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It’s because of this that going through my grandmother’s things was so moving. Having an affinity for reading, I wanted to take some of the books she had read when she was growing up. One thing I did know was that Grandma Lilian also loved to read. I was excited to see what dusty treasures I might find in her small collection. I’ve always loved Russian literature and so it took my breath away when I came across tattered copies of Anna Karenina, War and Peace and collections of plays by Chekov and Ibsen. Suddenly I had a connection with my grandmother I never new existed. Despite never getting to talk about literature, never getting to hear even a single book recommendation, I had come to love Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Ibsen just as she had. When I got home, I sat down on my couch and couldn’t put down these new heirlooms. It was so moving to think that these books, simple pages of ink and words, were held by my grandmother. I got the urge to reread A Doll’s House but as my new copy was over 100 years old, I hesitated to leaf through it, fearful it would come apart in my hands. Instead, I grabbed my iPad and went to my local library’s digital collection and sure enough, there it was. With my grandmother’s copy looking down on me, safely nestled on our bookshelf, I began to read the digital copy. The same words Lilian had read so long ago. The only difference is this ink will never fade, these pages will never tear. People love to write articles with flashy headlines about why eBooks will never beat out physical copies or how eBooks will lead to the end of the paper book. Neither of these types of articles are true. Physical and digital books coexist beautifully and this is a perfect example. The physical books I now cherish are a connection to the grandmother I barely knew. It’s something I can hold in my hand that she did as well. The eBooks of these titles hold special meaning because anywhere I go in the world now I can bring with me the stories my grandmother loved that I do too, without ruining a century’s worth of memories by ripping a page. Books have the power to move us, to connect us in ways we never thought possible. The format is inconsequential, it’s the stories that truly matter. Adam Sockel is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive.  |
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
On Books and family…
Amazon Brings Kindle Store to the Netherlands
| Today Amazon launched a localized Kindle store in the form of a dedicated website, Amazon.nl, specifically for residents of the Netherlands. The new Dutch Kindle store features a selection of over 3 million ebooks, but only about 20,000 are Dutch-language ebooks, and of those just 1221 were written by Dutch authors. Amazon is also advertising […] |
Let the BattlePi commence…
| Recently I visited the University of York Computer Science department for the second year running to see the Raspberry Pi being used to great effect on the new intake of students. Last year I visited to judge Blue Pi Thinking, and since it was such a great success they decided to repeat the exercise this year. The students are sent a Raspberry Pi before they come to university, with a special build and a document that describes the challenge. There are three main reasons for doing this. The first is to give the students a common computing platform that they can use throughout the year to base different projects/assignments on. Secondly, the students will learn a great amount and will kick start their education; and finally it becomes a real social event for the students to get together (some actually help each other out) with beer and competition (which of course go hand in hand!) There are two elements to the challenge and the students can choose either (or both or neither!) The first is Blue Pi Thinking, where the challenge is to develop something creative; the second is BattlePi. BattlePi is a game of battleships played automatically by the Raspberry Pi with a server through which two Raspberry Pis can communicate. The students are given the (well commented Python) software which initially just chooses random positions to make shots at. The student then has to modify the python code to implement better AI in both firing position and ship placement. At the end of freshers’ week the students all come together (with beer of course) to test their creations. The Blue Pi Thinking creative competition whose aim is basically to create something was run as a judged event. The following are examples of projects that were created:
Throughout the year the students will be using their Raspberry Pis to continue their education, and help develop next years BattlePi competition. Will Smith and Emma Hogson, who are in charge of undergraduate admissions have offered Raspberry Pi their complete BattlePi materials including all the software and instructions so we can give it to other universities…something we’re looking into with great interest. May the worldwide BattlePi commence – watch this space! |
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
How Readers can Avoid Buying Bad eBooks by Indie Authors
| Digital Readers come in all shapes and forms. Some of them are brand new to the process of reading eBooks and just picked up their first Kindle. Others, are a more tech savvy bunch who have been reading on their smartphone, tablet or e-reader for years. We have all been looking for new books to read and stumble across numerous titles that are poorly edited, have abysmal cover art and overall are a wretched read. These certainly do not come from big publishing companies and instead are written by anyone who clicks submit on their Microsoft Word Document. As a reader, how do you avoid falling prey to indie writers and what can you do about it? Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo all have self-publishing programs where any writer can submit an eBook and have it instantly visible in their stores. There is no editorial curation or anyone vetting out books that have overt sexual themes, bestiality or are rift with spelling mistakes, or poor grammar. Unsuspecting customers are duped into purchasing them because they might have a similar name to a bestselling title, or come up in the “if you liked book X, try book Y and Z.) Indie titles are stocked side by side alongside books that are submitted by traditional publishers. There is no way to actually vet out “books” written by indie authors and companies like Kobo say that they do not want to implement policies of segregation. Segregation is what we need, but many authors have been crying foul saying that if there is a dedicated indie author section in major online bookstores, no one would browse it. They are right. So as a reader, how do you insure that you do not fall into the trap of unwittenly purchasing indie eBooks and only buy from reputable publishers? The first, check out who actually published the book. If it has an authors name or says “published by Smashwords, or Published by LULU” avoid it at all costs. Smashwords is notorious for having a laissez faire acceptance policy and distributes thousands of poorly written titles to every major bookstore every month. Things have gotten so out of hand with Smashwords titles, that Apple suspended their relationship with them and abandoned the “Breakout Books” section on the iBookstore. Why does looking at the publisher matter to the readers? Well, traditionally published authors normally have a team backing them up to insure a respectable level of quality and control. An author certainly does not go it alone, but has an agent in their corner, lending the assist on PR and book tours. Trade authors also have a cadre of editors and cover art designers to insure the book is polished and read for the prime time. When you walk into your local bookstore, you certainly aren’t greeted by a wall of books written by people you never heard of people, why should shopping online be any different? Another way to vet out indie authors is to see if the book is also available in hardcover or paperback. Normally indie authors are too cheap to use Createspace or Ingram Lightning Source to make physical copies of their books available. If a book is only available as a Kindle Edition, this should raise some serious red flags. Indie authors traditionally rely on bargain level pricing in order to appeal to readers. The average indie title ranged from .99 to $3.99, whereas the average price of traditionally published material is $9.99 to $18.99. My advice, if you are looking for new books is try and browse from the most expensive books to the least. This might not work in all cases, but should avoid the hundreds of thousands of self-published titles on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Kobo. Instead of browsing for books on Amazon or another online bookstore try checking out the publishers websites directly. They often hype up new releases or books coming out in the near future. You can find direct links to the online ecosystem of your choice or buy from them directly. Finally, there are lots of online bookclubs and author communities out there, such as GoodReads. You can find out a lot about new and upcoming books to see what type of interest there is. A indie title you have never heard about, will likely not be found and the books that matter will be. In a pinch, visit your local bookstore for ideas and recommendations, or talk to a friend. By 2020, the eBook industry will be valued at over $16 billion dollars and more indie books will be stacked alongside traditionally published editions in every major online bookstore in the world. It is important to learn how to vet books yourself, instead of relying on the search algorithms. Most bookstores don’t offer refunds easily if you buy something you hate. They have certain window periods in which you can get a refund, but the level of customer service in digital bookstores is severely lacking. Hopefully this little guide assisted some of you in avoiding horrendously written indie author books. How Readers can Avoid Buying Bad eBooks by Indie Authors is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Global eBook Market to reach $16.7 billion in 2020
| A new report by Strategy Analytics predicts that the global consumer eBook market will more than double from $7 billion in 2013 to $16.7 billion in 2020. eBook subscription websites and emerging markets such as China are the two main facets contributing to the dramatic increase. Currently less than 10% of the population reads eBooks in 2013, but in 2020 this figure is set to increase to 25%. One of the big reasons is the shift towards reading on smartphones and tablets over dedicated e-readers and desktop computers. Wei Shi, an analyst at Strategy Analytics' wireless media strategies division, said that a significant development in the eBook market is subscription-based services launched by platforms like Amazon Unlimited, which have a model similar to how Spotify and Pandora work in the music industry. "We expect to see subscription services gaining more momentum in the second half of this decade, and contributing to close to a fifth of the total market by 2020," she said. Global eBook Market to reach $16.7 billion in 2020 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Now Selling eBooks and e-Readers in the Netherlands
| Amazon will be opening up their online bookstore and selling e-readers in the Netherlands this coming Wednesday. Over 20,000 eBooks will be available in Dutch and 2 million in English, giving readers a ton of content to be able to devour. In the Netherlands Amazon will be competing primarily against BOL.COM, the largest online bookstore. 60% of all eBooks currently being sold are via this website and they have a larger library, that includes 30,000 titles. The primary advantage BOL has, is that they sell their content with Social DRM and Digital Watermarks, thereby making the EPUB files able to be loaded on any e-reader, tablet or smartphone. Amazon will be fighting an uphill battle to get market share in the Netherlands and they are hoping cheap e-readers will pave the way. The Kindle Basic will be available for €59, Kindle Paperwhite, €109, and the new Kindle Voyage will cost €189. Amazon Now Selling eBooks and e-Readers in the Netherlands is a post from: Good e-Reader |
BooXtream Talks Digital Watermarks and Social DRM
