books

At last, the mother of all mashups is upon us. Boba Fett has met the Bard, and the result is "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope."

Many a nerdy writer type will surely have the same initial reaction I did upon learning of such a brilliant piece of literary pop culture/hipster-clout-raising coffee table candy: searing jealousy for not having thought of it first. Then I read on to learn that the author, Ph.D. and all-around smart guy Ian Doescher, not only rewrote "A New Hope" in the style of Bill Shakespeare, but also wrote it completely in iambic pentameter, a feat for which a very few of us are cut out to even attempt, let alone pull off.… Read more

A federal appeals court has decided that the lawsuit against Google's digital scanning of books shouldn't be classified as class-action suit just yet.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said in New York on Monday that Circuit Judge Denny Chin should not have certified a class-action suit against Google, Reuters is reporting. By classifying the case as class action, the judge effectively allowed hundreds of thousands of authors to possibly net some cash in the ongoing lawsuit against the search giant.

Google and the Authors Guild have been embroiled in a lawsuit for nearly a decade. The Authors … Read more

Apple is asking certain MacBook Air owners for help in resolving a Wi-Fi bug.

Released in early June, the new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs come with the latest version of Wi-Fi, namely 802.11ac. However, some people who bought the new models have complained of lost wireless connections. After investigating the issue, Apple has been providing affected users with replacement Airs and now has a new fix ready for field testing.

MacBook Air owners invited to check out the MacBook Air WiFi Update 1.0 fix have received the following message, according to 9to5Mac:

You have been selected to … Read more

The MacBook Air all by its lonesome has captured the majority of the total thin-and-light laptop market, according to data from NPD.

The MBA grabbed 56 percent of U.S. thin-and-light laptop sales in the first five months of the year, Stephen Baker, an analyst at the NPD Group, told CNET.

The remainder, 44 percent, was captured by ultrabooks from various PC makers.

If reviews of the 2013 MacBook Air -- announced this month -- are any indication of future sales, the situation could become even more lopsided this year.

CNET Reviews had a lot of good things to say … Read more

The BlackBerry PlayBook will not be moving to BlackBerry 10 after all.

CEO Thorsten Heins confirmed that he had canceled BlackBerry's plans to bring its next-generation operating system to its tablet, which continues to ship and has developed a small cult following.

Heins said he wasn't satisfied with the level of the experience, and made the "difficult decision" to stop the company's efforts on that front and shift its resources back to its core smartphone products.

The PlayBook runs on a rudimentary version of the BB10 operating system. Both BB10 and the PlayBook OS are … Read more

Amazon is facing a few demands from the Chinese government following charges of counterfeit book sales.

China's National Copyright Administration said it recently discovered 36 third-party Amazon sellers hawking books found to have violated copyright laws, according to Sina Tech, as reported by The Next Web.

To remedy the problem, the group wants the retail giant to make four changes: First, Amazon must shut down the 36 sellers in question. Second, it must tighten the criteria through which third-party sellers are approved. Third, it must improve communications between itself, publishers, and the National Copyright Administration and respond to customer … Read more

While summer break has just started for students across the country, that means that the all-important back-to-school shopping season is not far behind. And with it comes a flood of new or updated systems -- everything from traditional laptops and desktops to tablets and hybrids.

But before swiping your credit card on a new ultrabook, all-in-one, or convertible, you're going to want to dive a little deeper into the spec sheets. That's because the latest Intel CPU upgrade -- code named Haswell, but officially known as "fourth-generation Core i series" -- is offering significant battery life … Read more

Your MacBook could one day save space by combining two ports into one.

"Combined Input Port," an Apple patent application published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, describes a way to unite a USB port and a memory card slot into a single unit.

Combining two ports with two different connectors poses a challenge. But the invention envisioned by Apple would vary the depth and position of the respective connectors, allowing for both a USB device and a memory card to be inserted.

As the patent application describes it in technical jargon: