| Today Good e-Reader is proud to introduce the latest update to our seminal Android App Store! We currently have over 350,000 loyal heroes who use it on a daily basis and we have a special treat for old and new users alike. A new home screen! The brand new Good e-Reader Home Screen is a huge update and brings a slew of new features into our existing store. The first thing you will notice is a series of featured images, that will give you a visual indication of some of the best new apps that just came out. We have also created three new sections – Editors Choice, Trending Apps and another that will change on a weekly basis. Finally, we have changed the color of the search bar, to fall in-line with our new design and cleaned up app descriptions to look better on phones. The Good e-Reader Android App Store has been going strong for two years and currently we are the largest in Canada. We are proud to be among the top 5 global app stores, by market share and daily users. There are over 100 new apps uploaded every single day for both Blackberry and Android. This latest update shows our commitment to innovation and new features. You can download it today from Google Play or our own App Store. Good e-Reader Android App Store Updated – New Home Screen is a post from: E-Reader News |
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Good e-Reader Android App Store Updated – New Home Screen
Digital Comic Review: Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted Infinite Comic #1
| Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted Infinite Comic #1 is the first in a series of digital-first comics that Marvel is putting out over the next year. The plan is to do four weekly series of 13 comics each about iconic Marvel characters. The comics are set within the current continuity but are supposed to be accessible to new readers as well as longtime fans, and I doubt it’s a coincidence that the comic debuted around the time that the latest Wolverine movie was released. I’m going to say right up front that I’m not a regular reader of Wolverine, but that should make me the ideal audience for a comic designed to draw in new readers. And indeed, I don’t think my unfamiliarity with Wolverine’s backstory was a huge obstacle to my understanding this comic, but the storytelling certainly was. Simply put, this is one of those comics that starts in the middle of the action and goes straight to the ninja attacks without pausing to really explain what’s going on. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! Here’s how it looks to a new reader: We start out with Wolverine on a roof in Tokyo. The ninjas attack. Some guy called Creed is commanding them. Wolverine swings through the air to another building and winds up in an elevator shaft. Creed appears, dumps gasoline on Wolverine, and tosses down a lit match. He then, in what has to be the stupidest of stupid super-villain moves, jumps into the flaming elevator shaft to beat Wolverine up. Because dying in a fire wasn’t bad enough? They fight in the flames for a while (shouldn’t they both be screaming in pain?) and then Wolverine escapes up the shaft. There’s some business with a Japanese official of some sort too. He’s being attacked by ninjas, but Wolverine comes in and vaporizes them, then strangles him. It does make more sense if you have been reading the comic, because, as writer Jason Latour explained earlier this year, this story comes out of a recent arc of the monthly comic. Regular readers will have seen these characters before, and Creed has been around for a long, long time. (I sometimes think that the editors at the Big Two are so immersed in their fictional universes that they don’t understand that a new reader won’t know things like that; I had the same feeling about DC’s New 52, which were supposedly for new readers but weren’t really.) Still, Latour says, the comic is new-reader-friendly, because the backstory will be recapped: “All of this is revealed over the course of the story and your only requirement for entry is a desire to read about WOLVERINE VS. THE FUTURE NINJAS. If you're still reading this, I doubt we've lost you there.” OK, Wolverine vs. ninjas. Cool. But I’m one of those people who likes to know why things are happening, and by the end of the first issue, the creators have not offered me a single shred of a clue. Even worse, the characters talk in deliberately abstract language, being careful never to actually say what they’re talking about. Here’s Creed, in the beginning, watching the ninjas corner Wolverine: “What’s in that tower is mine. Which means Logan won’t stop ’til he takes it away.” What is this thing that everyone is fighting over? I dunno, and it’s kind of irksome that in a comic that is supposed to be accessible to newcomers, nobody is going to tell us.