The supposed deal would have HarperCollins setting the price of e-books while Apple would get a cut of sales. The books in question would come with “added features,” which could include videos, interviews, social networking apps, and other media. Apple is also said to be in talks with other publishers—no surprise there, as Apple has been rumored to be shopping the tablet around to publishers<\/a> for months—so an agreement may not necessarily come from HarperCollins. Still, the mere fact that the WSJ<\/em> has vetted this information shows that Apple is serious in turning this device into a media consumption machine.<\/p>\n Analysts, of course, disagree on the yet-to-be-announced details of the Apple tablet, with some agreeing that it will be aimed at the e-book reader market<\/a> and others saying that it will be more focused on video than print<\/a>. There’s no reason it can’t try to be both, although in order to support video (even just as an e-book extra), it would have to have a backlit display, which tends to be less favorable when it comes to sitting down with your favorite e-book. <\/p>\n Part of the reason the Kindle and other e-book readers have managed to become popular is because of the simplistic and eye-friendly nature of E Ink (let’s just say that I’ll sit down for a few hours with my favorite book on the Kindle long before I try to do the same on a backlit screen and doom myself to a day-long headache). How Apple plans to address this with the tablet is anyone’s guess, but it’s likely that we’ll find out most of the details in a week. <\/p>\n