'Ringleader' says Apple did not raise e-books prices (Reuters) An Apple Inc executive at the center of an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. government said on Thursday the company "didn't care" what price publishers set for e-books. --- Steve Jobs originally didn't want to enter the e-book market (iDownloadBlog) In a dose of irony that shouldn’t be lost on anyone and at a time when Apple’s Eddy Cue is being hauled before the U.S. Department of Justice in Manahattan, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services has admitted that Apple co-founder and then CEO Steve Jobs didn’t even want to sell e-books in the first place. --- Can you...

How Google Will Use Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands (Wired) Not much happens in Geraldine, a small farming community in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand, about 85 miles from Christchurch. So when Hayden MacKenzie, a fourth-generation farmer there, picked up the phone last Tuesday and got a request to participate in a secret project—one that he wouldn’t even learn about until he signed a vow of silence—he and his wife Anna figured that they’d take a shot. --- 7 Outstanding Augmented Reality Apps for iPad (Educators Technology) Augmented reality apps are transforming and revolutionizing the way learning and...

Everything you can expect Apple to announce on Monday (Business Insider) Apple is holding its biggest event of the year, WWDC, on June 10. It's a developers conference, but Apple usually uses the first day to announce new products and other goodies in a big keynote presentation. So what's on tap? Here's everything we expect Apple to announce. --- Penguin Book Truck: Mobile Bookstore to Hit the Road This Summer (HuffPo) As a book lover, I saw a lot of things I adored last week at Book Expo America. But even though I got to meet Grumpy Cat, the coolest thing at BEA this...

Apple shows spine in e-book trial (New York Post) Apple, as expected, came out swinging against the Justice Department in the first week of its e-book price-fixing trial — and may have even scored some points with the judge. --- Is the e-book judge starting to see things Apple's way? (Fortune) A subtle but potentially important shift took place Thursday in the Manhattan federal courthouse where U.S. District Judge Denise Cote just wrapped up the first week of the three-week civil antitrust case known as U.S.A. v. Apple. --- Apple takes smart but much-needed gamble in e-book spat (Reuters) Apple is taking a smart but necessary gamble in...

Stephen King & John Mellencamp Create Interactive eBook (GalleyCat) A week after making news about avoiding an eBook edition of Joyland, novelist Stephen King has created a supernatural digital book called Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. --- E-Books Are Gripping Story at BookExpo America (WSJ) When the book industry gathers at BookExpo America this week in New York, among the hot titles they'll preview will be Malcolm Gladwell's "David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants." It could be a metaphor for the debate about the industry's future that will likely dominate much of the backroom chatter at the show. --- A Reading of Relief at Annual Book Show (New...

India's OMICS Publishing Group threatens scholarly critic with $1 billion lawsuit, jail time (Boing Boing) OMICS Publishing Group, an Indian scholarly publisher has threatened to sue one of its critics, Metadata librarian Jeffrey Beall, for $1 billion, and has threatened him with prison time over posts he made to his prominent Scholarly Open Access site. Changes at The New York Times Book Review (New York Observer) The New York Times Book Review is modernizing under the editorship of Pamela Paul, who was appointed to the position in early April. The Astoria Bookshop to Open This August on 31st Street (We Heart Astoria) I’ll just let that title sink in...

Barnes & Noble's Nook Dilemma (Dear Author) What's left if B&N sells the Nook business to Microsoft? (Forbes) Free Books for Mother's Day (GalleyCat) Now Amazon is selling bongs, nitrous oxide, and deadly hallucinogenic drugs (Business Insider) Kindle Daily Deals: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (and 3 others)...

What news organizations are learning from their e-book efforts (Poynter Online) What's left if B&N sells the Nook division to Microsoft? (The Passive Voice) A 'novel' idea for spreading literature in Africa: The cellphone (Christian Science Monitor) The e-book piracy debate, revisited (NYTimes.com) The fascinating stories behind classic book titles (Flavorwire) Kindle Daily Deals: Subterranean by James Rollins (and 3 others)...

StoryBundle Launches Video Game-Themed E-Book Campaign (Good e-Reader) Is Nigeria Ready for the E-Book Revolution? (This Day Live) How I overcame snobbery to self-publish an e-book (The Telegraph) Samsung filed for e-book page-turning patent (Slash Gear) The Progressive Opens E-Book Line (GalleyCat) E-Book Deal: Self-Improvement E-Book Bundle...

OverDrive and Sourcebooks to Launch Ambitious E-Book Data Experiment (Library Journal) Goodreads Alternative Riffle Goes Live (Publishers Weekly) How much does a Pulitzer affect books sales? (Melville House) Codex Group: Ebooks to Level Off at 30% of Publishing Revenues, With Caveats (DBW) Kindle Daily Deals: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (and 3 others)...

Six books compete for the prize of Oddest Book Title of the Year (Christian Science Monitor) Buying your way up the bestseller list (Good e-Reader) Sorry, the short story boom is bogus (Salon) I Bribed a Librarian to Pick Out Books (Book Riot) Amazon original series plans heat up (NY Post) Kindle Daily Deals: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (and 3 others)...

Passion Rather Than Business Sense Fueling Book Publishing Start-up Funding? (DBW) It's not what a library stocks, it's what it shares (The Guardian) Bestselling author riles many, calling libraries 'no longer relevant' (Christian Science Monitor) Amazon shares climb on Kindle e-book optimism (Yahoo! News) Kindle Daily Deals: The Last Dance by Ed McBain (and 3 others)...