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Can you save me the comics? This familiar question was often spoken in my household on Sunday mornings. A picture of fatherhood, my dad who had awakened early was holding his second cup of morning coffee with the Cleveland Plain Dealer spread across his chest and small ink marks on his hands proving that he had indeed been reading. After saying our good mornings, my elder sister and I would focus our gaze on the perfectly folded unopened newspaper sections stationed on the small table beside him. We would ask for articles about the arts, books, movies and, of course, the comics. Those first sections containing current news and the front pages would never do. Later in the morning, when dad had reached the desired sections he would share them with us. I remember reading the comics and enjoying the small illustrations of characters who spoke in word bubbles. But I know more than anything my favorite part was doing something grown up— reading the newspaper. For those of you fellow comic book fans, here are a few titles which may cause you to marvel at the longevity of our favorite two dimensional heroes.
Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (Nobleman & Macdonald) Juvenile Nonfiction
This is the true story of two teen boys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster who created Superman in their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story (Sean Howe) Nonfiction
In the early 1960's Marvel Comics was a small struggling company who armed with their cast of brightly costumed characters including Spider-Man, Captain America, and the Fantastic Four created a multimillion dollar enterprise and changed the world of comic books. “A superpowered must-read for anyone hooked on comics, as well as a gripping story for someone merely enlightened by a genre that’s always had to fight for respect. It’s much more about ordinary, flawed humans than super men and women, and therein lies its excellence.” – USA Today
The Boy Who Loved Batman (Michael Uslan) Nonfiction
Uslan's memoir chronicles his childhood obsession with Batman and later his passion turned business which led him to purchase the film rights to Batman and produce every modern Batman film to date. He created one of the most successful pop culture franchises of all time.
Renee Lienhard is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive
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Sunday, July 28, 2013
The Business of Superheroes
Do you pre-order eBooks?
| A few days ago Smashwords announced it was launching a new pre-order system for indie eBooks. Smashwords now joins Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo and Google in offering a system for readers to order their favorite digital books in advance. The big question, is eBooks have infinite copies available and are book lovers actually pre-ordering books or just buying them when they come out? All of the major digital book resellers never release statistics on the amount of pre-orders a single title receives. Obviously, it is a system that gets some use, but there is seldom any advantages of ordering it in advance. Most movies, music albums and video games normally gives a slew of bonus content when you pre-order. If you order an album in advance, you normally get a bonus track, video games give you extra equipment or even new levels. Retailers give discounts on movie tickets when you pre-order a DVD or Blu-Ray or even a bonus disk. All three of these also allow the early shipment, which means you can have it shipped out before the actual release date. eBooks on the other hand, never give any type of bonuses at all. You would be hardpressed to get a coupon for some savings on purchasing your next title and books never give out bonus content. Also, when you order a book before the release date, there isn’t even any cost savings, so where is the allure? If online retailers really want customers to order more books in advance, they need to roll out features that make it worth the readers while. Let’s hear it from our readers, do you pre-order books? If not, what types of incentives and features would help sway you? Do you pre-order eBooks? is a post from: E-Reader News |
eBook Review: Death By Living by ND Wilson
| Verdict: 4 Stars Wilson’s second title Death By Living (Thomas Nelson), following the immensely popular Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, once again incorporates the author’s nearly-manic writing style that somehow manages to be both disjointed and steadily straightforward at the same time. This book is a times so hard to comprehend that the reader might wonder if it is, in fact, English; at other times, the author makes such profound statements that it felt less like reading and more like absorbantly knowing. Wilson’s essential point in the book is this: you’re gonna die. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it, there’s no amount of good you can do or legacy you can leave behind that will change it. But this is also decidedly not a book about filling the moments between birth and life with the greatest use of time. It just…is. What this book also demonstrates is the complete spirituality of our existence, regardless of where the reader place his own faith on the vast spectrum of belief. The author isn’t referring to religion, though, only spirituality and its impact on this life everyone lives before dying. Granted, this is an incredibly confusing book to read and at times I wanted to hold the author down, preferably tied to a chair, and administer some kind of medication that would cause the writing style to make more sense. But I’m certainly not a lesser person for having read it, and might even be someone who is now more aware. Death By Living is available now for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and more, and will be released July 30th.
