Harry Potter’s virtual magic Turns Google into a Goblin

In Harry Potter’s world, goblins are bankers. With the deal between Google and J.K. Rowling announced last Thursday, Google will hold exclusive payments rights for all Pottermore.com purchases. In other words all products sold on Pottermore will be purchased solely through Google Checkout. Amazon or Paypal will stay firmly grounded in the Muggle world and will not gain a cent from Pottermore.com upcoming bounty.
While the Goblin – read Google Check out – gained exclusive rights, Rowling’s readers will be able to download her books in 80 different formats, while Rowling herself won’t have to pay Amazon or Paypal the percentage they usually collect.
This is a big boost for Google eBook store surely, but is also heralds a new era in the publishing worlds where even giants such as Amazon are not always able to dictate the market conditions.

Library in the Cloud?

 The digital age now reaches libraries, thanks to new technologies enabling digital renting. As they announced on the 19^th of May 2011, 3M has launched its Cloud Library eBook Lending Service. They will outfit local libraries with their own hardware Touchscreen Discovery Terminals, which can be used in libraries to give readers access to eBooks, and software, which gives librarians a customizable way to manage their book catalog.

Despite their monetary value, 3M eReaders are loaned under the same conditions as regular print books and are loaded with digital books downloaded from the Cloud.

This is a major development and open the gates of the digital ages to libraries, thus further expanding the eBook reach.

The eBook saves students money

 The launch of the Kindle Textbook Rental, announced by Amazon this Monday, will enable students to rent out their textbooks in e-format, thus saving up to 80% of the retail prices.

The system is fine-tuned in such way that the rental period can be extended for as little as one day if necessary. It also grants a discount on purchasing the rented book, should the student decide it is worth keeping the material.

According to Amazon, tens of thousands of textbooks are available for the 2011 school year.

This should give a booster to the sale of Kindle reader, as the cost of the hardware would be easily offset by the savings on textbooks.

This is likely to lighten the load for students, both financially and in term of carrying heavy books around.