| The British Library has joined hands with the National Library Board in Singapore with the aim of digitizing an extensive collection of materials related to the island state. This includes Malay manuscripts considered to be extremely rare, which includes a Malay letter written in golden ink in 1857 by the ruler of Johor, Temenggung Ibrahim, to Emperor Napoleon III of France. Among the other materials that will also be part of the digitization process include early maps of Singapore, as well as archival material of the British official Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who is credited with establishing the city of Singapore. "This collaboration allows the National Library to explore the wealth of information in the British Library's Southeast Asian collection, especially materials which are of interest to Singapore. Our users will be able to easily access rarely seen documents relating to the rich history and culture of Singapore and the region. It has also been a most rewarding experience for our staff to have the opportunity to engage with the collection and work with colleagues at the British Library," said Mr. Gene Tan, Director, National Library Singapore. Funding the project will be William and Judith Bollinger, who have donated £125,000 towards the completion of the digitization work over the next five years. The first phase is already underway and is aimed at digitizing the more than one hundred rare Malay manuscripts and letters that date back to the 17th through 19th centuries. All of that will now be accessible in the form of over 16,000 high resolution images from the NLB's BookSGsite as well as the British Library's Digitized Manuscript website. Speaking about the digitization effort now underway, Annabel Gallop, Lead Curator for Southeast Asian Studies at the British Library said, "Thanks to the generosity of the Bollinger family, we will be able to make the British Library's collection of Malay manuscripts available to researchers across the world. It is fantastic to be able to work with colleagues at the National Library Board of Singapore to ensure that all those with an interest in Malay cultural heritage are able to view them. We look forward to working with the NLB as the project progresses.” Meanwhile, the National Library Board in Singapore has announced it is now the host of over three million ebook titles. That is about an eight fold jump from the 400,000 titles it started with back in 2005. That figure should compare favorably with the around 4.9 million physical books, magazines, and other content that the NLB holds in its libraries, which are housed in twenty-six locations around the island. The loan rate of ebooks has also seen a marked rise in recent times, with 4.9 million ebook loans recorded between 2010 and 2011, an increase of 25 percent. Of course, the book count will continue to grow as efforts are already underway to add about 800,000 more titles by end of 2013. A subscriber of the library can now log in to the library site, select a particular title, and click borrow. Users have the option to borrow up to six books for free. The ebooks get returned automatically once the due date is crossed. Patrons also have the option to reserve an ebook if it has already been borrowed by someone else.
British Library Partners with NLB Singapore to Digitize Rare Malay Manuscripts is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sunday, August 25, 2013
British Library Partners with NLB Singapore to Digitize Rare Malay Manuscripts
Vote Pi!
| We’ve been nominated for the People’s Choice Award in next week’s Index Award: Design to Improve Life. The competition makers have encouraged us to share the news with you, and we’d be really grateful if you could visit CNN’s page about the awards and click on the Pi button. The Index Awards are a very big deal for us: they’re the world’s biggest design awards, and we were overwhelmed to be told we were finalists in this year’s event. Although it’s not the prettiest computer ever, the philosophy behind the not-for-profit Raspberry Pi Foundation – a desire to make sure that later generations have the technical skills needed for a successful future, and a desire to see the price of computing and commercial electronic devices fall until they’re accessible to absolutely everyone – is something we’re very proud of. So please vote Pi. Thank you! |
Saturday, August 24, 2013
What’s Wrong with a Little Healthy Book Discussion?
