| Amazon has introduced a new feature in their seminal reading app for the iPad and iPhone. It allows readers to browse their entire database of eBooks that have samples attached to them. Often, these samples have a few chapters of the digital book and when you are done reading it, it will prompt you to enter your email address to have the link sent over. Why is this story big news? Apple mandated awhile ago that all in-app purchases be done through their own system and they gained 30% of each transaction. Overnight, every single major eBook store removed the ability to buy books, including Amazon. This new sample based system is a way to bypass this restriction and still have the ability to browse books and make impulse purchases. In order to look for Samples you have to click the little magnifying glass in the top right hand corner of the app. You can browse by the author or book name, and it will give you a list of all the books. You can click on the download button and it will deliver the book directly to your iPad or iPhone. When you are done reading a sample book, it will give you a "Before You Go" and allow you to check out other books by the same author or just email yourself the book you want. You can then open up the Safari internet browser and buy the book. It will then be synced automatically to your Amazon account and you can than read said book in the Kindle app for iOS. Amazon Introduces Samples in Kindle for iOS is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Amazon Introduces Samples in Kindle for iOS
Q2 Tablet Shipment Figures has Android Beating iOS
| Consumer preference for tablet devices continue to rise unabated with the latest research by Strategy Analytics revealing a rise of 43 percent in tablet pc shipments in Q2 2013 compared to the same period last year. Put another way, shipment of tablet devices reached 51.7 million in the said period, though the more interesting facts lies within it. The research also revealed the growing popularity of the Android platform, which has recorded a healthy rise to 67 percent in the world's connected devices segment. Of course, that came at the expense of Apple, whose share of the market fell to 28 percent. Peter King, Director of Tablets at Strategy Analytics, said, "Global Branded Tablet shipments reached 36.2 million units in Q2 2013, up 47 percent from 24.6 million in Q2 2012. The Branded Tablet market had a rest period as very few new products came to market during the quarter. When we add in White-Box Tablets, shipments reached 51.7 million units, up 43 percent from 36.1 million in Q2 2012. Android is now making steady progress due to hardware partners like Samsung, Amazon, Google and White-Box tablets which, despite the fact that branded OEMs are lowering price-points and putting pressure on the White-Box manufacturers, are still performing well." King further added: "Apple iOS shipments were 14.6 million iPads in Q2 2013 which declined 14 percent annually. In the same quarter a year ago the first Retina display iPads were launched which could partly explain the decline as there were no new models in this quarter. However, to compensate that, iPad Mini which was not available a year ago, now freely available was expected to take the figure higher than 14.6 million." Microsoft's Windows, which is a new entrant in the field, has managed to secure a 4.5 percent of the market share. The low figure isn't surprising considering the low uptake of Windows based tablet devices, including the Surface tablet range, which have fared miserably in the market. In fact, many have already started to question if the Windows platform is at all suited to the tablet realm which could see far more acceptance in the laptop or ultrabook segment. However, the meteoric rise of Android with support from hardware makers such as Samsung, Amazon and such could come under stress once Apple launches its new generation devices such as the iPhone and the iPad 5 this fall. With better specs and the thoroughly revamped iOS 7 platform, along with a refreshed design that analysts claim is more akin to the iPad Mini, Apple is likely to have another multi-million sales run in the market in the run up to the holiday season and beyond. Meanwhile, the rumor world is agog with conflicting stories about whether there is a new iPad Mini is slated for launch this fall and if it is going to feature a retina display. Overall, while Android made some healthy gains in Q2 213, Apple could well be seen making a comeback of sorts in the next quarter. Q2 Tablet Shipment Figures has Android Beating iOS is a post from: E-Reader News |
Apple iPad Update Screen Showing Up Blank for Most Users
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The Apple iPad is experiencing a blank update screen for many users. You may see app updates available via the notification flag, but when you visit the update section in the App store, there is no data. This is applicable to all iPad models, although the iPod and iPhone are unaffected by this issue. The iOS 6 AppStore is a web browser with some local HTML (header and tabs) and content loaded with AJAX, so it might be unresponsive because of Javascript and other assets failing to load. Restores are fruitless and many users have reported that running a factory default does little to solve the problem. Currently the only way to circumvent this issue is to hit the purchased tab and search for updates there. Apple iPad Update Screen Showing Up Blank for Most Users is a post from: E-Reader News |
