| Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! Below is a roundup of free Kindle ebooks with positive reviews for your reading pleasure. Once again, Amazon is running a big sale on Kindle books today only as part of their main Gold Box Deal of the Day. The sale includes over 50 titles from […] |
Sunday, May 10, 2015
10 Free Kindle eBooks for Mother’s Day, Plus eBook Deals
People are Losing their Trust in e-books
| The primary benefit of a print book is the clear path of ownership. Once you procure it from your favorite online or brick and motor store, its yours. There is no problem with loaning it out to a friend or rereading it for the hundredth time. e-books on the other hand is a convoluted nightmare. When you purchase an e-book from a retailer like Apple or Amazon, you don’t own it. Instead, you are merely licensing it from the retailer for an indeterminate period of time. If you break one of the many terms of service, the book can be taken away by the retailer, or if the bookstore goes bankrupt, you lose everything. e-books are often purchased by online retailers that act as agents for the publisher. They often provide the e-reading experience, from dedicated hardware to apps for Android or iOS. The terms of service that a retailers provide are often 50 to 100 pages of text. In some cases, they absolve themselves of all liability. The Apple iBooks store makes sure to let you know that “IN NO EVENT SHALL LICENCOR BE LIABLE FOR PERSONAL INJURY OR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION . . . DAMAGES OR LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE LICENSED APPLICATION, HOWEVER CAUSED, REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY (CONTRACT, TORT, OR OTHERWISE) AND EVEN IF LICENCOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. ” Amazon on the other hand spells out the situation with daunting precision “Your rights under this Agreement will automatically terminate if you fail to comply with any term of this Agreement. In case of such termination, you must cease all use of the Kindle Store and the Kindle Content, and Amazon may immediately revoke your access to the Kindle Store and the Kindle Content without refund of any fees. . . . If you do not accept the terms of this Agreement, then you may not use the Kindle, any Reading Application, or the Service.” In contrast, the print edition of a book has a more simpler copyright notice. It makes perfect sense and is not not written by an army of lawyers. "No portion of this book may be copied, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, including recording, photocopying, or inclusion in any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher and author, except for brief excerpts quoted in published reviews." In the last few years the entire e-reader and e-book industry has experienced massive setbacks. The Sony Reader Store was the first digital bookstore that was incorporated on a series of e-readers. They had a good run and closed up their online store in the US, UK, Europe and Australia last May. Hundreds of thousands of customers suddenly woke up one day that could not buy books anymore and had to deal with another company. Diesel e-Books, Txtr, Scholastic Storia and Blinkbox Books have all closed in the last calender year, leaving customers in a lark. It is my belief that consumers are losing confidence in e-books because so many stores are closing and taking their purchases with them. In other cases they are sick of all the Apple anti-trust and Amazon vs the world drama. Others are pissed they can’t loan out e-books to friends or find themselves locked into one specific ecosystem and can’t transfer their purchases to other phones they buy, due to DRM. Major publishers are also reporting diminished sales when it comes to e-books. In a recent financial earnings report Simon & Schuster stated that e-book sales only increased by one percentage point in the last three months, while HarperCollins said sales were down 3%. In the last few years I have gravitated away from exclusively buying e-books and am buying print again. Apparently, I am not alone. Nielsen BookScan, which tracks what readers are buying, found the number of paper books sold went up 2.4% last year. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "the 2014 figures are further evidence that print books are selling better than they have since sales of e-books exploded in 2010." The paper tome apparently hit rock bottom in 2012, but has since rallied in categories from children's books to adult non-fiction, and formats from trade paperback to hardcover. In the end, its hard to have any faith in e-books. People are Losing their Trust in e-books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Disney’s Secret War Against Star Wars Expanded Universe
