Why Apple is the stumbling block in Amazon’s ebook transition
As the ebook transition moves forward, Amazon should worry that Kindle is not going to be the device leading the revolution. Read more »
Angie’s List merchants can now accept payments with Square
photo: Square
Consumer review service Angie’s List is integrating Square technology into its iPhone app, allowing merchants like house cleaners, plumbers and painters to accept credit card payments in the field. Read more at GigaOM »
How to use your iPhone, iPad or Mac to borrow ebooks from the library
photo: Shutterstock / Gts
You don’t have to pay for ebooks on your mobile device or your Mac: your local library will lend you ebooks, digital magazine and audiobooks. Here’s a quick guide to getting set up. Read more »
Memo to Marissa: Partnering with everyone else is not a winning strategy for Yahoo
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer told attendees at the World Economic Forum that the key to the company’s future success is partnering with other players like Apple, Google and Facebook. But is that a future worth betting on? Read more at GigaOM »
iPads replace newspapers in Boston Globe’s school donation program
For years, newspaper subscribers who go on vacation have donated their papers to classrooms where students would do things like cut out pictures. Now, Boston readers will be donating iPads instead. Read more »
The story behind DIAL: How Netflix and YouTube want to take on AirPlay
Watch out, AirPlay: Netflix and YouTube are working on an open second screen protocol, and they’ve already secured support from key CE makers and content platforms. Read more »
Kobo hires former Apple sales director to oversee international strategy
Toronto-based ebook company Kobo is rapidly expanding abroad. On Wednesday the company announced that it has hired Jean-Mark Dupuis, a former sales director at Apple, as managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Read more »
iOS Newsstand offers early peek at new magazine issues
So far, the only publisher participating is Hearst. There’s no set standard for how early a look each Newsstand issue will offer, Hearst told AllThingsD. Read more »
Amazon opens music store for Apple devices, songs start at 69 cents
Amazon is getting more aggressive in its attempt to muscle into the online music space. On Thursday, it announced a HTML5-based MP3 store that allows consumers to buy and play songs on their Apple devices. Read more »
Rolling Stone finally comes to iPad, with buy links to iTunes
Two years ago, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner criticized magazine publishers’ “premature” rush to iPad. Now, the 40-year-old music magazine is launching an iPad edition that includes a music purchase partnership with iTunes. Read more »
To fight Amazon’s “black box,” iPad publisher Inkling opens its 400 ebooks up to Google
In an effort to aid book discovery and battle Amazon’s dominance, iOS publishing platform Inkling will allow its roughly 400 ebooks to be fully indexed through Google search. The company plans to add a thousand more books this year. Read more »
Apple TV adds streaming service Watchever in Germany
Apple TV users in Germany got some content of their own Friday: Watchever, the new streaming video subscription service from Vivendi. The move could open the door to more region-specific content deals for Apple TV. Read more »
Dish’s new second-screen app looks good, which should worry its competition
Dish entered the second-screen game this week at CES, offering its subscribers an iOS app that combines the traditional programming grid with social discovery and remote control capabilities. It’s what a lot of startups try to do – but maybe an operator can just do it better? Read more »
Apple will sell ebooks in Japan
photo: Flickr / Marcus Vegas
Apple will launch a fully fledged iBookstore in Japan this year. Kobo, Kindle and Google all launched Japanese ebookstores in 2012 — greasing the wheels for Apple’s launch in a country that has been slow to embrace ebooks. Read more »
Where to watch New Year’s in Times Square live online and on your phone
It’s time once again to watch the ball drop on Times Square. Don’t want to actually wait in person on Times Square? No worries, there are plenty of opportunities to watch all the action on the web, on your iPhone and on your Android handset. Read more »
All-singing devices are eating up MP3 player sales
The MP3 player saved the music business. But now consumers are replacing dedicated music players, ebook readers and compact cameras with multi-purpose smartphones. All hail the new Swiss Army knife. Read more »
87% of U.S. magazine and newspaper publishers have an iPad app, survey says
photo: NYT
A new survey from the Alliance for Audited Media (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations) finds that newspaper and magazine publishers’ digital businesses are gradually becoming profitable, and 63 percent say “tablets are the most important digital channel for their publication’s future.” Read more »
It’s our duty — all of us — to fight for the open web
photo: Shutterstock/Luis Santos
Closed and proprietary networks and platforms like Facebook and Apple and Amazon are appealing in many ways because they are so easy to use, but in depending on them for so much of our online lives, we give up many of the benefits of the open web. Read more at GigaOM »
BookBook case disguises iPad mini as a vintage book
There’s no lack of iPad mini covers for sale. BookBook just added their own, which makes your small Apple tablet look like a classic, old book. It still protects the iPad mini though and you can prop up the tablet for typing or video enjoyment. Read more »
European Commission reaches ebook deal with Apple and publishers
The European Commission has officially reached a settlement with Apple and four publishers on ebook pricing. The terms of the settlement mirror those in the U.S., but will primarily affect only the U.K. since other European countries have fixed price laws for books. Read more »
Analysts: Apple may have better shot at Apple TV outside the US
photo: Apple
Apple’s ‘hobby’ of improving the TV-viewing experience has graduated to ‘intense interest’. But what chance does Cupertino have of working with broadcasters? More in Europe than at home, analysts say. Read more »
There’s life in iTunes yet – global expansion is good news for labels
photo: Shutterstock / Smith
Music labels can expect prolonged life for the track download format to come from new overseas markets, as Apple launches iTunes Store in 56 more countries, introducing a legal store to fast-growth and difficult territories. Read more »
News Corp.’s The Daily is dead, long live The Daily?
