Sep 05
Back in April we brought you a device that researchers at Purdue University
     |
Aug 16
Benches are just benches, until a huge red clip is attached to one end of it. Then it becomes a Ruilbank, which is Dutch for “barter bench.”
Essentially, they’re there to hold some reading material in place. Whether it’s a book or a magazine or a newspaper, this trusty red clip will keep it in place.
It’s a project by Pivot Creative to get people reading more – and to pass on good reads. From July 28th to September 28th, nine locations areas around Amsterdam will have benches supplied with different reading material from various sponsors, including newspaper Het Parool and the city’s public library.
Passersby are free to read, take, or barter the reading material with something else when they come across it.
Wouldn’t it be fun if someone did a similar thing on our side of the planet?
[via Pop Up City]
Jul 29
This summer, ten small libraries mysteriously appeared throughout New York City’s Lower East Side and East Village. But who paid for them? Who designed them? And what was the point? In a short film published today, the creators finally answer our many questions about how the Little Free Library came to be.
| |
Jul 19
You can’t always be there to read your child a story, especially if you work the night shift sometimes. But that’s no reason to miss story time with your kids.
Sparkup Reader can help you still be there to read the story aloud for your tots, even though you might not be physically there. How? By recording your voice.
You could use a conventional recorder, but you won’t be able to work out the timing of your child as he or she flips through the pages. The Sparkup Reader is smart in the sense that it has a built-in camera that snaps and saves an image of the book that it’s attached to. This allows it to recognize the book and play the clips that were recorded for it. Not only that, but it recognizes the page, too, so it doesn’t matter if your child skips a few pages or starts reading the book somewhere in the middle.
The Sparkup Reader has enough memory to store 250 minutes of audio – or about 50 typical storybooks. It retails for $50(USD).
[via Gizmag]
Jul 18
The New York Times Leap Motion app: for all the news that’s fit for gestures (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Few of us reading the morning news enjoy putting our greasy hands on a tablet or newspaper just to flip through articles. With the newly unveiled New York Times app for the Leap Motion Controller, we won’t have to. The release lets news hounds navigate stories (and ads) through a unique interface optimized for touch-free gestures. Both Mac and Windows versions of the NYT app will be available in the Airspace store on July 22nd, the same day Leap Motion ships to customers. More importantly, the app will be free — at least at launch, readers won’t run into the usual paywall. If the prospect of contact-free news has you intrigued, there’s a video demo available after the break.
Filed under: Peripherals, Software
Source: New York Times Idea Lab
Jul 15
Whether work has you always traveling, or you’re just tired of reading Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie to your kids every single night, the Sparkup will take over your bedtime story reading duties if you’re not available, or just don’t want to do it.
| |
Jul 10
3000 Books in One Flash Drive: A Library That Fits in the Palm of Your Hand
Posted in: Today's ChiliI hear parents complaining about how technology distracts kids and how some games and gizmos effectively make their kids dumber. I often tell them that the solution lies in their hands: replace those apparently useless gadgets with more educational stuff that their kids will still enjoy.
If you feel like you’re in the same rut, then you can get started by getting the 3000 Books in One Flash Drive.
It’s literally a library that fits in the palm of your hand. You can take it anywhere and plug it into your laptop or desktop whenever you feel like checking out a book. It saves time and effort from having to make frequent trips to the local library, so you should definitely consider getting one if you’re a huge book worm.
The books include classic renowned titles from Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Oscar Wilde. The 3000 Classic Books flash drive is available online for $29.95(AUD) (~$28 USD). If the cutesy book design or the price tag doesn’t appeal to you, then you could just hit up Project Gutenburg and save the 42,000 titles they have onto your own USB drive for the price of nil.
[via Incredible Things]
Jun 25
There’s an endless number of distractions that can prevent us from curling up with a good book. So the folks at the London-based design studio, Tilt, created the OpenBook chair. It’s an oversized comfy seat wrapped in an empty library that you can fill with your favorite books and magazines, creating an oasis of reading in a sea of distracting electronics.
| |
Jun 11
There’s typically more than one person involved in building a traditional magazine, at last check. It only makes sense, then, that Flipboard just opened up its internet-based magazine curation to groups. Those who’ve built a magazine can now invite friends to add content at will, whether it’s through one of the mobile apps or a web bookmarklet. We doubt that the resulting collaborations will give big league publishers a reason to panic, but Android and iOS users alike can test that theory by downloading the updated Flipboard today.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet
Via: Inside Flipboard, The Next Web
Source: App Store, Google Play
Jun 06
Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store has offered short-form works much like those we’ve seen from Amazon’s Kindle Shorts section, but they haven’t really been a highlight. The company’s new Nook Snaps program may give those quick reads their time to shine, however. The effort will see Barnes & Noble publish three to five original shorts every other month at $2 a piece. While the bookseller is leaning on existing titles to fill out the initial catalog, it hopes that the steady supply of original material will keep us coming back.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Barnes & Noble
Who's in charge here?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.