When it comes to saving on the cost of textbooks, college students might be well advised to invest in an iPad: Buster Heine provides cost comparisons between ebooks and print books for some typical students. (Appalling: an etextbook that costs $139.01. More appalling: the print version of the same book that costs $239.75!)

Erica Sadun of TUAW interviews our own Michael E. Cohen about his lengthy history in the world of ebooks and his opinions about iBooks Author, based on his recently released title about the program, “Take Control of iBooks Author.” Michael has fabulous stories, and several make it into this interview.

The Apple TV’s selection of video content just improved, thanks to the addition of the Hulu Plus subscription service. For $7.99 per month, you can now stream “current and classic TV programming on demand from hundreds of content partners.” Apple TV competitors like Roku and smart TVs have supported Hulu for some time, so Apple TV is late to the game, perhaps due to Apple not wanting competition for iTunes Store sales, or because of Hulu not wanting to give Apple a cut of its subscription fees. Apparently, Apple and Hulu have now come to some mutually beneficial understanding.

An NPR intern on the “All Songs Considered” program posted recently about how she has 11,000 songs in iTunes, but has purchased only about 15 CDs in her life. Her post prompted a firestorm of responses — pro and con, interestingly — and NPR’s Robin Hilton links to a number of them in this blog post. Most notable is the “Letter to Emily White” from David Lowery, a songwriter and lecturer at the University of Georgia’s music business program, but it’s worth reading a number of the articles Hilton references.

Bob Boilen, host of NPR’s All Songs Considered, writes that he has deleted 25,000 songs from his iTunes library, reclaiming 200 GB. Instead, he’ll be relying on iTunes Match. Let’s hope he kept a backup or two, just in case.

In a chapter excerpted from a book on WordPress, Kirk Biglione offers a nice rundown of the costs of DRM, to readers, to publishers, to retailers, and to the world at large. It’s especially apropos, given that 4 May 2012 is the fourth annual “Day Against DRM.”

On the Tech Night Owl Live podcast, Take Control editor in chief Tonya Engst shared her perspective on ebook-related topics as a small publisher selling ebooks in big online venues like Apple’s iBookstore and Amazon’s Kindle Store. She also talked about her latest ebook, “Take Control of Your iPad,” recently updated to include the third-generation iPad and iOS 5.1.

On the Tech Night Owl Live podcast, host Gene Steinberg and TidBITS contributor and Take Control author Michael E. Cohen discuss the Department of Justice’s price-fixing lawsuit against Apple and five major publishers and consider what it may mean for the future of ebook publishing.

Author Charles Stross deconstructs Amazon’s ebook strategy. Along the way, he provides useful background about the differences between monopoly and monopsony, and offers interesting speculation about the future of digital rights management in the wake of the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple and six major publishers.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and book publishers Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Pearson, Penguin, and Macmillan. The suit claims that the publishers — with significant assistance from Apple — colluded to raise prices and force the industry to adopt the “agency model” that allows publishers to set their own prices and gives Apple a 30 percent cut of each sale. (Three publishers — Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins — have already settled, while Macmillan and Penguin have opted to fight the suit. Apple commented to Macworld that the DOJ's accusation is “simply not true.”) The Verge’s Nilay Patel, who has a background in law, looks at many specific aspects of the government’s case, pointing out why the DOJ believes the actions undertaken by the publishing companies constitute open collusion (including actual back room deals and conspiracies).