Happy New Year to everyone!  As expected, not a lot of ebook news to cover from the last week of 2009, but a few things deserve mention:

We got a first look at Blio, cross-platform ereading software by inventor Ray Kurzweil. From initial reports, it appears that Blio ebooks will be PDF files with a new DRM scheme. The software will offer rich multimedia capabilities, making it a good choice for ereading on laptops and tablets but rendering it incompatible with eink devices like the Kindle. Blio will probably have Microsoft’s weight behind it, and will be unveiled at the CES on January 7.

The number of Kindle books available on Amazon.com crossed 400,000 and Amazon launched Bestseller Archives for Kindle books. The new feature allows users to look up Kindle bestsellers for any day, month or year dating back to November 2007 when the first Kindle was launched.

A January 26 unveiling of the Apple Tablet seemed even more certain this week as tablet rumors continued to increase. Apple has been talking to textbook publishers and newspapers, indicating special ebook reading features in the new device.

We expect to have a lot more to share next week as ebook industry announcements are made at the CES and elsewhere. Once again, wishing all of you a wonderful 2010!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Ebooks This Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.