Before leaving on vacation, Tonya Engst spoke with Chuck Joiner of MacVoicesTV about a variety of topics, including the need for Web site redesigns, how Web site design differs from ebook design, how our current publishing process works, and the new Apple hardware she’s using to make it all happen.

A jury found that Samsung violated parts of several Apple patents in its software on many Samsung devices, while Apple wasn’t deemed to have violated any of Samsung’s patents. The jury awarded Apple just over $1 billion. Samsung’s net profit in its most recent quarter was $6 billion.

Chuck Joiner at MacVoices interviews Matt Neuburg about his iOS programming book, with a discussion including thoughts on iOS itself, why the iPhone and iPad have attracted so many new programmers, and what it’s like to write a book about such a fast-moving target.

Take Control editor-in-chief Tonya Engst joined Robert Carter of the Tech Doctor Podcast to talk about how the Take Control ebook series has evolved from its inception in 2003 to today’s world of EPUB and iOS devices. The Tech Doctor Podcast has a focus on helping people with visual disabilities use technology, and at the end, Robert Carter demos using VoiceOver to read a Take Control ebook out loud on a Mac.

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!)

We’re a few days late in posting these links, but it’s nonetheless interesting to read the technology gossip coming out of the Apple-Samsung patent trial. Nick Bilton of the New York Times frames the Apple-Samsung trial with an unsuccessful 1930’s patent suit to protect the illusion of sawing a woman in half, whereas the piece by Ian Sherr of the Wall Street Journal includes a fascinating slideshow of iPhone prototypes and other interactive media. Both are worth checking out.

Viewing the photos sent back from NASA’s Mars Curiosity mobile science laboratory has been exciting over the last week, but here’s one with a twist… and a roll. Open this link on an iOS device that contains a gyroscope sensor — like the iPad 2 and third-generation iPad, iPhone 4 and 4S, and fourth-generation iPod touch — and navigate the panorama by tilting and moving the device. (Bonus points for scanning the horizon while you’re sitting in a swivel chair!)

Over at Macworld, Lex Friedman explains how to turn on and use two-factor authentication with a Google account to combine a fixed password with a constantly updated additional code sent as a text message or accessible from a smartphone app. Be aware that two-factor authentication may be more trouble than it’s worth, depending on how often you need to sign into your Google account.

On 11 August 1987, Apple released the “software erector set” HyperCard at Macworld Expo in Boston, and while it hasn’t been with us for many years now, back then it made a huge difference in the lives of Mac users, enabling many to give life to ideas that would otherwise never have seen the light of day. That might include even TidBITS, since we published our first 99 issues in HyperCard format, in a stack that could import its content into a searchable archive. Without the thrill of publishing in an entirely new format, it’s possible that TidBITS might have fallen by the wayside. Scroll through what others have posted in this Twitter search, and be sure to check out Infinite Canvas on the iPad too!

Mountain Lion offers a new feature called Power Nap, but since it’s limited to only a few recent laptop Mac models, most people probably haven’t seen it. In short, Power Nap enables supported Macs to wake up briefly to back up via Time Machine, check for email via Mail, receive new messages in Messages, and update iCloud-related data, including calendar events, contacts, reminders, notes, iCloud documents, and photos in Photo Stream. Over at Macworld, our friend Dan Frakes explains just what Power Nap can do, how you use it, why it works on so few models, and more.

Details are still coming in, but Wired reports that the relatively simple hack that made it possible for Mat Honan’s digital life to be taken over remotely should not be possible any more, with Amazon and Apple both changing account-related security practices, at least temporarily. What these policies will evolve to remains unknown, but both companies clearly needed to do something.

Gizmodo writer Mat Honan has penned an article for Wired that explains exactly how security flaws at Amazon (revealing part of a credit card number) and Apple (verifying identity using the Amazon details and other public information) led to much of his digital life being hacked. It’s a fascinating read, and our initial takeaway is that you absolutely must have local backups of all your data, whether on your Mac, your iPhone, or your cloud-storage accounts. Mat didn’t, and while the online disruption of his life may be temporary, the data he lost from having his Mac wiped remotely is irreplaceable.

New York Times columnist David Pogue’s iPhone went missing while he was taking the Amtrak train home from a television shoot in Philadelphia. After it started reporting its location via Find My iPhone and he tweeted about its loss, the story went viral, with Gizmodo posting frequent updates and street photos of the house where the iPhone was located. By the end of the day, local police had recovered the phone, but anyone hoping for a tense hostage situation or shootout with the thieves was disappointed — the iPhone was found lying in the grass in the back yard. It’s worth assuming this approach is unlikely to work for those who don’t write for a major metropolitan newspaper or have 1.4 million Twitter followers.

Mat Honan of Gizmodo admits he had an seven-character password he had used for years, but that weakness isn't what led to a villain gaining access to his iCloud account, remote wiping his iOS devices and MacBook, and hijacking his Twitter account. Rather, Honan says the hacker used social engineering to talk Apple customer service into giving up information. That's a disturbing report, and we will update as more information becomes available.

iOS app developer David Barnard of App Cubby has an interesting look at the likely sales numbers behind the Sparrow email client that suggest that too-low prices in the App Store mean that it’s now extremely difficult to earn the necessary amounts of money to fund ongoing development. The better approach? Sell your company (see “Sparrow Bought by Google,” 21 July 2012).

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.

Just prior to its quarterly earnings call, Apple issued a press release trumpeting the latest financial results. In the release, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.” Mountain Lion is being distributed exclusively through the Mac App Store, and costs just $19.99. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!

Book publishers Tor Books and Forge Books, imprints of Tom Dougherty Associates, LLC (which itself is a division of Macmillan), announced today that all ebooks published under those imprints would be sold without digital rights management (DRM) protection through “Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo, Google, and most other major ebook retailers.” This new policy covers both newly published ebooks as well as ebooks from the imprints’ back lists. Tor senior editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden said in the announcement, “To the best of our knowledge we’re the first division of a Big Six publishing conglomerate to go down this road, but we doubt very much that we’ll be the last.” Tor specializes in science-fiction and fantasy; Forge offers thrillers, mysteries, and historical fiction, as well as general fiction titles.

It was with great sadness that we heard about the sudden passing of Evan Michael Gross at the end of June 2012. One of the earliest adopters of the Mac, Evan was best known as the author of Spell Catcher, the standalone spelling utility that started out life as Thunder in 1986 before being renamed to Spell Catcher in 1998. In 1999, Spell Catcher started being distributed by Casady & Greene, which also distributed SoundJam, the predecessor to iTunes. In 2005, Evan’s Rainmaker Research took over distribution. We don’t yet know what the fate of Spell Catcher will be without Evan.