Benchmarks are the best way to gauge a notebook’s prowess with applications such as office suites, photo and video editors, video players, games, and the like. Aesthetics are another important consideration, because you'll likely be staring at the thing for the next several years. By those measures, Samsung’s $1060 Ativ Book 7 Ultrabook (model NP740U3E-K01UB) is a fine machine. But a notebook must also feel good in your hands—unless you rely on dictation software, you have no other way to use it. And on that score, I found this laptop a major disappointment. ROBERT CARDINSamsung Ativ Book 7 is pretty enough to look at, but actually using it can be problematic for touch-typists. The Ativ Book 7 has a gorgeous brushed-aluminum finish. But if you wear a watch with a metal wristband, take it off before you lay hands on this computer’s keyboard. The noise produced as one metal scrapes the other is enough to curdle a glass of milk into cottage cheese. Reliance on integrated graphics doomed the Ativ Book 7's gaming performance. After my ears recovered from the horror, I once again laid my hands on the home row of the Chiclet-style keyboard. Such shallow-travel keyboards are common among Ultrabooks—they’re practically a necessity to achieve the required thinness—and I’ve touch-typed on more than my fair share of them. But the keys on the Ativ Book 7 travel such a short distance and deliver so little tactile feedback that I found myself constantly making typos. To read this... Continue reading at 'PC World'
[ PC World | 2013-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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IAC/InterActiveCorp Chairman Barry Diller, producer Scott Rudin and publishing executive Frances Coady are investing in a book venture that will attempt to challenge Amazon.com Inc.’s dominance in the industry. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#challenge amazon
“You don’t understand,” the three-time, big-six published author told me. “Books aren’t designed for you, the customer. Today, non-fiction books are business cards--for speaking, consulting, and deals.” I was meeting this friend for dinner in New York City and had mentioned a trend I had... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Book sales soared by more than £2m last week as a bounty of new books hit the shelves on... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sales of digital books show impressive signs of growth, but some booksellers still face an uncertain future. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2012-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Specsavers has succeeded Galaxy as the headline sponsor of the National Book Awards, signing a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Orion Children's Books has acquired a new title by wildlife expert and adventurer, Steve... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A controversial account of the US Navy SEAL raid that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Every minute, a title is added—5150 rue des Ormes, I Hate Hockey, L’envers de l’assiette, À fleur de peau; every hour, a new author is categorized—Patrick Senécal, François Barcelo, Laure Waridel, Martine Latulippe; every day, a new publisher signs on—Alire, Baraka Books, Écosociété, Québec... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thriller writer Andy McNab is to spearhead the Reading Agency’s 2013 Six Book Challenge,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new printed book celebrates all of the quirky flaws of the world’s most famous ebook. Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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German book chains Weltbild and Hugendubel have reacted swiftly to Amazon's announcement... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just four days after a federal judge approved a settlement in the ebooks price fixing case, HarperCollins has already started discounts. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Zealand is taking centre stage at the world's largest book and content fair in Frankfurt as this year's guest of honour. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One of the country's top publishers has turned to a man from the editorial side to run its business. Michael Pietsch, the editor of Keith Richards' Life, David Foster Wallace's The Pale King and the many novels of James Patterson, has been named CEO of Hachette Book Group. Mr. Pietsch has headed... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wow. Judge Denise Cote certainly knows how to put a spring in the step of mega corporations. Mere days have passed since she ordered HarperCollins to let retailers to set their own ebook prices, and yet already Kindle bestsellers from that publisher are selling for around $9.99 -- in some cases... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ed Wood, editor of We Love This Book, is to join Sphere as senior editor for men's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I doubt the most brilliant novelist in the world could have created a more skewering satire of Naomi Wolf’s career than her latest book, Vagina: A Biography. One the most prominent feminists in the country writes about her failure to see Technicolor after having sex—“the colors were just... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The price-fixing case turns out well for Amazon but unsettles many others in the industry.Publishing insiders worry that a decisive court ruling benefiting retailer Amazon.com Inc. will undermine an industry already struggling with the transition to ebooks. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A judge has approved an ebook price-fixing settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice and three book publishers. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A dozen years ago, Bob Ticehurst, then 22, quit his day job as an accountant, moved into his parents’ basement in Arlington, Mass., and became one of the first used-book sellers on Amazon’s Marketplace. Since then “MarineBob,” his original handle, has grown his online used-book business under... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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