Book publishers have reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over the e-book price fixing ring of which Apple was allegedly kingpin. That settlement is great news, because it means we’ll be able to buy cheaper e-books really soon. More »
Singularity & Co aims to rescue near-extinct 20th century sci-fi titles to ensure they still exist in the next one. Established from a Kickstarter campaign, the small team has already digitized and published A Plunge Into Space and The Torch, both with new cover art, while its third title required a thousand-mile journey to scan its contents from a university archive. While Mr. Stranger’s Sealed Packet is out of copyright, many education establishments weren’t willing to let anyone scan its edition of such rare books. Talking to Ars Technica, Ash Kalb added: “If you’re part of that university or that consortium then you have access to that book. If you don’t then you don’t.” The republishing group, which ensures it doesn’t tread on any existing copyright toes, also offers up a better deal to authors and author estates, in addition to reviving interest in long-gone books. Singularity and Co’s now opened its bricks-and-mortar doors in Brooklyn, or you grab more details and updates on their progress at the source below.
New York bookshop launches rescue mission to digitize out-of-print sci-fi titles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Skeptical of a little e-book you’ve never heard of that has 28 five-star reviews on Amazon? You should be. Turns out in many cases, the authors are paying for reviews. More »
If you’ve ever been so embroiled in a chat or sharing splurge that you’ve been told to “take it off of Twitter,” you now can — sort of. Twitter co-creators Biz Stone and Ev Williams have launched Branch and Medium, two companion services that (naturally) use a Twitter sign-in but narrow the focus to just a few subjects. As the name suggests, Branch lets especially vocal Twitter users invite others into conversations that don’t clutter everyone’s feeds or cut replies off at the 140-character limit. Medium? Think of it as Pinterest turned publishing platform: members can publish either a static collection of favorite articles and media, for reading and rating, or leave it open for more collaborative efforts. There’s no rush to open the floodgates to the invitation-only portals, though. Stone and Williams see the quietness of their new services as an antidote to the madness of regular social streams, and we can’t help but sympathize.
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Twitter founders create Branch and Medium to keep the conversations, collections flowing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There’s a little-known stipulation in Amazon’s 3G browsing, available primarily on their e-ink devices. Ostensibly, downloading items over 3G is completely free but browsing the web using the device’s weird and slow experimental interface is capped at 50MB. Most users have never hit that cap and there haven’t been many reports of actual notifications.
That’s recently changed. One user of the Kindle Keyboard 3G noticed the message when he was browsing the web in Canada. He received a message that said he could only browse Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and the Kindle Store. Wi-Fi access was unaffected.
In the terms of use, Amazon notes:
This could be a reaction to folks tethering their Kindles, resulting in a tragedy of the commons effect where some users are using a piddling amount of data while others are blowing out Amazon’s allocations in a few hours.
Now that the legal dust has settled and Google’s publishing woes in ‘ol Gaul have been swept under the rug, it’s back to business as usual. Starting today, the land of Jerry Lewis lovers will have access to books on Google Play, making it the fifth European country to participate in Mountain View’s online ebook store. Initially, the available catalog of domestic titles will count in the “hundreds” — a sizable library that will surely grow as publishers grow comfortable with the Play ecosystem and more deals are struck — and is supplemented by existing arrangements with international publishers. So, if you always meant to brush up on your Flaubert or Fifty Shades of Grey, well, now’s your chance La France. Official PR after the break.
Continue reading Google Play Books starts a new chapter in France
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Google Play Books starts a new chapter in France originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 02:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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