Google Starts Selling Digital Books....

Our web business plan, Gatsby,  had to do with selling cheap books online. Now Google is starting to sell digital books....will they be cheap? We'll find out. 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google will begin selling digital books through an online bookstore in the middle of the year, according to a company spokesman.

The launch, which was first reported in The New Yorker last month, means Google will join a rapidly growing battle for the e-book market. Amazon.com's Kindle store jumped into an early lead, but Barnes & Noble poses a challenge with its online store for its Nook e-reader, and Apple recently launched the iBookstore for its wildly popular iPad. Google announced last month that it is partnering with Taiwan's HTC todevelop a new tablet computer to rival the iPad, and having its own digital bookstore could help goose Google's tablet sales.

But with its new service, which is to be called Google Editions, Google has its sights set beyond just its own tablet.

Unlike some of its rivals, Google plans to allow its digital books to be read on any device. Amazon.com forces publishers to package books in a special, only-for-Kindle format, so users need to have a Kindle or a Kindle app on a competitor's device to read from their Amazon library. Apple has embraced the so-called Epub industry standard, but its books are locked so they can only be read on Apple devices or through its custom software.

Google Editions, on the other hand, would not let users download books at all; rather, they would only be available exclusively on a Web browser. That could keep licensing fees low, although The New Yorkerstory reported that Google will let publishers set prices for their books.

Google currently offers many public domain books for free through its Google Books service, and the company announced plans last year to offer those in the Epub standard for e-readers.

The company is currently in the middle of a court battle that would allow Google to distribute millions of out-of-print books. Google reached a settlement with authors and publishers, but some groups oppose parts of the agreement. 

Nokia sues Apple over iPad

Another company sues Apple for infringing patents on the iPad....



(Mashable) -- Nokia is suing Apple over what it claims are infringing patents in the iPad and iPad 3G.
This is just the latest in a series of escalating lawsuits between the two companies regarding their respective mobile and consumer electronic devices.
This lawsuit -- which unlike the others was filed in the Federal District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin -- is about technologies related to enhanced speech and data transmission.
In a statement, Nokia described this technology as "positioning data in applications and innovations in antenna configurations that improve performance and save space, allowing smaller and more compact devices."
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
Nokia and Apple have been engaged in what we like to call "Patent Lawsuit Theater." If you haven't been keeping up with the saga, which began in October, here's a primer:
* Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple in Delaware District Court, claiming that the iPhone infringed on many of its patents.
* Apple filed a countersuit against Nokia in December, claiming Nokia is trying to take advantage of Apple by making unwarranted claims in order to try to access Apple's intellectual property.
* Nokia then filed its motion with the International Trade Commission (ITC), claiming all of Apple's products violate its patents. This is what the ITC is currently investigating.
* Nokia then filed a second complaint in federal court, this time asking the court and the ITC to ban imports of iPhones, MacBooks and iPods.
* Apple decided it could play the "banninator" card too and filed its complaint with the ITC.
* The ITC started an investigation into Apple's alleged infringement at Nokia's request.
Keep in mind, that's just the Nokia-Apple dispute. That doesn't even address Kodak's lawsuit against Apple, Apple's countersuit against Kodak, or Apple's lawsuit against HTC.
Mashable anticipate that the next steps will go something like this:
* Apple will countersue Nokia in Wisconsin.
* Nokia will either amend its previous ITC filing or file a new claim requesting bans on U.S. imports of Apple iPad and iPad 3G units.
* Apple will respond with its own ITC filing or amend its previous complaint.
* A new product will get released or a new patent claim will be found and the entire process will start all over again.
What do you think of the latest act in this protracted melodrama between multibillion dollar companies?

Facebook Statuses Shows Happiness... all over the world

This article shows how happiness on Facebook goes up and down by relationship statuses, deaths, and more around the world. Pretty cool!

(Mashable) -- Facebook has extended its "Gross National Happiness" prototype app to 18 new countries. The app analyzes words in status updates like "awesome" or "tragic" to track changes in the collective emotional state of its users.
When Facebook applied the methods to its U.S. userbase last year, it found that happiness went way up on holidays and way down when celebrities like Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger passed away. While the results of the study weren't surprising, the idea of using status updates to measure national happiness was a novel one.
After Facebook's latest update, the list now includes the U.S., Canada, India, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Chile, Uruguay, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Ireland, Venezuela and Colombia. Status updates in the English, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish languages are included in the data.
As you might have expected, residents of each country become happier on that country's holidays and during big events ? for example, Spain is happier on Saint Jordi's Day and U.S. residents are happier around the time of the Super Bowl. And speaking of sporting events, those can affect the results too; dips in happiness correspond with major sports defeats. Even bigger dips accompanied natural disasters like earthquakes, of course.
We noticed that in some cases small increases of negativity accompanied big leaps in positivity. Not everyone has a great Christmas thanks to travel stress or family drama, so it's no surprise that the negative comments go up a little bit at that time of the year too. Play with the app yourself at Facebook's website to see what insights you can conjure up.
If you find this data interesting, you'll also appreciate this: Facebook decided a couple of months ago to find out how relationship status affects happiness. Unsurprisingly, it found that folks in relationships tended to post happy updates more frequently. Singles were better off than users who didn't list their relationship status or were in open relationships, however.