| At a Princeton hackathon a while back, Bonnie Eisenman did something rather wonderful to a flight of stairs using a Raspberry Pi, some lights, an Arduino and a handful of photoresistors. Bonnie, I can’t believe you only won second prize. This is amazing. A while later, Bonnie made build instructions and code available on Instructables – and since then, some other people have been posting video of their own staircase piano hacks. This one, from Alyssa Zachariah, is from Halloween, when she made the stairs up to her front door into a piano for trick-and-treating kids. And there are home applications too: here’s William Kreutinger’s family staircase, piano-fied. There’s a little soldering involved, but soldering is easy, and this is not a hard build – in fact, it’d make a really good first project if you’re new to hardware hacking. Fancy making one yourself? Head over to Instructables for a how-to, and let us know how you get on! |
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Piano stairs
The 2014 Holiday Season was a Big Test for e-reader Usage on Airlines
| In late 2013 the FAA amended their policy to allow e-readers and tablets to be used gate to gate. It took almost a full year for the vast majority of airlines to officially adopt electronics usage but this year was the first major holiday season where travelers were able to read their e-books, digital magazines and newspapers in all phases of air travel. Since the travel restrictions on e-readers, tablets and smartphones were lifted over 31 airlines have adopted the use of electronics and those companies account for 95% of all commercial traffic in the US. Australia, Canada and most of Europe have also relaxed their restrictions on the usage of electronics on flights, but exact numbers on airline adoption rates are unknown. Many airlines have rushed to offer e-Book, digital magazine and digital newspaper services in their lounges and computer terminals aboard the aircraft. The intention behind most of these moves is to sell digital content to travelers and earn commissions on the sales. Others give the content away for free as an added incentive to book your travel with them. Jetblue partnered with HarperCollins to provide excerpts from a selection of bestselling eBooks, and each digital sample will include buy buttons to a variety of retailers. Excerpted titles include Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton, and Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean. Purchased titles are synced automatically via WIFI to a users reader or tablet. Newspaper and Magazine company PressReader offers their content in Virgin Australia lounges, which allows guests to access over 3,000 publications. They have also ironed out an agreement with flyDubai to have about a hundred papers available in the in-flight entertainment system to read in the air. Prior to takeoff guests can use their own devices to download thousands of issues for free and can read them whenever they want. Although travelers have and airlines have been quick to embrace e-reading on air flights, the 60,000 person strong Association of Flight Attendants has filed a lawsuit against the FAA. In a legal filing they said that the FAA "acted improperly" and failed to follow proper protocol implementing the changes. A lawyer for the Association of Flight Attendants has argued that portable electronic devices distract passengers from safety announcements and can "become dangerous projectiles." Its doubtful whether or not the lawsuit has any merit, the three judges presiding over the case are not going to countermand the relaxed restrictions. In a recent statement by Judge Harry T. Edwards he said "Airlines have always had discretion on how to handle this." U.S. airlines carried 574.3 million system wide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers during the first nine months of 2014. Exact statistics for the holiday season should be available within the next month. According to Twitter and Facebook social metrics, many travelers were very happy with being able to use their electronics gate to gate this year. Listening to music while taking off and landing remained one of the most popular ways travelers alleviated the stress of flying. The 2014 Holiday Season was a Big Test for e-reader Usage on Airlines is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Sling TV Might Just Make Cable Subscriptions Obsolete
| CES is always an exciting event filled with news and previews that make us salivate; the 2015 event is no exception, with Sling TV proving to be one of the more exciting announcements. Following an entrance that can be described as nothing short of impressive, Dish CEO Joe Clayton announced that Sling Television will deliver television packages for Internet streaming that includes networks like ESPN, TBS, TNT, CNN, and the Disney Channel (almost 200 choices all told)… all for only $20 per month. An offering like this has to be making cable companies more than a little nervous. Most of us are happy to pay a subscription fee for the content we want to watch, so much so that we’ve been paying for the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime –as long as it doesn’t break the bank. Most of the participating networks allow you to pause and rewind live TV, with many also giving access to shows that have aired within the past three days. It’s true that you can’t do any DVR style recording with Sling TV, but we have services like Hulu Plus for that (meaning for under $30 a month, you get first run television along with a library of stuff that has already aired) –even paying for both, you are still coming out ahead of the cost for competitive cable packages from leading providers (not to mention the added streaming conveniences). As if those features weren’t compelling enough, Sling TV will also feature a movie rental service. Upon release later this year, Sling TV will be featured on a selection of smart TVs, Roku players, Amazon Fire TV (and Fire Stick), Xbox One, Nexus Player, Android TV, Android, and iOS mobile platforms.