eBook Review: Death By Living by ND Wilson is a post from: E-Reader News |
Verdict Against Apple Could Result in Triple the Damages Due to Be Paid
| With the first of the Apple verdicts behind them and the promised appeal looming on the horizon, there is still some question as to who will pay, when they will pay, and how much. With the earlier settlements from the five publishers involved, one of the resounding statements they repeatedly made when signing to agree to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars to consumers for allegedly overcharging them for ebooks was that they were not at fault and did not admit any wrongdoing. Their only reason for agreeing to the settlement terms was to avoid paying even more than the amount of the settlement in fighting a lengthy legal battle. For Apple, though, that was a gamble that did not pay off. The iPad creators who reportedly conspired with the publishers to arrange the prices of ebooks in an effort to sway consumers away from Amazon’s Kindle and to the then newly-launched iPad have resulted in a ruling from Judge Denise Cote that could mean Apple will pay almost half a billion dollars. The math gets a little convoluted, and several sources including GigaOm, AllThingsD, and TUAW have all posted articles on the subject that help clear up some of where the money will come from, and where it will go. Essentially, the original amount that is owed to consumers looks like just over $218 millon. But factoring in current legislation that specifically addressed anti-trust violations–in this case, the price fixing allegations brought by the Department of Justice and agreed with by Cote–means that the punishment could be triple that amount, since Apple was found at fault. that new number is over $656 million, of which the publishers have already paid nearly $200 million, leaving Apple to potentially foot the bill for the remaining nearly $500 million. Of course, don’t go looking for that refund anytime soon. The wheels of justice might turn slowly, but the wheels of issuing refunds to millions of ebook customers will turn even slower, and that’s assuming that Apple does, in fact, lose its appeal, an outcome that legal analysts feel strongly may happen.
Verdict Against Apple Could Result in Triple the Damages Due to Be Paid is a post from: E-Reader News |
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Hachette Abandons Publishing in New Zealand
| Hachette has announced it is abandoning publishing new books in New Zealand and is moving their publishing division to Australia. Malcolm Edwards, chairman of Hachette Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement: “Hachette New Zealand will become solely focused on the marketing, promotion and sales of our international titles and the New Zealand backlist. Mel Winder, as sales and marketing director, will lead the company, reporting to Matt Richell, CEO of Hachette Australia, with immediate effect.” Richard Kitson, commercial director at Hachette UK, said in a note to staff that “the New Zealand government’s abandonment of territorial copyright protection” and “a significant shift to sales from offshore online retailers who are not liable for the sales tax that is levied on local retailers” were among factors behind the decision. The New Zealand publishing business has shrunk largely because of “the increased sourcing of books from overseas, at the expenses of the local trade, and the rapid growth of e-books”, Mr Edwards says. The book trade has been one of the big casualties of online eBooks and e-readers. In early 2011, the Whitcoulls and Borders chains were placed in voluntary administration. Hachette Abandons Publishing in New Zealand is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, July 26, 2013
Digital Comics Bargains for the Last Weekend in July
| Comic-Con is over for another year, and the comics industry is in its customary post-San Diego swoon. News will probably be slow for a while, but it’s a great time to read comics, so let’s take a look at this weekend’s digital deals. Most of these end Sunday evening; check the links for more information. ComiXology kicks it off with three sales: All Wolverine comics are marked down to 99 cents, so you can catch up before going to see the movie, which opened today. In the mood for something lighter? They have also marked down a handful of Betty and Veronica comics and graphic novels, although a lot of these were priced low to begin with, so not everything is discounted. And if you read French, this your lucky fin de semaine: They have marked down a healthy handful of French-language comics to 99 cents each. Dark Horse has slashed prices on its Mass Effect comics. Single issues, usually priced at $2.99, are just 99 cents and the bundles are an even better deal. Dark Horse has published a number of mini-series and single issues that tie in with the storyline of the video game, so this is a good opportunity for gamers to get more deeply into the Mass Effect story. I’m not sure if Amazon’s Wolverine graphic novels on Kindle are discounted from their usual prices, as Amazon doesn’t make that easy to see, but they do seem to be priced well below the print editions, so give that a look if you want even more Wolverine. They have definitely marked down their Deadpool graphic novels for Kindle, though, to $2.99-$3.99 for a limited time only, so go check those out. And finally, this is the last weekend to save on a one-year subscription to Shonen Jump, Viz’s digital manga magazine; the price has been marked down from $25.99 to $19.99 with a special code (it’s at the link), but the sale ends Sunday evening. Digital Comics Bargains for the Last Weekend in July is a post from: E-Reader News |
