| The vast majority of people who want to upgrade to Windows 10 are finding it ridiculously difficult. Microsoft is not pushing the update to all computers and the Redmond based company has said it might take months for everyone to get pushed the update. Today, we published a workaround that allows you to force download Windows 10 via Windows update but this process is not working correctly for everyone, especially if you are running Windows 7. Today, we have a new way that you can download Windows 10, directly form Microsoft. The first step is to visit this link http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 from your internet browser. It will allow you to download the Microsoft Windows 10 setup tool. It is important to note that you must download either the 32 or 64 bit version. You can find out what your computer is running by visiting the Control Panel and selecting System. The next step involves you finding the Media Creation Tool that you just downloaded and clicking on it to open the file. I recommend selecting the option Create Installation for Another PC. You need to select the operating system language and whether or not you want the Windows 10 32 or Windows 10 64 bit. Next, it will ask you if you want to install Windows 10 via a USB drive or an ISO. I recommend an ISO file because it will download the entire version of Windows 10 directly to your computer. I would recommend downloading the single file to your Desktop, for easy access. It is important to note that this is a VERY large file and could take a few hours to fully download, depending on your internet connection. Instead of burning the ISO to a DVD like Microsoft recommends I encourage you to download a specialized ISO program that will virtually mount the image as an independent drive. PowerISO, WinISO or Daemon Tools. Once the Windows.ISO file has completed its download you want to open the ISO file with one of the programs you just installed to manage them. Next, select the Windows file you just downloaded and open it up. Next, you want to click on the mount button to mount the image as an independent drive. Once you do that, you can click on the setup button and run the upgrade.
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Wednesday, July 29, 2015
How to Download Windows 10 Right Now
Barnes and Noble Offers Nook Tablet Bundle for $149.99
| Barnes and Noble has just announced a back to school deal that should appeal to anyone who is looking to purchase a new tablet. The Nations largest bookseller is offering Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 7 inch for $149.99. This includes a free Kimono Sleeve + a 16GB memory card! This promotion is only available at select Barnes & Noble stores only through 8/22. You can find a B&N store near you by searching HERE. |
Tablet Market Continues to Decline but Apple Remains King
| The worldwide tablet market is in serious decline according to the latest figures released by the IDC. In the second quarter of 2015 it fell 7.0% year over year and they also dropped -3.9% compared to the first quarter of 2015. Apple remains the largest vendor in a declining tablet market, shipping 10.9 million iPads in the second quarter of 2015. Samsung continued to be the second largest tablet vendor with 7.6 million tablets shipped in the second quarter and 17% market share, a 12% year-over-year unit decline. Lenovo, Huawei and LG Electronics rounded off the top five, with 2.5 million, 1.6 million and 1.6 million global tablet shipments in the second quarter respectively. All other tablet vendors had a combined 45.6% market share. “Longer life cycles, increased competition from other categories such as larger smartphones, combined with the fact that end users can install the latest operating systems on their older tablets has stifled the initial enthusiasm for these devices in the consumer market,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Senior Research Analyst, Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “But with newer form factors like 2-in-1s, and added productivity-enabling features like those highlighted in iOS9, vendors should be able to bring new vitality to a market that has lost its momentum.” |
Kobo Partners with Book Retailers in Mexico to Expand eReading Market
| Yesterday Kobo announced that they’ve partnered with two of Mexico’s top book retailers, Libreria Porrúa and Gandhi, to offer a full range of ebooks, Kobo’s ebook readers and ereading services to customers in Mexico. Libreria Porrúa and Gandhi operate nearly 100 retail bookstores in Mexico. They are competitors but in partnering with Kobo they’ve jointly […] |
OverDrive to unveil the latest innovations in digital lending at Digipalooza
| At Digipalooza, OverDrive will offer a live demonstration of the "new OverDrive", introducing changes that came about through feedback from our library partners and readers. The new OverDrive will achieve three main pillars of success: Onboard users quickly and easily, engage more deeply with readers, and reach more of the community. These pillars come not only from customer and partner feedback but also our fervent belief in delivering the best user experience for readers.
