| Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has just submitted a new patent that will change the way our Kindle e-Readers and Tablets function. Right now these devices have reached a level where the hardware internals and battery life can’t really get much better, without drastically increasing the cost. The new patent will have your unit actually powered and major processes handled by a remote server or primary station. Tablets and e-Readers will transform into all in one units to ultra portable display screens with all processes handled by base stations. The essence of this patent will be to offer very low cost display screens, where the battery, processor, RAM and other major hardware will be handled by a base station. The patent outlines many innovative approaches. For example, a school can setup multiple base stations and when the screen is in a certain proximity, the screens will wake-up and be able to access the internet and have eBooks and other course material wirelessly delivered. The major claim from the patent is “A computer implemented method, comprising: under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, detecting a portable display within range of a first primary station, the portable display including a power receiving element and a data receiving element, the first primary station including a data transmitting element and a power transmitting element; wirelessly receiving power from the power transmitting element of the first primary station to the power receiving element of the portable display; wirelessly receiving data from the data transmitting element of the first primary station to the data receiving element of the portable display; detecting the portable display within range of a second primary station, the second primary station including a power transmitting element and a data transmitting element; wirelessly receiving power from the power transmitting element of the second primary station to the power receiving element of the portable display in response to detecting the portable display within the range of the second primary station; and wirelessly receiving data from the data transmitting element of the second primary station to the data receiving element of the portable display.” Could you imagine a future where the real cost of the tablet is the hardware base station? Much like a PC, it would be easily upgradable for more CPU, RAM and internals. The small cost would be the actual display screen, which would be negligible. You can see from looking at the patent information that the CEO of Amazon is thinking about the future, and how costs can be lowered. Jeff Bezos Patents the Future of the Kindle is a post from: E-Reader News |
Monday, April 1, 2013
Jeff Bezos Patents the Future of the Kindle
Hearst Inks New Deal with Digital Newsstand Magzter
| Magzter is an upstart digital magazine company that is looking to give Zinio and Next Issue a run for their money. In the last few weeks, the company has signed on a number of publications, such as Maxim and Newsweek. Today, Magzter has announced that Hearst has signed on and will contribute all of its U.S. titles, and some of its international ones, onto the platform. The Digital Magazine company has initiated a number of overtures with major publishers in the US, the world's biggest consumer of digital content. While publishers are eager for a larger audience, Magzter's 50-50 revenue sharing plan is the biggest stumbling block here. Magzter is asking for 50 percent of the subscription fees, which is far higher than the 30 percent commision Apple requires. Magzter is eager to trade some vital user statistics in return, which can be hard for the publishers to ignore. What Magzter is willing to divulge is not only how many users are actually reading which magazines, but also the email addresses of those who are reading. Magzter has also stated there are no hidden costs involved at any stage, even if the publishers add more pages or interactive multimedia content to their magazines. Magzter also boasts of a new automatic magazine uploading system where publishers will just have to upload their magazine only once and the software will render the magazine into the formats of various devices in vogue. Publishers will only have to upload the PDF file (or any other suitable format) into the system and it will be with the subscribers within the next one hour. The entire process is automatic, the patent for which is still pending. This way, users will get to enjoy the favorite magazine no matter if it's on an iPad or Android tablet. The company currently offers apps for iOS, Android, and Windows 8. It has offices in India, London, Singapore, and New York, and has been making its way across Asia and Europe. The service now claims about 7 million app downloads from a collection of 1,500 magazines from 600 publishers. Hearst Inks New Deal with Digital Newsstand Magzter is a post from: E-Reader News |
Humans and Androids Team Up in Marvel’s Avengers A.I.
| The newest Marvel Comics spinoff envisions a future world in which artificial intelligences take on a life of their own—and are able to spawn new, more powerful and complex AIs without human intervention. That’s the world of Avengers A.I., a spinoff of Brian Michael Bendis’s Age of Ultron that will launch in July with the creative team of writer Sam Humphries (Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, Our Love Is Real) and artist Andre Lima Araujo. “It’s a Pandora’s Box situation – once you fire that bullet out of the gun, you can never put it back,” Humphries told USA Today’s Brian Truitt. “The Marvel Universe within the blink of an eye is being colonized by A.I.s who may or may not have positive feelings about the way humanity has been treating them for the past 100 years.” Regardless of how the A.I.s feel, they must be dealt with and so a new team forms, headed up by The Vision, an android created by the robot Ultron who has been through a number of transformations and is able to form real bonds with humans (he was once married to fellow Avenger Scarlet Witch). Other A.I.s on the team include Victor Mancha (the son of Ultron), a Doombot, and a new character, Alexis, who has one of the most advanced robot bodies on Earth” as well as extraordinarily high intelligence, Humphries says, but whose place on the team and in this new world of humans and A.I.s remains murky. The humans on the team include Hank Pym, the scientist/superhero who created Ultron, and Monica Chang, who comes over from Ultimate Comics: Ultimates as an artificial intelligence specialist from S.H.I.E.L.D. The key to the story is that the humans can’t overcome the artificial intelligences, so the human/A.I. team must find ways for both groups to coexist. Otherwise, says Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort, “ultimately the A.I. are going to wipe us out and we’re going to be very sad Cro-Magnons in a very short period of time.” That gives Humphries plenty of scope to tell some interesting stories, which will exploit both the tension between humans and A.I.s and the potential of this strange new form of being. “Artificial intelligences are a product of human ingenuity, and although they are going to be going down their new path, they will remain a mirror to humanity,” he told USA Today. “Understanding that and exploring that in ways that are going to be funny and touching and endearing are definitely going to be parts of this book.” Humans and Androids Team Up in Marvel’s Avengers A.I. is a post from: E-Reader News |
AT&T to Sell the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 LTE on April 5th
| AT&T has announced today that it will begin to carry the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 LTE in all of its US retail stores on April 5th. You will be able to directly purchase the tablet for $399, or if you sign up for a two year contract you can get it for $249. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is one of the best tablets on the market due to the myriad of features it offers. The resolution of the display screen is 1920 x 1200 and it has a pixel density of 254ppi. Underneath the hood is a 1.5GHz OMAP4470 processor, 1GB of RAM, a front-facing camera, Dolby Surround Sound, and up to 10 hours of battery life. I think purchasing a two year contract and getting it for $249 is a very solid deal, and you can get a data plan via AT&T for as little as $15 a month. Having mobile LTE access allows you to access movies, ebooks, audiobooks, and other interactive content on the go. Considering most people tend to hang onto their tablets for a few years after a purchase, this is a worthwhile investment. AT&T to Sell the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 LTE on April 5th is a post from: E-Reader News |
OverDrive Launches New Reader-friendly Services
| April 1, 2013 — Cleveland, Ohio – Leading eBook distributor OverDrive today announced a series of initiatives to broaden options for readers to discover and enjoy eBooks from schools and libraries. Based on surveys completed by 18 million readers who each volunteered to brain wave scans (but without personally identifiable information), the following new services were announced:
 OverDrive's new Digital BookmoBlimp soars over a local library - New Integration protocol: The company will upgrade from SIP user authentication to its own new Super Library User Registration Program (SLURP).
-Support for the "26 emotional response limit" to selective borrowed eBooks, as well as options to select new metered access term limits such as 24 months, 24 pages and 24 words.
-National Digital BookmoBlimp (see photo, right). Building on the success of the Digital Bookmobile, OverDrive will introduce a new outreach vehicle: A titanic hot air bag circling North America collecting reading preferences from air travelers while in flight.  |
10 tips to keep your mobile devices charged and happy
1. For the quickest Tablet charge, use the original charger or a charger specifically designed for it.
As these tests demonstrate, to reduce charging time to a minimum, you need to use either the original charger or one designed specifically for your device. Some devices contain circuitry that won’t allow the battery to use the charger's full capacity unless the charger contains a special authorization chip: otherwise, the device will charge at a much slower rate. For instance, when we tried to charge an iPad 4 with a Samsung Tab 10.1's charger, the process took over 19 hours to complete, even though the Samsung charger can deliver the same amount of juice as the original iPad 4 charger. That’s because the iPad 4, not recognizing that the charger could deliver a larger flow of power, limited the incoming current to an unnecessarily low level. The same was true of the reverse situation: When we tried to charge a Samsung Tab 10.1 tablet with an iPad 4 charger, the process took more than 15.5 hours. In contrast, the original Samsung charger completed its work on the Tab 10.1 in 4 hours, 46 minutes.
2. Most cell phones don’t need a specific charger.
Cell phones, which carry smaller batteries than tablets use, don’t require high-current chargers. As a result, you can use a generic charger to transfer power to them, without suffering a severe slowdown in charging time. When we timed how long an iPhone 5 took to reach a full charge when fed by various chargers, the differences ranged from 2 hours, 4 minutes with an HTC travel charger to 2 hours, 59 minutes with a Samsung charger. The original iPhone 5 charger took 2 hours, 16 minutes—so you won’t suffer much of a penalty for using a third-party charger with your cell phone or other small device.3. Use a charging USB port or a powered USB hub.
