|
Next to the Parking Location card, this is my favourite addition to Google Now –anything that keeps me on track while my mind is in a thousand different places is of great use in my life! Do you have a day-to-day task that you wish Google Now could help with? Google Now Reminds You of Your Transit Stop is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Google Now Reminds You of Your Transit Stop
How Neonode Fell Victim to a Crashing e-Reader Industry
| Neonode is best known for their IR touchscreen technology that mainstream e-readers employed, before most of them gravitated towards capacitive touch. The Amazon Kindle Touch, Kobo Glo, Sony PRS-T1 and similar models all employed Infrared sensors alongside the bezel. This provided these companies a dramatically affordable way to incorporate touchscreen technology into e-readers that were at war with each other over lower prices. The rise and fall of Neonode reads like a textbook of the e-reader industry as a whole. Neonode is a publically traded company and files all of their financial information on a quarterly and yearly basis with the SEC. Their accounts receivable info reads like a textbook on the rise and fall of the e-reader industry. In 2010 the company garnered a paltry $200 thousand and the companies fortunes spiked dramatically in 2011 with over $3.3 million in licensing fees. Revenue dropped by over a million in 2012 when they earned $2.1 million and in 2013 they received $1 million. This yearly financial returns are not indicative to just the eBook reader industry, as they have their hands in cell phones, tablets and a number of other enterprises. When it comes to e-readers in 2011 they had eleven contracts signed with the whos who of industry. This included the Sony Pocket Edition, Sony Touch Edition, Daily and the PRS-T1 model. Other notables include the Kobo eReader Touch and Barnes & Noble Simple Touch Reader. In 2012 Amazon accounted for 46% of their revenue, followed by Kobo at 16% and Sony at 14%. During 2013 Neonode lost Amazon as their primary customer and instead is leaning on Kobo (19%) Leapfrog (16%) and Sony (15%) for their e-reader revenue. Finally in the first quarter of 2014, Leap Frog is their biggest customer (30%) followed by Sony Corporation (16%) and older Kobo devices (11%). Kobo is using their older Glo and Touch Screen e-readers in their efforts to expand into international markets, because of the lower price point on outdated components. Sony on the other hand have all but bowed out of the e-reader industry with the total abandonment of their Sony Reader bookstore in North America, Europe and Australia, but still sell the PRS-T3 in many retail environments. Leapfrog primarily sells kids tablets in retail stores like Toys R US and bigbox stores. Neonode Z-Force technology is currently being phased out by many of the other eBook vendors in the world. Amazon, Kobo, and Tolino are all employing capacitive touchscreen technology and therefore not paying Neonode licensing fees. The lack of income is not stopping them from spending $1.8 million in the last three months, compared to $1.6 million for the same period in 2013. This has led to contracts with HP for multisense touchscreen printers and developing patents for virtual keyboards. What is the future of Neonode in the e-Reader industry? Likely they are abandoning innovation in this sector and instead are focusing on zForce AIR Technology for phones, zForce NEMO Technology for 100% Waterproof Devices and MultiSensing technology for in-car systems. How Neonode Fell Victim to a Crashing e-Reader Industry is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo Website Format Tip: How to Identify ePub eBooks
| When Kobo redesigned their website last year, they removed the section from their ebook description pages that specified what format the ebook was available in. Most of Kobo’e ebooks are available for download in ePub format, so it’s not an issue most of the time. But not all of Kobo’s ebooks are available in ePub, […] |
eBook Review: Choosing a Self-Publishing Service by ALLi
|
"I'm personally looking forward to meeting ALLi members, advisors and friends in New York" Orna Ross, director of ALLi said, speaking of the book’s official launch at BookExpo. "And delighted to be launching the latest update of our services guide at the new Author Hub at BEA. Many authors feel paralysed by choice when faced with the array of self-publishing alternatives before them. Our watchdog team have done the hard work of research and comparison, so we can point a clear pathway through the rapidly changing, and often confusing, landscape of author services." According to the book’s introduction, the internet is lousy with “sharks in the waters,” individuals and companies alike who have made a reputation for taking thousands of dollars from authors who dared to hope that someone would read their books. Instead of an enjoyable book, these authors are left bankrupt while holding a product that is barely worth the paper it’s printed on. ALLi’s guidebook helps alleviate a lot of those problems by rating different well-known companies, as well as offer a wealth of information for authors who are starting out. “The guidebook, compiled by ALLi's watchdog team – including Victoria Strauss, Mick Rooney and Giacomo Giammatteo – is a comparison of a representative sample of the key self-publishing service players. Featuring case studies, service analysis and the experiences of author-publishers and ALLi members, the guide is a timely and indispensable source of knowledge for anyone considering self-publishing as an option.” This resource guide is available now in both digital and print by clicking HERE.
