2011

- OverDrive, Bluefire, and the EPUBlic Library (using BlueFire iOS app instead of OverDrive app); 2/18/2011

- OverDrive eBook app for iPhone [video; 7:41]; 12/17/2010

E-books: Other Devices

Audiobooks

- availability of recorded audio in an eBook will depend on individual book; availability of text-to-speech will depend on device (iPad, Kindle ...?), restrictions by author or publisher

- Jackson County Library: Download Audiobooks, Books & Videos

- audiobooks.com

- Listen to unlimited audiobooks on your smartphone Audiobooks.com app for Android and iOS lets you stream or download all the books you want for a flat monthly rate; 8/29/2012

- Audiobooks.com is Netflix for audiobooks ($25/month; streaming); 1/24/2012

- librivox.org

- www.audible.com

- Score Free Audiobooks from Audible with a Simple Google Search 8/29/2012

- Amazon-owned Audible: Hey authors, want $20 million? $1/sale to authors; $0 to publishers; 4/13/2012

- literalsystems.org

- audiobooksforfree.com

- Folium Partners (Ashland)

Desktop, Laptop: General

- check eReaders with device/store (e.g., Google, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, OverDrive) for availability of a free eReader application for your platform

- Pocket launches new Mac app for cross-platform sharing and offline reading offline reading alternative to e-book format? 10/25/2012

- $13 E-Reader Could Be Your Next Smartphone Accessory txtr beagle; two AAA batteries; Bluetooth; 10/10/2012

- Ultrabooks: A Bevy of Beauties, and So PC 3/29/2012

- How to Make Reading on Your Computer a Better Experience (calibrate monitor; better lighting/stand; enhance reader app w/ extensions, services); 3/5/2012

- .epub Readers and Editors (Readers: Bookworm, Blio, Calibre, FB Reader, Magic Scroll, Mobipocket, Nook, Sony Reader Library, uread; Adobe Digital Editions, EPUBReader, Lucidor, Openberg; Aldiko, Bluefire, iBooks, Stanza; Editors: Adobe InDesign, Azardi, Calibre, ePubIt, eCub, Atlantis Word Processor, Sigil, Padilicious); 12/5/2011

- Feature wars and computing shifts: Netbook vs. Tablet 11/16/2011

- Q&A: E-books Without an E-Reader 6/21/2011

- Alternate Apps: Nook vs. Kindle for your computer 6/21/2011

- How to read ebooks without an e-reader 5/19/2011

- Mac E-book Software

Desktop, Laptop: Applications (alphabetically)

- not a complete list...

- Adobe Digital Editions

- Bookle [Mac] (app; $9.99); Take Control of Bookle (free manual: .pdf, .epub)

- Introducing Bookle, an EPUB Reader for Mac OS X 2/6/2012

- Bookle brings ePub reading to the Mac 2/6/2012

- Bookle: A New Way to Read Ebooks On Your Mac 2/13/2012

- Calibre library & reader, as well as publisher; [slideshow]

- ePub Reader: FireFox addon; [slideshow]

- Google apps: iPad app; eReaders, tablets, smartphones, web browser

- iBooks: iBooks on Mac or Windows (in iTunes)? not yet... ctrl-click .epub file to Open with... (your favorite eReader app), or access via iTunes; however, this does not work with purchased (DRM) ePubs

- Why Apple will produce iBooks/Newsstand for Mac 8/5/2011

- Kindle apps for other devices: iPad; iPhone, Windows PC, Mac, Blackberry, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7; Cloud Reader (web browser)

- Amazon updates its Kindle Mac app, adds support for gestures, new Kindle 8 format and more 9/10/2012

- Kobo apps: iPad; tablets: Android, Blackberry Playbook, iPad; desktop: PC, Mac; smartphones

- Nook apps for other devices: iPad; iPad, iPad(Kids), Android, PC, Mac

- Opera proposal brings a book look to the Web 10/11/2011

- Sigil; [slideshow]

- Stanza Desktop: Mac OS; Windows

eReaders, Tablets, Other

- not a complete list, mostly alphabetical

- Four Alternatives to the New iPad Amazon Kindle Fire; Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime; Samsung Galaxy Note; Blackberry PlayBook; 3/19/2012

- Beginner's guide to Android phones and tablets 1/23/2012

- Just Show Me: Getting started with the Kindle App for your Android phone or tablet 1/4/2012

- 2012 Best eBook Reader Comparisons and Reviews 2012

- 10 Mobile (phone) Apps for Bookworms: Kindle, Comics, Goodreads, IndieBound, Book Crawler, Classics, Stanza, iBooks, Wattpad, Goggles

- Apple: Apple planning to bring iBooks to Apple TV? 9/5/2012

- Blackberry: Research in Motion (RIM): Blackberry Playbook; Wikipedia

- BlackBerry PlayBook To Come Pre-Loaded With PressReader Instant Access To 2,000+ Newspapers; 11/11/2011

- Bokeen Cybook: Bookeen Cybook Odyssey e-book reader 2/28/2012

- Cybook Odyssey E-Reader Shows Arrives With Touchscreen, Web Navigation 10/7/2011

- Bookeen Cybook Orizon: Touchscreen ebook reader needs better Web access 8/18/2011

- HP: Wikipedia: HP TouchPad (WebOS)

- HP to Reenter Tablet Market with Windows 8 5/11/2012

- HP Slate 2 revives Windows 7 tablet ($699) after lost shot at iPad 11/2/2011

- Kyobo: Kyobo eReader with Mirasol display gets video walkthrough, does things E Ink can't 12/19/2011

- Kyobo Mirasol color e-reader debuts in Korea 11/22/2011

- Microsoft: Microsoft Surface RT Review: This Is Technological Heartbreak 10/23/2012

- Sleek Tablet, but Clumsy Software 10/23/2012

- The Differences Between Windows 8 and Windows RT Explained 10/22/2012

- What Windows RT Can’t Do 10/19/2012

- Seven things to consider for a Windows tablet 10/18/2012

- How Microsoft Surface stacks up against competing tablets 10/17/2012

- How Will the Microsoft Surface Tablet Function as an e-Reader? 6/20/2012

- Microsoft's long and tortured history in tablets 6/19/2012

- No Tablet News Yet From Nokia, But It Is Launching Its E-Reader Reading App Nokia Reading, in Europe; 5/11/2012

- A Windows 8 e-reader: If someone builds it, will they come? 3/19/2012

- Nokia hints at Windows 8 tablets (older tablet: Nokia N800); 11/2/2011

- How Windows 8 KO'd the innovative Courier tablet 11/2/2011

- Wikipedia: Courier; The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet 11/1/2011

- Microsoft Reader E-Book System Comes To Its Conclusion 8/15/2011

- OLPC: Wikipedia: OLPC (One Laptop Per Child); one.laptop.org

- OLPC XO 3.0 Hands On: The $100 Wonder Tablet 1/8/2012

- Negroponte On OLPC Future 100 books; ~$100; 11/2/2011

- Samsung: Wikipedia: Samsung Galaxy Tab

- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 review: The anti-Kindle Fire? expandable memory, dual cameras, and a full Android experience for only $250; 4/13/2012

- Sony: sony.com: Reader Wi-Fi [eReader], Tablet S [tablet]

- Wikipedia: Sony Reader

- Sony’s New eReader Is Light, Pleasant, and Massively Late to the Game PRS-T2; 8/16/2012

- Sony launches web store for e-Books, Android app also gets refresh 6/6/2012

- How the Tech Parade Passed Sony By 4/14/2012

- Sony Reader WiFi PRS-T1 review; review [video; 4:02]; 10/7/2011

- First look at the new Sony Reader PRS-T1 8/27/2011

- Sony Reader Touch and Amazon Kindle 3 go head-to-head 9/20/2010

E-books: Future

General

- The Library Of The Future Heretics of Dune, 1984; Dr. Who: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead; Rainbows End: The Librareome Project, 2006; Star Trek: All Our Yesterdays, 1969; The Robot Who Wanted To Know, 1962; 8/21/2012

- Harvard Stores 70 Billion Books Using DNA 8/20/2012

- DNA: The Ultimate Hard Drive researchers stored an entire genetics textbook in less than a picogram of DNA; 8/16/2012

- Lightspeed Presents: “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” by Ken Liu Every intelligent species in the universe has its unique way of passing on its wisdom through the ages, its way of making thoughts visible, tangible, frozen for a moment like a bulwark against the irresistible tide of time. Everyone makes books; 8/7/2012

- This Resilient Flexible Battery Could Power eReaders of the Future 8/6/2012

- The Book of the Future see image at right; 3/30/2012

- Cambridge Sets Lasers to Vaporize, Removes Toner From Paper 3/15/2012

- Future Libraries and 17 Forms of Information Replacing Books 3/7/2012

- Multi-Touch Page Flipping eBook Concept Shown on an iPad 1/23/2012

- Shakr Automatically Creates Video Snippets For News Stories As They Break 10/31/2011

- Save a tree or two, use Taiwan erasable paper 8/8/2011

- Apple Reveals the Next Chapter for iBooks (new gestures); 7/11/2011

- DARPA-Born TrapIt Wants to be Your Personalized Newsreader of the Future 6/20/2011

- Future of the Book (O'Reilly); 2/22/2011

- The Institute for the Future of the Book

Display

- New Sharp display technology said to triple mobile battery life IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide); higher touch sensitivity; 10/23/2012

- Stuffing a Projector in a Tablet Might Actually Be Awesome 10/8/2012

- How E-Reader Tech Mimics Octopuses [infographic] 9/26/2012

- This Flexible E-Ink Display Will Be in Real Devices This Summer 3/29/2012

- Electronic contact lens displays pixels on the eyes 11/22/2011

- E-Reader Display Shows Vibrant Color Video Mirasol's reflective display is being tested by device manufacturers, and could appear on shelves next year; 11/15/2011

- E-ink has its nose in books, but it’s also protecting your credit card info and soldiers 11/2/2011

- AUO's flexible e-paper to take on Stretch Armstrong in battle of the bendiest (photovoltaic); 10/28/2011

- Samsung to Sell Phones With Flexible Screens Next Year 10/27/2011

- Epson, E Ink teaming up on 300-dpi electronic paper device 5/17/2011

E-books: Publishing Business

- E-book sales equal (or greater) than print sales -- at least in some categories

- Industry Disruption & Disintermediation

- "Showrooming"

- Wal-Mart Is Deleting the Kindle From Stores online shopping platform beyond e-books; 9/20/2012

- Media Chiefs Form Venture to E-Publish Brightline: Diller, Rudin; w/ Atavist; 9/18/2012

- Amazon’s Political Heat Map Colors Book-Buying Preferences 8/21/2012

- Kindle Book Sales Surpass Print On Amazon UK 8/6/2012

- Your E-Book Is Reading You: Digital-book publishers and retailers now know more about their readers than ever before. time; speed; skipping; search terms; highlighting; different narrative paths; data-driven approach; other purchases; 6/29/2012

- Notes From The Ebook Trenches Sainsbury; HarperCollins 360; free ebooks; 6/16/2012

- EBook Revenues Beat Hardcovers For The First Time Association of American Publishers; 6/15/2012

- New Ebook Player? UK Supermarket Giant Sainsbury’s Buys HMV’s 64% Stake In Anobii For £1 6/12/2012

- Amazon acquires 62-year-old publisher Avalon Books 6/4/2012

- Yes, people still read: e-book sales by UK publishers grew 54 percent in 2011 5/2/2012

- E-books are the fastest-growing area of book sales, especially for youngsters 3/29/2012

- Amazon Has Sold Over Two Million Kindle Singles 3/12/12

- Tablet and E-Reader Sales Soar 1/22/2012

- Uncovering Amazon Publishing 11/4/2011

- E-books vs. Print Books (eReader, E-book sales trends); 11/3/2011

- The Truth About Amazon Publishing (guessing at sales figures); 11/2/2011

- Nielsen starts including e-books in bestseller book charts 10/28/2011

- Amazon Tops 1 Million Kindle Books In Just Four Years (more now if copyright-free texts included; only 90,000 4 yrs ago); 9/28/2011

- Barnes & Noble's Nook revenue up 140 percent 8/30/2011

- New Stats: Book Publishing Is Growing; E-Book Revs and Sales Up Over 1000% 8/9/2011

- E-Books Top Hardcovers at Amazon 7/20/2010

- Barnes & Noble offers 30 free e-books to switch to Nook -- that's one expensive carrot 7/1/2011

- Barnes & Noble: E-books outselling physical books three to one 6/21/2011

- Is your city well-read? Amazon knows the answer (20 top book-buying cities); 5/27/2011

- E-Books Outsell Print Books at Amazon 5/20/2011

- E-book sales triple, top paper as most popular format in US 4/15/2011

E-books: Pricing: General

- possible price points: free, $0.99, $2.99, $9.99, ... ?

