| People with vision disorders or who are completely blind are quite limited when it comes to using smartphones or reading e-books on an e-reader. There are a few solutions currently on the market, but they retail for thousands of dollars. A Korean company is seeking to address this issue with a new Braille smartwatch that can read text messages and read e-books for $300. The new device is called DOT has a raised sequences of bumps, which are readable, or touchable as words, are created by four rows of six dots that rise up or are lowered to make up to four letters at a time. This is perfect for reading e-books while on the go, but once paired with a smartphone small vibrations will let you know when there is an incoming text message. The US-based National Federation of the Blind estimates that just 10% of visually impaired people actually learn braille, while the UK’s Royal National Institute of Blind People reports literacy figures of less than 1%. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 285 million people with severe visual impairment around the world, of whom 39 million are completely blind. Those are some very depressing figures, but one of the most unique aspects about the DOT is that it employs a Braille learning system. If you want to buy one of these puppies it will be available in Canada and the US this December for $300. |
Friday, August 28, 2015
New Braille Smartwatch can Read e-books and Texts
Sony Stops Selling the Digital Paper (DPT-S1) Direct Today
| The entire Sony e-commerce network is shutting down today and by September 30th 2015 it will be deleted. This will result in Sony being unable to directly sell products, such as the Sony Digital Paper. This is not the end of the world for people who want to buy this device though, Sony has setup a new marketing site that heavily leans on 3rd party re-sellers to fill the void. I talked to a number of high ranking executives in charge of the Sony Digital Paper today and they informed me that a new marketing site has been developed. It replaces the old product landing page and has new pictures, videos and links to all of their official partners where you can purchase a DPT-S1. I would recommend using B&H Photo, who will sell to the general public in the US. Their inventory shows that it is on pre-order right now, but I have been assured that they will get their shipment within the next week. Sony’s other retailing partners are highly specialized in the medical or legal fields and will only sell the product within those industries. Sony has also confirmed with Good e-Reader that they will continue to provide customer support for their online partners. So if you purchase a Digital Paper from B&H Photos and have a problem, you will contact the Sony guys via email or call them at 877-723-7669. |
Emma’s 10 deserted island books
| Ed. Note: This is the 2nd in our series of books we’d take on a deserted island if we could only pick 10. Thanks again to Time Magazine for the idea!
The Likeness by Tana French Tana French is one the best mystery/thriller writers that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. If I had to pick just one of her novels, it would be this. Murder, mystery, doppelgängers and the Irish countryside? Count me in. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) Perhaps I'm just desperate to rekindle the way it felt to read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books for the first time, but to me, the Cormoran Strike series is like Harry Potter for adults. A bit grim at times, this novel is well-written, gripping and makes you question how you didn't identify the killer from the start. Atonement by Ian McEwan I'm a sucker for a tragic love story, especially one that contains some unexpected twists. The prose is beautifully done. I can't say enough good things about this book, which might be why I wrote several papers on it during my undergraduate and graduate years. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen I've been reading Sarah Dessen since I was 13 and she's one of the only authors I've stuck with even into adulthood. I am always excited for the release of her next book and her newest work, Saint Anything, doesn't disappoint. This story of family and forgiveness and friendships might be my favorite one of Dessen's yet. London Walks by David Tucker London is the best city in the world (in my opinion). Samuel Johnson once said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” This book holds a special place in my heart (the author, David Tucker, was my professor and tour guide when I studied abroad in London) for the way it describes the city in nice little vignettes. It is meant to be read in London itself and comes with suggestions of where each chapter should be enjoyed. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky I picked up a copy of this book at Shakespeare and Co. in Paris and then read it on the 3-hour train ride back to Grenoble (where I was studying abroad at the time) so my memory of reading this book for the first time is quite charmed. Perks is relatable at any age and perfectly captures what it means to grow up and navigate all the messy parts of life. The Awakening by Kate Chopin This classic resonated with me a lot when I first read it in high school. I admire Edna's wish to do as she pleases, during a time when it was frowned upon if a woman was anything less than a great wife and mother. Macbeth by William Shakespeare "Something wicked this way comes…" Who doesn't love plotting, murder and great monologues in Scotland? As an English major and a literature student, I've read a good amount of Shakespeare, but none is as interesting to me as this one. Lady Macbeth is a villain I love to hate. Monarchy by David Starkey Concise, informative and dramatic, this history of the Monarchy in England is a page-turner. It covers the early aught of the monarchy all the way up to the Windsor family that we so knowingly love and adore today. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling This series doesn't really need any explanation. It's amazing. I grew up with these books. Prisoner of Azkaban is crucial because of the introduction of Sirius Black, and, for the first time, Harry sees firsthand that everyone deserves forgiveness, not matter how difficult it seems. Plus, I always wanted a time turner so I could be in two places at once!
