| Eve is celebrating its ten year anniversary as being one of the longest lived Space based MMORPG’s. Today at the annual EVE Online Fanfest, it was announced that a free 54 page digital comic will be made available and published via Dark Horse. The content for Eve: True Stories, will stem from the players themselves, that drive the story and politics for the game. Over the course of the next eight days, players are encouraged to submit their favorite memories of the game from the last ten years. The EVE population will then vote on the best ones and the free comic will be born. Dark Horse will also be producing a giant 184-page glossy graphic novel that will cover all of the story driven lore behind EVE Online and DUST 514. Titled EVE Source, it will include a bunch of never seen before concept art and high-resolution images. There is no word yet if Dark Horse will also publish a digital variant. EVE has derived most of its success through players crafting their own stories. I remember one in particular from 2005 that had The Guiding Hand Social Club mercenary outfit accepting a contract on the life of Ubiqua Seraph, CEO Mirial. Over the course of several months, Guiding Hand spies infiltrated Ubiqua Seraph and worked their way up the ladder to become Mirial’s closest companions. They proceeded to bring the corporation to its knees in one fell swoop, destroying Mirial’s most prized ship and raiding the corporate hangars for untold billions of ISK in valuable blueprints. In recent times, a massive fleet battle of 2800 ships resulted in the largest PVP session in the games history.
EVE Online to Publish Digital Comics via Dark Horse is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sunday, April 28, 2013
EVE Online to Publish Digital Comics via Dark Horse
MAKE and MCM Raspberry Pi Design Competition: the winners!
| MAKE held a Raspberry Pi Design competition with MCM Electronics for US-based Pi owners, and have just released the results. I’m not sure what’s more impressive: the outstanding quality of the entries, or the fact that even though we spend much of the day furiously googling for new Pi projects, many of the submissions were new to us here at the Foundation. It’s great for us to watch other organisations running contests like this: not least because it’s a real relief not to have to judge them ourselves! The Grand Prize went to Intonarumori, a collection of magic sound boxes made by a hacker/art collective called urbanSTEW. The STEW-folk say:
The Sunlight Foundation’s Lobbyist Meter won the Artistic category: we tweeted about this a while back (and it’s been in my “things to blog” folder for a while) because we thought it was a clever, snarky, funny way to bring attention to a very serious issue. You can read more about the Lobbyist Meter on the Sunlight Foundation’s website. Here it is, doing its transparent, democratic thing. The Education category award went to a project you’ll all have seen before, if you’re regular readers: Emma Bennett’s beautiful school State Board project (which we have been using in talks as a demonstration of some of the very cool stuff we see kids doing with the Pi) won the prize. Read more about it in the post we wrote when we first saw Emma’s work, and see some video of the board in action below. Everybody in our offices secretly wants a wooden case for their Pi, because we are all impractical, and we have all read Idoru. The Enclosures category was won by Chris Crumpacker for this beautiful piece of hand-tooled walnut. Chris, if you’re reading, please get in touch. We absolutely, positively need one of these to hold one of the Pis at Raspberry Towers. Chris told MAKE:
The final category, Utility, was won by another project we’ve featured here: David Bryan’s cat feeder, which I enjoyed blogging about because it gave me the opportunity to use the phrase “liver-flavoured kibbles”. Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to MAKE and MCM for running the competition. You can see the other entries on MAKE’s website – enjoy! |
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Google Play Store Bars External App Updates
| Google has introduced some changes to its Play Store regulations that now make is mandatory for all applications to update after having gone through Google's specified methods. This comes in the wake of Facebook attempting to offer users of its Facebook Home app an update bypassing Google Play Store. The change has been brought about by a seemingly small but significant update that now stands at version 4.0.27. Most apps already comply with that, except for one, Facebook, which prompted Google to promptly bring about the change. Google Play Program Policies have been updated. See “Content Policies” section, which clarifies that “An app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace, or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play’s update mechanism.” Google Play is a trusted source for Android application downloads, and we are committed to providing a secure and consistent experience, revealed Google's new policy towards app updates.
