| Kobo has finally released their new top of the line 10 inch tablet. In the past, the Canadian based company has always developed seven inch versions and the latest iteration is a bit of a departure. The large screen display really makes magazines and comic books really shine. It is a bit on the expensive side at $399, but the burning question is it a good investment? Hardware The Kobo Arc 10 HD features a stunning 10-inch capacitive touchscreen with ten point multitouch. It has one of the best resolutions in the business with 2560×1600 pixels. To give you a sense of how great it is, the Apple iPad Air is only capable of displaying 2048 × 1536 pixels. This tablet is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 4 quad-core 1.8 GHZ processor, which puts it faster than most of the other tablets on the market. It also packs an impressive 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage space. The entire internal structure is somewhat of a milestone for Kobo, as they have never released a more polished looking device, which seeks to really give them a competitive advantage over most large screen devices on the market. What I really like about the overall design of the hardware is the angular grooves on the back. It stands out in a crowd and when you spend a lot of money on a device, you want to to look not so cookie cutter. If you decide to just watch videos, listen to audiobooks, or play a game, this tablet really performs. It has dual speakers at the very top of the rear panel, which even when lying on its back still gives you superb sound. Side by Side the Apple iPad Air still outperforms it in the audio department. You can hook the Arc 10 HD directly up to your television with the Micro HDMI port. I like the inclusion of Micro HDMI, as more companies like Amazon are tending not to include it in their top of the line HDX tablets anymore. The Arc 10 HD may not have a rear facing camera, but has a respectable 1.3 MP front facing camera used for video conferencing or instant messaging. When you turn on for the first time you are greeted by an empty photo frame which you can take a picture of yourself to personalize the home screen. The hardware is really slick and outperforms most other tablets on the market. Kobo has never produced a ten inch device before and I had a bit of trepidation on whether or not it would be another Vox, or if it would be solid first time out. There are still some quirks to iron out with the software and in some cases needed full on reboots. Still, over time this may be a device to purchase. Software The Kobo Arc 10 HD runs Google Android 4.2.2 and is heavily skinned. This means it is not the same stock experience as you would find on the Google Nexus 7. You can think of it as similar to the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX and Nook HD+, in the respect that its a tablet billing itself as an e-reader. The home screen mainly has your widgets and apps you want to have quick access to. You can establish a live wallpaper if thats your thing or customize it anyway you see fit. The second screen is a compilation of all books you have added to the tablet recently or have purchased. It will also give you customized book offers based on your past purchases. There is also Beyond the Book information that is synced here. This is the new social media platform that replaces Reading Life and Pulse. You can get biography info on the author and information on most of the characters inside. If you have any new content synced over from Pocket, it will also appear here too. The last screen main screen is your collections, which is the heart and soul of the Arc 10 HD. Kobo has really taken the entire concept of collection management and turned it on its head. You can make your own collections that have videos, Pocket articles, eBooks, magazines, cookbooks and interactive content. If you use the stock Android browser, there is an option to add any website to your collection, to make it easier to access all of your info. One of the drawbacks on reading on a tablet is the fact you can get distracted with notifications, app updates or people visiting your Springfield on Simpsons Tapped out. Kobo introduced a Reading Mode, which allows you to suspend the radio and all notification. This allows you to immerse yourself in whatever book you are reading and kill any unwarranted distractions. Kobo did a really good job by eliminating the Tapestries UI, which was prone to crashing on the original Arc. This new UI is more intuitive and provides more customization than the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX or the Nook HD. This tablet is more internationally friendly than many of its rivals, with more people able to buy into the entire Kobo ecosystem. The large display really makes audio and video shine, but the speaker quality is not the best. Despite the fact it has stereo speakers at the top of the unit, it still doesn’t reach the type of audio capabilities as demonstrated on the Kindle Fire. Honestly, resolution at this point in the tablet game does not make a huge difference. Most of the big name companies like Netflix, Comixology, Zinio, Crunchyroll simply doesn’t deliver HD content. This is one of the downsides of Android in general, there are so many different screensizes and resolution that it makes it impossible to push out HD content properly. Reading Experience The big new draw about the Arc 10 HD is the inclusion of the new Kobo Magazine section. The service has just launched and gives you hundreds of magazines to purchase on a singular issue basis or to opt into a one year subscription. There are many titles available from major publishers such as Conde Nast, Hearst and myriad of others. When it comes to reading, you can use the stock Kobo application to check out the manga, graphic novels or eBooks you purchase. There are around seven fonts you can select from and around 16 different sizes to find that sweet spot. There are plenty of options to change the background color, if pure white is not your thing. You can go with nighttime reading mode, which is a black background and white text or go with a soft milk background. The Kobo app lacks compared to the Nook App or Kindle App, but gets the job done. When you are reading a book you have a bunch of options to take notes and make annotations. There are five different colors you can use for highlights and dictionaries can be downloaded on the fly. One new thing Kobo has done is make your personal notes private. You can opt into this of course, and you can check out other peoples notes, which makes this sort of thing entirely unique. The one great thing about Android is that you are not stuck dealing exclusively with the company you bought the device from. With Google Play you can download reading apps from Amazon, Sony, Nook, or go with indie apps such as Moon+ Reader or Aldiko. Personally, I am not the hugest fan of the graphic novel selection found on Kobo and instead like to buy single issues on the day they are released. If this matters to you, I’d suggest to download Marvel, Comixology, Dark Horse or the app of your choice. Finally, Kobo as added new kids section to the store, which allows you to get plenty of stories, picture books and eBooks like My Little Pony. The link to purchase from all are right on the front navigation bar. The one thing I don't like about the Android store is the lack of clearly defined categories to find Fiction, SCI-FI, Graphic Novels and Manga. You really have to dig deep to find it. Wrap Up The ARC 10 HD is quite pricey when it comes to buying into the Android ecosystem. It costs around $399, which anytime a device costs this much it draws obvious parallels to the Apple iPad. You can check out our Youtube Channel for a head to head comparison and see for yourself. This tablet is really new and has some small software bugs to work out. I noticed a bunch of unresponsiveness when it came to interacting with the touchscreen while reading a book. Often when I tried to highlight a word or make a note, it took a few tries. This could be due to the software app or maybe a hardware error. Many international markets do not have a ton of options when it comes to buying a large screen device that is geared towards reading. Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo are the only three that market an e-reading-centric experience. Kobo is likely the best if you live outside of the US and UK, you get a bunch of power and no limitations on what you can buy. Amazon has a bit of a deeper ecosystem with magazines, newspapers, audiobooks and video, but limits the purchasing of it. In the end, is this tablet worth the money you spend on it? The answer is yes. The large screen display makes e-reading an unbridled pleasure. If you are looking for a new device, you would be hard-pressed to find anything better. PROS High Resolution Display CONS Audio Rating: 9/10
Kobo Arc 10 HD Review is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Kobo Arc 10 HD Review
Bowker: Smashwords Is Top Producer of eBooks
| Self-publishing and distribution platform Smashwords released the news that Bowker has declared the site to be the top producer of ebooks in 2012, and the second largest producer of self-published titles following CreateSpace. The data, based on Bowker’s records of ISBN registrations, was part of its larger analysis of the year’s titles. These numbers, according to Bowker’s data collection, are a 59% increase over the previous year and over 400% increase over 2010. As more and more writers turn to self-publishing, they’re going with a platform that can provide a wide variety of distribution channels and the opportunity for low-cost ebook gifting and promotion. According to Mark Coker, founder and CEO of Smashwords, in a blog post on the news: “Although I’m pleased to see Smashwords come in at number one, I’m even more excited about what Bowker’s overall data says about the rise of self-publishing. Indie authors are taking publishing matters into their own hands. The three most essential requirements of professional publishing – the printing press, the access to retail distribution, and how-to knowledge of professional publishing best practices – are now freely available to all indie authors. Smashwords is committed to providing writers these tools. “Any writer, anywhere in the world, now has the freedom to publish without a publisher, and can do so at little to no cost. As indie ebook authors, these writers can enjoy faster time to market, greater creative control, closer relationships with readers, greater price-competitiveness, better marketing and promotion tools, and royalty rates four to five times higher than they’d get from traditional publishers. “The day will come when more writers aspire to indie publish rather than traditionally publish. Is the industry ready?” Whether or not the industry is ready may still remain to be seen, but with publishers like Hachette reporting record ebook sales even in 2013, it’s a clear sign that readers are responding to digital publishing, regardless of where it originated.
Bowker: Smashwords Is Top Producer of eBooks is a post from: E-Reader News |
New Kobo Arc HD Tablets Now Available in US and Canada
| Kobo recently announced that their new line of Kobo Arc tablets are now available in the US and Canada. The news has gone virtually unnoticed with the new iPads and Kindle Fire HDX tablets shipping at the same time. Nevertheless, the three new Kobo tablets, including the 10-inch Kobo Arc 10HD and the 7-inch Kobo […] |
Amazon Launches Australian Kindle Store
| Amazon pulled opened the doors on a new Kindle Store today specifically tailored to residents of Australia. Now Australians can buy Kindle ebooks directly from Amazon.com.au instead of Amazon.com, and pay in Australian dollars instead of US dollars. Amazon is showing some 2.1 million titles available, including everything from cookbooks to comics and graphic novels. […] |
Anyone Get a New iPad Mini with Retina Display Yet?
| Apple officially released their second generation iPad Mini tablet to the masses today. The first iPad Mini was hugely popular, despite the high price and low resolution screen. This year’s iPad Mini looks to be an even bigger success than the original with the super high-resolution 2048 x 1536 resolution IPS screen. That’s the same […] |
OverDrive Media Station Now Widely Available
| Launched in fifty libraries at the beginning of this year as part of a pilot program, OverDrive’s Media Station allows library patrons to employ the in-library ebook, audiobook, music and video sampling and checkout terminal. Today, the world’s largest distributor of digital content to academic and public libraries announced the Media Stations are widely available to their member libraries. "The OverDrive Media Station has been really well received by our patrons. It's rarely unoccupied," said Jennifer Simon Halai, Librarian, Virtual Library Services at KCLS, in a press release. "During the day, adults are the dominant users, but after school and in the evenings, it's the kids and teens who are engaging with it, usually with a smartphone or tablet in hand." According to OverDrive, the Media Station “enables libraries to showcase to the millions of in-library patrons their entire OverDrive digital catalog, including eBooks, audiobooks, music and video. Experienced or new users can browse, search and sample any of the media they find with the swipe of a finger. Patrons can instantly (without cables or pre-installed apps) send a link to any title from OverDrive Media Station to their favorite device for checkout using a QR code, email or text message (SMS).” The Media Stations serve as a sampling portal that lets users try out content, as well as enhances the digital checkout process. This type of interactive interface is especially important for libraries whose patrons are still adjusting to the option to checkout ebooks and MP3 audiobooks, a concept that is still new to so many library users. OverDrive showcased the Media Station at several publishing events this year and has opened the platform to all libraries.
OverDrive Media Station Now Widely Available is a post from: E-Reader News |
Gesture detecting air guitar glove with added head banging goodness
| Clive: We like wearable computers; we like music; but most of all we like wearing Blake’s 7 style gauntlets, playing air guitar and head banging. So we were delighted when Adam Smith-Kipnis of Team Hackcouture.io, a small team of technologists and designers “passionate about wearable computing”, got in touch to tell us about their recent win at a wearable computing hackathon. We were really impressed by the short development time and the amount of tech they managed to jam in, including RFID, accelerometers and conductive fabrics. Adam kindly says that the Raspberry Pi was “a core element of our success” and here he tells us a bit more about the hackathon and their winning entry: —-  Smell the glove (Photo Credit: HackThings.com & Phil Kast) This past weekend at the Seattle Interactive Conference, AT&T hosted a 'wearable computing' themed hackathon competition. On Tuesday night, team Hackcouture.io was awarded first place with our invention of a mobile, gesture detecting fabric glove, paired with our own air guitar iPhone app. The modular prototype, conceptualized and created in just 18 hours, uses conductive fabric sensors to track gestures and relays them to a Wi-Fi enabled Raspberry Pi mini-computer, mounted to the arm. We even used a prototype headset from Plantronics, equipped with an accelerometer for "head bang detection." Additionally, the glove was outfitted with an RFID chip in the palm for access control, as well as a gesture detecting Pebble smart watch for display of QR and UPC codes. These are used to share data with mobile apps. When we think of wearable computing, we think of weaving computing into the fabric and threads you wear. Today, there are too many seams between computers and clothing. We want those connections to be seamless. While we see value in this platform with entertainment, productivity and accessibility, what it could become is anyone's guess. We've seen that when communities come together with the right platform and the right product, some really magical stuff can happen. |
Two New Features for CreateSpace Authors
