| Microsoft announced free access to its Student Advantage program for all school and educational institutes that already have subscribed to Office 365. This makes the program to be available in over 35,000 schools which will now be eligible to use Office Professional Plus for free. Microsoft explained the move as a means to enhance the student's prospect of landing up a job, claiming those having proficiency with MS Office tools stand a greater chance in the job market. Microsoft also took the opportunity to take a dig at Google claiming in its blog: "Microsoft Office skills were sought after five times more than any other productivity tools. Even Google’s own job postings require competency with Microsoft Office tools." Of course there are other reasons for Microsoft to make special mention of Google as the latter's free productivity services such as Google Drive has proved to be a cause of worry for Microsoft. Under the circumstances, its best for Microsoft to offer its Office Pro Plus software tool for free which in turn will help it retain their contracts with the schools. The MS 365 Office Pro Plus suite comprises of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access, and Lync.
Microsoft Student Advantage Launched, Offers Free Access to Office 365 ProPlus is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Microsoft Student Advantage Launched, Offers Free Access to Office 365 ProPlus
HP Launches 4 New Android Tablets in the Budget to Mid-Range
| HP is quietly building up its tablet strength that has been recently reinforced with the launch of 4 new models. After having launched the rudimentary Slate that failed to make much of a mark, the company has now come up with 4 new offerings that will help it field a contender across a wider spectrum of the tablet market. Interestingly, all the four tablets run Android Jelly Bean, version 4.2 with the company yet to come up with a tablet running Windows 8.1. Several manufacturers such as Dell, Lenovo and so on have come up with affordable 8 inch tablets based on the new Intel Bay Trail chips and running Windows 8.1. However, the one big positive aspect with the new HP tablets is that that all of them include quad core chips, which means performance is not compromised even with the cheapest tablet. Coming back to the latest HP tablets, the range starts with the HP Slate7 Plus which is the cheapest of the lot at $149.99. The 7 inch display is lit up by 1280 x 800 pixels and includes a 1.3 and 5 megapixel front and rear camera and a 4000 mAh battery pack. Powering the device is a 1.3 GHz quad core Tegra 4 chip that works in association with a gig of RAM and 8 GB of storage. Next in line is the Slate7 Extreme which though belies its naming with just a slight increment in specs over the base Slate 7 Plus. The Extreme shares the same display as the Plus but gets a slightly uprated 1.8 Ghz quad core Tegra 4 chip, 1 GB of RAM and a higher 16 GB of storage. The Extreme also shares the same 0.3 and 5 megapixel front and rear comera setup as the Plus but is powered by a bigger 4100 mAh battery. Next up is the 8 inch HP Slate8 Pro which also is the most expensive of the lot at $329.99. However, the higher price tag notwithstanding, the Slate8 Pro shares several of its internal make-up with the Slate7 Extreme though there are enhancements elsewhere to justify the higher price tag. Among the similarities include the same 1.8 Ghz Nvidia Tegra 4 quad core processor, 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. The Pro however benefits from a better 8 megapixel shooter at the rear and a front facing 720p HD enabled camera at the front. Up front, it is a 1600 × 1200 pixel 8 inch display. Thereafter, it is the Slate10 HD which is the biggest of the lot while being priced $299.99. Specs read a 10 inch 1280 × 800 pixel display, 1.2 GHz dual core Marvell PXA968 chip, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage and 2 and 5 megapixel front and rear webcams. The tablet also hosts the biggest battery rated at 7000mAh. All the four tablets are now listed at the HP online site though the Slate7 Extreme is currently listed at out of stock.
