| Edan Lepucki the author of California recently autographed 10,000 copies her book at Powell’s Books warehouse in Portland. It took her over three days to sign every books and this time lapsed video documents the entire process. The most interesting aspect is that she did it all by hand. This book is garnering a tremendous amount of press because Amazon editors showcased it as one of their top picks, but customers were unable to pre-order it. What is the book about? California imagines a frighteningly realistic near future, in which clashes between mankind’s dark nature and deep-seated resilience force us to question how far we will go to protect the ones we love.
Time-Lapsed Video of Edan Lepucki Signing 10,000 Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, July 11, 2014
Time-Lapsed Video of Edan Lepucki Signing 10,000 Books
Amazon Sued by the FTC for in-app Purchases
| The US Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon for not having enough safeguards in place to prevent children from racking up millions of dollars worth of virtual currency and in-app purchases. FTC chair Edith Ramirez said in a statement: "Amazon’s in-app system allowed children to incur unlimited charges on their parents’ accounts without permission. Even Amazon’s own employees recognized the serious problem its process created." Amazon keeps 30 percent of all in-app charges, the FTC said in its complaint. The case "highlights a central tenant" of consumer protection laws in the U.S., that companies should get customer permission before charging them, said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC's Consumer Protection Bureau, during a press conference about the lawsuit. Amazon, in a letter to the FTC July 1, said it was "deeply disappointed" that the agency was moving toward filing a lawsuit. "We have continuously improved our experience since launch, but even at launch, when customers told us their kids had made purchases they didn't want we refunded those purchases," wrote Andrew DeVore, Amazon's associate general counsel. This is not the first time the FTC went after a company over in-app purchases by children. In January 2014 Apple provided full refunds to consumers, paying a minimum of $32.5 million, to settle a Federal Trade Commission complaint that the company billed consumers for millions of dollars of charges incurred by children in kids' mobile apps without their parents' consent. Likely Amazon will have to make a token payment to make the FTC complaint go away. Given that Apple has the larger ecosystem and more user engagement, the likelihood of having to pay the same amount or more is not viable. Amazon Sued by the FTC for in-app Purchases is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi: This Month’s Free Kindle eBook and Audiobook Pair
| Last month when Amazon issued an update for their iOS and Android Kindle reading apps to add support for Immersion Reading, the syncing of audiobooks and ebooks together, they started a new promotion of giving away a free classic ebook and audiobook pair each month. This month’s freebie is Life on the Mississippi by Mark […] |
MagPi issue 25 – out now!
| For your weekend reading pleasure, here’s issue 25 of the MagPi! Published just yesterday, the latest issue of everyone’s favourite free, monthly, community-produced Raspberry Pi magazine is as full of fantastic stuff as ever.  Click to read The MagPi! The cover story is one that’ll definitely get some attention in our house this weekend: it’s a full Python simulation of the Pocket Enigma Cipher Machine, a cleverly devised toy that demonstrates some of the principles of a real Enigma machine like the one many of you will recognise in the cover photo. Used by the German armed forces during World War II to encipher messages, these used rotating disks to achieve a sophisticated substitution cipher; the Pocket machine, and its Python simulation, use two disks to arrive at a fun, if not exactly unbreakable, cipher. We’re delighted to see an article by Andrew Suttle, the MagPi’s youngest guest writer so far. Andrew reviews the Fish Dish, an easy-to-build add-on board aimed at beginners, which he has tested with ScratchGPIO and Python. Also aimed at beginners is a new series on learning BASIC, which opens this issue with the kind of background that has most of Pi Towers sighing wistfully and exchanging anecdotes about our childhoods. There’s the second half of a two-part article on understanding networks and network analysis tools, an introduction to electronic measurement with Raspberry Pi and BitScope Micro, a background piece by one of the creators of the Navio autopilot shield which the many backers of its successful Indiegogo campaign will be eager to read, and — another personal favourite — a tutorial on building an iPad/iPhone control panel for Raspberry Pi with RasPiConnect, taking the wonderful MouseAir deluxe automated cat toy as its example. As usual, there’s so much here that I can’t mention even half of the articles, tutorials and reviews you’ll find here for beginners, advanced users and everyone in between. Download your copy now! |
Author Rejects Award Due to Amazon Backing
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Unlike vocal protests from other authors lately, Ahlberg’s stance wasn’t due to the common issues of Amazon’s growing chokehold over the book industry or the tired topic of publisher contract terms. Instead, his protest was over Amazon’s practice–like many international corporations, it bears mentioning–of basing its European headquarters in Luxembourg to take advantage of the significant tax breaks. That means Amazon pays far less in taxes than both independent booksellers and retail chain bookstores that are based in the UK, a fact that has left many citizens and businesspeople alike wondering why their government allows it to continue. Criticism of companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Google has led to the release of figures that show how many billions of pounds this tax structure has already cost the UK alone. While Ahlberg is entitled to his views on Amazon and its practices, it is to his credit that he didn’t publicly blast Amazon then quietly deposit the prize money. It would, however, have been a far more noble thing to graciously and appreciatively accept the inaugural award from Booktrust, and then openly donate Amazon’s funds to the UK’s independent booksellers and their member organization.
