penguin

Penguin Publishing is loosening its grip a bit in the e-book-lending market.

The company will announce today that it is expanding its e-book lending program to Los Angeles and Cleveland, The New York Times reported. Penguin launched an e-book-lending service to New York public libraries in September. The success of that program has prompted it to expand elsewhere.

Penguin is still keeping a tight hold on its e-books. According to the Times, Penguin sells e-books to public libraries six months after their launch. The e-books can only be lent to one person at a time. At the end of a … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode starring Jeff Sussman from TheBatSignal Podcast:

- "Dark Knight Rises" Blu-Ray extras likely to include deleted Bane origin sequence.

- Top 10 things you may have missed in "The Dark Knight Rises." Our favorite is the Robin "R" insignia that pops up in the stadium.

- The politics of "The Dark Knight Rises"

- Batman is a reformer and humanist in "The Dark Knight Rises," not an avatar for right-wing fears.

- 12 Gotham newspaper headlines during "The Dark Knight Rises."

- … Read more

Antarctica is long known to be an inhospitable place of constant cold and wind and completely void of plant life. It is also supposed to be beautiful -- filled with snowy vistas, blue-tinted glaciers, and penguins.

Google announced today that with the introduction of its new Google Maps feature people don't need to gear up, survive the elements, and make the long journey to explore this corner of the world. They can simply fire up their computers and take a tour with Antarctic Street View. … Read more

Ski Safari (99 cents) challenges you to swoosh down a powdery mountain to avoid an avalanche, with animal friends and other vehicles along the way to help you with your escape. This distance game quickly became my go-to time-waster on both my iPhone and iPad, so when an update was announced last week, you can bet I was at the App Store immediately. The update adds a new mountain you can choose for your run, a new animal to help you along your way, and added achievements to keep you coming back for more.… Read more

Do you know if your local library lends e-books? If not, you're in good company.

A full 62 percent of people recently polled by Pew Internet admitted they had no idea whether they could borrow electronic books from their library system. Even among active library card holders, 58 percent expressed the same confusion.

Only 22 percent of those polled said they know their library carries e-books, while 14 percent said they know their library has no such program.

Even those who would take advantage of e-book lending are unsure of their library's policy.

More than half (55 percent) … Read more

New details have surfaced in the class-action e-book price-fixing lawsuit against Apple, according to tech news site paidContent. The most notable revelation is an e-mail from Steve Jobs to one of the bookseller's executives that was previously redacted and is now public.

The gist of the case, which was filed in April and now has 29 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico involved, is an allegation that Apple and a group of book publishers illegally fixed e-book prices to "boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing."

The Department of Justice … Read more

Penguin Group is the latest company to balk at allowing libraries to lend digital copies of its books to patrons.

The book publisher, whose imprints include Viking, Riverhead Books, and Dutton, among others, has suspended authorization for libraries to distribute its books electronically, citing security concerns.

"Due to new concerns about the security of our digital editions, we find it necessary to delay the availability of our new titles in the digital format while we resolve these concerns with our business partners," Penguin spokeswoman Erica Glass said in a statement.

Glass didn't disclose Penguin's specific security … Read more

Live streaming penguins. Need I say more? This article could easily have stopped at those first three words and you would have gotten the idea.

The free Pocket Penguins app from the California Academy of Sciences offers three different live video views on the academy's endangered African penguin exhibit. The app is free and is available for both Android and iPhone.

The sleekly feathered little birdies romp, swim, nest, snooze, and paddle right up to the camera. Choose from the main view, underwater camera, or the biologist's-view Webcam.

The penguins are adorable at any time of the day, but the action really gets hopping during feeding times at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. PT. The live audio presentation, chatter from the penguin feeder, and penguin eating frenzy make for riveting viewing. … Read more

Disney was willing to pay up to $700 million for Club Penguin, but apparently forgot to renew its domain. Parents can't be happy.

If you go to Club Penguin--like my daughter did--you may get an odd-looking Network Solutions page. It's the page you get when you haven't renewed a domain name. The page has been down for a good chunk of the day. CBS News reported that Club Penguin returned about noon, but a lot of folks still can't get to the site. The outage has been widely reported on Club Penguin blogs such as the … Read more