| All we keep hearing from the world of successful, bestselling indie authors is that they owe their success to their fans who are active on social media. Readers have embraced the access they have to their favorite authors, relishing in the Facebook interactions, Twitter chats, live Google Hangouts, and more. So what’s wrong with an author responding to a book review, much as he would respond to a Facebook post? This practice has firmly divided the world of authors and readers, with some authors stating they make it a known practice to respond to reviews, while others state that an author should never delve into discussion of what a reader thinks of his book. This belief has become so entrenched in the book world that it has been blamed for so-called “BBA” status for some authors, otherwise known as Badly Behave Authors. Being labelled as a BBA on the widely used book discovery site Goodreads is enough to make an author the target of violent remarks, smear campaigns, and worse. One of the more well-known authors who makes it her practice to respond is Elle Lothlorien, author of several bestselling titles including the soon-to-be-released Gilding the Lily Pad. Lothlorien, who first wrote about this practice in 2012 for Digital Book World in an article called “When You Wish Upon a Star, You Get the Pointy End (Part 1): Why Authors Should ALWAYS Respond To Negative Reviews,” was surprised by the venomous response to her suggestion that this level of interaction between authors and reviewers is actually good for books. Lothlorien was willing to speak for this article, “Since I am definitely one of the ones they waged a war against (my books are still on, like, twenty ‘blacklists’ on GoodReads, including “Author Behaving Badly” and–my fave–’Never Ever Big Brother’.” “Responding to negative reviews is becoming more mainstream and accepted (dare I say “fashionable?”). It wasn’t until that blog was named to DBW’s “Top 10 Digital Publishing Stories of 2012″ in December that authors started coming out of the wood-works and either admitted that they’d been doing it all along or wanted to know how to do it. In a radio interview on Authors on the Air a few months ago, bestselling author Martin Crosbie openly admitted on live radio that he responded to negative reviews because he read my blog and it made good business sense to him. At the last few conferences I’ve been to, there have either been authors who have openly admitted that they do this (Colleen Oakes, bestselling author of “Elly in Bloom” at the Indie-Pub Extravaganza in Denver) or entire PANELS were conducted on the topic.” And Lothlorien does raise a very valid point with one caveat: the response from the author must be professional. Many of the targets of some of the so-called bullies have made argumentative remarks or have been accused by these bullies of enlisting friends and fans to do this dirty work of calling out a reviewer for a negative review. While reviewers and some of the alleged bullies have made the excellent point that writing is a business and therefore authors are businessmen, then reviewers don’t get to have it both ways. Either authors are responding to their “clients” customer service complaints, or they are artists who should stand back while the world appreciates or criticizes their work, in which case they are not to be expected to behave like businessmen. In either instance, one would hope that all of the remarks from reviewers and authors alike can be made with some measure of dignity, insight, and basic manners.
What’s Wrong with a Little Healthy Book Discussion? is a post from: E-Reader News |
Indie Authors Need to Develop a Thick Skin for Bad eBook Reviews
| Self-Published authors often have to do a great deal more then simply writing and distributing their titles to online bookstores. They often to have to wear the additional hat of a marketer, and hype up their titles via social media and through interacting with their growing fan base. All authors, traditional or indie, have had to deal with negative book reviews and often have to develop a thick skin to not take these reviews personally. In some cases, massive online campaigns are launched by angry people and internet trolls who ruin careers and drive authors away from publishing. Author Matt Haig wrote a wonderful article on the Book Trust website in which he talked about being a thin-skinned writer. He said: "The paradox is that while having a thin skin might make for better writing, it is not good for the process of being published. I have a new book out next week. There will be reviews. The bad ones will trouble me more than they should. Just as that one tiny hair you find in your peanut butter makes you want to throw away the whole jar.” Negative reviews are a fact of life when you are dealing with the internet in general and readers who are hiding behind anonymity. One of the worst things an author can do is engage the obvious comments full of hate, as it leads to the pitchforks coming out. There have been many cases in which an author got very emotional reading comments that transcend an honest review and end up being personal attacks on the author themselves. Recently, author Lauren Howard made the decision to pull her debut novel from publication after a firestorm of hatred–including what she initially claimed to have been rape and death threats on GoodReads. Should authors even bother engaging people who write negative or positive reviews? Professional digital reviewer Denise Enck mentioned, “If someone leaves a good or bad review, don't comment. Reviewers don't like to think that an author is, in effect, hovering over them and passing judgment on their reviews either way. If your readers think you're going to scrutinize and critique what they write, they are going to be less likely to leave a review.” Not interacting with your fans may be