* Here’s why I picked this one up, though: Aside from the possibility of being able to step into a Wolverine comic (a possibility that has now been dashed, as I’m not going to pay another $2.99 for more unexplained beatings), I picked up this comic because I was interested in Marvel’s use of the digital comics format. In the limited sample size I have looked at (about two of each), Marvel has done a better job than DC of really using the digital storytelling toolkit. It’s certainly true here, where digital comics pioneer Yves Bigerel is a part of the team. The creators use the standard tools, such as dropping in panels and word balloons, and they use blackouts and focus changes as well. Most interesting is when they shift the picture from right to left, which they do twice—once to shift from Wolverine’s profile to show the arrows sticking out of his back, the other time to follow his movement across space. This is an unexpected move—you expect the panels to follow your finger, not jump away. Sadly, while the art is clear and hard-lined, the coloring and composition get in the way. In the opening sequence, Wolverine is standing in front of a garish billboard—yes, it’s Tokyo, but the high-chroma areas pull the eye away and make it hard to see Wolverine and the ninjas, who are colored with a darker palette. And some of the pages in which panels are superimposed over action scenes are way too busy. Like this one: Superhero comics are not my cup of tea, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying some of DC’s digital-first offerings. Marvel’s new line is more sophisticated in terms of digital techniques and it’s probably great for seasoned superhero readers and those who don’t mind being dropped in in the middle of the action. But for me, not knowing anything about what was going on by the end of the issue was a deal-breaker. *For more on this point, see the piece I wrote a couple of years ago on the Zuda Test. To be clear, this is just my opinion, and while a lot of people agreed with me, there are others who like to be tossed into the action with no orientation. To them, I would say: Buy this comic. Digital Comic Review: Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted Infinite Comic #1 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Will Apple Launch An iPad Maxi With a 12.9 inch Display?
| Having shed the initial reluctance to explore other display size options apart from the standard 9.7 inch iPad, Apple is now believed to be toying with the idea of an iPad variant having a 12.9 inch sized display. Rumor mills have been quick to dub the device as the iPad Maxi, though expert opinion differs as to why Apple will come up with an iPad as big as 12.9 inch. Such a size also brings the iPad range to within the realm of the Macbook Air family of ultra portables, which starts off at 11 inch. So why would Apple want an iPad model that is bigger than the entry level Macbook range? To begin with, an iPad as big as 12.9 inch belies the very notion of portability that tablet computers have come to be known for. Handling a device as big as that will be an issue, and so will be its build as well. It won't be the usual tablet device that can be tucked away into a handbag, and it will require careful handling. The basic design of the device is something to consider as it has to be strong enough to be able to withstand the stress that a tablet is expected to be subjected to. The vast expanse of the display itself has to suitably supported to ensure it does not sink in along the middle, more so for a device that is primarily touch oriented. At that size, Apple will have to ensure the device does not end up being too heavy as well. Further, given Apple's penchant for pixel rich retina display, a similar sort of thing for the iPad Maxi could translate to a pixel count of 2712 x 2048 to make for a pixel density of 264 per inch. Perhaps the least we can expect here is a pixel density of 132 ppi, which means there should be at least 1366 x 1024 pixels lighting up the 12.9 inch display. Supporting that many pixels will again call for a far bigger battery than seen on the current 9.7 inch iPad; if not, Apple is ready to sacrifice some serious battery time that the iPad tablets have come to be known for, and a bigger battery will also mean a heavier device. Also, a 12.9 inch display for a tablet calls for suitable means of protecting the screen, which is another area that could add some more weight to the overall device. Macrumor has even gone on to create some renderings of how an iPad with a 12.9 inch display might look, which does make for an interesting size comparison vis-à-vis the 9.7 inch regular iPad and the 7.9 inch iPad Mini. However, given the current rumors of Apple having adopted a similar design cue as the iPad Mini with thinner bezels along the sides, it doesn’t seem feasible for the bigger iPad’s necessary handheld operation. Instead, the contemporary thick bezel design seems more suitable to support the enlarged display and additional weight. However, no matter how inconceivable the design of the bigger iPad might seem, a source as trusted as The Wall Street Journal has mentioned Apple having asked its suppliers to develop displays measuring 12.9 inch. Even before this, it was the Korean news site ETNews that first carried the news of Apple testing 12.9 inch iPad variants. What remains to be seen is if the particular variant with a 12.9 inch display will ever become a market reality. If it does, it will certainly cater to a niche market.