HP Launches 4 New Android Tablets in the Budget to Mid-Range is a post from: E-Reader News |
Monday, December 2, 2013
Kobo Abandons Windows 8 Reading App
| Kobo has pulled their Windows 8 e-Reading app from the Microsoft App Store a few weeks ago. This move will now prevent owners of the Microsoft Surface or anyone on a Windows 8 PC from downloading or reading eBooks. The Windows 8 Reading App by Kobo was originally developed before Windows 8 officially launched. The Canadian based company had the app all ready for the first wave of Beta testers way back in February 2012. Before the app was pulled, thousands of readers were using the app every day to buy eBooks and other digital content and then read it. We have reached out to Kobo many times during the last few weeks to get an official comment. I had originally thought that they pulled the app to allow for the integration of their new magazine and kids book services, but it seems they have totally abandoned it. It seems basically that the entire app was not up to Kobo’s standards and many users have moaned that it was barely functional. In the meantime, you can use the internet browser on any Windows 8 or Windows RT tablet by visiting the Kobo Instant Reader. This is an HTML5 reading app that was originally developed to give Apple iPad users the ability to buy eBooks using the Safari web-browser. It was basically a clandestine effort to bypass the mandatory 30% commission Apple takes from in-app purchases. Kobo Abandons Windows 8 Reading App is a post from: E-Reader News |
E Ink Unveils New Fina EPD Module
| E Ink Holdings today announced the upcoming release of E Ink Fina, a new thin and lightweight electronic paper display (EPD) technology. Fina will be the first EPD that will go into mass production for small to large format digital paper products based on a thin glass Thin Film Transistor (TFT) technology. In conjunction, today PocketBook also announced PocketBook CAD Reader – the first Fina ePaper Android device designed specifically for displaying drawings generated with Autocad from Autodesk. Fina is a glass based TFT technology that uses a very thin glass substrate to deliver products that are much lighter and thinner than what is possible with standard LCD displays. Fina displays weigh less than 50% of the weight of an equivalent glass based TFT and are less than 50% of the thickness as well. This is particularly important for mobile products requiring larger display areas. A 13.3″ Fina display module, installed in the Pocket CAD Reader, weighs approximately 60 grams. “Fina adds to E Ink’s portfolio of innovative display products which enable unique consumer and engineering products,” said Giovanni Mancini, director of product management for E Ink Holdings. “The extremely low power requirements, thinness, lightweight and readability under all lighting conditions truly enable design engineers to display information where they never thought possible before.” E Ink Unveils New Fina EPD Module is a post from: E-Reader News |
New PocketBook CAD Reader Announced
| Pocketbook is a well known brand that specializes in e-Readers and has a somewhat devout following of people who like to load in their own books. The company has always released devices that appeal to a wider consumer market since 2007 and is about to aim a new product at the business segment. The PocketBook CAD Reader will be 13.3 inches and uses a powerful 1GHz dual-core CPU running Android 4.0.4 with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage making it very responsive with a large capacity for storing designs. With built-in Wi-Fi and 3G modules, large 8000 mAh battery. The new CAD Reader is the first device using a new E Ink technology called Fina ePaper. It is designed specifically for displaying drawings generated with Autocad from Autodesk. It comes pre-installed with a number of free and paid CAD-applications. There is enough internal memory to hold the plans for up to 200 construction projects, which can be edited and shared through the collaboration workspace. The built-in touch screen and precise Wacom digitizer support both touch and a stylus. “Our goal was to develop a device to be used on construction sites. We created a highly portable large format display device with a rugged and weatherproof case that could hold all the CAD drawings a team needs. This makes designs available virtually anyplace and anytime,” – said Dmitriy Shemet, head of research and development at PocketBook. “We chose the E Ink Fina 13.3 inch display because it has exactly the right properties we were looking for to develop PocketBook CAD Reader. The PocketBook CAD Reader delivers a new user experience for architects and specialists in construction trades allowing them to work on site”. I am quite surprised that Pocketbook actually is intending on releasing a new device with such great specs. The company has been somewhat notorious over the years of consistently selling modern devices with single core 800 MHZ processors and 512 MB of RAM. This makes the bulk of their products woefully slow, this new one is aimed at a different segment and is optimal for bringing it out in the field. New PocketBook CAD Reader Announced is a post from: E-Reader News |
Movember wrap up
| Well, that was a very long 30 days for both of us. Thanks to the following people and organizations, and one anonymous donor, for raising £1,500 (plus £236 of gift aid) to support Movember’s work in promoting men’s health. David Akerman I’ll leave you with a picture of the final result, and the scene in Liz’s and my bathroom at one minute past midnight on Sunday morning.  Enjoying one last moment of moustache-themed goodness.  Have you tried turning it off and on again? Decembeard here we come. |
Anders’ not-so-geeky holiday device buying guide
| Last week OverDrive tech writer and blogger Quinton Lawman detailed his top picks of this year's crop of new devices in Quinton's geeky holiday device buying guide (Part 1) (Part 2).
