| The entire concept of a used eBook store will be determined on December 23rd 2014. This is the date that a Netherlands court will make its decision whether the publishers or online store Tom Kabinet is in the right. The future of used eBooks hangs in the balance of this upcoming judgement. The Amsterdam District Court ruled in July that Tom Kabinet can stay open for business during a legal battle against the Dutch Publishers Association. The publishers believe Tom Kabinet infringes on copyrights and they may have a point. Their own research points to 90% of all eBooks listed on TC are pirated and that criminals are reselling books they download from torrent websites. The big argument that Tom Kabinet is employing is a 2012 decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled in a dispute between Oracle and UsedSoft that the trading of "used" software licenses is legal and that the author of such software cannot oppose any resale. The entire European publishing industry is likely hyper aware of the upcoming judgement. If the court rules in favor of the website, it could start a boom period in which hundreds of companies spring up, offering used eBook sales. This might be beneficial to the publishing industry as a whole, since many mom and pop used bookstores have been closing at an accelerated rate in the last few years. The Future of Used eBooks will be Determined December 23rd is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
The Future of Used eBooks will be Determined December 23rd
Next Issue Raises $50 Million for Digital Magazine Service
| Next Issue Media has just raised $50 million dollars for their Netflix for magazine service that is being marketed in the US and Canada. The funding comes from investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and follows a string of massive funding announcements in the media/tech space, like BuzzFeed ($50 million), Reddit ($50 million), Vox ($46.5 million), Imgur ($40 million), Business Insider ($12 million), and Vice ($500 million). Currently Next Issue only has 150,000 paid digital subscribers in the US and Canada, but they have yet to achieve profitability. As Next Issue Media is not a public company, it does not have to share its financials and so one does not know what kind of shape the company is in. The fact they are actively courting funding leads me to believe their current business model might be unviable. Next Issue Raises $50 Million for Digital Magazine Service is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Advertisers still Wary of Digital Newspapers
| Consumers have started to embrace the idea of digital newspapers instead of print over the course of 2014. Advertisers have slowly started to gravitate towards promoting their brands on mobile and tablet Spending has grown in the United Kingdom 17.4% this year to £163 million, but analysts are speculating that it will only marginally increase by 8.1% next year. Digital advertising spending is a drop in the bucket compared to print. The top national newspapers are expected to garner £1.42 billion in 2015, a 1% year-on-year increase, according to a report by the Advertising Associations. Its not that UK advertisers are way of digital as a whole, its actually quite the opposite. The UK is predicted to become the first country in the world where more than half of all advertising spend goes to digital media. Group M, the worldwide media buying arm of the market services company WPP, has forecast that the total UK ad market will hit £15.7 billion in 2015. Within this online spend is forecast to grow 12.7% year-on-year to break the £8 billion mark, making the UK the first in which more than £1 in every £2 of ad spend will go on digital media. The conundrum that newspaper publishers face when trying to monetize their digital platforms is consistency. Advertisers looking to buy digital ad space from local publishers had to deal with them individually or in small groups, an inefficient process. In order to solve this issue some newspaper companies have pooled their resources together to save on marketing. Newscorp launched the News Corp Global Exchange in 2013, that brings together the ad space of 50 websites and mobile/tablet products including Times.co.uk, TheSun.co.uk, NYPost.com, TheAustralian.com.au, MarketWatch.com and News.com.au. The lack of a unified advertising network and sheer number of digital options available have jaded most advertisers. This has forced the Times and Telegraph to embrace the paywall option, that allows readers to check out a few articles a month and then pay a subscription to read beyond a certain threshold. Advertisers still Wary of Digital Newspapers is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Barnes and Noble Unveils Nook Trade in Program