Sling TV Might Just Make Cable Subscriptions Obsolete is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Onyx Boox Afterglow 2 Now Available on Amazon
| Onyx doesn’t make it easy to get your hands on their latest e-readers since they are only primarily available in Europe. The company operates their own store and shipping to North America can be quite expensive and normally has a long delay, due to customs. In order to get their new flagship e-reader into customers hands Onyx Boox has just begun to offer the Afterglow 2 for sale via Amazon. The Onyx Afterglow 2 came out in early December and features a six inch capacitive touchscreen with e-Ink Pearl HD and a resolution of 1024×758. You will be able to read in the dark via the front-lit display, which is the same sort of tech you see in the Kindle Voyage and Kobo Aura H2O. This e-reader has a few things really going for it that makes it standout in a crowded marketplace. I really like the dual core 1.2 GHZ processor which should keep things really speedy, most other digital book readers all have single cores. It also has a stock version of Google Android 4.2 and users can install any app they want via Google Play. The Afterglow 2 enables you to listen to e-books whenever you need to multi-task. IVONA text-to-speech system with its advanced technologies reads texts less like a robot, and more like a human. You get two voices: English and Polish. This device is also capable of reading a fair number of e-Book formats, including PDF, EPUB, MOBI, DOC, TXT, DJVU, HTML, RTF, and FB2. Onyx Boox Afterglow 2 Now Available on Amazon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Moon+ Reader Receives Material Design Update
| Many devices are still waiting for their upgrade to Android Lollipop, but apps are starting to roll out new Material Design updates in full-force. Among those with a new look and feel is the Moon+ Reader. Moon+ Reader is arguable one of the fullest-featured digital readers, offering: support for a variety of document formats (including epub, mobi, chm, cbr, cbz, umd, fb2, txt, html, rar, zip, or OPDS), a full array of visual options (like line space, font scale, bold, italic, shadow, justified alignment, alpha colors, and fading edge), over 10 themes, paging options (such as touching the screen or using the volume and camera keys), customizable options (for screen clicking, swiping, and events like bookmarking), auto-scroll modes, brightness adjustment, page turning effects and animations, along with the ability to backup and restore to the cloud via DropBox. The updated design is really just icing on the cake (so to speak). If you would like to see for yourself, download Moon+ Reader for your Android device now.
