By now, iPhone users who haven't jailbroken their devices have learned that they can't get an app unless it goes through Apple's approval process and reaches the iTunes App Store. A new eBook reader called Ibis, planned for iPhone, Android and Palm's WebOS, plans to get around Apple's restrictions. How? Simple: it's a web app. You can access the reader from your browser, and your books are stored offline using HTML5.

It doesn't seem like there's much Apple can do about that, unless they want to start blocking web apps on their device. Unlikely. So, you can enjoy your DRM-free books in ePub format to your heart's content, and even buy new ones from Ibis' bookstore. You'll be able to sync books and bookmarks across devices via the cloud, too. Ibis isn't launching for "several months," but it could be a real winner if it looks as good as it sounds.

[via Daring Fireball]

Amazon's Kindle might have some competition on its hands. Google has just announced a new e-book store called Google Editions, that will deliver books to any device with a web browser. Although Google isn't launching an e-reader device like the Kindle, it will support e-books that customers buy from stores like Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Google Editions is slated to launch in the first half of 2010.

This obviously won't hurt Amazon's e-book sales too much, but it might cut into sales of the Kindle. Why buy a really expensive device when you can read the same books on the devices you already have? From what we've seen in the past, though, Amazon is much more concerned with book sales than device sale. They did create the Kindle app for iPhone, after all. Also worth noting: Google's history with electronic versions of books isn't entirely a successful one. They're still resolving legal issues over Google Books, a project which has already scanned over 10 million books and made them searchable.

[via Mashable]

When Amazon.com removed copies of George Orwell's 1984 from users' Kindles, there was a big uproar over possible censorship. The irony that the book in question happened to be the most famous literary screed on surveillance since - well, since ever - only added fuel to the fire. The resulting backlash caused Amazon to promise never to snatch customers' purchases off their Kindles again, even if another book has to be pulled from the store for legal reasons. The promise came too late for one high school senior, though, who lost his copy of 1984 AND the study notes he had made on the book.

Now the student is trying to start up a class action against Amazon, suing for messing up the annotations he (and, presumably, at least a few other people) made on their digital copies of 1984. Amazon didn't actually delete his notes, but removing the book means that the notes don't refer back to any text, and renders them useless. The suit alleges that nothing in Amazon's terms of service for the Kindle covers the removal of users' purchases -- the license is supposed to be for life.

[via Wall Street Journal]

When Amazon created an iPhone app based on its popular e-reader device, the Kindle, it became clear that $10 books were as big or bigger than $400 readers in Amazon's business model. By allowing reading on other devices, Amazon has been able to make sales to customers who would never have bought a Kindle, and that's worked so well on the iPhone that other devices and book formats are now on the agenda.

According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the company looks at the ebook business and the gadget business as separate. Expanding to new devices isn't going to keep gadget-hungry consumers from buying a Kindle if they were planning to do it anyway, and plenty of customers who would never buy a Kindle might still buy a few books for their own devices. As for file formats, the Kindle already reads PDFs, but Bezos said other formats could be supported in the future. This may be one of the results we're seeing from Amazon's acquistion of Stanza, which supported formats that the Kindle doesn't yet.

Updated: At first, I thought that recent release of the Kindle Source Code might have something to do with developing for other platforms, but it was actually only done to comply with the Gnu Public License. Because the Kindle was built on some open-source GPL-licensed components, Amazon had to release the parts of the code that were modifications of those components. It unfortunately has nothing to do with enabling developers on other platforms to build apps that work with Kindle books.

Eucalyptus, a gorgeous eBook reader for the iPhone, was initially rejected from Apple's application store for the most absurd of reasons. See, Eucalyptus' extensive library of great literature comes from Project Gutenberg, an open source book project, and one of the books in Gutenberg's library is The Kama Sutra. Apple apparently objected to this during the review process, despite the fact that other approved readers like Stanza and Amazon's Kindle can also access the book. So can Apple's Safari browser, because Project Gutenberg's books are all available through its website.