- why are E-books still relatively expensive? publisher overhead (offices, executives, ...)?

- monopsony: Amazon discounting

- subscription models, e.g., Amazon Prime

- Traditional Publisher Ebook Pricing Harming Authors' Careers When we look at the $2.99 price point compared to $9.99, $2.99 earns the author slightly more, yet gains the author about four times as many readers. $2.99 ebooks earned the authors six times as many readers than books priced over $10.; 8/9/2012

- Ebook site Unglue.it hits bump after Amazon ends crowdfunding payment support Creative Commons Books; 8/9/2012

- Author Using Kickstarter To Offer His Book To The Public Domain, And Help Other Creators To Do The Same 6/6/2012

- Nobody Cares About The Fixed Costs Of Your Book, Movie, Whatever 5/4/2012

- Paulo Coehlo Convinces His Publisher To Offer (Almost) All Of His Ebooks For $0.99 5/2/2012

- Friday Night Lights author caught by Amazon e-book rules Bissinger hurt by Apple, Amazon 'no-lower-price' war; 4/30/2012

- If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business 4/17/2012

- Amazon’s E-Book Pricing a Constant Thorn for Publishers predatory pricing, esp. for small publishers; 4/15/2012

- So how much is a fair price to pay for an e-book? (many believe <$10); 2/24/2012

- (Brazilian) Vending Machine Sells (paper) Books For Whatever Price You Want 2/21/2012

- Buy a paper book from ChiZine Publications, get a free ebook! 1/11/2012

- Ebooks must stay fat with VAT, blame the EU, MPs told 12/13/2011

- European E-Book Sales Hampered by Tax Structure (VAT much lower on printed books) 12/2/2011

- Ray Bradbury Discovers The Internet Is Real After All; Publishers Force Him To Offer Ridiculously Overpriced Ebooks (Fahrenheit 451 was about importance of physical books); 11/29/2011

- Publishing Still Doesn’t Get It (quality; subscriptions); 11/19/2011

- The newsonomics of Amazon’s Prime moves (quasi-subscriptions); 11/17/2011

- E-Publishing The Chinese Way: Very Fast And Very Cheap (serials); 11/8/2011

- What happens to ownership as the world goes digital? 11/4/2011

- Amazon Lights the Fire With Free Books (Kindle Lending Library); 11/3/2011

- What happens to books when the Kindle is free? 10/5/2011

- Are $0.99 Kindle E-books a good idea? 6/23/2011

- 99 Cent Books (all, in 5 years?) 3/7/2011

- A Word Of Caution About Those E-Book Versus Hardback Book Statistics (pricing); 7/20/2010

- No Ink, No Paper: What's The Value Of An E-Book? 3/12/2010

- Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others (Orwellian: Amazon removing purchased E-books); 7/17/2009

- Text to Speech and E-books 2/2009

E-books: Price Fixing, Monopoly

- major DOJ (Dept. of Justice) and EU lawsuits focused on collusion (Apple & publishers) rather than monopoly (Amazon)

- agency pricing: vendor takes a 30% cut of each sale -- used by Apple, with Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin

- wholesale model: discounted prices -- used by Amazon

- which is better for consumers? in the short-term: lower costs? in the long-term: fewer publishers?

- which is better for authors? for publishers?

- You’re About to Get Some Money Back on Your Kindle Books 10/13/2012

- E-book Readers - Attorney General Settlement iTunes credit; 10/13/2012

- Apple and publishers subpoena Amazon in ebook pricing case 9/20/2012

- Big Win For Amazon, B&N In Europe: Apple, Four Big Publishers Terminate Their Agency Deal 9/19/2012

- Agreement Could End Europe’s E-Book Price-Fixing Inquiry 9/19/2012

- That was fast: Amazon is already discounting settling publishers’ ebooks 9/10/2012

- Judge Approves E-Book Pricing Settlement Between Government and Publishers Hachette, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins; 9/6/2012

- What the ebook settlement means for publishers, Apple and you States; 8/31/2012

- Apple, publishers offer antitrust EU concessions 8/31/2012

- States reach $69 million ebook pricing settlement with publishers HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster: 4/2010-5/2012; 8/29/2012

- Authors group, licensing expert slam DOJ's e-book settlement Parties cite Amazon investigation, bad DOJ market analysis; file amicus curiae briefs; 8/29/2012

- DOJ compares Apple and publishers to big oil in ebooks case 'unmistakable' harm; 8/23/2012

- Apple bashes Amazon and proposed ebook settlement Apple says the DOJ’s proposed settlement with three publishers is unlawful because it requires Apple — which is not settling — to terminate its contracts with those publishers. A trial is needed, Apple says, as well as more scrutiny of Amazon’s role in the lawsuit; 8/15/2012

- Justice Department slams Apple, refuses to modify e-book settlement 7/23/2012

- Amazon's the villain, not Apple, book sellers say 7/23/2012

- Memo (from Sen. Charles Schumer) to DOJ: Drop the Apple E-Books Suit Restoring Amazon's monopoly in digital publishing is not in the public interest; 7/17/2012

- U.S. judge sets 2013 trial date for Apple e-book lawsuit 6/22/2012

- Barnes & Noble Argues Book Settlement ‘Punishes Consumers’ 6/7/2012

- Apple: publishers "expressed varying degrees of unhappiness" with Amazon Says its agreements with e-book publishers are similar, but not identical; 5/30/2012

- Apple says DoJ "sides with monopoly, rather than competition" Apple takes credit for breaking Amazon's "nearly absolute" control over e-books; 5/24/2012

- Why Apple needs to settle its e-book suits 5/23/2012

- Simon & Schuster settles with states in price fixing suit federal complaint dropped, civil suit pending; 5/17/2012

- As 17 more states join class action against book publishers and Apple, new details revealed 5/14/2012

- How Apple's Agency Model for Publishers Fails to Merit Collusion Charges 4/23/2012

- Apple wants trial on e-book price-fixing 4/18/2012

- Apple vs. Amazon: Who's the real price-fixer? 4/17/2012

- Book Publishing’s Real Nemesis Amazon's low prices disguise a high cost; 4/16/2012

- What's the future of e-book pricing? after DOJ (Dept. of Justice) suit; 4/13/2012

- Antitrust and ebooks: regulators miss the big DRM lock-in picture (platform restrictions; in-app purchases); 4/12/2012

- Barnes & Noble Hit Hard stock down on fear of aggressive discounting of best-selling e-books by Amazon; 4/13/2012

- Apple Not Likely to Be a Loser in the E-Book Legal Fight small financial impact; 4/12/2012

- Apple rebuffs DOJ e-book suit, says Amazon was monopoly however, DOJ conspiracy case does not have to show adverse effects on consumers; 4/12/2012

- DOJ is likely to lose e-book antitrust suit targeting Apple Antitrust experts say feds have "far better case" for price fixing against publishers, three of which have settled, than they do against Apple.; 4/12/2012

- Cut in E-Book Pricing by Amazon Is Set to Shake Rivals ($14.99 => $9.99? increase monopoly); 4/11/2012

- Inside the DOJ's ebook price-fixing case against Apple: an analysis 4/11/2012

- U.S. Alleges E-Book Scheme Lawsuit Says Apple, Publishers Colluded to Raise Prices; Three Will Settle (HarperCollins; Hachette; Simon & Schuster; leaving Macmillan, Penguin and Apple); The case centers around a deal to switch to agency pricing, where the vendor takes a 30 percent cut of each sale rather than the wholesale model (used by Amazon) which allows stores to sell books at rock-bottom prices; 4/11/2012

- The e-book wars: Who is less evil, Amazon or book publishers? 4/11/2012

- Consumer group: E-book price fixing costs big bucks ($200 million in 2012); 4/9/2012

- An Amazon.com power grab? (it wants deeper discounts from small presses); 4/8/2012

- Apple Antitrust Suit Would Aid Amazon Book Monopoly (Turow, Pres. of Authors' Guild); 3/21/2012

- EU open to settlement with e-book publishers 3/12/2012

- Ebooks: Defending the Agency Model (comparison to Wholesale Model); 3/11/2012

- Author's Guild Boss On E-Book Price Fixing Allegations 3/10/2012

- Apple Downplays Role Of ‘Kindle Threat’ In Alleged e-Book Conspiracy 3/8/2012

E-books: Censorship, Inequality

- E-books easier to censor / retract; permanence?

- digital divide: how will those without eReaders (and skills) access information, especially with fewer, relatively more expensive paper titles?

- See also: Libraries: Censorship

- US Steadfast In Its Stand For Publishers Against The Disabled 10/22/2012

- Why Everyone Should Care About DRM's Punishment Of The Visually Impaired 9/28/2012

- PayPal reverses its ban on 'obscene' e-books (PayPal will limit its policy to e-books containing potentially illegal pornographic images and text-only books with child-porn themes); 3/13/2012

- PayPal sparks furor over limits on "obscene" e-books (EFF); (containing bestiality, rape, incest, and underage erotica); 3/7/2012

- Do E-Books Threaten Democracy? (Franzen; impermanence; Orwellian control); 2/6/2012

- Jonathan Franzen: E-readers are 'damaging to society' 1/30/2012

- Amazon Removes Books From Kindle 8/3/2009

- Banned Books Week: Mapping Censorship

E-books: Copyright, DRM (Digital Rights Management), Piracy

- copyright has been strengthened via lobbying to avoid disruption of current monopolies

- eBook publishers following in the footsteps of music and movie industries?