Will Apple Launch An iPad Maxi With a 12.9 inch Display? is a post from: E-Reader News |
Baen Books now Available at the Sony Reader Store
| eBook pioneer Baen Books have ironed out a new agreement with Sony, to have their digital titles on the Reader Store. Starting today, you will be able to purchase titles by authors such as; David Weber, David Drake and Larry Correia. Baen Books built a tremendous following by offering their eBooks in a fully unlocked format. This meant that they did not contact DRM and could be loaded on any of your reading devices. They have been selling science fiction and fantasy books through their website for over 13 years. The move to third-party distribution is relatively new territory for Baen, which has built a name for itself in the ebook arena with an innovative e-Advanced Reading Copy program and limited time monthly discount bundles. They recently started doing business with Apple iBooks earlier this year and Amazon at the tail end of 2012. "We are excited for the chance to work with Sony. Now it will be easier than ever to download your favorite Weber, Ringo, or Correia ebook to your eBook reader," says Toni Weisskopf, Baen Publisher. "The DRM-free model will not change, and you can be sure we will always maintain our famous eBook pioneering spirit and customer-first orientation." Baen Books now Available at the Sony Reader Store is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, August 9, 2013
Publishers Once Again Accused of Colluding to Oppose DOJ Apple Settlement
| The Justice Department of the US has been on a crusade against Apple and the major publishers on eBook prices. Basically, the were all accused of banding together to implement a common eBook payment standard. Every single one of the publishers settled, for varying amounts of financial costs. The DOJ presented a number of settlement terms to Apple recently and publishers are once again being accused of colluding to oppose them. DOJ attorney Lawrence Buterman argued that the proposed penalties against Apple were meant to protect consumers. He stated “A necessary component of this Court's decision finding Apple liable for horizontal price-fixing is that the publishers themselves were engaged in a horizontal price-fixing conspiracy…[There] is reason to believe the Publisher Defendants may be positioning themselves to pick things back up where they left off as soon as their two-year clocks run. Indeed, the very fact that the Publisher Defendants have banded together once again, this time to jointly oppose two provisions in the Proposed Final Judgment that they believe could result in lower eBook prices for consumers, only highlights why it is necessary to ensure that Apple (and hopefully other retailers) can discount eBooks and compete on retail price for as long as possible." Associated Press reports that Judge Denise Cote has denied Apple’s request for a stay of the case pending appeal. A judge on Friday refused a request by Apple to temporarily suspend her ruling that it violated antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to raise electronic book prices in 2010. Judge Denise Cote, ruling from the bench in Manhattan federal court, declined to withdraw the effect of last month’s ruling while Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. appeals. Publishers Once Again Accused of Colluding to Oppose DOJ Apple Settlement is a post from: E-Reader News |
Digital Comics Bargains for April 9: Now for Something Completely Different
| It’s been a contentious week in the comics world—here’s a roundup of what everyone was arguing about—so it’s nice that this week’s digital comics bargains are not only solid reading, none of them are superhero comics. Instead, they offer some of the wonderful variety that lies beyond that world. Take Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for instance, a comic with a strong female lead that doesn’t seem to suffer because of it. Dark Horse is offering a megabundle of Season 9, 23 comics for $20. And they have some great deals on Angel & Faith singles and bundles as well. ComiXology’s weekend sale is on Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth, which they are offering for 99 cents per issue. Published by DC’s Vertigo imprint, this is an odd little story set in a post-apocalyptic world in which humans and animals have crossed over; the hero is a boy with antlers. It looks like this sale is available for Kindle and Nook users as well; just search for the comics in the store. Over in the Nook store, they have marked down some of the Smurfs books, including The Smurf King and the very first Smurfs graphic novel, The Purple Smurfs, to $1.99 each. And don’t forget that Viz has a summer sale going on until September 5 in their app and on the Nook. There’s plenty of good reading for the dog days of summer, so don’t miss out! Digital Comics Bargains for April 9: Now for Something Completely Different is a post from: E-Reader News |
What is the Best Methodology for eBook Production?
