ebooks posts

Amazon Kindle for PC: Now delivering books to your desktop

by Brad Linder Nov 10th 2009

As expected, Amazon has launched a version of its Kindle eBook reader for Windows. The software is available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7, with a Mac version "coming soon."

As an eBook reader, Kindle for the PC is pretty no-frills. It lets you adjust fonts, read books, and create bookmarks. And that's about it. But the software can also synchronize with other devices. So if you have Amazon's physical Kindle eBook reader or the iPhone version and you've created annotations on it, you'll be able to access them on the PC client. No, I have no idea why you can't create annotations on the PC version.

In order to download books, you'll need to connect to the Amazon Kindle store via a web browser. When you select a title, it will be downloaded to your PC and available for viewing in the Kindle software.

The Windows 7 version of the software also includes multitouch capabilities that allow you to zoom in and out by pinching your fingers if your PC has a touchscreen. A future version is expected to add support for page turning with a swipe of your finger.

The biggest problem with Kindle for PC? It's geographically restricted and won't work in most countries outside of the US. I haven't seen any official statement on this, but a colleague in Canada tells me that the software won't work in his country.

[via Engadget]

Tags: amazon, amazon-kindle, ebook-reader, ebooks, kindle, kindle-for-pc

Filed under: Internet, Web

Amazon adds over 18,000 free public domain titles to Kindle Store

by Brad Linder Oct 12th 2009

Amazon has been adding public domain titles to the Kindle eBook store at a frantic pace over the past few days. As of this afternoon, there were over 18,000 titles in the eBook store available as free downloads. Most are public domain works, which means they are no longer protected by copyright.

Of course, Amazon's in the business of selling books, not giving them away. But by giving away these books, Amazon may be able to convince potential customers to buy the Kindle eBook reader... and once they own it, odds are they'll spend a few bucks now and then on newer titles in the Kindle store.

It would have been nice if Amazon had thought of this tactic before launching the Kindle. But the rapid growth of the public domain library in the Kindle store is more likely a response to the fact that Sony eBook readers can access Google's massive collection of scanned public domain works.

So while Amazon's 18,000 public domain downloads are a good start, Google has over half a million titles, which means Amazon still has some catching up to do.

[via The Kindle Nation and C.K. Sample]

Tags: amazon, amazon-kindle, ebooks, public-domain

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Google

Google Book Downloader

by Brad Linder Sep 2nd 2009

Google Book Downloader is a free utility that lets out download any book that's available in "full view" from Google Books. Of course, most of these books also feature download links right on the web page, but Google Books Downloader lets you queue up multiple jobs and convert all of the downloaded books to PDF files.

The application is available for Windows and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. You can either install Google Book Downloader or download a portable version which you can simply unzip and run from your hard drive or a removable disk.

In order to queue up a book for download, just open the "add book" dialog in the file menu and copy an paste the book code, link, or ISBN number, click search, and then select the book that shows up. To begin downloading, right click a title and hit "start." and to export a file as a PDF, right-click and hit "export."

You can find more instructions in the tutorial.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Tags: ebooks, google-book-downloader, google-books

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh

Sony eBook Library now available for Mac, Windows

by Brad Linder Aug 27th 2009

There's been a lot of buzz this week about Sony's new eBook readers which will go head to head with the Amazon Kindle. But it's not all about hardware. Sony also released version 3.0 of its eBook Library desktop software this week. It's available for Mac (for the first time) as well as Windows, and it lets you purchase, download, organize, and read eBooks whether you have a Sony digital eBook reader or not.

While reading eBooks on a computer screen isn't necessarily the most pleasant experience, if you slap the eBook library software on a netbook or Tablet PC, it would make a passable eBook reader. And while the Sony library is choc full of books you can buy, there are also a fair number of titles that you can download for free, including Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, a book I haven't read in years, but which I'm looking forward to giving another try.

The Sony eBook Library software can also titles in EPUB format, which means that you can read any of the million public domain titles Google recently made available in that format.

[via Mashable]

Tags: ebooks, epub, sony, sony-ebook-library, sony-ebook-reader

Filed under: Internet

Amazon ironically deletes "1984" from Kindle devices

by Brad Linder Jul 18th 2009

It's been 25 years since 1984 came and went. But if you ever needed proof that we're living in a world where Big Brother is watching, all you need to do is look at Amazon's recent actions regarding the book, 1984. Basically, the company was offering a digital version of the title in its online Kindle store, but at the book publisher's request, Amazon pulled the title. And not just from the store, but from the Kindle eBook readers of customers who had purchased copies.

