| In September, Amazon updated their Android app such that it was actually a completely functional app store. Flash forward to today, and it appears Google has made Amazon’s signature application un-findable using search in the Play Store (though the Amazon direct link does seem to work, for now). There is a new app in its stead (we presume) called Amazon Shopping that looks pretty much like the old app did, minus the App Store bit. The moral of the story, is that it appears as if Google wasn’t thrilled with Amazon making their digital catalog available for sale in this manner. When asked for a comment, Amazon noted:
Of course, the question that begs asking is if Amazon didn’t think it was doing anything sneaky or against the rules… why did they keep it so hidden? Google hasn’t responded with a comment so far, but it has to be making Android fanatics a little nervous… the search giant seems to be locking things down in a way that labels them more like the thing they hate the most (Apple).
Amazon’s Hidden & Functional App Store Gets Them Ousted From Google Play is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Amazon’s Hidden & Functional App Store Gets Them Ousted From Google Play
Apple Announces Top eBooks of 2014
| If you are looking for gift to by someone for the holiday season or want to catch up on some reading, Apple has you covered. The iBooksstore has just announced the top free, paid and audiobook titles of 2014. When it comes to purchasing eBooks on the iPhone or iPad, Apple is one of the only retailers that actually sells them. A few years ago Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo all pulled the ability to sell books through their apps, because they did not want to pay Apple a percentage of each book sold. This has relegrated these apps to basically be gloriified e-reading apps for books purchased on other devices or on their websites. With the advent of iOS 8, the Apple bookstore is now preloaded on any new Apple device that is purchased or on older devices that have been automatically upgraded. Fiction The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (Children & Teens) Nonfiction Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, Michael Lewis (Business & Personal Finance) Free Books Private, Maxine Paetro,James Patterson (Mysteries & Thrillers) Audiobooks Divergent (Unabridged), Veronica Roth (Kids & Young Adults) Apple Announces Top eBooks of 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Announces Top Reading Apps and eBooks of 2014
| Google is in a prime position to give everyone a sense of the most popular news and eBook apps. The Play app store is basically bundled on 85% of every Android phone and tablet on the market. Today, Google has announced the most popular apps, video and music. What is surprising about the top reading apps this year, is that the majority of people are consuming digital news. The New York Times, TMZ, Forbes, Verge and Huffington Post were the most popular reading apps during 2014. The Top eBooks of the year were The Fault in our Stars, Fifty Shades of Grey, Divergent, Twelve Years a Slave and Insurgent. Google Announces Top Reading Apps and eBooks of 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo Launches 3 e-Books for the Price of 2 Promotion
| Kobo has just launched a new e-Book promotion in Canada that allows readers to buy three digital books for the price of two. This new deal is only applicable to Hachette titles and will be transpiring from now until December 15th. The publisher Hachette Book Group, home to some of the world's bestselling authors, was first off the mark to partner with Kobo on this offer to bring the most passionate readers a selection of top reads such as Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille, Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand, Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes, and more. Click here to see the full list of Hachette tittles that are included in this promotion, in addition to their imprints, such as Orbit. "This new feature makes it easier for people to enjoy more of the books they want to read at a better price, and we're thrilled to be working with Hachette to launch the program," says Anderson. "As we continue to work with our publisher partners, we know this new capability will prove to be an interesting and effective option to further promote their authors and series." Kobo Launches 3 e-Books for the Price of 2 Promotion is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Weekly eHighlights: Kids & Teens Edition
Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more.
