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The Canadian bookselling industry is dominated by Chapters Indigo. You can get a good indication on how many people are buying print books by looking at their overall financial profitability. The latest quarterly results are in today and the future looks dark. Chapters and Indigo are on the brink of disaster. The bookseller announced a loss of $10 million last November and a massive $20 million decline in June. The latest figures published today have their resources shrinking further with a $14 million loss and C$180.8 million in total revenue. One of big reasons the losses were not nearly as profound as they could have been, was primarily due to the fact seven bookstores closed. The flagship store on Robson Street in Vancouver and Indigo Yorkdale have been doing brisk business selling American Girl Apparel. Heavy promotion is being done outside the stores with posters to bring people in to buy dolls and accessories. This product line has been so successful that Indigo made the call to bring it to the Chapters Rideau store in Ottawa. During the earnings call Indigo drew attention to their lifestyle products were seeing success. It took awhile for their inventory selection to catch on with the Canadian public that often shops at Pier One Imports for that sort of thing. A new selection of content that is available anywhere else is now available at the bigger stores. Books have seen greater success and Indigo reported that for the first time since 2010 they sold lots. This is due to major titles being released this year by Hillary Clinton and JK Rowling. Chapters & Indigo Continues the March Towards Financial Disaster is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Chapters & Indigo Continues the March Towards Financial Disaster
Android L Will Include Multiple User Support
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There are plenty of reasons to run multiple user profiles on your Android smartphone, whether you want to separate work from your personal life or you have family members that share a single device. Technically we have been able to use more than one user profile since Android 4.2, but it was a workaround solution and not terribly convenient. Now with the upcoming Android L release due out this fall, Google will make it easy to run more than one profile on your smartphone. For something that seems so straightforward, many wonder why it took this long to implement on smartphones (as opposed to tablets). According to a Google engineer, it was due to the complications surrounding how to handle phone calls and text messages. As we continue to hear about new Android L features, it becomes harder to wait for the public release. What are you most looking forward to?
Android L Will Include Multiple User Support is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Timber App Brings Tinder to BlackBerry 10
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Generally BlackBerry doesn’t get to see the big name apps hitting their platform, but knock-offs and look-a-likes are very common. Timber is in good company, joining the ranks of iGrann, Whine, Snap2Chat and Spo2fy. No matter, BlackBerry users will be excited that a third party Tinder client is available from BlackBerry World. Developed by Nemory Studios, Timber gives BlackBerry users the ability to participate in “a fun new way to connect with new and interesting people around you.” The interface behaves exactly as it does in Tinder: you get the chance to view other users of the app who have signed up (and are in close proximity to you), if you like them you swipe to the right, if you aren’t so keen then swipe to the left. A mutual match (meaning the user chose you as well) will pair you up to begin chatting –and the sky is the limit! Just like Tinder, Timber requires that you have a Facebook account. The app is free to download, but if you prefer to browse potential matches add-free, you will have to fork over $1.99.
Timber App Brings Tinder to BlackBerry 10 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Nook GlowLight Arrives in the UK a Day Late and a Dollar Short
| Barnes and Noble, the self-proclaimed leading retailer of “content, digital media and educational products”, made a surprise announcement today. Apparently the Nook GlowLight still exists and has finally made its way to the United Kingdom. It turns out that Barnes and Noble is still using old school wooden boats with oars and sails to transport […] |
KittenGroomer/CIRClean – data security for journalists and activists
| Liz: Rachel Rayns, our Creative Producer, makes a habit of finding interesting people for us to talk to. She works with the creative industries on supporting their work with the Pi, and introducing people who aren’t the usual maths/physics suspects to computing – and while she does that, she discovers some really amazing projects. We recently sent Rachel from Pi Towers to chair the panel at Makerversity on The New Hardware Revolution, where she met Maya Bonkowski, an interaction designer and security specialist. Maya, as it turns out, is a perfect embodiment of the sort of thing we mean when we talk about hardware revolutions. She’s been working with investigative journalists and hackers on a project called that’s called CIRClean in some incarnations and KittenGroomer in others, which sanitises USB sticks of malware and turns untrusted documents into clean, readable text. There’s a real need for this kind of application: if you’re an activist under threat from security forces, or if you’re an investigative journalist working with people who need to keep their data secure and off networks (especially in places with heavy penalties for criticising government), the USB stick is a vital tool – but it’s also a tool that’s very susceptible to malware. Maya subsequently sent me a very long email about what they’re doing. It’s so interesting that I’ve reproduced it in its entirety below (with her permission). Over to Maya. Right, so where to begin. Background: Being a journalist in some parts of the world can be a rather serious and hazardous health condition. When the Syrian uprising began and the internet and mobile