painful and may go against your better judgement, but if an author replies to everything, it stinks of desperation. Norm Schriever, who writes for the Huffington Post, commented that “no one is going to love everything – that's impossible (and would make the world damn boring.) That's not your goal. If you try to please everyone you will be miserable. So your job as an author (other than writing the best, most honest book you can) is to find your specific target market and share your work with them as much as possible.” Finally, novelist Paige Weaver has had great success with her novel Promise Me Darkness, but she stopped reading reviews as her book spread online. Here is her simple advice, “My policy is do not read your reviews. Good or bad. I've heard this from other authors so that is my new motto. The first few days after Promise Me Darkness was released, I read all the reviews and they were good, but I knew that the bad ones were coming. Every book has had bad reviews. It is just human nature. We can't all agree on everything. I do not read reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, or anywhere else. I'm too scared. I haven't developed that thick skin so many authors told me I had to have in this business. My hubby and friends tell me what the good reviews say and sometimes they tell me what the bad reviews say if they think it might be helpful for my writing. Knowing there are some bad reviews does hurt, I'll admit, but then I think of that childhood saying – ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.’” A number of authors have written into Good e-Reader over the last few days about the rising online bullying campaign that is being waged against indie authors. My advice is that you are nobody until someone hates you. If you don’t want to hear negative comments about your work, then writing may not be the career for you. Indie Authors Need to Develop a Thick Skin for Bad eBook Reviews is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, August 23, 2013
Blackberry World has 47,000 Apps from a Single Developer
| Blackberry likes to promote the fact that their app store has over 120,000 apps that are compatible with the latest generation BB10 smartphones. Visiting the store, you often find popular apps like Skype and Whatsapp, but what the other apps available? Well, for starters there are 47,000 apps from a single developer and the quality of said apps, well, its fairly lackluster. Over 46,500 apps submitted by a user named S4BB who is from Hong Kong. They are taking advantage of the fact they are functional apps, if a bit woeful. Most of the apps are wrappers that point to mobile websites, which are all done automatically via online builder tools. The vast bulk of them tend to be city maps for virtually every major city in the world and audiobooks. He is not alone, several developers employ this method of bare minimum single functionality apps. This problem is not just indicative to the Blackberry platform, but is prevalent on Android as well. Most of the apps submitted to Blackberry World are in fact Android apps, that have been automatically converted to a BAR file. The developers then re-purpose the apps and submit them on Google Play. It is only noticeable really on the Blackberry ecosystem, because it only has 170,000 apps, while the Apple store has 900,000 and Android over a million. Blackberry World has 47,000 Apps from a Single Developer is a post from: E-Reader News |
Digital Comics Bargains: Last Blast of Summer
| Summer’s almost over, but there’s still time for some comics reading before school starts in earnest. Dark Horse’s big sale this weekend is on kids’ comics, with 99-cent issues of Axe Cop, Groo, and Usagi Yojimbo and heavily marked-down graphic novels, including Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and the Eisner-nominated Chimichanga—possibly the best $2.99 you’ll spend this week, whether for a kid or an adult. It’s Eric Powell’s tale of a bearded girl and her pet monster, set in a sad circus; check out my review at Robot 6 if you want to know more. The sale is this weekend only. If you prefer something a bit more mature, Dark Horse is also offering a Hellboy: Weird Tales and Others megabundle of 32 comics for $30. This is basically a collection of Hellboy side stories, so it’s a great way to dip your toe into the waters. I’m only seeing one weekend sale at comiXology, and if you blink, you’ll miss it: All Ed Brubaker’s comics are marked down to 99 cents, but the sale ends tonight. That’s a bunch of issues of Captain America, Daredevil, X-Men, and Winter Soldier. In case you missed Digital’s Tezuka Week promotion—15% off the first ten issues of Astro Boy Magazine—they are extending it for another week. And finally, Viz’s big summer sale—up to 20% off their digital manga—is still going on, and there’s a lot to choose from. Every volume is discounted, and there are hundreds to choose from, so don’t miss out. Digital Comics Bargains: Last Blast of Summer is a post from: E-Reader News |
Authors, Readers Band Together to Stop Goodreads “Bullying”
