| If you weren't able to attend our DigiPalooza users group meeting, we're so sorry. You missed a great time with lots of parties and food, great speakers including Mitch Albom and author Anna Banks, and tons of useful information from OverDrive, library partners, and publishers as well. Here are just a few highlights from some of the sessions. Sorry, no party reports: what happens in Cleveland stays in Cleveland, although we can acknowledge a spectacular evening at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which featured the exhibit "The Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction."
See our Digipalooza page for the complete program.
Digital Media 2013 and Beyond
Coming soon: streaming video. Why consider it? There are many reasons, including that it requires no software installation or activation, it integrates seamlessly with the OverDrive Next Gen platform and works with any connected device, it's inevitable as the platform of the future, it will include the top movies your patrons want, night owls can get their movies even when your buildings are closed, and:
OverDrive Read With OverDrive Read, the browser based reader that makes our titles available through any browser, we now have a platform that is just the beginning of our future. Smartphones are gaining steadily as the device of choice, but whatever devices the future brings, we are ready. . . and we'll be adding a steady stream of new features to engage new readers.
Maximizing ROI with Your Digital Collection Budget Presenters shared tips for making the most of your budget:
Getting more money into your digital collection budget:
One important return on investment is your loyal patrons—and you need to recruit more new ones to support you in the future.
 School Digital Library
The OverDrive School Digital Library offers three different themes based on the age of the students. The library also offers metadata that includes Accelerated Reader and lexile information.
Promoting Your OverDrive School Digital Library
Libraries shared how they are promoting their school digital library service. Some used dummy books on the shelves letting students know that an eBook also exists for each of the titles. Others got everyone involved:  Uncovering New Users How do you get staff to buy in to digital and help you find new users?
Big Data for Big Impact OverDrive did a huge patron survey in June, which resulted in 68,491 responses from about 25 countries, 83% from the U. S., 15% from Canada, and 1% from Australia. Here are some of the results straight from your digital customers:
  APIs
OverDrive has made APIs available for use. What does that mean for libraries? It makes it possible to display all your print and digital activity in one place—your ILS catalog. And coming in September: the ability to place a hold, borrow and download, return items, and view the bookshelf.
 Support Report
Spectacular results from Support Services: your patrons are finding it easier to navigate your digital collections successfully:
OverDrive Media Station
This exciting new product offers a way to introduce and display your digital collection within your buildings. A large touch screen system allows patrons to browse the most popular items in your collection and text or email themselves a link for later check out. Since nearly 60% of library card holders don't know if their library offers eBooks, this is a great way to raise awareness.   If you weren’t able to make it to Cleveland this year, be sure to plan to attend the next Digipalooza in Summer 2015! Based on the feedback weave received from this year's attendees, you definitely won't regret it.  |
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Digipalooza 2013 Highlights
Amazon Launches e-Readers and eBooks in Mexico
| Amazon has announced today that they have brought the Kindle eBook Store, e-Readers and Kindle Direct Publishing to Mexico. This service has just launched and has over 1,500 digital books available in Spanish. You will find popular authors such as; José Emilio Pacheco, Elena Poniatowska, Sergio Pitol and Carlos Monsivais, as well as comic books from Mafalda and Familia Burrón. "The vast majority of Mexicans do not have access to a bookstore in their town, so we're happy to launch the Mexico Kindle Store today and bring a huge bookstore with over 2 million titles to anyone with an Internet connection," said Pedro Huerta, Director of Kindle Content, Latin America. "We are also excited to bring Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite to Mexico at Gandhi stores. Kindle Paperwhite offers an unparalleled reading experience, with a display that reads like real paper, an innovative built-in front light, a small and light-weight design and 8 weeks of battery life so customers can easily dive into their favorite books." "In order to provide a new experience and bring books to all our customers in an innovative way, we will offer Amazon's Kindle in all of our bookstores. We believe it is a great option to enjoy reading at an affordable price. We are confident it will have very good acceptance by readers," said Alberto Achar, Marketing Manager at Gandhi. "It is very important to us to take books to anyone interested in reading, using all possible channels. Amazon's Kindle is a device that easily and quickly serves this purpose." Amazon Launches e-Readers and eBooks in Mexico is a post from: E-Reader News |
