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Check out the details below and click on the links to register. And remember, even if you can’t attend a live session, just for registering you’ll receive a link to a recording of the session and a PDF of the presentation slides.
Anders Brooks is a Training Specialist at OverDrive.  |
Monday, November 3, 2014
Register now: November open training sessions
If you haven’t yet joined us for an open training session, don’t worry, there are plenty of opportunities coming up in the month of November. These popular sessions are a great way to get up to speed on the exciting new changes that have come to the 
Dinosaur retrofit
| A month or so ago, I had an email from a Dr Lucy Rogers, who wanted to talk about human-sized animatronic dinosaurs. Animatronic dinosaurs are much more interesting that what I normally get to talk about on a Monday morning, and we’ve been in touch since then, the culmination of our dinosaur conversation being the video below. The dinosaurs in question are at Blackgang Chine, a theme park on the Isle of Wight. They’re now pretty ancient, and were programmed a very long time ago with a limited range of behaviours (roar, lift stompy little foot, move head, repeat). The original hardware is so old it might have seen some real dinosaurs, so the challenge that Dr Rogers’ team had set themselves was to update the park’s dinosaurs to have longer, more interesting and more variable behaviour loops – using Raspberry Pis. Dr Rogers was helped by Pi veterans Neil Ford (@neilcford) and Andy Stanford-Clark (@andysc) – all the programming was done in Node-RED, which we’ve recently been exploring ourselves via workshops at the Cambridge Raspberry Jam – it’s a nice way to visualise flows of events. Later in the year, Dr Rogers will be visiting a Chinese animatronic dinosaur factory (I am so jealous), explaining how they used Raspberry Pis in their control boxes, and leading some tutorial sessions. We’ve already hooked her up with some user groups in China; we’re looking forward to finding out what she gets up to!
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Top 5 reasons to attend Digipalooza 2015
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We want to see you August 5-7, 2015 in lovely Cleveland, Ohio! Here are some reasons you don't want to miss out: 1) Digital media is the topic. 2) Be the first to hear about the latest industry innovations. 3) Gain practical knowledge and real-world solutions that you can apply at your library or school. 4) Digipalooza offers a diverse agenda. 5) Let your voice be heard. Visit www.digipalooza.com for more information. Questions? Contact us at digipalooza2015@overdrive.com. Cassie Renner is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive.  |
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Libraries Embrace Tablets over e-Readers
| A few years ago there was a dream where thousands of libraries all over the US and Canada would be able to loan out e-readers to patrons, in addition to eBooks. The stark truth is a rude awakening, as only 32% of libraries have one in circulation, which is a decrease of 7% last year. Library Journal in conjunction with Freading issued their annual Ebook Usage in U.S. Public Libraries report. They spoke to 538 libraries all over the US and apparently tablets and smartphones are replacing e-readers. 13% of respondents said that their library had plans to acquire more dedicated e-readers, and 17% said that they planned to replace broken device. 55% said they have no plans to invest in dedicated readers anymore. 2014 was the first year ever that tablets truly overtook dedicated e-readers as the device of choice to borrow audiobooks, newspapers, magazines and eBooks. 84% of respondents said that their library's patrons were using tablets such as the Apple iPad, Kindle Fire, or Google Nexus tablets, while 78% said that patrons were using dedicated e-reader devices such as the Kindle, Kobo or Nook. This compares to 66% who said patrons were using tablets for eBooks in 2012, and 90% who said patrons were using dedicated e-readers. "Tablets will likely continue to take over, as they can access a wider variety of content, from ebooks to streaming video, to music, to audiobooks, to the Internet in general," the report notes. "The killer app for the earliest dedicated ereaders like the Kindle was the reflective display which was 'as easy to read as paper.' Well, these days, people are more used to reading on screens than on paper, and backlit screens have improved so that older eyes can read even smartphone screens with minimal squinting." Libraries Embrace Tablets over e-Readers is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Going Mobile with Apple Pay: Do You Still Need a Card Reader?