Emma Kanagaki is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
My library and me: making life better one book at a time
| This video was a big hit at DigiPalooza, so I wanted to share it with you, and tell you a little bit about the inspiration behind the video. Does anyone out there remember "My Buddy?" It was this doll with one of the most persistently obnoxious TV commercials of all time. It was always there, jamming its jingle into my brain between my favorite Saturday morning cartoons. For those of you that don't remember, here it is: Why am I talking about My Buddy? The idea behind their entire marketing campaign was that you could and should take My Buddy with you everywhere, living your daily life with a doll by your side. That's how I feel about my library now. In the morning, I use a waterproof Bluetooth speaker to listen to my audiobook in the shower. As I eat my cereal, I read an eBook on my phone. Then, I get in my car, connect my phone to the stereo, and listen to my audiobook during the commute to work—sometimes looking forward to traffic jams (depending on the book). I even want my next car to have Android Auto on board for better audiobook control. After work, I get home and walk the dog: audiobook. I go to the gym: audiobook. Eventually I go to bed, where I read an eBook on my tablet before I fall asleep. You get the idea. Yes, I read a lot. However, I suspect that I'm not the only one. My deep love of reading has often had to take a back seat to things like lighting, weather, chores, availability of content, and a plethora of other obstacles.
Thanks to my nerdy obsession with technology, however, I'm now connected to my books whenever I want them, and I couldn't be happier. I'm a firm believer in the idea that education and reading can change the world for the better. It doesn't matter what you're reading, be it a comic book, Sci-Fi novel, or a Nikolai Tesla biography because just about every book, story, or poem you pick up can teach you something. My favorite example of this is Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. The opening scene involves a man calling himself the "Deliverator" (his real name is Hiro Protagonist) on a "mission" to deliver pizza for Costa Nostra Pizza. He's in an armored, and wildly advanced, stealth pizza-mobile, and his quest to deliver the hot pies in the back reads more like a chase scene from a futuristic 007-style novel. I know, it doesn't actually sound like an educational piece, but Snow Crash taught me a lot about the mythology surrounding the origin of language. It got me to research Babel a little, and really got me thinking about the role it (and the origin of language in general) has played in religion and mythology across the ages. On top of that, Snow Crash was published in 1992, but it predicted a world wide web, in which people could log in using avatars to interact in a virtual space. We're not quite up to Snow Crash levels of VR yet, but the current trend is eerily similar to what Stephenson predicted. Did I pick up Snow Crash to learn about Babel, high-speed pizza delivery, or advancing computer technology? Nope. But I learned something anyway. That's the power of reading—it's why I work at OverDrive, and it's why I am writing this blog post right now. I want to help build a world in which everyone can get the books they want whenever they want them regardless of perceived obstacles. Together, with the help of companies like Google and Apple, we can bring reading to the masses—educating millions, even if they can't tell they're learning. Technology can, will, and does work for us in this space like it never has before. In short, share the video at the beginning of the post. Let's show off the fact that books from the library can go with you wherever you want to be! Let's come up with our own jingle! Let's make the world a better place together. Quinton Lawman is a Product Owner (and one of our many awesome resident nerds) at OverDrive  |
Capacitive touch HAT from Adafruit
| While we’re on the subject of HATs, here’s one of my favourites, from our friends at Adafruit. We had email a couple of weeks ago from José Federico Ramos Ortega, who has prepared a video and tutorial about the HAT (which he calls a Sombrero Capacitivo) in Spanish. Extra points for the use of cactus fruit to change instrument. You can get your hands on one of these at Adafruit, who, despite the name, do not sell the fruit required to build a fruit piano of your own, but who do sell everything else. Lettuce turnip the beet!
