| Every week thousands of new apps hit various Android App Stores and today we take a look at the best of the bunch. Google released a new Photography cloud storage app at the Google I/O developer conference and there are plenty of new games too. All of these apps are available to download for free from the Good e-Reader Android App Store. There is no registration and you can download it directly from the web. If you have a smartphone or tablet, download our official app. Jurassic World – Return to Isla Nublar with the creators of the smash hit Jurassic Park Builder for your next adventure: Jurassic World: The Game, the official mobile game based on this summer's epic action-adventure. Bring to life more than 50 colossal dinosaurs from the new film and challenge your opponents in earth-shaking battles. Construct the theme park of tomorrow in this unrivaled build-and-battle dinosaur experience. Google Photos – This is a new app that stores your photos in the cloud, similar to iCloud from Apple. Not only is it available for Android, but iOS too. You can save and edit not only photos, but movies as well. This helps free up space and is better then syncing your phone to your computer. Lara Croft: Relic Run -This game is an endless runner adventure for nostalgic Lara Croft fans. When a shadowy conspiracy threatens the world, only Lara Croft is equipped to unearth the truth. Collect clues to uncover ancient relics. Run, swing, drive, and swan dive your way through beautiful and challenging environments. There's no time to waste, but how long can you survive? Office Lens – Office Lens trims, enhances, and makes pictures of whiteboards and docs readable. You can use Office Lens to convert images to PDF, Word and PowerPoint files, and you can even save images to OneNote or OneDrive. This app is actually very underrated for people who are students in class or are in meetings. Periscope – Periscope lets you broadcast live video to the world. Going live will instantly notify your followers, who can join, comment and send you hearts in real time. The more hearts you get, the higher they flutter on the screen. This app is from the owners of Twitter, so it is getting lots of media attention. The battle right now for on the go streaming video recording is Periscope and Meerkat. Yallo – The Future is Calling – Yallo is a start-up with a big and bold vision: to reinvent the phone call so people can fall in love with it again. We've all seen the innovation in messaging, photography and video—from WhatsApps and SnapChat to Instagram and Meerkat. But the phone call hasn’t changed in decades. Until now. Aeroplan (Beta) – This is a new app that allows Canadians to access your account summary, including mileage levels, Distinction and Air Canada Altitude status. It also allows you to use your card virtually, much akin to flashing the Stackbucks app to pay for coffee. Shazam – Not a new app, but the music recognition service is in the process of reinventing themselves. They have added the ability to scan QR codes and play music, audio or video. Shazam has just signed agreements with some major publishers for author interviews. TORONTO 2015 Pan Am Games – Bring the Games to your mobile device with this powerful and simple-to-use app, presented by CIBC. Whether you're on your way to a Games venue or planning your Games experience well in advance, the app is the best tool for building your personalized TORONTO 2015 Pan Am / Parapan Am Games guide that brings you venue details, Games maps, Torch Relay maps, ticketing information, spectator services and features connected to the TORONTO 2015 sport program, official celebrations and cultural program. It's the most convenient way to engage with the Games and bring the Games with you wherever you go. COOKING MAMA Let’s Cook – The original Cooking Mama game for the Nintendo WII was the first game I ever played on that console. I was working in the video game industry at the time at a production studio. This game enamoured us all and sold very well. A DS game was made of it and now it arrives for Android. Its zany and wacky and you cook things, whats not to love? Top 10 Android Apps of the Week – May 25 to May 31st 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Top 10 Android Apps of the Week – May 25 to May 31st 2015
Digital Audiobooks are Cannibalizing Physical Audio
| The global audiobook industry is currently worth 2.6 billion dollars and part of the reason why we have seen a dramatic increase in profitability is due to digital. The overall success of the digital audiobook is primarily attributed to companies such as Audible, Findaway World and Recorded Books who are the industry leaders. With any digital medium, the affects are starting to be quite evident with the decline of physical audio. Depending on who you talk to, tapes and CD sales are falling at a rapid clip or barely growing at all. The unilateral consensus is that physical audio overall accounted for 19% of of all audio purchases in 2014, falling from 31% in 2013. This year is looking even worse, as physical audio sales have fallen by 18%. Most of this data has come from Nielsen BookScan, who said unit sales of physical audio barely moved the needle with a paltry 0.2% growth in 2014. Things look a bit bleaker according to the Association of American Publisher who said CD sales fell 7.7% in 2014. Have tangible audiobook sales really fallen so profoundly in the last year? Some of the largest companies do have some problems with the data provided by Nielsen and the APP. The Senior VP of Content and Aquisitions at Recorded Books said that those figures are not wholly representative of industry activity. "Indie publishers don't report, and a number of larger companies are outsourcing CD production with print-on-demand agreements, so the numbers don’t get picked up.”" The primary problem as the spokesman from Recorded Books pointed out is that Indie authors never invest in a proper ISBN number. Not investing in a proper ISBN number is basically relegating your title to the shadow realm. Additionally, it is near impossible to accurately track print on demand titles due to the sheer amount of companies participating in this space and not contributing any meaningful data to the companies that track global sales. I think one of the big reasons why tangible audio has fallen is due to the high cost of unabridged retail copies. The average CD costs $25 and it is not surprising to pay $40.00 for a bestseller such as Memory Man by David Baldacci. Digital editions cost less than a tangible edition, but not by much. The average cost is between $21 and $30 on iTunes or Audible. Why are audiobooks so overpriced to begin with? It all comes down to concept called billable hours. Each audiobook is on average around 12 hours, which costs on average $300 and $400 an hour for a production studio and narrator. They also have to account for multiple takes and editing. The finished product after its all said and done is normally $5,000 to $6,000 to make the audiobbook. Some companies ride on the back of star power to draw attention to audiobooks and use them for marketing purposes. World War Z hired 21 different voice actors, such as Simon Pegg, Common and Martin Scorsese. Even hiring just one famous person to narrate the book, drives the production costs up exponentially. The average cost dramatically increases to $1,000 to $1,500 per book hour and the final product costs the publisher $17,000. I don’t know anyone that has a Walkman, Diskman or a CD player in their homes anymore. Everyone is streaming movies from an Apple TV or listening to the radio via dedicated apps for Android or iOS. It is no surprise that tape and CD sales have plummeted to such a large degree. Digital Audiobooks are Cannibalizing Physical Audio is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Top Selling e-Books of 2014
| The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene was first published in 2012. The book though quickly rose to #1 on the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists months before it was even released, because every pre-order would be hand-signed by the author. Due to the runaway success of the film and the blitz marketing campaign Fault in our Stars was the top selling e-book of 2014. How can we be sure that Fault in our Stars was the true number one bestseller of 2014? The information comes from PubTrack Digital, a unit of Nielsen BookScan. Unlike the point-of-sale system used by BookScan to track sales of physical books, PubTrack Digital aggregates e-book unit sales supplied by publishers. According to Nielsen, publishers send data on their confirmed e-book sales made through about 40 major e-book retailers. Nielsen then aggregates the data to develop an e-book sales tracking tool. Participating publishers include more than 30 of the largest trade houses, including all the Big Five. What were the other top selling e-books of 2014? PubTrack Digital released the following list last week. If you are looking for a read and haven’t bought into the hype train yet, all of these books sold very well.
The Top Selling e-Books of 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
