Ebook Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Video App Demo: Leatherbound

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Jun 22nd, 2011)

Leatherbound is a cool, free app (iPhone and iPad) for finding the price and availability of e-books. It's meant to keep you from searching for just the book you're looking for among the mountains of Kindle, Nook and iBook offerings. Once you find a title, give it a tap to compare its listing on ...

Apple to exhibit at BookExpo America for the first time

by Michael Grothaus (May 17th, 2011)

Apple is making a rare appearance at a third-party trade show later this month. The company has reserved a booth in a "prime location" at BookExpo America, which runs from May 23-26. BookExpo America is the largest trade book fair in America, and Apple's booth will be situated by the booths of ...

Amazon releases ad-supported Kindle

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 11th, 2011)

The e-book wars are heating up, and Amazon is doing everything it can to make sure it takes the top spot. Today the internet giant announced that it will sell an ad-supported version of the Kindle for a price of US$114.00. Thankfully, Amazon is being rather tactful with the ads. They will not ...

5 ways Apple could improve iBooks

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 7th, 2011)

It's no secret that I love traditional paper books, and I think e-books have a long way to go before they can even begin to compete with physical books. As digital books stand now, they're as much fun to read on the iPad as is watching an IMAX movie projected against a brick wall. That being ...

Google Books for iOS adds landscape reading, speed boost

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 5th, 2011)

Google Books for iOS was introduced late last year and opened the world of Google's 2 million digital books to iOS owners. The application competed with Apple's iBooks and Amazon's Kindle application, but it lacked the polish and finesse of these two applications. This latest version released ...

TUAW readers get 30% off "Take Control of iWeb '09"

by Mike Schramm (Mar 26th, 2011)

TUAW's very own superstar Steve Sande has released a new ebook version of "Take Control of iWeb '09," and it's updated to reflect the fact that iWeb is practically the same in both iLife '09 and the newer iLife '11. No matter which iLife you're using, Steve's got some excellent tips in here for ...

Apple rejects Sony Reader from App Store

by Chris Rawson (Feb 1st, 2011)

According to the New York Times, Apple has rejected Sony's Reader app from the App Store, and the Times speculates Amazon's popular Kindle app may also get the axe in the near future. The supposed reasoning behind this move is that Apple has decided apps can no longer sell content or allow access ...

Two iOS apps meant to teach toddlers valuable lessons

by David Winograd (Jan 21st, 2011)

There is a new trend starting in interactive children's media: books that don't really tell a fully formed story, but are meant to teach a lesson. As with many new ideas, the first ones are pretty rough and may not be worth bothering with, but the potential is vast. Loris and the Runaway Ball ...

Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D: Two gimmicky and unfocused e-book apps

by David Winograd (Jan 18th, 2011)

Rapunzel 3D and Goldilocks 3D are two US$1.99 interactive children's books from Bacciz Apps. I'm sorry to say that they're also not very good. They are complicated, inconsistent, and neither provides a satisfying story. Both titles use elements often seen before in other interactive children's ...

Kindle app now supports Project Gutenberg eBooks

by Matt Tinsley (Jan 12th, 2011)

If you've not already jumped on the eBook bandwagon, there's never been a better time to climb aboard. With apps like iBooks and Amazon's Kindle app, getting eBooks onto your favorite Apple device couldn't be easier -- especially now that Amazon has updated its Kindle app to support Project ...

Kindle for Mac lands on the Mac App Store

by Michael Grothaus (Jan 11th, 2011)

Kindle for Mac was one of the apps we'd hoped to see when the Mac App Store launched, and it looks like we didn't have to wait long. Amazon's Kindle for Mac software has landed on the Mac App Store and currently sits at the fourth-most downloaded free app. Kindle for Mac has been available for ...

Grimm's Rapunzel is an interactive pop-up book done right

by David Winograd (Dec 24th, 2010)

Although a number of interactive children's books have billed themselves as being pop-up (or pop-out) books, like The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas (both from Loudcrow), nothing really popped up and constructed the 3D scenes that I remember from my childhood. Grimm's Rapunzel - ...

Japanese publishers censure Apple over App Store violations

by Kelly Hodgkins (Dec 14th, 2010)

A group of Japanese publishers are censuring Apple after copyrighted material was reportedly scanned and distributed through the iOS App Store. The group points to numerous App Store applications that are illegally re-publishing the works of well-known Japanese authors, including Haruki Murakami and ...

Are bulk app generators junking up the App Store again?

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Dec 7th, 2010)

We've long written about the travails of the App Store, specifically about the hardships some developers have endured (particularly in the early days) trying to get their apps approved. Apple has, in the past year, made great strides in improving this process for developers, going so far as to ...

Barnes & Noble intros Nook Color: the worst of all worlds

by Sam Abuelsamid (Oct 27th, 2010)

Barnes & Noble introduced a new color version of its Nook eBook reader on Tuesday and as expected, it features a color touch screen. Unfortunately for B&N, this new device is unlikely to pose a significant challenge to either Apple's iPad or Amazon's Kindle. The big advantage that both ...