| Amazon got into the tablet game a few years ago and is now in the habit of offering three different versions that appeal to different segments of users. A new report has surfaced today that gives us a sense of what to expect from the refreshed line due out this fall. An updated 7-inch Kindle Fire will reportedly feature a 1200 x 800 resolution display. The current 7-inch Fire retails for $159 with a 1024 x 600 panel. The pixel upgrade will thereby improve screen resolution on par with the current Kindle Fire HD. The upcoming version of the Kindle Fire HD will actually jump to a 1920 x 1200 display. Finally, the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire will bump up to an impressive 2560 x 1600-pixel screen, besting the Retina display of Apple’s iPad. You can expect that all of these devices will be cheaper if you opt into the WIFI only with Special Offers. These are the lowest priced models available and they recoup costs by displaying advertisements on the home screen and lock screen. You can easily remove these with a one time payment of $25.00. The more popular models give you 4G access to allow you to read and buy content on the go. The most appealing tablet that Amazon is developing is the 8.9 inch edition. If graphics and resolution are your thing, about the best thing on the market running Android is the Nook HD+, which has 1920 x 1280. The new Fire HD 8.9 is going to have an amazing 2560 x 1600, which will surely appeal to the gamers, video watchers, and magazine lovers. Currently, there is no word on pricing or the specific launch date. Amazon tends to submit items to the FCC via shell companies and makes the discovery of these items very hard to find. Amazon Working on Three New Tablets for Fall Release is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Amazon Working on Three New Tablets for Fall Release
Txtr Slashes the Price of the Beagle e-Reader to €19.99
| Txtr is best known for its multilingual ebook store that is available in Europe, Canada, and other markets. The company has dedicated apps for both iOS and Android that allow customers to buy books and read them directly within the apps. One of the company’s little known offerings is the Txtr Beagle. This is a very low-cost reading device that connects up to your tablet via Bluetooth, which you can use to transfer ebooks to it. The Beagle was supposed to see a global roll-out with a very low price tag, due to telephone carriers heavily subsidizing it. This never panned out and the Beagle has been relegated to only being available in Germany. Today, Txtr has announced it has slashed the price on the Beagle to a paltry €19.99. Txtr is feeling the heat of competition in the summer months with a number of other e-reader companies offering discounts. TrekStor Pyrus Mini is on sale at Thalia for €35 and the Kobo Mini is on sale at Saturn for €29. Good e-Reader was very proud to be the only company in the world that legitimately reviewed the Beagle and we had a solid month with it to seriously evaluate it. The Txtr Beagle features a five inch E Ink Vizplex screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. Most e-readers these days do 16 levels of grayscale, while this model only does 8. Txtr has informed us that the final model will have E Ink Pearl, which should give it 16 levels of grey and sharper/crisper text. There are 4 GB of internal memory and five ebooks can be cached at any given time. We noticed we had way more than five books loaded on the Beagle, and it only took a bit longer to open them up, so you are not exactly limited to five. The Beagle boasts of one year battery life, thanks to the 2 AA Energizer Lithium Ion batteries that are included in the box. It also is being billed as the world's lightest reader, but that's not entirely true. The Wexler Flex One currently wears that crown at 110 grams, while the Beagle is 128 grams (with batteries) and 111 grams (without batteries). This is an extremely bare-bones reader. There is no WIFI, Mini or Micro USB ports, or any expandable memory via SD. There are three main buttons on the bottom of the screen which function as the Left/Right and Home. About the only thing it has is Bluetooth, which is used to facilitate copying ebooks right from your phone or tablet to the Beagle. The Beagle is officially now the cheapest e-reader in the world, but I would not recommend buying it. It takes batteries, the screen technology is 3 years old and you need Bluetooth to load anything on it. Txtr Slashes the Price of the Beagle e-Reader to €19.99 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Publishing Launches Comics, Graphic Novels Imprint