Author Rejects Award Due to Amazon Backing is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Screen Technology Provides the Future of Fonts
| e-Readers and tablets have almost hit the glass ceiling in how they handle resolution. Pixel Density when reading makes a huge difference in the clarity and readability of fonts. New technology developed by researchers at Oxford might provide the future of e-reader tech with miniscule pixels half the width of a human hair. The essence of the technology is miniscule layer of a phase-change material, that flips between two chemical states when hit with current.By sandwiching it between transparent electrodes, researches made pixels just 300 nanometres across. Within 5 years the screen technology should be ready for commercial prime time. Ushering in a new era of flexible, thin, high-resolution displays. We didn’t set out to invent a new kind of display,’ said Professor Harish Bhaskaran of Oxford University’s Department of Materials, who led the research. ‘We were exploring the relationship between the electrical and optical properties of phase change materials and then had the idea of creating this GST ‘sandwich’ made up of layers just a few nanometres thick. We found that not only were we able to create images in the stack but, to our surprise, thinner layers of GST actually gave us better contrast. We also discovered that altering the size of the bottom electrode layer enabled us to change the colour of the image.’ The research suggests that flexible paper-thin displays based on the technology could have the capacity to switch between a power-saving ‘colour e-reader mode’, and a backlit display capable of showing video. Such displays could be created using cheap materials and, because they would be solid-state, promise to be reliable and easy to manufacture. The tiny ‘nano-pixels’ make it ideal for applications, such as smart glasses, where an image would be projected at a larger size as, even enlarged, they would offer very high-resolution. One of the obvious benefits of this new screen technology would be in clearer, higher resolution fonts. Current E-Ink pixels are roughly 100 microns in size (for a 250 dpi display). 1 micron pixels would increase the size of the display buffer by 10000 times. Obviously new rendering engines would need to be developed to keep the refresh rate tremendously robust. New Screen Technology Provides the Future of Fonts is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Leo’s Fortune 2D Platforming Adventure Game Now Available
| We saw a lot of cool things at Google I/O 2014, not the least of which was a 2D platforming adventure game called Leo’s Fortune from a development house with an incredibly cool name (l337 Game Design, pronounced ‘leet’ for those of you slightly less nerdy than me). The star of the game is a fluffy hairball (with a wicked-cool mustache) named Leopold –and you get to slide him across 24 different levels on a quest to track down the thief who made off with his fortune. It’s a simple premise, which is all part of the game’s charm; it isn’t hard to learn, the controls are easy to master and it doesn’t involve much strategy, leveling, or begging your friends for lives and goodies. Sound boring? See you in a few hours after you’re completely addicted to playing this one. For those keeping a lookout, Leo’s Fortune does also offer gamepad support. Leo’s Fortune can be downloaded now for $4.99 (with no sign of any in-app purchases, making the steep price-tag much easier to swallow).
Leo’s Fortune 2D Platforming Adventure Game Now Available is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Samsung Renames App Store to Galaxy Apps
| Samsung has had their own app store for quite some time, but now instead of carrying the “Samsung Apps” label, it is called “Galaxy Apps.” It may seem like a trivial change, but with the company diversifying their product line to include both Tizen and Android devices, a single Samsung app store couldn’t accommodate both. Rebranding isn’t the only change Samsung has in store (if you will allow the pun), there are also hundreds of new apps that are exclusive to Galaxy mobile devices (arranged into a few categories, including: Best Picks, Top and For Galaxy). Of particular interest is that last ‘For Galaxy’ section that gives easy access to Galaxy Gifts, Galaxy Essentials, Apps for Professionals, and Galaxy Specials (those created by using Samsung SDKs). Samsung claims they are trying to aid consumers in customizing their mobile devices, but most expectations are that the company is trying to make a play for Google Play market-share. If you want to take Galaxy Apps for a spin on your Samsung Android device, open up the app store and the interface will ask you to update it (which means you will lose the home button).
