| The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite was just announced yesterday and one of the things highly touted was the new front-lit display and 25% faster page-turns. How exactly is this accomplished when the vast majority of the industry is using Pearl HD display screens? This is because Amazon was the first company to license a new breed of e-Paper called Carta. E Ink Carta displays utilize a new electronic ink formulation and technology to provide a dramatic 50% improvement in contrast ratio and over 20% improvement in reflectance over previous generations of E Ink displays for a remarkably improved viewing and reading experience. The new Carta displays utilize the most advanced bistable electronic paper technology to deliver the best contrast ratio E Ink has ever delivered to the market with the same extremely low power consumption expected from an E Ink display. The new display has been specifically tuned for reading applications, fully supporting E Ink Regal waveform technology. Regal waveforms dramatically reduce the need for full page refreshes after a few page turns. This enhances the reader's experience by providing smoother page turns and more focused reading. Regal technology is basically what the new Kobo Aura is using. This limits the full page refreshing from every six pages, which is the industry standard, to every chapter. Regal also eliminates “ghosting” which occurs quite often in e Ink screens. "The Carta display technology is a testament to E Ink's continued innovation and leadership in ePaper and electronic ink displays," said Giovanni Mancini, Director of Product Management for E Ink Holdings. "E Ink has always enjoyed a close working relation with its customers. The launch of Carta reaffirms our belief in the future of the ePaper market and we believe it will herald a new standard in ePaper displays." New Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Uses E-Ink Carta Technology is a post from: E-Reader News |
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
New Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Uses E-Ink Carta Technology
How publishers should learn to stop worrying and love library ebook lending
At the start of the summer, I traveled to Chicago for the annual national conference of the American Library Association. It was great. There are many utterly baseless clichés about librarians – the shushing spinster who prefers the company of books to humans is a creation of pure and unimaginative fantasy. But there is one way in which librarians live up to their reputation: they are superbly organized. I've been to many library conferences – national, regional, even Europe-wide – and the one thing I can report about all of them is that they ran like clockwork.
While I was in Chicago, I sat down with some of the ALA strategists to talk about how libraries are getting a raw deal on e-books. When libraries want to buy an e-book from the publisher, they find themselves paying as much as five times the price you or I pay for the same book. Literally – librarians are paying $60-80, and sometimes more, to include current release frontlist titles in their collections. Each of these e-books can only be lent to one patron at a time, which means that libraries are sometimes buying a dozen – or more – of these overpriced text-files.
Link: http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2013/09/cory-doctorow-libraries-and-e-books/
Dr. Seuss Available as eBooks for First Time
| Random House Children’s Books, the publisher of multi-award winning and best-selling children’s author Dr. Seuss’ entire catalog of children’s content, announced today that it would begin releasing most of the author’s forty-four books as ebooks for young readers, starting with fifteen titles near the end of this month. The ebooks will keep the original layout and beloved illustrations, but will also incorporate a read-aloud narration. “Random House Children's Books and Dr. Seuss Enterprises have been publishing partners for decades,” said Barbara Marcus, President & Publisher, Random House Children's Books, in a press release. “I am so pleased to announce the start of an exciting new chapter in our long and thriving relationship, as we embark on expanding the Dr. Seuss reading experience together with ebooks," says Marcus. "We are delighted that today's parents, their children, and educators can now add Dr. Seuss's classics to their digital bookshelves, joining the cherished hardcovers that we have all grown up with." The order of release includes: September 24 – The Cat in the Hat; Green Eggs and Ham; Oh, the Places You'll Go!; Horton Hears a Who!; One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish; Dr. Seuss's ABC; Fox in Socks; Hop on Pop; Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?; Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!; The Cat in the Hat Comes Back; The Foot Book; There's a Wocket in My Pocket!; The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins; and The Lorax. October 22 – I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!; Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!; The Cat's Quizzer; The Shape of Me and Other Stuff; Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book; Happy Birthday to You!; Horton Hatches the Egg; How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories; The Sneetches and Other Stories; Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories; And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street; I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! and Other Stories; If I Ran the Circus; If I Ran the Zoo; On Beyond Zebra!; The King's Stilts; and Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose. November 5 – Oh Say Can You Say?; Bartholomew and the Oobleck; Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?; Hunches in Bunches; I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew; McElligot's Pool; The Butter Battle Book; and You're Only Old Once! Many of Dr. Seuss’ titles have also been rendered previously as app books by OceanHouse Media.
