| There are two different kinds of companies that manufacture and sell e-readers. On one hand you have the ones that merely sell the hardware and leave it up to the users on purchasing their own e-books. The most successful have their own ecosystems and make it very easy to buy digital content right on the reader. Last month we asked the question “whats your favorite e-reader company” and over 310 people responded. Amazon and Kobo were the runaway leaders of the poll and it demonstrates that the vast majority of digital readers are attracted to hardware, in which buying e-books is very simple. Amazon edged out Kobo with 109 votes to 105, this goes to show that these two companies are the most popular when it comes to solid hardware choices and catalog of e-books. In a distinct 3rd place is the largest bookstore chain in the US, Barnes and Noble. The Nook e-reader managed to garner a paltry 23 votes, which leads me to believe that their best days are behind them. The other notable company that still has users loyal to the brand is Sony. This is surprising because they haven’t released an e-reader since early 2013. 20 users claimed their favorite company was Sony. Check out the full results on the image above for other notable companies, including Onyx, Pocketbook, Tolino and Bookeen. What’s Your Favorite e-reader Company? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
What’s Your Favorite e-reader Company?
OverDrive’s Big Library Read and Global eBook Club
| Today OverDrive announced that their Big Library Read is coming back next month, which is a global ebook club of sorts that gives people around the world an opportunity to read the same ebook, or listen to the audiobook, for free through the 30,000+ public libraries and schools that use OverDrive’s ebook lending program. This […] |
Tamiki Wakaki “The World Only God Knows” Announces New Manga
| With the end of the popular manga, The World Only God Knows by Tamiki Wakaki last June, fans were at a loss and craved more romantic hilarity. But never fear, this year’s 12th issue in Shogakukan’s Shonen Sunday magazine, Tamiki Wakaki announced that he will begin a new manga series titled Neji No HitoBito (The Screw People). The new manga will appear in Ura Sunday Manga website on the same day as the announcement. The story follows a high school student, Yamato Nena, who has many worries that continue to resurface. “Just who am ‘I,’ who is nothing at all?” No other information has been released but from the sound of the small excerpt, it sounds like the new manga will go towards a different genre, but regardless, we are all looking forward to the new story! The World Only god knows ended last June at it’s 26th volume which inspired three TV anime series, an original video anime (OVA) episodes. Sentai Filmworks has also licenced all the anime projects for a North American release! Tamiki Wakaki “The World Only God Knows” Announces New Manga is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Lets Talk Books – Ready Player One
| Once in awhile a book comes along with a unique premise and solid execution. The kind of book that people include in their top 10 lists and recommend to friends with great gusto. Ready Player One by Ernest Kline is such a book. The Book centers around the Oasis, a virtual reality system in which all of the games of the world are interconnected. Instead of accessing World of Warcraft or Star Wars Old Republic through dedicated clients, you visit their planet in the Oasis. There are planets devoted to book clubs, fantasy realms and education. The protagonist, Wade Watts lives in a trailer park and can’t afford to go to school, so he attends it virtually in the Oasis. Ready Player One opens with, Wade, AKA Parzival is recounting the death of James Halliday, the man who invented OASIS and who, when he died, created a system wide game where the prize was complete control of the entire virtual world… if only the players can solve three increasingly-complex riddles and obtain objects of power within the game. Parzival, like countless others, is a "gunter" — someone trying to win the game — although because he comes from an impoverished family, he doesn't have the money to create a powerful avatar that can search for the answers to the riddles. Ready Player One is notable for its unapologetic homages to 1980’s-era films, music, and video games. The novel covers Ladyhawke, War Games, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Pac Man, Tempest, Zork, and even Dungeons and Dragons. The references in the novel are pervasive, and they alone tell the reader that the book is intended for people who grew up in the 80’s and have fond memories of that era. I really liked this book and countless others did as well. It has an average rating of 4.3/5 on GoodReads, 4.6/5 on Amazon and 5/5 on Common Sense. I used to read a lot of fantasy and science fiction growing up and the first computer my parents bought me was a Commodore 64. I learned how to program in BASIC and make a rocket ship fly, and had a number of game systems such as the Atari and Colecovision. Movies like Wargames had a really big impact on my life. Ready Player One has found an audience with people who were teens in the 1980’s or remember that era fondly. People who were born in the late 90’s or are considered to be millennial’s may not get all of the references. Lets talk Ready Player One. Did you like the book, find it overrated? Weigh in the comment section below. Lets Talk Books – Ready Player One is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Official Japanese Pokemon Style App Launcher for Android Devices!
