Google has officially launched their Google eBooks service, which we previously referred to as Google Editions. According to Google, the service offers 3 million eBooks from your choice of book sellers and devices.
Today is the first page in a new chapter of our mission to improve access to the cultural and educational treasures we know as books. Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore. You can browse and search through the largest ebooks collection in the world with more than three million titles including hundreds of thousands for sale. Find the latest bestsellers like James Patterson’s Cross Fire and Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, dig into popular reads like Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken and catch up on the classics like Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and Gulliver’s Travels.
As with most Google services, Google eBooks was designed to be open. It works on all types of devices from laptops and desktops to netbooks, tablets, smartphones, and e-readers. Your ebooks are available across all of your devices via the cloud and you get unlimited data storage for those ebooks connected to your gmail account.
You can get your eBooks from the Google eBookstore or from one of their independent bookseller partners: Powell’s, Alibris and participating members of the American Booksellers Association. Google paints a picture of ebook simplicity, saying “you choose where to buy your ebooks like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them.”
As a final note, Google touches on the vast amount of data stored in their Google Books product, which works alongside the Google eBooks service. They call Google eBooks an “initial step toward giving you greater access to the vast variety of information and entertainment found in books.”
They have made Android and Apple Apps available for free download. Check it out and tell us what you think.
Nexus S is Here
The much-anticipated Nexus S Android phone is finally here. The phone was only a rumor when we first mentioned it appearing in Best Buy. Eric Schmidt later showed up with what many believed to be the Nexus S at the Web 2.0 Summit. Samsung and Google were said to be working on the Nexus 2, which Eric Schmidt said wouldn’t happen. It’s not really a lie as we later find out the Nexus Two would be called the Nexus S and would be manufactured by Samsung.
Today, we’re pleased to introduce the latest version of the Android platform, Gingerbread, and unveil the next Android device from the Nexus line of mobile products—Nexus S. And for developers, the Gingerbread SDK/NDK is now available as well.