Samsung Renames App Store to Galaxy Apps is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Students Fail to Embrace Digital Textbooks
| American students have yet to embrace digital textbooks in considerable numbers. Many of the top universities and colleges have a very slim minority that either use them exclusively or in parallel with print. A recent survey by Hewlett Packard illiminates the role digital is playing in the classroom. HP conducted a survey last winter, talking to 527 students at San Jose State. 57% of the respondents said they prefer the standard textbook. A paltry 21% said they prefer the digital variant and 21% stated that they utilize both formats. The preference for print was also much higher with ages 18 to 35 year-olds with 62%, which accounted for 75% of the respondents. Contrary to what most would expect, the younger and supposedly tech-savvy students are not all that into e-textbooks. The survey also reveals that Education and Library & Information Science students, representing 49% of the total respondents, used printed textbooks more than other majors, including Business and Science. The sampling size of the survey was quite small and not indicative to all students, but it certainly is eye opening. The younger, more tech savvy demographic continues to use physical textbooks, instead of the digital editions. As you can see from the chart above, normal textbooks lead almost all categories. via PW Students Fail to Embrace Digital Textbooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Vevo Gets New Look and Live Music Video Feed
| July has been a pretty big month for Vevo: Michael Cerda resigned (their product head), Demi Lovato celebrated 1 billion views, and now the music video service has announced that they have an overhaul ready to go that includes a host of new features and an updated design. Vevo already delivers more than 5.5 million videos each month to viewers, but now a sleeker user interface and faster load times for HD videos makes it a more enjoyable experience. What else can you expect? A new video player delivers higher quality content, a new navigation menu makes the app easier to work with, create playlists with greater ease, and a real-time feed offers live-streaming channels (Hits, Flow and Nashville) that promise to bring you the biggest and best artists from the US and Canadian markets. So what are these changes all about? It’s likely Vevo is trying to compete with the likes of YouTube –something they may just be able to do with major music labels like Sony and Universal on their side (giving them access to a library of over 100,000 licensed HD music videos). Of course, rumours are swirling around the Internet suggesting that the company owners are shopping Vevo around for a sale… which may mean all of these upgrades are just value-adds. Have a few minutes (hours) to waste watching high-quality videos in the palm of your hand? Download Vevo for Android for free now.
Vevo Gets New Look and Live Music Video Feed is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Top 10 New Android Apps of the Week – July 11
| Welcome to another utterly beloved segment of the Good e-Reader Top 10 New Android Apps of the Week! Every week close to 45,000 new Android apps are submitted to major app stores and this makes app discovery a bit of a pain. Today, we look at the best new ones that you should know about. Guess The Emoji – Are you ready for a guessing game like none other?! Guess The Emoji will entertain you for hours! Our new kid and family friendly game tests your logic and reasoning skills to solve simple (and sometimes hard!) Emoji Puzzles! You'll be presented with a screen displaying some emojis – what is it that these emoticons are describing?! Can you guess them all? LINE Selfie Sticker – LINE Selfie Sticker, the first-ever official sticker making app from LINE is here! From the cute and cuddly LINE characters to career-driven independent women, this app has it all! Cheerleaders, Wedding, Pirates, monsters, and more – with over 130 free character templates to choose from, you'll find yourself using this app over and over again. Disney Bola Soccer – Do you have what it takes to WIN? Play solo or against your friends in this ultimate soccer adrenaline rush and prove that you're the champ! Fit the Fat - Master your skills in this fun new game and help this fat guy lose weight by jumping the rope. Fit the Fat is very simple: tap and jump the rope. You will get fit and the rope will get fast. Super Écran GO – With Super Screen GO, enjoy instant and unlimited access to over 300 hours of premium content in high definition, anytime, anywhere! Access a database of more than 150 films including hits Hollywood, acclaimed Canadian productions, as well as exclusive series including the prestigious series HBO and showtime. Super Screen GO is accessible from your