| Digital Watermarks or Social DRM is starting to catch on in Europe in a very big way. This new system of encryption makes loading eBooks on other devices or loaning them how to friends quick and intuitive. There are not special programs or tools needed to do any of this, which makes it quite attractive to publishers and online bookstores looking to sell books and still maintain a degree of security. BooXtream is one of the largest companies who are involved in watermark technology and CEO Huub van de Pol sat down with Good e-Reader to talk how it all fundamentally works and provides an eye opening introspective into the world of digital watermarks and social DRM. When did you guys seriously start to focus on digital watermarks as a viable business model? Since 1993, Icontact develops bespoke software solutions for the book and library industry in The Netherlands and Belgium. The very first start with digital watermarks was in 2006, when Icontact developed a custom digital distribution and fulfilment platform for audio books to be used by a Dutch audio book web shop and distributor. The music industry was still using DRM at that time, and we all knew the problems with DRM. So to be customer friendly we decided that the shop needed to deliver MP3 audio files instead of one (or more) platform specific audio formats with DRM. As you know, MP3 cannot be copy protected and doesn’t support DRM. Instead, we developed a simple but effective way to personalize each MP3 file with info about the transaction, the name of the end user and the web shop that sold the audio book. This enabled us to locate the end user when an audio book is found on an illegal site or CD-ROM. The end users knew it worked like this and had no problem with it, so it worked like a reasonable deterrent. We used all available tricks to add extra data in the mp3 file while keeping it compatible with the standard. Some data was visible (when you checked the file properties), but most were invisible to the end user. All personalisation took place dynamically after a valid order was registered. All mp3 files where then stored in a single ZIP container and a download link to this ZIP was presented to the end user. So essentially, every end user received a unique file with a personalized audio book. We registered the brand name BooXtream for this concept and technology. After a couple of years, only very few of these audio books were found 'in the wild'. 99.9% of all pirated content was ripped from CD's. We presented this experience on a national eBook conference in 2010. After our keynote "Lessons learned with Social DRM", several publishers not only liked the idea, they also asked us if we could do the same with eBooks instead of audio books. At that time there were only a few 'serious' eBook shops in The Netherlands, but we saw the potential. We were excited by the possibilities and opportunities of the market. We decided to create an SDK to watermark ePub eBooks, which evolved into the web service as we are now offering. We built BooXtream for eBooks based on the idea (concept) of adding as much 'invisible' data as possible to the files in an ePub, tightly integrated with a digital distribution and fulfillment platform, an easy to integrate web service (RESTful) and an attractive and simple price model (no upfront costs, only pay by use). BooXtream for eBooks 1.0 was released in fall 2010 and was offered as a web service based standard solution. (FYI: Icontact still develops custom software solutions. The BooXtream brand and product was bootstrapped, like an internally funded start-up.) Our launching customer was a small forward looking publisher in the Netherlands, but eBook watermarking really took off when UK based Pottermore decided to use it for the Harry Potter eBooks in 2012. This really created headlines all over the industry. How does the essence of your technology work? The essence is that we add 'hidden' data to all files in an ePub eBook file while keeping the eBook 100% valid, using several different proprietary algorithms. Our technology offers two basic features: adding invisible watermarks and adding visible extra's like a personalized ex libris page, a personalized footer text at the end of every chapter or a personalized chapter at the end of the eBook. The invisible part is essentially a transactional watermark, creating unique files for every eBook and every end user.. Everything is configurable by our customers. BooXtream operates in real time, on transaction level, so our technology has to be integrated at the point of sale (where the actual distribution to the end user takes place). There is no need to update any 'client software' when we update and improve our algorithms (as with Adobe DRM), which is possible because the eBooks are 100% valid and ePub compliant. In a technical sense, they are DRM free so they can be read by every e-reader and e-reading device out there. One of the essential characteristics of eBooks with watermarks is that there is no need to remove watermarks to make a backup, read it on multiple devices or share it with someone you trust (casual sharing). This isn’t the case with DRM, which is one of the reasons a lot of people that have no intention to pirate or hack do use DRM removal tools. Who would you say are your largest clients right now? Our technology is used worldwide by 2 of the Big 5 publishers, some very large independent D2C publishers, several hundreds of medium sized publishers selling D2C, quite a few independent eBook web shops and also numerous web shops of smaller publishers, self publishing authors and systems integration. Some publishers like to keep their name under the radar, but to name a few: Verso Books (US, UK), Cappelen Damm (largest publisher in Norway), Elly's Choice (largest eBook subscription service in The Netherlands), Firsty Group (large solutions provider for the publishing industry in the UK), Profile Books (UK); web shops from Finland to Spain and from Peru to Colombia. I saw you guys are a member of the IDPF, we sponsor many of their events, such as the main conference at Book Expo America. How has being a member affected your business? We are big fan of Bill McCoy. He is doing a marvelous job with IDPF, creating and maintaining the ePub standards, Readium, EduPub and basically uniting the eBook publishing world. I think it was Bill who coined the term 'Social DRM' which we adopted for our original BooXtream tagline. Being a member gives us insight in the working groups and future developments, but it also helps us to be found by potential customers. What are the main benefits as you see it, between watermarks and ADOBE DRM. The only benefit of Adobe DRM is that it can be used for library lending purposes. You cannot use