| Bookeen had their latest ebook reader, the Cybook Ocean, on display last weekend at the Paris Book Fair. The device showed up in a few YouTube videos and on some European blogs for the first time since it was announced last year. The release of the Cybook Ocean has been delayed over the past few […] |
Thursday, March 27, 2014
8″ Cybook Ocean eReader Specs and Videos
13″ Sony DPT-S1 PDF Reader Coming to U.S. in May
| Sony may have closed the door on selling ebooks and ebook readers in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve seen the last of Sony in the electronic paper industry. A German ebook blog has turned up a press release of an upcoming U.S. release. Sony first introduced their 13.3″ E Ink Mobius […] |
Weekly eHighlights: Australia/New Zealand Edition
| Can you believe it's almost April? Where has the beginning of the year gone? Before April arrives, give your digital collection a facelift with some excellent new content. This edition of Weekly eHighlights includes offerings for adults, fiction and nonfiction, as well as a great selection of some of the hottest titles for children and teens. Get your patrons downloading and reading more by engaging their imaginations and satisfying their appetites for quality, popular content. In fiction, we have romance in Someone like You, When the Duke Was Wicked, The Bride Says Maybe, and Evening Stars. For the readers who prefer a little more action and thrillers, check out Distortion, Black Horizon, and Ancient Future Trilogy. Nonfiction titles this week have great autobiographies like Battle Scars, and the young adult list has some amazing heavy hitters, guaranteed to be a huge success with your YA readers. For quick and easy browsing and shopping, just click on the links below to see the full lists or as always, contact your Collection Development specialist for recommendations and questions. Until next time, happy reading! 
FOR ADULTS: Fiction Terri Blackstock – Distortion A husband’s lies can have deadly consequences. When Juliet Cole’s husband of 15 years is murdered before her eyes, she thinks it was a random shooting. Devastated and traumatized, she answers hours of questioning, then returns home to break the tragic news to her boys. But a threatening voicemail takes this from a random shooting to a planned, deliberate attack. Juliet realizes that she and her children are in danger too, unless she meets the killers’ demands. But as she and her sisters untangle the clues, her husband’s dark secrets come to light. The more she learns, the more of her life is dismantled. Was her husband an innocent victim or a hardened criminal? Ann Fortier – The Lost Sisterhood Following on the success of her New York Times bestselling debut, Juliet, Anne Fortier’s thrilling new historical novel is a brilliant entwined story about one of history’s greatest myths, the Amazon warrior women, and a young modern-day scholar who thinks they might not be such a myth after all. Eager young Oxford University scholar of ancient mythology, Diana Morgan, is scoffed at by her colleagues for her fixation on the fabled tribe of Ancient Greece. But when a mysterious foundation invites her to consult on a new excavation intent on proving that the Amazons actually lived, she feels vindicated at last. Soon, Diana and her enigmatic employer, Nick Barran, are tracing the historical footsteps of the first Amazon warriors through the Sahara Desert, increasingly aware that someone is hot on their heels.
Robert Glancy – Terms & Conditions Frank has been in a car accident. The doctor tells him he lost his spleen, but Frank believes he has lost more. He is missing memories – of those around him, of the history they share and of how he came to be in the crash. All he remembers is that he is a lawyer who specializes in small print. In the wake of the accident Frank begins to piece together his former life – and his former self. But the picture that emerges, of his marriage, his family and the career he has devoted years to, is not necessarily a pretty one. Could it be that the terms and conditions by which Frank has been living are not entirely in his favor? In the process of unravelling the knots into which his life has been tied, he learns that the devil really does live in the detail and that it’s never too late to rewrite your own destiny.
James Grippando – Black Horizon Miami attorney Jack Swyteck finds himself in the middle of an international legal battle over a Cuban oil spill that sets him on a deadly mission. Three summers after the Deepwater Horizon environmental catastrophe, oil is spewing into the ocean again, this time from a drilling explosion in Cuban waters just 50 miles from the Florida Keys. Jack and his new wife, Andie Henning, an undercover agent for the FBI, are honeymooning in the Keys when Andie is called away on an assignment shrouded in secrecy. Jack’s pursuit of the unimaginably complicated international case plunges him into a dangerous world filled with treacherous twists that lead him—and Andie—to the same shocking realization . . . that the looming environmental disaster may have been no “accident” at all.