Dr. Seuss Available as eBooks for First Time is a post from: E-Reader News |
Rockstand And Vodafone Join Hands To Allow eBook Purchases From Mobile Balance
| Rockstand, one of the biggest ebook and emagazine application in India, today announced its partnership with Vodafone, who happens to be the leading provider of telecommunication services in the country. As part of the deal, Vodafone subscribers who wish to buy books or magazines from Rockstand can do so with the recharge amount they have in their balance. This will make for the most hassle-free buying experience, making Rockstand the first ebook app in the country to offer such. "Rockstand's tie-up with Vodafone will further strengthen our relationship with them as well as with our users. We are receiving wonderful reviews for our application and recently we have crossed a mark of 50,000 downloads, which shows the growing popularity of Digital reading in India. With Vodafone support, we will be reaching to urban as well as rural areas of the country on a strong network. We are sure this association will bear rich dividends for both Vodafone & Rockstand," revealed a naturally ecstatic Mr. Praveen Rajpal, CEO, Rockstand Digital Pvt. Ltd. Such a deal will also no doubt add impetus to the cause of digital reading in India, where the trend is picking up fast. Meanwhile, Rockstand also stated they will have exclusive subscription offers for Vodafone users which will let them buy books and magazine for ₹ 7 per day. Only a few days ago, the app recorded downloads exceeding 1 TB and the collaboration with Vodafone is expected to further enhance its reach among users in India.
Rockstand And Vodafone Join Hands To Allow eBook Purchases From Mobile Balance is a post from: E-Reader News |
Afghanistan project: double your money update
| I’ve spoken to the board of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and I’m very pleased to be able to tell you that donations to the project we posted about yesterday, to bring computing labs to girls in Afghanistan, will be matched up to $10,000 by the Foundation. So there’s an extra incentive to donate – we’ll double your donation for you. Read more about the project here, or go straight to Indiegogo to make a donation. |
eReatah: eBook Subscription Service That Might Actually Work
| A number of companies have experimented with the subscription model for digital reading, but there have been some factors that have stood in the way of launching a viable and productive reality surrounding pay-as-you-go reading. Publishers have expressed serious and very real concerns about ensuring their authors are fairly compensated for content read under subscription, and readers were less than excited about paying a monthly subscription fee to read content one time. Now, a new approach has been created by eReatah, one that functions more like the famous mail-order book clubs of years past than any of its competitors’ approaches. By charging readers a monthly subscription fee to download and own the ebooks based simply on the number of books they choose (as opposed to paying market prices for individual titles), eReatah has opened the door for a very fluid model of ebook purchasing. “My goal with eReatah was to design a subscription service that I myself wanted to use," said company founder Bryan Batten of the platform that was two years in the making. "As a reader, I like to be the person who finds a great book that none of my friends have read, so I can recommend it to them. While eReatah's library contains many of the best-sellers, we are also excited about our recommendation engine, which can help introduce lesser-heralded masterpieces to users so they can become curators and share those special finds." eReatah also bills itself as a book discovery platform, meeting a very serious need in the digital reading realm as potentially thousands of new titles per day are posted to ebook retail platforms. One soon-to-be popular feature is the “If These Two Books Had a Baby,” a book recommendation engine that bases its suggestions on consumers’ prior ebook purchases. The subscription model comes into play by charging a flat rate per month for a set number of titles. Readers get to choose those titles, regardless of standard stand-alone shelf price. eReatah already has agreements with several major publishers, including Berrett-Koehler, Diversion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Independent Publishers Group, Ingram Content Group, Open Road Integrated Media, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks and Workman. The platform is currently in private beta launch, but plans to introduce new publishers by the time it goes public.
