Ebooks

iPad iBookstore to Include Project Gutenberg Catalog?

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Mar 25, 2010 a 1:10 pm

AppAdvice has followed up their $9.99 bestseller sneak-peak with more screenshots they claim come from the pre-release iPad iBooks and iBookstore, this time indicating Apple is including that massive Project Gutenberg library of free eBook content right in the app.

Sent from Steve's iPad: Universal Inbox for iPhone Mail, Google Docs to iPad, Free ePub Support

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010 a 2:53 pm

Apple CEO and part time CSR Steve Jobs is on a roll replying to the faithful about the state and status of their beloved gadgets, this time giving word on Google Docs to iPad, and a universal inbox for iPhone Mail and a confirmation on free ePub eBook support for iTunes and iBooks.

First up, TUAW tells us:

iPad 101: Get Your Free ePub eBooks at Project Gutenberg

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Mar 22, 2010 a 8:08 am

Waiting for Apple's iPad and its iBooks and iBookstore app? The outstanding Project Gutenberg has 30,000 free-as-in-beer-and-and-as-in-speech ePub format eBooks to help keep you start building your library today.

Apple May Discount Best Selling iBooks to $9.99?

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Feb 18, 2010 a 9:26 am

So after all that pushing by publishers for the 70/30 split "agency model", and bullying of Amazon into raising eBook best-seller prices to $14.99, the New York Times is now reporting that Apple may be allowed to discount the price of those same bestsellers to $9.99 -- the original Amazon price.

TiPb Discounts -- 25% off FictionWise eBooks!

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Feb 17, 2010 a 4:51 pm

The fine folks at Fictionwise.com (aka eReader.com, or m.ereader.com if you're on your iPhone) are giving TiPb readers 25% off on any eBook purchase until February 28. (Their eReader app for the iPhone is already free -- iTunes link).

Here's the code you need to get your discount:

theiphoneblog25

Regarding iBooks as App Store App, Books Using FairPlay DRM

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Feb 15, 2010 a 7:08 pm

It's interesting that, since Steve Jobs announced during his iPad keynote that iBooks would be available for download from the App Store, recently there's been some coverage of this as news -- including that the iBooks books will be using Apple's FairPlay DRM.

Macmillan Books to Return to Amazon, Prices to Rise to iPad iBooks Level, Consumers to Vote with their Wallets

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Jan 31, 2010 a 7:09 pm

Both Mcmillan and Amazon have issued statements about the story linked to previously, wherein they stopped selling Macmillan e-books after the publisher wanted to raise the price for best-sellers to an agency model $12.99 to $14.99 -- which Apple had already agreed to for iBooks on the iPad.

Mcmillan's CEO, John Sargent's comments ran as a paid advertisement in the Sunday edition of PublishersLunch and read in part:

Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.

The agency model would allow Amazon to make more money selling our books, not less. We would make less money in our dealings with Amazon under the new model. Our disagreement is not about short-term profitability but rather about the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market.

Amazon's response can be found in full on Engadget, but contains:

TiPb Give Away: iPhone 3G Made Simple Book

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Jul 16, 2009 a 11:57 am

iPhone 3G Made Simple comes by way of Martin Trautschold and Gary Mazo of Made Simple book and e-book fame -- likely familiar names to any of our CrackBerry.com friends -- have put their training talents to work on the iPhone 3G and the result? 376 pages chock full of photos and easy to understand guides.

It's available now in e-book (PDF) for $20 and is coming in August in good old printed form (soft cover). For TiPb readers, however, Martin and Gary are giving away 5 free copies of the e-book!

Shortcovers a Kindle/E-Book Competitor for Canadians?

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Mar 6, 2009 a 11:25 am

Our best frenemy forever, CrackBerry.com's Kevin sent us word that Canadians currently excluded from all the Amazon Kindle E-Book app goodness may just have an alternative. Seems Chapters/Indigo (think Barnes and Nobles with maple syrup, eh?) is getting into the game, and onto the devices, with a new service called Shortcovers.

Kindle for iPhone Gallery

By Dieter Bohn, Wednesday, Mar 4, 2009 a 12:05 am

Yes, folks, I was one of the ~~suckers~~ eager buyers of the 2nd edition of the Kindle. My pain is your pleasure, though, as you can get some early screenshots of the app already loaded up with books via Whispersync.

As you may have just read in our previous post, Amazon has just released Kindle for iPhone for free in the App Store (iTunes link), you cannot buy Kindle books directly from the app. Instead you can purchase inside Mobile Safari, from your desktop, or from a Kindle

The text is nice and readable (and you can resize as well). The app keeps a "page metaphor," meaning that instead of being able to scroll up and down, you swipe left and right to switch pages. A single tap on the screen bring up a menu to give you back, bookmark, text-size, and a sync button to sync your last page read with a Kindle.

The Whispersync tech works exactly as advertised -- books purchased show up as "Archived" and you can then download them directly to your iPhone.

Head on in after the break for your screenshots!