Picture Books A. Rey – Curious George Windy Delivery – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt eBook Michele B. Slawson – Apple Picking Time – Random House eBook Andrew Zuckerman – Creature ABC – Chronicle Books eBook Michaela Muntean, – Zip! Hop! Pop! And Other Fun Words to Say – Sesame Street eBook Chris Van Allsburg – The Misadventures of Sweetie Pie – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt eBook
Early Readers Tad Hills – Rocket's 100th Day of School – Random House eBook Jennifer Mckerley, illustrated by Paul Mirocha – Amazing Armadillos – Random House eBook
Middle Grades Katherine Applegate – Home of the Brave – Macmillan eBook & Books on Tape audiobook read by Dominic Hoffman Wayne Thomas Batson – Search for the Shadow Key – Thomas Nelson eBook Michael Bond – Love from Paddington – HarperCollins eBook Jason Fry – Curse of the Iris – HarperCollins eBook Joan Holub – Aphrodite the Fair – Simon & Schuster eBook Ace Landers – Emmet's Guide to Being Awesome – Scholastic eBook Nancy Rue – You Can't Sit with Us – Thomas Nelson eBook Kirkpatrick Hill – Bo at Iditarod Creek – Henry Holt and Co. Robert Simpson – Frozen: The Cinestory – HarperCollins eBook Amy K. Nichols – Now That You're Here (Duplexity Part I) – Knopf Books for Young Readers Ages 12 and up. A debut novel that has received great reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal, and VOYA, and a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Much buzz about the "brainy, kickass heroine" and a sci-fi theme that explores theoretical physics.
Teens Molly Cochran – Seduction – Simon & Schuster eBook Skylar Dorset – The Boy with the Hidden Name – Sourcebooks eBook Patricia Dunn – Rebels by Accident – Sourcebooks eBook Lauren Oliver – Alex – HarperCollins eBook James Patterson & Emily Raymond – The Lost – Hachette eBook & Blackstone audiobook read by Spencer Locke and John Glouchevitch Christopher Pike – Black Knight – Simon & Schuster eBook Frank Portman – King Dork Approximately – Random House eBook Sara Shepard – Vicious – HarperCollins eBook Zoe Sugg – Girl Online: The First Novel by Zoella – Simon & Schuster eBook Katie Dale – Little White Lies – Random House eBook. Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves – InterWorld – HarperTeen Ages 13 and up. Book 1 of a new series, this title is written by powerhouse Neil Gaiman and award-winning scriptwriter and novelist Michael Reaves. Already a New York Times bestseller.
Nonfiction Megan Miller – Minecraft Hacks: Combat Edition: The Unofficial Guide to Tips and Tricks That Other Guides Won't Teach You – Sky Pony Press eBook Mary Pope Osborne – China: Land of the Emperor’s Great Wall: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #14: Day of the Dragon King – Random House eBook Oliver Stone – Untold History of the United States, Vol. 1: Young Reader's Ed. – Simon & Schuster eBook Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more. *Geographical rights may vary by title. |
MagPi issue 29 – out now!
| The MagPi magazine is a free download created by the Raspberry Pi community, for the Raspberry Pi community. Click the link, or on the picture, to visit their website. Here are the editors to explain what’s in this month’s issue:
There’s lots to be going on with here – plenty to get your teeth into over the Christmas break. (And Will Bell demoed his Scratch space arcade game to me a couple of weeks ago – if you don’t love it, you’re dead inside.) Thanks, as always, to Team MagPi – we hope you all have a great Christmas break! |
Google News Excludes Spanish Publishers Due to New Tax Law
| Google News is apart of our lives, it's free to use and includes everything from the world's biggest newspapers to small, local publications and bloggers. Due to new tax laws passed in Spain, Google News is shuttering their doors on December 16th. In October, the Spanish government passed a new copyright law that goes into effect in early January. It imposes fees for online content aggregators such as Google News and Yahoo News. This was chiefly done to to protect the country's print media industry. Known popularly as the "Google Tax", the law requires services that post links and excerpts of news articles to pay a fee to the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies. Authorities will have the power to fine websites up to $748,000 for linking to pirated content. “This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not,” Richard Gingras, head of Google News, wrote in the post. “As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable.” Google News will continue to run in Spain, but will longer aggregate news content from Spanish media sites. It will continue to offer content from the rest of the world, but the lack of local inclusion will be felt by small and medium sized blogs and websites. Even large newspapers will feel the pinch. In November, Germany’s biggest news publisher, Axel Springer, scrapped a move to block Google News from running snippets of articles from its newspapers, saying that the experiment had caused traffic to its sites to plunge 80%. Google News Excludes Spanish Publishers Due to New Tax Law is a post from: Good e-Reader |
