News

Last words? Google Books to get final hearing
Representatives from Google, groups representing authors and publishers, privacy advocates, and competitors will appear before Judge Denny Chin on Thursday in New York to argue--for possibly the last time--over whether Chin should approve Google's class action settlement with the authors and publishers over Google Book Search. If approved, the settlement would allow Google to display books with varying degrees of access, sell books directly from its site, and launch an institution subscription to its library of over 12 million books.
Source: CNET.com


PC Makers Ready iPad Rivals
In the next few weeks, executives from Hewlett-Packard Co. will meet in the U.S. and Taiwan to tweak prices and features on an upcoming keyboardless computer dubbed the Slate, said two people familiar with the matter.
H-P has discussed selling a version of the Slate—similar to the iPad in size and features, and including a cellular connection—for a price below the $629 Apple charges for an equivalent iPad.
Source: Wall Street Journal


Open-source .epub vs. Adobe .pdf
According to Mark Coker’s file-format data covering the past year on Smashwords, Adobe’s proprietary .pdf file format was the most-used format at 35%, followed by the open-source .epub format at 22%. Mark also noted that this was a change from the previous year, when .epub beat .pdf handily.
Source: Ditchwalk


Less Expensive, Bite-Sized, Available for Take-Out: The Book of the Future
When authors start having to roll up their sleeves and get under the hood of translation software, learning the ins and outs of formatting, you know we are still in a hobbyist phase.
Source: TheBookDesigner.com


Amazon E-Book Market Share to Fall as Industry Grows
Amazon.com Inc. will likely see its market share of e-book sales slip to 72 percent this year from 90 percent in 2009 as competition intensifies from Apple Inc.’s iPad and Google Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG analysts said.
Source: Bloomberg


Why I Just Bought A Dell
Even with all the iPad hysteria in yonder interwebs, there is one fact that differentiates the iPad from a true, bad-to-the-bone laptop: the need to sync. This above all else cripples the iPad (at least when one considers it against the backdrop of the average laptop hardware spec).
I think he misses the point - it's a bit like arguing "I just bought a Dell instead of a Kindle." the iPad (and the Kindle) aren't supposed to be laptops.
Source: KindleDigest