Apple’s attempts to have the anti-trust suit brought against them by the US Department of Justice thrown out of court were denied on Tuesday.

Federal Judge Denise Cote cited previous statements from Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs as justification for the dispute over e-book pricing to continue.

Jobs’s comment was included in the DOJ’s case against Apple. "We’ll go to [an] agency mode, where you set the price, and we get our 30 percent, and yes, the cusomter pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway," Jobs reportedly said.

He added that prices would "be the same" at Apple and Amazon, which the DOJ contested in the suit.

The DOJ’s suit alleges that Apple colluded with book publishers including Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin to standardize e-book prices when the publishers should have been competing with one another.

Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster were quick to settle, but Apple insisted that the company has done nothing wrong, going so far as to say that they’re eager to begin litigation.

Eliminating the competition

Jobs’s statements were previously known, but it was unclear what importance they would play in the case until now.

"It has everything to do with coordinating a horizontal agreement among publishers to raise prices, and eliminating horizontal price competition among Apple’s competitors at the retail level," Judge Cote said.

The suit alleges that Apple contacted major publishers in 2009, just before the launch of the iPad, and hatched a plan to force Amazon’s then-low e-book prices up to make Apple’s iBooks store more attractive to consumers.

At the time it was widely assumed that Amazon was selling e-books at a loss in order to stimulate sales of its Kindle devices.

"With the fortuitous entry of Apple into the market for e-books, and the decision by Apple to join the price-fixing conspiracy, that horizontal conspiracy became a potent weapon for engineering a fundamental shift in an entire industry," Judge Cote said.

If the court rules against Apple and Macmillan and Penguin, the two publishers who have yet to settle, the companies could be forced to implement anti-trust compliance programs and pay hefty fines.

Did Steve Jobs’s own words damn Apple in anti-trust suit? via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/ELP7gS69EkE/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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Night owls will be pleased to hear that Amazon’s next Kindle is said to be front-lit so you can do away with those pesky reading lights.

Reuter’s source, who claims to have seen a prototype of the front-lit ereader, says the new Kindle will arrive in July in both Wi-Fi only and 3G versions.

July, of course, being one of the months in which the nights are shortest – how’s that for timing?

Half light

What the new front-lit Kindle won’t have, though, is colour – the source was quite clear on it running a monochrome E-Ink display.

Rumours broke last week (by way of the ever-patchy Digitimes) that a Kindle Colour may be hitting the shelves in the second half of 2012.

But Reuters now reports that there is "very little chance" of Amazon launching a Kindle Colour this year, although the company has apparently had talks about such a thing with E Ink so it may yet be in the works.

As for the ever-elusive Kindle Fire 2, the front-light source said it will launch in time for the Christmas shopping season this year, with an 8.9-inch screen in tow.

Front-lit Kindle to land in July but Kindle Colour unlikely via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/o8VDqNXVtHU/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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An ex-Microsoft exec has spoken out about the company’s Xbox success and relative Zune failings, saying part of the blame lies with the music industry.

Robbie Bach, who headed up Microsoft’s entertainment division during the early days of Xbox and Zune, was speaking at the Northwest Entrepreneur Network event in Seattle.

Talking about how the Zune team tried to replicate the Xbox’s success by working with retail and game publishing partners, Bach said, "It’s not like we didn’t try but — I don’t know how to say this politely — the music industry just didn’t get it."

The day the music died

"They just didn’t figure out that being dependent on Apple was bad for them," he continued.

"And they were so hooked on the drug of what Apple was supplying them that they couldn’t see past that to realize that they needed something else to actually drive their business.

"The label business, the music industry, has never recovered from that."

But he does admit that it wasn’t all down to the music biz being unable to see past the big shiny iPod in front of them:

"The portable music market is gone and it was already leaving when we started.

"We just weren’t brave enough, honestly, and we ended up chasing Apple with a product that actually wasn’t a bad product, but it was still a chasing product, and there wasn’t a reason for somebody to say, oh, I have to go out and get that thing."

