| Amazon is running another sale on their 6-inch Fire HD tablet as part of the main Gold Box deal of the day. The sale includes both the 8GB and 16GB Fire HD 6 models, as well as the Kids Edition tablet that comes with a case and 2-year warranty. All are $30 off the regular […] |
Monday, August 17, 2015
Fire HD 6 on Sale for $69 – Today Only
We want you to choose the next Big Library Read!
| The next Big Library Read is coming this October and we want your help in selecting the title the whole world will be reading! The genre this time around will be Juvenile/Young Adult and our publishing partners have provided a number of great titles to choose from. Now that we have the submissions from the publishers we want you to tell us which title we’ll all be reading!
To vote simply go to the survey and pick which title you’re most interested in reading. Voting will be live until August 24th at which point we will reveal the winning selection! Let your voice be heard and help decide the next Big Library Read title!  |
Get over 30,000 titles 25-50% off with the Back to School sale
| In a world where schools are back in session, librarians and educators need a sale to properly prepare their digital collections for the onslaught of student needs. Good thing OverDrive and its publishing partners have prepared such a sale from August 17-September 30.
The Back to School sale includes full catalogs from big publishers like StarWalk Kids and Saddleback Educational who feature common core titles, Nickelodeon, Hachette Audio, Open Road, BBC Active, Cognella who has great classroom texts, and Orca. Check out these lists for great content at amazing prices:
Krisitin Milks is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
Australia & Singapore Pioneering Education Tour
| As an education pioneer for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, I'm on a mission to ensure that all children everywhere have some exposure to computing, whether this comes in the form of digital making, the arts, robotics or computer programming. Recently I've been on a brief tour to Australia and Singapore to spread the Raspberry Pi education ethos to as many people as possible. Straight after Euro Python in Spain, where Ben Nuttall, James Robinson and I helped to kick start an Education Summit, I boarded a flight to Australia via Dubai. The months between June and September are often the busiest for the Foundation team with the northern hemisphere schools on summer break and southern hemisphere schools in the middle of the academic year. There are often lots of outreach opportunities alongside large conferences in the space of a single month. Brisbane After around 30 hours (with two stops) I arrived in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland and home to Pycon Australia 2015, where I was to give a talk as part of their first ever education mini conference and give a keynote at the main conference. Fellow Python Software Foundation (PSF) board member Nick Coghlan contacted me to attend the education mini conference way back in January, stating:
There are a number of countries around the world which are starting to address the digital skills gap through formal education. In England we have a new Computing curriculum being taught in both primary and secondary schools. In Australia a new Digital Curriculum has been developed, and in some states has already been adopted by forward thinking teachers. Here was an opportunity to work with industry professionals to highlight the changes, and with educators to collaborate and share best practice. Nick had curated a brilliant day of talks as part of the education mini conference. This was one of the first Python conferences which was not only well attended by teachers, but where most of the talks were given by teachers! In fact you can watch all the talks which have helpfully be added to a playlist by the conference organisers. My favourite talk of the day was given by a nervous developer, Caleb Hattingh, to a room full of teachers about his experiences trying to teach Python to children at a coding club. It was brutally honest and I think sums up many of the problems educators also face in moving from visual programming languages like Scratch to text based languages like Python. My other notable talk of the day was given by Katie Bell from Grok Learning in which she talks about her work with the Girls Programming Network in Sydney, the National Computer Science School (NCSS) Challenge, and the NCSS summer school where young people spend a few days rapidly prototyping heir own website or embedded electronic device. I've had the pleasure of meeting Katie before at PyconUK last September and at ISTE this June in Philadelphia with Grok Learning co-founder Nicky Ringland. Their passion for computing education is phenomenal and can be witnessed in this talk: I ended day 1 with my keynote on Raspberry Pi and physical computing, which included a live demo, and started day 2 with a keynote to the entire conference about lessons we've learned about teaching children how to program.