The updates and innovations we will be presenting at Digipalooza, and discussing in detail after the conference, come from industry research, collaboration with librarians and from listening to our users. The future of reading isn't years away. It's here and we can't wait to show it to you. It’s not too late to join us. Register now at digipalooza.com.
Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist with OverDrive  |
Bike computer for the myopic
| We found this video titled “Build a better bike computer” at IEEE Spectrum. Gordon, Pi Towers’ resident pro bike racer and mountain bike nutcase (ask him to show you his X-rays some time) demurs: he says (I quote): “That’s big and stupid”. Gordon also shaves his legs, and says that he wants to fill his bike frame with helium; his cycling needs are the needs of the few. The rest of us rather liked this Kindle bike hack. This build uses the Kindle as a display – but, rather than sending information straight to the display, publishes speed, distance, and navigation data to a webpage, which the Kindle’s experimental browser then reads on the The post Bike computer for the myopic appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
How to Force Download Windows 10 for PC or Tablet
| Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10 will be sent out via a staggered release and it might take months for all countries to be able to download it for their PC and tablet. Obviously you want to get this right away and I have found a way to force your computer or tablet to download Windows 10, bypassing any restriction that Microsoft has enforced for your device. First of all you want to opt into the Get Windows 10 program. For the last few months a little icon has been on your notification bar and you are basically telling Microsoft you want to download it as soon as its available. Next you want to make sure your computer is setup for automatic updates. You get to this screen while in your Control Panel. When you are in the control panel you can simply copy/paste this link Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update\Change settings In order to force Windows 10 to download to your Microsoft Surface tablet or your PC you need to delete everything found in the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download directory. This will NOT adversely effect your computer and is critical for this force download system to work. Once you have deleted everything in this folder you want to hit the Windows Button and launch your Command Prompt. I recommend launching it as Administrator. Once you are there type in wuauclt.exe /updatenow The final step is to now search for updates using the Windows Update Tool and it should automatically start downloading Windows 10 your computer or Windows 8 tablet. Wrap Up Microsoft has said that US customers are getting priority to download the full and complete version of Windows 10 first. Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries should be getting it in the next week. Tablets running Windows 7 or Windows 8 are the last ones to receive the update, but if you do all of the above steps you are basically forcing Microsoft to serve you the next available download! I did this on my end in Canada and it worked.
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Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Kobo Starts Selling e-readers and eBooks in Mexico
| Mexico is a country that many companies are bullish about because it has over 100 million mobile phones and half of the population is under 27. This has prompted Kobo to enter the market, striking partnerships with numerous bookstores to have their e-readers available to purchase. Kobo will power the eBookstore for both publisher and retailer Libreria Porrúa, with nearly 70 bookstores in Mexico and, Gandhi, the chain of nearly 30 stores. While the two retailers are competitors in other areas of business, they have jointly created a new service called Orbile, powered by Kobo, to offer a unified e-Reading service to Mexican readers. The newly created digital bookstoree will be open for business in September 2015, offering a full and rich catalog with more than 70,000 titles in Spanish, within a total of 4 million titles. Kobo will also be creating a new co-branded e-reading app for Android and iOS if people don’t want to buy the hardware. |
DDR meets the Simon game
| Back in the heady days of the late ’90s, a number of my friends and fellow students were irritatingly good at Dance Dance Revolution. They devoted countless hours to it, and carried on earnest and lengthy discussions about technique. So I can feel only gratitude that this appealing crossover wasn’t around to further detain their attention. Uberdam Cavaletti teaches computing at a professional training school in Xanxerê, Brazil, where each year they hold an event to show off projects the students have been working on. Last year one of these projects involved a Raspberry Pi, a DDR-style platform and a much older electronic game. The starting point for Uberdam, his colleagues and students was Simon, a compelling game from the late 1970s in which players had to press coloured buttons to replicate increasingly complex sequences displayed by the device. A Python clone of this game, Simulate by Al Sweigart, already existed; Uberdam’s class had the idea of allowing a player to use their feet to play, instead of a keyboard and mouse. A Raspberry Pi displays the sequence for the player to replicate via a projector, and capacitive sensors underneath the coloured platform detect steps, allowing the Pi to check the player’s performance. There’s more about the game in Uberdam’s blog post (in Portuguese); I first spotted it in Hackaday’s piece. Meanwhile, if you like the idea of making your own electronic games, you don’t need heaps of experience; in the Make section of our free resources you can find out how to make a Sweet Shop Reaction Game using Scratch and a Quick Reaction Game using Python, both great places to start! The post DDR meets the Simon game appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Where to Buy Kindle Devices and Content Listed by Country
| Sometimes I like to browse through Amazon’s Kindle-related help section to find new article ideas (coming up with new topics to write about every day isn’t easy) and today I came across some helpful information about where users can purchase Kindle devices and content listed by country, including a list of all the retail stores […] |
Digipalooza ‘15 is almost here!
