Filed under: Business, Text, Web services

Document-sharing site Scribd and on the internet self-publishing service Lulu have teamed up to offer Lulu’s free ebooks in Scribd’s iPaper format. iPaper is designed to be a versatile cross-platform means of displaying different document types on the web. Key draws include the capability to embed docs in any webpage, including your manuscript in Scribd’s library, and adding ads to your document.

Lulu is a popular self-publishing site, handling print versions and ebook versions of manuscripts, so getting them to start rolling out iPaper is a big win for Scribd. It’s not going to be available for all Lulu books at first, just the most popular free ones. If this catches on, though, the two companies will have all the publishing bases covered, from printed books to iPaper ebooks.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

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Filed under: Before the bell, Major movement, Earnings reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Pfizer (PFE), Intel (INTC), Market matters, Walgreen Co (WAG), Citigroup Inc. (C), Circuit City Stores (CC), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Research in Motion (RIMM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), Economic data, Wells Fargo (WFC), Financial Crisis

U.S. stock futures were much higher Tuesday morning, following Monday’s historic record plunge of 777.7 points in the Dow after the Home of Representatives failed to pass the proposed $700 billion bailout plan. Investors hope a similar rescue package would pass soon and will tune in to listen to President Bush at 8:45 a.m. EST. Meanwhile, across the globe, Europe bailed out another bank, but markets in Europe are blended. Asian markets, which close earlier, recorded mostly big declines. Also on tap this day is data from the housing sector and a measure of Chicago-area manufacturing and consumer confidence for September.

It is also quite possible many have come in to purchase at these prices for at least a short-term gain. If the VIX volatility index is any indication, then stocks might climb in the next few weeks.

Of stocks in focus:

Continue reading Before the bell: Recovery expected; NCC, AAPL, GOOG, GS, FNM, WAG, WFC, INTC …

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Filed under: Business, World wide web, Web services, Beta, web 2.0

If you run a small business, odds are you’ve got some sort of system for tracking income, expenses, and tax payments. But we’re going to bet it’s not as simple as the system offered by GoBootStrap. The internet service offers a sort of record-keeping for dummies style interface. To enter income, just click the income tab, describe the client, assignment, and amount, and you’re all set.

The expenses tab is slightly more complex, in that you need to choose from a list of categories like travel, supplies, or rent. But the category list is relatively short, and there’s completely no way to add your own clutter with custom categories. While that might seem like a severe limitation, it actually makes sense when you take into account what GoBootStrap offers behind tab number 3: Tax estimates.

GoBootStrap examines your income and expenses and lets you know how much you will likely owe on your quarterly estimates taxes. Right now the site only offers estimates for federal taxes, but eventually say taxes will be supported as well.

Continue reading GoBootstrap makes business accounting simple

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Filed under: Deals, Rumors, Sprint Nextel Corp (S)

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) would do ideal to get rid of its struggling iDEN mobile network. Yes, this is the entire national wireless network it brought on board when Sprint and Nextel merged in 2005. Customers are leaving at a rapid pace, so Sprint be best to just jettison the network and move its customers over to the Sprint side of things. That sounds odd just saying that (the “Sprint” side of things?).

While that merger stands in tatters now, Sprint still continues to operate and support two totally separate national mobile networks as it tries desperately to unload just about anything with the word “Nextel” on it. It might as well — the failed merger has had tens of billions in write-offs recently.

Who would want an outdated (albeit, valuable) national wireless network? How about private equity? Sprint CEO Dan Hesse appears to be looking for a buyer, even though a sale of the Nextel national network infrastructure has not been formally announced. While competitors have improved their national networks to keep up with increasing subscriber counts and wireless data usage, Nextel’s aging infrastructure is worth something. Just not much.

Leave it to private equity investors to try and purchase a national network for pennies on the dollar and then resell it in pieces for what probably would be a very nice profit. Sprint shareholders have been clamoring for a sale like this for over a year now, and new-to-the-corner-office Hesse won’t disappoint. That’s, if credit can return so someone can get a line to buy the thing.

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Blogging

ScribeFire is a Firefox add-on that lets you write blog posts while surfing the internet. It provides a WYSIWYG editor that works with most popular blogging software. And it’s free. We’ve always wondered how ScribeFire plans to make money, and now we know. The team recently launched a private beta of ScribeFire QuickAds, a service that makes it simple for anyone to monetize their blogs.

All you have to to place ads on your blog is click an ad size and then select a location on your blog where you’d like the ad to appear. When you first register your blog with QuickAds, ScribeFire will automatically add a bit of code to your blog template allowing the program to place ads in your page.

Right now ScribeFire will pass all the earnings on to web publishers, but we expect we’ll eventually see ScribeFire take a cut of the action. Ads will come from a variety of networks, and ScribeFire will attempt to determine which ads will generate the highest payouts. You can also keep track of your ad impressions, earnings, and other statistics on the web by viewing your ScribeFire Dashboard.

As we mentioned, ScribeFire QuickAds is currently in private beta. But the first 100 people to send an email to l downloadsquad@scribefire.com will get a registration code. Everyone else can request an invitation on the web.

You can find out more by checking out the video after the jump.

Continue reading ScribeFire QuickAds: Monetize your blog by dragging and dropping ads

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