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Apple Computer said yesterday that the chief executive of Google, Eric Schmidt, was joining its board.

Mr. Schmidt was elected to the board at a meeting yesterday, Apple said. Mr. Schmidt, 51, came to Google from Novell in 2001.

The announcement signals closer professional ties between Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, and Mr. Schmidt, who oversaw Google’s rise to become the most-used Internet search engine. Before Novell, Mr. Schmidt was chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems.

Other Apple directors include Mr. Jobs; former Vice President Al Gore; Arthur Levinson, chief executive of Genentech; and Mickey Drexler, chief executive of the J. Crew Group.

While Apple started as a computer company and Google as a search engine, the companies are beginning to compete in markets like online video. Google also has a feature that lets users search for songs and links them to online music stores, including the Apple iTunes site.

Universal Music, home to artists such as U2, The Killers and Audioslave, will make its catalog of recordings and music videos available for free on an ad-supported Web site launching later this year, the site’s operator said Tuesday.

The two-year deal calls for New York-based SpiralFrog.com to split advertising revenue with the recording company, said Lance Ford, chief marketing and sales officer for SpiralFrog.

Users can download an unlimited number of songs or music videos if they register at the site.

The tracks cannot be burned to a CD, but users will be able to transfer music to portable media players equipped with Microsoft Windows digital rights management software, Ford said.

However, the service will not work with Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh computers or its market-leading iPod music players.

Offering music and video for free on ad-supported Web sites is not new, but such services have generally been restricted to streaming, in which music and video files are not stored on a user’s computer, limiting playback to when there is an Internet connection. SpiralFrog will offer downloads, permitting playback offline and on portable devices.

SpiralFrog will require users to return to the site and renew registration at least once a month or the tracks cease to play.

The company is in talks with other major recording companies on similar deals, Ford said.

"They understand and support this ad model," he said.

Ford declined to disclose the value of the deal but said it included advance payments to Universal Music. The label declined to comment.

SpiralFrog hopes to appeal to music fans who now flock to online file-sharing services to download music and videos that are often pirated.

A beta version of the site is expected to go live in December. Initially, only computer users in the United States and Canada will be able to download content.

In May, online music service Napster Inc. began allowing visitors to Napster.com to listen to tracks five times for free on an ad-supported site it launched to lure users to its paid subscriptions.

© 2006 The Associated Press.

Google Inc. on Wednesday plans to begin letting consumers download and print free of charge classic novels and many other, more obscure books that are in the public domain.

Using Google’s Book Search service, Web surfers hunting titles like Dante’s "Inferno" and Aesop’s "Fables" will be able to download PDF files of the books for later reading, to run keyword searches or to print them on paper. Up to now, the service only allowed people to read the out-of-copyright books online.

Google supports the service by showing its small, keyword-generated text ads on search-results pages.

The download initiative does not include any books under copyright. For these titles, Book Search only displays basic bibliographic information and, in many cases, small snippets of text surrounding a search term, unless it has permission from the publisher to show more. The company’s display of snippets has riled some publishers, but Google has argued the small bites of text constitute fair use.

Google’s Book Search service is the product of its Books Library Project, which is digitizing books from major libraries around the world in order to make them searchable online. Its partners include the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University, the University of California and the New York Public Library. Google is also conducting a pilot project with the Library of Congress.

© 2006 The Associated Press.

 Kyra Phillips, anchor of CNN’s "Live From…," unwittingly upstaged President Bush’s speech in New Orleans with on-the-air analysis of her husband and the marriage of her brother — all live from a CNN ladies room.

Unaware that her wireless microphone was "live" during her break, Phillips could be heard overriding Bush’s prepared address Tuesday as he was seen marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The Atlanta-based Phillips, in conversation with an unidentified woman in an echoey room, dismissed most men with a vulgar term, but called herself "very lucky in that regard. My husband is handsome and he is genuinely a loving — you know, no ego — you know what I’m saying? Just a really passionate, compassionate, great, great human being. And they exist. They do exist. They’re hard to find. Yup. But they are out there."

A few moments later, she observed that "brothers have to be, you know, protective. Except for mine. I’ve got to be protective of him."

Why? "His wife is just a control freak."

At that point, another voice cut in: "Kyra."

"Yeah, baby?" replied Phillips on hearing her name.

"Your mike is on. Turn it off. It’s been on the air."

CNN anchor Daryn Kagan, looking flustered, then broke into the telecast with a recap of what Bush had been saying.

Phillips later apologized to viewers "for an issue we had with our mikes" and "for a little bit of an interruption there during the president."

CNN issued its own official statement, explaining the network had "experienced audio difficulties during the president’s speech today in New Orleans. We apologize to our viewers and the president for the disruption."

The network also apologized to the White House.