| Disney has been engaged in a secret war against the Star Wars Expanded Universe in order to sell more books, comics and toys. In April 2014 Lucasfilm and Disney Publishing stated that the existing expanded universe no long happened. Any of the books and comics that transpired after Return of the Jedi are not considered canon. 17,000 characters in the Expanded Universe are officially purged. The entire Star Wars community was up in arms when Disney said the EU is no longer canon. It was a bitter pill to swallow for Timothy Zahn, who was best known for his trilogy of books after Return of the Jedi. Heir to an Empire which focused on Grand Admiral Thrawn and Lukes future with Mara Jade. Comic book publisher Dark Horse has been heavily involved in the Star Wars universe for the last decade. On December 2014 they bid adieu to 28,353 pages of comics and the Star Wars license was transferred to Marvel, a subsidiary of Disney. Why did Disney really say the Expanded Universe did not happen? Well, its a ploy to sell more books, comics and toys. Disney ironed out an agreement with Del Rey Books to publish a series of new novels, starting with Star Wars: A New Dawn, by bestselling author John Jackson Miller. Set prior to the events of the animated series Star Wars Rebels, this novel tells the story of how two of the lead characters of the series, Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla, came to cross paths. To tell this important backstory, Miller benefited from contact with series executive producers Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg and Greg Weisman, who together ensured this tale will be part of the Star Wars canon of storytelling going forward. It on September 2, 2014. The latest book to be published was written by Paul S. Kemp and is entitled “Lords of the Sith.” It takes place only a few years after Anakin Skywalker’s fall, which leads to some very notable, insightful moments as we go inside Vader's head and see the anger and hate that fuels him. But just how removed is he from the man he once was? That question leads to some of the book’s most memorable moments. Meanwhile Marvel has been working on a number of new comic book series, which has been drawing critical acclaim. The three series currently in production is Star Wars by Aaron and Cassaday, Star Wars: Darth Vader by Gillen and Salvador Larocca, and Star Wars: Princess Leia by Mark Waid and Terry Dodson. All three take place in a timeframe immediately following the end of the original Star Wars movie – A New Hope. Many people thought the Expanded Universe was stretching a bit thin and the best titles were the early ones. Many of them are still available in your local bookstore, which really says a lot about their staying power. Will any of the new books and comics have the same type of longevity and staying power as the EU? What will happen to the largest Star Wars Wiki, Wookiepedia? Will more Star Wars Mobile games get canned? Was the main decision made just to sell new stuff and say “hey, the old stuff sucked.”
Disney’s Secret War Against Star Wars Expanded Universe is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Play Unveils App Pre-Registrations
| Google is making it easier to generate buzz around an upcoming game. The company has just unveiled pre-registrations that will enable developers to post all of their pictures, descriptions and version numbers. This new feature was spotted being used by publisher Glu Media for the upcoming movie-based third person shooter Terminator Genisys: Revolution. The game is already listed in the Google Play Store, and users can click on the “Pre-register” option so they can get an alert when Terminator Genisys: Revolution goes live. Users also have the option to unregister the app just in case they lose interest. I think pre-registration is a very good idea. It allows the app to get indexed on major search engines, even though its not available yet. In the past, developers had to wait for a specific release date before the app entry was made. Google Play Unveils App Pre-Registrations is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Happy Scratch Day 2015!