| With the recent introduction of mobile pay services like Apple Pay and its premature competitor, Wal-Mart Stores' CurrentC, many small business owners have found themselves wondering if it's time to start investing in technology a little further from the norm, albeit based in a near field. NFC technology could make purchases smoother and quicker than ever, but don't toss your Square card reader in the bin just yet. Mobile Pay Options and Support According to professionals at Business Insider, mobile pay services like Apple Pay could effectively "kill" the credit card. They're easier, more secure for the most part, harder to steal, and allow shoppers to feel like the future has finally arrived. However, right now the technology is facing a number of issues. The largest of these is the lack of support from both retailers and banks nationwide: Apple Pay is still new to the scene, so a lack of support from these banks makes some sense, but lack of retailer support is particularly troubling. This doesn't mean that a particular store doesn't want to accept Apple payments specifically; it means that they aren't accepting any NFC payments at all. While this is likely to change over time—Google Wallet has already helped to alleviate a great deal of concerns, as most users trust the big G at least as much as the father of the Mac—the chances of NFC payment technology hitting the mainstream within the next five years or so are looking grim. Another issue is specific to Apple Pay, and is part of the age old OS war. Apple Insider reported some impressive figures in January 2014 for iPhone use, claiming that up to 42 percent of all smartphone owners were using an iPhone, but that still leaves the majority running a system incompatible with Apple Pay altogether. Android users can take advantage of Google Wallet, but if banks continue to pick and choose which mobile payment systems they'll accept, then there will always be a gap somewhere. Are consumers going to change banks if they can't use their iPhone or Droid in place of a credit card with their current financial institution? Not likely. This doesn’t mean Apple Pay and Google Wallet are dead in the water, of course. Google Wallet has been around long enough to become fairly trusted, and that trust is growing. The addition of an Apple-friendly equivalent is sure to help speed along universal NFC payment support in large businesses. Surprisingly, however, the most support may actually come from smaller retailers. Small Businesses Getting In On the Ground Floor One of the most prominent small business retail solutions online today, Shopify, recently announced that they would be soon be rolling out support for Apple Pay for their iPad-based POS systems. This could change the game for mobile payment options—if the small business world rushes to support NFC payments before the big box conglomerates can catch up, large retailers will have no choice but to accept mobile payments or run the risk of being named "outdated." While mobile payments don't look like they'll become the norm until ten years or so in the future, a sea change like this could cut that timeframe by years, possibly even down to five years or less. Does this mean small business owners should get ready to toss out their old-school card readers? Absolutely not. The National Federation of Independent Business reports that just under half of all small businesses accept credit card payments at all, and apparently they get along just fine. How is this possible in a world that runs on plastic? It's a loud testament to the continued use of more deprecated payment methods. The fact that so many small businesses get by without accepting credit means that there are still a great deal of consumers using cash and checks as payment methods. It's these consumers and entrepreneurs that will slow down the spread of Apple Pay and other mobile payment support options through the nation. However, small businesses having the opportunity to take part in this financial tech revolution so early in the game is important specifically because so few of them accept the standard credit card payment, not in spite of the fact. This could enable small businesses still living without credit card processing to play leapfrog with payment methods and pass over standard credit processing altogether, resulting in a mass small business update nationwide. Keep your standard credit card reader close at hand, but if NFC support comes knocking, entrepreneurs should be ready to answer the call. A technological shift like this could not only make shopping at small retailers more user-friendly than ever, it could change the way that banks view both small businesses and new payment processing methods. The fact is, the majority rules, so if you're ready to help bring small business transactions into the future, be ready to become part of the majority. Going Mobile with Apple Pay: Do You Still Need a Card Reader? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Wolf Among Us Now Available Outside of the Amazon Appstore
| Telltale Games brought out The Wolf Among Us to Android over four months ago, but there was a catch: it was only available through the Amazon Appstore. Fortunately for Android users who choose not to deal with the Appstore, the game is no longer exclusive to Amazon. Built by the creators of The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us stars Bigby Wolf (described as the big and bad protagonist who is as much a man as he is a werewolf) who players can control by clicking on items and navigating conversations. Playing the game reminds me of the old school Choose Your Own Adventure books, where the story is adapted based on the decisions you make. The graphics are really well done, but I do have a few complaints: much of the text on the screen is very low contrast (often seen in dark purples and reds against a dark or black background) and I found it very difficult to read quickly, the pause button is difficult to find in the top right of the screen, the dialogue is a little wordy and there are a lot of accents that get old fast, and apparently ‘silence is a valid option’ –so if you hesitate before making a decision, you can lose your opportunity! Despite these downsides, the game itself is pretty entertaining and it’s worth checking out –especially if you enjoy dark storylines that encourage your participation. If a little graphic violence will not scare you off, download The Wolf Among Us for your Android devices. The first episode is included, but you can purchase additional parts later if you find yourself immersed.
