@tinahender Congrats to @rcgordon for MARATHON, @ebookarchitects, and all the other QED recipients! #dbw #eprdctn
@eBookArtisans I feel bad for people who upload a Word doc to Kindle and think it’s fine, when really it’s badly designed and riddled with errors. #eprdctn
Brian O’Leary talks with O’Reilly about DRM, suggests data is not good enough to determine the impact of DRM, and that it doesn’t help in the fight against piracy anyway.
Vook gets $5.25 million in funding.
Scribd gets $13 million in funding.
Kindle Singles released.
Amazon now selling more Kindle books than paperbacks
February
Apple rejects Sony’s eBook app for iPad/iPhone because of policy that does not allow apps to download files purchased outside the Applk store. This has implications for every other eBook app on iOS, inlcuding Kindle.
Official response from Apple: The Amazon app and other eBook apps will have to comply.
Harper Collins puts a cap of 26 downloads on library eBooks. More stupid moves by companies trying to shore up dying business models.
Random House announces that they are switching to the agency pricing model.
March
Apple announces the iPad2
Amazon launches the Amazon Appstore with Android apps.
Federal judge rejects the Google Books settlement, says the agreement “would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners.”
Amanda Hocking, who many thought would be the darling of self-publishing, signed a 7-figure deal with St. Martin’s Press for four books.
MPS Limited announces ePub 3 services… before ePub 3 is released…
April
Apple files a patent for a hybrid eInk/LCD screen. Interesting idea.
InDesign CS5.5 released. Better support for ePub exporting.
Amazon to offer library checkouts.
May
iFlow Reader shuts down because of Apple’s new policies on in-app purchases.
Amazon officially sells more Kindle eBooks than print books.
Kobo introduces new touchscreen eReader.
B&N releases its new NOOK, a touchscreen model, no 3G.
June
Apple changes an important point in its terms of service, allowing apps to download content that has not been purchased through the in-app purchasing. Apps that actually sell content must still use in-app purchasing, and links to outside stores are still not allowed.
J.K. Rowling will sell Harry Potter eBooks from her new website pottermore.com.
Amazon has dropped California Affiliates program because of tax issues.
July
Borders liquidates.
Kindle iPad app updated; store links removed, newspapers and magazines added. Other apps updated to remove stores, too.
Android Market update includes eBooks.
August
Apple and the Agency 5 have been hit with a class action lawsuit for price fixing and collusion. About time…
Digital Book World announces the newly updated Publishing Innovation Awards, and the QED (Quality, Excellence, Design) seal for eBooks. This is a much-needed program for the future of eBooks.
LibreDigital acquired by RR Donnelley.
Another major class action lawsuit against Apple and publishers, this one including Random House.
Steve Jobs steps down from Apple CEO, stays on as Chairman.
Amazon quietly releases a fixed layout format. No information on how these books are made, if they are PDFs or HTML-based, or about how to get titles up for sale with Amazon in this format.
Sony PRS-T1 spotted on a Dutch retail site. Interesting design. Possible Android backend?
September
3M invests in Pixel Qi, makers of the dual-mode LCD displays.
Kobo Vox reader leaked via the FCC.
Amazon releases three new devices. Lowest-priced device changes the game dramatically ($80?!?!). Kindle Fire has some great specs and a price point that is below the expected range.
B&N stock plunges.
Apple vs. Amazon? No, its Apple and Amazon vs. Everyone Else
October
ePub 3 becomes final specification.
Kobo releases the Kobo Vox. More of a competitor of the Nook Color than the Kindle Fire. Has access to the native Android OS, which makes it a decent $200 Android tablet.
Amazon announces the Kindle Format 8, with support for HTML 5 and CSS 3, fixed layout, comic books, and many other features.
November
Kindle Lending Library launches. Amazon Prime membership and a Kindle device (not app) required. Small number of books available at launch, but more to come.
Sony dropped the price on the PRS-T1 (finally).
B&N releases the Nook Tablet. Not much different, really, and they are touting it as a HD-video device but they don’t sell the video…
Japanese company Rakuten buys Kobo.
Kobo Touch with Offers to sell for $100.
Amazon reportedly planning to ship 6 million Kindle Fires this quarter.
Penguin has suspended availabilty of their new eBooks from the Overdrive library.
December
EU opens up an investigation of Apple and five publishers for price fixing.
Predictions
2011: We did pretty well
Matt: International growth, improvements in digitization and QA
Chris: Improvements at Kobo
Toby: Major color reflective e-ink style device
Joshua: Yes, international
Kindle Fire 2 - large screen
Kindle Fire 3 — better processor — end of the year
iPad mini
Sony gets less important
Children’s books will become better, much more robust on B&N and Kindle
ePub 3 will not be implemented across Apple, B&N, Sony, and Kobo until September
A look at Amazon’s business practices “Over the past week I’ve spoken to many people in and around the book business, and no-one has a good word to say about the e-tailer, even though some admit that as a business it is peerless. Amazon doesn’t just want to eat our lunch, is the theory, it also wants to cook it and deliver it to us piping hot for a cost that is less than it would be if we did it ourselves.”
NCX playOrder help - 1. @cdcasey requested that Grepwin be able to use RegEx to generate a sequence of numbers. Is this counting RegEx specific to Grepwin or can it be used anywhere that RegEx can be run? 2. An ePUBSecrets post has some scripts for both Windows and Mac users
@MatthewDiener: For those who don’t know it, ePubPupil is quite the artist. The icons of @PenguinPowered, @cdcasey, and @jtallent are all her work. #ePrdctn
Posted on November 22nd, 2011 by admin | Comments Off
We had someone ask about the gear we use for our sound setup. We feed everything through a mixer including any devices for soundboards and record the output on a pc using audacity. Here is the hardware:
Posted on November 22nd, 2011 by admin | Comments Off
This is showing off some Cool SVG Text working in a Read Aloud book for iBooks. Our Architect, Bridget, put a lot of work into making this look beautiful!
