Oyster, a fledgling mobile service for Spotify-style on-demand books, has raised $3 million in funding led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Oyster, which is still a work in progress, will let users of its mobile app access, discover, and read an ever-growing range of titles and genres, all on your smartphone and all for a flat monthly fee, which it hasn't yet disclosed. In a blog post, the founders emphasize they'll focus a lot of their attention on the discovery aspect of Oyster to help readers finding new titles to read by considering all your existing sources of book recommendations: your friends, TV shows, role models, and algorithms. "When everyone has access to the same library, you can share and curate with confidence," they write. "Friends can read the same book in one-click, without having to make an additional purchase or hunt for a link to buy it." There are a handful of subscription-based models floating around, but their focus is usually on a niche selection of titles. Yesterday, Harper Collins announced it will start offering subscription-based business and leadership titles through e-learning company Skillsoft's on-demand training library. The TED Books app charges $14.99 for a three-month, six-mini-books plan that delivers short titles written by its conference speakers. But because so much of Oyster's mission is about helping its users discover new titles, it's naturally looking to offer as wide a range of genres, publishers, and authors as possible. That... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2012-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
Have you ever bought an app or game from a digital storefront, only for it to suddenly disappear and become inaccessible without warning? It’s both confusing and frustrating, which is why some governments are stepping in and hoping to make things clearer for consumers. Gavin Newsom,... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-10-11 19:19:30 UTC ]
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Steam appears to have started posting a notice in its shopping cart that purchases on its storefront are only for a license and not a game, according to a notice spotted by Engadget. It looks like an attempt by the company to get ahead of a new California law coming next year that forces... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-10-11 08:51:06 UTC ]
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A love of reading is easier to stoke when you have easy access to books, and there’s no easier way to do that than by getting your child this Kindle Paperwhite Kids that’s on sale for $115 on Amazon. That’s a solid 32% discount off its MSRP of $170. The Kindle Paperwhite Kids is pretty... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-10-01 13:44:32 UTC ]
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Do you like rip-roaring science fiction books? Do you like movies? Then you are in for a treat in, well, two years. Amazon MGM Studios just set a release date of March 20, 2026 for Project Hail Mary, according to Deadline. It’s based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name, which was one of our... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-04-19 17:44:40 UTC ]
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Japanese manga comic creator Akira Toriyama, best known for his Dragon Ball series that spawned widely popular films, video games and TV shows, died on March 1 from a blood clot in his brain, his production studio said on Friday. He was 68. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2024-03-08 11:56:02 UTC ]
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In talking about my debut story collection, House Gone Quiet, with friends and family, I’ve often found myself pitching the merits of the short story form itself. Due to habit or book marketing or a lack of exposure, it’s simply the case that most fiction readers who enter a bookstore are... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2023-12-19 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Kate Roberts considers the latest wave of chronic illness memoirs, which entwine the personal with the sociopolitical. | Lit Hub Memoir It’s a banger week for new books: Here are 28 out today. | The Hub 38 literary movies and TV shows to watch this fall (brought to you by writers who deserve... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-09-19 10:30:38 UTC ]
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Amazon just announced the impending launch of Fire TV Channels, allowing customers access to a wide variety of “premium, free content” on Fire streaming sticks, streaming boxes, and, of course, Fire-branded televisions. The company promises there will be no forced sign-ups or fees associated... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-05-01 23:00:56 UTC ]
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Streaming services are getting more expensive, and it doesn’t help that it seems like all the good stuff is spreading out a lot more. If you’re feeling the cable-style pinch of increasing prices and ever-expanding subscriptions, you should check out this deal on Hulu. You can get access to the... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2022-11-23 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Is there anything you can't find at a library? These 10 scenes from horror movies and TV shows prove that libraries save lives. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-07-25 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Los Angeles’ Eso Won Books has announced that they will be shutting their doors at the end of the year. Since the 1980s, this independent bookstore has dedicated itself to celebrating the voices of Black writers. They are known for their large selection of books on every subject relating to... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-06-14 15:53:11 UTC ]
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Amazon is bringing two mobile games to its subscription-based entertainment platform for children. Known as Amazon Kids+, the $2.99 per month service has served as sort of a one-stop shop for kid-friendly books, TV shows, movies, games and more. The first game, Super Spy Ryan is a multiplayer... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-04-14 13:00:13 UTC ]
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The Silent Era of cinema was perhaps its most equitable with both hearing and hearing-impaired viewers able to enjoy productions alongside one another, but with the advent of "talkies," deaf and hard-of-hearing American's found themselves largely excluded from this new dominant entertainment... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-01-29 16:30:45 UTC ]
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I’ve recently been enjoying season two of the HBO Max series Love Life. I enjoyed season one because it felt like a combination of an extended rom-com and listening to someone talk about their first dates, two genres I enjoy. Season two is even better, because it stars William Jackson Harper... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-11-05 19:27:36 UTC ]
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On Tuesday, Dina Fernandez, a Cuban YouTuber who goes by the name Dina Stars, was doing an interview on Todo Es Mentira, a Spanish TV show, at her home in Havana. She heard a knock on the door. Stars told Marta Flich, the show’s host, that state security officials were outside. As she went to... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-07-16 12:30:19 UTC ]
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DC Comics announced that DC Universe, a video on demand streaming service offering DC films, TV shows, comics, and online community, will be transformed into a digital comics subscription service in January 2021. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Audible's push into original content now includes a team-up with a company best-known for its comic books and TV shows. The Amazon-owned audiobook service has struck a deal with Skybound, the team behind The Walking Dead, to create multiple Audible... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2019-08-13 18:43:00 UTC ]
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The Society of Authors (SoA) has renewed its calls for TV companies to pay and credit historians and authors for their research work after a rise in complaints from members. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Joining André Deutsch in the late 80s, I saw a great editor at the top of her game, tirelessly working to bring good writing to perfectionIndependent publishing was at a dangerous moment in 1987 when I was ushered at the age of 26 into a lowly place in the publicity department of André Deutsch... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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