e-book

First all-digital library in the U.S. will look like an Apple Store

The first book-free library in the U.S. may look pretty familiar to visitors. That's because it's being modeled after an Apple retail store.

Bexar County, Texas, which includes San Antonio, will launch the nation's first all-digital public library system, dubbed BiblioTech, this year. A prototype location on the county's south side is slated to open this fall, and the county hopes to open similar libraries in the future.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff got his inspiration for the all-digital library from Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

"… Read more

Tablets more popular than e-readers among e-book crowd

More people are reading e-books, and more of them are using tablets as their primary way of doing so.

The percentage of Americans who now read e-books rose to 23 percent in 2012 from 16 percent a year ago, says a report out today from Pew Internet. Over the same time, the percentage of those who read printed books dropped to 67 percent from 72 percent.

From the poll conducted in October and November, the percentage of people who own a tablet or dedicated e-reader jumped to 33 percent from just 18 percent a year ago.

But among the two … Read more

CNET's holiday gift: Our first CNET How To e-book -- free!

CNET How To has grown leaps and bounds in 2012, so we wanted to celebrate our first year with a surprise gift: Some of our very best advice about the Kindle Fire to read on a Kindle Fire.

The precocious Sharon Vaknin, CNET's How To expert, has compiled our very best Kindle advice, tips, and tricks into a comprehensive e-book, Mastering the Kindle Fire. From now through the day after Christmas, we're making the book available for free in the Kindle store. Starting on December 27, you can pick it up for just $4.99.

CNET's guide … Read more

Penguin settles DOJ lawsuit over alleged e-book price-fixing

Penguin has become the latest book publisher to settle federal charges of e-book price-fixing, leaving only Apple and Macmillan to fight the Justice Department allegations.

In an antitrust lawsuit filed in April, federal prosecutors accused Apple and five book publishers of conspiring to artificially hike prices. The same day, the Justice Department announced it had reached settlements with three publishers but said Apple and the other two publishers had opted to fight the charges. Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster (owned by CBS, which publishes CNET) agreed to settle.

Penguin added … Read more

Report: Amazon Kindle store hit by regulatory trouble in China

Amazon's new Chinese Kindle store is reportedly being investigated by Chinese authorities over charges that the store does not have a license to sell e-books in the country.

China's GAAP (General Administration of Press and Publication) agency requires that digital publishers operating in China must receive at least one of four licenses to publish, copy, distribute, or import ebooks, according to blog site MIC Gadget.

But Amazon allegedly did not obtain any of the required licenses. Instead, the company reportedly borrowed a license from one of its partners, which is against the law in China. Amazon did apply … Read more

Share Karma's Wi-Fi, get free data

Friday's CNET Update is counting megabytes:

Today's tech news roundup looks at the Karma hotspot, which rewards owners with free data for sharing access with others. Karma gives 100 megabytes of data for every person who taps into the network, plus the owner gets another 100 megabytes that do not expire. Adding more data costs $14 for 1 gigabyte. Frequent travelers might find Karma appealing. FreedomPop is offering a similar concept for home broadband, giving free data every month and adding more to those that recommend friends.

Another startup wants to change how we watch broadcast television. Aereo … Read more

Apple, publishers settle in EU e-book antitrust case

Apple and four major publishers have settled a case with European antitrust regulators after negotiations began in September, ending an ongoing row over e-book price fixing.

The iPhone and iPad maker, along with HarperCollins, Hachette Livre, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck-owned Macmillan, and CBS-owned Simon & Schuster (CNET and ZDNet are also owned by CBS), all agreed to legally binding conditions that would ease pricing restrictions on Amazon and other e-book sellers.

A fifth publisher, Penguin -- owned by U.K. group Pearson -- is still under investigation as the publisher "chose not to offer commitments," but … Read more

RIP e-book readers? Rise of tablets drives e-reader drop

The rapid rise of tablets is driving the e-book reader market to an equally rapid fall, according to a new study.

IHS iSuppli said that after "spectacular" growth during the past few years, the e-book reader market is now on an "alarmingly precipitous decline," all thanks to the growing popularity of tablets.

How alarming? Well, the firm predicts that shipments of e-book readers will tumble 36 percent this year to 14.9 million units and then drop another "drastic" 27 percent next year to 10.9 million units. By 2016, IHS iSuppli predicts, the … Read more

Does it still make sense to buy an e-reader?

I've been an e-book fan for as long as I can remember. Ever since I found myself stuck on a slow-moving mountain train with nothing but my PalmPilot and an e-book, I've been hooked on digital reading.

Flash-forward some 15 years and e-books are everywhere, thanks in no small part to the Amazon Kindle -- a dedicated e-reader with a special "e-ink" screen that I still consider a marvel of modern technology. (Know why Kindles and other e-ink devices have such phenomenal battery life? Because every pixel on the screen is either "on" or &… Read more

Read through many book formats on your iDevice with Stanza

Stanza is a reader for books, available in apps for most devices. We downloaded Stanza from iTunes, and it installed quickly. The app is free.

Stanza lets you read books on your iDevice using a simple, elegant interface. Notably, compared with other reader apps, Stanza supports a wide range of file formats from PDF to EPUB, including those with DRM and without. In fact, we tested Stanza with almost a hundred different books over the space of a couple of months of commuting, and it opened every file we threw at it from different sources. When launched, Stanza shows a … Read more