Thursday, December 11, 2014

Amazon’s Hidden & Functional App Store Gets Them Ousted From Google Play

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In September, Amazon updated their Android app such that it was actually a completely functional app store. Flash forward to today, and it appears Google has made Amazon’s signature application un-findable using search in the Play Store (though the Amazon direct link does seem to work, for now).

There is a new app in its stead (we presume) called Amazon Shopping that looks pretty much like the old app did, minus the App Store bit.

The moral of the story, is that it appears as if Google wasn’t thrilled with Amazon making their digital catalog available for sale in this manner. When asked for a comment, Amazon noted:

“We launched a new Amazon App for Android Phones on September 9 that provides an award-winning mobile shopping experience, enables customers to discover and purchase all of Amazon's digital catalog, and provides customers access to the Prime Instant Video player and unlimited streaming of over 40,000 movies and TV episodes. Google subsequently changed their Developer Distribution Agreement on September 25. As a result, we removed the app from Google Play and published the Amazon Shopping app. Customers who want the best Amazon experience on their Android phone, including access to Prime Instant Video and Amazon's entire digital catalog, can still get the Amazon App for Android Phones at amazon.com/androidapp.”

Of course, the question that begs asking is if Amazon didn’t think it was doing anything sneaky or against the rules… why did they keep it so hidden?

Google hasn’t responded with a comment so far, but it has to be making Android fanatics a little nervous… the search giant seems to be locking things down in a way that labels them more like the thing they hate the most (Apple).

Amazon’s Hidden & Functional App Store Gets Them Ousted From Google Play is a post from: Good e-Reader

Apple Announces Top eBooks of 2014

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If you are looking for gift to by someone for the holiday season or want to catch up on some reading, Apple has you covered. The iBooksstore has just announced the top free, paid and audiobook titles of 2014.

When it comes to purchasing eBooks on the iPhone or iPad, Apple is one of the only retailers that actually sells them. A few years ago Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo all pulled the ability to sell books through their apps, because they did not want to pay Apple a percentage of each book sold. This has relegrated these apps to basically be gloriified e-reading apps for books purchased on other devices or on their websites.

With the advent of iOS 8, the Apple bookstore is now preloaded on any new Apple device that is purchased or on older devices that have been automatically upgraded.

Fiction

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (Children & Teens)
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Mysteries & Thrillers)
Insurgent, Veronica Roth (Children & Teens)
Allegiant, Veronica Roth (Children & Teens)
Divergent, Veronica Roth (Children & Teens)
he Goldfinch, Donna Tartt (Fiction & Literature)
The Target, David Baldacci (Mysteries & Thrillers)
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd (Fiction & Literature)
The Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty (Fiction & Literature)
Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James (Romance)
The A Song of Ice and Fire Series, George R. R. Martin (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)
If I Stay, Gayle Forman (Children & Teens)
Personal, Lee Child (Mysteries & Thrillers)
Sycamore Row, John Grisham (Mysteries & Thrillers)
Fifty Shades Darker, E L James (Romance)
Unlucky 13, Maxine Paetro,James Patterson (Mysteries & Thrillers)
The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith (Mysteries & Thrillers)
The Maze Runner, James Dashner (Children & Teens)
The Heist, Daniel Silva (Mysteries & Thrillers)
Fifty Shades Freed, E L James (Romance)
Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty (Fiction & Literature)
Missing You, Harlan Coben (Fiction & Literature)
Act of War, Brad Thor (Fiction & Literature)
Field of Prey, John Sandford (Mysteries & Thrillers)
Top Secret Twenty-One, Janet Evanovich (Mysteries & Thrillers)

