| Publishers and self-publishers are having a love affair with eBooks. Ever since Amazon announced that digital editions were selling at a 3:1 ratio over print books, people took notice. A new report states that 84% of publishers will be making eBooks this year and 62% stated that eBook quality was the most paramount concern. Big and medium sized publishers are in an advantageous position with in-house tools that make digitizing a book fairly easy. For everyone else, there is seldom an off-the-shelf solution to generate a proper table of contents, use industry standard fonts, employ proper margins or convert it from one format to another. All publishers need to insure their books are formatted correctly in order to not alienate readers. The survey results highlight many of the concerns that publishers have with going digital. It takes about what online bookstore people have the most success with and what formats are most popular.
84% of Publishers Plan to make eBooks in 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, August 4, 2014
84% of Publishers Plan to make eBooks in 2014
O’Reilly Buys Back Ownership of Safari Books Online
| O’Reilly Media, which originally developed Safari Books Online, is now the sole owner of the company, after purchasing Pearson’s 50% stake in the former joint venture. Safari will not have to consult an equity stake partner anymore and will be able to fast track any type of development they want to pursue. Safari, launched 13 years ago with 600 titles, is an online content platform success story. Today, the company’s more than 1,000,000 active users can choose from over 25,000 books and 10,000 hours of video training from 200 publishers and other content providers. While Safari initially focused on technology content, it now covers business and design topics, as well. How is Safari different from other online bookstores? They have been pioneering the online subscription model for a very long time. They also have videos, short form content, and evolving manuscripts from O’Reilly Media and other publishers including Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Peachpit, John Wiley & Sons, Microsoft Press, Adobe Press, Cisco Press, Manning Publications, Packt, SAS Publishing, IBM Press, FT Press and Focal Press. You could say that Safari is known for having a high degree of geek cred, but certainly won’t appeal to your average Hunger Games reader. Many people use Safari because they have a ton of obscure content that is not available anymore else. If you are unable to find any results on Google, try Safari, they normally have it. O’Reilly Buys Back Ownership of Safari Books Online is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Microsoft Claims Samsung Stopped Making Patent License Payments
| Samsung should take note that Microsoft doesn’t fool around when patent license payments arrive late. Microsoft asserts that they have hundreds of patents that are required for any manufacturer making Android phones: Samsung included. Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel for Microsoft, David Howard, spoke toward the lawsuit, stating that: “Today’s legal action is simply to enforce our contract with Samsung. We don’t take lightly filing a legal action, especially against a company with which we’ve enjoyed a long and productive partnership.” He also noted that: “After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract.” With Microsoft earning between $1B and $2B in patent license revenue made from royalties, this business is one of their most profitable. This is especially true when you consider Howard’s comments on the dominance and success of Samsung’s current phone business:
Of course, this is just Microsoft’s side of the story; things should get more interesting once Samsung weighs in.
Microsoft Claims Samsung Stopped Making Patent License Payments is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New and popular content for schools
| Happy August, everyone! While July did fly by, don't let the great new content that was added for purchase in Marketplace fly by as well. We have created lists for the newest and most popular content that was added this past month that your students and users are sure to enjoy. Check out these new and exciting titles and hopefully you'll find some that you’d like to add to your OverDrive collection. When you click the link below, it will show up as a Marketplace search result and you'll be able to easily add them to a cart. New Adult – High School Appropriate If you would like more suggestions, your Collection Development Specialist is available to help create recommended lists. Email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today! *Some titles may have limited regional or platform availability.
Rachel Kray is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.