I'm grateful to Nick Coghlan and the other organisers of PyconAu for their hard work bring the event together. Sydney A short flight from Brisbane brought me to Sydney where I accepted a challenge from new education team member Marc Scott to take a selfie in front of an iconic landmark before setting out on a series of talks and workshops. I gave a brief demo to ICT educators of New South Wales on the first evening at an event where teachers give up their free time to share ideas and practices around teaching ICT and computer science in a state where it is not a formal part of their curriculum. These were inspirational teachers, willing to push what is possible in their classrooms. At the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences at the Powerhouse in Sydney I got the chance to speak to education specialists and teachers about our work at Raspberry Pi before leading a fruity physical computing workshop. I was able to share fun ideas and meet some fabulous STEM education enthusiasts.
The museum was truly a fabulous space with well equipped resources for schools. I was lucky enough to receive a brief tour of all the facilities like the Mars Lab, a recreation of the Martian surface, and robotics lab which is used to encourage students to use technology to search for life on Mars. Schools are able to connect to the lab and their rovers via the internet, allowing students to program the bots directly. Using the cameras, they can experience what it is like for space engineers. They test rovers there, and I got to meet one.
Whilst in Sydney I visited good friend Dan Bowen, a CAS #include committee member, and some Windows IoT Raspberry Pi developers at Microsoft, where they all showed me their latest work with the operating system and Physical computing on the Pi. I was invited to meet the Code Club Australia team who are working with schools across all the territories and training teachers in a bid to give children an opportunity to learn to code. I also found time to speak to girls at two different coding clubs and meet some fans!
There are clearly lots of initiatives in Sydney that parents and educators can tap into from online learning platforms like Grok Learning and the NCSS challenge, to free professional development and workshops from ICTENSW and the MAAS Museum. Singapore I was lucky enough to be able to stop in Singapore on my way back to the UK during the nation's 50th anniversary thanks to the Raspberry Pi team at Broadcom Singapore. I was asked to drop by the office to eat pizza and give a presentation to their engineers about the Raspberry Pi Foundation by Jeffery Chin who leads the Broadcom Singapore Raspberry Pi team, who provide Raspberry Pi outreach to teachers and students in their spare time. I was then taken to Singapore's Science Centre to meet their STEM education specialists and Ministry of Education representatives to discuss Raspberry Pi professional development for teachers and their computing outreach programmes. Before heading out for some of the best dumplings I’ve ever eaten! Singapore Science Centre STEM educators, Ministry of Education representatives and Broadcom’s Jeffery Chin & TK Tan It is one of the many joys of working for the Raspberry Pi Foundation that I get to meet so many inspiring individuals across the globe and to forge partnerships with them as we all embark this movement to enrich children's education. The post Australia & Singapore Pioneering Education Tour appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Vancouver Public Library Unveils New Recording Studios
| The Vancouver Public Library has always been very forward thinking when it comes to implementing features that people want. They have one of the largest e-book and audiobook collections in Canada and have just opened up a new recording studio for the general public to use. For anyone living in Vancouver, the public library has implemented six “Inspiration Labs” which are basically professionally setup studios that can be used to record videos, or allow indie authors to narrate their own audiobooks. .They have green screens, professional microphones and other recording equipment. These are FREE to use for up to three hours a day! You can find out more and book time if you’d like here and check out some of the professional setups they have here. |
Europeans have had enough with high e-book prices
| Electronic books have found massive success in Canada, US and the United Kingdom. The sales of e-books represent between a quarter and a third of the consumer book market and, by 2018, will edge out printed and audio books as the most lucrative segment. Things over in mainland Europe are quite a different story. Last year, digital books made up 8% of the consumer book market in France, less than 4% in Germany and Italy, and 1% in Sweden and Norway. Why is Europe lagging behind in e-book adoption? There are two trains of thought on the subject, one is the cultural stigma that e-books will erode print book sales and the other is the high rate of VAT where e-books are often taxed more than 20% compared to print. Since the e-book revolution first begun in 2009, there as been a cultural resistance to protect the print industry. Germany and France prohibit the kind of deep discounts on digital books relative to print that have lifted e-book sales in English-language markets. But another, less publicized factor is taxation, which in the case of e-books is all over the map. Selling e-books in Europe is challenging, since the rules keep changing. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google and Apple used to be based out of Luxembourg to sell their digital books, since they could get away with charging 3% VAT on e-books in every country in Europe. On January 1st 2015 the European Commission 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. Some countries like Poland are trying to fight the existing VAT system to get an even playing field between print and digital. The government has been behind this idea for a number of years and last week a series of judges have petitioned the European Court of Justice to look into the matter. Poland likely will not be able to change the European Court of Justice, but some countries are considering something even more radical, a single European market for e-books. The European Commission revealed that it would hold an 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. When it comes down to it e-book taxes are tremendously fragmented in the EU and I think they would be better served with a common VAT on e-books in order to foster growth and allow more players to enter the market. |