eReatah: eBook Subscription Service That Might Actually Work is a post from: E-Reader News |
Rumor: A Smartwatch From Nokia Coming Soon
| After we have had enough of tablet devices, smartphones as well as big screen smartphone devices, it was perhaps just a matter of time before the manufacturers turned to provide the smart treatment to the humble watch. Joining the mad rush from manufacturers to come up with their individual take on the smartwatch concept is Nokia. All of it is too nebulous right now, but is being linked to a smart wearable device in the pipeline due to several Nokia products being leaked. The image depicts several Nokia products including the recently launched Lumia 1020 as well as the company's wireless charging stand. Towards the bottom is shown a device that is known internally as the Nokia Morph. Of course Nokia hasn't confirmed they are indeed making a smartwatch, though given the current trend, it will be surprising if they don’t. In any case, most other devices shown in the image has already become a market reality. Further, the Microsoft Surface team were also rumored to be developing a smartwatch. Now with both Microsoft and Nokia joining forces, it will be really interesting to see how things pan out.
Rumor: A Smartwatch From Nokia Coming Soon is a post from: E-Reader News |
Barnes and Noble Slashes Nook Tablet Prices in the UK
| Barnes and Noble admitted during a recent investors call that they simply made too many tablets and are sitting on a ton of inventory. Every day that a unit remains unsold, new models are coming out from their direct competitors and vying for consumers attention. Barnes and Noble is again slashing prices in the UK for their entire line of tablets and it could be the incentive people need to buy into the Nook ecosystem. Beginning today, customers can purchase the 7-inch NOOK HD for just £79 (8GB) and £99 (16GB), while the 9-inch NOOK HD+ tablet is available for just £129 (16GB) and £149 (32GB), both online at NOOK.co.uk and at leading retailers across the UK, while stocks last. "As families across the UK prepare for students to go back to school, NOOK has made digital reading even more affordable by lowering prices on the NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ tablets" said Jim Hilt, Managing Director, Barnes & Noble. "We are committed to the cause of literacy and learning in the UK and this new pricing on our highly versatile tablets will bring a world of books, apps, films, music and more to customers at an unbeatable value." To be honest, these prices make the Nook line of tablets very compelling. They still have some of the highest resolution displays in the business and their eight inch tablet is fairly solid for reading more graphic heavy content like magazines and kids books. All of the companies tablets are now officially Google certified, so there are no shortage of apps and games to download. Could this recent price slash encourage more people to pick one up? Barnes and Noble Slashes Nook Tablet Prices in the UK is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Libraries Websites Key to Book Discovery
| Overdrive recently had their annual Digipalooza conference and they polled close to 60,000 librarians on book discovery. The majority of readers are tending not to visit their local branch anymore and instead are visiting the online website. Many librarians in the US and Canada are finding the websites are woefully out of date. Making it more current is key to being more accessible and building a strong gateway to loaning out digital eBooks. Overdrive is chiefly responsibly for being the number one provider of eBooks via their online distribution platform. Libraries that do business with them often have their website automatically populated with the audiobooks, videos and eBooks they have purchased into their collections. This data is sent automatically and the libraries websites are updated whenever new titles are added or titles are loaned out. This type of data is fairly current but there are quite a number of elements that allow in obscurity. Library blogs tend to be one of the things that go neglected and remain consistently out of date. The blogs are normally established by the younger staff and interns hoping to make their mark and stay current. When young librarians are starting their career they often float around to different branches, depending on their placements or series of starter jobs. Once they leave the library the blogs often have no one effectively managing them. It is quite important that if a library decides to pull the trigger and make a blog, keep it current or kill it. Sometimes libraries curate their own special reading lists or editor’s picks. This type of data is not automatic and must be manually adjusted. These lists often go neglected in the long-term as day to day library life gets in the way. There is no denying that older people can’t visit the library like they used to and rely on borrowing books digitally to satiate their literary thirst. Younger folk tend to roll around with their smartphones, tablets and e-Readers and are more digitally savvy. Libraries need to focus on these demographics and make sure their website is current on a day to day and weekly basis. They should not bother with blogs or editor’s picks lists unless it can be mandated to be apart of someones specific job description. The worst thing libraries can do is appear out of date and out of touch with their audience. Libraries Websites Key to Book Discovery is a post from: E-Reader News |