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Ben’s USA Tour Dates
| Today I fly to New York to start my Raspberry Pi USA Tour! Thanks to everyone who submitted a request for me to speak for them while on my USA Tour. I’ve adjusted my route according to where most of the requests were located, and I’ve been organising dates with those who contacted me. I’m travelling from New York City to Salt Lake City over two weeks, stopping at a different town each day. Most days I’ll either be speaking at an event or going in to a school or other organisation. Most events will be open to the public. The dates and towns are as follows: Tue 05 Aug – New York City, NY See my tour page for the full list of events with details and links to sign up. The page will be updated as information comes in, so if I’m coming to a place near you, keep checking back for details. If I’m passing through your area then come and see me speak or get in touch to see if we can meet up! Liz adds: Ben is currently at the airport, where, according to Twitter, he is trying to be humorous by signing on to the WiFi network as Edward Snowden. If we don’t get a call asking us to come and bail him out within the next couple of hours we’ll assume he made it onto his plane. |
Corning Experiences a Decline in Sales
| Corning is the display screen company that is very well known for their Gorilla Glass. It has been synonymous with smartphones and tablets and used for higher durability and resistance to the rigors of daily use. Corning has overestimated the market and is seeing a lack of demand for their technology. According to the Wall Street Journal “Gorilla Glass has faced headwinds, with sales falling 17% last year as Corning worked through an inventory overhang after a bad bet on touch-screen laptops. ” Overall, Corning reported a profit of $169 million, down from $638 million a year earlier. The worldwide tablet grew 11.0% year over year in the second quarter of 2014 with shipments reaching 49.3 million units according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation . Apple is currently one of Corning’s largest customers and they have reported shipping 13.3 million iPads during the third fiscal quarter of 2014, compared to 14.6 million in the year-ago quarter. When it comes down to public perception, Corning is basically known for their Gorilla Glass. What most people don’t know, is that this represents only 11% of their entire revenue stream and the majority from LCD televisions. That business jumped 62% year over year, while revenue from other specialty materials was merely flat. There has been lots of buzz in the industry about Apple’s move into developing sapphire glass in conjunction with GT Advanced Technologies last November. Speculation is running rampant that their future devices will employ this ultra lightweight and scratch resistant technology into future products. Many experts cite shortages of the new material and that current plants cannot accommodate the demand of a massive launch. Apple alone plans for 80 million iPhone 6 models this year. Corning will be a safe bet for the tablet industry for another few years. The market is maturing and less people are buying new devices or upgrading. We have seen similar trends plague the e-reader industry in recent years. Corning Experiences a Decline in Sales is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Daytime Tablet Test – iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina and iPhone 5
| Welcome to another Good e-Reader Daylight test. Today, we take a look at the entire lineup of Apple products to see how they perform under direct sunlight. iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina and the iPhone 5 are all pitted head to head to see what one reigns supreme.
Daytime Tablet Test – iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina and iPhone 5 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Has Sony Discontinued Consumer e-Readers?
| Sony has been making e-readers since 2004 and was the first mainstream company to use e-ink technology. They pioneered many innovations such as a touchscreen and built in light. This prompted many competitors to jump into the field, such as Amazon, B&N and Kobo. Sony has found that their consumer efforts might be drawing to a close, as reps have confirmed that the company will no longer be making devices. Sony Europe gave an interview to a German tech blog and confirmed that they have no plans to release a Sony PRS-T4 or any other device aimed at the end user. Instead, they will continue to focus on the business segment, with the Sony Digital Paper leading the charge. The Digital Paper is the first 13.3 inch e-reader to employ Mobius technology. This makes it tremendously lightweight and has been firmly embraced by medical, legal and the entertainment industry.This device does not have an eBook store and doesn’t even read eBooks, in the conventional sense. Instead, it is a heavily optimized PDF reader and has a hefty price of $1,100. Digital Paper is marketed towards professionals and Sony deals with a few authorized partners to sell to niche markets. The demand actually caught Sony off-guard and they are now selling it directly. Sadly, they will only sell it to corporations or users that qualify via an extensive interview process. This is attributed to no official customer service and they want to insure the people using them will not be a pain to deal with. In 2014 Sony closed their official bookstore in Australia, Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom. The only market they actually still sell eBooks is in their home country of Japan. Sony told us in a prior interview that the majority of their users are reading books on their smartphones and tablets. This is prompting them to double down on their core app experience and nix making dedicated e-readers. Sony simply could not compete anymore in the cut-throat e-reader segment. They once had a premium price tag, but now its basically a race to the bottom. Who can sell them the cheapest and still make a bit of money doing it. Sony found out its a fools errand to compete on price alone and instead its better to scale down their market approach. We have reached out to Sony canada and Sony Europe for official confirmation. Has Sony Discontinued Consumer e-Readers? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Outdoor Reading Test – Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Kindle Fire HDX 7
| When it comes to reading outdoors an e-reader often gives you a superior experience, due to the glare free screen. There is a lot of contention on what gives you the better eBook experience, a tablet or e-reader. Today, we give you a solid video comparison pitting the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 Android tablet and the Kindle Paperwhite 2. This really should really solve the age old question, what device is better for outdoor reading?
Outdoor Reading Test – Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Kindle Fire HDX 7 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Outdoor Reading Test – Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Kobo Aura
| One of the big advantages of an e-reader is the fact that you can have a glare free experience while reading in the sunlight. Unlike a smartphone or tablet, you don’t always need to be hunting around for shade. Today, Good e-Reader is proud to unveil our first daytime reading test so show you how the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Kobo Aura perform. This video should give an indication on how these two devices perform head to head.
