Steve Jobs knew death was near for weeks, bio reportedly says

Steve Jobs knew weeks ago that his life would soon end and he reportedly reached out to Walter Isaacson, who has written an authorized biography of the Apple co-founder, to tell him so.

Isaacson's book, now titled simply "Steve Jobs" and formerly known as "iSteve," was written after more than two years' worth of interviews with Jobs' family, friends, colleagues and rivals.

But given Jobs' health and death Wednesday, the book is likely not yet done despite its release date being pushed up to Oct. 24, in print and eBook formats, on Thursday after a rise to No. 1 on Amazon's book sales list. The book was previously set for a November release date, and a 2012 release before that.

Jobs was interviewed by Isaacson shortly before and after resigning as Apple's CEO in August, when Tim Cook was named CEO, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Cook, previously Apple's chief operating officer, had been filling in for Jobs since January, when jobs began his third and final medical leave at the company.

In his most recent interviews with Isaacson, "Jobs indicated at that time that he knew he was going to die soon," the Journal reported, adding that those details will be included toward the end of the book.

As of Thursday evening, Jobs' family has yet to say just what his cause of death was.

Isaacson is a former executive at Time magazine and CNN, and the current president of the Aspen Institute, a Washington think tank. He's also a bestselling author, having penned the biographies "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" and "Einstein: His Life and Universe."

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Photo: A flower is seen next to a portrait of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs at an Apple store in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Oct. 6, 2011. Credit: Nacho Doce / Reuters

Is Amazon launching a Kindle tablet? E-book rentals?

Amazon.com is set to host a media event on Wednesday morning in New York City, and the expectation is that the world's largest online retailer will be unveiling its long-rumored Google Android-based Kindle tablet.

On Monday, Amazon announced a beefing-up of its Amazon Prime service, with the addition of more than 11,000 older movies and TV shows from Fox added to the catalog. Among the newly added titles are shows such as "Arrested Development," "The X-Files" and "24," as well as films such as "Office Space," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

The move is aimed at bolstering the appeal of Amazon Prime, which offers online streaming of a catalog of TV shows and movies to those who pay a the $79.99 annual fee, which also gives subscribers free two-day shipping from Amazon.

Rumors have also been circulating that with the release of the Amazon tablet, the company could add an e-book rental service to Amazon Prime as well.

The Amazon tablet, which is expected to carry the Kindle name used on the Seattle-based company's e-readers thus far, is rumored to cost about $250 and feature a 7-inch touchscreen, which would make it smaller and about half the price of an entry-level Apple iPad, the current tablet sales leader.

Of course, the Amazon tablet is expected to be integrated with Amazon's services, such as Amazon Prime for shopping and streaming, Kindle for books, its MP3 store and Cloud Player for music, and its Amazon Appstore for Android for apps.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Twitter.com/nateog

Image: An invitation to Amazon's media event. Credit: Amazon.com

Facebook F8: Big day for music and movies?

Facebook's F8 developer conference takes place today, kicking-off with a keynote speech from Mark Zuckerberg later this morning, and we'll be there covering the big event.

For weeks rumors have run a bit wild as to what Zuckerberg, Facebook's co-founder and chief executive, will have to say at this year's conference, which is widely anticipated as the social networking giant's most important so far.

Facebook is expected to announce a set of products and tools aimed at getting users to consume and share more media in the social network.

Photos: The many faces of Facebook

The expectation is that this will at least mean that Facebook will launch some sort of music service, probably with partners already in the online music space such as Pandora, Spotify or MOG.

Facebook could even do the same type of partnerships with content distributors for movies and TV shows, and even books. And, of course, being Facebook, the rumor is that you would share what you're doing/listening to/watching/reading with your Facebook friends.

Recently, Facebook has made a number of changes to its News Feed, installing a real-time "ticker" that displays what a user's friends are doing as they do it.

The world's largest social network, with some 750 million users, also added the ability to subscribe to other users' wall posts without having to "friend" them and it improved the ease with which users can group friends into lists -- two moves made somewhat in response to its rivals Google+ and Twitter.

