| Overdrive unveiled their streaming video service last year and the service allows Canadian and US libraries to offer digital movies to their patrons. The company has just signed a distribution deal with Warner Brothers that will add hundreds of new titles to their catalog, but with a catch. Libraries no longer have to buy the titles in advance. Libraries will be able to benefit from a new transactional, pay-per-use lending model from OverDrive for the first time. This model eliminates the need to purchase titles in advance of their use and ensures that titles are available instantly to all patrons simultaneously. Libraries can curate the video lists that want to get setup and offer content that will serve their communities. They can also set user lending policies for Warner Bros. movies to manage costs within their material budgets. Library patrons across the U.S. and Canada will be able to use PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android Tablets or nearly any connected device to stream videos from their library. Building on the existing OverDrive catalog, Warner Bros. titles such as I am Sam (Academy Award nomination for Best Actor: Sean Penn), Natural Born Killers (Starring Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, Golden Globe nomination for Best Director: Oliver Stone), Insomnia (starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, Directed by Christopher Nolan), and Life as a House (SAG Awards nominations for Leading Actor: Kevin Kline; Supporting Actor: Hayden Christensen) will soon be available for lending. Overdrive Unveils Pay-Per-Use Lending Model for Warner Brothers Movies is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Overdrive Unveils Pay-Per-Use Lending Model for Warner Brothers Movies
Perseus Book Group Sold to Hachette and Ingram
| Perseus Book Group was founded in 1996 and has been acquiring small imprints to expand their business. Over the course of the last few years the entire publishing industry is consolidating and Perseus was a solid acquisition target. Hachette has announced they are purchasing Perseus and absorbing all of their imprints and then selling the distribution business to Ingram. Hachette is currently the 4th largest publisher in the US and the absorbing of Persius will boost their annual revenue an extra $700 million dollars. This stems from the many imprints it now owns, such as from Avalon Travel, Basic Books, Da Capo, The Economist, Nation Books, Running Press, Seal Press, Weinstein Books and Westview. Not only does Hachette get access to all of the current catalog of titles but also access to 6,000 backlist of titles it can now issue as eBooks. These include perennial sellers such as "Friday Night Lights" by Buzz Bissinger and "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Perseus can be considered by some, to be the largest book distributor in the US. Under the terms of the Hachette deal Ingram will absorb the client services division, which provides back-end services like marketing and distribution, to Ingram Content Group. Perseus Book Group Sold to Hachette and Ingram is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amnesty App Morphs Power Button Into Panic Button
| Sometimes things aren’t actually as they seem, a truth that now applies to Android apps as well. While it masquerades as the sweet and innocent calculator app, Amnesty International’s Panic Button might just save the lives of their human rights activists frequently at risk of facing arrest, attack, kidnapping or torture. After downloading the app, users can setup three contacts to alert during an emergency (consider who may be nearby and able to help) and also write a message that will be triggered when the app is initiated (Amnesty recommends pre-arranging code words and phrases with those on your list). If the worst happens, users need only tap their power buttons (5 times in 5 seconds, resulting in a vibration confirmation) which will result in their pre-written message being broadcast to their contacts along with current GPS coordinates. Another option is to load the mock-calculator and repeatedly pressing the number 1, producing the same effect. Tanya O’Carroll, Amnesty International’s Technology and Human Rights Officer discusses their motivation for the app – “We have long known that the first hours after somebody’s arrest are the crucial window of opportunity for a network to make a difference to their colleague’s release — whether it be flooding the police station with calls, arranging a protest, or mobilising lawyers and organisations like Amnesty International for a campaign of international pressure.” Following a beta test with over 100 activists worldwide, you can download Panic Button (Beta) from Good e-Reader.