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Star Wars Force Awakens Movie Poster Revealed
| Star Wars has a storied history of having their movie posters hand painted. Not only will these be sure fire collectors items, but there is something very compelling about something entirely original. The poster also gives us a bit of new information about the plot. John Boyega's character, Finn, will apparently be a Jedi — this is the first time we've seen his character wielding a lightsaber, the weapon of the Jedi. Kylo Ren, Daisy Ridley's Rey, and, of course, Han Solo also grace the poster. |
Star Wars Force Awakens Movie Poster Revealed
| Star Wars has a storied history of having their movie posters hand painted. Not only will these be sure fire collectors items, but there is something very compelling about something entirely original. The poster also gives us a bit of new information about the plot. John Boyega’s character, Finn, will apparently be a Jedi — this is the first time we’ve seen his character wielding a lightsaber, the weapon of the Jedi. Kylo Ren, Daisy Ridley’s Rey, and, of course, Han Solo also grace the poster. |
Saturday, August 15, 2015
The Pocketbook CAD will soon be available in Europe
| Pocketbook has begun the process of making a few dedicated webpages on their corporate site to sell the 13.3 inch Pocketbook CAD e-reader in Austria and Germany. No pricing is available yet, but they do have an add to cart button that is setting the stage for a full commercial release. The Pocketbook CAD was initially unveiled in January 2014 at CES. It featured a 13.3 inch screen and utilizes an e-paper called Fina. This is basically super lightweight glass and is easy to hold with one hand. It is cheaper than the Mobius edition, which is currently unavailable. Underneath the hood was a 1GHz dual-core CPU with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. It has built-in Wi-Fi and an optional 3G module. You will be able to use this device for a few days with its large 8000 mAh battery. It also has full support for a Wacom digitizer which will allow for pin-point procession in editing documents. It will be interesting to see how consumers react to this device, since it can be considered a direct competitor to the Sony Digital Paper. |
New Kobo Firmware 3.17 May Cause Rebooting Issue
| Kobo released a new software update for their line of ebook readers this past week. The new firmware version is 3.17.0. It’s available for the Kobo Glo HD, the original Glo, the Kobo Touch, the Kobo Aura, Aura HD and Aura H2O—so basically everything except the Kobo Mini. Like usual, Kobo doesn’t provide a changelog […] |
Poland Wants the VAT on Books and e-Books to be the same
| Poland is getting fed up with the VAT between print books and e-books and are doing something about it. A number of Polish judges have asked European Court of Justice to look into the matter. Currently print books in Poland have a 5% VAT but e-books carry a hefty surcharge of 23%. The main reason for this is because the EU classifies e-books are a “service” and not a “product.” Not only are the judges now involved, but the Minister of Culture Małgorzata Omilanowska called on the European Commission to immediately start working on a directive that would make electronic and traditional books legally equal. The high cost of VAT on e-books is stagnating the entire digital publishing industry in Poland. Schools, libraries and corporate bodies are still going with print, because the digital editions are not budget friendly. |
Friday, August 14, 2015
Audiobook Deals and Discounts – August 2015
| Summer is quickly coming to an end and many audiobook retails are gearing up for September, for back to school season. There doesn’t seem to be a ton of deals this month, but there are a number of them if you know where to look. Nook Audiobooks As summer starts winding down and we look forward to the rush of big new fall releases, August will be a big month for NOOK Audiobooks customers to take advantage of our robust end-of-summer sales. During the first three weeks of August, customers who love certain genres can treat themselves to some nice deals on big titles – select Mysteries and Thrillers will be center stage at 40% off from August 4-9, Romance titles at 40% off will be highlighted August 11-16, and a nice selection of Popular Fiction will be showcased at 40% off August 18-23. We're also excited about big upcoming releases for August, including new blockbusters from James Patterson, Debbie Macomber, and Jonathan Kellerman – and we can't wait to hear The Girl in the Spider's Web (the 4th book in Steig Larsson's Millennium series) when it comes out September 1st. And to be sure, throughout the month our Daily Find will continue – that's our daily offer of a specially priced, unabridged audiobook at 60% off or more. Audible This month Audible is offering a number of free audiobooks. Ambling Books You might have not have heard about this company, but they have some big deals going on.
