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Archive for e-Reader News
Overdrive Updates Their iOS and Android Apps
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The Overdrive Media Console has just received a major update to its line of iOS and Android apps. If you love getting ebooks from your local library, this is an app you would want to install on your tablet or smartphone.
The Android version of the updated app features dynamic home-screen widgets that let users play audiobooks right from the home screen or resume reading ebooks with a single tap. It finally gives you the ability to read books in landscape mode with multiple columns of text, offers bold font choices, and debuts an in-book image viewer. You can download it from our Good e-Reader Android APP Store or get the Playbook version.
The iOS version of the app incorporates several new e-reader features that give the user more control over text justification, line spacing, page margins, and font selection. Optimized graphics support the iPad Retina display. You can find OMC 2.4.2 for iOS in Apple’s App Store.
Scholastic’s Digital Apps Bridge Summer Academics
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One of the great educational concerns with the upcoming summer vacations months is the amount of knowledge that students lose during their time off from school. Teachers have often bemoaned the loss of instructional time at the beginning of each school year to trying to bring the students back up to speed after so much time away from the classroom.
Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s reading content, is working to bridge the end of one school year with the beginning of another by offering free reading apps and digital learning games aimed at providing an incentive for students to self-teach during their vacations. Deborah Forte, President of Scholastic Media, spoke to GoodEReader about the importance of this kind of content for younger readers.
“Scholastic has always been about being relevant and supporting the needs of our customers. We offer through all of our digital content and physical content experiences that promote literacy. It could be through an app or a game or by way of a book,” explained Forte. “We’re coming from a different perspective [than other digital publishers] because we’ve always been coming from a digital space with apps, games, and software, in addition to the publishing. When we see some of these apps that say that they are book apps but they have nothing to do with reading, that’s a concern. We don’t want the market to get confused, particularly for younger children’s digital experiences. There is a lot of confusion given the amount of content out there for children about what is truly a book for reading and what is a game.”
Some of this summer’s highlighted offerings include the Storia digital reading app, an all-inclusive marketplace for children’s content that carries the Scholastic brand. It works across the different platforms as a curation process for finding and enjoying digital app books.
“Storia is a very useful tool to help connect the right book with a child. It’s not the only tool that Scholastic has, because for ninety years we’ve been curating books for different ages, interests, and reading levels. We’ve been doing that largely in print, but now we’re doing it digitally. Storia is connected to a robust digital ecosystem that will provide that kind of access in a safe environment for parents, teachers, and kids to be able to match the right book with the particular child.”
Scholastic recently hired a larger ebook editorial staff and brought on Jenny Frost in the position of senior vice president of ebook strategy, a move that Forte cites as more evidence of Scholastic’s commitment to digital content development to improve reading ability and encourage a love of reading in students.
Digital Textbook Isn’t Taking Off, So Let’s Force Students to e-Read?
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Tom Malek, Vice President of Learning Solutions for textbook publisher McGraw-Hill’s higher education division, wrote a thought-provoking guest post for Forbes.com, which columnist Janet Novak shared with the full-disclosure statement that she is, herself, the mother of two college students. Malek’s post is an explanation of why he believes college students should be required to purchase digital textbooks.
Wait. Required? That’s interesting, since this post was published almost simultaneously with the news that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt may be filing for bankruptcy. Requiring college students to use ebooks is going to save the textbook industry?
Actually, that’s not Malek’s point. His post is actually exploring the conundrum of digital textbook adoption: if college students are so technologically inclined and are in the generation of students who grew up with computers in their classrooms from preschool and up, why do they still prefer print?
Many people have speculated that it comes down to price, and for many college students it does. Print textbooks can be resold after the semester for even a few dollars and used textbooks can be a huge savings. Other thrifty student simply loan and share textbooks between classmates and roommates, a system of, “You buy the math book, I’ll buy the English book, and we’ll share.”
But what Malek is suggesting is taking away the option to purchase anything other than ebooks; he’s also suggesting removing the option to share a textbook with a classmate by having the bursar’s office automatically bill the students for their digital textbooks when they enroll in the class (although the charge won’t appear until after the deadline to drop the class). Malek’s stance is that not enough students are purchasing ebooks to make it worth the publishers’ while to produce cost effective digital editions, so the only way to give publishers the incentive to produce lower cost ebooks is to force students to purchase them. He states that in the pilot programs where this has been implemented, the faculty members have been very pleased because now they know that all of their students have access to the book.
“While it’s taken significant advancements in technology to make the idea of an e-book even possible,” stated Malek in the Forbes post, “it’s taken similar amount of innovation on the part of many to bring them into the hands of students. Publishers and bookstores have done much to make this happen by switching to more flexible business models, but this shift really would not be possible without universities recognizing the incredible value that e-books can provide. By working together, we’re making progress toward a goal that’s far more important than driving adoption of e-books: making college more affordable and improving student performance.”