7 Things We Want You to Know About Our Online Classes
Signing up for one of our online classes? Here are 7 things you should know. |
Samsung Launches Galaxy Tab 3 For Toddlers
| Samsung has been up to some improvements with its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, churning out several variations, including the S4 Zoom. Now, an unexpected new device, a kid friendly derivate of the Galaxy Tab 3, comes complete with enough padding along the sides to justify its use among the preschool-aged community. This marks the first attempt by a mainstream tablet maker at a tablet device that is targeted exclusively to children. To begin with, the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids device is the same Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, but with some hardware and software enhancements meted out to ensure parents find it safe for use by their little ones. A 7 inch 1024 x 600 pixel display makes up the top if the device, while on the other side of it lies a dual core 1.2 Ghz chip, a gig of RAM, and 8 GB of internal memory. There is also a micro SD card slot that will allow 32 GB more to be added. The tablet has also been provided with front and rear facing camera of 1.3 and 3 megapixels, respectively. Also, with toddlers as its intended clientele, the tablet has also been provided with enough tweaks on the software front, which includes educational, and entertainment apps, as well as children's ebooks, all of which come pre-loaded on the device. The tablet also includes an Application Manager which will allow the parents to set usage hours or specific apps and other features that they wish their kids to be exposed to. What's more, the Application Manager has been provided with a layer of security via passwords, which is indeed a nice feature given how tech savvy the younger lot has come to be. The Galaxy Tab 3 Kids also comes with a Kid Case of its own, which includes a C Pen for on-screen drawing or writing, as well as several stand options. The tablet will first be released in South Korea before appearing in other regions of the world. Pricing has been kept under wraps, though it will crucial for the device to emerge as a viable choice for a kid specific tablet device.
Samsung Launches Galaxy Tab 3 For Toddlers is a post from: E-Reader News |
Rockstand Records Over 1 TB of Data Downloads
| Rockstand, the India-based ebook and emagazine app store, announced having recently crossed the data usage limit of 1 TB per day. That's an important milestone in a country where ebook reading is still considered to be in its nascent stages. Rockstand has also stated it is the regional content that has emerged as the most preferred download, a segment where the company has been putting a lot of effort, interesting considering the multilingual country India is. Also, usage is showing no signs of slowing down, but rather it is on an upward swing with the average download recorded per user at about five to eight ebooks or emagazines on a daily basis. That translates to about 40 – 60 MB downloaded per user per day. "We are amazed to see this kind of data usage, as we were expecting excellent response, but this figure is overwhelming & motivating. On that particular day, we crossed 15000 downloads due to regional content promotion and great offers, discounts provided. From the time since India got into era of digitization, Games and Songs have dominated digital space and enjoyed uninterrupted reign of data usage in country. Now it's time for eBooks and eMagazines to rule digital space in India," said Head of Rockstand Digital Pvt. Limited, Mr. Rishi Mohan Jha. "Special mention to Regional eBooks and eMagazine, as we can see great opportunities there and thus to tap this burgeoning market, we are bringing exclusive and exciting content for our readers. Conversion of regional content is a big challenge and we are proud to say that we have been successful in dealing with this problem and thus offering flawless digital reading experience to our users," further added Jha. Among the languages that have drawn the maximum downloads are Hindi, Telegu, Tamil, Gujarati. Rockstand also offered heavy discounts to commemorate India's Independence Day on Aug 15th. The discounts were valid for the 14th and 15th of August, with both days recording a heightened buying spree among readers. Average books or emags downloaded during those two days shot up to 10 to 15 for every user.