The Wolf Among Us Now Available Outside of the Amazon Appstore is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Angry Birds Transformers Finally Available on Android
| Just when you thought that the Angry Birds couldn’t get any cuter, Rovio dressed them up to look like your favourite characters from the Transformers franchise (think of Red as Optimus Prime and King Pig as Megatron, just for starters). Angry Birds Transformers was available for iOS a little while ago, and thankfully the wait is over for those of us using Android! From the moment the intro begins playing, you are greeted with an animated sequence done in the same styles as the cartoons many of us will remember from our childhoods (a few decades ago, but who’s counting?)… though they are much more crisp, bright, and modern the moment things really get started. Angry Birds Transformers isn’t what you are used to from previous Angry Birds games: this one is a side-scrolling, endless runner that pins the Autobirds against the Deceptihogs. Hitting targets quickly and accurately while you are in motion isn’t as easy as it sounds, but that just means you’re going to have to give this one a lot of practice. When you experience just how cute the graphics are in this game, and you get the hang of the 3D space you have to negotiate, you may even forget that there isn’t a slingshot to be seen! Download Angry Birds Transformers for Android, and let me know if you like the direction Rovio took your favourite feathered friends. While you wait, take a look at the official launch trailer linked below.
Angry Birds Transformers Finally Available on Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Star Wars Galactic Defense Joins Tower Defense Game Mania
| If you’ve played any games on your mobile device, chances are you’ve touched on at least one tower defense title. They are addictive and fun, making them incredibly popular –so just imagine what happens when you combine them with a beloved franchise like Star Wars! I’m pretty sure that the best part of the game is the way it begins, with the game details scrolling up the screen like the back-story given to us in the Star Wars movies (with a familiar dramatic musical score playing all the while). From there, you need to choose whether you want to play on the light (or dark) side, and head to Tatooine with your assigned champion (like Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Yoda –each with their own strengths and abilities). The rest of the game is pretty much the same old tower defense game you’ve played before, leaving you to figure our which turrets and upgrades will help you to conquer each level. There is no shortage of Star Wars theme injected into this game, with trivia delivered while the game loads, familiar planets and landscapes, famous characters and their weapons, not to mention the sound effects heard in the background during 100 different battle scenarios! A social component lets you connect with friends and exchange resources or compete in online events in an effort to earn yourself a spot on the leaderboard. While you wait the few moments for Star Wars Galactic Defense to install, watch the official launch trailer included below.