phone or tablet. Tempo Mania - Simple yet addictive music game! Are you tempo master? Experience the exciting game and enjoy the music at the same time! Sonic Jump Fever – Catch the FEVER in an explosive race against the clock! Compete with Sonic and friends in high-speed bursts of vertical jumping mayhem. FREE and based on SEGA's hit Sonic Jump. Prove you are the best. Rack up huge combos to blast past your friends' high scores. Use boosters, upgrades, unique character abilities to maximize your score. Then kick into overdrive with Fever Mode and hit the top of the Leaderboard! Tour de France Live – 2014 – The 2014 Tour de France will be the 101st edition of the Tour de France. The 2014 Tour de France starts in Leeds on Saturday, July 5 and finishes in Paris on Sunday, July 27. Commandr for Google Now - Now you can use Google Now to control your flashlight, toggle settings, control music playback, and much more! Theftie – Find my phone – Theftie: lock, locate, track, rescue data on your lost phone, stolen phone or misplaced Android, and takes thief’s selfie when suspects. A great feature of Theftie is its ability to send your data to your Google Drive in case you lost your phone. Top 10 New Android Apps of the Week – July 11 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
70% of Apps Do Not get Downloaded
| Apple currently has 1,252,777 apps in the App Store and close to 60,000 are added per month. The sheer number of apps and games available severely hampers the discovery experience. Due to this fact research firm Adjust has found that 70% of apps do not get downloaded and are normally removed or do not show up in any of the app lists. A staggering number of apps simply don’t appear in any position one The problem with dead apps is that they normally are relegated to never being discovered and there are little to no options for developers to get people to organically find and install their content. So what happens to apps and games that never show up on any app lists? Some just languish in obscurity and others get pulled down. The apps that get pulled often stem from Apple or the developer. Apple tends to suspend apps that breach their terms of service or are otherwise clones of popular ones. Google Play and Apple tend to be the most popular platforms for app distribution. Given both ecosystems have over one million apps you can see how the discovery process can be hampered by the sheer weight of new ones added every single week. Something has to be said for smaller stores that emphasize curation and editorial content. Amazon and Good e-Reader are two that tend to keep their app numbers low, but put a priority on discovery and ROI. 70% of Apps Do Not get Downloaded is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Onyx Midia inkPhone Unboxing
| The Onyx inkPhone is the first single screen smartphone to utilize the same e-paper technology found on the Amazon Kindle. The hyping factors behind this new device is the long battery life and the fact you can download apps from Google Play. The inkPhone has been delayed many times before it became available last week. Onyx went back to the drawing board to implement e-Ink Mobius e-Paper, which is the same display that powers the Sony 13.3 e-Reader. Today, we unbox the Onyx inkPhone and show you everything that comes with it. Additionally we do a first time bootup so you can get a sense on the app that ship with it and the core functionality.
Onyx Midia inkPhone Unboxing is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Weekly eHighlights: Kids and teens
Welcome to this month's eHighlights newsletter for kids and teens. Check back on the second Thursday of every month for a new edition listing some of the best new youth titles added to OverDrive's Marketplace. The featured titles below are some of the best picks, but click on the link to see these and even more great purchases conveniently placed for you in a Marketplace cart. Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more.
Picture Books
Kathi Appelt & illus. by Marc Rosenthal – Mogie: The Heart of the House– Ages 4-8 Based on the true story of Mogie, a Labradoodle with a special talent as a hospital service dog. Prepare to have your heart warmed. Includes audio. Appelt is a Newbery honoree.
Brian Floca – Five Trucks – Ages 4-8 Floca shows five different trucks and show just what they do behind the scenes at an airport. Includes audio. An Amazon Best Book of the Month.
Kelly DiPucchio & illus. by Christian Robinson – Gaston– Ages 4-8 Gaston fits right in with his poodle sisters Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, and Ooh-La-La. Their manners are perfect and they are always quite proper. But then they meet a bulldog family at the park and find that there has been a mix-up. Will Gaston fit in with Bruno, Rocky and Ricky? Includes audio. NYT bestselling author.