Big Finish
ChristianAudio
ChristianAudio
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The Sony Digital Paper is Alive and Well
| Sony has announced that they are shutting down their entire e-commerce platform on August 28th 2015 and it will be impossible for anyone to place to an order for the Sony Digital Paper. The company has told me that they are developing a new website that should be more robust than the old version, but there is no timeline on when it will launch. We do know that on August 28th the entire Sony online e-commerce network will be shut down and a new site will take its place. It is currently unknown when the new site will launch, and how long customers will have to wait until they can place orders again. I was told that it will be impossible to place a Digital Paper on the phone after August 28th and instead you will have to try and deal with some of their official partners. There is a major problem with dealing with some of Sony’s partners, and that is they only primarily sell the device to other businesses. For example, Worldox sells their products to law firms and not to the general public. My contacts at Sony really want to stress that the Digital Paper is alive and well. The department overseeing the product line continues to market the device to new customers such as the American Association of Law Libraries or visiting with the folks at the National Conference of State Legislatures. |
Rocket launch footage from an onboard Pi
| From rocket launchers to high altitude ballooning to Sonic Pi space music to Astro Pi, much of the Raspberry Pi community is excited by the idea of exploring beyond our Blue Marble. We think you’ll enjoy this video from a Pi camera belonging to Portland State Aerospace Society, who launched a rocket from the Oregon desert last month. When I first watched it, it brought the whole of the Raspberry Pi Foundation to my desk in seconds, something even Krispy Kreme doesn’t reliably accomplish. The video was captured by one of two Raspberry Pis aboard the rocket, both with cameras set up to stream live footage; the streaming seems to have been succcessful, even though the viewing angle for part of the video above wasn’t quite as planned. You’ll find plenty of technical information in PSAS’ GitHub repository for this launch, and enthusiasts will be interested to know that they’ve promised more telemetry data over the next several months. There’s also an excellent gallery of launch photos taken from the ground, including the moment of lift-off from a more conventional viewpoint. The post Rocket launch footage from an onboard Pi appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Amazon has Quickly Come to Dominate the Digital Comics Market
| The digital comics market garnered over $100 million dollars in 2014 and Amazon has quickly become the dominant player. The Seattle company now controls 90% of the comic market, thanks to its strategic purchase of Comixology last year. 2015 has been a year of consolidation within the comic industry as Amazon is trying to distance themselves from their competitors such as Apple, Google and Madefire. When Amazon purchased Comixology in early 2014 they immediately disabled all in-app purchases within their Android and iOS apps. Amazon simply wanted to make more money and not have to pay a commission every time someone bought a comic book. This move enraged their existing user-base because visiting a website to purchase content and then syncing all of the new data took more work. This year, Amazon has given us a sense of how their endgame for comics is going to play out. The company added over 15,000 single issue and graphic novels from Marvel. According to Publishers Weekly “Marvel dominates the single-issue market with a 41% dollar share and a 43% unit share, according to the most recent industry statistics. More importantly, Marvel comics are the gateway to merchandise and media franchises worth billions—something that Amazon certainly understands. The exclusive deal with Marvel is a major competitive advantage. It is hard to see how a competing comics distribution platform could be useful to Google or Apple without Marvel in its catalog.” One of Comixology’s biggest strengths has been their whitelabel service that powers some of the biggest digital comic apps out there. Marvel, DC, Image, and the Walking Dead are all fine examples of how Comixology allows these companies to offer digital content and the ability to make in-app purchases on Android and iOS. I remain confident in the next few years we will see Amazon pushing Comixology to add more publishers to the Kindle store, in order to provide more single issue content to get e-reader and tablet owners to keep coming back to make more purchases every week, when new comics arrive. |