Now it's my turn.
Conspicuously missing from the list were two iconic devices, the iPad Air, and the iPad Mini with retina display. The iPad Air boasts the most powerful tech specs in any iOS device to date, yet comes in the most elegant package ever. That's up to 128 GB of storage in a one pound device that fits in the palm of your hand! (For some fun perspective, that much storage back in 1980 would've set you back a cool $25 million dollars, and forget about the weight of it!)
While the iPad Air ranges from $499-$799, its smaller cousin, the iPad Mini with retina display, packs all of that goodness into a smaller and more affordable package. Each respective storage capacity, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, is a hundred dollars less than the iPad Air.
Both models feature the best camera we've seen on any iPad. With 5 megapixel photos, Autofocus, face detection and a five element lens, it's perfect to capture those precious holiday moments with friends and family.
But these devices are about more than just great hardware. With the release of iOS 7, the iPad's newest operating system, Apple did something quietly amazing: they made their entire suite of productivity apps free. Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, collectively known as iWork, are the Apple equivalents of PowerPoint, Word and Excel and create files compatible with their Microsoft Office counterparts. What's more is that iCloud.com, utilizing the same HTML 5 technology that powers OverDrive Read, offers a web-based version of each app that is accessible from virtually any computer with an internet connection, which will sync with the projects you have on your device. (But let's face it, even if people don't want to work on their iPad, at least now they can.) Of course, despite all of those useful free apps, I will probably still spend most of the time on my iPad this winter listening to audiobooks on the OverDrive Media Console.
Hot Holiday DevicesDue to overwhelming demand, we are now at capacity for the December 5th session of Hot Holiday Devices. But we still have room for you to register for our December 4th session at 7:00 PM EST. We'll be discussing these devices and many more, focusing on how they can be used with the OverDrive service. You can register for Hot Holiday Devices from the Learning Center on the Partners Portal: http://partners.overdrive.com/learning-center/live-sessions/. And don't forget to use our handy time zone converter to find out when the session starts in your part of the world.
We look forward to connecting with you then!
For those of you who can't attend a live session, check back in at the Learning Center after December 6th to hear the recorded session and download our resource-packed presentation slides.
Anders Brooks is a Training Specialist on the Knowledge Services Team at OverDrive.
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PocketBook to Release 13.3″ CAD Reader with 13.3″ E Ink Fina Screen and Android 4.0
| There is some interesting news coming out of E Ink and PocketBook today. E Ink has just announced the upcoming release of a new screen technology called E Ink Fina, and PocketBook is going to be the first company to use it in their new PocketBook CAD Reader, which is designed specifically for displaying drawings […] |
Kindle and Nook Cyber Monday Deals
| Amazon and Barnes and Noble both have some good deals for Cyber Monday. The new 7″ Kindle Fire HDX is marked down by $50 and so is the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. I decided to post this Cyber Monday update because it’s been a few days since the last Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals post. […] |
OverDrive Offers Digital Kids’ Reading Rooms to Partner Libraries
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While the content has been slowly replaced in a one-at-a-time fashion, statements from at least one retailer have announced the position that they are under no obligation to sell any titles that do not meet their standards for appropriateness. Another retailer, Amazon, has taken the steps to evaluate the keywords that self-published authors associate with their titles and has begun the process of removing ebooks whose metadata and keywords seem intentionally misleading. But in order to protect consumers, OverDrive announced today that it has created an online children’s reading room for its partner libraries. The purpose of this cyber sphere is to provide a safe and vetted location for young patrons to enjoy all of the same features and benefits that other patrons can have through the main OverDrive portal. "eBooks are not just for adults, and we believe this site will help us highlight some of the great children's content that we have to offer," said Sharon Grant, Digital Branch Manager at Kitsap Regional Library where the digital reading room was piloted. "More importantly, we believe this site will save people time because it effectively highlights books by reading levels, age groups and interests." According to the press release on the launch of this child-safe library environment, “The eReading Room is a safe environment for children, independent of the larger digital collection, yet easily accessible and fully integrated – seamlessly working with your existing catalog. OverDrive offers clean, friendly, simple design options and the choice of including juvenile and/or young adult fiction and nonfiction titles. All titles in the eReading Room are also cataloged by reading level, ATOS scores, and other reading metrics to help parents and teachers select titles to aid in literacy campaigns. Adults and kids can sample titles in OverDrive Read prior to checking out a title.” Hopefully, efforts such as this one will be sufficient to protect the interests of all parties involved. While young readers should not be subjected to material that is willfully mislabeled with the express purpose of attracting children, authors who have taken the appropriate steps to put their content only in front of mature audiences should not suffer under the sweeping changes that retailers have had to make.