Smashwords Beta Tests Pre-Order Status of Titles in Retail Outlets
| One of the original advantages of the self-publishing digital book industry was to level the playing field for self-published authors by offering them the same quality books and considerations that traditionally published authors have always enjoyed. Inexpensive access to print-on-demand uploading has allowed authors to have a bookstore-quality edition of their titles in print, and platforms like KDP and NookPress have made it possible to list self-published ebooks alongside their bestselling, traditional counterparts. Now, Smashwords is beta testing a new feature that gives its authors the same pre-order capabilities that traditional publishers can generate for their titles, all while still making the book available through consumers’ favorite online book retail sites. And while this feature was quietly tested with a handful of authors in Apple’s bookstore, it is now in public beta and available through Apple, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble. According to a press release from Smashwords’ CEO Mark Coker, pre-orders offer authors some very strategic benefits in terms of placement in genre lists and pre-publication buzz. “Advance staging of book releases has always been a common best practice in traditional print publishing. It’s interesting now how some of those same best practices are migrating to the digital world. Now indies can access the same tools…We began testing preorders a few months ago at Apple, starting with the successful launch of Kirsty Moseley’s Free Falling and followed by Abbi Glines’ Forever Too Far. Both titles hit #1 or #2 in Apple’s largest markets. “In the last two weeks, following multiple successes with Apple, we expanded our testing to include Barnes & Noble and Kobo.” R.L. Mathewson, Emma Hart, Claudia Hall Christian, T.M. Nielsen, Maree Anderson, S.H. Kolee, Lilliana Anderson, JD Nixon, Rebecca Forster, Quinn Loftis, J. S. Scott, Eve Langlais, Ambush Books, Elizabeth Reyes, Kristen Ashley, Marquita Valentine, Joseph Lallo, Ruth Ann Nordin, Chanda Hahn and Camilla Chafer are some of the authors who works were tested in the pre-order experiment.
Smashwords Beta Tests Pre-Order Status of Titles in Retail Outlets is a post from: E-Reader News |
Textbook Publishers Embrace a New Digital Distribution Model
| The Digital textbook industry garnered 27% of the $12.4 billion spent on textbooks for secondary schools and colleges in the United States last year. All sorts of new business models have erupted that do everything from charging per page read to fully interactive editions. Google, Amazon and a myriad of other companies have all jumped into the fray to get a piece of an increasingly lucrative market. Major textbook publishers are trying to tap into new revenue models to deal with students directly, and may have found the holy grail. Pearson and McGraw-Hill Education are going to be rolling out a new distribution model very soon: Creating online versions of their texts, often loaded with interactive features, and selling students access codes that expire at semester’s end. One of the big advantages of this new model is being able to edit and update the content very quickly, with new material pushed out to all users around the world. Currently, textbook publishers are facing a crisis as students embrace renting them, instead of buying them outright. Consider the widely used textbook, “Biology”, by Sylvia Mader and Michael Windelspecht, published by McGraw-Hill. The ebook costs $120, a steep discount from the $229 cost for a new print textbook. But savvy shoppers do better. The same book in printed form can be rented for $36. It can also be bought used for $102, and later resold on the secondhand market for up to $95, according to the website CheapestTextbooks.com. It will be interesting to see if textbook publishers can market this new initiative and if students will embrace it. They seem rather gun-ho about launching this new program. Textbook Publishers Embrace a New Digital Distribution Model is a post from: E-Reader News |
Viz Rebrands Its Kids’ Comics App
| Viz Media, the largest manga publisher in the U.S., has renamed its recently launched children’s comics app, as well as its children’s print line. Initially, the print comics had the VizKids imprint and the app was called “sticky DOT comics.” Beth Kawasaki, senior editorial director for children’s publishing at Viz, explained the name change: “Viz has a legacy of bringing over manga for several years, and we will continue to do that; obviously Pokemon is our best known [children's property] and second to that is The Legend of Zelda, but as the market has changed and we have changed and started to [focus] more as a company on licensing and properties based around other characters, we have decided to change the name.” Indeed, while Viz’s teen and adult imprints consist almost entirely of manga licensed from Japan (their most popular property being Naruto), they have been moving in a different direction with their children’s books, producing new graphic novels based on licensed characters such as Voltron, Mr. Men and Little Miss, Winx Club, Ugly Dolls, Ben 10: Omniverse, and most recently, Hello Kitty. If you already have the sticky DOT comics app on your iPad, just update it and it will change automatically to Perfect Square. And if you’re a Pokemon fan, be aware that it is only available digitally in the Perfect Square app—it’s not sold via Viz’s regular digital service. Viz Rebrands Its Kids’ Comics App is a post from: E-Reader News |
What Do You Think of Kobo’s New Redesigned Website?