Tracy Harding – Ancient Future Trilogy Late one evening, an accident near a ring of stones throws Tory Alexander across the vortex of time and space to the Dark Ages. There she meets Prince Maelgwn of Gwynedd and his band of warriors, who initially brand her as a witch and are frightened by her strange appearance. They finally overcome their fears and soon the tales of her adventures, brave deeds and beauty spread across the land. Twenty years later, Tory Alexander, from the 20th century, has ruled as Queen in 6th century Britain. But dark forces are stirring… Tory seeks the advice of the triple Goddess, and the women of the Otherworld send Tory through time to Plato’s City of the Golden Gates – Atlantis. Once there Tory has to find her own way home, and a cure for the High King’s sickness.
Lorraine Heath – When the Duke Was Wicked Lady Grace Mabry’s ample inheritance has made it impossible for her to tell whether a suitor is in love with her—or enamored of her riches. Who better to distinguish beau from blackguard than her notorious childhood friend, the Duke of Lovingdon? With no interest in marriage, Lovingdon has long lived only for pleasure. He sees little harm in helping Grace find a proper match. He simply has to teach the lovely innocent all the ploys a scoundrel uses to gain a woman’s favor by demonstrating his wicked ways. But as lessons lead to torrid passion and Grace becomes ensnared in another man’s marriage plot, Lovingdon must wage a desperate gamble: Open his heart fully or risk losing the woman he adores.
Susan Mallery – Evening Stars Small-town nurse Nina Wentworth has made a career out of being a caretaker. More “Mom” than their mother ever was, she sacrificed medical school and her first love so her sister could break free. Which is why she isn’t exactly thrilled to see Averil back on Blackberry Island, especially when Nina’s life has suddenly become complicated. Nina unexpectedly finds herself juggling two men—her high school sweetheart and a younger maverick pilot who also wants to claim her heart. But as fun as all this romance is, Nina has real life to deal with. Averil doesn’t seem to want the great guy she’s married to, and doesn’t seem to be making headway writing her first book; their mom is living life just as recklessly as she always has; and Nina’s starting to realize that the control she once had is slipping out.
Cathy Maxwell – The Bride Says Maybe She’d once been the toast of London, but now scandal has brought her down. Still, pretty, petted Lady Tara Davidson can’t believe her new fate. She had wanted to marry for love, but her profligate father has promised her hand to none other than Breccan Campbell, the “Beast of Aberfeldy” and laird of the valley’s most despised clan. Tara may have to marry him, but Breccan can’t make her love him, can he?
Moira McKinnon – Cicada A stunning novel of terror, love and survival in the greatest wilderness on earth. A lyrical, heartbreaking epic debut. On an isolated property in the middle of Western Australia, just after the Great War, an English heiress has just given birth and unleashed hell. Weakened and grieving, she realizes her life is in danger, and flees into the desert with her Aboriginal maid. One of them is running from a murderer; the other is accused of murder. Soon the women are being hunted across the Kimberley by troopers, trackers and the man who wants to silence them both. How they survive in the searing desert and what happens when they are finally found will take your breath away.
Victoria Purman – Someone Like You When Lizzie Blake knocks on the door of Dan McSwaine’s beach house at Middle Point, she barely recognizes the man who answers. Whatever happened to the guy who swaggered into her home town with a grin and left with her heart in his back pocket? Lizzie wonders if he’ll ever be that man again and if she should risk everything she’s built her life on to help him. Dan can’t normally bear to be more than 10 minutes from a hip bar, an imported beer and a group of hot women. So what is he doing holed up in a falling down beach shack at Middle Point?
Nonfiction Alison Alexander – Tasmania's Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society To the convicts arriving in Van Diemen’s Land, it must have felt as though they’d been sent to the very ends of the earth. In Tasmania’s Convicts Alison Alexander tells the history of the men and women transported to what became one of Britain’s most notorious convict colonies. Following the lives of dozens of convicts and their families, she uncovers stories of success, failure, and everything in between. While some suffered harsh conditions, most served their time and were freed, becoming ordinary and peaceful citizens. Yet over the decades, a terrible stigma became associated with the convicts, and they and the whole colony went to extraordinary lengths to hide it.
Tom Bamforth – Deep Field: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Aid Relief, from Pakistan to Kazan, the Punjab to the Pacific Deep Field’ is a UN term for humanitarian operations that take place in extremis – amid the destruction caused by war and natural disaster. In Deep Field: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Aid Relief Australian aid worker Tom Bamforth takes you with him as he responds to the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid under extreme circumstances travelling to some of the most dangerous and difficult regions of the world. Full of amazing real life characters as well as Tom’s insightful commentary, full of irony and intelligent reflection, Deep Field is an intensely human story, not only of current affairs and people in crisis, but of Tom himself and how someone’s life can change so completely when they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time or is that the right time?