eBook Review: Choosing a Self-Publishing Service by ALLi is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Real Reasons Why Adults Read YA Fiction
| A 2012 study found that 55% of all Young Adult fiction was purchased by adults and many journalists lately have been writing either for or against if adults should be consuming childrens and YA Fiction at the levels they are. The deeper question is why our culture encourages us to perpetually relive our teenage years. One of the reasons why YA Fiction is so popular is due to our culture encouraging an unnatural and prolonged adolescence. Not so long ago, the average American man in his 20s had achieved most of the milestones of adulthood: a high-school diploma, financial independence, marriage and children. Today, most men in their 20s hang out in a novel sort of limbo, a hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. Instead of going to school and getting a degree, getting married and having kids men for the most part are tuning in to cable channels like Comedy Central, the Cartoon Network and Spike, whose shows reflected the adolescent male preferences of its targeted male audiences. They watch movies with overgrown boy actors like Steve Carell, Luke and Owen Wilson, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Will Farrell and Seth Rogen, cheering their awesome car crashes, fart jokes, breast and crotch shots, beer pong competitions and other frat-boy pranks. Our culture actually encourages men to live and relive their teenage years perpetually by playing video games, smoking pot and reading the same fantasy, science-fiction or cyberpunk books they grew up with. Women's prime symptom of prolonged adolescence is glimpsed in their friendships with other young women. Perhaps in their search for faithful, committed relationships, young women are using their female friends as replacement "spouses." In their fear of losing another relationship, young women are clutching on to their female friends as tightly as a little child holds a plastic trinket. In their determination to not let go, they simultaneously are unable to open their hands to receive new friendships. When these new friendships include the possibility of a romantic relationship with a young man, the result is often Mr. Committed walking away wondering why the girl he pursued won't open to receive his gift of self. There is also a fear of vulnerability in most women these days. Rather than expose a desire for love, women take what they have and hoard, hold and suffocate in a frenzied panic not to lose what they have. Rather than open themselves to the possibility of hurt, disappointment or rejection, young women create a sense of commitment, possession and independence that unsuspectingly can counter their desires for love. This is the main reason why 59% of Romance and Erotica books are published by indie authors, the vast majority who are women. Romances and fairytales have given us a thoroughly impractical perception of love and relationships. Women continue to devour Veronica Roth, EL James, Suzanne Collins romantic interludes because it cuddles them like their favorite warm blanket. I think reading YA Fiction exclusively is degrading the quality of literature that gets published on a monthly or yearly basis. Major publishers out of New York tend to put out books that they know will sell and a number of great titles are likely never going to get the greenlight to be produced. Instead new books are being billed as the Next Hunger Games or the next Divergent. The Real Reasons Why Adults Read YA Fiction is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo Aura and Tolino Vision Nighttime Reading Tests
| Amazon, Kobo and Tolino all compete in the lucrative German eBook market and these three companies also make hardware. The Tolino was made as a homegrown alternative to North American entities trying to take over the market. The Tolino Vision is currently the best e-reader the alliance has produced and employs bleeding edge hardware and screen technology. Today, we check out the front-lit displays both of these models use to see if there is a clear cut winner for reading in the dark.
Kobo Aura and Tolino Vision Nighttime Reading Tests is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tolino Vision and Kindle Paperwhite 2 – Nighttime Reading Test
| Welcome to another installment of our Nighttime Reading Test series. Today we are looking at the brand new Tolino Vision and the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2. Both of these e-readers are doing battle in the critical German market and are easily accessible. The premise of this video is to show you how both perform in the dark with the front-lit displays they employ. You will get a sense on light distribution on the screen and if there is a clear winner.
