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BookExpo 2014 In Pictures is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, May 31, 2014
BookExpo 2014 In Pictures
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Smashwords’ CEO Mark Coker spoke to groups of authors at the BEA Author Hub about the options open to writers in the climate of digital publishing.
Ten bestselling indie authors joined forces for their own booth at the event, a few of whom are pictured here. (L to R: Jana DeLeon, Theresa Ragan, Denise Grover Swank, Liliana Hart, and Jasinda Wilder)
In honor of the poet’s 195th birthday, Walt Whitman made an appearance and signed illuminated copies of his poem, “Song of Myself.”
Readers waited in long lines for the opportunity to meet their favorite authors for book signings.
The Alliance of Independent Authors’ Orna Ross presents Mark Coker with the organization’s first distinguished award for service to the indie author community.
Educational ebook platform Qlovi, backed by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was presented with the second place award in the Startup Challenge. Sourcebooks sponsored the award, and it was presented by CEO Dominique Raccah.
Ingram sponsored the first place award, which was presented by Librify’s CEO Joanna Stone Herman to book data tracker company Next Big Book’s Alex White.
Shebooks Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Equal Writes
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Shebooks is a short-form ebook service that offers stand-alone sales and subscription reading of their select titles. Their books are in the range of about fifty pages, covering non-fiction, long-form journalism, essay, literary fiction, and much more; serialization is also a concept that’s in the works. With a target audience of busy women who have to read in sprints as their schedules allow, Shebooks meets a need for content that can be enjoyed within a shorter time frame. “We're a new digital publishing company dreamed up by a journalist and a magazine editor who got tired of watching the space for quality women's writing in publications shrink and shrink and shrink. We decided to do something about it. We've pulled together an amazing team of experienced talent and started publishing great short e-books by women, for women. You can buy any book individually or get a Shebooks subscription to our growing library of titles.” As if launching the company wasn’t enough of a task, the leadership at Shebooks has launched a crowdfunded campaign to further works by women writers. Through a Kickstarter campaign to fund its Equal Writes initiative, the company plans to launch an ambitious program that will allow it to release two new titles a week. The campaign, which kicked off on May 27th, is already more than halfway to its goal of $50,000. For more information on the campaign or to lend support, visit HERE.
Shebooks Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Equal Writes is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Crowdfunding Opportunities for Authors Evolve with Pentian
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One of the biggest obstacles to crowdfunding books was solved when Pubslush launched its book-specific crowdfunding platform. Considered by its founders for be more of a focused pre-order site as backers receive a copy of the book, the site has an incredibly high success rate for helping authors reach their goals. But a company currently at work in the international book crowdfunding sphere is bringing its revolutionary concept in books to the US market. Pentian has upended the typical crowdfunding model of offering backers a few token gifts at various donation levels or a copy of the finished book, and instead gives backers a three-year license to earn a share of the royalties. Pentian was already established as a self-publishing company that developed both print and digital titles, but also had distribution networks in place to reach out to virtually every global market. After seeing a number of worthy manuscripts from authors who didn’t have the means to pay for top-notch editing or publishing services, the founders went looking for a crowdfunding option that would provide those funds while also offering backers the incentive to invest in those titles. Enrique Parrilla, co-founder of the company, spoke to Good e-Reader at BEA this week about the platform. According to Parrilla, the process of having backers who earn royalties correlates to that project receiving incredible discovery opportunities as the backers share the book’s news in order to boost their own interests in the revenue. “When we launched, we hoped to do 200 books in the first year,” Parrilla explained. “We did 200 books in the first eight weeks.” The only way a company can leverage that kind of volume in a successful way is through a network of freelancers, highly vetted professionals who take on the required tasks for publication. That workload sharing and crowd backing has already led to payoffs for a number of books.
