| You may already be familiar with LibreOffice, known for being an incredibly popular open source office application (available for Windows, Mac, and Linux). The good news, is the developers at Collabora are making the move to Android –beginning with a beta version of their LibreOffice Viewer. They warn that it’s not stable (and therefore not recommended for mission critical tasks), but they are also welcoming of all feedback and bug reports in an effort to make this app as successful as possible. Easily capable of becoming a go-to app, LibreOffice Viewer can handle nearly any document type that is thrown at it:
Functionality is pretty basic at this point, but future releases (available weekly) promise to work with URLs and accessing external SD storage. Ready to try an alternative for reading documents on your Android devices? Download LibreOffice Viewer Beta for free now!
LibreOffice Viewer for Android Reads Nearly Any Document Type is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, January 23, 2015
LibreOffice Viewer for Android Reads Nearly Any Document Type
Need for Digital News Drives Users towards Dedicated Platforms
| Internet news devotees have had to become very selective about the articles they read due to the abundance of available content, which has led many to adopt dedicated digital platforms that only display news from sources they choose. Apps like PressReader and Newsbeat have stepped up to fill the gap, and offer customizable options for current news, including region-specific content and categorical selection. Digital newspapers and magazines have also grown in popularity, possibly in relation to the unreliable options flooding social media; OverDrive reported on its growth of digital content yesterday, citing the convenience of access to news through public library portals as a chief patron service. One platform in particular, Press Reader, released a new video that explains its all-you-can-read digital news model, as well as its emergence as a leading provider of digital newspapers and magazines to the all-important library sector. Press Reader bills itself to users as a premium content provider, meaning its not the same old headlines that are available scattered across news blogs. This has helped the crucial lending market make a trusted choice in subscribing for their patrons to access digital content. Need for Digital News Drives Users towards Dedicated Platforms is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Story2Go SelfPub Children’s eBook Creator App
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But as startups began to recognize the self-publishing and digital platform spheres were overloaded with options for authors, a few other companies began quietly meeting the needs that other companies had overlooked. One such market was the image-heavy ebook space, where books had to be converted into apps for consumption in various operating system-specific app stores rather than sold through e-reading sites like Amazon or B&N. Story2Go, first interviewed by Good e-Reader at Frankfurt Book Fair in 2013, launched at the time with an inexpensive iOS app that allowed authors and creators to essentially build their ebooks with simple drag-and-drop and uploading features, then rely on the bigger guns to actually distribute the book to a variety of app stores. While the process of creating the file isn’t entirely intuitive–this is no “Children’s eBooks for Dummies” level of process–there are clear-cut instructions at each step of the way to help authors along. For a limited time, the Story2Go app is free in the Apple App Store, and despite the time that the company has producing and distributing books on behalf of authors, the price to distribute is still only a one-time $99 fee for the first platform, and $149 for multiple app stores.
Story2Go SelfPub Children’s eBook Creator App is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Looking for some Good Manga to Read?
| Book Walker, one of the largest digital bookstores for IOS, android, and PC, owned by Kadokawa, announced today it’s sales ranking of 2014 for 10 categories. They are based on the sales made between December 1, 2013 and November 30th, 2014 from it’s 151,000 titles. This year the Book Walker award goes to the top selling digital book of 2014 to Mamare Touno’s fantasy adventure series Log Horizon. The series follows Shiroe, a socially awkward gamer and his friends Naotsugu and Akatsuki trapped in an MMORPG with thirty thousand other players that were trapped in the game after an expansion pack gone wrong. Donning their in game avatars, they must face the game world which has now become their reality, while facing challenges and obstacles. Largely the success of Log Horizon is thanks to the fact it’s digital edition is only excursively available to Book Walker and had the two anime adaptions airing at the same time. Other winners include; No Game No Life "Sora and Shiro are two hikikomori step-siblings who are known in the online gaming world as blank who remains as an undefeated group. One day they are challenged to a game of chess by Tet, a god from another reality. Winning the game, they are offered to live in a world that revolves around games, accepting the prize as a joke, they find themselves in a reality called Disboard." Again My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong" "This story follows loners, Hachiman Hikigaya and the beautiful Yukino Yukinoshita, who despite their varying personalities and ideals offer help and advice to others as part of their school’s service club." Arpeggio of Blue Steel “By 2039, global warming had cause sea levels to rise and large amount of territory to be lost. A group of warships clad in mist appear in every corner of the ocean and begin attacking himan ships. Seven years later, a humanoid life form that pilots a sub appears before Gunzo Chihaya and offers her assistants to man kind.” Appraisal Case Files of the Omnicompetent Q "Featuring the heroine Riko Rinda, an appraiser