Linebaugh Library Techblog

Saturday, July 18, 2015

How to Return and Get a Refund for an e-Book

Many of the leading online digital bookstores have generous return policies if you need to get a refund. There is a growing number of people who read the book first and then return it, while others make accidental purchases or notice glaring errors in the formatting. How do you return an e-book? Today we outline all of the return policies from Apple to Amazon and how you can do it.

When you purchase any digital book from Amazon they are eligible for return and refund if they receive your request within seven days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you'll no longer have access to the book. To request a refund and return, visit Manage Your Kindle, click the actions tab for the title you'd like to return, and select "Return for refund.

Please keep in mind that Amazon can and has closed accounts for abuse of the return policy. It is simply not worth the risk if you want to do this on a regular basis. If Amazon closes your account, you lose access to all of your books. Don't think Amazon won't notice a customer who is returning books on a regular basis.

Speaking of return policies and Amazon have you guys heard about the new one at Audible? They're giving you 365 days to return an audiobook.

If you purchase an e-book from Kobo you have the right to cancel the contract for a purchase of Digital Content for a refund within a period of 14 days beginning with the day after purchase. This excludes digital magazine subscriptions and in order for them to process a refund you have to send them an email using their online help forms, or you can give them a call at 1-855-732-3662.

If you purchase a Nook book, you are out of luck if you want to read and return it. Barnes and Noble does not allow refunds for digital purchases, but their retail locations will gladly refund a print book within 14 days. If you buy a print book online and use PAYPAL as a payment method, they will not refund your account, instead the bookseller will give you a store gift card for the full amount.

Google Play Books makes it easy to return a book . You may return an eBook for a refund for any reason if they receive your request within 7 days of purchase. Purchases through Google Play for Education are refundable within 30 days from the day of sale. No refunds are provided for purchase cancellations of books sold for limited access periods of 24 hours, unless the content or service is defective. If the ebook does not perform as described, you may return it for a refund at any time. Refunds will not be granted in situations of purchase abuse. When a refund is granted, Google will remove access to the eBook and your money will be returned. To submit a refund request, please contact our Google Play Customer Support.

Apple for the longest time did not offer any refunds for customers who wanted to return an e-book from iBooks. They amended this policy in 2014 that allowed customers in the EU to return them, no questions asked. You simply have to visit this website in your browser. Customers in Canada and the US have no easy way to return an e-book, but iTunes Support can normally assist you.

OverDrive Expands into Japan, But Why No Kobo Tie-in Yet?

Earlier this past week, OverDrive announced that they have just launched their library lending services in Japan. The Ryugasaki Public Library is the first Japanese public library to offer OverDrive’s digial collection to patrons. The Itako Public Library is also getting set to launch their new OverDrive-powered website soon. The lending program provides access to […]

Microsoft Cortana for Android Now Available on Good e-Reader

Microsoft has been teasing an Android version of their voice assistant, Cortana for months. We got a hold of the full version of the app and it is now available on the Good e-Reader App Store.

When users download the app they'll need to agree to Microsoft's Terms of Service and then provide Cortana with a name they'd like to be called. Then they're asked to provide the username and password for their Microsoft Account, just like all of the apps coming from the company lately.

Cortana acts as a digital assistant. She provides users with the information they request and uses what she learns about users to give them information she thinks they need. On Windows 10 release day users will find a Cortana experience that connects directly to their email and calendar apps to send messages to contacts and provide a breakdown of the day's events. She can set reminders and alarms. She can even play specific albums or songs on request.

This is a very excellent app and is the full free retail copy that will debut towards the end of the month.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Do you Love the Nook e-reader?

Do you love the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader or have you moved on? We asked 195 people this question as part of Good e-Reader Research. The results are actually very interesting.

In a recent poll we wanted to know how people felt about the Nook e-reader brand and if they were still loyal to it with all of the ups and downs that have occurred in the last few years. 65% of the vote were actually still surprised B&N still maintained an e-reader portfolio, while 51% still love and support it. 15% of the audience said they still use a Nook tablet, such as the Nook HD or the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, while 12% have moved onto competing brands such as Amazon or Kobo.

I actually found it surprising that such a large segment of the hardcore e-reading audience did not realize that B&N still made dedicated e-readers. The last model they released was in October 2013 with the advent of the Nook Glowlight. It is not promoted very well, and has poor retail and online visibility.

