11:17 AM by pdurrant in E-Book General | News

The BBC has just announced that Sir Terry Pratchett has died today, age 66.

A great loss.

"Rest well, Terry Pratchett who died with his cats on his bed and his loved ones by his side. A great life, a brave death, inspirational man." - Tony Parsons (via Twitter)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31858156

01:48 PM by pdurrant in E-Book General | News

Way back in 2012, Luxembourg and France dropped the VAT rate they charged on ebooks from the standard rate to the reduced rate (17% -> 3% in Luxembourg and 20% -> 5% in France).

The European Comission ruled against them in 2013, but they appealed to the European Court of Justice.

The European Court of Justice has now ruled that they are not allowed to charge the reduced, as ebooks must be classified as electronically supplied services, not as books, and so are ineligible for the reduced rate.

This is unfortunate, but expected - the relevant laws are pretty clear. It is to be hoped that the relevant EU laws can be changed, but even if they are, it will take some time.

Thanks to Ink, Bits & Pixels for the info that the judgement had been rendered.

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Been so busy reading e-books that you haven't had time to keep up on the week's news? Here's some of what you've been missing:

E-Book General - News

• Solar reader

E-Book General - Reading Recommendations

• March 2015 Special Run-Off Vote

10:11 AM by WT Sharpe in Reading Recommendations | Book Clubs

Since this month's vote resulted in a tree two-way tie, we are having a Special Run-Off Vote between the two leading candidates. I will not vote in this poll unless my vote is needed to break a tie. Since this is going into the weekend, the poll will be open for 4 days rather than the regular 3 normally assigned to a runoff vote. All MobileRead members are invited to participate. This is a visible poll. It is not multiple choice.

We will start the discussion thread for this book on January March 20th. Please select from the following Two Choices:

• West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Amazon US / Audible / Kobo

• Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Goodreads | Amazon Au / Amazon Ca / Amazon US / Kobo

11:32 AM by EowynCarter in E-Book General | News

it seams bookeen made a partnership to make some solar power e-reader.
Idea is interesting. (Thinking about it, no one did that already ?)

http://blog.bookeen.com/sunpartner-t...rgy-e-readers/

Sunpartner Technologies is a high-tech engineering company specializing in Solar NETs (New Energy Technologies). Since 2008, they’ve been developing the transparent PV component Wysips® that seamlessly integrates into any surface, transforming it into a solar panel.

So, over the screen ? What impact on readability ?

06:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Previously at MobileRead:

E-Book General - News

• New Pebble watch uses e-paper...in colour!
• As the Nook turns, B&N spins out...

09:13 AM by fjtorres in E-Book General | News

...the college bookstores *alone*...

Via:
http://the-digital-reader.com/2015/0...comment-801403

Barnes & Noble announced today that they were splitting the 700 plus college stores operated by B&N into its own wholly owned company called B&N Education.

For the past 3 years Barnes & Noble's college store division has been bundled into its digital division, Nook Media. As Nook Media's fortunes waned, its been clear that B&N was going to have to split off the still financially healthy college stores from the toxic digital unit.

The retailer had previous announced plans to split Nook Media off into a wholly owned company, but now the digital unit is going to remain part of B&N.

Clearly that plan was derailed by the quarter after quarter of declining digital revenues, resulting in a company which no one would want to invest in, so B&N is instead going to split off the relatively healthy college stores.

More at the source.

For the actual PR release:

http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom...E#.VO9p7mrD_MK

August is still a ways off so they might still flip flop a couple more times by then.

09:02 AM by bluefan in E-Book General | News

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...es/description

Can't find any technical info on the screen, other than having a 64-colour display and can be back lit. Refresh rate looks pretty fast as well.

I'm excited because I've been looking to replace my old watch but don't feel the old Pebble and current smart watches cut it. Also excited this might be the the product that might thrust colour e-paper out from whatever dark hole it's currently in.