| Barnes and Noble has just unveiled a new trade in program that will allow Nook owners to drop off their older devices at any bookstore and get a $30 credit towards the purchase of a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook. The trade in program is the first of its type and gives owners of the 1st generation Nook, Nook Color and Nook Tablet a viable upgrade path. As long as the devices are in working order and not totally broken, B&N will give you the credit. It is important to note they will not give you physical cash for your old device, but they will give you $30 off the 10.1 and 7 inch versions of the new Samsung 4 Nook tablets. This offer is only available from now until January 17, 2015. My advice, is if you do take advantage of this offer to delete all of the content on your device to insure none of your personal information will be accessible. All you need to do is hold the “Power” button for at least five seconds to power off it off. Hold the “Home” and “Power” buttons until the Nook Color powers on.Press the “Home” button when the Factory Reset dialog is displayed. Press the “Home” button to confirm the reset. The device reboots automatically after the restore is complete. Barnes and Noble Unveils Nook Trade in Program is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo Launches eBook access Program Targeting OEM
| 2014 has been a benchmark year in the e-reader industry, due to the rise of Android as being the preferred operating system. Barnes and Noble and Sony have always ran Android as the backbone of their devices, while everyone else tended to use Linux. The main problem with these two companies is that it was a locked down version of the OS and did not allow users to install their own apps. This year though, a number of companies such as Pocketbook, Onyx Boox, Icarus and Boyce have all released a slew of new devices running an open version of Android. This gives users the freedom not to be locked into any one specific ecosystem, but to have freedom to deal with whoever they choose. Kobo though, is not content to sit back and let readers decide who they want to buy eBooks from and instead is launching a new program offering a monetary incentive to these companies to have the Kobo app pre-installed. Kobo and e Ink are partnering up to target OEM companies who are running Android to have the Kobo app installed at the factory. Many e-readers over the years are sold with no digital bookstore and force users to download their own books from the internet (which encourages piracy) or find a compatible store and use Adobe Digital Editions to transfer the purchases to their device. Its all of these companies that e Ink and Kobo will be targeting. There is no definitive word on what type of incentives Kobo will be offering OEM companies to have their app loaded on their devices, but likely it will much akin to programs Kobo established at indie bookstores in the US and UK. Likely, the incentive program will have Kobo paying a small royalty for each book that is sold on their device. You can think of it as private affiliate program. Can this program work out? It depends on the exact role that e Ink will play in the discussions. When it comes to e-readers, most of these companies that brand the devices as their own, have no role in the manufacturing or firmware development. Instead, they source that all from Chinese OEM’s or Taiwanese companies like Netronix. This is why when we review a bunch of new devices that company X has released, each one looks really different and the user experience is not consistent. This is because its far easier just to buy everything from China and stick their own branding on it and market it as their own. Linux has been the most popular OS up until this point, because these Chinese companies could charge extra to customize it. Now that Android is proving to be the big trend in 2014/2015, Kobo is hoping to take advantage of it. Kobo Launches eBook access Program Targeting OEM is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kabam Readies Marvel Comics Mobile RPG for Fall 2015
| Gamers are already salivating over the upcoming Marvel: Contest of Champions, Marvel and Kabam are making more plans. This time it appears to be an RPG promising to feature a cast of our most beloved super-hero characters. Kabam COO Kent Wakeford had a few words to say about their relationship with Marvel:
Kabam is no stranger to working with big franchises. In addition to Marvel, the development house has a history creating beautiful visuals and audio for licenses like Lord of the Rings and The Hunger Games. Saying the new game is an RPG doesn’t tell us much, but usually it means something more reminiscent of traditional console-style gaming. It is also likely that the game will follow Kabam’s tradition of creating free-to-play games, which is good news for those of us who prefer to spend our money in-app instead of on the title itself.
