Wednesday, December 3, 2014

3M Cloud Library Now Has Audiobook Support

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3M announced back in March that they ironed out an agreement with Findaway World to add 40,000 audiobook titles into their system.  It took awhile to iron out all of the logistics, but today all of this content is now available in the 3M Cloud Library App.

Audiobooks was the missing piece of the puzzle for 3M to be a viable contender in the library world. The company now has 500,000 eBook titles and 40,000 audiobooks that are available for libraries to purchase and integrate into their digital catalogs.

The 3M Cloud Library App has been updated for iOS and the Android version should be available soon. It has a new streamlined interface that has a built in audiobook player, to listen to any titles you borrow from the library on the fly. The app also bookmarks audiobooks so users can access them across a range of devices and easily pick up where they left off.

Findaway World is quickly becoming a serious player in the audiobook industry. Recently they announced they are powering the Barnes and Noble Audiobook Store and now are dealing with 3M.

3M Cloud Library Now Has Audiobook Support is a post from: Good e-Reader

PressReader Unveils HotSpot Map System

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PressReader is the largest digital newspaper and magazine system in the world and has millions of users. The company is making it easier for travelers to download the content they love, without having to use their data plan with the advent of the new Hotspot Mapping system.

PressReader HotSpot is a bundled solution that gives businesses the flexibility and versatility to offer a mobile or online version of the world's largest digital kiosk. PressReader HotSpot combines the convenience and state-of-the art technology of the mobile app with the elegant presentation of PressReader online at PressReader.com.

Through a sophisticated IP authentication method, businesses can designate local Wi-Fi enabled areas as HotSpots offering their customers complimentary access to publications on the PressReader network.

PressReader outlined how their service works in an email to Good e-Reader “The PressReader HotSpots allow users to gain complimentary access to our product while they are connected a location's WiFi, which is excellent value for them because they are able to access a service that typically costs $29.95 a month as a consumer. The value for businesses is that they can use it as a marketing tool to attract visitors to their location and encourage them to stay longer. They really don't have much to do with data costs, though – it's not WiFi access we're showing on the map, it's sponsored PressReader access.”

PressReader Unveils HotSpot Map System is a post from: Good e-Reader

New York Libraries Give Free Hotspots Away to Low Income Familes

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The New York Library system is rolling out a new program that will allow thousands of low income families to be able to borrow wireless hotspots from their local library. This stems from a one million dollar donation from Google and a $500,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge.

The wireless hotspot program was successfully piloted by The New York Public Library over the summer, when families at four branches in the Bronx and Staten Island were able to borrow devices for months at a time. It was deemed a success and is now in the process of a broader roll out at Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

The ultimate goal by the library system is to get 10,000 families online. This is certainly a noble effort but it might fall short. Official estimates say that over 30% of New York residents are without broadband access. With a population over eight million strong, that still leaves almost three million people without internet.

New York Libraries Give Free Hotspots Away to Low Income Familes is a post from: Good e-Reader

Kobo and E Ink Partner to Offer Kobo’s eBooks on 3rd Party eReaders

Yesterday E Ink announced a new collaborative ebook access program with Kobo that gives manufactures of E Ink devices the opportunity to offer Kobo’s ebooks on their ebook readers. This gives E Ink's hardware partners more marketing power by being able to offer a recognizable ebook store on their devices without having the expense of […]

State special collection lists

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Hometown pride is something we are very familiar with in Cleveland and in Ohio. Some people are religiously dedicated to the Cleveland Browns or The Ohio State University Football team or they will endlessly talk about the great food scene Cleveland has to offer. As a librarian, my local pride lies more with Donald Ray Pollock, Jacqueline Woodson, Sherwood Anderson, Harvey Pekar, Christopher Moore, R. L. Stine and all of the other amazing writers from Ohio.

I'm sure librarians all over the United States feel the same way, so our staff librarians have created a special collection list for each of the 50 states. You can view the individual state lists by following this link: State Lists

Lists include titles by authors born in the state, authors that have lived in the state for a significant portion of their lives, novels set in that state, and some nonfiction titles about the state. These would make great curated collections on your digital library homepage!

