Publisher Hachette said it would transition to an “agency model” for the sale of its e-books, but provided few details and did not name Amazon.

Analysts define the model as one that transfers the retail pricing power to the publisher and gives a fixed cut to retailers. Amazon has come under fire from a number of publishers for the low prices it charges for e-books to spur demand for its electronic reader Kindle, hoping to fend off new rivals such as Apple Inc that are set to join the e-books fray with their own devices. Publishers fear that low e-book prices will cannibalize sales of its higher margin hardcover books.

Over the weekend, Amazon told its consumers that it would agree to Macmillan’s demand that Amazon charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most of the publisher’s books sold at the Kindle bookstore. Amazon currently charges $9.99 for the e-book version of most new releases and bestsellers. On Thursday, however, Macmillan said talks were still ongoing. The public jockeying between publishers and retailers in recent days points to the importance of electronic books in the nascent digital market, a growth driver for e-reader and content sellers like Amazon. The chief executive of Hachette, David Young, sent a letter to agents about the company’s new move to control the value of its books. “This new model helps protect the long term viability of the book marketplace,” wrote Young, in a letter provided to Reuters on Thursday. Young did not disclose terms of the agency model in his letter. “There are many advantages to the agency model, for our authors, retailers, consumers, and publishers. It allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors’ works,” wrote Young. He added that without investment in authors, “our literary culture will suffer.”

Macmillan Chief Executive John Sargent’s post on the company’s website gave no hint of what the terms of a new deal with Amazon could be. But he said: “Macmillan and Amazon as corporations had our differences that needed to be resolved.” Sargent said both companies had been in discussions since the weekend and praised Amazon for working “very, very hard and always in good faith” with Macmillan. “I cannot tell you when we will resume business as usual with Amazon,” Sargent wrote. “You can tell by the tone of this letter though that I feel the time is getting near to hand.” An Amazon spokesman did not return a request for comment. Amazon temporarily removed all titles published by Macmillan, whose imprints include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Henry Holt and Co, from its website last weekend.

Barclay Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth wrote in a note on Thursday he expects market share for the Kindle to decline to 45 percent in 2011 from 64 percent now, given more competition from the Apple iPad and other readers. “The emergence of a (potentially) strong distribution alternative in the form of Apple’s iPad has given publishers the much-needed leverage to demand a change in the existing book model,” Anmuth wrote. Anmuth wrote that the agency book model could raise the price of best-sellers and new releases by as much as 50 percent, reducing demand for the Kindle. At the same time, Amazon’s margins would get a bump from the higher prices, he said. He estimated that Amazon loses about $4 on each $9.99 title it sells — assuming the list price is $27.50 — but could make a gross profit of $4.20 on the same book under the agency model where it takes a flat 30 percent distribution fee, given a retail price of $13.99. News Corp Chief Rupert Murdoch, who oversees a media empire that includes HarperCollins books, criticized Amazon’s model on Tuesday and said Apple’s deal with HarperCollins allowed for a variety of slightly higher prices.

The boy lost his temper after his father kept giving him advice on what moves to make while playing the FIFA Soccer 2009 playstation at their home in Turin, state-run media reported Monday.

“I know how to play myself,” snapped the teenager and swore at his father.

His enraged father then switched off the console without letting his son finish the match.

The boy then took a kitchen knife and stabbed his father in the neck. He then washed the knife and went to his bedroom.

His mother found her husband bleeding and called the ambulance and police. The man was in a critical condition, but survived.

The teenager admitted his guilt and was taken to a juvenile correctional facility.

Video games, which are primarily aimed and marketed for children and young adults, have long been studied for links to addiction and aggression.

“I think 2010 is going to be the determining year,” said one senior executive of an online gaming group who asked not be named. “I do think there’s going to be a domino effect, meaning the first deal gets everybody else to run. You don’t want to be the last one left without a partner.”