Monday, July 29, 2013
Q2 Tablet Shipment Figures has Android Beating iOS
| Consumer preference for tablet devices continue to rise unabated with the latest research by Strategy Analytics revealing a rise of 43 percent in tablet pc shipments in Q2 2013 compared to the same period last year. Put in another way, shipment of tablet devices reached 51.7 million in the said period though the more interesting facts lies within it. The research also revealed the growing popularity of the Android platform which has recorded a healthy rise to 67 percent in the world connected devices segment. Of course, that came at the expense of Apple who share of the market fell to 28 percent. Peter King, Director of Tablets at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global Branded Tablet shipments reached 36.2 million units in Q2 2013, up 47 percent from 24.6 million in Q2 2012. The Branded Tablet market had a rest period as very few new products came to market during the quarter. When we add in White-Box Tablets, shipments reached 51.7 million units, up 43 percent from 36.1 million in Q2 2012. Android is now making steady progress due to hardware partners like Samsung, Amazon, Google and White-Box tablets which, despite the fact that branded OEMs are lowering price-points and putting pressure on the White-Box manufacturers, are still performing well.” King further added: “Apple iOS shipments were 14.6 million iPads in Q2 2013 which declined 14 percent annually. In the same quarter a year ago the first Retina display iPads were launched which could partly explain the decline as there were no new models in this quarter. However, to compensate that, iPad Mini which was not available a year ago, now freely available was expected to take the figure higher than 14.6 million.” Microsoft's Windows which is a new entrant in the field has managed to secure a 4.5 percent of the market share. The low figure isn't surprising considering the low uptake of Windows based tablet devices including the Surface tablet range which have fared miserably in the market. In fact, many have already started to question if the Windows platform is at all suited to the tablet realm which could see far more acceptance in the laptop or ultrabook segment. However, the meteoric rise of Android with support from hardware makers such as Samsung, Amazon and such could come under stress once Apple launches its new generation devices such as the iPhone and the iPad 5 this fall. With better specs and the thoroughly revamped iOS 7 platform along with a refreshed design that analysts claim is more akin to the iPad Mini, Apple is likely to have another multi-million sales run in the market in the run up to the holiday season and beyond. Meanwhile, the rumor world is agog with conflicting stories whether there is a new iPad Mini is slated for launch this fall or if it is going to feature a retina display. Overall, while Android made some healthy gains in Q2 213, Apple could well be seen making a comeback of sorts in the next quarter.
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Apple iPad Update Screen Showing as Blank for Most Users
| The Apple iPad is experiencing a blank update screen for many users. You may see app updates available via the notification flag, but when you visit the update section in the APP store, there is no data. This is applicable to all iPad models, the iPod and iPhone are unaffected by this issue. The iOS 6 AppStore is a web browser with some local HTML (header and tabs) and content loaded with AJAX. So it might be unresponsive because of Javascript and other assets failing to load. Restores are fruitless and many users have reported that running a Factory default does little to solve the problem. Currently the only way to circumvent this issue is to hit the purchased tab and search for updates there. |
Official Android Jellybean Runtime to Hit Blackberry Soon
| Blackberry has been fervently working on a massive upgrade to their Android emulator which takes it from 2.3 to Jellybean. This will allow major apps like Candy Crush Saga and Viber to finally work on the entire line of Blackberry Smartphones. There is currently a leaked OS that is fairly polished, which is an indication that Blackberry will release it in the next month. The Blackberry Z10, Q10, A10, Q5 and Playbook all have a built in Android emulator which allows users to load in their own Android apps. This helps offset the lack of quality content in the Blackberry App Store and put power in the users hands to convert and install their own apps. Most apps these days are not being written for really old versions of Android, so this Jellybean update to the emulator is huge news and a boon to worldwide customers. If you want to install the Jellybean update right now, you can visit this tutorial that outlines the entire process. Installing Android apps is not as cut and dry as just loading in an APK file to your device, instead you have to convert the APK to a BAR file. We have an automatic converter that does this for you, you can check it out HERE. You can also watch a few video tutorials, if you are totally unfamiliar with loading in your own apps. |
Top Picks for Fall Book Titles