| Calling all Pokemon fans! Do you have a home and lock screen on your phone that you like, but you still feel like your missing something? Well, on February 15th, The Japanese Google Play Stores released a brand new Official Pokemon Android Launcher (home screen)! Now you can have cute stylized pictures that represent your favorite Pokemon Pal while also allowing Pokemon to run amok! Pokemon Style is a free to download app and it appears that all 6 generations will be featured in a variety of free and paid themes (including wallpapers and icons). At the moment, all paid themes are currently half off at about $1.69 until February 25th and feature everything from Eevee Mansion to various Pokemon Centers Currently Pokemon Style is slowing making it’s way to IOS devices but due to limited flexibility of the OS, there will be some differences such as it may not get the actual icon theming the Android version has. There has been no indication on whether or not it will get localized for the Western audience and for now we will have to just cross our fingers and hope for the best! I know I would love to have all the Eeveelutions on my phone! What Pokemon would you guys let run around your home screens? Let us know! Official Japanese Pokemon Style App Launcher for Android Devices! is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Big Library Read is back!
| We're excited to announce the return of the Big Library Read, our global digital book club where millions of people from around the world have the ability to read the same eBook at the same time. This time around, OverDrive users will be able to read Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard, by Laura Bates, without any wait lists or holds. At participating libraries, the title will be available from March 17 through April 1 simultaneously for users who would like to join. During the week of March 23, we will also be doing a Twitter chat with Bates, where readers will be able to ask her questions about her book and her personal and professional life. Shakespeare Saved my Life is Bates' autobiography about working with inmates in solitary confinement, teaching them the works of William Shakespeare. Her fascinating life's story is sure to captivate you as she shares the unlikely friendship she formed with Larry Newton, a convicted murder with multiple escape attempts to his name. This edition of Big Library Read has been made possible by Sourcebooks, Inc., who have enabled us to make Shakespeare Saved my Life available to more than 30,000 libraries and schools worldwide. Join us in reading this enthralling tale starting March 17 and discover how eBooks can change lives! Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist at OverDrive. He believes that all the world's a stage… |
Portrait of an Inventor
| Just before the launch of Raspberry Pi 2, RS Components, one of our two main manufacturing/distribution partners, sent a film crew to point some cameras at Eben for the day to talk about the history of Pi, about the new device, and about what we do. (He had a cold, which is why he sounds like Darth Vader.) This is the resulting video – we hope you like it! |
Monday, February 16, 2015
Todd McFarlane’s Spawn Available on Comixology
| Todd McFarlane’s Spawn has been solely available in printed form for all 250 issues. The entire library of Spawn, as well as all twenty volumes of Spawn Origins, are now available digitally for the first time via Comixology. In an interview with the Washington Post, Todd said that he wanted to be an early adopter of digital with Spawn, but the comic book stores wanted a series that would be sold exclusively in brick and motor stores. Finally, the call was made by Image to take it digital, because of declining sales. Spawn launched in 1992 at Image Comics shortly after McFarlane became one of the founders of the publisher with a group of former Marvel colleagues. For the last 23 years over 5,300 pages have been generated finally they are all available to read on your smartphone or tablet. Todd McFarlane’s Spawn Available on Comixology is a post from: Good e-Reader |
AMC Releases Better Call Saul Digital Comic
| The hotly anticipated Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul has been getting rave reviews and is one of AMC’s most widely watched shows, ever. In order to drum up even more eyes on the television show, a free digital comic has been released. The comic follows the adventures of Saul and everyone's favorite righthand man, Mike, spinning off from Breaking Bad. This is the second time the show's writers have used comics to offer a supplemental storyline, the first being with the original series. The digital comic is entitled Client Developmentand includes 20 fully colored and illustrated pages. Instead of being a download, you can read it online in any internet browser for PC, smartphone or tablet. AMC Releases Better Call Saul Digital Comic is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Drone Delivery Hits Regulatory Snag
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These regulations include a few caveats for commercial drone operation that stand to throw a wrench in Amazon’s plans. While the restriction that commercial operators must be at least 17 years old and have an operator’s license from a regulated facility are not too surprising, the issue of “line of sight” operation is at the crux of Amazon’s issue. Unlike military or police applications of drone technology where the operator may be literally thousands of miles away, the FAA proposal requires commercial drone operators to remain in full view of the drone at all times. That won’t be very convenient for delivering a book from a fulfillment center in one state to a reader’s home in a neighboring state. Amazon has already voices its complaints regarding the FAA proposal and acknowledges that testing of drone delivery can move forward in international markets with less stringent regulations, but that the company will work to demonstrate an acceptable solution. The FAA, for its part, has also acknowledged that its proposed regulations are a jumping off point for discussions that could last a couple of years before the actual laws are put in place. The agency has cited current air safety regulations as its basis for developing drone regulations, and admits that drones are a wholly different technology than a commercial airplane.