If you don’t have a charger handy, you can recharge via a USB port. USB 2.0 ports come in two types: standard and charging. The difference is in the amount of juice they can deliver: A standard USB port delivers a paltry 100mA, whereas a charging port can deliver a much more respectable 500mA. That’s why, when you plug a power-hungry device into some ports, it either won’t charge at all or will charge very slowly. Though many laptops offer a combination of standard and charging USB ports, many manufacturers do a poor job of identifying which ports are of which type; in such cases, the only way to find out is to try each port in turn. Even more confusingly, some ports on fairly recent laptops can provide up to 1.1 Amps of current when a device that can use it is plugged in. Check with your system's manufacturer to see what types of ports it has and what amperage they can deliver to your device, before relying on them to keep your devices charged and ready to go.Although USB 3.0 ports can deliver more juice (up to 900mA) than USB 2.0 ports can, they perform at this level only with USB 3.0 devices. If you plug a USB 2.0 device into a USB 3.0 port, the port will deliver the same maximum 500mA that a USB 2.0 port would.
If you use an unpowered USB hub, the available current will be divided across all of the ports, which won’t leave enough to charge your devices. A powered USB hub can deliver the full amount of charging juice to each and every port, which makes it a better option for charging your devices.
4. You can use any Micro-USB cable to charge your phone if the phone has a Micro-USB port.
For devices that have Micro-USB ports, you can use any cable that has a Micro-USB plug on the end for charging; you don’t need a special cable.5. The first time you charge a device, let the device charge completely, and then discharge it until it runs out of juice.
The first charge cycle of any device is important: It conditions the battery and helps the device figure out how the battery behaves. So, when you first plug it in, leave the device on to charge for at least 12 hours, then unplug and run the device until the battery is empty.6. You can safely leave devices charging.
Modern mobile device batteries contain circuits that control the flow of power, so it is safe to leave them plugged in and charging for long periods. When the battery is fully charged, the battery management controller will regulate the flow of power to keep the battery topped up, but won’t overcharge it. Which is a good thing, as an overcharged Li-Ion battery could explode.7. It is good for your batteries to occasionally completely run them down and fully recharge them.
8. Treat your batteries with respect.
If you treat them well, your devices' batteries will repay you with years of service. But if you don’t treat them well, they won’t respond well—which is a problem because the insides of batteries are dangerous places. It may help to think of batteries as small chemical fires waiting to happen: You should always carry them in the device or in a case (if you're carrying a spare). Never poke, puncture, or otherwise mistreat them.9. Replace (and recycle) your batteries every two years or so.
As batteries get older, their ability to retain a charge diminishes, and consequently your device's battery life gets shorter. This gradual but inevitable process reflects chemical changes inside the battery. Most batteries should be good for a couple of years, though: Apple asserts that the battery in an iPad will hold 80 percent of its maximum charge after 1000 charges, and other manufacturers make similar claims.When you do replace them, recycle the old batteries at a hardware store or other designated rechargeable battery drop-off. The Call2Recycle website will help you find a recycling station in your area. Don't discard any recyclable battery into the trash, as its ingredients are quite poisonous and potentially combustible.
10. You can diagnose a USB power problem in a few simple steps.
Mobile batteries: Everything you need to know
Most modern mobile devices use lithium ion (sometimes called Li-ion) batteries, which consist of two main parts: a pair of electrodes and the electrolyte between them. The materials that these electrodes are made of varies (they can be lithium, graphite, or even nanowires), but they all rely on the chemistry of lithium. It's a reactive metal, which means that it has a tendency to combine with other elements. Pure lithium is so reactive, it can catch fire in the air, so most batteries use a safer form called lithium cobalt oxide. Between the two electrodes is the electrolyte, which is usually a liquid organic solvent that allows electrons to flow between them. When a lithium ion battery is charged, the lithium cobalt oxide molecules capture and hold electrons, which they then release when the battery is in use, such as when it is running your cell phone.
Nick MediatiAll of this chemistry means one thing: Your device's battery is storing energy, and the chemicals inside are eager to release that energy any way they can. And that can be a problem, as Boeing recently found out when the batteries on a 787 Dreamliner caught fire while the plane was parked.