with an incomparable gift for instantly seeing through all mitigating facts and circumstances to the true value and essence of whatever is presented to her for assessment." Invaders of the Six-Tatami Mat Room?! "Kōtarō Satomi decided to live on his own at the beginning of his high school life and chose Room 106 of Corona House due to cheap rent. Unfortunately Kōtarō soon discovers that numerous other supernatual girls also want his room for various reasons and aren’t willing to back down. As a result, Kōtarō and the girls find themselves forced to live together as they try to settle who will end up with the room. " Knights of Sidonia "The story follows Nagate, a low-born youth in a society of genetically engineered humans, refugees that escaped the destruction of Earth one thousand years earlier and now occupy the massive ship Sidonia. When Nagate’s talent as a pilot is revealed he becomes one of Sidonia’s elite defenders against the Gauna, shapeshifting aliens bent on eliminating humans from existence." Tokyo Ghoul Remastered "Strange murders are happening in Tokyo. Due to liquid evidence at the scene, police conclude the attacks are result of of ‘eater’ type ghouls. Friends, Kaneki and Hide come up with the idea that ghouls are imitating humans so thats why they have never seen one. Little did they know that their theory will become a reality." Okitegami Kyoko no Bobiroku "This story follows a detective named Kyōko Okitegam who is also known as the forgetful detective. She forgets everything in a day but can solve cases the same day. An unlucky yung man named Yakusuke Kakushidate somehow ends up as the suspect in every caseand he always asks for the detective for help. Looking for some Good Manga to Read? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
There will be 700 Million Pirated e-Books in 2018
| Many publishers often think their current Digital Rights Management solutions are enough to combat e-book piracy. This is why the vast majority end up using Digital Watermarks or Adobe DRM in order to make it hard to upload material you have purchased to file sharing websites. Rightscorp, likely the biggest anti-piracy player in movies, music and television shows told Good e-Reader that “we estimate that there were 500 million e-Books distributed in the United States on peer-to-peer networks in 2013 and this will grow to 700 million by 2018.” Rightscorp has developed digital loss prevention technology that tracks copyright infringement and ensures that owners and creators are rightfully paid for their IP. They developed extensive tracking analytics that allows them to see what content is being distributed through Bittorrent and file sharing sites and then goes after the people involved. In April 2014 they made the company decision to market their services to the publishing industry and actively go after eBook pirates. Business is booming for Rightscorp right now. The company has just announced that it has closed over 170,000 cases of copyright infringement to date, up 40,000 since November 2014, representing an approximate 30% growth within a 2 month period. They have received settlement payments from subscribers of more than 200 ISPs and has approval to collect on over 1.5 million copyrights. We are firing on all cylinders and have been able to consistently generate growth on many of our operational metrics,” said Christopher Sabec, CEO of Rightscorp. “The latest count includes more than 1,000 cases closed on the Comcast and Google Fiber networks, which control the largest markets in the U.S. It seems clear that the entire industry is now beginning to recognize our solution as the most effective in preserving the rights of copyright holders – artists and content owners. We will continue to work hard to protect those who create and own intellectual property.” Overall, the publishing industry is not really concerned with eBook piracy. Many of the top companies such as HarperCollins, Hachette, S&S and Penguin have told me that piracy is a minor blip on the radar and does not hamper sales to any discernible degree. They all admit it is an extreme minority of tech savvy individuals and statistically people who pirate eBooks tend to be the biggest purchasers of digital content. There has even been some notable authors such as Tim Ferris that harnessed the power of Bitorrent to promote his book, the 4 Hour Chef. He recently said "Torrent conversion is NUTS. Of 210,000 downloads earlier this week, more than 85,000 clicked through "Support the Author" to the book's Amazon page. We all had to triple and quadruple check that to believe it. Sales of eBooks reached $3 billion at the end of 2012, up from $68 million in 2008 according to a recent article posted onYahoo! Finance. The article also cited that Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon, said that "Kindle owners buy more books now than they did before they owned an e-Reader". PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates "consumer eBooks will drive $8.2 billion in sales by 2017, surpassing projected print book sales, which it thinks will shrink by more than half during that period." Rightscorp has not seen the traction in the e-Book space as they have with other media. The company has told me that “While Rightscorp has closed some cases with e-Books, we do not yet have large catalogs of e-Books like we have with movies, television and music.” This goes to show that publishers believe in the power of DRM to such a large degree that they don’t really care to go after e-book pirates at this stage in the game. They are more concerned with Amazon having too much power in e-book sales and distribution and trying to find alternative avenues to generate revenue, such as e-Book subscription websites like Scribd and Oyster. There will be 700 Million Pirated e-Books in 2018 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
“Zuckerbook” review: The End of Power