| CreateSpace, the print-on-demand self-publishing platform owned by Amazon, announced two exciting new features for authors today, both of which stand to give indie authors a more professional experience. The first announcement is the introduction of matte laminate covers as an option to choose from for their books. While not typically a deal breaker for most authors, until now CreateSpace covers were only offered as a glossy, plasticized cover. The new covers will allow authors not only a choice, but a more equal footing in print sales, especially for those authors who order books for signings or who have made arrangements for their books to be sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores. Kimmie Easley, author of Souls Set Free and the upcoming title Gutter Princess (February, 2014), explained to Good e-Reader about the importance of a professional touch when it comes to covers. “I think a professional cover is extremely important to both the author and the reader. It sets a book apart, and I know it’s what I look for. A bad cover can completely turn me off from reading a book. As a reader, I love to go through bookstores and feel the covers. It’s not just the image or artwork, which is still important, but it’s also the tactile experience of the book. I’m drawn to books that feel different, and I will jump at the chance to have a cover like that as an author.” There is no additional charge for choosing the matte cover, and authors whose books are already available through CreateSpace can switch to matte without repeating the upload process or having their books become temporarily unavailable. Also, CreateSpace announced at the same time that its Expanded Distribution offer, which typically costs $25.00, is now free. This option helps authors make their books available to physical bookstores and libraries by being included in the catalog. While not a guarantee that these locations will stock an author’s titles, it does make the process far easier for those physical stores.
Two New Features for CreateSpace Authors is a post from: E-Reader News |
eBooks Continue to Set Sales Records for Hachette
| Some industry watchers have noted the recent tapering off of digital sales figures and come to the conclusion that ebooks have finally found their place with readers, meaning they are no longer the enticement they once were when they posted unbelievable sales. But while publisher Hachette UK’s overall sales dropped a couple of percentage points for the third quarter of the year, its digital sales increased an astounding 80% over the previous August, and 32% over the previous July. Part of the reasons for the increase could be the slate of new e-readers that were launched this year, as well as news of pending device launches that were scheduled for October as consumers filled their virtual bookshelves in expectation of a new device purchase from the same company. But more likely it came down to old-fashioned content: Hachette had a number of significant releases over the summer and carrying on into September. The July news of Robert Gilbraith’s true identity (JK Rowling) created a mad rush to purchase the April publication A Cuckoo’s Calling, while highly topical and timely books like I Am Malala were instant bestsellers. Additionally, titles that have been out for quite some time but still have a strong market presence–such as Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane–contributed to those figures. Hachette UK CEO Tim Hely Hutchinson told The Bookseller, “The summer months were exceptional for us, with a number of standout achievements including holding all the number one slots on the Sunday Times bestseller lists for five weeks and a record-breaking month of e-book sales in August. We are now looking at a very strong last quarter from every division in the group."
eBooks Continue to Set Sales Records for Hachette is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tim Ferris Publishing to Release Audiobook Titles to Fill a Void
| The creative genius behind books such as The 4 Hour Work Week, The 4 Hour Body, and The 4 Hour Chef is now embarking on a new direction in the publishing industry: audiobooks. What was once a tired format with very few titles actually being recorded is now growing in popularity, due largely in part to the abundance of mobile devices to listen to them. Tim Ferris, who has launched Tim Ferris Publishing, will be taking a stab at the audiobook market by focusing on books whose audio rights have not be realized. More importantly, he’ll be leveraging the traffic and online presence of his own blog to do the marketing and selling for him, not an outrageous idea considering that his own blog receives about one million visitors per month. In an interesting twist to how viable and successful publishing typically function, Ferris’ company will only release audio titles that he himself has read and enjoyed, beginning with a title that he declared to be “life changing,” Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. In an interview with Tech Crunch’s Anthony Ha, Ferris described the fact that there’s always room for a new model in publishing: "There's also a place for a business model that capitalizes on audience and process. That just hasn't been done really well." This shift into audiobooks wouldn’t be Ferris’ first experiment with the format. He released a BitTorrent Bundle in which readers could have a free audiobook version of his bestselling The 4 Hour Chef when purchasing the hard cover, an experiment that led to a significant increase in sales. He will be creating a similar experiment for the release of Vagabonding.