Google Play Store Bars External App Updates is a post from: E-Reader News |
HP Slate 7 Now Available in the US
| The Slate 7, HP's offering in the budget tablet segment, is now ready to be picked up for a comfortable $170. The tablet is all about mediocrity, which matches the selling price rather well, though the unit has moments of brilliance as well. Take, for instance, the Beats Audio software, which should allow for one of the best audible experience on a budget tablet. Together with the price point and a decent performance, this makes for a really appealing tablet proposition. The rest of the specification story is already well known: a 1.6 GHz dual core chip, 1 GB of RAM, and a 8 GB internal storage. The tablet comes with support for a micro SD card that maxes out at 32 GB. The tablet runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but comes with a rather sedate 1024 x 600 pixel display. That's not terrible, but there are better options available. Case in point, the Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire HD, both of which offer 1280 x 800 pixel display and 16 GB of storage for just $199. However, the Slate 7 comes in an all metal body. Nevertheless, the HP Slate 7 is worth checking out, more so since it has made its retail debut in the US. Earlier, it was caught in a misprint imbroglio that led many to believe it has been delayed to June. Good to see it is sticking to its schedule.
HP Slate 7 Now Available in the US is a post from: E-Reader News |
Protect your online accounts after major hack
Dark Horse Announces Halo: Initiation Digital Comic
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"After Halo 4 and Spartan Ops, fans wanted to know more about the origins of the Spartan-IV program and Sarah Palmer in particular. So it's great fun to be able to grant those wishes with a partner like Dark Horse," Reed said in a statement issued by Dark Horse. The Halo series of comics originally started at Marvel, before finding a new home with Dark Horse.The first issue is poised to drop August 14th and will be available via the Dark Horse iOS and Android apps. Dark Horse Announces Halo: Initiation Digital Comic is a post from: E-Reader News |
A Simple Trick to Fix a Buggy or Broken Kobo eBook Reader
| Remember last week when I posted about how my Kobo Glo had become too buggy to function? It kept freezing up and not responding, the covers all disappeared from the homescreen, and it kept giving a network connection error whenever I tried to sync to upgrade to the new 2.5.1 software. Well, I eventually figured [...] |
Metro: Last Light eBook to be Bundled with Steam Purchase
| If you are a fan of post apocalyptic games and eBooks, there is a new deal to be had. Users who purchase the new PC game Metro: Last Light will be offered a free digital copy of the novel Metro 2033, when authenticating on Steam. The digital book itself, is available as a standalone purchase and will be made available via major retailers on May 14 2013. The plot of Metro: Last Light was written by Dmitry Glukhovsky, acclaimed author of the novel Metro 2033 which inspired the creation of both video games. Glukhovsky’s novels Metro 2033 and Metro 2034 have sold more than 2.000.000 copies worldwide. In 2013, his latest book Metro 2035 will also be available outside of Russia. Really, the new game gives publisher Deep Silver a marketing opportunity it never took advantage of in the first games release. There is a tremendously loyal following to the video game franchise and the game is getting tons of publicity via major gaming sites. The inclusion of a free eBook will likely sway a few people over to the PC. There is no word yet on what format the eBook will be in, but likely PDF and ePUB. Metro: Last Light eBook to be Bundled with Steam Purchase is a post from: E-Reader News |
Good e-Reader Radio – Week in Review
| Welcome to another edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Today we talk about the Blackberry Q10 and what to expect on its Canadian launch early next week. We will be reviewing this in our labs and comparing it against the Z10! We also have some Skype news! The official App has been launched and is now exclusively available via the Good e-Reader APP Store for both the Z10 and Q10, its on the front page right now! In the news, we talk about Amazon hitting 300,000 eBooks in its Kindle Library, the top 20 most well read cities in the US and their Q1 financial results. Also, txtr has launched new eBook stores in many different countries, but some of their prices are out of control. IDPF has announced its main sessions speakers, authors and industry heroes that will be at Digital Book! You ever heard of Deluxe eBooks before? Me neither, hear me rant and rave at what funny business Harper Collins is up too, of course music and more! A fun show as always, so check it out. Good e-Reader Radio – Week in Review is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, April 26, 2013
Amazon Redesigns their Android App
| Amazon has pushed out a massive update for the Kindle Reading application for Android today. It has basically been totally redesigned to mirror the UI of the Kindle Fire Tablet. Your main library gives you a carousel view of all the eBooks you have in it and are swiped for easy access. At the bottom of your main screen you now see a Bestsellers/Recommended mini carousel that will allow you to purchase the books right from main shelf. Finally, there is a main menu that will give you access to popular samples, newsstand, and many more! This is the largest update Amazon has ever given their Android app, and is worth it to download. You can get it right now from the Good e-Reader APP Store. Amazon Redesigns their Android App is a post from: E-Reader News |
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OverDrive Media Console compatibility for Linux Users
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Maybe you have dreaded telling the users who come into your library and are wanting help with Linux that OverDrive Media Console was not compatible with their chosen platform. Due to a recent discovery, we have found a way to get OMC on a Linux computer. Things are about to get nerdy, so stick with me.