Moon+ Reader Receives Material Design Update is a post from: Good e-Reader |
India Tackles Digital Textbooks with 3.7M Student Rollout
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For now, the Times has reported that pricing continues to be a huge obstacle to broader ebook adoption. With a price structure that often puts physical and digital editions of bestsellers within only a few rupees of each other, there seems to be little rush to buy ebooks. And with the abundance of sites offering free content for the growing e-reader segment, in areas with consistent connectivity to download books, there is plenty to read on the often-costly boutique devices without having to take the risk of purchasing online with a credit card. But when the Kerala schools make the move to what they’re calling “Digital Collaborative Textbooks,” students will begin using audio- and video-enhanced multimedia ebooks in the classroom, which stands to bridge the digital divide with the typical tech early adopters. India has already made great strides in the introduction of region-specific, lower cost educational-use tablets Instead of looking at India as a stagnant market, this disconnect in the ebook purchasing mindset has retailers seeing the potential for massive growth, and initiatives like the educational drive will only add to the attitude shift that’s needed for ebook adoption to take off. According to the Times findings, an Amazon India spokesperson said, “This high propensity for reading, growth in literacy, increasing internet penetration and internet-enabled devices, plus a rapid growth of middle class population with increasing disposable income, makes it a very promising market.” India Tackles Digital Textbooks with 3.7M Student Rollout is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Launches Kindle Free Manga Service in Japan
| Amazon launched a new manga service in Japan on Wednesday that showcases free content that anyone can download. It is being billed as Kindle Free Manga Magazine and new issues will be posted weekly. The initial lineup includes the first digital edition of Shueisha’s Grand Jump magazine, as well as Manga Action, Comic Ran Twins, Comic Zero-Sum, Manga Box service, and Square Enix’s Hobo Gekkan Otameshi Gangan. Kindle Free Manga Magazine is not only being billed as a way to check out the publishers graphic novels and manga, but also a discovery service. There are hundreds of graphic novels and single issues of manga that is being advertised. Each issue ranged in price, but the average price is ¥400. Amazon started their Japanese e-book store in early 2012 and currently has over 50,000 e-books and 15,000 manga volumes. The platform is starting to become a viable distribution system for companies such as Kodansha and Shueisha who are both publishing weekly magazines. Amazon Launches Kindle Free Manga Service in Japan is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Jaasta May Redefine the Keyboard via e Ink
| Jaasta is seeking to redefine what the computer keyboard is capable of, with an assist from e Ink. The company will be releasing their product in the next few weeks and features a very innovative design that allows anyone to switch to foreign language on the fly or customize the key layout to suit the needs of using Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Office. Have you always wanted to try the Dvorak layout without full abandoning Qwerty? You could even get rid of keys you never use, or add duplicates of ones you rely on often. Twitter power-users could finally get a dedicated hashtag key, instead of having to press multiple keys to access it. The core technology behind this keyboard is e Ink, the same company responsible for the e-Paper used in the Kindles, Kobos and Nooks of the world. The premise behind it is quite simply. One keyboard to rule them all. Instead of hunting around for a specialized keyboard on Amazon for Japanese or Chinese characters, you just install a software package and the entire keyboard conforms to it. The keyboard sports a 3.5-inch multi-touch touchpad and a display where users can see the time, the language, and battery life. The wireless keyboard will be available to pre-order in the next few weeks and if the $300 price does not scare you off, you can sign up for their newsletter to be the first on your block to own one. Jaasta May Redefine the Keyboard via e Ink is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Time Machine is January’s Whispersync for Voice Freebie
| Amazon finally updated their free monthly promotion for a free ebook and audiobook combo. This month’s free title is H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. Through the month of January you can get both the ebook and professionally narrated audiobook for free. Amazon has been doing this for several months now to promote their exclusive Whispersync […] |
Waterstones Proclaims Kindle e-Reader Sales are Dead
| Waterstones is the largest bookstore chain the United Kingdom and they have proclaimed that Kindle sales had "disappeared to all intents and purposes." James Daunt is the CEO of Waterstones and many people in the bookselling industry were surprised when he forged a relationship with Amazon in 2012 to sell Kindle e-reader. A year prior, in a series of interviews, Daunt spoke of Amazon as the “enemy” and “a ruthless, money-making devil”. Daunt lamented that his predecessors did not develop their own e-reader while the market was unsaturated and not consolidated. Waterstones sold lackluster devices that did not allow customers to buy books right on the readers. When James took over the company his first reaction was to scrap all the woeful readers they currently stocked and made new relationships with Amazon to bring in a big brand name. One of the reasons why Waterstones is seeing a decline in e-reader sales is because British consumers are still enamored with print. Over £2.2 billion was spent on hardcovers and paperbacks in 2013, compared to the £300 million that was generated by e-books. James Daunt told the Financial Times that the resurgence in popularity of tangible books was due to Waterstones refurbishing some of its 290 shops. I think this was an interesting time for Waterstones to proclaim that Kindle sales were dead. The five year contract to sell the readers and tablets expires this year and this could be used as leverage to get a better deal or to get out of dealing with Amazon completely. The die hard Kindle users tend to buy the devices online from Amazon when pre-orders become available for new product releases, such as the Kindle Voyage. If Waterstones were to get out of the Kindle contract, likely they would secure a number of deals with other e-reader companies such as Barnes and Noble, Kobo and the Tolino Alliance. Waterstones Proclaims Kindle e-Reader Sales are Dead is a post from: Good e-Reader |
TV Show Read-Alikes
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American Horror Story: Asylum Read-Alikes As always, your Collection Development Specialist is available to help create any Read-Alikes or recommended lists. Email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today! Some titles are metered access and may have limited regional or platform availability. Check OverDrive Marketplace to find what is available for you. Rachel Kray is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive |
Royal Institution Christmas Lecture 1 – video!