Star Wars Galactic Defense Joins Tower Defense Game Mania is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle Voyage and Basic Touch are Incompatible with Active Content
| Kindle Active Content is a fancy term Amazon uses to describe the games and apps designed to run e-readers. In 2010 Amazon introduced a section of their Kindle Store for games such as Chess, Hangman, and Jewels. It was designed to give people different things to do, other than reading books and newspapers on their e-readers. The problem was that Amazon never really promoted it and many users did not even know this platform existed. With the advent of the new Kindle Voyage and Basic Touch, Amazon has officially suspended support for Active Content. Kindle Active Content did not have a dedicated section in the bookstore that is accessible on the e-readers. Instead, users had to find the web version and make purchases to send right to their devices. Hardly any of the apps were free and ranged in price from .99 to $5.99. You have to remember that back in 2010 many people did not own tablets and the ones that were out had abysmal specs. Amazon seems to have abandoned Active Content, the last new app to be added to the platform was back in 2012. Obviously with the rise of smartphones and tablets, there really isn’t a dire need anymore to run apps on an e-reader. Kindle Voyage and Basic Touch are Incompatible with Active Content is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Parable Books Closes Their Christian eBook Store
| Parable Books has just closed their online digital bookstore and will no longer be selling eBooks. The Christian company has declared that their users had three days to backup their past purchases, so they can continue to read them on other devices, if you missed the October 31st cutoff, you are out of luck. Parable is a brick and motor chain of Christian Book Stores and they experimented with eBooks two years ago. If a customer wanted to support their nearest location, they could buy eBooks and by using a special referral code, the store would get a small commission. If you are still looking for religious eBooks there are plenty of stores that still sell them Christianbook is one of the largest one that I know of and they are still in business. Lifeway sells ebooks and is a relatively big chain (and is the retail arm of B&H Publishing), but the digital content only works with their own apps. Also, a bunch of Christian publishers sell their own eBooks directly, though (Crossway, Ignatius Press, New Leaf Publishing. The closure of Parable really drives home the fact that there is no clear path of ownership when you purchase eBooks. You are merely paying for a limited license that could be suspended at any time. This is one of the pitfalls of purchasing eBooks, they can disappear at a moments notice. Parable Books Closes Their Christian eBook Store is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Skybrite Introduces Subscription Based Audiobook Service
| People who love audiobooks are relegated to paying for each one individually and the average title ranges from $12.99 to $29.99. A new subscription based audio service is breaking the mold by Skybrite, giving people a chance to listen to unlimited audiobooks for $9.99 a month. Described as the "Netflix for Audio," subscribers can listen to thousands of best-selling audiobooks, stand-up comedy performances, personal development courses, children's stories, business training, guided meditations, celebrity interviews, language learning, audio theater performances, informative lectures, and much more. The best known titles that are available at launch are: The Hunger Games, Think and Grow Rich, and The Power of Now; revealing interviews with celebrities like John Lennon, Jack Nicholson and Lady Gaga; stand-up comedy performances by comedians like Aziz Ansari, Jon Stewart and George Carlin; guided meditation and hypnosis sessions to help people relax, become inspired and lose weight; children's story classics like Where the Wild Things Are, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Goodnight Moon; business training from leaders like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, and John Assaraf; and author theater performances starring award-winning actors like Neil Patrick Harris, Hilary Swank and Laurence Fishburne. If any of these titles seem compelling or if you want to learn more about what type of content is available, there is a free trial available. Download the Skybrite Android App today from the Good e-Reader App Store and see what the fuss is all about. Skybrite Introduces Subscription Based Audiobook Service is a post from: Good e-Reader |
How Well do the Fire Tablets Perform in Direct Sunlight?
| Amazon has released their next generation Fire Tablet lineup a few weeks ago. This includes the Fire HD6, Fire HD7, Kids Tablet and Fire HDX 8.9. They range in price from $99 all the way to $379, which are all significant investments. Many people who read eBooks, newspapers and digital magazines tend to not always be cooped up inside the house, but are doing it outdoors. How well do these tablets perform in direct sunlight? Today, we check out the entire line of Amazon tablets to give you a sense and the results are surprising.