The Bad Guys Take Over for DC’s Villains Month
| Warning: Spoilers ahead for Justice League and Trinity War! DC Comics is known for its good-guy superheroes, but this month they will turn all that upside down. The DC brass has dubbed September “Villains Month,” and they will turn their New 52 comics over to the bad guys, with standalone stories featuring the most notorious villains of the DC Universe. But that’s not all: Also this month, DC is launching a new seven-issue series by Geoff Johns and David Finch, titled Forever Evil, whose centerpiece is the Crime Syndicate of America, the evil counterpart to DC’s Justice League of America that arrived at the end of the recently concluded the Trinity War crossover event. In this series, the CSA sweeps in most the other villains, except for Lex Luthor, who isn’t much of a team player—he sets up his own army to fight them instead. Meanwhile, each of the New 52 stories will spotlight a different super-villain. Some are origin stories, while others shed light on their motivations, and in order to get them all in, there are extra issues of some comics; so, for instance, there will be issues 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, and 23.4 of Batman this month, each featuring a different villain. In Batman 23.1: The Joker, we see one of The Joker’s early adventures and get a sense of his origins as a villain. If you’re wondering where Bane is, he shows up in Batman 23.4. Some of the other comics look interesting as well. Superman meets his exact opposite, created by Lex Luthor by manipulating his DNA, in Superman 23.1: Bizarro. I’ll also point you toward Justice League of America 23.1: Deadshot because it’s scripted by the very clever Matt Kindt, so we can expect some twists in the story. In an interview with USA Today, DC co-publisher Jim Lee explains that heroes and villains aren’t all that far apart: “When you look at a character as determined and obsessed as Batman, and you look at the flip side of that and see a horrifying villain in Joker, you see why Batman’s a hero. You see the line that separates him from the dark side,” he said. The Bad Guys Take Over for DC’s Villains Month is a post from: E-Reader News |
Wattpad Unveils Exclusive Content from Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy
| Today, to coincide with the global release of Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam, Wattpad and Doubleday have teamed up to share an exclusive essay from Atwood revealing insights into the development of the critically-acclaimed dystopian trilogy which also includes Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. This behind-the-scenes glimpse into Atwood's inspiration for the series mixes her famous wit with a earnest exploration of the increasingly blurry line between speculative fiction and fact. "Wattpad is such a welcoming and highly engaged community of readers. With its millions of users from all over the globe, we truly believe it's the perfect place for us to get our writers in front of an even larger audience," said Judy Jacoby, Advertising Director at Doubleday Books. "We are thrilled to be using Wattpad as part of our marketing strategy surrounding Margaret’s MaddAddam release, and we look forward to bringing more Doubleday authors into the community in the near future." Margaret Atwood and Wattpad have had somewhat of a love affair since last year. In 2012 she shared an original serialized fiction with the release of The Happy Zombie Sunrise with award-winning author Naomi Alderman. Atwood is also a judge of the Atty Awards, an annual poetry competition on Wattpad. Author and eBook company are both proudly Canadian, so you can see the synergy that has developed. "Margaret is a great supporter and true friend of Wattpad and we are excited she's continuing to share her work with the community," said Wattpad CEO Allen Lau. "Wattpad is a place for for writers of all stripes to showcase their stories to millions people looking for their next great read." he added. Wattpad Unveils Exclusive Content from Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy is a post from: E-Reader News |
Barnes and Noble Announces College and University Newspapers Program
