publishers

Portland store trades print books for Kindles

Yesterday, I wrote about how Kindle book sales are now outpacing paperback sales. Well, one Portland bookstore, the Microcosm Publishing book and zine store, is going against the grain and allowing folks to exchange their Kindles for cold, hard books. That's right, some of that good old pulp.

On its blog, you'll find this post from Microcosm from earlier this month:

Do you love print? Do you still read books? Did you get a Kindle for Christmas? Do you want to trade in your soulless faux-literary technology for its worth in good old fashioned books? Well, friends, Microcosm Publishing's got your back! Beginning RIGHT NOW you can bring in your Christmas Kindle to the Microcosm store in Portland (636 SE 11th) and trade it in for its worth in new or used books and zines! That's right! Why let fad technology kill print when you can take a stand and fill up your shelves in the process.… Read more

Another sharing service piggybacks on Kindle lending

Here's another me-too service that intends to help consumers share their electronic books by piggybacking on the lending features available on Kindle and Nook books.

BookSwim, which bills itself as a "Netflix for Books," announced that it plans to launch eBookFling.com tomorrow, a site where users swap e-books. BookSwim's press release makes it obvious that company managers either anticipate the service won't be warmly received by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and book publishers or are trying to gin up the release with a little controversy.

"The initial reaction may be a negative," … Read more

Online word processors: Awesome and primitive

I love that you can now write full, rich, graphical applications for the Web--even for core tools like word processors. As Stephen Shankland recently noted, Google Docs has evolved into something surprisingly useful, even for a professional writer. I second that opinion, and add that competitors like Zoho Writer are similarly powerful, usable, and useful--as are other "Office 2.0" apps for spreadsheets, presentations, project management, and other tasks. Cloud apps have come a long way, baby!

Online editors let you move your work easily to just about any connected computer, and they enormously facilitate live, real-time collaboration. … Read more

MobileMe: Errors when publishing with iWeb

Apple's iWeb, combined with MobileMe, is an easy and effective method of publishing your personal Web site. Some users, however, encounter issues when attempting to publish their newly created or updated site using MobileMe.

When faced with publishing issues, there are a few places to look, most of which are fairly simple ways to solve the problem without having to be too technical.

The first thing to consider when facing publishing errors in iWeb is your Internet connection. Be sure you are connected to a network and that the network is connected to an ISP. Open System Preferences > … Read more

Delays in iTunes song samples cause confusion

Apple has finally rolled out the 90-second samples on songs that are longer than 2.5 minutes, sold in the United States, and that iTunes has managed to equip with the longer preview.

Some bloggers and iTunes users have questioned why longer previews don't accompany every song. As first reported in August by CNET, Apple approached the top four recording companies last summer about the longer samples that iTunes users can hear to test-drive songs before buying. Researchers say that longer song samples stimulate sales.

According to several music industry sources, Apple has only acquired licenses to the longer … Read more

Amazon enhances Kindle for the Web

Amazon is looking to attract more readers and sellers of e-books with its improved Kindle for the Web.

Demonstrated yesterday at Google's Chrome event, Amazon's Kindle for the Web will let users buy and read full Kindle e-books directly from their browsers with no special download or installation required. The new version of the application will be available early next year.

Users will also have a lot of choice over where they can buy their Kindle books. Online retailers, publishers, authors, and bloggers will be able to offer Kindle books through their own sites, according to Amazon. Web … Read more

HTML5 start-up Strobe secures funding

Strobe, a start-up focusing on publishing tools that employ a new generation of Web standards, has secured first-round funding.

Chief Executive and co-founder Charles Jolley announced the move today but declined to share exactly how much Hummer-Winblad and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures bestowed upon his company. The company's technology is based on a project called SproutCore that Jolley has been working on for years, including several while at Apple. Jolley left Apple in July.

SproutCore uses JavaScript and other Web tools to endow Web pages with user interfaces more like what one would expect of a native application. It … Read more

Richard Branson's quest for shiny iPad stardom

NEW YORK--There must be something squirreled away in the human brain that is hard-wired to go absolutely bonkers at the sight of anything that's shiny, slick, and begging to be touched. That, after all, is how Apple CEO Steve Jobs sells products.

But an iPad is only as good as the things you can do on it, and in this sense the device is implicitly a bit of a challenge, an Everest to climb or an English Channel to swim, for developers and entrepreneurs: What can you do on this? How can you take advantage of the features it … Read more

New York Times cooks up e-book best-seller list

In another sign that e-books are going mainstream, The New York Times will create a best-seller list for electronic content early in 2011.

The New York Times Best Seller List--around since 1935--will now also focus on e-books.

According to a statement, the Times will rank sales aggregated from online service providers selling e-books. The Times said it is working to process and verify the data. In addition, the Times has partnered with RoyaltyShare to validate e-book sales from various parties.

The list will appear in The New York Times Book Review in print and online.

The story "New York Times to cook up e-book best seller list&… Read more