Rockstand Records Over 1 TB of Data Downloads is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tudor theatre, 21st century technology
| This summer, Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London mounted a production of all three of Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays, staged both at Shakespeare’s Globe itself, and outdoors at battlefield sites from the War of the Roses. The theatre collaborated with The Space, a new Arts Council and BBC-developed service which streams free, on-demand video of live cultural events, to produce a broadcast of the plays from multiple viewpoints. Real live camera operators, with real live cameras, were following the actors around and filming the whole series of plays. But we are particularly interested in one specific camera: the tiny Throne Cam, invisible to the audience, but filming all the proceedings from the huge throne which forms part of the stage set in all three performances, giving an actor’s eye view of the plays. It was a Raspberry Pi camera board.  Thronecam in situ at Shakespeare’s Globe It turns out that the Pi and its camera board are the ideal solution for The Space. The whole assembly is not big enough to be noticeable by the audience if it’s mounted somewhere on the stage, but can record 1080p HD video. And, because it’s driven by a Pi, it can process and encode the video onboard, so no additional work needs doing by The Space to publish the stream online. The first of the three plays is already available to watch online. I’m on a very wobbly hotel wifi network today, so I haven’t been able to watch the video yet – please report back in the comments and let us know what you thought of it! |
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Read Distraction Free on Your Tablet with Kobo Reading Mode
| One of the largest drawbacks about reading on a tablet is the sheer amount of distractions users are bombarded with. Reading immersion is often a battleground of Facebook and Twitter updates, instant messages and emails. This often can detract from really getting into a book and is often the number one complaint about reading on a dedicated tablet. Kobo is seeking to solve this with a new software initiative called Reading Mode. Reading Mode is a new option that will see the light of day when the new Kobo Ara HD 10 and HD 7 are launched this October. It basically is a setting that you can turn on and will eliminate all notifications you would normally receive on your device. This really solves the problem of being distracted on your tablet while you are reading a magazine, eBook or graphic novel. Reader Mode has patents being filed for it right now and Kobo is hoping to bring this functionality to their iOS and Android apps in the near future. Read Distraction Free on Your Tablet with Kobo Reading Mode is a post from: E-Reader News |
Why we love libraries
| Libraries are a wonderful place. They provide countless services and are often times the center of the community. They bring community members together through events and programs; offer internet access and research options to those who would otherwise be without; and supply an endless amount of knowledge simply by walking through their doors. Libraries allow users to travel the world, discover new languages and encounter numerous adventures all housed under the same roof. If you can't make it to the physical library, eBooks and digital audiobooks can provide the same privileges with the click of a button, from anywhere in the world.
Now it's your turn: tell us why you love your library in the comments below! We'll visualize the best quotes and post them on our Facebook page for you to share!
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive (and a lover of libraries)
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Here are some of the reasons the OverDrive blog team loves our libraries:A Closer Look at Kobo’s New Arc 10 HD and Arc 7 Reading Tablets
| Yesterday Kobo announced a lineup of three new tablets in addition to the new Kobo Aura ebook reader. There’s two new 7-inch tablets and Kobo’s first 10-inch model, all of which are expected to become available in October. Kobo seems to be taking a similar approach with their tablets as Amazon by offering two 7-inch […] |
World’s smallest Mac (clue: it’s a Pi)
| A short post today: I’m running around getting ready to go to the airport. Yesterday, I found this piece of downright splendour at Cult of Mac. It’s made by John Leake, from RetroMacCast. And it’s a working Mac, only it’s a third the size you might be expecting. There is (of course) a Pi in there, running a System Software 6.0.8 emulator under Raspbian. “Mac Mini” suddenly has a whole new spectrum of meaning. This build was done using a mixture of off-the-shelf parts and hand-moulded PVC – and a Pi. You can hear more about it at this week’s RetroMacCast – I want to find out if there’s anything that fits into the 1/3 size floppy disk slot. |
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Kobo Magazines to Launch this October