OverDrive Offers Digital Kids’ Reading Rooms to Partner Libraries is a post from: E-Reader News |
Welcome Ben!
| We’re welcoming a new member to the team at Pi Towers today. Some of you already know Ben Nuttall from his work on the Pi Weekly email newsletter (if you haven’t signed up already, you should), his hosting of the Manchester Jams, and his STEM activities.  Ben is sheepish about being photographed. He asked me to use a picture of Fry from Futurama instead. Tough luck, Ben. I first crossed paths with Ben when we met the incredible Amy Mather, a 14-year-old from Manchester who does amazing things with her Pi. Ben was tutoring Amy outside school, along with a number of other local kids, and we got chatting as a result of his work with her. He’s a STEM Ambassador, a FLOSS advocate, and curates Pi projects for youngsters. He’s also saved the life of a drowning, hypothermic, trouserless dinghy paddler. Like many of us, he cycles to work. His laptop has a sticker of Carrie Anne Philbin on it. His birthday cake had raspberry icing. We think he’s going to fit in just fine. Ben just moved to Cambridge from Manchester for this job at the weekend. He’s going to have a number of roles here: he’s working on a revamp of this website, with separate areas for projects and for educators, which we’ll be trialling in 2014. He’s building demos; writing educational materials; and doing outreach work, especially with kids. We’re very excited to have him join us: welcome to the family, Ben! |
December Kindle First Titles Released
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Today, Amazon Publishing announced the list of Kindle First titles for December, which include: • Soy Sauce for Beginners, a beautiful debut novel about family bonds and personal identity by Kristin Chen, • The Widow File, a political thriller of industrial espionage and military intrigue by SG Redling, • Sweet Nothings by award-winning romance author Kim Law, which tells the story of a bachelorette baker and the man who convinced her of true love, • Timebound by Rysa Walker, a fantastical novel about a 16-year-old time traveler that won this year's overall grand prize as the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Inclusion in this selection may be especially poignant for Rysa Walker, as this year’s young adult ABNA winner who eventually won the grand prize as well. Originally a self-published title, Walker didn’t think much beyond her indie roots when she entered the contest. As she explained to Good e-Reader at the time of the announcement in June, "I self-published because the traditional publishing industry wasn't working for me. I tried for a year to get attention from an agent and in almost every case I didn't even get an email back from them saying why they weren't interested or even that they'd gotten my email with the attached file." Are customers really responding to the opportunity to be the first to read a book? Possibly, as last month’s Kindle First titles all became number one bestsellers in their respective categories, as well as held spots in the Top Ten for all books. To find out more about Kindle First, click HERE.