Amnesty App Morphs Power Button Into Panic Button is a post from: Good e-Reader |
McGraw-Hill and Follett Partner for eBook Distribution
| McGraw-Hill has partnered with Follett to better target K-12 Schools via Follett's Market Leading Destiny Platform. McGraw-Hill Professional's catalog is one of the premier eBook collections in the world for education, business, consumer, technical, and medical titles available on the market today. McGraw-Hill Professional is offering more than 4,500 new and backlist eBooks, available to lend on multiple devices. These titles include McGraw-Hill Education's comprehensive collection of student test prep and study aids: 5 Steps to a 5 AP test prep series, the Demystified series, Practice Makes Perfect foreign language series, Schaum's Outline study guides, McGraw-Hill Education Guide to SAT, McGraw-Hill Education TASC, The Official Guide to TOEFL Test, and more. "We are committed to delivering new ways for school libraries to access our premier content to help students achieve success," says Philip Ruppel, president of McGraw-Hill Professional. "We are pleased to team up with Follett to expand student access to our digital collections." Follett customers are able to seamlessly search and access all print and digital content within the convenience of Destiny Library Manager, the leading school library management solution. Destiny features Follett's Universal Search, an innovative tool that gives students the ability to access content they need from one system. Follett customers without the Destiny platform use Follett Shelf TM, the company's virtual bookshelf. Currently, more than 30 million students and educators in 42,000 schools worldwide use eBooks provided by Follett. "Our customers are especially excited about the availability of McGraw-Hill Professional's highly respected test preparation titles," said Tom Schenck, president of Follett School Solutions. "This partnership reflects our mission to support 21st century learning for students and preparing them for the demands of college and their careers." McGraw-Hill and Follett Partner for eBook Distribution is a post from: Good e-Reader |
CNBC Produces 1 Hour Show about Amazon
| Amazon is a global e-commerce giant that capitalized on selling physical books online and then diversified into eBooks. The company is notoriously silent when it comes to the inner workings of life in Seattle and once in awhile we get an introspective, such as the Anything Store by Brad Thor. CNBC has produced a new one hour documentary telling the story of a shrewd visionary named Jeff Bezos who bet his fortunes on the exploding internet and created one of the most admired — and feared — companies in the world. On Sunday, June 29th at 9PM ET/PT, CNBC presents "Amazon Rising," a one-hour documentary reported by award-winning correspondent David Faber, which tells the story of a shrewd visionary named Jeff Bezos who bet his fortunes on the exploding internet and created one of the most admired — and feared — companies in the world. With more than 240 million customers, Faber reports on this powerhouse that has upended publishing, retail, and cloud computing, is poised to disrupt the supermarket industry, and faces increasing scrutiny as it extends its reach ever further into the fabric of American life. Amazon sells everything from accordions to zippers and has changed the way we shop, bringing goods to our doorstep faster than we ever imagined. CNBC speaks with former Amazon executives and employees who shed light on a range of fascinating aspects of the company including Bezos's extraordinary vision and often confrontational leadership style; Amazon.com's infrastructure, designed to create "frictionless" shopping and maximize purchases; the relationship with third party merchants, some of whom complain that Amazon unfairly undermines their sales; the toll taken on fulfillment center workers to keep up with shipping demands; and Amazon's overwhelming and controversial incursion into the book industry. The documentary also examines the unusual faith that Wall Street has placed in Bezos, who guides an enterprise that has taken in hundreds of billions of dollars over the past two decades but has barely turned a profit. CNBC Produces 1 Hour Show about Amazon is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Onyx Boox T68 Lynx Now Available on Amazon for $199 (Video)
| Here’s a bit of good news. One of the most interesting new ebook readers of the year is now available for purchase in the United States, and I just bought one so look forward to a review in a couple weeks. The Onyx Boox T68 is now available on Amazon for $199 with free shipping. […] |
Deal Alert: 2nd Gen Nexus 7 Refubs for $129
| There have been tons of deals on Android tablets lately, even some as low as $7.99. Possibly the best deal of the month is ongoing right now. The 16GB 2nd gen Nexus 7 is available via eBay for just $129. That’s $100 off the retail price of a new one. These units aren’t new, they […] |
PyConUK Education Track for Teachers
| The Raspberry Pi Education team have really hit the ground running over the past few months, creating resources for the new website, running teacher training courses, and attending conferences and events all over the world! We even employed a Minecraft expert in our efforts to reach more young people and teachers. For the first time this year, we get the opportunity to combine our teacher training efforts with a conference and even a Raspberry Jam thanks to our friends in the UK Python community, who run a volunteer-organised annual conference called PyconUK. This year it runs from the 19th-22nd September in Coventry with a special education track created just for teachers and young people! On the first day, Friday 19th, there will be a professional development day for educators. Teachers will have an opportunity to learn Python, collaborate with programmers to produce educational resources, network with other conference attendees and generally have fun exploring technology that will inspire students. The Raspberry Pi education team will be contributing along with other teaching colleagues and an international group of expert Python developers will be on hand to help teachers get the most out of the day. Teachers’ tickets cost only £47 for the whole four day conference including Saturday evening’s conference meal (they’re usually £150 or more) and thanks to some very generous sponsorship, the first twenty teachers who book also qualify for a £200 bursary to cover their school’s cost for a supply teacher on the Friday.  Recognise any of the people in this picture from PyConUK 2012? On Saturday 20th, PyConUK opens its doors to up to 60 kids and accompanying adults for a day of inspiring adventures in code, something akin to a Raspberry Jam event. There will be Raspberry Pi, robots, workshops, games programming and lots of other fun stuff. Tickets cost £5 per child and accompanying adults get in for free. They’ll even provide you with lunch! Once again, the Raspberry Pi edu team will be there along with expert teachers and hordes of Python developers who’ll probably be just as excited and enthusiastic as the kids who attend.  Children at PyConUK last year having fun with Raspberry Pi If you would like to meet the team, learn more about Raspberry Pi in education and get hands on with computing then get your tickets here. |
