Google’s new One Pass service allows consumers to use one account to pay for access to multiple publications on the Web and across a range of mobile devices.
The move comes one day after Apple laid out a subscription service for content sold through its iPhone and iPad devices, an offering that some publishers greeted skeptically. Apple would take a 30% cut on sales of subscriptions in its iTunes App Store.
via With One Pass, Google Elbows Apple and Woos Publishers – WSJ.com.
Since EPUB3 is based on HTML5, all the outbound linking that you would expect from a web page is already built into EPUB3 (as well as earlier versions of EPUB). Ebook reader apps available on iOS and Android use the “Webkit” webpage renderer for ebooks in EPUB. (Kindle devices use Webkit to render web pages and WebKit is used by Amazon to render Kindle ebooks (in mobi format) on hardware other than their own.) So it’s clear to me, at least, that even if ebook reader apps can’t have “Kindle Store” buttons, the apps will be able to present “Kindle Store” links inside the ebook content. I’ll bet you anything that Amazon is loading up ebook content with Kindle Store links: “If you like this book, perhaps you’d like this one”. They’ll even have specialized shop-books containing Kindle store links available for free. Ditto the others.
via Go To Hellman: How Apple May Inadvertently Boost eBook Linking.
This morning iBooks is the number one free iPad App in Ireland.
Amazon’s Kindle for iPad app, at number eleven is just outside the top ten free Apps.
The Elements: A Visual Exploration published by Touch Press is the top ranked paid book app at number 15 in the overall list of paid apps.
Drilling down to the paid apps in the book section, The Elements: A Visual Exploration is at number one, the full version of Disney’s toy Story Read Along App at number two, Alice for the iPad at number three, Self Help Classics at number four and The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss at number five.
iBooks is joined by the Kindle App, Marvel Comics App, Toy Story Read Along App and the Free Books App in the top five free book apps.
For more on reading and book apps, read Robert Maguire’s post from yesterday: To E Or Not To E: A Beginner’s Guide To iPad Ereading Apps.
Apple‘s iBooks program is now available for download for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but only after users update their iPhone & iPod Touch operating systems to the new iOS4.
Irish readers do not yet have access to paid titles in Apple’s iBookstore, the iTunes for books, but they can download free Project Gutenberg ebooks to the iPod or iPhone and can also read the free Winnie The Pooh ebook that comes pre-loaded in Apple’s iBooks.
Apple announced today that they had sold 3 million units of the new iPad device since it launch 80 days ago. The iPad has not yet been released in Ireland but news on pricing is due and the device is due to go on sale early in July.
There is no word yet from Apple or Irish publishers on what titles and on what basis ebooks will be available on launch of the iPad and iBookstore.
Four of the largest publishers in the UK, Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette UK and HarperCollins had a presence on Apple’s iBookstore when the iPad launched there. They operate an Agency Model whereby the publisher sets the price and pays the seller, in this case Apple, a set commission.
According to reports in the LA Times yesterday, Apple intends to use it’s Digital Rights Management system Fair Play to protect epub files sold through its iBooks store from piracy.
According to the report, publishers may choose to protect their titles or not to.
For more, read the LA Times piece here.
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