This is one of the drawbacks of lithium ion: If the batteries are discharged too far, the chemistry breaks down and creates an excess of lithium oxide, which ignites, creating more lithium oxide, and so on. That's what chemists call a thermal runaway reaction, and what everyone else calls a fire, which is why the FAA grounded the 787. Since the same thing can happen if you puncture the battery, the TSA recommends that air passengers carefully pack batteries in their carry-on baggage, not in checked baggage.
Battery capacity
The capacity of a battery is measured in milliampere-hours (or mAh), which indicates how much energy the battery can deliver over time. For instance, if a battery has a rating of 1000 mAh, it could deliver 1000 milliamps of power for 1 hour. If your device uses 500 milliamps of power, the battery should last about 2 hours.The battery life of a device is a bit more complicated than that, though, as the amount of power a device uses changes depending on what it is doing. If the device's screen is on, the radio is transmitting, and the processor is working hard, it will use more energy than if the screen is off and the radio and processor are idle.
That's why you should treat battery-life claims with caution—the manufacturer can extend the battery-life number by turning the screen brightness down, or by turning off parts of the device. If you are curious, you can use an app that monitors the power consumption and battery status of your mobile device, such as Battery Monitor Widget for Android or Battery Life Pro for iOS devices.
Controlling the flow of power
To show how this process works, we charged a Samsung Galaxy Note and measured the flow of power into the device, against the reported percentage for the battery charge. As you can see in the chart above, the flow of power into the battery is highest when the battery is first being charged, and then tapers off. The last few portions of the charge take a long time, as the controller slows the flow of power to a trickle so that the battery won’t be charged too much.
The future of power
Battery technology is always improving, with labs around the world looking for new battery technologies to replace lithium as well as new approaches to building lithium ion batteries. Among the new technologies, a lot of work has gone into supercapacitors, in which the battery stores energy electrically and then releases it, like a flash gun. Supercapacitors could allow for much quicker charging, as little chemical change is involved, but current supercapacitors can deliver power only in short bursts, which is the opposite of what most mobile devices need. Fuel cells that use hydrogen to generate electricity are also coming soon. The Nectar fuel-cell system, announced at the CES trade show in January, uses a $10 cartridge to power a cell phone for up to two weeks. However, fuel cells are not yet small enough to fit inside a phone—the Nectar system charges the existing lithium ion battery and doesn't replace it.
Marketing Idea: Start a Digital Book Club
| Let’s keep this blog post short and to the point. Book clubs are a great way to bring readers together to talk about books while building upon their sense of community with the library. Why not take some of the best practices from your existing book club to start a Digital Book Club?
We’ve outlined some best practices of Digital Book Clubs in a Prezi presentation for your viewing pleasure.
We created a Prezi presentation that takes you on a journey from promoting eBook availability to your existing book club to creating a full blown Digital Book Club! Take a few minutes to view this presentation and jot down a few notes for how to start a Digital Book Club of your own! (Seriously, that’s why I made this blog post so short – so you could spend your time viewing the presentation
For more ideas on how to promote your OverDrive service, join us for a live Community Outreach webinar on Thursday, April 4th at 3:00 PM ET.
Cassie Renner is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive.
 |
)e-Ink Remains Committed to e-Readers despite CEO Change
| e-Ink Holdings has been developing e-Paper displays since 2009 and are found in most modern electronic readers. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Sony all feature their high-resolution displays in their current generation lineup. Recently, CEO of e-Ink Scott Liu has resigned as the Chairman and CEO of e-Ink and Vice Chairman Felix Ho has been named interim Chairman and CEO. With the shift in management and declining revenues, what does the future of e-ink hold? We caught up with the head of research and development Giovanni Mancini about what exactly is going on with the company. Whenever there is a shift in the top levels of management, it is often an indication that things are about to be shaken up. Do you know why Scott left e-ink? As announced in the company's press release Scott Liu had led E Ink for many years, and he made a personal decision to step down as the Chairman and CEO of E Ink Holdings that is not related to the direct running of the company. Thus, E Ink would like to respect his privacy. Scott will continue to act as an executive advisor. E Ink is fortunate that Vice Chairman Felix Ho has become the interim chairman and CEO of E Ink Holdings. Felix has extensive experience in the display and EPD industry, and with E Ink technology. Is e-ink refocusing their strategies from e-readers to watches, price tags and keyboards and other things? E Ink absolutely remains committed to eReaders, as eReaders continue to be a very large and significant market for the company. E Ink is expanding its strategy to include other products such as ESL (price tags) and watches. E Ink technology is ideal for many consumer and industrial applications, and E Ink is very excited to be working with designers across multiple industries on some innovative new products, including many in the eReader space. It seems e-ink