December Kindle First Titles Released is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Most Visited Website on Black Friday
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The 2013 Black Friday holiday weekend sales figures (at least as up-to-date as current standings) show $20.6 billion were spent online via retailers’ websites, from consumers who used desktop computers. There was a sixteen percent increase in shoppers who used websites for their holiday discount shopping, possibly due to the growing backlash over both the out-of-control behaviors reported in physical stores and of retailers requiring their employees to work during what many feel is a family time. Sixty-six million shoppers purchased items through retailers’ websites via computers, as opposed to the growing number of shoppers who are shopping online via mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. According to the data, released by comScore, Amazon was the top visited website during these holiday spending days beginning on Thanksgiving, followed by eBay, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. The last three stores have traditionally been associated with some of the more notorious reports of physical violence and injury during Black Friday sales, and it’s refreshing to see that more shoppers are choosing to stay out of the physical stores while still benefiting from the steep discounts. Many retailers are continuing the discounted offerings today, which has come to be known as Cyber Monday in recent years due to the online specials, and hope that any deficits in projected holiday earnings can be made up for with online shopping.
Part of the increase in Amazon traffic may be attributed to its admitted growth in Prime membership and the resulting free two-day shipping option, as well as its heavy advertising of Black Friday specials leading up to the actual shopping day. Despite being the most visited retailer, however, comScore reported that apparel and fashion were the top selling categories for the holiday weekend, followed by computer hardware, then consumer electronics.
Amazon Most Visited Website on Black Friday is a post from: E-Reader News |
Send in the Drones – Meet Amazon Air Prime
| One of Amazon’s greatest strengths has been the massive expansion of their warehouses and fulfillment centers all over the world. They are spread out geographically so when you order a product, its shipped from the nearest one in your State or one close by. Shipping out packages quickly and effectively has won the Seattle based company acclaim and one of the benefits of a $79 per year Prime membership is free two day shipping. In the near future, customers may get packages 30 minutes after ordering them with their futuristic program called Prime Air. Amazon is employing a new fleet of aerial drones that are similar to the quad helicopters we see on the consumer level. The intention is to have the drone pick up a package at a fulfillment center and navigate the city or country via advanced GPS, right to your door. CEO Jeff Bezos channeled the showman spirit of Steve Jobs when announcing this new initiative to the show 60 minutes. ”The hardest challenge in making this happen is demonstrating to the standards of the FAA that this is a safe thing to do. This is years of additional work at this point,” Bezos said. Amazon is betting on the future of shopping to be delivered by drones. They fly above the city streets, do not get stuck in traffic and go right from the conveyer belt to your front door. ”I know this looks like science fiction — it’s not,” Bezos said. “It will work and it will happen. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” During the holiday season Amazon is processing over 300 orders a second. The drone based delivery could be operational by 2015, but it is firmly up to the FAA to approve for the use of drones in the public sector. Send in the Drones – Meet Amazon Air Prime is a post from: E-Reader News |
Now available for public libraries: An eReading room just for kids
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OverDrive is offering a new service for public library partners to give young readers a place of their own. Now there's an option to incorporate an eReading Room for kids and/or teens as an extension of your digital library website. Kids and teens can browse, sample, place holds and borrow eBooks and other media appropriate for their age range and reading level. Kids can spend as much time as they want clicking away and exploring without the worry of them stumbling upon mature content. See the first live eReading Room for kids at Kitsap Regional Library in Washington.
"eBooks are not just for adults, and we believe this site will help us highlight some of the great children's content that we have to offer," said Sharon Grant, Digital Branch Manager at Kitsap Regional Library. "More importantly, we believe this site will save people time because it effectively highlights books by reading levels, age groups and interests."
The eReading Room is a safe environment for children, independent of the larger digital collection, yet easily accessible and fully integrated – seamlessly working with your existing catalog. OverDrive offers clean, friendly, simple design options and the choice of including juvenile and/or young adult fiction and nonfiction titles. All titles in the eReading Room are also cataloged by reading level, ATOS scores, and other reading metrics to help parents and teachers select titles to aid in literacy campaigns. Adults and kids can sample titles in OverDrive Read prior to checking out a title.
The checkout and hold experience is the same as with the existing site, so when the kids are ready to graduate to the next level, they'll already be seasoned users of the website's tools and navigation. We will also provide you with promotional graphics and print-ready materials to promote the eReading Room. You can even name the eReading Room anything you choose, such as the same name for the kids' section in your physical library branch.
