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'Sin City' and 'Hellboy' comics come to Hoopla's public library app
After adding DC and Image Comics to its public library digital-checkout service, Hoopla is back with news that Dark Horse Comics' titles are now available for all your Sin City, Hellboy and Lone Wolf and Cub reading enjoyment. The Hoopla app and service syncs with participating local libraries to offer digital versions of books, audio books, albums, movies, TV shows and of course graphic novels. If you have a library card and your local branches support it the service, you can check out digital versions of media right from your phone or browser. When your item is due back at the library, it just disappears from your account. So if you're a fan of comic books, it's probably a good idea to see if your library supports the app.
E-book sales dip, but is print really making a comeback?
We've all heard "print is dead" a few (hundred) times before, but it looks like print is still kickin'. In fact, it could be making a bit of a comeback. The Association of American Publishers, using collected data from around 1,200 publishers, found that e-book sales dropped 10 percent during the first five months of 2015. The reason? Signs point to a lot of folks being "hybrid readers" these days, opting for a mix of print and digital over one or the other. E-reader sales have also been on the downswing for quite a while. For example, Forrester Research says 12 million of the dedicated reading devices were sold last year -- that's down from 20 million in 2011. Of course, Amazon just announced a $50 tablet that'll offer easy access to its library, but it also packs in some core slate features. It also looks like those Netflix-like e-book subscription services, like Oyster, didn't catch on like companies had hoped.
Google snaps up staff from Oyster's soon-to-close e-book service
Oyster's experiment with a Netflix-like subscription service for e-books appears to be coming to a close... at least, in its current form. The startup is warning customers that it will shut down its all-you-can-read service over the course of several months. As it explains, the team has decided that the best way to pursue its mobile reading dream is to take on "new opportunities." While it's not initially clear what this means, Recode has confirmed that "a portion" of Oyster's staff (including its CEO and co-founders) are jumping ship for Google's Play Books division. In short, this is an indirect acquisition -- Google is snapping up the core of the company without buying all of its assets.
Apple is taking its e-book price-fixing fight to the Supreme Court
Apple's long-running court battle over manipulating the pricing of e-books is getting even more dramatic. Next stop, the Supreme Court, Fortune reports. Back in June, Apple failed to get a Manhattan appeals court to overturn a 2014 ruling that would have it pay $450 million dollar settlement over the scandal. So Apple basically has no choice but to go to a higher authority if it wants to fight the case. A quick recap: The company was found guilty of fixing e-book pricing with publishers for the launch of iBooks on the original iPad, a move meant to raise prices from the low standard set by Amazon. Apple has argued that it didn't do anything wrong, and indeed it maintains in a filing today that "dynamic, disruptive entry into new or stagnant markets -- the lifeblood of American economic growth -- often requires the very type of" behavior it exhibited. Apple obviously can afford to pay the settlement, but at this point the legal battle seems to be more about principles than anything else.
Library app lets you check out 'The Walking Dead' and other digital comics
Before it was a TV show and video game, The Walking Dead was a comic book from publisher Image Comics. It's a great series and if you're interested in catching up on the source material for the TV show, you might be in luck. The public library app, Hoopla announced today that it was partnering with Image Comics to bring The Walking Dead, Spawn and Saga to its service. Hoopla partners with local libraries to give library card holders the ability to check out digital copies of books, music, videos, audiobooks and comics. the amount of titles available for check during the month depends on the deal between Hoopla and the library. But when your check out period is up, the title automatically disappears from your iOS, Android device or Kindle tablet. It recently added a bunch of DC titles including a whole slew of Dark Knight graphic novels to its roster. So if you're library supports Hoopla and you want to supplement your watching of Fear the Walking Dead you can do so without spending any money.
World's first braille smartwatch is an ebook reader and more
On the surface, Dot sounds like a fairly standard smartwatch: It resembles a Fitbit and features a messaging system, navigation functions, Bluetooth 4.0, an alarm and, of course, a timepiece. Dot is remarkable because it's a braille smartwatch -- the world's first braille smartwatch, in fact. Its face features a series of dull pins that rise and fall at customizable speeds, spelling out words in braille as the user places a finger on top. With this system, Dot allows users to read ebooks without throwing down thousands of dollars for a portable braille reader. The watch should hit the market for less than $300, with pre-orders staring this year. Plus, Dot has an active battery life of 10 hours, according to inhabitat, so get ready for some serious reading time.
