| Justice Department formally charges Apple, big five publishers in e-book price fixing case Apr 11th 2012, 14:10  The Justice Department has formally decided to sue Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillian, Penguin and Simon & Schuster over alleged e-book price-rigging. Apple and Macmillian have already denied any wrongdoing, saying that the agreements were enhancing competition in an industry previously dominated by Amazon. The case centers around a deal to switch to agency pricing, where the vendor takes a 30 percent cut of each sale rather than the wholesale model which allows stores to sell books at rock-bottom prices. It was previously believed that the publishers had cut back-room deals with the Government agency after bowing to pressure to withdraw Cupertino's "favored nation" status. If successful, the DoJ will allow Amazon and Barnes and Noble amongst others to return to the wholesale model to sell best-sellers at a loss, something that the big five are desperate to avoid, and will look to fight the battle in court. Update: The .PDF of the DoJ's filing is now available online, it makes for fascinating reading. Justice Department formally charges Apple, big five publishers in e-book price fixing case originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Bloomberg, Department of Justice filing (PDF) | Email this | Comments | | Allerta intros Pebble smartwatch, inPulse's attractive younger sibling Apr 11th 2012, 14:00  Remember the inPulse Smartwatch? Say hello to its attractive younger sibling, the Pebble e-paper watch. Allerta's latest creation -- which is launching today on Kickstarter for $99 in three colors -- is "the first smartwatch to offer full iPhone and iOS compatibility". It features a 1.26-inch 144x168-pixel black and white e-paper display with backlight, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, four buttons, a vibrating motor and a three-axis accelerometer. The battery is expected to last more than seven days on a charge. Pebble receives call, email and message notifications from iOS and Android devices over Bluetooth. It supports downloadable watchfaces and activity-specific watchapps for controlling music, cycling, running and golfing. Allerta's even teamed up with Freecaddie to create a rangefinder app for over 25,000 golf courses worldwide. The timepiece can run several watchapps simultaneously -- these can be installed over Bluetooth using the Pebble App for iOS and Android (2.3 or higher) and developed using the Pebble SDK. Color choices include white, black, red and a fourth hue to be voted on by early backers of the project -- hurray to crowdsourcing. Pricing is $99 on Kickstarter today and $149 at retail later this year. Want more info? Check out the gallery below, then hit the break for the PR details and the Kickstarter link. Continue reading Allerta intros Pebble smartwatch, inPulse's attractive younger sibling Allerta intros Pebble smartwatch, inPulse's attractive younger sibling originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Kickstarter | Email this | Comments | | Gaikai brings its cloud gaming to Facebook, launches beta application Apr 11th 2012, 14:00  Gaikai's certainly grown leaps and bounds since its early days, and today the cloud gaming firm takes another step by joining the largest social networking platform on the globe. For starters, this first beta of Gaikai's Facebook application is available to North American / European gamers, offering support for browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Firefox on Windows, OS X or Linux machines. Gamers who've fiddled around with the outfit's previous betas or Walmart's Gaikai powered Gamecenter will know the drill: streaming game demos in the frame of your web browser. Ready to try before you buy? The setup is serving up samples of Saints Row: The Third, Dead Rising 2, Magicka, Sniper: Ghost Warrior, The Witcher 2, Orcs Must Die! and Farming Simulator 2011. Gaikai CEO and co-founder David Perry told us that while the outfit's current Facebook rigging is still centered around demos, it's primed to push full titles if and when a publisher requests it. "Our goal is to get games as accessible as movies and music," he told us "so games get the chance to compete." Gaikai v1.0 is live on Zuck's site now, so click the source link below, pop in your Facebook credentials and you should be all set. Sean Buckley contributed to this post.Continue reading Gaikai brings its cloud gaming to Facebook, launches beta application Gaikai brings its cloud gaming to Facebook, launches beta application originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Facebook (Gaikai) | Email this | Comments | | Google+ gets a major update, simpler UI and heavier focus on Hangouts (video) Apr 11th 2012, 13:41 Google isn't quite calling it version 2.0, but today's update to its flagship social product is just that. As with most Mountain View projects, the new Google+ will rollout gradually, but as it does it may just lure back some of those who jumped ship early on. The UI has been greatly streamlined with a customizable ribbon of shortcuts on the left and your buddy list moved to the right. The main interface has been tidied up quite a bit and a new focus has been placed on one of the universally beloved features of the beleaguered social network -- Hangouts. The video chat party lines will be getting their own dedicated home page too, allowing you to quickly peruse any Hangouts that are available to you. Even profiles are getting a dramatic facelift with larger photos and Sparks have officially been retired in favor of an Explore tab. Perhaps most welcome though is the enhanced multimedia sharing. To see all the fancy new features in action check out the videos after the break. And, of course, let us know if you're seeing the shiny new layout on your end -- we're still waiting on Google to flip the switch for us. Continue reading Google+ gets a major update, simpler UI and heavier focus on Hangouts (video) Google+ gets a major update, simpler UI and heavier focus on Hangouts (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Google | Email this | Comments | | Twitter and Facebook for BlackBerry get BBM connected, BBM gets some animated avatars Apr 11th 2012, 13:24 BlackBerry fans of the world over rejoice: some of your favorite social apps have just become slightly more connected to your favorite smartphone ecosystem. RIM announced today via its official blog that the 3.0 versions of Facebook and Twitter for BlackBerry have become BBM connected, meaning, among other things, that you can share status updates, tweets and the like with your BBM contacts. The Canadian smartphone maker also used the opportunity to announce a handful of additional updates to fellow BlackBerry App World apps like BBM itself, which is getting BlackBerry Tag integration and, hold onto your BlackBerry hats, new animated avatars. You can find all of the relevant updates by clicking the source link below. Twitter and Facebook for BlackBerry get BBM connected, BBM gets some animated avatars originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Inside BlackBerry | Email this | Comments | |
