The under-$10 bestseller -- so prominent a part of the promise of e-books when they burst on the scene about five years ago -- looks to be returning soon to a screen near you.

That's the most anticipated outcome from the suit filed Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department against Apple and five leading book publishers who, the government said, conspired to lift the price of many best-selling e-books to $12.99 to $14.99 -- after they didn't like the financial compression provided when Amazon succeeded in cutting the price of many books for its Kindle e-reader to $9.99.

While making books easier for consumers to obtain and read, of course, e-books have proved a financial challenge for traditional book publishers and authors, because they tend to flatten the industry's financial structure. But the government said, basically, "Tough!" and sided with consumers. Continue reading...

Last week’s arrival of the iPad didn’t just complicate the pricing battle between the various e-readers on the market; it also forced a change in pricing for the e-books that run on them.

Amazon had been selling Kindle-ready bestsellers and new releases for $9.99. As brandchannel reported two weeks ago, HarperCollins was planning to charge more for e-books to run on the not-yet-released Apple tablet. This seemed justifiable because the Apple product would offer more multimedia features than a Kindle could, and we expected the Apple device to cost about $1,000, so the Apple fanatics would be willing to shell out a few extra bucks for an Apple-ready e-book.Continue reading...

Honda takes 646,000 Fit, City, and Jazz models off the market. [CNN Money]

Toyota finds a solution for its millions of recalled vehicles. [NY Times]

Beauty.com runs out of free samples, Facebook revolt insues. [Consumerist]

Hearst, Meredith Corp attempt reverse web-to-print publishing. [Mediaweek]

Clydesdales may return to Budweiser's Super Bowl ads. [CNN Money]

PepsiCo skips Super Bowl ad opportunity for a larger Facebook presence. [FT]Continue reading...