little

Continuing its push into creating original content, Amazon has launched a literary fiction imprint dubbed Little A.

The imprint falls under the ambitious publishing unit at the retail giant, Amazon Publishing, led by industry veteran Larry Kirshbaum. Little A will publish novels, memoirs, and story collections. The books distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be published under its New Harvest imprint with both Little A and New Harvest logos.

Little A's first title is "The Blue Book," a novel by Scottish author A.L. Kennedy, that debuted this week. Next week, Jake Arnott's "The House … Read more

Despite fewer malware threats to Mac systems, there is still a need for data protection. With Little Snitch for Mac, users can prevent personal information from being sent out, although its limited features may not be worth the program's price.

Little Snitch for Mac can be tried out for free for 30 days. After that, $29.95 buys the full version with no restrictions. While it does include a native installer, loading the program proved tricky and required a restart in order for it to work. An extensive and complicated end-user agreement also needed to be accepted. Technical support … Read more

Remember the little boy busting a move next to Psy in the hit single "Gangnam Style"? Known affectionately as Little Psy, the 9-year-old made his way to Singapore to appear at the newly opened LG G Cafe.

Little Psy, whose real name is Hwang Min-Woo, was posing with the LG Optimus G during our interview (he recently switched over to the flagship smartphone). When asked what he thought set him apart from Psy, he said, "I'm cuter and better-looking." … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- An asteroid is coming, and scientists are excited. Fear not, Earth is safe.

- Search for near-Earth asteroids needs a speed boost.

- Take a peek at Domino's Pizza's Super Bowl "war room."

- Free food: Pizza Hut introduces "Sliders."… Read more

There's a bigger danger this holiday season than ending up on Santa's naughty list. A lump of coal in a Christmas stocking is one thing. What can happen to you if you hear "Little Drummer Boy" is something else altogether.

You know the tune: "Come they told me/Pa rum pum pum pum/A newborn King to see/Pa rum pum pum pum." It's a Christmas standard, and in cities and small towns everywhere, it emanates from department store sound systems, TV commercials, Web sites -- you name it. To the average modern-day sophisticate, "Little Drummer Boy (note: read the story before clicking the link)" is nothing more than a song to love or hate, to endure or enjoy. But to the many players of the LDB Game, the song's aesthetic merits are hardly the point. … Read more

I love little speakers, especially when they're as fine as the Music Hall Marimbas I wrote about recently, but the best little ones can't touch the big guys for sheer power. If you've only heard little speakers at home, you have no idea what you've been missing. Big speakers sound, well, bigger, and more like live music.

That's why I'm so jazzed by the Tekton M-Lore. This 34-inch high tower sports an American-made 8-inch natural fiber woofer and a European-designed 1-inch silk dome tweeter, so the M-Lores can really belt out a big sound. … Read more

Most My Little Ponies just stand around and look pretty. Some special ponies pick up lightsabers, hop into spacecraft, and save the universe through epic adventures. Those ponies can be found in Etsy seller Roogna's store.

Roogna makes highly customized My Little Pony figures. There are lots of pretty, pretty princess-style ponies, but the ones that really draw the geek eye are the "Star Wars" horses. … Read more

A new service aiming to help media and PR companies determine which influencers can best amplify their messages launched today, with Mark Cuban as lead investor.

Known as Little Bird, the San Francisco startup was founded by former ReadWriteWeb reporter Marshall Kirkpatrick. Cuban led the $1 million round, along with additional investment from the Social Leverage Group, Hubspot co-founder Dharmesh Shah, and former Twitter engineer Blaine Cook.

For now, Little Bird is in private beta. In an e-mail to CNET, Kirkpatrick explained that the service is mainly used to help companies with their social-media or content-creation strategy. "For example, … Read more

Mac security software developer Objective Development has announced the release of Little Snitch 3, a popular reverse-firewall package for OS X, which now includes a number of improvements that make the package both easier to use and more powerful.

Part of OS X's security system is a rudimentary firewall that lets users allow or deny incoming connections to system services and third-party software on a per-application basis. While the firewall is a good option to have and is recommended to keep enabled, it only blocks in one direction and therefore does not cover all bases for a security system. … Read more