books

More money for e-books, but market still slow

Investors put in $16 million more into E-Ink in the latest effort to get the e-book ball rolling.

That brings the total that the small company has raised to $150 million, according to VentureWire. The market, however, has yet to take flight. Everyone loves the idea. E-books don't consume trees and you can carry several books at once. Some believe that college textbooks will go this way.

Still, no one seems to be buying them yet. The most prominent product to use the company's technology is the Sony Reader, an electronic book from the Japanese giant. Sony has … Read more

New MacBooks may follow Leopard's release

The latest news from the Mac rumor sites says that closely following the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Apple will also announce an update to the MacBook product line. Sources speculate that the update won't include major changes to the MacBook but will probably mean a small increase to processor speed. Early reports indicate this upgrade may not happen until November.

While a little extra processing power is never a bad thing, the reason we shouldn't expect a major speed boost is because Apple doesn't want the MacBook line to bite into MacBook Pro … Read more

Rumor: Mac laptop updates coming

Nothing gets tongues wagging more than new products (or updates of existing products) from Apple. With the new Leopard operating system set to hit store shelves on October 26, the online rumor mill claims Apple is planning a series of small tweaks to its popular MacBooklaptop series.

According to ThinkSecret: "Sources believe the MacBook update will not be too substantial, instead mirroring a similar speed bump the systems received last November ahead of the holiday buying season." That likely means a bump from the current CPU speed choices of 2.0/2.16GHz to 2.16/2.33GHz. … Read more

Power outages on MacBook Pros

MacBook Pro owners are apparently having trouble supplying power to their computers both from the battery and from the wall.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is getting ready to introduce new 85-watt MagSafe adapters for MacBook Pros following a litany of complaints about fraying cables on the adapters. When they were first introduced, most customers liked the idea of flexible cables that would detach from the computer if subjected to excessive stress, preventing your nice laptop from flying across the floor of the coffee shop when somebody trips over the cord.

However, the flexibility of the power cable has caused … Read more

Final photos of Midas-touched MacBook

A couple of weeks ago we mentioned an outfit called Computer Choppers that will adorn your MacBook in 24k gold and, for an additional fee, a diamond-studded Apple logo. The company's site had only a few teaser shots at the time, but now they've done a full fashion shoot with a final product.

As gawdy as the whole idea may sound, you've got to view the finished work--inside and out--to make a final judgment. As we thought with the 18k gold Shuffle and the 24k iPod, there's something visually stunning about Midas-touched Apple products, … Read more

Book review--"Can't Buy Me Love: the Beatles, Britain, and America"

Some might say that modern pop music started with the Beatles. Yes, before the Beatles there was this singer, Elvis Presley, and the other guy, Chuck Berry, pretty much invented rock and roll, but the Beatles were in another league. Jonathan Gould's new Beatles biography, "Can't Buy Me Love" (Harmony Books, $27.50) provides an insightful overview of the Fab Four's career.

As Gould recounts the Beatles changed pretty much everything. Pop and rock music in the early 1960s was released mostly on 45 RPM singles, but the Beatles' producer George Martin was onto something … Read more

Sony opens book on new Reader

Rumors have been circulating that Sony was about to release the second edition of its electronic book reader--and now it's official. Sony's new Reader Digital Book, the PRS-505, will hit stores shortly, and while it doesn't look that different on the surface, it's got some notable improvements.

Next-generation electronic paper display delivers faster response and a higher contrast ratio, with eight levels of gray scale instead of four.

Slightly thinner profile.

More intuitive button layout allows for easier navigation.

Available in silver and dark blue.

The new Reader costs the same as the old Reader ($300), … Read more

Report: N.Y.-based Harvard grads score Facebook satire book deal

The New York Observer reported Monday that Greg Atwan and Evan Lushing, two recent Harvard graduates living in New York, have reportedly earned a five-figure book deal for a satirical take on social-networking phenomenon Facebook. The book pitch, called The Facebook Book, sold to Harry N. Abrams, Inc. for somewhere around $50,000, according to The Observer.

Facebook famously started in a Harvard dorm in 2004, with founder (and eventual dropout) Mark Zuckerberg and several friends creating the social network as an alternative to the school's physical "facebook" with photographs and contact information for the student body.… Read more

Japan gets new ToughBooks

Panasonic has added four new laptops to its Let's Note line in Japan. Though they're sold under the ToughBook brand here in the States, the shiny portables aren't exactly what we'd call rugged. They are engineered to survive a drop from 30 inches--about desk height--and incorporate a spill-resistant keyboard, but we've always felt the greatest strength of the Let's Note line has been the laptops' remarkably light weight. These new models are no exception: The lightest laptop of the bunch, the 10.4-inch R7, weighs just 2.1 pounds. The 12.1-inch W7 weighs … Read more