| Are you a Log Horizon fan and want nothing more than to play a game in a setting like Elder Tales? Well GREE, a Japanese game publisher has secured the right to turn the popular anime, manga and novel into a mobile RPG! The upcoming game is entitled Log Horizon ~Aratanaru Nouken no Diichi~ (Log Horizon ~Land of New Adventure~). The new mobile game will be free-to-play and will include the original characters and setting and GREE has also announced that there will be new characters and scenarios written specifically for the game! Furthermore, players who pre-register will receive the limited SR Akatsuki playable character. At this time, details are still pretty scarce, but as we know the game will be heavy on battles, and will also have a social aspect which utilizes a guild system. The RPG will be released on IOS and Android devices in winter 2015! But in the mean time, head on over to the official website for more information and sign up for updates via email! Don’t know what Log Horizon is or get all the hype? Well, the story follows Shiroe, a socially awkward gamer, who has been enthralled by a game called Elder Tales. After its twelfth expansion pack, "Cultivating the Noosphere," is installed, over thirty thousand players are trapped. Donning their in game avatars, Shiroe and his new friends, Naotsugu and Akatsuki, must face their new reality while facing challenges and obstacles. If the above sounds appealing to you, you can head on over to Crunchyroll that has aired the first and second seasons and Sentai filmworks has licensed the series for a North American release. Yen Press has licensed both the original novel series as well as Kazuhiro Hara’s manga adaption which is due to be released this month, so we will definitely have to watch out for that one as well! Log Horizon Gets a Mobile RPG! is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, March 9, 2015
Log Horizon Gets a Mobile RPG!
Apple Watch: A Closer Look
| It has been six months since we first heard about the Apple Watch, but few of us had forgotten that the forecasted release date has been fast approaching. In anticipation of this date, Apple held one of their famous launch events today, during which we learned a little more about their new wearable (though I guess there were a few other announcements as well). Generally speaking it was mostly review, though details were firmed up that seemed a bit vague last fall. You can still watch the keynote for yourself, but allow me to walk you through a few of the highlights:
With a wide variety of configuration possibilities, finding the right Apple Watch for you should be a balancing act: which one do you find most beautiful vs. which one are you able to afford? If you want to get a sense of just how much you will need to save-up, visit the Apple Store online and flip through the options (it appears the model I want is going to set me back $849 CAD). You can pre-order your Apple Watch beginning on April 10, with delivery and sales beginning on April 24.
Apple Watch: A Closer Look is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob and the whole Nickelodeon gang are now available through OverDrive!
| OverDrive is excited to announce that we are the first digital content provider live with narrated and fixed layout eBook titles available for libraries and schools in the U.S. to add to their collections! These interactive titles contain popular characters including Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob, iCarly, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many more! "We are delighted to make these wildly popular Nickelodeon properties available in eBook formats for libraries and schools," said Karen Estrovich, Director of Collection Development at OverDrive. "Not only are they fun to read – or hear as a read-along book – they also provide important educational benefits as well." These books are fun and educational, and many are STEM aligned. They're a great way for students and early readers to learn about science, math and other subjects. Your young patrons can now go on reading adventures in a pineapple under the sea or with their favorite pizza-eating heroes in a half shell! This collection of 254 titles features narrated eBooks that will read aloud to users while they follow along as well as beautiful, across-the-spine fixed layout picture books. OverDrive is the first and only provider to offer these great titles so be sure to add them to your cart in Marketplace today!
Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist with Overdrive. Raphael has always been his favorite Ninja Turtle…Cowabunga, dudes! |
Apple’s “Surface-Killer” is Actually a New MacBook
| There was more than a little speculation that suggested Apple may go after the same market currently being targeted by Microsoft’s Surface tablet. Well Apple didn’t exactly deliver on that during today’s launch event, but they did release a new MacBook model that may not be a tablet –but it does further blur the line between function and portability. In a design dictated by the width of the keyboard (which is full-sized, thankfully… and been re-invented to include a single LED beneath each larger-surfaced key to illuminate them nicely, and adds a new butterfly mechanism making key presses elegant and more deliberate), this new MacBook weighs in at only 2lbs and is a slight 13.1mm thick (the MacBook Air by comparison, is 17.3mm thick). No detail was left un-touched: the 12-inch Retina display boasts using 30% less energy without losing any brightness, features the amazing pressure-sensitive Force Touch trackpad (that can tell the difference between a light tap an a deep press), is the first fanless Macbook (which saves space and means the notebook runs in complete silence), features custom-shaped batteries that maximize space and promise to deliver up to 10 hours of battery life, and comes equipped with a USB-C port (that lets you connect power, USB, DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA all in the same place –by way of additional converters available to purchase, which is the only unfortunate part). The new MacBook starts at $1299 and comes in an array of beautiful colours (silver, space gray, and gold), and is available for shipping on April 10.
