ebooks

Several months ago I set up a Google alert for my book, "Knife Music," to keep abreast of anything anybody was saying--good or bad--about the thing. Over the months I've received news of the occasional blog post and tweets, but more recently I popped open an alert to learn that my book was being pirated--both as a separate file and part of two larger Torrents called 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks (iPod, iPad, Nook, Sony Reader) and 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks for Kindle (MOBI).

I had the strange reaction of being both dismayed and weirdly honored … Read more

The Barnes & Noble Nook is widely regarded as one of the better e-book readers out there--better than the Kindle, many would say.

Today only, 1 Sale A Day has the refurbished Nook (Wi-Fi) for $79.99, plus $4.99 for shipping. That's the lowest price I've seen on this awesome e-reader, meaning it could sell out very quickly.

What's so special about the Nook? Apart from the obvious--its color touch-screen pad that sits below the main e-ink screen--the Nook supports the popular EPUB format, meaning you can check out free e-books from public libraries (among other … Read more

Yes, it's finally happened. The digital book has overtaken the paper book on Amazon.com. And this time that isn't only true about hardcover books. Now we're talking paperbacks.

In reporting its latest earnings, Amazon said that it was selling more Kindle books than paperback books, though the score is still close. Since January 1, for every 100 paperback books Amazon sold, 115 Kindle books were sold. To top it off, the company says that since the beginning of the year it's sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books. Amazon noted that this data was from "across Amazon.com's entire U.S. book business and includes sales of books where there is no Kindle edition." It added that free Kindle books were excluded from the tally.

While Amazon has said previously that Kindle e-book sales were outpacing hardcover sales, this is the first time it's said that Kindle books were outselling paperbacks, which typically cost significantly less than hardcovers. As usual, Amazon didn't report exact sales and would only say that it had sold "millions of third-generation Kindle devices."

Some reports suggest Amazon sold more than 8 million Kindles in 2010. Combine that with all the people buying the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, as well as millions of Android-powered devices, and you can see how Amazon's digital book sales got a huge boost. (Amazon, like Barnes & Noble, offers its e-reading Kindle app across multiple platforms). … Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Google purchases a company called eBook Technologies

However, Google's planned acquisition of ITA Software is under scrutiny from federal antitrust officials

AT&T will allow tethering on two upcoming 4G phones and may allow it on the iPhone as well

Fujitsu is set to launch the first glasses-free 3D desktop PC

News Corp.'s iPad magazine, The Daily, has been delayed

Google Translate for Android can help you have a bilingual conversation in real time

A new spyware program is parading as a Kama Sutra how-to guide

A man is suing … Read more

Enter OverDrive Media Console is an app that cuts out the middleman (i.e., your PC) when it comes to getting free epubs on your mobile device. With OverDrive, you can download library e-books (and audiobooks) directly to your iOS device.

That's the good news. The bad news is that getting the app set up is a major pain, and as e-book readers go, it's mediocre at best. Plus, the selection isn't what we'd call extensive, at least from our test library.

To download books, you must first "Add a Website" (meaning choose your … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Like seemingly every other company at CES 2011, Sharp is jumping on the tablet/e-reader bandwagon. But at least the company has one of the more unique names out there: Galapagos.

If the name sounds familiar (in the electronics arena, that is), it's because it's not exactly a new product. The Galapagos is already available in Japan, and it's been spotted making its way through the FCC approval process in the U.S.

But one thing is clear: the North American version of the Galapagos may bear very little resemblance to the existing Japanese one. For … Read more

Back in November I told you about Bluefire Reader, an iOS app with support for the ePub e-book format used by many public libraries.

In other words, you can use it to check out books free of charge--but you had to do a lot of desktop hoop-jumping to make it happen.

Enter OverDrive Media Console, an app that cuts out the middleman (i.e., your PC). With OverDrive, you can download library e-books (and audiobooks!) directly to your iOS device. I just grabbed "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," and I have "The Help" … Read more

Several weeks ago Amazon said that Kindle book lending would arrive by the "end of the year," and true to its word, it's here.

The terms are the same as what Barnes & Noble has been offering for a while with its Nook e-readers. On its site Amazon says that, "Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle--Kindle books can also be read using our free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Not all books are … Read more

For people who love to read but don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on books, nothing beats the public library. (Thanks Ben Franklin!) Even better, in recent years, many libraries have started offering e-books that you can check out for a few weeks, just like the real thing. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of e-book readers in the App Store, you couldn't read these DRM-protected library titles on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Until now, that is. Bluefire Reader supports not only ePub and PDF formats, but also the Adobe DRM used by most libraries. During … Read more