It’s that time of year again. Not the holidays — I’m mean yeah, sure it is, but that’s pretty obvious. No, it’s the time of year when we drive ourselves (and others) a little crazy running around trying to find gifts at the last minute. Especially those pesky stocking stuffers — the little gifts that fill in the gap between “it’s Christmas? Geez, I completely forgot” and “honey, I bought you a Lexus.”
Thanks to the success of the Starbucks App Store ‘Pick of the Week’ promotion, Starbucks has announced that it will also be offering free eBook Picks of the Week in a partnership with iTunes and the iBookstore.
Michael Hart, founder of free ebooks repository Project Gutenberg, died this week. He was 64.
The latest class action lawsuit against Apple has been filed by law firm Hagens Berman and accuses Apple and five major publishers of conspiring to raise the price of ebooks.
Amazon’s Kindle application was recently at risk of being removed from the App Store because it contained a link to purchase content outside of Apple’s ecosystem — something Apple no longer allows developers to do under its latest App Store terms. In order to secure its place in the App Store, Amazon issued a last-minute update to its app to remove the link, but in a move that subtly tells Apple where to stick its new rules, Amazon has launched a web-based Kindle reader with support for the iPad. And it’s awesome!
Here’s a peek at Al Gore’s new book, “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis,” which has been turned into a very cool interactive iPad app.
The former vice president’s book features text, images, interactive infographics, documentary video and audio commentary.
It looks like a great, immersive experience (and probably pretty scary, given the subject matter) — the climate change equivalent of the beautiful The Elements app.
Check it out:
The app ($4.99 on the App Store) was designed by Push Pop Press, a San Francisco startup by a pair of ex-Apple engineers, including Mike Matas, who helped design Delicious Monster. Push Pop Press is working on a Mac desktop application to create similar eBooks, which will be “very affordable” when it eventually ships. Reporter Brian Chen has more detail at Wired.com: Gore, Ex-Apple Engineers Team Up to Blow Up the Book
Here’s another video showing Gore’s app/book in more detail:
A sample page from thriller vook "Embassy"
Publishing house Simon & Schuster just launched a new product dubbed “vook,” a dumb name for what sounds like a smart video book.
The idea? Vooks blend text and video into a reading and viewing experience, so the next time you’re not really getting a sense of place from a novel, or want to see how exercises are done you can watch a video. It’s also got all of the social media trappings, so you can discuss, rant etc. about the vook, (pronounced to ryhme with book), too.
The first four titles, available for $4.99 each on iTunes, are workout book “The 90-Second Fitness Revolution,” a book of DIY spa treatments called “Return to Beauty,” a thriller by Richard Doetsch called “Embassy” and romance novella “Promises.”
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