has been on the decline the last few quarters, and it seems to me a management shakeup was needed to bring the company in a new direction. Are you privy to any of this? The change in management was totally due to personal reasons, it does not signal a redirection of the company. Are you aware of anything new and exciting happening at e-ink? E Ink is constantly working on many new and exciting products. The company is presently working on a schedule for products announcements, and it expects to announce some in the near future. Do you know how marketing is going on with Triton 2, or If any other mainstream vendors have expressed interest in it? Per your conversation with E Ink during CES, the company continues to market its Triton 2 product and expects to have a customer start shipping in June of 2013. Is e-ink interested in acquiring Liquavista? As a matter of policy E Ink does not comment on such inquiries. e-Ink Remains Committed to e-Readers despite CEO Change is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Blackberry Roadmap Leaked
| A new leaked roadmap of Blackberry's upcoming devices has appeared online, which provides us with a glimpse of what to expect from the Canadian manufacturer. While the credibility of the leak is debatable, the products that found mention do hold some value. Apart the Z10, there is also the Q10 QWERTY smartphone along with a phablet as well. However, what is of most interest to us is the mention of a tablet device named B10. While details are obviously missing, the B10 looks to be a rather big device with a 10 inch display. If this is true, it will be an acid test for the hardware as well as the new BB10 platform against its more established competitors, such as the iPad or the Android based Nexus 10. That said, the company's recently launched Z10 smartphone did make a strong positive impression in the world market, though there is also no denying that competing in the tablet space is an entirely different ballgame. Blackberry's earlier attempt was the PlayBook that offered a 7 inch display, but it never could make a dent in the tablet segment. While the above leak does lack an official seal of approval, a new tablet from Blackberry is well overdue. So stay tuned. Blackberry Roadmap Leaked is a post from: E-Reader News |
3 More Android Tablets with 9.7″ Retina Quality Screens
| Last week I posted about the new Archos 97 Titanium HD tablet that is among the first Android tablets to have a screen similar to that of the Apple iPad 3 and 4, with a 9.7″ display and screen resolution of 2048 x 1536. High pixel density screens like that are great for reading because [...] |
Charlotte Latin girls give a TEDx talk
| I met Tom Dubick about a year ago at Hackerspace Charlotte, NC. He teaches engineering to the girls at Charlotte Latin School, and we believe his class was the first to be using the Raspberry Pi in the United States. He and a group of his 13-year-old pupils have just given a TEDx talk called How Girls Should Serve Raspberry Pi. The girls here are presenting the projects they’ve made with Raspberry Pi over this semester, but there’s another important message here: we know that STEM subjects are not just for boys, but we should recognise that not all girls are the same, so our teaching approach is doomed if we decide that the only way to get girls into engineering subjects is to “shrink it and pink it”. Keep watching – the projects get better and better. (Rolling backpack indicator lights FTW!) |
Why Kobo and Sony Are Losing the Digital Race
| Sony and Kobo are in big trouble with their current business model of selling hardware and ebooks. The lack of meaningful content and acquisitions are making these two lag behind the competition. It is not enough anymore to merely offer ebooks as a way to gain customer loyalty and trust, these two companies have virtually no community and are trailing off on content discovery. Today, we will look at the reasons why in the next few years these and Barnes and Noble may be fade away into irrelevance. Last week Amazon acquired the book community site “GoodReads.” Many people in the industry claim that the sale was for $180 million dollars in cash and incentives to meet specific goals. Earlier in the year, Amazon also bought Voice recognition system Ivona. Amazon also purchased AbeBooks, a vendor of rare and used books from independent publishers in 2008. As part of that acquisition Amazon also got a stake in Shelfari's competitor LibraryThing, which AbeBooks had previously purchased a 40% stake in. Amazon ended up using both of these companies technologies in their X-Ray for ebooks feature that is evident in their entire line of e-readers and tablets. Also, don’t forget Audible. When Kobo emerged from its previous iteration “Short Covers,” the company has never made any meaningful acquisitions. The only company they ever bought was France based Aquafadas, which the company intends on implementing into Kobo Writing Life, to allow people to self-publish comic books. One of the drawbacks of the Kobo ecosystem is its reliance on other established social networks. It currently has integration with Pinterest, Facebook, and use the GoodReads API to pull book review information. When it first came out, the Kobo Vox used GetJar to allow people to download apps until the company reached an agreement with Google for access to Play. Kobo has an established track record of not really developing its own technologies to aid in proper content discovery, and instead exclusively uses third parties. Now to be fair, Kobo does Pulse and Reading Life as its own technologies, but Pulse remains a barren wasteland of user comments and discussion. Sony is in a more woeful position and has consistently lost market share in its core markets over the last three years. In 2011, the company accounted for 28% of all e-readers sold in Canada. In 2012, its presence diminished to 18% and in the first quarter of 2013 dropped down