Month: February 2013

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln! An E-Writing Tablet & A High Tech Toilet

Linda Reimer

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln! Today is the 204th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky and was elected the 16th President of the United States in 1861. He is most famous for being President during the Civil War, signing the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 which formally put and end to slavery in the United States and, unfortunately, being assassinated by the actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

And if you haven’t ever checked it out the official website of the President of the United States has a neat section on all the presidents and first ladies of the United States that offers a brief bio of each president and first lady.

Here’s a link to the section on the presidents:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents

And here’s a link to the section on first ladies:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies

An E-Writing Tablet: If you’re of a certain vintage you’ll remember growing up and having a writing tablet kept near the family phone so you could write down information and grocery lists as the need arose and maybe even stick notes to the refrigerator with those alphabet magnets everyone used to use. Tablets of paper eventually gave way for the half cork board half white board boards that went up in kitchens all over the country and allowed your mom to note “Pick up milk & bread,” “Call the dry cleaner,” “pick up the orchestra tickets” or “Pete, mow the grass after school! And today even the old white board-cork board has become obsolete because now you can buy an LCD note board which will allow you to easily write down to do lists for the whole family to see and just as easily allow you to delete old notes and add new ones! This new type of electronic writing tool is the Boogie Board 8.5 Inch JOT LCD which allows you to write on the surface of the screen with a pen-like stylus and essentially write digital notes and reminders. The eWriter costs $39.99 and can be purchased via Amazon.com.

Here’s a link to a short 7gadgets.com article that offers additional information about the eWriter:

http://www.7gadgets.com/2013/02/12/jot-lcd-ewriter/71178

And here’s a link to the version product page for the Cyan version of the eWriter now for sale at $29.99 on the Amazon website:

http://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-Inch-Writing-Tablet/dp/B005DEID5C/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1360699974&sr=8-7&keywords=ewriter

A High Tech Toilet: And you’re probably thinking “A high tech toilet…really?” But yes indeed, in the midst of the current high tech revolution that is transforming our lives (not that it hasn’t already!) there is indeed a high tech toilet that you can purchase!  Those crafty plumbing savvy folks at Kohler have come up with a new type of toilet that has a touch screen display. This new toilet is called the Kohler Numi and the touch screen display of the toilet offers you options to, among other things, have the lid retract or extend, have music play, turn on lighting, heat the toilet seat and even start a self cleaning cycle!  All of that sounds cool even when we’re talking about a toilet but since high tech toilets are rather a new thing – the price is correspondingly higher than that of your usual Kohler toilet. The list price for the Numi model is currently $6, 390! However, somewhere in the near future I am sure this type of usual but now high-tech household item will be found in most houses – touch screen display and all!

Here’s a link to a CoolestGadgets.com article on the new Numi with the appropriately simple title of A High Tech Toilet:

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20130211/high-tech-toilet/

And here’s a second link to the control (as in about the touch screen display features) page for the Numi on the Kohler website:

http://www.kohler.com/numi/#control.html

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Presidents. The White House. Online.  Accessed February 12, 2103.

Alison. (2013, February 11) A High Tech Toilet. CoolestGadgets.com. Online.

Control. Numi. Kohler. Online. Accessed February 12, 2013.

First Ladies. The White House. Online. Accessed February 12, 2013.

Ralcua. (2013, February 12). JOT LCD eWriter. 7 Gadgets. Online. 

Microsoft Surface Pro & YouTube Launching & Western Channel

Linda Reimer

Microsoft Surface Pro: The Microsoft Surface Pro tablet went on sale over the weekend. And this tablet is the sibling of the Microsoft Surface RT tablet which went on sale last fall. The two largest differences between the tablets are that A. this tablet runs a full version of Windows 8 so you can install any new or old Windows software on it that you like and B. because this tablet is a higher end one having more of the proverbial bells and whistles it is more expensive. The Microsoft Surface RT (that is the lower end tablet) costs $499 for the 32 GB version and $599 for the 64 GB version and the new Microsoft Surface Pro tablet (the one with the extra bells and whistles) costs $899 for the 64 GB version and $999 128 GB version. And you’ll probably be hearing in the news that the 128 GB version of the Surface Pro has sold out in stores and on the Microsoft website – and this may be due more to Microsoft shipping a small initial batch of the tablets to stores than that there is a huge demand for the tablet. Although having said that – people in the business world may really like the Surface Pro since it really is a combo tablet and laptop (if you buy the attachable keyboard that Microsoft sells for it that is) and it lighter than most laptops at 1.5 pounds.