photo: ContentNext composite
News Corp concedes its pioneering tablet-only news title is not popular enough to continue as anything other than a learning exercise, marking the failure of one aspect of Rupert Murdoch’s tablet odyssey. Read more »
Meet Chefs Feed, the anti-Foodspotting
Crowdsourcing may have liberated the restaurant review from the critics, but Steve and Jared Rivera think its also produced a lot of bad food recommendations. There answer was to create Chefs Feed, a food app where recommendations come solely from professional chefs. Read more at GigaOM »
Black Friday digital reading roundup: Tablets, e-readers and ebooks
Here’s our roundup of the best Black Friday deals on ebooks, tablets and e-readers. We’ll update this post throughout the weekend. Read more »
Ex Apple VP backs payment platform Cleeng to break U.S.
photo: Kingfisher
Another vendor hoping to provide a paid content mechanism to online publishers is raising money from backers including Apple’s former overseas lieutenant. Read more »
Russia’s lackluster digital music market gets Opera tunes while iTunes waits
photo: Flickr / yeowatzup
Browser maker Opera launches a music service in to a Russian market that badly needs legal options, whilst iTunes Store’s debut is reportedly shelved. Read more »
Research: Apple pulling ahead of Samsung in mobile advertising stakes
photo: Samsung
Apple and Samsung are both taking a greater share of mobile ad impressions from RIM and Nokia, but Cupertino’s devices are gobbling faster than Korea’s, according to research. Read more »
Flipboard adds Books section integrated with Apple’s iBookstore
Social news app Flipboard aims to help readers discover books in a new partnership with Apple’s iBookstore. Flipboard takes a cut of each book sale made via its platform. Read more »
Bookboard tries Netflix-like model for kids’ ebooks
Bookboard, a startup from former Adobe execs, gives parents and kids streaming access to a library of children’s ebooks. The company launches in free public beta Monday with about 300 titles, and will eventually charge a monthly fee. Read more »
Three Mac apps to help you self publish your book
I’m looking to self-publish my writing, so I took a look at a bunch of different Mac apps that can create ebooks. The best I found were Apple’s Pages, Adobe InDesign, and Scrivener. Here’s a look the pros and cons of each program. Read more »
DC brings its monthly comics to Kindle, Nook and iBookstore
DC Comics is making all of its periodical comic books, like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, available digitally through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple. With those companies all launching new tablets, DC clearly sees them as an important platform for reading comics. Read more »
European Commission reportedly accepts ebook pricing agreement
Reuters cites two unidentified sources who says that the European Commission has accepted Apple and four publishers’ proposed ebook pricing settlement. As we previously reported, the EU settlement includes Apple, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Macmillan parent company Holtzbrinck. Macmillan and Apple are not settling in the U.S. Read more »
HuffPost Live’s new iPad app could be a second screen breakthrough
photo: HuffPo Live
HuffPost Live’s new app could help usher in an era where content producers seek to dominate not just our TV but our tablet devices — at the same time. Read more at GigaOM »
When disaster strikes: There’s no app for that
For those of us wired around the clock through digital devices, it’s ironic to realize that our parents and grandparents are the ones who have the best communication tools for a major disaster. Read more at GigaOM »
Read-it-later service Pocket launches Mac app
Pocket, which allows users to save content from the web to view later, has added a Mac app to its lineup of iOS, Android, Kindle Fire and web apps. Read more at GigaOM »
Review: iBooks 3′s new scrolling view, collections, sharing
We take a look at the new ebooks software Apple updated on Tuesday. The new scrolling view and social sharing of iBooks passages are interesting features updates, but may not be for everyone. Read more »
News.me says goodbye, places blame on Twitter
The folks at News.me closed their doors to future iOS downloads on Wednesday, saying they would no longer attempt to compete with Twitter in the curation space as the social network closes down on third-party requirements. In other words, another Twitter app bites the dust. Read more at GigaOM »
Apple releases iBooks 3, expands to more countries
At Apple’s iPad Mini launch event in San Francisco on Tuesday, the company also announced updates to its e-reading platform, iBooks. In addition, Apple is reportedly expanding the iBookstore to 18 more countries, including many in Latin America. Read more at GigaOM »
Live blog: Apple’s iPad event
Apple introduced a bunch of new products Tuesday, October 23rd, including the anticipated debut of the iPad Mini as well as a new iPad, extremely thing new iMac, and a new 13-inch MacBook Pro. Here’s how events unfolded in San Jose, Calif. Read more at GigaOM »
