Brace yourself for the next salvo in the battle of the ebook readers (or electronic reading devices, or e-reader, or whatever you want to call them).

Barnes & Noble is planning a “major event” next Tuesday in New York to announce a mystery… something.

The bookseller won’t say exactly what it will announce, but we’d be surprised if its NOT a digital book reader, to compete with Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader series.

In fact, Gizmodo says it has the goods on the device — which it says has “a multi-touch display like an iPhone” — and picture of the device. Click the link and take a look.

What do you think of this device (which may or may not be the actual product)? For that matter, what do you think about e-readers? Are you ready to buy one?

Let us know in the comment area.

Two days ago, Sony finally announced it would cut the price for its flagship
PlayStation 3, reacting to slumping sales which have lagged
behind those of Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

But industry experts, who had long expected such a move,
were more surprised about the location Sony chose for its
announcement than about the decision itself.

“The fact that Sony decided to announce the PS3 price cut at
Gamescom shows the importance they attach to it. This has been
one of the most important decisions they’ve made in the
segment,” said Ed Barton, analyst at London-based media research
company Screen Digest.

“We (Europe) have lived in the shadows of the United States
(E3) and Tokyo (Game Show) for years, but this is changing.”

Gamescom, which moved this year from the eastern German city of Leipzig to Cologne in the west, is Europe’s largest video game trade show, expected
to attract more than 200,000 visitors, and the third big
industry event behind E3 in Los Angeles and the Games Show in
Tokyo.

For the announcement of the decision even Sony Computer
Entertainment Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai showed up.

“This event clearly highlights how the gaming industry in
Europe has changed and really grown beyond recognition over the
past 15 years,” he said, speaking at Sony’s news conferenc prior
to Gamescom.

Recognition that is long overdue?

In fact, the video game market in the Europe, Middle East
and Africa region will likely grow to $25.3 billion in 2013 from
$18.1 billion in 2008, ahead of the Asia Pacific region,
according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

What do you think?

The long-anticipated price cut on Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console might have come just in the nick of time, as industry sales continue to wilt in the heat of summer. Both game hardware and software sales have been flagging, but console price cuts typically spur game sales.

Sony took the PS3’s price to $299 from $399, and the company sounded bullish on its prospects for the holiday selling season.

“With this price move, we’re extremely confident,” said Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, in a interview. “I don’t think there’s anything more that we could realistically ask for in terms of putting us in a position to be successful this holiday, I really feel like everything’s lined up for us.”

Sony’s PS3 has languished in third place in U.S. home console sales, trailing Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, both of which carry lower price tags. While many analysts say the PS3 is the most  technologically advanced and powerful of the three systems, the $400 price tag in the depths of a recession was a tough sell. U.S. video game equipment and software sales fell 29 percent in July. Activision’s CEO even threatened to stop making games for the PS3, due to high costs and poor sales.

But Tretton said the home console cycle lasts for 10 years, making for a long race. “We’ve kind of kept out guard up and kept our powder dry and now we’re coming out with both fists swinging. We feel like we’ve weathered some significant competitive blows and now we’re great position to land a knock-out punch.”

“I think our competitors have had success in the case of Wii with the innovation and social aspect of the game play, but that seems to be wearing a little bit thin right now, and Microsoft seemingly pulled out all the stops last year, stripping down their machine and hitting that $199 price point on their base device.”

“If you follow this industry and follow where retail sales are generated it’s much like the football season, everything before holiday is pre-season and the numbers really don’t count. But when your get into the fall that’s when the majority of the sales are done, and we really wanted to time this announcement to take advantage of the fall selling season.”

By most accounts, the 88 percent revenue share Yahoo will collect from its advertising partnership with Microsoft is a pretty darn good number. Obviously, 90 percent is even better. And that’s exactly the share of revenue that Microsoft will pay Yahoo in the second half of their 10-year deal, according to a regulatory filing.

The filing casts more light on the details of the partnership. It also seemed to give a lift to Yahoo, whose stock rose slightly in early trade.