Amy Chua & Jed Rubenfeld – The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success Why do Jews win so many Nobel Prizes and Pulitzer Prizes? Why are Mormons running the business and finance sectors? Why do the children of even impoverished and poorly educated Chinese immigrants excel so remarkably at school? It may be taboo to say it, but some cultural groups starkly outperform others. The bestselling husband and wife team Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and Jed Rubenfeld, author of The Interpretation of Murder, explain, and in doing so, reveal the three essential components of success. By the "Tiger Mom" and her husband, a professor.
Sara James – An American in Oz: From TV Anchor in New York to Life and Love at the Edge of the Wombat State… No one thought Sara James, a 30 Rock habitue and Manhattanite through and through, would move to Australia after a long and successful fast-track career reporting from around the globe. But move she did, when her Australian husband Andrew wanted to come home, in a journey that sees her morph from a big-city anchor and correspondent to a small-town mum living an Australian country life. It is an odyssey filled with drama and adventure, both personal and professional, intentional and accidental. We see Australia through New York eyes, and follow Sara’s adventures as she faces head on the challenges of everyday life in a new country with two children, one of whom has special needs.
Elizabeth Kolbert – The Sixth Extinction: an Unnatural History The Sixth Extinction draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines–geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, and marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. Elizabeth Kolbert, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer, accompanies many of these researchers into the field, and introduces you to a dozen species–some already gone, others facing extinction–that are being affected by the sixth extinction.
Ben Macintyre – A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War. Philby’s two closest friends in the intelligence world, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton, the CIA intelligence chief, thought they knew Philby better than anyone, and then discovered they had not known him at all.
Angela Mollard – The Smallest Things: Thoughts on Making a Happy Family What book do you buy when your young child is at school, has ideas of their own and can’t be separated from their television, iPad or computer screen? From the high-profile, popular journalist/commentator, Angela Mollard, this is a wholly delightful, funny and charming book for all parents who worry that their kids’ childhood has gone MIA and needs to be retrieved, but they don’t know how to go about it. It’s about giving modern kids a real childhood and putting some fun back into parenting and childhood, even if you’re a full time working parent. It’s about getting back to simple things, yes, but embracing technology and modern life as well. With personal memoir woven through chapters on camping, craft, pets, gardening, cooking, reading/ book-themed adventures, music, technology, parties, discipline, rainy days, festive occasions, entertaining other families and more.
Stuart O'Grady – Battle Scars By 2013 Stuart O’Grady had competed in 17 Tours, secured Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals, been named Australian Cyclist of the Year, and Australian Male Road Cyclist of the Year, won the inaugural Tour Down Under, and earned an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his contribution to the sport. But then came the worst time of his life, when he announced his retirement after such an impressive cycling career and revealed that he had used the performance enhancing drug EPO before the 1998 Tour de France – a tour marred by widespread doping. In this up-front and honest autobiography Stuey reveals all. This is his story: as candid and down-to-earth as the man himself.
Trudi-Ann Tierney – Making Soapies in Kabul: Hot Days, Crazy Nights and Dangerous Liaisons in a War Zone On an impulse, Trudi-Ann Tierney, Sydney producer and former actress, goes to Kabul to manage a bar. She quickly falls into the local TV industry, where she becomes responsible for producing a highly popular soapie. Trudi’s staff are hugely inexperienced, and she lives among the expat community – the media, the burnt-out army types now working as security contractors, the “Do-Gooders,” the diplomats – in dubious guest houses like The Dirty Diana. This is “Ka-bubble,” where the reckless encounters with each other, with alcohol and of course with recreational drugs are as dangerous as the city’s streets.
Robert Wainwright – Sheila: The Australian Beauty Who Bewitched British Society Sheila wedded earls and barons, befriended literary figures and movie stars, bedded a future king, was feted by London and New York society for 40 years and when she died was a Russian princess. Vivacious, confident and striking, Sheila Chisholm met her first husband, Francis Edward Scudamore St Clair-Erskine, a first lieutenant and son of the 5th Earl of Rosslyn, when she went to Egypt during the Great War to nurse her brother. Arriving in London as a young married woman, the world was at her feet – and she enjoyed it immensely.
FOR KIDS: Michael Adams – The Last Shot - Teens After facing the heartbreaking truth in Shadow Valley, Danby is determined to have her revenge on Jack. With Jack dead, her little brother Evan and hundreds of other Minions will be free of his control. After Danby confronts Jack on a dying stretch of highway, all of her beliefs are turned inside out. Not only are his feelings for her real, he’s working against the clock to save lives and rebuild society. To Danby’s horror, it’s Nathan who appears to threaten the new order. With her emotions raging and blood on her hands, Danby has to take a side in a deadly battle that’ll decide the future of the world. Set in post-apocalyptic Sydney.
