ePub

iTunes could put $13 billion in annual revenue into Apple's pocket in 2013, a Global Equities Research analyst predicts in a story published yesterday by the International Business Times.

Including sales in Apple's iBooks store and its App Store, iTunes could grow almost 40 percent over the next three years, said analyst Trip Chowdhry, who cited research showing that more publishers are supporting the ePub format used by iBooks versus Amazon's Kindle format.

The iPad has also provided a healthy boost to App Store sales, according to Chowdhry. The tablet's application "attach rate" has … Read more

After yesterday's awesome deal sold out around mid-afternoon, I was looking for something a little more evergreen to post today--something that might last more than 4-5 hours. Well, this ain't it.

By way of eBay, Barnes & Noble is selling the refurbished Nook Wi-Fi e-reader for $79 shipped. Although the "auction" has more than five days left on it, there's a very good chance these will sell out sooner--like, maybe, today.

The Nook, of course, is B&N's answer to the Kindle, and many would say it's the better e-reader of the … Read more

The Barnes & Noble Nook is widely regarded as one of the better e-book readers out there--better than the Kindle, many would say.

Today only, 1 Sale A Day has the refurbished Nook (Wi-Fi) for $79.99, plus $4.99 for shipping. That's the lowest price I've seen on this awesome e-reader, meaning it could sell out very quickly.

What's so special about the Nook? Apart from the obvious--its color touch-screen pad that sits below the main e-ink screen--the Nook supports the popular EPUB format, meaning you can check out free e-books from public libraries (among other … Read more

Enter OverDrive Media Console is an app that cuts out the middleman (i.e., your PC) when it comes to getting free epubs on your mobile device. With OverDrive, you can download library e-books (and audiobooks) directly to your iOS device.

That's the good news. The bad news is that getting the app set up is a major pain, and as e-book readers go, it's mediocre at best. Plus, the selection isn't what we'd call extensive, at least from our test library.

To download books, you must first "Add a Website" (meaning choose your … Read more

Back in November I told you about Bluefire Reader, an iOS app with support for the ePub e-book format used by many public libraries.

In other words, you can use it to check out books free of charge--but you had to do a lot of desktop hoop-jumping to make it happen.

Enter OverDrive Media Console, an app that cuts out the middleman (i.e., your PC). With OverDrive, you can download library e-books (and audiobooks!) directly to your iOS device. I just grabbed "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," and I have "The Help" … Read more

For people who love to read but don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on books, nothing beats the public library. (Thanks Ben Franklin!) Even better, in recent years, many libraries have started offering e-books that you can check out for a few weeks, just like the real thing. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of e-book readers in the App Store, you couldn't read these DRM-protected library titles on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Until now, that is. Bluefire Reader supports not only ePub and PDF formats, but also the Adobe DRM used by most libraries. During … Read more

For people who love to read but don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on books, nothing beats the public library. Love ya, Ben Franklin!

In recent years, many libraries have started offering e-books that you can check out for a few weeks, just like the real thing. Unfortunately, despite the plethora of e-book readers in the App Store, you couldn't read these DRM-protected library titles on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad.

Now you can. Bluefire Reader now supports not only ePub and PDF formats, but also the Adobe DRM used by most libraries. I just … Read more

Apple on Thursday released an update for its iWork suite of productivity applications, adding a new feature that enables authors to add books to its iBookstore application.

While all of the applications in the iWork suite were updated, the most significant change comes in Pages 4.0.4. The word-processing app now includes compatibility with the ePub format, which Apple uses for iBooks.

Apple published a document on its support site giving users tips on creating documents in the ePub format that covers everything from using paragraph styles in your Pages document to providing a downloadable template to use.

You … Read more

Apple's iBooks app includes a storefront of thousands of titles, many of which are free, public domain books. But if you really have a thing for free books, online repositories, such as Project Gutenberg and Google Books offer a vast selection of e-book titles that users can download to their computers.

These same files are also compatible with Apple's iBooks app, but it isn't exactly obvious how to load them onto your device.

The following CNET How To walks you though the process of downloading an online EPUB book file, loading it into iTunes, giving it cover … Read more