BookBaby Shares Free Publishing Guide from Guy Kawasaki
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Kawasaki is the author of twelve books for businessmen and industry newbies, covering every aspect of the business in easy to understand but informative language. His co-writer on APE: Author, Publisher, and Entrepreneur, How to Publish an eBook was Shawn Welch, and together the duo is working to ensure that authors have every tool at their disposal to publish their work on their own. One of the ways that BookBaby stands out from the self-publishing competition is in its business model. Whereas some self-publishing companies and “vanity presses” rip authors off by charging up front for service and then charging additional royalties as high as 55% of net profits, BookBaby is one of the few companies in the industry that does not take any additional fees; the author earns royalties from the different platforms that BookBaby distributes to, and retains all percentages after the retail platforms’ fee. In addition, BookBaby has made a name for itself in the free author tools that it provides its clients, especially in the areas of marketing and promotion. Kawasaki and Welch’s book will be available from BookBaby as a free download through the end of July by visiting bookbaby.com/apebook.
BookBaby Shares Free Publishing Guide from Guy Kawasaki is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, June 23, 2014
Nest Purchases Dropcam for $555M of Google’s Money
| A lot of companies are buying a lot of other companies these days, with one of the latest acquisitions being Nest’s $555 million dollar grab for Dropcam. Designed to be a cloud-based WiFi video streaming service, Dropcam may seem like an unusual investment for a company known best for thermostats and smoke/carbon monoxide detectors; at least until you consider that there seems to be a lot of industry movement toward home automation and monitoring (and what better way to check in on what’s going on around the house than with wall-mounted, Internet aware cameras?). Matt Rogers, the founder of Nest, hasn’t said much about their specific plans for Dropcam, but has assured customers that their privacy is one of his chief concerns (which is a relief when you think of the potential risks that stem from having a Google Now-enabled home):
What aspect of home-automation makes you most excited? Keeping your lights active while you are on holidays? Checking in on the nanny while you are at work? Making sure the cat is staying off your kitchen counter (yeah right!)? Nest Purchases Dropcam for $555M of Google’s Money is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Podcast: What is Co-Op Placement for eBooks? Amazon Fire Phone, Reading Stats and Lots More
| Welcome back to a jampacked edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Today Editor Michael Kozlowski and Digital Book Worlds own Jeremy Greenfield bring you up to date on the world of publishing and tech. The Amazon and Hachette battle is bringing out a bunch of dirty laundry, such as co-op placement. When you walk into a bookstore and see a big table with the editors choice, publishers have to pay for that. In the digital realm, Amazon charges for the pre-order button and for high valued placement on their Kindle books page. Larger publishers also have dedicated reps that work exclusively with them and this all costs money. This is why Amazon shutting off the paid services is quite a big deal. Apple is capitalizing on the Hachette pre-order suspension on Amazon by offering over 30 new titles for $9.99 or less. If you want to order the new Silkworm book by JK Rowling or the new James Patterson, now is the time to buy. Also on the show, you will be brought up to date on the new Amazon Fire Phone and Good e-Readers upcoming trip to the ALA event in Las Vegas in a few days. Podcast: What is Co-Op Placement for eBooks? Amazon Fire Phone, Reading Stats and Lots More is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution 2 Coming to Android
| Apparently 2K Games is bringing Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution 2 to Android, though so far we aren’t sure when –which is making it very difficult for me to schedule my holidays around the release (because I am virtually certain I won’t be getting any work done for a while after it’s out). Fans of the popular turn-based strategy games should be excited: Sid Meier’s Civilization is a seasoned veteran in the genre. The Android version is slated to allow gamers to lead a civilization from the dawn of man clear to the modern age, all the while waging war, attempting diplomacy and discovering new (to the era) technologies along side history’s most famous leaders (such as Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi and Napoleon –but also a few new faces such as Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy)… all in an effort to achieve ultimate worldwide supremacy (before anyone else). It is a familiar formula for the franchise, but it is tried and true (and revered). The first installment in the Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution franchise was available for many platforms (including xBox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo DS) in 2008 with a release to iOS one year later in 2009. For those who still game on a PC (I imagine there are a few of you still out there), Civilization: Beyond Earth is set to launch later this year as well (promised as a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri).