| Publishers are at a crossroads when it comes to digitizing their books and marketing them through various sales channels. There is no shortage of companies out there begging for business and passing themselves off as a one stop shop for eBook creation services. What are the current best practices for developing an eBook creation pipeline? Is it better to develop your own technologies and create everything in-house or to outsource it to a third party? It is very important to understand the current landscape of eBook production to evaluate what process works best for your company. In order to make this a bit easy to understand, major publishers led a session at the DPF Digital Book 2013 conference in New York to talk about this very issue. A informal survey was conducted and respondents included start-ups, existing publishers and the major players, it should give us a sense on what the current best practices are. Approximately 41% of the responding publishers primarily outsource their eBook production to skilled services providers. However, with 45% of respondents reporting that that their business had moved from one that fully outsourced eBook production, a major trend in digital production strategies appears to be the move towards greater internal production of eBooks. That echoes the approach currently adopted by Open Road Integrated Media. Said Nicole Passage, Managing Editor of Open Road, "Prior to the past year, we outsourced almost all eBook conversion, but recently we've begun to adopt internal solutions, allowing us to increase both efficiency and control over results." Internal production seems to be the one major facet that is quite new to the publishing industry and there a number of major concerns when developing a framework. Those include cost, quality and technical requirements. Creating your own system for digitizing eBooks is not for everyone and can be prohibitively expensive. 70% of the publishers survey said that the costs associated with internal production capabilities, including personnel resources and production tools, were too expensive. Outsourcing eBook development seems to be a major trend right now in the industry, but may not be a viable long-term solution. 40% of the publishers surveyed said they did not even know what tools their outsourcing counterparts were even employing to create digital books. Relying on a third party may bring down the costs, but at the expense of having no idea what they are doing or tools they are using. This creates a reliance on dealing with a company and losing creative control over the process. The publishers who have developed the most compelling internal digital platforms often started with outsourcing their materials, and gained an understanding of the processes involved. This allowed them to gain the technical knowledge to develop their own internal solutions and most were quite happy to have walked down both roads. Of those respondents who had moved to full or significant production in-house, all previously having outsourced such work, 100% stated that they were able to achieve greater efficiencies and net benefits by producing internally than they had seen from outsourcing, even factoring additional personnel overhead. The entire publishing industry is trying to figure out what platform works best for them. It is easier to just push your workload off to a company that specializes in eBook creation, but doing it all in-house is not as hard as most people think. Ingram Lightning Source has a number of fairly compelling tools that allow companies to publish and optimize eBooks. There are a number of free programs like Calibre, that provide a tremendous amount of freedom to simply upload a Microsoft Word document and utilize advanced settings to optimize it for both Kindle and EPUB. Major publishers all see 24% of their global revenue stem from eBooks and this number should increase during the next few years. Having more control over your print and digital content is something that everyone really wants. via Publishing Perspectives What is the Best Methodology for eBook Production? is a post from: E-Reader News |
OCR Raspberry Pi recipe card competition — win stuff just by thinking!
| You may be familiar with the Raspberry Pi recipe cards that we developed with the exam board OCR. These are a great way to start using your Raspberry Pi: quick, creative projects — such as traffic light LEDs, singing jelly babies and Twitter-aware doodhas — that teach one or two new concepts and encourage experimentation and hacking. They are a great classroom tool too and we use them at our programming workshops.  I said “sing!” Sing louder you little gelatine chappie or it’s off with your head! OCR want to make more recipe cards. Because they are nice like that. They know the best ideas for projects are living in your lovely little heads and they want to extract your weird and creative brain juices by means of a Trial of Creative Might. The challenge is to design your own recipe for Raspberry Pi. You can do this by yourself or in a team. One winner or winning team from each age category will win a Raspberry Pi bundle including a T-shirt and will have their winning recipe featured on the Raspberry Pi blog (this means that you will be fabulously famous!). The three age groups are 12 and under; 13-15 and 16-18. Your recipe must have fewer than 100 lines of code and cost less than £10 in parts. And no soldering allowed — we want to make this as accessible as possible. The competition will be judged purely on creativity and imagination rather than technical prowess — you don’t even need to submit any code — so everyone has a chance to enter. The closing date is 30 August 2013 so you have a few weeks to don those Winged Helmets of Ingenuity + 3 and impress us! Full details and terms plus the entry forms are on the OCR website. Good luck!