watermarking for this, as watermarking is not able to disable an eBook after a certain amount of time. The few libraries that are using watermarking do this as a 'second line of defense in a closed ecosystems with apps. There are quite a few benefits of watermarking: With watermarked eBooks there is no need to use a specific (proprietary) e-reading client. Watermarked eBooks can be read on any device, with any software, as long as they are ePub compatible. This is a huge advantage, because it's both user friendly and support desk friendly. An eBook with watermarks can be read on different devices simultaneously. There is no need to remove DRM to do this. As an aside, there are plenty of DRM removal tools out there, but quite a few are Trojans or might contain a virus. The computer illiterate end user is far better off when he doesn’t need these tools, apart from the question if it's legal or not to use them. An eBook with watermarks can be backed-up using standard backup software. Again, there is no need to remove DRM to do this. This is very important because eBooks with DRM might get inaccessible when the web shop is getting out of business. This happened more than once. Our watermarking tools also offers visible personalisation, which creates new business possibilities and makes the eBook really personal. It is being used to personalize review copies, it is used to personalize course guides and business reports (even those that are distributed for free). One of our customers allow their end users to customer the ex libris in their own eBooks, like the personal stamp from earlier times. Others insert personalized messages or dynamically add some banner links in the eBook. If people started to pirate books via BooXtream, what do you guys do about it, if anything? Tracking and tracing illegal uploads is not our primary business. Sometimes pirated eBooks are discovered by our customers (publishers) when they search for their own titles. Part of our standard service is to help them decode the watermarks (if any, because the bulk of all pirated books are titles with DRM removed, not watermarked titles), so they can decide what to do. For larger-scale and automated discovery and enforcement we offer tools to anti-piracy third parties like MarkMonitor and Muso that are specialised in tracing copyright infringements, crawling the web, sending notice-and-take-down letters etc. Our tools enable them to look for the hidden watermarks within eBooks, decode them and take appropriate measures. They can use these tools as part of our and their arrangement with a publisher. BooXtream Talks Digital Watermarks and Social DRM is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Barnes and Noble Unveils Print on Demand for Indie Authors
| Barnes and Noble Nook Press is geared towards indie authors and allows them to self-publish their titles and sell them in the Nook online bookstore. The company has developed a new print on demand service that will allow their cadre of authors to print physical books. Designed to be simple and provide a high level of customization, the NOOK Press print service provides customers with a complete do-it-yourself experience for creating a hardcover or paperback book. The new service offers black and white or color printing, high-quality paper choices, multiple trim sizes and cover treatments. Additionally, with NOOK Press Author Services, authors can now choose from a variety of packages and a la carte services to receive professional assistance making their book. Authors and aspiring writers can use the new print service to create books for personalized gifting and keepsakes, and self-published authors can create promotional, review and personal resale copies. "With the introduction of the NOOK Press print service, we're providing authors, creators, crafters and more with a powerful new tool to bring their writing to print," said Theresa Horner, General Manager of NOOK Press & Vice President of Content Acquisition at NOOK Media. "It is very exciting to have the NOOK Press platform supporting authors in multiple formats." "NOOK Press is proud to add print books to its portfolio of services. As the world of self-publishing grows, NOOK Press will continue to expand its easy-to-use content creation services in support of all authors, writers and creators," said Doug Carlson, Executive Vice President of Digital Content and Chief Marketing Officer at NOOK Media LLC. "The NOOK Press team has created another outstanding experience for authors to showcase their content." It is important to note that the POD service will not get your book in Barnes and Noble bookstores. Amazon Createspace and Ingram Lightningsource will get your books on the main book lists that stores get and allow them to order the books to stock on their shelves. Barnes and Noble also has not fully developed this system in-house and instead is relying on a yet unnamed 3rd party to provide the POD service. There is a rumor going on right now that this company is Author Solutions is providing the POD conversions. This POD service is horrendously expensive, you are going to be paying $999 minimum and ranges in price to $2,199. You will get the assist though in creating illustrations and cover art though. Barnes and Noble Unveils Print on Demand for Indie Authors is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle Tips and Tricks Advanced User Guide
| Today I’m proud to announce the release of my first ebook on the Kindle store. It’s called Kindle Tips and Tricks Advanced User Guide, and as the name suggest it’s a tips guide for Kindle ebook readers. The ebook is designed specifically for the Kindle Voyage, Kindle Paperwhite, and 2014 entry-level Kindle. It contains basic […] |
WiFi-controlled pottery kiln