Here are five other key points from the filing …

1. At least 400 Yahoo staffers will join Microsoft. The two companies will select an extra 150 employees to help with Yahoo’s transition to Microsoft’s search technology.
2. A definitive agreement is due to be signed by October 27, or they head for an arbitration panel.
3. Microsoft is paying Yahoo about $50 million a year during the first three years of the deal to help with transition costs.
4. The deal is limited to web sites, applications and “other online digital properties designed for use and consumption on personal computers.” But Yahoo can receive Microsoft mapping and mobile search if it wants.
5. Yahoo can kill the deal if the Yahoo and Microsoft’s share of the U.S. query market falls below a certain level. Either party can terminate the deal due to repeated material breaches of the agreement.

If you want more information on these provisions, or others, have a look here.

Keep an eye on:

• What’s the Wall Street Journal’s policy when it comes to story embargoes? PaidContent has the latest rundown (paidContent.org)

• Google is doing a little wheeling and dealing. It is buying On2 Technologies, and has sold its Google Radio Automation business (Reuters)

• Sirius XM Radio’s stock has been on a run this week. Seems that investors are looking past what will likely be quarterly loss and focussing instead on new initiatives like “cash for clunkers” (Reuters)
• Looking for a less expensive digital book reader? Sony’s hoping to please (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)

Media moguls and executives at Sun Valley spend a lot of time talking about how to best prepare for the challenges of Web and mobile disruption in the 21st Century.

Companies that once traded and leveraged their huge size and scale of distribution are now considering whether just being bigger might not necessarily be better in the new fragmented media world.

For example, Time Warner Inc is slimming down by spinning off its Time Warner Cable unit and AOL, its Internet division. It may also look to rid itself of its Time Inc publishing unit.

“The notion that there are synergies between content and distribution has been dispelled,” says Tuna Amobi, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “You’re not going to see a Comcast Corp trying to merge with a Disney anymore.”

Not everyone agrees. Sony Corp remains one of the world’s largest companies with major interests in a global empire that spans music, movies, video games, software, mobile phones and consumer electronics.

Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer said in an interview with Reuters that it had become more important to be able to integrate and leverage its different units. “We wouldn’t have been able to win the Blu-Ray war if we didn’t have content,” he said.

“You can’t create this in a vacuum any more. You have to have a relationship. You don’t have to own something, but obviously if you own something you have a leg up.

News about the media industry:

Netflix looks to future but still going strong with DVD rentals (USA Today)
“Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings doesn’t think his 58 distribution centers are in immediate danger of becoming obsolete, but he knows that day will come. He believes DVD rentals have four to nine years to keep growing, despite inroads in Internet delivery of movies to set-top TV boxes and other video-on-demand options,” writes Jefferson Graham.

Is the bell tolling for Clear Channel? (San Antonio Express-News)
David Hendricks writes: “Analysts believe Clear Channel, now with about $22 billion in total debts, will have trouble making scheduled payments later this year. The company, already down to about 800 stations from its peak of about 1,200 stations, either will have to start selling stations itself or go into bankruptcy, where lenders will put stations up for sale.”

Foes No More, Ad Agencies Unite With Internet Firms (NYT)
Eric Pfanner writes: “With consumers spending more and more time online, analysts say Internet companies and ad agencies have no choice but to work together to develop ways to make money from digital media.”

In other news:

• U.S. gov’t to release $4 bln soon for broadband (Reuters)
• Politico’s Washington Coup (Vanity Fair)
• Average Twitter user has 126 followers, and only 20% of users go via website (Guardian)
• First Came Gizmodo, Then Engadget. Now, GDGT (NYT)

The E3 video games conference in Los Angeles is in full swing now, and the major console makers and software developers have rolled out the celebrities, teased about cutting edge technologies and pleased hardcore fans with news about Mario and Halo, etc. Now it’s about convincing consumers and retailers that the games on display are going to be must-haves this year.

So we thought you’d like to see what everyone here sees. Here are a few of the games being played on the show floor, each showing off amazing graphics and realism.

God of War III, by Sony, due in 2010:

UFC 2009 Undisputed, by THQ Inc, debuted in May

Red Faction: Guerilla, by THQ Inc, was just released this week.

This week marks the kick off the video game industry’s biggest event - Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, which opens on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Usually this is where the best new consoles and multi-level games make their debuts with all the attendant excitement and drama.

But this year the beaten-up economy might have more of a starring role as we note in our preview here.  As the economy splutters along, video game sales are doing okay; they’re up 13 percent in the fiscal year to $28.7 billion, according to Hudson Square Research. However, to keep that going in the year ahead analysts suggest that price cuts on some of game consoles might be in order. Actually that would be just one game console: Sony’s Playstation 3, currently priced around $400. As Billy Pidgeon, analyst at Game Changer Research said:

The thing that would really boost the industry in this traditionally slow period would be a Sony price cut, That would really help right now.