| Amazon’s traditional publishing arm, Amazon Publishing, has a number of genre-specific imprints already producing titles from sought after authors. But today, the publisher announced the launch of a new imprint, Jet City Comics, that will join the publisher’s nine other specific imprints, as this one will focus on comics and graphic novels. The new imprint already has an impressive lineup of titles coming over the course of the next few months, from authors like George R.R. Martin, Hugh Howey, and Neal Stephenson. "Comics and graphic novels, especially in digital format, represent a unique area for innovation," said Jeff Belle, Vice President of Amazon Publishing, in a press release announcing the launch. "Our focus will be on adapting great books for this medium as a means of expanding the audience for our authors, pushing boundaries with new ideas that combine visual and narrative storytelling, and creating compelling new experiences for readers." “It's a dream to work with superstar authors like George, Hugh and Neal on the launch of a new imprint," said Alex Carr, Senior Editor of Jet City Comics. "Millions of fans have read and loved their novels, and with Jet City we look forward to opening up these iconic worlds to new audiences. We're working with an incredible, hand-picked team of comics professionals, writers, artists, and translators, who have done an amazing job developing and expanding these inventive stories. I'm looking forward to the response from comics readers and fans." While jet City Comics will be releasing a graphic novel adaptation of an original short story by Martin, fans of Howey’s Wool series will be thrilled by the graphic novelization of his bestselling dystopian titles. "My fans have been clamoring for the return of Dunk & Egg ever since the graphic novels of 'The Hedge Knight' and 'The Sworn Sword' went out of print several years ago," said author George R.R. Martin, "so I am delighted to announce that Jet City Comics is bringing them back—newly formatted for digital readers, and in paper for those who still prefer the traditional formats. And Jet City will be bringing you something new as well: the graphic novel 'Meathouse Man,' adapted from one of my strangest, darkest, and most twisted short stories by the amazingly talented Raya Golden. I'm pleased and excited to be a part of Jet City's takeoff. May they fly high." This announcement comes after the news from Kobo that their partnership with Aquafadas will open doors for comic and graphic novelists to self-publish their works to a variety of platforms and digital devices. While still a traditional publishing route, Jet City Comics will be releasing its titles in digital format as well as print, meeting the need for content that many fans of the genre are seeking.
Amazon Publishing Launches Comics, Graphic Novels Imprint is a post from: E-Reader News |
Are Print Books More Valuable than Digital?
| At the onset of e-reading brought on by the flood of dedicated devices to the market, the reading community seemed fairly well divided into two camps: those who embraced digital reading, and those who steadfastly refused to relinquish paper. While the first get praised e-readers for their portability and storage capabilities, the print fans insisted that nothing could replace the experience of a bound book. A piece by Rachel Arons for The New Yorker discussed the differences in so-called book fetishists, people who treasure printed books as an object of beauty, and not just for their literary value. While it may be easy to dismiss these collectors as what the name implies–people suffering from a severe fetish for print media–they are actually a driving force in the book industry. As Arons points out, there are whole niche markets for these book fans, such as a perfume based on the smell of an old book and a spray that is e-reader safe but that will make the device smell like a book. There are whole art genres based on pieces made from collected book materials, gallery pieces that adorn the owners’ walls with…books. While these fans might be a dying breed as more and more consumers turn to the price and convenience of ebooks, the publishing industry is still feeling the effects of a market driven by print fans. A number of surveys have cited the responses from consumers who have embraced the digital revolution themselves, yet still prefer print books for their children, stating that they want their children to experience holding a book and developing a love for reading. And the value that some consumers place on printed books can still be seen in the ongoing debate over what prices should be for books, both print and digital. Even as e-screen technology improves and tablets support a very real simulated turning effect, the fact remains that industry watchers’ predictions from only a couple of years ago are proving true: there will be no death for either paper or digital, as both formats have their place in consumers’ hearts and wallets.
Are Print Books More Valuable than Digital? is a post from: E-Reader News |
AudioGo Showcase: Schroder
| Amity Gaige's Schroder made the list! AudioGo's Top 100 list is on sale this month in OverDrive Marketplace; and in order to give our users a better sense for the quality and extensiveness of titles available through AudioGo, I chose to do a brief review of Schroder and give some insight into why it made the Top 100.
Eric continues to live through the façade he has created into adulthood and marriage; where the decisions he made in his youth begin to affect his future.
Jennifer Egan
"In SCHRODER, Amity Gaige explores the rich, murky realm where parental devotion edges into mania and logic crabwalks into crime. This offbeat, exquisitely written novel showcases a fresh, forceful young voice in American letters."—Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad
*You can find Schroder on sale in OverDrive Marketplace in our Must Have's list under AudioGo 30% off sale.