| Who knew the book industry was filled with such venom, such mayhem, such…death threats? Book discovery and discussion site Goodreads has been the battlefield recently for a game that is causing concern among both authors and readers alike. According to some reports from actual users, there are roving bands of “bullies” on the site, some of them actual moderators approved by Goodreads, who seek out titles to destroy with artificially low rankings and ratings. How is it artificial? Because some of the books haven’t even been published yet, and ARCs were not sent out. (Goodreads terms of service allows this pre-release ranking to demonstrate a reader’s interest level based on a blurb about the book.) After author Lauren Howard made the decision recently to pull her debut novel from publication after a firestorm of hatred–including what she claims to have been rape and death threats–more information on this level of behavior surfaced from other sources. Now, a group has formed a website and a call to action to demand that Goodreads finally step in on this type of behavior, something that the site has long refused to do as it would be a form of censorship on readers’ opinions about books. The website StopTheGRBullies.com lists updates with Goodreads users by name as well as screen shots of some of the comments that have been made about authors personally, and not just about their books. In many cases, they also link back to other accounts a user has on Goodreads, demonstrating that a number of these reviewers are using more than one account to continue in the same vein. One of the site’s moderators, who goes by the screen name Athena, sent comments to Good e-Reader about the behavior and about their efforts to stop it. “GoodReads's laissez-faire policy toward its users is really what has led to the bullying on their site and to be honest, we've seen much worse than online, written threats of rape and murder. We've seen the GR bullies actually cyber-stalk authors by digging up their PII online and then calling them on the phone to threaten them in their own home. We have police reports to prove this as well as screenshots. And it's not just GR's ‘open-use’ policy, either, that has led to this behavior. We've seen the Goodreads managers and moderators actually foster this kind of environment. We have a screenshot of Patrick Brown telling a user that she should feel free to say what she wants about an author. This kind of do-what-you-want message from the GR community manager himself has led to cases of libel and career-destroying. For example, one author we know was wrongfully accused of intentions of rape because of something one of the characters in his book said about another character. This is the kind of behavior that needs to be discouraged and stopped. And until it is, we will continue to blog about it on our site.” While Goodreads, with a membership of 20 million users, may feel that censoring what it feels to be genuine responses to books would be wrong, Athena and the other moderators do propose solutions to at least keep the site civil and supportive of readers. “What we'd like to see Goodreads do is eradicate from its website anything that has to do with this culture of personally attacking and abusing authors. In other words, we want them to get rid of the ‘BBA culture’ on their site. This hatred toward authors needs to stop. We'd like to see GR remove author-bashing shelves, as well as comments and reviews that are also author-bashing. Not only that, any member who personally attacks an author in a comment, a shelf, or a review should be immediately removed from the website. GR should follow in the footsteps of professional blog tour companies who remove abusive book bloggers from their recipient lists. They should protect their authors. As it is now, if an author is attacked, the only recourse the author has a right to is to flag the abuse and contact the GR managers for help. And in most cases, the GR moderators really do nothing to help. They let the abuse continue until the author's reputation is shattered and their will to write gone. Until GR (i.e. Amazon) decides to clean house, we recommend that all authors (and publishers) steer clear of Goodreads altogether. If not in protest, then for the simple reason that just being on the site will more than likely hurt their career.” It will be interesting to see if Amazon, now that they own Goodreads, will put a stop to a behavior that has apparently been occurring for quite some time, especially considering Amazon’s support of–and reliance on–self-published authors.
Authors, Readers Band Together to Stop Goodreads “Bullying” is a post from: E-Reader News |
Apple Taps Into Education with Products and Services
| Apple has introduced a new “Apple and Education” section to its website, carrying forward the company's new focus, the education segment. The central idea is clear and simple: ease the introduction of technology both as a learning and teaching aid. This way, while it will be easier for the educators to teach, the students will be able to grasp the topics more easily. The education segment is also expected to spur the creativity of the students, helping them further to think critically. The web page covers several aspects of education where Apple feels its products can come in handy. Quite obviously, the iPad tops the list, with the site mentioning the apps and ebooks that the teachers can make the best of. There is also a section for those with disabilities of varying forms. Apple promises better means of both imparting education to the disabled via use of its technology through the host of accessibility options built into iOS platform, and the latest iOS 7 is expected to come with more enhanced accessibility options. Further, the section also comes with real life experiences of teachers who have implemented Apple tools and devices, and the ways it helped them achieve their goals. Teachers also have at their disposal some nice tools such as the iBooks Author app, which comes free and enables the teachers to create their own ebooks for iPad that suit their teaching styles. There is also the Volume Purchase Program which enables educational institutions to make bulk purchases of apps and ebooks. Finally, the age limit for students to have their own account at iTunes has been brought down to 13. All of the above shows Apple's new found zeal to have more of its devices introduced at schools and universities. Their focus is for students and teachers to push the use of its books, apps, and the iPad. Of late, Microsoft has also been working to win over students by offering discounted Surface RT devices.
