Random House Balking on iPad Distribution, Fears Price War

At the same time, however, Hartmut Ostrowski, CEO of Random’s parent company Bertelsmann said recently at a press conference that the iPad, the Sony Reader, and similar devices were here to stay. He also acknowledged at that time that such devices were influencing the media industry, “like nothing else.” As one of the biggest publishers…

Survey: Younger Users Willing to Pay for Books, Newspapers for iPad

The survey found that 68% of potential iPad owners aged 25-34 years olds and 59% of owners 35-44 years old would be willing to pay for such content, “representing substantially higher percentages than people age 45 and older.” That data might be surprising to some people in that younger Internet users are often considered more…

Apple Signs Up Largest Independent Book Publisher for iPad

The New York Times reported that Perseus has agreed to Apple’s demand to not offer ebooks through other retailers (i.e. Amazon) for less than it does at iBooks, a demand Apple has made for all of its iPad-related iBooks publishing houses. “We’re working with Apple to make books from The Perseus Books Group and the…

Steve Jobs Dismisses Google’s Picasa Support on iPad

“The iPad photo app looks incredible,” an unidentified UK resident wrote to Mr. Jobs. “Are there any plans to support Picasa’s faces and albums in iTunes so I can take full advantage of the Photos application?” In his reply, which was forwarded to 9to5Mac.com, Mr. Jobs wrote, “No, but iPhoto on the Mac has much…

Steve Jobs Helps Promote Organ Donor Legislation

His comment was quoted by the San Jose Mercury News. A press release on Mr. Schwarzenegger’s government web page has a video from the event, but the file does not play, thanks to a 404 error for the underlying stream. According to the press release, California is seeking to create a first-in-the-nation living donor registry…

PhoneSuite MiLi Packs a Powerful Punch

PhoneSuit makes one of many battery packs for the iPhone. I have been testing the PhoneSuit MiLi, which has a 2,000 mAh (milliamp-hour) smart battery. The device does an excellent job extending the battery life of my iPhone. The battery pack has its drawbacks, but it’s definitely one of my favorite accessories for my iPhone…

Apple Director Jerome York Passes Away After Suffering Aneurysm

The 71 year old Mr. York has served as a board member for Apple since 1997, and is also well know for his work in the automotive industry and for helping turn around companies that are failing. He also previously served as IBM’s chief financial officer.Apple’s Web site tribute to Mr. York“Jerry joined Apple’s Board in 1997…

Apple Director Jerome York Hospitalized, in Critical Condition

An unnamed source at the hospital said that Mr. York was unresponsive and gravely ill.The 71 year old Mr. York has served as a board member for Apple since 1997, and is also well know for his work in the automotive industry and for helping turn around companies that are failing. He also previously served…

iPhone Fails to Make a Top 20 List For a Good Reason

At the other end, there was a four-way tie between T-Mobile’s Dash 3G, Palm’s Pixi Plus, Nokia’s 2320 GoPhone, and LG’s Chocolate Touch, all at 1.47 SAR. Prominent phones that made the list included: the Motorola Droid in sixth place (in order from safest to least safe) at 1.49 SAR, the BlackBerry Bold eighth at…

Analyst: iMac Will be 25% of Global Desktop PC Sales Growth in 2010

According to AppleInsider, Mr. Cihra wrote: “We continue to model note/netbook accounting for greater than 90% of PC unit growth in 2010, but with desktops at least now looking like they’ve stopped eroding and can resume at least some low single-digit recovery after 2 years of decline, driven by emerging markets, corporate workhorse use and…

Hippus HandShoeMouse

A group of mechanical engineers together with the Dutch Erasmus MC (Erasmus University Hospital Rotterdam, the Netherlands) developed the HandshoeMouse specifically to reduce complaints and risk of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Some symptoms of RSI are excessive muscle tension in the neck, shoulders, arms and hands. HandShoeMouse – Side View I saw this mouse at…

Apple Hires Wearable Tech Guru

Mr. DeVaul has been involved in developing personal heads up display technology, using wearable technology to stimulate memory, and MIT’s wearable computing program. At AWare Technologies, he has worked on high-performance personnel monitoring equipment for the military and Olympic sports groups, and technologies to improve overall fitness.Apple isn’t saying what projects Mr. DeVaul is involved…

Silicon Valley Source: Apple vs. Google is ‘World War III’

He was one of two dozen people – including former and current employees at Apple and Google – interviewed for a New York Times article detailing how the two tech companies went from close friends to bitter rivals. Most of them did not want to be identified, for fear of retribution as the conflict intensifies.One…

Court Says Jobs Can Tear Down Woodside House

The house was originally built in 1925 for Daniel Jackling who made his fortune in copper mining. Mr. Jobs lived in the 14 room house in the 1980s, and then later used it as a rental property. It has been vacant and in disrepair for about ten years.Uphold Our Heritage, the group that sued to…

iPad Pre-Order Guesses Range from 15K to 25K Per Hour

AAPL Sanity member Victor Castroll, an analyst with Valcent Financial Group, set up and monitored a Google spreadsheet with help of other board members. Using their own order confirmation numbers, they figured 51,000 orders in two hours, after taking an educated guess at the non-iPad orders that would have to be tossed, according to Fortune’s…

Amazon, Google, Dell to Take on iPad With Dell Streak Tablet

“Taken together, this mirrors what iTunes offers for Apple devices, giving hardware manufacturers such as Dell a way to kick-start plans to take on the iPad,” noted Wired. The information came from a pair of slides leaked from a Dell presentation and posted at Engadget. The Dell Streak will have 3G wireless access to the…

Gas Powered Games, EA DICE Talk Mac Game Plans

Both men were happy to hear about Valve’s Mac support. “I love it,” Mr. Taylor told The Escapist’s Greg Tito, and Mr. Troedsson tweeted: “Steam for Mac – Gabe, we like it.” The Universal Gaming Database (UGD) asked Mr. Troedsson to elaborate and he said: “We’re currently investigating the possibility of making BFBC2 [Battlefield Bad…

iTunes LP: Much Ado About Nothing?

However, another source told writer Paul Bonanos that iTunes LP came out of Apple’s negotiations with the major record companies last year: in exchange for DRM-free music and flexible pricing, Apple was asked to use iTunes LP to spur purchases of complete albums again. While the iTunes Store was a boon to record companies that…

New at the App Store: The Graveyard, de Blob: Revolution, More

In de Blob: Revolution ($2.99), players must free the Graydians trapped in Prisma City by the evil I.N.K.T. Corporation. They draw on the screen or tap it to find the best possible route to freedom within the maze of each building. There are three types of buildings to choose from in the game’s 4,000-plus levels:…

First iPad Commercial Debuts During Oscars

The iPad is a tablet form-factor device with a 9.7-inch multitouch display. It runs a version of the iPhone OS, is compatible with most iPhone apps, can play movies and music, works as an ebook reader, includes built-in Wi-Fi support, and more.Apple’s first iPad commercial.The iPad is available 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models with Wi-Fi…

Apple Drops Mac Developer Program Cost to $99

Along with the membership price cut, developer program members get access to pre-release versions of Apple software, training videos, technical support, and the Apple Developer online forums. The new program doesn’t, however, include developer hardware discounts.The redesigned Mac Developer Program should look familiar to iPhone Developer Program members because that’s what the changes are modeled…