books

Mac sales should recover after December drop, analyst says

Sales of Apple's Mac should bounce back this month following a dismal December, according to Needham analyst Charlie Wolf.

For 26 quarters in a row, Mac shipments grew faster than those of PCs. But that record came to an end in December when Mac shipments fell by 22 percent compared with an overall industry drop of just 6.6 percent.

Wolf said in an investors note released today:

What we can only describe as astonishing, given that Mac shipments fell below PC shipment growth in all geographic regions and segments in December, is that there was absolutely not one … Read more

Name your own price for fantasy e-book bundle

Read any good books lately? I know, e-book prices can make it tough to indulge your love of the printed word. That's why I'm jazzed to see that the folks at StoryBundle have cobbled together another great batch of books for whatever price you want to pay.

It's true! The Indie Fantasy Bundle includes six full-length novels (actually, eight, as two of the selections include the first two books in their respective series), and you get to decide how much you want to pay.

As you might suspect from the "indie" designation, these aren't … Read more

Analyst: Google's Chromebook Pixel succeeds on image

Google had already achieved a measure of success with the Chromebook Pixel, according to an analyst at Gap Intelligence.

"[It's] a fantastic ploy to get people to think about Chrome differently," said Deron Kershaw, an analyst Gap Intelligence who follows retail sales of laptops.

The Pixel is now being sold by Best Buy at a starting price of $1,299.

Kershaw continued. "In addition to drawing a line in the sand with Apple on touch, they're trying to craft the sense that premium hardware and a web-centric OS aren't incompatible with each other. And … Read more

Google laptop shows Apple a thing or two

Thank you, Google. For obsoleting my MacBook.

Question: What two killer hardware features are missing on MacBooks? My answer: a touch screen and 4G.

What a coincidence. Just what Google is offering on the Chromebook Pixel. And in a package that comes close to matching the MacBook's aesthetics.

Not everyone may agree with that. Take the laptop flat-earthers. They will say touch is stupid (or "pointless" as one columnist said) on a laptop. Yeah right, just like the mouse was a stupid idea.

Then there's Apple's your-arm-wants-to-fall-off on vertical touch surfaces excuse. That will eventually … Read more

Apple may be working on new e-book features for iOS

Apple may be working on some new search and highlight features for reading e-books on iPads, Patently Apple reported today.

The company filed a patent application for "creating and viewing digital note cards," according to the application published today (PDF below). The patent outlines technology for a new floating toolbar that allows users to do quick searches of text and enable highlighting and note-taking.

Users would be able to highlight text with various colors or by applying different fonts -- like strike-through font -- and add notes. In addition to text, these notes could include other media such … Read more

Apple plans Q3 launch for MacBook Air with Retina -- report

Apple's MacBook Air could be next to get Retina display treatment, according to a new report.

The Mac maker is planning to bring the Retina display to the MacBook Air in the third quarter of 2013, Taiwan-based newspaper Economic Daily is reporting today, citing sources in the company's supply chain. The Retina display will come bundled in both the 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air models, according to the report.

Apple last week cut the price of its 256GB MacBook Air by $100, to $1,400. The move was a response to it dropping the price of its MacBook … Read more

Barnes & Noble Nook business to sink deeper this year

The Nook business ain't what it used to be.

Barnes & Noble announced yesterday that it expects a higher loss from its Nook business for fiscal 2013, which ends in April. The company didn't reveal specific numbers, but its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) showed a loss of $262 million for fiscal 2012.

B&N expects overall annual sales from the entire Nook Media business to be less than $3 billion. The Nook business itself includes the tablet, an e-book reader, accessories, and digital content such as books and movies. The Nook Media business … Read more

An Amazon Prime report card: Is it really worth $79 per year?

I've been an Amazon Prime customer for nearly a year now, meaning it's time for me to decide whether to continue subscribing to the program.

In case you're unfamiliar with it, Prime works like this: For $79 annually, you get unlimited movie and TV streaming, one free borrowed e-book per month, and automatic two-day shipping on nearly everything you buy (with no minimum dollar amount).

Awesome deal, right? Maybe, and maybe not.

Let's start with the streaming. Amazon has vastly expanded its movie- and TV-show libraries over the past year, to the point where I'd … Read more

Apple cuts MacBook Pro Retina prices, bumps specs

Apple today dropped the prices in its line of MacBook Pro laptops with Retina display while boosting processor speeds.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina now starts $1,499, or $200 less than before. The higher-capacity 256GB version costs $1,699, or $300 cheaper than the original price. The processor clock speed also gets boosted to 2.6 gigahertz from 2.5GHz.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina gets a speed boost, with the lower-end version getting its clock speed bumped up to 2.4GHz from 2.3GHz, and the higher-end version getting bumped up to 2.7GHz quad-core processor … Read more