Bob Staake – My Pet Book – Ages 3-7 The boy decides that books make perfect pets, and chooses a bright red one. But when the book goes missing, a lively adventure ensues.
Fiction for Early Readers
David A. Adler & Susanna Natti – Young Cam Jansen and the Goldfish Mystery – Ages 5-8 Cam, her best friend, Eric, and her aunt Molly win two goldfish at the local fair. When the goldfish go missing, Cam must use her amazing photographic memory to solve the mystery.
Dan Gutman & illus. by Jim Paillot – Miss Klute Is a Hoot– Ages 6-10 The reading scores at Ella Mentry School are way down, so Mr. Macky has decided to hire a special new helper to whip the kids into shape–Miss Klute, a Labradoodle! My Weirder School series, Book 11. 60,000 print run.
Tad Hills – Drop It, Rocket! – Ages 6-9 Rocket is the beloved dog from the NYT bestselling picture books by Hills. Now Rocket is learning to read, and kids will learn right along with him in this leveled reader.
Mary Pope Osborne & Sal Murdocca – Magic Treehouse: A Perfect Time for Pandas– Ages 7-9 Time-traveling brother-and-sister team Jack and Annie have to find a certain kind of food–the fourth thing needed to save Merlin’s beloved penguin, Penny. The magic tree house whisks them off to a village in the mountains of southeast China, close to a world-famous panda reserve, but they’ve arrived on the day of a historic earthquake! Can they save the pandas? Book 48 in the bestselling series.
Eileen Spinelli & Anne Kennedy – Miss Fox's Class Earns a Field Trip – Ages 5-8 Now the students want to go to Roller Coaster Planet—and they are determined to earn the money for their trip. But each fund-raising attempt ends in disaster involving Percy P. Possum, the school’s visiting author. As the class pays to repair the various mishaps they cause, soon their earnings are going down, not up! Readers will follow the class adventures and learn a little math along the way.
N. D. Wilson – Ninja Boy Goes to School – Ages 6-9 It's time for kindergarten, and a young ninja uses his skills to survive the challenges.
Middle Grades Fiction
Andrew Clements – The Map Trap – Ages 8-12 Alton Barnes loves maps. He loves to read them, and draw them, because maps contain more information than just locations. He draws regular maps, but also maps of what he thinks of his friends, and teachers, and the principal. When his maps are stolen from his locker, he could be in big trouble. 125,000 print run.
Chris Colfer – The Land of Stories: A Grimm Warning – Ages 8-12 Conner Bailey thinks his fairy-tale adventures are behind him—until he discovers a mysterious clue left by the famous Brothers Grimm. He sets off on a mission across Europe to crack a two-hundred-year-old code. Meanwhile, his twin Alex is training to become the next Fairy Godmother … but her attempts at granting wishes never go as planned. 250,000 print run.
Tara Dairman – All Four Stars – Ages 8-12 Gladys has been cooking gourmet dishes since the age of seven, though her fast-food-loving parents have no idea. Now she’s eleven, and after a crème brûlée accident (just a small fire), Gladys is cut off from the kitchen (and her allowance). She’s devastated, but soon finds the perfect opportunity when she’s mistakenly contacted to write a restaurant review for one of the largest newspapers in the world. But to meet her deadline and keep her dream job, Gladys must cook her way into the heart of her sixth-grade archenemy and sneak into New York City—all while keeping her identity a secret. An Amazon Best Middle Grade Book of the Month.
Lisa Fiedler & illus. by Vivienne To – Mouseheart- Ages 8-12 An epic animal adventure set in the subway tunnels of Brooklyn. Sword-wielding rats, feline palace guards, and rebel mice are just a few of the characters in this, the first book in a new series being called a cross between Redwall and the Warrior series. An Amazon Best Book of the Month.
Shannon Hale – Fire and Ice – Ages 8-12 Only Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan, supported by the gifts of their legendary spirit animals, have the power to defeat an evil takeover. They follow a lead to the frozen north, but the Conquerors are right behind them. NY Times bestselling Spirit Animals series Book 4. 250,000 print run.
Caryn Jenner – In the Shadow of the Volcano – Ages 8-12 Rosa Carelli, a volcanologist, and her son are caught up in a drama as the volcano she is studying re-awakens. The mayor is reluctant to cancel the village festival despite Rosa’s warnings of an imminent eruption. Will he and the other villagers escape before the explosive volcano and a pyroclastic flow cause havoc? Photos and illustrations abound in this adventure, which manages to entertain while also including facts about volcanos.