| Kobo recently started rolling out a completely new design for their ebookstore. It’s not live everywhere yet; it seems to depend on where you live and which web browser you are using. For instance, I can see Kobo’s new website with the iPad, Android tablets, and and on my PC with Internet Explorer, but Chrome [...] |
Carputers – some ideas to get you started
| We are firm believers in the idea that computing starts to get really interesting – interesting enough to suck in people who have never programmed before – when you begin interfacing software with real things made out of atoms. That’s why there are GPIO pins on the Pi (another reason you should never tread on one with bare feet). Here are some resources to get you started with some real-world hacking: namely, hacking your car. The usual disclaimers apply here. Don’t be stupid. Don’t drive along typing, watching videos, playing Transport Tycoon Deluxe or anything else that’s likely to get you killed. You’d make us feel bad, and you’d embarrass the people who know you. Don’t mount any part of your kit on a sharp pointy thing that might impact your body if you crash. Use common sense. With a Pi, you can build a customised, specialised pieces of equipment; and you’ll want your carputer to do things that a laptop sitting on the passenger seat wouldn’t be able to do. Martin O’Hanlon (who maintains a blog with some of the best Minecraft: Pi Edition hacks we’ve seen – go and check it out) has been busy with car diagnostics, which is as good a place as any to start. It turns out that there’s a standard for reading data from all makes of modern car, called OBD-II (on-board diagnostics II). Your car can communicate all kinds of data that you may not even have known it was collecting, like the volume of particulates being absorbed by the filter, the temperature of the air coming into the car, or results from the oxygen sensor; and the things you might expect, like oil pressure or speed and distance travelled. You can then process that data to output figures on useful things like fuel economy. (Martin’s using the screen of that Samsung laptop as a display for his Pi for the time being.) Consumers can buy a USB to OBD2 interface cable – Martin’s was about £10 on eBay. Reading and displaying this data is the first step in what Martin hopes will be a larger project. Those of you making carputers will find the ability to do this useful too – it’s well worth being able to work out for yourself why the mysterious red light on your dashboard has come on, without having to spend money at the garage just to find out that your oil levels were low. Martin has forked some existing software from GitHub so that he could find out what sensors were supported by his Lotus, and poll the car every 0.5 seconds, writing the sensor data to the screen. To run Martin’s code on your own Pi, open a terminal and type:
Once you’ve got the data from the car out of the way, of course, there’s a lot more you can do with a Pi to make being in the car a bit more fun. First off, there’s music: you can turn your Pi into a Spotify server (you’ll need a premium Spotify account) or a Pandora jukebox. And, of course, you’ll want GPS and a camera. Using a Raspberry Pi camera board and a separate GPS module hooked up to the Pi, Chicago Electronic Distributors (who specialise in Pi stuff, if you’re in the market for some kit) built a reversing camera and in-car GPS. They’ve also been using another Pi with a camera board as a dashcam. We’ve been racking our brains about what else you might want in a carputer. Emma suggests you might like to add a thermometer to your Pi too, to log the internal temperature of your car “in case of dogs”. Rob wants disco lights. (You could use a LED matrix for this – I’d be tempted to mount such a matrix in the back window and scroll obscenities at people behind me with their headlights on full beam.) And I would also like a robot valet with a teeny-weeny vacuum cleaner, and something to count the change in the ashtray, but that might be a step too far. JamesH races cars – he’s been talking about infrared sensors for the tyre temperature and accelerometers to measure G-force when taking corners, which might be a bit more practical. Finally, you’ll want to install the thing. Now, you can do what Chicago Electronic Distributors did and just mount a screen on velcro or attach it to the windscreen with a sticky cup, and hide the Pi itself in the glovebox or the boot: but where’s the fun in that? We found a lovely album of pictures from LuckyJezster, one of our forum members, who is refurbishing a 1980s Ford F120. With a Pi. Here’s his post about the process – click on the image of the Pi he’s embedded in the central console and covered with plexiglass to see the photo album. Blue LEDs! Lovely clicky switches! A Pi logo hand-engraved with a knife! Are you working on your own carputer? Does your Pi have wheels? Have we missed anything glaring that any carputer worth its salt should have? Let us know in the comments. |
New HMH Website Brings Ed Content to All Learners