| A quick blip of a blog to say Happy Scratch Day! Help! I’m trapped in a white box. Fetch the magic wand tool! We’re huge fans of Scratch here at the Foundation. It was designed to teach young people how to program but it’s a great learning tool at any age: you can build your first program in minutes and pick up fundamental concepts very quickly. Whilst having fun. Sneaky! Raspberry Pi Scratch workshop. Yes, that is Mitch Resnick at the back! If you’ve never tried Scratch before then today is the day to boot up your Pi and have a play. If you are Pi-less then you can use it online, but you’ll be missing out on the best bit of all: physical computing with Scratch. It’s probably the easiest way to hook up sensors, LEDs, buttons and motors to the Pi, and resources such as our reaction game and Santa detector are great intro projects for the weekend. Connect buttons, sensors, cameras, LEDS, goblin sticks and other gubbins to your Pi The Foundation has supported Scratch since our early days and we’ve put a lot of resources into making Scratch on the Pi better, faster and funner. We’re just putting the finishing touches to some new stuff that we think you’ll find really exciting (I’m excited anyway :)) so watch this space. We’ll have some news this summer. We’ll also be at the Scratch 2015 conference in Amsterdam in August so if you are there come and talk to us. Raspberry Pi Scratch workshop. A young man shows adults why flying hippos are essential in LED traffic light projects. I’ll finish now. My sesame seed bagel has just popped up (and you know how easily they burn) and I’m stopping you from making things. This weekend, give the repeats of Thundercats a miss and go and have a play with Scratch instead—it’s a beautiful thing. The post Happy Scratch Day 2015! appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Friday, May 8, 2015
Sentai Filmworks Acquires Two New Anime
| Sentai Filmworks, a North American film distribution company, has recently announced that they will be distributing two new anime to be shipped soon, My Love Story and Triage X. My Love Story, known in Japan as Ore Monogatari, is a surprise hit shoujo about a fairly unattractive gentle giant who suddenly gains a love life when he rescues a girl from a harasser on a train. The series premiered in April in Japan, and Crunchyroll has been streaming it since. The manga, drawn by Kazune Kawahara and Aruko, has been licensed by Viz Media. Now the anime will join the manga in North American distribution, as Sentai will first release the anime through a series of digital outlets, shortly followed in home video. Triage X, by comparison, is a raunchy assassin anime. Based on the manga of the same name, the anime follows a team of sexy nurses (and other hospital staff) who assassinate people they deem undesirable, or 'cancers' to society. The manga is drawn by Shōji Satō of Highschool Of The Dead fame. The series also premiered in April, and has also been streamed by Crunchyroll. Sentai will be releasing the anime the same was as My Love Story, first through several digital outlets, followed by a release on home video.
Sentai Filmworks Acquires Two New Anime is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digital Accounts for 31% of Simon & Schuster Revenue
| Simon & Schuster is experiencing massive growth with e-books and audiobooks, more than any other publisher. Digital revenues represented 31% of S&S's total revenues for the first quarter of 2015. S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy said that while sales of e-books rose by one percentage point in the quarter, sales of digital audio had a huge quarter driven by sales of both new and backlist books. She also noted that with the rise in e-book sales in the quarter, e-books accounted for about 26.3% of all revenue, higher than any share the format represented in 2014. Meanwhile at HarperCollins digital only accounts for 22% of their revenue, down 3%. Other publishers such as Penguin/Random House did not mention e-books during their recent quarterly earnings, which makes me worried. Digital books and audiobooks seemed to have plateaued and we ware certainly not seeing the explosive growth from only a few years ago. Basically the people who want to read e-books already are and the people who aren’t, are still buying print. There is little crossover between the two book types and this trend will continue into the foreseeable future. Digital Accounts for 31% of Simon & Schuster Revenue is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Deal Alert: Get a 9.7″ Kindle DX for $103
| I came across an interesting deal at Amazon today. As mentioned earlier in the week, a number of Kindle ereaders and Fire tablets are on sale this week for Mother’s Day. Today Amazon added another Kindle to the deals list. This time it’s the Kindle DX that’s on sale, which is really strange since it […] |
Another Raspbian Desktop User Interface Update