Fortunately, this mistake didn't stop Eucalyptus from eventually making it into the app store, where it's now available for $9.99. Buying the app gets you an extremely slick UI, great page-turning animations, and an organization scheme for books that works a lot like iTunes does for music. I actually totally buy into the Eucalyptus marketing pitch, which is that, for the price of one book, you can have 20,000 books in a great-looking reader.

Amazon's Kindle app for iPhone is a great alternative to purchasing a pricey Kindle device when you've already invested in an iPhone, but it's still not quite as streamlined and easy-to-use.

Amazon seems to be changing that as quickly as it can, though, with the launch of an iPhone-optimized Kindle store. The new store still isn't part of Kindle itself, but it can be launched with the app's "get books" icon.

This seems like a small thing, but it's a big win for iPhone Kindle users, and possibly for Kindle book sales. As nice as it is to have your purchases delivered by WhisperNet to your iPod or iPhone, sometimes you're not at a computer, and trying to buy books from an iPhone in Safari was an aggravating experience until now.

Business Insider points out that Apple is planning new eCommerce features that iPhone developers will eventually have access to. Amazon might be able to use that to handle sales from within the app, making it even closer to the real Kindle experience.

That was fast! As soon as rumors started about a new, larger Kindle due from Amazon this week, the device appeared for pre-order on Amazon's front page. The Kindle DX has a 9.7" display that makes it suitable for reading PDFs and websites in their original layouts. As we predicted, Amazon is also pushing the DX as the ideal reader for newspapers and magazines.

The DX's screen orientation changes automatically, allowing you to turn it to widescreen for website viewing. At $489, it's quite a bit pricier than the regular Kindle, but its storage space is also more than twice that of the smaller device. No announcement on the textbook angle we were hearing about, but we'll wait and see what happens. We'll also wait and see what the DX does for newspaper readership. Can it boost the newspaper business in a way that the original Kindle couldn't, just by having a screen that might be big enough to do justice to newspaper layouts? Time will tell.

When you walk into a bricks and mortar book store, you can either pay the price the company is asking for the books, or decide that you can get a better deal and walk away. On the internet, you can just shop around from the comfort of your desk chair until you find the best price and click buy. But there's an even faster way.

Ebookprice.info is a web site that finds prices for a handful of popular eBook stories including Amazon, eBooks.com, and Powell's. I'll be honest. The web site is ugly. But it's functional. In a quick scan, I've found several titles that are going for $7.99 in one store and over $16 in another.

[via jkOnTheRun]

If you're starting to amass a large collection of eBooks, formatted for all kinds of different readers, Calibre might be just what you need to help organize them. It's a cross-platform app that can read and tag eBooks from Kindle 1 and 2, iPhone, and readers from Sony and Cybook. It can also convert text from all kinds of sources into eBook format, and function as its own server of sorts, so you can access your library online.

Calibre also looks great, with a display mode similar to the Cover Flow in iTunes -- can someone explain what's up with Cover Flow being so hot right now? -- and a more practical list mode that just shows cover images on the side. You can also edit or fill in information about your books from Calibre, to make sure your library is accurate and organized. Oh, and if you're a fan of the Stanza reader on the iPhone, Calibre's hosting feature makes your books accessible through that, too.

Google's Book Search already provides PDF download links for all the public domain title it indexes, like the works of William Shakespeare. It's a handy way to peruse titles later when you don't have high speed internet access available.

Suppose you want to check out a title like the February 1976 version of Ebony Jr. Then what?

You could manually browse it one page at a time and save each image, or you could fire up Google Book Downloader and let it do the heavy lifting. Locate a title in Book Search and find its code in the URL (http://books.google.com/books?id=ub4DAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_hpmagazines). Copy and paste it into Book Downloader, and select what you want to save.

Press save selected, and Book Downloader will automatically combine the saved images into a PDF for you to read later.

Edit: forgot to mention earlier, .Net 3.5 is required.

