Amazon has announced today that publishers and authors will receive a much larger royalty for books sold in the Kindle Digital format beginning on June 30th.

Currently, the royalty rate is 30 percent, but that will soon balloon to 70 percent.

The move is being seen as a chance for Amazon to preemptively attack Apple's upcoming tablet device, which is likely to have an e-book deal with HarperCollins right from launch.

Amazon will exclude delivery costs from the royalties paid, and each megabyte is 15 cents. To qualify for the higher royalty rate, your book must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99 and be selling in the U.S. Public domain books from before 1923 do not qualify.

Physical books normally net authors about 7 to 15 percent of prices set by publishers and 25 percent for digital books, meaning Amazon's latest move should make authors very happy to have their works available digitally.

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Adobe Systems has issued updates for Shockwave 11.5.2.602 and earlier on the Windows and Mac operating systems aimed at patching serious security bugs with the player. The bugs could potentially allow malicious code to be executed on computers that use the software. The integer overflow and buffer overflow flaws are fixed by an upgrade that Adobe is strongly urging all of its users to install.

It estimates that ShockWave has been installed on over 450 million Internet-enabled Desktops. In order to install a newer version of the Shockwave player however, users need to manually uninstall the older vulnerable version of the software, reboot and then install the newer version. Other Adobe products use automatic update utilities to get newer versions, which will ensure a much higher rate of patching then manual installation.

The update will install Shockwave v11.5.6.606.

More info: http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/

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A new plug-in for Skype being marketed by Startup Vivu brings multipoint videoconferencing to the Skype software; adding functionality that has been absent so far from the service. Failing to deliver multipoint videoconferencing has been viewed as one of Skype's biggest shortcomings, and Vivu is hoping to capitalize on the vacuum. "The flaw in Skype's video strategy right now is that it's point-to-point only," said Irwin Lazar, an industry analyst with Chicago-based Nemertes Research.

The VuRoom plugin allows several people to take part in a video call using Skype, which the number of participants limited by available bandwidth. Vivu CEO Sudha Valluru said that the service will allow for up to 8 participants for broadband users before a degradation in quality would become a problem. The participants' feeds will be shown in a browser window that will pop up when the call begins.

The plug-in will cost a user US$9.95 per month for unlimited use. Not all participants in a videoconference need to buy the plug-in; only the user who initiates the call. For other participants, the requirements are just Skype, a webcam and a browser. The plugin also allows participants to show PowerPoint presentations on screen, or to stream their computers' desktop.

Given that the vast majority of Skype users don't pay for any service from Skype, the VuRoom plug-in will have a tough time finding customers who are willing to pay the monthly fee. There is also another big risk; Skype may add multipoint videoconferencing at any time to the software, Vivu's product obsolete. Indeed, many analysts do expect Skype to add the functionality eventually.

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Companies that market the 25 year old classic, Tetris, are expected to announce that the game has reached an impressive 100 million mobile downloads -- paid mobile downloads at that. Since it's creation in 1984, it has had a long life, exploding with its role in the success of the Game Boy, released in 1989.

Ever since it rose to worldwide popularity, it had stayed around one way or another, racking up millions of players.

Tetris' playing format (doesn't need explanation!) makes it very suitable for mobile devices in particular, and it is not surprising that it has hit such a significant milestone on such devices. It's neat, familiar interface, combined with simple control requires, means it is suitable for a very wide range of mobile phones and other devices made by a wide range of CE companies.

EA Mobile, an arm of Electronic Arts Inc., currently licenses Tetris from Blue Planet Software. The official announcement of the sales milestone is expected on Thursday.

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Microsoft has sued TiVo this week, accusing the DVR company of patent infringement.

The suit says TiVo illegally used technology relating to "purchasing and delivering video and the ability to display programming information."

Last year, TiVo sued AT&T in a similar suit, and it appears Microsoft has intervened on AT&T's behalf. AT&T is Microsoft's largest customer for its Internet video platform, with Microsoft's video delivery platform powering AT&T's Internet-based TV service.

Microsoft has explained that it will end the suit with a licensing agreement in place, but that TiVo has not been responsive.

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Google Inc.'s YouTube online video service announced on Wednesday that it will offer five films from the Sundance Film Festival (2009 and 2010) for rental from this Friday until January 31st to U.S. users. In addition to the titles offered in partnership with the Sundance Film Festival, the site will offer a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, in the weeks after.

"These are early days and in the coming weeks we'll also invite a small group of partners across other industries, in addition to independent film, to participate in this new option. Anything that brings more content to the YouTube community is a good thing," the YouTube blog reads. "And making content available for rent will give our partners unprecedented control over the distribution of their work."

The announcement states that owners can decide the price of their videos and the rental duration, when and where their content is available and will keep 100 percent of the rights. The site will be seeking more Independent filmmakers to participate in the rental program as part of its "Filmmakers Wanted" campaign at the festival.

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Apple has released Boot Camp 3.1 for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, and recommends that all users update. The release officially adds support for Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate), addresses issues with the Apple trackpad and supports the Apple wireless keyboard and Apple Magic mouse. The infrared sensor on all Macbooks will also turn off now when it's not being used.

Apple had promised to add full support for Windows 7 through Boot Camp updated by late 2009. For those running Windows Vista, Apple has released the "Boot Camp Utility for Windows 7 Upgrade" tool to address a problem when upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7.