| Hopefully the dust has now settled on the first batch of changes to the Raspbian desktop which were made available at Christmas, and you’ve either a) decided you like them, or b) decided you hate them and have rolled back to a previous version, never to upgrade again. If you are in group b), I suggest you stop reading now… The next set of desktop changes are now available. The overall look and feel hasn’t changed, but there have been a few major new features added, and a lot of small tweaks and bug fixes. The new features include the following: New Wifi Interface Connecting to a wifi network has been made much simpler in most cases by including a version of Roy Marples’ excellent dhcpcd and dhcpcd-ui packages. If you look towards the right-hand end of the menu bar, there is now a network icon. This shows the current state of your network connection – if a wifi connection is in use, it shows the signal strength; if not, it shows the connection state of your Ethernet connection. While connections are being set up, the icon flashes to indicate that a connection is being established. To connect to a wifi network (assuming you have a USB wifi dongle connected to your Pi), left-click on the network icon and you should see a list of all visible wireless networks. Select the one you want, and if it is secured, you will be prompted for the network password. Enter the password, press OK and wait a few seconds for the wifi icon to stop flashing; if you then left-click the icon again, the selected network should be shown at the top of the list with a tick next to it, and you are then good to go. If you right-click the network icon and choose the Wifi Networks (dhcpcdui) Settings option from the pop-up menu, you can manually enter IP addresses – choose the SSID option from the Configure drop-down, select your network and enter the IP addresses you want. From the same dialog, you can manually enter an IP address for your Ethernet connection by selecting the Interface option from the drop-down and choosing eth0 as the interface. Once you’ve clicked Apply, you may need to reboot your Pi for the new settings to take effect. Speaking of rebooting, the first time you plug in a WiFi dongle, you will need to reboot your Pi to have it recognised by the new UI. Once that is done, with most dongles, you should be able to hot-plug them, or even to have two dongles connected at once if you wish to connect to two networks. (A few dongles won’t work when hot-plugged – the Edimax dongle is one, due to a bug in its driver. The official Raspberry Pi dongle and the PiHut dongle should both hot-plug without problems.) If you prefer to use the original wpa_gui application, it is still installed – just type: wpa_gui in a terminal window to open it. New Volume / Audio Interface Next to the network interface icon on the menu bar, you will see a volume icon. This works exactly the same way as on Windows or MacOS – left-click it to drop down the volume control, which you can then slide with the mouse. There’s a mute checkbox at the bottom to quickly mute or unmute the audio output. (Note that not all devices support mute, so with some external soundcards this may be greyed-out.) If you right-click the volume icon, a pop-up menu appears to allow you to select which audio output is used – on a standard Pi, you have the choice of HDMI or Analog. If you have installed a USB audio interface, or an external soundcard, these will also appear as options in this menu. To allow more detailed control of any external audio devices, we’ve included a custom version of xfce4-mixer, the mixer dialog from the XFCE desktop environment – you can access this either under Device Settings from the volume right-click menu (the option only appears if there is an external audio device connected) or from the Preferences section of the main menu, where it is listed as Audio Device Settings. From this dialog, select the device you want to control from the drop-down at the top, and then press the Select Controls button to choose which of the controls the device offers that you want to display. Pressing the Make Default button on this window has the same effect as choosing an output source in the volume right-click menu. New Appearance Settings There is a new custom Appearance Settings dialog, available from the Preferences section of the main menu, which works with a new custom theme for Openbox and GTK called PiX. This allows you to set how your desktop looks (colour, background picture), how the menu bar looks (including an easy option to move it to the top or bottom of the screen) and how window title bars look. This groups together the most useful settings from the original Openbox and LXSession appearance dialog boxes, which are now hidden in the menu. They are still on the system, so if you would prefer to use them, access them from a terminal window by typing obconf or lxappearance, respectively. (Note that using both the new dialog and the old obconf and lxappearance dialogs may result in strange combinations of settings; I’d strongly recommend you use one or the other, not all three…) Other Stuff There are a lot of other small changes, mostly to the appearance rather than functionality, and some minor bug fixes. For example, dialog buttons have a cleaner appearance due to the removal of icons and shortcut underlines. (The shortcuts are still there – just hold down the Alt key and