Amazon Drone Delivery Hits Regulatory Snag is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Comico Releases App to Turn Selfies Into Manga
| Ever wanted to turn your life into a manga? Taken a silly selfie and thought,’ this belongs in a comic strip?’ The app of your dreams has just been released. Japanese app company, NHN PlayArt, has partnered with the company comico to create an app that allows you to take selfies and turn them into a comic. The app, called ‘comico CAMERA,’ has several different features. There are 35 different manga-page templates to choose from, along with 18 types of speech bubbles, and an array of comico characters to stamp on. The app also features 27 filter types, ranging from the ‘comic’ filter to shojo manga sparkles. Once you’re finished building your masterpiece, you can share the pictures on Facebook and Twitter. The app is available on Android and iOS devices. It is free to download, but must be used on an Android 4.0.3 or newer, or iOS 6.0 or newer. The app itself and all the features are in Japanese, but that only adds to the authenticity of your pictures. Download comico CAMERA here! Comico Releases App to Turn Selfies Into Manga is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digital Newspaper Bundling for Added Value
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One demographic of news outlets that has been hardest hit in the shifting news behaviors of the public has been the locally-owned newspapers. These papers rely on a dedicated subscribership and local businesses for advertising revenue, while providing a valuable service to the local public that major internet news companies cannot provide, namely coverage of local events and topics of interest. The Iowa-based Quad-City Times, which grew from its first publication founded in 1848 and changed hands over the years until it was bought by its current owner, Lee Enterprises, in 1915, provides coverage of portions of Iowa and Illinois, and has subscribers across nine adjacent counties in those two states. But even with a large area to report and subscribers in a variety of locations, the need to adapt to the changing landscape was just as important for this paper as it was for any major news source. That’s why the Times has announced a digital deal that’s too good to pass up. Subscribers to the print edition–who by default are now subscribers to the digital edition–are also entitled to a full digital subscription to the Washington Post, one of the most prestigious newspapers in the country and the property of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. According to a post from Jan Touney, executive editor of the Quad-City Times, “You'll get the news from Washington and around the world, including features, sports and political commentary. The Post is putting considerable resources into covering the Iowa political scene in this year leading to the 2016 caucuses, and you'll get additional insights to complement the coverage the Times provides from political reporter Ed Tibbetts, Des Moines Bureau Chief Erin Murphy and Lee Enterprises' four other Iowa newspapers.” This type of value-added offer for digital readers is becoming an increasingly common step for any industry that looks to entice consumers and retain a loyal following. A number of industries and reading sectors, including the hospitality industry and public and academic libraries, have already turned to widespread digital access to support their customers, and this partnership can serve as a model for bridging local, state, national, and international coverage for digital readers.
Digital Newspaper Bundling for Added Value is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digital Publishing Startup Screwpulp Gets a Facelift, New Name
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This is a part of the reason that the Memphis, Tennessee-based digital publishing startup Screwpulp, first interviewed by Good e-Reader at Book Expo last year, has undergone a facelift of sorts, with the most profound change being an entirely new identity as Leafless. According to an explanation on Leafless’ (formerly Screwpulp) website: We're excited to introduce our new name, Leafless! Our focus has always been supporting authors with self-publishing in the digital space. We've built an open and accessible platform centered around this. We offer a no-cost, no-risk publishing solution for authors. We offer ebooks to readers in the most common formats. This allows them to enjoy reading on their preferred device. We want to continue to build on the great community and support our customers give us. Our new name, Leafless, aligns perfectly with those aims. The name is much more approachable and is still consistent with our mission. Currently, we sell e-books. E-books are a digital medium. There are no physical pages. What could you call a book with no pages? Leafless! Why the name change? We realize that many of you loved our old name, Screwpulp. It was edgy and very bold. That's one of the things many love about us. When we began we wanted to be something fresh and different, and the Screwpulp name was great for that. Our Founder and CEO, Richard Billings, came up with the name. It combined the ideas of the screw press and pulp fiction. Yet, there have always been some who took Screwpulp in a less than positive light. We want our customers to know that we're listening. We talked with a lot of our customers, engaged different groups, and tested ideas. Obviously, several just didn't care for the name. We wanted a name that our customers would embrace. A name that aligns with our core values. One that will help us continue to grow and serve authors and readers. That name is now "Leafless." The recent name change took place after Screwpulp announced its website would be down for maintenance on February 9th, then relaunched with the update last Friday.
