FutureBook

The third edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is to be released online and not as a book, under an arrangement with Orion imprint Victor Gollancz and ESF Ltd, a new company set up by the contributors to the first two editions of the book. Read more »

After a weekend to take stock, the first Futurebook Innovation Workshop, run in association with The Literary Platform, seems to boil down to an impression of ideas, enthusiasm, and a crowd of people learning from experience and feeding that back into the next wave of digital products. Read more »

Random House is expanding the Vintage digital Brain Shots imprint, releasing five further titles as the 'Summer of Unrest' series this summer.

Speaking at the inaugural Futurebook Innovation Workshop, held in London Bridge, digital editor Dan Franklin announced that five 10,000 word e-books would be released on 28th July, priced £2.99, with Franklin saying the books, and the imprint, will be aiming to fill the space for long-form journalism left as traditional media contracts. Read more »

Faber's Malcolm Tucker: The Missing Phone app, launched last Christmas, has been nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) award.

The app has made the shortlist of four in the New Media category, alongside Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention, Misfits and LabUK/Brain Test Britain.

Released in December last year, the app works on the premise that Malcolm Tucker, malcontent character of BBC political comedy series "The Thick of It", has lost his iPhone. It includes voice memos, emails and answer phone messages from other characters. Read more »

Apple's latest version of its iBooks app, which allows e-books to have a pictorial layout similar to printed books and supports full page illustrations, has been hailed by one publisher as being "the beginning of a phenomenally exciting phase in picture book publishing".

The new version of the online store means all publishers signed up to Apple's terms on the iBookstore, including HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Pan Macmillan, Canongate and Simon & Schuster, will be able to release fully illustrated e-books. Read more »

Open up the Jeremy Clarkson app and you're straight into his lair. The scrolling home screen is set up as his study, complete with leather chair, roaring fire and smoking ashtray. The graphics are sharp and you can tap through on any of the framed car portraits that adorn the walls, finding Clarkson's reviews, photos, videos and stats—as well as a "verdict", such as that on the Porsche 911 GT3 - "You don't need humour when you're this hardcore". Read more »