| Mark Zuckerberg is a visionary in many things, always looking to the next hot trend to get all of us addicted to, which is why he made such news two weeks ago when he announced his newest venture: reading. His Facebook group A Year of Books will announce a new book to read every two weeks, then provide an open forum for discussion, even bringing in the author for live Facebook Q & As when possible. This is ambitious for Zuckerberg, as he has chosen to concentrate on books that foster thought and learning, especially about ideas and peoples with which many may not be familiar. Also, this should be a great way for all of us to learn some new things and become a New Year's reading resolution. As a lover of all kinds of challenges, I will be reading along with the A Year of Books list (in my head, I have dubbed them "Zuckerbooks"), and keeping all of you informed as I go! So join me as we start on this year's book journey. For the first entry of the year, Zuckerberg chose The End of Power by Moisés Naím, former executive director of the World Bank, Venezula's Minister of Trade and Industry, and editor of Foreign Policy. Naím currently is a Distinguished Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, along with writing columns for many different publications. Needless to say, when it comes to international relations/politics and economics, the guy really knows what he is talking about. I confess, this was not a book that I would have picked up on my own. While I did minor in Political Science when I was in undergrad, I have not read a good poli-sci book in quite some time, so I was a bit intimidated. Imagine my surprise when I found Naím's text to be not only interesting, but incredibly readable as well! The chapters all ended with a bit of a "cliffhanger," causing the reader to need to keep moving. Every time I finished chapter, I was shocked at how quickly it had come, as he really is a master of pace. Naím really did his homework on this one, and he harkens back centuries and across the globe to build his argument: power is more decentralized than ever, and this change has both good and bad consequences. His premise is well thought out and well-articulated, and really does give the reader a great deal to think about, or in my case, a great deal to bring up in almost every conversation I have with friends, family, and coworkers, to the point where I wonder if they will stop talking to me soon… This book club starts strong and shows that Zuckerberg is out to broaden our reading, our discussion, and our outlook on the world. Whether or not you agree with Naím's ideas of the power revolution due to "The More," "The Mobility," and "The Mentality" of current society, you cannot help but be drawn in to his strong writing and his passion for his arguments. Meghan Volchko is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive and is looking forward to adding lots of good wrinkles to her brain over the next year. |
Thirty-five Pixels, powered by Raspberry Pi
| Creative Director and Interactive Developer Michael Newman was tapped by UCLA Extension to design their 2015 winter course catalog cover. To accompany his work, he also designed, developed, and built a Raspberry Pi-powered interactive installation called Thirty-five Pixels which is currently on display at UCLA Extension’s 1010 Westwood building through the 2015 Winter Quarter.  Michael Newman along with his installation Thirty-five Pixels in situ. Although it uses a single 50″ LCD HDTV mounted vertically, the masking on the piece gives the effect of a 7 by 5 matrix of individual circular displays. On the inspiration for the design, Michael says:
Thirty-five Pixels runs on a Raspberry Pi Model B+ and uses a camera module for motion detection and image capture. The piece is also Internet-connected so that users all over the world can interact with it and control what it displays. It can pull content from Twitter, Instagram, and other media such as past course catalog covers. You can try out the remote interface here and also watch a camera’s view of the piece to see how you have an effect on it. Michael wrote about Thirty-five Pixels on his portfolio site, which I encourage you to look at for technical details and for some of his other fantastic work. |
Kindle for PC Now Available in Japan
| Amazon launched their Japanese e-Book store in 2012 and in order to read e-books, manga or comic books you basically needed to use the dedicated Kindle app for Android or iOS. Now users have another option, Kindle for PC has officially launched in Japan. The premise of Kindle for PC is to keep your content synchronized across multiple devices. It also allows for a ton of versatility for Japanese text and displays anything you would buy from the Amazon digital bookstore. All of your purchases will be able to be viewed in both landscape and portrait mode. Customization options include changing the background color, font size, font type and access the dictionary. Amazon launched the Kindle Cloud Reader in Japan last September, this is their online based HTML5 e-reading app. It was fairly limiting, because it was relegated to only reading novels, not magazines, newspapers or manga. The debut of Kindle for PC comes at an opportune time for Amazon. Earlier in the month the company launched Kindle Free Manga Magazine. This is a platform that has a revolving pool of single issues and magazines, all available for free. The initial lineup includes the recent issue of Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine, as well as Manga Action, Comic Ran Twins, Comic Zero-Sum, Manga Box service, and Square Enix's Hobo Gekkan Otameshi Gangan. Kindle for PC Now Available in Japan is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Haikyuu!! Itadaki Project 2015 Underway