| Good e-Reader referenced an article earlier about the concept of seasons as it pertains to book releases from the traditional publishing industry. Publishers, like other areas of entertainment, have catalogs of titles that they will release based on a number of metrics and factors, with these releases being organized into seasons. For its part, the booksellers generally highlight upcoming titles by season and offer highly valuable promotional support to these thematic catalogs. Today, Amazon announced not only its own top picks for the most highly anticipated books of the upcoming fall season, but also the lists of books in both print and digital that are already topping the charts for pre-orders. According to a press release from Amazon, the most pre-ordered books in print publishing this fall are: The most pre-ordered books on Kindle publishing this fall are: In addition to this list which was generated simply by consumer sales of these titles, Amazon’s editors also created a list of their favorite picks which seem to not be getting the same level of attention as some other mainstream titles. These books, which they’ve referred to as “under the radar” titles, include: My Notorious Life by Kate Manning, The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell, The Mushroom Hunters, The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane, Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr, Johnny Cash: The Life by Robert Hilburn, Parasite by Mira Grant, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things by Cynthia Voigt. All of the titles on these Amazon lists are available now for purchase or pre-order.
Top Picks for Fall Book Titles is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon and Overstock: The Race to Offer the Best Price on Books
| When Amazon was first given its nickname as the “evil empire” by some in the traditional publishing and bookselling industries, one question kept coming back up: “Who will be big enough to take down Amazon?” Critics lamented the fact that other retail outlets can’t compete with a company that can afford to take a loss on books and make up for it with sales of coffee makers and blue jeans. Retailers like Target and Walmart seemed poised to compete, but their physical store overhead and limited shelf space for books kept them from offering the volume of the world’s largest online retailer. But according to an article today for The Bookseller, there is a retailer giving Amazon a run for its money in book pricing: Overstock.com. And just like Amazon, it too can afford to lose a few dollars on the price of print books and make up for it when its customers decide to purchase a household item at the same time in order to capitalize on reduced shipping costs. “Shelf Awareness has reported that in response to the direct competition, which is across the 466,000 books that Overstock supplies, Amazon.com has begun discounting the price of hardback books much higher than before. Dan Brown's Inferno is selling for $29.95 but is available on Amazon for $11.65, a 61% discount; And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, listed for $28.95, is being sold at $12.04, a 58% discount; Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, is listed at $24.95, and selling for $9.09, a 64% discount; while The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, listed at $17.99, is available for $6.55, 64% off.” One thing that Overstock cannot match Amazon with is volume, at least not at this time. It would be interesting to know if Overstock is actually doing as the name implies and gathering up leftover merchandise–in this case, books from publishing houses–or simply brokering the books directly from the publishers like any other retail outlet. It would also be interesting to know if publishers are trying to build up relationships with Overstock in order to direct more customers to that retailer over Amazon. But be warned, a move like that would stand to simply create two retail giants who have the power to tell publishers how much their books will be sold for.
Amazon and Overstock: The Race to Offer the Best Price on Books is a post from: E-Reader News |
1190: Time
| On Friday, xkcd #1190—Time—came to an end. It was a huge project, but since it was all concealed within a single comic panel, I thought I’d end with this short post to explain what was going on. If you want to see the story yourself before I spoil anything, you can use one of the many excellent third-party Time explorers, like the Geekwagon viewer, or one of the others listed here. When the comic first went up, it just showed two people sitting on a beach. Every half hour (and later every hour), a new version of the comic appeared, showing the figures in different positions. Eventually, the pair started building a sand castle. There was a flurry of attention early on, as people caught on to the gimmick. Readers watched for a while, and then, when nothing seemed to be happening, many wandered away—perhaps confused, or perhaps satisfied that they’d found a nice easter-egg story about castles. But Time kept going, and hints started appearing that there was more to the story than just sand castles. A few dedicated readers obsessively cataloged every detail, watching every frame for clues and every changing pixel for new information. The xkcd forum thread on Time grew terrifyingly fast, developing a subculture with its own vocabulary, songs, inside jokes, and even a religion or two. And as Time unfolded, readers gradually figured out that it was a story, set far in the future, about one of the strangest phenomena in our world: The Mediterranean Sea sometimes evaporates, leaving dry land miles below the old sea level … and then fills back up in a single massive flood.