Here’s a link to a USA Today story, titled Microsoft Surface Pro Review, which offers more info on the Surface Pro:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2013/02/05/microsoft-surface-pro-review/1891757/

And another link to a second review from the New York Time’s tech guru David Pogue titled Microsoft Surface Pro Works Like A Tablet And A PC:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/technology/personaltech/microsofts-surface-pro-works-like-a-tablet-and-a-pc.html?pagewanted=all

YouTube Launching & Western Channel: This Wednesday (2-13-13) YouTube will be launching a new channel for Country & Western music fans. YouTube is partnering with Nashville artists and producers to include original content for the new channel which will be called “Country Now.” The channel will feature interviews, performance clips, new shows and links to other country and western content.

Here’s a link to a USA Today story on the subject titled YouTube To Launch Country Music Channel:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/02/05/youtube-to-launch-country-music-channel/1894791/

And if you’d like to bypass the article and just skip to the channel itself – here’s a link to the webpage of Country Now:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CountryNowTV

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Baig, E. (2013, February 5). Baig: Microsoft Surface Pro packs a punch. USA Today. Online.

Pogue, David. (2013, February 6). It’s a Tablet. No, It’s a PC. Surface Pro Is Both. New York Times. Online.

White, Jaquetta. (2013, February 6). YouTube to launch country music channel, USA Today. Online. 

Digital Magazines Sales Starting To Take Off

Linda Reimer

Digital magazine sales are still a small slice of the magazine pie – less than 3% of total magazine subscriptions are currently digital subscriptions. However, digital magazine sales are increasing and some titles have seen a huge increase in the number of digital subscriptions they’ve sold in the last year – and that is where the stats get interesting and impressive! And when you look at the sales rate of individual titles and see the double and even triple digit increase in digital sales!

Magazines that have seen double-digit increases in their digital sales over the last year include:

US Weekly with a 40.8% increase

Esquire with a 41.7% increase

Cosmo with a 37.2% increase

The New Yorker with a 66.7% increase

Vanity Fair with a 47.6% increase

OK! With a 86.7% increase

& Glamour with a 56.8% increase

And even more impressive are the few titles that have seen triple digital growth in their digital sales in the last year and they include:

Readers Digest with a 248.8% increase

Star with a 297% increase

& Taste of Home with a 243.9% increase

And all of that shows the great reading shift that is going on as the bulk of reading material most people consume transitions from print to digital – so I think that is both interesting and cool both from a where-we-are-at-this-point-in-history standpoint and from an I-like-technology-standpoint!

Here’s a link to a PaidContent article, titled Digital Magazine Sales Are Still Tiny Overall But Titles Like Cosmo See Big Growth, that offers more information on the subject:

http://paidcontent.org/2013/02/07/digital-magazine-sales-are-still-tiny-overall-but-titles-like-cosmo-see-big-growth/

Have a great weekend!

Linda R.

References

Owen, Laura. (2013, February 7). Digital magazine sales still tiny overall, but titles like Reader’s Digest see huge growth. PaidContent. Online. 

Aereo’s Streaming TV Service & Why It Is Definitely Not A Favorite With Cable Companies

Linda Reimer

Aereo is a company that streams basic TV content to subscribers* from its servers to any mobile device a subscriber owns. Aereo does this by actually having a tiny antenna and DVR assigned to each customer and this allows customers to watch video content on any Internet connecting device they have at any time. The company gets those over the air signals that you have also traditionally been able to use to tune in via a TV antenna attached to your TV– ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox & PBS – and then sends the HD signals they receive to the miniature antenna & DVR combo set assigned to each customer and then the customer is allowed to watch any TV content from those networks on any of his or her Internet connecting devices. So the customer then has the ability to watch any shows played on those networks at any time for a small subscription fee that actually starts at a dollar a day for a day pass and then goes up in price to a maximum of $80 for an annual subscription to the service.

And needless to say the fact that consumers can pay $80 a year to receive HD reception for all the content on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox & PBS when cable companies would like them to pay that amount or more each month for one of their cable bundles of channels – is not going over well with those cable companies. In fact last year Aereo won a court case that broadcasters in Manhattan had brought against the company – the first legal hurdle but certainly not the last as the cable industry tries its best to hang on to its outdated, but profitable, bundled channel subscriptions business model.

Aereo’s CEO Chet Kanojia who has worked in the cable industry for years talks a great talk about the service as the expression goes! He has discussed in an interview why the Aereo service is A. Legal and B. Why it is the future of TV in that it allows customers to watch TV when and where they want and a reasonable price without forcing those customers to pay through the proverbial nose for a bundle of TV Channels most of which they aren’t interested in watching.