Nonfiction

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, Michael Lewis (Business & Personal Finance)
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand (Biographies & Memoirs)
Lone Survivor, Patrick Robinson,Marcus Luttrell (Biographies & Memoirs)
Heaven is for Real, Todd Burpo,Lynn Vincent (Religion & Spirituality)
Duty, Robert M. Gates (Biographies & Memoirs)
Killing Patton, Martin Dugard,Bill O’Reilly (Biographies & Memoirs)
Killing Jesus, Martin Dugard,Bill O’Reilly (History)
Uganda Be Kidding Me, Chelsea Handler (Humor)
David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell (Health, Mind & Body)
The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown (Sports & Outdoors)
The Five Love Languages, Gary D. Chapman (Nonfiction)
Not That Kind of Girl, Lena Dunham (Biographies & Memoirs)
Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt,Stephen J. Dubner (Business & Personal Finance)
Hard Choices, Hillary Rodham Clinton (Biographies & Memoirs)
Orange Is the New Black, Piper Kerman (Biographies & Memoirs)
Wild, Cheryl Strayed (Biographies & Memoirs)
The Body Book, Cameron Diaz (Health, Mind & Body)
Super Shred: The Big Results Diet, Ian K. Smith, M.D. (Health, Mind & Body)
Finding Me, Michelle Knight,Michelle Burford (Biographies & Memoirs)
The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort (Biographies & Memoirs)
The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet, Mark Hyman, M.D. (Health, Mind & Body)
10% Happier, Dan Harris (Health, Mind & Body)
The Monuments Men, Robert M. Edsel,Bret Witter (History)
Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg (Biographies & Memoirs)
Blood Feud, Edward Klein (Politics & Current Events)

Free Books

Private, Maxine Paetro,James Patterson (Mysteries & Thrillers)
Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard (Children & Teens)
Justice League: Origin, Jim Lee,Geoff Johns (Comics & Graphic Novels)
Lost in Shangri-La, Mitchell Zuckoff (History)
Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes, Denise Grover Swank (Mysteries & Thrillers)
The Swift Programming Language, Apple Inc. (Computers & Internet)
Be My Love, Lucy Kevin (Romance)
100 Quotations to Make You Think!, Wolfgang Riebe (Health, Mind & Body)
Best Jokes 2014, Various Authors (Humor)
iPhone User Guide For iOS 8.1, Apple Inc. (Computers & Internet)
Spirit Animals Book 1: Wild Born, Brandon Mull (Children & Teens)
The Girl in the Converse Shoes, Yaritza Garcia (Children & Teens)
Silence, Natasha Preston (Romance)
The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)
The Art of War, Sun Tzu (History)
UnEnchanted, Chanda Hahn (Children & Teens)
How To Lose 10 Pounds In A Week: The Ultimate 7 Day Weight Loss Kick Start, Jenny Allan (Health, Mind & Body)
Guinness World Records 2015 Bonus Chapter, Guinness World Records (Reference)
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Wilhelm Grimm (Fiction & Literature)
The Animal Book (Multi-Touch Edition), Steve Jenkins (Children & Teens)
How the GarcĂ­a Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez (Fiction & Literature)
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (Fiction & Literature)
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells (Fiction & Literature)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (Mysteries & Thrillers)
The Game, Terry Schott (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)

Audiobooks

Divergent (Unabridged), Veronica Roth (Kids & Young Adults)
Gone Girl: A Novel (Unabridged), Gillian Flynn (Mystery)
Insurgent: Divergent, Book 2 (Unabridged), Veronica Roth (Kids & Young Adults)
The Fault in Our Stars (Unabridged), John Green (Kids & Young Adults)
Allegiant: Divergent Trilogy, Book 3 (Unabridged), Veronica Roth (Kids & Young Adults)
Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy (Unabridged), E L James (Romance)
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Unabridged), Laura Hillenbrand (History)
A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1 (Unabridged), George R. R. Martin (Sci Fi & Fantasy)
Mockingjay: The Final Book of the Hunger Games (Unabridged), Suzanne Collins (Kids & Young Adults)
Bossypants (Unabridged), Tina Fey (Comedy)
The Goldfinch (Unabridged), Donna Tartt (Fiction)
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (Unabridged), Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson (History)
The Maze Runner: Maze Runner Series #1 (Unabridged), James Dashner (Kids & Young Adults)
How to Win Friends & Influence People (Unabridged), Dale Carnegie (Business)
The Giver (Unabridged), Lois Lowry (Kids & Young Adults)
The Target (Unabridged), David Baldacci (Mystery)
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, And the Art of Battling Giants (Unabridged), Malcolm Gladwell (Science)
Outlander (Outlander Series #1) (Unabridged), Diana Gabaldon (Sci Fi & Fantasy)
Outliers: the Story of Success (Unabridged), Malcolm Gladwell (Nonfiction)
The Hobbit (Unabridged), J. R. R. Tolkien (Sci Fi & Fantasy)
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt (Unabridged), Michael Lewis (Nonfiction)
The Power of Now (Unabridged), Eckhart Tolle (Religion & Spirituality)
The Invention of Wings: A Novel (Unabridged), Sue Monk Kidd (Fiction)
Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain (Unabridged), Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner (Nonfiction)
Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy (Unabridged), E L James (Romance)

