SharedBook Inc., a “reverse publishing” site that allows users to create books from website content, announced today its agreement with Random House to give readers the ability to create personalized versions of books using its web site. Golden Books’s classic The Poky Little Puppy will be the first book available for personalization.

For $25, consumers can add a custom dedication to the book and upload a personal photo to the front of the book. The book is then printed on-demand as a laminated hardcover and shipped. Amazon sells an un-customized version of The Poky Little Puppy for $4.99.

This is the first time SharedBook, which launched in 2002, has partnered with a traditional book publisher. Its other partners include AllRecipes.com, DNC Parks & Resorts (Yosemite National Park), FuneralNet, Little League International and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, all of which offer their customers ways to make books using their content. SharedBook CEO Caroline Vanderlip said Random House plans to add additional titles and customization elements later this year. It launched the partnership with Poky because the book is celebrating its 65th anniversary.

When SharedBook makes a sale, it remits Random House’s share back to them immediately (Vanderlip would not divulge what the split is), and customers sign a user agreement saying that the books they make are not for resale.

Vanderlip said she is talking with other publishers—“both small and quite large”—about similar partnerships. “This market is starting to really experiment and look at their content in a different way,” she said. “We’ve only found recently that they’re very receptive to what possibilities exist in customization and personalization. Book publishers are looking for ways to protect and to monetize their copyrighted content. In the experimentation they’re doing, they’re starting to look at ways to do just that.”

Last.fm (www.last.fm) today announced that it is launching a service to allow anyone to listen to music on the site for free.

Last.fm has become one of the leading places in the world where people can go to listen to music online. Its vast library has attracted a community of more than 20 million unique monthly users in 240 countries around the globe. The heart of Last.fm is a powerful recommendation engine that guides listeners to music they are likely to enjoy based on prior selections, connecting them with the music they love and with others who share their tastes.

In launching this service, Last.fm becomes the first music website to offer free, global, on-demand access to the largest licensed catalogue of music built on partnerships with all four major record labels - including Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG, Warner and EMI - as well as CD Baby, IODA, the Orchard, Naxos and more than 150,000 independent labels and artists.

Last.fm’s free-on-demand service will be advertiser supported, allowing clients many unique opportunities to reach a highly targeted and engaged audience.

Last.fm was acquired by the CBS Corporation on May 30, 2007.

“It is clear to us that communities built around great content are increasingly driving traffic and revenue online,” said Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of the CBS Corporation. “We acquired Last.fm because music is one of the best ways to build communities on the internet. Adding such a tremendous collection of content to Last.fm will help it grow by leaps and bounds. The skill set that we’re learning along the way will be very important as we build additional online communities around our other world-class content as well.”

Martin Stiksel, Last.fm co-founder, said: “We’re giving the listener free access to what is basically the best jukebox in the world. The ability to dip into such a uniquely broad catalogue from your laptop, home or office computer, and listen to whatever you want for free represents a new way of consuming music that in turn might change the way you listen to music. In that respect, nobody else can currently offer what Last.fm is offering right now.”

Dell will start selling two (Red) laptops and one desktop running Microsoft Windows Vista on Friday. The two companies will donate $50 for a laptop and $80 for a desktop to the Global Fund, which finances health programs in Africa.

(Red), founded by U2 singer Bono and Bobby Shriver, works to develop co-branded products with companies such as Motorola Inc <MOT.N>, Apple Inc <AAPL.O> and Gap Inc <GPS.N>, which then donate a portion of the proceeds for antiretroviral drugs.

Microsoft said it expects “several hundred thousand” (Red) Dell PCs to be sold in 2008. The PCs, designed in part by Bono, will have a distinctive red casing and the Windows interface will feature a red background and sidebar.

“My job is to put some poetry in the machine, put some funk in the machines,” Bono said in an interview with Reuters.

(Red) has raised $53 million for the Global Fund since it was founded in 2006. Bono, who expects to exceed that figure in 2008 alone, said the organization lost some potential partners after a critical article in Advertising Age questioned the effectiveness of the campaign.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who provided some of the seed money for (Red), defended the group, saying it has saved lives that would have otherwise been lost.

“I guess you can criticize even life-saving activities. I don’t know how, but if somebody has a better idea than (Red) to save more lives, we are all ears,” said Gates in an interview. “I put it in the category of a creative use of capitalism.”

Gates, Dell and Bono are expected to announce the partnership formally this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Dell products offered under the (Red) brand will be a XPS One desktop and XPS M1330 and M1530 laptop computers. The products will sell for the same price as regular Dell models.

The computers will go on sale January 25 in the U.S. and then the product will be available in 30 countries on Jan 31.

NEW YORK —  An autopsy on actor Heath Ledger was inconclusive, and more tests are needed, the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office said.

A spokeswoman for the office, Ellen Borakove, said Wednesday that it will take about 10 days to complete the investigation.

There was no obvious indication of suicide or foul play, said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne, who added that cops are “investigating the possibility of an overdose.”

The 28-year-old Australia-born actor’s ex-fiancée, actress Michelle Williams, was flying to New York from Sweden with their 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, her father said.

“It has just broken everybody’s heart in my family,” Larry Williams, Michelle’s dad, told The Daily Telegraph in Australia. “My heart goes out to everyone, his family, my family, we are just very saddened. The saddest thing is his daughter, whom he just loved dearly.”

Oscar-nominee Ledger was found dead Tuesday at his downtown Manhattan residence, face-down and naked at the foot of his bed with prescription sleeping pills in the apartment, police said.

Ledger’s father, Kim Ledger, released a statement on Australian television while surrounded by his family:

“We, Heath’s family, confirm the very tragic, untimely and accidental passing of our dearly loved son, brother and doting father of Matilda. He was found peacefully asleep in his New York apartment by his housekeeper at 3:30 p.m. U.S. time.

“We would like to thank our friends and everyone around the world for their well wishes and kind thoughts at this time. Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life but few had the pleasure of truly knowing him.

“He was a down to earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving and selfless individual who was extremely inspirational to many. Please now respect our families need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately.”