e-books

Share Karma's Wi-Fi, get free data

Friday's CNET Update is counting megabytes:

Today's tech news roundup looks at the Karma hotspot, which rewards owners with free data for sharing access with others. Karma gives 100 megabytes of data for every person who taps into the network, plus the owner gets another 100 megabytes that do not expire. Adding more data costs $14 for 1 gigabyte. Frequent travelers might find Karma appealing. FreedomPop is offering a similar concept for home broadband, giving free data every month and adding more to those that recommend friends.

Another startup wants to change how we watch broadcast television. Aereo … Read more

Apple, publishers settle in EU e-book antitrust case

Apple and four major publishers have settled a case with European antitrust regulators after negotiations began in September, ending an ongoing row over e-book price fixing.

The iPhone and iPad maker, along with HarperCollins, Hachette Livre, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck-owned Macmillan, and CBS-owned Simon & Schuster (CNET and ZDNet are also owned by CBS), all agreed to legally binding conditions that would ease pricing restrictions on Amazon and other e-book sellers.

A fifth publisher, Penguin -- owned by U.K. group Pearson -- is still under investigation as the publisher "chose not to offer commitments," but … Read more

RIP e-book readers? Rise of tablets drives e-reader drop

The rapid rise of tablets is driving the e-book reader market to an equally rapid fall, according to a new study.

IHS iSuppli said that after "spectacular" growth during the past few years, the e-book reader market is now on an "alarmingly precipitous decline," all thanks to the growing popularity of tablets.

How alarming? Well, the firm predicts that shipments of e-book readers will tumble 36 percent this year to 14.9 million units and then drop another "drastic" 27 percent next year to 10.9 million units. By 2016, IHS iSuppli predicts, the … Read more

Does it still make sense to buy an e-reader?

I've been an e-book fan for as long as I can remember. Ever since I found myself stuck on a slow-moving mountain train with nothing but my PalmPilot and an e-book, I've been hooked on digital reading.

Flash-forward some 15 years and e-books are everywhere, thanks in no small part to the Amazon Kindle -- a dedicated e-reader with a special "e-ink" screen that I still consider a marvel of modern technology. (Know why Kindles and other e-ink devices have such phenomenal battery life? Because every pixel on the screen is either "on" or &… Read more

Read through many book formats on your iDevice with Stanza

Stanza is a reader for books, available in apps for most devices. We downloaded Stanza from iTunes, and it installed quickly. The app is free.

Stanza lets you read books on your iDevice using a simple, elegant interface. Notably, compared with other reader apps, Stanza supports a wide range of file formats from PDF to EPUB, including those with DRM and without. In fact, we tested Stanza with almost a hundred different books over the space of a couple of months of commuting, and it opened every file we threw at it from different sources. When launched, Stanza shows a … Read more

Barnes & Noble CEO not much into physical books anymore

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch has a big hand in shaping the sales of books, both physical and digital. He also has a confession to make.

"I don't really read physical books that much anymore," Lynch told Bloomberg's Nicole Lapin. Lynch was dishing on what he's reading on his Nook right now, including Food & Wine and Field & Stream magazines. Fortunately for physical books, Lynch's wife is still a big fan of paper.

The migration away from physical media isn't new, but it still feels a bit strange to hear the CEO of a massive physical bookstore chain fess up about his preference for e-books. He also admitted to not being able to finish "Fifty Shades of Grey," for what that's worth.… Read more

Penguin looks to Los Angeles, Cleveland to expand e-book lending

Penguin Publishing is loosening its grip a bit in the e-book-lending market.

The company will announce today that it is expanding its e-book lending program to Los Angeles and Cleveland, The New York Times reported. Penguin launched an e-book-lending service to New York public libraries in September. The success of that program has prompted it to expand elsewhere.

Penguin is still keeping a tight hold on its e-books. According to the Times, Penguin sells e-books to public libraries six months after their launch. The e-books can only be lent to one person at a time. At the end of a … Read more

DOJ: Toss the cartoonist's appeal out of e-book case

Bob Kohn, the founder of eMusic and apparently an amateur cartoonist, has had his laughs but he has no standing in an antitrust case involving five top publishers and Apple, the U.S. Department of Justice argued this week.

Kohn is trying to stop the settlement agreement between the DOJ and three of the five publishers accused earlier this year of conspiring with Apple to raise e-book prices. A U.S. District Court denied Kohn's motion to intervene in the case, and he filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

On Tuesday, … Read more

Apple, publishers cut e-book deal with EU regulators -- report

Apple has reportedly negotiated a deal with European regulators that will help the company avoid litigation for potential antitrust violations while also enabling Amazon to offer lower prices than offered at Apple's iBookstore.

Reuters reports that EU regulators are preparing to accept the offer presented by Apple and four top book publishers: News Corp unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster, owned by CBS, parent company of CNET.

Apple's antitrust issues involving e-books began in the United States last spring. The U.S. government … Read more