- "fair use" rights often reduced due to FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) -- and poor laws

- "ownership" of media? read the fine print

- DRM, arbitrary delays and use restrictions have unintended consequences such as piracy and denial of access to disabled

- readers may reward publishers who eliminate DRM and barriers

- Turns Out When Random House Said Libraries 'Own' Their Ebooks, It Meant, 'No, They Don't Own Them' 10/24/2012

- A healthy reminder from Amazon: You don’t buy ebooks, you rent them 10/22/2012

- Amazon Wipes Customer's Account, Locks All Ebooks, Says 'Find A New Retailer' When She Asks Why 10/22/2012

- Remote Wipe of Customer’s Kindle Highlights Perils of DRM licensing, ToS; 10/22/2012

- Court rules book scanning is fair use, suggesting Google Books victory Judge rules for Google's library partners in lawsuit brought by Authors Guild; another lawsuit pending; 10/10/2012

- Google Deal Gives Publishers a Choice: Digitize or Not 10/4/2012

- Google Gives Up Fair-Use Defense, Settles Book-Scanning Lawsuit With Publishers 10/4/2012

- Do Bad Things Happen When Works Enter The Public Domain? The Data Says... No 9/28/2012

- Publishers Can't Seem To Celebrate The Ebook Boom Without Slipping In Odes To Copyright 9/24/2012

- Book Publishers Latest War On Technology: How Dare You Share Your Kindle Highlights! Findings.com; 9/20/2012

- Appeals court halts proceedings in Google Books case 9/17/2012

- Authors Guild Continues To Battle The Present; Attacks Another Legal Service As 'Infringing' 1DollarScan; 8/27/2012

- Hachette Tells Authors And Tor To Use DRM Because It Is Awesome Or Something 8/16/2012

- Piracy witch hunt downs legit e-book lending Web site Several authors on Twitter mistook Lendink for a piracy hub, a mistake that eventually took the site offline. As the dust settles, a disturbing picture of file-sharing hysteria emerges; 8/9/2012

- Court to Hear Google’s Challenge to Class-Action Lawsuit on Book Scanning 8/14/2012

- Authors Guild Asks For $750 For Every Book Google Scans; While Google Points Out That There's No Evidence Of Any Harm 8/7/2012

- Google urges end to authors' digital book lawsuit 7/27/2012

- Author Strips Naked To Protest Book Piracy Probably Works As Well As Anything Else; 7/23/2012

- Tor/Forge E-Books Are Now DRM-Free 7/20/2012

- A Redshirt in the DRM Wars Tor and first DRM-free ebook: Redshirts; 6/5/2012

- What To Do When Attacked by Pirates The music industry fought the future and created a black market; book publishers tried another tack; 6/1/2012

- Book publisher's subpoena for user data refused by Verizon Dummies series; 5/13/2012

- Tor to Drop DRM From E-Books one of the largest sci-fi and fantasy publishers; 4/25/2012

- Another Reason Why DRM Is Bad -- For Publishers barrier to entry in the online bookstore market; lock readers into a platform, e.g., Amazon; 4/16/2012

- Homemade Hardcovers: Yet Again, Anti-Circumvention Interferes With Fair Use (rearranging pages of legally purchased PDF e-books); 4/12/2012

- Why Do Publishers Treat Customers As Crooks With Scolding Copyright Notices? 4/6/2012

- The Biggest 'Pirates' And 'Freeloaders' Of Them All? College Professors And Librarians (1st copyright law: "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning"); 4/4/2012

- Why The 'Missing 20th Century' Of Books Is Even Worse Than It Seems (longer, ambiguous copyright); 4/3/2012

- Chinese Writers’ Apple Book Piracy Claims Grow Louder 24 books published w/o permission; 3/19/2012

- Book Publishers Force Down Piracy Sites 2/15/2012

- How Publishers Repeated The Same Mistake As Record Labels: DRM Obsession Gave Amazon Dominant Position; 2/10/2012

- Google tries to kick Authors Guild out of court in book case 12/2011

- Stross: (Big6) publishers' insistence on DRM "hands Amazon a stick with which to beat them" 11/28/2011

- Hollywood's latest effort to turn back time (SOPA: Stop Online Piracy Act; E-PARASITE); 11/1/2011

- The case for piracy 10/20/2011

- E-books are "attacking our freedom" (DRM); The Dangers of E-books 6/8/2011

- Publishers Realizing It's Silly To 'Fight Piracy' 6/7/2011

- Steal This E-Book (O'Reilly) 4/11/2011

- Will E-Book Prices & Restrictions Lead to E-Book Piracy? 3/7/2011

- Zombie Authors Threaten Fiction Ebook Market, from the Grave! dead authors; copyright expiring; free e-books; 2/3/2010

- Will E-Book Anti-Piracy Technology Hurt Readers? 3/25/2009

E-books: Authors

Introduction

- "E-books are here and here to stay. Later than a lot of people, I for the first time downloaded e-books and it’s miraculous for travel and for children in particular. I feel great about taking Harry into this new medium." ~J. K. Rowling, 2011

- writing: different genres/content/length, e.g., republished blogs; essays, "spam" (duplicate); expectations (media), reader interaction

- (self-) publishing: faster process; role of publishers, agents, editors

- selling: lower cost; royalties; excerpts vs. browsing; copyright; piracy

Questions

- see earlier Features caveats

- amount of your effort; easier than a few years ago

- DIY or use an aggregator

- amount of your $ to invest

- which source editor, e.g., Word, Scrivener, Pages, etc.: ease of editing, conversion, final layout control

- cost for software, conversion, other services (editing,...)

- price of your eBook, discounts, Amazon Select, give-aways?

- intellectual property rights

- royalties

- quality, control of layout, design

- file formats and eReaders

- POD (print on demand) instead of paper inventory?

- which eBookstore(s)

- buy an ISBN?

- marketing, publicity: DIY, word-of-mouth, blogs, book clubs, ...

- book as "product": monitor sales, revise title/cover?

- ...

E-books: Writing

- new formats possible: Kindle Singles (between long article & book); old formats reborn: serialization

- re-publishing of existing information: blogs, newspaper archives

- books generated from YouTube comments, popular search queries, from statistics for sports articles, ...

- book as social network: author and reader commentary

- book "spam" / knockoffs (duplicate titles)

- reduced quality? (grammar, typos) due to speed, less human involvement

- Talking TidBITS and Take Control Books with Tonya Engst Tonya describes how her company has gone from writing and publishing printed books about how to get the most from Apple products to producing all books and articles in electronic format; 8/18/2012

- Living Opps eBook Project Rogue Valley; Living Opportunities is partnering with Folium Partners to create an eBook by local authors, journalists, poets and creative writers; 8/17/2012

- Amazon Deletes Ebooks Automatically Generated From YouTube Comments Leaving Many Questions Unanswered 6/13/2012

- Ebooks Made of YouTube Comments Invade Amazon Kindle Store 6/12/2012

- Nook version of War and Peace turns the word "kindled" into "Nookd" 6/1/2012

- Amazon's knock-off problem (35 Shades of Grey, anyone?) Be careful when you select a bestseller to purchase on Amazon, where knock-offs are prevalent; 4/16/2012

- Has China found the future of publishing? (self-publishing); 11/4/2011

- How Freemium Self-published Fiction Is Taking Over China (web serials; 195 million readers); 11/1/2011

- Hey, book authors! Has Hyperink got a deal for you! (freelance journalists hired as ghostwriters to interview experts about topic (derived from search queries), and then write books for them); 10/27/2011

- Subtext Livens Up E-Books With Author Commentary and Social Reading (shared annotations; subtext.com); 10/25/2011

- Will the E-Book Kill the Footnote? 10/9/2011

- In Case You Wondered, a Real Human Wrote This Column (Computer Generated Articles Are Gaining Traction); 9/11/2011

- New Kindle Feature Lets You Ask Authors Questions 8/31/2011

- Amazon continues on its mission to disintermediate publishers (@author feature); 8/31/2011

- Amazon Cracks Down on Some E-Book ‘Publishers’ (duplicates); 8/12/2011

- Kindle Spam Is A Filter Issue, Not A Spam Issue 6/20/2011

- Spam clogging Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing 6/16/2011

- At Home on the Farm and in E-Books between a long article or essay and a book; 5/19/2011 (Kindle Singles; Byliner.com; Atavist.com)

E-books: Self-Publishing

- self-publishing to e-books and to paper, especially Print On Demand(POD) increasing

- + increased royalties; more control; better marketing; many services/publishers/distributors

- - more work, upfront costs for authors; many services/publishers/distributors

- Wikipedia: Self-publishing; Electronic publishing

- Bowker: Number of self-published books up 287% since 2006 only books w/ ISBNs; four companies dominating the space: Amazon, Smashwords, Author Solutions, Lulu. Amazon’s CreateSpace accounts for the most self-published print books, while Smashwords accounts for the most ebooks; 10/24/2012

- Think Like a Publisher Audience; Distribution; 5 Ws; Fact Checking; Consistency; Succession; 10/12/2012

- Get your book read by the top editors at Harper Voyager -- without needing an agent! science fiction and fantasy; 9/13/2012

- Self-publishing stigma fading 9/5/2012

- Master Online Marketing with Free Kindle Ebook 8/27/2012

- Self-publishing or vanity press? The answer may surprise you 8/23/2012

- Want to publish a book? Follow these tips from New York Times best-selling authors 8/16/2012

- The Joys and Hazards of Self-Publishing on the Web assisted self-publishing; e-Books and no-frills web sites; 8/15/2012

- After Long Resistance, Pynchon Allows Novels to Be Sold as E-Books 6/12/2012

- The Future of Book Cover Design in the Digital Age 5/28/2012

- How Amazon is changing the rules for books and movies imprints, new authors, speed, data mining; "Jeff, One Lonely Guy"; 5/22/2012

- Writer’s Cramp: In the E-Reader Era, a Book a Year Is Slacking competition for attention from other media, writers; 5/12/2012

- Google Points Out That What The Authors Guild Wants And What Authors Want Are Two Very Different Things 5/4/2012

- The Worst Book Covers of All Time Have Destroyed My Faith In Humanity 4/28/2012

- 5 Things Every Writer Should Know about E-publishing Today & How to Find Success in Publishing subscription reqd; 4/17/2012

- Self-Publish a Novel (Publishers; Distributors; Market; Format; Royalties); 3/29/2012

- Who’s the bestselling author of all time on the Kindle? Suzanne Collins; 3/21/2012

- ePublishing Workshop, Ashland 3/18/2012

- There's no mystery behind her successful life of crime (Mail Trib; L.J. Sellers); 3/18/2012

- A Definition of Author Platform Friedman; (Visibility; Authority; Proven reach; Target audience); 3/13/2012

- Q&A: Publishing Your Own E-Book 12/29/2011

- How I Became a Best-Selling Author (Darcie Chan; The Mill River Recluse); 12/9/2011

- Kobo to become a publisher (complete publishing services for authors, including book editing and design); 10/26/2011

- Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal 10/17/2011

- Balance of power continues to shift in the e-book wars (self-publishers; marketing); 8/22/2011

- Book industry balance continues to tilt towards the author (John Green, Amanda Hocking); 7/1/2011

- Meet The First Indie Publisher To Sell A Million Kindle Books (John Locke); 6/20/2011

- Mystery Writers Of America: Real Writers Don't Self-Publish 6/12/2011

- Five Tools For Self-Publishing Your eBook 5/4/2011

- Ebooks and Self-Publishing - A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath 3/29/2011

- How to self-publish an ebook costs, royalties; Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Smashwords, Lulu, FastPencil, Publish Green, Scribd, Barnes & Noble's Pub-It; 11/9/2010

- Self-publishing a (paper) book: 25 things you need to know 7/27/2010

- How Self-publishing Works

- about.com: articles

- self-publishing news, reviews; resources

- Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod Authoring

E-books: Royalties, Selling

- how well do traditional publishers promote, market your book?