Digital Publishing Startup Screwpulp Gets a Facelift, New Name is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Astro Pi: Mission Update 1
| I’m sure a few of you are wondering why we’re not screaming about this from the rooftops, right? Okay: stand back, here we go. To quote the Portal space core: "SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!" Back in March 2014 Eben sent a casual email around the office asking if anyone wanted to join him at a meeting between the Surrey Space Centre, Airbus Defence and Space and Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). So, being a space geek, I tagged along and we found ourselves talking about the possibility of using a Raspberry Pi in space flight for a variety of applications. There was excitement over the possibility of flying several compute modules on a cube-sat for a space software lab experiment, and Stuart Eves, who is the lead mission concepts engineer at Airbus Defence and Space, was especially enthusiastic about using Raspberry Pi as a mechanism for educational outreach by UK Space (a trade association of companies that contribute to the UK space industry). A month or so later, another meeting was on the cards, and this time the UK Space Agency (UKSA, an executive agency of the British Government) was going to be there. That’s when I met Libby Jackson and Jeremy Curtis. Libby and Jeremy were behind the Great British Space Dinner competition you may remember from last year, and, between them have years of experience in human space flight. Doing something with British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s six month ISS mission was on the table, but we were not sure how it was going to look. It was clear to everyone that the existing popularity of Raspberry Pi, the connection with computer science education, and the forthcoming changes to the UK curriculum would cast a wide net over the UK; and together could generate a lot of participation in a potential coding competition. We realised that a situation where UK schools could own the same computer hardware that was in space had never, as far as we knew, existed before. Doug Liddle, head of science at SSTL, told me that the possibility to achieve this was more exciting than anything else the UK Space trade association had been considering for Tim Peake’s flight. So over the course of several further meetings we put together an outreach plan that would provide a range of computer science challenges to cover the diverse needs of the space industry. At the core of these would be a Raspberry Pi with a range of peripherals and sensors which would act as the platform for the pupils to send their software into space. Libby and Jeremy took the plan to the European Space Agency (ESA) for approval, and it was well received. To very briefly summarise: the programme would be split into two halves, with some activities that Tim would do up on the ISS during his mission and a competition run on the ground before blast-off. At this point we still hadn't decided a name for it and I think it might amuse you to see the names that we were considering:
As the year went on, we were well into discussions about what the hardware would be like. It was agreed that it would be a B+ HAT that could be mass produced and made widely available to schools and the general public. The same HAT would then be flown, along with Tim’s Raspberry Pi, to the ISS, thus creating the situation where all school pupils have exactly the same computer hardware as the astronauts are working with in space. They would be able to write code against their own Pi, and that could then be sent to the ISS and run on Tim’s Pi! If you win the Astro Pi competition this is exactly what will happen to your code. We didn’t want the Astro Pi HAT to have any single purpose, but rather to be a toolkit that could be employed in many different ways. Initially the list of sensors we wanted to have on it was enormous, and this had to be trimmed down due to the physical space constraints of the HAT standard. The sensors that made the cut were chosen for their ability to provide learning opportunities in the context of space flight. The solar arrays on the ISS, for instance, each have about 12 gyroscopes to control their orientation so that they can track the sun. Accelerometers are used to measure forces exerted by thrusters on all space craft, and magnetometers work like a compass so you can know which way you’re facing in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field. We also knew that we wouldn’t be able to plug the Astro Pi into anything like a monitor or keyboard, and that it would have to run headless. Having some kind of visual output, despite this constraint, would be important: so this is why we included the 8×8 matrix of LEDs. Use it wisely! So all that was the easy part. Meanwhile we began the process of getting the hardware approved for space flight with ESA. Space conditions are challenging, and because of this there is an