Indie Authors Will Soon Be Using AI to Edit their eBooks

One of the drawbacks of self-publishing is that you have to pay editors out of your pocket in order to get your e-book ready for distribution. Many of them forgo hiring one altogether and readers often find themselves wading through a ton of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. There is now an alternative to a human editor, a robot one.

IBM has unveiled the Watson Tone Analyzer, that allows writers to copy and paste a body of text and the system will perform a “tone check” to analyze three different aspects of it: emotional, social and writing style. Each of those is divided into further categories — for instance, it can tell you if your writing style is confident or tentative, and whether the emotional tone is cheerful, angry or negative. From there, it can give you a breakdown of the overall tone and suggest new words to “fix” it.

The experimental service is currently available for English text input, and is free for exploration. More details about this service, the science behind it, how to use the APIs, and example applications are available in the documentation. You can also try out the service at this demo link.

I think this tool is part thesaurus, dictionary and editor. In the near future a number of self-publishing companies will likely adopt the Watson SDK into their online indie author tool set.

Would You Switch to Nook if B&N Gave You a Nook GlowLight for Free?

Barnes and Noble has been getting a lot of bad press for a long time, especially when it comes to anything related to the Nook portion of their business because it’s always losing them a ton of money with each quarterly report. Most of the problems are of B&N’s own making, like making it so […]

Curate digital collections for your community

Reading may be a solitary act but it is one that makes you part of a community. It’s true that when diving into a new book you do so alone, but once you’e finished you’re part of a group of people who have discovered the same book. People who read the same genres and authors share a common bond. They have an immediate connection and conversation starter. You read alone but you get recommendations from librarians, friends and family who have read similar books to what you’ve enjoyed.

As a librarian you have the power to create these unique groups within your community by curating specific digital collections on your OverDrive-powered website. You can highlight read alike titles based off current bestsellers or you can create collections of titles you own large numbers of copies of that would be perfect for book clubs. You can even create collections for your summer reading programs based on age or grade or approach broader topics like, “Perfect books for your next vacation” or “Books to get your health and fitness on track.”

To start curating collections, log into OverDrive Marketplace and select Switch to Curate from the SHOP drop-down menu (if you don't see theSwitch to Curate option, talk to your Marketplace administrator about getting you "Library site admin" permission).

Once you've switched to curate in Marketplace, you'll be able to build collections of titles that you own and then publish them immediately to select locations on your public-facing website. If your public-facing site offers multiple languages, you'll be able to enter a translated name and description for each collection so that you can publish curated collections in every language you offer.

You can find illustrated, step-by-step instructions for creating, editing, publishing, and removing curated collections in the "CURATE" section of the Marketplace User Guide (located in Marketplace under the SUPPORT tab).

Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist with OverDrive

Welcoming our new CEO

Liz: As regular readers will know, Raspberry Pi is a charity. We’re split into two parts: the Raspberry Pi Foundation is the charitable body, and it owns Raspberry Pi Trading, the part of the organisation that develops the hardware you all buy. All the profit we make in Raspberry Pi Trading goes straight to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, where it’s spent on our charitable aims.

Philip is the new Chief Executive Officer of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, working with Eben, who remains CEO of Raspberry Pi Trading. He’s been here for two weeks now, and he’s already got us all very excited about the direction he’s taking the organisation in. Here’s Philip to tell you what he’s been up to. Welcome Philip: we’re so glad you’ve joined us!

As I come to the end of my first couple of weeks as the newest member of the Raspberry Pi team, I wanted to write a quick blog post to say a big thank you to everyone who has made me feel so welcome.

Philip “please crop out my shorts” Colligan, mid-meeting. (He’s the one on the right.)

In many ways, arriving at the Raspberry Pi Foundation feels more like joining a community than starting a new job. Ever since Liz announced my appointment on this blog at the end of April, I've been inundated with good wishes and offers of help from people from all sorts of backgrounds who have been inspired by Raspberry Pi. From volunteer activists to the CEOs of multi-national businesses, the openness and generosity I've experienced in these first few weeks has been humbling. Thank you.