[via Google Operating System]

Glue is a browser add-on for people who consume movies, books and music online. It keeps track of what you're browsing on sites like Amazon and IMDB, and lets you enter your comments about each item you're browsing, and see what your friends thought about it. The name "Glue" makes a lot of sense, because it sticks together info from multiple sites for each product. If a friend reviewed a movie on Amazon, and you're looking at it on Rotten Tomatoes, you'll still be able to see their comments.

Glue also integrates with other social networking sites in interesting ways. You can link your Twitter page to Glue, and your profile will show up in the Glue Topbar when other users visit it. The Glue Topbar would be sort of annoying if it were always on, so it's fortunate that you can click to hide or show it when you're not on a Glue-enabled site. Even if a site doesn't have special Glue features, though, you can still mark it as a favorite or leave a review of it.

So far, I think Glue is on the right track. The number of sites we use to keep track of the stuff we like is getting to be unmanageable, and a browser plugin is a smart way to aggregate all that information. As long as Glue doesn't go overboard with the potential to inject advertising into the system -- there's none right now -- it could catch on quickly.

If you're in the mood to read some classic works of literature, head over to Classic Reader and check out their massive library.

No special software is required, as everything is prsented in standard HTML format for reading right in your favorite browser. The library currently contains more than 3,400 works by 346 different authors, including Ambrose Bierce, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allen Poe, and - of course - Shakespeare.

The works are fully indexed by genre, and the five most recent additions are listed in the top-right corner for quick access to new titles.

It's an ad-supported site, but they're kept to a minimum and aren't very invasive. If you'd prefer, you can also purchase the library in DVD or CD format. It's a pretty good deal at less than $20.

A little intellectual stimulation for free is never a bad thing. As for me, I'm going to go finish reading Sun Tzu's Art of War.

[via Free Download a Day]

Sometimes work can be a bit overwhelming and you just need to take a break. But in some offices you're watched like a hawk and if your boss catches you doing something other than work, it could mean trouble.

Maybe that's why the New Zealand Book Council developed the readatwork website. Designed to simulate a typical XP desktop, you won't find flash games here. You will find short stories, poems, originals from New Zealand authors and some familiar classics.

What makes things interesting is the layout of the stories are entirely in the "Power Point " style, complete with animations that's sure not to arouse suspicion at work. That is, of course, if your position doesn't require the use of Power Point.

We must admit that while the layout was fun, it did make it hard to read the stories easily, as you had to try to hunt for the next sentence.

If you're looking to catch up on your reading at work, you might as well look like you're reviewing last Monday's sales presentation.

Goodreads is a social networking site dedicated to book lovers everywhere. Here you can post up books you've read or are planning to read on your virtual book shelves and get book suggestions based on what others have reviewed.

Like any good social networking site, your experience here is only as good as the number of friends in your network. If you don't currently have any friends (on the site that is) try searching for a book that you like and see whose reviewed the book and what else they've reviewed. If you find their taste similar to yours, ask them to add you as their friend.

In additional to book recommendations, Goodreads also offers links to purchase books from sites like Amazon or Barnes & Noble and offers discussion areas where you can interact with other members.

So if you're looking to expand your reading library, you might want to give Goodreads a try.

While Borders may be one of the most recognizable bricks and mortar book sellers in the US, the company has been nearly invisible online. For the last seven years, Borders has basically relied on Amazon for its online presence. But now Borders is relaunching its website with a heavy focus on recommendations and recreating the experience of browsing in a book store

While you can certainly use the site to search for books, the most prominent features of the new site are recommendations for books, music, and movies. There are "staff picks," new fiction and non-fiction, and customized suggestions based on your tastes in media.

One area where Borders has the advantage over Amazon is that the company does have bricks and mortar stores throughout the country. That means you can place an order online and have it shipped for free to your neighborhood store where you can pick it up. If you don't have a safe, secure spot for receiving deliveries at your home, this could be an attractive feature.

[via AP]