| Kobo for the first time ever conducted a massive launch event in New York City, where media from all over the country converged to check out all of their hardware. Not only did the e-reader company announce a bevy of new tablets, but unveiled their brand new magazine service. Kobo Magazines current has over 250 titles available and more are being added every day. They intend on launching the service in October and hope to have over one thousand issues available. Major publishers have been attracted to the platform and we will see Conde Nast and Hearst contribute all of their major assets. Last year Kobo made their first major acquisition with Aquafadas, who specializes in plugins and tools aimed to assist publishers to digitize their content and make it available for magazine or graphic novels. The new Kobo magazine initiative is the first time the technology will be deployed and distributed to publishers to help put their content in the Kobo ecosystem. I have heard that the entire process is super easy and will give customers who buy the 10 HD the chance to get the same resolution that the printers get at the presses. Magazines will be available in single issue and yearly subscriptions. Currently there is no system in place for publishers to give deals on subscription rates. The current Holy Grail for digital magazines are to offer a reduced rate for the first month or year and then jack the prices up. Most companies cannot do this, even though its the way print has always worked. Kobo has assured me that as the platform matures, they will offer this. What are you going to pay for magazines? They will be very competitive and the exact rates are set by the publishers and Kobo gets an indeterminate cut of each sale. I talked to a number of high level executives and no one would give me a definitive answer. They would only say that it was financially worth it. One of the most exciting aspects of the magazine platform is that back issues will be available on day one. Most publishers really want to be able to sell previous issues and offer their compete catalog. This is useful for research or for collectors, I know many of my friends parents have the complete collection of National Geographic in physical form and its currently impossible to do it digitally. This is something that is important to both publishers and Kobo, and they are implementing it right away, Instead of consistently pinching and zooming like most major magazine apps, Kobo is doing something different. They are employing Guided Reading which uses a simple one-tap interface that intelligently moves from one column of text to the next. Removing distractions so Readers can focus on the content, Kobo eliminates the need for toolbars – creating a more crisp and clean interface. The magazine content system will be available in October, with the launch of the Kobo Arc 10 HD and 7 HD. By the end of the year it will be available on Android and other devices. Don’t expect to ever see it on their e-Ink readers, as you don’t really get a good experience. Kobo Magazines to Launch this October is a post from: E-Reader News |
Marvel Beefs Up Marvel Unlimited App—and Adds Something Extra
| On Monday, Marvel released an update for its Marvel Unlimited iOS and Android apps that addresses the two biggest complaints people have had about it: Not being able to download enough comics and not being able to find comics in the first place. And for fans who want something tangible to go with their digital comics, they have just launched Marvel Unlimited Plus. Marvel Unlimited is a subscription service that allows the user access to over 13,000 Marvel comics as long as the subscription is active; it costs $9.99 a month or $69.00 a year. It’s kind of clunky on a computer, but earlier this year they released iOS and Android apps that are much easier to use. The apps allowed readers to download up to six comics to for offline reading, which many readers felt wasn’t enough, and as I noted in my review of the iOS app, it was often hard to find specific comics. This week’s update increases the number of comics that can be downloaded to 12 at a time, and it also allows the user to search for a comic by publication date. The search function is a little clunky: You can scroll through years or month/year combinations, but you make your choice by clicking “done,” and then you have to touch the “search” button to see the comics. When you are done with the page, you hit “cancel” to return to the search page. It’s not particularly intuitive—the red “done” button feels like it’s going to close out the page, not move you to the next step, and on the results page, a simple back button would be much clearer than “cancel.” Still, just being able to do this is a step in the right direction. Marvel Unlimited Plus is sort of a platinum version of Marvel Unlimited. The annual fee is $99, and for your extra thirty bucks you get a welcome kit that includes a special Ultron figure and an issue of Age of Ultron with a variant cover. Plus you get a membership card—what, no decoder ring?—and other perks such as “special Marvel news and discounts,” which sounds like unlimited e-mails to me. In an interview with USA Today, senior product manager Julia Druk called Marvel Unlimited Plus “a dramatic expansion of the benefits we’re offering to our members,” adding, “Instead of a relaunch, it’s more of an expansion of the platform to become that ultimate fan experience and offer the best part of Marvel — not just the best of digital comics.” Marvel Beefs Up Marvel Unlimited App—and Adds Something Extra is a post from: E-Reader News |
A Rundown on the new 6-inch Kobo Aura eBook Reader (Pre-Orders Live)
| Kobo just introduced a smaller version of their special edition Kobo Aura HD, simply called the Kobo Aura. It’s a lot like last year’s Kobo Glo, which is going to remain on the market along with the Kobo Mini, but it comes with a new design and is being marketed more as a higher-end version […] |
Hands-On with the Kobo Arc HD