- access to sales and demographic data

- exclusitivity; crowdfunding

- pricing; royalty rates

- The Lure of a Good Book: Who’s Reading What? Infographic; 8/26/2012

- The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy paid online reviews; GettingBookReviews.com; 8/25/2012

- If This Is What Big Publishers Call Promotion, No Wonder They're In Trouble 7/31/2012

- Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000% delivery fees deducted from nominal 70% royalty; 6/11/2012

- Paulo Coelho Ebook Sales Jump Way Up Thanks To $0.99 Sale 4,000+%; 5/4/2012

- KDP Select: A $6 Million Fund for (exclusive) Kindle Direct Publishing Authors and Publishers 12/8/2011

- Authors to Get Sales Data Online From 3 Big Publishers (Simon&Schuster; Random House; Hachette vs. Amazon); 10/20/2011

- The Amazon Publishing ‘Premium’: $100,000? (for Penny Marshall's memoir); 10/12/2011

- Your favorite author, brought to you by a wealthy patron (as copyright erodes and the book industry changes, a combination of Kickstarter.com and the rich might fund writers); 10/5/2011

- Best-Selling Author Gives Away His Work (Paulo Coelho); 9/27/2011

- Authors' Lawsuit Seeks the Removal of a Digital Book Collection 9/13/2011

- Author Says eBooks Will Hurt Authors Because Of Royalty Rates 8/18/2011

- How Do I Get My E-Book Signed? 5/23/2011

- Does It Make Sense To Autograph Ebooks? 5/18/2011

- The Economics of Self-Publishing an Ebook 3/7/2011

- Authors catch fire with self-published e-books 2/9/2011

- eBook Royalty Comparison 4/2/2011

- Ebooks and Self-Publishing - A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath 3/19/2011

- This 26-Year-Old Is Making Millions Cutting Out Traditional Publishers With Amazon Kindle (indie author Amanda Hocking); 2/28/2011

- The other comparison: ebook royalties versus ebook self-publishing 8/30/2010

- NSFW: A Modest Proposal For Authors Who Abandon Their Publishers — Give Me A Break 8/29/2010

- Writing a Winning Book Proposal; Creating an eBook (PDF); Pricing an eBook

- 70%: Amazon Self publishing

- Apple Royalties

- Poison Oak and Poison Ivy Survival Guide Coleman Creek Press, Ashland

E-books: Applications and Services

Final E-book quality can depend on:

- expectations

- authoring tool used

- input format used, e.g., not PDF

- sophistication of export or conversion tool

- manual adjustments in final version

- ...

- Why eBook Conversion Practices Are Failing Readers 3/29/2012

- The difference between ebook conversion and ebook formatting cover; images; headers/footers; line/section/page breaks; spacing & characters; ... 10/20/2010

Below is a draft, incomplete, alphabetical table of selected E-book authoring & conversion applications, and web services.

If you have experience with, or review articles for these or others, let me know.

Name

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

application or publishing site

web-based

Win: Windows

Mac: Macintosh

Lnx: Linux

license, royalties, fees

web: HTML, blog

.doc: Word

.odt: Open Office

.pdf: Acrobat

.epub: ePub

Mobi: Kindle

A

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Adobe: see inDesign

Amazon: see Kindle Direct Publishing, KindleGen

Anthologize

WordPress

free

blog

ePub, PDF

- plugin; not for wordpress.com

- How to Convert a Website into an Ebook Anthologize; Zinepal; 4/20/2011

Apple: see iBooks Author, iTunes, Pages

Atavist

?

free, pro

?

ePub, Mobi, web

- beta

- The Atavist Matures as a Publisher and a Platform 5/21/2012

- Long-Form Journalism Finds a Home 3/27/2011

B

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Barnes & Noble: see PubIt!

BlogBooker

web

donation

WordPress, LiveJournal, Blogger (.xml)

.pdf

Blurb Bookify &

BookSmart

web

Win,Mac

?

?

.epub

- Blurb, The Custom Book Printing Startup, Is Tossing Its Hat Into The E-Book Ring 5/2/2012

- Digital book publisher Blurb embraces e-books, iOS devices (esp. photo books); 10/19/2011

BookBaby

web

$99+

Word, HTML

ePub, Mobi

- publishing service

Bookmasters

- service provider

Book Studio

web

free(eval); $

.doc, .html

.epub

- publisher; Folium Partners, Ashland

C

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Calibre

Win,Mac,Lnx

free

.doc, .html

.epub, Mobi

- convert & update existing eBooks

- library management across multiple eReaders/eBookstores, ...

- FAQ, tutorials, videos, user manual; [slideshow]

- Converting WordPress Blog to Kindle Ebook technical; 1/31/2012; Blog to Ebook Conversion Program v1 uses Calibre; 5/25/2012

- Review: Calibre 0.8.3 6/20/2011

Convert a Book

web

.pdf,.doc

.epub, Mobi

- publisher?

E

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

eBook Architects

- conversion, consulting

EpubCheck

web

free

.epub

- format validator

ePub Bud

web

free

?

?

ePubConverter

web

free

.doc, .pdf

.epub

- converter

F

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Fast Pencil

web

- publisher

Folium: see BookStudio

G

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Google

- Authors; Affiliates

H

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

HyperInk

web

?

blog

?

- Next-Generation Publishing Platform Hyperink Wants To Transform Blogs Into Books 5/2/2012

I

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

iBooks Author

Mac

free

?

".epub"

- Apple Releases iBooks 3.0 and iBooks Author 2.0 10/24/2012

- Apple’s iBooks Author adds templates and fonts, as 2.5K US classrooms use iBooks in school 10/23/2012

- iBooks textbooks for iPad (video intro, 8 min. streamed)

- "Life On Earth" by E.O. Wilson (free biology Textbook)

- “Take Control of iBooks Author” Teaches Multi-Touch Book Creation 5/25/2012

- iBooks Author fashions multimedia books for the iPad 2/3/2012

- Apple Clarifies iBooks Author Licensing Situation in New Software Update 2/3/2012

- Inside Apple's efforts to expand iPad content with iBooks Author 1/23/2012

- Sench Embeds Interactive CSS3 Animations in iBooks Author 1/23/2012

- Examining iBooks Author from the Publisher Perspective 1/22/2012

- iBooks Textbooks: Not Exactly Innovation in Education 1/22/2012

- Why iBooks Author is a Big Deal 1/21/2012

- Holding out for an ePub hero new authoring tool? 1/21/2012

- Apple's textbook plan feels like a blast from the past 1/20/2012

- Apple Goes Back to School with iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U 1/19/2012

- Apple Introduces Tools to (Someday) Supplant Print Textbooks 1/19/2012

- Publishing with iBooks Author nn Introduction to Creating Ebooks for the iPad; free

inDesign

Win,Mac

$

.epub

- Adobe: authoring application

- Digital Publishing Suite

- Mag+ plugin, templates

- InDesign CS6 overhauls digital publishing workflow to offer versatile new options and format capabilities 5/16/2012

iTunes

.epub

Apple iTunes Store

- Author's FAQ; iTunes application form

- Apple-approved aggregators; Affiliates

- iBooks Now Opens ePub Files Directly (via email, Safari); 4/7/2011

- How To Publish An Apple iBook 8/10/2010

- Convert Any Text File to ePub for the iPad 4/15/2010

K

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

KindleConverter

web

free

.doc,.pdf

Mobi

- converter

Kindle Direct Publishing

Win,Mac

.doc, .pdf, ...

Mobi

- Amazon: publisher; KDP resources

- Kindle Self-Publishing Guide Getting Started; Prepare Your Book; Publish Your Book; Merchandising Your Book; Manage Your Sales; FAQ

- CreateSpace print on-demand publishing (POD)

- Are There Any Legal Issues If Amazon Accidentally Gives Away Thousands Of Your Ebooks For Free? (price matching error); 11/8/2011

- How to Publish Your Own Amazon Kindle Ebook (What You Need; Professional Consulting or DIY?; Editing and Formatting; Creating Front and Back Matter; Ebook Availability; Kindle Direct Publishing: Step by Step); 8/8/2011

KindleGen

Win,Mac,Lnx

free

.html,.epub

Mobi

- Amazon: converter

Kobo

web

- publisher; Affiliates

- Kobo launches e-book self-publishing platform, “Writing Life” 6/5/2012

L

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

LibreOffice

Win,Mac,Lnx

free

- desktop office suite; see also OpenOffice

- use Writer2ePub extension to convert to ePub

Lulu

- publisher; stores: iBookstore, Barnes&Noble, Lulu

- eBook Creator Guide

- How to Make an eBook Anyone Can Read with ePub 12/6/2011

M

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Microsoft Office

Win,Mac

$

.doc

- desktop office suite; does not create .epub directly --

- use a converter app (.doc input) or online publisher.

- you might also consider using a more "author friendly" writing app, e.g., Scrivener

- -- or a free office suite, e.g., LibreOffice, OpenOffice -- with ePub export

O

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

online Kindle Converter

web

free

epub, pdf, html, docx

Mobi

OpenOffice

Win,Mac,Lnx

free

- desktop office suite; see also LibreOffice, NeoOffice (Mac-optimized version)

- use Writer2ePub extension to convert to ePub

P

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Pages

Mac, iPad

$$

.epub

- Apple: authoring application

- How 'Take Control' Makes ePubs in Pages 8/30/2011

- Apple accepts Javascript in ePub ebooks in iBookstore 6/17/2011; demo

- iWork 9.0.4 Gives Pages ePub Support 8/27/2010

- Creating ePub files with Pages 8/26/2010

Pandamian

web

free?

?

?

beta

PdfMasher

Win,Mac,Lnx

free?

.pdf

.epub, Mobi

- text-only -- no styles, no images

- PdfMasher Turns PDFs into Ereader-Friendly HTML the Right Way 7/12/2011

PubIt

web

free

Word,PDF,HTML

.epub*

- Barnes&Noble

- Getting Started, FAQs; Affiliates

Publish Green

web

$399+

Word,.pdf,inDesign

.epub, Mobi

- publisher

R

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

ReadList

web

free?

web site

ePub, Mobi

- Readlists Creates Ebooks from URLs turn a set of articles into an Ebook and send it directly to Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or over email; 5/22/2012

S

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Scrivener

Win,Mac

- authoring application; workspace for chapters, maps; templates for character sketches

- review 2/4/2011

Sigil

Win,Mac,Lnx

free

.epub, .html

.epub

- multi-platform WYSIWYG ebook editor

- tutorial; documentation; [slideshow]

SmashWords

web

%

Word

ePub, Mobi

- publisher: "world's largest indie ebook distributor"

- stores: Kobo, Nook, Sony, iBookstore, Diesel

- SmashWords FAQ

- Convert MS Word docs to e-books for free Smashwords transforms Word's DOC files into the EPUB, MOBI, and other e-book formats, but only if you shun text boxes, tables, and other common formatting elements in the file, as the handy Smashwords guide explains; 7/3/2012

- E-publisher Smashwords offers wide distribution and sweet deals to authors. One plot twist: Amazon 6/25/2012

- Apple's Biggest (Unknown) Supplier of E-Books Smashwords; 6/7/2012

- The Seven Secrets of Ebook Publishing Success (presentation); 5/14/2011

Storyist

Mac,iPad

$

.epub

- desktop application

W

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

Writer2ePub

Win,Mac,Linx

free

.odt

.epub

- extension to convert LibreOffice & OpenOffice documents to ePub

- discussion

Z

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

ZinePal

web

free, pro

blog, feed, web

.pdf, ePub, Mobi

- How to Convert a Website into an Ebook Anthologize; Zinepal; 4/20/2011

1-9

Platform(s)

Costs

Source Formats

Dest. Formats

Features

2EPUB

web

free

.doc,.html,.odt

.epub, mobi

- converter

E-books: Gallery. Creating E-Books

Photos and notes omitted. Online version: http://communicrossings.com/e-books-gallery-creating-e-books

E-books: Bookstores

- physical bookstores must evolve to survive, e.g.,

- Print On Demand (POD)

- author and community events

- personalized attention; emphasize browsing the aisles experience (despite showrooming threat)

- sell e-readers

- promotions: print plus e-book

- "A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking." ~Jerry Seinfeld

- "I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?'