Authors call on the US to investigate Amazon's book business
Just because Apple is on the hook for allegedly anti-competitive book sales doesn't mean that Amazon is above reproach. As promised, groups representing both authors and booksellers are calling on the US Department of Justice to investigate Amazon for antitrust abuses. The Kindle maker is supposedly using its literary dominance to "impoverish the book industry," hurt writers' careers and even limit free expression. For example, the company is known to squeeze publishers who object to its pricing policies by withholding pre-orders and otherwise depriving these 'enemies' of income. There are also concerns that Amazon wrecks rival stores through unfair price dumping (that is, selling below cost) and refuses to carry some authors based purely on their politics or fame.
Barnes & Noble's Nook store closing outside of the US and UK
It's no secret that Barnes & Noble has struggled to profit from its Nook reading platform. Still, there are people who continue to use and invest in the ecosystem, despite the rise of others including Amazon's Kindle. Now, after ending its "strategic partnership" with Microsoft last year, the retailer appears to be preparing to close the Nook store outside of the US and UK -- something that relied on Windows support across Europe. According to an email obtained by The Digital Reader, Barnes & Noble has informed international customers that, on August 7th, it will remove their content from Windows machines and start providing refunds.
Kindle Paperwhite review (2015): our favorite e-reader gets even better
When Amazon's Kindle Voyage launched last year, I more or less fell in love with it right out of the gate. Sure, a handful of competitors came out with similar displays before Amazon did, but man -- with that high-resolution screen and its sleek new looks, the Voyage was the first Kindle that ever felt really high-end. I didn't stand a chance. Now, thanks to some trickle-down gadget economics, the new Kindle Paperwhite ($119 with ads, $139 without) just got a huge bump in screen resolution too. It was really only a matter of time, but now we're left with a question to ponder: Is a new screen enough to catapult an already-very-good reader into the realm of greatness? Spoiler alert: I think it is.
Scribd can't afford to feed your romance habit anymore
The idea behind every all-you-can-eat-style service is that only a few people will consume more food/movies/e-books than it costs overall to keep the business going. Unfortunately people's lust for written romance is so immense that Scribd's cutting them off in order to remain a viable business. The company has sent out a letter to several publishers, including Smashwords, saying that it would be making some adjustments to its romance catalog.
Apple to pay $450 million in e-book price-fixing suit
Apple conspired with publishers to artificially raise the price of e-books, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today, upholding a verdict from 2013. Now that the company has lost its appeal, Apple is expected to pay $450 million, most of it to e-book customers. Apple agreed to a $450 million settlement in 2014 as part of the appeals process: If Apple had won in today's ruling, it would have had to pay just $70 million ($50 million of that to customers) or it could have been off the hook entirely.
Public library app Hoopla adds DC comics to its lineup
DC comics have been available digitally for a while. But while some public libraries have carried physical DC titles, you couldn't check them out digitally. Starting today, though, fans of reading comics on glowing screens will be happy to learn that DC has partnered with Hoopla to bring some of its titles to the digital version of your public library. At launch, Hoopla users will be able to borrow 25 of DC Entertainment's top titles including Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Superman: Earth One, V for Vendetta, Final Crisis and Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood. Whether you're a hardcore comic fan or just want to catch up on some of the best stories DC has ever published, it's a pretty nice list of graphic novels. Hoopla will add additional titles every week and a company spokesperson tells Engadget that it will add 200 over the course of the summer. The caveat is that you need a library card and your local library system has to support the Hoopla system and its new e-book and comic offerings.
Amazon will pay some authors based on how many pages you read
Authors are normally paid a consistent amount for every e-book you download, no matter how much of a page-turner it is. Amazon might just shake up that model before long, though. As of July 1st, the internet giant will pay Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners' Lending Library authors based on the number of pages you read. In theory, this compensates writers for their hard work on longer titles while encouraging quality material. And no, they can't pad things out by using a larger font or extra spacing, like you would in a college essay that's just a page too short. Amazon is using a normalized page count that accounts for how much content is actually there, so the rate should be the same no matter the layout.
Amazon's latest Kindle Paperwhite packs text that's twice as sharp
Don't want to shell out $199 for the Kindle Voyage just to get an Amazon-badged e-reader with extra-crisp visuals? You won't have to after today. Amazon has launched an updated version of the Kindle Paperwhite whose e-paper display touts the same 300 pixels-per-inch density as the Voyage, giving you text that's twice as sharp as on the last-generation model without paying extra for the privilege. You'll accordingly get easier-to-read layouts (including Amazon's in-house font, Bookerly) that take advantage of that slicker screen. The new Paperwhite will ship on June 30th for the same $119/£110 (with ads) as its ancestor, which undercuts Kobo's Glo HD and makes it the sweet spot in the Kindle line. Unless you really want the Voyage's advanced light and touch sensors, this new mid-tier model will likely be enough.