to 12%. The main reason Sony has fallen is the lack of new devices and a meaningful user experience. In the past, Sony would always release three new e-readers a year and for the last two years has only issued one. Sony also relies on 3rd parties for content, which often shoots them in the foot. They had an agreement with Google to hustle books directly with their PRS-T1 e-reader, but when Google changed their system and amalgamated everything into Google Play, it disallowed anyone with a Sony to buy books from the Play Store. Imagine having a new Sony e-Reader, using the device for the first time, and clicking on Google Books only to see error messages. The PRS-T2 did a little bit better of a job with Evernote and Overdrive Library lending. Sony has basically divested itself of e-readers and ebooks, but still continues to sell them and innovate its websites. Sony and Kobo might very well disappear in the next few years and see their market share in the US, Canada, and the UK decline. The reason? It’s not ebook prices or the availability of a new title, or even a free Harry Potter Book. Users tend to gravitate towards ecosystems with a meaningful experience and have software features not found anywhere else. Amazon has X-Ray, Ivona, audio dictionaries, free ebooks every month with Prime, a massive book discovery network, its own publishing company, and curated app store. Amazon is also the only company to really push audiobooks. There is a reason customers gravitate towards Amazon’s line of e-readers and tablets, because it is distinctive. I fear for the future of e-readers from companies that both manufacture their own hardware and sell the digital content. They rely too much on 3rd parties to offer an engaging social experience, without developing their own technologies or buying out established niche companies that they could incorporate into their own ecosystem. I fear the day when e-reader companies end up trying to license their technology out due to declining sales. Remember when low power display screens were the next big thing? Remember Bridgestone, Plastic Logic, Pixel QI, LG Flexible e-Paper, or Liquavista? All of these companies tries to make their own devices and ended up trying to license their technology to other companies and all failed. I fear this is the future of non-Amazon e-reader companies. What can Kobo do to remain relevant going forward in the future? I recommend buying a minority stake in Overdrive, and incorporating all of their developer SDK tools into their entire line of e-readers. This would allow anyone in Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, and other markets to borrow library ebooks for free without having to jump through a ton of hoops. I would also recommend the company buy Autography. These guys have developed a unique system that allows authors to autograph ebooks, and if paired with Writing Life,would be excellent for book tours and being able to really make their self-publishing program stand out in a crowded market. I would also recommend that Kobo bite the bullet and give Apple a percentage of every sale through its iOS apps. Apple customers tend to spend the most money on content out of any mobile operating system in the world. Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and other major companies have pulled the ability to buy books within their apps, resisting the commission Apple earns on every in-app purchase. Baseline, Kobo needs to sell more books and selling them within iOS and not the Cloud Reader is the right play. I would also recommend the company invest in Vook, and use its enhanced ebooks on the ARC and future line of tablets. It is only a matter of of time before Amazon does this. Finally, Kobo needs to develop their own social community. I mean, they don’t even have their own forums. Instead, their admin team visits popular websites like MobileRead to get feedback and interact with users. Sony, on the other hand, is in dire straights. The company’s number one priority should be hiring a proper PR agency to get the word out. Sony recently introduced a new EPUB 3 kids section to the main bookstore. It also revised its Android app to support EPUB 3. Do you think Sony informed the media about this? Nope, it did everything in stealth fashion, leaving it up to journalists to dig up the news themselves. Sony also has a monthly book club, but doesn’t promote this AT ALL! On a hardware level, Sony needs to catch up to the competition and issue an e-Ink Pearl HD display with frontlight. It also needs to BUY Evernote to streamline the software into the entire line of tablets and e-readers. I don’t think Sony realizes how committed a strong segment of people who are loyal to their e-reader brand can be. I know people that would never consider buying another device, because they love the build quality and design. Finally, Sony has no self-publishing program at all, and no way to buy indie titles. The company needs to consider buying Smashwords as their provider for these sorts of titles. The future of Sony and Kobo looks bleak unless they make moves to differentiate themselves and revitalize their product lines. The only way to do this is to buy established companies that have the technology they need to change their future. Doing everything in-house will not cut it in this day and age, it is nearly impossible to develop unique systems, when it is easier to buy an established one. Why Kobo and Sony Are Losing the Digital Race is a post from: E-Reader News |
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Barnes and Noble Offers Free eBooks and Magazines with Windows 8 App
|
