Posts Tagged "iTunes"

Tablet Offers Barnes and Noble Bookstore

Posted by Editor on Jan 25, 2010 in Apple, Tablets

Techcrunch is running a report that the tablet will come with Barnes and Noble as its default bookstore. I’m not sure if I buy this though- would Apple really want a middle man between customers and books?

We believe there is a good chance there will be a Barnes & Noble bookstore built into the Apple Tablet, either as one of the showcase apps which launches with the device, powering a new book section in iTunes, or integrated directly into the Tablet’s e-reader. The two companies are thought to be working closely together, increasing the likelihood that Barnes & Noble will be part of the announcement on Wednesday. While Apple can run around cutting deals with the larger publishers, a built-in Barnes & Noble bookstore could include up to a million titles in one fell swoop, just like on B&N’s own Nook reader. Barnes & Noble already offers an eReader app for the iPhone (iTunes link) which lets you download and read electronic books on the smaller device. That app could be paving the way for an eReader or book store on the Tablet.

Apple’s Desktops to Disappear Eventually?

Posted by Editor on Jan 25, 2010 in Apple, Tablets

The Appleblog offers up an interesting op-ed piece today regarding the future of desktop Macs as their portable, iPhone, iPod and soon to be tablet computers take a larger and larger share of the pie, literally.

The trend lines are no friend of the Mac desktop. For 2009, seven out of ten Macs sold were laptops, and in 2010 that ratio will likely rise to three out of four. While this may explain the single table of iMacs in the back of my local Apple Store, the question now becomes: is the Mac desktop doomed?

Steve Jobs once described Apple’s business model as an uncomfortable piece of furniture, a three-legged stool. What he was getting at is where the money comes from: Macs, iPods and the iTunes Store, and the iPhone.

Kindle for iPhone – Gives Books and The Real Kindle a Run For Their Money

Posted by Editor on Jan 21, 2010 in Amazon Kindle, Apple, apps, iPhone, Reviews, Tablets

As we move into the Apple Tablet era I wanted to test drive what the experience might be like so I downloaded the Amazon Kindle for iPhone Reader [FREE AppStore] from the iTunes Store. Kindle for iPhone is meant as a standalone or companion to an Amazon Kindle eBook reader. You can shop for books online using your Amazon.com account, purchase, download and read all in this clever little application.

Kindle for iPhone is a very light download so you’ll be up and running in no time, you just need to enter your Amazon.com account details. Then you are taken into a Safari browser session to pick out books. Couple of nice features, you can download decent sized free samples of any book you’re interested in and if you have a Kindle it will automatically sync up so you have one copy on the Kindle and one for the iPhone. I chose a cookbook about making Japanese food.

Amazon Hedges Ahead of Pending Apple Event

Posted by Editor on Jan 20, 2010 in Amazon Kindle, Tablets

In a sign that the party is coming to an end for Jeff Bezos, it was announced today that Amazon would be changing their royalty sharing model from the truly paltry 25-30% they were offering before to up to 70%. This comes with some strings as explained by Mashable:

To be able to get the 70 percent royalty deal, the list price for your title must be both between $2.99 to $9.99 and be 20 percent below the lowest physical book price; title also must be “offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices”. The title also needs to be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, e.g. text-to-speech. Finally, the title must be made available for sale “in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights”

Apple Event Not Music Focused

Posted by Editor on Jan 19, 2010 in Apple, Tablets

Well it sorta makes sense as the music and later telco industries have been the intensive focus of iPod and iPhone related Apple events respectively for years. This morning All Things Digital reported some rumors on who would be part of the upcoming Apple tablet event. Of note is that music industry types would be low on the radar next to publishers, newspapers, magazines and books- in that order of preference.