The post Capacitive touch HAT from Adafruit appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Should Amazon Release Another Kids Tablet?
| Late last year Amazon released their first Fire Tablet that was aimed at kids. This device included a 1 year unlimited warranty and a protective case that was designed to withstand the trials and tribulations of capricious youth. The Fire HD Kids edition also had an augmented version of Amazons Android OS, that is a bit more kid friendly and is very tightly integrated with Freetime Unlimited. Customers have been very apathetic about this tablet, should Amazon maker another? Amazon prides themselves on their review system and many people are quite enamored with products like the Kindle Voyage or Paperwhite 3. The Amazon Kids tablet on the other hand, well that is an entirely different story. One star ratings dominate the front page where people are complaining about the lack of memory, terrible battery life and woeful customer service when trying to get a warranty replacement. Most of the reviewers do have a point about the lack of memory. The cheapest version of this tablet has 8 GB of memory, but when you take it out of the box for the first time there is only 4.5 GB available. This simply isn’t enough for kids who want to download a few movies and a couple of Disney games, not to mention interactive books. The lack of memory is the number one complaint from angry parents. Amazon did not clearly make a kids tablet from scratch, they simply took the same Fire HD 7 and HD6, gave you a free case and changed the OS a bit and called it a kids tablet. Many of the devices from companies like Leapfrog or V.Tech were built with kids in mind. Amazon just saw a marketing opportunity and decided to run with it. Every year Amazon releases more and more gadgets and people are getting burned out. I remember a time when there would be a couple of new e-readers and a few tablets every September or October. Now we have so many devices, its almost ridiculous. Amazon Dash, Echo, smartphones, streaming media boxes and a bevy of e-readers and tablets. It seems to me that Amazon is saturating the market with haphazard devices, and the Fire Kids Tablet deserves to die. |
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Barnes and Noble has Two New Nook e-Readers
| Barnes and Noble has two new e-readers that they will formally announce them in the next week. The first is a six inch device and the second has a much larger eight inch e-ink screen. Details are this point are sparse because the FCC report keeps most specs close to the vest. What we do know is the six inch variant is going to replace the existing Nook Glowlight that was released in 2013. The eight inch edition is much more compelling, it is the first time that Barnes and Noble has ever deviated from the six inch formula and will give readers a much larger screen to read e-books. Barnes and Noble has admitted to me on many occasions that they will likely be abandoning making tablets and will instead focus on software and e-readers. I am very exited that in the next week we will see a formal unveiling and Good e-Reader will be reviewing the two models ASAP. |
40,000 Audiobooks Now Available on TuneIn Premium
| If you have an Android or iOS device and listen to the radio, you are likely familiar with TuneIn. The company has been around since 2002 and has over 100,000 radio networks available. Recently the company has expanded to offer a Premium service for $8.99 per month that give you play-by-play from every MLB and Barclays Premier League game, all season long in addition to 40,000 audiobooks. Findaway, formally Findaway World is a major player in the audiobook industry. Their platform powers everyone from the 3M Cloud Library to Nook Audiobooks. Their latest contract with TuneIn signed last week will be a boon to anyone that wants an unlimited number of audiobooks to listen to on a monthly basis. TuneIn Premium might be the only game left in town with an extensive catalog of audiobook content. Recently Scribd axed their unlimited program, because customers were listening to so many audio editions that the company was losing money. |
Issue #37 of The MagPi, the official Rapsberry Pi magazine, is out now!