Apple Announces Top eBooks of 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader

Google Announces Top Reading Apps and eBooks of 2014

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Google is in a prime position to give everyone a sense of the most popular news and eBook apps. The Play app store is basically bundled on 85% of every Android phone and tablet on the market. Today, Google has announced the most popular apps, video and music.

What is surprising about the top reading apps this  year, is that the majority of people are consuming digital news. The New  York Times, TMZ, Forbes, Verge and Huffington Post  were the most popular reading apps during 2014. The Top eBooks of the year were The Fault in our Stars, Fifty Shades of Grey, Divergent, Twelve Years a Slave and Insurgent.

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Google Announces Top Reading Apps and eBooks of 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader

Kobo Launches 3 e-Books for the Price of 2 Promotion

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Kobo has just launched a new e-Book promotion in Canada that allows readers to buy three digital books for the price of two. This new deal is only applicable to Hachette titles and will be transpiring from now until December 15th.

The publisher Hachette Book Group, home to some of the world's bestselling authors, was first off the mark to partner with Kobo on this offer to bring the most passionate readers a selection of top reads such as Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille, Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand, Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes, and more.  Click here to see the full list of Hachette tittles that are included in this promotion, in addition to their imprints, such as Orbit.

"This new feature makes it easier for people to enjoy more of the books they want to read at a better price, and we're thrilled to be working with Hachette to launch the program," says Anderson. "As we continue to work with our publisher partners, we know this new capability will prove to be an interesting and effective option to further promote their authors and series."

Kobo Launches 3 e-Books for the Price of 2 Promotion is a post from: Good e-Reader

Weekly eHighlights: Kids & Teens Edition

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Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more.

 

Picture Books

A. Rey – Curious George Windy Delivery – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt eBook
Ages 4-8 years. A winter adventure for Curious George fans.

Michele B. Slawson – Apple Picking Time – Random House eBook
Ages 3-7 years. A story about apple harvesting and family, this title has earned good reviews from Horn Book, School Library Journal, and Booklist.

Andrew Zuckerman – Creature ABC – Chronicle Books eBook
Ages 0-3 years. A well-known ABC book finally available as an eBook, this title has striking animal photos as illustrations. It's especially stunning due to the fixed layout format, which spreads the images over two pages.

Michaela Muntean, – Zip! Hop! Pop! And Other Fun Words to Say – Sesame Street eBook
Ages 0-3 years. Another great addition to the Big Bird's Favorites Board Books, featuring Elmo and friends, and plenty of onomatopoeia.

Chris Van Allsburg – The Misadventures of Sweetie Pie – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt eBook
Ages 4-8 years. Two-time Caldecott winner and author of Jumanji and The Polar Express, Van Allsburg brings us a new story about a hamster who escapes his cage at the pet store to find a home.

 

Early Readers

Tad Hills – Rocket's 100th Day of School – Random House eBook
Ages 6-9 years. A new Level 1 Step into Reading book featuring spotted dog Rocket, this title can also be used as a curriculum tie-in for educators that celebrate the 100th day of school.

Jennifer Mckerley, illustrated by Paul Mirocha – Amazing Armadillos – Random House eBook
Ages 5-8 years. A new Level 3 Step into Reading nonfiction book that presents interesting facts on armadillos with full color illustrations.

 

Middle Grades

Katherine Applegate – Home of the Brave – Macmillan eBook & Books on Tape audiobook read by Dominic Hoffman
Ages 10-14 years. Since the ebook release in 2008, Home of the Brave has received the Golden Kite Award for Best Fiction, the Bank Street Josette Frank Award, and the Texas Bluebonnet Award.

Wayne Thomas Batson – Search for the Shadow Key – Thomas Nelson eBook
Ages 9-12 years. Book 2 and anticipated follow-up to The Dreamtreaders (series of the same name). Reviewed as a wholesome fantasy series.