networks were turned off, all that was left were satellite phones. For a while, anyway. Until making a phone call became hazardous to the village with sat phone call signals being triangulated, possibly attracting an immediately subsequent carpet bombing. Everybody loves kittens. Because kittens are loveable. But sometimes kittens need a new home, and then it becomes our job of finding a loving home for that kitten. Sometimes, unfortunately, homeless kittens will have all sorts of nasties and things that will itch and go bump in the night. They may take some work, but everyone loves kittens and they’re worth it. What’s with the kittens? If you have a fact that guys with guns will shoot you in the face for even knowing about, then talking about kittens is possibly a far safer lifestyle choice. In the Beginning: My friend Quinn Norton, an OpSec/Journo who covers Anonymous and Occupy for WIRED magazine, launches into a rant: “So here’s my problem. Somebody gives me a USB key with something on it and I can’t f******* do anything with it. Nothing. It’s f****** useless and really I’ve got nothing.” More shouty ranty problem explanations followed. The three main attack vectors against data security, and the sort of thing that makes Quinn’s work hard, are email attachments, unsecured (or poorly secured) LANs and USB keys. Apparently, enough dirty nasty things can be done at the block device level of plugging in a USB key, never mind such high level things as an infected document or program. But, you really really want to know what’s on the key. Let’s say a north-African Royal Family has a chunk of the country’s annual budget allocated to them as a block percentage without any details. Someone’s promised you the full detail version of the budget including an itemised breakdown of the Royal Family spend. (Meet in this alley at night, and I’ll hand it to you through your open car window as you slowly drive by in the rain. Sadly, that one turned out to be a dud.) The problem:
The solution: Extracting data from unknown data formats presents its own issues – MSOffice documents are the potential black plague carriers of data. PDFs files can be crafted to kill your system BIOS and brick your machine. Image files carry their own implications. But there are enough ways of translating and extracting data out of problem formats and putting them into functionally benign formats. This is the easy part. But you still need a place to do all this. So, there was this vision making the rounds in 2011/12 about creating an inexpensive computing platform that anyone anywhere in the world could use. You could hook it up to a TV and presto: you have a computer and can learn about computers. It could be anywhere and inexpensive enough to actually be anywhere, not just in a company office space. It could be in class rooms. It could be in private homes. It could be in your backpack. “Oh this? It’s a Raspberry Pi – it’s a cheap computer that enables anyone to get into computing. Would you like to see what it can do?” Right, so the rPi vision as I saw it was: get these things everywhere to enable people without Macbook (or even anything near chromebook) budgets to get into computing. Get Africa computing. Get poor villages computing. Get students connected to the interwebs. Get it out there. Oh, and by the way, create an internationally available stable and consistent platform. And as a side effect of all of that, provide a plausibly deniable platform available anywhere. (Thank you!) As it was in Autumn 2012, Raspbian had nearly everything needed software-wise. The installation of OpenOffice took care of a lot of the bulk of data format translations, and X was already installed (iirc) so it had a place to run. Because why would you have a word processor installed if you didn’t have a place to run it? Even if you only ever intend to run office apps in headless mode. Next you want to make it do something on its own under controlled circumstances. The way it works is that you plug the key of questionable lineage into the top USB port. Then supply a clean/blank USB key and plug that into the bottom USB port. Then you turn it on and wait. A couple of scripts buried as far down into the startup sequence as I could manage (and still have them work) trigger a number of things (or not):
If the system decides that the only things connected are 2 USB storage devices and then to clean data from one USB stick to the other, it recursively runs through all the files, directories (and treat archive files as directories, so unpack and process everything in them too), and partitions through the various document processing routines, writing clean data to the other USB stick. This was the basis for the first prototype system. I’d recently received my first 256MB B model, and some cursing and swearing later it worked. It was even slower than the 512MB B model. The Original Name: “KittenGroomer” Apparently OpSec and InfoSec types spend or have spent too much time anywhere near 4chan; and while less questionable names where being explored around declawing, bathing, trimming and so on, the *Sec community branded it “KittenGroomer” within about 20 minutes of its conceptual birth and it stuck. The Journo/OpSec friend started promoting it before I’d opened the editor on the first Bash script. Before the project shifted from being “SEEKRIT!!” to open public visibility, a 4chan-inspired idea to ensure that you had a legit KittenGroomer was to stick a holographic PedoBear sticker across the SD card slot and the SD card. Never happened. The prototype got a lot of attention from different people pretty quickly and it wasn’t long before someone working for the Computer Incident and Response Centre of Luxembourg (CIRCL) took some interest. In early December 2012, I put the first prototype in a bubble wrap envelope and mailed off. (They didn’t have any rPi’s yet.) A decision was made to de-SEEKRIT the KittenGroomer and eventually was presented to the Luxembourg minister responsible for information security. Some budget was allocated to refining the KittenGroomer and it became an official CIRCL project. There was talk of commercialising the project. Raf (the person at CIRCL I sent it