Kobo starts selling e-readers directly through its website again
Kobo is now selling its e-readers directly through its website in the U.S. and Canada. Previously, customers had to go to third-party retailers to buy the devices. Read more »
What’s next in digital publishing: New platforms and payment models
What can a book look like in the digital age and how will people pay for it? This is one of the themes we’ll be exploring at paidContent Live on April 17 in New York Read more »
Hey, people who really like Barnes & Noble: Buy a Nook tablet, get a Nook e-reader free
photo: Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble is running a weeklong promotion: Customers who buy a Nook HD+ tablet (starting at $269) will get a Nook Simple Touch e-reader ($79) for free. Read more »
Hearst: Women finally embracing online magazines thanks to 7-inch screens
photo: Janko R
The arrival of the iPad was supposed to boost online subscription sales for magazines. It didn’t work out that way. But smaller devices like the iPad Mini and Nook are starting to change that. Read more »
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 »
Here’s how much in content sales turn Kindle Fire into a money maker
When Amazon launched its Kindle Fire hardware, the market knew it wasn’t making money on the devices. Turns out it doesn’t take that much in content sales for a 20 percent profit margin, according to ABI. Read more »
Survey: Which technologies will matter in 2013?
Give us your thoughts and takeaways from CES 2013. Read more at GigaOM »
Tablets surge past e-readers as ebook reading grows
The Pew Research Center reported that almost a quarter of Americans are reading ebooks. But more of the growth in ebook reading devices is happening on tablets than dedicated e-readers. Read more at GigaOM »
McGraw-Hill sells off education unit for $2.5B
Publishing giant McGraw-Hill has announced that it will sell its education division to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion. The news comes months after the publishing company said it would split its education and financial services units. 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 »
The disruption of education: How technology is helping students teach themselves
photo: Flickr user Vince Alongi
Mobile technology and social networks aren’t just disruptive to existing industries like communications and media, they are also helping the change the way that students learn and how education is delivered both in North America and around the world. And the disruption is just beginning. Read more at GigaOM »
Around the world, no set rules for ebook pricing or digital reading
photo: Shutterstock / Thomas Bethge
Ebook pricing and device trends that hold in North American countries don’t necessarily work for less developed market. Executives from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, France’s FNAC and India’s Indiaplaza discussed similarities and differences between digital reading cultures Wednesday afternoon at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Read more »
Barnes & Noble’s two new tablets want to help you find your next book
photo: Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble’s new Nook HD tablets, priced starting at $199, aim to stand out from the pack with reader-centric features and enhanced reading experiences for magazines and catalogs. The company’s goal is to drive book discovery and purchasing through the tablets in new ways. Read more at GigaOM »
Kobo takes aim at Amazon with two new e-readers and a tablet
Though most eyes are on Amazon’s Thursday press conference, Kobo is angling for early attention with its announcement of two new e-readers and a new 7-inch Android tablet called the Arc. How do the devices stack up to the competition? Read more at GigaOM »
Amazon says Kindle Fire makes up 22% of U.S. tablet sales
photo: Getty Images / Spencer Platt
Amazon says the Kindle Fire is sold out, meaning the company will definitely announce a new tablet at its press event next week. Meanwhile, Amazon says the Fire makes up 22% of the U.S. tablet market — suggesting actual sales far lower than early analyst estimates. Read more »
Zite’s new Android update ditches support for large-screen tablets
photo: Zite / Google Play
Personalized tablet magazine Zite is releasing a large upgrade to its Android app Tuesday afternoon. Among the changes: The end of support for large-screen Android tablets, enhanced sharing options and bug fixes. Read more »
New stats show iPad surging again as Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet fall
Market research firm IHS iSuppli shows that iPad shipments surged in Q2 2012, as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablets saw major drops. Kindle Fire’s share of the media tablet market fell to 4.2 percent, with B&N’s at 1.9 percent. Read more »
Allrecipes: Smartphones, online video becoming vital kitchen tools
Home cooks are using digital tools to help them cook: smartphones, video streaming, cooking apps and social media sites, according to an Allrecipes.com poll. But our increased dependence on the internet for cooking advice is also destroying our faith in the recipe itself. Read more at GigaOM »
Amazon brings Instant Video app to iPad. Android next?
Amazon takes another step on Apple’s digital media turf: Amazon Instant Video is now available for iPad, bringing another media option for movie purchases, rentals and television shows to Apple’s tablet. For now, Amazon is keeping this away from Android tablets, save its own Kindle Fire. Read more »
With 15M active users, Spotify adds free radio on Android
Spotify’s conversion rate isn’t bad: Out of 15 million active users, more than 4 million are paying subscribers. That number may soon increase thanks to Android support for Spotify radio, which is ad-supported and offers unlimited playback of Spotify’s entire digital music catalog. Read more »
Barnes & Noble tablets get maps before Kindle Fire
Barnes & Noble is skipping out on Google Maps for tablets and is partnering instead with Berlin-based mobile map company skobbler. skobbler’s ForeverMap 2 app is available in the Nook store today, and Nook will open up to location-based app developers later this year. Read more »
Poll: Which screens will you use for the 2012 Olympics: TV, PC, mobile?