Unfortunately, forcing supply-and-demand by requiring students to buy a product isn’t the way to increase digital sales. If that were the case, all citizens could be forced to read on an e-reader and there would be no need to print a book ever again. The only honest way to encourage adoption of digital textbooks is to make e-versions superior to their print counterparts in terms of price, searchability, and annotation, something the publishing industry hasn’t done yet.
Some Hope for Library Digital Lending
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One of the most frustrating aspects of digital publishing is the current sad state of affairs in ebook lending. At a time when libraries are already struggling to survive within the confines of dwindling budgets and patron apathy, the Big Six publishers haven’t been very supportive of library lending, at least in their actions if not their sentiments.
All this time, Random House is the only Big Six publisher who makes its bestselling titles available to libraries without restrictions—such as HarperCollins’ 26-checkout-limit—but even that company came under fire last year for artificially raising the price on ebooks for libraries by nearly 300 percent.
Now, Hachette Group is experimenting with a limited population of libraries and patrons being allowed to have lending access to its titles, although it hasn’t disclosed where and which libraries.
“These pilot programs will help us learn more about library patrons’ interests, usage, and expectations,” Hachette said in a statement that was published on paidContent.org. “This information will help HBG devise the best strategy to reach the widest audience of e-book readers in libraries. We’ll have more to say once we have looked at the data from the pilots.”
ALA president Molly Raphael and several board members held a series of meetings with publishers at the beginning of this year, but this is the first great news for library lending to come about. Last week, Raphael met with several executives from Hachette Group, so hopefully this signifies that the talks are helping publishers overcome their fears of piracy and stagnant book sales in order to move forward on a larger scale.
eBook Review: City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare
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Verdict: 3 Stars
This fifth installment of Clare’s tremendously successful and well-loved series, The Mortal Instruments, has all that the first books have to offer: demon slaying, love triangles, evil super-villains bent on destroying the world, and boyfriends who have been possessed and turned into aloof clones of their former selves. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the premise of all The Mortal Instruments books.
The previous installment left off with an epic battle between the young Shadowhunters and the demon mother Lilith, who was trying to bring the evil Valentine’s son Sebastian back from the dead. She apparently succeeded only in dying but took both Sebastian and Jace with her, leaving the remaining Shadowhunters bewildered. Lost Souls picks up with the Clave’s decision that looking for Clary’s hunk boyfriend Jace is not a priority because finding Sebastian and stopping his reign of destruction is more important. It’s therefore up to the young Nephilim to find Jace, but they discover his soul has been irreversibly joined with Sebastian’s by Lilith’s pre-death ritual and that Sebastian is now controlling Jace; to up the stakes, killing one means killing the other.
How many times is Clary’s boyfriend supposed to become cold and distant only to reveal later that he was under a spell? More importantly, how many times is this supposed to happen before she dumps him? And really, Isabelle? You’re the hottest girl on the planet and a kick-butt Shadowhunter, but you’re STILL too scared to tell the geeky little vampire Simon how you feel about him? And would someone please stop letting these kids play too close to the spell books?
It seems kind of ironic that Clare’s career originally began with writing fan fiction; she was well-known for her Harry Potter fanfic and even some unfortunate resulting plagiarism accusations. But the point of fan fiction is that the characters from one literary world are so well-loved that the readers take it upon themselves to begin to write new story lines for the characters, presumably because they could not get enough from the original author’s own creations. I have to wonder if there isn’t a host of Mortal Instruments fanfic circulating under the radar in which readers have different story lines and plot twists for these characters because the author hasn’t yet filled the void for the readers.
Lost Souls did have its awesome moments and the dialogue is every bit what we’ve come to expect from a writer like Clare. It’s witty and edgy without throwing around tired, stereotypical teenager-speak. I loved the conversation in which Alec reveals his personal pain: His father actually asked him to explain what exactly had “turned him gay,” to which Simon offers, “Bitten by a gay spider?”
The writing is first-rate, but it would be great if something new would happen for once, especially since the author has left the door open for a book six that I vehemently hope is not just an even bigger helping of more of the same. The City of Lost Souls ebooks are available HERE for Kindle and HERE for Nook, as well as for other devices through various channels.
Waterstones and Amazon Team Up for UK Expansion
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Waterstones has just inked a deal with Amazon today! The UK bookseller intends on selling the Kindle branded e-readers in their retail shops and offer ebooks online via their website.
The digital revolution has not passed Waterstones by, and the company intends on transforming their retail experience. It wants to dramatically refurbishing the retail space in the coming months. Not only will the stores get a decor makeover, but also will be offering free Wi-Fi internet access, digital zones, and coffee shops.
