NEW YORK (AP) — Even as Apple’s iPad will likely energize electronic reading, the new device is undermining a painstakingly constructed effort by the publishing industry to make it possible to move e-books between different electronic readers. The slim, 1.5-pound “tablet” computer unveiled last week will be linked to Apple Inc.’s first e-book store when it goes on sale in a few months. The books, however, will not be compatible with Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle or with the major alternative e-book system. Apple’s creation of a third choice is likely to further frustrate and confuse consumers if they accumulate e-books for one device, then try to go back to read them later on a different one. The effect could be akin to having to buy a new set of CDs every time you get a new stereo system. It could also keep people from buying new e-readers as better models come out if they aren’t compatible with the books they already have. This could cool consumers’ enthusiasm for e-books, the way sales of digital music downloads were hampered by a variety of copy-protection schemes. “There are going to be some potentially painful lessons” for consumers when they try to move e-books they already own to new devices, said Nick Bogaty, senior manager of digital publishing business development at Adobe Systems Inc., which provides the major alternative e-book system. Before the iPad’s debut, there have been two main camps in the e-book industry. The e-books that Amazon sells work only on the Kindle and on Amazon’s software, which can be loaded for free on PCs and some smart phones. Everyone else, including Sony Corp., Barnes & Noble Inc. and public libraries, have gathered around Adobe’s system. Adobe doesn’t sell books itself, but provides software to booksellers and libraries so they can sell and lend books that can be opened on multiple devices. Like the Kindle store, the Adobe system uses a copy-protection system that prevents buyers from reselling the books or distributing them online. Apple would not comment about the plans for its bookstore, but Adobe said its system isn’t being used by Apple. Apple already has its own copy-protection system for iTunes and can easily extend that to e-books. “I don’t see Apple feeling like they need to come in as ‘the collaborator.’ That’s not their style,” Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said. Apple has said it would embrace the EPUB format for its e-books. Although that’s the format adopted by the Adobe camp, that alone does not ensure compatibility because Apple would be using its own copy-protection scheme on top of it. Apple is thus set to create a third technology camp in the e-book industry. Consumers who start buying e-books and want to go back to their books after a few years would have to make sure they have a compatible device, or at least compatible software. That can be pretty complicated. Even if Apple uses its own copy-protection system, it doesn’t preclude books using the Kindle or the Adobe scheme from being read on the iPad or an iPhone as long as Apple continues to allow outside parties to develop e-reading software for the Apple devices. The user would just have to remember which book goes with which software. However, it’s unlikely that books bought from Apple’s store would work on non-Apple devices, except for PCs running iTunes. So far, no media industry has managed to unite on one copy-protection system for downloads. Music retailers, including Apple, used a variety of schemes before ultimately ditching copy protection entirely as customers found the limitations to be a big hassle. Music from iTunes couldn’t be moved to a digital media player linked to Microsoft’s store, and so forth. Movies and television shows are still sold and rented with multiple copy-protection systems, though, so you can’t move an iTunes video to a Microsoft Zune player. Forrester’s McQuivey believes the division into several e-book camps will persist for years, but may eventually narrow to just two alternatives, one of them being Amazon’s. He doesn’t believe copy protection will ever go away for e-books. It died for music largely because CDs were never copy-protected, he noted, so consumers opted to buy them and convert them to digital files instead of buying downloads. Printed books, though they carry no copy protection, are difficult to convert to a digital format in the home. As the market leader, Amazon has the scale to hold out with its own system, McQuivey said. Analysts estimate it has sold 3 million Kindles, and Amazon says it now sells six Kindle books for every 10 printed copies of books that are available in both formats. All the same, the publishing industry has high hopes for the iPad, which unlike the Kindle and most other e-readers, will have a color screen that can show video. Carolyn Reidy, the CEO of Simon & Schuster, said the iPad seems like a “terrific device,” citing the clear screen and the ability to turn pages by touching a finger to the screen, as opposed to pushing a button, as the Kindle requires. She said the fact that Apple already has 125 million customer credit card numbers through its iTunes store could add millions of potential book customers when the iPad goes on sale in two months, starting at $499. Any disappointment because of confusion over copy protection could be offset, at least in the short term, by the excitement and publicity caused by trendsetter Apple’s entry into the e-book market. — AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen.-elect Scott Brown says he’d like daughter Ayla to have another crack at “American Idol,” where judge Simon Cowell once described her performance as robotic and empty. The fledgling recording artist, a 21-year-old student at Boston College, made it to the show’s final 16 singers in 2006. Her father told ABC’s “This Week” that Ayla was so new to it all back then that she had never put on makeup until she did “American Idol.” He also says that Cowell’s critique, while harsh, was on target. The Republican lawmaker says having his daughter back as a contestant would be great for the program and would show people there’s life after “American Idol.” Ayla Brown has sung the national anthem with the Boston Pops and released three albums – including one called “Circles” that just came out. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below. WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen.-elect Scott Brown says he’d like daughter Ayla to have another crack at “American Idol,” where judge Simon Cowell once described her performance as robotic and empty. The fledgling recording artist, a 21-year-old student at Boston College, made it to the show’s final 16 singers in 2006. Her father told ABC’s “This Week” that Ayla was so new to it all back then that she had never put on makeup until she did “American Idol.” He also says that Cowell’s critique, while harsh, was on target. The Republican lawmaker says having his daughter back as a contestant would be great for the program and would show people there’s life after “American Idol.” Ayla Brown has sung the national anthem with the Boston Pops and released three albums – including one called “Circles” that just came out.
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — Veteran CNN correspondent Candy Crowley will be host of the network’s Sunday morning political talk show. Crowley replaces John King, who is leaving the show he started after one year. King has a new weekday evening show that’s expected to debut on CNN soon. Her appointment was announced on the air Sunday. The hour-long show airs at 9 a.m. ET, and is repeated with updates three hours later. Crowley has been with CNN since 1987. She has covered all but one of the national political conventions since the nomination of Jimmy Carter in 1976. She’ll be the only woman among the Sunday morning public affairs hosts, joining NBC’s David Gregory, CBS’ Bob Schieffer and Fox’s Chris Wallace. ABC is in the process of finding a replacement for George Stephanopoulos (stehf-uh-NAHP’-uh-luhs ), who has taken over at “Good Morning America.”
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Besides being one of the most popular singers on the planet, Beyonce has gotten plenty of accolades over her career. Now a veteran, she’s won a caseload of Grammys for her solo work and also with Destiny’s Child. What she hasn’t won, however, is the prestigious album of the year trophy, despite being nominated once before. That may change on Sunday. The superstar is nominated for a leading 10 Grammys, including record of the year for “Halo,” song of the year for her anthem “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” and album of the year for her multiplatinum third CD, “I Am … Sasha Fierce.” Of course, she faces tough competition – especially from two newer divas. Taylor Swift isn’t far behind in the Grammy nominee count with eight. She too is up for the evening’s three top awards: “Fearless” is nominated for album of the year, and her song “You Belong With Me” is nominated for both record and song of the year. Swift, whose country album became the most popular album of any genre last year, has captured top awards at just about every awards show she’s been at, from the Country Music Association Awards to the MTV Video Music Awards. The 20-year-old, who is only on her second album, could emerge as the top winner at the Grammys as well. Lady Gaga is another relative newcomer up for top awards. Although she was disqualified from the best new artist category because her first single, “Just Dance,” was released last fall and nominated for a Grammy, the Recording Academy more than made up for her exclusion in that category. Gaga is up for five Grammys, and like Beyonce and Swift, is also up for record and song of the year, for “Poker Face,” and album of the year for “The Fame.” Rounding out the album of the year category is the Black Eyed Peas’ “The E.N.D.,” and the Dave Matthews Band’s “Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King.” The latter album was the band’s first release since the death of founding member and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. All are expected to perform on Sunday’s show, to be aired on CBS from Staples Center. But the show won’t be all about the nominees. There will be a special 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson; a video clip he made of “Earth Song” will be shown, as Usher, Carrie Underwood, Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson sing along. Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli will celebrate the 30th anniversary of “Bridge Over Troubled Water’s” Grammy wins with a special performance of the classic song, which will be made available on iTunes. The proceeds will be donated to Haiti relief.