| Barnes and Noble has added hundreds of college and university newspapers to their Nook line of e-Readers and tablets today. Major newspapers from leading colleges like Harvard, Columbia, Louisiana State University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan and University of Texas at Austin, can now be purchased for as little as $0.99 cents per month. Most of these newspapers are free from the websites and RSS Feeds, but now they are all in one place. "Through NOOK's exclusive partnership with UWIRE, we are providing a new and convenient way to stay connected with your favorite college or university," said Jonathan Shar, Vice President & General Manager, Emerging Content, NOOK Media LLC. "NOOK is now the only place that provides easy access to over 500 digital editions of college and university newspapers, delivering them to students, alumni, faculty, and sports fans, across all NOOK devices and NOOK reading apps." College and university newspapers will be delivered to NOOK customers and will feature an intuitive design that makes it even easier and more fun to read newspapers digitally. Subscribers to these newspapers will have new issues automatically delivered to their NOOK Libraries™ as soon as they are available to read across all NOOK devices and Free NOOK Reading Apps. In addition, NOOK Newsstand already features the largest digital collection of the top 100 bestselling magazines available for both digital subscriptions and single copy sale in the U.S., plus a large selection of leading daily and weekly newspapers, all available to try free for 14 days. Barnes and Noble Announces College and University Newspapers Program is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Announces Kindle Paperwhite 2
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The new Kindle Paperwhite does not deviate design wise from the prior model and still maintains the six inch display screen with 212 ppi. Amazon has confirmed they are using a new front-light which should give you a brighter screen. The company is claiming that they have increased the page-turn speed by 25%, which should appeal to voracious readers. It also has 2 GB of internal memory and no expandable memory. The big changes with the Paperwhite 2 are mainly software driven and now has GoodReads integration. On the main home screen is the G logo that allows users to have a customized e-Ink version of the social eBook website and aids in book discovery. You can check out the books that are recently added to the system and rate/review books right on your e-reader. Another big change is Page-Flip which allows you to jump accross chapters and pages, without losing your current place. This will certainly help if you are say reading the Hobbit and want to jump to another page that has a map of Middle Earth. Smart Look-up is yet another new feature, which integrates a full dictionary definition with other reference information about a word, character, topic or book via X-Ray and Wikipedia. For example, using an ordinary dictionary to look up "credit default swaps" in Michael Lewis' The Big Short would give the individual definitions of "credit," "default" and "swaps." Smart Lookup recognizes this is an important topic and phrase in the book, and gives you the correct definition of "credit default swaps" via X-Ray. Finally, two other new features are New In-line Footnotes, with a single tap, read the complete text of each footnote in-line without changing the page or losing your place in the book. New Kindle MatchBook allows customers purchase Kindle editions of print books purchased from Amazon—past, present and future—for $2.99 or less. The new Kindle Paperwhite is only $119. Kindle Paperwhite is available for pre-order starting today at www.amazon.com and begins shipping September 30. The new top-of-the-line Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G is only $189. Customers can sign up to be notified when Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G is available for pre-order at www.amazon.com. Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G is expected to ship November 5.
Amazon Announces Kindle Paperwhite 2 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon traditionally holds press events for new product launches, but today they announced a new e-reader very quietly. The 6th generation Kindle has just been announced and you can think of it as the Paperwhite 2. It is available for pre-order right now from Amazon and Shop e-Readers.
Back to school, back to marketing
 Click to learn about the School Library Design Contest With the start of the 2013 school year, we're excited to announce the School Library Design Contest. The idea is to have students create promotional materials for your digital collection. We'll share our favorites on the blog and award prizes to the schools who submit the most creative entries. Click on the image to learn more about the contest.
The start of the school year is the perfect time to promote your digital collection. In the Marketing & Outreach section of our Partner Portal, we have recently added some great materials for schools.
We love seeing all the ways schools are promoting their digital collection. Feel free to share your ideas with us at librarypartnerservices@overdrive.com.
Cassie Renner is a Marketing Specialist with OverDrive  |
Local Content in OverDrive Marketplace
| Give your digital collection a personal touch while increasing your holdings and circulation at no additional cost by adding local content to your digital library website in OverDrive Marketplace! On the Local Content tab, you can upload new content or edit existing content for which your library has copyright, such as historical documents, local author interviews, community resources, and more.