| As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, we sponsored the Royal Institution’s 2014 Christmas Lectures. They have just made the video of the first of the Lectures – the one with all the Raspberry Pis in it – available to watch online, wherever you are in the world. It’s really worth your while – the Lectures make up some of the year’s best educational TV. Click here or on the image to visit their channel and view. We’d like to send our very warmest congratulations to this year’s presenter, Professor Danielle George, and to her husband: baby Elizabeth was born just after the lectures aired. (Great choice of name, team George!) |
e Ink Smartband LookSee is Fashion Statement for Men
| When it comes to smart accessories, most seemed to be aimed at women. There are a ton of smart necklaces and rings that are currently on the market, but aside from watches, men don’t really have anything that is directly made just for them. This mentality seems to be changing with the advent of a new e Ink device called LookSee. The LookSee pairs with a custom made LookSee app via Bluetooth to let users choose from either hundreds of pre-loaded photos and patterns or their own photos, which are then displayed in a series on the bracelet. It can also display text, photos, clockfaces, maps, QR codes and boarding passes. This device has an e Ink display, giving users an entire years worth of battery life. This is primarily due to the fact that e Ink does not draw any power with a static image and only generates a current when the pictures are swapped or changed. LookSee bears a striking resemblance the new Sony smartband that will be issued sometime in 2015. It seems as though there is a big movement right now with personalizing fashion accessories with tech, sure to be a crucial area for wearables in 2015.
e Ink Smartband LookSee is Fashion Statement for Men is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Inkcase Plus Unboxing Video
| The Inkcase Plus is a secondary screen for your Android smartphone. It pairs up to your device using Bluetooth and once you install the e-reading app, it functions as a mini e-reader. This device features a 3.5 inch, 360 x 600 pixel e-Ink display which is visible in direct sunlight. The low-power screen also only uses electricity when you refresh the page, so it should get up to 10 to 15 days of battery life. There are a number of apps available for the Inkcase Plus, such as a photo gallery, sports and picture app. My personal favorite is the e-reader app, you can simply load in your own e-Pub books and turn it into a dedicated 3.5 inch digital reader.