Marianne Curley – Broken – Teens Following the revelation that Ebony is an angel, and Nathaneal’s narrow victory in battle with Prince Luca, the two are enjoying their newfound love. But Ebony’s friend Jordan is bitterly angry that he has lost the girl of his dreams. Then suddenly Prince Michael arrives to arrest Nathaneal for breaking Avena’s law when he revealed his powers on Earth in his bid to save Ebony from Luca. Nathaneal is forced to return to Avena without Ebony to stand trial.Desperate to find out what has happened to her adoptive parents, Ebony is persuaded by Jordan to believe that new teacher Mr Xavier, who claims to be her uncle, can introduce her to her real father. Fantastical and powerfully emotional, this angelic romance series is rapidly winning enthusiastic fans.
Vanessa Garden – Carrier – Teens From the day she was born, Lena has viewed the world through the jagged window of a razor-wired fence. The hundred-acre property she shares with her mother in the Australian outback may keep her safe from the Y-Carrier disease, but it is no longer enough to hold Lena’s interest, and her mother’s increasingly tight grip on her free will is stifling. Just as her curiosity blooms and her courage rises, she meets a boy through the fence — the first boy she has ever laid eyes on. His name is Patrick and he comes with a dangerous yet irresistible invitation of adventure beyond the fence, an invitation to which Lena cannot say no.
Claudia Gray – Steadfast - Teens The second book in the dazzling Spellcaster series from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray is perfect for fans of the Beautiful Creatures and Hex Hall series. Nadia, Mateo, and Verlaine saved Captive’s Sound from the dark sorceress Elizabeth, or so they thought. But despite their best efforts, a crack opened and a new, greater evil seeped through. With Mateo as her Steadfast, Nadia’s magic is magnified but her training is still incomplete. And a darker magic has begun to call Nadia. With her Steadfast, Mateo, and her best friend, Verlaine, Nadia must fight the black magic that tempts her and stop the One Beneath before he comes to claim what is his.
Dan Gutman – Mr. Jack Is a Maniac – Ages 6-10 My Weird School weirder than ever! Principal Klutz thinks the kids at Ella Mentry School need to learn some self-defense moves. But the guy he hired, Mr. Jack, thinks he’s an action hero. He spends all his time looking in the mirror. He does everything in slow motion. How are the kids supposed to learn anything?
Christine Johnson and others – Grim – Teens Stories by some of the biggest names in the field: Amanda Hocking, Julie Kagawa, Sarah Rees-Brennan, Claudia Gray and more.
Karen Levine – Hana's Suitcase – Ages 10-13 In March 2000, a suitcase arrived at a children’s Holocaust education center in Tokyo, Japan. Hana Brady was written on the outside. Children who saw the suitcase on display were full of questions and the director decided to find the answers.
Tahereh Mafi – Fracture Me – Teens As Omega Point prepares to launch an all-out assault on The Reestablishment soldiers stationed in Sector 45, Adam’s focus couldn’t be further from the upcoming battle. He’s reeling from his breakup with Juliette, scared for his best friend’s life, and as concerned as ever for his brother James’s safety. And just as Adam begins to wonder if this life is really for him, the alarms sound. It’s time for war. On the battlefield, it seems like the odds are in their favor but taking down Warner, Adam’s newly discovered half-brother, won’t be that easy. The Reestablishment can’t tolerate a rebellion, and they’ll do anything to crush the resistance, including killing everyone Adam has ever cared about.
Amra Pajalic & Demet Divaroren – Coming of Age: Growing Up Mulsim in Australia – Teens Muslim people in Australia come from over seventy countries and represent a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences. Yet we are constantly bombarded by media stories feeding one negative stereotype. What is it really like to grow up Muslim in Australia? In this book, famous and not-so-famous Muslim-Australians tell their stories in their own voices. These honest and heartfelt stories will resonate with all readers, providing different snapshots of Muslim life in Australia, dispelling myths and stereotypes, and above all celebrating diversity, achievement, courage and determination.
Herman Parish – Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild! – Ages 6-10 Amelia Bedelia, America’s favorite housekeeper, had a childhood full of surprises, mischief, and hilarious misunderstandings. In this illustrated chapter book adventure, just right for fans of Judy Moody and Ivy + Bean, young Amelia Bedelia and her friends build a zoo in the backyard (complete with stuffed animals and attractions) and offer safari adventures to the entire neighborhood. This is the fourth book in the nationally bestselling Amelia Bedelia chapter book series, and it is just right for newly independent readers ready for a more challenging vocabulary and books with chapters.
