Well look at that, Barnes & Noble is getting into the e-book game. Right now, there’s no stand-alone reader to go along with the company’s just-launched e-book store, but it’s not big deal; odds are you already have the reader. (A reader, created by Plastic Logic, is scheduled to go on sale early next year.) The store, which has “700,000 titles” on its servers, goes live alongside an iPhone (and iPod touch) and Mac/PC reader software. That is, as you fire up, I don’t know, iPhoto or Notepad, you could be reading The Beckham Experiment.
The store doesn’t look any different than the rest of BN.com, which I guess is what you want here. There’s an “eBooks” tab up top, and you’re greeted by all sorts of people having a good time reading books on iPhone and laptops.
And for all of the book industry’s bitching about the low cost of e-books from Amazon, every book I just looked up costs $9.99. Some Bill O’Reilly book costs $9.99; some book about the Obama campaign costs $9.99; and the David Beckham book I referenced earlier also costs $9.99. It’s a shame, then, that I literally just received the hardcover version of the book this morning, from Amazon. It’s just as well: I have a raging headache right now, and the last thing I want to do is stare at my MacBook’s LCD a second longer than I have to today.
So yeah, looks okay to me. Normally I’d have no problem reading books on my laptop, but today I’ve learned a lesson: it’s a little easier to read a paper book when, again, your head is throbbing, than it is to stare at a screen. Hopefully BN’s entry into the e-book game insures Amazon doesn’t get too drunk with power vis-à-vis its stranglehold on the e-book market.
I look forward to price wars and so forth.
Nicholas, have you actually used an eBook reader? The experience is nothing comparable to using a computer, those screens are a lot easier on the eye… even the Kindle, Sony..etc, and if Plastic Logic comes out with their stuff that will be in a whole different club again…
I hope this doesnt mean that the PL reader will only support books in this DRM format. Without being able to at least read ePub DRM and Adobe DRM(digital editions) it will be too restricted to bother with.
This already excludes folks who own a Cybook or Iliad or Sony PRS etc. ( ya know people who are ALREADY BUYING EBOOKS) from purchasing ebooks through B&N
meh i meant to say epub non-drm
I just downloaded it, and B&N is giving 6 free eBooks upon activation, so that seems like a pretty good deal…
Wow, really? B&N announces this today? LOL, of all the times for a “seller” to launch an “e-book” store! Three days after the all-time biggest e-book DRM-delusion ever blew up in the face of that other e-book Amazon.com! LOL.
I have been very impressed with Barnes & Noble lately! I love their iPhone application :)
“as you fire up, I don’t know, iPhoto or Notepad, you could be reading The Beckham Experiment.”
You don’t tell us what you need to actually read these things. Is there a downloadable reader application?
Now I gotta go there and find out for myself. Or maybe that was the intent of holding back pertinent info?
To me this looks like just another front-end to the Fictionwise store that B&N acquired this March.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictionwise
Didn’t B&N already have an ebook store from years ago centered around Palm Reader? I might be misremembering it, but I would swear that was the case.
I’m not sure about the old store, but B&N’s current eReader platform is indeed a direct descendant of the venerable Palm Reader.
Yes, Barnes and Nobel owns Fictionwise LLC, which runs the websites:
http://www.Fictionwise.com/
http://www.eReader.com/ , and
http://eBookwise.com/
The reader available from eReader.com is the follow-on from the old Palm reader, though it currently supports multiple platforms.
I’ve been using the eReader since the Palm Reader. But have I, and other early adopters like me, fallen into the classic DRM trap?
Will BN.com honor the licenses that we bought over the years from these companies they acquired? If not, “Any time. Any place” rings especially hollow.
They also have an affiliate program
This is a pretty good idea from B&N and comes at a time when Amazon is facing some heat. I just downloaded it and it doesn’t look that bad. Coupled this with their deal with Plastic Logic yesterday, the book store is making a pretty good attempt at a new business model for them, one that’s been dominated by Amazon and the Kindle. http://ziggytek.com/
Why can’t eBooks play nice. Shouldn’t they learn from the HD DVD/BluRay fiasco? I bought an eBook reader (Sony) and if I want to add content to it, I shouldn’t have to buy exclusively from one provider.
Seriously! What a poor article!
Is it DRM protected or not? What kind of software do you have to download? Have you actually tried out the software? Have you actually tried it on different platforms? Is it a hassle?
What is the pricing range?
Seriously just 5 minutes of web search brought me this:
- Price range is 0,99 to 9,99.
- 700K titles at the moment, more than 1 million planned until next year.
- DRM software is based on software originating from fictionwise aqu.
- and here is a nice link to coverage of the up coming reader http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10291216-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
And an interesting bit: A lot of the books 500k are public domain and come from Google acc. to:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/21/barnes_and_noble_ebooks_phase_two/
And oh, thanks for sharing the great revelation that reading stuff on your computer when having a raging headache is not a cool thing to do.
“So yeah, looks okay to me” and “I look forward to” well researched articles “and so forth”
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