Gordon Korman – Memory Maze – Ages 9-12 Jackson Opus and his family have been forced into hiding and changing their family name after Jax, who was born with powers to hypnotize, refuses to help the evil Dr. Mako rig an election.
Havelock McCreely – My Zombie Hamster– Ages 8-12 Laugh out loud funny, with a scary twist. Matt and his buddies are looking forward to receiving the latest sword-and-fantasy video game for Christmas. But Matt’s parents give him a hamster called Snuffles instead. And his grandmother makes it worse by giving him a hamster cage and wheel. But the hamster isn’t all that cute–at least not after part of its cheek and belly fall right off–without bothering it a bit! And why is it staring at Matt with black beady eyes and a lean and hungry look? An Amazon Best Middle Grade Book of the Month.
Kate Messner – Manhunt – Ages 8-12 Henry, Anna, and Jose, junior members of the Silver Jaguar Society, travel to Paris to help solve an international art theft, they find that the senior members of the Society have gone missing, and they need to solve the mystery on their own. Silver Jaguar Mystery Series, Book 3. An Amazon Best Middle Grade Book of the Month.
Rachel Renée Russell – Dork Diaries Tales from a Not-So-Glam TV Star – Ages 9-13 A reality TV crew is following Nikki and her friends as they record their hit song together, and there are voice lessons, dance practice, and little sister Brianna’s latest wacky hijinks. Will all the excitement cause new problems for Nikki and Brandon, now that cameras are everywhere Nikki goes? And will Nikki and Brandon finally get their first kiss in this installment? 1,000,000 print run.The Dork Diaries series has more than 13 million copies in print worldwide.
Jude Watson – Loot: How to Steal a Fortune– Ages 8-12 In Amsterdam, a man falls from a rooftop to the wet pavement below. It’s Archibald McQuinn, the notorious cat burglar, and he’s dying. Archie manages to get out two last words to his young son, March: “Find jewels.” But March learns that his father is not talking about hidden loot. He’s talking about Jules, the twin sister March never knew he had. When the siblings are sent to the world's worst orphanage, they decide to escape, pull off one last heist, and live happily ever after. Kirkus starred review.
Tom Watson – Stick Dog Chases Pizza – Ages 8-12 Stick Dog returns with the same crazy crew of canine friends as in the first two books in this popular series. When the gang discovers that they like pizza even better than hot dogs and hamburgers, they're on a mission. But first, they have to plan, and there's a kitten to rescue, and the messiest game of catch ever. 100,000 print run.
Teens
Adi Alsaid – Let's Get Lost – Teens Leila's on a road trip in her bright red car, and along the way, she helps Hudson understand what he really wants, runaway Bree reunite with family, Eliot negotiate a broken heart and a crazy prom, and Sonia understand that after her boyfriend's death she can love again. Leila is a bottomless well of kindness, as one character says, and she finally learns that it's time to go home. A hot galley at BEA.
Jodi Lynn Anderson – The Vanishing Season – Teens
Cassandra Clare – City of Heavenly Fire – Teens The spellbinding, seductive conclusion to the #1 New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series. Katherine Howe – Conversion – Teens It's senior year in a high performing private girls' school, and the pressure is intense. Then, one by one, girls begin to exhibit bizarre tics and behaviors. Is it a disease? Pollution? Psychological? Then one of the students finds that their town is built on what used to be Salem Village. Based on true events of the 17th century. PW starred review. 200,000 print run. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.
E. Lockhart – We Were Liars – Teens This stunning mystery has a shocking twist at the end that will make you want to talk about it with friends—but don't spoil the ending! Wall Street Journal: "a novel so twisty and well-told that it will appeal to older readers as well as adolescents." A beautiful and distinguished family for whom keeping up appearances is everything. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends–the Liars–whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth.A NY Times bestseller. Booklist Starred Review. An Amazon Best Book of the Month. Mashable: Top 24 Summer Books 2014. Lockhart is a National Book Award finalist and a Printz Award nominee.
Morgan Matson – Since You've Been Gone – Teens Before Sloane, Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, and she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—someone who yanks you out of your shell.
