Hasta La Gadget!

Child’s 50-year-old classic will launch as an ebook this week

When it comes to media, these days I’m pretty much all digital, all the time. Books, TV, movies, music — nothing sinks into my brain without first running through an iPad or a Kindle. But in one area, I’m as much of a Luddite as my friend Jimmy (who “doesn’t believe in GPS”): cook books.

Why? Paper books are still way easier to browse than electronic. They’re also more resilient to splashes. And I must admit that even thought I’m not a “page sniffer” like Jimmy, I still like the physical nature of a pile of cookbooks. Maybe its because it signals to guests that I take cooking seriously.

But as with everything, cookbooks will end up on Kindles and iPads. This week, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking will launch in electronic form. The publisher — Alfred A. Knopf — has tried to digitize the classic 1961 text once before, but internal politics and layout problems led to the project’s cancellation.

Child’s famous book isn’t the first electronic cookbook, of course. It’s not even the first of Child’s books to make it to the Kindle. But as a loved classic, it signals the final stage in the conversion of books from print to e-ink (or LCD screens).

It also highlights one of the big problems with bringing old manuscripts into the modern age. Despite being in print since the 60s, the publisher has never had the book in electronic form. The entire 762 pages had to be retyped.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking will launch Wednesday, for $20.

Adapting Julia Child for E-Readers [NYT. Thanks, Mr.Abell!]

See Also:

• Japanese Book-Scanning Services Fueled by iPad, E-Readers …
• Amazon Adds Audio and Video to iOS Kindle Apps

Frankly, we’d advise against crossing anyone given to costumed superheroics, but a policy is a policy. Book selling giant Barnes & Noble has begun pulling select DC Comics from store shelves this week, in response to a deal struck between the publisher and Amazon, which will make digital copies of a number of comics exclusively available through the online retailer for use with the forthcoming Kindle Fire. The move is part of Barnes & Noble’s policy to remove physical books from its shelves if the available digital version of the text is not offered up to the company. According to an exec, “To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms and not have the e-book available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.” J’onn J’onzz has yet to weigh in on the matter.

Barnes & Noble pulls DC Comics from shelves over Kindle kerfuffle, risks Martian Manhunter’s wrath originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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France is getting the Kindle! No, seriously, until now the land of baguettes and Nicolas Sarkozy has had to make do without the world’s most popular ebook reader. Starting today though, our French friends can pre-order a Kindle (no touch and no keyboard) for €99 and have access to over 825,000 titles from the newly launched Kindle store. The first French-language readers from Amazon will start shipping out on October 14th and, if you need some more details, you’ll find the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Amazon brings Kindle and associated ebook shop to France

Amazon brings Kindle and associated ebook shop to France originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Was it too cheap? Well, here’s some great news for fourth-generation Kindle users already tiring of its embedded ads looking cheap alongside their Vertu phones. You can now pay Amazon the requisite fee and unsubscribe from built-in advertising and offers. Visit the Manage your Kindle webpage and you can edit your subscriptions for the newest entry-level e-reader. There seems to be no option, however, to do the reverse just yet. Would Amazon hand over $30 to push those special offers into our currently ad-free Kindle?

Ad-supported Kindle 4 has built-in $30 “upgrade”, gets rid of embedded special offers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in the early ’90s, a certain Mr. Vandross and Ms. Jackson serenaded us with a little ditty on the benefits of free goods. Well, it might be time they updated the track because the best things in this eReading life are no longer free over a carrier’s 3G. If you happened to grow accustomed to sucking down data on your AT&T- or Sprint-enabled Kindle keyboard, we’d advise you to hold off on that newly introduced upgrade. An Amazon rep lurking the web retailer’s forums this past weekend delivered the disheartening news that experimental browsing over 3G on the Kindle Touch would no longer be supported. Sure, you can still connect to WiFi and surf via the clumsy E Ink browser, but where’s the on-the-go, loophole-exploiting fun in that? Bookworms with a predilection for an interwebbed free lunch should cling tightly to their outdated eReaders.

Amazon puts the kibosh on Kindle Touch 3G’s experimental browsing free ride originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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