Sure, Amazon did offer full refunds to those customers. But imagine walking into a book store, buying a volume, taking it home, and then going to read it the next day only to find someone has broken into your home and removed it. That's kind of what Amazon did here, although we probably shouldn't be surprised, because the company never made any claims that it's eBooks weren't wrapped up with DRM (digital rights management) software that gives Amazon more control over the titles than you have.

Now, it sounds like Amazon's actions aren't quite as nefarious as first reported. The book wasn't pulled simply because the publisher decided not to offer it anymore, but because the party that was selling the eBook through the Kindle store actually didn't have the rights to the book. It was a pirated copy that shouldn't have been there in the first place. But that's kind of Amazon's problem, not the eBook readers, no?

Amazon has issued a statement saying that the next time a title is removed from its store in this fashion, the company will take care to remove it only from the digital store shelf, and not from actual Kindle devices. But this incident can't be leaving current and prospective Kindle owners with a warm and fuzzy feeling, can it?

Update: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has posted an apology that is one of the most heartening I've seen from a corporate CEO in a long time.

Tags: 1984, big-brother, drm, ebooks, george-orwell, kindle

Filed under: Hardware, News, Mobile

Amazon plans to expand Kindle to new formats and devices

by Jay Hathaway Jun 20th 2009

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.

Tags: amazon, books, ebooks, kindle, opensource, reader

Filed under: Internet, Web

Simon & Schuster brings 5,000 eBooks to Scribd

by Brad Linder Jun 12th 2009

Scribd has been providing a quick and easy way to share documents over the web for a while. Now the company is hoping to move into the eBook arena with the Scribd Store, which lets you purchase, read, download or print premium content.

This week publisher Simon & Schuster announced plans to bring 5,000 titles from its eBook library to the Scribd Store. User will also be able to browse through listings for 7,000 other books that aren't available for download.

Scribd lets publishers keep 80% of the revenue from eBook sales, which is significantly higher than the revenue share Amazon gives publishers who make their titles available in the Kindle store.

The Simon & Schuster deal isn't exclusive. The publisher's titles are available in a number of other digital bookstores as well. But the announcement should give the Scribd store a bit of a publicity bump, as well as a solid base of quality content from authors that people may have actually heard of.

Tags: ebooks, scribd, scribd-store, simon-schuster

Filed under: Internet, Google

Google to sell eBooks by year's end

by Brad Linder Jun 1st 2009

Google is reportedly planning to begin selling eBooks by the end of 2009. What's interesting is that Google won't be selling books in an old fashioned, downloadable format like PDF. Instead, the New York Times reports that readers would purchase books that could be read online.

You'd have offline access through "cached versions" in your browser. In other words, it looks like you'll be able to read eBooks in a browser and save them using Google Gears, which all sounds a lot more awkward and inconvenient than simply downloading a book that you can read on your smartphone, PDA, computer, or eBook reader. Google is trying to make this sound like a good thing, since you'll be able to access the site from any device with a web browser and internet access, but I'd rather have offline access and the ability to save my books to a hard drive or backup media.

Google also wants to differentiate itself from Amazon, which sets its own prices, by allowing publishers to set prices for digital editions of their books.

[via paidContent]

Tags: ebooks, google-books

Filed under: Business, Text, Apple, iPhone

Eucalyptus eBook reader recovers from silly app store rejection

by Jay Hathaway May 25th 2009

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.

Tags: app-store, Apple, books, ebooks, ereader, eucalyptus, project-gutenberg, rejection

Filed under: Web

Get the best deals on eBooks with ebookprice.info

by Brad Linder Mar 24th 2009

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]

Tags: books, ebookprice.info, ebooks

Filed under: Internet, Google

Google makes 500,000 free eBooks available for Sony Reader

by Brad Linder Mar 19th 2009

Sony and Google are partnering to make half a million books that Google has digitized for its eBook project available for free to Sony Reader customers through the Sony digital book store. That brings the total number of books in the Sony store to 600,000, or more than twice the number of eBooks found in Amazon's Kindle store.

The only catch is that these books are all public domain works, most which were written at least 80 years ago. Not exactly the stuff of the New York Times bestseller list. Amazon, by contrast offers a number of new release titles for around $10.

You also don't need a Sony Reader to access the Google library. Any computer or mobile device with an internet connection will do.

Tags: amazon-kindle, ebooks, google-books, sony, sony-reader

Filed under: Text, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Calibre looks like the essential app for eBook fans

by Jay Hathaway Mar 16th 2009

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.

Tags: books, calibre, ebookreader, ebooks, kindle, reader

Filed under: Internet, News

eBooks are heating up: Barnes & Noble buys Fictionwise

by Brad Linder Mar 6th 2009

There's a lot of news in the eBook space these days. First Amazon launches the new Kindle 2 eBook reader. Then the company follows it up with the launch of an eBook app for the iPhone. But Amazon ain't the only game in town.