Time was a bigger project than I planned. All told, I drew 3,099 panels. I animated a starfield, pored over maps and research papers, talked with biologists and botanists, and created a plausible future language for readers to try to decode. I wrote the whole story before I drew the first frame, and had almost a thousand panels already drawn before I posted the first one. But as the story progressed, the later panels took longer to draw than I expected, and Time began—ironically—eating more and more of my time. Frames that went up every hour were sometimes taking more than an hour to make, and I spent the final months doing practically nothing but drawing. To the intrepid, clever, sometimes crazy readers who followed it the whole way through, watching every pixel change and catching every detail: Thank you. This was for you. It’s been quite a journey; I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did! P.S. A lot of people have asked if I can sell some kind of Time print collection (or a series of 3,099 t-shirts, where you run to the bathroom and change into a new one every hour). I’m afraid I don’t have anything like that in the works right now. I just made this because I thought it would be neat, and now that it’s done, my only plan is to spend the next eleven thousand years catching up on sleep. If you liked the project, you’re always welcome to donate via PayPal (xkcd@xkcd.com) or buy something from the xkcd store. Thank you. |
Narrative Nonfiction in any Classroom
| I use to wonder what my teachers and school librarians did while we were away from school. I imagined them rollerblading down the hallways, eating the elusive cafeteria cookies that always seemed to run out before my miserable Slot C lunch, and generally just having a blast while we were out of their hair. While the latter may have been a little true, I was foolish to think that teachers and librarians ever stopped working.
I'm sure most of you are thinking about your curriculum for next term. You are thinking what will engage my students? What will interest them? It's really really difficult to answer that question because every learner is different. One thing we have learned, however, is that everyone enjoys a good story from time to time which is why OverDrive is proud to offer Narrative Nonfiction as one of its most versatile genres. This genre, also known as Literary Nonfiction, lends itself to many different classrooms. It brings nonfiction to the English/Language Arts selections and succeeds because the stories are compelling much like their fiction counterparts. Even better? It works for other areas of the core curriculum like Science, History and Math just to name a few. For example, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot , would be an excellent addition to a Biology class. It details how one woman's cells lead to advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping, yet her family never saw a dime of the multimillion-dollar profit the cells generated. Your students learn of the importance of their genealogy, the power of their cells, while also getting a lesson in ethics.
Skloot's powerhouse is just one of hundreds that OverDrive has to offer! Consider these for your next class set! Here are a few of my favorites:
If you are interested in our Narrative Nonfiction selections, contact your Collection Specialist today!
Christina Bernecker is a School Account Specialist at OverDrive.
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The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McClelland10 Covers and Cases for the Google Nexus 7 II (2nd Gen)
| A list of 10 covers and cases for the new Google Nexus 7 II (2nd Generation model 2013). Includes pictures of each cover. |
eBooks Change the Season Concept in Publishing
| Much like other areas of the entertainment industries, books fall into the concept of seasons. Television shows are filmed and aired in seasons–while other times of the year re-runs are broadcast–and the movie industry has long aligned itself with seasons in which to release blockbuster films, such as action movies in the summer and family-oriented films around the holidays. An article today for Publisher’s Weekly explains some of the thought processes and historical origins of the seasonal concept in traditional print publishing, and unlike other areas of entertainment, some of the reasons these seasons first began actually stem from the physical shipping of printed books to bookstores around the world, often by barge. But if ebooks don’t arrive by massive boats, why are they still being lumped into seasons for new releases? Certainly, physical books still have to be shipped to various retailers, but even that is a much faster and more cost effective process than it was in the early days of large-scale publishing. Is it possible that this is another case of “doing it the way it’s always been done?” Amazon Publishing, the book retailer’s traditional publishing house, was one of the first to make dramatic recent changes to how publishing works when it announced that it would begin paying its authors monthly royalties instead of quarterly, like the rest of the traditional industry, citing the monthly payments that self-published authors receive as the reason. Why punish a traditionally published author by only paying him four times a year, when he would be paid each month if he had self-published? However, digital is having an impact on this, to some extent. In the PW piece, publishers cited various reasons for sticking to a seasonal release concept, but insist that “sticking to the old ways” isn’t part of that decision making process: “Despite blurred seasons, most publishers have stuck to seasonal catalogues, although many are now digital. ‘It isn't just for nostalgic reasons that we still feel so strongly about the seasonal catalogue,’ said Norton president Drake McFeely. ‘Presenting our list whole and allowing recipients to see how the pieces fit together is still enormously important to us. Our catalogue is in many important ways our identity, and I know our affiliates feel the same way.’"