Tim Ferris Publishing to Release Audiobook Titles to Fill a Void is a post from: E-Reader News |
GCF Labs: A Home for All of Our Misfits
Check out GCF Labs, a place for the experimental projects that make us love our jobs. |
Ilan Stavans Set’s Up Publishing Firm Restless Books, Aiming For a Cosmopolitan Makeover of US Publishing Scene
| Writer Ilan Stavans is now set to don the publisher cap as well with the launch of an ebook imprint, Restless Books. Among his initial offerings will be Between Clay and Dust, a novel by the Pakistani author Musharraf Ali Farooqi along with three books on poetry and memoir by the Chicano poet Jimmy Santiago Baca. These apart, Restless Books also have other literary works lined up for publishing, which include those from Mexico, Argentina, Russia and Cuba. Ilan Stavans stated one of his goals behind setting up his own publishing unit is to see the US be seen more cosmopolitan with its publishing efforts by coming up with more translated book or publishing original works of American authors. “Only 3% of books published annually in the United States are translations,” something that Stavans claims is “embarrassing.” “This country has become an island. We forget the rest of the world is out there. And great literature (fiction, poetry, journalism) is released on a daily basis in Turkey, Poland, Argentina, China.” “Readers today access literature in multiple languages,” Stavans further added. “So instead of the old model of bringing a translation into the U.S. audience, in digital form we want to bring the translation and the original together and let the reader choose. Price and weight don't matter here because we're talking digital books.” Among the titles that Restless Books will have on offer from next month include The Underground by the Russian writer Hamid Ismailov, Journey to the Land of Israel, 125th: Time in Harlem, among others.
Ilan Stavans Set’s Up Publishing Firm Restless Books, Aiming For a Cosmopolitan Makeover of US Publishing Scene is a post from: E-Reader News |
Celebrate Young Reader’s Day!
| If you are reading this then I can probably safely assume you enjoy reading. You probably have a favorite book, a favorite author, a favorite literary quote even. Maybe it's tattooed on your ankle or written above your doorway or maybe you are like me, the words are so engrained in who you are they've written themselves across your heart. For me it's always been "the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars." Jack Kerouac, the first boy I ever loved.
Yes, the world is different now, but the way in which we fall in love with reading is still the same. We start young which brings me to today. Today is Young Reader's Day. Celebrate the young readers in your life and library by browsing our YA and Children's content in Marketplace; we have a wide variety to choose from, including classics and popular chart-toppers.
Help them start young and help them grow. White said it best, "Children almost always hang onto things tighter than [we] think they will."
Christina Samek is a School Account Specialist for OverDrive.
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iPad Mini With Retina Display Now On Sale
| Apple's new iPad Mini has now joined its full sized sibling in making it to the company's online stores throughout the world. Both the new gen iPad variants were announced towards the last week of October. With the iPad Mini 2 now on sale, this marks the end of iPad Air's dominion in the market which it had to itself for more than two weeks. Shipping times mentioned is 1 – 3 business days for the 16 and 32 GB Wi-Fi only variant for the tablet, which goes up to 5 – 10 days for the 64 and 128 GB versions as well as LTE versions of the tablet. Pricing starts at $399 which goes up by $100 each time the memory size is doubled so that the highest specced 128 GB LTE version of the same can be yours for a cool $829. Also, the biggest change with the new iPad Mini, apart from the incorporation of the much touted Retina display, is largely centered around its internals. This includes the new 64 bit A7 chip as well as the M7 “motion coprocessor” both of which made its debut in the new iPhone 5s. There have also been a few issues reported with the functioning of the M7 chip which led to the iPhone 5s returning erroneous results. Apple has been attending the fault and a number of iOS upgrades too have been released. Meanwhile, the new iPad Mini continues with the same form factor as its predecessor, except that the tablet in its present form is a bit thicker and heavier. This can be attributed to the tablet now coming with a Retina display though on the whole the new iPad Mini still can be counted among the lightest and slimmest around. However, with the new iPad Mini finally entering the retail scene, how much of an impact it makes on the newly redesigned iPad Air will be keenly watched. The first gen iPad Mini had outstripped sales of its stable mate, the iPad 4, though with the iPad Air now sporting looks similar to the mini variant, it will a good contest to watch.
