Roku adds ‘Angry Birds’ game to its streaming set-top box

Roku is ready to hatch the popular “Angry Birds” video game on a new version of its set-top box for streaming online entertainment to TVs.

The addictive game and a controller will be included on a Roku box that will sell for $100. Prices for boxes that don’t include “Angry Birds” and the game controller will range from $60 to $80. The devices go on sale soon.

The new box represents the first time that “Angry Birds” can be easily played on a high-definition TV screen. The game has been downloaded on more than 200 million devices since its 2009 debut. 

College textbooks available on Amazon’s Kindle e-reader

In an effort to snag a larger segment of the college textbook market, Amazon.com Inc. has begun renting textbooks on its Kindle e-reader.

The leading online retailer said last week that students can rent tens of thousands of textbooks from its online Kindle Store, which Kindle users can access on the e-reader. Amazon said its rental prices are as much as 80 percent lower than the list prices for the books.

Textbooks are available from publishers such as John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. Students can rent the books for as little as 30 days or as many as 360 days, and can add an extra day or buy the book if they want, Amazon said.

According to the National Association of College Stores, which represents more than 3,000 college bookstores, over 2,400 of its member stores offered rentals of physical textbooks in January, and nearly all are expected to do so by this fall. 

Apple sells operating system and updates its MacBook Air

Having just reported a blowout quarter, Apple Inc. began selling its latest operating system, Lion, as a download for $30 on Wednesday.

The company also updated its ultra-thin MacBook Air computers with new processors, a backlit keyboard and its Thunderbolt technology, which can carry data 20 times faster than most current processors. The MacBook Air costs $999 and up.

Apple also released a Mac mini with new Intel core processors, as well as Thunderbolt and the Lion operating system. The Mac mini starts at $599. 

To boost user communication, Google buys the g.co domain

Google Inc. will start using the domain g.co to shrink Web addresses that lead to its products and services.

The leading search engine said that it purchased the domain from .CO Internet SAS. It did not disclose the purchase price. Google said the domain will make it easier for the company to communicate with users.

— From news service reports

 

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