Amazon is playing hardball with book publishers. The Seattle online bookseller says it will give authors a 70%
cut of the sale of e-books sold for its Kindle readers, essentially offering writers a way to bypass traditional book
publishers.
With the impending arrival of digital books on the Apple iPad and feverish negotiations with Amazon.com over e-book prices, publishers have managed to take some control - at least temporarily - of how much consumers pay for their content.
Provides breakdown of publishing costs for hardcover books vs. e-versions. Authors get screwed, while publishers struggle to cover their overhead costs and maintain profitability.
A group of experts examine the environmental impact of print media versus electronic media. Counter-intuitive findings. It may be (not for sure though) that newspapers are actually a greener option. They use recycled paper, whereas using the computer uses energy and contributes to e-waste. This just doesn't seem right...
America's advanced cellphone network is already beginning to be bogged down by smartphones that double as computers, navigation devices and e-book readers. Cellphones are increasingly being used as TVs, which hog even more bandwidth. They can also transmit video, allowing for videoconferencing on cellphones.
In a kind of Wikipedia of textbooks, Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes.
An analysis of Google Buzz, and a little perspective on Google's broad ambitions: "We will index all the world's information, upload all the books, deploy the fastest network and design the coolest phone, while simultaneously managing your e-mail, pictures, blogs and anything else you'd care to upload to our online repositories."
Network television and cable networks have a bright future, despite the inroads of TiVo and the threat of free video on the Web. And book publishers may also see growth in the years ahead, if they can learn to relax and love the e-reader.
Newspapers, however, can pretty much pack it in.