| I’ve always fantasised about having a kiln in the garage (Eben wants a pick and place machine; we need another garage). Kilns, though, are expensive. And where do you start if you want to refurbish a broken or old one safely? James Huang has an answer, and it’s got a Raspberry Pi in it. (Well, not in it, but attached very firmly to it. James’s girlfriend is an enthusiastic potter, and James is an equally enthusiastic hacker. They came together and made  Stepper motor and propane regulator The kiln operates via a PID, which controls the temperature taking closed-loop feedback from the thermocouple to the regulator. Adjustments can be made remotely; the kiln controller system has WiFi. James has a really interesting series of photographs, with explanatory text and some examples of test firings, over at imgur; he also answers questions about the project at Reddit.  Results of two test firings – the variously floppy things are pyrometric cones, used to measure temperature in different parts of the kiln. There are so many reasons I love this project. It’s a wonderful demonstration of what can be done with no specialised experience (James had never worked with kilns before starting this project, and neither he nor his girlfriend had any knowledge about firing pottery). The ingenuity on show is just brilliant (3d-printed gears!), the pottery that comes out of the end is immensely satisfying – and face it; there’s something very thrilling about flames. On top of all this, the whole project came in at less than $200. All James’s control software, along with a BOM, is open-source, and available on GitHub. |
Tolino Vision 2 Now Available – Bertelsmann has the Best Deal
| The Tolino Vision 2 was announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair and the e-reader is now available at Worldview, Thalia, Club Bertelsmann and Hugendubel. The mantra of the Tolino Alliance is to battle Amazon in Germany, and not let a big company dominate the market. The Tolino Vision 2 features the latest in e-Paper innovation, e Ink Carta. This is the exact screen technology found on the Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Kobo Aura H2O. This will not only provide higher contrast, but also eliminate the full page refresh issues that have plagued e-readers since the very beginning. The overall resolution is a very respectable 1024 × 758 pixels and has 212 PPI. It is also being billed as splash proof, so you can dump your coffee on it, and it won’t destroy the device, its not quite waterproof though. The actual selling of the e-reader is actually quite interesting. Each Tolino partner has the freedom to establish their own pricing. The Vision 2 is currently retailing for 149€, but Club Bertelsmann is currently offering the best deal in the country, only charging 129€. This holiday season you can expect the price will likely fall between 105€ to 99€. The Vision 2 has experienced a high level of demand this year, pre-orders had reached over 10,000 units. This has created a supply problem with Thalia and eBook.de who are all estimating two weeks of delivery time. Part of the reason why the supplies are stretched so thin is because the Alliance has expanded the sale of the e-reader to railway station bookstores and independent booksellers via Libri. I think the Vision 2 is a really good e-reader if you speak German. The online bookstore mainly just stocks titles in that language but it does have an English mode for advanced users that know how to load in their own books and have no problem using Calibre and Adobe Digital Editions. Tolino Vision 2 Now Available – Bertelsmann has the Best Deal is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, November 10, 2014
HP Stream 7 will make a Good e-Reader
| When you think of tablets doubling as an e-reader, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo or even Apple may come to mind. Seldom do you think of HP as being relevant when it comes to reading any sort of digital material. This might change with the advent of the HP Slate 7, a fully fledged Windows tablet that costs $99.99. The HP Stream 7, is apart of a new range that is seeking to make Windows 8.1 relevant. It features a seven inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800, as well as Intel Atom Z3735G with Intel HD Graphics (1.8 GHz, 2 MB cache, 4 cores), 1 GB RAM and 32GB of storage. Of course, this device has WIFI, Bluetooth, a Micro USB and Micro SD support to enhance the memory further. HP is starting Black Friday early with a new exclusive to Microsoft Store, the Stream 7 Signature Edition variant. It comes protected with premium, free anti-virus software that never expires. And best of all, it comes without any annoying junkware or trialware, giving you peace of mind that your tablet will always be clean, fast, and protected. Developers have slowly been adopting the Microsoft Store with a ton of apps for reading eBooks, comics, manga, digital magazines and newspapers. This might be a totally viable tablet that costs $100 less than the new Kindle Voyage. HP Stream 7 will make a Good e-Reader is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Card Readers are Showing Entrepreneurs to Think Local
| When young artists and small business owners are just starting out they tend to sell their content on platforms with the largest audience. Amazon Marketplace, Alibaba, eBay, and ETSY are all the most notable examples of being able to reach a huge audience and generate revenue without the need to setup a dedicated website and maintain strong social media. The downfall of these sites is that you may be known in a small niche segment online, but are completely unknown in your own backyard. I see small business owners and young entrepreneurs feel lost and deflated because they never get to meet their customers face to face and seldom do you ever see jubilation or a simple smile. Normally a customer dispute and angry emails are the everyday norm and it's rare that someone actually sends you a thank you email. I think in order to broaden your base and have a sense of real world accomplishment you have to get out there and develop a local presence. The one big concern about selling local is getting a distribution deal through an existing store and requires a lot of wheeling and dealing. If you live in a small town, your prospects might be bleak, which is why they turned online in the first place. A number of artists and authors end up going on tours to conventions or trade shows to get their name out there. I know a number of self-published authors that religiously visit the Romance Writers of America show and sell their books directly. The one big problem is people really don't carry a lot of cash around on them and instead rely on their credit and debit cards. I hear lots of authors complaining that the process of selling directly to readers is too hard. This problem has been remedied by mobile credit card readers such as Square that can not only process payments directly on your tablet or smartphone directly with customers, but can also be used online in conjunction with your Shopify account to take orders. I really recommend if you're a young writer or artist trying to make a name for yourself, don't rely entirely on the online world. You need to meet your target base directly and cultivate relationships and get that sense of satisfaction that someone is legitimately excited about what you got. Card Readers are Showing Entrepreneurs to Think Local is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sony Developing New DRM to Make Used eBooks Viable