Local content is supported in the following formats:
eBooks uploaded in EPUB or PDF format will appear on your digital library website within 24 hours. All EPUB files will be added to a processing queue where an OverDrive Read version of the title will be created.
MP3, music and video files will be submitted via FTP to OverDrive for processing, ensuring they are optimized for viewing or listening in OverDrive Media Console.
OverDrive Marketplace users with high level permissions have automatically been enabled with the 'Local content' user right. If you think you should have access to 'Local content,' contact your library's Marketplace administrator to enable this for your account.
For additional information, including steps to get started with local content, view the Marketplace User Manual located on the Support tab in OverDrive Marketplace. Please contact your OverDrive Account Specialist with any questions.
Heather Valentine-Gold is an Account Specialist with OverDrive
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Amazon Kindle Matchbook Offers Readers Print and Digital
| Amazon announced a brand-new value-added feature for its consumers in its new Kindle Matchbook program. Under this new structure, readers can have a low-cost shook edition of any book they have already purchased in print, dating back to 1995. There are already over 10,000 titles approved by their publishers for inclusion in Matchbook, some going back as far as eighteen years ago. "If you logged onto your CompuServe account during the Clinton administration and bought a book like Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus from Amazon, Kindle MatchBook now makes it possible for that purchase—18 years later—to be added to your Kindle library at a very low cost," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "In addition to being a great new benefit for customers, this is an easy choice for publishers and authors who will now be able to earn more from each book they publish." Authors who self-published their titles through Amazon’s CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing platforms also have the option as the rights’ holders of their works to include their titles in Matchbook simply by logging into their KDP dashboards and enrolling their content. This program is something that digital publishing proponents have clamored for since the current state of ebook sales. The ability to bundle content in this way has been experimented with, but this is the first full-scale model of making any title available at the publishers’ discretion.
Amazon Kindle Matchbook Offers Readers Print and Digital is a post from: E-Reader News |
Pre-Orders for the Kindle Paperwhite 2 Now Available
| So I just got done posting the article about how the details have leaked about the 2nd generation Kindle Paperwhite. At the time I was writing the article, the description page for the Kindle Paperwhite 2 at Amazon wasn’t working. But then I was thinking about adding the link to the article in case Amazon […] |
Kindle Paperwhite 2 Details Leaked
| Earlier today Amazon slipped up and accidentally started displaying the new product listing page for the 2nd generation Kindle Paperwhite. They have since taken the product listing page down, but not before someone snapped some screenshots listing the new features. The Kindle Paperwhite 2 appears to be an incremental update. Not much has changed and […] |
First Look at Sony Reader PRS-T3 (Video)
| The folks over on Librista.es, a Spanish-language blog, have somehow managed to get their hands on the new Sony PRS-T3 ahead of launch, which is expected to come as early as tomorrow. There really aren’t any new details about the reader that we haven’t already seen in the earlier leaked documents, but there is a […] |
Help fund computing labs for girls in Afghanistan
| Will Goldie is a Boy Scout in California, working on his Eagle project. It’s an ambitious one: working alongside Trust in Education, a group that organises educational, economic and business development programs in rural Afghanistan, he’s raising funds to equip a computer lab for a girls’ school. The Pi will form the centrepiece of what Will’s doing, and he has an Indiegogo running, starting today, to raise the money. Will’s been emailing with Eben about his idea for a little while now, and we’re really pleased that he’s been able to start putting it in place. The major cost here is the monitor (display technology remains an aggravatingly expensive part of the equation when you’re buying everything as new); Will’s calculations say that it will cost $190 to set up each computer when peripherals are taken into account. He’s aiming to raise sufficient money for ten, but if he exceeds that goal any extra money will go into providing more computers for the girls. It goes without saying, but we would very much like to see him exceed his goal. This project presses all my buttons. Teaching computing, reaching girls in environments hostile to their education, enabling young women to access opportunities and options that were previously closed to them: making a big difference with a small device. I’ve put my money where my mouth is on this one, and have funded the project – I really hope you will too. |
