Pottermore, J.K. Rowling’s assault on the big name eBook publishers, will be partnering with another relatively new – but still rather large – eBook supplier to get the Harry Potter series on the Android phones and tablets.
When you buy a Harry Potter book via the Pottermore site you will be able to choose from a variety of formats in which to download. One option will be to save the book to the cloud – using Google Books.
UPDATE: UK Motorola Xoom owners on Twitter are reporting that they’re receiving Google Music too. The intrigue!
The Google Music streaming service isn’t available in the UK, but lo if it isn’t being pushed out to select Android handsets here in Blighty. Not only that, but Google Books is coming along for the ride. Have you got them yet?
Google has gobbled up a little-known firm called eBook Technologies with an notice to that effect popping up on the companies homepage. Quite what eBook Technologies does isn’t totally clear.
The eBook Technologies site says it “supplies a family of intelligent reading devices and licenses technologies that enable automated publishing and control over content distribution.” That sounds like tech that could easily be folded in to Google Books but also opens up the possibility for an actual Google ebook reading device, perhaps even the mysterious Google Speedbook…
Google is still in the middle of a battle over Google Books and has butted heads with Rupert Murdoch over Google News. But it looks as if it’s toying with taking on newspapers and magazines with a project to convert magazine and newspaper archives.
The British Library’s rare collection of 19th century fiction will be winging its way to ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle this spring. The library has worked with Microsoft to make 65,000 19th century titles available for free.
Google Books, the big G’s amibtious plan to scan all those tomes gathering dust in libraries around the world, has hit yet another stumbling block, with Google having to make another concession to European book worms. It looks like we’ll have fewer titles to nab on this side of the pond, so keep reading to find out why.
