Friday News: Vook buys Byliner, reading habits of Millennials, banishing U2 from your iPhone, and Tahari’s low-tech, high-tech fashion
Failed e-singles startup Byliner acquired by digital publisher Vook – Digital publishing service Vook has purchased Byliner, which was aimed at selling long form journalism in a digital format. There is still a lot of uncertainty around how authors contracted for projects through Byliner will be paid, but those whose work has been published will be getting compensation from the new ownership:
The deal may be good news for Byliner authors who wondered how they were going to get paid: Vook said Thursday that it would be paying them 85 percent royalties on works that were already for sale at digital retailers like Amazon and Apple. That is a different financial model than the one used by Byliner, which paid authors a flat fee and then split royalties with them 50-50. –Gigaom
Younger Americans and Public Libraries – In an online environment where data can be difficult to verify, thank goodness for the consistently excellent and rigorous work that Pew does. Their current research findings cross several years of study, and there are some very interesting implications and conclusions. Pew distinguishes among three “generations” of readers, those from 16-17, 18-24 (aka traditional college age), and 25-29. Also, despite assumptions to the contrary, 88% of those 18-29 have read a book in the past year as compared to 79% of those 30+. Surprised yet? How about this:
Millennials’ lives are full of technology, but they are more likely than their elders to say that important information is not available on the internet. Some 98% of those under 30 use the internet, and 90% of those internet users say they use social networking sites. Over three-quarters (77%) of younger Americans have a smartphone, and many also have a tablet (38%) or e-reader (24%). Despite their embrace of technology, 62% of Americans under age 30 agree there is “a lot of useful, important information that is not available on the internet,” compared with 53% of older Americans who believe that. At the same time, 79% of Millennials believe that people without internet access are at a real disadvantage. –Pew Internet
U2’s new album is showing up on your iPhone whether you want it or not – I have to admit that I was pretty shocked when I scrolled through my iTunes playlists this morning and found the whole U2 album, Songs of Innocence, on my “recently added” playlist. While I was happy I didn’t have to do anything to download it, apparently not everyone was similarly thrilled with Apple’s proactive distribution methods. Some of the Twitter responses are pretty funny, but more seriously, this is an issue, especially for those who don’t have enough storage on their phone to support additional data.
If you don’t really want U2 to come up next time you put your phone on shuffle, there’s no way to permanently detach the album from your account, but there are ways to hide it so that you never have to lay ears on it. –Ars Technica
Fashion and Technology Collide in the iPhone Dress – As much as I like Elie Tahari’s design sensibility, this dress takes it just a little too far for me. Although it’s a pretty clever way of drawing attention back to New York Fashion Week. –ABC News
I am trying to decide on a smartphone right now, and while I like U2’s music, this move by Apple inclines me all the more to go with Samsung.
Kobo did this to me — put a really awful, sexist book on my account as a “welcome” gift when I bought my first book there, and there was no way to delete it from my account. I was really disgusted by it and wrote them, but their customer service couldn’t delete it from my account so every time my library synched it re-downloaded it. Ugh. I am cool with free books, but only when I opt in and ask for them, otherwise my e-reader would be past capacity with people trying to use it as advertising.
Steam is starting to have the same issue, a publisher can provide a coupon for x% off a game as an “inventory” item, to the full community… and if you have no interest in that game, it sits in your inventory for 6 months until it expires. It got to the point where someone made a bot account to give those coupons to, just because people were annoyed at it being used as a form of advertising. Yes, I can ignore it, but I want to be excited that I got a steam coupon (often a prize for completing challenges and a significant discount off an expensive game), not go oh, 5% off a pre-order of someone’s “early alpha” game. Oh. No.
I was wondering how on earth those U2 songs ended up on my phone! Thought someone at home must’ve put it on my iTunes and it synced when I hooked my phone.