iPad Mini With Retina Display Now On Sale is a post from: E-Reader News |
Monday, November 11, 2013
eBooks Account for 22% of Revenue at HarperCollins
| Harpercollins has just reported their latest quarterly results, which are the first ones produced since News Corp spun off their publishing division. Total eBook sales rose 30% in the quarter and accounted for 22% of revenue in the most recent period compared to 15% in the first quarter of fiscal 2013. The big titles contributing to HC’s success was The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, The English Girl by Daniel Silva, and Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. Overall at the company, their entire book division has seen a sharp decline. Their big bet is with new projects, such as selling eBooks directly to customers and launching their own dedicated e-Reader app for Android. eBooks Account for 22% of Revenue at HarperCollins is a post from: E-Reader News |
Stack Ranking: The Politics of Trying to Get Promoted with some of the Worlds Largest Tech Companies
| If you have dreams about working for Apple, Microsoft, Amazon or Yahoo, there are many barriers in place to prevent employees from moving up in the organization. Microsoft pioneered a concept called stack ranking, which lumps employees and managers into three distinct categories. These are the superstars, people you want to hang on to, or people that need to shape up, or ship out. Amazon, Yahoo and a myriad of other companies are starting to adapt this mentality into their internal systems. Kurt Eichenwald commented that “Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed—every one—cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees. The system—also referred to as "the performance model," "the bell curve," or just "the employee review"—has, with certain variations over the years, worked like this: every unit was forced to declare a certain percentage of employees as top performers, then good performers, then average, then below average, then poor. For that reason, executives said, a lot of Microsoft superstars did everything they could to avoid working alongside other top-notch developers, out of fear that they would be hurt in the rankings. And the reviews had real-world consequences: those at the top received bonuses and promotions; those at the bottom usually received no cash or were shown the door. Kurt went to directly quote an engineer who said "The behavior this engenders, people do everything they can to stay out of the bottom bucket. People responsible for features will openly sabotage other people's efforts. One of the most valuable things I learned was to give the appearance of being courteous while withholding just enough information from colleagues to ensure they didn’t get ahead of me on the rankings." Worse, because the reviews came every six months, employees and their supervisors—who were also ranked—focused on their short-term performance, rather than on longer efforts to innovate. Many industry experts have claimed that this promotional system is toxic, creates an air of distrust and many people have said that this method has contributed to the companies overall decline in the last ten years. This has not stopped other companies from trying to emulate it. Dreams about working at Facebook? Molly Graham who used to work in Facebook HR said “Then there is a two week period of calibration where managers meet to look at the assessments of everyone on their team and ensure that people are rated correctly relative to their peers. Facebook has seven performance assessments as well as a guideline for what % of employees should be at each level, however it is explicitly not a forced curve, particularly for small teams. The curve exists to ensure that extraordinary performance is rewarded (I believe the distribution is such that only 2% or less of employees are given the highest rating every cycle) and that if hard conversations need to happen, they happen.” Molly went on to say that “Calibration happens at the team level and at the senior management level , and all of their direct reports look at the numbers for the whole company, lists of the highest performers and lists of the lowest performers. Performance Assessments are final and they are used to determine compensation like raises, bonuses, and additional equity grants. Facebook gives out raises and additional equity once a year but they do promotions and bonuses twice a year. Compensation at Facebook is almost entirely formulaic with multipliers (based on the Performance Assessment) for bonuses, raises, and additional equity grants. Brad Stone recently released a new book about Amazon and the research he did gave him unparalleled access to hundreds of employees. In his book, he mentioned “In a meeting held usually in September or October, the leaders talk about who’s getting a promotion, and talk about who is doing well and who is doing poorly. Amazon’s managers group employees into three tiers: The top 20%, who are groomed for promotions, the next 70% who are kept happy, and the bottom 10%, who are either let go, or told to get it together. This system, which was created by Jeff Bezos, is supposed to cut down on politics and in-fighting. Unfortunately, Stone says it has the opposite effect.”Ambitious employees tend to spend months having lunch and coffee with their boss's peers to ensure a positive outcome once the topic of their proposed promotion is raised in [the meetings],” says Stone. Stone also notes that promotions are very limited at Amazon, so if you fight for your employee to get a promotion, it means someone else’s employee gets snubbed. And anyone in the room can nuke someone else’s promotion. Most of the companies outlined above all have curves for employee promotions and knowing who the dead-weight is. It is very difficult to excel and thrive at these companies because