| Sony is developing a new form of digital rights management to combat Adobes stranglehold on on the eBook market. The new encryption system will have an SDK that can be integrated into any existing e-reader or mobile app. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this new security system is a viable platform in which eBooks can be resold. Adobe Digital Editions is the current industry standard when it comes to eBooks having a layer of security to curb piracy. If you purchase a digital title from one store and want to load it onto your favorite e-reader or tablet you have to download and install the ADE Software, make an account and enter your credit card details. This software is also required for people who borrow eBooks from the library and aren’t using an official app from 3M, Baker & Taylor or Overdrive. The new Sony encryption system has been a product of three years of development at Sony DADC. This is a Sony subsidiary that primarily focuses on the development of storage media (CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays), but in addition offers Digital Rights Management Services. Sony plans on making their new eBook encryption system very appealing towards publishers and e-reader manufactures. The developed a brand new SDK that will play nice with any 3rd party reading app on Android, iOS or Windows. It also can integrated directly into any e-reader on the market. The key selling points of the Sony DRM are; to make eBook rentals viable, to lend an eBook to a friend easier, to define a clear path of ownership, better pay per chapter (metered) support and the ability to resell a book. The big problem in the eBook industry right now is the lack of clear ownership. When you click the BUY button on Amazon, Apple, Kobo, or Google you are simply licensing the book and it is never truly yours. Sony wants to change this and define a clear path of ownership, this will allow people to sell a used eBook and it will actually physically disappear from the original owners account. Sony plans on shopping their new DRM system in the spring of 2015 and will likely be conducting private meetings at notable events like the London Book Fair, Book Expo America and IDPF gatherings. I have heard from a reputable source that Sony already has six publishers locked up and will be leveraging those relationship in order to establish new ones. Sony Developing New DRM to Make Used eBooks Viable is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Listen up! Narrated eBooks now available
| With the most recent release of OverDrive Read, we’ve introduced eBooks that are enhanced with embedded audio. This new feature means that you can get eBooks (through OverDrive Read) that deliver professional narration along with the text. Here’s a sample of Spork, by Kyo Maclear and Isabelle Arsenault. Click Start narration to see how it works: Some of these eBooks include a full-blown soundtrack with sound effects, like Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch: These two samples aren’t just narrated; they’re also examples of fixed-layout eBooks. “Fixed layout” means that a publisher can design the digital pages of each eBook so that they look just like the ones in the print version, with every word and picture in its proper place. These look best in the full-screen preview mode so you get a two-page spread. In these two samples, each word is highlighted as the narrator reads. This works with many narrated titles (depending on the publisher), and is great for helping developing readers learn because they can simultaneously hear and read each word as a story progresses. The narrated titles we offer are high-quality productions that have been tested for quality before being made available for sale. Randy Travis, John Lithgow, and Robert Munsch are just a few of the great narrators we offer. Heck, we’ve even got Ray Charles (yes, that Ray Charles) reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin and John Archambault! You can find narrated titles by filtering your advanced search results by the special feature “Embedded audio” in the OverDrive MarketPlace. We’ve also compiled a list (you’ll need to be signed into MarketPlace to view this link). If you want to keep track of what’s getting updated in OverDrive Read in the future, you can check out our “What’s New?” help article (which we update regularly) for more information. OverDrive Help also has you covered with articles specifically for narrated eBooks that include the basic “how-tos” and compatibility information. With that, I bid you, happy reading! Er . . . listening? Both? In any case, go out and enjoy some eBooks! I’m off to partake of the dulcet tones of Mr. Ray Charles. Quinton Lawman is a Technical Writer at OverDrive.  |
New Fire HDX 8.9 has Dynamic Light Control to Mimic the Look of Paper (Video)
| I’ll admit, when Amazon announced their new lineup of Kindle ereaders and Fire tablets for this year, I barely paid any attention whatsoever to the new Fire HDX 8.9. I was too interested in the Kindle Voyage and new 6-inch Fire HD to care much about a Fire HDX with only a couple upgrades from […] |
Investors Satisfied with Blackberry 10 Fire Sale
