Google enters digital book war

SILICON VALLEY: Google is set to launch its own online e-book store in 2010.

Google Editions books will not be tied to a specific device, unlike rival e-book company Amazon.

The Amazon Kindle is linked to books from the company's own store and similarly with Apple's iBookstore.

“It is a different approach to what most readers today have and the vision is to be able to access books in a device agnostic way,'' said Google .

To date, Google has scanned over 12 million books, both in-print and out-of-print, giving it a greater selection of material than either Apple or Amazon.

Analysts at the Yankee Group have predicted that the U.S. e-book reader market is “about to catch fire sparking from $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010 to $2.5 billion by 2013''.

Now other industry watchers have said Google Editions will boost those figures further still. “Anything that puts more kinds of art in people's hands in a way that fosters competition, innovation and creativity is good,'' said an analyst.

With books accessed through Google Editions readable on any web enabled device from a mobile phone to a netbook and from a tablet to a desktop, the implications are clear for e-book stores tied to a single device.

In particular researchers point to trouble ahead for Amazon which, despite not releasing any specific figures, has been the leader in the market.

Earlier this year the e-tailer said throughout 2009, the Kindle was the most popular present in Amazon's history and that it had sold more e-books than physical books on Christmas day. Ahead of Apple's iPad coming on the block analysts predicted pain for Amazon.

“We're quite comfortable having a diverse range of physical retailers, whereas most of the other players would like to have a less competitive space, because they'd like to dominate,'' said a Google official.

Google confirmed to the BBC that Google Editions would not be affected by the firm's present legal troubles over trying to digitise millions of out-of-print books.

“Plans for Google Editions will happen independent of whatever the settlement agreement is,'' said a Google's official.

Digital library

The search giant's efforts to create the world's biggest digital library have been mired in legal action for the last couple of years.

Critics have long claimed Google's deal with U.S. publishers and authors would give them a monopoly over online book sales.

Google said it would make “millions of books searchable via the web''

A ruling on the issue is due soon. — © BBC News/Distributed by the New York Times Syndicate

Rafael Nadal won his fifth Rome Masters title in six years

ROME — Rafael Nadal has won his fifth Rome Masters title in six years, withstanding two rain delays to beat fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 7-5, 6-2 on Sunday.

Nadal improved to 10-0 on clay this year and signaled he's back to dominating on his preferred surface after a series of injuries. He won the Monte Carlo Masters two weeks ago to end an 11-month title drought.

"I didn't play at the level I did in Monte Carlo, but I'm still winning and that's the important thing," Nadal said. "I'm probably more happy winning without playing (my) best. It was more of a mental thing."

Nadal showed no signs of fatigue after pulling out a long three-set win over Ernests Gulbis in the semifinals a day earlier.

With the 17th Masters Series title of his career, Nadal matched Andre Agassi's record. Agassi achieved the feat at age 34, while Nadal is only 23.

Top-ranked Roger Federer, who was upset by Gulbis in the second round, is second with 16 Masters Series titles.

In contrast to his emotional celebration in Monte Carlo, Nadal was comparatively subdued upon winning, simply raising his hands over his head and letting out a big smile before calmly walking to the net to shake hands with Ferrer.

This tournament is an important warmup for the French Open, which starts May 23. Nadal won four consecutive titles at Roland Garros before being stunned by Robin Soderling in the fourth round last year in Paris.

"It's important to have the motivation to want to keep improving. That's the main thing," Nadal said.

Nadal's only loss in Rome came against fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in the opening round two years ago, when he was slowed by a foot blister. No other player has won more than three titles at the Foro Italico.

Nadal has won his last seven meetings with Ferrer, who was playing the first Masters Series final of his career.

Ferrer indicated that he was affected by the rain.

"Maybe the court was slower and I had problems to (end) the points," Ferrer said. "Of course, Rafael had good chances in the important moments. It's difficult against him, but I'm happy with my game."