|
Hisense Sero 7 Pro Now Only $129 at Walmart
| Back in June when I reviewed the Hisense Sero 7 Pro, I was surprised by how nice of a tablet it was for $149 (it’s basically the 1st gen Nexus 7 with an HDMI port, microSD card slot, and rear camera with flash) and now the price has dropped even lower down to $129. It’s […] |
New Business Model for Flooved Includes Open Access, Crowdsourcing
 Photo courtesy of velositor,com One of the frustrating hurdles of the publishing industry has been the inability to make a subscription-based model for reading work in a large-scale way. While companies like 24Symbols are still moving forward, the “Netflix of books” concept is still pretty elusive. While some of that rests on the shoulders of consumers who were not sure they were going to get the value of paying a flat-fee for the ability to read books, it was also the publishers who were wary of turning over their authors’ works without a clear understanding of how this was going to be profitable for them and for their authors. Flooved, who modeled itself as a subscription-based digital textbook provider–this time, the “Spotify of textbooks”–has taken a strong look at its business and decided to change its business model after failing to get major textbook publishers on board with its model. Seeing that there was no point in continuing a company who couldn’t offer the most widely used textbooks to its users, Flooved has now shifted its model, a complete malleable business decision made possible by the flexibility of digital publishing, into an open-access content provider and a crowdsourced book distributor. As the open access movement continues to grow, Flooved has brought as many as 800 professors to its site to self-publish their lecture notes and writings for its 8,000 student users to view for free. Flooved will profit from members’ use of the forum which will let students ask questions that professors will answer. The Bookseller conducted an interview with Flooved’s founder, Hamish Brocklebank, who said, “We pivoted our business model back in December and dropped the publishers as we realised students no longer had to be so dependent on overpriced textbooks . . . Along the lines of the Open Access movement, we source our content directly from the world's best professors in maths and physics who share our vision that access to educational materials should be free. These consist of either OA textbooks, unpublished textbooks or extremely high-quality lecture notes." For more on the interview with Flooved, click HERE.
New Business Model for Flooved Includes Open Access, Crowdsourcing is a post from: E-Reader News |
Brush Up Your Knowledge of the Outer Space With Free eBooks From NASA
| Here is one ebook collection that can be part of the treasure trove of every space junkie. Interestingly, the literary pieces themselves have been out for about a decade now, long before ebooks have caught on with the reading community; being a decade old also means those print books cannot provide as refined a reading experience as the newer ebooks do. However, those can still be enough to provide more than just a glimpse of how the various space program unfolded or what it was like for the highly competitive space programs between the two warring nations, the US and USSR, during the height of the Cold War. Interestingly, space research is said to have benefited immensely from the Cold War rivalry between the two then super powers. Beyond that, the ebooks also provide more than a passing glance on how space programs shaped up during the initial formative years. Some of the titles to look forward to include The Difficult Road to Mars: A Brief History of Mars Exploration in the Soviet Union, Wind Tunnels of NASA, Aerospace Food Technology, Life in the Universe: Proceedings of a conference held at NASA Ames Research Center Moffet Field, California, June 19-20, 1979, and many others. Worth mentioning here, it was only last December that NASA released two free ebooks, Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries and James Webb Space Telescope Science Guide, though both of these are iPad specific. Click here for more information on NASA’s series of ebooks.
Brush Up Your Knowledge of the Outer Space With Free eBooks From NASA is a post from: E-Reader News |
Nvidia CEO Confirms Development of Surface RT 2 Device
| We now know what chip the new Surface RT device will be built around. It's going to be Nvidia Tegra 4, of course, after the revelation by their Chief Executive claiming they are working hard with Microsoft on the successor of the present Surface RT device. That Microsoft is working on the next generation of the Surface RT has long been rumored, with some sources pointing out the Redmond-based company had started with Surface RT 2 even before the first gen device was launched. The rumors can be put to rest now that we have confirmation from someone as important as the CEO of Nvidia, though it's surprising that Microsoft's hardware partner revealed their future device development programs. Coming back to what CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said, it’s Outlook for Surface RT that could be the app which will turn around the fortunes of Surface RT. “Now we’re going to bring it with the second-generation Surface,” said Huang. “We’re working really hard on it, and we hope that it’s going to be a big success.” Microsoft's Surface venture has not paid off so far and despite a clamor from its hardware partners to the contrary, the software giant is adamant at pursuing a separate tablet program of its own. Brian Hall, the General Manager of Surface Marketing, has said to ZDnet that Microsoft remains “100 percent committed to Surface RT and Windows RT going forward.” While the failure of the Surface RT is attributed to its OS which lacks adequate support from a thriving application store, the fact remains that the Surface Pro too never made it big in the market. Windows 8 is compliant with the hundreds and thousands of programs already, though those could not save the Surface Pro from making a dismal show. The Surface RT is also said to have suffered from too high a price tag. Microsoft seems to be aware of these issues and there have been rumblings of a smaller 7 to 8 inch-sized Surface variant being put together, one that is likely to be cheap enough to take on the likes of the Nexus 7 or the iPad Minis. With the personal computing trend shifting towards tablet devices, Microsoft has no other choice but to ensure it has a firm footing in the tablet space.