| The second print edition of The MagPi is here and this month our cover feature is all about digital home automation! Click to see the latest issue and download your Creative Commons PDF UK readers can buy it today in newsagents & WHSmiths and US readers can buy the previous issue in Barnes & Noble or MicroCenter. ORDER ONLINE SUBSCRIBE Click for a closer look at what’s inside this issue Highlights from #37:
Another new face! Rob has joined us in the role of Features Editor fresh from a long stint as a staffer on Linux User & Developer magazine. Rob Zwetsloot is The MagPi’s new Features Editor He’s got some great ideas for the magazine, though his mission right now is to find yet more writing talent hidden in the Raspberry Pi community. If you have an article or idea you’d like to see featured in the magazine you can reach him via rob.zwetsloot@raspberrypi.org. By the way, if you’re unsure how to pronounce his surname (it’s Dutch), just vocalise the sound that the TurboLift doors make in Star Trek: TNG (at least that’s what I do). The post Issue #37 of The MagPi, the official Rapsberry Pi magazine, is out now! appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Amazon Fires Engineers Responsible for the Fire Phone
| Amazon has fired dozens of employees at Lab126, the secretive hardware development center in silicon valley. The vast majority of them were from the engineering division that worked on the first Amazon branded smartphone, the Fire Phone. This was the first time in the companies 11 year history that key employees were let go from Lab126. According to the Wall Street Journal “The company also has scaled back or halted some of Lab126's more ambitious projects—including a large-screen tablet—and reorganized the division, combining two hardware units there into one, people familiar with the matter said.” It does not look like their will be a second generation Fire Phone, as many engineers months ago were told. It looks like all future phone plans are shelved. This may be a good thing, because it really looks like Amazon is branching off into two many directions and none of the products are really that good. The last calendar year Amazon developed a small cult following in the form of the Echo. They also released various models of the Dash shipping button, Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, not to mention 4 new tablets and two e-readers. Lab126 and Amazon have dozens of secretive things in development including a smart stylus internally called Nitro, which translates a users' scribblings into digital shopping lists; a device dubbed Shimmer for projecting images on walls and other surfaces; and a tablet code-named Project Cairo, with a 14-inch screen. I have heard that most employees who work on prototype projects at Lab126 want to make cool tech, but CEO Jeff Bezos wants to sell things at cost and turn them into gateways to buy more things from Amazon. This is causing some friction and many employees such as Jon McCormack, the chief technology officer are jumping ship to other companies. |
Barnes and Noble Bookstores at War with the Homeless
| Many Barnes and Noble bookstores in the US are starting to remove couches and comfy seating in order to combat the homeless problem. Apparently the bookstore chain has policies in place that make it problematic to deny patrons access to the bookstore itself, so many locations are removing couches so homeless people will pick another location to sleep for hours at a time. This story has been confirmed by the USA Today, where a journalist spoke with staff at their favorite B&N bookstore. The employees – albeit not overtly — said Barnes & Noble chose to get rid of its big, cozy chairs to prevent the homeless from loitering in its stores. While they never used the term "homeless," the employees instead referred to these loiterers as "undesirables," or even "smelly people." Not only are B&N bookstores all over the country removing reasons for homeless people to chill, but libraries are dealing with the exact same issue. Libraries are considered public spaces that are kept in business because of public funding. This prevents the libraries from acting as a gatekeeper or putting security in place to deny certain people entry. Unlike a bookstore, a library simply can’t remove chairs to solve the problem. I think Barnes and Noble needs to augment their internal policies to give stores more flexibility to freedom to deny entry to people who do not buy books but use the store as a bathroom and a bedroom. Sure this might ruffle a few feathers, but paying customers want chairs and couches to chill on while they are reading a book they intend to purchase. Screwing over legitimate patrons by removing couches to give homeless people the boot is doing nothing but punishing people with money to spend. |
Walking Dead and Other Image Comics Arrive at Hoopla
