| Kobo has announced that they have formed a new partnership with Bol.com, the largest provider of eBooks in the Netherlands and Belgium. Starting today, customers will be able to order the entire Kobo Arc line of tablets and modern e-readers like the Kobo Aura and Aura HD directly on the Bol website. This agreement though, goes far beyond e-readers and may be a blueprint of how Kobo forms relationships with eBook retails going forward. Bol.com introduced digital reading in the Netherlands and Belgium five years ago, and since then has experienced amazing growth. In addition to the 1.2 million eReaders sold in the Netherlands, customers can also read their eBooks digitally via tablets and smartphones. The selection of eBooks has grown enormously over the past few years. One in seven non-fiction books sold in the Netherlands is digital. Every so often, a Kobo press release hits the Good e-Reader offices, and it normally involves them establishing new relationships with booksellers to get their e-readers in as many retail channels as possible. One specific element on the official press release piqued my interest “Over the next few months, bol.com and Kobo will launch innovations to make digital reading even more user-friendly.” What exactly does this mean? I talked to Pieter Swinkels, Vice President, Publisher Relations & Merchandising at BOL. He stated “Starting today we are combining our libraries to offer the widest selection possible in the Netherlands and Belgium. This takes some time; the transition has begun and should be complete very soon. As well, customers will be able to buy books across the two platforms (bol.com store, Kobo store, Kobo device store, apps stores) and be able to access them through one cloud-based library (the Kobo library), they will have the full regular Kobo experience, including Reading Life, Notes and Bookmark Synchronization. We will continue to have the Dutch version of the global Kobo apps for all platforms, but also in coming weeks expect to launch a special bol.com-Kobo app.” He went on to specifically address Sony users “Customers using a Sony device from bol.com will continue to have the experience they have now, so they'll buy on the bol.com site and download their purchase with Adobe DE or Watermark. They will also be able to access those books on Kobo devices and apps, with their bol.com or Kobo account. In other words, we're completely connecting the two platforms and creating one, seamless experience of searching, buying and reading. This is a tremendous departure from the previous bol.com experience, which was, as you write, basically a side loading experience.” So what we are seeing now with the Bol partnership is Kobo willingly including another retailers digital library into their own. This might appeal towards other online booksellers such as Txtr. Kobo and Bol form a Unique eBook Partnership is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, September 15, 2014
Kobo and Bol form a Unique eBook Partnership
HarperCollins Introduces Digital Watermarks in eBooks
| HarperCollins has introduced new digital watermark technology that will be very appealing towards customers in Europe. Digimarc Guardian watermarks are fully compatible with DRM solutions. The tractability they provide remains fully effective even in cases where the DRM layer has been removed by users, using 3rd party tools. Digital watermarking technology caught on a few years ago when the entire Harry Potter eBook collection adopted it, instead of going the traditional DRM route. This allows users to seamlessly load their purchased content on as many devices as they wish, without the need for bulky third party programs or apps. Digimarc's cloud-based platform offers easy-to-integrate API support for most e-book formats, including EPUB, PDF and MOBI. For each transaction, the platform generates a unique, traceable digital watermark and embeds it throughout the e-book. The imperceptible digital identifiers are extremely difficult for pirates to locate and remove. Adding Digimarc Guardian Digimarc's anti-piracy service then crawls the web 24×7 searching for watermarked content. When a watermark is detected, Digimarc provides the unique identifier to the publisher to match against its own transaction records. Digimarc Guardian Watermarks do not contain any user information; the Digimarc Watermarks contain only anonymous digital IDs. HarperCollins confirmed with Good e-Reader that watermarks will have a very gradual roll out, and not all new titles will have this technology. They also neglected to mention if specific markets will have this feature introduced first, such as Europe, where watermarking is the current rage. HarperCollins Introduces Digital Watermarks in eBooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Design and Sell Custom Merchandise with Makr iOS App
| If you are feeling equal parts creative and entrepreneurial, Makr by Happy Media could be the app you need to succeed (using only your phone). Using your own visual identity or logo, create custom swag (like t-shirts, tote bags, or temporary tattoos). Once your items are mocked-up and looking just right, you can then sell your merchandise in the built-in online store (letting Makr handle all aspects of production, shipping, and payments). The whole process is a little like Etsy, minus the handcrafting. Makr wins by capitalizing on your ideas while absorbing all of the risk so you don’t have to (by working with vendors). So what’s in it for you? If somebody buys an item that you designed, $2 goes directly into your pocket! It may seem like a small profit margin, but consider that you really aren’t doing any of the heavy lifting. Filled with design and marketing tools, Makr promises professional products that are easy for anybody to create. Need a little help? Try one of their templates, giving you a head-start on: business cards, party invitations, wedding materials, stickers, postcards, stationary, greeting and holiday cards –or maybe you want funny or themed clothing for an event you are hosting. Makr – a design + print shop is only available for iOS devices currently –download it for free from the App Store now!