Laura Guldeman is a Collection Development Analyst for OverDrive  |
I began reading Schroder by Amity Gaige with an open mind. The story turned out to be an easy read; but I found myself facing a storm cloud of social issues: some expected some not. The protagonist of the story, Eric Kennedy, aka Eric Schroder (where we get the name for our tale) attempts to remake his life as a youth at an 'all boys' summer camp, fabricating an elite backstory of having some distant relation to the Hyannis Port Kennedys.Android Jelly Bean Is the Most Used Version as Revealed in Latest Pie Graph Revelation
| Google has come up with a new pie graph revealing details of the usage pattern of the various Android versions. What can be termed as the most interesting revelation of the latest figures released by Google is that Jelly Bean has seen greater uptake in the past few months, so that the newest Android iteration has grown in its user base from 33% to 37.9%. That is a healthy improvement, and elevates it to the most used operating system. Gingerbread, present in 34.1% of devices, has slipped to the second slot, while Ice Cream Sandwich (23.3%) has slipped to the third spot. However, with the Jelly Bean platform, it is the newer 4.2.x version that is present on a minority 5.6% of devices, while a majority 32.3 percent users are still hooked on to Android 4.1.x Jelly Bean. The above data has been collected during a 14 day period ending on the 8th of July based on the devices that had visited the Google Play Store. The data recorded during the previous cycle ending June 3 had seen Gingerbread reigning at the top with 36.5%, followed by Jelly Bean in 33% of the devices. Ice Cream Sandwich was recorded on 25.6% of the devices. Android Jelly Bean Is the Most Used Version as Revealed in Latest Pie Graph Revelation is a post from: E-Reader News |
Nokia Tablet Emerges Once Again
| The Nokia tablet is here again, making it perhaps the umpteenth time the device has hit headlines. The series of flip flops have been punctuated by confirmations once in a while that the company is indeed in the race to develop a tablet device. However, all of the hype nearly disappeared, except now we are seeing a remarkable resurgence of a prototype model once again. However, lest there be joyous outbreaks to mark the arrival of Nokia at the tablet scene, let's set the record straight. The new images represent the prototype device that the Finnish phone maker had produced, though nothing has ever made it to the final production stages. Sources reveal the device is packed with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad core chip rated at 1.3 GHz, 2 GB RAM, and a 10.1 inch 16-point touch touchscreen. Other features of the tablet included a HDMI out slot, a full sized USB port, and a micro SIM card slot. Also, of course, the tablet runs Windows RT and shares quite a few design cues with the present crop of Lumia devices. The images also reveal a magnetic connector similar to the Surface devices. A total of 5 images have emerged of the cancelled device and have been posted at the site Naver Cafe Forum by a user who claims to have received it from someone at Nokia. However, Nokia fans that might have been eager for a tablet from the company can still have hope. Sources close to the project have confirmed to The Verge that the company is working on a Windows 8 version instead. The closest that we have seen Nokia coming to launch a tablet was during the MWC event held early in the year, though that never came to be.
Nokia Tablet Emerges Once Again is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo Releases Blackberry 10 e-Reading App
| When the Blackberry Playbook was originally released, one of the preloaded apps that came bundled on it was Kobo. The two Canadian companies reached an agreement early on to give readers a chance to instantly tap into an expansive ebook ecosystem. Today, Kobo has announced that it has finally released its seminal e-reading app for Blackberry 10. “The Kobo app creates the ideal reading experience for BlackBerry smartphone customers who want to be able to consume books wherever they are and whenever they want,” said Wayne White, EVP of Devices, Kobo. “Readers will be able to manage their library and pick up right where they left off, all on their smartphone.” BlackBerry 10 smartphone customers who download the Kobo app will receive Forbes.com blogger Jessica Hagy’s How to be Interesting After you Graduate. After Hagy’s “How to be Interesting” post on Forbes.com went viral, attracting more than 1.4 million viewers, Hagy captured her ideas in this quirky book about how to stand out from the crowd. The book, exclusive to Kobo, will be automatically loaded to a customer’s account upon download of the Kobo app. The Kobo e-Reading app is now available for download on the BlackBerry World, and you can download over 4,500 other BB10 apps at the official Good e-Reader App Store. Kobo Releases Blackberry 10 e-Reading App is a post from: E-Reader News |
XinXii’s iPhone App: Self-Publishing on the Go
| German ebook distributor and self-publishing platform XinXii, who distributes authors’ ebooks worldwide, serves eight languages, and works in three different currencies, has been working with self-published authors internationally for some time, but yesterday announced that it was the first of its kind to offer an iPhone app interface to its platform that lets authors work from their iPhones. “The stated objective of XinXii is to support indie authors in managing their book project not only professionally but also as conveniently as possible,” says Dr. Andrea Schober, founder and CEO of XinXii, in a statement yesterday. “The XinXii’s app for authors is an important building block. This tool allows authors to use our service flexibly outside the online platform.” This app incorporates the mobile ability that lets authors stay on top of their sales, book dashboards, and track revenues right from their mobile phones, as well as accessing some of the features of the XinXii site. Since checking their important book data is a crucial part of the author business, this portability allows authors to maintain control over their sales data, one of the chief complaints authors have had over the years about relinquishing their books to traditional publishers. The XinXii’s App for Authors is available for iPhone (all versions starting from iPhone 3GS and iOS 4.3) on the App Store in English ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xinxii/id645485548?l=de&ls=1&mt=8) and in German ( https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/xinxii/id645485548?l=de&ls=1&mt=8) for 1,79 EUR, $ 1.99, £ 1.49. The app is available as a free download until July 14, 2013.
