Apple

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld Apple Inc's $450 million settlement of claims that it harmed consumers by conspiring with five publishers to raise ebook prices. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected a challenge by ebooks purchaser John Bradley to the fairness, reasonableness and adequacy of Apple's class-action antitrust settlement…

The Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to refuse to hear Apple's appeal of a ruling that it conspired with publishers to raise the price of ebooks. The antitrust ruling against Apple—issued in 2013 by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote and affirmed this year by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals—was "supported…

Every day, the company BookBub.com sends out more than 7 million emails pointing consumers to ebooks that cost as little as 99 cents each and free titles as well. A host of big and independent publishers list titles there, including New York-based Kensington Publishing Corp. The idea is to entice readers with a bargain, so…

It’s no accident that the petition Apple submitted to the Supreme Court last week begins with a reference to Leegin Creative Leather Products, a manufacturer of fancy cowboy belts. Or that the case known as Leegin v. PSKS comes up 81 times in the 250-page document. Apple’s appeal rises or falls on Leegin. And Leegin,…

Apple’s contentious, two-year slog bridling under the yoke of a court-appointed antitrust monitor will expire Friday. The monitor, former U.S. Department of Justice inspector general Michael Bromwich, was appointed by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in October 2013 after she found that Apple had orchestrated a conspiracy to fix the prices of ebooks when it…

Apple is "its own worst enemy," says a court-appointed monitor whom the company continues to impede. After it was confirmed that Apple conspired with at least five major book publishers to up ebook prices and keep competitors such as Amazon at bay from the industry, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote assigned former U.S. Justice Department…

It's no secret that China is one of Apple's most important markets, and today Apple is giving the country more entertainment services to match the growing demand for its hardware. Apple Music, the iBooks store, and iTunes movies are now all available in China, with Apple touting local and international content on all three services.

We often think of digital textbooks as being read on iPads, and Apple rolled out iBooks Author, which lets users create textbooks and other interactive ebooks, in 2012. But Amazon, not surprisingly, wants in on the self-published textbook action, and on Thursday launched Kindle Textbook Creator, a beta tool that lets users convert graphics-heavy PDFs into ebooks.

Authors can also add highlighting, flashcards and some other features to the books. Textbook Creator is available for free download on Mac or Windows here.

What will book publishing bring in 2015? Shrouded as the industry is behind a veil woven of billions and billions of dollars, it's difficult to say. But if you look hard enough - at the bestseller lists, the court cases, the controversies - you can glimpse through the metaphorical keyhole and into the back rooms where the deals are made. With this in mind, here is a somewhat reliable predictor for the publishing industry in 2015.

Let's begin with what we do know: 

In a new twist in the long running antitrust case against Apple, an appeals court on Monday cast doubt on the Justice Department's theory that the company brokered an illegal conspiracy among book publishers, and asked instead why the government's focus has not been on Amazon.

The 90-minute hearing, which took place at the Second Circuit Court in Manhattan, represented a major shift in momentum in a case that has until now gone completely against Apple. On Monday, the three appeals court judges suggested that District Judge Denise Cote might have been too quick to conclude