The Waterstones deal with Amazon will allow the full line of Kindle e-Readers to be available in the retail stores. You will be able to get the Kindle 4th generation and the new Amazon Kindle Touch. The UK retailer will also incorporate a large selection of ebooks from Amazon on their very own website for customers to purchase.
This deal today comes as a bit of a surprise because Waterstones and Barnes and Noble were in negotiations on bringing in the Nook line of e-readers to the UK. Ever since the investment deal with Microsoft occurred, the largest bookstore chain in the USA has been rather quiet on plans for international expansion and instead will rely on MS to sell their books worldwide.
What comes as the biggest surprise is how Waterstones Managing Director James Daunt made some Anti-Amazon comments, “They never struck me as being a sort of business in the consumer’s interest. They’re a ruthless, money-making devil,” he said last summer. He then further lamented to the Telegraph last October, in which he described Amazon as “dispiriting” and “utterly utterly ruthless”. You can tell that Mr. Daunt does not really think much about Amazon… what changed? Today he announced, “At Waterstones, we are committed to improving our bookshops quite radically to offer the best possible book buying experience. It is a truly exciting prospect to harness also the respective strengths of Waterstones and Amazon to provide a dramatically better digital reading experience for our customers.”
Good e-Reader Week in Review – May 20th 2012
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During the last week a ton of news has come out with new devices getting ICS and rumors about an updated line of Kindle e-Readers.
Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight - When we reviewed the brand new Simple Touch with Glowlight last week, we discovered a new feature. There is a hidden web browser that you can use to access the internet via Wi-Fi. We also did a huge review of various 3rd party lighting options and discuss how they rate against the glow feature.
Should College Students Be Forced to Buy Digital Textbooks? - Forbes asked this very question and has a very good introspective on universities and colleges. Digital versions can save students up to 60% and the schools can make a hefty markup on each book sold from the publisher.
Bridgestone stops e-paper development – Bridgestone has been demonstrating its color e-paper technologies for a few years at various conferences and trade-shows. We have caught up with the representatives on many occasions and talked to Bridgestone’s major partners like Delta Electronics. Last week the company announced that it was getting out of the e-paper arena and leaving their partners to fend for themselves.
Plastic Logic Gets Out of the e-Reader Business – Plastic Logic has been working on e-reader and e-paper technology for the last few years. They never really gained any traction in the market and saw a very limited release of an e-reader in Russia. The company decided to stop manufacturing e-readers and plans on focus on developing their e-paper technology for other companies.
Jenny Lawson Speaks to Good e-Reader – Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, was at the Barnes and Noble Peachtree location in Atlanta to give a reading and sign copies of her New York Times bestseller, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. Her humorous memoir has held the #1 spot for four weeks now and Lawson has been on a nationwide book signing tour for several weeks as well. We caught up with her and she spoke to us about writing, her books, and more.
Harry Potter eBooks Come to Kobo – Kobo has just landed a deal for the seven new Harry Potter ebooks. Kobo customers across the globe will have access to them in many different languages, such as English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish at first, and more languages on the way. The books are available on the website now and it redirects you to the main Pottermore website for purchase. This was an excellent move by the company to tap into the millions of fans wanting to get these books in digital format.
Amazon Createspace Launched in Europe – Amazon has just launched their seminal self-publishing service Createspace in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe today. This will allow authors to publish their books and have them distributed all over Europe and North America. UK and European authors can now publish on Createspace and they can have their books, audiobooks, and digital content distributed in many different countries. This is a huge benefit for the local self-publishing scene and now makes digital publishing a bit easier. If you have any questions, check out our Amazon Europe frequently asked questions or contact Member Support.
Updated Android App Store Client – The Good e-Reader Android Market Client saw a massive update a few days ago! We augmented the app to work with all Android Phones and all Android Tablets! We fixed a ton of bugs and errors, and you can tap into an ecosystem with over a thousand apps. We are extremely proud to offer this free client and service to all of our readers that find their tablet has a lackluster selection of apps and games.
Kobo Touch on Sale for $89.99
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The Kobo Touch e-Reader is the latest generation device that has a full touchscreen display, and it is one of the better ones on the market. It currently supports many foreign languages, such as German, French, English, and many more. Shop e-Readers is now selling the Kobo Touch at a rock bottom rate of $89.99, which is $10 less than what you would pay at Chapters/Indigo.
You can purchase this device and have it shipped to any country in the world at this price! Click HERE for more information on it and if you are feeling flush, make a purchase!
Massive Updates for the Good e-Reader Android Client
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The Good e-Reader Android App Store client was officially updated today for both Android and the Blackberry Playbook! We have augmented our existing Android app so there is now an optimized mobile and new Honeycomb version. All of the new versions give you many new enhancements and features.