Kabam Readies Marvel Comics Mobile RPG for Fall 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The best of the “Best Books of 2014″ lists
 It's that time of year again when we get flooded with best books lists. To save you time and energy, the Collection Team has compiled all of the “best books of the year” lists circulating in the media into one Marketplace list, so that you don't have to sift through each one. To find out which titles may have flown under your radar in 2014, click the Marketplace link and then filter by selecting "not in collection.” Our Collection Team will continually update the list as new best of 2014 articles are published so you won't miss a must-have title. Here are just a few hidden gems from the list that would make great additions to your digital collection:
Click here to view the full Marketplace link.
Michelle Ross is an MLIS Analyst at OverDrive.  |
PocketBook CAD Reader Flex has 13.3″ Flexible E Ink Screen
| PocketBook has announced what is essentially an updated version of an unreleased device called the PocketBook CAD Reader. The new version is called the PocketBook CAD Reader Flex, and as the name suggests it has a flexible screen and housing. It was exactly one year ago today when PocketBook first announced plans to develop the […] |
Kobo Now Listing eBook Formats Once Again
| When Kobo redesigned their website in 2013 to make it more tablet and mobile device friendly, they removed the section that specified what format the book was available in, along with customer reviews. Fortunately Kobo.com has finally started listing format type once again and if a title has DRM or not. Kobo is known for […] |
Addr eBook App for iOS Offers Advanced Annotation Support
| Addr is a new ebook reader app designed for the Apple iPad with a specialized focus on annotations. The app supports ePub ebooks without DRM and integrates with Dropbox for easy sharing and downloading. What makes Addr unique is the ability to add in context notes to the right margin alongside the text. Notes can […] |
Raspberry Pi Glove
| If you’re a keen follower of what we and the teachers we train get up to at Picademy, you might remember this little gem. (Not a lettuce. A video.) That Michael Jackson Tribute Glove (MJTG) was the work of Dan Aldred’s team (that’s Dan taking charge in the above video). When Picademy wrapped up, Dan said he’d go home and carry on developing the glove into something that was actually useful. Meet Project New York: the Social Media Pi Glove. Dan had a think about occasions when using a phone, tablet or computer just aren’t practical or safe – like when you’re driving the car. (I think he should also develop a version for when you’re in the bath.) And if you’re supremely lazy, perhaps getting your phone out of a pocket is a bit of a pest. Enter the glove. The Pi Glove can take pictures and tweet them. It can operate as a single-touch MP3 player. It speaks in a terrifying robot voice. (“CAMERA READY! SM-ILE!”) It scrapes timetable websites to tell you when your train is scheduled, what platform it’ll arrive on, and whether it’s late. It is altogether rather wonderful, and I’m sure you can think of a million other features Dan could add. Dan has made a build diary available, and knowing him, it’ll be surprising if he doesn’t continue to develop the Pi Glove. We’ll be keeping an eye on what he does next – thanks Dan! |
Pocketbook Unveils Flexible 13.3 inch e-Reader
| Pocketbook has slowly been refining their CAD Reader that is aimed at architects and people involved in creating renderings using software by Autodesk. Today, at an event in Las Vegas Pocketbook has unveiled their latest design that sets a benchmark for e-ink devices. The Pocketbook CAD now has an e-Ink Mobius display panel, which is the exact same one the Sony Digital Paper employs. The overall resolution of the 13.3 inch reader is 1600 X 1200, which will insure super high clarity to images and text. Underneath the hood is a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU which along with 512 MB of RAM. There is 8 GB of internal storage that is large enough to carry thousands of blueprints and design documents. What makes this e-reader flexible? Instead of using plastic or hybrid magnesium alloys it incorporates a rubber housing. It also has a poly-urethane surface that prevents accidental slipping. The Pocketbook Cad Flex looks quite different from the first generation prototype that was shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2013. I think Pocketbook attained a ton of feedback from Autodesk and design studios on what exactly was needed as a workplace extension while on various job sites. I think this is why they came up with a more lightweight design that was resistant to scuffs when carried in a bag full of sharp objects. I think Pocketbook is doing a tremendous job with the CAD Reader. The trend in the e-reader industry is just release a ton of products and hope for the best. This is the type of mentality that has flooded the marketplace with cheap products and jaded a number of people off of reading digitally entirely. Sony and Pocketbook are doing the smart play by aiming their devices at business professionals and putting enough time and effort into the hardware development. Pocketbook Unveils Flexible 13.3 inch e-Reader is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, December 1, 2014