Here’s a link to a Gigaom article, titled Aereo’s big bet to break the TV industry: CEO Chet Kanojia explains, which features an interview with Mr. Kanojia and some more in-depth back ground info on the Aereo service:

http://gigaom.com/2013/02/07/aereos-big-bet-to-break-the-tv-industry-ceo-chet-kanojia-explains/

And a second article on the subject from CNN titled Aereo: Streaming TV startup at center of media storm:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/07/technology/innovation/aereo/

And a third link is to the Aereo website just in case you’d like to read more information from the horse’s mouth itself – as the expression goes!

https://aereo.com/how-it-works

Have a great day!

Linda R.

*Right now the Aereo service is only available in New York City, where it debut last year. It is coming to 22 more cities in the U.S. shortly.

References

How it Works. (Accessed 2013, February 7). Aereo. Online. 

Pepitone, Julianne. (2013, February 7). Aereo: Streaming TV startup at center of media storm. CNN. Online.

Roberts, Jeff John. (2013, February 7). Aereo’s big bet to break the TV industry: CEO Chet Kanojia explains. Gigaom. Online

Why You Can’t Find Some Bestselling E-Books @ Public Libraries

Linda Reimer

The answer to the question of “Why you can’t find some bestselling e-books in public libraries (or via public libraries online digital catalogs) has several aspects to it but three points rise head and shoulders above the rest.

Firstly, some publishers, including Simon & Schuster, simply will not sell e-books to public libraries – period. For example, if you’d like to read the e-book Team of Rivals by Doris Goodwin, which is indeed published by Simon & Schuster, you won’t find it in the STLS Digital Catalog because Simon & Schuster won’t allow us to purchase a copy for the Digital Catalog!*1

Secondly, the prices some publishers charge for the e-books they sell to public libraries are more than triple the list price of the hardcover versions of the same books. For example, the new book My Beloved World by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has a hardcover list price of $27.95 and the e-book version available for consumers currently costs $14.99 via Amazon and $12.99 via Barnes and Noble. And guess how much it costs public libraries to purchase a copy? Does an e-book cost public libraries $12.99 or14.99? No not even close! The publisher Knopf Double (an offshoot of Random House) charges public libraries $83.85 for that same title! So the publishing company wants public libraries to pay $68.86 more than the $14.99 price currently being charged by Amazon for that same e-title. I’m all for companies’ making a profit but $83.85 is a really steep price to charge public libraries for a book that costs consumers, in both e-book and print formats, less than fifteen dollars.

And thirdly, in a word ownership! Or to be more precise the lack of ownership of digital content – most people do not realize that e-books (and e-videos, e-music titles and e-audio books) are being sold in a different way than traditional formatted items. For example, if you buy a print book, DVD, music CD or audio book on CD – you bought and you own it. You can sell that item later, loan it to your sister, your mother or grandfather, keep the book for 50 years and pass it along to your granddaughter as a cherished item and even recycle that bestseller that has been read by so many friends and family members that it is falling apart.

In contrast, the way e-books and other digital content are being sold today…

Well that can be summed up in a word too – “licensed.”

Currently most user end agreements for both e-books purchased by individuals and by libraries state that the purchaser is being granted a license to access the e-book or other digital content. So you can’t lend most e-books or other e-content to your mother, sister or best friend to read, and you can’t re-sell e-books because of course you don’t own them. And theoretically, since you’ve licensed the content the publishing company can revoke that license and you as the licensee probably are not going to be able to transfer the e-books you’ve acquired over a number of years to your granddaughter via your will; because again; you don’t own the e-books.

If you consider those three points you’ll understand why some of the new and popular e-books you’d like to read are not available in our Digital Catalog.

And perhaps needless to say The American Library Association and a number of other organizations*2 that value the traditional First Sale Doctrine that applies to printed books but not currently to e-books and other e-content have started a lobby group titled The Owners’ Right Initiative whose motto regarding digital content is “You bought it. You own it. You have a right to re-sell it!”

And having said all of that here are two links to short FYI type articles on this subject from The Digital Book World site:

Article 1 is titled E-Book Dispatches from 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting:

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/the-real-cost-of-ebooks-for-libraries/

And article 2 is titled The Real Cost of Ebooks for Libraries:

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/e-book-dispatches-from-2013-ala-midwinter-meeting/

And a third and fourth related links to the official definition of what First Sale Doctrine means in the United States courtesy of the U.S. Copyright Office (Code S 109) and a more accessible explanation offered by The Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Here’s the U.S. Copyright Office link to Section 109 of the U.S. Copyright Laws:

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#109

And the link to the more accessible explanation of First Sale Doctrine offered by the EFF:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/12/first-sale-under-siege-if-you-bought-it-you-should-own-it

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Digital Book Wire. (2013, February 5). The Real Cost of Ebooks for Libraries. DBW. Online.