How Well do the Fire Tablets Perform in Direct Sunlight? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Books Updated for Better Non-Fiction Support
| Many of the top e-reader apps out there handle reading eBook really well. The vast majority of people tend to read fiction titles and the Amazon, Nook and Kobo apps are all optimized for this. What about non-fiction, such as cookbooks, textbooks or research papers? Google has just updated their Play Books app to handle them better than ever. "Skim" mode allows you to zoom between pages in an endless stream rather than forcing you to flip through page by page. "Quick Bookmarks" lets you set multiple saved spots in the book and quickly jump back and forth between them — perfect for when you're required to refer to some reference table 200 pages away from what you're trying to read. You can now view all of your notes and highlights on one page and quickly jump to the correlating passages. The study benefits there are pretty obvious. Google Books Updated for Better Non-Fiction Support is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Amazon Admits the Pricing was Wrong on Fire Phone
| Amazon executives now admit that they had the pricing wrong when they launched their first smartphone, the Fire Phone. When the device first came out it was retailing for $199 on contract and $699 unlocked. A month later, without any warning, Amazon dropped the price to a paltry .99 for the AT&T version. Speaking to Fortune, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices David Limp now says the company simply whiffed on the pricing. “We didn’t get the price right,” Limp said. “I think people come to expect a great value, and we sort of mismatched expectations. We thought we had it right. But we’re also willing to say, 'we missed.’ And so we corrected.” The correction as Amazon puts it resulted in a company wide $544 million dollar loss last quarter and they are sitting on $83 million dollars worth of unsold phones going into the lucrative holiday season. The Fire phone was designed to always be in your pocket and assist in purchasing things from Amazon. Likely we are all aware now of stores disdain of the show room concept, where people visit retail and just buy it online for cheaper. Amazon adopted Firefly technology that would scan bar codes and UPC labels and automatically give you the best price. One of the barriers that prevent mass adoption is that the phone is only officially available in the US and UK, two markets that are saturated. If you buy the locked version, AT&T simply won’t unlock it for you if you say live in Canada, like we do. Amazon Admits the Pricing was Wrong on Fire Phone is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, October 31, 2014
Understanding the -9 and -12 Playbook Errors
| The Blackberry Playbook is still relevant for a small segment of tablet owners. It was the only tablet Blackberry ever released and even though its getting long in the tooth, people still swear by it. One of the most common tasks any longtime user will have done is sideloading their own apps. When you use 3rd party tools like DDPB or the Chrome plugin some apps don’t work and you get errors. The most common ones is -9 and -12, but does that even mean? Blackberry ceased to support the Playbook with firmware updates and does not maintain their app store anymore. This puts the tablet owners in a position of having to convert the the files themselves and manually load them on their device. The process is easy with the online tools we downloaded, that allow anyone to take an APK file and convert to a Blackberry friendly BAR file. The most common error code users see when installing apps is Error code -12. This means that the app was designed for a higher version of Android and will not work on the Playbook. The Playbook only has Android 2.3 emulator, so anything that is not backwards compatible will fail to install. Error code -9 means that specific libraries are not available and are required. This can be due to the app needing an external Data file (OBB) and the emulator does not install them in the right place. In other occasions it may require Google Services. If you are new to converting apps or sideloading in your own apps not only for the Playbook, but ANY Blackberry 10 enabled device, see what all of the fuss is about. Understanding the -9 and -12 Playbook Errors is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Yahoo Launches DIY Digital Magazine
| Yahoo has been totally revising the way they show digital content on some of their biggest properties. They have adopted a unified magazine layout to Travel, Movies, Health and Food which makes it seem fresh and modern. Yahoo DIY is the latest magazine to launch and will appeal to enthusiasts looking for ideas for their next project. Yahoo DIY will initially focus on news items, slideshows, listicles, and original videos. They will evaluate how each one of these segments performs and make editorial changes as needed. This is uncharted terrority for Yahoo, so they brought in Katie Brown who used to do a television show on Create TV. The DIY videos will probably require the most work. The company is currently planning three series: "Daily Made" shows off solutions for common household problems, "Home Made" provides crafters with how-to tips, and "Katie Made" offers a sneak peek inside the Editor-in-Chief's own quirky DIY projects. It remains to be seen if Yahoo can make this concept work, as DIY enthusiasts are fairly loyal to their forum communities and platforms. Likely, the search engine giant is looking for novel concepts to see what sticks and eventually kill off the low performers. Yahoo Launches DIY Digital Magazine is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wacom to release Digital Comic Anthology