She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose." ~George Carlin

Buildings & Services

- Publisher 'Angry Robot' Bundles Free Ebook With Physical Copies And Triples Sales 8/20/2012

- A Brand new Science Fiction Bookstore in Brooklyn — With a Mission to Save Classic Books Singularity & Co.; Save the Sci Fi: bring one cult science fiction novel back into print every month, and as a free ebook; similar to Gollancz's Gateway SF; 8/9/2012

- The Antidote to e-Books Espresso POD; 6/11/2012

- Waterstones to sell Amazon's Kindle book reader UK's biggest bookseller; 5/21/2012

- Bookstores Can Still Compete By Combining Traditional Strengths With Smart Innovations The Espresso Book Machine; 5/11/2012

- Our Gift To The Author's Guild: An Ad For Brick & Mortar Book Stores 3/28/2012

- The Joy of Books (video; 1:52); 1/9/2012

- E-Books, Shmee-Books: Readers Return to the Stores 12/13/2011

- Book Shopping in Stores, Then Buying Online 12/4/2011

- Norwegian bookseller begins selling e-books on memory cards, for some reason 11/21/2011

- Novelist Fights the Tide by Opening a Bookstore (Ann Patchett; Nashville; small and sleek, with personal service, intimate author events and a carefully chosen rotation of books); 11/16/2011

- What an e-reader can't give you (pleasure of wandering through bookstore aisles); 10/14/2011

- An Ode to Cheap Books in a Former Borders (remaindered books); 10/10/2011

- UK book seller Waterstone's to enter the e-reader race (with devices and online bookstore); 9/10/2011

- Serendipity Books, R.I.P. (Berkeley; antiquarian books); 9/7/2011

- The Daily Show (John Hodgman) On How Chain Bookstores Can Compete With The Internet [video; 5:44]; (historical attraction; live authors write novels on demand; ...); 8/20/2011

- Independent bookstores find ways to compete in the digital age (book club meetings, author events, student discounts); 8/7/2011

- Free Penguin Classics App Doesn’t Contain Ebooks, But Has Plenty More Nostalgic Features (descriptions and quizzes); 6/29/2011

- End Of Days For Bookstores? Not If They Can Help It (children's story time; sell e-books and eReaders); 12/14/2010

- BookWagon (E-books: Amazon); Bloomsbury (E-books: was Google; now ?)

E-books: Online Bookstores

- e-books, discussion/reviews; plus apps, movies, music, TV shows, ...

- subscriptions; bundles; pay-what-you-want

- title availability; exclusivity?

- access / ownership (after death?)

- See Online Libraries for other sources of e-books

- Mapping The Entertainment Ecosystems of Apple, Microsoft, Google & Amazon Music; Movies; TV Shows; eBooks; Apps; 10/22/2012

- This E-Book Subscription Service Could Be Great for Amazon-Hating Avid Readers Oyster; cost? selection? 10/11/2012

- BookShout pulls users’ Kindle, Nook books onto other platforms iOS, Android and web-based social reading platform; matter of time before Barnes & Noble or Amazon shuts it down? 10/10/2012

- Humble Bundle Launches Its First eBook Bundle; Books From Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi & More pay-what-you-want; 10/9/2012

- Who inherits your iTunes and Kindle libraries? Why your digital books and music may go to the grave; licensing vs. ownership; 8/23/2012

- Txtr Fights Amazon/Apple With iPhone/Android eBooks For The Rest Of Us Europe-based; txtr.com; 4/16/2012

- iBookstore to expand to Brazil within 30 days, magazine says 4/2/2012

- You Can Buy The Harry Potter E-Books Now—Here’s What You Need To Know (no DRM); 3/27/2012

- Harry Potter And The Missing Middlemen: Where The Pottermore Store Goes Wrong 3/27/2012

- Allez Les Books: France Suggests Amazon Tax To Help Independent Bookstores 3/16/2012

- How the e-book landscape is becoming a walled garden (Should e-bookstores only carry their parent company’s titles?); 2/29/2012

- Making Short Work of Shopping for Tablet Users (give E-books etc. to iPad, Kindle, Nook, Kobo users); 12/8/2011

- Q&A: Buying E-books Without Wi-Fi (using 3G, USB); 10/18/2011

- Rowling Casts E-Book Spell (her own digital store: pottermore.com); 6/24/2011

- Publishers Make a Plan: A ‘One Stop’ Book Site (bookish.com) (suggestions, news, reviews, excerpts from Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group USA and Hachette Book Group)' 5/7/2011

E-books: Amazon

- competes with publishers; exclusives

- e-books, books, music, ...

- leveraging user purchasing history of all items

- subscriptions

- See also: Tablets & eReaders: Kindle; amazon.com

- Amazon to be stripped of tax advantage on sale of ebooks European commission tells Luxembourg to end VAT loophole, a decision that could close the gap with British ebook prices; 10/24/2012

- Amazon brings Kindle Store to Japan, puts Paperwhite and Kindle Fire up for pre-order 10/24/2012

- Amazon makes UK publishers pay 20% VAT on ebook sales Luxembourg-based company profits from European tax anomaly, itself paying only 3% VAT on digital books sold to UK readers; 10/21/2012

- Amazon Struggles to Crack Publishing retailer boycott; 10/17/2012

- Amazon debuts Whispercast service, lets organizations manage Kindles and Kindle content 10/17/2012

- Amazon’s Next Big Business Is Selling You Amazon knows what you’ve bought, and has a pretty good idea of what you might want to buy next; 10/16/2012

- Amazon Releases Kindle’s Lending Library In UK, Germany, France With 200,000 Books, Increases KDP Royalty Fund Amazon Prime members; 10/11/2012

- Amazon delves into book subscriptions with Kindle Serials 9/6/2012

- Amazon NY signs deal to sell its ebooks through other retailers 8/29/2012

- Kindle-exclusive ebooks get lots of business 180,000 titles; 8/28/2012

- Amazon’s Kindle hits stores in India as digital bookstore launches with over 1 million titles 8/22/2012

- OneHundredFreeBooks Serves Up Free Kindle EBooks Every Hour 7/2/2012

- More on eBooks Amazon; 6/13/2012

- Amazon, Publisher Settle Digital Books Dispute Independent Publishers Group; 5/25/2012

- Zero Dollar Books Shows You All the Best Selling Kindle Ebooks Currently Available for Free 5/9/2012

- Voldemort’s Got Nothing On Jeff Bezos large publishers & DRM unnecessary; 4/21/2012

- Amazon’s Jungle Logic (best-selling authors react to Amazon's attack on independent booksellers); 12/13/2011

- Amazon, Now a Book Lender Kindle Owners Who Subscribe to Prime Service Will Be Able to Borrow E-Titles (1/month; 5,000 titles; 'Netflix-style'); 11/3/2011

- In a Battle of the E-Readers, Booksellers Spurn Superheroes (Amazon deal with DC Comics); 10/19/2011

- Booksellers are wary as Amazon tries to have it all 8/8/2011

- Amazon’s Bid For The (UK) Book Depository: User Backlash And Regulatory Inquiry 7/5/2011

- Find free and discounted Kindle e-books: eReaderIQ.com 4/8/2011

E-books: Apple

- e-books, apps, music, ...

- agency model pricing (DOJ case)

- no store access from others' eReader apps (use external browser)

- submission process 'censors' in-book links to competitors?

- education / textbook emphasis?

- See also: Tablets & eReaders: iPad; Publishing: Price Fixing; Apple Store (iTunes)

- Paid iBookstore Content Going Live in New Zealand and 17 Latin American Countries 10/22/2012

- iBookstore introduces welcome (phone) support options for publishers 8/27/2012

- Apple won't carry an ebook because it mentions Amazon 7/28/2012

- Apple Looking to Increase Exposure for Free App Store and iBookstore Content? 6/15/2012

- Justice Department Bites Apple The 30% revenue-share model is the company's standard practice, not the product of a conspiracy; and agency model upheld by courts; 4/23/2012

- Apple cracking down on links in iBookstore titles 2/29/2012

- Apple adds Quick Reads section to iBookstore (short-form books for $5 or less); 9/12/2011

- 24symbols eBook app for iPad Offers Access to Online Public-Domain Titles 7/30/2011

- WSJ, Kobo, Nook, Kindle falling in line in Apple’s App Store (removing in-app purchasing links, using web site); 7/24/2011

- Apple Eases Rules for Publishers on Apps 6/10/2011

- iBookstore Finally Appears in iTunes 6/7/2011

- World's largest book publisher Random House may soon join Apple's iBookstore 2/28/2011

- Apple Affiliates

E-books: Barnes & Noble

- B & N has physical stores

- outcome of Microsoft investment?

- See also: Tablets & eReaders: Nook; barnesandnoble.com

- Microsoft, Barnes & Noble joint venture finalized and named Nook Media LLC, a subsidiary of B&N; 10/4/2012

- Barnes & Noble Incorporates In Germany, Closest Sign Yet Of European Nook Launch 3/29/2012

- Overstock.com Teams With Barnes & Noble For E-book Storefront 12/6/2011

- Barnes & Noble launches in-store Nook stations 11/7/2011

- Why Barnes & Noble is Selling Rugs 10/24/2011

- B&N Affiliates

E-books: Google

- See also: Tablets & eReaders: Google; Publishing: Copyright; Google Play: books

- Google: No more e-books for indie booksellers 4/5/2012

- Google plans to seek Books lawsuit dismissal (scanning, copyright); 12/5/2011

- Pottermore and Google team up to enable Harry Potter ebooks push to Google Books libraries 7/20/2011

- Google eBooks Affiliate program - Open for business 6/16/2011

- Inside the Google Books Algorithm 11/1/2010

E-books: Kobo

- See also: Tablets & eReaders: Kobo; kobobooks.com

- Bug In Kobo's Online Store Offers Up Random eBook Prices 10/17/2012

- E-reading giant Kobo buys digital publishing tech firm Aquafadas to boost rich content offering 10/10/2012

- Kobo to Replace Google E-Books for Independent Booksellers 8/29/2012

- Kobo offers one free book a month 12/4/2011

E-books: Libraries

Buildings & Services

- physical libraries must evolve to survive, e.g.,

- preserving physical books: Internet Archive

- community meeting spaces, services, labs

- New York Public Library Shifts Plan for 5th Ave. Building $8M physical expansion; 9/19/2012

- Create a Searchable Catalog of Your Bookshelf by Snapping a Picture into Evernote 8/23/2012

- E-books and the Personal Library moving; culling; bookshelves; 8/20/2012

- Re-Inventing Public Libraries For The Digital Age build digital infrastructure, preserve traditional library values; acquisitions to grants; 5/3/2012

- Belgian rightsholders group wants to charge libraries for reading books to kids 3/13/2012

- Why Digital Texts Need A New Library Of Alexandria -- With Physical Books (Internet Archive); 3/5/2012

- In a Flood Tide of Digital Data, an Ark Full of Books (Internet Archive); 3/4/2012

- Libraries Make Room For High-Tech 'Hackerspaces' 12/10/2011

- Louder libraries for a digital age to open across U.S. 11/23/2011

- Are Maker Spaces the Future of Public Libraries? (Fab Lab, 3D Printer); 11/21/2011

- His Libraries, 12,000 So Far, Change Lives (John Wood; undeveloped countries); 11/6/2011

- Wisconsin Library Now Lending Out iPads 9/23/2011

- Internet archivist seeks 1 of every book written 8/1/2011

- The Internet Archive, Now Preserving Printed Books As Well 6/7/2011

- Robots, Not Humans, Retrieve Your Books at $81 Million “Library of the Future” [video; 2:36]; 5/24/2011

- The future of the library (more than a warehouse for dead books; librarian as producer, concierge, connector, teacher and impresario); 5/16/2011

- California Library Plan: Get Rid of Books, Replace Librarians With Videophones (Newport Beach community center); 4/1/2011

E-books: Academia & Journals

- rare materials can be made available digitally

- journals expensive; open access?