| Haruichi Furudate's high energy volleyball manga, Haikyuu!!, has already been slated for a second season. Fans of the show weren't surprised to hear this at all, given the show's popularity when it aired last April. But while waiting for a release date of the second season, Haikyuu!! fans will be happily tided over by the news of a compilation film. The film is part of the Haikyuu!! Itadaki Project 2015. Production I.G, the company who animated Haikyuu!!'s first season, have released a slew of information concerning the volleyball boys. As well as the second season of the anime and the compilation film, there is to be a summer event. Considering that the second season will most likely air in July, the summer event could be something celebrating the return of the anime. Production I.G also promises more announcements are on the way. The compilation film will consist of the first season of Haikyuu!! condensed into a series overview lasting about two hours. Although nothing has yet been confirmed, anime compilation films usually contain additional pieces of animation, often made in a higher quality than the animation designed for TV. Even the prospect of new animation alone is enough to entice viewers, but with the second season on the horizon, watching the film will be a great way to catch up on the series and remind yourself of everything you've missed. Sports anime has been one of the fastest growing genres over the last three years, and it seems Production I.G is looking to milk it for all it's worth. The company already produces another popular sports anime, Kuroko no Basuke. It's no surprise they would want to bring focus on Haikyuu!!, a manga that has sold over two million volumes. As for fans of the Karasuno High Volleyball Club, we're simply excited to see what else the Haikyuu!! Itadaki Project 2015 will contain. Haikyuu!! Itadaki Project 2015 Underway is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Virgin Hotel Chain Caters to Female Business Travelers
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Some critics of Virgin Group Ltd., the chain of entertainment and service industry offerings owned by billionaire Richard Branson, have scoffed at the corporation’s latest attempt to win over a key demographic with its new hospitality chain, Virgin Hotels. The luxury hotel chain is making a concerted effort to meet the needs of the growing numbers of female business travelers, but it’s not just makeup mirrors and smooth legs. One key feature of this hotel chain is a divided room that allows the guest to accept deliveries like room service or luggage service through the main room door, while staying locked behind a second door with a peep hole. Corridor lighting has been enhanced to ensure that there are no dark corners for someone to lurk in. Of course, there are the less intimidating amenities like larger closets to accommodate business travelers’ suits and dresses, helping to ensure that the purpose of the trip comes off as stylishly as possible. While some news sources have openly stated that female guests have no need of these extra features because “they’ve done okay without leg-shaving benches thus far,” Virgin’s founder sees it a little differently, considering the numbers of women who travel for business, not just for vacation. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Virgin determined early on that appealing to female business travelers was part of that approach. Company executives cited a 2011 report from the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University that highlighted the market opportunity: While females accounted for only a quarter of business travelers in 1991, they now comprise about half.” It may seem gimmicky to some, but in a crowded hospitality industry, hotel chains are working overtime to meet the needs of guests in a way that make them stand out. Anyone can offer a bed, a bath, and a bagel in the lobby each morning, but companies are actively working to provide features that make travelers choose their accommodations based on features like wifi that remembers you from your last visit, free digital newspapers and magazines through apps like PressReader, the ability to read the news from “back home” while traveling, and more.
New Virgin Hotel Chain Caters to Female Business Travelers is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle Textbook Creator Launches
| Today Amazon announced the release of a new digital textbook creator tool for educators and authors to easily create digital textbooks, called eTextbooks, and other educational content to promote and sell on the Kindle Store. The new program is called KDP EDU. It’s a new division to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform. KDP EDU is […] |
Amazon Textbook Creator Could Be the Khan Academy of Textbooks
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Just as Khan Academy and the advent of online video uploads brought a whole new realm of instruction to the internet and classrooms alike, the ability to build, sell, and market something that looks like a textbook but behaves like any other title in the Amazon Kindle store–except for the very obvious difference, you can’t read it on a Kindle–renews the coup of self-publishing for a whole new demographic of content creators. According to an article by Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch, “Kindle Textbook Creator seems designed for speed, and for working with the legacy textbook publishing industry, as opposed to iBooks Author which is more designed to help educators build digital-native experiences from scratch. Books built with Amazon's new tool offer multi-color highlighting for students, as well as built-in notebooks, flashcards for review, dictionaries, and of course multi-platform support, in addition to translating the PDF version of their document into something that works on any reader.” Currently in a rudimentary format, Amazon has already stated new features will be rolled out as they become available. What also remains to be seen is how the possibility for professional academic publishing can evolve with a tool like this one, considering the intense pressure some universities place on their faculty to publish. As self-published fiction authors have discovered, what may be lost in prestige can be more than made up for in dollars.