| If your library patrons are fans of the Walking Dead you might have another reason to deal with Hoopla. Image Comics and Hoopla have just come to terms on single issue and graphic novels. Starting today Libraries that have a contract with Hoopla will find hundreds of new comics available in their collection. Remember, with Hoopla you don’t pay a fee to host their content, Hoopla only gets paid if a patron checks out a title. |
Kindle for Kids Bundle Not Getting Much Attention
| About three months ago toward the end of May, Amazon started selling a new Kindle for Kids Bundle for $99. There’s nothing “new” about it really, but the idea is new as far as E Ink Kindles are concerned. The device itself is the exact same as the $79 Kindle that was released last October, […] |
My 10 deserted island books: Cindy Orr
| Recently Time Magazine has released a series of wonderful articles where they asked famous people their ten favorite books or the “ten books they’d take with them if they were marooned on a desert island.” We simply love this idea and wanted to share Team OverDrive’s deserted island reading selections. This first list comes from Cindy Orr, our Digital Collection Advisor. A note from Cindy: This was incredibly painful, and I'll change my mind tomorrow…
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard My desert island would most likely not be anything like the Roanoke Valley in Virginia, but Annie Dillard's book, which won the Pulitzer Prize, would help me to slow down, think deep thoughts, and really see the nature around me while contemplating God, the universe, and everything else. Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is written in beautiful, poetic language?
Dune by Frank Herbert This is an epic story, and Herbert did an amazing job of world building, including inventing a language. Some would call it science fiction since it is set thousands of years in the future, but it's more than that. This book is even more relevant today than it was in 1965 when it was published, as several great powers are duking it out over which will gain control, and its many Middle Eastern references will resonate even more now. You'll recognize some features that have become iconic in the science fiction world (like sandworms and sand people), but Herbert did it first.
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert This book is a sobering account of the five mass extinctions that have occurred on Earth so far, and why the sixth extinction is looming if we don't do something about it. An amazing overview that puts global warming in a very scary perspective, and if I'm on a desert island, I'll probably want to know if the water is rising.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Gotta have a mystery, I thought. But why not one that is also a gothic novel, an adventure novel, a thriller, a historical novel, all woven together with folklore and a dash of horror, since it's about Dracula. Even better, one of the themes is the love of books—all of the characters, including Dracula, love books.
Stalin: Vol. I Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin I know this seems like an odd choice, but three of my four grandparents got out of Russia just in time in the early 1900s. Those in their villages who didn't leave ended up dead or in Siberia. We're just beginning to understand how horrible Stalin was, and this book was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch I would need a really long book or two on my island, and this one is definitely long. I read it as quickly as I could once, and realized that I needed to read it again someday and go much more slowly. Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of Christianity in only 1,016 pages.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry It's long, so that's good, but it's just an awesome story with characters who seem to live and breathe. If I were cheating, I'd add all the books in the series, but this one is the best. Yes, it's a western, but it's so much more than that. It will immerse you in the real life of the West in the 1870s.
He, She, and It by Marge Piercy Terrible title, and you'll think the first chapter is a cliché, but this book was written in 1993, and a world run by multinational corporations wasn't a cliché back then. Marge Piercy is a literary writer who some people have said wrote the first cyberpunk novel. (Her reaction: "What is cyberpunk?") This book has so much going on that you could read it many times and not absorb it all. Deep and layered, it compares the creation of the Golem in 1600s Prague with the creation of an android in the near future about fifty years from now when hackers can kill you through cyberspace.
The Sunbird by Wilbur Smith I'd need some fun reading on my island too, and The Sunbird is one of those books that stand out over my long career for the sheer number of unsolicited rave reviews from library patrons, so you know it's a winner. For nearly 2,000 years, a brilliant and unknown civilization has existed in Africa. Archaeology, mysticism, great plot and characters, and it's long too—perfect for the island.