Hoopla lets you digitally borrow almost anything from your library
Today the Hoopla service and apps added e-books and comic to its media library of audiobooks, movies, TV shows and albums. While the app has always synced with local libraries, it wasn't until today that the app was meant for reading. The new offerings will be from IDW Publishing, RosettaBooks, Chicago Review Press and others with more publishers being announced in the coming months. The reading feature includes options similar to Amazon's Whispersync with the ability to read a book across multiple devices and the options to adjust fonts, line spacing, columns and background. For comic book fans, a feature called "Action View" enlarges individual panels with a double tap for easier reading on mobile devices. "One of our main objectives for libraries is to be mobile centric," said owner and founder Jeff Jankowski.
Obama to provide 10,000 free e-books through your library
President Barack Obama announced a new program on Thursday aimed at delivering access for more than 10,000 e-books to financially strapped schoolchildren throughout the United States. The $250 million program will feature titles from numerous publishers including Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and Hachette, selected by volunteers from Digital Public Library of America. The New York Public Library has signed on to develop the free app. "It's very different than from our generation," Cecilia Muñoz, Obama's domestic policy adviser, told Reuters. "More and more, you're going to be seeing kids using devices, and what we're doing is making sure that there's more books available on those devices." As the president's top economic advisor Jeff Zients pointed out to Reuters, research shows that some 80 percent of low-income children are behind the rest of their grade in terms of reading skills. Few of them have books at home. That's why Obama's program will also work with local libraries, boosting their enrollment of local kids in order to provide them with hardware necessary to enjoy these books. Each age-appropriate title will be made available from the publishers' online libraries, though there's no word on whether the e-title will be given away or simply checked out as traditionally lent books are. Still, any excuse to get kids into the library is a good one. [Image credit: Getty]
Amazon's making digital homework easier to assign, ugh
If you've ever seen a 6th grader lugging around a 30 pound backpack, you'll understand the allure of e-readers and tablets as a replacement for traditional textbooks. To help school districts make the digital transition from physical textbooks, Amazon launched Whispercast, a free content management and distribution tool. Schools can buy or rent books directly via the online tool and push them to anything that supports the Kindle app including: Kindles, Fire Tablets, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebooks. Today, the free two year-old online tool gets an upgrade with tiered administration, support for purchase orders, an easier-to-use online interface and an assisted setup service for new schools.
Oyster hopes you'll buy the books its subscription doesn't cover
Oyster's all-you-can-read subscription service includes a lot of books, but it doesn't cover everything that piques your curiosity. In many cases, you still have to buy those titles that slip through the cracks. The company may have a way to cover all the bases, though. It just launched a store that offers books from all five major publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster) plus "thousands" more, so you shouldn't have to head elsewhere to get that hot new novel. It's also useful to safeguard the titles you want to keep. You can buy a permanent copy of that Harry Potter collection if you're tired of subscribing, for example. It's too soon to say how well this two-pronged strategy will work for Oyster, but we wouldn't mind seeing it elsewhere -- wouldn't it be nice to buy movies from Netflix when they're not available in your plan?
Kobo's latest e-reader packs a super-sharp screen for $130
Want an e-reader with an extra-sharp resolution, but don't relish the thought of dropping $199 on a Kindle Voyage when some tablets cost that much? Kobo thinks it can help. Its just-unveiled Glo HD reader packs a 1,448 x 1,072 front-lit E Ink display for a more reasonable $130 -- that leaves a lot of spare money for, y'know, actual books. It has the same 4GB of built-in storage as its Amazon counterpart, too, so you'll have room for a big library. The Glo HD should reach North America on May 1st, and it'll land in the UK a month later with a £110 price tag.
Amazon brings back the white Kindle e-reader in China and Japan
Have you missed white Kindle e-readers ever since they disappeared in 2012? So has Amazon. The internet retailer has quietly unveiled a white version of its basic Kindle reader that's headed to at least China on April 8th, and Japan on April 20th. It's virtually identical to the $79 black model, including the 800 x 600 e-paper touchscreen, WiFi and 4GB of storage -- you're really just getting a cosmetic change here. Still, it's hard not to be curious about Amazon's sudden nostalgia kick. We've reached out to Amazon to find out if and when the white Kindle will reach other parts of the globe, and we'll let you know if there are any additional launches in the cards.