One of the main new elements of our store is that is now completely now optimized for mobile phones and tablets. We know a ton of people use their Kindle Fire, Kobo Vox and many other tablets. Our mobile version also has been updated that makes it look even better on your smartphones or Android tablets. You will get the best experience with Android 2.1 – 2.3 and 4.0. We have also created a brand new Honeycomb version for people who still have those.
One of the main new features we have introduced are fixes to Popular Apps and New Apps. In the past no matter what version of the client you had, it showed apps from both our Playbook and Android sections. We thought this confused many users and amended it so if you have the Android Client you will only see Android apps. We have also revised the way text is displayed in the App descriptions. It now maintains proper paragraph form and line spacing. Finally, we have added a new Splash screen image and added new enhancements to the auto update feature when an app you have as an update.
The Good e-Reader App Store features over 1500 apps for both Android and the Blackberry Playbook. You think of our app market as a veritable editors choice of the best apps on both platforms. Here at Good e-Reader we put a heavy emphasis on reading and news apps, but we have tons of games and other content too. Whenever a new version of an app is released we always are one of the first app markets to update our apps. Our Playbook App Market is currently rated the #1 store of its kind, as voted by Crackberry.
You can download the Mobile Android Client from Google Play HERE or from our web based store HERE. You can download our Honeycomb version from our App Store HERE and from Google Play HERE. Finally ou can download our official Playbook Client HERE.
Aluratek Partners with Getjar for CinePad line of Tablets
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A few days ago we announced that Aluratek was going to be releasing two new tablets that gives you Android 4.0 and some decent specs. Today the company announced its content distribution platform to get new apps on your device. It seems Getjar will be the platform of choice and will be bundled all on tablets that are shipping now.
Simon & Schuster Settles in Price Fixing Lawsuit
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Three of the five publishers named in the class-action lawsuit and the Department of Justice investigation and suit against Apple and Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins have already settled out of court with the DoJ, but today the judge on the case took another of those three publishers out of the class-action suit.
Simon & Schuster made a deal following HarperCollins and Hachette’s lead. Agreements have been reached with the attorneys general from the states involved in the suit and Judge Denise Cote took Simon & Schuster out of the proceedings. Those states that originated the legal workings were originally only sixteen, but more states joined in the complaints and soon brought the number to twenty-nine.
The terms of the settlements have not been disclosed and the publishers certainly aren’t talking, but some estimates claim that the alleged price fixing cost the reading consumers approximately $250 million, an amount that the lawsuits are hoping to come close to recovering.
So far, the only holdouts in these proceedings are Apple, Penguin Group, and Macmillan. Those three claim there was no wrongdoing and that the ebook industry’s switch to an agency model for pricing rather than the previously existing wholesale model was purely the result of the evolution of the industry. The plaintiffs, however, argue that there were secret meetings and deals made so that the defendants could edge out Amazon’s 90% share of the ebook market; since the switch to agency pricing, Amazon’s control of the market has dropped to sixty percent.
iRiver Story HD given to Science Fair Winner
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Every month we giveaway for a free e-reader and often they are used directly by the winner. A few months ago we awarded an iRiver Story HD Reader and it was given away to the winner of the Shidler Elementary in Oklahoma City Science Fair. Ryno Bones one of the teachers at the school filed this report.
“Some very interesting projects happened at the science fair this year. Our top winner experimented with layering different types of liquids. Second and third place prizes included gift certificates to the school book fair and we had four other students recieve gift certificates in a drawing.
Some of the coolest projects included a lava lamp made from oil, water, and alka-seltzer, dissolving candies in various substances, and the favorite of all the teachers, cakes cooked using eggs vs. egg substitute. In many instances the cleanup took longer than the demonstration, but everyone had a fantastic time.
Our school is an urban Title I school with 99% of students on Free and Reduced lunch program. We host a parent outreach reading night once a month, and this has been our highest turnout EVER! We are proud of all our fourth and fifth grade students and we had almost all of them in attendance. We hope this will be the first of many such events.”
Author Jenny Lawson on Social Media, Blogging
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Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, was at the Barnes and Noble Peachtree location in Atlanta to give a reading and sign copies of her New York Times bestseller, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. Her humorous memoir has held the #1 spot for four weeks now and Lawson has been on the nationwide book signing tour for several weeks as well.
Lawson spoke with GoodEReader in an interview about the importance of establishing an online presence through social media outlets and blogging, as well as the rising popularity of authors having blogs as a way to put more content in front of their readers.
Lawson will be speaking at BookExpo America next month and the GoodEReader team will be on location in order to provide coverage of both the publishing event and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) conference.
