books

Media moguls partner to form new e-book publisher

Two powerful entertainment media figures have joined forces on a new entrant in the e-book publishing sector.

IAC Chairman Barry Diller and movie producer Scott Rudin have partnered on a new venture called Brightline, according to The New York Times. The pair, which have been rumored to be discussing a partnership since July, will publish e-books in conjunction with Atavist, a publisher specializing in e-books and electronic articles.

Diller, the former Fox executive credited with turning Fox Broadcasting into a major network, said he sees opportunity in the turbulent sector, which had $282 million in e-book revenue in the first … Read more

Judge delays Google e-book trial

Google won a delay in its copyright fight with the Authors Guild, which sued the company over its efforts to scan millions of books and make passages available online.

Judge Raymond Lohier of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan granted Google's request to stay a lower-court trial while the company appeals a decision that will allow the plaintiffs to sue as a class, Bloomberg reports.

In June, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, who is sitting in as a trial judge in the case, granted it class-action status. But Google is appealing, saying many authors covered by … Read more

Create stunning e-books

Apple's iBooks Author is a free tool that lets users create stunning e-books from scratch in no time.

iWork suite users will feel at home, as at first glance iBooks Author looks like a combination of Pages and Keynote. You can't change the page format, however, as it is designed specifically for the iPad.

The application's user interface is uncluttered and very nicely designed, with all the tools available at a glance. At first launch, you'll need to choose a template from the six default options, but you can also create your own. Since iBooks Author … Read more

The PC is not dead yet, say readers

Don't dismiss the PC, is the tenor of a lot of the responses to a Saturday post where I addressed the coverage of Apple and the iPhone 5 last week.

"For a working man like me, the PC is a serious piece of machine. It puts food on my table. As for the smartphone, the phone is important. No doubt about it. What makes it smart also turns it into a toy. But a toy is still just a toy," -- that's a pretty typical comment I got.

And another: "Actually, the technology in the … Read more

Apple, and the media, bury the PC

You would think the PC was six feet under by reading tech coverage this week.

With every aspect of the iPhone 5 dissected ad nauseam by legions of tech journalists worldwide, coverage of the ultrabook at the concurrent Intel event didn't stand a chance.

Problem is, there's just too much cool tech that Apple -- and the Android guys too, by the way -- pack into a handheld device. PCs, as they stand now, are a bit boring by comparison.

Here are a few of the most prominent technologies that ultrabooks -- the standard for cutting-edge PC design … Read more

How about a 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina with that iPhone 5?

The iPhone 5 and iPad Mini buzz dominates headlines, but signs point to Apple also coming out with a new MacBook Pro that's nothing to sniff at.

DisplaySearch has been telling CNET for a few weeks now that a 13.3-inch Retina version of the MacBook Pro (MBP) is slated for production this quarter.

An Asia-based report followed suit today, saying that "mass production" has begun of the 13.3-inch Retina Pro. An Apple announcement is expected in either September or October, according to the DigiTimes report, citing "supply chain" sources.

That MBP 13-incher will … Read more

Publishers' worst nightmare: Amazon again on discount warpath

Last week, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster cut a deal with the government to settle allegations that the book publishers had colluded with Apple to fix the price of e-books. If you believe the government's charges, the book publishers were trying to prevent Amazon from discounting them to death.

Now it's back to the future. Earlier today came word that Amazon had returned to form, discounting HarperCollins e-books titles.

"We are happy to again be lowering prices on a broad assortment of HarperCollins titles," Amazon spokeswoman Sarah Gelman said in an e-mailed comment to CNET.… Read more

Kindle for Mac App Store gets performance boost

Amazon has updated its OS X app with some new features readers should find useful.

First up, Amazon's new 1.10.3 version of Kindle comes with support for more OS X gestures, including panning and swiping. The app now supports Amazon's Kindle Format 8 books, which deliver some improved formatting options. Heavy readers will be happy to discover that the app also supports larger libraries and will work much better with books that have bunches of notes and highlights.

Amazon's Kindle app is the company's Trojan horse into the world of iOS and OS X. … Read more

Wikipedia to Philip Roth: Hey, you're not credible

If someone ever wrote a Wikipedia page about you, how much would you care what it said?

Would you pore over it every day and sit back with a slightly watery eye at your life's achievement, immortalized in the Web's factual museum?

Of course you would. So imagine if someone had said that you'd been inspired by David Beckham, when, in fact your inspiration had been David Hockney, wouldn't you attempt to set things right?

Ah, but with Wikipedia, it isn't necessarily so simple.

Please share the pain of Philip Roth. He's the author … Read more