It's been a whirlwind of meeting people and learning as much as I can. Some highlights:

Joining the judges of Astro Pi – our competition for kids to run experiments on a Raspberry Pi that we're putting on the International Space Station (ISS). It's all possible because of our friends at the UK Space Agency and the UK's first astronaut in 25 years, Major Tim Peake. Seriously though: a Raspberry Pi on the space station running experiments written by school kids. How cool is that?
Attending Picademy – our teacher training programme – at Pi Towers in Cambridge. Not only did I get to see the Foundation team in action (and they are awesome by the way), but I got to join an amazing group of 30 primary and secondary teachers as they came up with creative ideas to bring digital making into the classroom. Brilliant.
Hanging out at CamJam – the Cambridge Raspberry Jam – with my seven-year-old son. OK, this is cheating a bit because it happened a few weeks before I started, but it was a great introduction to the community of makers in Cambridge, and I am looking forward to meeting more of you at Jams across the UK and internationally. My son loved it and can't wait for the Pi Wars robot competition later this year.

And I'm already blown away by the incredible range of projects that are being powered by the Raspberry Pi. Nature cameras, weather stations, art installations, robot gardeners, beer brewing kits – I've heard stories of people all over the world using the Raspberry Pi to solve problems, have fun and learn new skills.

I've also been out and about meeting the other organisations that are part of this growing movement to get young people involved in computing and digital making – Code Club, Apps for Good, Coder Dojo, Freeformers and Computing at School – hearing about the great work they're doing and cooking up plans for future collaborations.

All that and I managed to find the toilets and only set off the office burglar alarm once. A busy first couple of weeks, and a great start to my induction into the Raspberry Pi community.

One of my main jobs over the next couple of months is to lead a process to map out the next stage of the Foundation's development. A bit like the Raspberry Pi itself, we're small but we've got huge potential.

And in much the same way that the community has shaped the development of the hardware and software, I want to make sure that the community shapes the development of the Foundation and helps us realise that potential.

More to follow on that shortly. In the meantime, please get in touch and let me know what you think, show off your awesome projects or just point me at things I should see or read.

@philipcolligan

The post Welcoming our new CEO appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Angry Birds 2 out on Android July 30

If you can’t get enough for our fowl weather friends, there is a new version of Angry Birds due out July 30th. The Angry Birds franchise has over 3 billion game downloads, millions of fans across the globe, multiple mashups and spin-offs, collaborations and cartoons.

Rovio has not stated which app stores Angry Birds 2 is coming to on July 30th, but it’s safe to expect a fairly comprehensive, simultaneous launch across iOS, Android, Amazon and the Good e-Reader App Store.

The big question is whether Angry Birds 2 can recapture the magic of the original, as well as the attention. Angry Birds is still a highly known franchise, but the reality is it's not nearly as popular as it once was and many players have switched to new franchises. Games like Monument Valley, Device 6, Minecraft, Crossy Road, Goat Simulator, or Five Nights at Freddy’s offers new experiences.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

e-Book Sales Plummet 7.5% in the First 3 Months of 2015

The Association of American Publishers has just released their annual data report and e-book sales are not doing that great. In the first three months of 2015 they have plummeted 7.5% from the same period last year. Meanwhile paperback sales have increased by 8.9% giving further credence that people are switching back to print in greater numbers than originally thought.

Bookstores all over the world are starting to do brisk business when it comes to print, as the novelty of e-books have clearly waned. The Kindle "has disappeared to all intents and purposes", said James Daunt the head of Britain's biggest book chain Waterstones. He also reported that print book sales lifted by 5% in December 2014.

Meanwhile, Australian bookseller Jon Page of Page and Pages said "print sales were up 3% last year, which is fantastic because for the last three years we'd actually seen a decline in that time."

Chapters Indigo, the largest bookseller in Canada reported during their Q2 2014 earnings call that they generated an extra $9.7 million, despite operating four fewer superstores. They reported double digit increases in print sales as customers are buying less e-readers and tablets.

I think e-books are the modern equivalent of a Polaroid camera or LP record. There is a niche market that will always support it, and make it financially viable for publishers to produce digital editions. The mass market though, experimented with e-books for awhile and decided that print is far more affordable and carries a true sense of ownership.

How Does Your Library Encourage Reading?

Many libraries are trying out new tactics in order to encourage people to read. Some are giving book recommendations on your checkout receipt based on the title you borrowed, while others track the number of books you read and if you read 1,000 before the child enters kindergarten (repeats are okay) they get a backpack, a certificate, and their name on the wall.

One program I really like is displaying the yearly savings at the bottom of the checkout receipts. It gives you something tangible and one you see the figure rise to over $1,000 it is tremendously validating.