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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TUCUMCARI, N.M. (AP) — Tracks in the snow leading from a crashed car to the nearby bridge overpass on New Mexico’s I-40 just didn’t look right to officers. State police say that officers patrolling the stretch near Tucumcari Saturday found that 40-year-old Henry Alan of El Paso had lost control of his sedan and crashed into a snow pile. Then they noticed tracks leading back and forth from the trunk to the bridge. They allege that partially hidden under the overpass were large plastic wrapped bundles and inside was 238 pound of marijuana. Police say that Lowe was arrested and treated for a gash to the head. — Material from KRQE-TV, http://www.krqe.com
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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HONOLULU (AP) — More than 10,000 fans greeted the cast of “Lost” on Waikiki Beach and were treated to a special screening of upcoming season premiere. Fans started lining up 12 hours before the Saturday night’s event in hopes of getting a glimpse of the actors. Sitting on beach towels and lawn chairs, they watched the episode that airs Tuesday night on ABC and kicks off the sixth and final season of the castaway drama. Among the stars that made an island-style, red-carpet arrival were Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Yunjin Kim and Michael Emerson. Actor Daniel Dae Kim called the event “humbling, outrageous and a lot of fun.”
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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Injured Cape Coral Police officer a walking miracle By Haley Hinds, WINK News Story Created: Jan 30, 2010 at 10:40 PM EST Story Updated: Jan 31, 2010 at 12:05 AM EST CAPE CORAL, Fla – A Cape Coral Police Officer makes his first public appearance tonight 8 months after a serious motorcycle accident nearly took his life. Last June, Damien Garcia was riding is patrol motorcycle when an SUV pulled out in front of him, leaving him with serious head injuries. Doctors weren’t sure he going to survive. Saturday night, Garcia was a walking miracle at the Gene Griffin Memorial Football Game at Ida Baker High School. The game is an annual charity event between the Fort Myers and Cape Coral police and firefighters. While Damien Garcia would rather have been playing alongside his fellow officers, tonight, he played a different position, doing the honorary coin toss and getting the loudest cheers of the night. Slow and steady, 26 year old Damien Garcia walks with the help of his fiance. 8 months ago, he was in and out of a coma, and couldn’t walk or breathe on his own. The last thing doctors imagined he’d he doing is walking more than 50 yards across a football field. But Saturday night, he did just that, giving players and the crowd a true lesson in courage. “To see him out here walking after all reports, going through a coma, and coming out of it, wheelchair, physical therapy and to see him take steps out here and actually wave at people do the coin toss, it was such an inspiration to all of us out here,” Brad Dickerson of the Fort Myers Police said. Although Garcia was too tired to speak, his footsteps alone spoke volumes. “Never give up, never never never say never,” said Erik Chudzik of the Cape Coral Fire Department. “It was so bleak for him and it has been for other people but you never give up. Never stop fighting.” “We know where the credit goes, this is a God thing, and the blessings from prayers that were given, here we are today. It is a miracle,” Cape Coral Police Chief Rob Petrovich said. While Garcia may not have been tackling and throwing the football, Saturday night, he can definitely take credit for a touchdown or two. “We’re definitely out here with a little extra to go from Damien,” Chudzik said. The final score of the night was Police: 7, Firefighters: 6, but it was pretty obvious from talking to players, whether their uniforms were red or blue, they were all playing for the same person.
