(Reuters) An ongoing antitrust investigation of Apple’s pricing negotiations with European publishers in December 2011 may be coming to a close, though not in Apple’s favor. The four publishers – Simon & Schuster, News Corp (HarperCollins), Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck (owner of Macmillan in Germany) – made deals that allowed Apple to →
Many publishers we have talked with this year understand the import of making their content digitally available, but don’t know how to go about it. Low ebook prices dominate the market, so costs to convert and distribute will not be immediately earned back through ebook sales. So what’s a publisher to do? With a little →
by Marina Evans Last week, the United States Department of Justice condemned the substantial amount of criticism levied upon its controversial price-fixing settlement with Apple and the “big five” publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillian, Penguin and Simon & Schuster). Some 800 public comments were filed on the settlement, many of them accusing the DoJ of upholding →
The journal Nature recently published findings of a rare genetic mutation that protects people against Alzheimer’s disease. The new evidence is the strongest yet that excessive levels of a normal brain substance, beta amyloid, are to blame for the disease and may lead to new discoveries on how it can be prevented. With the help of interRAI assessment →
By Marina Evans Just how much do you trust WebMD or other online medical resources when you’ve got a health issue? More and more, people are checking their symptoms online prior to consulting with a doctor, despite the site’s clear stipulation that the content of its pages is “for informational purposes only.” But rising health care costs, →
by Marina Evans Father and son political team Ron and Rand Paul are shifting gears from battling the Federal Reserve to new terrain: the Internet. The Campaign for Liberty’s latest manifesto, “The Technology Revolution,” takes a firm stance on the principles of Net Neutrality, claiming that government-regulated Internet access impinges both upon an individual’s property rights, →
The proliferation of e-content has opened up a world unlike anything seen in traditional publishing. One company, Total BooX, has created a truly innovative business model, allowing you access to ebooks for free, and only charging you for the content you actually read. It’s an app for tablets and mobile devices, allowing you to browse books, →
There’s no question that the publishing industry is evolving rapidly. New technology companies spring up daily providing the latest technologies – tablets, e-readers, smartphones – as well as publishing services like file conversion and optimization. But in the frenzy to ensure their content is as widely available as possible without incurring prohibitive setup and/or conversion →
Google recently announced their new “Augmented Reality” glasses, codenamed “Project Glass,” featuring a Heads-Up-Display (HUD) that can do everything from providing GPS-enabled navigation, telling you the weather forecast, giving you internet-based information about what you’re looking at in real time, and letting you take pictures and share videos. Take a look at their concept video which is, admittedly, →
Just in time for London Book Fair, OBS is celebrating the launch of our new e-distribution portal, ProtoBooks: Your one-stop shop for both print and ebooks. For publishers, ProtoBooks is a fast and secure way to get your books to the global market in a variety of formats: Subscription-based online access; Cloud-stored Flash-based ebooks; Downloads for offline →