eBooks Change the Season Concept in Publishing is a post from: E-Reader News |
The Pi Pong clock
| First of all, thank you to everybody who sponsored us on yesterday’s London to Cambridge bike ride in support of Breakthrough Breast Cancer. We got to the end unscathed, Eben “won” by sprinting away from the rest of the pack about five miles out at Duxford, and many cereal bars and bananas were consumed. If you’d still like to sponsor us, you can do so at JustGiving.  Eben (can’t sing in tune, makes a mean risotto), James Adams (director of hardware, brews beer in his garage, welds things) and Emma (office manager, PhD in entomology, knows more about ladybirds than anyone else alive, good at punching). Click to sponsor. Back to the matter at hand. We found a Pong clock on YouTube, powered (of course) by a Raspberry Pi. It made us laugh. One side wins once an hour, the other once a minute: the result is a clock that’s weirdly compelling to watch. Don Clark, the Mind Behind, has made the code available at his Bitbucket account: it’s written in Python, and you’ll need PyGame to run it; Don was using Raspbian as his OS. Let us know if you incorporate a Pi into your home decoration scheme. We thought this was a super-cute way to tell the time.
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Sunday, July 28, 2013
Kobo has a 10 inch Tablet in Production – Codenamed Macallan
| Canadian based Kobo has started to release a number of new e-Readers every year, and a growing tablet line. The Kobo Arc was released at the tail end of last year and saw modest success in Canada. This makes two different tablet computers they have released and they are trying new things with a 10 inch tablet that will be released in September. The new Kobo tablet is currently codenamed Macallan and features a 10 inch full color touchscreen with a resolution of 2560×1600. The resolution is fairly amazing and blows the Nook HD, Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and the 10 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab out of the water. This will make magazines, games and movies look superb, although it will lose the portability factor a seven inch device brings to the table. Resolution of course, isn’t everything. This is why there is a quad-core 1.8 GHZ processor underneath the hood and 2 GB of RAM. All other specs are unknown, as the name and hardware were unearthed in a public benchmarking website, that has since been taken down. Still, you can assume it will still give you a solid audio experience with Kobo’s partnership with True Vision Audio and maintain the Tapestries technology that was incorporated in the ARC tablet. Tapestries, basically is Kobo’s UI that gives you unique directory and social media management. It also puts an emphasis on reading with the ability to buy eBooks. Kobo currently has a new six inch e-Reader at the FCC and likely this device should be ready for evaluation in the next few weeks. The company trend has been to announce a new product line at the same time.
Kobo has a 10 inch Tablet in Production – Codenamed Macallan is a post from: E-Reader News |
Good e-Reader News App Updated
| The Good e-Reader News app for Android has received a big update today! We have sped up the loading time when you first fire the app up for the first time and pull our featured news items very quickly. We have also alphabetized our topic section, which makes browsing our various news categories, easier than ever! Finally, we have really enhanced the app in many different ways and squashed some annoying bugs. Good e-Reader has been chronicling the rise of the entire modern era digital publishing industry and has been reviewing e-readers since they first started getting manufactured. We provide a free online news service that is written by some of the best people in the publishing industry and give you a play by play of all major events and trends. The Good e-Reader News HD app for Android is available via Google Play and our own Good e-Reader App Store! It is only available for tablets right now and will not work on your smartphone. Good e-Reader News App Updated is a post from: E-Reader News |
Digital Comics Best-Sellers for July 28 – Oh, the Injustice!