Amazon Textbook Creator Could Be the Khan Academy of Textbooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
2014 saw widespread growth in K-12 market for eBooks and digital content
| 2014 was a great year, and we’re excited to see what 2015 will bring! This past year, we experienced a record number of new K-12 partnerships in the U.S. and abroad. As of January 1, 2015, nearly 12,000 schools and districts have incorporated the OverDrive service into their curriculum and library plans, a 50% increase over the same time last year. We now works with K-12 partners in 38 countries, with 10 countries added to our global network in 2014. Our school eBook catalog has also reached record size, with 24% growth over the last year, adding more than 100,000 new titles and bringing the total digital catalog available to schools to more than 2 million titles. Audiobook availability has increased 15%, with more than 5,500 new titles available to our school partners. Notable additions to the catalog in 2014 included Pearson eTextbooks, Macmillan, and classic eBooks from Dr. Seuss. In addition, the 2014 acquisition of Teacher's Notebook has given our K-12 partners access to teacher-created curriculum materials from more than 500,000 educators. In 2014, OverDrive also introduced Narrated eBooks, a feature that provides a single eBook file synchronized with audio. Publishers supplied hundreds of popular children's titles in this new format, which are now available for schools and libraries. Students and educators are accessing OverDrive-powered websites and engaging with the school's digital content more than ever before. The number of new visitors to these websites grew 234% to 2 million year-over-year. The school digital content websites had 6.26 million visits in 2014, an increase of 276% over the previous year. Are you at FETC? If so, stop by and visit us at booth #336 to see demonstrations including fixed-layout titles and narrated eBooks, and learn more about what we have in store this year. |
NEW! eHighlights catalog moves to a new location
| Thank you for following our various eHighlights catalogs on this blog. To make it easier to review title selections, we have created a new Catalogs page to better feature our new, noteworthy, and hot titles each month. Along with our Recommended Lists page, the Catalogs page is intended as a landing place to help you more easily access the titles you really need to know about without spending a large amount of time combing through OverDrive's huge selection of titles in Marketplace. Each of these books, audiobooks, and videos are hand selected by our team of Collection Development librarians. Think of eHighlights as an easy way to make sure you'r not missing titles you should really have in your collection. As always, the titles have been saved into Marketplace carts for your convenience, or you can click directly on a title to go to its Marketplace listing. Happy New Year, and please let us know if you have any suggestions for improvement. Click here to go directly to the first catalog: eHighlights January 2015 Adult Edition The Kids & Teens Edition will be coming soon, and will be followed by a Video Edition, which we will produce every other month. |
OverDrive Announces Growth in K12 Market
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OverDrive, one of the world’s leading providers of digital content to public and academic libraries, released news yesterday of record growth of its ebook catalog. “As of January 1, 2015, nearly 12,000 schools and districts have incorporated the OverDrive service into their curriculum and library plans, a 50% increase over the same time last year. OverDrive now works with K-12 partners in 38 countries, with 10 countries added to their global network in 2014.” eBook adoption in school libraries stands to result in a significant savings for both public and private centers’ budgets, given the typically lower cost of titles and the elimination of damaged copies. One of the chief complaints in school adoption of digital titles, though, has been lack of content from publishers, a factor that OverDrive has worked hard to eliminate. “OverDrive's school eBook catalog has also reached record size, with 24% growth over the last year, adding more than 100,000 new titles and bringing the total digital catalog available to schools to more than 2 million titles. Audiobook availability has increased 15%, with more than 5,500 new titles available to school partners through OverDrive…In addition, the 2014 acquisition of Teacher's Notebook has given K-12 partners access to teacher-created curriculum materials from more than 500,000 educators. One of the most exciting parts of the announcement is the seamless incorporation of audio narration with digital titles, a factor that has been proven to increase not only comprehension and reading levels in students who utilize it, but also to play a key role in fostering reading self-selected texts for pleasure. “In 2014, OverDrive also introduced Narrated eBooks, a feature that provides a single eBook file synchronized with audio. Publishers supplied hundreds of popular children's titles in this new format, which are now available for schools and libraries.” With a 234% increase in new visitors to the OverDrive site (over 2 million year-over-year), and 6.26 million visits to the school digital content website in 2014 alone (an increase of 276% over the previous year), K12 academic libraries are finally making solid headway into digital adoption.