| Good e-Reader is live at the Kobo launch event today, in which the company is expanding their tablet line with the unveiling of the Kobo Arc 7 HD. This new device brings next generation screen technology, and packages it unlike any other device on the market. The core focus is, of course, the e-Reading experience, which refines book discovery. Hardware The Kobo Arc HD features a seven inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels. It currently has over 323 PPI and will play back videos in pure 1080p. This is quite an upgrade in screen technology over the original Arc, which only had 1280 x 800 HD resolution and 215 PPI. Underneath the hood is an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor that is running a very solid 1.7 GHZ. There is also 1 GB of RAM and 16/32 GB variants for storage space. There is no expandable storage with this model, so make sure you buy the one that suits your needs. One thing Kobo has added to the Arc HD is the inclusion of a Micro HDMI port. This will allow you to hook it up to your television or projector. This is very useful, as not many e-reading focused tablets even bother with HDMI. Other ports include Micro USB, 3.5 mm headphone jack, front facing 1.3 MP camera and a rear facing speaker. The speaker is actually positioned right at the top of the device, and looks to be creeping to the top of bezel. The hardware feels very slick and polished and is a tremendous upgrade from the original Kobo Arc in every way. The HD moniker is very relevant and it destroys the current Kindle Fire HD 7 that has an aging 1280×800 resolution. Software The Kobo Arc 7 HD is running on the Google Android operating system and is running version 4.2.2. This brings it very up to date in terms of it being a current and relevant device. It also is officially Google Certified, which means you will have all of the normal Google apps loaded on it, such as Maps, Gmail, Google+, and much more. Kobo has revamped their UI and is more solid and intuitive than ever before. We will go hands on with the entire UI at the Kobo event and will update this post with our exact thoughts. What we do know from the press images is that tapestries seem to have gone away and there is a different UI. Kobo Pulse remains front and center, which gives a chatting area within eBooks for people to rate and review them. Pulse is a fairly cool innovation that has been around for quite a while. You can see how many people have read or are in the process of reading the same book as you. There are options to turn off spoilers, so you won't see comments from people who are further ahead in the book than you are. The entire UI is bright and colorful and makes it easy to interact with on a large touchscreen device. Reading Experience Kobo has also unveiled a new digital magazine section that should go live in the next few weeks. This expands on their previous newspaper offerings and they seemed to have signed some deals with major publishers. This rounds out their portfolio of 3.4 million eBooks, newspapers, and now, magazines. They have created a new way to view eBooks by having them take up a fair amount of screen real estate. You have large cover art images that are all positioned in various sizes, depending on what you accessed recently. Readers can organize and create their own collections, which are very handy on a tablet geared towards reading. They have really revised the way users can organize them while maintaining the spirit of a home library shelf, with the books stacked side by side. On the spine of the book is the book currently being read on that specific shelf, as well as the name of the collection. Wrap Up We are live at the Kobo event right now, and will be doing comprehensive hands on with video and photos. I will revise this post as we get more data and get a sense on the new software elements, what publishers have signed on with magazines and interviews with the development team. The exact pricing is $199.99 16GB/$249.99 32GB (US & Canada), €199.99 16GB/€249.99 32GB (EU), £159.99 16GB/£189.99 32GB (UK), $279.95 16GB/$329.95 32GB (Australia), $349.00 16GB/$399.00 32GB (New Zealand)
Hands-On with the Kobo Arc HD is a post from: E-Reader News |
Hands-On with the Kobo Aura 10 HD
| At a highly anticipated product launch today in New York City, Kobo unveiled a brand new 10-inch tablet, the first they have ever issued. The Kobo Arc 10 HD seeks to capitalize on the recent industry trend of a large device to consume media and read digital books. In the past, Kobo has only developed seven-inch tablets, so they are stepping outside their comfort zone in a big way. Hardware The Kobo Arc 10 HD features a stunning 10-inch capacitive touchscreen with ten point multitouch. It has one of the best resolutions in the business with 2560×1600 pixels. To give you a sense of how great it is, the Apple iPad 4th generation is only capable of displaying 2048 × 1536 pixels. This tablet is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 4 quad-core 1.8 GHZ processor, which puts it faster than the other tablets Kobo revealed today. It also packs an impressive 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage space. The entire internal structure is somewhat of a milestone for Kobo, as they have never released a more polished looking device, which seeks to really give them a competitive advantage over most large screen devices on the market. Kobo is actually in the best position to make a 10-inch tablet work because of their relationship with major booksellers all over the world. Canadians will really see these devices shine with the new Indigo Tech areas in forty different stores all over the country. If you decide to just watch videos, listen to audiobooks, or play a game, this tablet really performs. It has dual speakers at the very top of the rear panel, which even when lying on its back still gives you superb sound. It has Tru Audio settings, so you will be able to easily increase the low, mid, and high ranges to give it an extra boost. You can hook the Arc 10 HD directly up to your television with the included Micro HDMI port. You could even engage in a quick video call via the built in Microsoft and front facing 1.3 MP camera. There are not many buttons on