| On Wednesday August 5th, hundreds of librarians and publishers will join Team OverDrive in Cleveland, Ohio for Digipalooza, the 5th international user group conference. Librarians, staff and media specialists from public libraries and schools around the world will participate in informative and interactive sessions covering topics such as the state of the digital media industry, collection development and Readers' Advisory tips, best practices for increasing awareness, usage, and customer engagement, and will be among the first to preview the innovations on the road map for OverDrive in the next year. On Friday morning, keynote speaker and popular author Jane Green will take the stage. Jane Green is the author of hot new release Summer Secrets, along with fifteen other New York Times bestsellers, and recently participated in a Twitter chat with us to get everyone excited for Digipalooza. At Digipalooza, we know how to balance education, networking and fun. We kick off our conference this year with a Digipalooza first – an evening at OverDrive's Blue Sky Campus here in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio. Attendees will dine on free food from area food trucks, get the chance to tour our building and the Digital Bookmobile, enjoy entertainment, games and time to mingle and network. The next night, Digipalooza will rock the house at an exclusive event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum, which includes transportation, dinner, drinks, live music and unlimited access to the museum. The Rock Hall will only be open for our guests that evening so this is an opportunity to see a world famous attraction without the usual crowd! If you're joining us for Digipalooza, we wish you safe travels and look forward to seeing you next week. An attendee checklist of what to pack, how to get here and other helpful tips is available on our website, along with a parking guide, a preview of our conference program and links to Cleveland tourism resources. Whether you'll be in attendance or not, you can join the conversation on Twitter by using #digip15. If you haven't registered yet, what are you waiting for? Due to high demand, we have opened a few additional registration spots for those last minute decisions. Register today and don't miss your chance to participate in the digital media conference of the year! Questions? Contact us at digipalooza2015@overdrive.com.
Melissa Marin is a Marketing Specialist with OverDrive.  |
HarperCollins announces I CAN READ sale for libraries this September
 We’re excited to announce that one of our Digipalooza sponsors, HarperCollins, will be launching their I CAN READ campaign in September with a sale on numerous great children’s titles in OverDrive Marketplace. In the sale list you’ll find loads of books for beginner readers including classic children’s characters like Splat the Cat, Axel the Truck, Frog and Toad, Fancy Nancy, Pete the Cat and Minnie and Moo! You’ll also find some great narrated eBooks that will introduce your young readers to some of pop culture’s favorite superheroes. Get early readers excited about the library as they read along with the following enhanced eBook titles: – The alien conqueror Starro has returned to enslave planet Earth. Can the Justice League stop the evil starfish before it’s too late? Superman Classic: I Am Superman – Superman is in his Fortress of Solitude when Lex Luthor puts all of Metropolis in danger. Can Superman fly back to the city in time to stop Lex and save the day? Batman Classic: Reptile Rampage – A Gotham City hospital is being terrorized by Killer Croc, and it’s up to Batman to save the day! Can the Caped Crusader clean the city sewers of this rotten reptile? Wonder Woman Classic: I Am Wonder Woman – Meet Diana, Princess of the Amazons, and discover how she becomes the amazing Wonder Woman! Batman Classic: Dawn of the Dynamic Duo – The twisted troublemaker Two-Face is back in Gotham City, and Batman and Robin have to stop him. Read all about their first adventure as the Dynamic Duo! The I CAN READ sale kicks off in September but you can get these titles now by adding this list to your cart in OverDrive Marketplace. We’d like to thank HarperCollins for being a sponsoring partner at Digipalooza! Adam Sockel is a Social Media Specialist with OverDrive  |
Monday, July 27, 2015
Kobo Starts New Twitter Account to Hype e-Book Deals