Win a Free Amazon Fire HD6 and Kindle Basic Touch
| Amazon has released an entirely new portfolio of e-readers and tablets in the last few months and most of these devices are not yet available in most international markets. With the upcoming holiday season in full effect we want to do a giveaway of some of the review units. Today we are happy to announce that we will be doing a raffle style drawing on December 15th 2014 for the Amazon Fire HD6 and the Kindle Basic Touch 2014 model. Entering is really simply, you need to be subscribed to our YouTube channel and like the Video. Upon doing those two simply things just drop a comment on the video and let us know what one you want and why you want it! We will also pay the shipping no matter where you live in the world. Win a Free Amazon Fire HD6 and Kindle Basic Touch is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Macmillan’s Nature Publishing Group Makes Old Content Free
| Macmillan owns 48 different publications that are geared towards science under their Nature Publishing Group umbrella. The publisher has announced that they are now making all content freely available to read in their new online e-reader viewer. Nature launched in 1869 to provide the public with current scientific information and help scientists share their research. It's now the leading, most cited journal of its kind in the world. Nature keeps researchers and scientists up to date with the latest developments in their field and beyond. And nature.com gives 8 million visitors a month access to over 100 prestigious publications and services such as Naturejobs. Macmillan is using technology from ReadCube, a software platform similar to Apple's iTunes, will be used to host and display read-only versions of the articles’ PDFs. If the initiative becomes popular, it may also boost the prospects of the ReadCube platform, in which Macmillan has a majority investment. The program basically lets scientists and the public read the digital content as far back as 1869, while personal subscribers get access from 1997 on. The gambit is with all of this free content available it should hopefully get more paid subscribers. Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of Nature and the other Nature-branded journals, has said that Nature‘s internal costs of publishing run at £20,000–30,000 per paper, an extremely high charge. Annette Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan's Science and Education division, said that the publisher intends the policy as a pilot and will be evaluating it over the coming year. She says that she expects libraries and personal users to continue to subscribe to the journal, but also that scientists would embrace the new sharing model. Other science publishers, such as Wiley, use ReadCube to display preview versions of their papers, so it is possible that the same idea might spread to others. Macmillan's Nature Publishing Group Makes Old Content Free is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Bookeen Cybook Ocean Review
| Bookeen has been teasing the eight inch Cybook Ocean e-reader since last October. The company has experienced numerous setbacks over the course of the year and it has finally hit the market. This device does a solid job reading e-Books but falls short in almost every other department. The e-reader could have been really amazing, back in 2011, but 2014 standards have it being the worst of the year. Hardware The Cybook Ocean has an e-ink Pearl HD capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024×758. The overall clarity of the screen is fairly industry standard for a six inch device, but on a eight inch model things look a bit pixelated. One of the elements the Ocean has going for it, is that the screen is entirely flush with the bezel. This allows for a high degree of precision when it comes to turning pages in eBooks or pinching and zooming PDF files. Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ processor and 128 MB of RAM. I think the lack of RAM, is one of the things holding this device back. Many of the e-readers released in 2014 at least have 512. You will have around 4 GB of storage and you can elect to increase it further via the MicroSD. One of the big hardware flaws is that there is no SD port on the bottom of the device, instead you have to peel off a rear panel, exposing portions of the motherboard to insert it in. When it comes to reading, customers have two different options to turn a page. One is to take advantage of the touchscreen, which tends to have ghosting issues and makes the entire page refresh each page you turn. The other method is using the manual page turn keys that are on the bottom of the unit. They are baked into the bezel, much like the new Kindle Voyage handles them. On a hardware level, the Ocean has a very interesting design with lots