TheDailySnitcher

From Kobo Inc.

Kobo Inc., a global leader in eReading, today announced that J.K. Rowling’s bestselling Harry Potter book series is now available to Kobo customers. Readers across the globe can now download all seven must-have Harry Potter eBooks to their Kobo libraries, and can choose from English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish—with more languages to come. Customers can buy the eBooks from J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore online store by visiting http://www.kobo.com/harrypotter.

In keeping with Kobo’s philosophy of read anytime, anyplace, this exciting series can be read on the award-winning Kobo Touch™ eReader and the Kobo Vox™ eReader tablet. In addition, customers can also use Kobo’s free eReading apps available for iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac, PC, and BlackBerry. Kobo apps automatically sync readers’ libraries across all their devices—this way, they will never lose their place in Harry Potter’s epic adventures of wizardry and magic. Unique to Kobo, readers will also be able to track their progress in books with awards from Kobo Reading Life™, and share their thoughts on exciting passages with Kobo Pulse™. In addition, Kobo is the official eReading partner of Facebook™, letting readers easily update and chat with friends about Harry and his friends on Facebook.

“We’re excited to bring together the extremely successful Harry Potter phenomenon and the always-enthusiastic Kobo eReading community. Fans have been waiting for years to see the Harry Potter series in digital and now that wait is over,” said Michael Tamblyn, Executive Vice President Content, Sales & Merchandising, Kobo. “Best-selling author J. K. Rowling has captured the imaginations of book lovers everywhere, and we couldn’t be more excited about bringing her vision to the Kobo reading experience.”

“Kobo is an increasingly powerful player in the eReading market and we are delighted to have them on board,” said Charlie Redmayne, CEO, Pottermore.

From HP Fan Trips.

Colorado Springs, CO, May 12, 2012 -- Harry Potter fans are invited to an evening of spellbinding entertainment including a Hogwarts-style improv-comedy show, photo sessions, autograph signings and one-on-one encounters with actors from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and other films adapted from J.K. Rowling's beloved classics. The event will unfold at the Margeson Theater at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center on June 2, 2012 at 8:00pm. A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit Make-A-Wish® Foundation of Central and Northern Florida.

“A few years ago, we were honored by a young lady, a Make-A-Wish® recipient, who chose our HP tours as her wish fulfillment,” said Jeannie Barresi, CEO of HP Fan Trips™ which has transported thousands of Harry Potter fans on J.K. Rowling-inspired adventures since 2003. “The family had a fantastic trip and we were so grateful for having been given this opportunity to create such a great memory for them. We’d like to give back to Make-A-Wish® through this event to offer other children the opportunity to have their wishes fulfilled.”

"For Potter fans, our tours are so much more than vacations," Barresi continues. "Now that Harry, Ron and Hermione have completed their adventures at Hogwarts and Rowling has put down her pen, fans can keep the magic alive by sharing their passion for the books they've loved since childhood with like-minded mortals in sunny Florida. Our comedy evening will be a special treat, as it will bring characters from Potterdom to the stage for interaction with the audience."

Bulgarian actor Stanislav Ianevski will be among the stars of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire who will interact with guests, pose for photographs and sign autographs. Fans will remember Ianevski charging across Hogwarts' skies on his broomstick as Quidditch player Viktor Krum. Joining Ianevski will be British actor Louis Cordice, who portrayed Blaise Zabini, one of Malfoy’s friends, in several Potter movies. Adding to the fun will be comedian Nick Paul, who could make Dumbledore proud with his quirky brand of mime and magic. Paul has performed comedy/magic internationally and has trained with Wicked, Blue Man Group, The Second City Touring Company and Cirque Du Soleil. Tickets start at just $15 for general admission seating. Silver seats are $50 and include a personalized autograph from one of the actors. Gold seats are $85 and include a personalized autograph from one of the actors and a photograph with one of the actors.

In addition to the improv-comedy night with film stars, HP Fan Trips™' offers Florida vacations which include a private VIP Gala party, admission to other theme park attractions in Orlando; a scavenger hunt with prizes, four or five nights at the four-star Melia Orlando Hotel in Celebration, Florida, and transfers.

From ABC Family.

ABC Family stirs up some magic with a four day “Harry Potter” marathon, starting Thursday, May 17th with “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and going through Sunday, May 20^th with “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

The “Harry Potter” marathon schedule is as follows:

Thursday, May 17th

7:00 PM – 11:00 PM ET/PT –  “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”

Friday, May 18th

4:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET/PT – “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”

8:00 PM – 11:00 PM ET/PT – “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”

Saturday, March 19th 

1:30 PM – 4:30 PM ET/PT – “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”

4:30 PM – 8:00 PM ET/PT – “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”

8:00 PM – 11:00 PM ET/PT –  “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”

11:00 PM – 2:00 AM ET/PT –  “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”

Sunday, May 20th 

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET/PT – “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”

2:00 PM – 5:30 PM ET/PT – “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”

5:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET/PT – “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”

8:30 PM – 12:00 AM ET/PT –  “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

From Amazon.

Read all of J.K. Rowling’s iconic Harry Potter series for free on your Kindle

Kindle Owners’ Lending Library now includes more than 145,000 books, including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers

SEATTLE, May 10, 2012—Owning a Kindle just got a whole lot better for magic-loving Muggles. Starting June 19, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) is adding all seven Harry Potter books (in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) to*the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL). Harry Potter is the all-time best-selling book series in history, and Amazon has purchased an exclusive license from J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore to make the addition of these titles possible. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a benefit of Amazon Prime membership—Prime members also enjoy free two-day shipping on millions of items and unlimited streaming of more than 17,000 movies and TV episodes. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has now grown to over 145,000 books that can be borrowed for free as frequently as once a month, with no due dates.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Over a year, borrowing the Harry Potter books, plus a handful of additional titles, can alone be worth more than the $79 cost of Prime or a Kindle. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library also has an innovative feature that’s of great benefit for popular titles like Harry Potter – unlimited supply of each title – you never get put on a waiting list.”

The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library now features over 145,000 books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers. With traditional library lending, the library buys a certain number of eBook copies of a particular title. If all of those are checked out, readers have to get on a waiting list. For popular titles like Harry Potter, the wait can sometimes be months. With the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, there are no due dates, books can be borrowed as frequently as once a month, and there are no limits on how many people can simultaneously borrow the same title—so readers never have to wait in line for the book they want.

Just as with any other Kindle book, your notes, highlights and bookmarks in borrowed books will be saved, so you’ll have them later if you purchase or re-borrow the book. Books are borrowed from a Kindle device, and customers can have one book out at a time. When customers want to borrow a new book, any borrowed book can easily be returned right from their device. To learn more about the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, visit www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary. To learn about all the additional benefits included with Amazon Prime, or to start an Amazon Prime free trial, visit www.amazon.com/kindleprime.

Via Agence France-Presse .

Fans in Japan of boy wizard Harry Potter will soon be able to explore the magical world of Hogwarts when Universal Studios Japan expands its theme park with a half-billion dollar investment.

The company is going to boost the footprint of its park in Osaka, western Japan, by one fifth, with an area devoted to the Harry Potter phenomenon that is slated for opening in 2014, a spokesman said Thursday.

"We will build several attractions, including a school for wizards," he said.

James and Oliver Phelps, who played the Weasley Twins in the Harry Potter movies, will be on hand later Thursday for the official unveiling of the plan, the spokesman said.

The blockbuster series has been a huge success in Japan, sparking long queues of costume-clad fans at bookstores every time the Japanese translation of a new novel was released.