Outdoor Reading Test – Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Kobo Aura is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Why is the Kindle DX Shipping Date So Far Away?
| As a few commenters have pointed out over the past couple of months, the international Kindle DX is no longer available for immediate shipment from Amazon—it now has an expected ship date 2 to 4 months away. For a device that has been seemingly discontinued (twice), that long of a shipping delay makes no sense […] |
Sony PRS-T2 Drop Test
| Sony is known for their high build quality when it comes to consumer electronics. Their e-readers have been wildly successful and despite the fact they closed the Reader Store, many people are still using them on a daily basis. Exactly how durable is the PRS product line when it comes to daily life? Today, we find out! The Sony PRS-T2 is very similar to the T1 and T3. This makes it a fairly effective benchmark to see if it sustains any damage through our drop tests. We test it from the 3 foot mark, to simulate the quintessential pocket miss. Then, we drop it from the five foot mark on its back, side and directly on its screen. Undoubtedly you have seen people rock broken iPhones in public, but seldom an e-reader. Does the Sony survive? As an added bonus we drop it from the 15 foot mark. Why? You might be slamdunking a basketball and decide you want to read or maybe you live on the second floor and drop it off your balcony. Finally, most of us have run stuff over in the yard with the car in the morning. Kids leave their toys out, the briefcase is on top of the car as you pull away. What happens to the Sony if it’s RUN over with a car?
Sony PRS-T2 Drop Test is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Brings Celebrity Fun to Android
| Even if you have no idea why she is famous, you would have to be living under a rock to to avoid hearing about Kim Kardashian. If you are dying to know how she became an A-list celebrity, playing the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood game for Android will guide you through all of the steps you need to succeed. There is no end to the cheese factor with this game. You begin by creating your star-to-be (male or female) and kustomize (misspelling intended) your hair, clothing, and makeup until you feel you are red carpet ready. From there you befriend Kim, who acts as your mentor as you try to impress her into giving you the advice you will need to take over cities like LA, New York City, and Miami. The interface is strangely addictive, but it’s also a little juvenile. The game tells you everything you need to do, moments before you do it –so there really isn’t any thought required in order to play. A young teenager is likely the ideal demographic for this title. If you are curious enough to give Kim Kardiasian: Hollywood a try, download it now for free.
Kim Kardashian: Hollywood Brings Celebrity Fun to Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, August 1, 2014
The State of eBook Library Lending
| The Publishing industry has firmly embraced making the vast majority of their titles in the United States. The big 5 have either initiated a major pilot project or have committed themselves to a broad rollout. With all of the news primarily focused on the US, what does the landscape look like for the rest of the world? A new research report by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions seeks to address some of these queries. Australia and New Zealand Canada In Quebec, 71 public libraries belong to BIBLIOPRESTO.CA. Library users downloaded 661,598 eBooks in 2012/13 and it is projected that downloads will double in the next 12 months. Individual library data is indicative of strong growth in eBook availability and use Montreal Public Library downloads grew from 9,559 in 2012 to 31,708 in 2013 (+232%) Quebec City Public Library downloads grew from 27,417 in 2012 to 69,951 in 2013 (+155%). Europe As is the case with the publishing sector, libraries in the European Union have been slower to adopt eBooks, especially in non-English speaking countries. eBook availability in EU libraries varies significantly from country to country depending upon factors such as the funding available for library purchasing, indigenous publishing practice, library governance structure and preferred licensing regimes. Africa The International Publishers Association estimates that 90% of overall publishing revenue in Africa is derived from education markets. It is not a surprise that the availability of eBooks from African libraries is limited largely to university collections with an emphasis on streamed scholarly publishing content originating outside the continent. The 2013 South African Book Fair had as its focus "The future of eBooks: the impact of the digital eBook phenomenon" and the comments from publishing executives solely dealt with the education market and the potential for acceptance of digital textbooks. Asia eBook data reported from Asian countries indicates wide variations in library availability and use. Apabi Chinese eBooks are published in Mainland China and its content emphasises more scholarly rather than leisure reading content. Hong Kong public libraries report 186,497 eBook titles in their collections, 72,500 which are Apabi eBooks. The balance