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The Ozark Mountains drama “Winter’s Bone” and the war-on-terror documentary “Restrepo” won top honors Saturday among U.S. movies at the Sundance Film Festival. Director Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone,” the story of a 17-year-old trying to uncover the fate of her father among the criminal clans of the Ozarks, earned the grand jury prize for American dramas at Sundance, Robert Redford’s showcase for independent cinema. Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini also won the festival’s Waldo Salt screenwriting award for their script, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell. The awards came hours after Roadside Attractions bought North American theatrical rights for “Winter’s Bone.” Roadside plans to release the film this summer. It was the second-straight Sundance drama winner featuring a breakout role for a young actress. Jennifer Lawrence, whose credits include Charlize Theron’s “The Burning Plain,” offers a fearless lead performance in “Winter’s Bone,” which follows Gabourey Sidibe’s sizzling debut in the title role of “Precious: Based on the Novel `Push’ By Sapphire,” last year’s Sundance dramatic winner. While “Precious” offered a view of a tough urban scene in Harlem, “Winter’s Bone” presents a glimpse of a harsh backwoods landscape in Missouri. “Life is really diverse on this continent that we happen to inhabit,” Granik said in an interview after the awards ceremony. “I think there’s something to understand that in any county, there’s a story that is somewhat universal, but that it’s also worthy just to note the differences and appreciate the differences among the counties that make up the 50 states, that make up, then, the larger picture.” The U.S. documentary prize went to “Restrepo,” which chronicles the lives of an American platoon fighting in Afghanistan, where the troops have erected an outpost to a fallen comrade, Pvt. Juan Restrepo. The film was directed by journalist Sebastian Junger, author of “The Perfect Storm,” and photographer Tim Hetherington. “We’re in the middle of two wars,” Junger said. “If our movie can help this country understand how to go forward, we would be incredibly honored by that.” The audience award for favorite U.S. drama chosen by Sundance fans was given to the romance “happythankyoumoreplease,” written and directed by and starring Josh Radnor, the star of “How I Met Your Mother.” “Waiting for Superman” – a study of the problems at U.S. public schools that was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who made the Academy Award winner “An Inconvenient Truth” – earned the audience award for U.S. documentaries. A special jury prize was given to “Sympathy for Delicious,” Mark Ruffalo’s directing debut, in which he co-stars with friend and screenwriter Christopher Thornton, who plays a paralyzed deejay with the power to heal others but not himself. Director David Michod’s Australian teen drama “Animal Kingdom” earned the dramatic jury prize for world cinema, while the world documentary award went to Danish filmmaker Mads Brugger’s “The Red Chapel,” chronicling a regime-challenging trip to North Korea. Javier Fuentes-Leon’s Peruvian ghost story “Undertow” won the world-cinema audience honor for dramas, and Lucy Walker’s British-Brazilian production “Waste Land,” about an art project at a massive landfill, received the documentary audience prize for world cinema. Other winners: – U.S. drama directing award: Eric Mendelsohn, “3 Backyards.” – U.S. documentary directing award: Leon Gast, “Smash His Camera.” – World cinema drama directing award and world cinema screenwriting award: Juan Carlos Valdivia, “Southern District.” – World cinema documentary directing award: Christian Frei, “Space Tourists.” – U.S. documentary editing award: Penelope Falk, “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.” – World cinema documentary editing award: Joelle Alexis, “A Film Unfinished.” – U.S. drama cinematography award: Zak Mulligan, “Obselidia.” – U.S. documentary cinematography award: Kirsten Johnson and Laura Poitras, “The Oath.” – World cinema drama cinematography award: Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat, “The Man Next Door.” – World cinema documentary cinematography award: Kate McCullough and Michael Lavelle, “His & Hers.” — On the Net: Sundance Film Festival: http://sundance.bside.com/2010 — AP Television News reporter Ryan Pearson contributed to this report.
