E-reader, E-book | featured news

Harry Potter battled the forces of evil and now is set to conquer the web - coming to e-books in a groundbreaking deal that has delighted fans but alarmed the book industry that helped make creator J.K. Rowling a billionaire.

Last week, a consortium of Dutch publishers unveiled the so called “delay app”, which allows the reader to choose a story to read while waiting. It allows the user to chose a story from a well-known Dutch author to match the time you spent waiting, from 5 to 60 minutes. It still has some issues: the app contains a certain amount of stories so no new content can be added and it is only for the iPad and iphone.

Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday said that, after less than four years of selling electronic books, it's now selling more of them than printed books. The online retailer said that since April 1, it has sold 105 e-books for every 100 printed books, including printed books for which there is no electronic edition. The comparison excludes free e-books, which would tip the scales further if they were included.

Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann, is buying Smashing Ideas, a digital firm that creates book apps.

Amazon.com said it will allow readers to borrow Kindle books free at more than 11,000 U.S. libraries, a new twist in the growing battle for market share among electronic tablet makers.

One month after Amazon announced that its third-generation Kindle "eclipsed 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' as the bestselling product in Amazon’s history," CEO Jeff Bezos announces: "Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com."

Disney Publishing has crossed the one million downloads mark for its book apps globally from the App Store. This includes apps downloaded for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.The company's most popular apps include: Mickey's Spooky Night Puzzle Book, Princess Dress-Up: My Sticker Book, Toy Story 3 Read-Along and Winnie the Pooh: What's a Bear to Do? Puzzle Book.

Will Barnes & Noble fire the latest shot in the escalating e-reader battles with a color version of the Nook?

But as you scroll down the list of Kindle offerings, you can't help but notice all of the steamy writing that seems to be targeted at men--an emotionally uncommitted genre which, if not exactly new, is associated with book publishing less commonly than with "Penthouse Forum."

Apple has sold more than three million iPads since April, but Amazon’s success with the Kindle is cloudier because it doesn’t reveal sales numbers.