The changes, particularly in the way the news feed works and the introduction of the ticker, have left some Facebook users ... well ... ticked off. But the changes could seem less irritating to if Facebook makes the announcements it is widely expected to make.

How will F8 play out? Will Facebook become a competitor to YouTube, iTunes and maybe even Netflix or Amazon? Or will it team with any of those major players to get users to spend more of their time online within its site? Could we finally see a Facebook iPad app?

We'll be at F8 blogging each announcement, so stay tuned.

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Photo: Facebook.com founder Mark Zuckerberg smiles at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

'Steve Jobs: A Biography' release date is moved up to Nov. 21

The authorized biography of Steve Jobs, creatively titled "Steve Jobs: A Biography," is getting moved up a few months to a new Nov. 21 release date.

The book, which is already an Amazon bestseller, was previously set to come out March 6.

The much anticipated book is being written by Walter Isaacson, who is the president of the Aspen Institute, a former executive at Time magazine and CNN, and the author of bestselling biographies "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" and "Einstein: His Life and Universe." 

Isaacson, according to a description of the book posted by Barnes & Noble online Monday (and first spotted by the blog 9to5mac.com), spent two years conducting more than 40 interviews with Jobs' family, friends, rivals and colleagues for the biography. 

"This book chronicles the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing," the description says.

"Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off limits and instead encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly, even foes, former girlfriends, and colleagues he had once fired or infuriated."

A quote from Jobs in the description seems to hint at what the Apple CEO has to say in the book.

"I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that," Jobs said, according to the description. "But I don't have any skeletons in my closet that can't be allowed out."

The Barnes & Noble listing said that Jobs was, at times, brutally honest "about the people he worked with and competed against," and his friends and foes were the same.

"He was not a model boss or human being, tidily packaged for emulation," the description said. "Driven by demons, he could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is thus both instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values."

The book also has a new, simpler cover design -- one that befits Apple's minimalist design a bit better than the previous cover mock-up.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

Image: The new cover design for "Steve Jobs: A Biography" by Walter Isaacson. Credit: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group / Barnes & Noble

Facebook buys iPad book maker Push Pop Press [Updated]

Facebook still hasn't released an iPad app of its own, but it now owns an iPad app maker -- Push Pop Press.

The start-up is known for being the company that built Al Gore's Our Choice app for the Apple tablet and the iPhone as well.

Our Choice "surveys the causes of global warming and presents groundbreaking insights and solutions already under study and underway that can help stop the unfolding disaster of global warming," Push Pop says on its listing for the app on iTunes. "Al Gore's Our Choice will change the way we read books," the company proclaims in the listing.

But it seems that may no longer be the case. Despite buying Push Pop, Facebook isn't planning to get into the iPad book business, said Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, the company's two co-founders.

"We're taking our publishing technology and everything we've learned and are setting off to help design the world's largest book, Facebook," Matas and Tsinteris said in a statement on Push Pop's website.

"Although Facebook isn't planning to start publishing digital books, the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories."

Al Gore's Our Choice will remain available for purchase, but Push Pop is discontinuing its work on building more iPad books and it's suspending production of an iPad book publishing platform which made its way into a private beta testing mode.

"We've decided that our future profits from the book will be donated to the Climate Reality Project," the co-founders said. Gore's split of the profits have gone, and will continue to go to, the same nonprofit group, which Gore founded.

[Updated 4:16 p.m.: A Facebook spokeswoman emailed along this statement on the Push Pop Press deal:

"We're thrilled to confirm that we've acquired Push Pop Press, a startup whose groundbreaking software changes the way people publish and consume digital content. We can't wait for co-founders Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris to get started, and for some of the technology, ideas and inspiration behind Push Pop Press to become part of how millions of people connect and share with each other on Facebook."

Not a lot of new information there.

Financial details on the Push Pop takeover weren't disclosed, but the spokeswoman did confirm that just the co-founders, Matas and Tsinteris are headed to Facebook in the deal. Employment of the start-up's two other employees, software engineer Austin Sarner and infographic designer Bret Victor, was not included in the purchase.