is made up of streamed bundle services including ebrary Academic Complete and EBSCOhost. The relatively low use of eBook collections (annual use of 1.1 per title) is attributed by library staff to the lack of leisure reading titles available and the confusing access requirements for the different databases. A large majority of Japanese public libraries do not provide eBooks at this time. Korean public libraries report over 3 million eBook titles available and annual expenditure of 3.6 million US dollars (2012). United States According to Library Journal's "2013 Report on E-Books in Public Libraries", where 89% of US public libraries offer eBooks, collection size and circulation have increased: 45% increase in median number of e-books between 2012 (5,080) and 2013 (7,380) 145% circulation increase from 2011 to 2012 (with anticipated 2013 increase of +38.9%) These numbers reflect all points of access, including those directly licensed or purchased by an individual library and those available through a consortium. 91% of library eBooks are accessed one user at a time comprising: 70% downloaded copies, 21% web based access copies 9% are unlimited, simultaneous access.Public demand for eBooks in the US public libraries has held steady at 6:1 holds to copy eBook ratio (unchanged from 2011 and 2013). The State of eBook Library Lending is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Udon Entertainment Announces New Macross Art Books
| Udon Entertainment has finally been able to reach out to readers outside of North American with a distribution deal with Comixology. They signed it back in early 2013 and the Canadian manga company has garnered tremendous success with their Street Fighter, Makeshift Miracle and Dark Stalkers comics. At the San Diego Comic con Harmony Gold and Udon have both announced a new licensing deal for a series of Art Books. Robotech is one of the most successful mecha franchises of all time. The 85 episode series first launched in 1985 and seamlessly crossed over into North America from Japan. The premise of the series involves a fallen battlecruiser landing on earth and sparks major scientific advances. With this technology, Earth developed robotic technologies, such as transformable mecha, to fight three successive extraterrestrial invasions against the likes of the Zentradi and Invid. The franchise has been going strong with different movies, OVA, manga, comics and television series. The more notable ones are Macross Frontier, Macross 7, Macross Plus, Macross Zero, The Shadow Chronicles. Overarching themes normally involve love, music and mecha based combat. The new licensing deal will see a number of new art books developed. They will have concept art, model sheets, early developmental designs and sketches covering Robotech and the original Japanese Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada series. Udon will also be the publisher for the Kickstarter-exclusive Art of Robotech Academy book. Although an exact page count is not finalized, the target is for 96 pages and will feature the character and mecha designs for Robotech Academy. Udon does have past experience working on the Robotech franchise which likely helped them secure the exclusive contract for the art books. They helped produce the five issue comic series Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. Most people in art book circles hold Udon in very high regard, so likely they will do very good work with the IP. Right now details are sparse on whether or not these will be books exclusively in print and sold via Amazon or will include digital editions sold on Comixology. Most of their prior art books were in paperback format exclusively, so it is unlikely that they will digitize it. Harmony Gold and Udon both would not comment for this story, but did say more news would surface towards the end of the year. Tommy Yune, Creative Director, Harmony Gold told Good e-Reader ” We've uncovered in our archives the original production model sheets for the Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospaeda, television series'. We have a ton of model sheets, and even early developmental designs that have never been seen or published anywhere. We're going to be working with UDON to collect this all, to have one of the most unique artwork collections ever made from Robotech. I'm extremely grateful for the energy that UDON has put into Robotech.” Meanwhile Erik Ko, Chief of Operations, UDON Entertainment told us ” I grew up watching Robotech, it was a big part of my childhood. We're thrilled to be involved in this project. In fact, since the founding of UDON we've been involved with Robotech through various comics and design projects. We're honoured and very thankful to have been chosen to work on this new art book project.”
Udon Entertainment Announces New Macross Art Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sony Confirms There Won’t be a PRS-T4 or any New Sony Readers
| After Sony decided to close down their ebook stores in North America, Europe and Australia, the writing was on the wall that the Sony Reader line of ebook readers would be coming to an end as well. Personally I always figured that was a no-brainer—of course Sony isn’t going to spend time developing a new […] |
Mathematica 10 – now available for your Pi!