Nvidia CEO Confirms Development of Surface RT 2 Device is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Russia To Launch Soon, eBook Contracts Being Negotiated Now
| Amazon is in the process of launching its services in Russia and towards that, the retail giant has begun forging partnership with publishing houses to ensure it has enough ebooks to offer when it launches. The focus will be to offer ebooks initially though printed books too will be added to the catalogue at a later stage. Rosman, one of Russia's largest publishers of children's books has already been roped in to supply content when Amazon rolls out its service in that country. As publishingperspectives points out, it will be about 100 – 150 titles that will be on offer to begin with, that deals with 'reference, children's and YA titles'. The title count is expected to go up to twice the figure by the end of the year. Interestingly, Russians are already known to buy printed books worth millions of dollars from Amazon's overseas sites. Naturally, Russians will have a lot to save in reduced shipping costs once Amazon sets up shop in that country and begin offering printed books. What remains to be seen is how the US online retail giant copes up with the tyranny of Russian geography that is vast and equally varied, something that can easily be termed as a logistical nightmare. It is also this together with the lack of a pan Russian book sales network like Barnes &Noble that presents the perfect setting for ebooks to thrive, and as is evident elsewhere in the world, the digital version have already turned out to lure more readers than their printed counterparts. Amazon is known to have hired the services of former publisher of ABC-Atticus, Mr. Arkady Vitrukas to head its operations in Russia. Once launched, Amazon will be up against Litres who are the leading distributor of ebooks in the country. Meanwhile, Amazon is reported to be in discussion with several other domestic publishers though no other names are available as yet. Also not known is when Amazon is expected to launch its operation in Russia.
Amazon Russia To Launch Soon, eBook Contracts Being Negotiated Now is a post from: E-Reader News |
Google eTextbooks now Available via Play Books
| Google has just officially launched their new eTextbook rental and purchasing service in the USA. It does not currently have its own section, instead it is an integral part of Google Books. The new digital textbook section has offerings from most major publishers, such as Pearson, Wiley, Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. The current textbooks only offer the ability to buy or rent, with only a handful allowing you to do both. Each edition as a free sample, that often covers a few chapters, to give you a sense on how the books look. When you purchase any digital edition, it is automatically delivered to you via the Google Books app. If the official e-reading app is not for you, there is a internet browser alternative and some even allow you to export it to your favorite reader, such as the Nook or Kobo. Google eTextbooks now Available via Play Books is a post from: E-Reader News |
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Viz Slashes Prices for Summer Manga Sale
| Viz’s summer sale has become an annual event, and it’s a good one: From now through September 5, all the manga on their digital service (web, iOS, Android) and on the Nook are on sale, up to 20% off the standard price (which starts at $4.99). That means there are a lot of manga you can read right now for $3.99 to $5.99. Bakuman: The ultimate manga about manga, Bakuman follows two would-be manga creators as they work their way up the ladder. They start out in high school, and it’s a bit manic, but this series really provides an interesting glimpse at the manga biz (some characters are supposedly based on real Shonen Jump editors) and the clean-lined art is a perfect fit with the subject matter. This book is by the team of Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba, who are also responsible for Death Note—another manga well worth checking out. Children of the Sea: A haunting and beautiful story of two boys who were raised at the bottom of the sea, and the ways that the sea and humans interact. Parts are like an adventure story, and parts are like folklore. The art is absolutely stunning. At $5.99 per volume, this one is a little pricey, but the volumes are 300 pages long and the series is only five volumes. Saturn Apartments: Splendidly drawn and cleverly thought out, this is a story about a ring-shaped apartment building that orbits the earth. The class structure of the apartments is defined by the physical space: Rich people live in the top level, and they are the healthiest because they have the greatest exposure to sunlight, while the poor and working classes live in darkness in the bottom level. The lead character, Mitsu, is a window washer who is one of the few who can travel between levels, and he and his compatriots see all sides of life in the complex. (The link is to a free preview.) Vampire Knight: We have to have a good shoujo manga in the mix, and Vampire Knight is a dark romance that really delivers the goods. It’s set in a special school that has a night class for vampires, and Yuki Cross is the only point of contact between the day and the night classes. There’s plenty of romance, melodrama, and angst in this splendid potboiler of a manga. Oishinbo: The ultimate Japanese foodie manga, Oishinbo is the story of a reporter on assignment to assemble a meal composed of Japan’s greatest foods. He takes his own sweet time about it, and each volume of this series is based on a specific type of food (except the first, which is a mix). Although there is a bit of a narrative thread—the reporter is the estranged son of a famous gourmet—each volume is a collection of self-contained short stories and can be read on its own. Viz Slashes Prices for Summer Manga Sale is a post from: E-Reader News |
Congratulations 2013 Digital Library Champions Contest Winners!