| When consumers think of names like DK, McGraw-Hill, or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, there’s a good chance that they think back to the colorful textbooks of their elementary school days, heavy books with stories to read followed by questions to answer. They might even remember the sneaky joy they felt the day they discovered that the answers to all of the odd-numbered math questions were in the back of the book. But HMH is changing consumer’s perceptions of academic publishers, namely, by reaching out with relevant content to learners of every age and interest, not just traditional school students. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced this week the launch of its new website, HMHCo.com, a learning portal that will provide content to teachers, parents, students, and constant learners who want access to some of the most engaging titles HMH has to offer. "We believe that our customers, whether educators, parents or book lovers, will find engaging and relevant resources onhmhco.com," said John Dragoon, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, HMH, said in a press release about the launch. "From CliffsNotes study guides to assessment tools, and from Curious George apps for young learners to Life of Pi and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, we have extended access to our content and created an online hub for lifelong learners." While HMH’s students and teachers are probably fairly familiar with what the new site can offer them, typical consumers may not be as aware. According to the release, “Readers and lifelong learners can explore the latest offerings in contemporary fiction and thought-provoking nonfiction, like Paul Tough's How Children Succeed or popular cookbooks like the Essential Pepin and How to Cook Everything. As the home of The American Heritage Dictionary and Webster's, HMH has reference and vocabulary needs covered, and visitors can also download reading and discussion guides, hop onto book group forums to share ideas or download a new cooking app to try in the kitchen.”
New HMH Website Brings Ed Content to All Learners is a post from: E-Reader News |
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Video: Top 5 Digital Comic Book Apps for Android
| Android has become more refined over the years and is the operating system of choice for many of the worlds leading tablets. Today, we showcase Comixology, Dark Horse, ACV, Comic Rack and Comica! Each one of these apps brings something unique to the table. If you want to load in your own CBR and CBZ comics that you download from the internet, you may want to check out Comica, Comic Rack and ACV. All of these allow you to import your own into the app, but most feel rather clunky when you search your tablet for each issue. There tends to be no unified way to automatically import them all in and manual labor is required. For the most part, you don’t have some of the more essential features found in the mainstream apps. You do not have guided view, and have to pinch and zoom each panel to read some chat bubbles. Comixology and Dark Horse are the most refined apps and have the greatest selection for paid content. Comixology has deals with Archie, Marvel, DC, IDW and Walking Dead. This is the most well developed ecosystem, but their Android app always plays second fiddle to their iOS endeavors. Dark Horse excels with cool properties that have an avid following, such as Buffy, Star Wars and tons of indie titles. Video: Top 5 Digital Comic Book Apps for Android is a post from: E-Reader News |
Ectaco Caught Faking their Own Product Reviews
| Ectaco has been releasing the Jetbook line of e-Readers since 2008 and has been developing language assistant devices for the military for the last 15 years. The company has never gained mass market traction with their devices, as they cannot compete with price alone against the juggernauts of the industry like Amazon and Kobo. Ectaco is facing some backlash as they have been caught creating fake profiles and building up hype about their products in popular e-Reader communities. Popular community MobileRead has looked into the past five years of pro-Ectaco reviews and most of them stem from the companies official IP address. It seems a number of users were posting very favorable reviews and even making Youtube videos, posing as average customers. This is just one specific example, they have also been patrolling our website and others in an effort to sell more units. Today, MobileRead issued the following statement “We’re a bit heavy-hearted to report the news, but recently it was discovered by one of our vigilant members that someone, or several people, employed by, or affiliated with, Ectaco used sock puppets in our forums. Posing as regular consumers, these sock puppets were used to create phony grassroots support for Ectaco products, specifically for the Jetbook device. Not just recently, but for several years. We pride ourselves on being an open and welcoming community. Everyone is invited to join the discussions, whether in an official capacity or otherwise. Full disclosure is not a requirement, as long as you don’t attempt to distort the views in our forums, either by pretending to be a delighted customer of your own brand, or by pretending to be a disgruntled user of a competing product.” You can follow specific examples by checking out Kris777′s Posts and LuBiBs Posts, as an example of how not to promote your own company, by posing as legitimate customers. Ectaco Caught Faking their Own Product Reviews is a post from: E-Reader News |
Good e-Reader Introduces a new eBook Best Seller List