This year’s event also hopes to return to its glory days by throwing open its doors to the public again after two years experimenting with an insiders-only approach.  The show, which once drew crowds of nearly 80,000, downsized to 5,000. But insiders are not so sure that worked. According to Yves Guillemot, chief executive of France’s Ubisoft Entertainment :

In the last two or three years it was almost a nonevent. We think it will be a major event — the show has to be big. We want to attract more and more talent from all the other industries (so) they can see what is happening now.

Keep an eye on:

• From Tonight Conan O’Brien tries to fill Leno’s boots. (NYTimes)
• Sony’s catalog music now available on eMusic (NY Times)
• DoJ sides with Cablevision in network DVR case (Reuters)

(Photo of Playstation 3 controller/Reuters)

With little (or no) fanfare, Apple’s iTunes opened its doors to a new pricing scheme, and song-based packages that the recording industry hopes will jazz up music sales.  Good luck.

Apple unveiled a three-tier price scheme – 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Since opening in 2003 all songs in the iTunes store have been priced at 99 cents.

So what sells at what price? A little scouring this morning yielded this comparison:

Current hit “Heartless” by Kanye West: now $1.29.
Classic hit “Magic Man” by Heart:        now $0.69.
Marginal hit “Don’t Phunk with my Heart” by Black Eyed Peas
                                                        still $0.99.

Hate the 30 percent pop in chart-topping prices? Perhaps you’ll find comfort in the fact that for every one song raised to $1.29, iTunes will be reducing 10 songs to 69 cents according to a label source. (But finding the bargains ain’t easy: every version of a sure you’d think MUST be ripe for a discount, lets say, ”Macarthur’s Park” — even versions by Della Reese and Andy Williams — are still $0.99. Go figure.)  

Major label owners like Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music and EMI say they can make money with more flexible prices and possibly help make music retail a profitable enterprise again.

The new iTunes program also introduces packages, such as Epic Records $17 iTunes “pass” for pop band the Fray, that delivers songs, video footage and photos — spaced out over several weeks. The moves come about a day after Yahoo tweaked its music service.

All that’s left is to come up with a solution for this scenario (that really happenned): A teenage music lover asks her father, a Mediafile reporter, why music costs so much, punctuating the query with: “Why can’t I just use Limewire?”

(Photo: iTunes)

Picture this: An Apple 10-inch touchscreen netbook. And hold that image for at least a little longer.

Rumors have swirled this week that Apple could announce a touchscreen PC, but it instead unveiled early on Wednesday a revamped iPod shuffle. Here are the details from the press release, headlined “Apple Announces Incredible New iPod Shuffle”…

The third generation iPod shuffle is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and is easier to use with all of the controls conveniently located on the earphone cord. With the press of a button, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle features a gorgeous new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it ultra-wearable… The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now shipping and comes in silver or black for a suggested price of $79

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Apple isn’t developing a touchscreen netbook. Reuters and others have quoted sources saying Taiwan’s touchscreen specialist Wintek has received orders for the screens that are  are roughly the same size as those used in mini PCs.

And here’s what the Wall Street Journal reported:

Some people familiar with the matter say the device is a netbook, an inexpensive, shrunken notebook computer. Netbooks have been a growth segment for the PC market over the last year.

Other people close to Apple, however, say the device will be more like an iPod Touch with a bigger screen that will make it easier to watch movies, play videogames, read electronic books and surf the Internet.

Anyway, how about that new shuffle? Apparently it can speak to you in 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

Swedish!!! Incredible!

Keep an eye on:

• Walt Disney Co shareholders rejected a proposal that would have given them say on executive pay packages, with some investors appearing to favor the idea that the board of directors alone should negotiate executive contracts (Reuters)
• Hollywood-based hardliners in the Screen Actors Guild are pressing to put the major studios’ latest contract offer to a vote by union rank and file in a move seen as possibly paving the way for a strike authorization (Reuters)
• Sony Pictures is cutting 350 positions, or about 3.5 percent of the Hollywood studio’s workforce (Reuters)

(Photo courtesy of apple.com)