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+ Textbooks Up Their Game (by Jeffrey Trachtenberg via Wall Street Journal)

Although electronic book sales have exploded, digital college textbooks have been slow to get off the ground, in part because of high prices and hardware concerns. Now, a former Apple Inc. employee, Matt Mac Innis, is trying to shake up the market with a new approach that taps into the iPad’s strengths.

His tech start-up, Inkling, is introducing its first four full-length interactive college textbooks using its software platform, which is designed specifically for Apple’s iPad—a marked departure from e-textbooks that are almost entirely just text that has been digitized. Inkling is one of a number of companies helping textbook publishers rethink their titles for the iPad, eager to exploit its color, video, and touch-screen capabilities.

The four digital titles— McGraw-Hill Cos. best sellers in biology, economics, marketing, psychology—are expected to become available via the iTunes App Store beginning Friday. Prices will start at $2.99 per chapter and $69.99 for entire books, for a limited time. Thereafter, chapters will be $3.99 and books will start at $84.99.

+ India’s first e-reader Wink unveiled, supporting 15 languages (via Economic Times)
Visit the Winkstore to take a look at the content.

+ Santa Barbara library’s electronic books already gaining popularity (via The Daily Sound)
One thing is for sure, OverDrive has sure been getting a lot of coverage of late. We have seen very few articles about e-books and libraries, particularly public libraries, that don’t include a mention the Cleveland company.

+ A Protest Against the Commercialization of ebooks (by Paul Biba via TeleRead)

+ Price drop rumored for Kobo eReader (by Chelsea Murray via Quill & Quire)

+ Richard Curtis: eBook Folly Leads to Innovation (by Emily Williams via Digital Book World)

+ WSJ Op/Ed: “Get Ready for Ads in Books” and a Few Additional Thoughts (via ResourceShelf)

+ Ebook sales down slightly – but IDPF figures are incomplete so are not a reliable indicator (via TeleRead)

Via Resource Shelf

 

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