| Overdrive unveiled their streaming video service last year and the service allows Canadian and US libraries to offer digital movies to their patrons. The company has just signed a distribution deal with Warner Brothers that will add hundreds of new titles to their catalog, but with a catch. Libraries no longer have to buy the titles in advance. Libraries will be able to benefit from a new transactional, pay-per-use lending model from OverDrive for the first time. This model eliminates the need to purchase titles in advance of their use and ensures that titles are available instantly to all patrons simultaneously. Libraries can curate the video lists that want to get setup and offer content that will serve their communities. They can also set user lending policies for Warner Bros. movies to manage costs within their material budgets. Library patrons across the U.S. and Canada will be able to use PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android Tablets or nearly any connected device to stream videos from their library. Building on the existing OverDrive catalog, Warner Bros. titles such as I am Sam (Academy Award nomination for Best Actor: Sean Penn), Natural Born Killers (Starring Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, Golden Globe nomination for Best Director: Oliver Stone), Insomnia (starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, Directed by Christopher Nolan), and Life as a House (SAG Awards nominations for Leading Actor: Kevin Kline; Supporting Actor: Hayden Christensen) will soon be available for lending. Overdrive Unveils Pay-Per-Use Lending Model for Warner Brothers Movies is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Overdrive Unveils Pay-Per-Use Lending Model for Warner Brothers Movies
Perseus Book Group Sold to Hachette and Ingram
| Perseus Book Group was founded in 1996 and has been acquiring small imprints to expand their business. Over the course of the last few years the entire publishing industry is consolidating and Perseus was a solid acquisition target. Hachette has announced they are purchasing Perseus and absorbing all of their imprints and then selling the distribution business to Ingram. Hachette is currently the 4th largest publisher in the US and the absorbing of Persius will boost their annual revenue an extra $700 million dollars. This stems from the many imprints it now owns, such as from Avalon Travel, Basic Books, Da Capo, The Economist, Nation Books, Running Press, Seal Press, Weinstein Books and Westview. Not only does Hachette get access to all of the current catalog of titles but also access to 6,000 backlist of titles it can now issue as eBooks. These include perennial sellers such as "Friday Night Lights" by Buzz Bissinger and "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Perseus can be considered by some, to be the largest book distributor in the US. Under the terms of the Hachette deal Ingram will absorb the client services division, which provides back-end services like marketing and distribution, to Ingram Content Group. Perseus Book Group Sold to Hachette and Ingram is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amnesty App Morphs Power Button Into Panic Button
| Sometimes things aren’t actually as they seem, a truth that now applies to Android apps as well. While it masquerades as the sweet and innocent calculator app, Amnesty International’s Panic Button might just save the lives of their human rights activists frequently at risk of facing arrest, attack, kidnapping or torture. After downloading the app, users can setup three contacts to alert during an emergency (consider who may be nearby and able to help) and also write a message that will be triggered when the app is initiated (Amnesty recommends pre-arranging code words and phrases with those on your list). If the worst happens, users need only tap their power buttons (5 times in 5 seconds, resulting in a vibration confirmation) which will result in their pre-written message being broadcast to their contacts along with current GPS coordinates. Another option is to load the mock-calculator and repeatedly pressing the number 1, producing the same effect. Tanya O’Carroll, Amnesty International’s Technology and Human Rights Officer discusses their motivation for the app – “We have long known that the first hours after somebody’s arrest are the crucial window of opportunity for a network to make a difference to their colleague’s release — whether it be flooding the police station with calls, arranging a protest, or mobilising lawyers and organisations like Amnesty International for a campaign of international pressure.” Following a beta test with over 100 activists worldwide, you can download Panic Button (Beta) from Good e-Reader.
Amnesty App Morphs Power Button Into Panic Button is a post from: Good e-Reader |
McGraw-Hill and Follett Partner for eBook Distribution
| McGraw-Hill has partnered with Follett to better target K-12 Schools via Follett's Market Leading Destiny Platform. McGraw-Hill Professional's catalog is one of the premier eBook collections in the world for education, business, consumer, technical, and medical titles available on the market today. McGraw-Hill Professional is offering more than 4,500 new and backlist eBooks, available to lend on multiple devices. These titles include McGraw-Hill Education's comprehensive collection of student test prep and study aids: 5 Steps to a 5 AP test prep series, the Demystified series, Practice Makes Perfect foreign language series, Schaum's Outline study guides, McGraw-Hill Education Guide to SAT, McGraw-Hill Education TASC, The Official Guide to TOEFL Test, and more. "We are committed to delivering new ways for school libraries to access our premier content to help students achieve success," says Philip Ruppel, president of McGraw-Hill Professional. "We are pleased to team up with Follett to expand student access to our digital collections." Follett customers are able to seamlessly search and access all print and digital content within the convenience of Destiny Library Manager, the leading school library management solution. Destiny features Follett's Universal Search, an innovative tool that gives students the ability to access content they need from one system. Follett customers without the Destiny platform use Follett Shelf TM, the company's virtual bookshelf. Currently, more than 30 million students and educators in 42,000 schools worldwide use eBooks provided by Follett. "Our customers are especially excited about the availability of McGraw-Hill Professional's highly respected test preparation titles," said Tom Schenck, president of Follett School Solutions. "This partnership reflects our mission to support 21st century learning for students and preparing them for the demands of college and their careers." McGraw-Hill and Follett Partner for eBook Distribution is a post from: Good e-Reader |
CNBC Produces 1 Hour Show about Amazon
| Amazon is a global e-commerce giant that capitalized on selling physical books online and then diversified into eBooks. The company is notoriously silent when it comes to the inner workings of life in Seattle and once in awhile we get an introspective, such as the Anything Store by Brad Thor. CNBC has produced a new one hour documentary telling the story of a shrewd visionary named Jeff Bezos who bet his fortunes on the exploding internet and created one of the most admired — and feared — companies in the world. On Sunday, June 29th at 9PM ET/PT, CNBC presents "Amazon Rising," a one-hour documentary reported by award-winning correspondent David Faber, which tells the story of a shrewd visionary named Jeff Bezos who bet his fortunes on the exploding internet and created one of the most admired — and feared — companies in the world. With more than 240 million customers, Faber reports on this powerhouse that has upended publishing, retail, and cloud computing, is poised to disrupt the supermarket industry, and faces increasing scrutiny as it extends its reach ever further into the fabric of American life. Amazon sells everything from accordions to zippers and has changed the way we shop, bringing goods to our doorstep faster than we ever imagined. CNBC speaks with former Amazon executives and employees who shed light on a range of fascinating aspects of the company including Bezos's extraordinary vision and often confrontational leadership style; Amazon.com's infrastructure, designed to create "frictionless" shopping and maximize purchases; the relationship with third party merchants, some of whom complain that Amazon unfairly undermines their sales; the toll taken on fulfillment center workers to keep up with shipping demands; and Amazon's overwhelming and controversial incursion into the book industry. The documentary also examines the unusual faith that Wall Street has placed in Bezos, who guides an enterprise that has taken in hundreds of billions of dollars over the past two decades but has barely turned a profit. CNBC Produces 1 Hour Show about Amazon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Onyx Boox T68 Lynx Now Available on Amazon for $199 (Video)
| Here’s a bit of good news. One of the most interesting new ebook readers of the year is now available for purchase in the United States, and I just bought one so look forward to a review in a couple weeks. The Onyx Boox T68 is now available on Amazon for $199 with free shipping. […] |
Deal Alert: 2nd Gen Nexus 7 Refubs for $129
| There have been tons of deals on Android tablets lately, even some as low as $7.99. Possibly the best deal of the month is ongoing right now. The 16GB 2nd gen Nexus 7 is available via eBay for just $129. That’s $100 off the retail price of a new one. These units aren’t new, they […] |
PyConUK Education Track for Teachers
| The Raspberry Pi Education team have really hit the ground running over the past few months, creating resources for the new website, running teacher training courses, and attending conferences and events all over the world! We even employed a Minecraft expert in our efforts to reach more young people and teachers. For the first time this year, we get the opportunity to combine our teacher training efforts with a conference and even a Raspberry Jam thanks to our friends in the UK Python community, who run a volunteer-organised annual conference called PyconUK. This year it runs from the 19th-22nd September in Coventry with a special education track created just for teachers and young people! On the first day, Friday 19th, there will be a professional development day for educators. Teachers will have an opportunity to learn Python, collaborate with programmers to produce educational resources, network with other conference attendees and generally have fun exploring technology that will inspire students. The Raspberry Pi education team will be contributing along with other teaching colleagues and an international group of expert Python developers will be on hand to help teachers get the most out of the day. Teachers’ tickets cost only £47 for the whole four day conference including Saturday evening’s conference meal (they’re usually £150 or more) and thanks to some very generous sponsorship, the first twenty teachers who book also qualify for a £200 bursary to cover their school’s cost for a supply teacher on the Friday.  Recognise any of the people in this picture from PyConUK 2012? On Saturday 20th, PyConUK opens its doors to up to 60 kids and accompanying adults for a day of inspiring adventures in code, something akin to a Raspberry Jam event. There will be Raspberry Pi, robots, workshops, games programming and lots of other fun stuff. Tickets cost £5 per child and accompanying adults get in for free. They’ll even provide you with lunch! Once again, the Raspberry Pi edu team will be there along with expert teachers and hordes of Python developers who’ll probably be just as excited and enthusiastic as the kids who attend.  Children at PyConUK last year having fun with Raspberry Pi If you would like to meet the team, learn more about Raspberry Pi in education and get hands on with computing then get your tickets here. |
BookBaby Shares Free Publishing Guide from Guy Kawasaki
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Kawasaki is the author of twelve books for businessmen and industry newbies, covering every aspect of the business in easy to understand but informative language. His co-writer on APE: Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur, How to Publish an eBook was Shawn Welch, and together the duo is working to ensure that authors have every tool at their disposal to publish their work on their own. One of the ways that BookBaby stands out from the self-publishing competition is in its business model. Whereas some self-publishing companies and “vanity presses” rip authors off by charging up front for service and then charging additional royalties as high as 55% of net profits, BookBaby is one of the few companies in the industry that does not take any additional fees; the author earns royalties from the different platforms that BookBaby distributes to, and retains all percentages after the retail platforms’ fee. In addition, BookBaby has made a name for itself in the free author tools that it provides its clients, especially in the areas of marketing and promotion. Kawasaki and Welch’s book will be available from BookBaby as a free download through the end of July by visiting bookbaby.com/apebook.
BookBaby Shares Free Publishing Guide from Guy Kawasaki is a post from: Good e-Reader |