| Wacom is employed by serious art creators in the comic and gaming industry, everyday thousands of artists are penciling, inking, coloring, lettering or simply cleaning up traditionally illustrated scanned artwork. In order to broaden their customer base and really show what their technology can do for digital comics, Wacom is partnering with a ton of great artists to release a 32 page digital anthology. Pressure/Sensitivity is the name of the new comic and it will feature original, creator-owned short stories by Meredith Gran (Octopus Pie, Marceline and the Scream Queens), Ming Doyle (The Kitchen, Mara), Giannis Milonogiannis (Old City Blues, Prophet, All-New Ultimates) and one more still-to-be announced. All of the interior comics goodness comes wrapped in a cover by artist Ulises Farinas (Gamma, Judge Dredd: Mega City Two) and colorist Ryan Hill (Terrible Lizard, Stumptown). The comic anthology will be available in early 2015 and Wacom is going to be teasing its community with behind the scenes looks at the creation process. Wacom to release Digital Comic Anthology is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Halloween reads
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*Some titles may have limited regional or platform availability. If you would like more suggestions, the Collection Development Team is available to help create recommended lists. Email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today! Michelle Ross is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive.  |
Halloween!
| There’s a lot of spooky Pi shenanigans going on this Halloween. Here at Pi Towers, our very own Rachel Rayns is trialling the first run of the Raspberry Pi Digital Creatives Bronze award we plan to be running formally from 2015. (More of that in a later post.) Amy and Dan Mather are acting as our guinea pigs for this trial; and here are the (orange, approximately spherical) fruits of their first day’s labour. I’ll be prodding the Mather kids for a write-up on how to rotoscope your own face onto a pumpkin soon. A little further from home, at one of my favourite places in the UK, the team at the Lost Gardens of Heligan have made a slightly-too-successful Halloween project. People walking past this installation trigger a motion sensor, which makes a speaker up in the tree hoot in a Halloween fashion. “Slightly-too-successful” in this instance means that at twilight, visitors walking past triggered the audio: and real, female tawny owls responded to it, and were attracted to the tree. Which is great for owl-spotters, but a bit unfair on the owls. So the Heligan team swapped out the audio for the blood-curdling howls of a wolf (not native to Cornwall), and all was well again. You can read more about the project over at our friend Phil Atkin’s blog. Further afield, Cabe Atwell in the USA has a haunted porch. (Careful watching this one if you have small children in the room – it’s a bit unsettling.) There’s a lot of how-to detail in Cabe’s video, and a full write-up over at element14. Back in the UK, Halloween’s being used as a teaching tool by TeCoEd. Here’s a how-to video, and you’ll find everything you need to make one yourself next year at TeCoEd’s website. You’ll find plenty more projects from previous years under the Halloween tag. Have you made something spooky with a Pi this year? Let us know in the comments! |
Nintendo Brings Classic Secret of Mana Game to Android
| Japan first enjoyed Secret of Mana back in 1993, at a time when this real-time, top-down view battle system was truly unique and innovative. Add to that the ring command menu system that the game introduced: allowing players to user items, change weapons and perform all of their requisite actions without the need to switch screens. With thanks to the developers at Square Enix, Android games can experience some of the same joy we felt at our Nintendo consoles all those years ago. Don’t be fooled, this title is ported but not really upgraded (aside from accommodating 360-degree movement and a touch-screen interface, unless you decide to employ peripheral controllers). The graphics are still delightfully old-school, which is a style that is very hip and popular these days. The story behind the game focuses on the mystical power of Mana, encouraging you to befriend the eight elementals who wield all of nature’s forces. Nostalgia doesn’t come cheap, so the $9 price-tag won’t scare many would-be Secret of Mana gamers who remember console gaming from way back when. Nintendo Brings Classic Secret of Mana Game to Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
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