they will appear on the buttons.) By popular demand, you can now set the foreground and background colours of the CPU monitor on the menu bar – just right-click it and choose CPU Usage Monitor Settings, and you can colour it however you like. Also back by popular demand, the ability to use an arbitrary format for the menu bar clock (right-click and choose Digital Clock Settings) – it should also now resize and align properly if you do so… Various other applications have been updated – the Epiphany browser has had speed and compatibility improvements; the Minecraft Python API is now compatible with Python 3, and there is a new version of Sonic Pi. How Do I Get It? If this all sounds good to you, it’s very easy to add to your Pi. Just open a terminal and type: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade Updating will overwrite your desktop configuration files (found in /home/pi/.config). Just in case you had customised something in there for your own use, the original files are backed up as part of the upgrade process, and can be found in /home/pi/oldconffiles. The new network interface is a separate package – we know that some people will have carefully customised their network setups, so you may not want the new changes, as they will overwrite your network configuration. If you do want the new network interface, type: sudo apt-get install raspberrypi-net-mods You will be prompted as part of the install to confirm that you want the new version of the network configuration file – press Y when prompted. (Or N if you’ve had a last-minute change of mind!) As ever, user interface design isn’t an exact science – my hope is that the changes make your Pi nicer to use, but feedback (good or bad) is always welcome, so do post a comment and let me know your thoughts! |
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Steven Spielberg Bringing Brave New World to Syfy
| Steven Spielberg’s production company, Amblin, is set to adapt the classic Aldous Huxley novel, Brave New World to Syfy. The 1932 book is considered one of the top 100 novels written in the 20th century by Modern Library. Brave New World is set in a world without poverty, war or disease. Humans are given mind-altering drugs, free sex and rampant consumerism are the order of the day, and people no longer reproduce but are genetically engineered in “hatcheries.” Those who won't conform are forced onto “reservations,” until one of the “savages” challenges the system, threatening the entire social order. “Brave New World is one of the most influential genre classics of all time,” said Syfy president Dave Howe. “Its provocative vision of a future gone awry remains as powerful and as timeless as ever. Promising to be a monumental television event, Brave New World is precisely the groundbreaking programming that is becoming the hallmark of Syfy.” Syfy has undergone a resurgence lately with some fairly captivating programming. 12 Monkeys is their most popular, but they have also produced a number of classic novel adaptations that will be coming to the small screen, including Childhood’s End, 3001: The Final Odyssey, and Old Man’s War. via Outtplaces via Hollywood Reporter Steven Spielberg Bringing Brave New World to Syfy is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Energy eReader Pro + with Carta Screen Released
| Energy Sistem has introduced an updated version of the Energy eReader Pro, called the eReader Pro +, that upgrades the screen from E Ink Pearl to E Ink Carta. This is the same upgrade as the Boyue T62+, as they are the same device with different brands. Carta screens are E Ink’s newer display technology. […] |
Camera board extension
| We’ve just spotted a third-party add-on for your Pi and Camera Board which we think you’ll find really useful.
The ribbon cable that comes with the Raspberry Pi Camera Module is, for reasons of signal integrity, not very long. In most cases, that doesn’t present a problem. But if you’re wanting to take pictures of something that has to be a distance from your Pi – some fiddly nature photography setups are a good example – the length of that cable can be a nuisance. So the good folks at Petit Studio have made a useful HDMI extension kit. Both the Camera Module connector and an HDMI connector have four data buses made by pairs of cables with a ground shield, which means a small converter can be built: they’re offering two little PCBs which attach to the ribbon cable and to the back of your camera board, with an HDMI cable bridging the space between them. The makers have tested the setup with 5m HDMI cables, and the picture quality is not affected (you won’t be able to run this with an infinitely long HDMI because eventually the signal will degrade); you should be able to use a longer cable too, but you’ll need to experiment. Perfect if you want to put a camera on the roof when your Pi is in a bedroom, or if you need to put somewhere inaccessible to use as a camera trap, but want to be able to get to the Pi itself easily. We’re pretty sure a lot of you will find a use for this kit. You can buy your own for about £10 at Tindie. We love it. Simple and very, very useful. Thanks Petit Studio!