Dana Reinhardt – We Are the Goldens – Teens Nell worships her older sister, Layla. They’re one unit, intertwined: Nellayla. As Nell and her best friend, Felix, start their freshman year in high school, on Layla’s turf, Nell looks forward to joining Layla on the varsity soccer team, parties, boys, adventures. But Layla is changing, withdrawing. She’s hiding something, and when Nell discovers what it is, and the consequences it might have, she struggles to decide whether to keep the secret or try to get Layla some help. An Amazon Best Teen & YA Book of the Month.
John Sandford & Michele Cook – Uncaged – Teens In the middle of the night, young activists sneak into a medical research facility and free thousands of mutilated animals, and Odin, the most tech savvy, also takes a bag of encrypted thumb drives. Now the security forces are after him, and his sister Shay, with her posse of friends, is determined to rescue him. Singular Menace series Book 1. Booklist Starred review. 200,000 print run.
Margaret Stohl – Icons – Teens Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas are the four Icon Children, the only humans immune to the Icon’s power to stop a human heart. In order to stop the alien Icons, the children must destroy 13 different Icons, but they are on the run after destroying the first one. And there just may be a fifth child. Icon series Book 2. 100,000 print run.
Anna Schumacher – End Times – Teens When life in Detroit becomes too hard to bear, Daphne flees to her Uncle Floyd’s home in Carbon County, Wyoming, but instead of solace she finds chaos. When she steps off the bus, trumpets blare, the townsfolk declare that the End Times are here, and she may be the only person who can read the signs and know the truth. Kirkus: "The author provides a fascinating reimagining of the rapture accessible to both religious and secular readers alike." First in a series by this debut author, who has an MFA in writing. An Amazon Best Book of the Month.
Nonfiction
Mari & Roshin Ono – Origami for Children: 35 Step-By-Step Projects – Ages 7 and up The perfect introduction to origami, the fun Japanese papercraft for parents and children of all ages. Divided into six sections, the projects cover a range of themes, from classic origami designs such as animals to party decorations and modern vehicles. Every stage is described in a series of clear step-by-step photographs.
Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce, & Sal Murdocca – Pandas and Other Endangered Species: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Treehouse #48 – Ages 7-9 This companion book to A Perfect Time for Pandas (see above), answers questions that kids may have after reading the adventures of Annie and Jack. What do pandas eat? Why are snow leopards scarce? Filled with illustrations, facts, and photos. A Magic Treehouse Fact Tracker.
Jordan Romero & Linda LeBlanc – No Summit Out of Sight: The Story of the Youngest Person to Climb the Seven Summits – Ages 12 and up At age 13, Jordan Romero became the youngest person to have ever climbed Mt. Everest. At 15, he conquered the Seven Summits—the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. Now, at 17, Jordan tells his story. 75,000 print run.
Larry Verstraete – Life or Death: Surviving the Impossible – Ages 9-12 Over 30 incredible true stories of survivors who found creative ways to beat impossible odds. A slave in mid-1800s North Carolina squeezes into a 2′ x 3′ box and has friends mail him to freedom in Philadelphia. A doctor injects 8,000 Polish Jews with a substance that makes it appear they have typhus, getting them sent into quarantine instead of to death camps. Apollo 13 astronauts use duct tape, a hose, and other spare parts to fix failed machinery and bring their spacecraft safely home.
Robert E. Wells – Can You Count to a Googol?Ages 5-8 The author explores the wonderful world of zeros and tells how the googol came to be named.
Click here to view the Marketplace cart of these titles and more.
*Geographical rights may vary by title.
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Wattpad Acquires Traditional Author Community Red Room
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With this acquisition, Wattpad welcomes the Red Room readers and authors to its 30 million member site, increasing not only the membership but the scope of authors who participate in writing and discussing on Wattpad. "When I launched Red Room in 2008 I wanted to break down the walls between readers and writers. I'm thrilled Red Room authors have found a new home in a friendly and supportive global community," said Red Room CEO and Editor-in-Chief Ivory Madison in a press release. "Wattpad welcomes writers from all walks of life. By welcoming Red Room authors, we will further diversify the community and solidify our position as the best place to read and share stories across every genre," said Wattpad Co-founder and CEO Allen Lau. Red Room’s members can automatically migrate their accounts over to Wattpad and join the community instantly, seeking out new readers and new book discussions as they also post and share their work with the users who spend a combined 6 billion minutes a month reading on Wattpad. The site, which sees an additional 200,000 stories posted each day, fosters this sense of community that Red Room was initially created for.
