Amazon Prime members get free audio books and access to 'Audible Channels'
As someone on the go, I have always craved the ability to listen to audio books in my car. Whenever I research getting them, however, the high prices always scare me away. Look, I understand a lot of time and effort goes into creating versions of books that are read aloud, but with current pricing, it is simply not reasonable for an average person to truly take advantage.
Today, this changes as Amazon delivers audio-focused benefits to members of its Prime service. Users can now access 50 audio books for free, meaning consuming them is an affordable reality. In addition, Prime members are getting free access to the company's 'Audible Channels'.
'Subway Reads' gives NYC straphangers free e-book shorts and excerpts
Have you ever been on an NYC subway? If not, let me tell you -- it is often horrible. Air conditioning can be broken, leading to high temperatures. Even worse, some people bring their food below ground, resulting in a stinky train car -- yuck! Don't even get me started on the performers -- people will sing or do acrobatics and then demand money. Heck, just last week a woman released live crickets on the subway!
Luckily, the NYC subway experience is getting better thanks to one thing -- Wi-Fi. Today, Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of New York announces a new promotion, called "Subway Reads", which leverages that connectivity. This initiative will help straphangers get some relief from the other nonsense by enabling them to bury themselves in a free Penguin Random House e-book short or excerpt.
Check your Amazon account for free credit as Apple coughs up in ebook lawsuit settlement
Following a court ruling that it was involved in ebook price-fixing with five publishers, Apple has started the process of paying back $400m in refunds. Despite agreeing to pay out the thick end of half a billion dollars, Apple denies doing anything wrong.
Interestingly, the payouts will not necessarily reach customers direct from Apple. Refunds are being issued through four ebook stores -- iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo -- and Amazon customers (Kindle users) should be getting their credit today. If you're in line for a refund, you should have received an email informing you, but in case this made its way to your spam folder, you can manually check to see if you've benefitted.
UK ebook sales drop for the first time
It seems that our love affair with ebooks could be turning sour. For the first time since digital book sales were recorded, the number of ebooks sold in the UK dropped in 2015.
The drop could be partly explained by the fact that we seem to be reading less in recent years. While sales of printed books rose by 0.4 percent according to the Publishers Association, digital book sales declined by 1.6 percent.
Your older Amazon Kindle may lose connectivity today, but there's an update
The Amazon Kindle has been around since 2007, and plenty of updates have been made to both hardware software during the years since it was released. If you have an older model then it still works just fine and, while Amazon would almost certainly like to sell you a new one, the company is still content to sell you books for older models.
All models released prior to 2013 are now at risk of losing internet connectivity and the company is notifying customers still utilizing those devices.
How the Internet has forever changed five major industries
The digital revolution has resulted in disruption to many industries, with whole new business models created, new brands rising to the top of many industries and those companies failing to adapt, falling by the wayside.
The digital age has impacted industries in both goods and service -- from travel and transport, to publishing, retail and music. The switch from physical to digital has revolutionized both the production and distribution of books and music.
Apple's no longer court monitored in ebook antitrust case
Apple’s e-book division will no longer be overseen by a court-appointed monitor after the US Justice Department ruled that the company had made improvements to its antitrust compliance program.
Despite the positive outcome for Apple, the Justice Department was critical of the company’s "challenging relationship" with the appointed monitor Michael Bromwich, claiming that the iPhone maker "never embraced a cooperative working relationship".
Microsoft is giving away over 200 eBooks covering Windows 10, Office 365 and more for free
Eric Ligman, Microsoft Director of Worldwide Partner Experience is once again giving away a large collection of useful eBooks covering widely used products including Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows 7, OneNote, Skype, Office 2013, Office 365, Azure, and Lync 2013. Since his last mega giveaway, Eric has added a bunch of new topics including Windows 10.
Ligman is not a new, or an unknown name in the field. He has been writing guides for years now and has written close to 500 of those so far. His eBooks are very popular among tech enthusiasts, and business people, as well as regular home users who just want to get their work done.
Apple DID conspire to inflate ebook prices, must pay $450 million
On the same day that Apple Music launched, Apple received some bad news from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a 2 to 1 vote, judges ruled that the company did conspire with publishers to inflate the prices of ebooks sold through iBookstore, agreeing with a 2013 ruling.
The judges found that Apple had violated federal antitrust law in coming to arrangements with five publishers, resulting in book prices jumping from $9.99 to between $12.99 and $14.99. Two years ago US District Judge Denise Cote said that Apple was "central" to a price-fixing conspiracy. The ruling having been upheld today, Apple will now have to pay $450 million.
What makes Apple such a success? -- Free ebook
Love it or hate it, you can't deny that Apple is a phenomenally successful company. But how has it managed to achieve this from a business that started in a garage?
Mostly it hasn’t been by innovation but by taking technology that already existed and turning it into the devices that people want to buy. Apple, more than any other company, has succeeded in making technology cool and desirable.
Amazon Kindle's new old bug could expose your account credentials
A security flaw in Amazon's Kindle software could allow hackers to access your Amazon account details.
Benjamin Daniel Musser, a security researcher, discovered the issue, which arises when downloading e-books from websites other than Amazon itself.
Kindle Unlimited brings endless reading and listening to customers
Amazon already gives Prime customers access to a Kindle lending library, allowing the user to "borrow" books each month. But for some of the more voracious types, this may not provide enough material for a month's worth of entertainment.
For those customers, the retail giant has unveiled Kindle Unlimited, bringing all of the reading and listening needed to satisfy anyone, regardless of how fast he or she can read.
Microsoft gives away almost 300 ebooks -- master Windows 8.1, Office 365, and much more
Eric Ligman, Microsoft Senior Sales Excellence Manager, has released a whole new batch of free ebooks, covering topics such as Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows 7, Office 2013 and Office 365, Azure, Lync 2013, and SQL Server. There are ebooks and resource guides for all things Microsoft.
For the past few years, Ligman has been writing posts in which he has given away almost 150 free Microsoft ebooks, and now he has another 130 more titles available to download for free, in addition to all the ones previously offered. Yes, that's right -- there are now close to 300 titles available.
Amazon buys comiXology
Jeff Bezos expands his digital-publishing empire, by acquiring one of the electronic comic-book pioneers. I get more PR emails from comiXology than most any other company. Not as much as Google or Microsoft, but close. That is until recently. Now I understand why, assuming silence is golden before the big merger announcement.
Amazon expects to close the acquisition during second quarter, giving the company a big footprint in the digital comic-book market. Founded in 2007, comiXology helped bring Marvel and DC Comics to digital. Rough -- and very inexact industry estimates -- put paid digital comic downloads at 40 million per year.
Amazon lands major textbook distribution deal in Brazil
Amazon began its retail life as an online book distributor, though it's something we rarely consider the company now -- unless you choose to count digital versions for Kindle and Kindle apps. However, a thriving market for textbooks exists and that has become a recent focus for the company -- also in digital format.
Amazon now lands a major contract in that market, announcing it has reached a textbook deal with the Brazil Ministry of Education. "National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE), has been working with Amazon to convert and wirelessly distribute more than 200 textbooks to hundreds of thousands of public high school teachers via Whispercast", the company states.
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