books

Steve Jobs is now a manga comic book character courtesy of a new series that debuted today in Japan.

The first installment of the manga series known as "Steve Jobs" is now on Japanese newsstands in the April issue of a monthly publication called Kiss. Created by award-winning manga author Mari Yamazaki, the book plays out as a manga version of Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Jobs.

The first chapter is available on the Web thanks to Yahoo Japan's online bookstore and shows Jobs talking to Isaacson about writing the biography.

Since his death in 2011, … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about Spotlight not being able to find files that are known to exist in a user's account, options for adding 16GB of RAM to older MacBook Pro systems, and options for troubleshooting and fixing a broken trackpad in a MacBook. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Spotlight not finding files MacFixIt reader Mike asks:

There are gaps in my TV consumption history. Of the big TV dramas in recent memory, for example, I have watched "Lost" and "The Sopranos" in their entirety, but I have caught only a half a season of "Mad Men," only three-plus seasons of "The Wire," and nary an episode of "Breaking Bad."

For the singular purpose of watching Walter White's meth adventures on a big screen, this week I purchased an Apple TV. From what I've heard about this show, it merits being Netflixed on an HDTV … Read more

Continuing its push into creating original content, Amazon has launched a literary fiction imprint dubbed Little A.

The imprint falls under the ambitious publishing unit at the retail giant, Amazon Publishing, led by industry veteran Larry Kirshbaum. Little A will publish novels, memoirs, and story collections. The books distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be published under its New Harvest imprint with both Little A and New Harvest logos.

Little A's first title is "The Blue Book," a novel by Scottish author A.L. Kennedy, that debuted this week. Next week, Jake Arnott's "The House … Read more

Those using Google Books often find the ability to read books on multiple devices lacking. Google Book Downloader for Mac allows users to turn these books into formats for use on additional reading devices, with some limited functionality.

Google Book Downloader for Mac is available as freeware without any payment required for upgrades, although during use it occasionally asks for donations to the designers. Despite the lack of a native installer, the program's small size allowed for a fast download and installation. As a freeware program, technical support appears absent, and the program does not have instructions. A small … Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook will testify as part of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against Apple, a judge ruled today.

Cook, who became Apple's CEO in August 2011, will be required to engage in four hours of testimony per a ruling by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan today, Reuters reports.

Apple had attempted to prevent Cook's involvement, arguing that the Justice Department already had access to nearly a dozen of its executives as part of the case.

In April 2012, the Justice Department sued Apple, along with five of the six … Read more

Anyone shopping for a no-frills, brass-tacks e-reader has undoubtedly eyed Amazon's basic Kindle, which for $69 is just a crazy-good deal.

Of course, to turn pages and navigate menus, you have to press buttons. Ew!

Today it's all about touch screens, baby. Hence, this is the better deal: Today only, and while supplies last, Daily Steals has the refurbished Kindle Touch e-reader for $69 shipped. Yep: same price as a new non-touch Kindle. (Unlike with Amazon, however, shipping can take 2-3 weeks.)

The Kindle Touch was discontinued last year in favor of the Kindle Paperwhite, but it's … Read more

The late Steve Jobs was always a little larger than life, a sort of geek superhero, bounding through product announcements, his legend growing with every new Apple device. He's about to get an unusual tribute. Jobs has been cast as a heroic lead in an upcoming Japanese manga series.

Jobs was already reinvented as an action figure and as the star of a biopic comic book. It's a small step to project him as a manga lead.… Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook may testify in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against the company over e-book prices, Bloomberg reported today.

In the lawsuit, filed in April, federal prosecutors accused Apple and five book publishers of working together to artificially hike e-book prices.

In a letter earlier this week, the Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Denise Cote to help settle a "discovery dispute" over Cook's deposition, or testimony taken outside of court, according to Bloomberg. Cote scheduled a March 13 conference call in response.

Apple remains the sole defendant in the … Read more