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Will Europe Become a Single Market for e-books?
| The European digital publishing industry is fragmented beyond belief. Every single member country has their own VAT rate on e-books and a massive loophole was closed that allowed foreign entities operating out of Luxembourg, driving prices up. There has been talk for a number of years about a single European market for e-books, simplifying the book selling process. The European Union is the world's largest economic entity, bringing together 28 countries into a single market that accounts for 20% of world imports and exports. When it comes to e-books though, Europe is hardly unified. France for example has a number of laws that prevent the discounting of e-books, due to laws that protect the traditional print industry and bookstores in general. Selling e-books in Europe is challenging. Everyone used to be based out of Luxembourg and charged 3% VAT on e-books in every country in Europe. On January 1st 2015 the European Comission mandated that VAT will be payed based on where the buyer is located and not the seller. The United Kingdom, for example has a 20% VAT on e-books and the Irish Republic VAT is 23%. Germany charges 19% VAT, Luxembourg 3% VAT, Spain 21% VAT and Italy 4% VAT. Doing taxes on a business end are more complicated due to the different filing systems. Can Europe ever be a single market when it comes to selling e-books? Well, it might happen sooner, rather than later. The European Comission revealed yesterday that it would hold an antitrust competition inquiry into the e-commerce sector in the European Union, as part of 16 initiatives on a digital single market to be delivered by the end of next year. As part of its inquiry, the EC will look at cross-border trade in digital content and the Book Sellers Association hopes it will study issues around accessibility and interoperability in e-books. I think the commission is basically looking at e-commerce in general and how innovation on a political level is moving at a snails pace. E-books are just one small segment of a much larger issue. However, with these initiatives, the devil is in the details. The Commission must make sure it is protecting firms from the risk of additional burdens and unintended consequences stemming from new regulation. Will Europe Become a Single Market for e-books? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
How Agency Pricing Has Affected the Bestseller Lists
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While many critics from all corners of the industry have taken issue with these reports, the math is quite simply sitting in front of their faces. The results of this quarter’s report have led to a startling look at what has happened to the Big Five publishers since winning their hard-won battle against Amazon to be allowed to set their own prices. Spoiler alert: they’re losing their iron-fisted grip on the bestseller lists now that their prices have gone up. According to the report,”Since we started pulling this data, the average price of an ebook from a Big 5 publisher has gone up 17%. Compare this to a difference of 5% for self-published titles, or the increase of 7.5% across Amazon imprints. The prices for Big 5 published ebooks have risen quite steadily, rather than a sudden surge since the return to agency.” And now for the correlating shocker: “In the last three months, the Big 5 publishers have seen a 26% reduction in the number of titles on Amazon's Best Seller lists. This means fewer titles are selling well enough to make these lists, and it also means fewer titles are receiving that added visibility.” It’s interesting to see that consumers really do care about price. The long-standing belief has been that fine literature sells itself and readers are willing to pay for quality. That doesn’t appear to be the case across the board, especially in scarier economic times. What we also see is that consumers do read, but if the price is out of their reach, they’ll simply find some other work to enjoy now that there’s an abundance of titles to choose from. For a solid yet condensed look at the May 2015 Author Earnings report, check out Passive Guy’s post, complete with many of the pie charts that the AE team is famous for. For the full report, click HERE to go to the AE site.
How Agency Pricing Has Affected the Bestseller Lists is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Does Your Android or Blackberry App Need an Update?
| The Good e-Reader Android and Blackberry App Store is the largest in Canada and in the top 10 globally. Developers and the site staff always uploading the best new apps from around the world. Sometimes apps are out of date and require an update, how do you get the latest version? Good e-Reader has a system that allows you to automatically notify the App Store Admin Team and let them know an Android, Blackberry 10, or Blackberry Playbook app needs an update. Using the system is really easy! Every app has a version number and next to it is a notification flag. If you click on it, it automatically sends an email to the Good e-Reader App Store team and they make sure its promptly updated. Does Your Android or Blackberry App Need an Update? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
What is the Source Material for Anime?
