ebooks

In what may be a pre-emptive strike against the strong possibility that Apple will reveal a slate-style device on January 27, Amazon has said it will up the royalty for authors and publishers who use the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to 70 percent of the list price of their e-books. That's a big jump from its current 35 percent royalty rate and not coincidentally, the same number Apple doles out to developers who sell their apps in Apple's App Store.

Starting on June 30, Amazon says that for each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who select the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of the list price, minus delivery costs. This new option will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option, which is set at a 65-35 split, with 65 percent going to Amazon.

Amazon didn't have any comment about whether the new pricing was a response to Apple's royalty program for its App Store, which offers thousands of e-books as self-contained apps along with e-reader apps from Amazon (Kindle for iPhone, Stanza), Barnes & Noble, and other e-book stores. But it did say that delivery costs will be based on file size and pricing will be 15 cents per megabyte.

"At today's median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold," the news release notes. "This new program can thus enable authors and publishers to make more money on every sale. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option."

The announcement also sets some parameters around the 70 percent royalty option. To qualify, books must satisfy the following set of requirements: … Read more

Though Apple has officially announced an announcement, we don't know what it is, so we speculate anyway. Sue us. Will you pay $2 for a new character that indicates sarcasm? Most of us won't, either. We also discuss the meaning of privacy in search engines and Quicken hides it's online service behind Mint, which, oddly, makes Natali hungry.

Apple officially announces January 27 event http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10436586-37.html

Expect to see iPhone 4, Tablet, and new iLife … Read more

CES 2010 was full of the usual electronics wonderment, but some trends were more frequent or more prominent than others. We took a gander about the show floor and tallied up the five top trends from the show.

Take a look at the video then come back here for a chance to win the swag bag.

Jasmine and Donald report live from the show floor on the Best of CES finalists and all of Monster's shenanigans.

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While Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Readers, and the Barnes & Noble Nook remain the most popular e-readers in the U.S. market, literally dozens of companies are putting out new e-readers this year--and they're all on display at CES.

They range in price from less than $200 to more than $750 and one even includes dual screens. Which ones truly have a chance of breaking through with consumers is debatable, especially if Apple should go ahead and announce a slate device later this month. But here they all are.

As always, feel free to comment, and let us … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Ray Kurzweil knows a little something about e-readers.

The computing pioneer, who among other things helped develop modern text recognition software, has been working to use digital technology to improve reading for the past 30 years. After years of work on how computers can help those with learning disabilities, Kurzweil is now taking aim at the masses.

His latest project, Blio, is an effort to improve the emerging electronic book field with software that turns e-books into more than just a digital copy of the print edition. Blio, which is due out next month, is software that combines a … Read more

You'll know we're recording this episode from the stage before the show has actually begun because of the loud machinery crunching away in the background as vendors ready their booths. In the meantime, we cover Google's official introduction of the Nexus One, a 3D network arriving on your TV, and Microsoft's tablet computer. You heard me right: Microsoft.

CES Unveiled http://ces.cnet.com/

Sling unveils a quartet of new devices http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10426064-269.html

Microsoft … Read more

Amazon.com announced late Tuesday that it is expanding its Kindle e-book reader family with the addition of a "global wireless" Kindle DX.

The larger Kindle DX, which features a 9.7-inch electronic ink display, will allow wireless downloads of books in more than 100 countries. The retailer is taking pre-orders for the $489 e-reader and plans to ship them to customers beginning January 19.

Amazon, which introduced a smaller 6-inch version of the wireless Kindle last October, said the new e-reader has a PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and 3.3GB of memory for storage of up to … Read more