to) put a stop to the commercialisation. It must always remain freely available. I never did get the trip to Luxembourg to meet the Minister. OpenOffice was replaced with LibreOffice. (LO was forked from OO, then it was discovered that 25% of OO code did nothing, and was subsequently cut out – hopefully taking some security issues as well). A fast library used to convert PDFs into HMTL was reworked to work on armv6/7 (and even safely tested against some carefully caveated super nasty BIOS crushing PDFs Raf keeps under heavy lock and key). I haven’t had much time to contribute in a while, but last October-ish we added audio as a status indicator so you don’t need a screen (we never did properly sort out the power management properly to keep the hdmi output from turning off). While it’s working it now plays 8bit 80s(ish) midi tunes until it’s done and shuts the system down. I curated the tunes so that they’re more or less in that curious/painful/delightful/odd/indeterminate aural appreciation space. The Nyan cat theme song was a request. That’s all I have to say about that selection. What’s happened with it: The KittenGroomer has been to a number of cryptofests, Raspberry Jams and the like, and has generally been well received. A number of seminars for journalists have been held and there are now KittenGroomer-equipped journalists out there. There might be a venture to package up and sell ready-to-go KittenGroomers (which I just found out about this morning). There’s still a lot of work that can/should be done on it. The CIRCL project page: http://circl.lu/projects/CIRCLean/ and their git repo: https://github.com/CIRCL/Circlean The main (Raf’s) git repo: https://github.com/Rafiot/KittenGroomer There’s more to come I’m sure. There’s already an otherwise clean Pizza Express napkin with a thorough sketch all over it. |
New U.S. Rules Make Inflight Calls Unlikely
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One of the hottest topics out there is whether we will be able to actively use our smartphones in airplanes while they are mid-flight. While some signs seemed to indicate that luxury was coming soon, it now appears that the United States Department of Transportation (DoT) is working to establish rules that would not allow you to receive or place phone calls while on a plane. These rules wouldn’t change the fact that text messaging, email, and surfing the web are allowed on most flights. It appears the ban on voice calls is related more so to the disruptive nature of phone calls in enclosed spaces. It is expected that the DoT is preparing a notice of proposed rulemaking that will leave the issue open for review until February of next year. The FCC is also involved, having been the agency that first suggested the rules against using these devices during flights were archaic and should be reversed. While Internet access on smartphones and tablets does make it easier to pass the time while traveling, I miss the days when air travel meant a momentary break from the responsibilities that seem to accompany carrying a telephone and the Internet in your pocket.
New U.S. Rules Make Inflight Calls Unlikely is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Barnes and Noble Launches Nook Glowlight in the UK
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Barnes and Noble has just launched their Nook Glowlight e-Reader in the UK for £89. It will be available this week at Argos, Currys/PC World, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, ASDA and bookshop chain Foyles. The United Kingdom has been a priority with Barnes and Noble since they first entered the market in 2012. They have been selling the Nook Simple Touch and the Simple Touch Reader with glowlight as their flagship devices. The new Nook Glowlight was unveiled late last year in the US and the frontlit display underwent a radical transformation. The big selling factor is the fact the display not does suffer from the pale blue hue that was evident on the NST. This marks the first occasion that the Nook Glowlight is available outside of the US. The Nations largest bookseller does not plan to release a new e-reader this year in the United States, so they can afford to allocate more units overseas. The only new devices planned are two new Android tablets that are co-developed with Samsung. Barnes and Noble Launches Nook Glowlight in the UK is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Exclusive: Sony Japan Confirms they are Abandoning e-Reader Development
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There has been rumors lately surrounding the future of Sony e-Readers. Various European tech blogs have been reporting that an unknown rep from Sony Europe said they are abandoning development of future consumer readers. Good e-Reader now has official confirmation from Sony Japan to set the record straight. I spoke with Noriko Shoji, Products & Technology PR Section, Corporate Communications at Sony Japan today. He said in an exclusive statement “As announced in February this year for North America and in May for Europe and Australia, Sony's Reader Store customers in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Austria and Australia transferred to the Kobo eBookstore. For the hardware, final production of the current Reader model (PRS-T3) was made at the end of May. The product will continue to be available until inventory supplies last, which differs by country. (There are some countries where the sales have already ended.) Please note that the PRS-T3 was not introduced in the US market. In Japan, where we have our Reader Store business, we will continue to sell the current model for the time being, in order for customers to enjoy content from Reader Store with our products.” Noriko then uttered some shocking news, “We do not have plans to develop a successor Reader model at this time.” We now have Sony officially on record that they are not going to be making any new e-readers and have officially stopped manufacturing their Sony PRS-T3 device. Instead, they are shifting focus into the B2B sector via the Digital Paper (DPS-S1). Exclusive: Sony Japan Confirms they are Abandoning e-Reader Development is a post from: Good e-Reader |