| Today Good e-Reader is proud to announce the launch of our comprehensive eBook Best Seller List! The essence of the list is to data mine all of the popular eBook file sharing websites and produce what people are really reading. This is the first service in the world that gives readers and publishers comprehensive reports on what authors, genres and books are the most popular and what people are downloading the most. The New York Times, IndieBound and USA Today all focus on digital books that produce the most sales. They look at the most popular reselling sites, such as Amazon, B&N and Kobo. We go the opposite direction to see what people are really reading, and not necessary purchasing. The main reason we went this route, is because no one else is paying much attention to this space, yet millions of books are being downloaded every single week, with no metrics or tracking information. We seek to help publishers and readers alike determine what books are the most popular and what eBooks are being downloaded the most. This type of data is often produced in real time, and is fairly accurate. Our new eBook Best Seller List features the top 10 downloaded books and focus on new books exclusively. Obviously the Hunger Games, Harry Potter and 50 Shades of Grey dominate the all time most downloaded, but that’s not what we are interested in. Each book entry has cover art, the author name and a basic description. If any of them interest you, there is a Buy it Now button that directs you to Amazon, Sony, B&N and Kobo. We do not use affiliate links or tracking code, we get no commissions on any of the digital sales. You can check it out today by visiting the Good e-Reader eBook Best Seller List! We also have a new widget on the right hand side bar, that lists the book name and an image of the cover art. Clicking on any of those images will bring you directly to our Best Seller List. Good e-Reader Introduces a new eBook Best Seller List is a post from: E-Reader News |
Android 4.3: New Features Discussion
| As expected, the “Breakfast with Sunder” event has yielded the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, which marks an incremental enhancement over the Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean version. It could well have been Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie that we could have been discussing here, but instead Google made the decision to bring in a smaller update. Key Pie Lime is still being speculated to bring about some changes to the Android platform. However, it will be wrong to assume the latest Android is just about a few extra features or the usual dose of bug fixes and enhancements that all updates seem to incorporate. Clearly, one of the biggest changes that Android 4.3 offers is performance enhancement with better graphics rendering than ever before. This has been brought about thanks to the OpenGL ES 3.0 support that has been included in Android 4.3 for "highest-performance graphics,” which aims to "optimize texture management and increase gradient rendering fidelity.” Android 4.3 also brings with it better rendering for shapes and text, which ensures fewer draw calls issued to the GPU for 2D images. Another improvement that Android 4.3 has is the inclusion of support for Bluetooth AVRCP 1.3, which means devices running this version of Android can easily pair up with car audio while also offering additional functionality as well. Google has also introduced a way to introduce further restrictions to the multi-user profile so that users can now restrict what specific apps or games other users can have access to. This feature is only available for tablet devices, and will come in handy for parents to restrict their kids usage of tablet devices. Android 4.3 also introduces better location accuracy, enabling apps to get location data. This is achieved by ensuring the apps have access to wifi even when it is switched off and not used for data access purposes. Google has also introduced additional languages to Android 4.3, include Afrikaans, Amharic, Hindi, Swahili, and Zulu. The Android 4.3 update also has a new keyboard feature included. It is now better equipped to recognize tap typing, which makes it easier for users to input text even when they are engaged in chatting via messages; there is a new emoji keyboard as well. Overall, it's another layer of sugar coating that Jelly Bean has been provided with, which no doubt will keep us satiated until the bigger Key Pie Lime update comes along, despite the belief that it is more than six months away and that there will be lot of action taking place until then.
Android 4.3: New Features Discussion is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kindle Singles Introduces the Long-Form Interview
| Long-form journalism and short-form fiction have become widely popular formats with readers, and a number have platforms have been launched to focus solely on this type of reading. Now & Then Reader, Atavist, and Kindle Singles have all seen bestselling titles as readers take to the type of reading that provides a faster read than a full-length book, but still provides more depth and insight than a magazine article. Today, Amazon announced a new category for Kindle Singles, the Kindle Singles Interview, a series which stands to be as popular as the single-title e-shorts that takes readers into far more information than a typical print or televised interview would have space for. "In September of 1962, novelist Alex Haley's conversation with Miles Davis launched the Playboy Interview, and pioneered the idea of a long-form, extended dialogue with the great personalities of our time," said David Blum, editor of Kindle Singles, in a press release on the announcement today. "We hope to carry forward that tradition, and use the unlimited digital space to engage great artists and thinkers in conversation with skilled writers and interviewers." The first title available in the Interview series is with Shimon Peres, president of Israel, who had a number of insightful things to say, including remarks about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, as well as assurances that the upcoming peace talks with Palestine are a positive move, referring to their leader as a “partner for peace,” even while expressing his concerns over Israel’s current concern with Iran. Future titles in the Kindle Singles Interview series will be available at Amazon.com, and this first title, “The Optimist,” is available now for 99-cents.