| Here’s my roundup of digital comics best-sellers from the leading platforms. 1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #28 The list begins and ends with digital-first comics, and the fact that the previous issue of Injustice: Gods Among Us doesn’t show up until number 15 suggests that readers are snapping up fresh copies of these weekly comics as they come out. 1. Scott Pilgrim: Precious Little Life, color edition, vol. 1 Everything on here except Superman #1 is a graphic novel or collected edition. It’s interesting to see Scott Pilgrim, which was released almost a year ago, in the number 1 spot; what on earth could have caused a surge that would bring it to the top of the Amazon charts? The Wolverine and Deadpool books doubtless got a bounce from both the Wolverine movie and the sale Amazon is having on Wolvering and Deadpool books. Amazon has a separate chart for single-issue comics; nine of the ten slots are taken by Injustice: Gods Among Us, with the most recent issue in the top spot. The one other comic is Superman #1, which Amazon was giving away for free for a while; this may have boosted the numbers. 1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #23 I stripped out the free books from Barnes and Noble’s list to make it compatible with the other lists. Bleach is still up there, and it’s interesting to note that the latest volume of Naruto is in the number 11 slot, just missing the top ten. So for some group of people, the Nook is a significant manga reading platform. iBooks 1. Injustice: Gods Among Us #27 So, Injustice: Gods Among Us continues to be the digital comics phenomenon. And here’s an interesting statistic from DC co-publisher Jim Lee: 30% of Injustice readers are new to comics. That’s not too surprising because although stars Superman and Batman, Injustice is based on a game, and the gaming audience is much bigger than the comics world. I checked the New York Times print graphic novel best-seller lists (hardcover and paperback) to see if there were any larger trends that would be affecting these digital charts—a surge in print sales of Scott Pilgrim, for instance—but there is literally no overlap between the lists, aside from the popularity of The Walking Dead. It’s as if they were in two different universes—which, indeed, they are. Digital Comics Best-Sellers for July 28 – Oh, the Injustice! is a post from: E-Reader News |
The Business of Superheroes
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Can you save me the comics? This familiar question was often spoken in my household on Sunday mornings. A picture of fatherhood, my dad who had awakened early was holding his second cup of morning coffee with the Cleveland Plain Dealer spread across his chest and small ink marks on his hands proving that he had indeed been reading. After saying our good mornings, my elder sister and I would focus our gaze on the perfectly folded unopened newspaper sections stationed on the small table beside him. We would ask for articles about the arts, books, movies and, of course, the comics. Those first sections containing current news and the front pages would never do. Later in the morning, when dad had reached the desired sections he would share them with us. I remember reading the comics and enjoying the small illustrations of characters who spoke in word bubbles. But I know more than anything my favorite part was doing something grown up— reading the newspaper. For those of you fellow comic book fans, here are a few titles which may cause you to marvel at the longevity of our favorite two dimensional heroes.
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (Nobleman & Macdonald) Juvenile Nonfiction
This is the true story of two teen boys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster who created Superman in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story (Sean Howe) Nonfiction
In the early 1960's Marvel Comics was a small struggling company who armed with their cast of brightly costumed characters including Spider-Man, Captain America, and the Fantastic Four created a multimillion dollar enterprise and changed the world of comic books. “A superpowered must-read for anyone hooked on comics, as well as a gripping story for someone merely enlightened by a genre that’s always had to fight for respect. It’s much more about ordinary, flawed humans than super men and women, and therein lies its excellence.” – USA Today
The Boy Who Loved Batman (Michael Uslan) Nonfiction
Uslan's memoir chronicles his childhood obsession with Batman and later his passion turned business which led him to purchase the film rights to Batman and produce every modern Batman film to date. He created one of the most successful pop culture franchises of all time.