Many Linux users are familiar with a program called Wine – not the popular libation, but a "translator" that allows Windows native applications to run in the Linux environment. Wine takes a Windows Application's calls, and translates them to the corresponding Linux calls. The result is an environment where Windows applications run in the Linux environment as if they were written for Linux. Let me be clear and note that it's not perfect – some results may vary, giving you the ability to use the core features of an application, while also preventing other features from working.
When OverDrive Media Console is installed on a Linux PC using Wine, you will gain the capability of playing OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks, and even returning them through the software. On the other hand, some features are not available, including support for WMA Audiobooks and WMV Videos, and the ability to transfer to MP3 players. The reason some features are not supported in Linux is the inability to install the latest version of the Windows Media Player security upgrade required for use with Windows Media formats.
In addition to this recent discovery, Open EPUB books should work as long as you have an eReader program installed, OverDrive Read titles will also work on Linux since the format is browser-based, and not tied to external programs like Adobe Digital Editions. Kindle Titles are also available to Linux users using the Kindle Cloud Reader. And you can also use Adobe Digital Editions 1.7 with Wine. To all Linux users out there, let's hope this is the beginning of more things to come!
To download and install ADE with Wine, please see the Wine project’s App Database (appDB) entry for Adobe Digital Editions.
If you would like to download and install OMC with Wine, please see the Wine project's App Database (appDB) entry for OMC. If you don’t have Wine or you aren’t sure how Wine works, try these links:
Justin Noszek is a Support Specialist for OverDrive.
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Txtr eBooks Cost 60% more than Amazon in New Zealand
| Txtr made a big announcement a few days ago on the expansion of their online bookstores in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many other countries. The eBooks they sell on average are close to 60% more then they sell for on Amazon and other leading digital websites. Deadly Seas just published on 13 April is NZ$32.99 on txtr and only NZ$17.43 on Amazon. Secret History of our Streets:London is NZ$39.95 on txtr and only NZ$21.53 on Amazon. Finally, the The Religion of Technology costs $32.99 on txtr and $11.72 on Amazon. Finally, Amazon allows users to get a sample preview to evaluate the book before purchase, while txtr does not provide this service. Obviously with the high price point, many customers who want to hunt around for deals might do better then dealing with txtr in New Zealand. Txtr eBooks Cost 60% more than Amazon in New Zealand is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Kindle Lending Library Surpasses 300,000 titles
| The Amazon Kindle Lending Library has just surpassed 300,000 titles, according to the company’s Q1 Financial Report. The service is an integral part of Amazon Prime, which allows users to borrow one ebook a month for free. The Amazon Lending Library burst onto the scene in early 2011 and launched with a paltry 5,000 titles. Since then, it has grown as many self-published authors and mainstream publishers have contributed their works. You can find the entire Hunger Games and Harry Potter books available on this platform. One of the benefits that the Lending Library provides is the extra revenue authors receive when their books are borrowed out for free. Unlike traditional libraries, Amazon has a pool of money that it distributes to authors every month. Whenever a book is borrowed, authors receive royalties. We have heard in many cases that authors make more money giving their book away for free, than they do selling it for .99. It also hooks readers on a series of books, and customers are more likely to purchase the next books in a trilogy than wait a whole month to borrow the next book for free. Amazon Kindle Lending Library Surpasses 300,000 titles is a post from: E-Reader News |
IDPF Digital Book 2013 Is Just a Month Away!