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Apple Bootcamp Now Supports Windows 10
| Windows 10 has been out for a few weeks and so far Apple lovers have been left in the cold. This will all change starting today! Apple has just released a slew of drivers that will support Windows 10 from Bootcamp, allowing you to partition your drive and run modern apps. If you have never installed Windows on your MAC, the process is fairly straight forward. You will automatically download all of the necessary files from Bootcamp 6. If you’re performing a Windows 10 upgrade to an existing 64-bit Windows installation (that you access via Boot Camp), you’ll have to jump through a few extra hoops. Before you upgrade, you’ll first want to make sure that the Mac you’re using actually supports Windows 10 x64 to begin with. Apple provides a helpful list for that, so you shouldn’t run into any major problems. There are a number of problems you will likely encounter if you only have the 32 bit version of Windows installed. Basically, if you’re trying to upgrade from a 32-bit version of Windows, you’ll have to wipe the entire partition on your MAC—in other words, kiss your data goodbye. Be sure to back it up before you go through the process. Since you’ll be using Boot Camp Assistant to basically install a new version of Windows 10, you’ll grab any new drivers and such that you need as part of the installation process. One of the big advantages of running the 32 or 64 bit versions of Windows 10 on your MAC is the peripherals you will be able to use, such as USB 3 and USB-C connections, Thunderbolt, your Mac’s built-in card slot, and your normal Mac keyboard, trackpad, or mouse.
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UK Users Can No Longer Use B&N Nook Windows App
| Barnes and Noble has just dropped support for their Windows e-reading app in the UK. They closed everything down today and gave no warning that a shutdown was imminent. Nook customer service is now encouraging anyone that wants to continue reading to buy an iPad or Android device. Barnes and Noble has confirmed that since the UK store is now closed, you will not be able to read any of your past purchases. If you have bought any digital content, you should be able to get a refund from Microsoft. In the last few months Barnes and Noble has severely scaled back their international expansion efforts. In June, they closed their European headquarters in Luxembourg and one month later they disabled the Nook Windows app all over Europe, except the UK. Losing all of your e-book purchases because a store closes is nothing new and is one of the pitfalls of forging print. There is no clear path of ownership when you buy e-books, you are merely licensing them. When a store closes, customers are normally out of luck. I think its swell Microsoft is giving refunds, but how do you do it? I have researched for hours online and there is hardly any data at all on how to apply and get a refund. |
Education Summit Videos from EuroPython
| At the end of July, a subset of our Education Team went to Bilbao in Spain for EuroPython. As well as giving a number of talks at the conference, we’d arranged with the organising committee to run an Education Summit and invite teachers along. On the Thursday of the conference, we had a day of Education talks lined up, starting with Carrie Anne who gave the opening keynote, ‘Education: A Python solution‘: We were lucky enough to meet the creator and BDFL of Python, Guido van Rossum, who also gave a keynote. Watch my talk on ‘Physical Computing with Python and Raspberry Pi‘: Watch James’s first talk, ‘Raspberry Pi Weather Station‘: Watch James’s second talk, ‘Pycon – A teacher’s perspective‘: Alex Bradbury also gave a lightning talk on Pyland – a project he’s working on with a group of interns at the Cambridge Computer Lab. Pyland is a game designed for children to learn Python as a way to progress in the game. Watch out for more on Pyland next month! The conference had two Raspberry Pi powered arcade machines and all the TV screens showing the talks schedule were running on Pis too! At the weekend’s sprints we had a team of developers working on PyGame Zero, and as part of the Education Summit we ran an intro session for teachers. The Pyjokes Society This year, EuroPython was run by the organisers of PySS, a conference in San Sebastian, with a brilliant team of volunteers who helped make it all happen – they did a great job. A huge thanks to the EuroPython team! The post Education Summit Videos from EuroPython appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
