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Google Editions cases come with live wallpapers and a shortcut button
Before you dismiss this as a slow-day news post, hear us out: these aren't your run-of-the-mill phone cases. These are the first products Google has released under its new Editions project, a series of collaborations with artists to develop limited edition "live cases" for select Android phones. For this batch, Mountain View worked with electronic dance music producer/DJ Skrillex, who designed an outer space-inspired set. Now, here's the cool part: in keeping with the space theme, the products come with live wallpapers showing images of the Earth from the stratosphere during the day and constellations visible from your location at night. The tech giant actually launched a high-altitude balloon named after Skrillex's dog Nanou to capture images of our planet and didn't just take images from NASA.
Google eBooks 404 page tips spear to Twitter, would make Ahab proud
That iconic "fail whale?" It was created in 2007 by an artist named Yiying Lu who had never heard of Twitter when the site grabbed the image from iStockphoto, where she'd uploaded it. The rest, of course, is history and, with the launch of Google eBooks (née Google Editions), the Googs is giving something of a tip of the hat to Twitter with its own error page -- but putting a literary spin on things. You can see the result above, a dejected man finding a decidedly non-white whale, and you don't have to be called Ishmael to catch the reference here.
Google eBooks is live: just in case Amazon, B&N, and Apple aren't enough
You hear about this whole e-books thing? We hear it's gonna be a pretty big deal. Google, always with its finger on the pulse of our ever-evolving digital lifestyles, has decided to take a wild stab at this nascent market, and is launching Google eBooks today. Formerly known as Google Editions, the Google eBooks ecosystem is actually a pretty grand gesture, and seems to combine most of the positives of the primary e-book contenders (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple, naturally), while skimping on the UI flourishes, in traditional Google fashion. Books you buy are stored in the cloud, with your progress synced Whispersync-style, and can be read on your choice of native Android, iPhone, or iPad apps; from your browser; or on any device that supports the Adobe Digital Editions DRM for PDF and ePub files, which includes the B&N Nook and the Sony Reader (and plenty of other devices). Google is also trading on its vast repository of public domain books, with 3 million free eBooks on offer at its Google eBookstore, in addition to traditional paid fare. It's certainly a crowded market, full of sharp elbows, but it seems Google is having no trouble adjusting.
Google Editions launching in US before the end of the year, going international in Q1 2011
Admit it, Google Editions wasn't exactly your highest priority item among the things promised for a 2010 launch, but, according to Mountain View's Scott Dougall, the e-bookstore from the world's favorite search company will indeed make its debut before December's through. It's premised as a web-centric, buy-anywhere, read-anywhere platform, one that eschews the proprietary hardware and software model currently championed by the likes of Amazon for a more ubiquitous and accessible one (a humble web browser is all you'll need, which should make Tim Berners-Lee beam with pride). Small websites of all creeds, whether they be independent bookstores or book reviewers, will be encouraged to participate by linking their users to Google Editions of whatever scriptures they're discussing -- with an unannounced revenue sharing model keeping them interested. Retail pricing won't differ, we're told, from what Amazon and Barnes & Noble currently charge, which raises the question, what's the downside to Editions?
Google Editions said to have backing of 'almost all' US publishers
Well, it looks like Google will be kicking off its forthcoming Google Editions e-book service on a high note -- Japan Today is reporting that the company has managed to score the backing of "almost all" publishers in the United States. That apparently brings the total number of publishers and authors on board to over 25,000, and the total number of books set to be available to somewhere in the neighborhood of two million -- or over four million if you include the public domain books that Google already makes available for free. As far as we can tell, however, Google itself still isn't saying any more on the matter publicly than it did last week, when it confirmed that the service would be launching in late June or July. [Thanks, Legendary1022]
Google Editions e-book service launching this summer
Think Google is content to simply make public domain books freely available for e-book readers? Not quite -- the company has just confirmed that its previously announced Google Editions e-book service will finally be launching in late June or July. That service will apparently let folks buy digital copies of books they find through Google's existing book search service, and let book retailers sell Google Editions on their own site and retain the "bulk of the revenue." Details are otherwise still pretty light, including any word of pricing or publishers involved, but Google has previously said that it planned to make between 400,000 and 600,000 books available with prices set by the publishers.
Google clarifies plans for Google Editions ebook store launching next year
Despite the fact that nobody reads anything anymore, the ebook market sure is hot lately, with Barnes & Noble about to make some sort of big splash and now Google getting in on the action in a new way. After shaking up the industry quite a bit with its Google Books initiative, Google is going to offer paid ebook purchases in its new "Google Editions" store in the first half of next year, which has been bumped back from the 2009 launch originally planned. The store will offer somewhere in the range of 400,000 and 600,000 books (compared to the 100,000ish offered by Sony and the 330,000+ on Kindle), and prices will be set by publishers, with Google collecting 55 percent of the profits and supposedly sharing much of that with "retail partners." The books will be available to any device with a web browser, but will be available offline after they've been accessed the first time -- that sounds like Google Gears to us, but since phones and other devices are mentioned for compatibility, hopefully there's more to it than just a browser-based reader.