Wattpad Acquires Traditional Author Community Red Room is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Software Update for Onyx Boox T68 Fixes Touchscreen, Adds Refresh Shortcut
| Today I was pleased to find a software update available for the Onyx Boox T68 Lynx. The update seems to have fixed most of the touchscreen issues—the accuracy is much better now and so is responsiveness. Onyx also added the ability to force a full page screen refresh by holding down the menu button—it works […] |
Forbes: Amazon Dispute Not About Money
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As in, 0.014% of its total $78billion business. Apple was criticized for not taking the judge’s ruling lying down when it came time to a $200+ million verdict against it in the DOJ ebook pricing fixing lawsuit, despite the fact that the amount was less than one percent of its cash on hand. The critics argued that Apple has already spent far more than that amount in legal fees, but the tech giant claims that it’s not about the money, it’s about the guilty ruling. If Apple will fight for $200 million and some change just on principle, then Amazon’s fight for $11 million is equally important, except that Amazon is fighting for its customers, not its drop in the bucket. Once the door opens with Hachette to dictate its own terms, terms that will block Amazon from offering its titles to readers at a discount, then that same door is thrown open even wider for other publishers to follow suit. Eventually, the retail book market will be a landscape where even lower-priced ebooks are a luxury item that consumers can no longer afford. Amazon’s recent request to support Hachette’s authors in what is arguably a difficult situation for them by offering the authors 100% of the sales price of their books has yet to be agreed upon.
Forbes: Amazon Dispute Not About Money is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Crowdfunding Websites: Fundraising with a Twist
Want to bring an idea or product to life? Trying to raise funds for your organization or project? A crowdfunding site might be what you're looking for. |
Embedded samples and digital discovery
| Earlier this month at the ALA Annual Conference, we demonstrated OverDrive eBook embedded samples on websites like Huffington Post and Buzzfeed. The purpose of these partnerships is to continue to drive new patrons to the library through discovery of the eBooks you provide. Our embedded samples can be placed on any website, social media page, or blog to provide users the ability to begin reading a title they may be interested in and then be directed to their library's digital collection to borrow the title. These samples aren't only meant to be used by popular news and entertainment websites, though. You can use them on your library pages and blogs to draw attention to your digital offerings as well. By searching for titles on overdrive.com, you can access embed codes for our eBooks that can be used to increase the visibility of your full collection. We've also created a simple guide on how to use the embed codes to get you started. Step 1: Click on the Share symbol:  Step 2: Copy and paste the embed code into your website editor.  The samples are fully responsive, meaning they will adjust themselves to fit screen sizes, and are compatible in most browsers. Once embedded, the samples are readable right within your website. When a patron reaches the end of the sample, they are provided links to find the title at their library or share the sample with their friends on social media. Some great examples of how to use these samples include creating a Pinterest board of Recommended Reads, or featuring an "eBook of the day" on your library blog. Embedded samples provide patrons the opportunity to peruse a title before deciding to check it out, mimicking the familiar experience they have as they walk up and down the aisles of your library. Another way eBook samples are driving readers to the library website? Bing’s search engine. Check this out, below!  When searching a title in Bing, an option to read a sample appears in the informational sidebar if the title is available through OverDrive. The user can read an excerpt, and they are even given the option to borrow the eBook directly from a library near them. See an example of an embedded sample below, and start sharing with your patrons today!
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communication Specialist at OverDrive.  |
Bare-metal Tetris duel
| A couple of weeks ago, we featured a first-year undergraduate project from Imperial College in London: a bare-metal port of StarFox to the Raspberry Pi. It’s stupendously good; even more so when you realise that the people behind it are 18 and 19 years old. I discovered that a second group from the very same class has another bare-metal doozy of a gaming project running on the Pi: head-to-head Tetris. The team says you’re seeing:
What’s in the water down in South Kensington? I don’t think we’ve seen this much assembly language since…this time last year, when we found an Imperial College bare-metal chess project. Everything you need to replicate the Tetris setup is available at GitHub. Thanks to Han Qiao, Piotr Chabierski, Michał Sienkiewicz |