A Room of One's by Virginia Woolf This small book has been a favorite of mine for decades now. I love it not just for its message that women need a room of their own and money of their own in order to have a hope of being creative, but also because its structure is fabulous and it's even funny at times.
Cindy Orr is a Digital Collection Advisor with OverDrive  |
Buy the Sense HAT – as seen in space*!
| *Not actually in space yet. Wait till December. Today we have a new product launch: the Sense HAT is now available from the Swag Store, and through our partners RS Components and Premier Farnell/CPC. Here’s a video from Matt Timmons-Brown, freshly released from GCSE exam hell, to show you around. The Sense HAT was originally developed around James Adams’ idea to make a cool toy-style board that showed off just how much you could do with your average modern MEMS gyroscope, 64 RGB LEDs and some Atmel microcontroller hackery. Somewhere between prototype and production, it seems to have attracted extra features like a pressure sensor, a humidity/temperature sensor and a teeny joystick. It also seems to have been comandeered and made an integral part of the Astro Pi mission, which will see two Raspberry Pis, two Sense HATs and a lot of code written by UK schoolkids hosted on the International Space Station – I guess I’m to blame for that. The board forms the basis for many of the experiment sequences that will be run on the ISS – many of the schools competition winners’ entries made good use of the HAT’s sensors to gather their experimental data. The LED matrix also provides a feedback mechanism and interactivity for Major Tim Peake when he’s tasked with deploying the Astro-Pi board on the ISS (he’ll be setting it up on-orbit to run the experiment sequences). One of the winning entries – Reaction Games – programmed a whole suite of joypad-operated games played via the LED matrix. Snake is hilarious on an 8×8 screen. The board itself has a suite of sensors, a “D-pad” style 5-button joystick and an 8×8 RGB LED matrix driven by a combination of an LED driver chip and an Atmel AVR microcontroller – an ATTiny88. For the terminally curious, here are the schematics of the board. The Sense HAT and its Pi tucked snugly into the Astro Pi flight case Here’s the hardware run-down: Sensing elements: Pressure / Temperature Humidity / Temperature Acceleration/Gyroscope/Magnetic field All of these sensors have features for periodic sampling of sensor values – complete with internal FIFO storage. The LPS25H and HTS221 have maximum sample rates of 25 per second, the LSM9DS1 has a maximum sample rate of 952Hz – we are already imagining the birth of a million Pi-controlled stunt quadcopters. LED Matrix Joystick All of the sensors (and the base firmware for the Atmel) are accessible from the Pi over I2C. As a fun bonus mode, the SPI peripheral on the Atmel has been hooked up to the Pi’s SPI interface – you can reprogram your HAT in the field! We use this method to get the firmware into the Atmel during production test – and we leave it unprotected so you can substitute the stock firmware to get it to do whatever you want. Seriously. First person to turn this sensor HAT into a quadcopter controller HAT wins a cookie from me. Software To access the magic, simply enter: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install sense-hat sudo pip-3.2 install pillow into a terminal window. Note you will have to reboot for the Sense HAT to be recognised. The API is well-documented (and tested extensively by schoolchildren as part of Astro-Pi) – get reading here. The LED matrix appears as a Linux framebuffer device – for fun you can compare the results of cat /dev/urandom > /dev/fb0 and cat /dev/urandom > /dev/fb1 to fill either your attached monitor or the LED matrix with random noise. The joypad appears as a standard input device – the “keys” map to Up/Down/Left/Right and Enter. The baseline price (excluding spacers and screws, and local taxes) is $30. You’ll be able to buy from all the usual suspects – the Swag Store (which is bundling spacers and screws for free), RS Components/Allied, Premier Farnell/Newark and all their subsidiaries have stock today. Secondary suppliers may take a couple of days to get their hands on stock. So, what are you waiting for? Get sensor hacking! The post Buy the Sense HAT – as seen in space*! appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Amazon is Developing a 12 Inch Fire Tablet
| Amazon is developing a 12 inch variant of the fire tablet that will be released in limited quantities. Unlike the Kindle e-reader that is produced in ungodly quantities Amazon has only placed an order for 100,000 units a month for the 12 inch tablet. The large-size tablet’s panel is supplied by a Taiwan-based touch panel maker, sources have said. Although Amazon is estimated to be able to ship 4-5 million tablets in a year, most of them are 7- to 8-inch models, with their panels being supplied by China-based touch panel makers. Apple has been rumored to be developing a 12 inch iPad Pro for a number of years, but it has not come to fruition yet. I think Amazon could make a go out of a large screen tablet in order to watch content from Amazon Instant Video. |
Tablet Keyboard Cover With an E Ink Screen (Video)
| Here’s something a bit different. The Microsoft Applied Sciences Group has built a prototype of a keyboard cover for tablets that includes a secondary E Ink display that offers some unique new ways to use a tablet and help make productivity easier. It’s called the DisplayCover. It’s a new take on the two displays experiment. […] |
There’s something for everyone in our Back to School sale!