- MIT Technology Review Relaunches 'Digital-First' 10/24/2012

- Research Libraries Increase Spending on Digital Materials 10/8/2012

- Entire Field of Particle Physics Is Set to Switch to Open-Access Publishing 9/24/2012

- Journal offers flat fee for ‘all you can publish’ PeerJ; 6/12/2012

- Even Harvard Can't Afford Subscriptions To Academic Journals; Pushes For Open Access 4/30/2012

- Vatican and Oxford libraries scan ancient works, let scholars stay in their armchairs 4/16/2012

- Isaac Newton’s Personal Notebooks Go Digital 12/12/2011; Cambridge Digital Library

- Royal Society Publishing (free historical journal) 10/25/2011

- What Is Distant Reading? Stanford Literary Lab; network analysis of literature via scanning large # of books; 6/24/2011

- PEI University to bypass expensive database ("Web of Science": high subscription cost; substitute Wiki); 8/10/2010

- Einstein Archives Online Scientfic & Non-scientific writings; Travel Diaries; Correspondence

- SOU Hannon Library Digital Collections

E-books: Lending

- since e-books don't fall apart, libraries need fewer copies

- publishers may impose higher prices and other restrictions, e.g., "ownership"

- limited availability: e-book version not yet available, or library budgets tight

- long waiting time for borrowers

- See also: Overdrive and Jackson County Library

- Turns Out When Random House Said Libraries 'Own' Their Ebooks, It Meant, 'No, They Don't Own Them' 10/24/2012

- Ray Bradbury's 'The Book And The Butterfly' essay about libraries; 10/2/2012

- Hachette Hits Libraries With 220% Price Increase On Its Ebooks Random House prices up 300% in March; 9/17/2012

- Libraries Go Direct To Indie Authors, Rather Than Deal With Big Publisher Ebook Limits 9/7/2012

- On Borrowing Digital Books From the Library formats; avail. of titles; waits; 8/9/2012

- From Penguin, a Plan to Make Its E-Books Available in New York City Libraries 3M; new title 6 month window; no Kindle; 6/20/2012

- Libraries, patrons, and e-books Pew study; limited selection; lack of awareness; reading more; 6/19/2012

- Amazon adds all 7 Harry Potter books to its Kindle Owners’ Lending Library 6/19/2012

- Awful Library Books

- Every Single Harry Potter Book Will Be Free on Amazon Prime via Kindle Lending Library; 1/month; 5/10/2012

- 3M Cloud Library Lends Not Only E-Books, But Also E-Reader Hardware online or via kiosks; 100,000 titles; for Nook and 3M reader apps; 4/27/2012

- E-Book Borrowing, Preceded by E-Book Waiting lack of availability and lengthy waiting lists; how to download for various devices; 4/12/2012

- Penguin Pointlessly Annoys Readers With USB-Only eBooks (no wireless xfer for borrowed books); 3/7/2012

- Libraries protest Random House price hike 3/2/2012

- A Guide to Publishers in the Library Ebook Market 2/24/2012

- Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War (inconvenience; delays; limited checkouts); 12/25/2011

- Everyone loves e-books, but no one wants to lend them 11/23/2011

- Is the eBook Ecosystem Affected by the Amazon Library Lending Process? (privacy, checkout limits, expansion of audience, self-publishing); 10/28/2011

- The Future Of Libraries In The E-Book Age (HarperCollins); 4/4/2011

- As Library E-Books Live Long, Publisher Sets Expiration Date (HarperCollins); 3/15/2011

- A Limit on Lending E-Books 2/27/2011

- This Library E-Book Will Self-Destruct After 26 Check Outs 2/25/2011

E-books: Online Libraries

- many free e-books are available, e.g., Project Gutenberg

- peer-to-peer lending of purchased e-books may be supported

- subscriptions, e.g., Amazon Prime

- Project Gutenberg: free eBooks

- Wikipedia: Project Gutenberg

- What is Project Gutenberg? [video; 4:36]

- www.ebooktakeaway.com; www.epubbooks.com; www.feedbooks.com; manybooks.net; snee.com/epubkidsbooks; wikibooks.org; Gutenberg Partners, Affiliates; BooksShouldBeFree.com Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBooks

- Grab a Bundle of DRM-Free Ebooks On the Cheap StoryBundle; 9/27/2012

- Evernote Integrates With 1DollarScan To Add Your Scanned Books To Its Data Store 8/23/2012

- Alexandria 2.0: One Millionaire's Quest to Build the Biggest Library on Earth 8/19/2012

- Internet Archive Enables Over 1,000,000 Torrents Of Books, Music And Movies 8/7/2012

- How to Load Up Your Ereader with Ebooks For Free 11/7/2011

- Whither the dream of the universal library? Imagine a library of everything ever written. We could achieve it, but the copyright system is skewed toward corporate interests; 4/19/2011

- The Library of Utopia the major problems with constructing a universal library has little to do with technology: legal, commercial, and political issues of publishing business; Google; Harvard's Digital Public Library of America; 5/2012

- Load Up Your iPad with a Massive Library of Over 38,000 Free eBooks 4/5/2012

- The Challenges of Building a Digital Public Library of America 10/21/2011

- Curious Contents of the Digital Library (public domain); 10/13/2011

- British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works 6/20/2011

- What Big Media Can Learn From the New York Public Library (Biblion; social networking; crowdsourcing; media); 6/2011

- When Hard Books Disappear 6/2011

- Why Preserve Books? The New Physical Archive of the Internet Archive 6/6/2011

- Biblion brings New York Public Library archives to your iPad 5/18/2011

- Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library 4/4/2011

- A Digital (Public) Library Better Than Google’s 3/24/2011

- Book Ruling Cuts Options for Google 3/24/2011

- Internet Archive and Library Partners Develop Joint Collection of 80,000+ eBooks To Extend Traditional In-Library Lending Model 2/22/2011

- Playing Catch-Up in a Digital Library Race (national digital library); 1/9/2011

- How To Build A Library of DRM-free and legally-free ePub eBooks 1/31/2010

- Google Books Library Project – An enhanced card catalog of the world's books

E-books: Library Censorship

- an ever present danger...

- somewhat easier to censor / retract E-books

- Fahrenheit 451 now available as an ebook, memorize at your own discretion 11/30/2011

- Support free speech by reading a banned book 9/28/2011

- Century After It Was Banned, Place of Honor for Twain Tale 9/22/2011

- American Library Assoc: Top Ten Challenged Books by Year: 2001-2010

- Banned Books Week (Sep 25-Oct 1, 2011)

- Banned Books: Mapping Censorship

- How does banning a book work?

- Wikipedia: book burning

E-books: Learning, School, Textbooks

Trends

- E-textbooks: less expensive, lighter, broader distribution, more frequent updating, embedded media, ...?

- Amazon Just Beat Apple to the Classroom 10/17/2012

- Long Live Paper textbooks; 10/9/2012

- Education chief wants textbooks to become obsolete Arne Duncan; 10/2/2012

- Publishers Back African Literacy Effort With E-Books 9/6/2012

- An E-Reader Revolution for Africa? Worldreader: Wikipedia, worldreader.org; Schools in developing countries are experimenting with digital books; endless titles, spotty electricity; 6/15/2012

- Heavy Backpacks Can Spell Chronic Back Pain for Children 4/23/2012

- A New Crop of Digital Science Books Will Change the Way Students Learn iBooks2; Cachalot; 4/12/2012

- Struggling Young Readers Like Kindles 3/29/2012

- A World without Schoolteachers (homeschooling); 12/26/2011

- Textbooks Finally Take a Big Leap to Digital 11/24/2011

- Many US Schools Adding iPads, Trimming Textbooks 9/3/2011

- Don't burn the books just yet (print books accommodate a wider array of learning styles, and encourage more attentive reading and study); 8/13/2011

- Pros and cons of e-readers vs. textbooks 7/26/2011

- South Korea plans to convert all textbooks to digital, swap backpacks for tablets by 2015 7/3/2011

- Digital Textbooks Slow to Catch On (for no value-added PDF version of the print edition); 6/6/2011

- Study: Kindles Aren’t Quite All That With The Kids On Campus 5/2/2011

- E-Textbooks Get a Lift From Publishers 3/23/2011

E-books: Textbook Pricing, Rental

- Guyana Resorts To Buying Pirated Textbooks Because Legal Copies Are Too Expensive 10/2/2012

- Why Your iPad Is Almost Always The Cheapest Way To Get Your Textbooks price comparisons; 8/17/2012

- Kno starts offering K-12 textbooks on tablets, scores industry-first deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 8/7/2012

- Amazon plans textbook rentals as cheaper option for students 8/6/2012

- Digital textbooks may save schools $250 per student per year 3/30/2012

- Why Tablets in the Classroom Could Save Schools $3 Billion a Year 3/29/2012

- Can (Chegg) the best-funded company in textbook rental compete in a digital world? 2/13/2012

- Amazon’s New App Lets College Kids Trade In Their Hated Textbooks 8/15/2011

- College students would give up sex to trade textbooks for ebooks 7/28/2011

- How and Where to Rent E-textbooks 7/25/2011

- Amazon lets students rent digital textbooks 7/18/2011

- Beyond Textbooks (rentals): Chegg Adds Course Selection and Homework Help (social); 3/24/2011

- Finding Cheaper Textbooks: 2nd Edition 1/14/2011

- To Save Students Money, Colleges May Force a Switch to E-Textbooks 10/24/2010

- $200 Textbook vs. Free. You Do the Math 8/1/2010

E-books: Textbook Open Source

- several states and countries are looking at open source textbooks, which would be free or low-cost

- California universities to produce 50 open-source textbooks 9/28/2012

- Amid Lawsuits From Publishers, Boundless Launches A Free, Open Alternative To Textbooks Open Educational Resources (OERs); 8/8/2012

- Univ. of Minnesota Compiles a Database of Peer-reviewed Open Source Textbooks 5/10/2012

- Univ. of Minn. opens up to open source textbooks 4/23/2012

- Open Textbook Startup Sued For Allegedly Copying 'Distinctive Selection, Arrangement, and Presentation' Of Facts From Existing Titles (Boundless Learning uses open sources but'material alignment'); 4/10/2012

- Free Textbooks are part of 'Digital School' Program Poland; 4/3/2012

- New Hope For Open Source Textbooks 2/18/2012

- The World Of Open Textbooks Just Became A Little More Crowded -- And A Little More Open (OpenStax College); 2/9/2012

- Steinberg Proposal Slashes Textbook Costs for California College Students (Open Educational Resources); 12/13/2011

- Washington State Guarantees Cheap And Open Courses & Courseware For Students; opencourselibrary.org 11/3/2011

- Random House Invests In Creative Commons 'Free' Textbook Publisher Flat World Knowledge 4/11/2011

- First All-Digital Science Textbook Will Be Free 10/20/2010

- Saylor Foundation: The Open Textbook Challenge

E-books: Textbook Apple

- Apple has promoted iPad for education

- free iBooks Author tool for textbooks

- McGraw Hill Thinks New iPad Will Be Ticket To E-Textbook Revolution (discounted iPad2; high resolution; battery life); 3/12/2012

- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Touts 20-Point Boost in Student Performance with Textbooks for iPad 1/20/2012

- McGraw-Hill CEO Credits Steve Jobs' Digital Textbook Vision Amid Evidence of Pre-iPad Interest 1/20/2012

- Apple Goes Back to School: iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U 1/19/2012

- Apple Introduces Tools to (Someday) Supplant Print Textbooks 1/19/2012

- A Brief History of Textbooks, or, Why Apple's 'New Textbook Experience' Is Actually Revolutionary 1/19/2012

- Goodbye Textbooks, Hello iPad Students and teachers in grade school through higher education are using the iPad to augment their lessons or to replace textbooks; 12/10/2011

- Schools supe: iPad more important than a book 4/10/2011

- iPads set to replace school textbooks in Georgia state? 2/6/2011

- Replacing a Pile of Textbooks With an iPad 8/23/2010

E-books: Textbook Examples

- Media Companies, Seeing Profit Slip, Push Into Education Discovery Techbooks (textbooks/manuals); News Corporation Amplify; ...; 8/19/2012

- BenchPrep Partners with Educational Publishers including Pearson, O'Reilly, Microsoft Press 8/16/2012

