Apple named in e-book price fixing scam

Apple and a group of book publishers were yesterday accused in a lawsuit of illegally fixing e-book prices to “boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing,” reveals Cnet.

The lawsuit, which was filed in US District Court in Northern California, alleges Apple, HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group, and Simon & Schuster “colluded to increase prices” on popular books.

The lawsuit alleges Apple and the book publishers employed an “agency model” in which publishers set their own e-book prices, rather than the traditional wholesale model in which publishers set a retail price and retailers set their own sales price.

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 team has been dealt a blow after the general manager of its developer experience division said he is to step down after 21 years with the firm, writes V3.co.uk.

Charlie Kindel explained in an e-mail sent to staff and posted on his blog that having worked on numerous projects at Microsoft, he is leaving to start a new venture.

“In 1990, I assumed I'd work here for three or so years. I'm an entrepreneur at heart and every few years I'd lift up my head and look around. I never had to look outside Microsoft, because I kept finding one challenging opportunity after another,” he said.

The worldwide mobile phone market has increased considerably on this time last year, with Apple's iPhone the most dominant model, reports Computing.co.uk.

Research from IDC shows there has been a 65.4% increase year-on-year, with vendors shipping 106.5 million units in 2011's second quarter compared with 64.4 million units in the second quarter last year.

Apple is leading competition in the market, owing to its strong distribution mechanism. It has more than 200 carriers in more than 200 countries, and has increased manufacturing capacity.

Facebook has begun closing the accounts of California prison inmates after a convicted child molester viewed the pages of his victim from behind bars, authorities and the social networking site said yesterday, notes Reuters.

The social networking giant has shut down the accounts of at least two prisoners, and officials are working on identifying other accounts that had been accessed from behind bars, said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Though most prisoners in California do not have access to the Internet, they often log onto the Internet with contraband cellphones, despite an effort to crack down on the devices, corrections officials said.