| Amazon just announced their new Kindle HDX tablets yesterday and its being really geared towards video. Numerous hardware elements will really enhance the overall experience, but Amazon is not stopping there. Subscribers to Amazon Prime that watch videos are in for a treat. Amazon will be offering off-line storage of videos by NBC, Viacom, Sony, Warner Bros. and CBS, with downloads ready for up to 30 days, and viewable for up to 48 hours after users start watching. The resolution on the Kindle HDX line of tablets trounces almost all of their competition on the market and Dolby Audio will be an added bonus. Amazon is really gearing their product line to give users more video options. Aside from the new Prime offline downloads, the company has developed the Second Screen experience. This will throw a movie on your television without the need for wires and still use the tablet for email and what have you. The ability to download movies to your tablet is ideal for people who travel and want to watch without needing to be connected to the internet. The big question is whether Netflix or Hulu will try and match this offer, or to developer offline video storage as well. Amazon Kindle Prime Instant Video Offers Video Downloads is a post from: E-Reader News |
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Amazon Kindle Prime Instant Video Offers Video Downloads
Welcome Lance!
| As you’ve probably noticed, Raspberry Pi is a rather unusual organisation. We have two functions: we make and sell tiny computers, and we promote children’s education. These activities support each other (all the money we raise from selling Raspberry Pis is put straight back into our charitable activities), but are in many ways separate, and it’s a real juggling act directing the two together. Back at the start of the year, we split the engineering and trading activities of the Foundation into a separate, wholly owned trading subsidiary, Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd. The Raspberry Pi Foundation continues to run the charitable, educational side of things. Since then, I’ve been overseeing both organisations, but really, the two roles require two people doing them, and of necessity most of my attention has had to be devoted to the trading business.  Lance Howarth With that in mind, I’m very pleased to be able to announce that Lance Howarth has joined us as Foundation CEO, and will be taking the lead on the Foundation’s charitable activities. Lance spent a decade with ARM, latterly as EVP of Marketing and as a VP in the office of the CTO. He’ll be driving forward our educational mission, while I continue as CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) – you won’t see any big changes in my interactions with you here, at talks and so on. Hopefully we’ll be able to talk Lance into posting here on occasion too, to let you know what he and the board are up to. You’re seeing some of the results of those charitable activities I’ve been talking about already – Clive Beale, our most excellent Director of Educational Development, is heading up the work on a growing corpus of free educational materials, running workshops, working with teachers, and with other charities; we’ve committed to take on some more people to work on our educational function too. We’re funding development of projects like Sonic Pi, the music programming environment we blogged about yesterday. We’re putting money into open educational resources, like Scratch and Squeak. Lance will be growing our engagement with this sort of work, and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming him to the growing Raspberry Pi family. And if you want a lapel pin like his, you’ll find them in the Swag Store! |
Amazon Announces Pricey New Kindle Fire HDX Tablets and $139 Kindle Fire HD
| Today Amazon unveiled their new line tablets for 2013. Given all the leaks that have happened over the past couple of months, there really aren’t any surprises from a specs standpoint (I think Amazon likes to leak info on purpose to gauge and gain consumer interest). The most shocking surprise is the big price increase. […] |
Penguin eBooks are now available in OverDrive Marketplace
| OverDrive is excited to announce that more than 10,000 Penguin eBooks are now live and available for purchase in OverDrive Marketplace! Penguin's eBooks are available for public and college libraries, including consortium, in the U.S. in the one copy/one user lending model for a one year term. Availability of the Penguin eBooks to libraries outside the U.S. is coming soon. In the Penguin catalog libraries will find titles from numerous best-selling authors including: Tom Clancy, Lee Child, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Ken Follett, Junot Diaz, Khaled Hosseini, Maya Banks, Harlen Coben, W.E. B. Griffin and many others.
Individual public libraries and consortia can shop the Penguin eBook catalog now on the Marketplace homepage (if catalogs are merged), or the 'Metered Access' section in OverDrive Marketplace. You can also search for the content in Advanced Search under Publisher Account: Penguin Group (USA).
Popular new releases such as Clive Cussler's "Mirage" and Patricia Cornell's latest Kay Scarpetta novel "Dust" will be priced at $18.99. Backlist favorites will range from $5.99 -$9.99.
Penguin eBooks are available for Kindle (US) via USB side-loading only. You can find more information on the Kindle side-loading process in the OverDrive Help article.
OverDrive Collection Development Specialists are available to help create recommended lists of the Penguin catalog. Please email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information.
Karen Estrovich is the Collection Development Manager with OverDrive.
 |
Nook Simple Touch Glowlight Now Costs Just £49 In The UK
| The Nook Simple Touch Glowlight has earned itself the distinction of being the first front lit e-reader to breach the £50 mark, thanks to a price cut that has made the device cost just £49. The front lit e-reader had seen its price downsized to £69 from £109 earlier in the year, though the latest round of price reshuffling introduces a new low in e-reader price war. The Nook Simple Touch already costs a miserly £29, down from the £79 it cost earlier in the year. Compared to similar offerings from Amazon, the Kindle Paperwhite and the standard Kindle e-reader costs £109 and £69 respectively. This highlights B&N's effort to gain as much market share as possible. The price is perhaps the lowest that it can be and is well in time to ensure the Nook e-readers make the maximum possible impact during the holiday shopping period. The Nook Simple Touch Glowlight offers all that the Nook Simple Touch stands for, which includes an e-ink based display and a long battery life that can last well over a month. In addition, the Nook Glowlight also comes with a series of LEDs aligned along the top of the display which brightens up the screen to ensure it is visible even in low light conditions. The light might not be as well distributed as on the Kindle Paperwhite, but it still allows for a comfortable read during low light conditions, something that is aided with its light and compact build. B&N maintained the price cuts are just an extension of their affordability drive to ensure digital reading is accessible to all. Needless to say, both Nook e-readers come backed by the Nook online library, one of the biggest in the world.
Nook Simple Touch Glowlight Now Costs Just £49 In The UK is a post from: E-Reader News |