*Geographical rights may vary by title. Kate Seivertson is a Collection Development Specialist at OverDrive.
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Microsoft Office Makes Its iPad Debut
| Finally, Microsoft has launched its Office software suite for the iPad which brings to an end the years of speculations and rumors. Thankfully, the Office for iPad is a mature application compared to the almost half-hearted attempt that the Office for iPhone was. Users will have at their disposal many advanced features lacking in the iPhone app, such as the ability to add rows or columns in an Excel spreadsheet thanks to the iPad’s larger screen. Users will also get to choose from almost the entire range of fonts andformatting options as well. The Office app – which offers Word, Excel and Powerpoint – though free, will require a subscription to use the advanced editing options. Right now, users are free to open and view documents but are required to have an active Office 365 subscription to edit or create a document from scratch. Microsoft is also offering a free 30 day trial of the Office app. Overall, the launch of the Office app for iPad is long due, and it’s the first major move since the changing of guard at Microsoft. Now what remains to be seen is whether the Office app will be able to hold its own in the face of Apple's iWorks app, which offers an array of features and most important of all, is free.
Microsoft Office Makes Its iPad Debut is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Diesel eBook Store is Closing
| The Sony Reader Store isn’t the only ebook vendor shutting down business this month. Diesel eBooks has also announced that they will cease operations at the end of March. In fact they’ve already stopped selling ebooks and have placed a notice on their homepage telling customers that they have until the end of the month […] |
Learning Python with Raspberry Pi
| If you’ve been round here for any length of time, you’ve probably heard mention of Alex Bradbury. Alex is currently polishing off his PhD thesis at the Computer Lab at the University of Cambridge, and he’s been involved with the Raspberry Pi project as a volunteer from our very early days, back when all we had was alpha development boards. Alex is responsible for building and releasing Raspberry Pi’s Raspbian OS images, and maintaining our Debian repository in his (limited) spare time. He’s somehow also found the time to write a book with Linux Voice‘s Ben Everard. Learning Python with Raspberry Pi doesn’t presuppose any computing knowledge, and takes you from a standing start through variables, loops and functions, 3D graphical programming, building games, networking, scripting, interfacing with hardware…and, of course, Minecraft. There’s much more besides: if you work your way through the whole book you’ll be building robots and alarm systems; manipulating sound and video; and learning how to test and debug the Bradbury and Gregory way. As well as what you’ll find in the book, Alex and Ben have made a large code repository available to complement the information and instructions in Learning Python with Raspberry Pi: you’ll be able to download them free of charge. Alex says: Ever since the introduction of the Raspberry Pi, Python has been touted (with good reason) as the language of choice for anyone wanting to program on the device. Reasonable people can disagree on the ultimate reasons for Python’s success, but I think we can all recognise what an asset its large and friendly community is, as well as the value of its extensive collection of high quality libraries for helping to solve almost any programming task. Learning Python with Raspberry Pi aims to teach the reader the Python they need to make their Raspberry Pi project ideas a reality. We give lots of examples in the sort of areas likely to be of interest to the Pi community – including physical computing, audio and video, 3d graphics, Minecraft programming, and games. Another important aspect for us is that every chapter ends with a whole host of ideas and pointers on what you’re now able to do given what you’ve just learnt. Python is the single most useful language to know for the Raspberry Pi, and I like to think that with Learning Python with Raspberry Pi, we’ve managed to produce an entertaining and educational introduction to it. Hopefully you agree! Learning Python with Raspberry Pi is available from Amazon, and from a good book shop near you: we hope to be stocking it in the Swag Store soon too.
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Four great resources to help you with your grammar
Get a refresher on your grammar with the four resources covered here. |
BlackBerry Takes Legal Action Against a Leaker
| Companies certainly don't like the idea of outsiders having early access to sensitive or proprietary information. Not only can it provide competitors with an inkling of what they’re up to, inadvertent leaks also have the potential to damage the product’s and the company's future prospects as well. BlackBerry is the latest company to find itself facing this problem; CEO John Chen is infuriated and has stated they will be legally pursuing the matter. “This is why I want to make you aware that, right now, we are pursuing legal action against a party who stole confidential information about a future BlackBerry product and made that information public. This person falsely posed as an employee of one of our carrier partners to obtain access to secured networks,” revealed Chen in a company blog post. Needless to say, it is these very leaks and speculations that outsiders depend on to have an early insight into the latest happenings within the company. The problem is such acts can prove to be risky if the line is crossed. Microsoft is another company that is reported to be considering legal action against one of its ex-employees for having leaked secrets pertaining to Windows 8.