Tolino Vision and Kindle Paperwhite 2 – Nighttime Reading Test is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Weekend Sales Roundup: $8 Android Tablet, Kindle and Nook Deals
| Just when I thought I had discovered a really cheap tablet, the new $49 Android 4.4 KitKat tablet at Best Buy, I happen to stumble across a deal at Newegg for an $8 tablet with free shipping. Granted the device is refurbished and it only has a 4.3-inch screen, and it’s more than likely a […] |
Submit Your App to the Good e-Reader App Store
| If you are an app developer or an established studio the Good e-Reader Android App Store has a free submission program. The Developer Portal allows you to upload and keep your Android app current for an audience of over 80,000,000 yearly visitors. According to One Platform Foundation, “Submitting your app to alternative app stores will increase expected downloads for your app by more than 200% in reference to Google Play only. The Good e-Reader Android App Store allows developers to sign up for a free account and upload your apps to a bright and vibrant ecosystem. There is support for both free and paid apps, and developers currently enjoy a 100% royalty paid instantly to their PAYPAL accounts upon a customers purchase. We have great tools to make your app stand out in the crowd with icons, 3 slideshow images, Youtube Video and over 72 categories to select from. If you want to put a priority on maximum visibility you can opt into our promotional banner space or elect to include it in our weekly Editors Choice program. Good e-Reader is currently the second largest App Store in Canada, next to Blackberry World. On a worldwide stage, we are in the Top 10 of most widely used stores. Our dedicated client has an active userbase of over a million monthly users and our website has five million a month on average. Good e-Reader currently has over 31,000 Android and Blackberry 10 apps and will be supporting Tizen in the near future. Submit Your App to the Good e-Reader App Store is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Android Feature “Nearby” Expected at Google I/O 2014
|
While the exact details of how Nearby would work aren’t yet known, it is expected to be a combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and your microphone (taking advantage of signals imperceptible to the human ear but picked up by other Android devices). What’s it good for? Hard to say at this point, but the potential is exciting (smartphones getting smarter)! Despite possible privacy concerns, it may make it easier to locate missing phones, missing persons, provide directions… sky is the limit! One suggestion is that it would give greater accuracy to reminders, like: make sure I tell so-in-so this tidbit the next time I see them –for instance. New Android Feature “Nearby” Expected at Google I/O 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Video Tour of E Ink’s Booth at Computex 2014
| Every year Charbax posts a video tour of E Ink’s latest products and prototypes. This time the venue was at the Computex event in Taiwan, and is the first time E Ink has had a booth there. Like usual, E Ink had all kinds of products on display. Everything from ereaders to watches to signage […] |
Indie Romance Authors Should Encourage Readers to Pay to be in their Next Book
| Self-publishing is a growing industry and many researchers agree that by 2020, 50% of all books will be penned by indie authors. One of the downsides of electing to take the path of writing and marketing the book yourself is the financial situation. Often authors only generate money once the book is actively sold and do not get any type of advance to offset the cost of developing a new title. This is why many romance writers lean on their husbands to sustain their financial situation, while they generate a devout following of readers and try make a living from it. Sure some authors take advantage of Kickstarter or Indiegogo to raise funds, but often they fail to meet their financial targets. This is why many self-published authors are paying attention to what George R.R. Martin is doing with his new charity campaign. The Game of Thrones writer is taking a novel approach in order to raise funds for The Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and the Food Depot of Santa Fe. Two readers who donate $20,000 will be able to be slain in a grisly fashion in the next book he writes. There is one male character and one female character available. You can choose your character's station in the world (lordling, knight, peasant, whore, lady, maester, septon, anything) and be killed in a horrendous fashion. Paying to be inside of a book is a relatively new approach and although self-published authors are unlikely to get away with charging exorbitant amounts of money, there likely is a market. Erotica and Romance are two literary genres that are dominated by female indie authors and 59% of all titles on the market are written by them. According to Bowker, the official ISBN agency for the US and Australia, 71% of self-published books were bought by women, with romance titles the most popular category, followed by literary fiction. Likely many women readers would love to have the main character named after them and would be willing to pay for the privilege. Indie Romance Authors Should Encourage Readers to Pay to be in their Next Book is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Florida Principal Pulls the Plug on Doctorow