abundance of testing that must be done for any object going up to the ISS. What you need to possess, to be allowed up there, is a flight safety certificate. The process to obtain this for Astro Pi is still ongoing as I write this blog entry. There two kinds of payloads (space cargo consignments): they’re called “educational” payloads and “real” payloads. Educational payloads are usually inanimate objects, like balls which are sent up to collide together in zero gravity to demonstrate the conservation of momentum effect or similar. Real payloads are things like the complex machines that are designed to perform a job on the station, or robotic arms that can be controlled by an astronaut. The thing that differentiates the two is the simple question: does it plug in and turn on? So we found ourselves in the unique situation of being an educational payload that has to consume power from the ISS mains. This meant that our path through the safety approval process was not going to be trivial. Fortunately we have some of the best people in the UK Space industry on our side, who are actively working towards making this happen. ESA have also hooked us up with engineers and safety experts, who are helping guide us through their processes too. It’s been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to work with these folks. Here is a list of some of the tests we have to do:
We plan to shout about each of these on social media in the coming months, as they happen, so stay tuned! Once we have the flight safety certificate we can be scheduled for a launch. This was originally planned to be an ATV or Space X Dragon capsule, however it now looks more like we’re going up on the Soyuz rocket with Tim Peake himself. I can’t believe I just typed that. I had opportunity to meet Tim at the Farnborough Air Show last year too. He was there doing the closing ceremony of Mission X with the UK Space Agency, but was able to spare an hour of his time to attend one of the UK Space progress meetings. We gave him a general Raspberry Pi demonstration and talked a bit about the competition and what he would be required to do. He was really enthusiastic and said he wanted to make it as interactive as possible, even suggesting the possibility of a live debugging session with the competition winners. Imagine randomly getting a phone call from the ISS: “Hello this is Tim Peake on the International Space Station, I’ve just found an error on line 21 of your code. Does it work properly on yours?” I don’t know if that will happen, but it might! Aside from the flight safety procedures, a lot of mission specific documentation needs to be produced too. You may not know this, but a lot of the European crew operations on orbit are controlled from a little house in Lucerne, Switzerland. Libby Jackson and I paid them a visit in December last year to give them an orientation on the hardware. They’re a division of Lucerne University called BIOTESC, and they write all of the step-by-step procedures that the crew follows during day to day operations. Understandably they all have very good personal and professional relationships with the crew members. They’re a lovely bunch of people who are going to become super-competent in the use and maintenance of a Raspberry Pi. They’ll be required to advise Tim should anything not work as intended up there. We had one of the Astro Pi prototype units with us and went through a few mock procedures that Tim would be expected to do. Libby took the opportunity to dust off her coding skills and spent about an hour programming a nice countdown sequence on the LED matrix which she blogged about here. Back in the UK, the Astro Pi media drive was beginning to roll into action. Many people from UK Space trade association were working behind the scenes to get the website ready, setting up interviews and organising press conferences. The announcement was scheduled for 10 December at the CGI offices in Kings Cross, London. Press were invited and we had a number of school students from Weydon School in Surrey join for a Raspberry Pi workshop during the conference. The full report from that day can be found online here. The BBC were involved too and technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones caught up with Tim and interviewed him about Astro Pi. Meanwhile, our artist and animator, Sam Alder, who had already designed the Astro Pi logo, was busily working on story-boarding and producing a cartoon about the competition. We were fortunate to be allowed to record Tim Peake’s voice for it. Sam and his colleague from Saladhouse Studios, Scott Lockhart, met up with Tim to do the recording at a hotel in London. He told me that they sat down, started looking through their notes, and looked up at Tim in his ESA polo shirt and whispered: “I can’t believe this! What the hell are we doing here?” The final cut of the cartoon was kept under wraps with the intention to show it during the competition launch at BETT 2015 for the first time.