BlackBerry Takes Legal Action Against a Leaker is a post from: Good e-Reader |
HTC BlinkFeed Makes Play Store Debut
| HTC is making several of its apps available, including Blinkfeed, in the Google Play Store. This is a positive move considering rolling out updates will be much easier now that the company won't have to wait for a major Android update to include updates to its own apps. Motorola has adopted a similar strategy with several of its key apps, including Touchless Control and Motorola Camera. This will also enable other non-HTC users to download and install BlinkFeed on their devices. The app is a type of news reader that was launched with the HTC One last year, and it adopts a similar layout as Windows 8 apps, with tiles representing different news items. Users also have the option of offline reading. HTC said they hit upon the idea of making BlinkFeed open to all Android users given the popularity of the app with HTC users.
HTC BlinkFeed Makes Play Store Debut is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Good e-Reader YouTube Channel hits 10 Million Video Views
| Good e-Reader has hit another huge milestone today with ten million views on our YouTube Channel! This is where you will see unboxing videos, e-reader reviews, comparisons and drop tests. Ten million views on a channel devoted to e-readers and the process of reading is a big accomplishment. We have made it a big point over the years to attend big product unveiling’s and give a first look at the latest Kindles, Kobo or Nook e-Readers. In the last six months we have revised our entire video setup. We invested on a mixing board, SLR Dynamic Mics, studio lights, and a new camera. In the past, most of our videos were hands on reviews of the e-readers, now Michael and Peter are on camera, giving you our take on the news and opinions on new devices. We have developed a ton of new segments such as Peter’s Drive Time, News Blasts and App Reviews. If you like free e-readers, phones and tablets, we have stepped up our game, giving away many different goodies every single month. Lets look at some statistics! We have 10,031,99 video views, 28,092,606 minutes watched, 15,000 subscribers and 26,307 LIKES! Thanks to everyone who has shown has support by commenting and participating in discussions.
Good e-Reader YouTube Channel hits 10 Million Video Views is a post from: Good e-Reader |
RIP Diesel eBooks
| Diesel eBooks has been selling digital content for the last ten years. They have seen the industry grow from simple PDF file sharing to the boom period of 2011. The company is unable to compete against the juggernauts of the industry, such as Amazon, Apple, B&N and Kobo. Diesel has announced that starting April 1st, the store will close. Diesel eBooks originally launched in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2010 that they dramatically revised the website, and made it accessible. Diesel introduced social elements, a better search engine and the ever popular 'Deal of the Day.' One of the biggest deals they signed was with publisher Macmillan, who contributed titles from Lora Leigh, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Lisa Kleypas, Robert Jordan, Orson Scott Card, Robert A. Heinlein and Jonathan Franzen. In a statement on their online website, Diesel stated “Diesel eBooks will be closing at the end of this month. It’s been a great ride! We’re exploring our options – eBooks are still in the infant years and there are many opportunities opening up now and in the future. We want to thank you for being such loyal customers. Understand this doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t see Diesel in another form in the near future. IMPORTANT: you must download your eBooks here by month end. Downloads will not be possible on April 1st.” RIP Diesel eBooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Students Revolt Over Mandatory eTextbooks
| Digital Textbooks may not change the educational industry as much as Amazon, Google, Inkling and other companies would hope. Students in five San Antonio colleges are revolting due to policy that would phase out textbooks and move entirely digital. Students at five Alamo Colleges have been staging protests over the schools plans to abandon physical textbooks and embrace digital ones. The students claim this move would prevent them from buying used ones on the secondary market or buy them from friends. The chancellor of Alamo Colleges has argued eBooks would actually be cheaper for students and can be delivered straight to their tablets before the semester starts. The crux of the issue is choice. Local businesses will not be able to sell textbooks anymore, because they will be irrelevant to students. Students won’t be able to comparably shop to get the best deals anymore, in any primary or secondary market. Digital textbooks continue to disappoint. Over 75% of college students surveyed by the National Association of College Stores say they would rather read print over digital. Amazon and Google both offer textbook rental programs, but are just aimed at people living in the USA. You never hear about how the companies sales are doing or see press releases on breaking any records. Amazon is very well known for issuing press releases on almost a weekly basis, when have you heard anything about textbooks? It is very telling. Other companies are abandoning the market altogether, such as Inkling. Instead of selling books, they are licensing our their platform to people who want to try and make a go of market penetration themselves. Students Revolt Over Mandatory eTextbooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Overdrive Suspends Library App for Blackberry