Inouye, Alan. (2013, February 6.) E-book Dispatches from 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting. DBW. Online.

Mcksherry, Corynne. (2012, December 23). 2012 in Review: First Sale Under Siege — If You Bought It, You Should Own It. Electronic Frontier Foundation: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World. Online.

Limitations on exclusive rights: Effect of transfer of particular copy or phonorecord.  United States Copyright Office. (Accessed 2013, February 6). Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code: Section 109. U.S. Copyright Office. Online.

*1. Public libraries have found a loop hole in this procedure– while we can’t purchaseSimon & Schuster e-books for patrons to download to their Kindles, Nooks, iPads etc. We can purchase them through Barnes & Noble for our circulating Nooks. So if you don’t see a bestselling book in the STLS Digital Catalog that is published by Simon & Schuster – like Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (the book is the basis for the movie Lincoln) – ask the staff – you can make a request and we can purchase a copy of the e-book title at the e-book price listed on the Barnes & Noble website and you’ll be able to read it on one of our circulating e-reader – not your e-reader unfortunately; but you will have access to the title as an e-book.

*2. Here’s a list of all the groups that belong to the Owners’ Rights Initiative as taken from their website. The link to the website follows the list.

ORI Members:

American Free Trade Association

American Association of Law Libraries

American Library Association

Association of Service and Computer Dealers International and the North American Association of Telecommunications Dealers (AscdiNatd)

Association of Research Libraries

Computer and Communications Industry Association

Chegg

CXtec

eBay

Etsy

Goodwill Industries

Home School Legal Defense Fund (HSLDA)

Impulse Technology

International Imaging Technology Counsel (ITC)

Internet Commerce Coalition

Network Hardware Resale

Overstock

Powell’s Books

Quality King Distributors

Redbox

United Network Equipment Dealers Association (UNEDA)

XS International

http://ownersrightsinitiative.org/about/

 

Why You Should Consider Office 365 Instead Of Office 2013 & New Dyson Wash & Dry Faucets

Linda Reimer

Why You Should Consider Office 365 Instead Of Office 2013: Microsoft launched its new Office Suite last week. And as I mentioned last week there are two versions: a traditional desktop version you can install on PCs via disc or download and a new web based version that resides in the cloud. And to translate that computerese what that fancy terminology means is that there is one version of Microsoft Office, called Microsoft Office 2013, which is the traditional style software that is paid for via a one time only payment and then is downloaded to a PC either via a installation disc or a download from an online vendor like Amazon. You can then use that traditional version of Microsoft Office only on one computer and you don’t get new software features until you upgrade to the next version of Office.  The Office 2013 Home & Student edition retails for $140 and includes the following software: Word, Excel, PowerPoint & OneNote.

In contrast, the second version of the new Microsoft Office Suite for the home, called Office 365 Home Premium, is a web (cloud) based version which is a subscription service. You pay a yearly subscription fee and you can access this cloud version of Office on up to 5 PCs.  The Office 365 Home Premium edition costs $99 per year (or $9.99 per month) and includes the following software: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access & Publisher. In addition, if you subscribe to Office 365 (The Home Premium edition) your software will be updated with any new bells or whistles (AKA software features) Microsoft implements during the year to make the software work better and/or to offer you more options as to what you can do with the software. So if you choose the subscription version of Office you get more software which actually costs less than the traditional version, continual updates so your software is never out-of-date and always has all the latest features and you can put the software on five computers instead of just one.

Also of note is that the Office 365 Home Premium software is comparable to the more expensive traditional disc or download version of Office called Microsoft Office Professional which also has all the software included with Office 365 – but at a much higher price – it costs $399 for the Professional version of Office that you can pick up at Staples or Best Buy. And for $399 you could pay for a 4 year cloud subscription to Office 365 Home Premium and have that software on all the computers you own* and always have the latest version of the Microsoft Office Suite at your finger tips. So if you’re thinking of upgrading your version of Office you might want to consider the new cloud version called Office 365!

Here’s a link to a PC World article on the subject titled Why Office 365 is a Better Deal Than Office 2013:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026710/why-office-365-is-a-better-deal-than-office-2013.html

New Dyson Wash & Dry Faucets: I came across a cool article today on the tech section of the BBC website. The article discuses how the British Dyson company has just come out with a new faucet called the Air Blade Tap that will allow you to run hot and cold water and to access a built in dryer built right into the tap. So you’ll be able to wash and dry your hands via these new Air Blade Taps which are currently being sold in the U.K. for the rather steep price of 1,000 British pounds which works out to about $1, 566 American Dollars. The Taps will go on sale in the United States sometime later this year. And although the price has to come down quite a bit before I’ll be installing one of these units in my house – I love the idea of it! Imagine never having to use hand towels again – just being able to wash your hands and blow them dry with cool air by standing in front of your sink!