Before a bundled up crowd of 10,500 inside the tournament's new stadium, both players had to deal with a slippery court and swirling winds.

Nadal applied pressure from the start and at 2-2 in the first set Ferrer had to save five break points with some uncharacteristic attacking play, going for outright winners to the corners.

Midway through the first set, Nadal won a spectacular point that included a behind-the-back shot from Ferrer.

The match was suspended for an hour because of rain with Ferrer serving at 4-4 in the first set. Ferrer maintained his concentration when the players came back out and held serve to take a 5-4 lead, but Nadal broke Ferrer's next service game when Ferrer's forehand clipped the top of the net to end a long rally.

Nadal didn't face a break point until he served for the first set and saved it with a well-positioned serve out wide that Ferrer returned long. On the next point, Nadal moved Ferrer from corner to corner and then rushed forward for an easy volley put away.

On his first set point, Nadal hit another solid first serve and Ferrer's reply sailed long.

Nadal broke again in the third game of the second set, and the match was suspended again for 1 hour, 45 minutes — prompting many fans to head home. When the players came out again, Ferrer hit a costly double-fault and followed that with a loose forehand wide to hand Nadal another break and let him serve out the match.

Nadal finished with 24 winners to Ferrer's 15, and had 13 fewer unforced errors.

Ferrer had five double-faults, while Nadal had none. He won only 39 percent of the points on his second serve to Nadal's 67 percent.

Nadal collected the winner's check of $578,000.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Chennai Super Kings won IPL3 [2010]

The third edition of the Indian Premier League has certainly lived up to its hype and expectations. Some of the additions to the second edition were the initiation of the two-and-a-half-minute strategic timeouts for the teams, which had a very good effect on the game and also with the live broadcast of all the games on the popular video sharing website YouTube, the Indian Premier League enjoys the privilege of being the first sporting event to do so. From the start of this season, all teams scurried to collect valuable points. However, the teams which qualified for the semi-finals were Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Semi-finalists

The Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians had a very strong start winning their first two games against Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. After losing a game against Royal Challengers, Tendulkar played a blazing knock of 71, getting the Mumbai Indians back to winning ways. They were truly unstoppable from there and went on to extend their winning streak, getting five victories in a row to finish with 20 points at the end of the league stage and they became the first side to book a semifinal berth. Excellent batting efforts from Tendulkar, Tiwary and occasional lusty blows from Pollard and Rayudu saw their team build good totals while Malinga and Zaheer were the pick of the bowlers.

The Champions of the 2009 season, Deccan Chargers led by Adam Gilchrist started off with a loss against Kolkata Knight Riders. However they were quick enough to bounce back with 3 wins against Chennai, Punjab and Delhi. But, they lost their momentum losing two games to Rajasthan and again to Mumbai and Kolkata. When nobody thought that Deccan would make it, we saw some stunning consistent performances from Suman, Symonds and Rohit Sharma in spite of a let down by their out-of-form skipper. Winning five games in a row and making 16 points at the end of the league stage, Deccan Chargers made its way into the semi-finals. Outstanding bowling efforts from Harris and Vaas, while the player who surprised everybody was Harmeet, who did a wonderful job varying the pace every time he came to bowl, leaving us confused of what his real pace is.

The most consistent team across all editions of the IPL so far has been the men in yellow, the Chennai Super Kings. The Super Kings led by ‘Captain Courageous' Dhoni were on and off in the league stages. The loss against Kings XI Punjab in the super over hurt them hard, especially after scores were level, they couldn't take it, their fans felt it hard to digest. It was then a big leap by the Chennai Super Kings where the local players, Badrinath and Vijay won crucial games for their side almost single handedly.