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution 2 Coming to Android is a post from: Good e-Reader |
3M to Launch Next Gen Personalized Lending App at ALA
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"The 3M Cloud Library app still allows libraries to create custom shelves to promote content to patrons. However, now users can personalize which genres they browse on a regular basis, allowing them to quickly find new content they are interested in," said Tom Mercer, 3M Cloud Library Marketing Manager, in a press release. "The combination of both library and patron customization tools means we have the most flexible interface to create an intuitive and elegant experience for the library user. A great app experience creates happy patrons, which in turn means more circulation and more users for the library." Personalized lending experiences cannot come soon enough in a climate where libraries are struggling to remain relevant and to offer the same kind of user experience that patrons have come to expect in other industries. Of course, the real news is in the addition of a number of publishing partners, upping 3M’s catalog offering in order to help libraries provide their patrons with the content they want. These new partners include titles from Perseus Books Group, Penguin Random House‘s Spanish language books division, Encyclopaedia Britannnica, and several more. This addition increases 3M’s catalog of titles to over 300,000 ebooks. "3M Cloud Library continues to secure content from publishing partners offering the titles patrons are most excited about," said Mercer. "This quality-over-quantity approach helps libraries demonstrate the value of this powerful eReading tool." Good e-Reader will be on hand at the ALA conference to post features about the new projects and products that will be showcased at the event.
3M to Launch Next Gen Personalized Lending App at ALA is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Gets Girls Into IT With $50M “Made With Code” Investment
| As a woman working in the male-dominated IT industry, news that Google has launched a new initiative aimed to get young women excited about become software developers hits rather close to home. While it’s true that there are more women entering computer science-related fields every year, it is also the case that they are still the minority. In an effort to change that, Google’s new program will spend $50 million over the next 3 years to demonstrate how the things women love are “Made with Code.” Many partners in the community are already involved, including leaders like Chelsea Clinton and organizations like the MIT Media Lab and Girl Scouts of the USA. Unlike many educational programs that have talked -at- children, this one aims to provide the resources and projects meant to inspire and also engage (a few ready-to-try examples include: design a 3D bracelet and have it printed, create animated GIFs, or compose a soundtrack). Mentors already involved in the program are as fascinating as they are awe-inspiring, with examples like: Danced w/Code (Miral Kotb shows “the intersection of dance and code on Broadway”) Saved w/Code (Erica Kochi describes how “disease and injustice are no match for a simple mobile phone”), Animated w/Code (Danielle Feinberg shares “Lighting up the Pixar movies that light up the big screen”). While “Made with Code” has been designed with young women in mind, please consider taking the time to learn a little more about the program no matter your age or gender… it might surprise you to discover the ways that technology is changing the world around you (and also that it is being achieved by regular people no different from you and me).
Google Gets Girls Into IT With $50M “Made With Code” Investment is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Colorado Doctors Participate in Books for Patients Program
| As parents head to the doctor’s office to handle appointments over the summer break, they may be surprised to find a new kind of medicine waiting for them: books. Thanks to one program in Colorado, children who visit the pediatrician will not only have their sight, hearing, and general health checked, but will also be updated on the importance of reading, especially of reading with parents and as a family. Studies have demonstrated over and over the importance of introducing children to literacy as early as possible, as well as the benefits of establishing a daily reading habit. Coupled with the focused attention of parents and the quiet time of unplugging for a while to curl up with a book, and a program like this one stands to produce great strides in language development, literacy and reading comprehension, and an overall increase in reading for pleasure. The program, Reach Out and Read Colorado, makes books available to doctors’ offices to give to their patients. This initiative is aimed at children ages six months to five years, and provides reading material for families; more than just a book handout, doctors have taken the necessary steps to become educated in the benefits of quality reading time, and therefore have begun to make this “reading prescription” a part of a child’s well-checkup. According to the organization’s website, “Reach Out and Read Colorado is a 501(c)(3) that is part of the national Reach Out and Read program and is the statewide Coalition of Colorado's Reach Out and Read Sites. In 2014 Reach Out and Read Colorado will distribute more than 165,000 books to more than 90,000 children. Currently the program is administered at 230 clinics in 53 Colorado counties.” The project is welcoming donations of new and gently used books for distribution through its partnership with healthcare providers. A look at the group’s websites shows the connection with early reading exposure and lifelong benefits, including school readiness and academic success, and a link to significant research findings into childhood reading can be found on the site.