| Anime, as a form of entertainment, has become so popular over the decades that the world collectively refers to this one country's animated content by name, rather than simply calling them Japanese cartoons the way we would any other country. Perhaps this comes from the uniquely stylised art, or perhaps from the sheer number of anime series produced over the years, or perhaps a combination of the two. But just where are anime producers finding the material for this much? There is a constant stream of new material, with anywhere from 2 to 10 new anime released each month. Anime can only come from two places: original ideas, or adapted from another source. Original ideas, though not scarce, are not nearly as commonplace as adaptions. With this in mind, let's take a look at the various sources anime can be adapted from. Almost every anime is adapted from manga. As a term in Japan, 'manga' simply refers to any comic done in Japanese, much the same way 'anime' refers to all animation released in Japan. Outside of Japan, the term has come to be recognised as a specific type of comic, with certain traits and art styles shared by all. These traits and art styles have been a heavy influence on the world, from Chinese 'manhua' to the French movement 'la nouvelle manga.' Manga covers a wide range of genres and story types, from long-running action epics to simple, one-shot love stories. While it is rare to see an anime adapted from a one-shot, almost every manga with even a shred of popularity will get an anime adaption. Not every manga, however, is published the same way anymore. With the rise of the Internet came a new way to share material, and the rise of 'webmanga' began. These are manga published online, sometimes serialized in online magazines and sometimes published entirely by the author themselves. Most webmanga that reach a certain popularity level, and thus productivity level, become published as manga and adapted into anime. Two of the most notable examples are the recent Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun, and Hetalia: Axis Powers. Along with this new age comes a new form of storytelling: the visual novel. Most people who have never used a visual novel before have a hard time grasping the concept. It's much like a video game, but with the structure of a book. Remember those choose-your-own-adventure books you read so much as a kid? Visual novels are the same idea, only told all through illustrations and presented electronically. Visual novels are a prime material from anime adaptions. As the novels follow multiple storylines, the anime will usually choose to adapt the "perfect" or most popular option, leaving the other storylines as possibilities for second seasons or special episodes. Another medium is the video game itself. One of the most popular and enduring anime is Pokémon. Originally beginning as a pair of video games, Pokémon has grown into a franchise that spans all across the globe. And it isn’t the only popular anime to come from a game. Persona, Dragon Age, Final Fantasy and Tales of Symphonia name a few. Occasionally, anime will be adapted from actual books. This isn't much of a popular option; more likely than book series are the light novels, a genre of short novellas often accompanied by illustrations. But classic literature has also been seen adapted, like Romeo x Juliet, The Count of Monte Cristo, and almost as many Alice in Wonderland interpretations as there are in Western entertainment. So far, all anime source materials we've seen come from Japan, and it is true that anime producers like their content home-grown. Every once in a while, an anime from an outside source will come along. Comics such as Iron Man and X-Men have had their own short-lived anime adaptions. One notable venture lies in Deltora Quest, an anime based off a series of popular Australian children's novels. The possibilities for anime adaptions have been growing greater and greater over the years. While classic manga will continue to be the largest contributor, it is possible that sourcing for anime will grow past its borders, possibly even to the Western hemisphere, and that is a possibility to look forward to – admit it, you’ve always wanted to see your favorite book series adapted as an anime. What is the Source Material for Anime? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Doubling Down on their Advertising Network
| Amazon has been slowly growing their internal advertising network, which allows companies to showcase their products and services on Kindle e-readers and tablets. The company also has the ability to run advertisements on their extended network of websites, such as IMDB. Lately, Amazon has been establishing ties with new companies to advertise in non-conventional ways. When you buy a new Kindle e-reader or tablet there is the option to pay less money and go with the “Special Offers” edition. These variants display advertising on the screensaver and also on the navigation bar. Companies such as L’Oréal were early adopters and helped the Amazon Media Group grow. In a world dominated by Google, Amazon has an upward battle to promote their advertising platform. According to eMarketer Amazon only accounts for 0.75% of