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All posts tagged "ebooks"


Friday, July 8, 2011

Read Your eBooks Where You Want, When You Want

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 02:00 PM

http://lifehacker.com/5818038/hamst...between-devices

"You may remember Hamster Soft's drag and drop video converter, which we've mentioned before. Their new eBook converter is very similar: drag and drop an eBook onto the app, select the destination device or file format, and click convert. The app also supports batch file conversions from multiple formats."

Whether you have a Kindle, Nook or iPad, eBooks are a great way to pass the time and there are an increasingly wide range of options to get your reading love. The problem is that not all eReaders are equal, and you can find yourself in a situation where you absolutely must read every Harry Potter book now that its gone digital, but find that your eReader spits it back out as if it were Twilight. Being able to convert your eBooks might be handy, but just be aware that if you got anything to read that is DRM-laden, your optoins may be limited.


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

eBooks Outsell Print Books at Amazon

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 12:30 PM

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,281...,2385592,00.asp

"In July 2010, Amazon announced that sales of electronic books for its Kindle e-book reader surpassed sales of hardcover books on the site. Six months later, sales of Kindle books surpassed that of paperbacks. Now, customers are downloading Kindle books more than hardcovers and paperbacks combined."

The writing was on the wall. As technology improved and eReaders such as the Kindle offered at least an adequate reading experience, the draw of eBooks would mean that they would eventually outsell paper books. The ease of purchasing, the ability to carry libraries of books with you and the plethora of devices you can read your eBooks on certainly has its advantages. Of course, there is the classic argument that there is nothing quite like read a paper-bound book, and that is something I can appreciate. But in this digital age, it looks like the paper format will eventually become a niche market. Unfortunately, I see that means that paperbacks and especially hardcovers will likely increase in price as publishers print smaller numbers.

Tags: amazon, kindle, ebooks

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Google announces eBookstore

Posted by Andy Dixon in "Digital Home Talk" @ 08:30 AM

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2...e-to-launch.ars

"We expected Google to launch its upcoming e-book store before the end of the year, and the company announced Monday that the new Google eBookstore is now open for business in the US. Google is touting the "open" nature of its e-books by making them accessible to the widest array of popular e-reader devices, including the iPad, Nook, and Sony Reader. Google's new eBookstore works a little differently than other stores-at least when it comes to reading via computer. All purchased titles are kept in Google's cloud-based storage and accessed via a browser. When reading via an iOS or Android-based device, a dedicated app can download and cache titles for reading offline. And for devices compatible with Adobe's DRM-protected e-book formats-including Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook-PDF or EPUB files can be downloaded and transferred to your device using Adobe Editions software."

Googles move in to ebook market to compete with the likes of Kindle is no surprise. With the increasing market share of Android phones, and the new growth of Android tablets, this was a move that many expected Google to make. At the moment it isn't compatible with Kindle books, but Google do say they are open to doing this.


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The MyPadMedia Saga: Being Smart With Your Money

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Talk" @ 04:00 PM

http://www.geardiary.com/2010/05/03...are-mypadmedia/

"It sounds great..."Unlimited books and comics for your iPad!" But what is MyPadMedia? Well, it is a site that promises the holy grail to readers: pay them $50 ONCE, and the floodgates open for unlimited books. What books? Well, you need to pay to play, my friends. There's a testimonial that claims to have read "the whole twilight series", but if you want more you need to pony up some serious dough, sight unseen. From all appearances, it is a huge scam."

Talk about a crazy story! Here's where it started (from which I've pulled the quote above). Then the guys behind MyPadMedia got a little upset, and here's the story about that. And the final (so far) evolution of this story can be found here. The moral of this story? If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Buy your content from legitimate sources, and you'll know that your dollars are going toward the creative person who created that content - you're supporting their work. Turning to shady Web sites who promise you the world for a small fee isn't the way to go...good job Judie and Gear Diary team for standing up to these guys!


Sunday, March 7, 2010

Watch Out Amazon! The iPad Might Just be a Kindle Killer

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 03:00 PM

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-fea...e-reader-market

"“We took a close-up look at the budding e-Reader market and found the iPad is all but certain to have a transformational impact on it going forward. While a handful of e-Reader manufacturers - most prominently Amazon - clearly have a major head start, the survey findings show the iPad is poised to profoundly shake up this market,” explained Paul Carton, Director of Research at ChangeWave."

I for one hope that the iPad is able to put a good dent in Kindle's market. While I am not personally thrilled about the walled garden nature that the iPad offers, the Kindle really is no different. What is more important to me is that there are more large competitors in the ebook market. The problem I see with a single large distributor of ebooks, as convenient as it may be, is that that distributor would have a significant amount of say in what gets published. I recall hearing rumors of how Walmart, what was one of the largest CD distributors in the United States, could have lyrics or the content of CDs changed. Under the guise of being "family friendly" I can understand their rationale, but it means there's a controlling interest in what we are able to access. Sure, we have the Internet to access most anything we want, but when a publisher will only publish a certain version of an ebook because Amazon, or Apple, or whomever says so, I shudder.


Thursday, February 11, 2010

e-Book Prices Go Up. Will Sales Follow?

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 02:00 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/t...y/11reader.html

"When digital editions have cost more, or have been delayed until after the release of hardcover versions, these raucous readers have organized impromptu boycotts and gone to the Web sites of Amazon and Barnes & Noble to leave one-star ratings and negative comments for those books and their authors."

Just how much is a book worth? A thousand pictures? A thousand, thousand pictures? If publishers have any say, e-books will start costing up to $14.99. It is understandable, given the current economic climate, and CES demonstrating that there is a different e-book reader for every person. Readers do not seem to agree. If the music industry is to be any gauge, sales are going to suffer. When prices on iTunes went variable and hot songs started going for $1.29, sales slowed. The music industry claims that the market is maturing. Maybe the e-book market will mature earlier than expected as well! As an aside, there is one thing I need to get off my chest. While I will not dispute that there can be great value in books, I disagree with the concept that since e-books cost next to nothing to produce, they should cost next to nothing to buy. The cost of manufacturing something should only help determine the lowest possible price, not the value or selling price of something. If I were only to be paid the actual cost (in kilocalories?) of sitting at a desk, starting at a computer screen doing my job, it would be a pity pittance. Books are worth more than a few pennies. But are they really worth $14.99? How much would you pay for the latest Harry Potter, Twilight, or one of my favourites, "Where the Sidewalk Ends"?


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