If you regularly visit a library, you will inevitably forget to return a title on time and incur a fine. One library in the US has a program where one month a year, they let kids and families and individuals “read down” their fines. Fifteen minutes of reading in the library (any format) erases $1 from fines on your account! Meanwhile a Canadian library has “Christmas amnesty” where they waive all late fees on your account in exchange for cans of food.

So the question is, how does your library encourage reading and what type of programs do you offer?

Insignia Flex Elite 7.85″ Tablet has 326 ppi & Android 5.0 for $149

Best Buy recently started carrying a new Android tablet called the Insignia Flex Elite. The screen and overall design are reminiscent of the latest iPad Mini. I often highlight tablets with high resolution screens because they are the best tablets for ereading. The Insignia Flex Elite definitely fits that bill with its 7.85-inch 2048 x […]

Go Set a Watchman Breaks Sales Records at B&N

Barnes and Noble has announced that the new Harper Lee title Go Set a Watchman has set a one day sales record for the number of copies sold at US chain. The last book to have this much hype surrounding it was Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, which held the previous sales record in 2009.

Barnes & Noble executive Mary Amicucci predicts that “Watchman” will be the top seller for the year. She noted that it dislodged E.L.James’ “Grey,” the latest in the “Fifty Shades” series, from the No. 1 spot for sales as of Tuesday morning.

In the UK, Go Set a Watchman racked up first-day sales of over 105,000 copies, across print and digital editions, according to publisher Penguin Random House. Meanwhile Waterstones’ own sales for the title are approaching 30,000, James Daunt told The Bookseller.

Bookstore Sales Up 0.9% in May 2015

Brick and mortar bookstore sales are on the rise for the third straight month according to the US census Bureau. In May 2015 sales across the board for books, stationary and magazines have increased 0.9%, to $776 million from the same period last year.

"The rapid growth of e-book sales has quite dramatically slowed and there is some evidence it has gone into reverse," said Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis. Though it's hard to say what exactly has caused the apparent slow-down of digital book sales, this does spell good news for fans of physical books.

Jane Green on writing, libraries and cooking

On Wednesday afternoon, best selling author and Digipalooza keynote speaker Jane Green took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with us on Twitter about her career, her favorite books and what she'd be doing if she wasn't a writer. You can read the full conversation right here.

I was an awkward child who didn't feel Jane has written sixteen New York Times best selling novels, multiple cookbooks and even covered the royal wedding for ABC news. She releases a book for her fans nearly every year and never stops writing. Suffice to say she, literally, has a lot on her plate. Despite all that, she managed to spare a few moments to give some thoughts on her love of libraries as well as being considered one of the founders of the #ChickLit genre.

Digipalooza attendees are sure to be treated to a wonderful keynote and we can't wait to hear Jane share her stories and insights into the world of writing. We hope you'll be joining us this August in downtown Cleveland for this great event!

Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist with OverDrive.

Kobo Aura Price Drops to $99

I was checking out Kobo’s website today to see if they have anything new going on and I happened to notice that the Kobo Aura has received what appears to be a permanent price drop down to $99. The deal is even better over on the Chapters.Indigo website. They also have the Kobo Aura for […]

Reviewing Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

How often do we walk past people that might be in need of our help and do nothing? How often do we toss a few dollars or coins at someone that looks like they could use more? How much can we trust someone we don't really know?

In Mary Kubica's Pretty Baby, Heidi Wood sees a young girl struggling with a baby on the platform of the train station one chilly day. For a few days after, Heidi keeps seeing that same girl, and wonders if there is anything she can do to help. When she can't stand it any longer, Heidi offers to take the girl, Willow, and her baby in and help get them on their feet.

Heidi's husband, Chris, is less than welcoming to the thought of a homeless girl and her infant child staying in his home. As Chris and Heidi learn more and more about Willow and her history, they have to decide how far they're willing to go for a stranger. Things become complicated when people start to get attached.

I must admit that I am already a fan of Kubica. Last year, I read The Good Girl and the suspense and plot twists of that story were amazing. I anticipated that the newest work from Kubica, Pretty Baby, would be just as psychologically thrilling and exciting and I was right.

I won't give away any spoilers but I promise you, the ending is a crowd-pleaser. With each chapter, the reader gains more and more information on the fates of these people and what they might be hiding. A tangled web leads to a pretty large confrontation.

If you're looking for a new summer read in the veins of Tana French, Paula Hawkins or Gillian Flynn then this is the book for you.