And it was then their champion player Suresh Raina who took over from there and amassed runs on the board in no time. He has had an outstanding IPL this season and he has regained his form perfectly at the right time ahead of the T20 World Cup. In the bowling department, Morkel and Bollinger's ability to hit the deck hard and also swing the ball away from the batsmen has been outstanding. The find of the season, Ashwin has clearly delivered his goods upfront for the Super Kings. His bowling in the initial overs is very crucial and he is getting the wickets too.Full marks to Dhoni for his excellent captaincy and his valuable knock against Kings XI Punjab in a do or die game, which fetched them a berth in the semifinals. Chennai with that emotional win booked a semifinal berth with 14 points

The Royal Challengers Bangalore led by the old fox Anil Kumble was very impressive in the initial stages of the tournament getting four wins in a row. And then as the season progressed, they began to face the bitter part of cricket losing some games in the middle. But, Kallis slowly began to unfold scoring runs at a brisk rate.

The win against Rajasthan Royals, where Pietersen quick-fired 62 of just 29 balls gave them a much needed victory and put them into the semi-finals. While skipper Kumble and Vinay Kumar swung it for them in the bowling department very consistently. So, with wins here and there they managed to sneak into the top four. But with the start they made, they should have certainly landed just after Mumbai and they certainly are a well deserved lot. So, Kumble's men take spot four in the points table with 14 points.

The first semi-final saw the clash of Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Mumbai Indians initially rode on the good knocks of Tiwary and Rayudu. Tiwary was certainly at his best and played his shots to near perfection and Rayudu showed us glimpses of some hard hitting. Later, Pollard came down firing on all cylinders scoring 33 of just 13 balls. The Royal Challengers after an initial setback saw a good partnership between Uthappa and Ross Taylor, however Pollard came back scalping 3 wickets while Harbhajan and Malinga grabbed two wickets each to give Mumbai by 35 runs.

The second semi-final at the low bounce wicket in D.Y. Patil stadium between Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers was a low scoring game. The Super Kings batting first scored 142 in their 20 overs which saw a patient innings from Badrinath and Dhoni. While a good effort by Aniruddha in the end did give the Super Kings some runs on the board for them to defend. The Deccan Chargers batting second lost wickets at regular intervals while only Symonds managed to get some runs, the other players disappointed. Doughy Bollinger was the man who made all the damage getting 4 wickets giving away just 13 runs from his 4 overs. This game saw the Super Kings win by 38 runs.

Exciting finale

The closing ceremony kick started with an awesome performance from the Oscar-man A.R. Rahman while dance performances by Bipasha Basu and Shahid Kapur added some glitz and glamour to the ceremony ahead of the game.

The finals of the third edition of the Indian Premier League between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings witnessed an outstanding game and saw both the teams putting up a tough fight for the trophy. Super Kings winning the toss, started off slowly but steadily, getting some runs from Vijay and Raina on the other end provided with the much needed fire works scoring runs at a rapid pace. Dhoni too chipped in with a timely knock and the Super Kings finished with 168 in their 20 overs. The Mumbai Indians too started slowly with Tendulkar playing an anchor innings and Dhoni rotated his spinners too well, which saw the dismissals of the Mumbai Indians batsman notwithstanding pressure. At one stage, it looked as though Pollard will take them home, but again Dhoni's non-theoretic field placements did the trick. The Mumbai Indians finally fell short by 22 runs. The Chennai Super Kings had been very consistent with their performance in the first and second editions of the Indian Premier League but missed the title. But this time, they have done it beating the Mumbai Indians in the finals of the third edition by 22 runs lifting the trophy for the first time. After the Super Kings' win, it's all party time here in Chennai, and we are very much waiting for the trophy to come home! In the local language and to all the Chennaites out there “Namma Chennai Super Kings ku PeriyaWhistla Podu”!

The Third Edition of the Indian Premier League has been a huge success and with the addition of two more teams in IPL 4, we are looking forward for a bigger event next year. As Lalit Modi said, there have been some off field mishaps, but the respect for the game and the excitement never fades out. It would have been better without them, but the intensity and entertainment never went down !! IPL is just getting bigger and bigger!

Praveen is a III Year Information Technology student at Rajalakshmi Engineering College.