- Seventh graders publish North FL field guide on iBookstore 5/26/2012

- "Life On Earth" by E.O. Wilson free biology Textbook

- Wolfram unveils interactive education portal: education.wolfram.com 1/18/2012

- Making Science Leap From the Page "Principles of Biology"; web-based; dynamic illustrations, short quizzes, video/audio clips; 12/18/2011

- A "post Gutenberg" e-text for biology 101 11/20/2011

- The Elements: A Visual Exploration (iPad; $13.99); background, demo [video; 9:56]

- Al Gore Invents a Showpiece E-Book; Our Choice (iPad; $4.99) 5/5/2011

- Gore, Ex-Apple Engineers Team Up to Blow Up the Book [video; 2:04]; 4/28/2011

- Push Pop Press Acquired by Facebook

- Inkling Debuts Interactive iPad Textbook Experience With Photography App 11/1/2010

- Inkling adapts school textbooks for iPad 8/20/2010

- The Kno Textbook App Hits The iPad 6/4/2011

E-books: Children

Trends

- "I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." ~Anna Quindlen

- Six-year-old girl tries to guess the plots of classic novels based on their covers 7/21/2012

- Yer A Wizard, Sony: PlayStation Introduces Wonderbook, The AR Ebook For Kids Complete With Harry Potter Content Augmented Reality; big screen; 6/4/2012

- FarFaria Brings A Hulu For Kids’ Stories To The iPad subscription $4/mo. for 100+ stories; 4/12/2012

- Bringing Up an E-Reader ("better than a book? It may take a generation to ever know for sure"; focus; parent engagement); 3/29/2012

- Belgian rightsholders group wants to charge libraries for reading books to kids 3/13/2012

- In Major Digitization Effort, Scholastic Launches E-Reading App For Kids: Storia (iPad; Windows; 5 free books; catalog: 2000+?); 3/6/2012

- Harry Potter e-books coming to schools, libraries 2/27/2012

- Amazon Publishing Push Grows to Children’s Books 12/7/2011

- For Their Children, Many E-Book Fans Insist on Paper 11/21/2011

- Interactive Storytelling On iPad 7/14/2011

- For the iPad, Books That Respond to a Child’s Touch 6/30/2011

Examples

- A Child’s View of an Interactive Storybook Jungle Book; 7/6/2012

- A Charlie Brown Christmas (iPad; review); 12/17/2011

- JibJab dances its way to iPads with childen’s storybook app 9/10/2011

- 'Weird Al' Yankovic releases iOS children's e-book 6/17/2011

- How Viral PDFs Of A Naughty Bedtime Book Exploded The Old Publishing Model (piracy); 5/19/2011

- Children's Book Apps: A New World Of Learning [video; 1:30]; 3/28/2011

- Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App! (iPad; review); 11/1/2011

- "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss eBook App Demo [video; 1:06]; 2/4/2010

E-books: Reference: Manuals, Cooking, Other

Manuals

- American Airlines pilots begin using Apple's iPad during all phases of flight fuel cost savings; 9/11/2012

- iPad Enters Qantas Cockpits 7/14/2012

- iFixit spins off Dozuki CMS to let anyone make killer technical docs 4/17/2012

- Get digital copies of your Mac manuals 3/23/2012

- Air Force Unit Chooses iPad For Flight Manuals 3/6/2012

- Download Digital Copies of Your Old Paper Owner’s Manuals to Reduce Clutter 2/24/2012

- Testing casts doubt on FAA's restrictions on iPads, Kindles 12/25/2011

- FAA approves iPads in the cockpit; American Airlines to start Friday 12/13/2011

- United puts iPads in cockpits for 'paperless flight deck' 8/23/2011

- The Paperless Cockpit 7/5/2011

- Alaska Airlines first major in US with iPad flight manuals 5/28/2011

Cooking

- Jamie's Recipes 1/5/2012

- Amanda Hesser’s Food52 Launches A Holiday Cookbook On The iPad 11/17/2011

- Are Cookbooks Obsolete? 11/9/2011

- Julia Child's masterwork meets the iPad 10/26/2011

- How to Protect the iPad in the Kitchen 5/17/2011

- Gadgets You Should Get Rid Of (or Not) (last section: books, esp. cookbooks); 3/24/2011

- App-etizing: Cookbooks And Recipes Go Mobile 12/16/2010

Encyclopedias

- Wikipedia rolls out a completely redesigned mobile site, with an emphasis on type and readability 10/24/2012

- Redefining Research (infographic: Wikipedia compared to Encyc. Britannica)

- Bing Gets Smarter, Partners With Encyclopedia Britannica But It’s No Challenge For Google’s Knowledge Graph; 6/7/2012

- After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses (primary focus on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools); 3/13/2012

- Redefining Research (infographic: Wikipedia compared to Encyc. Britannica)

- Enyclopedia Britannica unveils iPad app (100 free articles); 12/25/2011

- Now anyone can make a Wall-E style narrated encyclopedia with Qwiki 9/14/2011

- Wikipedia as a Printed Book - Seriously! 1/1/2011

Bible

- Bibles not replaced, yet, by The Holy App Digital versions are gaining in popularity, but many cling to their books, and tradition; 9/3/2012

- Gideon eBibles And Frank Herbert's OC Bible 7/2/2012

- Your Hotel Bible Is Now a Kindle 7/2/2012

- Translating the Bible—Into an E-Book That Works on Any Phone (all languages); 2/10/2012

Other

- Beyond textbooks, Inkling aims to revolutionize travel with Frommer’s digital guides 5/1/2012

- Foxtrot cartoonist thrives using iBooks Author over print each $2 e-book offers 100 Foxtrot comic strips; 4/27/2012

- Denver Broncos to switch to iPad playbooks previously wasted 500 pages per person, per week; 4/23/2012

- Marvel Offers Digital Extras for Comic Book Fans Augmented Reality allows computer-generated content to be superimposed over a live camera view of the real world; 3/26/2012

- Peterson Birds of North America for iOS a must for bird watchers 2/7/2012

- Back in Time (history); 1/5/2012

- Digital Downloads Sub for Weighty Scores (conductors w/ iPad); 11/24/2011

- Hybrid Books: 'Illuminations' And The Future Of The E-Reader (adding complementary materials, like DVD extras); 9/1/2011

- Reference Resources for the Budding Know-It-All (apps); 9/1/2011

- Yale Gives iPads to Med School Students 8/31/2011

- This iPad Book Is Meant to Be Read on Shuffle (Composition #1); (Visual Editions) 8/22/2011

- The iPad Could Revolutionize the Comic Book Biz — or Destroy It 6/25/2011

- Deciphering Old Texts, One Woozy, Curvy Word at a Time (scanning; reCaptcha); 3/29/2011

- NFL teams may replace playbooks with iPads 2/4/2011

E-books: Fiction, Literature

- Twitter fiction: 21 authors try their hand at 140-character novels 10/12/2012

- How a Fake Erotic Fiction eBook Hit the Top 5 of iTunes The Diamond Club; crowd sourced; 8/9/2012

- Ready for more "Grimm"? A Free EBook Can Help You Catch Up 8/8/2012

- Rediscover the Magic of Books With Libriomancer Books are magic, and libriomancers have the ability to reach into the pages and draw forth objects, monsters, and characters; 8/7/2012

- Where Is Bourne? Not in an Electronic Version 8/2/2012

- Clandestine rendezvous with literary guilty pleasures innocent portable electronic devices that don't expose graphic covers and titillating titles; 4/15/2012

- To Compute or Not To Compute: Wolfram|Alpha Analyzes Shakespeare's Plays not an e-book, but interesting; 4/10/2012

- Is the iPad helping women read erotic books? (privacy); 3/17/2012

- Marvel-ous: (80) Graphic novels come to iBooks 2/28/2012

- Shakespeare in Bits: Hamlet leads iOS Apps of the Week 2/6/2012

- The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore; Unwanted Guest; The Wasteland 1/5/2012

- Enhanced E-Edition of "The Hobbit" Released 12/6/2011

- Amazon Publishing Launches Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Imprint, 47North 10/11/2011

- 'Interactive' novels link e-readers to real-world settings (electronic tours); 10/9/2011

- Simon Jones, the Original Arthur Dent, Discusses the Upcoming Hitchhiker’s iOS App! 8/4/2011

- The Jargon of the Novel, Computed 7/31/2011

- Kerouac app marches to the beat of a new generation 7/3/2011

- Jack Kerouac on the app road 6/22/2011

- The Internet and the 'Art of Immersion' (storytelling); 3/15/2011

- Book-A-Minute ;-)

E-books: Book Clubs, Social

- iDreamBooks Gathers Critics’ Book Reviews, Shows You What to Read Next 7/12/2012

- Our New Favorite Online Community: A Place for Finding Forgotten Books whatwasthatbook.livejournal.com; 6/20/2012

- Ebook Community Wattpad Raises $17.3M, Claims Higher Engagement Than PInterest connect people around ebooks and texts, but also to involve them in the creation process. Users can post their works as they develop, getting feedback and asking users where the story should go next; 6/6/2012

- New Social eBooks Retailer Zola Books Launches Private Beta, Raises $1M From Prominent Authors remediation; recommendations; 6/5/2012

- Direct-To-Fan Done Right: Indy Romance Ebook Club Seduces Readers With Extras 4/12/2012

- Subtext: E-reading app makes reading social, and does it well 11/10/2011

- Kobo’s New App Lets You See Who’s Reading With You 9/27/2011

- Four social-media sites for bookworms (Goodreads; LibraryThing; Shelfari; Booklamp); 8/29/2011

- What If Every eBook Was Its Own Social Network? 5/20/2011

- E-Book Lending Takes Off (book clubs); 3/22/2011

- The New Coffee Bars: Unplug, Drink, Go 8/25/2010

- No E-Books Allowed in This Establishment 8/2/2010

- Table Disservice (no ebooks in NYC indep cafes); 2/3/2010

- BookCrossing.com find books, share books, and meet fellow book lovers

- Ashland Mystery Readers Group

E-books: Newspapers, Magazines, Journalism

- "It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper." ~Jerry Seinfeld

- "Newspapers: dead trees with information smeared on them." ~Horizon, "Electronic Frontier"

- print newspapers and magazines are struggling due to declining readership (digital availability, preference), declining advertising revenue, and unpopular paywalls & subscription plans

- value of community vs. personalized news

- journalism vs. blogging

- what is "news"? article updates

- See also: Libraries: Journals

- How magazines will be changed forever Like Newsweek, almost all magazines will eventually go purely electronic. Physical magazines have start and finish; they give a sense of completion. Digital formats lack edges and boundaries; it's harder for readers to focus. Until digital magazines make it easier to stop, there will be nostalgia for print; 10/21/2012

- Did The Daily Beast Eat Newsweek? Why Most Publishers Opt for 'the Straddle' -- If They Can Afford It; Straddle = using the prestige of the print brand and the old-media cash flow to fund investments in digital; 10/22/2012

- Mastering the art of disruptive innovation in journalism 10/17/2012

- Newsweek Will Cease Print Publication at End of Year 10/18/2012

- Don’t Read Too Much into Newsweek’s Digital Retreat weekly news magazines have unique challenges; 10/18/2012

- What The Guardian really thinks about newsprint 10/17/2012

- Switching consumers to digital books is hard enough — get ready for magazines paper magazines are still pretty good; 10/15/2012

- Chicago Tribune Launches Ebook Initiative - but L.A. Times Opts Out digital "long form" from articles; 10/11/2012

- Pew study: News consumption up via mobile, social media 9/27/2012

- Magazines Don’t Have a Digital Problem, They Have a Bundling Problem 8/13/2012

- Wondering How Far Magazines Must Fall NYT:Carr; newsweeklies; 8/12/2012

- Times Co. Said to Reach Preliminary Deal to Sell About.com 8/8/2012

- Time Inc.’s New Chief Rethinks Magazines for a Digital Audience 7/29/2012

- The newsonomics of Amazon vs. Main Street The online retail giant’s shift into same-day delivery will change local retail. Will it also change local news? (retail advertising); 7/26/2012