Inkcase Plus Unboxing Video is a post from: Good e-Reader |
BiblioTech Digital Library Plans to Expand into a Second Location
| The Bibliotech Library in Bexar County was the first library ever to forgo books entirely and embrace digital. The branch celebrated its first year of operation last September. Things are working out so well, that the all digital library is expanding into a second location later this year. During its inaugural year the Bibliotech library has been heralded as a massive success. They had over 136,104 visitors who checked out the library during their first year and 47,514 patrons registered to use the various digital services. The library loaned out 7,147 e-readers and over 102,243 e-book circulations were made since September 2013. BiblioTech Administrator Laura Cole shed some light on the new location “We will be located in commercial space in a new public housing development. The housing development itself is innovative. It is an energy efficient community with a total of 539 mixed-income units. The development also features 4,200 sf commercial space and 12 live/work units to promote small business. Further, the development promotes walkability with green spaces, walking trails and a plaza to connect residents with the adjacent neighborhoods. The development and its neighborhood are a perfect fit for BiblioTech.” Laura went on to elaborate the reasoning beyond the selected location “One of the fundamental components of BiblioTech is to provide technology access to underserved areas. A demographic survey of the new location reveals that within a 3 mile radius the median household income is $24,973. The percentage of Latino and African American residents is 95% and only 4% have earned a four year college degree.” One of the main benefits of an all digital library is that the content can be shared between both locations. The total operating budget of the second location will be a paltry $500,000 for the first year, primarily going to buying more computers, e-readers and hiring staff. BiblioTech currently deals with more 3rd party e-Book, audiobook, video and academic resources than even Queens or the New York Public Library. Laura said they currently deal with Hoopla for audiobooks, Atomic for software training, Mango for language learning, Comics Plus for comics and graphic novels, 3M Clod Library for e-books and audio books, One Click Digital also for audio books, Image Quest for rights-cleared images, AZ Databases – Search for people and companies, Heritage Quest for Genealogy, Newsbank for digital newspapers and they just subscribed to Ancestry.Com for on-site use at the library. With all of these different companies having content distribution deals with Bilbiotech, it opens up a number of opportunities for other digital focused organizations to make their pitch. PressReader would likely be one of the big players who could see solid traction at the second location, their digital newspaper solution has been firmly embraced by hundreds of locations throughout the US, including San Francisco Public. I could also see Baker and Taylor’s Axis 360 program do quite well. All digital libraries will be an emerging trend for the next few years. A new initiative in Omaha is taking over a closed down Borders bookstore and converting it into a multi-thousand square foot digital library. They are not just billing it as a place to get e-Books but a nexus where local entrepreneurs can create the next breakout technologies. Although the Omaha crew have not had formal discussion yet with BiblioTech, many other prospective locations are. “We have been approached by several other cities interested in setting up digital libraries.” said Laura Cole, “we are more than happy to help and share our experiences. We learned a lot – what did right – what we could have done better – things we never considered.” BiblioTech Digital Library Plans to Expand into a Second Location is a post from: Good e-Reader |
3rd Party Amazon Sellers Shipped Two Billion Items in 2014
| Amazon had a banner year in 2014 with over two billion items shipped worldwide by 3rd party sellers. This is a staggering number, considering there are only two million registered vendors who use the service. 3rd party sellers accounted for over 40% of all items sold on Amazon over 2014. Products such as books, movies and trading cards were shipped from 100 different countries around the world fulfilled orders to customers in 185 countries. The e-tailer proclaimed that the largest growth was primarily due to China and Hong Kong-based sellers whose international sales grew 80% year-over-year. One of the ways sellers have been able to crank up the volume orders on Amazon is due to the Amazon Seller App. It is available for Android, iOS and Fire phone, and makes it easier for sellers on Amazon to quickly manage inventory, source and list new items, and quickly respond to customer inquiries. It's been a record-setting year for selling on Amazon. We're seeing strong growth from sellers listing their items across our global marketplaces. In fact, there are now more than a billion offers for customers to browse from sellers who are listing items for sale outside their home country," said Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace. "The growth of mobile and the introduction of the Amazon Seller App have also been a big win for sellers this year. Sellers are constantly telling us they value the flexibility of managing their businesses on-the-go from their tablets and mobile devices." 3rd Party Amazon Sellers Shipped Two Billion Items in 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
