Huge Indy Publisher Signs Ebook Deal For iPad

A major independent publisher, Perseus Books Group, has signed a deal with Apple to provide ebooks for the iPad. According to the NYT, the deal is similar to that which Apple has made with other major publishers:

Perseus will set consumer prices and Apple will serve as an agent, taking a 30 percent commission on each sale. E-book versions of most newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction will cost $US12.99 to $US14.99. All publishers whose books are distributed by Perseus will be allowed to opt in to the deal.

Amazon launches iPhone-optimized Kindle eBook store

Following on the release of Amazon’s Kindle for iPhone application, Amazon has launched an iPhone-optimized Kindle eBook webstore. The new Kindle website is now more iPhone friendly, offering users a slick interface and more than 280,000 eBook titles to flick through.

The new Kindle store site has a search box and several default ways to filter ebook content, including books by category, NY Times best sellers, Kindle top sellers, new & noteworthy, and recommendations for you. You can also access and change your 1-click settings and manage your account.

Stanza iPhone ebook reader updated to version 1.8

Popular Apple iPhone ebook reader, Stanza has just been given an update according to justanotheriphoneblog. Stanza version 1.8 now gets a sexy new icon along with several other changes and upgrades:

• Ability to adjust brightness by swiping the screen up and down


• Page bookmarking - simply tap the corner to doggy-ear the page.


• Themes support - no longer you need to read text on the white background.


• Word definitions

Apple hit with lawsuit over iPhone as e-book reader

Apple appears to be getting hit with a suit over the exploding e-book market. Multiple sources are reporting that a Swiss communications firm, Monec Holding, has filed suit in a Virginia district court. Monec accuses the iPhone maker of "patent infringement, unfair trade practices, monopolization, and tortious interference for allegedly treading on its January 2002 patent No. 6,335,678 titled 'Electronic device, preferably an electronic book.'"

Apparently, last year Monec also sued HP for patent infringement.

Apple Insider says Monec's beef centers on "Apple's move to distribute digital book reading applications through the App Store, which it subsequently sees as an endorsement by the Cupertino-based company that its touch-screen handset can serve as a capable eBook reader."

Amazon Unveils Kindle 2

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos displayed the Kindle 2 at a recent New York press conference. The device has a 6-inch, 600 x 800 pixel display that provides 16 shades of gray, an upgrade from its predecessor that only displayed four. The company claims that pages refresh 20 percent faster in the new version of the device, and the Kindle 2 is available for preorder and costs about $360.

The power charger is also smaller. What's more, you can charge the device using a micro USB cable. As before, you can shop for books directly from the wireless Kindle Store, using Amazon's Whispernet. With 2 gigabytes of internal memory, you can store more than 1,500 books. The original had 256 megabytes of internal storage (about 200 books). But the original also had an SD memory card slot. There's no such slot on Kindle 2.

Kindle 2 also can read out loud, even the voice is robotic and nowhere near the quality of a book recorded.

E-Book Formats: TomeRaider (.tr2 or .tr3)

The TomeRaider e-book format is a proprietary format. There are versions of TomeRaider for Windows, Windows Mobile (aka Pocket PC), Palm, Symbian and more. Several Wikipedias are available as TomeRaider files with all articles unabridged, some even with nearly all images.

Capabilities of the TomeRaider3 ebook reader vary considerably per platform: the Windows and Windows Mobile editions support full HTML and CSS. The Palm edition supports limited HTML (e.g. no tables, no fonts), and CSS support is missing. For Symbian there is only the older TomeRaider2 format, which does not render images or offer category search facilities. Despite these differences any TomeRaider ebook can be browsed on all platforms. Tomeraider is popular among readers because of its huge free document base. According to their records the Tomeraider Website has over 4000 free ebooks to read.

Wall Street sees big sales for Amazon Kindle

Amazon.com has steadfastly refused to disclose details on the sales of its popular e-book reader known as the Kindle, which hasn't stopped Wall Street analysts from trying to pinpoint the number anyway.

A pair of analysts issued reports late Monday with their estimates, which put Kindle sales for last year somewhere between 374,000 units and 500,000 units. Analyst Mark Mahaney of Citigroup says this would put the device ahead of the early sales of the popular iPod digital music player.

Amazon launched the Kindle in December 2007 and quickly sold out its initial production run. The device was also sold out in the recent holiday shopping season. The company has long refused to disclose specific sales figures for the Kindle, and a spokesman would not comment on the latest estimates for the device.