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — New copies of Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall,” Andrew Young’s “The Politician” and other books published by Macmillan were unavailable Saturday on Amazon.com, a drastic step in the ongoing dispute over e-book prices. Macmillan CEO John Sargent said he was told Friday that its books would be removed from Amazon.com, as would e-books for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Books will be available on Amazon.com through private sellers and other third parties, Sargent said. Sargent met with Amazon officials Thursday to discuss the publisher’s new pricing model for e-books. He wrote in a letter to Macmillan authors and literary agents Saturday that the plan would allow Amazon to make more money selling Macmillan books and that Macmillan would make less. He characterized the dispute as a disagreement over “the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market.” Macmillan and other publishers have criticized Amazon for charging just $9.99 for best-selling e-books on its Kindle e-reader, a price publishers say is too low and could hurt hardcover sales, which generally carry a list price of more than $24. Macmillan is one of the world’s largest English-language publishers. Its divisions include St. Martin’s Press, itself one of the largest publishers in the U.S.; Henry Holt & Co., one of the oldest publishers in America; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; and Tor, the leading science fiction publisher. Sargent credited Amazon in his letter, calling the company a “valuable customer” and a “great innovator in our industry.” But, he wrote, the digital book industry needs to create a business model that provides equal opportunities for retailers. Under Macmillan’s model, to be put in place in March, e-books will be priced from $12.99 to $14.99 when first released and prices will change over time. For its part, Amazon wants to keep a lid on prices as competitors line up to challenge its dominant position in a rapidly expanding market. The company did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday. Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Sony Corp.’s e-book readers are already on sale. But the latest and most talked about challenger is Apple Inc., which just introduced the long-awaited iPad tablet computer and a new online book store modeled on iTunes. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, suggested publishers may offer some e-titles to Apple before they are allowed to go on sale at Amazon.com The e-book market is an increasingly important one for Amazon. The company hasn’t given specific sales figures on the Kindle, but CEO Jeff Bezos said Thursday that “millions” own the device. The company now sells six digital copies to every 10 physical ones of books available in either format. To preserve the more lucrative hardcover business, publishers including Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins Hachette Book Group USA have said they will impose delays on the release of digital copies. It’s not the first time that books have disappeared from Amazon’s virtual shelves. Last summer, Kindle users were surprised and unsettled to receive notice that George Orwell works they had purchased, including “1984″ and “Animal Farm,” had been removed and their money refunded. It was a deletion of pirated copies that had been posted to the Kindle store, but the ordeal highlighted a concern – that a book already paid for and acquired can be revoked by an e-tailer. The Kindle operates on a wireless connection that Amazon ultimately controls. Bezos later apologized, and Amazon offered affected customers free books or $30. Late Friday, author Cory Doctorow, who is published by Tor, the Macmillan division, called readers and writers “the civilian casualties” of the dispute in a post on his popular Web site, boingboing.net. It’s a “case of two corporate giants illustrating neatly exactly why market concentration is bad for the arts,” he wrote. Another Tor writer, John Scalzi, speculated that Amazon’s move would have “a long-term effect on Amazons relationship with publishers, and not the one Amazon is likely to want,” he wrote on his Web site. — AP Business Writer Andrew Vanacore in New York contributed to this report.
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — An award-winning film editor who worked on many of Errol Morris’ documentaries, including “The Fog of War,” was struck and killed by a getaway car speeding from a Manhattan drugstore robbery, police and her mother said on Saturday. Karen Schmeer was crossing Broadway at West 90th Street on the Upper West Side on Friday when she was struck by a car driven by two suspects in the theft of over-the-counter medication from a CVS drugstore a few blocks away, police said. Her mother, Eleanor DuBois Schmeer, confirmed the film editor’s death. Schmeer was an editor for Morris’ documentaries as well as other works, including “Sergio,” which won a best-editing award last year at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie is about Sergio de Mello, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights killed in a 2003 explosion at U.N. headquarters in Iraq. “She was just extremely loved by many, many friends,” said Schmeer’s mother, from her home in Portland, Ore., where her daughter was born. Morris wrote on his Twitter feed that Schmeer’s death was a “senseless tragedy.” Lt. John Grimpel said the driver of the car has been arrested on a murder charge shortly after Friday’s crash. Schmeer was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Hospital. On Saturday, police were still looking for a passenger who fled from the car as well as a third suspect. Although Schmeer’s last listed address was in Boston, her mother said she was living in an apartment on the Upper West Side when she was killed. In addition to editing Morris’ Academy Award-winning documentary film, “The Fog of War,” which profiled former Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara, Schmeer worked as editor on many of his other films. She also was an editor for “Sketches of Frank Gehry,” directed by Sydney Pollack.
January 31, 2010 | Posted in
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