Ready to get started? The kids' eReading room is available now, so contact your Collection Development Specialist to learn more.
Heather Tunstall is the Public Relations Specialist at OverDrive.
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Sunday, December 1, 2013
Digital Comics Best-Sellers for December 1, 2013
| Image Comics elbows DC aside in this week’s comiXology chart, with a bit of help from a half-price sale, but Kindle readers are bullish on DC’s new 52 graphic novels. 1. The Walking Dead #117 There are a couple of interesting things going on with comiXology’s best-seller list this week. The first nine titles are all new comics that came out this week, but number 10 is one of those Image graphic novels that was on sale over the weekend (the sale lasts till midnight on Monday, so you still have time to grab it). Further down the list, the first volume of Saga is at number 11, and another sale title, the Avengers vs. X-Men collected edition (a steal at $19.99) is at number 14. The other thing that is truly striking is that there isn’t a single DC comic in the top ten; the highest ranked comic as of this writing is Damian: Son of Batman #4, at number 13. There were four Image titles (only one of which can be explained by the sale) and six Marvel titles. 1. The Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes The Kindle top ten, on the other hand, is dominated by DC, with six titles, including the graphic novels that were on sale a few weeks ago and the first issue of Neil Gaiman’s new Sandman comic. That Ultimate Comics Wolverine vs. Hulk graphic novel is back at its regular price as well, after being on sale for weeks. 1. The Sandman: Overture #1 The top ten paid books for Nook are exactly the same as last week’s list, which was almost identical to the lists for the previous two weeks. The free books changed a bit, as folks took advantage of DC’s free digital-first comics—the top comic overall was Smallville #1. But either no one is buying comics for the Nook or they are buying them in exactly the same proportions week after week. Very curious. iBooks 1. The Walking Dead #117 The iBooks top ten also looks a lot like last week’s list, except that everything has been squeezed out by The Walking Dead and My Little Pony, the strange bedfellows of the iBookstore—and that Lady Mechanika comic, which is two years old, has mysteriously popped up in the #10 slot. Digital Comics Best-Sellers for December 1, 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
eBook Review: Sycamore Row by John Grisham
| Verdict: 5 Stars Fans of the author’s suspenseful legal thrillers will love this title that revisits one of the settings that made John Grisham a household name. Almost twenty-five years after the release of A Time to Kill, Grisham takes us back to Ford County and back into the fray of legal dramas. From the book’s description, “Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County’s most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.” Critics of the book have argued that this one is “typical Grisham” and that it follows the plot lines that we’ve gotten really, really used to from him. Having said that, there are a couple of surprises in the book, as well as some unanswered questions from the first round that the author springs on us. The courtroom drama and masterful depictions of well-researched settings more than make up for any predictability in the plot, as does his handling of a fairly common plot line of an elderly dying man leaving his entire fortune to a random fringe character, in this case, his maid. Sycamore Row is available now in print, audiobook, and ebook.
eBook Review: Sycamore Row by John Grisham is a post from: E-Reader News |
Author Goes Digital…While Still Writing the Book
| According to a story in the New York Times, author Arnon Grunberg is going digital. But what makes his project unique is the fact that he’s going digital while he writes the book…and he’s doing it with electrodes attached to his head. Yes, rather than the typical story of an author–even a well-known and highly respected bestselling author like Grunberg–going digital with the publication process, Grunberg is part of an experiment he helped establish to monitor his brain activity while he writes his most recent novella. Even more sci-fi oriented, the first fifty readers of this project’s outcome will undergo the same electrode0based response recording while they read the finished novella. According to the article by Jennifer Schuessler, “Over the past two weeks, Mr. Grunberg has spent several hours a day writing his novella, while a battery of sensors and cameras tracked his brain waves, heart rate, galvanic skin response (an electrical measure of emotional arousal) and facial expressions. Next fall, when the book is published, some 50 ordinary people in the Netherlands will read it under similarly controlled circumstances, sensors and all.” The purpose of this futuristic undertaking? To try to discover the connection between creativity and the consumption of that creativity by readers. And while the researchers will work to figure out how the readers’ brains connected in various ways with the author’s work, Grunberg himself sees a more invasive approach to the project, likening this type of connection with the way retailers like Amazon invade on the reading experience via e-readers.
