Based on ongoing negotiations between Apple and book publishers, the price of e-books could remain rather unchanged post iPad. Rumor was that publishers had had enough of Amazon's $9.99 flat rate, and were counting on Apple to sell their titles at markedly higher prices. "Publishers indicated that e-book editions of most newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction would sell in a range from $12.99 to $14.99, under a complicated formula that pegs e-book prices to the list prices of comparable print editions," reports The Times. Now, however, sources tell the paper that Apple has inserted provisions requiring …

On Tuesday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt called mobile priority No. 1. Putting his money where is mouth is -- and within a 48 hour time span -- Schmidt has acquired reMail, a popular iPhone application that provides fast full-text search of your Gmail and IMAP email accounts. "ReMail may not have been a household name, but the app received critical praise and had a small, but dedicated group of users," according to PC World. TechCrunch's MG Siegler, meanwhile, suggests that Google may have snapped up reMail just to kill it …

Sounds like the crew of one Southwest Airlines flight just asked the wrong passenger to leave the plane (before takeoff) because of his, er, size. The passenger? Outspoken film director and Twitter celebrity Kevin Smith. "Dear @SouthwestAir - I know I'm fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?" is the message Smith's more than 1.5 million Twitter followers received this past weekend. Southwest -- no Web 2.0 novice with more than a million Twitter followers itself -- followed up with a blog entry apologizing to Smith, …

Engaged in an enviable hiring frenzy, Twitter just crossed what VentureBeat calls the "symbolic" 140-employee mark -- the same number of characters that the microblogging network allows its users to tweet a one time. But, it's not stopping there. On Twitter's job page, there are presently at least 27 openings, mostly for tech experts. As VentureBeat observes, the hiring binge comes on the heals of a funding round -- which valued the company at $1 billion. One of the newest Twitter employees is Robin Sloan, previously head of strategy for Current TV. Venture also notes that Twitter …

Albeit in an address to the "Mobile World Congress," Google CEO Eric Schmidt just called for the broader industry to make mobile priority No. 1. Within three years, sales of smartphones will surpass sales of PCs, according to research cited by Schmidt. "The confluence of these three factors (computing, connectivity and the cloud) means your phone is your alter ego, an extension of everything we do," he told conference attendees. "Here, right now, we understand the new rule is 'mobile first' in everything ... Perhaps the phrase should be 'mobile first' simply because it's time to be …

Pushing aside other premium content providers, HBO plans to make its movies and original programming available online through a new subscription service. HBO Go is part of the cable industry's TV Everywhere strategy to make TV content available online to paying subscribers, according to TechCrunch. It contains 600 hours of movies and TV shows, which can be streamed live and in HD. The service is available initially to Verizon FIOS subscribers. First Impressions? "If I wasn't already paying for HBO I certainly wouldn't pay for access to this site," concludes TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld. "The choice of …

Google is giving the Wikimedia Foundation a $2 million donation, which represents of full third of what the not-for-profit received in contributions last year. "Wikipedia is one of the greatest triumphs of the Internet," according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. "However," notes The Register (UK), "while the gift will secure Wikipedia's financing for the time being, the site still faces the problem of a decline in the number of footsoldiers willing to edit the site for free." This marks Google's first donation to the foundation, which is expected to support core operational costs, including investments in technical …

Despite the many pitfalls presented by social media (made clear by Google's highly criticized Buzz launch), Microsoft is ramping up related efforts with the release of Outlook Social Connector -- a socially souped-up version of its email client, featuring a user's recent social-networking activities. "Windows Phone 7 is not the only Microsoft product designed to act as a social networking hub, as Microsoft is also positioning Outlook 2010 as the desktop connection bridging together, and centralizing data from websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace," Softpedia reports. "The announcement suggests that

Marking a particularly eventful week for Gawker Media, the company has acquired Cityfile -- which catalogs New York media and business notables -- and replaced the editor of its flagship site, Gawker.com, with Cityfile founder and former Radar magazine editor Remy Stern. The soon-to-be-ex-Editor-in-Chief Gabriel Snyder said in an internal memo that he's being "canned" after about 18 months in his post. Gawker Media founder Nick Denton told The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog that he was actually "satisfied" with Gawker's editorial direction. The problem? "We wanted to acquire Cityfile and merge it into Gawker," said Denton. …

What sorts of content are consumers willing to pay for online? Mostly movies, music, and games, according to new data from Nielsen. Meanwhile, content created online -- like blogs, podcasts, and video -- are the least likely to attract consumer dollars. The findings are based on a survey of some 27,000 consumers across 52 countries. "At face value, the findings might seem like good news for old media companies that are increasingly eying paywalls as a source of salvation," notes Mashable. "However, Nielsen also found that 'nearly eight out of every ten (79%) would no longer use …