| Liz: If you use Raspbian, you’ll have noticed that Mathematica and the Wolfram Language come bundled for free with your Raspberry Pi. (A little boast here: we were only the second computer ever on which Mathematica has been included for free use as standard. The first? Steve Jobs's NeXT, back in 1988.) Earlier in July, Wolfram Research announced a big update to Mathematica, with the introduction of Mathematica 10. Here’s a guest post announcement from Arnoud Buzing at Wolfram about what the new Mathematica will offer those of you who use it on your Raspberry Pi. Over to you, Arnoud! In July, we released Mathematica 10, a major update to Wolfram’s flagship desktop product. It contains over 700 new functions, and improvements to just about every part of the system. Today I am happy to announce an update for Mathematica and the Wolfram Language for the Raspberry Pi, which bring many of those features to the Raspberry Pi. To get this new version of the Wolfram Language, simply run this command in a terminal on your Raspberry Pi:
This new version will also come pre-installed in the next release of NOOBS, the easy set-up system for the Raspberry Pi. If you have never used the Wolfram Language on the Raspberry Pi, then you should try our new fast introduction for programmers, which is a quick and easy way to learn to program in this language. This introduction covers everything from using the interactive user interface, basic evaluations and expressions, to more advanced topics such as natural language processing and cloud computation. You'll also find a great introduction to the Wolfram Language in the Raspberry Pi Learning Resources. This release of the Wolfram Language also includes integration with the newly released Wolfram Cloud. This technology allows you to do sophisticated computations on a remote server, using all of the knowledge from Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Knowledgebase. It lets you define custom computations and deploy them as a “instant API” on the cloud. The Wolfram Cloud is available with a free starter account, and has additional non-free accounts which enable additional functionality. Check the Wolfram Community in the next couple of weeks for new examples which show you how to use the Wolfram Language with your Raspberry Pi. |
Amazon Reveals Interesting Kindle eBook Sales Statistics
| Amazon and Hachette have been having an ongoing dispute for several months over terms of a new contract. Negotiations haven’t gone well, and both companies have resorted to calling each other out publicly—to the point where the whole thing has turned into a huge spectacle. Amazon has stopped taking pre-orders for books published by Hachette, […] |
Kindle for iOS Software Updated to 4.4
| Earlier in the week Amazon issued a software update for their iPad and iPhone Kindle reading apps. The update adds some new features, and takes the software version up to 4.4. Amazon took several customer-requested features and made them a reality with this new update to improve syncing and navigation, along with the usual performance […] |
Weekly eHighlights: Best of the backlist
 We all naturally get excited by the brand new hot titles published every week, but I thought we might take a look at some of the newly available backlist titles that it's easy to overlook. Since these are all very well known books, we'll skip the annotations this time, but you'll be surprised at some of the GREAT content just recently made available digitally. Click to View the Marketplace cart of Best of the Backlist ADULT FICTION Click to View the Marketplace cart of Best of the Backlist ADULT NONFICTION Click to View the Marketplace cart of Best of the Backlist ADULT NONFICTION for KIDS & TEENS
Adult Fiction Backlist Selections Gwen Bristow – Calico Palace (Open Road) Rita Mae Brown – Rubyfruit Jungle (Random House) Michael Chabon – The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (Open Road) Pat Conroy – The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, and The Prince of Tides (Open Road) Dorothy Gilman – A Nun in the Closet (Random House) Arthur Hailey – Wheels (Open Road) Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises (Simon & Schuster) John Jakes – North and South trilogy (Open Road) Stephen King – Pet Sematary (Simon & Schuster) Judith Rossner – Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Simon & Schuster) Wilbur Smith – The Seventh Scroll (Macmillan)
Adult Nonfiction Backlist Selections Thomas Bulfinch – Bulfinch's Mythology (Penguin) Roger Angell – The Summer Game (Open Road) Mark Bowden – Black Hawk Down (Grove/Atlantic) Dee Brown – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (Open Road) Ron Chernow – The House of Morgan (Grove/Atlantic) George Crile – Charlie Wilson's War (Grove/Atlantic) P. J. O'Rourke – Parliament of Whores (Grove/Atlantic) J. B. West – Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies (Open Road) Tobias Wolff – This Boy's Life (Grove/Atlantic)
Kids & Teens Backlist Selections David A. Adler – Young Cam Jansen and the Goldfish Mystery (Penguin) Richard Atwater – Mr. Popper's Penguins (Open Road) Roald Dahl – Dirty Beasts (Penguin) Paula Danziger – Amber Brown Goes Fourth (Penguin) Lois Duncan – The Twisted Window (Open Road) Betty Green – Summer of My German Soldier (Open Road) and Morning Is a Long Time Coming Gary Paulsen – Family Ties (Random House) Patricia Polacco – Mrs. Katz and Tush (Random House) Mildred D. Taylor – The Road to Memphis (Penguin) Jeanette Winter – Follow the Drinking Gourd (Random House) Jane Yolen – The Wizard of Washington Square(Open Road)
Click to View the Marketplace cart of Best of the Backlist ADULT FICTION Click to View the Marketplace cart of Best of the Backlist ADULT NONFICTION Click to View the Marketplace cart of Best of the Backlist ADULT NONFICTION for KIDS & TEENS *Geographical rights may vary by title.
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