Author Goes Digital…While Still Writing the Book is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Opens a Series of pop-up Stores in San Francisco
| Amazon has officially opened a series of pop-up stores in retail malls in San Francisco. This is the first time the online e-commerce giant opened a physical location. There are a number of Kindle e-Readers and Tablets on display to give transient shoppers the ability to play with the devices and buy them on the spot. Walmart, Target and a number of other big box retailers in the USA have dropped the entire line of Amazon branded devices because they did not want to become “showrooms” for the company. The only retailer to stock the Kindle is Best Buy, but Amazon is very concerned with the ability of customers to play around with the hardware. When you sell tablets in an online environment it is hard to get that tectonic visceral experience. An Amazon spokeswoman said the temporary stores are in a handful of malls as part of a marketing campaign. The majority of them are only in operation for two weeks. A few years ago we broke the news that Amazon had firm plans to open a retail store, once their new corporate headquarters was completed in Seattle. Architecture draft plans had a cafe and bookstore, where it is thought that the books Amazon publishes with their New York imprints will be available to purchase. It is unlikely we will see a full on retail store until 2015. Amazon Opens a Series of pop-up Stores in San Francisco is a post from: E-Reader News |
Digital Comics Gift Guide – 2013
| Comics fans tend to have strong feelings about the types of comics they like, and sometimes it can be hard to buy for them because it seems like they have everything. Never fear! Here’s the first part of our Digital Comics Gift Guide, featuring an array of gifts for comics fans who have everything, as well as those who are just getting started. Gift Cards and Gift Comics iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble gift cards will buy comics for iOS apps and iBooks, Kindle, and Nook, respectively, but comiXology is now offering gift cards as well. In addition, if you know a particular comic is on someone’s wish list, you can get it as a gift on comiXology or Viz Manga website: Just click on the gift-box icon next to the comic and they will take you through the steps from there. For Superhero Fans If you know someone who like to binge on comics, reading full runs of a story arc or a character at a time, a subscription to Marvel Unlimited will allow them to read thousands of comics without having to purchase and download each one. The library includes over 10,000 Marvel comics, starting from the very first issue and going up to as recently as six months ago, so it’s a great gift for newbies who want to catch up on 70 years of continuity as well as nostalgia freaks who want to read all the comics they had as a kid (and their mother threw away). This service was a bit clunky until they came out with an iOS app this year, which makes for a much more pleasant reading experience than flipping through the comics in a web browser and allows the user to download up to six issues at a time. Marvel makes gift-giving easy with a gift subscription option; the basic price is $69 for 12 months, and the Marvel Unlimited Plus package, which includes a shortbox, a variant print comic, and a figure, is $99. For Kids Here’s something similar for kids (and kids at heart): The Archie Unlimited service offers over 4,000 Archie comics, with a selection that is growing every week. Right now it’s only available as part of their iOS app, but they plan to expand to other platforms soon. For Manga Fans Manga readers are in a class by themselves. Crunchyroll has just launched a new manga service that allows readers unlimited access to streaming manga—right now there are only 12 titles, but the selection includes Attack on Titan and Fairy Tail, as well as Ken Akamatsu’s new series UQ Holder, and more series are on the way. The manga-only premium service is $4.95 a month, and Crunchyroll offers various other bundles, including anime, drama, and discounts on merchandise. They have both iOS and Android apps. The weekly digital magazine Shonen Jump brings the latest chapters of some of the world’s most popular manga, including Naruto and One Piece, to the small screen; new chapters are published in Shonen Jump the same week they come out in Japan. A year’s subscription (48 issues) is $25.99. Sparkler Monthly is a digital magazine of manga-style stories from the U.S. and Canada, aimed at teenage girls and young women (shoujo manga, for those in the know). The lineup includes Jen Lee Quick’s Off*Beat, which was originally published by Tokyopop. Gift subscriptions start at $5 for one month. Digital Comics Gift Guide – 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