Apple’s “Surface-Killer” is Actually a New MacBook is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle Writeon Moving Out of Beta
| Kindle Writeon is a social community where authors post the books they are working on and solicit feedback from the general public. It launches last October and has been in closed beta. Amazon has just announced that readers will soon no longer need codes to enter the site and anyone can join for free. Writeon was developed to compete against the Canadian fan-fiction sensation Wattpad. Writers post the cover art and books that they are working on. Some authors are asking for research assistance from people living in the same area as the characters in the book or historical information on a certain time and place. Most of the books posted are not completed and normally authors will post their work chapter by chapter. This gives readers time to weigh in on the overall plot and contribute their own ideas on how to make the book better. Obviously authors are exited about this, because it gives them an established fan base as the books are written and may turn into paid sales once the e-book is for sale via Kindle Direct Publishing. Right now, Writeon is a bit of a ghost town. Amazon has hardly promoted the platform and its been locked behind closed doors for five months. The only way the average reader could enter the site is via a special registration code that was fairly hard to acquire. The doors will be opening in the next few weeks and you can keep on checking if you can register on the site by visiting Write On by Kindle. Kindle Writeon Moving Out of Beta is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple Supports Health, Launches ResearchKit as Open Source
| Apple’s ResearchKit is a framework designed with an eye on benefiting medical research by harnessing the technology of iPhone. The first apps for ResarchKit (available starting today) target Parkinson’s, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and breast cancer. During the Apple launch event this morning, it was clear to see how easily this pairing could be used to benefit your health while helping researchers and healthcare professionals to gather more meaningful data (asking patients to recall pain levels days or weeks later during scheduled appointments can be difficult, whereas a ResearchKit app can capture data or make users perform ongoing tasks that will provide useful details). ResearchKit can also make it easy for patients to sign up for studies, and then provide consent along with other content. Apple’s Senior VP of Operations Jeff Williams was on-hand to discuss the offering this morning, and was quick to assure us all that health data collected using ResearchKit apps is not being stored by Apple and is both safe and secure. “You decide how your data is shared. You can see the data you’re sharing.” Beyond the initial 5-app offering, ResearchKit will be available next month. Because Apple wants everybody to have access, they have made it open source (I am pretty sure that if you listened carefully, there were sounds of jaws dropping that could be heard in that auditorium this morning).
Apple Supports Health, Launches ResearchKit as Open Source is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple Reinvents the Trackpad Adding Force Click
| Anybody who stands near enough to me that they can hear my voice will already know how much I love my Apple trackpad (no matter whether it is the one built-in to my Macbook Pro, or the external one I use when the machine is docked on my desk). I promise these same people that it is not a trackpad in any way they are used to using –it’s so simple, so elegant, and so configurable. Apple has kicked thing up a notch with the multi-touch trackpad included in their updated Macbook Pro. At first glance it may not seem like the updates are that significant, but by changing the internal design from a diving-board mechanism to one with 4 separate sensors, Apple can now detect just how hard you are pressing (consistently, no matter where your fingertips are when they do). Called a ‘force click’, this gives Apple the opportunity to identify yet another gesture with pre-programmed behaviors that correspond to a deeper press on the trackpad: fast-forward through a Quicktime movie (the harder you press, the faster it goes), bring up a location on a map for any address, or bring up the Wikipedia entry for any word. You can bet that developers around the world are salivating at the possibilities. It would make sense that Apple will cascade this new design down to other products, including the external trackpad they offer –we were told during the launch event that the 13″ Macbook Pro is already equipped starting today.
Apple Reinvents the Trackpad Adding Force Click is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple TV Gets Lower Price, No Hardware Upgrade
| Don’t get me wrong, I’m always happier to pay less for things that I want –and it seems that every time I turn around, I think of another place I’d like to put an Apple TV. At the launch event held this morning, Apple was proud to announce that instead of the usual $99 being shelled out for the hardware –would-be customers can now expect to pay $69. This does make the Apple TV $30 less than Amazon’s fire TV, but still places it a fair shot above the $39 for the Fire TV Stick and Google Chromecast. While most people were thinking today’s event would be focused on other products, it does seem a little disappointing to see them touch on the Apple TV without giving it a hardware upgrade too. Apple CEO Tim Cook did promise that it is “just the beginning of many changes coming to the world of television,” but we have yet to see what that really means (outside of the addition of numerous apps for the device, making more services and television networks available for streaming content). Does the lower price make it more likely for you to pick up an Apple TV?