| The schedule for IDPF Digital Book Conference is set for May 29th to the 30th at the Javits Center in New York. This event transpires every year right before the start of Book Expo America. It is the most definitive gathering of stalwart digital heroes and focuses on the trends in ebooks, self-publishing, e-readers, and what companies are doing. The incredibly rich 2013 speaker list ranges from bestselling authors like Malcolm Gladwell, Sylvia Day, and Jennifer Armentrout; media masters like Brad Stone of Bloomberg Businessweek, Laura Hazard Owen of paidContent, Jeremy Greenfield of Digital Book World, and Phil Sexton of F+W Media; top executives from the Big 6 houses; the Author's Guild and the US Department of Justice; top children's and educational publishers like Scholastic, Cengage, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; industry visionaries, such as Matt McInnis of Inkling, Allen Lau of Wattpad, Kristen McLean of Bookigee, Richard Nash of Small Demons, Corey Pressman of Exprima Media, Mark Ury of Storybird, Hugh McGuire of PressBooks, Craig Mod, John Ossenmacher of ReDigi, Anne Kubek of InScribe Digital, Josh Schanker of BookBub, and more; and finally, industry giants Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Google. There are just too many speakers to mention, but the complete list can be seen here: http://idpf.org/digital-book-2013/speakers. Paid admission to IDPF Digital Book 2013 includes free admission to the BookExpo America trade show and exhibit hall, including the Digital Discovery Zone by IDPF. Early bird rates are in effect through May 1, 2013. Registration is available at an incredible rate: $389 ($259 for IDPF members / $329 non-profits). To register, please visit: http://idpf.org/db13. Follow event updates on Twitter @digitalbook13. IDPF Digital Book 2013 Is Just a Month Away! is a post from: E-Reader News |
Rob, Bacon
| Our very own Justin Bieber, Rob Bishop, was at the world’s best-named conference last week. Bacon (www.devslovebacon.com) is a London conference on things developers love, like Raspberry Pi, Go, rockets, close-up magic…and preserved meats. The video of his talk was just released yesterday. Rob says, on watching it: “Man, I need a haircut.” Rob’s good at this stuff, isn’t he? |
Amazon Announces America’s Top “Reading” Cities
| Amazon has recently begun sharing information on book sales by US region, and for the third year in a row has created its “best dressed” list of cities who purchase the most books, magazines, and newspapers in print and digital editions. While the February list focused specifically on the romance category to coincide with Valentine’s Day, the news this week is compiled over every category of book sales. For the second year in a row, Alexandria, Virginia topped the list as the most well-read city in the US based on book buying habits of its residents. The number two spot was held by Knoxville, Tennessee, who also was the city with the biggest jump up the list from the previous year–number twelve to number two–and was the most “romantic” city in the country based on the February romance category list. What should come as no surprise is that Cambridge, Massachusetts is the city whose readers bought the most books in the business and investing category, which can safely be assumed is the result of also being the home of Harvard University. The top twenty list includes: 1. Alexandria, Va. "The results of our annual Most Well-Read Cities list is proof that people across the country are reading, and also that we're still seeing the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey," said Sara Nelson, Editorial Director of Books and Kindle, in a press release. "It's fun for us to see facts like the citizens of Cambridge are buying the most books in the business category or that one of our favorite novels of 2012, Gone Girl, is the best-selling book in the Most Well-Read City, Alexandria."
Amazon Announces America’s Top “Reading” Cities is a post from: E-Reader News |
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Adobe Releases Report on Viability of Digital Magazines
| A report from Adobe, the State of Mobile Benchmark, demonstrated some interesting information about how consumers are utilizing mobile devices for magazine reading and subscriptions. The information specifically relates to readership of magazines produced using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, but the news gives insight into how the market as a whole is consuming magazines. The data shows that the number of people reading on tablet computers is up nearly 200% during the last seven months, and digital magazine growth has increased from 300,000 issues per week to close to 2 million downloads per week. Some of the important information from this report is aimed at the publishers, as Adobe found that interactive ads in digital magazines stand to have a tremendous impact on consumer spending. While interactive ads are twice as likely to influence consumers as static magazine ads, ad revenue at one point increased by 200%. “What is the big take away?” asks Adobe in its post about this news. “Consumers are buying digital magazines at an ever-increasing pace. We're at the point where digital magazines are moving from early adopters to the mainstream, print-reading audience and they have the potential to deliver a massive amount of ad dollars. People who consume digital magazines are proving to be very high value customers given their propensity to pay for content.” While digital magazines–either as stand-alone issues or subscriptions–were once for the forward thinking consumers, they’re becoming so much a part of the digital publishing landscape that publishers are able to recognize their viability as a necessary marketing tool. As tablets drop in price and tablet ownership becomes more widespread, digital magazine consumption can only be expected to increase.
