Tuesday News: Wearable technologies, Readgeek book recommender, audiobook albums, and growable books

JanetPublishing Newsalbums / audiobooks / book search engine / childrens-books / fitness / health / privacy / technology6 Comments

The revolution will be digitized – A really interesting piece on the proliferation of “wearable” technologies (and we’re definitely closer to the beginning of this trend than the end), and the diverse implications of their use and potential abuse. While there is a huge benefit scientists and researchers identify in aggregated data drawn from these devices, there are also serious privacy concerns with the way this data is collected, transmitted, and used. And still, there are opportunities within these new technologies for individuals to better understand and take control of their own health concerns, which can be very empowering, especially in a medical and insurance environment that does not always pay the best attention to people and their symptoms.

Some physicians, academics and ethicists criticize the utility of tracking as prime evidence of the narcissism of the technological age — and one that raises serious questions about the accuracy and privacy of the health data collected, who owns it and how it should be used. There are also worries about the implications of the proliferation of devices for broader surveillance by the government, such as what happened with cellphone providers and the National Security Agency.

Critics point to the brouhaha in 2011, when some owners of Fitbit exercise sensors noticed that their sexual activity — including information about the duration of an episode and whether it was “passive, light effort” or “active and vigorous” — was being publicly shared by default.

They worry that wearables will be used as “black boxes” for a person’s body in legal matters. Three years ago, after a San Francisco cyclist struck and killed a 71-year-old pedestrian, prosecutors obtained his data from Strava, a GPS-enabled fitness tracker, to show he had been speeding and blew through several stop signs before the accident. More recently, a Calgary law firm is trying to use Fitbit data as evidence of injuries a client sustained in a car crash.–Washington Post

Readgeek: Book Recommendation Engine – Has anyone tried Readgeek? Given the often hilarious and sad recommendations Amazon provides for other books, it might be worth trying a recommendation search engine like this one. One advantage is that you can rate the options it gives you, so if you dislike any of them, the engine will search again. Although I still find that friends with similar tastes provide the best recommendations.

Users can rate books classic titles they have read in the past to determine what they might like next. For instance, we gave a 8.0 ratings for a couple of the Harry Potter books and the engine recommended The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, among eight others. (Every vote will suggest 10 potential titles to read.) –GalleyCat

Old is New Again: HarperCollins Will Release Special “Vinyl Edition” of Amy Poehler’s Audiobook in September – In the past five years or so, the sale of vinyl records (yes, they still make these!) in the United States has zoomed from 2.8M in 2010 to 9.2M in 2014. Just within the year span between 2013 and 2014, sales grew by more than 3M units. Sales are rising both in classic and new artists, and in recognition of this growth, Harper Collins is going to be publishing Amy Poehler’s audiobook, Yes Please. The album will be released in September of this year. So does this mean record players are back, too? ‘Cause I could use a new one.

“Recordings published on vinyl and read by the author used to be the standard format for spoken word recordings, dating back to when Dylan Thomas first recorded for our Caedmon label in the 1950s,” said Ana Maria Allessi, Vice President Digital Innovation and Publisher of HarperAudio. “Yes Please is a terrific recording that exemplifies modern audiobook publishing at its finest and we’re happy to be able to broaden its reach by releasing a vinyl edition.”–infoDOCKET

You Can Plant This Children’s Book And It Will Grow Into A Tree – Although Mi Papá Estuvo en la Selva (My Dad Was in the Jungle), is written for kids from 8-12, this is exactly the kind of cool gift I’d buy for kids and grown-ups. Forget coloring books for adults; I vote for more books that transform into trees and flowers and plants – how about a special edition of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn next.

Publishing company Pequeño Editor created a hand-stitched children’s book made from acid-free paper, ecological ink and jacaranda seeds, as part of a project called, Tree Book Tree. After reading the story, kids can plant the book in soil and it will grow into a tree.–Huffington Post

Janet

isn't sure if she's an average Romance reader, or even an average reader, but a reader she is, enjoying everything from literary fiction to philosophy to history to poetry. Historical Romance was her first love within the genre, but she's fickle and easily seduced by the promise of a good read. She approaches every book with the same hope: that she will be filled from the inside out with something awesome that she didnʼt know, didnʼt think about, or didnʼt feel until that moment. And she's always looking for the next mind-blowing read, so feel free to share any suggestions!

→ Janet