Hacking College : e-books

Microsoft’s Nook Deal, Aiming at Amazon, Sets Up Battle in E-Books

May 1, 2012 By Dean

Microsoft agreed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Barnes & Noble’s Nook division on Monday, giving the bookstore chain stronger footing in the hotly contested electronic book market and creating an alliance that could intensify the fight over the future of digital reading.

The deal, which gives Microsoft a 17.6 percent stake, values the Nook unit at $1.7 billion — roughly double Barnes & Noble’s entire market value as of last Friday — and bolsters the bookseller’s efforts to make its digital business the linchpin of its future growth.

Microsoft’s Nook Deal, Aiming at Amazon, Sets Up Battle in E-Books

Filed Under: All Things Digital, e-books

As New iPad Debut Nears, Some See Decline of PCs

March 5, 2012 By Dean

The chief executive of Apple, Timothy D. Cook, has a prediction: the day will come when tablet devices like the Apple iPad outsell traditional personal computers.

His forecast has backing from a growing number of analysts and veteran technology industry executives, who contend that the torrid growth rates of the iPad, combined with tablet competition from the likes of Amazon.com and Microsoft, make a changing of the guard a question of when, not if.

Tablet sales are likely to get another jolt this week when Apple introduces its newest version of the iPad, which is expected to have a higher resolution screen. With past iterations of the iPad and iPhone, Apple has made an art of refining the devices with better screens, faster processors and speedier network connections, as well as other bells and whistles — steadily broadening their audiences.

As New iPad Debut Nears, Some See Decline of PCs – NYTimes.com.

Filed Under: All Things Digital, Apple, e-books, Mass Communications, textbooks

How Project Gutenberg Changed Literature

September 12, 2011 By Dean

Michael Hart, the inventor of the e-book and the founder of Project Gutenberg, passed away this week at his home in Urbana, Illinois. He was 64. Project Gutenberg has published an obituary, as have most major newspapers. That’s not surprising: his impact on the Internet and his vision of a future of open accessible content are profoundly important.