Michael Bond – Love from Paddington – HarperCollins eBook
Ages 8-12 years. This book is excellently-timed to release just before the January Paddington movie.

Jason Fry – Curse of the Iris – HarperCollins eBook
Ages 8-12 years. Book 2 and an anticipated follow-up to the well-received Jupiter Pirates (series of the same name).

Joan Holub – Aphrodite the Fair – Simon & Schuster eBook
Ages 8-12 years. Book 15 of the popular juvenile/tween Goddess Girls series.

Ace Landers – Emmet's Guide to Being Awesome – Scholastic eBook
Ages 7-10 years. LEGO movie spinoff featuring the star of the film, Emmet Brickowski. Will pair well with any youngster who might be getting the LEGO Movie Blu-ray or DVD in their stocking this year.

Nancy Rue – You Can't Sit with Us – Thomas Nelson eBook
Ages 9-12 years. Sequel to So Not Okay and Book 2 of the anticipated Mean Girls Makeover trilogy. Portrays bullying from the point of view of the bully, victim, and bystander.

Kirkpatrick Hill – Bo at Iditarod Creek – Henry Holt and Co.
Ages 8-12 years. A sequel to Bo at Ballard Creek (winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction), this title has received starred reviews from Booklist and Horn Book.

Robert Simpson – Frozen: The Cinestory – HarperCollins eBook
Ages 9-14 years. A digital exclusive that won't be available in print, this chapter eBook follows the storyline of the blockbuster movie Frozen and is illustrated with images from the film.

Amy K. Nichols – Now That You're Here (Duplexity Part I) – Knopf Books for Young Readers Ages 12 and up. A debut novel that has received great reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal, and VOYA, and a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Much buzz about the "brainy, kickass heroine" and a sci-fi theme that explores theoretical physics.

 

Teens

Molly Cochran – Seduction – Simon & Schuster eBook
Ages 14 and up. Third and final installment of the New York Times bestselling Legacy series. Highly anticipated and well-reviewed.

Skylar Dorset – The Boy with the Hidden Name – Sourcebooks eBook
Ages 12-17 years. Book 2 of a duology and follow-up title to The Girl Who Never Was. “With spot-on humour, Wonderland-esque logic, and magical twists and turns, Skylar Dorset’s The Boy with the Hidden Name is an example of YA fiction at its best.” – 21st Century Once Upon a Time

Patricia Dunn – Rebels by Accident – Sourcebooks eBook
Ages 12-17 years. Well-reviewed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, this title is set at the time of the January 2011 revolution in Egypt and provides a window into the lives of Egyptian Americans.

Lauren Oliver – Alex – HarperCollins eBook
Ages 14 and up. A short story focusing on the character Alex, Lena's first love from the extremely popular Delirium trilogy.

James Patterson & Emily Raymond – The Lost – Hachette eBook & Blackstone audiobook read by Spencer Locke and John Glouchevitch
Ages 12-17 years. Book 5 of the very popular Witch versus Wizard series. Read by Spencer Locke and John Glouchevitch.

Christopher Pike – Black Knight – Simon & Schuster eBook
Ages 14 and up. Book 2 of the Witch World series by an author who has been a household name in teen fiction since the 1980s.

Frank Portman – King Dork Approximately – Random House eBook
Ages 14 and up. The long-awaited sequel to cult classic King Dork, this title has been well-reviewed by Booklist, School Library Journal, VOYA, and is endorsed by teen author superstar John Green.

Sara Shepard – Vicious – HarperCollins eBook
Ages 14 and up. Book 16 in the Pretty Little Liars series, a perennially popular series for teen ladies.

Zoe Sugg – Girl Online: The First Novel by Zoella – Simon & Schuster eBook
Ages 14 and up. Famous for her Zoella channel on YouTube and winner of multiple blogging honors, author Zoe Sugg is already the UK's bestselling debut novelist ever.

Katie Dale – Little White Lies – Random House eBook.
Ages 14 and up. A psychological thriller that has received great reviews from Kirkus, School Library Journal, and VOYA. An excellent read-alike for fans of the Pretty Little Liar series.

Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves – InterWorld – HarperTeen

Ages 13 and up. Book 1 of a new series, this title is written by powerhouse Neil Gaiman and award-winning scriptwriter and novelist Michael Reaves. Already a New York Times bestseller.