We had planned to do a live link interview with Tim, who would be in the United States, during the BETT arena presentation. Sadly this fell through because he was travelling on that Friday. So instead we organised a Skype call the night before, and I was the lucky one who got to interview him! It was recorded on my computer at home. This was my own “What the hell are we doing here?” moment; I was a bit like a starstruck rabbit caught in the headlights for the whole interview. So the next day Lance Howarth from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Jeremy Curtis from the UK Space Agency and Doug Liddle from Surrey Satellite Technology gave an exciting presentation to a crowded BETT arena. Here is the Skype interview: The cartoon animation was then shown to round off the presentation. This is by far my favourite of all the animations Saladhouse have done for us. So that just about brings us up to date. ESA have told us that Astro Pi is the most advanced educational payload that they’ve seen, and that they’re watching what happens here with interest. If we have a high degree of participation in the competition then ESA may decide to repeat the whole process for the rest of Europe with another astronaut. So please do your bit and tell everyone you know! We want every school in the UK to participate! We’re working hard to get the Astro Pi HAT manufactured in volume and we’re hoping for them to be available by the middle of March. But don’t forget that you can win them too! Secondary school sign up is now live so head over to astro-pi.org and read more about the competition rules. Primary Schools enter here. Secondary Schools enter here. Thanks for reading this far; I know this is a long post. One final thought I’d like to leave you all with is regarding an awesome tradition of the Russian space program that is still observed on all Soyuz launches to this day. The Russian commander is responsible for choosing a talisman that hangs inside the capsule. It’s a visual indicator of when the spacecraft has reached weightlessness and dates right back to Yuri Gagarin (the first person in space). The talisman is usually some kind of stuffed toy, and if you watch the most recent launch video below, where Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti went up, you’ll see they used Olaf from Frozen! Watch for the main engine cut off at 09:15 for when he shoots forwards and becomes weightless. Can anyone think of a stuffed toy that might be appropriate for Tim’s launch? |
Lucy -The eternity she wished for- Visual Novel
| Are you looking for an enticing story with amazing visuals, cool character designs, a good mood setter as well as something deep and heart felt? Well, if you are a fan of Visual Novels, you need to check out M-Vizlab (Modern Visual Arts Laboratory)’s Lucy ~The Eternity She Wished For~. The story is as follows: ‘In the near future, androids have become the way of the norm. Emotionless husks of metal have become a part of human society, much to the dismay of the boy. The robot he found at the dump site though, this one was different. It laughed, it cried, it smiled, it has dreams, just like a human…’ The game was originally released back in 2010 and received high praise among the Korean community for it’s wonderful story telling. M-Vizlab is now currently in the works of remaking this beautiful game with updated graphics and bonus scenarios and is targeting the international audience. The game has been fully and successfully funded on Kickstarter and has been greenlit on Steam! The VN will also be released on IOS devices some time in the future, however there has been no word as of yet for an Android version release. We will just have to cross our fingers for now! The team had invested over 100 plus hours into the original game, meeting, writing, drawing and coding, all without seeing a single paycheck. You gotta love that kind of dedication, and it certainly looks like it’s paying off. To the faithful Visual Novelists, this will be a game you need to have in your library! If you’d like to check it out for yourself, you can visit their Steam Page and their Kickstarter. Lucy -The eternity she wished for- Visual Novel is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Bootloader Unlock Tool Now Available for Kindle Fire HDX
| Amazon has always used a heavily augmented version of Android for their tablets. They do this because it makes their products distinctive in the marketplace and locks people into the Amazon ecosystem. If you want to load in a vanilla version of Android on the Fire HDX tablet, you are in luck. A new tool has been released that unlocks the bootloader and gives advanced users more flexibility to craft their own experience. Xda-developers forum member dpeddi has posted tools and instructions for using them. The instructions also assume you have a PC running Linux , although it might be possible to modify the steps to have them work on OS X or Windows. Rumor has it these tools can also be employed to unlock the new Fire TV. The Fire HDX lineup are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors coupled with 2GB RAM. The resolution is also fairly solid, but the Dolby Audio is likely the most compelling factor. Few tablets on the market have the great sound quality that the Kindle Fire HDX employs. Honestly, it might be cheaper to just buy a cheap Android tablet, rather than take the risk and void your warranty. Obviously if you decide you want to unlock the bootloader do so at your own risk and only advanced users need apply. Bootloader Unlock Tool Now Available for Kindle Fire HDX is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Celebrate Presidents’ Day