To find and download the free NOOK books and magazines, NOOK for Windows 8 users can simply scroll to the Popular Lists section in the app and find the “Welcome Offer” list. Customers will have to act fast to get their free copy of the modern classic, Life of Pi, which is only available to the first 100,000 customers who download the book on the NOOK app for Windows 8. To download the app, merely visit the Windows store and do a search for Nook to install it. One of the great aspects of this app in general is that it allows customers outside the UK and US to buy content. This is because all purchases are done from your Microsoft Account. “NOOK is the highest-rated reading and digital bookstore app for Windows 8, and by providing bestselling books and top magazines for free, new NOOK customers can start their digital libraries with some of the best content in the expansive NOOK Store,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at NOOK Media LLC. “With the NOOK app for Windows 8, customers get an incredible reading experience and can choose from over 3 million NOOK Books, including 1 million free titles, as well as magazines, newspapers, and comics on any Windows 8 device.” Barnes and Noble Offers Free eBooks and Magazines with Windows 8 App is a post from: E-Reader News |
HTC Developing Windows 8 Tablet
| Reports emanating from Taiwan claim HTC is developing a new tablet device that will run the Windows 8 operating system. Details are scarce at the moment, though sources did mention the tablet will sport a HD 10.1 inch display that will pack in 1920 x 1080 pixels. That translates to a comfortable 218 pixels per inch. LG is tipped to be providing the displays while Pegatron Corporation will be assembling the device. However, both Microsoft and HTC declined to comment on the issue, which means it is still a rumor at best. HTC’s earlier attempt at the tablet segment comprised of the 7 inch HTC Flyer and the Jetstream that offered a 10 inch display. However, none failed to make a mark, which can be attributed more to the high price tag than anything else. Let’s just hope HTC does not repeat the same mistakes with its forthcoming tablet ventures. The company is already battling a low demand for its hardware and is currently engaged in an all out battle to promote sales of its current flagship smartphone, the HTC One. In fact, it is such a desperate a situation for the company that its CEO Peter Chou is said to have even put his job on the line and has promised to step down if the One smartphone does not succeed. The company already offers the Windows Phone 8X and a Windows 8 based tablet offering will be interesting, to say the least. The above image is for descriptive purpose only and may or may not bear any resemblance with the final product.
HTC Developing Windows 8 Tablet is a post from: E-Reader News |
Dark Horse Adds Two Classic Series to Digital Manga Service
| At this weekend’s SakuraCon, editor Carl Gustav Horn opened the Dark Horse panel with the announcement that it is adding two popular, long-running series to its digital service: Oh My Goddess and Blade of the Immortal. Both will debut in digital format in April. Oh My Goddess, which has been running in Japan since 1988, is the story of a college student who unwittingly summons a beautiful goddess and binds her to himself for life. Humorous complications ensue, and there are a number of multi-arc adventures, as the storyline has gotten more complicated over the years. Dark Horse started publishing it in 1994, one chapter at a time as a monthly comic, then gathered it into trade paperbacks. Dark Horse will release volume 44 in April. There is also an anime based on the series, with the slightly different title Ah! My Goddess. Blade of the Immortal is a classic samurai story about a swordsman who cannot be killed by a wound. He views his immortality as a curse and sets out to kill 1,000 evil men in order to have it lifted. Volume 26 of the series came out this month, and it was recently announced that it will come to an end in Japan with volume 30 (which will be volume 31 in the American numbering). Like Oh My Goddess, Blade of the Immortal was originally released as single-issue comics but is now published only as trade collections. Horn also announced two new licenses, New Lone Wolf and Cub and a series based on the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku. While he didn’t say anything about digital versions of these two comics, it’s likely that both will show up on the digital service, as the original Lone Wolf and Cub is available on Dark Horse Digital and Hatsune Miku: Unofficial Hatsune Miku Mix is published in a digital-only anthology, Comic Rush, in Japan. Dark Horse Adds Two Classic Series to Digital Manga Service is a post from: E-Reader News |
Apple’s iRadio Slated for Summer Launch
| Apple's iRadio is almost a reality, and the service could be rolled out as early as this summer. Towards this, the Cupertino tech giant is reported to be in talks with several music companies and might have even made significant headway with at least two of the biggest, Universal and Warner. This marks an important development considering Universal can be considered among the last of the big names in the field to have signed up with Apple’s iCloud, while Warner wasn’t too comfy with cloud based storage until recently. A report earlier in March had mentioned that the deal is getting delayed over negotiations of the royalty fees and such. As per the report, Apple is keen to pay 6 cents per 100 songs and the music labels want it to be 21 cents, which is what the Copyright Royalty Board has stipulated for companies that don’t support their own broadcast operations. Pandora pays 12 cents per 100 songs while Spotify pays at the rate of 36 cents. No doubt Apple has made good use of its clout and bargaining tactics to arrive at a much lower rate. All of this can however make things a tad tougher for the likes of Spotify and other small time companies, while Google will likely emerge as Apple’s biggest competitor in the field of online music streaming. Google is also said to have reached a hush-hush deal with Warner that would provide music streaming services via Youtube. So its a musical summer we are looking forward to, it seems.