|
The time has come to publicly congratulate our winners for the 2013 Digital Library Champions contest! Dozens of entries were submitted from library and school partners all over the world and 12 great semi-finalists were selected. The final winners were handpicked by members of the editorial staff at Library Journal, who graciously partnered with us to find the best of the best for this year's contest. Thank you Library Journal for your involvement!
As announced on stage during this year's Digipalooza, our winners are:
Online Oregon Digital Library Consortium – Jackson County Library Services (OR)
JCLS created a fun video to promote the Next Generation website design changes! Check it out on YouTube.
Inside the Library
With custom eBook handouts for patrons and several eReader Kits prepared for staff use during training classes, Hennepin has seen growing success with their digital collection. Their eReader Kits each include at least 6 popular tablets and eReaders; a laptop loaded with appropriate software and library card information; a practice guide for staff who need additional help; and adapters that allow the iPads to be used with a projector.
Outside the Library North Carolina Digital Library – High Point Public Library (NC)
To promote the library’s eBooks to new eReader and tablet owners, High Point Public Library provided complimentary gift boxes (with tissue paper, ribbon and gift tag included) that were perfect for wrapping up new devices. In the gift box, they included information on how to use the library’s digital resources and customized the information in the box based on the type of device being given. This popular campaign ran during the winter holidays and again around Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduation.
Test Drive Rapid City Public Library (SD)
In addition to eReader classes and displaying and loaning devices within the library, the Rapid City Public Libraries offers a homebound delivery service where patrons that are unable to travel to the library can have library materials delivered to their homes, including Sony eReaders through the Test Drive program.
Excellent eBook Educator (K-12 Schools/Colleges)
Frisco Independent School District did a big month long push to promote OverDrive in a district-wide effort during February 2012. A wide variety of displays, promotional videos, community events, contests, and classroom presentations boosted checkouts by 375% for the month. Each school tailored promotion efforts to their campus featuring different mascots, school specific incentives and more.
OverDrive Allstar Award (Grand Prize) Kenton County Public Library (KY)
The grand prize winner, Kenton County Public Library, introduced a new mascot that represented their digital resources. Their mascot KC was used across multiple platforms to promote their eBooks. Some examples of where KC popped up include their OverDrive website logo, Pinterest, Twitter, screens and displays inside of the library and on cards handed out in the community with information about their eBook collection.
All of the winners of this year's Digital Library Champions contest will receive content credit to build their digital collection; an Android tablet, including a protective case or cover; and a plaque, to display in their library or school to celebrate their win.
We're proud to honor these creative and effective marketing campaigns and look forward to sharing their ideas in future Librarian's Share blog posts. Congratulations again to our winners!