If a merger of Party and bwin were to materialise, it could cajole the likes of 888, Sportingbet and Playtech into tie-ups. Traditional betting firms like Ladbrokes, William Hill and Paddy Power may also look to make acquisitions to boost their online presence. Numis analyst Wyn Ellis says M&A activity across the sector is “inevitable”. “We believe that consolidation talks are widespread across the online gaming sector and that most companies could be considered to be both potential industry consolidators and takeover targets,” he said. Party and bwin have held early stage talks about a combination which would pair Party’s strength in online gaming with bwin’s expertise in sports betting. Analysts say the logic behind the deal is compelling. “Such a deal would bring Party the critical mass in sportsbook that it lacks, while for bwin, Party’s casino and poker products would provide a significant boost to its presence in these markets,” said KBC Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram. Daniel Stewart analyst James Hollins described the combination as “pretty epic.” “The combination would be very strategically strong. It’s a pretty neat fit. PartyGaming is a very good poker brand. To combine that liquidity with bwin’s network would be pretty impressive,” he said.

Bwin shares have risen by over 300 percent since the beginning of 2009, boosted by ongoing merger speculation, a more favourable regulatory environment and the wider rally in Austrian shares, giving it a market value of $2.2 billion. That compares with PartyGaming’s $1.8 billion valuation, suggesting bwin would be the senior partner in a merger. “The fact that bwin has edged ahead in terms of market cap may mean that the deal could happen earlier rather than later,” said Cheuvreux analyst Alfred Reisenberger.

What we did learn today was that developer Free Radical will be working on the game. In case your memory is a bit rusty Free Radical is the same British developer behind the awesome Timesplitters series but were forced to shut doors after the debacle that was Haze.

The extent of their collaboration on the project is not known yet but according to Crytek boss Faruk Yerli they are working on “a part of the game”.

Crysis 2 will be released for the PC, Xbox360 and PS3 later this year (hopefully).

“I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software.

As far as the exploit goes, I’m not revealing it yet. The theory isn’t really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can’t post dumps. I’m hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone’s KBAG.”

When contacted by various press outlets Sony obviously has the “No Comments” card ready but claim to be looking into the matter. We’ll keep you posted as and when we hear anything ourselves

They are developing an alternative to ultra-thin, power-saving organic light diodes (OLEDs), recently introduced in cell phones, cameras, and super-thin TVs.

The alternative is an organic light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC), which is much cheaper to produce, with the transparent electrode being made of graphene, a carbon material.

An OLED comprises light-generating layer of plastic placed between two electrodes, one of which must be transparent.

But they have two drawbacks. They are relatively expensive to produce, and the transparent electrode consists of the metal alloy indium tin oxide.

The latter presents a problem because indium is both rare and expensive and moreover is complicated to recycle.

“This is a major step forward in the development of organic lighting components, from both a technological and an environmental perspective,” says Nathaniel Robinson, researcher from Link�ping University.

Since all the LEC parts can be produced from liquid solutions, it will also be possible to make LECs in a roll-to-roll process on, for example, a printing press in a highly cost-effective way.

“This paves the way for inexpensive production of entirely plastic-based lighting and display components in the form of large flexible sheets,” says Ludvig Edman from Ume� University, another researcher, according to a release of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

“This kind of illumination or display can be rolled up or can be applied as wallpaper or on ceilings,” adds Edman.

These findings were published in ACS Nano.

The EcoGreen F3EG, features a capacity of 2TB with 500GB per disk.

“Storage-hungry multimedia professionals, gamers and home PC users continue to increase the amount of video, music, photo and other personal data they store and back-up,” said vice president, Storage Sales, Samsung Electronics. “The F3EG delivers all the benefits of a low-power drive yet features high performance and is environmentally friendly.”

The F3EG utilizes Samsung’s EcoTriangle technology to provide eco-friendly components, low-power and low-noise operation technology to its ‘EcoGreen’ hard drives.

Eliminating halogen compound and brominated flame retardant from the PCBA, the new model is produced with eco-friendly materials and meets all the environmental regulations including RoHS (Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment). The new hard drive also utilizes its low noise operation technology SilentSeek and NoiseGuard to achieve a quiet operation system.

In addition, with its advanced design and fewer components, the F3EG drive is 40 percent lower in power consumption in idle mode and 10 percent lower in reading/writing mode than competitive drives. The drive received a zero percent failure rate in the unstable voltage environment test.

The EcoGreen Series has been selected as the best-in-class in the area of power consumption for two straight years by IDEMA Japan (International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association) in the performance comparison test of HDDs.

The F3EG incorporates a 3.0Gbps SATA interface, Native Command Queuing features and a 16MB/32MB buffer memory.