Apple TV Gets Lower Price, No Hardware Upgrade is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Crowdfunding For Animated Film Adaption of War Time Manga “In This Corner of The World”
| Today, on March 9th, a crowdfunding movement for an anime feature film project based on Fumiyo Kouno’s award winning manga Kono Sekai no Katasumi no (In this Corner of the World) was officially launched! The film project was initially anounced back in 2012 but had no means to start up production due to lack of funds. Now they’ve returned and the goal is 20 million yen (Which is about 165,600 US dollars). The story tells of Suzu Urano and her families new life in Kure City on the coast of Hiroshima Prefecture, where she perseveres through World War II after the drop of the atomic bomb. The World War II manga was serialized in Futabasha’s Weekly Manga Action from 2007 to 2009. IT wont the Excellence Prize in the 2009 Japan Media Arts Festival. .A live action TV drama also aired in August 5th of 2011. Kouno is also very well known for her other Hiroshima-themed manga, Yunaga no Machi, Sakura no Kuni (Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms) in 2003. The anime feature film is written and directed by Sunao Katabuchi (Black Lagoon, Mai Mai Miracle). MAPPA (Terror in Resonance, Punchline) will be working on the anime production while GENCO (Nodame Cantabile, Sword Art Online) will produce the project. The film is set to be released in 2016, and it looks amazing and has a very interesting setting. All history enthusiasts will want to check this one out! For further updates on how the project is going you can go visit their kickstarter page as well as the official website! Crowdfunding For Animated Film Adaption of War Time Manga “In This Corner of The World” is a post from: Good e-Reader |
HBO Now Standalone App Launches Exclusively with Apple
| First up at the Apple Event this morning was Tim Cook introducing the addition of HBO Now to their Apple TV line-up. While that news may not be unexpected, learning HBO Now will only be available for iOS based devices and Apple TV (at least at launch time) was a bit surprising. Good news for those of you with Apple TV, an iPad, or an iPhone –less so for those carrying an Android-based device. A few other details were also announced, including confirmation of the $14.99 per month price-tag (with your first month free). For those of you relieved to have a standalone way to watch Game of Thrones, have no fear –you can subscribe prior to the launch of season 5 on April 12. To whet your appetite, the CEO of HBO was on-hand at the launch event to preview a special new trailer for the popular series (which I have to admit, made it even harder to wait these next few weeks until it starts up again). Is HBO making a mistake giving Apple exclusive rights (initially) to their new standalone subscription service? Will Android-loyalists forgive them, or are they losing would-be subscribers forever?
HBO Now Standalone App Launches Exclusively with Apple is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Play’s 3rd Birthday eBook Deals – Amazon Price Matching
| The Google Play Store turned 3 years old last week. To celebrate, Google is running a bunch of deals in the Play Store for ebooks and magazines, as well as music, apps, and movies. For ebooks, Google’s 3rd birthday promotion involves starting a new trilogy for $3. A number of highly-popular titles are included in […] |
Fukkan releases “Perfect Blue” Story board book
| Japanese publishing house, Fukkan, is getting ready to reprint a 428 page book that has all the inside looks at the story boards plus additional production materials from the classic 1997 psychological thriller, Perfect Blue, directed by the late Satoshi Kon. (Paprika and Millenium Actress) The story follows Mima Kirigoe, a young woman who decides that it is time to purse a solo career as an actress, leaving her pop idol group behind. When her professional life gets thrown by set-backs and her personal life is invaded by an obsessive stalker, Mima begins to crumble under the pressure, questioning her own sanity as people around her begin to die horribly. The movie is based off of a novel by the same name by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. Perfect Blue features numerous nods to 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs and is also considered a source inspiration for Darren Aronofsky’s, The Black Swan. The book will include 380 pages of storyboards, 48 pages of illustrations, setting materials and plans. Though reproductions of the storyboards were originally an exclusive pack in with a run of limited editiong Perfect Blue box sets back in 2008, we’re glad to see them back so we can get a closer look on just how much time went into this film! Fukkan’s book goes on sale March 15th and will sell for 5940 yen ($49.16 US) including tax! Fukkan releases “Perfect Blue” Story board book is a post from: Good e-Reader |
10 Free Kindle eBooks to Start the Week
| Below is a list of ten free Kindle books to get your week off to a good start. These titles are free as of March 9th, 2015. Please note that most of these ebooks are free for a limited-time only and could expire at anytime. Make sure to double-check that they are still free before […] |
Pi Day is around the corner!