OverDrive Announces Growth in K12 Market is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Flotilla
| Liz: Here’s a guest post from our friend Paul at Pimoroni, who has a really exciting Kickstarter to share. You know Paul’s work already: he designed the Raspberry Pi logo, and he’s the brain behind the ridiculously successful Pibow case. Over to Paul!
When I was in nursery school, our class had a BBC Micro. One day, it was my turn to play. I’d been ‘painting’, and being young and uneducated, didn’t wash my hands before using the computer, and got paint smears all over this shiny beige machine. I got shouted at by the teacher a lot and didn’t get to play. Protecting the shiny new machine was more important than learning. This is why I love Raspberry Pi. It’s a computer you can be rough and experimental with. If it breaks, it’s replaceable, unlike an expensive iPad or laptop. Learning is more important than the thing you’re learning on. But this attitude of fear and reticence still prevails. We still see a lot of doubt, and a “that’s not for me” feeling when it comes to tinkering and plugging things into circuit boards. As much as we love playing with breakout boards, and the geekery involved, the friction that goes with it can easily turn a 10 minute job into an hour. Digging out wires, reading datasheets, and finding three blog posts with different libraries in various states of undress; we think these are unnecessary distractions. So, being Pimoroni, we had a lightbulb moment and decided to fix a bunch of issues at the same time. A year later, Flotilla was born; making all these frustrations a thing of the past. Flotilla is a system of smart, affordable breakout boards backed by great software that lets you easily use them on the Raspberry Pi. The idea is that you can just break out a Pi, pop in a Raspbian SD card with the Flotilla software installed, plug in the Dock then start playing and learning without knowing much of anything beforehand. The first level is Cookbook. You plug widgets into the Dock. Cookbook suggests recipes that involve those pieces. So plug in a Light-sensor, a Barometer, and Cookbook might suggest you build a weather station or a Digi-pet. The next step is Rockpool. A simple app-like interface for defining rules. So you can say “If the temperature is high, turn a motor with a fan on”. It’s impossible to get wrong, and can be used without typing. You can build surprisingly complex projects; such as line-following robots, musical devices and games. The Pi can also act as a WiFi Access point and web server. This lets you connect to Flotilla from your tablet, phone or laptop, and control Cookbook and Rockpool from a web-browser. Great if you’re running your Pi from a battery. On a robot, say. :-) After that, you’re into the world of Scratch and Python. We'll be providing lovely Flotilla libraries to get you started. The whole idea is top-down learning. People start by having fun, and doing and discovering what interests them. If they like it, they can delve further into how things work. Clive says it best in the video. It’s "learning by stealth". We’re pretty sure Flotilla is the first fully-fledged plug-and-play digital tinkering kit. We’re also sure that the Raspberry Pi is the right place for it. The easier it is for everyone to start learning, and being comfortable with computers and electronics, the more time scientists and engineers have to make spaceships, instead of a better coffee-maker, or pet-feeder. We’re on Kickstarter now, and would love you to support Flotilla so we can turn it into something everyone can use, in schools, at home, in the lab, and contribute too :D - Paul & Jon & the Pirate Crew. |
Google to Become a Wireless Carrier
| If you buy a new smartphone from Google Play in the near future, you will be able to use Google as your new wireless carrier. The company has just ironed out agreements with Sprint and T-Mobile to sell voice and data plans directly to consumers. Google has been experimenting with internet access with its Fiber program in a very limited capacity and via their Loon project sought to provide free WIFI access in remote places. This new endeavor is positioning Google to become a top tier wireless carrier in the US. Currently, there are four major carriers in the United States: T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon, and while T-Mobile has made efforts to shake up the wireless industry with its Un-Carrier initiatives, wireless service in the United States remains much pricier than in other countries, with subscribers getting less data for more money. The thought behind the Google branded service is to be able to directly bundle their data enabled phones at a discounted rate if you buy them from Google Play. Google will not actually be competing against these big players but has engaged in a licensing program. They will be quite similar to other players in this sector, including Boost Mobile, FreedomPop, and Straight Talk. The Wall Street Journal has verified this rumor, writing “Google hinted at its wireless ambitions in a letter to the FCC last week, which said higher-frequency spectrum might be used for ‘the next generation of unlicensed broadband services,’ including complements to Wi-Fi networks, ‘or entirely new technologies and innovations.’ ” It remains to be seen how the Google wireless plans unfold in the real world. We don’t have an actual date or in what capacity users will be able to signup. It looks dubious if Apple will include them as a carrier option to opt into for unlocked iPads and iPhones. Many industry experts seem to agree that the best strategy is to sign up customers who buy Google branded devices, such as the Nexus Phone or Nexus tablet for data. Google to Become a Wireless Carrier is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Nominees for Manga Taisho Award Announced