The music industry ‘just didn’t get’ Zune, says ex-Microsoft ent head via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/aRNDUPqcRKA/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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How to use iTunes Match

Does your entire music collection fit on your iOS device? Even if it does, you’ll want to reserve some space for your apps, games, photos and ebooks as well.

Cramming these things onto your device often means having to make some hard decisions about which songs you leave behind on your computer, which can be frustrating when you realise that a song you want to hear isn’t on your device.

This isn’t a problem if all your music has been purchased from the iTunes Store. That music is available to download in your iPhone or iPod touch’s iTunes app when you tap the Purchased tab.

However, the iTunes Match subscription service, which costs £21.99 per year, reaches much further than this.

It also makes music ripped from CDs and purchased from other online stores available for download at any time with just a few taps. As long as your device has an internet connection, whether it’s 3G or Wi-Fi, you can download your music on a whim.

That’s an incredible convenience, but there are some pitfalls that are important to know about. For instance, you might find that some tracks haven’t been uploaded, but you have no idea why.

It could be as simple as a broken link to a file in your computer’s library, or it might be down to one of the criteria imposed by Apple for the service, which you can read more about on the Apple support page.

You should also know that if you play a song using Match and let it run on to the next song on the album, it will keep downloading songs in sequence, potentially using your data allowance.

So, if you’re keen to try iTunes Match, here’s how to begin.

1. Subscribe to iTunes Match

In the iTunes Store on your PC or Mac, click iTunes Match under Quick Links at the top-right. Below the overview, click to subscribe. Enter your account details. A credit or debit card must be on file in your account.

2. Match your music

iTunes runs through three steps to put your music online. It tries to match tracks not from the iTunes Store against items available in the store, and makes those items available to you even if your copy was lower quality.

3. Get unmatched tracks

Unmatched music is uploaded. The time this takes depends on the track sizes and your connection’s upload speed. If you quit and reopen iTunes, it checks whether items are now available from the store, then resumes.

4. Prepare your iOS device

Enabling iTunes Match on an iOS device stops it syncing music with your PC. It warns that the device’s library will be overwritten, but if you sync now you won’t have to waste time re-downloading tracks already on your device.

5. Turn on iTunes Match

In the Settings app, find and tap Music. iTunes Match can take a few seconds to appear at the top of the next page. Flick its switch to On, then enter the same account details you entered when subscribing in step one.

6. Wait for the library to sync

Your device downloads library details while you use it, during which the Music app shows a progress bar or enables you to play tracks already on the device. When ready, cloud symbols indicate items not on the device.

7. Download individual tracks

Tap the cloud button next to a track name to download it, or the track’s name to play it. Playback advances through the track list on which you tapped, automatically downloading subsequent tracks, even over 3G.

8. Skip unwanted tracks

Use playlists to avoid downloading unwanted tracks over 3G. Tap Playlists, then Add Playlist… Tracks can be added even if they haven’t yet been downloaded. Tap Done, swipe to the bottom of the list and tap Download All.

9. Download whole albums

You’ll find a Download All button below an album’s track list, and below the list of everything by each artist or composer in your library. This enables you to grab whole bundles of tracks that fit your mood with only a few taps.

Tutorial: How to use iTunes Match via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/Q23uo1NOY_o/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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The black and white world of e-reading is about to get a bit more colourful: Amazon is reportedly planning an Amazon Kindle Colour for the second half of this year.

If you believe the rumours – and they’ve come from Digitimes’ ever-chatty supply chain sources, so we’ll forgive you if you don’t – the colour Kindles will come with multi-touch capacitive touchscreens.

That’s a little different to the existing infrared panels used in the Kindle Touch which offer only shades of grey. (Not the controversial book, Fifty Shades of Grey. Although you can get that on Kindle too.)

Gosh, it’s just like when films got colour. Join us as we party like it’s 1917.

Rainbow

Digitimes also reports that E Ink will have some colour products available soon, which are likely to be the panels that end up in the Amazon Kindle Colour.

While rumours have also begun swirling of a new Amazon Kindle Fire, only the US currently has the illusive Android tablet to play with.