e Ink Color Changing Walls Unveiled at CES
| e Ink is primarily known for their e-paper displays found on the Kindle, Kobo and Nook e-readers. The company has been trying to diversity their portfolio with niche market uses for their EPD’s. One of the the new ways they managed to pull it off is with color changing walls using a new technology called Prism. Prism material lets buildings subtly change colors and patterns on the spot, without having to rely the more traditional LCD displays that are found at the O’hare tunnel walls in Chicago. Prism can be configured to respond to people just walking by, setting up Waypoints or can be used for elaborate art projects. E Ink is proclaiming that not only walls and flexible furniture can be adapted to use this technology, but also movable kiosks & exhibits. I think its really important to stand out in the crowd and being able to capture peoples attention with animated colors is really important. Each of the E Ink-powered Plexiglas tiles are roughly 16-inches by 16-inches and can show off a range of colors. The company is only demonstrating red, white and pink, because its eye catching at CES. I was informed that more colors are available, which leads me to believe they are using re purposed e-Ink Triton technology to provide the color. Sadly, e Ink is not going to be marketing this stuff directly, instead, it's working with third-party design and material partners to get it in airports or inside corporate buildings. e Ink Color Changing Walls Unveiled at CES is a post from: Good e-Reader |
2014’s top ideas to kick-start digital reading in your school
| 2015 is here. Whether your school is heading into the second half of or getting ready for a new school year, January and February are great times to promote the eBooks you have available to your students. In 2014 we saw more schools than ever come up with creative ways to build awareness of their eBook offerings, and here are some of the best ideas from the past year:
Did you have any successful campaigns in 2014, or perhaps one that you're getting ready to roll out? We'd love to hear about them and help in any way that we can. If you have any questions on marketing or promoting digital reading, you can always reach out to your Account Specialist. We also have many resources on the Partners Portal including the seasonal promo kits and program and event ideas like post-holiday training sessions (which would be perfect for right now!). We expect 2015 to be another banner year for our school partners, so let's start it off well together! |
School District R2-J in Colorado who did a summer reading raffle, to post on their site during the raffle period for increased visibility.A “hello” from a hobbyist-turned-evangelist
| Hello! I’m Matt Richardson, the newest member of the Raspberry Pi team. I’m so excited to be on board because I’m such a big Raspberry Pi fan. Ever since I first got my hands on a board in May of 2012, I've been doing a lot with Raspberry Pi. I made projects like this bicycle accessory, I produced videos about Raspberry Pi, wrote articles, gave talks, and even teamed up with a friend to write a book about how to get started with Raspberry Pi. There's still so much that I want to do, which is why I’m so glad to be a part of the team.  A selfie with my first Raspberry Pi taken in May of 2012. Before coming to Raspberry Pi, I was a contributing editor for Make: Magazine, the premier magazine for makers. Raspberry Pi was my beat for a majority of my time there, so I kept an eye on Pi projects, hardware, and accessories. I also had the chance to go to many Maker Faires to give talks and meet fellow makers. As part of my new position, I'll continue to go to Maker Faires, but now I'll help carry the Raspberry Pi banner in an official capacity. I’m based in San Francisco and as a Raspberry Pi Evangelist, I’ll be responsible for outreach with a focus on the United States. I’ll connect with organizations, talk to people about how they use Raspberry Pi, and make regular appearances here on the blog. If you’d like to connect with me, I’m on Twitter, where I post about Raspberry Pi and all my other interests including technology, making, art, design, travel, airliners, ham radio, television, and a small dash of politics. I’m looking forward to being involved in all that lies ahead in the realm of Raspberry Pi! |
Amazon Sending Customers Reminders about e-Book Settlement Credits
| Amazon is sending a new batch new emails reminding customers that they have credits in their account based on the number of e-Books they have purchased from April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012. The reminder should not be taken in earnest because all credits expire March 31, 2015. If you are a very casual digital book buyer and have a Kindle you should have some credits in your account. Anyone who has purchased an e-Book from Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin or Macmillan between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012 gets a credit of $3.17 if that book was a New York Times bestseller and a credit of $0.73 if the book was never a NYT bestseller. The credits can be used to buy any e-book on the Amazon ecosystem and does not have to be used with the particular publishers involved in the court case. Amazon Sending Customers Reminders about e-Book Settlement Credits is a post from: Good e-Reader |