| Overdrive has officially suspended support for their Media Console app for Blackberry. The company confirmed that less then .3% of their users actually have a Playbook or Blackberry 10 device, not enough to warrant further support. Starting April 10th 2014, Overdrive will remove their app from Blackberry World. If you borrow an audiobook or eBook from your local library, chances are you are dealing with Overdrive. They have the largest market share in Australia, Canada, UK and other countries. The company tends to focus the largest amount of their development effort towards iOS and Android. Users only have a short amount of time to download the Overdrive app for Blackberry. The Good e-Reader App Store will continue to support the App, so you will be able to always download it for BB10 and the Playbook. Overdrive Suspends Library App for Blackberry is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo Starts to put a Priority on Customer Service
| Kobo has never had a stellar customer service record when it comes to support for their digital bookstore or their line of tablets and e-readers. This is starting to change as the Canadian based company is putting a heavy priority on developing new technologies and changing the way they go about solving customer issues. International expansion has been the primary focus at Kobo for the last few years. Their template is making agreements with the largest bookstores in the country to get the hardware in the hands of serious readers and strike publishing deals. Kobo customers statistically buy four books a month from the online bookstore. The Kobo expansion into international markets has subsided and they have recognized that customer service often played second fiddle. Marc Hollenberg is the current VP of Customer Care at Kobo and has been on the job for six months. His focus is aligning the various hardware, software and book departments into a unified customer service department. One of the new initiatives Kobo has developed is a platform called Virtual Que. This allows people to fill out an online form, such as what device they have, where they purchased it from, nature of the problem and their Kobo account. They can talk to a live agent or instead of waiting on hold, get a call back. This saves time, because the agents have all of the customer data and don’t have to spend the first few minutes of the call confirming a million details. Technical problems with tablets or e-readers used to raise customers dander. Often, the first point of contact was the Tier 1 representative, who was able to solve most common problems. If the situation was not something that could be fixed, Tier 2 agents would call the customer back. We have heard many stories about calls never coming or customers being given the runaround, when it came to returns or warranties. Marc is trying to change this by “eliminating the tier agent system, all agents now have the tools necessary to solve 99% of customers issues” Marc mentioned that “Kobo has initiated a cultural shift for customer service and all departments are aligning themselves with the new priority.” I think Kobo is in the position where they have expanded into almost every major market with a localized bookstore and the ones they haven’t can still easily buy books. With close to six million book titles in their library and millions of users all over the world, retaining those customers is a huge priority. This has been challenging for the Customer Care department because they have to deal with a myriad of new languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, German, Japanese and a ton of others. During the year you can expect the customer service program to get more refined. If you have had an issue in the last year, drop a comment below! Kobo will be dropping by to address specific customer issues and listen to feature requests. Kobo Starts to put a Priority on Customer Service is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Buy comics digitally – your patrons will thank you
| How much space does a physical collection of manga and comics take up? Well, to put it in perspective, I only got through buying physical copies of three different series of manga and half-way through one of those, I looked at the amount of shelf space it was taking up and audibly said, "Nope." It's bananas, really. I can only imagine how much space is taken up by these collections in public libraries. These series are popular content to be sure. Comics and manga have a devoted readership, as many librarians will point out. I repeatedly hear, "I just can't keep it on the shelf!" Well, there is a very good reason for this. For one person to collect and enjoy, manga alone is expensive. Absorbing the cost of an entire set is an investment, one that many individuals cannot justify today. Couple that fact with the tremendous strain the collection places on shelf space (and the shelves themselves in general), and many patrons, myself included, vastly prefer to get their content out from the local library. We comic and manga readers are pretty patient when it comes to getting our fix. (You have to be when most of the content you read is first released in Japan and won't be coming to you for several months. #hobbyhazzard) Furthermore, typically, we don't mind file restrictions like PDF-only. If we can get the content, we're going to read it – I for one am VERY used to reading on a computer screen. Furthermore, buying manga and comics digitally is much more economical and cost effective. Getting it digitally is a huge bonus – both for the readers of comics, as well as for the libraries who make the content available to their patrons. No more massive amounts of shelf space! For anyone! Ever! Everyone wins. Your patrons get the content they want in a convenient format and your library makes a great investment. Finding comics and manga in Marketplace is easy, too. Simply log in and click on "Advanced Search." Then for subject, enter Comics and Graphic Books, or just "Comics," and the search engine will finish it for you. Happy Reading!
Kate Seivertson is a Collection Development Specialist at OverDrive.