Design and Sell Custom Merchandise with Makr iOS App is a post from: Good e-Reader |
1,000 HarperCollins titles now 40 percent off through September 30
| Now is a great opportunity to stock up on popular, in-demand eBooks from authors such as Kiera Cass, Jodi Picoult, Stephanie Evanovich, Ray Bradbury, and Barbara Kingsolver, as 1,000 titles from HarperCollins Publishers are 40 percent off in OverDrive Marketplace, today through September 30. This sale is available for all public libraries that currently have geographic rights to the sale title list. From classic literature to today's bestsellers, fantasy, romance, biography and thriller, this sale encompasses everything your readers are looking for from HarperCollins. Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, The Warriors series by Erin Hunter, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman are just a few titles that your readers will love. Click here to see the 200 most popular HarperCollins titles, or click here for the full sale list. Act now to get the best prices of the season for these 1,000 HarperCollins titles. Contact your Collection Development Specialist for more information or for help creating a cart.
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Don’t miss this week’s must-attend webinars!
| As you're diligently working to create new and creative lesson plans for your students this school year, we want you to know that OverDrive is here to help! You can sign up today for the following webinar, offered exclusively for our school partners September 16-17:
Your school already has a great OverDrive collection, so join us for this opportunity to get more ideas about how you can engage students with digital media this year. You'll also find out about new and coming features for your school’s OverDrive service, including:
Space is limited, so reserve your spot today. Also, we currently have registration for additional “Open Sessions” on the Learning Center:
Have a topic you'd like training on? Feedback on a training you've had? Contact us at training@overdrive.com. We look forward to seeing you in our upcoming sessions.
Katie Blachman is a Training Specialist at OverDrive.
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New Raspbian and NOOBS releases
| If you head over to the downloads page, you’ll find new versions of our Raspbian image and NOOBS installer. Alongside the usual firmware and kernel improvements, major changes to the Raspbian image include:
Following its release last week, of our port of Epiphany has replaced Midori as the default browser, bringing with it hardware-accelerated video support and better standards compliance.  Epiphany is now the default browser Our Raspbian image now includes driver support for the BCM43143 802.11n WiFi chip. Last week Broadcom released a rather neat USB hub and WiFi adapter combo based on this chip, which should now work out of the box. More info is available here.  BCM43143 802.11n USB hub and WiFi adapter Finally, to free up SD card space, the offline NOOBS package now only contains the Raspbian archive. To install Arch, Pidora, OpenELEC, RaspBMC or RISC OS you will require a network connection. |
New Barnes and Noble Website Planned for 2015
| Barnes and Noble wants to change how they are currently selling books online by a massive effort to rebuild their website. They have been working at a feverish pace to insure the new design will make discovering and buying content easier than ever. In the latest quarterly filings, B&N cut its overall net loss to $28.4 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, down from $87 million in the same quarter last year, with $50 million in cuts coming from downsizing the company's Nook segment. Cuts alone won’t return profitability to the ailing e-reader and tablet brand, but selling digital content will. Barnes and Noble is betting that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will lead to more digital consumption. They have really been hyping the additional $200 worth of free eBooks, magazines television shows and movies you receive from buying the tablet. You can think of it, as showcasing all of the different type of materials that can be purchased in the Nook ecosystem. If you don’t have a dedicated Nook device, your options to purchase digital content from the largest bookstore chain the USA is questionable. You can have to rely on a slew of apps, with no single app acting as your all-in-one solution. Take Android for example, if you want videos, you have to download Nook Video, the main B&N app just works with eBooks, graphic novels and magazines. If you want kids books, there is a dedicated one for that too, but keep in mind, its US and UK only, whereas Amazon and Kobo are basically global. Will a new website that focuses on search, discovery and a responsive design be received well in the online world? This type of undertaking consumes lots of money and resources, with no clear indication that it will lead to an influx of sales. There is no denying that the US is completely saturated with Apple, Amazon, Kobo, Netflix, Zinio and a host of others all offering specialized content. It remains to be seen that a new website will magically solve all of the forces that work against Nook. New Barnes and Noble Website Planned for 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