| If you are looking for a great new read, but don’t know where to start, the Manga Taisho Aware shortlist has been announced. There are 14 nominations in total, meaning competition will be tight. But what sets this award apart from others is that the voting comes in from bookstore workers, the people who really know what is hot and selling. Manga Taisho has been awarded every year since 2008 to a new manga. The parameters set are 1: the manga must have been published in the last year or earlier, and 2: it must have eight volumes or less published. Because the winner is chosen by bookstore workers, it allows for a lot more freedom of opinion. Winners are most often the more popular choice, instead of whatever looks artsy for critics. Thus, people are probably going to be happier with the result. Ballroom e Yousoko by Tomo Takeuchi – With all the popularity of sports anime in recent years, this manga takes on the genre from a new perspective: ballroom dance. The story revolves around a young student ambushed by delinquents, only to be saved by a man who shows his ballroom dance. So it's like The Karate Kid, but with more dancing, and if that doesn't sound like a winner, then nothing does. Blue Giant by Shinichi Ishizuka – This manga centers on the life of a jazz musician. The author previously wrote the mountain-climbing manga "Gaku", the winner of the very first Manga Taisho Award back in 2008. That alone is enough to make "Blue Giant" a frontunner, and the unique jazzy style only adds to the charm. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi by Kei Sanbe – This suspense manga is running in Young Ace, detailing the life a manga author who, struggling to get by, discovers supernatural forces. As anything supernatural is popular in this day and age, this manga is another one to watch out for. Dormitory Tomkins by Fumiko Takano – A short, one volume manga. Not much is known about this little slice of life, but it was enough to merit a spot on this list through twelve chapters alone. Clearly there is something here worth reading. Houseki no Kuni by Haruko Ichikawa - This fantasy tells the story of "jewel people," people with skin made of jewels. The main character Phosphophyllite has one of the lowest hardness rankings, and the story chronicles his journey to help defend his people. With a unique setup, beautiful artwork, and some geology facts as well, this manga is going places whether it wins the award or not. Innocent by Shinichi Sakamoto – This manga follows the story of Charles-Henri Sanson, who just so happens to be the Royal Executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI. Fans of history know where this story is headed, but that doesn't make the historical drama any less juicy. Filled with mature content and gorgeous artwork, "Innocent" is an easy contender. Kakukaku Shikajika by Akiko Higashimura – This uniquely stylized autobiography tells the story of the author's time spent in an art class with an eccentric teacher. This manga has already ranked highly on several yearly lists, making it solid competition. Kasane by Daruma Matsuura – This dark drama details the life of a girl who owns a tube of lipstick with special powers. The story is a mesmerizing, psychological dive into the psyche of beauty. If you aren’t intrigued by now, you should be. Koe no Katachi by Yoshitoki Oima – This short series has already seen its end, Weekly Shonen Magazine publishing the last chapter in November. But even in its short time, this manga about a deaf girl and the boy who used to bully her touched the hearts of everyone who read it. Both heartbreaking and heartwarming, there's no question as to why this manga was nominated. Kodomo wa Wakatte Agenai by Rettou Tajima – A two volume miniseries run by Morning, this little slice-of-life is as cute as its art style. Although short, it has merit enough to be a contender for the year. Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun by Izumi Tsukabi – A four panel web comic series shown in several magazines, this manga already has its own anime adaption. Only those living under rocks haven't heard of this comedy. It shows the escapades of a girl who meets her favourite shoujo author, only to find he isn't quite what she expected. Wickedly popular, humorous and at times touching, this series could easily be called the year's frontrunner. My Hero Academiaby Houhei Horikoshi – If superhero stories interest you, this is the manga to read. It's about a boy living in a world with superpowered people, who dreams of being a hero – without having any superpowers himself. The kind of story we can all relate to, "My Hero Academia" is a top contender. Ousama-tachi no Viking by Makoto Fukami and Sadayasu – A cyber action plotline with a wicked cool graphic style, this collaboration project is worth keeping an eye on. The Ancient Magus' Brideby Kore Yamazaki – Picked up by Seven Seas, this unpublished manga sets out to tell the story of a young girl bought by a magus – an ancient sorcerer – at a slave auction. Instead of becoming his slave, however, the man announces he plans to make her his apprentice, and his bride. A Beauty and the Beast-styled paranormal romance, this manga plays to the popular genres while still looking beautiful and unique. There are a lot of good contenders this year, but only one can be the winner of the Manga Taisho Award. Most of these contenders are shown in Manga magazines, such as Big Comic, Shuukan Young Jump, Cocohana and Manga Magazine. Have you read any of these? If so, what are your thoughts? Nominees for Manga Taisho Award Announced is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Stop Your Facebook Friends From Spreading False News Stories