The latest from the Amazon rumour mill is that there will be three different models of the Kindle Fire 2, two 7-inch slates and either an 8.9- or a 10-incher.

But despite the popularity of the tablet line-up so far, plenty of people still prefer to do their ereading on an ebook reader so we wouldn’t be surprised to see the rumoured colour version arrive in time for Christmas spending season.

Amazon Kindle Colour coming later this year? via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/iGB2JBqSTB4/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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Have you purchased an iPod between 2006 and 2009? If so, you may be part of a class action lawsuit against Apple which claims the company used iTunes to create a monopoly over digital music and portable music players.

Now, Apple is being targeted for another class action lawsuit, this one tied to customers who purchased an iPod between September 12, 2006 and March 31, 2009.

The class action dates back to early 2005, when a customer named Thomas Slattery first filed a lawsuit against Apple.

Slattery’s lawsuit alleged that the tech giant violated Federal antitrust laws by requiring iPods to listen to music purchased from the iTunes Music Store.

The suit persisted over the last seven years, even as Apple began to allow purchased tracks to be used on any compatible device – including iPod competitors.

"The Firm represents iPod purchasers who challenged Apple’s use of iPod software and firmware updates to prevent consumers who purchased music from non-Apple sources from playing it on their iPods," explains class counsel Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, who unsuccessfully attempted to reach a settlement with Apple earlier this month.

"Apple’s conduct resulted in monopolies in the digital music and portable digital music player markets and enabled the company to charge inflated prices for millions of iPods," the litigation alleges.

No payday yet

As always, customers being notified about the class action antitrust lawsuit can choose to be specifically excluded, or do nothing and remain a member of the class.

The website iPodlawsuit.com details which iPod models are involved, noting that "no money is available now because the Court has not yet decided whether Apple has done anything wrong, and the two sides have not settled the case."

Attorneys from Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP were not available for comment, but anticipate the case will go to trial in late 2012 or early 2013.

iPod owners part of class action lawsuit via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/BwVot4XVE-Q/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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In a world full of obscure product names, the Kyocera Hydro C5170 is actually, aptly named.

We got a hands on look at the Kyocera Hydro on the show floor at CTIA 2012 and according to a Kyocera spokesperson, the handset is "Certified waterproof for IPX5, protection against water jets and IPX7, protection against water immersion for up to 30 minutes in up to 1 meter."

What this means to the average user is that gone are the days of dropping your cell phone in the toilet and having your trusted sidekick literally go belly-up.

Expected to come out in the second half of 2012, aside from being waterproof for up 30 minutes in 1 meter of water, the Kyocera Hydro is a rather standard model.

Boasting Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich, it also sports a 3.2 MP camera and video camcorder.

The handset feels nice in the hand, and navigation, thanks to Android 4.0 is simple and clean. That said, with flashier models like the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia 900 either currently on the market or expected to come, we don’t expect the Kyocera Hydro C5170 to win any design awards.

Of course, if you’re prone to dropping phones in toilets and hoping and praying that it’ll work once you fish it out, you may want to give the Kyocera Hydro C5170 a good look.

CTIA 2012: Hands on: Kyocera Hydro C5170 via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/czth5Lm_HcI/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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Does this sound familiar? Microsoft tried and failed to launch a technology, and then twelve years later a rival beginning with "A" perfected it and made a mint.

No, I don’t mean tablets: I mean ebooks. Microsoft’s tie-up with Barnes & Noble isn’t just an interesting new venture. It’s also a sign that Microsoft missed another enormous opportunity.

Maybe there was something in Microsoft’s water back in 2000, because it did exactly the same with e-readers as it did with the tablet PC: it created a product and waited 12 years for a rival to take the idea, make it better and beat Microsoft around the head with it.

Microsoft had both the Tablet PC and Microsoft Reader back in 2000, but today tablets mean Apple and ebooks mean Amazon. As a result, Microsoft is doing what it often does. It’s spending an enormous amount of money to try to get itself back in the game again.

Brought to (e)book

Books are going digital, and they’re doing so in two ways: on dedicated e-readers, and on tablets. I think the Barnes & Noble deal is about the latter: iPads have iBooks, which is now targeting the incredibly lucrative textbook market, and Windows 8 needs something similar if it’s going to compete on campuses.

