Jul 10
A federal judge today ruled that Apple is guilty of violating antitrust law by conspiring with major publishers to raise e-book prices.
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Jun 27
Come on now, why are you wasting your time here, when you could be reading some Gossip Girl fan fic? Roughly a month after announcing its licensed character publishing platform, Amazon has taken the wraps off of Kindle Worlds. The site currently offers up 50-plus commissioned stories based on properties like The Vampire Diaries, Valiant Comics titles, and yes, Gossip Girl. Worlds’ Self-Service Submission Platform is open to the public as well, letting interested parties make some cash (up to 35-percent royalties) by putting their fan fiction up on the site. Stories are largely priced between $1 and $4. You can take a gander in the source link below, to make some sweet Gossip Girl of your own.
Filed under: Amazon
Source: Kindle Worlds
Jun 26
Last summer, Sony’s PRS-T2 e-reader was leaked when it visited the FCC, and was available for pre-order a week ahead of its official launch. Therefore, it’s with a sense of deja-vu that we tell you that Sony’s annual update, the PRS-T3, has now passed through the FCC’s hallowed halls and been deemed fit for human consumption. There’s not much we can glean from the documents, except to say that it’s got a 3.6Wh battery, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and will probably be available in stores about a month or two from now.
Update: The folks over at The Digital Reader have found some official photos of the new device, which we’ve added above and below the fold.
Filed under: Sony
Source: FCC
Jun 25
Barnes and Noble posts $119 million loss in Q4 2013, will partner with third party on future Nook tablets
Posted in: Today's Chili
Barnes and Noble has not had an easy go of it. The brick-and-mortar stalwart has seen its revenues and profits steeply decline as we’ve entered the age of the e-book. In fact, profits haven’t just shrunk; they’ve disappeared. During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013, the company suffered a net loss of $118.6 million, down significantly from the already poor showing it posted in 2012 when it lost $56.9 million in Q4. For the year, that put Barnes and Noble’s losses at $154.8 million — more than double what it lost in 2012. Revenues have dropped both at retail outlets and its Nook digital business by $105 million and $56 million, respectively year-over-year. For its e-reader and ebook arm, that represents a 34 percent drop from Q4 2012. The bad news there is that device sales have declined dramatically and, while content sales were up for the year, in the fourth quarter they fell by 8.9 percent. Barnes and Noble attributes the year-over-year fall in sales to be attributed to the lack of blockbuster titles. In Q4 2012 revenues were boosted by juggernauts like Fifty Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games.
Going forward Barnes and Noble wants to significantly cut its losses on the struggling Nook business. To do that the company will be partnering with an as yet unnamed third party to manufacture and co-brand its tablet line. The Nook line of e-readers will continue to be designed and built in-house, but the retailer will be looking beyond its Manhattan office walls for help with the flailing Nook HD line. Existing products will be supported for the foreseeable future, however, so don’t go tossing your Robert Brunner-designed slate in the trash just yet. If you’d like more detail, check out the PR after the break.
Filed under: Tablets
Jun 13
Apple’s Eddy Cue acknowledges e-book price increases at antitrust trial, reveals talk of Amazon deal that would split books/music control
Posted in: Today's Chili
The issue of e-book prices, and alleged price fixing, has come up again and again in recent years, with the focus most recently shifting to a Manhattan courtroom where Apple is at the center of an antitrust trial. After revealing new details of the company’s market share yesterday, Apple’s Eddy Cue has today offered another piece of surprising news: that he and Steve Jobs once discussed a potential deal that would see Apple stay out of the ebook market if Amazon agreed stayed out of music. There’s no indication that went beyond the early discussion phase, or actually involved any discussions with Amazon, but it would obviously raise considerable antitrust questions had it gone any further.
As CNET and The Verge report, the DOJ is hoping that revelation will bolster its case that Apple engaged in antitrust practices to inflate ebook prices across the market. On that front, Cue, who the DOJ describes as the “chief ringleader of the conspiracy,” reportedly acknowledged that the prices of some ebooks did go up from April of 2010 (when it opened its iBookstore) through to 2012, but he attributed that to publishers unhappy with Amazon’s $9.99 pricing. Cue’s facing further questioning from Apple’s attorneys this afternoon, with the trial expected to wrap up by the end of next week.
Filed under: Apple
Jun 13
Apple director Keith Moerer said in court on Tuesday that the company holds about 20 percent of the US e-book market, double the size commonly assumed. The revelation came after the Department of Justice tried to bolster its price fixing case against the company by asserting that “Apple forgot to focus on customers, that’s why the iBookstore is a failure.” Moerer responded that the online store has consistently held a 20 percent share since just after launching, adding that “sales grew 100 percent last year at the iBookstore and it had over 100 million customers.” The government will continue trying to prove that Apple colluded with publishers like Macmillan and Harper Collins — who settled out of court — with testimony later today from Senior VP Eddy Cue.
Filed under: Apple
Via: paidContent
Source: Publishers Weekly
Jun 11
Barnes and Noble axes Nook PC, Mac apps, directs you to Nook for Web instead
Posted in: Today's Chili
Barnes and Noble has been quietly erasing all mentions of its Nook for PC and Mac, but now we have the first official confirmation that both are no more. An official statement, reported by The Digital Reader, says that the company is no longer supporting software for Windows 2000/XP/Vista or Mac OS X, and is directing users to switch to Nook for Web in its place. That, or you could always help prop up the company’s brick-and-mortar operations by purchasing some of these.
Filed under: Desktops
Source: The Digital Reader
Jun 10
Apple brings iBooks to the Mac
Posted in: Today's Chili
iBooks has been limited to iOS devices for the past three years, but that’s changing today: as of OS X Mavericks, Apple is bringing its reading app to the Mac. The software preserves all the features of its mobile counterparts, including highlights, notes and textbooks. Naturally, you can shop for books from the app as well. Apple only gave us a brief preview of iBooks at WWDC, but we can already say it’s a more than welcome update for those who don’t stop reading just because they’re at their desks.
Follow our liveblog for all of the latest news from WWDC 2013.
Gallery: WWDC 2013: Apple iBooks
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Tablets, Software, Apple
Source: Apple
Jun 07
Amazon’s Kindle comes to China: Paperwhite for $138, Fire HD for $244 (16GB) or $293 (32GB)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Amazon launched its Kindle e-book platform into China last Christmas, but locals looking to get their mitts on the company’s hardware had to look, ahem, elsewhere. Fortunately for everyone but grey market importers, Amazon has released the non-cellular Paperwhite and the two 7-inch Kindle Fire HD tablets to the nation. Our colleagues over at Engadget Chinese have added that as well as being able to buy the devices from Amazon’s local site, users will be able to pick up the units at Suning and Shi Tesco stores across the mainland. The Paperwhite is marked up at 849 yuan ($138), with the Kindle Fire priced at 1499 yuan ($244) for the 16GB edition and 1799 yuan ($293) for 32GB.
Via: Engadget Chinese (Translated)
Source: Amazon China (Translated)
Jun 06
Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store has offered short-form works much like those we’ve seen from Amazon’s Kindle Shorts section, but they haven’t really been a highlight. The company’s new Nook Snaps program may give those quick reads their time to shine, however. The effort will see Barnes & Noble publish three to five original shorts every other month at $2 a piece. While the bookseller is leaning on existing titles to fill out the initial catalog, it hopes that the steady supply of original material will keep us coming back.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Barnes & Noble
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