this tablet, other than a power and volume buttons. The exact dimensions are 253 x 172 x 9.9 mm and it only weighs 627 grams. Typical users should be able to get a solid nine hours of battery life out of it with reasonable use. Like all tablets, if you tend to play HD games for hours at a time, it will drain faster. There's a very efficient Dual Band Wi Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth v4.0, Miracast support for Wi Fi media streaming. On paper, this is the highest resolution tablet on the market with the best hardware as a driving force. Software The Kobo Arc 10 HD is running one of the most current versions of Android for a new product hitting the market. Most tend to launch with Android 4.1 and say that they will get an upgrade soon after launch. This rarely, if ever occurs, and if it does, it's normally a painfully slow process. Kobo intends to release it with Android 4.2.2, which should provide a number of new features. Kobo signed a deal with Google a few years ago that made all of their tablets officially Google certified. This allows customers to access Google Play and select from over 500,000 apps currently available. You will also have a number of the essential apps on it, like Maps, Gmail, and Google+. There are also a number of new apps that will ship on it such as Pocket, Feedly, Cinema Now, MacAfee, Skype, and much more. Reading Experience Kobo currently has a massive eBook ecosystem with over 3.5 million titles. They are unveiling a new magazine service in New York which I will report more on soon. There is no word yet on whether the Tapestries UI will be bundled on this, or if they are working on something new. What we do know is Kobo is revamping their library and collections menus. You can see from the picture above that they are going for a bookshelf approach when organizing your personal collections. This is actually fairly innovative, companies tend to just clone the way iBooks does their organizing, by having a wooden bookshelf with cover art appearing there. Kobo is thinking differently. The main library shelf has cover art with larger images to make it more touchscreen friendly. Wrap Up I am live in New York attending the Kobo press conference and will be providing videos, pictures, and more information in a few hours. This review will constantly be updated as more information comes in and I get a chance to interview some of the Kobo leads and developers. This is a small preview based on advanced press briefings and follow-up interviews with my contacts. MRSP – $399.99 (US & Canada), €379.99 (EU), £299.99 (UK), $499.95 (Australia), $599.00 (New Zealand)
Hands-On with the Kobo Aura 10 HD is a post from: E-Reader News |
Hands-On with the New Kobo Aura
| Earlier in the year Kobo had released the Aura HD, which was a 6.7 inch e-Reader that bucked the trend of the standard six inch device. It was said when it was first released that this model was a limited edition and would not see the same sort of mass market push as the Kobo Glow. The Canadian company has gone back to the drawing table and just announced the new Kobo Aura. Hardware The Kobo Aura maintains the standard six-inch approach that the company made famous with their entire product line. It currently has a super high resolution e-Ink "Clarity Screen" with 212 DPI and sixteen levels of grey. This e-Reader has the exact same front-lite technology that was found on the original Kobo Aura HD. This will allow readers to adjust the brightness settings to suit their environment. Currently, Kobo has the best front-lit screen in the business and has surpassed Amazon in terms of quality. To turn the screen light on, there is a button at the very top and then a virtual slider bar to control the brightness. It is powered by the quintessential Freescale i.MX507 1 GHZ processor and has 1 GB of RAM. There are 4 GB of internal memory, which can be enhanced via the Micro SD Card. It seems that Kobo e-Readers still have expandable memory, which makes adding books to your collection fairly easy and painless. It also has over two months of battery life, which is ideal. Kobo has maintained the same rear panel that they debuted on the Kobo Aura HD. Instead of using the quilted back cover as they have always used for their three previous generations of e-Readers, they have moved to a more wavy design. When we talked to Kobo about this move at BookExpo America, they said they wanted to mirror how the pages of a real book looked, once it got lots of usage. If you maneuver a book and press towards the spine, you will see the pages on a diagonal angle, and this is the essence of the new rear shell. There are no manual page turn buttons, instead everything is done via the software. The only two buttons on the device are the power and light. There are only two colors available at launch, black and pink. Software Kobo maintains the same general user interface found on most of their modern day e-Readers and did not re-invent the wheel for the core user experience. The new screen has three main segments that display icons for everything done over the last twelve processes. This provides shortcuts to the user's most commonly accessed features, such as the web-browser, custom shelves, Reading Life, and ebooks. The Sync feature to fetch new content is now on the main screen, too, which is the only element that remains persistent. I actually like the more effective use of screen real estate. Rather than browsing four different sub-menus to access the internet browser, it will appear on the main screen if it has recently been used. I really like the dynamic nature of the new home screen, especially how common tasks and recently accessed elements from games to comics will appear as virtual shortcuts. One of the drawbacks is you