By Dr. Frank Lowney This past weekend, Dr. Frank Lowney, an occasional TeleRead contributor, brought to our attention an online archive of free, Creative Commons licensed university textbooks known as the Flatworld Knowledge Book Archive. We heard from Dr. Lowney again yesterday; he told us that "another, larger source of free e-textbooks can actually be found on iTunes U. But that story, he said, is a bit more complicated." His explanation follows: Educational providers, such as institutions of higher education, can get a public iTunes U site from Apple at zero cost. Those public sites contain both "collections" and "courses." A collection can...

By Jonathan Pena Apple has announced that iTunes U has topped one billion downloads, an impressive number for a service launched just few years ago. Apple debuted iTunes U in 2007, expanding its library beyond laptops and computers when the company created its own iTunes U iOS app for mobile devices. Apple's SVP of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, released a brief statement stating that more than 2,400 schools across the nation are currently hosting new content on the service. “It’s inspiring to see what educators and students of all types are doing with iTunes U, and [the] incredible content offered on...

Brett Sandusky at Digital Book World has an interesting write-up on digital subscriptions. He ruminates on the pros and cons of two different models: the 'modular' subscription, where customers subscribe to one thing at a time, as they wish, versus the bundle model, where customers pay a fixed amount for a package deal which includes the content they want, plus other stuff which they may or may not want (for instance, when you purchase phone service just to get a cheaper deal on the Internet and cable). Sandusky prefers the 'modular' model. He aims to treat his customers like grown-ups who know...

Tech Dirt ran a great article last week (which was a reaction to this New York Times article) about the struggles Hollywood is facing as it attempts to 'remain relevant' while important content seems to be moving to cheaper, faster-to-market television. From the article: "The industry really only has itself to blame for continuing to churn out expensive remakes and sequels, rather than investing in quality—the continued quest for '$100 million films' rather than figuring out how to make good movies for less money." It's the same argument I feel like I've been making for years to the book publishing industry: If you want to compete, compete! I've...

By Bill Stiteler | for Appletell iOS 6 is now available for download. The new operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can be downloaded over the air from the device, or via iTunes, and requires 2.4 GB of space. The update is compatible with the iPhone 3GS or better, the 4th generation iPod touch, and the iPad 2 or better, though not all of the 200 new features are available on all devices. To download the update on your device, go to Settings > General > Software Update. iOS 6 brings a slew of new features, including system-level Facebook integration (much like iOS...

By Robert Nelson | for Gadget Tell In what confirms some of the rampant rumors, the Apple.com website has revealed some of what will be unveiled later today. The results were first discovered by the folks over at 9to5Mac, however they are easy enough to replicate on your own (at least at the moment). A search for terms such as “iphone 5″ or “iphone-5″ will return results of links. The links will not take you to any publicly available page, but the URLs say what needs to be said. Well, at least for now. Anyway, without further ado, the results seem to have confirmed an LTE...

One of the things that has fascinated me about the gadget revolution is how over time, functions have increasingly begun overlapping. I currently have three devices I regularly use on which I can read my Kindle books—and I can seamlessly move between them. I can spend an hour reading on the couch on my Kindle Touch, move to the iPad while I'm out working at the library and pick up the book where I left off, then come home and tuck into bed with the iPod Touch, which can be read even in total darkness if my partner falls asleep...

The Boston Globe has a report on the record labels’ lawsuit against ReDigi, the company that is trying to bring first sale rights to digital music (and, by extension, digital movie and book) sales. I’ve mentioned ReDigi a number of times, from when it was first conceived (after several similar used-digital-goods efforts failed miserably) to when it launched to when the record labels complained to when they sued in January. ReDigi claimed fair use, Google filed an amicus brief, and a judge decided ReDigi didn’t have to shut down pending the suit. If you’ve been following the...

Brian Stauffer, founder of 1999 digital music startup Listen.com (better known by the name of its music service, Rhapsody), had an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago comparing and contrasting the response of record labels and publishers to the digital changeover of their respective media, and the piracy issues these engendered. He begins by noting that e-book sales have largely made up the shortfall digital books took away from paper ones—but the music industry refused to sell digital music for years, depriving themselves of a stream of revenue and contributing to piracy. In...

On PaidContent, Charles Arthur brings up one of the important facets of Steve Jobs’s legacy that tends to get overshadowed by Jobs’s hardware successes. Quite apart from all the gadgets Jobs designed, he also designed a new business model for the music industry: the 99-cent song. The headline of Arthur’s article suggests that Jobs’s great success was “persuading the world to pay for content,” but the article itself seems to take the opposite tack: the world was ready to pay for content, but Jobs’s success was in persuading the content-owners to sell it digitally. Arthur explains that...

CNN has an interesting look at something we all do without thinking about it. Whether we use an iPod, iPhone, or iPad for e-reading or just for music, when we want to upgrade iTunes, we don’t bother to read through 52 pages of legalese. We just click the accept button and assume that “Nothing bad is going to happen.” But CNN has talked to a couple of lawyers who remind us that we are entering into a binding contract when we click that “agree” button. According to New York technology attorney Mark Grossman, selecting "Agree"...

Opinions on DRM vs. piracy are like noses: everyone has one, and they all smell. Lately, I ran across a fairly interesting piece containing the opinions of Roland Denning, a London-based writer and filmmaker, on Self Publishing Review. I can’t entirely agree with it, but it does offer a good basis for discussion. Denning sees problems with both the anti-DRM and anti-piracy arguments, finding that both sides harbor “some surprisingly naïve notions”, such as the idea that “we can stop people downloading, just like we can ‘win’ the ‘war on drugs’,” or that “people will pay for something they...