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Amazon, Independent Publishers Group reach settlement

Amazon has reached a settlement with the Independent Publishers Group over sales of the e-book versions of the nearly 5,000 titles distributed by IPG.

In February, Amazon stopped selling digital versions of titles distributed by IPG, which represents more than 500 publishers, owing to a disagreement about terms. As The Wall Street Journal points out in its report (subscription required), publishing terms cover such things as wholesale pricing, payment requirements, and marketing.

The Journal paraphrases an unnamed source as saying that IPG's terms, in February, were not as good as those from rival distributors. But IPG's president … Read more

100 Apple iPads save Greece $140 billion

The daunting task of restructuring Greece's debt fell to Bob Apfel and his company, Bondholder Communications Group, according to Fortune.

To help complete a complicated series of transactions in which the country's Finance Ministry agreed to settle for far less than the $270 billion owed, Apfel and his team used a network of iPads.

The task involved capturing approval from nearly 100,000 debt holders scattered around the world in a very short amount of time.

Armed with a custom-built debt-restructuring app, the effort's leadership, including representatives from the Finance Ministry, the Hellenic Exchange, the Bank of … Read more

Turn a single video frame into a photo with StillShot

How many times have you gone to take a picture and realized your iPhone was still in video mode after hitting the shutter button? How many videos have you taken and wished you could've taken a photo as well? By using a new app called StillShot, you can dissect a video, frame-by-frame, and save a single frame to your Camera Roll.

Once you have loaded up a video in StillShot, you'll see the first frame of the video loaded. The time of the clip, along with the frame number for that second of video is displayed on each … Read more

Facebook Groups to get file-sharing access -- reports

Facebook is slowly rolling out file sharing for groups, Mashable and TechCrunch reported. The company described a slow-motion rollout where a "small percentage" of groups would be able to send files starting today and more will have access in coming days.

Users can upload most file types up to 25MB -- the same file size limit as Gmail. The exceptions: music files (sorry, old-school Napster fans) and executable (.exe) files (sorry, hackers). But e-books, comics, music videos and other small movies are fair game. To prevent the spread of malicious, inappropriate or copyrighted files, "users can report … Read more

How to enable group messaging on Windows Phone 7.5

Group messaging makes it easy to hold a conversation with multiple recipients all in one thread. Unfortunately, this feature is turned off on devices running Windows Phone 7.5 by default.

To enable group messaging:

Open the Settings app. Scroll to the right, where the Applications section is located. Open the Messaging option. Toggle the Group Messaging switch to the on position.

Going forward, when you're included in a group conversation, or send a message to multiple recipients, the conversation should appear in the same thread. Keep in mind, group messaging uses MMS messages instead of SMS in order … Read more

How to create a perfect group photo in iOS

Group photos are always difficult to take. You end up taking multiple photos of the group, hoping that one comes out with the majority of people looking at the camera and smiling.

Unless you or a family member have some good Photoshop skills, combining the photos into one to get the best shot isn't an option. Well, if you have an iOS device and the group-photo blues are getting you down, GroupShot is going to make your day.

GroupShot allows you to import your group photos and then, by only using your finger to indicate the area you want … Read more

How to get noticed at SXSW: 13 grilled cheeses in 60 seconds

AUSTIN, Texas--Standing out amid the army of startups clamoring for attention at South by Southwest Interactive isn't easy. That is why RecordSetter, a site designed to do just as the name implies, and GroupMe brought in competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi do battle with others at a tent giving away grilled cheeses.

Kobayashi, best known as the former champion of the Nathan Hot Dog eating contest, went at it with fury. In a minute flat, he tossed back 13 grilled cheese sandwiches, complete with 26 slices of bread filled with slices of American cheese. His strategy: he dunked each sandwich … Read more

The battle for SXSW is Highlight's to lose

Highlight, a passive location-sharing app, is poised to emerge as the big winner of South by Southwest, thanks to a wave of positive media attention. But will it be able to live up to expectations?

The SXSW music, film, and interactive-media festival is one of the most important and prominent launching pads for tech startups. The confab hosts one of the largest concentrations of techies and early adopters in the world (more than 20,000 will attend this year's festival), making it fertile ground for an app to quickly gain traction and go viral.

Don't underestimate the "… Read more

Music service Turntable.fm signing major labels

Turntable.fm, the service that allows users share music within virtual "rooms," is closing in on becoming a fully licensed service, CNET has learned.

A cross between Napster and radio, Turntable has already signed EMI to a recorded-music deal and is close to penning agreements with Universal Music Group and Sony, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the talks.

The music service is also still in talks with Warner Music Group. A spokesman for EMI declined to comment. Representatives from Turntable.fm and the other labels did not respond to interview requests.

A legal Turntable will potentially … Read more