While the debate about the future of ebooks rages on, with authors and book publishers alike concerned about how a well-worn business model is rapidly changing, a new academic study claims that giving away free electronic versions of your books can boost sales of the printed version. The study has been conducted byJohn Hilton, a doctoral candidate in Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham... 

Consumers in Britain are highly confused about the laws on copyright, particularly those that relate to copying CDs onto a computer. Consumer Focus said that the UK’s copyright law is outdated that millions of Brits were unaware they were actually breaking laws. Currently it is still deemed illegal for somebody to copy a CD or DVD onto a computer or a portable digital music or video player... 

Amazon has sealed as deal with the British Library to make a whopping 65,000 books available to Kindle owners and via CreateSpace’s Print on-Demand service. The books were digitised as part of a partnership with Microsoft’s Livesearch, and just hours after agreeing a patent deal with Microsoft, Amazon has now launched a joint venture with the British Library for tens of thousands of 19th... 

Electronic bookstore, Kobo (previously known as Shortcovers) launches in the UK this week, billing itself as an all-in-one electronic reading service for PCs, laptops, netbooks, tablets and smartphones. Kobo uses the e-publishing industry’s open standards such as EPUB and offers a unique cloud-based service to let book buyers read their purchases on any device they like. From iPhone to e-book So... 

Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS is being developed with the burgeoning budget netbook market in mind, although the search giant is also developing a version of the operating system for tablet or slate PCs. Google has shared a little more information on how a new tablet operating system might work on the Google’s Chromium projects site. Manufacturer HTC is rumoured to be looking to partner... 

Major book publisher Macmillan has demanded that its books are sold for more than Amazon’s $9.99 special offer to its Kindle customers, forcing Amazon to now charge its customers $12.99 to $15.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases. All of Macmillan’s ebooks were removed from the Kindle store late last week, which immediately suggested something was up between... 

Qualcomm has continued the war of worlds with a German company over the use of the word ’smartbook’ for devices that fall between smartphones and netbooks. The ’smartbook’ term has become widely used for a new wave of connected devices, many of which are using Qualcomm’s well-received Snapdragon processor, but German company Smartbook AG has engaged in what Qualcomm labels... 

Whether the Apple Tablet is launched tomorrow or not, it has achieved one extraordinary thing: it has revealed how many people have a really big problem with the current state of the art. That’s pretty impressive for what is, at time of writing, still vapourware. Here’s a few. Add any more you’ve seen in the comments. Sad state of affair: Rubbish e-book readers They are slow, ugly...