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ASCD 2014 rocked!
| March 15-17 ASCD rocked Los Angeles (literally) with their 2014 annual conference. Over the course of three sunny days, educators from around the world gathered to explore new ideas and techniques to reach students. At the OverDrive booth, there was a lot of talk about Pearson textbooks. Now your OverDrive digital library can be the place that students go when they forgot their (very heavy) math textbook in their locker. Not surprising at this conference, we also discussion about Professional Development playing a role in the digital library. OverDrive offers many of the leading PD publishers, including: ASCD, ISTE, Corwin Press, Jossey-Bass, and many more! (Here are some highlights in Marketplace). Overall, ASCD 2014 was a great show in a beautiful city. See everyone next year in Houston! 
Bailey Hotujac is a Collection Development Specialist at OverDrive.
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Lonely Planet eBooks Now Available on Scribd
| There was a time when Lonely Planet was the definitive travel guide when you would travel to a new city or country. The company has lost some of their luster as many people are using online services like Expedia and other travel websites to read reviews and find out the local scoops. Still, in the last few years Lonely Planet has been undergoing a resonance in the digital world, with the company remaining profitable. Today, Lonely Planet has announced they their entire travel guide library is now available via eBook subscription service Scribd. Scribd first started out as a document sharing service that many journalists employed to embed content into posts. Due it its open nature, there were many pirated eBooks on the site, which gave it some negative press. HarperCollins purchased Scribd in the hopes of turning the company around and launching a eBook subscription service. Now, readers can signup for around $9.99 a month to download unlimited books. The Lonely Planet deal is the first travel service that Scribd has signed and it should give new users a reason to signup. Now, instead of having to purchase a book every time you want to travel, you can just open a subscription and get full access to all of the travel guides and 300,000 other titles. Lonely Planet eBooks Now Available on Scribd is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Smart kegerator
| We first came across kegerators last year: it never ceases to amaze me how many of you use your Raspberry Pis to both simplify and massively overcomplicate your drinking. The kegerator is not a popular device here in the UK, but, judging by the emails I get from readers, there are enough of the things across the pond to get the whole continent of North America very drunk indeed. A kegerator, for the uninitiated, is a device that allows you to have chilled draught beer on tap in your house without a cellar – broadly speaking, a fridge with a tun of beer and a pump in it. Wikipedia says: “A Kegerator is sometimes used in a Man cave.” (As a beer-swilling, technology-fetishising woman who would love the space required for a cave and kegerator of my own, and who does not believe that caves of any sort should be gender-segregated, I am reminded that sometimes I kind of hate Wikipedia.) Phil Harlow has a kegerator in his house. He shares his beers with friends and roommates, and it’s hard to work out who’s drunk what when splitting the bills for a new keg. So (you knew it was coming), he came up with a Raspberry Pi solution. You can read much more, including a parts list, references and all the code you’ll need, at Phil’s website. We love it: and we’re wondering if we can squeeze one into the office somewhere. For research purposes, of course.
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Renewed Focus on Books from BBC
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The BBC is contributing to this reading revival with more dedicated coverage to books than it has provided in the past from both its radio and television networks, as well as from its online locations. According to an in-depth report on the new book features in The Bookseller, BBC director general Tony Hall said: "This is the strongest commitment to the arts we've made in a generation. We're the biggest arts broadcaster anywhere in the world – but our ambition is to be even better. “I want BBC Arts – and BBC Music – to sit proudly alongside BBC News. The arts are for everyone – and, from now on, BBC Arts will be at the very heart of what we do. We'll be joining up arts on the BBC like never before – across television, radio and digital. And, we'll be working more closely with our country's great artists, performers and cultural institutions." Over a dozen new programs or features are anticipated over the course of the coming year, across the various BBC platforms and from different events. Those readers who do not have access to BBC’s live programing can access a number of these features from BBC Arts Online and from BBC iPlayer.
Renewed Focus on Books from BBC is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sony Says No To Android Wear
| Sony has stated it will continue using its own proprietary software to power its smartwatch lineup. They don’t seem to care about Google launching Android Wear, the platform designed specifically for use in smartwatch devices. The Japanese conglomerate had earlier stated it is channelling their resources heavily towards mobile devices, such as phones and tablets. The above development is interesting, as Sony isn’t the only company to ignore Android Wear, at least for now. Samsung has launched its revamped Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch running Tizen. As things stand now, it's the Moto 360 and the G Watch from Motorola and LG respectively that have revealed Android Wear based smartwatch devices. “We’re excited about the potential of Android Wear to extend the mobile OS experience into wearable devices,” revealed Sony. “While we are currently focused on our in-market wearable offering, including SmartWatch 2, we continue to work closely with Google as a key partner and continue to evaluate opportunities across a number of areas as we extend our SmartWear Experience.” via cnet
Sony Says No To Android Wear is a post from: Good e-Reader |
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