can't long-press to move them around or save them as persistent pseudo-widgets. It would be amazing to organize your home area the way you like so it didn't change automatically, unless you wanted it to. Not only has the main screen changed, but most of the UI has undergone subtle enhancements over prior models. The Kobo Glow had a black area on the bottom of the screen, and when you initiated the scroll bar to find the illumination levels, the black bar would often show artifacts or ghosting from images. The new UI is completely white and most of the other sub-menus and headings are also pure white, which is a small but noticeable feature. One thing that Kobo does really well is provide a lot of customization options in the main settings menu. Users can set the page refresh rate for e-ink from one to six pages, providing the ability to set up different swiping motions to turn pages. This is optimal for people living in Japan and Asia, where the character layout is right to left and page turns are left to right. There are new games as well, such as a Words with Friends clone and a few others. Of course, users have a scrapbook to take advantage of the touchscreen and internet browser. There are enough options to get the most out of this e-reader, but not too many to overwhelm the average consumer. Kobo has made headlines from the beginning with their aggressive international expansion efforts. This allows customers to easily read books in their native languages. The Aura has core support for the UI and dictionaries for English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese and Japanese. All of the dictionaries are basically links which users can download them as needed, without having them all loaded on the device by default. This helps with memory and storage capacity. e-Reading Experience Kobo has debuted some new features that enhance the overall reading experience and aid readers in eBook discovery. The most exciting element is called Beyond the Book, and it allows readers to dive deeper into what their reading by tapping on highlighted words to discover related books, authors, articles, and more. They also showcase new Collections, which are pre-curated bundles of related authors, books, and articles based on themes. Kobo's entire line of e-Readers provides a tremendous flexibility in crafting a unique reading experience. There are eleven fonts bundled on the Aura and twenty-four different sizes. Advanced users can load in their own fonts that can be downloaded or purchased online. Kobo also has TypeGenuis, which offers further advanced options to adjust the weight and saturation. All of this comes with a before and after rendering on how the changes will look, comparing it against the existing settings. Kobo currently has a massive online bookstore with over 3.5 million titles where readers can easily purchase magazines, newspapers, bestsellers, comics, and kids' books. Wrap Up I am live at the Kobo Launch event in New York City and will be updating this post with videos, interviews and more pictures. I wanted to give you a preview of everything this new device brings to the table from press briefings and quick interviews ahead of the formal announcement.
Hands-On with the New Kobo Aura is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo’s New Arc 7 Review
| Kobo has just unveiled the brand new Arc 7 e-Reading tablet at an event today in New York City. The Arc 7 is considered the spiritual successor of the Arc Android tablet released last year. This new model actually has lower resolution then the previous iteration but boosts up the hardware and performance. This new device is geared towards a more cost conscientious crowd and the estimated retail price will be $149.99 Hardware The Kobo Arc 7 features a seven-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. Kobo had to sacrifice screen quality to drive down the price, but if you are buying this just to read eBooks, magazines, and newspapers, it should be more than sufficient. The Kobo Arc HD 7 and the Kobo Arc 10 HD all use an Nvidia Tegra 4 quad core processor, but this model uses a budget-conscious MTK 8125 Quad-Core, 1.2 GHz. processor. Still, the processor really shines when compared to the dual-core processor of the original Arc. There are also 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory. One of the great things about this model is that users can expand the memory via the Micro SD card up to an additional 32 GB. This might not be a full HD tablet, but it does have a Micro HDMI Port, so users can watch movies, play games, or display content on a television or projector. It also has a front facing camera, but has a fairly woeful .03 MP, which is pretty well VGA. There is a single mono speaker for listening to music, audiobooks, or other content. It's good that it's positioned at the very top of the rear chassis, and creeps up on top of the bezel. This allows for clear playback, even when the device lays flat. The Kobo Arc 7 is a step in the right direction in terms of overall hardware functionality. It might not have stellar resolution compared to the prior model, but it does step up the processor and memory. The company really had to cut costs to produce this model in order to ensure that it could be available for as little as possible. This will likely bring new people into the fold and get them participating in the Kobo ecosystem of content. This unit likely will not appeal to power users or voracious readers, but that is what the Arc 7 HD and Kobo 10 HD are for. Software The Kobo Arc 7 features a very modern version of Google Android, with the final device being bundled with 4.2.2. It is also Google Certified, so users will have unfettered access to Google Play and around one million apps. Some of those apps come bundled on the tablet. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Skype, OfficeSuite Viewer, McAfee, Pocket, Feedly, 7digital, Rdio, TuneIn Radio, Cinema Now, WildTangent (more than 200 games), Google Play, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Street View, Calendar, Contacts, Google+, and Google Chat are all included. We are not too sure about the main UI yet but the big rumor is that Kobo did away with Tapestries and developed a brand new overlay to Android. I don't know the full story yet because I am only going by the press briefings issued a few days before the event, along with a number of interviews with Kobo executives. I will have a better idea in a few hours upon the conclusion of the Kobo launch event. Reading Experience Kobo tablets tend to be more focused on the core reading experience than many of their peers. They bring their vibrant bookstore with over 3.5 million titles and make them available to most major markets in the world. One of the big unveils of the Kobo event is the inclusion of a brand new digital magazine store that has hundreds of publications from major publishers, such as Conde Nast. They will be made available on a per issue basis, or by subscription. This new program joins other expanded content offerings, such as comics, graphic novels, newspapers, and of course, ebooks. Kobo has really revised the main UI compared to the prior version of the Arc. The new main bookshelf is comprised mainly of the eBooks users already have loaded on the device or that they have purchased from Kobo. The company still puts a heavy emphasis on EPUB and PDF books, so readers can shop at other retailers and load them in. If users need more proprietary formats, such as CBR and CBZ, they can download apps from Google Play to read other content. Kobo Collections have also undergone a huge revision with the shelf mirroring a traditional bookshelf. Readers will really get the feel of books neatly stacked beside each other, where only the binding is visible. The virtual binding will name the collection and have an image of the most recently read book. In order to read books, readers will use the default Kobo App for Android. There is a fair amount of versatility with over eleven pre-loaded fonts to choose from, and twenty-four different sizes. Readers will also be able to chat with other readers of the same book via Kobo Pulse. For those who like to brag to their friends on how many books they have read or what their most recent title is, they can share those details with Reading Life. Wrap Up Further information will be posted as it becomes available. I am live at the event in New York and wanted to release a comprehensive preview of what this new Arc 7 brings to the table. I will be adding video, pictures, and a number of other cool stuff in the next few hours.
Kobo’s New Arc 7 Review is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo Announces Three New Tablets, the Kobo Aura, and an eBookstore for Kids
| Today at their “Beyond the Book” event, Kobo announced that they will soon be releasing a new ebook reader and two new tablets. They also unveiled plans for a new ebook store designed specifically for children, as well as a partnership with Pocket, an aggregator of online content (formally Read it Later). Details about the […] |
4,000 libraries & schools have joined Big Library Read!
| On August 15th, OverDrive announced the next Big Library Read, 'Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth.' Since then over 4,000 libraries from six countries have signed up to be a part of this global digital book club. Big Library Read is free to libraries and schools during the program (September 16th-30th) and enables users to check out the eBook or
Jane O'Connor's Nancy Clancy titles are great for young readers who are learning both vocabulary and a love of literature. Checking out the eBook and audiobook will enable children to listen to the title as they follow along with the text. Audiobooks can help with knowledge retention and are useful for providing a better understanding of sentence structure and flow. Big Library Read assists libraries and schools in fostering a love of reading in young users by taking advantage of the technology they are already using. Kick off your back to school reading programs by having your students read the same book, at the same time.
You can learn more about Big Library Read, Jane O'Connor and her Nancy Clancy books here. There's still time to sign up for this Big Library Read event so contact your Account Specialist today!
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive
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audiobook version of Jane O'Connor's popular title simultaneously without waitlists or holds. This program allows parents and children to read together and join users from around the world to read the same book at the same time!We’re Live in New York for the Big Kobo Event
| Today in New York City, Kobo is holding a “Beyond the Book” event. Good e-Reader is live on the scene and will be bringing you all of the news, interviews and reviews. There is tons of announcements to be made and we have some excellent stories all ready to go at 7 PM EST. Not only will we be covering the launch event, but we will look into what Kobo Writing Life is doing these days. They have just hired new regional managers for UK, Europe, and US. We will speak to the head of Writing Life on what these new people bring to the table and how it positions writing life going forward. There is going to be some very major news stories coming out of the Kobo event. Make sure you keep checking Good e-Reader at 7 PM EST or 4 PST. We’re Live in New York for the Big Kobo Event is a post from: E-Reader News |