|
At Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola, Florida, an English teacher and the school librarian collaborated on a fun summer reading event. In addition to the typical summer reading lists high schoolers have, this school decided to participate in One School/One Book, in which all of the students were invited to read the same book over the summer so they could participate in a number of activities en masse in the fall. The faculty worked together on discussion materials and the activities, all centered around their pick for the project, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. And then the principle pulled the plug on the program, citing the book’s message of questioning authority as grounds for its inappropriateness. In an interesting twist of fate, the principle also reportedly cited a parent’s concerns about profanity in the book, despite the fact that there isn’t any. After organizing all of the work, promotion, and supplemental materials, the faculty members were told to choose a different book or cancel it. But here’s where the internet took over and made it even more fun. First, word got out about the program’s cancellation, so Doctorow and his publisher Tor donated 200 copies of the book to the student body. But more important is the very, very hopeful possibility that this was all a ploy to teach kids to actually question authority. A look at the school’s website links to their required summer reading list. Not only is Little Brother required reading for incoming eleventh graders, but other notably challenged or banned books are on there, including 1984, Fahrenheint 451 and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The second title, by Sherman Alexie, has been banned not only for profanity but for its references to masturbation, among other topics; if that is part of the required reading list, we can only hope that Doctorow’s book is being challenged/banned to actually encourage participation in the summer event. The principle is either just another sadly typical example of what’s wrong with public education, or is quite possibly the most brilliant strategist ever to work with teenagers. Hopefully this educator is taking this stance and willingly risking ridicule and derision in order to serve as an example of the very type of authority young people should question. Unfortunately, this blog post from Cory Doctorow tells a very different story.
Florida Principal Pulls the Plug on Doctorow is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Hoopla Digital Redesigns the Digital Library Model
| Library lending of ebooks and other digital content is finally gaining a foothold in the industry as publishers and lending institutions come to some measure of agreement on how to make it work. While libraries need access to up-to-date but affordable content, and publishers need some guarantee they they will be compensated for allowing their titles into lending catalogs, the model is slowly taking off in greater numbers of libraries. hoopla digital, the recently launched digital division of library content supplier Midwest Tape, has launched a lending model for libraries that stands to change that. This model, which relies solely on pay-per-transaction, is a great alternative for libraries who balk at the cost of joining one of the major digital supplier’s subscriptions. “We wanted to give libraries a way to be relevant in the digital age,” explained hoopla’s Jeff Jankowski in an interview with Good e-Reader. “Why take the limitations of the physical world and apply them to start of the art digital?” These limitations that Jankowski referred to include things like wait periods and simultaneous checkouts, along with the subscription required to offer content to library patrons. This pay per use model means there are no longer any holds or unavailable books, as libraries only pay when patrons consume content. “You can’t retain customers if you have dissatisfied customers. Publishers like [hoopla] because no holds or waits means no dissatisfied customers. This helps libraries stay relevant.” That relevance is really the key to what makes hoopla an ideal model. As libraries joyfully spread the news that they now offer ebook lending, the reality is that patrons often go to the media console for their specific libraries only to find a limited catalog filled with older backlist titles, many of which are checked out because that’s all there is to read. This frustration has led many patrons to think their libraries can’t even do a good job when they do offer 21st century content capabilities. hoopla works as a single app for patrons to use in order to download ebooks, stream movies, or stream music, all of which libraries only pay for as the content is borrowed. Of course, there are parameters libraries can set up individually, such as patron checkout caps or loan periods so they don’t find themselves with an unexpected bill due to a high volume of patron traffic. Libraries can also see an up-to-date dashboard of traffic and fees, and also receive alerts when they are nearing their monthly budget limit.