| Blackberry is undergoing a resurgence under the leadership of John Chen and the fruits of their new strategy are resonating well with investors. No one really knows how many Blackberry Passport devices were sold, but 200,000 units were gone right away. The main Blackberry website has been sold out every day of the week since launch and the upcoming Classic phone is highly anticipated with its core customers. Blackberry is trying to liquidate their current inventory of older phones by having a fire sale during the month of November. The BlackBerry’s Q10 price dropped one hundred dollars to $199, ahead of the release of the Classic. Likely, Blackberry saw no need for a single keyboard device competing for the same market. The Classic features the inclusion of navigation buttons and trackpad, something that was missing from the Q10. The Z30 price drop is very dramatic and the phone itself was a victim of bad timing. When it got released the Blackberry leadership was changing and the company did not allocate enough of a marketing budget to run any kind of sustained media campaign. Can this be a sign to come that the company might be developing a phablet type of device? The two devices Blackberry is getting behind and pushing in a big way is the Passport and Classic. I like the fact it hearkens back to the glory days of Blackberry, where all of their phones had a great keyboard. According to SeekingAlpha “Investors are not convinced shares of BlackBerry should trade above the $10.50 level. There are still concerns of falling revenue from the services division. The company will make up for the drop first through BES 12 subscriptions. On the hardware sales side, speculation of strong Passport sales could finally push shares towards back to the $15 level. This is unlikely in the short-term. BlackBerry still needs a phablet or a tablet-like smart phone. This signals the company is confident with the BBOS 10.3 release. More importantly, it implies BlackBerry is confident demand for its family of devices will improve now, and heading into 2015.” Investors Satisfied with Blackberry 10 Fire Sale is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Raspberry Pi Model A+ on sale now at $20
| When we announced the Model B+ back in July, we said that we’d also be producing a lower-cost variant, analogous to the original Model A. Since then, James has been beavering away, and today we’re pleased to announce the release of the Raspberry Pi Model A+ at a new low price of $20.  Smaller, more energy-efficient and crazy-affordable Like the Model A, the Model A+ uses the BCM2835 application processor and has 256MB RAM, but it is significantly smaller (65mm in length, versus 86mm for the Model A), consumes less power, and inherits the many improvements that we made to the Model B+, including:
When we announced Raspberry Pi back in 2011, the idea of producing an “ARM GNU/Linux box for $25″ seemed ambitious, so it’s pretty mind-bending to be able to knock another $5 off the cost while continuing to build it here in the UK, at the same Sony factory in South Wales we use to manufacture the Model B+. You can buy the Model A+ today from our partners Farnell/element14/Newark. We handed out a very few preview units to some people we know with video cameras and microphones. Here’s what they had to say: |
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Marvel Secret Wars Battleworld the Big Digital Comic Event of 2015
| Marvel is rebooting the Secret Wars into a new project called Battleworld, which will launch in May 2015 and continue well into the summer. In the original Secret Wars, the villain known as The Beyonder took pieces from various planets and combined them to create Battleworld where he forced the heroes and villains of Earth to fight each other. This new Secret Wars seems to be taking that basic concept but using pieces from Earths of different realities. This trailer shows that each reality has their own separate region on Battleworld. Given the name of this planet, it's safe to assume that the heroes and villains of these worlds will have to battle one another. This event will hopefully be a do over from the original Secret Wars, which had a high concept but terrible execution. I am hoping this is going to be better than Age of Ultron or AVX, which has been fairly lackluster.
Marvel Secret Wars Battleworld the Big Digital Comic Event of 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
e-Reader Buyers Guide – Winter 2014
| This year it seems more new e-readers have come out than almost any other year and it can be quite daunting to choose the best one as a gift, upgrade or just buying one for the first time. Some devices have built in bookstores that allow you to buy eBooks, magazines and newspapers on demand, others make the users rely on finding their own books online and loading them in via the USB cable. e-Readers tend to come in two sizes for the most part, six inches and 9.7 inches. Six inch e-readers tend to be the most popular, because of their pocket friendly nature and low entry price point. Larger readers tend to be most expensive because less people buy them and it costs more to manufacture small batches. What is an e-Reader? An e-Reader typically uses e-Ink technology, which mimics real paper. Smartphones and tablets use LCD displays which has light emitting from behind the screen into your eyes. This has been known to cause melatonin suppression, which basically makes you stay up late, unable to sleep properly. e-Readers this year have mostly adopted front-lit displays, which has the light emitting from underneath the bezel, splashing light evenly across the screen. This allows you to read in the dark, controlling the brightness levels, without the need of ambient lighting or a reading light. e-Readers for the most part have a singular use, to read eBooks. 95% of all electronic readers were designed to purely enjoy a great book, without the distractions that smartphones and tablets provide via emails, notifications and overall distractions. The Best Six Inch e-Readers Amazon Kindle Voyage – The Voyage is Amazons new flagship e-reader and has a six inch screen with the best resolution in the business. Amazon has incorporated some new technology in this model that no other e-reader on the market currently has. The first is manual page turn keys that are flush with the bezel, the buttons do not protrude. When you press down on the button to turn the page you are met with a barely noticeable haptic feedback vibration to let you know you turned a page. There is also an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust the brightness of the screen based on your lighting conditions. Amazon currently has the best in class eBook ecosystem, they control 75% of the market in North America and the UK. They have everything from fan-fiction to being able to read books before they officially hit the bookstores and even an unlimited membership that allows you to check out as many books a month as you want. The Seattle based company is in the news a lot, for good reason, they are the best. There