| From Hawaii to New York City and beyond, Pi Day will be here this Saturday, March 14th. To celebrate, there are a bunch of Raspberry Pi events happening across the United States and all over the world. Some of these are big affairs, like at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA and others are small gatherings in libraries or makerspaces. Scan the list below to find out if there’s a Pi Day event happening near you: Austin, TX
We’ll also be joining our friends from Wolfram to celebrate “Super Pi Moment” on 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 am. They’ll have a countdown, FREE Pi(e), contests, and a special “selfie station” to capture the moment. This event is open to SXSW Interactive attendees and is right outside the Austin Convention Center. Mountain View, CAYou’ll want to get to The Computer History Museum’s Pi Day Celebration early since visitors who arrive before 9:26am that day will be given free admission to their fantastic museum. And if you’re a little late, you can enjoy half-off admission until 10am. From 11:30am until 6:00pm, there will be Raspberry Pi workshops and a showcase of projects followed by Pie, Pizza, and Pints until 6:00pm. St. Louis, MOThere’s a very strong community of Raspberry Pi users in St. Louis, MO so of course they’re getting together to celebrate Pi Day! The organizers say, “This Jam will build on what we've learned from previous events. Both as organizers and enthusiasts. As always we welcome new-comers young and old alike. We would also like to extend invitations to those in the business community looking to develop the Pi into products. Of course, we are hobbyists at heart so we really want to see the unique, strange, and ‘how did you do that?!’ projects.” Little Rock, ARIn Arkansas, a third annual bake-off will take place at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. Organizers David J. Hinson and Tony Bates of Arkansas Geek Central had this to say:
Visit their site for more information about this Pi Day event. Upper Lake, CAUpper Lake Library will be having a Raspberry Pi Day at 310 Second Street in Upper Lake, CA from 10:30am to 12:00pm. They’ll be running an introduction to Raspberry Pi workshop and hope to start a user group. Columbia, MOCheck out the MORE Raspberry Jam at the MOREnet offices in Columbia, MO from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. They’ll have people presenting projects there, you can join in; just click here to register to attend or show off your Raspberry Pi project. Wailuku, HIMaui Makers is hosting Pi Day in their new space in Wailuku Hawaii. Their celebration runs all day with multiple events throughout the day. You can come to learn about Raspberry Pi or show off what you’ve done with our computer. Mobile, ALAs a part of Teen Tech Week at the Mobile Public Library, Mobile Makerspace is having a Pi Day Celebration complete with demonstrations of 3D printers, quadcopter drones, Arduino, and of course Raspberry Pi projects from 10:00am to 1:00pm at Ben May Main Library. Brooklyn, NYIn the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn, digital agency HUGE is hosting a Pi Day Hackathon. Participants get 3 hours and 14 minutes to make a pi-themed creation (numerical constant, food, or Raspberry related) and then have 3 minutes and 14 seconds to show it off to the others. RSVP is required, so click here for more details and how to register. Palm City, FLAdults, teens, and tech-savvy kids are welcome to attend the Cummings Library idea lab, where they’ll show off Raspberry Pi from 2:00pm to 4:00pm. Stop by to play and we hear that they’ll even throw in a free slice of pie. Melbourne, FLMelbourne Makerspace in Central Florida is launching their Pi Day Celebration at pi moment, that’s 9:26am. RSVP here if you’d like to attend. Norwalk, CTThe Fairfield County Makers’ Guild is celebrating their one year anniversary and they want to show you what they’ve been up to! Join them on Pi Day for their open house from 10:00am to 2:00pm for demos, project workshops, and so much more. Outside the United StatesEven though Pi Day is based on the funky date formatting within the United States, it’s celebrated all over the world! Here are a bunch of Pi Day events happening outside the US: |
Indie Authors Triumphing over Sexism in the Publishing Industry
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Like it or not, agree or not, gender inequality is a fact, one that permeates nearly every profession and industry. But coming on the heels of yesterday’s celebration of International Women’s Day, new information has come out from FicShelf about how women’s success roles in publishing are changing, namely in that women outnumber men nearly two-to-one in the number of self-published titles on the bestseller lists. In fact, a new study by FicShelf–with support from the Alliance of Independent Authors and the Society of Authors–that looked at authors’ sales, earnings, and rankings across a wide variety of platforms showed that 67% of top-ranking titles were written by women, compared with just 33% by men. FicShelf CEO Monique Duarte commented, “The theme for this year's International Women's Day is ‘Make it Happen,’ and our study proves that self-publishing is making it happen for female writers across the globe. In self-publishing, there is no glass ceiling to smash through – it's about the individual rather than the usual old boy's club mentality. It's not about who you know, but what you can do – and what you can write. "But there's still more to be done to support female authors – both traditional and self-published – to achieve the financial rewards and recognition they deserve, and here at FicShelf our whole raison d'être is to help the very best writers to make a living from their talent." A release from FicShelf highlighted some of the current disparity in the publishing industry, as the more common situation of male authors receiving more lucrative contracts and greater focus on publicity campaigns for their books has led to men outnumbering women in: · 80% of titles in the Telegraph's "100 Novels Everyone Should Read" · 85% of The Guardian's "100 Greatest Novels of all Time" · 70% of The Telegraph's "The Best Books of 2014" This information carries an interesting juxtaposition to the fact that women buy 68% of all books sold.