Apple’s iRadio Slated for Summer Launch is a post from: E-Reader News |
Iain and Seb from Creative Coding interview Eben
| What were you doing for the Bank Holiday on Friday? Eben cycled 15 miles to have a meeting, then cycled home to do a Google Hangout interview with the guys from Creative Coding, all before I’d even got out of my pyjamas. Here it is: lots of interesting stuff here, including a low-bandwidth and somewhat pixellated Mooncake at around 33 minutes in, who causes Eben to scream girlishly as she extends all her claws and proceeds to climb his…leg. |
Freading Library Platform Adds New Content
| While libraries still struggle to provide digital content for lending to its patrons and publishers still feel the need to examine all the ramifications of allowing patrons to borrow their bestselling–and sometimes, even back list–titles on their digital devices, some companies are working to change the concept behind the lending all together. Library Ideas‘ ebook lending platform Freading, which will be upgrading next month to include new content and new publishers, is an entirely different take on the concept of book borrowing. Close in nature to concepts like Amazon Prime, in which members have a pre-determined number of ebook checkouts for one annual membership price, Freading allows libraries to allot patrons virtual tokens that are exchanged for borrowable titles, tokens that are bought with actual money by the library, as opposed to a flat subscription price for using the catalog. The cost of a title is determined based on the publication date of the title. A new release typically costs the equivalent of around two dollars to borrow, and it is removed from the device after a two-week checkout period. Update: Brian Downing, CEO of Library Ideas, reached out to GoodEReader with clarification of the token model for ebook checkouts. The libraries incur the cost for the patron checkouts, much as they would assume the cost for a subscription to a lending catalog, only in the case of Freading, libraries only pay per circulation for a title. Additionally, libraries have unlimited simultaneous access to titles, eliminating the waiting list that frustrate so many digital patrons. One issue that Freading has struggled with, and which has been addressed for the upgrade on April 12th, is book discovery. Unlike some library platforms that use subscription-based limitations to keep prices affordable for libraries of all sizes, all of Freading’s catalog is available to its member libraries. This can lead to issues with search and discovery, but Freading has incorporated search headings in this new edition, especially popular seasonal headings, that make it easier to filter searches for books. To date, around 1500 library systems have signed on to use Freading’s lending platform, along with more than 850 publishers.
Freading Library Platform Adds New Content is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, March 29, 2013
BeWrite Books to Close March 31st
| BeWrite Books launched at the turn of the millennium as a publisher of exclusive, new, and high-quality fiction and nonfiction. It releases at least a dozen titles a year in paperback, each covered by an ebook edition. It also releases three sole-author poetry collections each year. By the end of 2011, BB had brought more than 250 exclusive new titles to recognized and international publication. The company shifted into an ebook only distribution model in 2012 and saw 30 new books a year being printed. The company announced today that it was shuttering its business model and closing all operations on March 31st. The website has the following statement: “We worked incredibly hard with a dedicated and passionate professional in-house team and some of the most gifted writers imaginable. We were ahead of the game for so long, surviving on tireless labour, wits, cooperation, friendship, love of the art … and hope. But recent market forces beyond our control force us to call a halt and – sadly and most reluctantly – wind down to a spring closure. Our job now is to find effective and prestigious new publishers for BB-published titles and to assist those BB authors who choose to take the self-publishing route. We're working flat-out on that and are succeeding in keeping works alive. But it's dispiriting and often heart-breaking to now count our every loss a success.” BeWrite Books to Close March 31st is a post from: E-Reader News |
