publishing

In case you missed it, the U.S. government recently filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of this country's largest publishers, alleging they conspired to limit competition for the pricing of e-books. Three of the five -- HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster -- opted to settle the case, while Penguin, Macmillan, and Apple didn't.

So where does that leave us?

Well, if you've spent any time reading through the terms of the settlement, you quickly realize not everything's all that black and white and is in fact quite muddled. For starters, a judge … Read more

Known as one of the most powerful free blogging platforms on the Web, WordPress doesn't disappoint when it comes to its Android mobile app. It offers many of the tools that are available through the full Web interface, and it makes it easy to zip around your account, change settings, follow other blogs, and create new posts.

When you first download WordPress on your Android device, it gives you the choice to add your existing WordPress.com blog or your own self-hosted WordPress blog. If you don't have either set up yet, you can easily start a new … Read more

With Tumblr for Android, using the megapopular blogging platform cum social network while on the go is a snap. The app lets you create and publish posts, read through posts by other bloggers you follow, and manage your account settings, all without much of a learning curve.

Just like when you sign on to Tumblr on the Web, the Android app opens you up directly to your Dashboard, where you see your main feed, with all the blogs you follow. Since the list self-updates, you can, in theory, scroll endlessly. The interface on the Dashboard looks and feels very much … Read more

CNET laptop editor Scott Stein returns to The 404 guest seat, and the room is apparently full of onions today as we discuss this short film about a 9-year-old's homebrew cardboard arcade. If you look closely at Jeff's face during this segment, you may even catch a rare glimpse of his upturned frown.

We'll also introduce you to a highly funded Kickstarter campaign for an iPhone and Android-compatible smart watch that goes the opposite direction of traditional e-watches and uses a digital ink display (similar to the original Amazon Kindle) that lets users check messages, play music, and more without the threat of sun glare or unreadable reflections.… Read more

Not a lot of people know that CNN Political Ticker, Mashable, TechCrunch, Boing Boing, ArtsBeat, Grist, Hollywood Life, and dozens more blogs use WordPress' Web publishing platform. Not to mention several blogs for The New York Times that also use it, including The Opinionator, Paul Krugman, and Economix.

In fact, 49 percent of the top 100 blogs in the world use WordPress, according to a new survey by Pingdom. In distant second place are custom blogs with 14 percent.

"The last few years we've really focused on both the usability and flexibility of WordPress, which has resulted in … Read more

Apple is under federal investigation for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices with book publishers.

Amazon is delighted...with the prospect of being enabled to once again lower prices.

"[The settlement] is a big win for Kindle owners," Amazon said in a statement. "We look forward to being allowed to lower prices on more Kindle books."

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Apple and several book publishers. The DOJ alleges that Apple and the publishers colluded in 2010 to fix e-book prices. Apple denies the allegations and has chosen to defend … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Apple and several book publishers this morning, claiming that they worked together to artificially prop up prices for e-books.

The publishers sued were Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster. The suit (posted below) was filed in a district court in New York.

"Apple facilitated the publisher defendants' collective effort to end retail price competition by coordinating their transition to an agency model across all retailers," according to the complaint.

Apple and Macmillan haven't engaged in settlement talks with the Justice Department, Bloomberg reported. The companies … Read more

It looks like YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen have a new service called "Zeen" -- designed to let users "discover and create beautiful magazines" -- coming soon.

Blog Fusible spotted a teaser page for the site earlier today, at zeen.com. The page features a box that lets visitors reserve a username; links to Zeen's Twitter and Facebook pages; and links to a page of job listings and a privacy policy. The jobs page lives at AVOS.com -- AVOS, of course, being Hurley and Chen's company, and the company that bought Delicious off of Yahoo a little less than a year ago.… Read more

After vocal outrage from authors, e-publishers, and free speech activists, PayPal has shifted its "acceptable use" policy on e-books containing certain erotica content. The online payment company announced today that mostly books with images will be under scrutiny.

"First and foremost, we are going to focus this policy only on e-books that contain potentially illegal images, not e-books that are limited to just text," PayPal spokesman Anuj Nayar said in a statement today. "The policy will prohibit use of PayPal for the sale of e-books that contain child pornography, or e-books with text and obscene … Read more