Adobe Releases Report on Viability of Digital Magazines is a post from: E-Reader News |
Outreach Training: Spring and Summer eBook Marketing Ideas
| April showers bring May… Community Outreach trainings? I know that's not how that expression usually goes but it's true for us here at OverDrive. We're gearing up for our next open Community Outreach marketing training on Thursday May 2nd at 12:00 PM EST. (Click here to convert it to your time zone, if you're not in Eastern Time.)
Register now to come and review some promotional tips and tricks with a special focus on new ways to highlight your digital titles over the next few months. Why not encourage patrons to listen to audiobooks while doing spring cleaning? Your digital collection can also be incorporated into your summer reading programs or book clubs. For your patrons heading on holidays, they can bring a stack of eBooks on vacation without taking up extra room in their suitcase. Plus, you won't need to worry about the library’s physical copies of books getting dropped in the ocean or lost and never returned!
If you can't make it next week, we'll miss you but don't worry. You can sign up for the next session in June or at your convenience, you can view a recording of the Community Outreach webinar on demand in our Learning Center.
Hope to see you there!
Melissa Marin is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive.
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Instapaper Sold to Betaworks
| Betaworks garnered some attention in the tech world when they purchased social media site DIGG. Today, it was announced that the company has absorbed read it later service Instapaper. Instapaper originally launched in 2008 and quickly became one of the most beloved apps for the read it later crowd. It is available for PC, MAC, iOS, Android, and a myriad of other platforms. Registering with the PC service only involves choosing a login name and password, no other information is needed. This software basically prompts you enter a slew of links to websites such as http://goodereader.com/blog/ and imports our entire website into Kindle friendly format or ePub. Once these ebooks are saved on your PC, you can load them onto your e-Reader or tablet via Windows Explorer or Calibre. They also have a bevy of dedicated apps that you can read on too. Some cool options that this gives is being able to save an entire website to text and then change the font, font size, margins, and more. Once you got it looking the way you want, you can save it as an ebook. The mobile apps for iOS and Android both cost money, but is a worthy investment. There is no word yet on the direction or future of Instapaper and how it will look in a years time. The main developer has promised to stay on as a consultant, and likely will see further integration with Digg. Instapaper Sold to Betaworks is a post from: E-Reader News |
Dark Horse Celebrates Two years of Digital with 50 Free Comics
| It has been two years since Dark Horse, the publisher of Hellboy, Buffy, and the Star Wars comics, launched its digital service, and they are celebrating this week with a giveaway of 50 #1 issues on their website. Readers can download all 50 with a single click if they have a Dark Horse account. The list includes some fan favorites such as Hellboy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the two I would start with are Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT, a freaky story about psychic spies; Francesco Francavilla’s Black Beetle, a retro superhero title with more than a whiff of noir to it; and Mike Richardson and Stan Sakai’s 47 Ronin, a retelling of the traditional Japanese legend. But act fast: The freebies will vanish at 9 a.m. PST on Friday, April 26. After that, though, they will have a 10% off sale on all digital bundles from April 26 through April 28. Dark Horse also announced that they will begin selling comics published by Dynamite via their digital service, which includes a web store, an iOS app, and an Android app. This is a logical partnership as both publishers specialize in licensed and creator-owned comics with a strong genre feel; Dark Horse publishes the Star Wars comics, while Dynamite has Battlestar Galactica; Dark Horse has Francesco Francavilla’s Black Beetle, Dynamite has The Shadow. It’s also an interesting shift in Dark Horse’s role, from publisher to retailer. That matches their strategy in the print world, where they have close ties with the online retailer Things From Another World (TFAW). While Dynamite has a period of exclusivity, publisher Nick Barrucci said he is encouraging creators with creator-owned comics to reach out to Dark Horse Digital. Dark Horse Celebrates Two years of Digital with 50 Free Comics is a post from: E-Reader News |