there are so many different factors holding you back. These companies may be stable, but they don’t employ the best methodologies to rise up in the ranks. One company that buckles the trend of stack ranking is Google. A former employee at the big G, said it is all about peer based reviews. “Promotion and work performances is entirely reliant on peer reviews. In other words, to get ahead at Google and to get a positive performance review, you must get positive reviews from your fellow co-workers. Your manager might love you, but if your co-workers don’t like you, you have some work to do. Managers are also required to seek peer review from those they manage. Senior level employees from other fields are also encouraged to seek peer reviews from people in other departments. For example, engineers need reviews from people other than engineers in order to advance. For this reason, a culture of cooperation is endemic at Google. This is great because the percentage of “cowboys” that seems common at other high tech companies is quite low at Google. It also fosters an awareness of the type of contribution made by people outside your department, since everyone reviews people in other fields, and therefore must learn a bit about what others do outside their sphere.” In the end, it looks like Amazon and Facebook have fairly similar performance review structures as Microsoft much-lambasted system while Google seems to have a performance that seems to trade one set of problems for a different set. The Stack system for promotions is not working and Amazon is ranked second in the US for having the least loyal employees. Worker bees at Microsoft only have a shelf life of four years at the company before they get disillusioned and move on. Stack Ranking: The Politics of Trying to Get Promoted with some of the Worlds Largest Tech Companies is a post from: E-Reader News |
Good e-Reader Radio – Amazon Source, New e-Readers and Kno
| Welcome back to another edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Today Jeremy Greenfield and Michael Kozlowski discuss all of the latest news in Digital Publishing, e-Readers and all of the latest news. Amazon Source has garnered the majority of the headlines in recent weeks with the Seattle based company hooking up Indie Bookstores with the ability to earn commissions selling e-Readers and eBoos. There is massive resistance to the idea of giving up their local customers to Amazon and having them buy into the digital ecosystem. Also, Amazon and US Postal service will begin making Sunday deliveries in key cities. Intel, who has a loyal investor of educational textbook and software company Kno, now owns it. We give you an indication on where Kno came from and what this means to the future of educational tech in the classroom. Good e-Reader Radio – Amazon Source, New e-Readers and Kno is a post from: E-Reader News |
Screen Comparison: E Ink Carta vs E Ink Pearl
| Ever since I got the Kindle Paperwhite 2 I’ve been a bit skeptical about the so-called new and improved E Ink Carta screen technology. Right now the Paperwhite 2 is the only device using Carta screens; most other ebook readers use Pearl screens. Both are the same type of epaper screen tech produced by the […] |
OverDrive at Elementary: Getting the word out to parents and students
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In September, we participated in OverDrive's "Big Library Read." I host book clubs every month for different grade levels, so the students at my school are very familiar with the concept of book clubs. I decided to try and get as many students involved in the "Big Library Read" as I could by hosting an online book club, as opposed to the traditional book club. I created three posts on our library website to explain to students how the online book club would work. I had three separate posts over the course of three weeks so the students could go online and comment about the book we were all reading together. We had a lot of students check out the book, (the most in our district) but the commenting online didn't go over so well. Live and learn. Next time I will try and have a morning book club for the students who are reading at home and allow them to use library computers to get on and comment about the book! To see the blog posts, click here, here and here.
See my post on Vine:
During the month of October, I also had the opportunity to have a Samsung Galaxy in the library that our district won from OverDrive for our promotional efforts. To allow different schools to get to explore this great device, our lead OverDrive librarian decided to call him "Flat Samsung" and allow him to travel from school to school each month. For my month, I gave him laminated arms and legs and a face on the screen. I kept him out for kids to explore by a QR Code that would take the kids to our digital library site. I took him to one of our morning assemblies and talked about him being our special OverDrive visitor to get kids to inquire about him and our eBook collection. See my post on Vine:
I love trying to find the right times to engage parents with OverDrive and different ways to excite kids about reading eBooks. Next on my agenda is using Skype to connect some of our elementary kids with some middle school and high school kids for some OverDrive tutorials!
Blog Post by Nancy Jo Lambert, MLS Ruth Borchardt Elementary School Frisco ISD http://www.rbelibrary.com @lambertn lambertn@friscoisd.org  |
Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Paperwhite 1 Comparison
| After doing the video review for the Kindle Paperwhite 2, I decided to put together a quick comparison review showing the differences between the original Paperwhite and the new Paperwhite. Both are almost identical down to the last detail, but there are some differences, most notably the frontlight and the screen. As mentioned in the […] |