| Presidents’ Day is a chance for all of us to learn a bit more about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other American executives (and for some people, an occasion for a three-day weekend!). Don't spend your Monday off doing nothing, head to OverDrive to check out some of these books on the presidency that have been put together by our staff librarians. For our younger readers, Let's Celebrate Presidents’ Day by Barbara deRubertis and Thomas Sperling is a great explanation of the lives of Washington and Lincoln and explains why we celebrate them. For an insightful book about our first president, you cannot go wrong with the classic Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow, in this case the audiobook read by the late Edward Hermann, who is a premier narrator. For those who like their presidents with a bit of a Walking Dead feel, you will love Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies, though we do have plenty of great titles that are more traditional/factual as well! President's Day Adult Nonfiction President's Day Streaming Video Meghan Volchko is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive, and will be spending her President's Day reading eBooks in Washington, D.C. |
Educators Foresee e-Books to be More Prevalent
| School libraries have been early adopters of e-books, but they have yet to transcend in a meaningful way in K-12 classrooms. This might soon change as a new report from 475 educators indicates that schools and districts see their use of classroom materials transitioning substantially from paper books to digital books over the next two years. "With a record 10 million tablets and computers sold into US schools last year, district leaders and decision makers are gearing up to make a major shift to from print to digital," said Gideon Stein, Founder and CEO of LightSail Education. "The results of this survey strongly suggest that schools are looking to build digital libraries where they own their content outright rather than experiment with models like book rentals or subscriptions." I think the main takeaway from this report is that e-books will not replace digital textbooks anytime soon. Teachers instead see the value for remedial reading for English class, since students can read the books on their smartphone, e-reader or tablet. E-books are also very popular for independent reading in the classroom. If you are involved in the educational arena and want to know more about this report, check out the press release below. It really dives deep into statistical data on how e-books will play a pivotal role in the classroom. Educators Foresee e-Books to be More Prevalent is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Libraries Experience Challenges with Generating Revenue from e-Books
| Libraries all over North America are being challenged with generating revenue from their e-book collection. Digital content automatically expires after 21 days, so there is no way to collect on late fees. Aside from public funding, these fees have been necessary to keep the library sustainable. The Richmond Public Library in British Columbia has a current operating budget of $9.37 million. They have experienced a 25% drop in late fees in 2014, which resulted in a overall loss of over $67,000. Combined with a recent increase in salary for the branch staff, the city is now paying an extra $289,000 more this year than it did last year just to keep operating at the same level of service. In order for the library to make ends meet, they reached out to the city to ask for an extra $200,000 to offset the loses due to late the lack of late fees. In their report, Richmond public stated their print collection had declined by 33% since 2009, as they have gravitated towards e-books. Chief librarian Greg Buss lamented that an electronic book can be, on average, five times more expensive than a hard copy. This is challenging because the collection budget has remained constant for many years. Investing in a new digital catalog, while still maintaining print is something that is getting to be difficult without additional funds. Libraries all over Canada the US are in the same boat as Richmond. They are spending more money trying to get a solid digital collection of content and paying more money to make it happen. Publishers are charging more for e-books because they can't generate revenue from print being lost and damaged and subsequently re-purchased. Each major publisher has a different pricing scheme in order to make selling e-books to libraries profitable. Hachette releases new e-books simultaneously with print, and available for an unlimited number of circulations at roughly three times the primary physical book price. One year after publication, the purchase price will drop by roughly half. Penguin currently offers 17,000 titles, charging $18.99 for frontlist titles, and $5.99 to $9.99 for older ones. All of these e-books expire after one year, making it necessary to repurchase them. How can libraries start to generate more revenue from their e-book collection? Many branches in the US are starting to charge non-residents money in order to get a library card. Brooklyn Public Library charges $50, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County $45, Fairfax County $27, New Orleans Public $50 and Orange County Library System $125. Many patrons see an out of state library card as a viable e-reading solution and cheaper than buying them one by one. Brooklyn Public is likely the best example because they have a huge operating budget and have one of the largest collection of e-books in the US. Hopefully in the future more libraries will embrace this method to generate revenue from their digital collections and use the funds to reinvest into a bigger and better catalog of content. Libraries Experience Challenges with Generating Revenue from e-Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Energy eReader Pro: Getting Started Tips and Setup Tricks
| I’m working on getting the review posted for the Energy eReader Pro, which is a rebranded Boyue T62, a 6-inch E Ink ebook reader that runs open Android 4.2 and can install Android applications. The Energy eReader Pro has a lot of other good things going for it too: It has a 1024 x 758 […] |