New Kobo Tablets, Obama Responds to ABA, Battle of the Bands, and Friday Inspirational Photo

Industry News

Kobo is releasing several new tablets, designed with ebook readers in mind.

From Mashable:

"The new collection of devices, which are scheduled to hit stores on Oct. 16, includes the Kobo Arc 10HD, two Kobo Arc 7 tablets running Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) and the Kobo Aura with a 6-inch e-ink display.

"Many may say [the] tablet industry is crowded, but until now, no one has developed tablet experience for readers first," a Kobo executive told attendees. "People who download apps on tablets don't read daily, and do so more like once a week. We talked to some of our best customers, and they said tablets are generally multi-purpose first and e-readers second."

"To change this, the Kobo Arc tablets are designed specifically for readers. Instead of bombarding users with emails and notifications, the devices put a hold on distractions that typically prevent peaceful reading."


Last month the American Booksellers Association and others sent a letter to the White House after Obama's televised appearance promoting his economic recovery agenda at an Amazon fulfillment center. They raised issues about Amazon's predatory pricing and fight to avoid sales tax, along with other issues that hurt small businesses. They finally got a response.

From Publishers Weekly:

"In a wordy, form letter, with no mention of Amazon, President Obama replied to Steve Fischer, executive director of the New England Independent Booksellers Association, last weekend. He, or more likely a staffer, used the letter to highlight Obama's commitment to job creation and particularly to helping small businesses, hit hard by the economic recession, grow."

You can view the full letter at Publishers Weekly.


For fun!

Lee at Tossing it Out posted about a Battle of the Bands that happens every Friday, pitting two versions of song against each other.

My entry is Mama Weer All Crazee Now. It was originally recorded by Slade from the UK in 1972, it was later redone by two bands in 1984.

The first version came from the Irish band Mama's Boys. They never made it big in the US (although I have a couple of their albums and they're great) but they did an excellent cover of the song, incorporating both story and performance into the video. The actual song begins around the 1:20 mark:



Sadly, that version enjoyed only a month of air time before a bigger band with a bigger label muscled it off MTV. I couldn't find the original music video, but this is the song:



Yes, it's obvious which one I favor, but which one do you prefer?

And your Friday inspirational photo, which is available for purchase at my SITE:

Quebec Considers Fixing New Book Prices to Protect Small Bookstores

Consumers may be asked to pay higher prices to keep Quebec's small bookstores in business.

From The Montreal Gazette:

"Under the scheme, booksellers, whether big-box retailers or hole-in-the-wall independent bookstores, would all have to sell new books for a predetermined price during the first nine months after their release. Retailers that want to put certain titles on sale would be allowed to knock no more than 10 per cent off the price."

Small bookstores saw their business drop this past year while chain bookstores saw an increase. Proponents say this will save independent stores from giant chains and big-box retailers. Mexico and France already have such laws in place.

Some say it will have the opposite effect:

"However, critics say the proposal is not only futile but would actually kill book sales, especially of made-in-Quebec books. 

"Fixing prices and limiting discounts to 10 per cent would result in a 14.2-per-cent drop in book sales, while sales of Quebec titles would plummet by 17.6 per cent, the Institut économique de Montréal warns in a recent study. 

"Some independent booksellers say the measure constitutes undue government interference."

What's your opinion? Should the government interfere in consumer practices? Is this law only prolonging the inevitable?

Write.. Publish... Edit... and Stock Photos

This is my entry for Write... Publish... Edit...
Hosted by Denise at L'Aussie Writing.

I am combining my entry with one of my photos. Bear in mind I didn't have time to write a prose piece and it's been YEARS since I attempted anything poetic. Vacations usually imply summer, which means it's hot, so this is what I envisioned.

Dusty odors drift on the summer wave

Shafts crackle under the oppressive heat

Respite found in the retreating day

The golden light waving goodbye

I'm also happy to report that I have a lot more images up at my site for sale, including the one above. You can find them at my Spunk On A Stick site: Stock Photos I and Stock Photos II

Don't Lose Email and Address Book Information

This past weekend was the Great Computer Shuffle at our house. That's when my husband gets a new computer and I inherit his old one. We do this every three years and it usually involves the shuffling of three computers. (I have two on my desk.) Thankfully we'd replaced my oldest one at Christmas, so only one was shuffled.

I had backed up everything on my external hard drive in preparation. My husband even took the hard drive out of my old computer and put it in the new one, giving me two hard drives. (I have a C drive and an E drive.) All of my programs were already loaded on the new one, so all that needed to be transferred was my email information and Internet bookmarks.

We'd done it before during the last time we played the Great Computer Shuffle. I had about 22,000 emails from the past six years, which scared my husband even more than the thousands of names in my address book. The Internet bookmarks were transferred successfully, as was my address book. The problem started when it came to my emails though.

On the first try, it said they were all there, but only a sampling of them appeared between 2009 and 2011. Not good. My husband tried again. This time the range included 2012, but even less appeared. Frustrated, he removed the E drive, put it back in my old computer, and I deleted 20,000 emails, hoping that would solve the problem. I did check, and didn't see any that were really urgent.

Third time - more emails showed up, but only through May 2013. My husband finally concluded that there was a corrupt file. We'll have to put the drive back in the old computer so I can go through my mail and forward anything of importance to him, and he will forward once the drive is back in my new computer.

Now, we all know how important it is to back up our computer files - external hard drives, cloud storage, thumb drives, multiple computers, etc. How often do we think about our email though? I still had all of my contacts and had copied most of the vital information, and I'll be able to get back to those missing emails. But what if your entire computer corrupted? You wouldn't have access to anything.

Back up your address book and emails often, and send important emails to another address, preferably a web mail account. Any other tips for saving emails?

In the meantime, if you've sent me an email in the past few days, sorry. My computer ate it!