XinXii’s iPhone App: Self-Publishing on the Go is a post from: E-Reader News |
Have you grabbed your free SYNC audiobooks yet?
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This wonderful program goes through the middle of August so if you haven't been grabbing your free titles, now is the time to start! Each week, two titles are available for free to anyone who goes to http://www.audiobooksync.com. Once downloaded, these titles are yours. These titles are great for road trips and traveling, multitasking or even to enjoy while you drift off to sleep (if you listen to them through the OverDrive Media Console app you can access our sleep timer).
Looking for a way to keep students engaged during their time away from school? Studies show that listening to audiobooks can help with reading comprehension as well as knowledge retention. If you've never listened to audiobooks, why not take this opportunity to give them a try? Summer will be over before we know and so will the SYNC program. Don't miss this magnificent opportunity to grab both classic and new audiobook titles for free!
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist at OverDrive
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Back in May we PiPlanter: a plant growth monitor
| We’ve see a lot of clever irrigation devices for gardeners being made with the Pi, but PiPlanter is the most complete (and the best documented) system we’ve seen so far. It does far more than simple irrigation. PiPlanter monitors temperature, ambient light, ambient humidity and soil humidity; it outputs that data to a MySQL database, controls a pump to water the plants depending on that data, and outputs the data as graphs and text. (It also tweets that text and uploads the graphs to Flickr hourly so that Devon, the PiPlanter’s owner, can keep an eye on things.) Devon has documented the build minutely, with circuit diagrams, a ton of code, and several videos. Here, he explains more about the sensor array he built. You can read much more at Devon’s blog, and replicate the project yourself. Thanks Devon: more power to your green thumb! |
Monday, July 8, 2013
Chinese Publishers Banding Together to Launch Super Book City
| Chinese Publishers are banding together to develop a new ebook distribution system that allows them to deliver content in a unified way. Sino United Publishing, Commercial Press, Joint Publishing, and Chung Hwa Book are going to launch Super Book City at the end of the month. Super Book City will open with 1,000 digital titles that will be available to purchase at rock bottom rates. New ebooks will cost 30% less than their printed counterparts and older books will cost 60% less. Not only will readers be able to enjoy a hefty amount of digital content, but there will be a extensive collection of real books. A million books are eventually going to be included in the catalog. With the launch of the the Super Book City e-platform, the publishers will be releasing a series of apps. These reading apps will have all of the normal features, such as note taking and annotations, but also will be compatible with accessing the books you buy. The Android version will allow readers to buy content directly from the store. Terence Leung Wing-chung is the general manager of Sino United Publishing, and he said, “The development of ebooks in Hong Kong is much slower than in Europe or the United States. By launching the new platform, we would like to speed up the pace… Publishers in China have produced ebooks before, but never so many titles at once.” Chinese Publishers Banding Together to Launch Super Book City is a post from: E-Reader News |
UK Unveils New Technology-Rich Public Education Standards
| While individual teachers and schools can be a source of great innovation where educational advancement is concerned, as a whole, government entities that oversee education can be painfully slow to adapt to new ideas and practices. For example, the state of Indiana shocked the nation only two years ago when it took cursive handwriting out of the curriculum, meaning that it would be made available for instruction but no longer required, and would be replaced by a greater emphasis on computer readiness at a much younger age. Today, England released an announcement of its new and far more rigorous set of educational standards, ones that will place a greater emphasis on building a global community of learners that reaches the same standards as other international educational foundations, while focusing on higher math, more in-depth study of language and literature, and a much stronger foundation in technology, including computer programing for students as young as elementary school. According to a statement by Prime Minister David Cameron about the new curriculum,”We are determined to give all children in this country the very best education—for their future, and for our country's future. The new national curriculum is a vital part of that. This curriculum marks a new chapter in British education. From advanced fractions to computer coding to some of the greatest works of literature in the English language, this is a curriculum that is rigorous, engaging, and tough. As a parent this is exactly the kind of thing I want my children to be learning. And as Prime Minister, I know this revolution in education is critical for Britain's prosperity in the decades to come. This is a curriculum to inspire a generation—and it will educate the great British engineers, scientists, writers, and thinkers of our future.” Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, also said, “We are introducing a tougher, more rigorous national curriculum. Schools will focus more on essay writing, mathematical modelling and problem solving. For the first time children will be learning to programme computers. It will raise standards across the board—and allow our children to compete in the global race.” As often happens with announcements such as this one, the teachers’ unions have not been overly receptive to the ideas presented in the new curriculum standards, seeing it instead as an effort to play a game of catch-up against other countries rather than an actual effort to produce a more qualified student.