 As August starts to sundown into September and the back to school season kicks into high gear, it's time for librarians and educators to turn our attention to the great mission before us: engaging young readers. The voracious readers are easy, but how do you encourage the more reluctant ones? Or how do you support the regular readers by fostering their love of the written word? One of the best ways to capture the attention of readers of all levels and interests is by continually providing them more new content. This isn't just a job of school librarians. The public library serves an equally important role in the development of the community's children. Of course, we here at OverDrive are aware that there are always budget concerns to keep in mind and for that reason we’re excited to share with you some of the awesome things happening in our Back to School sale, which runs through the end of September. If one of the obstacles you find is that the kids and teens you work with don't want to read a book, consider encouraging them to give audiobooks a try or even a comic or graphic novel. For younger audiences there is a fantastic collection of Narrated eBooks which mom and dad will surely appreciate as it means they won't have to be the one to read the same book over and over again each night before bed time. This is also a chance to build your collection to meet the needs of community language speaking kids and to that end we have a Spanish Language list as well as Asian Content titles. For school librarians, consider seeing this as an opportunity to support the faculty and staff at your school thanks to the Teacher Essentials list which is full of professional development tools. We've also curated lists of STEM titles as well as Classroom Essentials and Novel Sets. Our Back to School sale features over 30,000 titles across multiple platforms and publishers with savings up to 50% off. Also, don't let the Back to School moniker stop you from really digging into the deals as there is a collection of fiction and non-fiction Adult titles on sale and our Australian partners, currently in the middle of their winter season, can stock up on Kids & Teen titles. Happy shopping!
Jill Grunenwald is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
Amazon Discontinues the Fire TV
| Amazon has just discontinued selling their Fire TV media streaming box. You can no longer place an order on their US website and many European countries are also showing it as unavailable. It is likely that Amazon is in the process of developing a second generation model that has more internal memory. |
Monday, August 24, 2015
Microsoft Unveils Keyboard Cover with e-Ink Touchscreen
| Microsoft has developed a new touchscreen e Ink touchscreen keyboard panel that might be built into your next laptop or keyboard accessory for a tablet PC. The Microsoft DisplayCover is a peripheral cover designed for compact touch-enabled laptops. A tactile keyboard affords users with the comfort and ease of use provided by physical keys. A thinfilm e-ink display with a resolution of 1280 x 305 pixels extends the available screen real estate of the slate device by up to 8% (based on a Microsoft Surface Pro 2 with a 10.6", 1080p, 208ppi screen). Microsoft basically selected e Ink due to the bistable nature of electrophoretic ink, reducing the secondary screen's impact on battery life.  Microsoft is hoping to add a series of widgets in order to be compatible with a stylus. They are also going to be implementing pinching and zooming alongside trackpad functionality. |