Matas previously worked at Apple for 10 years working on user interfaces and design that went into the iPad, iPhone and Mac OS X. He also co-founded Delicious Monster, a software company that built a digital book cataloging app called Delicious Library.

Tsinteris too worked at Apple, working on iPad and iPhone mapping apps. Previous to that, he was an employee of Microsoft.]

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Photo: A demo of Push Pop Press' Our Choice book app for the Apple iPad. Credit: Push Pop Press / Facebook

Pottermore launches competition to select beta users

 

 

 

Pottermore, a Harry Potter website, has begun a competition to choose its first million users, who will receive early access ahead of other fans of the book and movie franchise.

Harry Potter fans will have one opportunity each day for the rest of the week to complete the Magical Quill Challenge and gain early access to Pottermore, a website where fans can relive the Harry Potter stories.

Each day the website will feature a new clue from any of the Harry Potter books that, if answered correctly, will direct users to a partner website where he or she must find the Magical Quill. Once found, the user will be able to register for Pottermore, but they must complete the process fast as only a certain number of early access accounts will be available each day. Monday's quota, for example, has already been filled. The competition began Sunday and ends Saturday.

"The Magical Quill has been devised to select a lucky million people who will get in early to the website.  It tells you whether you are 'magical' or not," a press release said.

Pottermore was announced by Potter creator J.K. Rowling last month, who described it as a "unique online reading experience," and it is the first big thing to happen to Harry Potter since the completion of the seven books in 2008 and the final film in the franchise earlier this month. The website will be the first to sell eBook versions of the Harry Potter books.

The full launch of Pottermore will happen in October while the people who succeed in the challenge will gain their beta access anytime between mid-August and the end of September, according to the press release.

The Pottermore beta is complete, but the press release for the competition said the website will use its beta period to test, refine and add any final touches.

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Image: An early image of "The Chessboard Chamber" in Pottermore. Credit: Pottermore

Harry Potter partners with Google, snubs Apple and PayPal

Google has joined forces with the most famous wizard in the world, Harry Potter, which could mean a big boost for two of its services while also resulting in a huge missed opportunity for Apple and PayPal.

The partnership with the new Pottermore website by Harry Potter author JK Rowling will make the e-book version of the seven Harry Potter books available on Google's eBooks reader. The deal also makes Google's payment service Google Checkout the official third-party form of payment for Pottermore.

By partnering with Google eBooks, Rowling has found a way to put her seven highly-in-demand books on smartphones, tablets, e-readers and computers without having to split the sales with companies such as Apple or Amazon, who typically keep about 30% of sales.

Rowling's distribution method gives publisher's more leverage when it comes to selling e-books, said Craig Vodnik, chief blogger for BuildingKeystones.com, a blog about digital product e-commerce.

"It could be a really, really big deal if this works out based off the titles she's written and she's just so well-known," he said. "From the publisher's perspective it's a big deal because it could give them some control over how they distribute their products."

Vodnik said Google landing Rowling is similar to when Apple finally got the Beatles on their iTunes catalog.

"The Beatles sold so many albums and had so many songs," he said. "Rowling is the same in that perspective, but she is much more current and she could put out more titles. She could actually be more influential over the next 20 years."

In what must have been the trade-off in the deal, Google's payment service Google Checkout appears to be the only way besides debit or credit cards to purchases the books from Pottermore. The inclusion of Google Checkout is a huge snub for PayPal, the original and most used third-party payment service online. Instead, Google Checkout will be exposed to millions of Harry Potter fans looking to buy digital versions of the wizard stories.

In the last few months, Google has been strengthening its push into the e-commerce and mobile payment fields, announcing recently it had begun testing a service called Google Wallet, which allows consumers to pay using their Android phones using a technology called NFC.

The Harry Potter books could become the most purchased e-books upon their release if the franchise's performance at the box office and at book stores are any indication. The final Harry Potter film had the best opening of all time, scoring $168.6 million in the U.S. and Canada in three days. Four years ago, the last Harry Potter book had a similar release, selling 8.3 million copies in its first day, according to Guinness World Records.