Yesterday Barnes & Noble announced that it was acquiring eBook seller Fictionwise for $15.7 million. B&N plans to launch its own eBook store later this year, and will likely use Fictionwise's technology to help build that site. The company will not be shutting down Fictionwise.com or eReader.com.

Electronic books have been available in one form or another for years. But they've really started to take off in the last few years. Not so long ago, most of the text-based books that were available for download from the internet were either public domain works or illegally scanned books. But we're increasingly seeing new releases available for downloading and viewing on cellphones, PDAs, eBook readers, and computers for fairly reasonable prices.

Technologically, it's surprising that digital books didn't take off before digital music. After all, you can fit most books in just a few hundred kilobytes, which makes them easy to store and distribute. Developers had to come up with heavy compression algorithms to shrink audio and video files for distribution over the internet, and even then it took huge advances in hard drive capacity and broadband access for digital music and video to take off.

But over the last few years we've seen companies like Sony and Amazon put a lot of effort into developing hardware that makes reading eBooks more like reading a paper book and that's probably made a big difference. Some people just never liked the idea of reading books on a computer or cellphone screen. And then there are concerns over copyright issues.

Tags: barnesnoble, ebooks, fictionwise, kindle

Filed under: Text, iPhone

Amazon's Kindle for iPhone: First Look

by Jay Hathaway Mar 4th 2009

Amazon is going to be selling a heck of a lot more Kindle books very, very soon. With the launch of the Kindle app for iPhone, the online bookseller just opened up their entire Kindle library to folks who already own one expensive mobile device -- the iPhone -- and aren't willing to shell out for another -- Amazon's own Kindle.

The kicker is that Kindle for iPhone works like a charm. I tested out buying some books from MobileSafari and then from my Mac, and it was a seamless experience. With a single click, your book is sent via Amazon's WhisperSync to your iPhone or iPod Touch, ready to be opened the next time you use the Kindle app.

So, how's the reading experience on the iPhone screen? It's obviously much smaller than the Kindle's display, but reading is easy. Turning pages on the touchscreen interface is a breeze, and you can resize the text to suit your needs. Navigating between books and within books is intuitive, too. Tap on a page to bring up menu items and navigation, including the ability to bookmark your current page. Kindle will also pick up where you left off if you accidentally close the app while you're reading.

Overall, Kindle for iPhone is everything it needs to be to satisfy picky iPhone users who were reluctant to buy the Kindle device because of its steep pricetag and notorious form-factor. This way, everyone wins: iPhone and iPod Touch users get books on the go, Apple gets another selling point for its already-hot mobile device, and Amazon gets the profits.

Tags: amazon, ebooks, iphone, kindle, whispernet, whispersync

Filed under: Blogging, Analysis

The Kindle aint no swindle, Roy

by Gordon Finlayson Feb 27th 2009

The latest version of Amazon's ebook reader, the Kindle 2, has been attracting plenty of positive attention for its slimline form, style and functionality but has also drawn criticism from an unexpected quarter - from Authors Guild President and humorist, Roy Blount Jr, who isn't amused about the Kindle's new text to speech functionality.

The Kindle 2 has a function that allows published works that are downloaded onto the device to be converted into speech and played back through the small speakers in the device in either a male or female voice, functionality that will no doubt be attractive to the visually impaired, drivers on long trips or for people who are simply too damn lazy to read the book themselves.

The Authors Guild is in a tizzy because it feels that the Kindle 2 is going to undermine the billion dollar a year audiobook market. Blount apparently wasn't joking when he wrote in a New York Times editorial this week that 'authors have a right to a fair share of the value that audio adds to Kindle 2's version of books'.

Tags: audio books, AudioBooks, authors guild, AuthorsGuild, ebooks, kindle, kindle2, roy blount jnr, RoyBlountJnr

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures

Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party

Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Download Squad bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Jay Hathaway	110	5
2	Lee Mathews	82	24
3	Sebastian Anthony	69	248
4	Brad Linder	39	4
5	Jason Clarke	23	0
6	Dolores Parker	8	2
7	Grant Robertson	6	2
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	5	1
9	Matt Heerema	4	2
10	Nik Fletcher	4	0
11	John Burke	2	0
12	Paul O'Brien	2	0
13	Download Squad Staff	1	0

More Tech Coverage

Control Shift It's all about the experience
Somewhat Frank Perspectives on tech as it fuses in everyday life
Switched Gadgets, web news and commentary
Urlesque Exposing bits of the web

Download Squad