Melissa Marin is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive.
 |
Good e-Reader Radio Show – DOJ Apple News, Washington Post Sold and Sony eBook Changes
| Welcome to another edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Today we have Good e-Reader editor in chief Michael Kozlowski talking to Jeremy Greenfield of Digital Book World! They discuss the proposed Justice Department terms that would see Apple losing 30% royalties on eBooks and everything else. Initially, when the publishers settled with the courts, as part of the disbanded agency pricing model, they were told it would be two years before they could revisit this sales model. The DOJ is proposing that it be extended to five years, which is ruffling feathers. In other news, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon has purchased the Washington Post. Obviously, the newspaper industry is sagging right now and a fresh new direction could be in store very soon. The Washington Post is considered one of the most valued newspapers in America. Finally, Sony has launched pre-orders for eBooks and a bunch of new discovery engines, is it just a gimmick? The Good e-Reader Radio Show is a weekly broadcast that focuses on the trends and major news items of the digital publishing, eBook and e-Reader industry! Good e-Reader Radio Show – DOJ Apple News, Washington Post Sold and Sony eBook Changes is a post from: E-Reader News |
Final Chapters of Prizoner of Azkaban Released on Pottermore
| Pottermore, the free interactive website that invites Harry Potter fans to more fully explore the in-depth world of the boy wizard, announced recently that the final chapters of book three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, are available for users to explore. Registered users get a street’s eye view of Harry’s world, including the prestigious Hogwarts school and Diagon Alley. But more than just the chapters are new on the fan site. The Pottermore designers unveiled a host of new features on the site to make the experience more engaging and fulfilling. Features like a status bar help users know if they have completed all of the possible explorations, fully-illustrated Moments give fans a whole new perspective on Harry’s life, and even a fully updated home page where users sign in creates a brand-new experience. Other features include previously unpublished background information on some of the author’s favorite characters, an interactive map to help users navigate the sections of the site that have already been discovered, a new top and side bar with user data, and more. fe One new feature that will potentially enhance the experience for a variety of users is the ability to comment on individual pages of the site. This level of sharing brings the experience to a whole new level, as users are able to interact with one another and discuss insights gleaned from their explorations. This update marks the first time since the departure of CEO Charlie Redmayne for a return to HarperCollins that Pottermore has unveiled this much new content. A more complete explanation of the new upgrades can be found on the Pottermore Insider blog.
Final Chapters of Prizoner of Azkaban Released on Pottermore is a post from: E-Reader News |
Overdrive Media Console Update to be Released August 20th
| Overdrive is putting the finishing touches on the largest singular update they have ever released for their Media Console. The entirely redesigned user experience focuses around taps and swipes. It also syncs bookmarks and reading progress across multiple devices using a free, opt-in registration service called OverDrive One. If you are a fan of audiobooks, there is a new veritable speed controller now, that will allow you to increase the speed in which a book is being read aloud. Finally, there is lots of new social media integration with GoodReads and other networks.
Overdrive Media Console Update to be Released August 20th is a post from: E-Reader News |
Flipkart Launches e-Platform For Aspiring Authors in India
| Online retailer Flipkart is out to woo debutant authors in India by announcing the launch of a new e-platform which will serve as a launch pad for authors in the country. This should be seen as a boon to the author community, and particularly the aspiring and to-be authors which in any case contribute about 30 percent of the entire publishing task undertaken in India. However, the benefits of such an effort are both ways as it's not only the authors who get to enjoy a worldwide launch of their literary works, but the portal too has much to earn (along with the authors too) from the sale of the ebooks. Also, such a development on part of Flipkart does make a lot of sense considering the steep popularity curve that ebooks have hit upon in India. Such a trend is attributed to the growing popularity of smart connected devices such as smartphones and tablet devices together with the ease that these devices provide for towards ebook reading. Interestingly, Flipkart holds a sway over 40 – 45 percent of the printed books market, something that could come under strain once ebook sales pick up. Printed books have been witnessing a decrease in its appeal with the emergence of ebooks and the same could be seen getting repeated in India as well in the long run. Publishers though have stated they are witnessing a rise in demand for printed books which they have attributed to the increasing popularity of ebooks in the country. However, the immediate focus for Flipkart seems to be on ebooks and have stated they intend to increase their ebook count to a million from the current 2.5 lakhs. The retailer now has an app for iOS, Android and Windows platform and is keen to ramp up its efforts against piracy and security. Worth noting, Flipkart had started retailing books in India in Dec 2012.
Flipkart Launches e-Platform For Aspiring Authors in India is a post from: E-Reader News |
