books

It may seem hard to imagine after much news of late, but there are actually e-book readers being produced that aren't the Amazon Kindle. Irex is living proof of that.

The company has updated its "iLiad" reader with a "Book Edition," a less expensive version that doesn't include the Wi-Fi receiver found in the original, according to SlashGear. The first iLiad (not to be confused with Homer's) has been used for wireless newspaper delivery in Europe, where that practice has gained some popularity among readers. But the new model, as its name indicates, … Read more

The MacBook Air, IdeaPad U110, and ThinkPad X300 are the three hottest ultraportables out there. They all sport unique styling outside. And Intel blue inside.

Styling and design are now so crucial in notebooks that when a model arrives in pink the color change alone is news.

Ditto for the styling imperative for some of the sveltest, lightest, and most impressive of notebooks: the Air, X300, and just-released U110.

Scratch the surface (or lift up the keyboard in this case), however, and you'll find that their unique exteriors house similar Intel core electronics.

Does this have anything to do … Read more

Looking to get started with a blog? More importantly, do you hope to monetize that blog? There are a lot of articles and books on blogging these days, many with limited or inaccurate information, but How To Make Money With Your Blog is one of the most complete and thorough publications on the subject that I've encountered. Authors Duane Forrester (a search engine marketer) and Gavin Powell (a technical writer) have covered all the important bases from identifying the best blogging platforms to covering the ins and outs of blogosphere culture. Oh yeah, and in between, they explain quite … Read more

Amazon.com posted Wednesday stronger than expected first quarter results, in part driven by strong sales in its electronics and general merchandise categories.

The online retailing giant also issued a forecast for the current quarter and year that shows greater strength than Wall Street's current estimates.

Shares of Amazon, however, were down roughly 4 percent in after-hours trading to $77.77 a share.

During the first quarter, Amazon generated net income of 34 cents a share to $143 million, up 30 percent compared with the previous year. Revenues jumped 37 percent to $4.13 billion in the quarter, verses … Read more

Targus isn't a name that immediately comes to mind in any discussion of portable speakers, but it's certainly a brand associated with all forms of portable computing. That's why its new "Speaker Book" makes sense--and it even resembles a tiny laptop, if you have a good imagination.

Searching for well designed portable speakers has become something of an obsession for us, for unknown reasons we're afraid to explore. It was particularly disappointing, therefore, to find out from I4U News that this sleek folding mini-system is available only in the U.K., especially because it … Read more

While the hype over e-readers has focused on Amazon's "Kindle" and other e-book devices--or lack thereof--some of the digerati in France are turning the page to a different print medium.

The "Read&Go," being developed by French telecom Orange, is aimed specifically at newspapers with hourly wireless updates by 3G and Wi-Fi connections, according to Electronista. The 1GB device, which will also come with 30 preloaded books, is already undergoing two-month public testing periods. We hope someone works on a dual-screen version so we can scan all the comics at once.

Like some of the luckiest people in high tech, John Buckman made a mint on his first company and now dabbles in passion projects.

But one of his latest companies may prove he's more than just lucky, at least if you buy the Silicon Valley adage: Strike it rich once, you're lucky. Twice, you're smart.

BookMooch, Buckman's 20-month-old service that lets people trade their used books for the cost of postage, is making a small impression on a giant online retailer, Amazon.com. Even though BookMooch is free to members, the site generates an estimated half-million … Read more

Intuit is announcing today its entry into the growing app platform market. Like Salesforce has done, Intuit's new QuickBase Developer Program will let developers create and sell add-on Web apps that tap into the company's core product: QuickBooks. And like Salesforce, Intuit will market these third-party apps directly to its customers via a promotional channel in the core app. Intuit will go after the small-business market with the program, leaving the enterprise space for Salesforce--even though both companies have customers in the other's main market.

Intuit claims an addressable market of 3.6 million companies that use … Read more