DC Comics announced today that, as of August 31, it will be renumbering every single comic book it points out, starting over again from Issue #1 on all of them. It seems like DC does you have something like this every other year, what with Crisis on Infinite This, or Countdown to That, but like it or hate it (and there are plenty of geeks out there who will be happy to argue it either way), that's apparently just how DC rolls. But what's most unusual about this particular reset is that, for the first time, DC has...

The latest chapter in the saga of patent troll Lodsys has come to light today. Despite having been told by Apple that it did not have grounds to sue developers for infringement, based on those developers' use of Apple’s in-app purchasing technology, Lodsys decided to go ahead and file lawsuits against seven developers. It actually filed three days ahead of its original deadline, in response to what it characterized as "Apple's threat." Not surprisingly, Lodsys claims that Apple has it wrong when it says that Apple's own agreement with Lodsys should cover those third-party developers: ...

Since a long standing as A few weeks ago, I looked at viable Android substitutes for the iPod Touch. One of the only contenders was Samsung's Galaxy Player, which seemed to have about the same specs but not very good reviews. Now Engadget reports that Best Buy's mobile shopping application lists a price for the eight GB 5 inch Galaxy Player of $269.99. Though it costs a bit more than the iPod Touch, the Galaxy Player does have a slightly larger screen, as well as a couple of features that the iPod Touch does not, including a...

A year ago I was knee-deep in iPad apps, sifting for gold among sludge as I combed for Best iPad Apps-worthy entries. My next book has me back in waders, this time looking for innovative, user-friendly digital books. Seems like a shame to wait for the pub date to share my findings. What follows, then, is an early snapshot of some of the best of what I’ve seen. You’ll no doubt notice a heavy bias towards iPad apps. Partly that’s because of my previous research, partly it’s because of where developer dollars are flowing. Still, not everyone has the same taste in...

From a MECHANICAL Translation of an Artclair.com Report: The Centre Pompidou will launch a new multimedia platform that will combine resources and information on the museum’s collection. It should open next fall. [Clip] When this site will be launched, the Pompidou Centre thinks it will be the first resource center on the modern and contemporary art worldwide, according to Alain Seban , President of the Centre. For him, this increase in the virtual world can enrich the museum, which remains physically irreplaceable. This new platform should also open the museum to another public via the Internet, either in geographical or generational. Hat Tip: @photocollageart See Also: Centre Pompidou...

Got the following email from Wired: Your Wired subscription now includes access to the tablet edition at no additional charge. The Wired iPad® app is a full version of the magazine optimized for reading on an iPad®. Access to the Wired iPad® app is available in three easy steps Download the free Wired app from the Apple App Store. Tap the red button under "Current Magazine Subscribers" in the top right-hand corner. Use your mailing address or your account number, *****, and follow the instructions.  ...

I have just released a new book. The title is The Drowning and the extent about 125,000 words. It is set in England and Nigeria between 1944 and 2015 and represents something of a departure for me in that it is a purely literary novel. One of the nicest things about independent authorship is freedom from the shackles of genre. Publishers, especially these days, have become timid. They expect their authors to produce more of the same: hence the popularity of series novels. That puts the author in a quandary. Should he continue on the treadmill, writing the same book over and...

From Irish Publishing News: An interesting development this. This article titled “New crowdfunded publishing project signs up major names” was written by Alison Flood, for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 29th May 2011 10.30 UTC Bestselling authors including historian and Monty Python writer Terry Jones, Booker-shortlisted novelist Tibor Fischer and the cloud-spotting Gavin Pretor-Pinney have signed up to a new initiative that bypasses traditional publishers to put writers directly in touch with their readers. The Unbound.co.uk publishing platform, dreamed up by QI’s John Mitchinson and Justin Pollard, and Crap Townsauthor Dan Kieran, allows writers...

From the Wattpad blog.  Here's the first one: ...

From The London Evening Standard: Details of England‘s national heritage from protected shipwrecks to listed lamp-posts are being made easily available to the public for the first time with a new online database. English Heritage today [Monday] launched the National Heritage List for England which it claimed was “a significant milestone towards achieving better understanding and protection for heritage in this country”. It lists all 400,000 listed buildings, parks, gardens, battlefields, shipwrecks and scheduled monuments. And for the first time, the public will be able to search by postcode, by age or by categories from coal-mines to castles. The database launch came as English Heritage...

Both are user-photos, rather than official marketing photos.  Click on either image to see more. First, here's a new free Kindle book that showed up yesterday: Wrongful Death: The AIDS Trial, by Stephen Davis, 19 customer reviews, 4.5 stars Publisher: L&G Productions LLC (October 13, 2010) It's a controversial novel in courtroom-drama style by Davis, "a former Arizona State Senator, Physician’s Assistant, captain of a whale and dolphin research ship..." NOOK SIMPLE TOUCH AND KINDLE 3 FEATURES In responding to articles or comments at the NY Times and the Amazon Kindle Forum, I included some information I had gathered, and I'm including a copy below of...

Take a look at this site about the English language and English usage. From the Q&A: The English Language and Usage Stack Exchange is for linguists, etymologists, and (serious) English language enthusiasts. Questions on the following topics are welcomed here: Usage, word choice, and grammar Etymology (history of words’ development) Dialect differences Pronunciation (phonetics and phonology, dialectology) Spelling and punctuation Problems encountered by people learning English Thanks to BookofJoe ...