| If you are looking to save some money on e-books Kobo has you covered. The company has just launched a new Twitter account that puts the priority on deals and discounts. From the looks of things they are not limiting their digital promos in just one country, but hype things that readers in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom would like to read. Every few weeks Kobo sends out a newsletter or quietly offers promotional codes in different countries. This has spawned countless message board threads and people sharing links on Reditt. I think what Kobo is hoping to do is have more control over distributing deals and being able to amass a cadre of Twitter followers at the same time. |
Sydney Australia Unveils First e Ink Traffic Sign
| The Australian Road and Maritime Services has installed e-paper traffic signs on Sydney roads, representing the first time that electronic e ink, a technology best known from e-book readers and smart watches, has been used in traffic signage. E Ink has partnered up with Visionect to have 15 solar powered parking and road signs distributed all over the capital of New South Wales. One of the great things about this technology is that the displays draw no power while still displaying critical data. If the Australian Road and Maritime Services needs to update anything they can simply push out the new data directly to the sign, since each one has a 3G internet connection. When nighttime inevitably arrives each sign has the same front-lit technology found on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite or the Kobo Glo HD. This will allow motorists to be able to continue to read all of the information. Traffic signage might be a huge industry that e Ink can garner a ton of revenue from. It has been reported that the city Los Angeles puts up 558,000 temporary parking restrictions signs every year to the cost of $9.5 million – a strain on staff and resources that can be reduced by implementing permanent e-paper signs with content easily customizable via cellular networks. |
Audiobooks are catching on like Wildfire
| The Audio Publishers Association released the results from their annual sales survey, conducted by the independent research firm Management Practice in the spring of 2015, which revealed that the audiobook industry is continuing to expand in sales as well as the number of titles being published in the format. Based on information from responding publishers, the APA estimates that audiobook sales in 2014 totaled more than $1.47 billion, up 13.5% over 2013. Unit sales were also up 19.5%, nearly five times the increase of the overall book trade industry (4.2% as reported by the Association of American Publishers in June 2015). Additionally, 1,032 more titles were published on audio than in the previous year — bringing the number of audiobooks published in 2014 up to 25,787. The growth of the industry is largely due to the growing popularity of the digital download and increasing awareness and profile for the audiobook format. Sales of digital downloads continue to rise – showing an increase of 7.3% in dollars and a full 10% in units sold from the previous year. Year # of Audiobook Titles Published 2014 25,787 2013 24,755 2012 16, 309 2011 7,237 2010 6,200
While adult titles continue to account for 87% of sales, children and young adult titles are on the rise with a 3.7% increase in sales from 2013 to 2014. The APA's recent consumer behavior study revealed a strong demand for titles for younger listeners, with 36% of respondents reporting listening to children's or YA audiobooks. Fiction continues to represent the vast majority of audiobooks sold with roughly 77.4% of audios being fiction vs. 22.6% non-fiction. The unabridged format continues to dominate with 91% of audios sold being in this format. |
How Using and Renting Kindle eTextbooks Works (Video)
| Amazon offers a number of Kindle eTextbooks to rent and buy in the Kindle Store. Many of them are just basically regular nonfiction ebooks, but some carry a specific eTextbook designation that adds some extra features. Many of the eTextbooks are available like regular Kindle ebooks on Kindle ereaders, Fire tablets, and Kindle apps for […] |
Image Comics and graphic novels are now available in Marketplace
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Also, OverDrive now has one of the most exciting comic series of the past couple of years, Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples. This series has won several awards and is a phenomenal space opera in the vein of Star Wars with a mix of Game of Thrones and Romeo & Juliet. One cannot do it justice in a blog, but know that your patrons want it, and you should probably read it if you're at all interested in any of the above topics. Be sure to check out all the great content from Image and also take a look at other Adult Comics/Graphic Novels.