The 3.5” F3EG drive is available right now in 1.5TB and 2TB capacities in the United States and EU markets with a MSRP of $179.99.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed a federal district court’s dismissal of the case against Dell, which concerned computers bought between July 2004 and January 2005. The district court agreed with Dell that the plaintiffs’ claims, which were brought under California state law, should be arbitrated, and dismissed the case entirely when the plaintiffs refused to comply with the arbitration order. But a three-judge appeals court panel said that the district court lacked authority to dismiss the case, and that a class-action waiver in the applicable sales agreement was “unconscionable” under California law governing contracts. The court sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings. Dell was not immediately available for comment.

Google sent shockwaves across the business and political worlds when it declared on Jan. 12 it would stop censoring Chinese search results. But in the three weeks since, the Web giant has trod cautiously. Despite early reports suggesting Google had lifted filters on certain search results, the company insists it has made zero changes to its Chinese search engine and that it remains in dialogue with Beijing. Otherwise, executives have mostly been tight-lipped about the entire affair.

That guarded, restrained approach reflects the thorny legal issues surrounding the situation and the high stakes involved in its standoff with China, the world’s No. 3 economy and largest Internet market by users. Many analysts believe the Chinese government would have no qualms shutting down an uncensored search engine. But experts on Chinese law warn that Google employees in China could also face prosecution for breaking the law. China’s detention of four Rio Tinto employees including Australian Stern Hu in July on accusations of illegally obtaining commercial secrets amid contentious iron ore contract negotiations has underscored the risk when business matters cross into politically sensitive areas. “If they have a lot of personnel in China and they suddenly decide to change what they’re doing in a way that was not permitted by the Chinese government, then that could lead to problems,” said Donald Clarke, a professor of Chinese law at George Washington University Law School, noting Google staff could be at risk of everything from arrest to harassment. And with political momentum building – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Senate have voiced strong support for freedom of expression on the Internet – Google has room to sit back and let others advance its cause. “As long as individual actors, even ones as large as Google, are doing this alone as opposed to collectively, then these risks are going to be much more pronounced,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of business at Human Rights Watch.

A sudden move by Google to lift search censorship in China could hurt other business interests in the country, including its fast-growing Android cell phone products, advertising sales and its research and development operations. “Both parties probably want to reach some sort of a solution, so I think both have been careful in their public statements,” UBS analyst Brian Pitz. Websites in China are prohibited from publishing content that jeopardizes the security of the nation, divulges state secrets and disturbs the social order. “It would be normal for anybody running a high-profile, politically controversial operation in China to anticipate worst-case scenarios, and to do everything possible to guard against them,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, a fellow at the Open Society Institute who has written extensively about Internet censorship in China.

Google is therefore more likely to voluntarily shut down its search operation if it is unable to reach a compromise with China, rather than unilaterally lift censorship, she said. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last month the company was still censoring search results in China, but that it would be making changes in a “reasonably short time.” He added that Google was committed to having some presence in China. The company does not disclose the size of its business in China, where it has several hundred employees and is the No. 2 search engine after Baidu Inc. Analysts estimate it generates $200 million to $600 million a year in revenue. While many experts believe Beijing is unlikely to let Google operate an uncensored website, some say last summer’s “Green Dam” software episode could offer a lesson for the company as it looks for a way forward. Beijing backed down from a controversial plan that would have required personal computer makers to install special Internet filtering software on PCs in the face of opposition from industry groups, activists and Washington officials such as U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. “What you saw is a pretty much global pushback on what were pretty onerous and odious regulations on the part of the government. And guess what? As of today, there is no requirement” to install filtering software, said Ganesan of Human Rights Watch.

Nokia and other cellphone makers using Symbian hope the move will boost usage of the software as vendors don’t have to pay a licencing fee. Microsoft charges up to $15 per phone for its Windows software, analysts say. Symbian controls around half the smartphone market, but its market share has slipped since Apple and Google entered the sector. In response, Nokia bought out other Symbian shareholders in 2008 and gave its software to an independent foundation to develop on an open source basis. The Symbian Foundation said on Thursday it had finished that task. “Not only has this come four months ahead of schedule, but also represents 10 years of investment and billions of dollars worth of code,” the foundation said. Symbian’s main benefit battling new rivals is its scale — it said there are more 330 million Symbian devices in use, compared with just a few million phones using Google’s Android software.