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Tag: "Books"

Why I Need an iPad

By Cristi | March 28, 2010 | 3 comments

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There have been countless articles written recently about Apple’s April 3rd release of the iPad and many of them include predictions about the fate of the product, who will use it and the impact it will have on communications in general.

Among the predictions, are those saying women will make up a large percentage of iPad users. Like myself, many women are wondering how to use the iPad in their daily lives. Well, the more I read about the iPad, the more ideas I come up with to justify my purchase.

Amazon Announces Kindle Apps for Tablets

By Bill | March 22, 2010 | No comment yet

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Last week we mentioned that Amazon hinted at supporting Apple’s upcoming iPad with a version of their Kindle e-reader app. It’s now official, Amazon posted details on their new Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers program earlier today. The title says “tablet computers”, but the only tablet device we see listed on the page is Apple’s iPad.

Kindle Books on the iPad

By Bill | March 19, 2010 | No comment yet

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Amazon released a Mac version of their Kindle e-reader application today as part of an effort to extend Kindle books to a wide range of mobile devices. Amazon already supports the iPhone and Blackberry platforms with dedicated e-reader apps and has indicated that support for the iPad will be coming soon.

It’s great to see both Barnes & Noble and Amazon announcing support for the iPad at this early stage in the game. Barnes & Noble and Amazon both have their own e-readers and provide competing eco-systems to Apple’s iPad. The online book battle is just beginning and the major booksellers are hedging their bets by building a presence on the iPad platform.

We will keep an eye on the e-book market and see how things play out between these three over the coming year.

Penguin Books rocking the iPad

By Roberto | March 19, 2010 | No comment yet

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Amongst the many things I intend to do with my iPad, one will be reading lots of books and magazines. And as part of the process I intend to let my 10-year old son and 5-year old daughter experience books and stories like never before. After seeing and reading about what Penguin will launch with the iPad I’m very interested.

The Penguin iPad demo is real nice because it gives you a feel on how the iBook store could change the way we perceive and look at books. Penguin Books’ CEO John Makinson says it will be “embedding audio, video and streaming into everything” it does. Kids and families will certainly enjoy this experience. I know my kids will.

And for us adults it seems that all our favorite games are getting books deals these days. From Gears of War, to Mass Effect, to Assassin’s Creed, to well, everyone. The future for e-books looks bright!

For a Penguin Books demo check out the video >>

ABC Changes Rules for iPad

By Bill | March 18, 2010 | No comment yet

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The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has changed its definition of a digital magazine to now include new reading devices such as Apple’s iPad. The new definition allows magazine publishers to include digital editions in a magazine’s circulation base as long as it includes the full editorial content and advertising from the print edition. Based on the new definition, digitial magazines do not need to have the same layout as their print siblings to be counted in the rate base.

The ABC released a statement stating “Wired magazine was the first publication to seek review of its iPad version, which will qualify as a digital replica edition under the bureau’s new guidelines. GQ has offered an ABC approved replica app for the iPhone and iPod Touch since December 2009.”

This move by the ABC opens the door for magazine publishers to begin moving their content to the iPad while counting new digital sales as part of their larger circulation numbers. Condé Nast was one of the first publishers to announce broad plans to support the iPad. We should see Glamour, Vanity Fair, GQ and Wired available for the iPad shortly after its launch.

Wired Magazine on iPad

By Roberto | March 17, 2010 | No comment yet

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Wired has been working on a digital version for an Apple tablet since before the iPad was announced. The iPad edition is supposed to include everything from text and images to short films, fully-integrated social features, and 360-degree product displays. Imagine being able to read your magazine content and all of a sudden a product advertisement or a simple image catches your eye, and with your fingertips you can simply turn that image around (360-degrees) to look at all sides.

What about using a cool feature at the bottom of the magazine display that allows you to scroll from page to page and see a thumbnail of different pages including advertising. And at the top, a browser feature that allows you to browse through the entire magazine and deconstruct it.

iPad Will Have Access to Over One Million Titles

By Cristi | March 15, 2010 | No comment yet

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Barnes & Noble announced Thursday that it will add a new B&N eReader to its list of free eReader software for desktop and mobile devices. This new eReader, designed specifically for the iPad, will offer iPad users access to over one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore.

The addition of the iPad eReader lets Barnes & Noble continue to “fulfill our promise of providing consumers any book, any time, any where.” Expect the iPad eReader to be released around the same time as the iPad.

It will be interesting to see how the competition between the different eReaders (Kindle, nook and iPad) and eBook stores (Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes) plays out.

Kobo Ready for the iPad

By Roberto | March 9, 2010 | No comment yet

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One of the first images we saw when the iPad was announced was that of Apple’s iBooks. Pretty cool looking app indeed. But, as we expected the third party e-book apps being developed for the iPad will give plenty of choices to the consumers.

The first third-party e-book announcement came from Kobo. Their app will be available from Day 1. We know Kobo from their fine iPhone app. From the screen shots we’ve seen it seems Kobo will build a cool iPad app. They seem to be keeping the same bookshelf metaphor as we expect to see from the majority of upcoming e-book apps. We’ve also seen a navigation list at the side, like the new Apple Mail application for the iPad. They seem to also have developed a large reading screen, which makes it easy to read and seem to have a progress bar at the bottom of screen that can prove to be quite handy.

Kobo’s eBook app has been a fine iPhone app. We’re eagerly awaiting to get our hands on the iPad version. Be sure to check back for a full review once the new iPad version is released.

Allrecipes.com Thinks iPad is the next Killer Device

By Cristi | February 26, 2010 | No comment yet

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Allrecipes.com, an online recipe site, recently released Dinner Spinner Pro, an enhanced version of its original iPhone app.

The “Spinner” portion of this app allows cooks to select a “Dish” (Appetizer, Bread, Salad, etc.), “Ingredient” (Beef, Cheese, Fish, etc.) and “Ready In” (the amount of time you have to prepare) button. It then searches the recipes at the allrecipes.com site and provides users with a selection of recipes matching their criteria. In addition to the ingredient lists and cooking directions, cooks also receive nutrition information and reviews and ratings from other cooks.

I find this app useful with one drawback, the size of my iPhone. The size of the screen makes it a bit challenging when cooking and I’m hoping all that will change with the introduction of the iPad.

According to TechCrunch, “Allrecipes’ president, Lisa Sharples, agrees that the iPad will be a “killer” device in the kitchen.” It will offer a larger screen than the iPhone and help expand the eBook market. I’m hoping allrecipes.com is busy working on an app that will embrace all the iPad has to offer.