ebooks

iPad e-books for children: Five more amazing titles

A few months back I told you about five amazing iPad e-books for kids, noting that Apple's tablet is arguably the single best platform for reading (and, thanks to various interactive features, experiencing) children's books.

App developers and book publishers seem to agree, as the App Store is now home to dozens, if not hundreds, of kid-friendly e-books.

Here's a look at five more (seven if you count the Seuss stuff) that are sure to please wee readers and parents alike.

1. Aesop's Wheel of Fables No children's book collection is complete without Aesop's Fables. This app serves up 20 tales, all of them showcased in a spinning wheel that adds a bit of tactile fun to the story-selection process. It also has spot-the-difference games that get unlocked as you read, and an option for parents to record their own voices for kids to listen to in place of the prerecorded voice. The app's on sale for $6.99 until August 5, when it goes up to $8.99.

2. More Dr. Seuss Oceanhouse Media continues to crank out terrific Seuss classics, all of them optimized and enhanced for the iPad. The latest releases include "Green Eggs and Ham" ($3.99), "Gertrude McFuzz" ($1.99), and--yay!--"Yertle the Turtle" ($3.99). If only my kids weren't on the verge of outgrowing these! Hmm, maybe I should have one more...

3. "The Little Mermaid" Not the Disney version, but the classic Hans Christian Anderson tale, here brought to life with animated, interactive elements reminiscent of the now-classic "Alice for iPad." Beautifully illustrated and thoroughly engaging, the $8.99 app also includes "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Happy Family."… Read more

Your own yellow submarine

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Amazon gets an exclusive publishing deal for e-books Barnes & Noble launches the Nook reader for Android phones YouTube revamps YouTube Music Orkut is in hot water in Brazil for allegedly hosting illicit material Your toilet can generate energy to power your home A two-seat yellow submarine could be yours for the bargain price of $2 million

What Amazon didn't say about e-books

In case you missed it, Amazon told the world yesterday that for the last three months it was selling more e-books than hardcover books and in the last month it sold 180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies. It was one of those great self-serving press releases that had a terrific headline and all the blogs and major newspapers jumped on it.

Well played, Amazon. As your CEO Jeff Bezos succinctly put it, "We've reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle--the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189.&… Read more

Borders' Kobo eReader hurt by Nook's new price

Not to be left out of the fast-growing e-reader and e-book arenas, Borders now has its own e-reader, the $150 Kobo eReader. With it, you can read e-books purchased from Borders' online store, which is powered by Kobo.

As the price suggests, the Kobo, which has the same-size 6-inch e-ink display as the Kindle and the Nook, is something of a no-frills e-reader: it doesn't have Wi-Fi or 3G wireless connectivity (and the screen has 8 levels of gray, not 16). However, it does offer a Bluetooth connection for "wirelessly syncing with select smartphones and updating your reading … Read more

Borders launches its eBook store

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Borders launches its eBook store with reader programs for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and AndroidTwitter launches @earlybird to help advertisers push out limited-time deals and discountsHollywood director Kevin Macdonald and producer Ridley Scott are accepting YouTube video submissions on July 24 to turn into a documentaryBest Buy now has its own broadband serviceA project out of MIT lets you mouse around your computer mouselessly

Puma phone for posers

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Netflix announced a deal with Relativity Media to stream movies soon after they are released to DVDApple has agreed to waive the restocking fee on the iPhone 4 for up to 30 daysLG is claiming to be working on an Android tablet, set for launch at the end of the yearFacebook is slowly rolling out software to help you tag your friends in photosSony drops the price on the entire lineup of Sony ReadersPuma launches the Puma phone but not in the U.S. unfortunately

Comics, PDFs, and more: Stanza for iPad is a universal (and free) killer e-reader

The iPad is rapidly becoming a Swiss army knife for e-reading apps of all types. Just in case you find Apple's iBooks disappointing (and most of us do), there are the Kindle, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble apps. While each has its advantages, they're generally not compatible with each other. They also make sharing and file-format recognition beyond their e-books pretty difficult.

Well, here's the good news: Stanza just hit the iPad last night.

Stanza has been a longtime favorite of iPhone and iPod Touch users--it accesses a variety of e-book stores directly, can read several formats, and has an amazing amount of font, spacing and color customization. It was a bit of a surprise to see this latest update, simply because Amazon acquired Stanza last year to create the backbone for their Kindle app.

The universal iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad app update that has just arrived, version 3.0, looks superficially just like Stanza did before, albeit on a larger iPad screen. Unlike the Kindle and Barnes & Noble apps, Stanza can still browse Feedbooks, Project Gutenberg, and several other book collections directly within the app. The app doesn't connect with Amazon, nor does it offer any indications of an Amazon link.

The additions to this version, however, are eye-opening: Stanza now supports PDFs and comic book files in CBR format (yes, full-color ones). That comic book reader we were excited about that costs about 7 dollars? Irrelevant.

And here's the final kicker: Stanza also happens to be free. … Read more

China's Hanwang unveils new e-book reader

China's Hanwang Technology has teamed up with chipmaker Marvell to create a new line of inexpensive e-book readers powered by the latter's Armada processor.

Hanwang, which is also known as Hanvon and is China's largest e-reader maker, already sells devices such as the Wisereader N516 and N518 in China and internationally.

Marvell's Armada 166E system-on-a-chip includes an integrated e-paper display controller. It is designed to offer quick display of high-resolution PDF and ePub electronic documents, according to Marvell. It also features a hibernation mode to conserve power.

Hanwang's new e-reader line will hit the market … Read more

Google Latitude gives you an alibi

Links from Thursday morning's episode of Loaded:

Barnes and Noble launches an iPad app to sell books from the Nook store

Google Latitude will now track where you've been

BillShrink can help you compare cable and satellite TV services in your area

The iPhone 4G may launch on Sprint, not Verizon. Keyword: may.

Asus to preload laptops with Amazon Kindle app

Do you love both Asus laptops and Amazon's Kindle book-reading app, but are extremely lazy? As in, so lazy you can't be bothered to download and install the PC version of Amazon's free Kindle app on your new Netbook?

Fortunately for you, the alphabetically enhanced companies Asus and Amazon have heard your cries and responded by striking a deal to preload the Kindle app on select Asus systems, including the Eee PC 1005PENetbook, the 13-inch UL30Aand the UL30VT--with other models to follow.

Why bother preinstalling more free software on an off-the-shelf laptop? According to the Asus news … Read more