- When WSJ Flunks Internet History, Blogs Step In To Educate 7/23/2012

- What’s next for newspapers? 'farm it' (keep doing what you do today as well as you can); 'milk it' (accept inevitable decline, but reduce costs); 'feed it' (leverage waning strengths, and invest aggressively); 7/11/2012

- Transfer of Value: Traditional newspapers that move online are about to lose the war against pure players and aggregators 7/8/2012

- If Newspapers Had Never Offered Free News Online... They Would Still Be Failing building communities; 6/27/2012

- Recognizing the critical value of a daily newspaper's journalism 6/24/2012

- How Accurate Were Minority Report’s Technology Precogs?: E-Newspapers 2002 movie; 6/21/2012

- Visualized: Swiss newspaper goes digital, prints front page in binary ;-) 6/9/2012

- The Undoing of the Daily: Newspapers Cut Days From Publishing Week 30% of cost: ink, printing and delivery; 6/3/2012

- Don't Mean To Be Alarmist, But The TV Business May Be Starting To Collapse newspaper analogy; 6/3/2012

- Why we need to blow the article up in order to save it the article should sometimes be separated into its component parts / assets (background, photos, etc.) in order to be more useful; 5/30/2012

- New Orleans Newspaper Scales Back in Sign of Print Upheaval 3 days/week; staff reductions; 5/25/2012

- Why Publishers Don't Like Apps future of media on mobile devices isn't with applications but with the Web; 5/7/2012

- Another Big Newspaper Says Digital Ads Shrank Last Quarter Washington Post; 5/4/2012

- Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter? sports and finance; Narrative Science; 4/24/2012

- Death knell hasn't tolled newspapers transforming; whoneedsnewspapers.org; Varble; 4/15/2012

- Newspapers Pollute Less On E-Readers and Tablets Adopting e-readers could reduce GHG emissions from publishing and distributing newspapers by 74 percent; using tablet computers could result in a 63 percent reduction; RAND [.pdf]; 4/2012

- A Newspaper, and a Legacy, Reordered (Washington Post); 2/12/2012

- Could e-books be a game-changer for 2012 Presidential candidates? (faster, targeted, personalized); 11/25/2011

- The Book World Is Changing: Mark Cuban Creates A Best Seller Out Of Some Blog Posts 12/03/2011

- British Library newspaper archive puts 300 years of history online 11/29/2011

- Turning the Page: SOU newspaper becomes online-only; The Siskiyou 11/21/2011

- The New, Convoluted Life Cycle Of A Newspaper Story 11/18/2011

- Newspapers’ Digital Apostle (MediaNews' John Patton preparing for a world without print); 11/14/2011

- HP Wants You to Print Magazines with Your Home Printer So You Can Waste More Paper and Buy More Ink 10/12/2011

- One Way To Boost Newspapes Sales? Write A Story That Someone Will Try To Hide By Buying Up All The Copies 10/03/2011

- In E-Books, Publishers Have Rivals: News Sites 9/19/2011

- The New York Times imagines the kitchen table of the future 8/2011

- Newspapers and social media: Still mostly doing it wrong 7/1/2011

- What does the journalism of the future look like? 6/13/2011

- USA Today rewrites strategy to cope with Internet 3/23/2011

- End Times: Can America’s paper of record survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism? Atlantic article about NYT; 1/2009

E-books: Subscriptions, Paywalls

- early Internet experiments led to ongoing reader expectations of free information

- difficult to introduce paywalls and digital subcriptions later

- some publishers offer free digital access with paid print subscription

- bundling of multiple titles; free eReader?

- some sites offer free access via search engines; some block search engines

- Wikipedia: paywall

- Digital subscriptions up 11 percent at New York Times company, but revenue slips 10/25/2012

- Globe and Mail Publisher Phillip Crawley on the paper’s paywall plans 10/16/2012

- Another Failed Paywall Bites The Dust; Daily Variety Goes Free 10/15/2012

- Gannett announces rise in circulation revenue, driven by paywalls 10/15/2012

- Murdoch’s Times unblocks search engines to seek new subscribers 9/26/2012

- The Return Of Dumb Ideas: A Broadband Tax To Save Failing Newspapers UK £2 tax; 9/24/2012

- USA Today unveils page-turning digital revamp digital content still free-of-charge; 9/13/2012

- Does Setting Up A Paywall Suddenly Make Your Readers Erudite & Intellectual vs. Crass & Tacky? 8/29/2012

- NYTimes Now Makes More Money From Readers Than From Advertisers... But Mostly Because Advertisers Are Fleeing 7/31/2012

- The Daily Lays Off a Third of Its Staff News Corp on iPad; 7/31/2012

- New York Times’ circulation revenue lags growth in digital subscriptions 7/27/2012

- Financial Times: Our Digital Subscribers Now Outnumber Print, And Digital Is Half Of The FT’s Revenue 7/27/2012

- Buffett Says Free News Unsustainable, May Add More Papers 5/24/2012

- New York Times sees higher circulation numbers, digital paywall smiles knowingly 5/1/2012

- Wall Street Journal remains No. 1 US newspaper more readers purchased digital subscriptions; 5/1/2012

- Farewell, App Store? Netizine Turns Magazines Into Social Networks, Runs On HTML5 more social than FlipBoard; 4/11/2012

- Digital magazine sales double in 2011; print still dominates 3/29/2012

- New York Times Further Restricts Free Access 3/20/2012

- The Search for a New Business Model: How Newspapers are Faring Trying to Build Digital Revenue; 3/5/2012

- Dear Big Newspapers: Keep Putting Up Silly Paywalls And Clear The Internet Field For Us 'Newcomers' (Gannett; LA Times); 3/2/2012

- WSJ Pulls Back On What Google Searchers Can Read For Free 2/25/2012

- Newsstand in iOS 5 Fueling Growth of New Magazine Subscriptions 12/23/2011

- A Shopper’s Companion, Still Going Strong (after 75 years, Consumer Reports get more revenue from digital subscriptions than from print -- without losing print subscribers); 12/11/2011

- Hearst's Carey talks digital (400,000 e-subscriptions); 12/1/2011

- How Google is Quietly Experimenting in New Ways for Readers to Access Publishers' Content ("survey wall"); 10/31/2011

- Newsstand app brings Condé Nast 268% boom in subscription sales on iPad 10/26/2011

- New York Times Paywall Helps it Turn a Profit (Q3 2011) 10/20/2011

- Planning a paywall? Maybe you should sell some e-books instead 10/11/2011

- Why Fortune’s Apple Story is AWOL From The Web – And Why You Can Buy It On Amazon 5/9/2011

- How to Work Around the New York Times’ 20-Article-per-Month Paywall 3/28/2011

- The Easiest Way to Cheat the New York Times Paywall Still Works3/28/2011

- Google's First Click Free program

E-books: Tablets, Mobile

- Amazon Kindle Fire users read more newspapers and magazines than Apple iPad users 10/17/2012

- Circa wants to rethink the way we consume the news on a sub-atomic level breaking down the traditional story format into its component parts; the news has become more of a process than an artifact, with multiple reports from different sources, updates, social links and other elements added over time; 10/15/2012

- Circa wants to save journalism by killing articles — what’s wrong and right about that 10/15/2012

- An App for Couch Potatoes With Places to Go TV Guide Mobile: watch shows, chat and share with friends, discover new shows, keep up with favorite actors; 8/30/2012

- Introducing the Macworld Digital Magazine Enhanced iPad Edition video clips, slideshows, and other multimedia elements; 8/30/2012

- Pulse Comes To The Web (With A Little Help From Microsoft) 8/9/2012

- The New Yorker Lands on the iPhone 8/7/2012

- All-you-can-read magazine service comes to iPad in Next Issue 7/10/2012

- New York Post Pivots On iPad Strategy, Dropping Paywall no quota, no longer blocking Safari; 6/19/2012

- How The Telegraph Monetized its iPad App 6/19/2012

- A Buffet of Magazines on a Tablet Next Issue app; $10/month for 27 magazines; 4/12/2012

- Finally, a Reason to Read Magazines on a Tablet "Netflix for Magazines"; 4/3/2012

- Mad Magazine: Alfred E. Newman Lands on the iPad 4/2/2012

- How Licensing and Hardware Bottlenecks Confound Magazine Text on the iPad 4/2/2012

- Yahoo Challenges Apple with a Cocktail of Mobile Publishing Tools (Livestand); 1/26/2012

- Buy A 1-Year Nook NYT Subscription, Get The Nook Free 1/9/2012

- Zite (builds magazine with articles from around the Web); 1/5/2012

- Google Currents: Publishing Platform to Marry Magazines and Mobile 12/8/2011

- All the news that is fit for your smartphone or tablet (News360, Instpaper, PulseNews, Zinio, Flipboard); 11/26/2011

- Study: 46% of iPad, e-reader owners reading more magazines 11/21/2011

- Apple’s Newsstand a Huge Success for Digital Publishers 10/26/2011

- Pew: How People Use Tablets and What It Means for the Future of News 10/25/2011

- Apple’s Newsstand: Wait for 2.0 10/24/2011

- Up close with iOS 5: Newsstand; iOS 5’s Newsstand Is More Awesome than You Think 10/13/2011

- A (paper) Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work (for 1 yr old) [video; 1:25]; 10/6/2011

- Philadelphia papers court subscribers with $99 Android tablet 9/12/2011

- Been there, done that: Private label newspaper tablets make no sense 8/9/2011

- For New Yorker on iPad, Words Are the Thing 8/1/2011

- How a news junkie uses the iPad 6/14/2011

- Pulp Brings the Experience of Reading a Newspaper to RSS Feeds on Your iPad (and Mac) 6/13/2011

- Apple tries to tighten its grip on media with Newsstand 6/6/2011

- Jann Wenner: Magazines' Rush to iPad Is 'Sheer Insanity and Insecurity and Fear' 5/30/2011

- Will iPad & Tablets Be Our Sunday Paper? 4/10/2011

- Wall Street Journal offering single issue downloads for the iPad 3/23/2011

- iPad vs. Newspaper, Fly-Swatting Edition 9/10/2010

Table of Contents

OLLI Course: E-books

E-books: Why?

E-books: History

E-books: General Trends

E-books: Tablets and eReaders

E-books: Features

E-books: Formats

E-books: Comparisons

E-books: Google Books

E-books: iPad

E-books: iPad: iBooks and Newsstand apps

E-books: iPad: eReader apps

E-books: iPad: other book apps

E-books: Kindle

E-books: Kobo

E-books: Nook

E-books: OverDrive

E-books: Other Devices

E-books: Future

E-books: Publishing Business

E-books: Pricing: General

E-books: Price Fixing, Monopoly

E-books: Censorship, Inequality

E-books: Copyright, DRM (Digital Rights Management), Piracy

E-books: Authors

E-books: Writing

E-books: Self-Publishing

E-books: Royalties, Selling

E-books: Applications and Services

E-books: Gallery. Creating E-Books

E-books: Bookstores

E-books: Online Bookstores

E-books: Amazon

E-books: Apple

E-books: Barnes & Noble

E-books: Google

E-books: Kobo

E-books: Libraries

E-books: Academia & Journals

E-books: Lending

E-books: Online Libraries

E-books: Library Censorship

E-books: Learning, School, Textbooks

E-books: Textbook Pricing, Rental

E-books: Textbook Open Source

E-books: Textbook Apple

E-books: Textbook Examples

E-books: Children

E-books: Reference: Manuals, Cooking, Other

E-books: Fiction, Literature

E-books: Book Clubs, Social

E-books: Newspapers, Magazines, Journalism

E-books: Subscriptions, Paywalls

E-books: Tablets, Mobile