Apple Taps Into Education with Products and Services is a post from: E-Reader News |
Ted Bull Stratos: Babbage’s leap of faith
| Liz: Today we’ve got a guest post from our old high-altitude-ballooning friend Dave Akerman (just as well, really, because I’ve got really bad backache and am having to make a little nest of pillows to sit in before I can type without wincing). Tomorrow morning, Eben and I are rising with the lark to drive over to Berkshire, where we’ll be “helping” Dave launch another Pi-enabled balloon. This time, the payload is someone who may look familiar to you, and he’s going to try to replicate a world record. This is cross-posted from Dave’s own blog, where you’ll also find much more information about tracking this flight from home if you’d like to follow us along tomorrow. We selected Babbage as the Raspberry Pi bear (you can buy your own Babbage here) because as well as being cute and cuddly, he’s just the right size to fit a Pi inside. I’ll let Dave explain what he did once he’d scooped Babbage’s innards out (I had an email in which Dave described those innards as “the right stuffing”), and why. Thanks Dave! My next flight is an attempt to reproduce Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking skydive as part of the Red Bull Stratos project, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. The flight is due for launch about 10:30am this Saturday morning from Berkshire. Landing prediction is a few miles SW of Newbury. You can follow the flight using these links: Live streams from launch site Chase car 1 and Chase car 2 So, here's how the 2 projects stack up:
So whilst this project won't be manned (just beared), and doesn't have the same sort of budget, it does aim to exceed Felix's flight in one regard – altitude – albeit by a mere 31 metres. "Babbage" is of course the Raspberry Pi mascot (buy your own here), but with one or two minor changes. The first change is to add a GPS/radio tracker so we know where he is throughout the flight, including where he lands so he can be recovered. The second is to give him the ability to take photographs during his flight, and transmit those down to the ground. To do these, I first replaced his right eye with a Pi camera. This part of the operation was easier said than done – those eyes are very well fixed in so kiddies don't pull them out and choke on them – and I had to use some decidedly non-surgical implements to complete the task. That done, I trimmed the eye hole (I hope you're not feeling squeamish!) with wire cutters. I then placed a Raspberry Pi Camera behind the now vacated eye socket and fixed it in with a magical settable rubber called Sugru. After leaving that to set I could insert the rest of Babbages's upgrade package:
So here we have a model A Raspberry Pi (sans almost all of the connectors), GPS receiver, batteries and a radio transmitter. Only item missing here is an aerial which was added later. The next pic is near the end of the procedure, with the aerial protruding from the logical place.
The GPS receiver is in his left ear, and there are 2 batteries down each leg. The camera is connected and it only needs those 2 JST connectors to be mated and he'll take and transmit images from his new eye. With his shirt back on, and a harness around his shoulders, here's the completed Bionic Bear:
So, with Babbage ready for action, it was time to build his capsule. What I wanted to do was replicate the great downward view of Felix's jump as he left the capsule and disappeared towards the Earth, and this meant placing a camera directly above Babbage's head. He also needed a step to rest on, carefully sized so that once he is released (by cutting a supporting nylon cord) he wall-falls forward. The rest of the design was basically to join those items up with a box section to hold the tracker and batteries:
Note the picture of the star constellation that Babbage's capsule is named after! The height of the capsule was designed to replicate the view from Felix's overhead camera:
The mission is now planned for Saturday 24th August. Babbage will be tied to the capsule using nylon cord running through a device that will release him at 39,000 metres, when he will descend with his own parachute. Both Babbage and Ursa Major will take and transmit photographs throughout the flight, except for two periods. The first is when they reach an altitude of 38km, when they will both take videos for 8 minutes (plenty enough time to reach 39km when Babbage will drop). They will also switch to video for their landings. Fingers crossed that it all goes well! |
Google Updates Word Search Functionality
| Google has updated its search function for words. However, while it might seem too minor for the casual user, the logophiles can feel blessed by Google for it to introduce the enhanced functionality. This since searching a word now yields far more details than ever before. The additional details include not only the meaning of the world but also synonyms and antonyms along with the way the word actually goes into the making of a proper sentence. Plus there is a drop down box as well that can translate the word in another language. Also served are other details such as the known origin of the world along with a graph that traces the word’s usage over time. The new search features are available for both the desktop as well as mobile devices though applies to only the US at present.
