What if you could ask the author of a book a question while you were reading the book? That's the kind of world Amazon wants to offer with its new @author feature, which the online bookstore launched on Wednesday with a group of writers who include Susan Orlean and self-help guru Tim Ferriss.

Barnes & Noble forecast that its e-reader business would double in size to $1.8bn over the next year, even as it reported another quarterly loss as its Nook device competes with Amazon's Kindle in a capital-intensive battle for market share.

Price and design are the two biggest factors driving the e-reader market; and in the past, Sony severely dragged its feet on the former. But today the company has rectified the situation with the introduction of the newest Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1.

Although the photovoltaic module market has suffered setbacks this year, Asian manufacturers are keeping the competition on its toes.

Japan's new clean energy bill offers a tantalizing business bonanza and companies are scrambling to find an edge.

The ITS Economy New polycrystalline solar modules from Norwegian company Innotech Solar now have certificates to prove their European origin.

China's Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 50.9 in August from 50.7 the previous month, up for the first time in four months.

IBM has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Algorithmics for US$387 million, subject to price adjustments at closing. Algorithmics is a risk analytics firm with operations in Toronto, Canada.

Samsung Electronics America Inc., a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., today announced its newest lines of LED/LCD thin- and zero-client PC-over-IP Cloud Station monitors, which provide an alternative to desktop PCs, enabling highly secure access to any PCoIP-enabled remote host.

Sony is returning to its innovative roots with the introduction of a head-mounted display that simulates a 62.5-foot screen.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of computing, consumer electronics and communications solutions, today announced its two latest LCD large format graphics and professional monitors -- the VG2732m-LED and VP2765-LED.

Sony Electronics, trying to advance its music players into the modern age of digital devices, showed a prototype today of a new Walkman based on Google's Android operating system--and CNET got the first public look.

A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said the company did not file a police report based on the loss at the bar.

The Chinese government continues to expand its clean energy production plans, to replace increasingly expensive coal power that is shutting down coal plants and causing power shortages of at least 16 GW.

The days of using light bulbs as a political football may be drawing to a swift and un-melodramatic close, now that the company Lighting Science Group has announced the development of a new 60-watt equivalent LED lightbulb that will retail for under US$15.00.

Retailers expect a sharp rise in the cost of the traditional 60W light bulb as European-wide legislation preventing their production or import takes effect on September 1.

Osram AG (Munich, Germany), the lighting subsidiary of Siemens AG, is celebrating the opening of a pilot-line manufacturing plant for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

A Silicon Valley maker of solar power arrays that was started with high hopes and $527 million in loans from the federal government said on Wednesday that it would cease operations.

Chinese banks are the most important investor base in the Dim Sum market and they take a different view to PRC credits compared to investors in global markets.

In the latest look down its road map, Globalfoundries claims it is shipping thousands of 32nm wafers a week, gearing up multiple 28nm offerings for 2012 and planning first customer tape outs using a planar 20nm process at the end of next year.

A new report shows that China, considered the looming threat for competitors in the renewable energy business, may not stand a chance against the booming American solar sector.