Crowdfunding Opportunities for Authors Evolve with Pentian is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Goodereader Android App Store Client Updated
| We have updated the Good e-Reader Android and Blackberry 10 App Store client today with some fairly major enhancements. Chief among them is the elimination of the dreaded Force Close bug that has been plaguing us for quite sometime. Apparently it was due to an error in the app timing out when we added too many new apps at once. This is now solved and you should never again experience the app force closing or loading with no assets and then crashing. Although we solved a major bug with the app client we have added a number of other useful features. The home screen has received the bulk of the new enhancements with the ability to minimize the featured image carousel. In the past if you used our app on the Blackberry Q5, Blackberry Q10 or a phone with a screen less than 3 inches the featured images would take up half the screen. We have now added the ability to disable the slideshow, putting the priority on app discovery. Finally, we have increased the limits on app names on the home screen, so the full app name will now always be visible. The Good e-Reader App Store is the largest indie store in Canada with over 33,000 apps currently available for Android and Blackberry. We have a Developers Portal that allows creators to upload their app for free or monetize it with our paid app system. Download the Good e-Reader Android Client today and join in on the fun! Goodereader Android App Store Client Updated is a post from: Good e-Reader |
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Indie Excellence Awards Presented at BookExpo America
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But one other chief area who still bars entry to self-published titles are major book awards, which has prompted a number of prominent entities to establish national excellence awards to offer recognition to these works and their creators. The Indie Excellence Awards, established in 2007 to honor not only the writers and their works but also contributors like cover designers, layout artists, and more, presented its 2014 list of winners in conjunction with this year’s BookExpo America event. According to a release on this year’s competition, “Founder Ellen Reid, President & CEO of the National Indie Excellence Awards, announced the 2014 winners and finalists in categories that saw the greatest competition yet in an initiative that celebrates the best of books in print – which includes, covers, interior layouts, titles. in self-published or indie published books. The winners and finalists represent a diverse group of first-time authors and seasoned authors, major self-publishing groups as well as first-time publishing efforts.” “This year the expert team of publishing insiders who serve as judges of the NIEA, were challenged because of the quality of entries. I would have to say this was the fiercest competition we've seen. It's a new day in publishing in 2014," said Reid.
Indie Excellence Awards Presented at BookExpo America is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple Request to Delay Damages Trial Rejected by Appeals Court
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You’d think they’d learn. Instead, Apple filed motions last month to appeal Judge Denise Cote’s date for the damages portion of the ongoing case–damages which can be as high as 800+ million dollars, if punitive rulings are imposed–on the grounds that they were certain the case would be thrown out once it finishes with its appeal of Cote’s guilty ruling, making the damages trial a waste of time and money. Unfortunately for Apple, the Second Court of Appeals ruled this week that no delay was necessary. The appeal of the ruling against Apple is expected to take months in a trial phase that will begin July 14th. In related news, Amazon and Hachette Book Group–one of the publishers who settled out of court for its involvement in this case–are locked in battle over pricing terms. These terms were initially laid out as part of the settlement but are set to expire this fall, giving Hachette the option to once again attempt to impose agency pricing instead of the wholesale model that most entities operate under with Amazon. That battle has led Amazon to make some pretty fierce decisions about Hachette titles, including stating that titles were temporarily out of stock, removing the buy buttons on books for pre-order, and more.
Apple Request to Delay Damages Trial Rejected by Appeals Court is a post from: Good e-Reader |
IndieReader Announces IRDA Winners at BookExpo
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There is a first, second and third place winner in each of the fiction and non-fiction categories , in addition to 29 titles in 32 sub-categories, indicating that each book has received at least a 4-5 star review (out of 5 stars). Bestselling hybrid author and recent Authors Guild board member CJ Lyons was on hand to present the awards with IndieReader’s president Amy Edelman. The complete list of winners in each category can be found HERE. IndieReader has become known as a source of discovery for great reads by independently published authors, a designation which includes both self-published and small press works. IR features a number of initiatives to help authors promote their works, including its review site, it’s Alike But Indie comparison listing, and its initiative to put great indie titles in bookstores through strategic industry agreements.