Google Updates Word Search Functionality is a post from: E-Reader News |
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Sony PRS T3 has a September 19th Release Date
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The Sony PRS-T3 will feature a 6-inch E Ink screen with a resolution of 1024×758 pixels. Sony is really not giving a full HD experience like many other devices that are being released this year. A number of e-Readers are all going to be using a new HD Pearl e-Paper screen that has a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels. The one thing I find odd is that Sony plans on going with a infrared display from Neonode, instead of a capacitive touchscreen display.
The restiveness to incorporating a front-lit display stems from one of their old e-readers, the PRS-700. Sony actually released a very terrible reader with a side-lit display in 2008. This has put a sour taste on the whole concept, Stephanie said. "We had concluded that the reading lights are aimed really heavy readers who seek an experience close to the paper, and light alter the experience. So we focused on other features that the book is not, as the ability to enlarge the font to enhance reading comfort." She went on to say "Studies we conducted have shown that the presence of an integrated lighting system was not a criterion: it is a popular feature from time to time, but that's all. We prefer to focus on the rest of the reading light to provide a highly efficient device, without this feature, it offers optional via accessories. This is the bias that we take." One of the ways Sony has a bit of advantage over other companies is the software they run on their line of readers. They have a relationship with digital library juggernaut Overdrive, which allows readers to borrow and read books directly within the app. Sources at Overdrive have informed us that Sony still has a relationship with them and has an existing licensing agreement. What this does, is put Overdrive on Sony e-Readers exclusively and Overdrive then markets the e-readers to all of the libraries that do business with them. This is all done under the guise of the Overdrive Test Drive program, which recommends and markets certain devices to libraries all over the world. Publishers are quite happy with Sony, because they do not have the cut-throat reputation that Amazon has. Sony has been revising their online Reader Store over the course of the last year. They have invested a ton of money into their eBook Discovery programs and unique features to recommend books. They have also undergone a huge website relaunch, which saw the old style done away and a more intuitive reading interface. There is no word yet on how the new store looks on the T3, but I would expect that it visually looks different then on prior models. The new Sony PRS-T3 e-Reader does not change any of the current paradigms of what an e-Reader is. They are not using anything that would draw in people with existing e-Readers that are looking to upgrade. There does not seem to be a compelling enough reason to switch to this device, unless you want some free Harry Potter Books. Sony is basically just going through the motions at this point and keeping in-line with their yearly product release cycle. Sony PRS T3 has a September 19th Release Date is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sony is releasing their next generation e-Reader on September 19th 2013. The exact date comes from a 
Sony is forgoing the front-lit display that the Kindle Paperwhite, Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight and the Kobo Aura employ. Instead they are going with a super slim lighted cover. Sony were the first to experiment with touch screens and front lighting and these were not always successful. Stephanie Lang, head of group IT division of Sony France, said in a Good e-Reader Radio – B&N Earnings Call, Future of the Nook, eBook Discovery and e-Paper News
| Welcome to another exciting edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Jeremy Greenfield of Digital Book World joins Michael Kozlowski to talk the latest news in digital publishing. Today on the show we talk about Barnes and Noble’s latest earnings call and how the company isn’t giving up on Nook tablets just yet. Nook Video just launched for iOS and Android, and we talk about the likelihood of consumer adoption. In other news, e-Ink released their latest financial earnings report and are down almost $33 million dollars in the last quarter. Things should pick up towards the end of Q3 and Q4, as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookeen, Kobo and a number of other companies are releasing new e-Readers. Finally, we talk about eBook discovery and a recent post Digital Book World made on the subject. Good e-Reader Radio – B&N Earnings Call, Future of the Nook, eBook Discovery and e-Paper News is a post from: E-Reader News |
Piracy a Major Threat to Digital Publishing in China