| Please brace yourself, I have a few truths to reveal… and they may come as a surprise to many of you (if my Facebook news feed is to be believed). It doesn’t matter how many times you share the post with all of your friends, Costco will not give you a free $500 gift card. Nobody has a stash of yet-to-be-released iPhone 8.5’s that they are just dying to give away to 200 lucky Facebook users who like and share their post. A sick child will not get a new heart if you share their heart-string-pulling photograph. I am also begging every single one of you to do a single Google search to validate any news you plan to share about a celebrity that has (supposedly) passed away. Thankfully, Facebook understands the pain many of us feel when we see our friends falling for these ridiculous hoaxes. A feature being added to the site will allow those of us who do our research to flag a post as being false news (as well as a few other designations such as being pornographic, advocating violence, annoying, or distasteful); doing so will remove the post from your feed, so you can forget it ever happened. The more flags a post receives, the less it will be seen in general (though Facebook will never actually delete a post). Of course, there is a downside to this added moderation: idiots and bullies get the same functionality as everybody else. At least it’s a step in the right direction, and one I suspect will be fine-tuned over time. My suggestion some time ago was that Facebook force users to click a disclaimer before sharing or adding content that begs for confirmation that the content contained within the post was fact-checked first… and if not, accept that they risk eyerolls and sighs of disbelief from their friends. Now that Facebook has potentially solved this problem, I’d really appreciate it if they got to work on some kind of alert system that would let people know that their mothers will not think they aren’t loved if you stop sharing those sappy greeting card poems within 10 seconds of reading it… and maybe give them a heads up that I do still love them as a friend even though I’m unwilling to describe in a single word the way we met as a comment on their status.
Stop Your Facebook Friends From Spreading False News Stories is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Dream of Used eBooks is Over
| The dream of an used e-Book site may be over. A Dutch Court of Appeals has ruled that Tom Kabinet must shut down within three days or pay a daily fine of €1,000. Tom Kabinet is a Netherlands based used e-Book website that was first established during the summer of 2014. Their launch immediately put them at odds with the Dutch Publishing Association. The publishers believe Tom Kabinet infringes on copyrights. Research suggests 90% of all eBooks that are listed on the site are pirated and that criminals are reselling books they download from torrent websites. The core business model of the company is facilitating the sale of e-books that users post on their website. They don’t actually host the actual book, but digitally watermark each title to prevent reselling of the same copy over and over. When a book is sold, Kabinet takes a small commission for their role in the transaction. Things initially looked to be going in favor of the Netherlands e-Book service in July when the court decided that that Tom Kabinet can stay open for business during the court case. The main argument that was employed was the Oracle and Usedsoft case that was decided in Germany some months sooner. “Where the copyright holder makes available to his customer a copy – tangible or intangible – and at the same time concludes, in return form payment of a fee, a license agreement granting the customer the right to use that copy for an unlimited period, that right-holder sells the copy to the customer and thus exhausts his exclusive distribution right. Such a transaction involves a transfer of the right of ownership of the copy. Therefore, even if the license agreement prohibits a further transfer, the right-holder can no longer oppose the resale of that copy. He can therefore download onto his computer the copy sold to him by the first acquirer. Such a download must be regarded as a reproduction of digital product that is necessary to enable the new acquirer to use the program in accordance with its intended purpose." The entire saga between Tom Kabinet and the Dutch Publishers Association was supposed to be all wrapped up on December 23rd, but due to the Christmas holidays, the judgement was postponed until just this week. Where does this leave Tom Kabinet now? Well, it is tricky. The Dutch Court ruled that they have to close up shop within three days or pay a hefty fine. They also said the business model appeared to be legal in principle. When many other companies would have simply closed up shop, TC is continuing to fight. They are trying to purge all of the questionable books from their site in a bid to be legitimized, but it might be far too late that now. In the courts and publishers eyes they are a pirate site that is leveraging a court case as their sole argument and it failed. It looks like the dream of a legitimate used e-book site might be over, for now. The Dream of Used eBooks is Over is a post from: Good e-Reader |