Boombox Blaster

Now, I often reflect to myself smugly that Pi Towers is a really cool place to work. We’ve got an arcade machine, a fake hamster (Emma has forbidden all pets of the higher orders) in a real cage, brine shrimp (Emma’s OK with those), a Portal Turret, Pac-Man dress-up gear, juggling clubs, about fifty Rubik’s cubes, Biscuits the Robot, a drone whose whirling blades we use to keep Eben’s remaining hair short, a cupboard full of ramen, many remote-control cars, a Hornby train set, Cake Tuesdays, a hydroponic windowsill garden, a Tardis that’s been to space, and Gordon.

Sadly, I think we’ve been out-cooled by an outfit called Neo-Pangea (even their name is cooler than ours). These guys have standing desks. And ceilings made from scaffolding and pallets. And an office dog. And nerf guns. And a much cooler name than ours. They play music in the offices all day long (try that round here and James will likely come over and bludgeon you to death with the base of the soldering station). They are a Digital Boutique. We’re not quite sure what that is, but it sounds cool.

And they’ve used a Raspberry Pi to make office music selection much, much cooler.

Pi Towers: we need to get a Mexican wrestling mask.

Neo-Pangea say:

We turned our pressure-sensitive target into a tiny house that is carried into the clouds by a hot air balloon. Now, when those dreaded tunes pollute our atmosphere, Neo-Pangea's residents can take aim to do something about it. After being hit by a Nerf projectile, the floating house lights up to acknowledge the successful hit. The balloon lights up with LED flames and is reeled into the clouds by a servo. This luminous aerial ballet is a physical representation for the signal traveling to the Sonos API on our Raspberry Pi that skips the player to the next song. The Boombox Blaster now resides in the very heart of the office and in the hearts of those dedicated, slightly mad team members who labored for countless hours to transform this music-fueled fever dream into a useful, blastable reality.

You’ll find a build diary, along with some Node JS script to control Sonos via your Pi, over at Neo Pangea’s blog.

I have just noticed that they also have a guy with a top hat. Pi Towers, we need to up our game.

The post Boombox Blaster appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Amazon Kindle Voyage Not Available in Canada Due to a Patent

The Amazon Kindle Voyage e-reader first became available at the tail end of 2014. This device is really exciting because it features a high resolution display and innovative technologies such as Haptic feedback. Many Canadians have wanted to buy this device in the retail environment or online, but it hasn’t become available yet. This is primarily due to an outstanding patent that the Federal government has yet to approve.

Amazon originally filed Patent 2750759 in 2010 and it has never been approved or disapproved by the Canadian government. In January 2015 Amazon filed for a reexamination in the hopes that they could secure a definitive answer to make the Voyage available. There hasn’t been any movement yet regarding this issue and likely this iteration of the Kindle will never come to Canada.

So what exactly is Haptic feedback? Haptic technology, haptics, or kinesthetic communication, is tactile feedback technology which recreates the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user. Most people who had an old Android phone four or five years ago experienced this when they clicked on the home or settings buttons and felt a little buzz. Amazon incorporated this technology at the expense of eliminating physical page turn buttons. The Seattle company dubbed the experience Page Press.

Likely the main reason why the government has not approved this patent is because many old phones and tablets use Haptic feedback and it may set a bad prescient for future innovation if Amazon repackages it and gives it a different name.

How to Install the Kindle Bookerly Font on your Kobo

A few months ago Amazon released a new font called Bookerly and it is a big step towards better typography. It is the first typeface designed for the Kindle for scratch and solves a longstanding problems with text justification, kerning, drop caps, image positioning, and more. The big problem though, its only on limited devices, such as the Kindle Paperwhite. So how do you get the font file and install it on your Kobo?

In order to install the Bookerly font on your Kobo e-reader you need to download the file from the Good e-Reader Forum.
Next you want to unzip the file using WINZIP or your favorite file extracting program. There should be four files in the extracted folder.
Plug the Kobo into your computer via the USB cable and use Windows Explorer to open up the device. You want to then create a directory called "fonts" if none exists. This folder must NOT be created inside any other folder such as in the .Kobo folder. It must be created in the main area where all your eBooks and welcome guides are.
Copy and paste all of the files into the Kobo Font folder, you don’t need to make a directory within a directory. Simply just drag and drop all four files into the font folder you created.
Eject your Kobo and wait for it to finish processing. Then turn it off and back on. Now you should be able to choose from your selection of new fonts when you open up an e-book and access the font menu.

Links

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Friday, July 17, 2015

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Wednesday, July 15, 2015