Kindle Singles Introduces the Long-Form Interview is a post from: E-Reader News |
How to Use Excel’s VLOOKUP Function
Excel's VLOOKUP function is an extremely useful tool, and learning how to use it is easier than you think! |
Digipalooza ‘13 kicks off next week!
| On Thursday, August 1st, hundreds of librarians and publishers will join Team OverDrive in Cleveland, Ohio for Digipalooza, the 4th international user group conference. Librarians from around the world will participate in educational and interactive sessions covering topics such as the future of digital media, trends and lessons learned from Big Data, best practices for increasing awareness, usage, and customer engagement, and publisher previews from AudioGO, Books on Tape / Random House, Harper Collins and more.
On Saturday morning, keynote speaker, Mitch Albom, a best-selling author, screenwriter, playwright and nationally syndicated columnist will take the stage. Mitch is the author of five consecutive New York Times bestsellers, and readers are eagerly awaiting his new novel, The First Phone Call from Heaven, coming 11/12/13.
Attendees will also be among the first to see a live demonstration of Streaming Video and OverDrive Media Station, and hear OverDrive CEO, Steve Potash's Crystal Ball Report on what's next in eBooks, audiobooks and video for libraries, schools and readers around the world.
At Digipalooza, we work hard and find some time to play hard, too. Attendees will party like rock stars at the exclusive party at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum and experience the first-ever Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction exhibit.
If you're joining us for Digipalooza, we wish you safe travels and look forward to seeing you next week. If you haven't received your checklist and last minute reminders yet, please email digipalooza2013@overdrive.com for details on what to pack, Wi-Fi, weather and more. Whether you'll be in attendance or not, join the conversation all weekend on Twitter by using #digip13.
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive
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Going on Vacation? Hide Your Tablet in Plain Sight
| As prices came down on expensive tablet devices and more consumers could afford to invest in the convenience of complete portability, new concerns arose about theft and damage. A survey from digital magazine distributor lekiosk revealed that only half of the tablet users surveyed reported that they take their tablets with them on vacation; of the remaining half who do not travel with the devices, twenty-five percent cited concerns about theft as the reason they leave them at home. Nathaniel Philippe, lekiosk's Head of International Business Development, said in a statement on the survey results, "When it comes to providing entertainment, tablets like the iPad are extremely versatile – that's why so many Brits have started taking the devices on holiday with them. But there aren't as many iTravellers as there might be – because people are worried that their precious slates will be targeted by sea- and pool-side thieves. And even the Brits who do take their tablets on holiday with them are resorting to watching them like hawks – or taking a risk and hiding them under piles of clothing. That's why we've developed these very special anti-theft devices that let Brits hide their tablets in plain sight – and experience the kind of true relaxation that everyone goes on holiday to find." To help ease travelers’ concerns–and keep them from resorting to hiding their expensive technology under clothes or inside their shoes, as many survey respondents reported doing–lekiosk has introduced a ne anti-theft tablet case that is so simple as to very nearly be brilliant. Disguised as a standard, inexpensive print magazine, lekiosk’s tablet cases let users enjoy their tablets poolside without drawing the attention of a would-be thief, just waiting for them to put their tablets down and go for a swim. Anyone with ill intentions who happens to walk past an empty lounge chair, looking for the opportunity to help himself to an expensive iPad, would see only a typical paper magazine. lekiosk is an iOS, Android, and Windows 8 app that allows consumers to purchase magazines from a rotating 3D news-kiosk and start reading them in just a few clicks, allowing users to create a virtual library of their content. It is already one of the most widely used digital magazine apps in Europe, with one out of every four consumer iPads having installed the free app.
Going on Vacation? Hide Your Tablet in Plain Sight is a post from: E-Reader News |