Hoopla Digital Redesigns the Digital Library Model is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Startup Blookist Streamlines the Blog-to-Book Concept
|
Based on the increasingly popular idea that the majority of the reading public will not only recognize good content but also feel compelled to compensate writers for it in a voluntary way, Blookist lets authors start a “blook” (blog+book) and add to it, chapter by chapter, while selling those chapters to donors who come to the site for content. Adrijan Zuzic, founder and director of Blook.ist, spoke to Good e-Reader about the platform and its original launch, as well as the biggest benefit for users. “They can create a selection of their related works, so it makes it easier writers and bloggers to generate revenue. They start writing, they publish, and monetize through donations and through subscribers to their blooks. Through these subscriptions, authors can write and sell a chapter at a time, or they can keep their drafts private and then publish the blook as a whole.” Recent models to the way books and ebooks are conceived of and sold have offered some truly unique forms of paying for content. Pubslush allows authors to take pre-orders for their books in order to generate the revenue they need for professional publishing services, while Pentian lets donors share in the royalties of the book for the first three years, giving authors the funds they need to generate titles. Blookist, which seems to function much like Wattpad-for-pay, makes that type of structure possible as well. “We want to challenge ePubs, and that’s a significant mountain to climb. We really want to make writing a book as easy as writing a blog.” While still in its most recent launch stage, Blookist is offering 50% off its pro membership for readers of this article by using code “blookistcmp” on the registration page. An example of a Proust work reimagined as a blook is available HERE.
New Startup Blookist Streamlines the Blog-to-Book Concept is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, June 6, 2014
DigiLand DL 7: Best Buy’s New $49 Android 4.4 Tablet
| For some reason I was over at Best Buy’s website browsing through tablets when I came across a new listing for the ultra-cheap DigiLand DL 7 tablet. It’s a 7-inch Android tablet with a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor that runs Android 4.4 KitKat and comes with front and rear cameras, 4GB of storage space, 512MB […] |
How to Setup a Kindle for a Guest or Child
| One of the cool things with Kindles is you can load them up with ebooks and then give it to your kid or use it as a guest ebook reader to give to people who visit your home or office. The same thing can be done with Kindle Fire tablets. You can load them up […] |
Barnes and Noble Orders 1 Million Samsung Tablets
| Barnes and Noble and Samsung are releasing two co-branded tablets this year called Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK. This is the first time the Nation’s largest bookseller is outsourcing the hardware design and focusing exclusively on the software. According to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing 8-K report B&N will purchase 1 million tablets over the course of the first 12 months of the deal. This will include black and white versions of a 7-inch model, and 60 days after that will be black and white models of a 10-inch tablet. Samsung intends on spending an “undisclosed” amount of money on advertising the new tablets. This benefits Barnes and Nobles marketing budget, because Samsung will hype it in the critical US and UK markets. Going the Samsung route is a double edged sword for Barnes and Noble. Their current generation 7 inch tablet has a resolution of 1440×900 pixels, while the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK will only have 1280 x 800. This is notable because magazines, newspapers and kids books won’t look as crisp as they do on the Nook HD. One bright spot is the overall processing power that will be upgraded to a quad-core chip, instead of the existing duel-core. So why did Barnes and Noble go with Samsung instead of Microsoft, which gave the company 300 million dollars a few years ago? Well, Samsung was able to lure them in with a custom white label solution. There will be no Samsung bloatware on the tablet and B&N is responsible for their heavily customized UI and library of pre-installed apps. This tablet is an e-reader first, and will have an entirely new interface and experience that will be quite different from anything that Nook has done in the past. Customers will also be able to access Google Play to download all of their apps. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will have an official release date around August, and its likely that either in September or October existing B&N bookstores will be stocking them. Barnes and Noble Orders 1 Million Samsung Tablets is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Making a Bid for Songza
|
Because Google already has their Google Play Music service in place, the assumption is that this acquisition would be all about curation –making their existing offering smarter and more value added. If the deal solidifies and finalizes, this new relationship for Google wouldn’t come long after Apple paid $3 billion for Beats (with $500 million of that price directed toward the streaming component), a company often praised for having strong curation in their music streaming app. With Pandora currently valued at $5 billion and Spotify coming in at $4 billion, Songza seems like a true bargain –especially if it gives Google any kind of leg up on their competition. Google Making a Bid for Songza is a post from: Good e-Reader |
How to Borrow and Lend Kindle eBooks to Friends and Family
| A few years ago being able to lend other people your purchased, DRM-protected ebooks was a pretty big deal. But now the idea has kind of been put to the side and you don’t hear about it much anymore. In fact I pretty much forgot about personal ebook lending until Apple announced that iBooks purchases […] |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)