"Use the Boot Camp Utility for Windows 7 Upgrade Installation Utility before upgrading from Vista to Windows 7. This utility safely unmounts the read-only Macintosh volume on Microsoft Vista," An Apple support page for the tool reads.

Anybody using an iMac with NVIDIA GeForce 7300 or 7600 GT, or Mac Pro with NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT or Quadro FX 4500 to run Windows 7 via Boot Camp should also download the "Graphics Firmware Update 1.0".

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Google has announced that YouTube will begin streaming all Indian Premier League cricket games beginning in March.

The IPL features the world's best players, in eight teams, and is extremely popular in the nation.

YouTube has the exclusive online rights for IPL content for the next two years and both will share ad and sponsor revenue.

This is the first time Google has a deal to stream live sporting events.

"We are excited, this will put India at the center of a global experience," added Shailesh Rao, managing director of Google India. "YouTube offers an open platform for sports and entertainment companies to take their content to a global audience and a great opportunity for advertisers."

Interestingly, viewers of the IPL will be able to customize their viewing by altering camera angles and choosing when to watch interviews.

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Sony Corp. has announced that it is delaying the release of its anticipated motion controller for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console. The announcement of the delay comes just a week after it was revealed the launch of the new Gran Turismo title would be delayed.

Adding motion control helps Sony's PS3 compete with the popular Nintendo Wii console and with the upcoming Project Natal system due to launch by year's end for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.

The launch of the motion control technology for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) has been delayed until there is adequate software titles available on the marker to utilize it, according to Sony.

While its projected release sometime in Autumn is less specific than would be desired, Sony did not set a date or timeframe for the release of Grand Turismo 5, which was due to be released in March.

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Boxee has announced today that they have created a payment system for their software, allowing for content holders to charge for their work.

Says CEO Avner Ronen:

"Users want to see more content on Boxee. Content owners want to be paid for what they produce (whether that's TV Shows, movies, music, or applications). We don't believe these are conflicting interests.

This is why we plan to release a Payment Platform this summer where users will be able to make purchases with one click on the remote. The content partners we launch with will offer shows, movies and channels that were previously not available to Boxee users. The content owners will be able to package and price as they wish, including pay-per-view and subscription. Content partners will have the flexibility to decide what they make available, whether it's premium content, content from their existing library, or extras that will never make it "on air".

As content owners benefit, so will Boxee. While details are still to-be-determined, Boxee will charge a small fee (i.e. lower than the 30% charged by many app stores) for transactions which we enable. This beginning to the Boxee business model ties our success as a business to the success of our partners."

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The popular Pocket God application has hit a milestone today, the first to 2 million downloads.

The game costs $0.99, and has updated 30 times since its release, all for free.

Bolt Creative, the company behind the game, says its best sales day was 53,000 and that during the holiday season the game was downloaded over 100,000 per week.

"We couldn't be happier with the turnout we've seen at the island," added Bolt's CEO Dave Castelnuovo."The community has been absolutely incredible embracing this game. From the thousands of YouTube videos to the homemade Halloween costumes to the valuable user feedback we've received, we can't thank our community enough for our success."

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The research firm Jefferies and Co. has released a note this week that claims that the long-hyped Microsoft 'Zune phone' will be launched next month at the Mobile World Congress conference.

The phone has been rumored since at least 2007, and Windows Mobile has continued to lose market share to Apple, RIM and Android in the smartphone market since then, now holding just under 10 percent.

Katherine Egbert, an analyst with the firm says: "Our recent industry checks indicate Microsoft will be debuting its own phone sometime in the next two months."

The phone will be designed to look and feel like the Zune HD media player, and will work on a hybrid operating system of Windows Mobile 7 and that of the Danger Sidekick smartphone.

5MP camera will be standard, and the phone should support 720p video, says the note. The phone will also have close integration with the Zune Store, making downloads of music and movies easy.

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Last week, the German Federal Office for Information Security made a statement warning users of the security vulnerabilities of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and recommended that users use an alternative browser, such as Firefox, Opera or Chrome.

Today, Mozilla has said that Firefox downloads have exploded since the warning, with 300,000 downloads taking place from Friday until Monday. Opera said that downloads doubled week-on-week.

For the week before the warning, Mozilla says average downloads of the browser was about 70,000 daily.

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The New York Times has decided to begin charging for its online content, 3 years after upper management started mulling over the idea.

The new pay-for system will not go into effect until 2011 however, and the site will give all users free access to a certain amount of articles per month. After that number however, you will have to pay to read any more.

The Times, like many of its print brethren, has seen a giant hit in advertising revenue, especially since the current recession started in 2007.

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According to a recent post on their Security Research and Defense blog, Microsoft has explained the the vulnerabilities of its Internet Explorer 6 Web browser, and encouraged users to upgrade to at least IE7, if not IE8.

The exploitable nature of IE6 came to public light after last week's attack of Google systems by Chinese hackers. Because IE6 is not available for Vista or Windows 7, it appears the company is also pushing users to upgrade to the latest OS as well.

Says the post: "As you can see, the client configuration currently at risk is Windows XP running IE6. We recommend users of IE6 on Windows XP upgrade to a new version of Internet Explorer and/or enable DEP. Users of other platforms are at reduced risk. We also recommend users of Windows XP upgrade to newer versions of Windows."

In all honesty they should just kill off IE6 and force corporate and educational institutions to upgrade to the newer versions. There is no reason IE6 should even be available, to anyone.

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