 

Nonfiction

Megan Miller – Minecraft Hacks: Combat Edition: The Unofficial Guide to Tips and Tricks That Other Guides Won't Teach You – Sky Pony Press eBook
Middle Grades. Touted as the next big children's brand, paired with a possible movie release, Minecraft books are an easy decision. This edition will teach "minecrafters" how do defend their property and fight off mobs and monsters.

Mary Pope Osborne – China: Land of the Emperor’s Great Wall: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #14: Day of the Dragon King – Random House eBook
Ages 7-10 years. Released in plenty of time for Chinese New Year, this title will make a terrific curriculum staple for those studying ancient China and the Great Wall. Its companion novel has already sold over 1.7 million copies.

Oliver Stone – Untold History of the United States, Vol. 1: Young Reader's Ed. – Simon & Schuster eBook
Ages 10 and up. Adapted from the bestselling book by famous film director Oliver Stone and companion a Showtime documentary, this title is perfect for burgeoning history buffs. Starred review from Kirkus.

Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more.

*Geographical rights may vary by title.

MagPi issue 29 – out now!

The MagPi magazine is a free download created by the Raspberry Pi community, for the Raspberry Pi community. Click the link, or on the picture, to visit their website.

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Here are the editors to explain what’s in this month’s issue:

Welcome to Issue 29 of the MagPi, packed with the usual mixture of hardware projects and programming articles, providing lots of avenues for invention during December.

With the Christmas holidays drawing near, what could be better than some new Raspberry Pi hardware. For all those looking forward to building a high altitude capsule or autonomous submarine, the Model A+ provides many great features for a very low power budget. Dougie Lawson presents a whistle-stop tour of the A+, comparing it to other Raspberry Pi Models.

On the subject of robots, computer vision can provide an image cognition solution within many autonomous robotics projects. Derek Campbell sketches out more features of OpenCV (open source computer vision) image recognition software.

The Raspberry Pi is ideally suited as the hub of a sensor array or control unit, since it can be used to propagate information via a web server or other remote protocol. In this Issue, John Shovic's presents his final article in the Project Curacao remote monitoring series, David Bannon demonstrates how to build and read a simple array of digital temperature sensors, and Brian Grawburg introduces his traffic light extension board.

When developing software or projects, it is important to retain unique files that are part of the build. In this Issue, Alec Clews continues his series on software repositories and using Git, and William Bell discusses the basics of adding external storage to the Raspberry Pi.

Computer programming enables the Raspberry Pi to be used within many different applications. This month, Jon Silvera discusses how to drive a robotic arm with FUZE BASIC, William Bell presents a simple space arcade game in Scratch and Paul Sutton introduces Python graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

The MagPi will be taking a short break over Christmas and the first Issue of 2015 will be published at the start of February.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2015.

There’s lots to be going on with here – plenty to get your teeth into over the Christmas break. (And Will Bell demoed his Scratch space arcade game to me a couple of weeks ago – if you don’t love it, you’re dead inside.)

Thanks, as always, to Team MagPi – we hope you all have a great Christmas break!

Google News Excludes Spanish Publishers Due to New Tax Law

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Google News is apart of our lives, it's free to use and includes everything from the world's biggest newspapers to small, local publications and bloggers. Due to new tax laws passed in Spain, Google News is shuttering their doors on December 16th.

In October, the Spanish government passed a new copyright law that goes into effect in early January. It imposes fees for online content aggregators such as Google News and Yahoo News. This was chiefly done to to protect the country's print media industry.

Known popularly as the "Google Tax", the law requires services that post links and excerpts of news articles to pay a fee to the Association of Editors of Spanish Dailies. Authorities will have the power to fine websites up to $748,000 for linking to pirated content.

“This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not,” Richard Gingras, head of Google News, wrote in the post. “As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable.”

Google News will continue to run in Spain, but will longer aggregate news content from Spanish media sites. It will continue to offer content from the rest of the world, but the lack of local inclusion will be felt by small and medium sized blogs and websites. Even large newspapers will feel the pinch. In November, Germany’s biggest news publisher, Axel Springer, scrapped a move to block Google News from running snippets of articles from its newspapers, saying that the experiment had caused traffic to its sites to plunge 80%.

Google News Excludes Spanish Publishers Due to New Tax Law is a post from: Good e-Reader