UK Unveils New Technology-Rich Public Education Standards is a post from: E-Reader News |
N2Aos Turns Your Old Kindle Fire Into an Open Android 4.2 Tablet for $20
| One of the good things about Android tablets is their software can often be modified from the original factory version to get newer software with more features, even when manufacturers fail to provide updates to newer versions of Android themselves. That’s case with the original Kindle Fire from Amazon. It runs an ancient version of [...] |
Barnes and Noble CEO Steps Down
| Barnes and Noble has announced today a slew of major executive changes for the top management positions in the company. William Lynch has resigned as Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company effective immediately. He will be replaced by Michael P. Huseby, who has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of NOOK Media LLC and President of Barnes & Noble. Mr. Huseby joined Barnes & Noble as Chief Financial Officer in March 2012, and has led the company's financial organization since that time. Prior to joining Barnes & Noble, he had a distinguished career in the media communications industry, having most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cablevision Systems Corporation, a leading telecommunications and media company. Mr. Huseby also served in leadership positions at Charter Communications, Inc., the fourth largest cable operator in the U.S, as well as AT&T Broadband, a provider of cable television services. The company also announced that Allen Lindstrom, Vice President and the Company's Corporate Controller, has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Kanuj Malhotra, Vice President of Corporate Development, has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer of NOOK Media LLC. The main reason William is stepping down is due to the declining revenues of the online digital content sales at Nook Media and sagging bookstore sales. Barnes and Noble basically has to turn its fortunes around and its last investors call seeks to do just that. The main changes in the immediate future are to suspend development of the line of tablet computers and start licensing out the app store to 3rd parties. The company will continue to develop and market lower cost e-readers, because the overhead is quite low. B&N also plans to shut down a number of bookstores by 2016 across the US. "I appreciate the opportunity to serve as CEO of this terrific company over the last three years," said William Lynch. "There is a great executive team and board in place at Barnes & Noble, and I look forward to the many innovations the company will be bringing to its millions of physical and digital media customers in the future." Barnes and Noble CEO Steps Down is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sparkup Reader Launches Late July with Read-Aloud Capability on Any Book
| The children’s book market has become the focus of a lot of attention from a variety of branches of publishing. From retailers and publishers who promote book with summer reading incentives, to ebook distributors who are rolling out plans for focused marketing of children’s content, this once tiny sliver of the digital publishing market is growing by leaps and bounds. One aspect of of the children’s book market that has gained a lot of ground in terms of startups and technology is the read-aloud capabilities of nearly any book. Companies like Sourcebooks first pioneered a cross-platform approach to recording human voice over at the consumer end, and then new devices like the QR code-driven Story Sticker have allowed more and more people to experience story time in a recorded way. Now, Tel Aviv-based Sparkup Reader has developed a visual recognition device that allows users to record their own voices reading any children’s book, and the program uses the installed camera to sync the words with the page. This allows emerging readers to explore the words and illustrations on each page without getting left behind. “It's been a long journey, a long pregnancy of development of the technology and making the technology available in a real, tangible product,” said Sparkup’s founder and CEO Amir Koren in an interview with Good E-Reader, discussing the 2009 launch of the company. “A lot of development and research went into this. The barrier of any startup company is to make a tangible product when so many companies are starting software or app products.” Sparkup’s device, which is currently available in Europe and will be available in North America later this month via QVC’s Christmas in July promotion, offers users the allure of a read-aloud narration feature while still letting children experience the print edition books that so many parents still want for their children. But in addition to user-generated recordings, Sparkup is currently in negotiations with publishers like Random House, Disney, and HarperCollins to market their professionally pre-recorded titles for this platform. Additionally, Sparkup’s community board will eventually include areas where users can upload their own recordings to share, without concerns of copyright infringement, since the recording only functions after the device scans each page. New developments in the children’s book arena such as this will only serve to further the book industry as a whole, as new generations of readers are introduced to a life-long love of reading.