Indie Authors Triumphing over Sexism in the Publishing Industry is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digital Shift the Only Way to Save Some Newspapers
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In an article for DelawareOnline, Scott Goss highlighted the struggles of the 133-year-old University of Delaware student weekly newspaper, a tradition at the university that has seen circulation drop from 10,000 subscribers to only 2,000, and advertising drop significantly. “You come into this role and you see it as an editorial job,” said Elizabeth Quartararo, The Review‘s editor-in-chief, to Goss. “You don’t expect that it’s going to require a lot of business savvy or that you’re going to have to make real business decisions that could affect what the paper looks like five or 10 years from now.” Before considering a switch to being a digital-only imprint, a move that still hasn’t been confirmed due to the long-standing history and sentimental value of the print edition, Review staffers even attempted a crowdfunding campaign to bring enough donations to keep the paper in operation in its current form. If it serves as any consolation to the staff and to university administrators who will make the ultimate decision to continue funding the effort or not, this issue is in no way limited to this particular paper. Apart from the multiple news outlets who’ve already adopted digital in some large-scale way, universities around the country are also making the transition to digital, whether it’s for campus news, student magazines, alumni reports, or any other similar publication. According to Goss, “Many former dailies, such as Boston University’s Daily Free Press and the University of California Berkley’s Daily Californian, are now printing fewer days a week…The Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper of Columbia University in New York, completed a successful transition to an all-digital product last spring, when it became the first Ivy League school to eliminate its print edition.” Unfortunately, the switch to digital also carries with it a built-in flaw, which is that subscribers expect to read digital at a lower price–hence a lot of the argument between booksellers and publishers over ebook pricing–and advertisers expect to pay less for digital ad space. While the costs associated with producing a digital edition are minimally lower due to eliminating the print, production, and distribution costs, that expense is usually nominal compared with the salaries of the people who are writing and editing the content and producing the layout. That expense didn’t diminish just because the reading format has changed. Digital Shift the Only Way to Save Some Newspapers is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Come see why Cleveland Rocks at Digipalooza!
| What city was named one of the 52 Places to Go in 2015 by the New York Times, one of the Best Places to Travel in 2015 by Travel + Leisuremagazine, and made Fodor's Travel Go List 2015? The same city was also named to the top of the list of America's Best Beer Cities by Conde Nast Traveler and chosen as one of the 15 destinations for travelers to set their sights on in 2015 by the Los Angeles Times. Would it surprise you to learn that the city collecting all these accolades is Cleveland, Ohio? It doesn't surprise us at all. OverDrive is proud to call Cleveland our home and we welcome all of you to join us in our beautiful hometown this August for Digipalooza '15. Come early and stay late to enjoy all that Cleveland has to offer! Our conference runs from Wednesday August 5th through Friday August 7th, leaving the weekend open to explore the city and turn a business trip into a great summer vacation. During Digipalooza, you'll have a chance to visit OverDrive headquarters and sample local cuisine from area food trucks, check out the views of downtown from our new conference home in the Cleveland Convention Center, and party at the historic Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We're partnering with Destination Cleveland, Cuyahoga County's convention and visitors bureau, to offer our attendees the best experience while in town. You can check out the Official Visitors Guide and area Dining Guide to start planning your trip! Keep an eye on the #digip15 hashtag on Twitter where we'll share some of our favorite Cleveland sights, sounds, and local events happening for Digipalooza attendees who plan to spend additional time in the CLE. If you haven't registered yet, what are you waiting for? Come see what everyone is talking about and visit Cleveland this August for Digipalooza '15! Melissa Marin is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive. |