Renee Lienhard is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive
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Do you pre-order eBooks?
| A few days ago Smashwords announced it was launching a new pre-order system for indie eBooks. Smashwords now joins Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo and Google in offering a system for readers to order their favorite digital books in advance. The big question, is eBooks have infinite copies available and are book lovers actually pre-ordering books or just buying them when they come out? All of the major digital book resellers never release statistics on the amount of pre-orders a single title receives. Obviously, it is a system that gets some use, but there is seldom any advantages of ordering it in advance. Most movies, music albums and video games normally gives a slew of bonus content when you pre-order. If you order an album in advance, you normally get a bonus track, video games give you extra equipment or even new levels. Retailers give discounts on movie tickets when you pre-order a DVD or Blu-Ray or even a bonus disk. All three of these also allow the early shipment, which means you can have it shipped out before the actual release date. eBooks on the other hand, never give any type of bonuses at all. You would be hardpressed to get a coupon for some savings on purchasing your next title and books never give out bonus content. Also, when you order a book before the release date, there isn’t even any cost savings, so where is the allure? If online retailers really want customers to order more books in advance, they need to roll out features that make it worth the readers while. Let’s hear it from our readers, do you pre-order books? If not, what types of incentives and features would help sway you? Do you pre-order eBooks? is a post from: E-Reader News |
eBook Review: Death By Living by ND Wilson
| Verdict: 4 Stars Wilson’s second title Death By Living (Thomas Nelson), following the immensely popular Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, once again incorporates the author’s nearly-manic writing style that somehow manages to be both disjointed and steadily straightforward at the same time. This book is a times so hard to comprehend that the reader might wonder if it is, in fact, English; at other times, the author makes such profound statements that it felt less like reading and more like absorbantly knowing. Wilson’s essential point in the book is this: you’re gonna die. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it, there’s no amount of good you can do or legacy you can leave behind that will change it. But this is also decidedly not a book about filling the moments between birth and life with the greatest use of time. It just…is. What this book also demonstrates is the complete spirituality of our existence, regardless of where the reader place his own faith on the vast spectrum of belief. The author isn’t referring to religion, though, only spirituality and its impact on this life everyone lives before dying. Granted, this is an incredibly confusing book to read and at times I wanted to hold the author down, preferably tied to a chair, and administer some kind of medication that would cause the writing style to make more sense. But I’m certainly not a lesser person for having read it, and might even be someone who is now more aware. Death By Living is available now for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and more, and will be released July 30th.
eBook Review: Death By Living by ND Wilson is a post from: E-Reader News |
Verdict Against Apple Could Result in Triple the Damages Due to Be Paid
| With the first of the Apple verdicts behind them and the promised appeal looming on the horizon, there is still some question as to who will pay, when they will pay, and how much. With the earlier settlements from the five publishers involved, one of the resounding statements they repeatedly made when signing to agree to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars to consumers for allegedly overcharging them for ebooks was that they were not at fault and did not admit any wrongdoing. Their only reason for agreeing to the settlement terms was to avoid paying even more than the amount of the settlement in fighting a lengthy legal battle. For Apple, though, that was a gamble that did not pay off. The iPad creators who reportedly conspired with the publishers to arrange the prices of ebooks in an effort to sway consumers away from Amazon’s Kindle and to the then newly-launched iPad have resulted in a ruling from Judge Denise Cote that could mean Apple will pay almost half a billion dollars. The math gets a little convoluted, and several sources including GigaOm, AllThingsD, and TUAW have all posted articles on the subject that help clear up some of where the money will come from, and where it will go. Essentially, the original amount that is owed to consumers looks like just over $218 millon. But factoring in current legislation that specifically addressed anti-trust violations–in this case, the price fixing allegations brought by the Department of Justice and agreed with by Cote–means that the punishment could be triple that amount, since Apple was found at fault. that new number is over $656 million, of which the publishers have already paid nearly $200 million, leaving Apple to potentially foot the bill for the remaining nearly $500 million. Of course, don’t go looking for that refund anytime soon. The wheels of justice might turn slowly, but the wheels of issuing refunds to millions of ebook customers will turn even slower, and that’s assuming that Apple does, in fact, lose its appeal, an outcome that legal analysts feel strongly may happen.
Verdict Against Apple Could Result in Triple the Damages Due to Be Paid is a post from: E-Reader News |