of curves and it certainly stands out in a crowd. This is honestly the first touchscreen eight inch e-reader on the market and is being billed to give you more screen real estate to show more text and to make reading manga and comics more robust. Software The biggest trend in 2014 when it comes to e-readers has been the embracing of Google Android as the primarily operating system. Icarus, Onyx and Pocketbook have been leveraging the ability for users to install their own e-reading apps, for an unparalleled level of freedom. The Ocean runs Linux, which isn’t normally a problem, but does have a large amount of bugs. Lets talk about some of the bugs I noticed in the last few days of playing around with it. The first is the keyboard, it is totally unresponsive when it comes to typing and deleting characters. Each alphanumeric entry you make on the keyboard warrants a one second pause. This is essential because there is a small delay after each key is pressed. If you make a mistake, and have to delete a few characters you can’t just hold the delete key. Instead, you have to delete each character one by one, which is incontinent. Oh, there is also no internet browser on this unit at all, even though the box says it has one. There are a number of advantages though, this e-reader is not totally flawed. It does have over 20 supported languages and a ton of different dictionaries to look up words when reading an eBook. Each one has to be downloaded individually, to look up words you just have to long press a specific word. You can also establish the main UI to reflect whatever language you want, as Bookeen is based in Paris and wants to sell this all over Europe. E-Reading Experience The Ocean excels in reading eBooks in EPUB and PDF files, but you have to do certain things to insure the best reading experience. I would recommend never to use the touchscreen, instead rely on the page turn buttons. This will prevent ghosting and full page refreshing. The main UI of the Ocean lists the book you have opened recently, as well as your progression. It also has an interactive carousel that lists all of the books in your library, showing the cover art. If you click on a book it instantly opens. Alternatively you can open up the library function and view all of your books. You can elect to display the cover art, or go for the traditional list view. Readers who have a super large library can easily use the search function or sort by author. When you are reading a book, this is where things are great. The large eight inch display shows more text on the screen than the Kindle Voyage or the Kobo H2O. You can augment the size of the font, but you have to click the home button and then the text button and a bunch of options appear. There are eight different font choices and a TON of customization to adjust the font size. Additionally, you can also set the margains and line spacing to your suitable levels. One feature that I found that was entirely unique to e-ink enabled devices was the nighttime reading mode. Many smartphone and tablet apps all have the ability to get rid of the white background and black text to make your eyes strain less in complete darkness. The Ocean has this mode too, which combined with the front-lit display will make it super easy to read for hours at a time. One bug I noticed was when you used the touchscreen to turn a page in this mode would suddenly turn the background white and text black and then after the refresh mode was over, bring it back. I found this super discombobulating, and found that when you use the page turn button, this error does not occur. PDF Viewing is a solid experience on the Ocean, you can pinch and zoom and get a particular frame or image showing up correctly. You can help orientate yourself on exactly where you are in the document with the preview pane on the top right hand corner. There is also a “reflow” mode, which will strip away all of the images and CSS elements, giving you more of an eBook experience. Depending on the extensiveness of the PDF file you are viewing, reflow can be hit or miss. Wrap Up I have been waiting for the Cybook Ocean e-reader to come out for over a year. The final product makes me weep silently on what could have been. On paper, this e-reader should rule. A big vibrant screen, it looks really nice and Bookeen has a storied history in this space. With a number of firmware updates this e-reader could likely solve all of my biggest problems, since its out right now and people are wondering if they should buy it, I would recommend avoid at all costs. PROS Large 8 inch screen CONS Rating 3.5/10 Bookeen Cybook Ocean Review is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digital Newspaper Consumption Reaches Record Highs