IndieReader Announces IRDA Winners at BookExpo is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Onyx BOOX T68 Lynx e-Reader Available Soon
| Onyx has confirmed that their new T68 Lynx e-reader will be arriving at their warehouse within the next week and will be fulfilling outstanding orders to customers. New orders will be available via the Onyx Europe website and also on Amazon. The Lynx e-reader is very much akin to the Kobo Aura HD, in terms of specs. It features a 6.8 e-Ink capacitive Ultra HD EPD display screen and a resolution of 1440×1080 pixels. Underneath the hood is a Freescale i.MX Cortex A9 1.0GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. Books are stored on the device and has 4GB of internal storage with the option to increase it via the Micro SD Card. One of the things that separate the Lynx from most other ereaders on the market is that has it a 3.5mm headphone jack and the ability to play audio. Natively it will play MP3 and WAV audiobooks right out of the box, which is a boon to people who like to listen to music while they read. The software side of things are completely different from what Kobo is doing. Onyx has loaded the stock version of Android 4.0.4, which will allow users to load in their own apps. Onyx BOOX T68 Lynx e-Reader Available Soon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, May 30, 2014
Hachette Launches Store Within a Store Concept at Booksamillion
| Booksamillion is one of the last bookstore chains to be operating in the US and is the de facto number two, next to Barnes and Noble. The bookseller has inked a new deal with Hachette to pioneer a new online store within a store concept. Hardcover and softcover books are available to be purchased and customers can save up to 40% on new titles. A store within a store concept is a rather new endeavor with an established bookstore chain peddling Hachette titles. Why is this a big deal? Well Hachette and Amazon have been locked in a contract dispute that has seen pre-orders being disabled and five week shipping on most titles. Hachette is obviously looking to diversify away from exclusively relying on Amazon to generate 75% of their digital purchases. The deal with Booksamillion goes beyond just having a dedicated part of their website facilitating book discovery, sales and shipping. As part of the agreement Booksamillion will be promoting discounts and new titles with press releases and social media. Readers will benefit from saving 30% across the board on pre-order titles and the vast majority of Hachette backlist selection. In some cases discounts on hardcover editions are 40% off, giving customers the ability to buy them cheaper than Amazon. Hachette Launches Store Within a Store Concept at Booksamillion is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle Cloud Reader Goes Global
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Unfortunately, Kindle Cloud Reader still doesn’t offer support for personal documents. Cloud-based reading apps are still in their infancy, and most consider them a back-up method of reading (as opposed to the native apps on every device)… But for those frequently on the move or using a large number of devices, a cloud reader gives them an option for consistency of interface and ease of use. Kindle Cloud Reader Goes Global is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Dragon Quest VIII Now Available for Android
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As expected, the graphics quality is amazing and the game-play feels more like it would on a console rather than a mobile platform. Less expected is that this 8th-installment of the Dragon Quest series is designed to be played with a single hand and in portrait mode. Luckily the followers of the series are a dedicated bunch because the price-tag is a hefty one for a mobile app, with a Canadian price tag of nearly $30. Thankfully this is all-inclusive and you do not need to worry about making a bunch of in-app purchases to further drive up the cost. Dragon Quest VIII Now Available for Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
ISEE-3
| Back in early March, I posted comic #1337, Hack, about a wayward spacecraft. ISEE-3/ICE was returning to fly past Earth after many decades of wandering through space. It was still operational, and could potentially be sent on a new mission, but NASA no longer had the equipment to talk to it—and announced that reconstructing the equipment would be too difficult and expensive. ISEE-3 is just a machine, but it’s a machine we sent on an incredible journey; to have it return home to find our door closed seemed sad to me. In my comic, I imagined a group of internet space enthusiasts banding together to find a way to take control of the probe—although I figured this was just a hopeful fantasy. I wasn’t the only one who liked the idea of “rescuing” ISEE-3. In April, Dennis Wingo and Keith Cowling put up a crowdfunding project on RocketHub to try to learn how the lost communications systems worked, reconstruct working versions of them, obtain use of a powerful enough antenna, and commandeer the spacecraft. It seemed like an awfully long shot, but I contributed anyway. Well, yesterday, Cowling and his team announced, from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, that they are now in command of the ISEE-3 spacecraft. Congratulations to the team, and good luck with your new spaceship! Watch out for hackers. |
OverDrive Challenge last chance!