Colorado Doctors Participate in Books for Patients Program is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Turn Your Android Tablet into the Ultimate eReader
| One of the good things about Android is all of the choices for reading apps. There’s everything from ebook apps to news and rss apps, to digital magazine and newspaper and comic apps, there’s reading apps just for kids, enhanced ebook apps with videos and music, apps that read ebooks aloud. In fact there are […] |
Spain Cracks Down on Book Piracy
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Piracy, especially of ebooks and MP3s, has been a concern for rights holders for quite some time. The widespread sentiment seems to be one of, “There’s nothing that can be done, so don’t waste time and energy worrying about it.” An increasingly popular view which is held by authors like Hugh Howey is that piracy is actually good for sales of future titles; as readers learn about new authors and enjoy their works, the natural tendency is to support the author. One fallacy in the publishing industry is that artificial layers of protection like DRM encryption actually prevent piracy, but publishers like Tor have spoken out and stated that it is simply not true. At this year’s IDPF conference in May, Tor Books’ Tim Doherty actually made the case that offering their books DRM-free has actually had zero impact on both piracy and overall sales of their titles. As the police raid in Spain demonstrates, thieves will find a way. Among the property seized was more than 1,000 copied titles, and the investigation uncovered eight different sites in two cities alone where print book scanning was taking place. This copying of physical books into digital formats for resale through piracy websites is a clear indication that the crime is rampant, but also that “security blanket” measures like DRM-encryption only stop honest people from using their legally purchased ebooks in the way that they see fit and best suits their reading needs.
Spain Cracks Down on Book Piracy is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple Gives Away an eBook a Day
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This effort to highlight new literary talent is another in a line of book promotions, such as Apple’s 2013 initiative to offer a special spotlight on self-published books in its Breakout Books section of the iBookstore. For a company that is so widely known for its technology and app store, it has been quite supportive of the book market (all price fixing and artificial book price inflation aside, of course). In an article for The Bookseller, Lisa Campbell listed the titles, authors, and publishers to be included in the giveaway: “The promotion has kicked off today (23rd June) with Dawn O'Porter's debut YA novel Paper Aeroplanes (Hot Key Books) – a ‘touching’ portrayal of young girls trying to come to terms with grief – and The Bookseller understands tomorrow's promotion (24th June) will be Broken Dolls, a debut by James Carol (Faber) featuring Jefferson Winter, an ex-FBI psychological profiler assigned to help the Met out with their cold cases. The other titles included in the promotion will be Marius’ Mules: the Invasion of Gaul by SJA Turney, a self-published title, I’m Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti (Canongate), Soulmates by Holly Bourne (Usbourne), Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie (Simon & Schuster) and Wild by Cheryl Strayed (Atlantic Books).”
Apple Gives Away an eBook a Day is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Android on Kobo Aura HD is Buggy and Frustrating (Video)
| Last week I posted about a dual-boot hack for the Kobo Aura HD that lets you choose to run Android off a memory card or boot the stock Kobo operating system from the internal card. In theory dual-booting is a great thing to have on a Kobo eReader because it’s like having two devices in […] |
OverDrive in the Classroom Contest winners
| We wrapped up the OverDrive in the Classroom Contest at the end of May with tons of submissions! As a reminder, this contest was designed to help generate awareness of the benefits of the OverDrive and Teachers Notebook partnership to our school partners. Teachers Notebook provides teacher-created lesson plans, activities, educational games and more. With this contest, many shops entered products relating to titles available from OverDrive and some even made custom products specifically for the contest! We are happy to announce the winners of the OverDrive in the Classroom Contest! 
Grand Prize Winner  Rebecca Reid's Line upon Line Learning with Goldilocks and the Three Bears Lesson Plan for OverDrive video
Runners Up  ASeriesof3rdGradeEvents with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book Study & Activity Packet  Splash Publications with OverDrive Sarah, Plain and Tall Literature Guide-Common Core!
 Kathy Hutto with Charlottes Web Literature Guide and Lapbook You can see some of the materials Teachers Notebook shopkeepers created for use with your OverDrive digital collection here. While on the site, take a look at all the many great offerings from Teachers Notebook shopkeepers to help you with lesson planning for next school year!
Cassie Renner is a Marketing Specialist at OverDrive.
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