A look back at OverDrive’s Crystal Ball Report from Digipalooza
| Last week wrapped up a very successful Digipalooza conference where nearly 500 library and school partners from around the world came together with publishing executives in Cleveland to develop plans and enhance the future of the library world. This unique educational and networking conference addressed the massive surge in library eBook and audiobook borrowing with panels on industry trends, best practices and upcoming enhancements to the OverDrive service. Wrapping up the conference was the highly anticipated Crystal Ball Report by OverDrive CEO, Steve Potash. With high energy, Steve looked ahead and took participants into the future with his vision for digital media in libraries and schools. Steve opened up his report with his first theme: Access. He reiterated that the new OverDrive (codename: Thunder) will provide the deepest reader engagement opportunities and curation ability in the industry and how it will simplify the digital reading experience like never before. He previewed that the next step for libraries is individual customization for each user, allowing your readers to get recommendations and alerts based on what they enjoy. The second theme revolved around content. In the coming months, countless PDF titles that were never optimized for digital reading will be unlocked, opening up the capability to enjoy titles that previously were unapproachable with tablets and smartphones. Being able to convert PDFs into manageable formats opens up greater possibilities in the world of young readers including classroom textbooks. This led to the third and final theme of the crystal ball report: Education. You will find the next wave of eReading in the school classrooms and libraries all around the world. Over the last few years, OverDrive has helped meet students' and educators' needs with a custom combination of digital content solutions. By weaving digital reading into the classroom, schools can provide the education technology necessary in today's world and create classrooms that prepare students for future success. It also creates a lifelong love of reading. The future public library users are the hundreds of millions of students who currently aren't accessing the materials the library can offer. By partnering with your local schools, libraries can create new library card users who are already comfortable with a digital reading experience. The future of digital reading is all about access, content and education. In the next few years, OverDrive will advance all three areas to continue to provide the best value in the industry for both our library partners, our schools and your users.
Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist at OverDrive  |
Young Japanese Manga Writers Targeted by New Copyright Law
| Aspiring young novelists in North America often get their start by writing fan-fiction and developing a ravenous following on websites such as Wattpad. If they have very a large fan-base, its quite easy to get a publishing deal, if not, self-publishing is a viable career choice. In Japan things are quite different and fan-fiction authors are the target of a new multi-national copyright law. In Japan when someone creates fan-fiction based on anime, manga or light novels they are known as “Doujinsh”. This status is a proving ground for new artists, who can create a name for themselves through their self-published works and eventually make the leap from amateur to pro. The country's biggest geek event, Comiket, is centered around doujinshi. Fans line up to buy independently produced parodies of famous manga and starring popular characters. Traditionally Doujinsh got a free pass by the copyright holders, knowing it's where future manga artists often get their start. This all might change due to a new copyright law by the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a proposed trade deal with twelve countries participating, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, and Colombia, among others. Under the new trade law a 3rd party could file a copyright dispute against a young manga artist and win. Right now under Japanese law, a local publisher has to file a grievance, which rarely ever happens. What is amazing about this situation is that a prospective dispute bypasses the rights holder. Manga artist Ken Akamatsu, who started out in the amateur comic market scene, is uneasy about the proposed changes. "If creators can be prosecuted without complaints from rights holders, it could lead to some kind of snitching battle between fans," he said. "Places for people to share their work will also disappear." |
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