| Saturday May 31 is the last day to register for June's OverDrive Challenge! Join the many public library partners from across the globe that have already signed up and are ready for the challenge. There's no risk to you to participate – in fact, just for registering, you are automatically entered to win a Google Nexus tablet! The OverDrive Challenge for the month of June is to increase your digital library circulation to beat your best month on record. If you can increase circulation in June by 25% or 50% from your best month, you're a winner! If you reach these goals in June, your library will receive a prize of content credit or an exciting service enhancement of a Kids'/Teens' eReading Room (25%) or an OverDrive Media Station (50%). The library that increases their circulation the most out of everyone participating will receive a Gadget Jackpot, full of devices, content credit and more. Read more about the prizes and make sure to check out the official rules for more details about eligibility. This is an opportunity for you to find creative and innovative ways to spread the word about your digital collection to your community and find what works best for you. Every library is different and we're looking forward to seeing the many ways our partners are generating awareness about their eBooks, digital audiobooks, streaming video and music. We'd love for the OverDrive Challenge to be a catalyst for our partners to set more individual goals and see circulation growth month to month through promotion, education and collection development. For a few tips, click here to check out some suggestions about how to bring in new users, build your collection and jump into social media and remember, you always have access to the Partner Portal for marketing and training resources! Click here to fill out an entry form. The deadline for entry is Saturday May 31. Read full contest details and rules for more information.
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Amazon Still Selling Kindle DX International Version for $199
| Okay, so this is kind of odd. Amazon recently stopped selling the Kindle DX (for the second time) and since then the device has only been available used, and at majorly inflated prices. But if you know just where to look you can still find the Kindle DX for sale new on Amazon for the […] |
The Hugh Howey Booktrack Competition Open to Entries
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The first is a contest for fan fiction writers, who will craft their own original take on the structure, characters, setting, or more, before adding their own immersive soundtrack to accompany the work. Sponsored by Wattpad and Writer’s Digest, the winner will receive $5,000 and editorial feedback on the submission by Hugh Howey. The second concurrent contest is a soundtrack competition which invites participants to use the Booktrack Studio platform to build their own soundtracks to accompany one chapter of Howey’s work. The winner of that competition will win $5,000 and the chance to create the full sound track to accompany Howey’s novel The Hurricane. In order to get a feel for the competition, all users are invited to enjoy part one of Howey’s work Sand for free to experience an immersive music-based reading opportunity. For details on both competitions and to enter, visit Booktrack.com/HughHowey. Booktrack has already encouraged a strong user base, particularly in classrooms where teachers can craft their own isolated bookshelves for their students to use; moreover, their students can also create their own soundtracks to accompany their writings, leading to cross-curricular teaching units which combine English, music, history, and other subjects. Studies have already shown that reading comprehension and engagement with the text increased dramatically when students were allowed to use Booktrack, and opportunities for special education students are already in place.
The Hugh Howey Booktrack Competition Open to Entries is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Raspberry Pi projects at the Maker Faire Bay Area
| Recently a number of us were lucky enough to fly over to the Bay Area Maker Faire to represent Raspberry Pi at the event. For those who haven’t managed to make it to one before, these are festivals on a grand scale of all things craft, electronics, tech, and general making with the Bay Area Maker Faire being one of the largest. It had quadcopter fighting, a fire breathing metal octopus (yes, really), cupcake cars, robotics and cool projects from every corner of the maker community. Clive, Carrie Anne, myself, and the folks from Pimoroni spent a lot of time at the stand talking to Raspberry Pi fans one on one though in this post we’re highlighting some of the awesome Pi-based projects we managed to see on our visit. Our stand proved very popular not least because of the super fashionable Raspberry Pi branded tote bags and tradable resource cards we brought along to give out.  The calm before the storm For a taste of what a Maker Faire is like, look no further than Carrie Anne’s montage for Geek Gurl Diaries: One of my personal favourite projects was Mugbot, a social robotics creation from Seita Koike at Tokyo City University. It’s amazing how emotive this little fellow can be with just a few servos and some LEDs to express itself. It quite convincingly pulls off sad, happy, and angry among other emotions.  The translucent body represents imperfection as a humanoid Another exciting project was the Argus geodesic 3D scanner by Shannon Hoover. This is a dome which features 35 Raspberry Pi, using a Raspberry Pi and a Pi camera on each hub along with a custom board for LED lighting. Argus is used to take a picture of someone from all angles which can then be stitched into a full 3D model. You can see it in action in Carrie Anne’s montage. Right now the metal bars need to be bent, though the project creator is looking at using custom hubs (either 3d printed or eventually injection moulded) so that standard low cost metal tubes can be used.  1 of 28 images taken simultaneously by Argus Although Raspberry Pi was created with educational goals, it always pleases us to see it used as a prototyping platform or embedded in commercial products. One such project was Cultivar, which uses a Raspberry Pi, a high quality moisture sensor (capacitive as opposed to resistive), a USB WiFi dongle, a solenoid, and a whole bunch of neat software to enable your to observe and automate plant irrigation through a pretty web UI. The project aims to offer intelligent algorithms for water control to, for instance, give different amounts of water at different stages in the plant’s lifecycle while also taking environmental conditions into account.  Cultivar’s spindly spider-like legs may be problematic for arachnophobes We were pleased to see such a large number of young makers at the event (in fact, there was a whole hall dedicated just to Young Makers and their projects). We met some inspiring young people there – I’m tempted to pick up electric guitar playing just so I can use QV’s modular guitar design. Julian, Zach, Will, Cameran, Arjun, Mark and Dylan from Pleasanton, California told me all about their ‘Robot Pi’ project which consists of a Raspberry Pi-powered robot, the maze they had constructed, and a Python-based web server which allows you to control the robot through the maze and view the maze from the perspective of the robot’s camera. In the picture below the robot is tethered to its remote, though this is just as the team found there was too much interference in this electrically noisy environment. The Robot Pi team are a bunch of friends who wanted to pursue electronics in their free time, and were able to put on their stand thanks to a successful crowdfunding effort.  RobotPi navigates its maze Another young maker project we really enjoyed was the Cootie Catcher Choir by Zander Roe and Brian Roe pictured below. Carrie Anne interviewed Zander about his work, who explained to us how he uses an Adafruit 16-channel servo driver breakout board to drive the servos connected to gears at the back of the cootie catcher wall. It may not be clear from the pictures, but it works by pressing a button on the project’s web interface to cause one of the mouths to open and emit a note of a certain pitch.  Cootie Catcher Choir by Zander Roe We were excited to see so many awesome projects using the Raspberry Pi in some way at the Maker Faire and really enjoyed speaking to all the makers about their work. I know there are many, many more we either didn’t see or didn’t manage to write about. If you know of any, please leave a note in the comments.  Transform your Raspberry Pi |
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Top 10 New Android Apps of the Week – May 29
| The World Cup in Brazil is coming up soon and numerous games and apps are rising up to take advantage of the biggest event in sports. Today, we look at the top 10 new android apps of the week. All of this content is available for free via the Good e-Reader Android App Store. Batman & The Flash: Hero Run – Become the savior of Gotham City and Gorilla City as you do battle with the Joker and fearsome Gorilla Grodd! Battle by night: As Batman, exit the shadows and liberate Gotham City from your nemesis, the Joker, and his army of twisted clown thugs. Race by day: As the Flash, face your archenemy Gorilla Grodd and his swarm of fearsome gorillas deep in the mysterious Gorilla City. Real Football 2014 Brazil Android – Real Football worldcup 2014 / Soccer Championship is one of the most intense and addictive football games on the play market. Pick your favorite premier league team and lead them to glory by scoring the most goals.Face different opponents as you make your way through the competition and attempt to become the champion. Spider-man AR – You can add the Amazing Spider-Man theme content to Xperia AR effect application. With Spider-Man theme you can create pictures and movies with Spider-Man hanging from a thread, attacking with a net, hanging on the wall and much more. Racing Rivals – Racing Rivals presents a huge collection of licensed cars ranging from tunes and exotics to classic American muscle. Featured brands include McLaren, Subaru, Dodge, Mitsubishi, Ford, RWB, Scion, BMW, Acura and SRT with more on the way! Zombie Road Trip Trials - The hit game Zombie Road Trip is back with an all NEW trials spin off! Hundreds of extreme missions await you and your friends in this fun filled and action packed physics game. Show off your driving, shooting, flipping, racing and zombie smashing skills in this awesome spin on the classic trials genre! Sunrise Calendar – Sunrise is a free calendar made for Google Calendar and iCloud. With an amazing design, Sunrise is a new experience that will make your life easier. Onefootball Brazil – Experience the World Cup in Brazil first-hand with Onefootball Brasil. Get up to date play-by-play match commentary in the Live Ticker, latest news and never miss a game with our comprehensive World Cup planner. With Onefootball Brasil you won't miss a minute of the action. BBM for Gingerbread – BBM brings you together in the moment with friends and family through instant chats, voice calls, picture sharing, voice notes and more. Download the official version of BBM from BlackBerry now. Food Network In the Kitchen – Cook with Alton Brown, Giada De Laurentiis, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri and more. Save your favorite Food Network recipes, access your own personal recipes saved on FoodNetwork.com, add ingredients to your SHOPPING LIST and more with the new and improved RECIPE BOX. LEGO DUPLO Ice Cream – There's nothing like delicious ice cream on a hot summer day. Let your child help the DUPLO bunny and his friends get some ice cream by completing a series of fun and varied mini-games designed for toddlers. Top 10 New Android Apps of the Week – May 29 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Pocket Unveils Premium Edition
| When I am doing laundry at the end of the day, I find all manner of things in pockets. When grilled, my kids will always tell me it is a treasure they are saving for later. In much the same fashion, Pocket for your Android device does the same thing for just about any content you can find online: articles, videos, Tweets, etc. If you put it into [your] Pocket, whatever you saved is ready when you are –you don’t even need an Internet connection. To further extend the usefulness of this app, Pocket is now offering a premium service that keeps a copy of the items you save in a permanent library (which means that your copy stays the same even if the original resource is deleted or changed). Other features come with the premium subscription, such as a faster and more powerful search (which comes in very handy once your Pocket becomes more and more full) and a tagging system to help you access content easily later. I suggest tagging things like recipes, or creating tags for people you chat to regularly –I’m always trying to remember to mention something I read when I’m next talking to my mother or sister! Subscription prices come in at $4.99/month or $44.99 a year and can be purchased directly from their website. With over 11 million users having pocketed over 850 million items, if you haven’t tried this app yet… it is time to start. Pocket Unveils Premium Edition is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Popular iOS Sunrise Calendar App Available on Android
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It is difficult to talk about Sunrise Calendar without getting excited. Sure it has reminders and handles recurring events. Sure it has actual properly functioning timezone support. Sure it lets you tag locations for your events. Sure it uses Google Maps for directions. Sure it can connect to multiple Google calendars. Sure it will do Facebook events and birthdays. Sure it will let you see the faces and profiles of people you are meeting with that use LinkedIn. Sure it has 25,000 calendars available to add in events for holidays, sports teams, name days, week numbers and more. Sure it will give you the weather forecast for your location. Sure the synchronization actually works, in real-time, every-time. (okay, okay, you get the point… this app is full of features!) The point is this: Sunrise Calendar looks good, functions well, and will spoil you for all other calendar apps. Popular iOS Sunrise Calendar App Available on Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
RWA’s Novel Engagement App Solves Book Discovery Issue
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The Romance Writers of America has developed an upcoming app that will help its readers find new titles, stay on top of what books are soon to be released, and connect with authors who load their content through the app. Called Novel Engagement, the app will send push notifications to readers who indicate that they want the reminder of when a new book by their favorite author is to be released. RWA’s Carol Ritter and Stephani Fry demonstrated the app’s capabilities for Good e-Reader. “You can click on books and search by author, book title, subgenre, keyword, and then you can prioritize your search,” explained Fry. “The app allows a number of keywords within the genre search, as well as offers the ability to search by publication date.” When books in the app are already available for purchase, the app will actually take readers to a number of different retailer platforms to purchase the book. For ones that are pending, readers can determine whether or not they wish to be reminded on the date of purchase. Perhaps most intriguing is the ability for readers to connect with authors through their social media channels, as their account links are embedded within the app and allow users to engage at the press of a button. The romance writers and publishers have driven much of the innovation and risk-taking in the industry with things like the first ebook-only imprints, unheard of author royalties, and social media networking surrounding titles. Now, RWA’s app demonstrates once again how the romance industry is addressing needs in publishing that other so-called experts are still musing and worrying about. The free iOS and Android app monetizes from a subscription fee that authors pay to include their content in the app, which some 1,000 authors have already done, resulting in the inclusion of over 4,000 titles already. Good e-Reader will post a video soon of the full-featured app in action.
RWA’s Novel Engagement App Solves Book Discovery Issue is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The IDPF Digital Book 2014 – In Pictures
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The IDPF Digital Book 2014 – In Pictures is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The BookExpo America event is the largest North American publishing industry conference, and it has grown to include a wide variety of incorporated events that address nearly every aspect of the book industry.
Otis Chandler of Goodreads presented interesting findings on how social media use affects book discovery and sales.
The Penguin Mobile Bookmobile made an appearance inside the Jacob Javits Center.
Barbara Freethy, Bella Andre, and Hugh Howey presented their understanding of the state of the industry where self-published authors are concerned.
Porter Anderson moderates a panel of small to mid-sized independent publishers, examining what those companies bring to the industry.
Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks presents the second place award to educational ebook platform Qlovi in the Startup Challenge.
Author HM Ward holds up a copy of the book behind her controversial decision to reject a Big Five traditional publishing deal. The book in its first two weeks earned nearly three-quarters the amount she was offered in the deal.
Librify and Ingram presented the first place award in the Startup Challenge to Next Big Book.Tolino Vision Review
| The Tolino Vision was released early April in Germany and was billed as a Kindle Killer by the Tolino Alliance, which comprises of Deutsche Telekom, Hugendubel, Thalia, Bertelsmann and World View. The intention behind the Vision was to be the definitive device to own if you speak German and taps into an extensive eBook Store with over 1.2 million titles. How does this reader compare to the latest generation offerings by Amazon or Kobo? Today, we take an extensive look at the Vision and let you know if its worth it to buy. Hardware The Tolino Vision features the latest in e-Paper innovatio, e Ink Carta. This is the exact screen technology found on the Kindle Paperwhite 2. This will not only provide higher contrast, but also eliminate the refreshing when you turn a page in an eBook. There are actually settings menu options that allow you to manually set the refresh rate from every 6 pages to every 100 pages. The overall resolution is a very respectable 1024 × 758 pixels. One of the things that stands out with this model is that the screen is flush with the bezel. The only other e-reader to do this was the six inch Kobo Aura, it almost feels like a tablet or smartphone in this respect. The Vision is using bleeding edge technology with the e-Paper tech, to really give a solid reading experience. It gives you the best of the Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Kobo Aura in one slick little package. Underneath the hood is a Freescale iMx6 1 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM. There is 4GB of internal memory, but after you take it out of the box for the first time, you are relegated to two. This will store around 1,500 eBooks on average, but you can expand it up to 32GB via the Micro SD. The Tolino Vision has has brushed aluminum on the backplate and really rounded edges. There is a power button and front-light switch on the top of the unit and a Mini USB and SD slot on the bottom. There is a single software driven home key on the front, which is fairly responsive. Overall, the Vision offers one of the most compelling industrial designs I have ever seen on an e-Reader.Deutsche Telekom were the ones that actually did the RND on this unit, instead of outsourcing everything to China. Really, this certainly puts Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Onyx and Sony on notice for their next generation e-Reader offerings. Software The Tolino Vision has a fairly basic home screen that has a number of responsive elements to it. Whenever you buy or open a book it automatically appears there, making it easy to pick up where you left off. At the bottom of the main screen are 5 book recommendations from Buecher.de. You can simply click on any of these titles to see the product listing on the online bookstore. The library management system is fairly deft, with extensive options to make you feel right at home. You can easily view books with their book cover art or condense them in list view. There are options to sort the library by author, date added or by title name. I liked the ability to easily delete books on your shelf by hitting the delete key and selecting the titles. When it comes to library management 4GB of onboard storage should be enough for most people. BY default you can signup for TelekomCloud storage for books and have store up to 6GB of content. It is important to note that the maximum file size for each title is 500MB. They bill it as a way you can access your library titles in DRM format or student textbooks. The overall menu system is clean and intuitive, there are hardly any advanced elements outside of the settings menu to confuse or alienate the average user. I think the only thing in the settings menu I can see someone regularly using is the built in internet browser. Reading Experience The Tolino Vision certainly excels in the hardware department but feels lackluster when it comes to the reading experience. You cannot register an account to buy eBooks on the device or cannot even login to the store unless you are in Germany. If you adjust any of the publisher defaults in a book you are reading, such as line spacing, margins or font size, you are in for a long loading delay if you reopen a book. The most damning aspect of the Vision is the PDF rendering engine they employ. You cannot pinch and zoom to magnify a specific area or text, instead you have to longpress the center of the screen to hit the plus or minus symbol for manual zoom, but if you want to zoom on the fly things get a little crazy. The PDF rendering engine does not preserve the unrendered state of the original page you are navigating. Instead, it gives you a jumble of white noise that will likely send people into seizures. You have absolutely no preview pane on where you are in the document and once you release your finger from the page, it instantly renders. This obviously can be repaired with a quick firmware update, but since the bookstore that comes bundled on the reader does not sell PDF files, it is likely not in their best interest to fix this issue. If you are enamoured with PDF documents there is a reflow option that will strip all of images and formatting away and give you the document in pure text form. Sadly, when you do this there is no spacing between words. Youbasicallyhaveanetirepdfbookrenderlike thisquitesad. The bread and butter of the Tolino is reading your standard EPUB book. There are plenty of advanced features to allow you to change the size of the font (8) and change the font-type completely (6). You can change the margins, line spacing and revert back to the publisher defaults on the fly. If you long-press on a specific word it opens up the ability to take notes, highlights, look words up in the dictionary or translate them. Currently it offers translation and dictionary support for English, German, Spanish, Italian and French. These are not installed by default and each one is around 100MB in size. One of the things I like about note taking is the fact it will save all of them in a singular book file in your main library. Highlights will also be injected into this file, which makes it applicable for book clubs or students wanting to check on their notes, without having the sift through the whole book again. If you are reading in the dark, you have the ability to adjust the brightness level of the display while reading a book. If you tap the center of the screen it brings up a set of UI options. This is your command and control center where you can change the level of luminosity. Overall, the brightness of the screen looks completely white, unless you jack it up to the max, and it gains a blue hue. This is a situation that has faced every other e-reader company relying on this tech, Amazon was the only one to get it right so far. Wrap Up The Tolino Vision is a fairly polished ereader on a hardware level and is currently one of the most advanced ones in the world. Sadly, it is hampered by a series of software bugs and a deplorable state of PDF rendering. The great news is, this can all be easily fixed and updates can automatically be pushed out when you reboot your reader. The Tolino is worthy investment if you live in Germany, because the entire book ecosystem is built books published there. There are over 1.2 million titles in the library, which is a mix of translated works by popular American bestselling authors and books written and produced in Germany. There are also 250,000 free books available to get reading right away, although there is only one title on the reader out of the box. In the end, the Vision is a solid e-reader from a design point of view and can actually give a Kindle a run for its many in the critical German market. Just don’t expect to read PDF files effectively on it. Rating: 7/10 Tolino Vision Review is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Chinese Cubes Innovates in Language Instruction through eBooks
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But one company, Chinese Cubes, offered something truly different, something that we don’t see all the time from an enhanced ebook platform. Chinese Cubes has built an entire platform for teaching Mandarin to readers of a variety of ages, while still keeping in mind the actual classroom uses of their platform. With engaging, colorful illustrations, step-by-step writing instruction, voice over narration, and more, each stand alone title address a variety of topics and themes while showing readers the Mandarin and English text. “Each book comes in three modes, with read to me or picture modes with the sound of authentic Chinese voices reading. The learn by myself mode allows someone who doesn’t have any background in Chinese to understand it.” With continuous looping features of some of the instruction, teachers can access the stories on a projected tablet and keep the instruction on the board while walking around their classrooms and assisting students. This feature is also important for students and learners who want to practice multiple steps while watching the writing instruction. Chinese Cubes also incorporates less juvenile but still highly engaging levels of instruction for somewhat older learners. Chinese Cubes was invited to submit its proposal in this year’s inaugural BookExpo Startup Challenge.
Chinese Cubes Innovates in Language Instruction through eBooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