Here’s the link to the BBC article on those cool new Taps otherwise known as faucets:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21323365

Have a great day!

Linda R.

*Assuming you own 5 computers or less …

References

Bradley, Tony. (2013, January 31). Why Office 365 is a better deal than Office 2013. PC World. Online.

(2013, February 4) Dyson launches all-in-one hand-drying Airblade water tap. BBC News: Technology: Online. 

Tablets Selling Furiously & Why This Is A Very Exciting Thing!

Linda Reimer

Tablet shipments rose 75% in the last quarter of 2012 to 52.5 from 29.9 million in 2011. Tablets are now selling at half the rate of PCS. And tablet sales are expected to further soar in the next three years and actually overtake PC sales. And those stats shows that tablets and Smartphones are well on their way to replacing desktops and laptops as the primary way people connect to the Internet. And I find the fact that tablets are selling so furiously while PC sales are crawling along a very interesting one; because it shows a fundamental shift in the way people consume information and media and communicate with each other. For just as the rapid adoption of Smartphones that has occurred in last five and half years (since the iPhone first went on sale in 2007) illustrates a major shift in how people connect to the Internet so too the quickening rate of tablet adoption by consumers is creating a second and larger wave of what we might call the evolution of global 24/7/365 connectivity; that is the ability of people from all walks of life and from all parts of the globe to access the Internet and communicate with others from just about anywhere they are in the world at any time of the day or night.

And the idea that anyone from anywhere in the world will be able to easily access the global information and communications network of the Internet in the near future is a revolutionary idea and a very exciting one! The increasing global connectivity network of the Internet means that more people than ever before will have the opportunity to gain knowledge and learn and communicate with others – even those people that live in isolated regions. And taking that last idea further, the fact that more people than ever before can obtain knowledge and communicate with others via the Internet translates into the fact that more people than ever before can be creative and have more of an opportunity than ever before to fully realize their personal potential. Thus we might wind up with the greatest novelist of the 21st century being a person who grew up poverty in a village in the northwest corner of India and who managed to get her early writings noticed by people and publishers by posting them online. We might find that a phenomenal educator who will transform the American educational system is the daughter of migrant workers and got started on her education by accessing the Internet at public libraries throughout the south western United States. We might see the greatest chef of the 21st century coming from Nigeria and offering his popular cooking show only over the Internet* to those of us who like to cook (and adding some literal new spices to our lives in the process) and we might find that one of the greatest composers of this century is the son of a  widowed hotel cook who comes from a small town in Peru and yet was able to hear the works of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and other great classical composers by listening to the London based radio station Classic FM via the TuneIn Radio app on his iPad; and then subsequently composing and recording works on his iPad and getting those early compositions on the Internet for people, including record company executives, to hear.

And I could go on and on but I’ll get off my soap box now! I think I made my point as to why I find the combo of the Internet and mobile technology so exciting – it isn’t just the technology itself that is cool it is what we can do with it via access to the Internet. And how the tool of the Internet will continue to have an even more democratizing impact on people across the globe as time marches on and more and more people have the opportunity to, as the old army slogan, goes be all they can be because they can gain knowledge and communicate with others via Internet access offered on mobile devices. Now that is exciting!

And here are links to two of the many news stories I read online last week regarding the increasing ferocity of tablet sales:

The first article is from the Gigaom site and is colorfully titled Who Tablet Shipments Now More than Half That of the PC – here’s the link:

http://gigaom.com/2013/01/31/whoa-tablet-shipments-now-more-than-half-that-of-the-pc/

And the second article is from the Wall Street Journal Digits blog and is titled Amid PC Woes Tablet Shipments Jump 75% – here’s the link:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/01/31/amid-pc-woes-tablet-shipments-jump-75/

And having waxed on about the benefits of Internet access from the top of my soap box I’ll get off it now and wish everyone a good Sunday afternoon!

Linda R.

*I believe the streaming of video content from the Internet to portable devices and televisions will eventually become the norm and replace the current media business model of cable companies offering bundled content to consumers at high prices – but then that is the subject of a blog posting all by itself!

References

Cai, Debbie. Amid PC Woes, Tablet Shipments Jump 75%. Wall Street Journal: Digits blog. Online.

Tofel, Kevin. (2013, January 31). Whoa: Tablet shipments now more than half that of the PC. Gigaom. Online.