Amazon waved their pr hands furiously during Barnes & Noble’s introduction of Nook Color, and today they make news for the possibility the company is developing their own browser-based equivalent to Google eBooks. To be fair, and clear, the company did not make any announcement: a short piece in Computerworld with just a glimmer of information has spread far and wide. Amazon told Computerworld they will offer some kind of unspecified “demonstration” today of a revised, expanded vision of their Kindle for Web app, which currently only shows and shares book samples. Just like Google eBooks, it will “enable users […]
eReaders
All Kinds of Etc., and People News, Too
Hachette Book Group is celebrating making Crain’s Best Places to Work in NYC for the second year in a row, rising to No. 19 (from 24 a year ago). Norton has named Edward Crutchley the next managing director of its UK subsidiary, effective February 1, 2011, after Alan Cameron retires. Cameron is the firm’s founding managing sirector, joining Norton in 1979. Crutchley has been most recently regional sales director, institutional online sales at John Wiley UK, which he joined when the parent company purchased Blackwell. (Norton uses Wiley UK’s warehouse.) Steven Wilson has joined Book Sales Inc. New York as […]
More Vaporware? Txtr Said to be Scrppd
Slashgear says that a former employee of Germany’s Txtr says that their planned ereader “has been quietly ditched while the company attempts to work on its software ebookstore business.”Slashgear
eNews: Staples Reports “Very Good” Kindle Sales; Kindle Adds eBook Gifting; and More
In discussing quarterly earnings with analysts yesterday, Staples president of US stores Demos Parneros said he is “really excited about our launch of Kindle. It’s in all our stores and has been received very well. We’ve had very good sales on Kindle.” Looking forward, he said “December is going to be a big month for the Reader category. There is also some good innovation in the category. There have been several new products, bigger products in terms of size, different form factors. So we expect our good relationship to continue and to build that business.” He says they also “are […]
Barnes & Noble Ships Nook Color A Little Early, to Generally Good Reviews
Barnes & Noble has started fulfilling preorders for the new Nook Color a few days ahead of schedule with units starting to arrive today. Demonstration devices and “very limited quantities of devices available for purchase” will start showing up in Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million stores “beginning this week.” At least a few review units have been distributed, with tech sites posting their appraisals this morning. So far the write-ups are generally quite positive. Engadget calls it “definitely a major step forward,” saying “the Nook Color is an elegantly, thoughtfully designed piece of technology.” On the basics […]
eNews: Kno’s Pricing; Grisham’s eBook Makes Up for Hardcover Shortfall; Amazon Said to Negotiate German eBooks; E Ink’s Triton
Kno, the tablet maker focused on the higher education textbook market, has announced pricing for their forthcoming devices. Their giant dual-screen, 14.1-inch tablet will sell for $899, and the single-screen model will list for $599. Their pitch is that “when you do the math, it actually pays for itself and still saves $1,300 in digital textbook costs.” They are taking “limited” pre-orders for first shipments before the end of the year, targeting 10 US college campuses to start. CEO Osman Rashid tells the WSJ that in beta testing they “found that 85 percent of those using the single screen wanted […]