Nothing pains me quite as much as having to admit I might have been wrong about something. But news breaking last week may force me to reconsider my opinion of Dave Eggers' 2013 novel "The Circle."I don't think the book has gotten any better. The main character is still annoying and, worse, a dimwit. The dialogue is still as flaccid as the plot is obvious. Spoiler alert for anyone who has never heard of Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg, but the mysterious stranger running around the campus in a hoodie is the company's founder!That said, Eggers did paint a portrait of a massive tech company infiltrating itself so far into all of our lives that citizens become consumers in an always-on society. The Circle, the tech company in the novel, is with us 24/7, as well as above us -- and the government. My reappraisal, however, was not initiated by news that Apple was refusing to cooperate with the federal government in its Continue reading at AdAge.com Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'
[ Advertising Age | 2016-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors Guild President Scott Turow charges in an open letter about ebook pricing: “Our government may be on the verge of killing real competition in order to save the appearance of competition.” Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple along with five ebook publishers must address all the European Commission's antitrust concerns before any settlement can be reached warned the European... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While Apple and book publishers may find themselves on the precipice of an antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department, filings in a concurrent civil class-action lawsuit obtained by BetaNews indicate that Apple has already admitted to two of the most damaging allegations in the case that the... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Justice Department is warning Apple and its publisher partners they may have to answer for their pricing model. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Justice Department is reportedly preparing to go after Apple, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins following its investigation into alleged ebook price-rigging. The case centers around a deal to switch to agency pricing, where the vendor takes a 30 percent cut... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Before his death in October of last year, one of Steve Jobs' last big moves was Apple's foray into electronic books. The company announced the platform in March 2010, but the method in which Apple handled its deals with publishers has caught the eye of regulators. The Justice Department plans to... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The U.S. Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five top book publishers that lawsuits over alleged ebook price fixing might be in the offing, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, according to people familiar with the matter. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple certainly had a lot of bases to cover at yesterday's new iPad unveiling, so some minor details were bound to slip through the cracks. While app suites like iLife and iWork got to bask in the Yerba Buena spotlight touting enhanced resolutions for that Retina Display, the company's decidedly... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's a case of having one's cake and eating it, too. Or, in this instance, digitizing the works of others and reselling them online for a 40 percent cut. According to Le Temps, a controversial new law recently passed by the French government will see out-of-print books from the 20th century... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With iPad 3 rumored to be on the way—possibly boasting a sharper screen and talking personal assistant Siri—Apple CEO Tim Cook may drop the price of the iPad 2 so he can go after the cheaper tablet market now dominated by Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook. Analysts figure a $200 to... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In early January, Apple released iBooks Author, a groundbreaking drag-and-drop ebook authoring environment that promises to democratize the production of complex, structured books, notably including textbooks. But iBooks Author could also presage something else: the eclipse of open ebook standards. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple confirmed yesterday that they have acquired the San Francisco-based software company Chomp Inc. Chomp’s feature product is their application search engine that sifts through hundreds of thousands of apps and narrows it down to just a few options for its users. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2012-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A couple weeks after introducing its new iBooks Author app, Apple has clarified legal language about what happens to the books users create with the software. Apple continues to insist that users can only sell electronic books in the iBook format via its iTunes store. But it makes it clear that... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers launching titles on the new Apple interactive textbook platform [part of the iBooks 2... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publishers have welcomed the launch of Apple’s iBooks Author self-publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There's a strange concept in marketing that no publicity is really bad. If people talk about you, it broadly raises brand awareness. People eventually forget the bad news but not the brand. Who remembers last year's furor over Apple's onerous publisher subscription terms? That's the eventual... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Two months ago, I argued here on BetaNews that despite the ever-increasing chorus of negativity surrounding Apple, its best days are ahead. One of my reasons for my belief is the young consumer, where the Cupertino company is building a considerable amount of brand equity. Today's... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple today announced iBooks Author and iBooks 2, free applications that let educational publishers and teachers create and market K-12 textbooks and course... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It's like the old "make it up on volume" joke. Except this time it might work, if students and school districts play along. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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