are some drawbacks to the Amazon ecosystem as a whole. They have their own eBook format, which makes it impossible to buy books from other stores and load them on the device. The Voyage also has no SD Card support, so you have to use the 3.5 GB of memory with caution, especially if you are loading big PDF files on it. Kobo Aura H2O – Canadian based Kobo released a singular e-reader this year, that is being billed as the first device you can take with you anywhere. It is completely waterproof up to five meters, fully submerged, which makes it appealing to take with you in the bathtub to the beach or on vacation. The Aura H2O has the same resolution as the Kindle Voyage, but has a 6.8 inch screen instead of the standard six. It has an SD Card, so you can load up even more books than the Kindle and the Kobo bookstore is populated with millions of titles. The larger screen makes reading a bit more enjoyable because more text can be displayed, making books seem a bit shorter. Flexible font control allows you to change it on the fly and advanced options allow you to even load in your own fonts. Speaking of advanced options, Kobo is the only company to balance general level options to control simple functions but it also appeals to power users with being able to control font weight or even the bright/dark levels of the text. Kobo is second most popular eBook store in the world and you can buy digital content in almost every country. They use the EPUB format, so you can easily borrow books from your local library or even from other online bookstores and load them in via Adobe Digital Editions. Icarus Illumina HD – E653 – One of the big trends of 2014 was indie e-reader companies adopting the concept of open Android. This is the same type of user experience that smartphones and tablet owners enjoy, by being able to install their own apps. The HD model runs Android 4.2, which makes it highly capable of being able to run Kindle, Kobo, Nook or any other app such as Moon+ Reader or Aldiko. The Illumina HD is highly versatile and is able to read most popular eBook formats, you can buy books in EPUB or PDF formats from any major store and load them onto the unit via Adobe Digital Editions. There is no bookstore built into the unit of note, but because you can basically install your store of choice, this e-reader allows for unparalleled freedom and is more solid than any of the e-readers Onyx sells. Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight – Barnes and Noble remains a force to be reckoned with in the e-reader industry, even though their market share has diminished due to Amazon and Kobo. The Glowlight was the only model the largest bookseller in the US released in 2014. One of the ways B&N continues to be successful is due to the fact the e-Reader is sold in bookstores and most people in the US and UK live in close proximity to one. Users who experience issues with the hardware only have to drive down to their local store and receive intimidate support or to have it replaced. Barnes and Noble was the first company to pioneer the very concept of glowlight technology and their online bookstore is well designed and highly curated. They put an emphasis on editorial and discovery in order to find the next good read. The Nook line of e-readers tends to get lambasted by the media because it makes a click worthy headline that the company is doomed. This is the similar type of syndrome that Blackberry has experienced over the year, but Nook remains relevant and a good e-reader. Best Large Screen e-Readers There are a number of reasons why people tend to buy large screen e-readers. As we get older, the eyesight tends to degrade and book lovers tend to buy the large print editions of books in their local store. Doing this can get expensive as these variants often cost two or three times the cost of a paperback,. Another popular reason why people love large screen e-readers is due to the screen real estate. PDF Files and eBooks can fit more text on the screen, which appeals to students and industry professionals. Icarus Excel – For the most demanding user that works with A4 sized documents, PDFs and has the need to interact with the content (notes, annotations, highlighting), the ICARUS Reader eXceL is unmatched. The 9.7" E-Ink PEARL touch screen has great contrast and swiftly responds to any command . With 1200 x 825 pixels it has much more detail than most e-readers (800 x 600). With the stylus you can make handwritten notes, highlight text, and make annotations. And with Wi-Fi connectivity you can wirelessly browse the web and access content on the go. This e-reader also runs Android 4.0 which allows users to select the digital ecosystem of their choice, but also install other news/RSS or magazine apps. Sony Digital Paper – Sony abandoned the consumer e-reader sector earlier this year. They developed a new product that sticky appeals towards people who need to get large PDF files. This reader is 13.3 inches in size and retails for around $999.99 in the US and has higher international availability via Shop e-Readers. The Sony Digital Paper features a 13.3 inch e-Ink Mobius e-paper screen with a resolution of 1200 by 1600. It was designed to give you a true A4 experience, displaying PDF files as they were originally intended. The lightweight nature of Mobius gives you amazing clarity in the fonts and pictures. It also one of the most lightweight products in its class, clocking in at .08 pounds. To give you some comparison, The Kindle DX has a 9.7 inch screen and weighs 0.91 pounds and the iPad Air is 1.3 pounds. The Digital Paper only reads PDF documents but it is possible to convert your standard eBook to PDF using online tools or eBook editing software like Calibre. Wrap up There was a number of notable e-readers that did not make our buying list for various reasons. Pocketbook has been making them for a number of years, but has made missteps with the internals, such as CPU and RAM which makes using it tedious. Onyx Boox also has a number of new units this year, but none of them were especially compelling. Our recommendations reflect the best new e-readers of 2014, in terms of usability, features and ecosystem. You could get any of these for holiday gifts or give them to someone and they will not have to go through much of a learning curve. e-Reader Buyers Guide – Winter 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