The stuff about bringing "world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users" is PR bumph. People don’t generally read on PCs. If they did, Microsoft wouldn’t have had to kill off its Reader software.

For general reading, the ebook market has already gone to Amazon: the e-ink Kindle is publishing’s iPod, and there’s little room for anybody new.

However, such devices are destined to become niche products when tablets really take off (and by really take off, I mean to the point that they’re as ubiquitous as laptops are today). Apple has already positioned the iPad for that market with iBooks, and Microsoft is trying to do the same with the Nook.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook has the catalogue, and its brand is arguably warmer and fuzzier than Microsoft’s. It also has a significant retail presence in the US, which could help shift some tablets too.

The worry is that Microsoft has come to this too late: until recently it was more interested in suing Barnes & Noble over Android patents than becoming its best friend.

While Microsoft litigated, Amazon got on with the job of conquering the entire ebook landscape with apps and its first tablet, a device that despite its flaws has been selling in the sort of numbers most Android tablet makers can only dream of.

That means in books Microsoft isn’t coming into a market as number two, but as a distant number three: not only does it have to tempt bookworms away from the iPad, but it’s got to tempt them away from the Kindle Fire too.

That’s a tough task for anyone, but if the rumoured iPad Mini actually ships and Amazon’s forthcoming trio of Kindle Tablets is any cop then it’s going to be even tougher.

No matter how good Microsoft’s offering actually is, people are buying tablets – and becoming locked into their DRM-patrolled ecosystems – now. That means it may be too late for Microsoft’s ebook story to have a happy ending.

Gary Marshall: Is Microsoft losing another media market? via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/opJvinA3ouA/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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A new survey has revealed that a third of Brits now own an ebook reader, a stat that has risen by 21 per cent compared to 2011.

By comparison, reading printed books as an activity has fallen by 4 per cent according to the digital entertainment survey commissioned by Wiggin, although it still rides high as an activity engaged in by 43 per cent of the survey’s respondents.

Add to that the fact that 38 per cent of people still have no plans to start reading ebooks, and print might not be quite as dead in the water as people seem to think.

A truth universally acknowledged

The stats come by way of the 2012 Digital Entertainment Survey from Entertainment Media Research and media law firm Wiggin, which surveyed 2,500 British people aged between 15 and 64 in March this year.

The ebook reader might be enjoying itself as the gadget du jour, but piracy in the ebook world could be on the up as a result, with 31 per cent of consumers who read ebooks admitting that they download pirate copies of books.

This could be down to confusingly high ebook pricing, a matter that is currently the subject of several debates and lawsuits as major players like Apple have been accused of price-fixing in their digital bookstores.

1/3 of Brits now own an ebook reader via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/zPo_1efjK2U/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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What a treat – Amazon is all set to unleash the Kindle Touch on the UK a full seven days ahead of schedule, with sales beginning tomorrow (21 April).

In Depth

Amazon Kindle Fire

It doesn’t exactly make up for the fact that the UK is still Kindle Fire-less, but with an E Ink touch-screen you can at least pretend that it’s a tablet.

Both the regular Kindle Touch and the Kindle Touch 3G will go on sale tomorrow, with pricing set at £109 for the former, £169 for the latter.

As well as buying direct from Amazon.co.uk, Brits will be able to pick the two ereaders up from a bunch of other retailers, including John Lewis, Argos and Tesco.

Number crunch

Amazon doesn’t often talk figures, but its VP of Kindle for the EU, Jorrit Van der Meulen, revealed that orders for the new Kindle line-up have "exceeded our expectations".

He added, "We know that UK customers are eager to get their hands on these new Kindles, which is why we’re delighted to be able to ship several days earlier than we planned."

Imagine how delighted you could be if you brought the Fire across the pond, Amazon. Just imagine.

Kindle Touch hits UK a week early via http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/portable-devices-news/~3/DkFbvUQP_5o/story01.htm”> TechRadar Portable Devices

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