A Spanish translation of Mein Kampf has been launched at the App Store, observers note. Written in the 1920s by Adolf Hitler, the book is both an autobiography and a charter of the fascist, anti-Semitic policies that would come to guide the Third Reich. No other version of the book is available as a standalone app, and its icon is the Nazi Party emblem, complete with swastika.
TimeStream on Wednesday announced a new series of digital books, Notescasts, designed to be read from an iPod classic and iPod nano. The e-books are installed using the "Notes" feature available on a variety of iPods. Many of the books contain several hundred pages of text, along with color pictures.
While the iPhone platform has proven attractive to game developers, e-books have begun to dominate the latest apps, according to data collected by Flurry. From August 2008 to August 2009, most of the new apps were released into the Games category. Starting in September, however, the Books category took the lead for the first time in the App Store's history.
Norway's Consumer Council, Forbrukerrĺdet, has spoken out against Amazon's terms-of-service regarding e-books purchased on the Kindle, as detailed in a post on the Council's website. The group's director, Hans Marius Graasvold, claims several points in the e-book agreement violate Norwegian consumer-rights laws.
A deal signed by a start-up company supports the notion that e-books will be a focus of Apple's forthcoming tablet, claims the Chicago Sun-Times's Andy Ihnatko. The columnist recently spoke with the CEO of LongBox, a business working on a digital storefront for selling the latest editions of comic books. Most comic books sold online come from older archives, limiting their appeal.
Amazon on Tuesday evening dropped the price of its Kindle 2 reading device by $40, bringing it down to $259, while offering a new Kindle with global wireless access for a $20 premium. Amazon says the combo US/International version uses GSM technology for coverage in over 100 countries, but that US customers traveling abroad will be charged an additional $1.99 fee for wirelessly downloading books or single issues of periodicals from "your Archived Items or the Kindle store while roaming internationally." A $4.99 fee applies for newspaper, magazine, and blog subscription content, while the company will charge $0.99 per megabyte (MB) for transferred personal documents.
The proposed settlement between Google and various publishing groups has been delayed while both sides attempt to renegotiate new terms, according to the New York Times. The settlement hearing was originally scheduled for October 7th, but US District Court Judge Denny Chin delayed the proceedings indefinitely.
iRiver has set a local price for its e-book reader, the Story, which is now available to pre-order for Korean buyers. The device carries a price of 358,000 KRW (~290 USD) directly from the company. The package includes a 2GB SD card, folding case, and two free book downloads.
Sony on Thursday announced that, by the end of the year, it will convert all of the content on its eBook Store to the industry-standard EPUB format. Material will typically be copy-protected using Adobe Content Server 4. Sony's Reader was the first e-book device to support the XML-based EPUB, and Sony executives now claim that specific DRM formats limit overall growth in the e-book industry. Owners of other e-book readers should be able to cross-shop for titles through Sony.
Through a new application, a large publisher of educational e-books is making its library available on the iPhone and iPod touch. CourseSmart notes that over 7,000 titles should be now accessible, though only to anyone already paying desktop subscription costs. Book rentals typically last 180 days, and cost roughly 50 percent of a print edition's value.
(Updated with Apple response) Apple is now taking an extremely strict stance towards iPhone apps with third-party content, reports say. In submitting new e-book applications, at least two developers claim they have been dismissed summarily. "This category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing upon third party rights," one rejection notice is said to read. "We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store."
Apple does not have any interest in building an e-book store, at least at the moment, an anonymous industry source claims. Speculation has arisen because of reports documenting an upcoming tablet device, generally expected to measure 10 inches and carry a built-in 3G connection. Regardless of whether or not the tablet supports e-ink technology, it could represent competition for Amazon's dominant Kindle readers.
Iconology has released a new comic book application for the iPhone and iPod touch, Comics by comiXology. The program delivers a store, library and reader, with over 100 titles for users to choose from. A guided view allows an entire comic to be displayed onscreen, in a format that preserves a work's original layout. Users can also locate and connect with local retailers through the app, in order to purchase printed comics.
Amazon is almost ready to set a UK release date for the Kindle, claims Mobile. Manufacturing responsibilities for a UK Kindle are said to be going to Qualcomm, who is also allegedly responsible for finding a regional cellular carrier. One of the selling points of the American Kindle is free EVDO data, supplied by Sprint, which lets users download books and browse the web.
The New York Times is now deeply involved in investigating electronic concepts, says Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab. The newspaper's research and development group is exploring a variety of options in place of print, which is losing an increasing amount of money as subscribers cancel in favor of reading via the Internet. Among the key technologies for the R&D group is e-ink, as used in e-book readers from Amazon, Sony and others. Particular interest is being directed at flexible displays, which are said to have had "breakthroughs" in the past six months that could result in more pliable circuitboards.
Readdle has released a v1.1.1 update to ReaddleDocs, its file management application for iPhones and iPod touches. The software enables users to copy files to Apple handhelds, view them while mobile, and engage in limited sharing with others; the app is particularly focused on the concept of e-books. The updated software lets users copy over documents from WebDAV-services, such as MobileMe iDisk, Box.Net, and FilesAnywhere. These in turn can be viewed offline or e-mailed to others.
A book-reading app for the iPhone is proving to be more popular than Amazon's own dedicated e-book hardware, Forbes observes. Stanza, a free app which lets users download public-domain books to their iPhones, is currently believed to have been downloaded over 395,000 times, with approximately 5,000 more copies being distributed daily, according to developer Lexcycle. Banking firm Citigroup, meanwhile, is predicting that the Amazon Kindle will only have sold 380,000 units in 2008, despite having been available the entire year.
There’s no shortage of reading material on the Internet. While many organizations, such as Project Gutenberg, offer free books that are no longer copyrighted (such as the plays of William Shakespeare or religious works such as the Bible), most of these e-books consist of plain ASCII text files. Finding these free e-books can take time and reading them through a word processor can be clumsy since you can’t always save bookmarks or change formatting easily. To solve these two problems of finding and reading free e-books, try Voluminous.
French telecom company Orange has announced a new e-book reader, entitled the Read&Go. While most such readers -- like the Kindle -- are meant to be universal devices, Orange's machine concentrates almost exclusively on newspapers, namely Le Monde, Le Parisien, Les Echos, L'Equipe and Télérama. These are updated hourly throughout the day, through the unusual offering of both 3G and Wi-Fi reception. By contrast the Kindle is only equipped with 3G, and strictly through Sprint's EVDO service.
The Kindle handheld is doing extremely well, claims Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Speaking in a quarterly earnings call, Bezos has described the e-book reader as "outpacing our expectations," doing so well in fact that it is causing manufacturing problems. The company is scrambling to increase the number of Kindles produced each week, with the eventual goal of having a Kindle ready for immediate shipment after ordering. Customers must currently enter a waiting line.