| As it has been the case anywhere else in the world, publishers in China too are waking up to the impact that digital publishing is expected to have in the domestic publishing industry in future. However, publishers fear the rampant piracy prevalent in the country could cast a pall of gloom in the segment. No mean words these are considering China has already grown to emerge the second largest ebook market in the world. China's digital publishing industry has been showing impressive growth off late, with ebooks, digital newspapers and digital magazine growing by 52.6 percent in 2012. China though considers online cartoons, online gaming, mobile phone gaming, online advertisements and online music as well as part of the digital publishing industry. However, it's no less than 200 million Chinese who have taken to reading digital publications in recent times. However, even with ebooks coming much cheaper than their printed counterparts, a survey to ascertain the people's reading trend has revealed that the majority two third of those polled read books online only if they are free. “It’s unavoidable to have so many pirated books on the market. I think all local publishing houses should cooperate to combat piracy and build a market with a more rational order.” Said Wu Hong, vice editor-in-chief, Shanghai Translation Publishing House. It's a tall order no doubt, given the cheap clones that the Chinese come up with on a regular basis. In fact, it's a parallel industry that thrives in China where they take pride in coming up with exact clones of the original, be it electronics or anything else. There have even been instances of an entire Apple store being replicated in China, which should be a clear pointer of how seriously they value their replicating skills. Coming back specifically to digital publishing, Kan Ninghui, vice director of Shanghai Press & Publication Admin, said, “The e-publication has nothing supportive so far. What we do is just something on the surface. If we can better develop e-books, that is, let e-books better elaborate the contents of the traditional books, it’ll be better for the entire industry.” As Mei Xuelin, president of a publishing house that deals with educational content puts it, making an ebook that is an exact replica of the original printed version is a way to fuel piracy. Instead, an ebook that contains a lot of audio and visual material that helps explain the content better can be a nice example of what an ebook should be like. However, such a makeover for the ebooks can also rob them of the price advantage they have over the printed ones but can deter piracy. "The book can hardly be replaced. From a technical perspective, videos or explanations attached to the e-book may not match well with the content in a pirated version. And when it comes to education, readers will tend to believe the legal copies in terms of content. Such e-books are much more complete than the traditional versions. So, we can make the price the same as the paperback," said Xuelin. In the end what can be said is that with piracy so rampant in the country, it won’t be an easy job to get rid of it quickly and completely. But an effort like the one mentioned above is surely a step in the right direction.
Piracy a Major Threat to Digital Publishing in China is a post from: E-Reader News |
Leaks Reveal That New Sony Reader PRS-T3 Doesn’t Have a Frontlight
| Today I’ve got some unfortunate news to report. Some new information has leaked online about Sony’s new upcoming PRS-T3 ebook reader and it doesn’t look good. In fact I’m so disappointed that I almost decided not to write an article about this at all because quite frankly there’s so little new information revealed that it […] |
Free Content for New Nook App Customers
| Barnes and Noble is celebrating the realization that more and more reading consumers are using tablet-based e-reading apps for their digital reading needs. To that end, the book retailer is offering free ebook content to new users in the UK who download the Nook app for their devices and register a new user account. "This great offer of free eBooks and magazines for new customers that download a NOOK Reading App is another part of NOOK's strong commitment to make reading more affordable and accessible in the UK," said Jim Hilt, Managing Director, Barnes & Noble, in a statement on the free books. "We are excited about the impact we are making on literacy in the UK this summer with our sponsorship of the Get Reading campaign and the corresponding discounts on the award-winning NOOK devices." News came out this week that Barnes and Noble, long rumored to be discontinuing production of its Nook line of devices, would actually continue manufacturing and marketing its e-readers and tablets, although in smaller scale production. At the same time, this venture recognizes that a growing number of consumers want the variety of options that are open to them as tablet consumers, while still benefiting from their customer relationships with specific book and ebook retailers. Of the titles selected in this promotion, Philippa Greggory’s title has a sequel that has recently been launched and Cassandra Clare’s title’s movie adaptation arrives in theaters shortly. Two magazine titles are also available for free under this promotion, T3 and The Simple Things.