| US newspaper digital adoption has hit new peaks this year as more adults have been embracing paid content. This October, roughly 166 million adults accessed newspaper content on digital platforms, such as replica editions and dedicated apps. This equated to a 17% increase over the previous year. The key growth area in digital newspaper consumption is directly attributed to the refinement of mobile and tablet apps. Accessing newspapers on a mobile device has seen an increase of 85% year-on-year during October. This figure should increase further as many media outlets have developed sophisticated app strategies to scale the audience. We are seeing to see a departure from the paywall strategy that the New York Times pioneered a few years ago and many properties all over the world have been embracing. The problem with paywalls is that it is primarily relevant when accessing the website from a PC and not indicative to a cohesive mobile strategy. Overall, publishers are scrambling to make more money off of digital readers either through paid online strategies or newer advertising mediums like native and branded content. There are a number of companies that are seeing a massive amount of success in the digital space that have non-conventional business models. Vancouver based Pressreader has been a major player in replica editions and offer access to thousands of internal papers for a low monthly fee. Instead of subscribing to one, you can subscribe to as many as you want, which certainly appeals to ex-pats or business executives traveling and don’t have access to their local paper under conventional means. Another company seeing success is Netherlands based Blendle, who recently attained three million dollars from the NY Times and and German media giant Axel Springer. The company launched in 2013 and has been billing themselves as the iTunes of news. This has been a hot topic for quite a few years already, and this pay-for-what-you-read model is a huge step forward. The Blendle service has attracted over 130,000 registered users in just over a year, by partnering up with hundreds of news agencies and pay them a percentage of every article that is read. Each news item price is established by the publisher, so the pricing is not consistent, but everything is really cheap. Digital Newspaper Consumption Reaches Record Highs is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo has No Plans for Audiobooks, Yet..
| There has been swirling rumors and speculation today about Kobo getting involved in the audiobook space. This was primarily due to a number of placeholder entries in their digital bookstore that had meta data that alluded to HarperCollins Audio. Kobo has confirmed to Good e-Reader today that they have no plans currently to enter the audiobook space. The fact that some books had no cover art and mentioned Harper Audio was due to bad metadata that was sourced by HarperCollins on a number of new eBooks. Kobo has told me that they were unaware of this data issue until Good e-Reader brought it to their attention. The company said tat this error is being solved internally within the next few weeks by the development team. I think audiobooks is the only missing piece to the global content offerings that Kobo currently sells. The rise of audio publishing is directly proportionate to the rise of digital distribution. In 2007 a paltry 3,073 titles were available and rose exponentially to over 20,000 published titles in 2013. The entire industry is said to be worth over two billion dollars, which is a huge jump from $480 million in retail sales in 1997. Kobo has No Plans for Audiobooks, Yet.. is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Awesome Aussie list
 Ever since I watched Crocodile Dundee as a child, I have been fascinated with Australia. The more I learn about the country, the more I grow to love it – especially the literature. My first Australian novel was The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough. It is an epic family saga that you just can't put down. Other fantastic Australian titles include: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, and The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. Add some awesome Aussie lit to your collection with these Marketplace lists: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award Australia's Favorite Novelists Australian YA  |
Cyber Monday Deals for eBooks and Tablets
| Cyber Monday is upon us and there are a number of ebooks on sale today, along with a few good deals on tablets. Unfortunately there’s not really any ebook readers on sale for Cyber Monday. Just the same $99 Kobo Aura deal that’s carrying over from Black Friday. Amazon has even stopped most of their […] |
iData Truck: an Internet of Things lorry
| Andy Proctor drives a container delivery truck. He’s embedded a Raspberry Pi in the dashboard and turned the truck into an IoT device – saving time on updating his office on his movements, and learning Python and some electronics at the same time. Andy says on his blog:
Andy explains how everything works in this video. We asked him on Twitter whether code and schematics are available: he said not yet, but he is planning on building a new website soon to host them. Andy, if you’re ever in Cambridge with your truck, please let us know. We’d love to have a closer look! In the meantime, we’re going to be watching Andy’s truck’s progress via its Twitter feed, which publicly tweets every event that it logs. |