Sparkup Reader Launches Late July with Read-Aloud Capability on Any Book is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Japan Brings In Interesting New Staff
| Part of the allure of bringing a new branch of Amazon to your home state or country is the potential for a boost to the local economy. Amazon historically has a history of creating jobs through its call centers and distribution centers, making the online retail giant a highly sought after partner. But the recent launch of Amazon Japan has meant the retailer had an even greater need for staff members than originally planned. An entire herd of employees, you might say. Amazon has connected with local farmers to bring the goats to its new facility in order to combat a serious weed problem around the facility. Like other companies and private sector individuals before them, the retailer has learned about the benefits of hiring goats to nibble away, while supervised, of course. And while this certainly isn’t the first time a major corporation has taken a greener initiative with its landscaping–Google brought in roughly 200 goats to manicure and fertilize its corporate headquarters back in 2009–it might be the first time any corporate retailer has issued employee ID cards to livestock. Yes, the goats will have ID cards. Interestingly, according to a blog post at the time from a Google spokesperson, this is less a cost-saving measure and more about environmentally sound practices. While methane concerns as a result of goat digestion might be an environmental factor, it apparently is offset by the reduction in emissions from gas-fueled lawn care equipment. “It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers,” explained Dan Hoffman, Google’s director of real estate and workplace services.
Amazon Japan Brings In Interesting New Staff is a post from: E-Reader News |
New Collections Lists in OverDrive Marketplace
| OverDrive works hard to make our content available to libraries. Some recently created lists will make great additions to any collection.
IFC Collection List:
IFC has great titles that you should take advantage of! A leader in the independent film industry, IFC Entertainment consists of multiple brands that are devoted to bringing the best of specialty films to the largest possible audience with titles such as:
Rosetta Books Collection List:
Rosetta Books launched in 2001 with a list of 100 preeminent backlist titles; the company now has a list of over 500 titles including 19 works by Kurt Vonnegut, the popular work I am Legend of the late Richard Matheson and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
NPR Collection List:
Debuting in April of 1971 NPR (National Public Radio) began coverage of the Senate Vietnam War hearings. Currently NPR is covered by over 975 public stations with daily updates on pop culture and critic reviews of newly published titles. NPR covers its own bestseller lists by surveying independent bookstores nationwide that carry titles such as: These lists can be found in OverDrive Marketplace  |
eBook Pricing Still Hotly Contested Issue
| Despite the well-documented and sound studies conducted by some of the top companies in ebook retailing, and in spite of the Department of Justice lawsuit involving the alleged price fixing between Apple and five of the then-Big Six publishers, ebook pricing still seems to mystify industry professionals and consumers alike. An article that appeared in the New York Times over the holiday weekend clearly placed the blame for some of the confusion squarely on the shoulders of everyone’s favorite publishing whipping boy, Amazon. And admittedly, with the clout that Amazon has within the bookselling industry, it’s possible that some of the price changes books have undergone in recent years have to do with solid competition from the retail giant. One often overlooked fact is that books are simply priced at different standards internationally, a concept that many self-published authors tend to forget when pricing their ebooks. But as international retail markets abound, that is changing as well. Customers who were once accustomed to paying a higher price point for a book are now beginning to take notice that consumers in other countries pay a significantly less percentage of their income for the same book. Additionally, as Mark Lefebvre of Kobo’s Writing Life platform pointed out in an interview with GoodEReader in May, books have also priced differently according to genre due to the different costs of production of print editions of various genres. What was considered a reasonable price for a poetry collection or photoessay book would never be deemed appropriate by consumers for a mass market paperback. But