Google Begins to Scale Back Its Scanning of Books From University Libraries

Google has been quietly slowing down its book-scanning work with partner libraries, according to librarians involved with the vast Google Books digitization project. But what that means for the company's long-term investment in the work remains unclear. Google was not willing to say much about its plans. "We've digitized more than 20 million books to date and continue to scan books with our library partners," a Google spokeswoman told The Chronicle in an e-mailed statement. Google isn't saying whether it has pulled back from its longstanding goal of collecting all of the world's knowledge. Some of its digitization efforts have shifted to Europe. Much of the company's public focus lately has been not on mass digitization but on how to use individuals' data to create more focused advertising and online browsing. Meanwhile, a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought against it by authors' and publishers' groups drags on. Read more here

New Google Play combines apps, music and books

Google on Tuesday unified its digital entertainment offerings into a single cloud-based destination called Google Play. Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore are part of this new online emporium. At play.google.com, you can store all the music, movies, books and apps you've previously bought through what had been separate Google stores, or visit the site to fetch new content. Google Play is available on the Web and on Android smartphones and tablets. Inside Google Play, you can store up to 20,000 music tracks or purchase new songs from a catalog now north of 8 million tracks. Google Play also has more than 450,000 Android apps and games available for download, and more than 4 million eBooks, which Google claims is the largest e-book collection anywhere. You can also rent thousands of movies. Read more here

Plans for 'TV Everywhere' Bog Down in Tangled Pacts

It was dubbed "TV Everywhere." But for many TV viewers, it has had trouble going anywhere. Nearly three years after Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp. kicked off a drive to make cable programming available online for cable subscribers, the idea of TV Everywhere remains mired in technical holdups, slow deal-making and disputes over who will control TV customers in the future. Now some media executives say the effort, aimed at insulating cable television against a rising tide of cheap online video alternatives, risks getting left behind. Read more here

A Harsh Reality for Newspapers

Last year, researchers at the Project for Excellence in Journalism persuaded six companies that own 121 newspapers to share private data about the financial performance of many of their papers. And the findings were grim. On average, for every new dollar the newspapers were earning in new digital advertising revenue, they were losing $7 in print advertising revenue. A report that encapsulates the data and includes interviews with newspaper executives will be released on Monday. Read more here

White-space puts Wi-Fi on steroids

“White-space” is technical slang for television channels that were left vacant in one city so as not to interfere with TV stations broadcasting on adjacent channels in a neighbouring city. With the recent switch from analogue to digital tele­vision, much of this protective white-space is no longer needed. Unlike analogue broadcasting, digital signals do not “bleed” into one another—and can therefore be packed closer together. All told, the television networks now require little more than half the frequency spectrum they sprawled across previously. White-space should help to solve the bandwidth problem that has begun to plague wireless networks in general—as more consumers download films, television episodes and other video offerings wirelessly from the internet, instead of receiving such fare from their traditional cable, satellite or over-the-air TV broadcasters. Apart from easing bandwidth problems, white-space could lead to a wireless revolution even bigger than the wave of innovation unleashed over a decade ago when Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other wireless technologies embraced the unlicensed 2.4GHz band previously reserved for microwave ovens and garage-door openers. Some insiders even talk about white-space offering a “third pipe” that will rival cable and telephone broadband for access to the internet. Others see it as a cheaper alternative to today’s mobile-phone system. How soon before individuals can buy $100 white-space routers for the home? The consensus view is 2015 at the very latest. http://www.economist.com/node/21536999