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Arthur Frommer takes brand back from Google, will keep guidebooks going
The tale of Google and Frommer's famed travel guides has taken another twist this evening. Associated Press writer Beth Harpaz reports Arthur Frommer confirmed over the phone that he has retaken control of the brand from Google, and plans to continue publishing them in e-book and print formats, as well as maintaining the Frommers.com website. This comes after Google acquired the brand from publisher Wiley in 2012, followed by Skift.com's revelation last month that it apparently intended to shut production of the books down. We're told by a Google spokesperson (check after the break for the full statement) that it has integrated the content acquired from Frommer's and Wiley into its products including Google+ Local, but returned the brand to the founder and will continue licensing "certain content" to him. Why things took this circuitous route right back to the man who started it all back in 1957 is unknown and terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but we're sure fans of the budget travel how-tos are happy to see Frommer's keep going. [Image credit: Frommer's, Facebook]
iFixit introduces Dozuki, to provide and share crowdsourced service and repair manuals
iFixit is, of course, the great upgrade and repair community with all kinds of step-by-step instructions for Macs, iPods, iPhones, and almost any other devices you happen to have, Apple or otherwise. Now, the company has introduced a new release called Dozuki, which is designed to make sharing and providing manuals for service or repair even easier. Dozuki is still in a closed beta, but the idea as we understand it is that users will be able to create and share manuals via PDF across all of iFixit's outlets, including the official iOS app. Guidebook is the side of the platform that will deal with documents, while Answers will share questions and their answers with whoever needs them. Both sides of the software are currently in a private beta, which you can sign up for on the website. Dozuki is set to launch to the public later on this fall.
