By Hannah Johnson Kobo and Random House are spreading the word about e-reading to hotel guests. At 10 Fairmont Hotels locations in the USA and Canada, guests can use a Kobo eReader loaded with bestselling Random House titles by authors like Bret Easton Ellis, Sophie Kinsella and Alexander McCall Smith…all for free! Guests even get coupons off Random House titles …
California Coffeehouses and Book Culture
By Helen Gregg The bans on computers that are becoming more prevalent in California cafés and coffeehouses are often extended to e-readers, reported eBookNewser this morning. In an effort to keep out squatters, many cafes in the state have disabled free Wi-Fi, given out time-sensitive Wi-Fi passwords, or even covered electrical outlets to keep traffic moving and keep space at …
Are Phones More Important than E-Readers to the Future of Publishing?
By Edward Nawotka In today’s headline story Hannah Johnson reports back from this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain where a variety of new devices and display technologies were introduced. For publishers in the United States, the focus for the future of e-reading has been primarily on the larger format, dedicated e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple …
Apple Isn’t the Only Tablet in Town
By Hannah Johnson If you are waiting for the tablet PC to finally arrive, you can stop waiting. Although the Apple tablet is making headlines, many manufacturers have already launched tablet PCs at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Here is a quick round-up of a few tablets at CES: The HP tablet with a multi-touch screen made a tantalizingly …
Apple Has Built the Tablet, But Will Consumers Buy?
By Hannah Johnson The moment we’ve all been anticipating is finally here…almost. The Apple tablet has been the talk of the town for months, and we will finally get a look at the “unicorn” device at the unveiling on January 26. According to the Wall Street Journal, “analysts currently believe” the device will cost around $1,000 (Apple has not commented …
Why Sony is Losing the E-Reading Race
By Erin L. Cox Last week, Steve Haber, President of Sony’s Digital Reading Business, has proven why Sony is lagging behind in the digital publishing and e-reading race. Both at Mediabistro’s eBook Summit and again on the Huffington Post, he called for publishers to “Make your content more interactive” and stated “It’s time for the publishing industry to join them …
German Buch News: Swiss Doubt Over Fixed Prices; iRex Promises Color Reader
By Siobhan O’Leary In Switzerland, the financial crisis has reignited the debate over fixed book pricing, which was expected to go into effect in 2010. Now, in an interview with the Boersenblatt, Dani Landolf, Director of the Schweizer Buchhändler- und Verleger-Verbands (SBVV) (Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association, says politicians are backing off their commitment to the policy, due in large …
Bonus Material: Palm Pre vs iPhone in E-reading Shootout
By Edward Nawotka CYBERSPACE: Back during the dark ages of 2002, I read Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections on a battery powered Palm Pilot. It took a couple of weeks for me to finish and it came in at well over 10,000 pages on the little glowing green screen. Since then, I haven’t owned a Palm. Like most, I’m a …