If you would like more recommendations, we're always happy to create custom lists. Email us at collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today!

*Please note that title availability may vary by geographic location and platform.

Rachel Kray is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.

Yotaphone 2 is a Dual-Screen Phone with ePaper and AMOLED Screens (Video)

Yota Devices is getting set to release their second generation dual-screen smartphone, called the Yotaphone 2, this week in parts of Russian and Europe. The Yotaphone is among a new sub-group of devices attempting to bring battery-saving, outdoor readable epaper displays and smartphones together. Unlike devices such as the InkCase Plus where the E Ink […]

InkCase Plus Pre-Orders, 3.5-inch E Ink Reader for Android Phones

This past summer Oaxis started a kickstarter campaign to raise money for the InkCase Plus, a 3.5-inch E Ink device that pairs with smartphones to use as a secondary display. Oaxis’s campaign efforts were quite successful; they achieved their funding goal in just 3 hours. And now they’ve finalized production of the InkCase Plus and […]

Non-formal learning for Syrian refugees

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrian children in Lebanon still have no schools. UNICEF innovator James Cranwell-Ward became interested in low-cost technology that could help deliver education for these vulnerable children; he developed an all-in-one Raspberry Pi-based computer system that can be used for programming and electronics as well as learning across a broader curriculum, and in October, refugees aged 10 to 16 attended their first Raspberry Pi class. One student is 11-year-old Zeinab Al Jusuf:

You might recognise those screens; they’re a specially developed UNICEF version of Alex Eames’ HDMIPi screen, and Alex wrote about them for us back in May when this project was in the planning stages. The Pis are mounted behind the screens, and provide access to materials including an Arabic-language KA Lite, an offline version of the education package Khan Academy.

Alongside their studies in areas like science and numeracy, the children are learning to code their own games. Zeinab says, “Over there, we can log in and play games. But here we can create our own games and play with them ourselves or let others play with them.”

It’s hoped this pilot will be extended to provide opportunities for children across Lebanon and beyond, and you can find out more from UNICEF, or from James’s photo log.

Findaway World Debuts the Aero e-Reader

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Findaway World has developed a severely locked down e-reader that they have been marketing to the US armed forces. The big selling points is that there are no USB ports or wireless internet access to limit security breaches. Instead, the readers are loaded up with bestselling books and shipped out to submarines and other vessels. Today, Findaway World has announced the Aero e-reader that is going to be distributed to the US Air Force.

Findaway World secured the contract from the Air Force back in October and they received close to $500,000 for the e-reader and all of the books that were preloaded. The Aero will be delivered to 19 Air Force libraries, including locations overseas where access to English reading material is often limited. Locations include Italy, Turkey, Germany, South Korea where servicemen/women and their families are stationed.

Findaway World Debuts the Aero e-Reader is a post from: Good e-Reader

Avoid the Law No More: Trapster Dies with 2014

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Trapster began as a resounding success in 2007, so much so that they were acquired by Nokia’s mapping division in 2010. Unfortunately for both companies, this was at a time when there were very few apps that offered granular traffic and police activity details (by way of crowd-sourced information)… now tech leaders like Google have acquired technologies and apps like Waze. Reality has caught up with Trapster: they have laid off their staff, pulled their apps from all stores, and announced that service will cease for existing users at the end of 2014.

It’s been a long time coming: downloads dwindled (especially) once the app was forced to remove its DUI checkpoint reporting feature in 2011, and then involved themselves this year in a security coup that showed users of the app could track the movements made by other drivers.

Other features of the app allowed users to get the inside track on red light and speed cameras, but it doesn’t appear that avoiding the law carried enough appeal in the end.

Word has it that Trapster creator and founder Pete Tenereillo hasn’t given up all hope that Nokia will revive his baby –but it seems very unlikely to happen.

Are you sorry to see an app of this type go –or do you feel like it was unethical to begin with, and extinction was long overdue?

Avoid the Law No More: Trapster Dies with 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader