UK press, politicians and public all seem heated up about Amazon’s tax bills in the UK—or lack thereof. Seems those deceitful corporations have been daring to incorporate and structure across jurisdictions, rather than standing meekly inside good honest British borders and reaching their hands into their pockets whenever that nice Mr. Osborne tells them to. Whisper it not, but rumor has it that some of them even have profit motives. Scandalous, I know. Politicians eager for scapegoats to fling before an electorate grumbling under the weight of misgovernment have seized on Amazon, Google, et al, as a Godsend. Watching them posture...

I've wanted a Nook HD from the moment they came out. The reviews of the hardware were great, but I swore after I sold my first tablet, a Nook Color, that I'd never buy another crippled device again. The Nook App store is just terrible, and while I tried to make my Nook Color work as a tablet (including buying an N2A card), it was never quite satisfying. I needed to boot to the card to have the apps I needed. But for reading, I've always preferred the stock Nook reader, so I spent too much time either being unhappy or booting...

All right! Barnes & Noble has finally listened to its customer base, and the tech bloggers. They recently announced that they'll be rolling out a software update that adds the Google Play Store to the Nook HD and HD+ tablets. This is excellent news. The Nook HD tablets have consistently received great hardware reviews, but the Nook App Store lags so far behind other app stores that there's no point in drawing comparisons. Good hardware plus crappy app selection does not equal a winning combination. I confess to being surprised by the news. While it's what I've been writing about for a...

This story has been making the rounds of tech blogs today, and it's interesting to watch the reactions. First, the story: Amazon announced today that developers can now submit their apps for distribution in nearly 200 countries. As I've said before, I think competition is a good thing, and the more competition Google has with its apps, the better it is for consumers. Android phones are doing well in other countries, and it's a logical move for Amazon to tap into that market. So much for the story. Now for the interesting reactions: One of the Android blogs was quite lukewarm about it, and obviously...

Apple Threatens to Kick Out Comic Book App Over Adult Content (Techdirt) Sony Displays Massive Resistance to Illuminated Readers (Good e-Reader) Google Could Face Antitrust Investigation in EU After Microsoft Complains (GigaOM) Is an eBook an Experience or Thing? (Digital Book World) Kindle Daily Deals: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (and 3 others)...

According to an Associated Press report that was filed less than three hours ago today, the travel publishing pioneer Arthur Frommer "said Wednesday that he has reacquired rights to his travel guidebook brand from Google, and that he intends to resume publishing Frommer guidebooks." Back on the 22nd of March, we reported on the news that Google had decided to cease publishing all print editions of the Frommer's travel guidebooks, which it had acquired just seven months earlier from Wiley, the previous owner of the brand. Now, it appears as if Arthur Frommer himself—a true trailblazer in the travel guidebook industry—has somehow...

How do you stay connected with friends and loved ones in distant places? We all know how convenient our mobile devices are when it comes to that, though sometimes it’s hard to know which avenue is best. Google Play announced on Thursday that every top communication app is available for free download. What’s crazy is that we’re talking almost 500 apps to chose from—twenty pages worth! Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Voice, Skype ... and the list goes on. The selection also includes various different types of Web browsers, Wi-Fi boosters, SMS text apps, e-mail and talk services, group chat and contact organizers, among...

We love the Nexus 7 tab. Google’s valiant iPad competitor nicely packs inside everything we enjoy about the company’s Android OS, their services and the streamlined symbiosis among them. Oh, and it being a full ‘Benjamin’ cheaper than Apple’s must-have tab makes the 7-inch Nexus even more desirable. First unleashed in July, it makes sense for an updated version to be quickly approaching, no? Well, we’re happy, as a report published today from Reuters leads us to believe exactly that. Google will allegedly be discontinuing its first batch of Nexus 7 devices alongside the roll out of its next-gen model. Ridding the floor plans of NVIDIA’s...

I'm always skeptical of articles and posts I read on April 1, for obvious reasons. Sometimes they look plausible enough to pull you in, and this year I decided to share some of the April Fool's posts I've particularly enjoyed this morning. Google, of course, had to have some fun with us by introducing Google Nose. Really, "Photo, auditory, olfactory sensory convergence?" Try saying that three times fast! Ron Charles, from The Washington Post, gives us "Apple Letters," Apple's latest patent. After patenting the page turn, there wasn't much left. Joe Konrath is tired of making too much money and is pulling all...

What Will Amazon Do With Goodreads? (DBW) Generation Mooch? Why 20-somethings have a hard time paying for content (Paid Content) Google Starts Google Shopping Express Pilot in San Francisco (The Digital Reader) Junot Diaz Wrote a Short Story Worth a New Mercedes (Publishing Perspectives) Kindle Daily Deals: Birdman by Mo Hayder (and 3 others)...

Shopping for a high-end smartphone these days is surely not easy, with so many ever-so-slightly different devices battling it out for a place in our hearts. But what about six or nine months from now? Well, it’s about to get even more crowded and more crazy-competitive in the mobile market. Aside from the mystery Motorola X Phone, whose most recently leaked spec sheet is a real doozy, the Nexus 5 should also give Samsung, HTC, Sony, Apple and BlackBerry a run for their money. The alleged LG-made new Nexus leaked out for the first time last week, but now another source debunks basically everything the...

At the risk of angering Dan with yet another article featuring the company that begins with the letter "G," I wanted to let you know about some new comics available on Google Play. Over 400 Dark Horse volumes are available in any country where Play books are available. To sweeten the deal, for a limited time, the first installment of select series are on sale in the U.S. and Canada for $3.99. You may be saying, "So what? Dark Horse comics are on Comixology." True, but some of the titles on Google Play aren't available on Comixology, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer....