| Amazon has quietly doubled the amount of onboard storage in new models of the Kindle Paperwhite second generation e-reader. Any new device ordered online from Amazon will have 4GB to store all of your books, instead of the standard 2GB. There was a time when Amazon always included 4GB of storage in their Kindles, but this when they had features like on-board audio and audiobooks used to take up a ton of space. When the Paperwhite 1 and 2 were first released Amazon realized they could likely downgrade the amount of storage and nobody would really care, because all of your purchase were saved in the cloud. The only market to have a 4GB model of the Paperwhite 2 right out of the gates was Japan, and this was primarily due to manga and graphic novels taking up more space than your standard digital book. Amazon has made no formal announcement yet about the subtle increase in storage. On the Kindle Paperwhite 2 product page they don’t even reference the exact amount of storage that is available anymore. Amazon Quietly Doubles Storage from 2GB to 4GB on Paperwhite 2 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Amazon Quietly Doubles Storage from 2GB to 4GB on Paperwhite 2
Kindle Direct Publishing Unveils Pre-Orders for eBooks
| Amazon has finally rolled out their pre-order program for all authors who distribute through the Kindle Direct Publishing. Self-published authors will be able to start selling their title before its officially ready, giving them the ability to hype the book in advance and start capturing sales. Indie authors can only start selling the book 90 days before the book’s release date. When they make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set and it will be delivered to them on that date. One advantage of pre-order is that authors can begin promoting the book before launch to help raise awareness. There are various avenues in the Amazon ecosystem to drum up hype, such as your book’s pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your own site, and elsewhere. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising even before the book is released, which can help more readers discover your book. Amazon has just released a helpful FAQ which addresses many of the most popular questions and concerns from the KDP pre-order program that has been beta tested over the last year. How it works You’ll list your book as you would with any other KDP book. When you’re adding a new book, on Step 4, “Select Your Book Release Option,” you will choose "Make my book available for pre-order" and set a date in the future. That’s it. Though your book isn’t available for download yet, we’ll still publish a product detail page for it within 24 hours of approval. Customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set and it will be delivered to them on that date. However, customers won’t be able to download sample content for pre-order books. Requirements When you list a book for pre-order, you’ll need to upload the final version or a draft manuscript of the book file for review. Typically, a draft manuscript would be something like a complete book that might still need copyediting and proofreading. We won’t show the version to customers, but we’ll need to preview the content for compliance with our Program Policies before creating the pre-order detail page. It will go through the same review process that any other KDP book would. Your final version must be uploaded 10 days before the release date you set. Eligibility Only new KDP books are eligible for pre-order. Public domain books are not eligible for pre-order. You may list up to 10 titles at once for pre-order, with room for more pre-order listings as you release each title. Reporting and Royalty Your pre-order report is updated as orders are placed. This report includes pre-ordered units, pre-order cancellations, and net pre-order units. Your pre-order sales data will not appear in other reports until after your book is delivered to customers on its release date. After that, you’ll see pre-order units listed in the Prior Months’ Royalties report, under the “Pre-order” transaction type. Once your book is released and customers start downloading their copies, you will receive credit for final sales. Once you meet the monthly minimum sales threshold, you’ll be paid royalty approximately 60 days after the end of the month. Kindle Direct Publishing Unveils Pre-Orders for eBooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Madden Mobile for Android Coming August 26
| Football fans rejoice –to commemorate the launch of the much anticipated Madden NFL 15 game on August 26, EA Sports will also release a mobile game! It may not be the realistic grid-iron experience that followers of the franchise have come to expect, but if you need a little fix while on the go it should do the trick nicely. While details regarding what the game will look like and what might be included are a little sparse right now, we do know that you have the option of taking on individual challenges with Live Events or choosing to commit to the traditional 16-game season. Game movement is controlled using a context-sensitive action button combined with a virtual analog stick to provide movement, making Madden Mobile very touch-screen friendly! Also expected inside the Mobile Madden app is a mode that will take on the spirit of Madden Ultimate Team –a collectible card game that pulls the players from packs so you can build a team from those resources. A soft launch ahead of the actual release gave way to screenshots showing how beautiful the graphics are, but it also revealed that the game is free to play (which sounds like a good thing, but it means that the usual in-app trappings of currency and stamina will be present).
Madden Mobile for Android Coming August 26 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Change Link Behaviour on Your Android Using TapPath
| Every so often there is an app released that eases a pain-point you didn’t even really realize you had, and TapPath is the perfect example. Created by developer Chris Lacy, TapPath gives you the opportunity to customize the behaviour of web links inside 3rd party apps. Once you have TapPath installed, you can route links using the number of taps: once to open in your default (likely Chrome), twice to open in another app (such as Twitter for quick and easy sharing), and three times to bring up the app selector that will allow you to choose from any of your available apps. You may need to adjust the tap delay in your settings, but otherwise it really is that simple. Dying to give it a try? Download TapPath for $0.99 CAD now.
Change Link Behaviour on Your Android Using TapPath is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wearables to Aid Parkinson’s Research
| While we’ve all been contemplating how a wearable could benefit our lives, Michael J Fox and his foundation for Parkinson’s research have been considering how these devices might save them. Working in partnership with Intel, Fox intends to trial a device that would provide research data in real time that could be used for analysis. In a statement issued by Todd Sherer, CEO of the Michael J Fox Foundation, explains the foundation of this trial: “Nearly 200 years after Parkinson’s disease was first described by Dr. James Parkinson in 1817, we are still subjectively measuring Parkinson’s disease largely the same way doctors did then.” Using wearable devices, patients would no longer have to keep manual diaries detailing their sleep patterns, tremors, and other physical movements. To date, these diaries are used to assist physicians with patient care, bridging the gap between visits. With this new technology, the data collected can be analyzed using a system powered by Cloudera; results can be collated individually and also as part of larger anonymous groups containing multiple patients. Intel performed a successful proof of concept on this project with an initial group of 16 Parkinson’s patients and 9 control patients (using three different wearbles). During this trial, movements were recorded at a rate of 300 observations per second over a period of four days. Identifying patterns that will be revealed using this new data collection method could prove invaluable as medical researchers work toward developing more effective treatments for the disease.
Wearables to Aid Parkinson’s Research is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Play Doctor in Surgeon Simulator for Android
| After playing Surgeon Simulator, I felt reassured that I made the right career choice by going into IT instead of medicine. It reminds me a little bit of the old Operation board game that I played as a child, only without the terrifying BUZZ and vibrate action when you make a mistake on your patient (victim), Bob. In Surgeon Simulator, you are charged with saving Bob’s life through a series of crazy surgeries. Originally built for the PC, this Android version also features a few new procedures for you to master (once you finish the trademark heart and double-kidney transplant, of course): give Bob a teeth transplant to deliver that million dollar smile he has always wanted, or perform a little plastic surgery by giving him an eye transplant! As you gain medical skills and experience, you will be unlocking achievements that prove your worthiness as a medical professional… or solidify your decision to attend law school instead. If you think it might be fun to play doctor on your Android device, download Surgeon Simulator now. The game isn’t free, but the $5.99 CAD price-tag buys you an app free of additional purchases while you play.
Play Doctor in Surgeon Simulator for Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle Paperwhite 2 Now Comes with 4GB Storage Instead of 2GB
| According to numerous user reports online at MobileRead and various Kindle forums, the second generation Kindle Paperwhite now comes with 4GB of internal storage space instead of 2GB. The strange thing is Amazon does not advertise this fact anywhere. Initially only the Japanese version of the Kindle Paperwhite came with 4GB of storage space, with […] |
Kobo Android App Updated, Gets New Features and Major Redesign
| I’m testing the Icarus Illumina HD ereader to review, and I installed the Kobo app to see how well it works, and was surprised to find that it’s basically an entirely new app from the Kobo app I just tested a few weeks ago while reviewing the Onyx Boox T68. I checked the description page […] |
3 Coupon Apps to Stretch Your Budget Further
Coupons can be a great way to save money, and coupon apps make it even more convenient. Here are a few we've used! |
Weekly eHighlights: Kids and teens edition
| Welcome to this month's eHighlights newsletter for kids and teens. Check back on the second Thursday of every month for a new edition listing some of the best new youth titles added to OverDrive's Marketplace. The featured titles below are some of the best picks, but don't miss the rest! Click on the link below to see these and even more great purchases conveniently placed for you into a Marketplace cart.
Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more.
Picture books Nick Bruel – Bad Kitty – Macmillan eBook Newly available! Kitty is not happy when the only food left is asparagus, beets, cauliflower, dill, and 22 other unappealing vegetables from A to Z. Bad Kitty did 26 naughty things like ate homework, bit Grandma, and clawed the curtains. But then some tasty things arrive like anchovies, burritos, chicken…. Sequels are available in the Marketplace cart as well.
Courtney Carbone, illustrated by Richard Courtney – The Monster of Sodor – Random House eBook Movie tie-in edition to the Thomas the Train & Friends animated film Tale of the Brave. This picture book can double as an early reader as well.
Peter SÃs – Madlenka: Soccer Star – Macmillan eBook Three-time Caldecott honoree Peter SÃs tells the story of Madlenka, a little girl who takes her soccer ball into the street looking for a worthy opponent. Her trip around her multicultural neighborhood is wonderfully illustrated.
Fiction for early readers Stan and Jan Berenstain – The Berenstain Bears on Wheels – Random House eBook Step Into Reading Level 1. A unique counting book, as the number of bears riding vehicles with varying numbers of wheels, keeps the young reader entertained.
Annie M. G. Schmidt – The Cat Who Came in Off the Roof – Random House eBook Tibble is a newspaper reporter, but his boss is upset that all he ever writes about is cats. Cats aren't news…unless the cat in question happens to also be able to turn into a person.
Mary Tillworth – Howdy-Doodle-Doo! – Random House eBook Ready to Read Level 1. Julius Jr. and his friends learn that the best inventions are those that help your friends. Rhymes and rhythmic text paired with pictures.
Middle grades fiction Lou Anders – Frostborn – Ages 8-12 – Random House eBook and Books on Tape audiobook read by Fabio Tassone A fantasy set in ancient Norway pits Karn, a 12-year-old farm boy who would rather play the strategy game Thrones and Bones, and Thianna, a half-human, half-giant girl who struggles to fit in with the full-blooded giants, against Karn's evil uncle plotting his death, and enemies of Thianna's dead mother. The message: accentuate your strengths instead of dwelling on weaknesses, and never stand downwind of flatulent trolls. Publishers Weekly starred review.
Matt de la Pe̱a РInfinity Ring: Eternity РScholastic eBook The Infinity Ring allows the young heroes who know about it to travel in time to fix the "Great Breaks" of history. This time, they struggle to figure out what a Chinese alchemist, a Russian dog, and the trial of Galileo have in common. Book 8 in the New York Times bestselling series.
Maggie Stiefvater – The Dream Thieves – Ages 12-14 – Scholastic eBook Book 2 in the Raven Boys series. Four prep school boys follow ley lines in search of the legendary Welsh king Owen Glendower. Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal starred reviews. Goodreads Can't Wait Books of 2014 #24.
Teens Pittacus Lore – Five's Betrayal –HarperCollins eBook A prequel companion novella to the bestselling I Am Number Four series. The evil Mogadorians are an alien race who threaten to take over the earth. This is Book 9 in the Lost Files spinoff series.
Richelle Mead – Silver Shadows – Penguin eBook The latest in the bestselling Vampire Academy Bloodlines series. 250,000 print run. Goodreads Can't Wait Books of 2014 #10.
Jessica Shirvington – One Past Midnight – Bloomsbury eBook Sabine has two lives. Each day is lived twice. In one life she has it all—money, popular friends, perfect grades, the best boyfriend. But when she "shifts" at midnight, in her second life her family is struggling, and though she has friends, they are considered rebels.
Nonfiction Candace Fleming – The Family Romanov – Random House eBook – ages 12 and up In 1918, the Russian royal family Romanov—Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters aged 17-22, and their young son—did not know that they were about to be murdered. Fleming uses primary sources to vividly portray the world of the Romanovs and their peasants, and the politics of the day in a riveting story. Horn Book, School Library Journal, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist starred reviews! VOYA called it a Must Have for All Libraries.
Joyce Milton, illustrated by Franco Tempesta – Dinosaur Days – Random House eBook – ages 6-9 The perfect combination of a hot topic for kids with a well-structured treatment aimed at early readers. Step Into Reading Level 3.
Lucille Recht Penner – Ice Wreck – Random House eBook – ages 6-9 The story of Shackleton's Arctic expedition in chapter book form. Penner manages to translate the excitement of the story of the ship's entrapment in the ice while using vocabulary that kids can understand, and hooks to keep the pages turning. Illustrations include actual black and white photographs of the expedition, including one of sled dog puppies born on the ship.
Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more.
*Geographical rights may vary by title.
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The Evolution of the Barnes and Noble Nook – In Pictures
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Barnes and Noble begun making e-readers back in 2009 and has continued to invest heavily into hardware and eBooks. Their primary focus is the US market, but in the last few years expanded into the UK. Today, we are going to take down memory lane and look at every single model they ever released and talk about important milestones. Barnes and Noble Nook 3G + Wi-Fi version The first generation Barnes and Noble Nook 3G and WIFI model was released November 2009 and retailed for $259. The company broke the mold having a single screen and broke it up into two. The main reading panel was six inches and had a resolution of 800×600 and the bottom one was a 3.5 inch touchscreen with 480 x 144 pixels. When Barnes and Noble released this e-reader they borrowed a page out of Amazons playbook by offering free 3G internet access via AT&T. Users did not have to pay a premium cost or a monthly fee to buy books. It was also compatible with most WIFI networks. In 2010 this model received a firmware update that had a web-browser and allowed users to get discounts or free books when connecting up to the bookstores WIFI network. The Nook featured a very innovative design and people at the time accused the bookseller of copying the Spring Design Alex. Spring Design thought so as well and initiated the lawsuit in 2009. They claimed they had met with Barnes and Noble to discuss jointly creating an e-reader. The meeting went nowhere, but months later Barnes and Noble released the Nook 3G. Spring design then took them to court accusing B&N of copying their design. While the Nook went on to be a huge success, the Alex e-Reader ended up not selling very well. B&N ended up reaching an agreement to pay Spring Design a licensing free for the Nook 3G and the WIFI only model released the next year. Barnes and Noble Nook WIFI
In June 2010 Barnes and Noble announced the followup e-reader the Nook WIFI. This model was exactly the same as the previous generation but lacked the 3G internet access via AT&T. This e-Reader had more success in the market than the previous generation because the price was a paltry $149. When the Nook WIFI first came out the company really hyped their LENDME program. This allowed publishers to opt into flagging their books as lendable. Users could then lend the eBook out to a fellow Nook user one time for up to two weeks. From 2009 to late 2010, Barnes and Noble invested heavily in its online ecosystem. Its relationships with Major Publishers through its bookstore business ensured that B&N could gain access to their digital wares and more books were added to its online portfolio. B&N quickly attained over one million titles in the first calender year and captured 20% of the entire ebook market. Nook Color On November 19, 2010 Barnes and Noble released their answer to the tablet craze by marketing the Nook Color. This was a fully featured touchscreen Android device that allowed readers to purchase magazines, graphic novels, kids books, newspapers and of course eBooks. When it first came out the street price was $249, the Nook Color and ran Android 2.1. One of the most compelling features about this reader was the fact Barnes and Noble invested heavily in their own app ecosystem, so users could install other software. On February 21, 2012, the price of the Nook Color was reduced to US$169. On August 12, 2012, the price of the Nook Color was reduced to US$149. On November 3, 2012, following the release of the Nook HD and Nook HD+, the price of the Nook Color was reduced to US$139. When I reviewed this unit at the time I said “The Nook color is one of the best LCD based e-readers we have seen to date. We have played around with many, including the Sharper Image Literati e-reader, but the Nook Color is the best of the lot currently. You can tell that they put a ton of time into the development of this little dandy and it looks really polished. The unit itself is sleek and black and all of the buttons are almost sunken into the frame, so nothing needlessly sticks out. Ascetically it's a very well designed unit, and the Vividview LCD screen really makes it a viable e-reader to read out in the sun, or under direct light without getting the glare as you would on an iPad.” Nook Simple Touch Reader On May 11 2011 Barnes and Noble released their first touchscreen e-reader called the Nook Simple Touch and retailed it for US$139. This was the first device issued that used Neonode Infrared technology to give pinpoint accuracy. What a difference a E Ink touchscreen makes. UI-wise there’s almost no point in comparing the new Nook to the original, or even the Nook Color. After seeing how easy it should be to page through books, jump to pages, change my font size, jump into another book, and preview or purchase a new title, I’m almost embarrassed for Amazon. The Kindle 3′s abstraction of the UI onto hardware buttons and endless menus seems positively last century in comparison. Even typing on the Nook is faster and easier than it is on the Kindle’s hardware keyboard. This was the most successful e-reader Barnes and Noble ever made and helped the companies profit margins increase over 70% by the end of the year and digital sales increased 113% from 2011. When I first reviewed this e-reader I said “This new device from Barnes and Noble certainly is an upgrade from previous iterations of their pure e-ink line of readers. Not only are page turn speeds better, but the entire navigation and simplicity of use is a boon. I think Barnes and Noble did the right thing with the implementation of the touchscreen and they sure needed it. Many of their competitors, such as Kobo, Sony, and Hanvon, have all released touchscreen readers and B&N needed to keep pace. They are presenting a very slick device that weighs next to nothing and is one of the best e-readers we have reviewed all year. The build quality is not as high on this device as the Kobo Touch, but fundamentally it is a superior e-reader.” The Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet The Nook Tablet came out in November 2011 and retailed for $249. The device is based on the Nook Color design by Yves Béhar from fuseproject. Its frame is gray in color, with an angled lower corner intended to evoke a turned page. The textured back is designed to make holding the device comfortable. This device had a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, both upgrades from the Color’s 800MHz single-core CPU and 512MB of RAM. The RAM is also double that of the Kindle Fire, though the processor clocks in at the same speed. B&N really focused on streaming multimedia content and included apps preloaded on the Tablet such as like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora. One of the advantages this device had over the iPad and the Kindle Fire was the inclusion of a microSD card, and you can rock up to an additional 32GB of storage. When Barnes and Noble released this tablet they were facing an increasing amount of competition from every major company. The iPad 2, Kindle Fire, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab, HP TouchPad, Blackberry Playbook and many more had all entered the fray. Still, this tablet managed to sell quite well due to the prime real estate placement in all of their bookstores. At one point during the holiday season they were manufacturing close to 13,000 a day just to keep up with demand. Barnes and Noble Simple Touch with Glowlight In April 2012 Barnes and Noble unveiled their second generation Nook Simple Touch for $139. The prime selling point behind this model was the front-lit technology. Sony was the first company that first developed it back in 2008 but Nook refined it by packing 8 LED lights at the top of the screen and eliminated the need for a reading light when reading in the dark. The Barnes and Noble Simple Touch with Glowlight features a six inch e-ink pearl display. The resolution of 800 x 600 is comparable with most other e-readers on the market, like the Kindle Touch and the Nook Simple Touch released last year. Underneath the hood is a 800Mhz processor with 2GB of internal memory. If you need more space to store your books and other media you can expand it up to 32GB via the Micro SD Card. Most of your daily functions tend to zip along fairly fine with the processor and 256MB of RAM.20 When this e-reader came out the sales of all Nook hardware begun to stabilize. During the holiday season sales decreased by over 10%. This prompted the bookseller to court Microsoft to be able to distribute content through their Windows OS. At first was was named NewCo, until the Nook was its own autonomous entity called Nook Media. I drove with Peter from Good e-Reader to pick this up from the US the day it came out. At the time during my hands on review I gushed “The Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight really raises the bar on e-reading in 2012. It is the only device on the market that allows you to read comfortably in low-light conditions. Personally I do most of my reading at night when I am going to sleep. In the past, I needed the lamp to be on and be positioned in such as way that the e-reader was facing the light source so I can read without any shadows. When you have a family or are sleeping with a significant other this could cause drama with them wanting the light off. You could obviously bypass this by purchasing a book light or a case with a built in light. I was never a fan of these because it took away from the essence of an e-reader, in that they are supposed very light and portable.” Barnes and Noble Nook HD Barnes and Noble started to notice Amazon eroding their tablet sales. This was primarily due to them having three different models out, that appealed to various price points. This prompted the B&N to issue two different tablets on November 1st 2012, the Nook HD and Nook HD+. The Nook HD competes with the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD and comes in two colors: snow and smoke (a dark gray). It has a Texas Instruments 1.3 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB RAM. It can play back video at 720p from the NOOK Video store, much like Amazon.com’s Instant Video service. The Nook HD was initially priced at US$199 for 8 GB and US$ 229 for 16 GB. The HD was released just in time for the holiday season, but it wasn’t enough to garner a tremendous amount of profit. In January, they reported tablet sales in their retail locations and holiday sales fell by 12.6% over the previous year, and only garnered $311 million dollars. When I first reviewed this tablet I said “ArticleView is a great feature that takes a fully graphic heavy page and converts it to a more ebook friendly view. In essence it strips away all of the style sheets and page elements to make it way more text heavy. Another core feature is Scrapbook! This allows you to select any given page in a digital magazine and save the page as an independent file. If you have many pages from different magazines it will actually create a new magazine for you, with all the different pages you lifted. I see this feature being utilized by fashion designers, interior designers, event planners, exercise enthusiasts, and even students earmarking academic magazine articles.” Barnes and Noble Nook HD+
Nook HD+ is Barnes & Noble’s first tablet capable of playing back movies and television shows downloadable from NOOK Video store at 1080p resolution. Announced on September 26, 2012, the NOOK HD+ is a 9-inch tablet with a 1920×1280 resolution. It competes with the similar 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HD and has a Texas Instruments 1.5 GHz dual-core OMAP 4470 processor and was initially priced at US$269 and US$299 for 16 and 32 GB, respectively. The Nook HD+ marked the first time the company really got account management systems right. It allowed it be shared with the family, with customizations and permissions for the kids. As a parent, you could establish what each account can have access to, such as the web-browser or app purchases. In early 2013 Barnes and Noble signed a deal with Google to make the Nook HD+ really viable internationally. Up until this point customers could only use the Nook App Store to download content and required developers use their own proprietary API system. B&N also excluded other apps from their store that competed with them directly, such as Comixology, Kobo, Amazon and other manga apps. In April 2013 the HD and HD+ were upgraded to support Google Play and suddenly more people started to buy these. Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight Barnes and Noble released the second generation front-lit display called the Nook Glowlight. It came out October 30th 2013 and had a price tag of US$ 119. The Glowlight uses a 6″ touchscreen with E Ink Pearl's Regal wave, has Wi-Fi, and has a battery life of two months with wireless off. It weighs 6.2 oz with dimensions of 6.5″ x 5″ x 0.42″ and has 4GB of storage, of which 2 GB is reserved for Nook Store content and 512 MB for additional user content. The device uses Android 2.3 and it has an 800MHz processor with 256 MB of RAM. Compared to the old Nook Simple Touch Reader with GlowLight, the new Nook GlowLight has a white exterior, a brighter screen, a boost in screen resolution from 800×600 to 1024×758, and a more durable silicone edge. Compared to the Simple Touch, the MicroSD card slot and page-turn buttons have been removed. This is the latest generation e-reader Barnes and Noble currently has, and they have no plans to release a new model in 2014. They are still selling it in the US, but has since brought to over to the United Kingdom to supplant the Simple Touch Reader with Glowlight, which is getting a bit long in the tooth. Samsung Galaxy 4 Nook Barnes and Noble for the first time ever is outsourcing the hardware and design to Samsung. B&N will focus on making the software great and Samsung will even kick in some marketing money to raise brand awareness. Not much is known about the specs right now, but Nook is having a media event in New York August 20th, where we should know more. Two models are planned, a seven inch and a 8.9 inch. The Evolution of the Barnes and Noble Nook – In Pictures is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Upcoming Picademy Dates – Get Teachers Applying Now!
| It’s the summer holidays, and I know teachers will be enjoying a well earned break from thoughts of planning lessons and marking homework. But here at Pi Towers, the Education Team are already busy thinking about the new academic year and the start of term. In particular, we are busy planning the next series of Picademies, and we want to make sure that your favourite teacher doesn’t miss out! Dates for new academic year diaries are:
Note: We have changed the date for September’s Picademy from 1st & 2nd September to 29th & 30th, because many schools have Inset days at the start of the month. So are you a teacher? Do you know a great teacher? Today is ‘Poke a teacher to apply for Picademy day’ (totally official). We need your help to track down wonderful educators to tell them about our free training course known as Picademy and ask them to apply to join the fast-growing ranks of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators (they get a badge and everything!)  Babbage with his Raspberry Pi Certified Educator Badge Raspberry Pi Academies for Teachers (Picademies) take place in Cambridge, UK. We invite practising teachers with any subject specialism (we’ve had art, design tech, science and even history teachers attend), who teach any age group between 5 and 18 years old, to come to Pi Towers for two days of fantastic fun learning for free. There are no strings. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is an educational charity – offering free CPD to teachers is part of our charitable mission. Want to know what actually happens at a Picademy? Then read Clive’s report about Picademy 3 or check out the Picademy section on the official Raspberry Pi forums.  What will you learn? Don’t miss out, apply today! September’s Picademy will look favourably on applications from teachers in the South West of England, because I love clotted cream, but also because we're very aware of regional accessibility to training and support, and so occasionally we will focus on specific regions. So if you are a teacher in the South West, we would love to have you here. This does not mean applications are open to teachers in the South West only! Please apply, teachers, wherever you are. And because we’ve had so many requests from teachers overseas, we are also now accepting applications from practising classroom teachers outside the UK too! Applications for September Picademy will close on Friday 5th September. If you have been successful, we will let you know via the email address that you supplied in your application, no later than two weeks prior to the event. Applications for October will close on Friday 10th October. What are you waiting for? Go grab a teacher and APPLY HERE NOW! (Do it!) |