Free Content for New Nook App Customers is a post from: E-Reader News |
School digital library search metadata
| In early August we announced the rollout of OverDrive's new digital library for schools. A number of features have been added to the improved interface including updated help materials, visual theme options and expanded title information. Perhaps the most exciting addition, however, is the search metadata now available to users.
Students, teachers and parents alike can now use ATOS and Lexile scores to locate titles based on reading level and difficulty. This opens up endless possibilities for students to not only find titles to read based on their reading levels but it also provides them with a road map for what titles to read next. For schools that use the Accelerated Reader (AR) program having the ATOS scores available on the title page eliminates the need for students to have multiple screens open to compare OverDrive titles and AR scores. Students are also provided with recommended titles based on the information pages they're looking at.
Another group who will benefit from the metadata enhancements is the staff members who select what titles are added to your digital collection. Selectors can use the reports in Marketplace to see what titles are being checked out the most and then purchase new books that fall into similar ATOS and Lexile ranges. This new search metadata provides deeper engagement with your students by enabling them to spend less time searching for a title and more time actually reading!
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive
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Parents and teachers can now get involved in their students reading habits more easily as well. They can quickly see the reading level their students are currently at and make sure they are being challenged by the titles they're selecting. Additionally, they can recommend other titles in the student's reading range. This will keep the students engaged with the materials and get them reading both in the classroom and at home.Finding Images for Your PowerPoint Presentations
A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to PowerPoint. Learn about some of our favorite resources for high-quality stock photos and graphics. |
Adobe Reader Update For BlackBerry 10 Introduces New Features
| The Adobe Reader for Blackberry 10 has been provided with an update which introduces two new cool features, signature support and text annotation. With the former, users will now be able to create their own signature and save it, which can then be used in documents. It's not only that for users will also have the option to change color, size, opacity as well as the thickness of the signature as well. The other feature, that of text annotations allows users to insert any text and will also have the option to change color, thickness and opacity of the annotated text. The annotations can also be moved and deleted as well. Overall, two very nice features added to the Blackberry 10 platform which should appeal to both the business and general users alike.
Adobe Reader Update For BlackBerry 10 Introduces New Features is a post from: E-Reader News |
Wearables: Google Glass, and something quite different
| Last week, Adafruit published a tutorial on how to get Google Glass to communicate with hardware and the internet via the Pi. Using XMPP (which the decrepit and elderly, like me, may recognise as what used to be Jabber), you can use Google Glass to talk to a Pi, which can then send instructions external devices, or stuff on the internet. We love this stuff. I had the chance to play with Hexxeh’s Google Glass back in May just after Google IO, and it’s great to see the thing working with external hardware. If you’re not a lucky Google Glass owner, you can build one of these instead. Domestic Hacks has made a 3d-printed, steampunk inspired, fabulous, wearable Pi. It’s a bit spesh – stitched leather with brass fittings, gold PLA, an analogue wristwatch, a lovely clicky wrist keyboard, some handsome lenses for you to peer into as a display…and while we’re not entirely sure what we’d do with one, we want one all the same. The video below the pictures is in German, but that doesn’t detract from its magic sparkle, and should help you to put together your own if you choose to use the 3D printer files that Domestic Hacks has made available on Thingiverse. Vorsprung durch Technik! (That’s the sum total of our German, although Clive does also know some swear words.)  We understand that you are meant to strap this bit to your head. |
Penguin Australia Launches New Teen Website
| Penguin Australia has been running a fairly popular teen website for the last six years. The main draw about the website is the blogging platform that wrote a number of articles on books to film and fashion. Penguin has just launched a totally new website and really takes blogging design to a new level. Penguin Teen Australia features a very compelling design and has heavy HTML5 elements. I have really never seen a blogging website with this type of design and recommend everyone to check it out. The writing is all done internally by dedicated Penguin writers and focuses on the same type of content they had before, just more of it. They have best seller charts, when famous actors are visiting Australia and an overall heavy emphasis on celebrity culture, with a book twist. Felicity Vallence mentioned in a statement “We hope teens will embrace the site in a number of ways including discussing their favorite books. We know from our research that the desire to not only learn about new YA reads, but discuss teens books with like-minded readers is incredibly important and with a vibrant and active online Australian YA community, we wanted to offer readers another avenue to do so.” Penguin Australia Launches New Teen Website is a post from: E-Reader News |