the digital advertising market, in terms of revenue. In order to facilitate growth, Amazon has reached out to new companies for some very innovative advertising campaigns. Amazon Media Group’s vice president of global advertising sales Seth Dallaire revealed that they recently did a deal with Land Rover to help distribute an e-book adventure story written for the brand by an established author, on the Kindle platform. Dallaire said: “We saw very high engagement from customers in terms of reading it. It was not promoted as a pure advertisement, but rather content, and the author that created that content is what brought customers in to engage with it to begin with. It was a great learning for us.” Elsewhere, in Japan, Amazon worked with Nissan to create e-book brochures for new vehicles. Amazon is working with automakers to measure how many people visited a car dealership or drove away with a new vehicle as a result. Dallaire said that the campaign worked so well in Japan — a country that has really taken to digital brochures — Amazon may look to extend that type of format to other markets. “Most people don’t associate Amazon with cars; we don’t sell cars on the platform. But customers trust Amazon to provide objective opinions about a product or a brand … we will work hard to show that there is some attribution to that level of investment that drives business results, even if it doesn’t happen on Amazon,” Dallaire said In the end, most of the internet population is likely well aware of the Amazon affiliate program, which allows anyone to advertise a product that is sold and earn a small commission. The Amazon Media Group primarily targets businesses to advertise on their e-readers, tablets and network of websites and is not very well known. Hopefully this will change with more personalized relationships and innovative ways to tell a brand story. Amazon Doubling Down on their Advertising Network is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digimon Adventure Tri Announces Voice Cast and Release Plans!
| Following a NicoNico marathon of the original Digimon Adventure anime series, the staff for the upcoming Digimon Adventure tri. Has finally released more information about the cast and release date! The staff announced the voice cast of the "Chosen children" (Digi-Destined) as well as their original digimon companions! The staff has also announced that the anime will be part of a 6-part film series, with the first film to be titled "Sakai" (Reunion) and will be premiering on November 21st . Atsuya Uki will provide the character designs, Yuuko Kakihara will act as series script supervisor and Ketitaro Motonoga (Rayearth) will direct. The original cast of the Digimon partners in the 1999 anime will be returning for the new series though the cast of the human characters are completely different this time around and will star: Natsuki Hanae as Taichi Yagami The anime is a bit longer of a wait than we had anticipated, I’m excited to see this series as a feature length and not to mention the art style, while vastly different from the original series has a sense of maturity to it. Not to mention the end scenes with Omnimon and the mysterious black digimon looked very promising! Digimon Adventure Tri Announces Voice Cast and Release Plans! is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Mobile Google Search Has Surpassed Desktop
| Google implemented a new policy last month that had the entire digital publishing world take notice. If a website has a mobile friendly design it would have a higher placement in the search engine results and older websites would plummet in the rankings. This is not a decision that Google made lightly, primarily because for the first time ever mobile search has outweighed desktop. The company says that "more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan." Google declined to elaborate further on what the other countries were, how recently this change happened or what the relative volumes of PC and mobile search queries are now. When it comes to smartphone and desktop usage, the digital publishing industry doesn’t really have any concrete data. The only information that has been available was from Comscore who recently released a report and graphic. They said in the last quarter of 2014 US mobile queries (tablets + smartphones) were roughly 29% of total search volumes. This is across the entire industry. Apparently this information in Google’s eyes is totally incorrect and smartphone search has grown significantly. In order to tap into the growing smartphone segment Google has given publishers and e-reader companies a new reason to use Adwords. There are new options to include picture-heavy ads that show users a gallery before directing them to a website, and e-book ads that sandwich together availability, prices, user reviews, and pictures into a compact mobile format Smartphones are clearly the way that people search for a new e-book or read reviews. It is critically important that if you sell digital content such as audiobooks or e-books that a mobile friendly design is paramount. Mobile Google Search Has Surpassed Desktop is a post from: Good e-Reader |
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