as digital publishing opened the doors to inexpensive editions of books of every genre, authors and publishers are finding it difficult to convince consumers to pay more for a book that traditionally enjoyed a higher price point. One interesting aspect of ebook pricing is that it seems to be a topic that not many publishers care to discuss, as though the price of a book is somehow a proprietary secret that consumers won’t learn the instant they attempt to purchase the book. And in the current climate in which an offhanded remark or a simple email can end up as evidence in a price fixing trial, it’s easy to understand why. What the industry and the consumers need to take away from pricing is what has been known since the digital revolution first began: everything is changing. The publishing industry can continue to rail against the fast-paced changes and the startups can continue to throw their funds into the next big thing, but only entities that are willing to adapt while still keeping a firm grasp on what works and what doesn’t work will continue to thrive in this market.
eBook Pricing Still Hotly Contested Issue is a post from: E-Reader News |
Pi synthesisers
| On the road back from Wales this weekend, we listened to Liz’s Playlist for Driving Long Distances. Gary Numan’s Cars came on. (I am nothing if not literal-minded.) We started talking about the incredible depth and complexity of a lot of 80s music; and how the discipline of only having a limited amount of polyphony and a limited number of tracks brought about music that was, when at its best, so tightly and elegantly arranged that it keeps all of its impact today. Cars was recorded using only four synth tracks (three monophonic and a Polymoog, I think, having just listened again – but I’m ready and willing to be corrected!) and a real live drummer. Held up against your high-falutin’ Reactables with billion-note polyphony (note: I have no idea how much polyphony is available on a Reactable, I’m just guessing) and clever-clogs plastic brick interfaces, Gary Numan knocks it out of the park every time. I spent the 1980s listening to the Pet Shop Boys – actually, I seem to be spending the 2010s listening to the Pet Shop Boys too – Erasure, New Order, Soft Cell and Depeche Mode, all of them engineering their music within technical boundaries that’d make some of today’s musicians run away and hide under the piano in horror. Turns out, of course, that I’m not the only person with a Pi and a terrible and burning nostalgia for old synthesisers. Some of you, though, have actually done some work on this stuff rather than, like me, sitting around and thinking idly about it. There’s far, far more functionality available to you with a Pi than there was with an 80s synth, but the fundamental feel of the thing can remain the same with some considerate engineering. First up, here’s Marc Girard’s TronPi. Marc says:
Back in Blighty, Phil Atkin has been working on Piana for about a year now. We featured it here last summer, and Piana has made some appearances at Raspberry Jams. Since then, Phil’s done more work on the project, and has produced this video to show off how far it’s come. And earlier this week, I was sent some more video by Servando Barreiro, who has made a Pi-based Looper: a sort of polyphonic Korg monotron. He’s using Satellite CCRMA, a platform designed at Stanford University for embedded musical instruments and art installations – check out their homepage for a download, examples and ideas for getting started on your own project. Here’s the Looper in action. Feel the depth and warmth! You can find out much more about the Looper and see (and hear) more video at createdigitalmusic.com – CDM is a great resource if you’re interested in this stuff, and you’ll find lots of inspiration and ideas there. There’s enormous education potential in this stuff too. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is currently working with Dr Sam Aaron, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, on Sonic Pi, an experimental school curriculum for teaching Computing through digital music. Kids use the Pi to build synthesisers and create music – acquiring a range of fundamental computer science concepts and basic programming skills while they’re not looking. We’ll have much more on that project at a later date; it’s a prime example of our concept of Computing as a creative subject which appeals to the kids who prefer to hang out in the music department and the art block just as much as it appeals to the kids we tend to treat as the usual suspects. If you’re working on a musical project with a Raspberry Pi, give me a shout at liz@raspberrypi.org. We’d love to hear about what you’re doing. |