Kristin Milks is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
Attend a Picademy@Google in Birmingham
| This year we’ve seen an explosion of Raspberry Pi Certified Educators thanks to the number of free teacher training events called ‘Picademy’ that we’ve been able to facilitate. Aside from our own in-house training, there have been five regional Picademies, three of which have taken place in Google’s Digital Garage in Leeds. Thanks to the generosity of Google.org, we are able to offer even more continuing professional development opportunities to educators, this time in Birmingham! Picademy will be awesome at the new Google Digital Garage Birmingham! Picademy@Google is for classroom teachers of any subject at primary, secondary or post-16 level. The courses and workshops in Leeds are run by renowned community member Les Pounder, who gives much of his time to helping adults and children create weird and wonderful projects. You may have seen some of his Picademy work on Twitter recently.
Picademy@Google Birmingham will be every bit as good! Highly regarded community member, Minecraft wizard, and creator of stuff about code Martin O’Hanlon will be leading teachers across a diamond block path to Raspberry Pi enlightenment. Here he is doing his best Steve impression: Martin was at the venue for the launch and said:
All our training events in Birmingham will take place at the latest Google Digital Garage inside Birmingham Library, and are completely free to attend. If you are interested in take part and becoming a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator, please complete this form. The following dates are available:
The post Attend a Picademy@Google in Birmingham appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Why do Publishers Launch Websites?
| Major publishers in recent years have been on a rampage trying to appeal to the YA audience. They have been setting up niche websites that are designed to sell books but also have a youth savvy editorial voice. Sadly, the vast majority of these sites are dead in the water a few months after launching or languish into obscurity. Are publishers doing the wrong thing with building websites instead of using social media? Pew Research conducted an internet study report that looked at youth and teens. They found that 92% are online on a daily basis and 71% are on more than one social networking site. Publishers are certainly doing the wrong thing spending hundreds of thousands of dollars building a site and curating it with editorial content when they could be going where their audience is. Most publishers have a presence on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter but these sites have lost traction with teens in recent years. David Ebersman, the former chief financial officer for Facebook said that Facebook was no longer the hip hangout spot on the Internet for teenagers, and there's a simple reason for that: It's hard to look cool when you're hanging out with Mom and Dad. However, some teens aren't just bailing — they're refusing to buy into Facebook in the first place. In a Huffington Post essay on the great Facebook exodus, Bianca Bosker notes that it was difficult to find teens who had signed up for the service to begin with. Of a group of high school girls Bosker spoke to, only one was on Facebook, and just as University College London professor Daniel Miller argued was the case amongst teens, the student seemed "embarrassed to even be associated with it." Teens these days are on Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat and Vine. Publishers hardly have a presence on these platforms at all. There are plenty of “vine famous” celebrities have that billions of loops and who can count on 30 to 100 million views on each six second video. These guys get sponsored all the time by app developers and major brands, but publishers are notably absent. What Vine user wouldn’t love to see something posted by their favorite author? Why aren’t publishers making accounts for their up and coming teen authors or setting up a production unit to film content on a daily basis? Teens simply don’t visit static websites anymore. They live and breathe on social media sites and publishers still don’t get it. I get hundreds of emails every year about publishers launching this and that. Last week Simon and Schuster launched Glommable, Penguin got in the game awhile ago with Teen Australia and Random House released Bookscout and Totally Random. Totally Random is amusing because the company hyped the hell out of it and the last update was August 25th 2014. I think publishers need to wake up and realize websites are dead, even if you make them look like social media hubs. Teens and YA use their smartphone more than their computer. Publishers NEED to develop a unified social media strategy and develop exclusive content for Instagram, Snapchat and Vine. |
Sunday, July 26, 2015
How to Load e-Books on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3
| One of the most common questions we get on Good e-Reader is how to load e-books on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3. The vast majority of users simply use Windows Explorer to copy and paste content, but this method does not offer much flexibility. Today, we show you how to use Calibre, Dropbox, and Kindle Documents Manager. Calibre is a free download and it is a very powerful tool for people who want maximize freedom to craft their own experience. This software allows you to convert e-books from one format to another and also change the author, book title and virtually all other metadata. Kindle Documents Manager simply allows you to email books to your Kindle from Outlook, Thunder Bird or any other email client such as Yahoo or Hotmail. Dropbox is fairly popular and you can upload any e-books from your PC or MAC directly to your cloud account. Once uploading is complete you can use your Kindle Experimental Browser to access any of the books you have stored.
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