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Image: A screenshot of Pottermore. Credit: Pottermore

Google's Android Market gets new look, movies and books [Video]

Google began rolling out an update to the Android Market on Android phones that gives the app storefront a new look and adds movies and books.

The new user interface should make it easier for users to find relevant content with more lists of available apps, games, movies and books that are country-specific -- such as new releases, top paid, top free, top grossing and other options in sorting what's for sale.

To view different lists, all a user has to do in any section of the Android Market is flick a finger left or right, making navigation easy and fairly intuitive.

Google has also added more information to the detail pages for each app sold, with an app's name and price along the top of a listing; a side-scrolling row of screen shots below that; and an app's description and reviews further below.

The page will also feature a thumbnail to a product video for apps or other content that offer such a preview.

Google began updating the Android Market on phones Tuesday for those running Android 2.2 (also known as Android Froyo) and newer, and "the update should reach all users worldwide in the coming weeks," the company said in a post on the Android Developer's website.

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Image: A screen shot of a video from Google showing off the redesigned Android Market. Credit: Google via YouTube

Walter Isaacson book 'iSteve' renamed 'Steve Jobs: A Biography'

Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, already a top seller months before its release, is dropping the title "iSteve: The Book of Jobs" in favor of "Steve Jobs: A Biography."

From one extreme to another -- from a silly title to a bit of a cliche -- what the book is called may not matter much.

The book has already hit Amazon's bestseller list, fueled by readers who want to know more about the life of Apple's CEO, his tenures running the tech giant two different times -- with an ouster in the middle, his time at the short-lived NeXT Computer and his work with the animation studio Pixar.

"Steve Jobs: A Biography" is due to hit bookstores and iPads on March 6, 2012, and is written by Isaacson, who is the president of the Aspen Institute, a D.C. think tank. Isaacson is also a former executive at Time magazine and CNN and has written the bestselling biographies "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" and "Einstein: His Life and Universe."

The name of the Jobs bio was changed Tuesday on Amazon's listing of the book, which was first reported by Fortune magazine.

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Image: A screen shot of the Amazon listing for "Steve Jobs: A Biography," formerly known as "iSteve: The Book of Jobs." Credit: Amazon.com

John Green novel, not yet finished and months from release, still No. 1 on Amazon.com

John Green's novel "The Fault in Our Stars" is a runaway success -- even though basically no one's ever read it. 

The book, still unfinished and almost a year from release (tentatively May 2012), is nevertheless the single bestselling book on Amazon.com and No. 2 on BarnesandNoble.com. 

That unusual type of pre-publishing success is being attributed to the 33-year-old author's savvy use of social media to promote the still inchoate book. Green, who has 1.1 million followers on Twitter, 560,000 subscribers on YouTube and hundreds of thousands more on Tumblr, Facebook and a forum called YourPants.org, has been aggressively advertising the $9.89 proto-book, offering every pre-release buyer a signed copy.

He has read the first chapter of the book live over the Web, encouraged his followers to try their hand at designing a cover for the book (dozens have) and even asked them to vote on the color of Sharpie pen he should use to do the wrist-cripplingly huge numbers of signings (green is winning).

As our intrepid book blogger Carolyn Kellogg observes, the phenomenon of lesser known authors hitting the charts before they're released seems to be gaining steam:

It's interesting that Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Go the F-- To Sleep" [the potty-mouthed children's story] by Adam Mansbach both hit on No. 1 on Amazon's bestseller list on the basis of preorders alone, and are pretty much unknown quantities. That's because publishing has been saturated in recent years by sure bets -- and bestseller lists have been dominated by popular series books. Think Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and its sequels, the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer, and the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. Although Green's fans know they like his work, he's not continuing an old story; these two books both hit No. 1 without readers ever getting ahold of them.

The snail-mailboxes of technology reporters are constantly crammed with books offering the secret to social media marketing, using Twitter to get rich and generally lighting up the Internet with your product. But Green's approach seems to distill it into a single sentence:  Work hard making stuff people like and chat with them online while you're doing it.

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Image: Temporary cover of Green's book.  Credit: Amazon.com