There’s an unprecedented amount of digital video coverage for this year’s Olympic Games and yet analysts suggest that the TV will easily trump viewing on other screens again. The numbers look low because of our time- and place-shifting mentality: Share your viewing plans in our poll. Read more »
Amazon gets it: One size doesn’t fit all for tablets
Amazon is expected to introduce up to 6 new tablets, including a 10-inch model. Why not? Few besides Amazon have the consumer data, shopping experience and content to make multiple screen sized tablets, proving that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to mobile devices. Read more »
Web discovery engine Trapit launches iPad app — but it’s not another Flipboard
Trapit, an AI-based discovery engine for Web content from the group behind Siri, is releasing its iPad app Thursday after launching a Web version last November. Trapit wants to compete against news reading apps like Flipboard by offering better content. It’s planning publisher partnerships, too. Read more »
Virtual life on the line, The Daily launches WKND
News Corp.’s digital tabloid The Daily has been on borrowed time since it was an idea, given enough resources by Rupert Murdoch to launch but no guarantee of longevity. But Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo says reports that time may be running out are wrong. Read more »
Next Issue brings 39 all-you-can-read magazines to iPad
Next Issue Media’s tablet magazines are finally available for the iPad, three months after the platform launched on Android 3.0. Users can read popular magazines like People, Vogue and the New Yorker for a flat monthly fee. So is the cost worth it? Read more »
Reports: Kindle Fire 2 coming this summer
Amazon is reportedly set to unveil a new version of its Kindle Fire tablet by August. A hurry-up launch could spike interest in its flagging Fire product but would also come at a time when a growing number of discount tablets are crowding the market. Read more »
Nexus 7 first look: It’s here to snuff Kindle’s Fire
In just a short time with the Nexus 7 tablet, it’s clear that the device will appeal to the traditional Android crowd. But make no mistake: The Nexus is aimed squarely at low-cost consumption slates, such as the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet. Read more »
Google Play preloads on Kobo Vox; Books on Google Play launches in Germany
photo: Kobo
The Kobo Vox tablet now comes preloaded with the Google Play app. Current Kobo Vox owners will see the app the next time their device updates. Separately, Books on Google Play is launching in Germany. Read more »
E-book upstart Txtr signs majors for U.S. push
German e-reading service txtr hopes to take on Amazon and Apple by becoming the biggest provider of third party reading apps — and a deal with four major American publishers and a New York office could be the latest steps in that journey. Read more »
Are enhanced e-books bad for kids’ reading skills?
photo: Amazon
New research suggests that enhanced e-books’ special features can be distracting both to young kids and to their parents reading the books with them. Read more »
The new digital newsstand: Enabling “pass-along” — and saying no sometimes
The biggest challenge for a media company like Meredith is shifting focus to consumer engagement across platforms, Meredith’s Liz Schimel said at paidContent 2012. Part of that means making the brands available on the right platforms, but not all platforms. Read more »
Content, not hardware, has made tablets the current king
photo: Apple
Tablets may be a hot item now, but they’re just getting started. At paidContent 2012, Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey noted that it’s not just a “tablet or iPad world” coming, but an “everything world.” Read more »
Intel hopes the young will like its new mobile magazine
Today Intel is launching a Flipboard-like digital magazine, “iQ by Intel,” that aims to attract “a younger audience” through a blend of employee-curated content and original stories. So far, it’s mostly a lot of pieces from TechCrunch and Mashable. Read more »
Flipboard’s Quittner: Newsstand magazine business is “horrible,” “ugly”
photo: Livestream
“Virtually every publication in the world right now would desperately like to be 100 percent digital,” said Flipboard editorial director and Time Inc. vet Josh Quittner said at Internet Week this week, as publishers debated how to monetize digital magazines. Read more »
Four key takeaways from Pew’s new e-reading study
photo: Amazon
Pew finds that e-reader and tablet owners read more books — print and digital — than people who don’t own those devices. Read more »
Amazon Frustrates With 'Suspension' Of Kindle Newspaper Additions
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is denying a frustrated publisher’s claim that it has indefinitely stopped adding any more newspapers and magazines to i… Read more »
Video: Print's Not Dead, It's Getting High In The Sky
photo: Flickr / kossy@finedays
So, this is how it ends for the printed word? Thirty-thousand feet up, back against a wall, with only a street poet’s meter to defend it? Read more »
Social Magazine Apps Grapple With Advertising
Now that Forbes has 460,000 subscribers on Flipboard and 900,000 across properties on Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Currents, the brand is close to ad… Read more »
Top Kindle Fire Activity: Reading E-Books, Says Citi
photo: Getty Images / Spencer Platt
Analysts don’t know how many Kindle Fires have been sold any more than you do. Sometimes, though, they do cool stuff like an analysis (PDF)… Read more »
