Top 100 book apps - Chasing Fireflies: A Haiku Collection

Since we believe in the digital future of books as a way to reduce eventually the footprint of books, we also believe in apps. Book apps are integral part of the digital age of books and we want to share with you some great book apps we find and thus we are assembling a list of the top 100 book apps.

In order to get into our list apps need to both book/ebook related and affordable - we choose only apps that are either free or cost less than $2.

So every Monday we will update you with a new app on out list of top book apps. Today we're happy to introduce you the first iPad book app to redefine the experience of reading 19th century poetry. Our app today is Chasing Fireflies: A Haiku Collection by HoneyBee Labs. This app is for the iPad and it costs $1.99 (regularly it is priced $3.99, but it will be available for $1.99 on the App Store through January 31st, 2012).

Here are more details about the Chasing Fireflies: A Haiku Collection app:

The first offering from digital book studio, Honeybee Labs, "Chasing Fireflies" is an interactive poetry experience, featuring over 150 classic Japanese haiku, complemented by elegant collage-style artwork and a cinematic original score. Readers can interact with the backgrounds, calling lightning in a storm, or conjuring fireflies at night. Readers can also share their favorite passages with friends via Facebook or Twitter.

Features:
* Over 150 hand-selected haiku poems by Basho, Buson, Kikaku, Issa and others
* Cinematic original score by composer Colin Wambsgans
* Book’s cover changes through time to display a new landscape each week
* Every page can be rotated to give four different perspectives
* Easily post your favorite passages to Twitter and Facebook
* Foreward by Caley Vickerman, founder of the Guerrilla Haiku movement



Last week's book app - Subtext

You can check top 100 book apps at http://www.ecolibris.net/bookapps.asp. As you'll see, this list is in work, but we promise to update it every week until we'll have all 100 book apps.

You're also welcome to check our list of 100 green apps.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Winners of the Angel Esmeralda audiobook giveaway

We have winners on our giveaway of The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don Delillo, a great audiobook with a collection of 9 short stories of Delillo.

We asked you to tell us who your favorite short stories author is and got great replies. And our winners are Heather (her favorite author - Charles de Lint) and JenBreesmom (her favorite author - O. Henry).

Thank you to all the participants and to Simon & Schuster Audio who provides the copies for the winners!

The audiobook is available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/nvNYNe and on iTunes: http://bit.ly/rLYYoA

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Top 100 green apps - Green Power Free battery saver

We are creating a list of the top 100 apps that will help you go green as part of our effort to promote a more sustainable lifestyle. Apps become an integral part of our life and a valuable tool and we believe we should also take advantage of them when it comes go greening up our life.

Every Friday we update you with a new app on the list, and today we're happy to introduce you with an app that will help you to save energy on your smartphone, making it more energy efficient!

Our app is Green Power Free battery saver from Gael Pouzerate. This app is for android and it is free (there's also a premium version available with some more features for $1.99).

Here are more details about Green Power Free batter saver:
Green Power battery saver: No need to charge your battery so often! Green Power battery saver brings many extra hours to your battery life!

Unlike other battery savers that require regular user manual actions, Green Power is fully automatic: Once configured, it runs and saves your battery by itself. It does so by smartly managing Wifi, Mobile data & Bluetooth (*): Turning them off when you don't need them, but ensure minimum disturbance: Automatic turned ON when needed by you or by other apps (e.g retrieving mails).
Similar but easier cleaner and faster than JuiceDefender!

"Green Power mainly does one thing, but does it so well and so flexibly that the benefits reaped are considerable." (InfoWorld)

"Green Power is a simple and easy to use power and network management software" (Engadget Chinese edition)

"Green Power Premium is a remarkable tool. Battery saver, time saver, top notch!" (AndroidPit)

HIGHLIGHTS
- Handles WIFI, Mobile Data (2G, 3G, some 4G) & BLUETOOTH
- Supports most phone types (both GSM & CDMA) and most carriers
- Supports Android ICE CREAM SANDWICH, HONEYCOMB, GINGERBREAD & FROYO
- Mobile Data toggling using clean Internal API or APN renaming (you can chose)
- Most features below available in Free version unless marked with (*)

INSTALL AND FORGET
Or take time to configure to get the most out of it!

FEATURES
- Wifi mgmt: Based on schedule, screen state, power connected, signal level...
- Mobile data mgmt: Based on schedule, screen state, power connected...
- Mobile data mgmt: Either Internal API or APN renaming
- BLUETOOTH (*) mgmt: Based on devices connected or in range, screen state, power etc
- Traffic check: Configurable to prevent disturbing other apps
- Apps Whitelist (*): To keep data on when using specific apps (like music streaming)
- Simple WIDGET (*): To quickly pause or resume
- NIGHT (*) mode fully configurable, Airplane mode...
- Tasker & Locale Plug-in (*)
- Compatible with Cerberus 2.0
- Very lightweight and fast app
- Easy and clean interface
- Fully configurable settings
- Settings backup / restore
- 20 Languages (changeable at run time)
- And more...

You can check top 100 green apps at http://www.ecolibris.net/greenapps.asp. As you'll see, this list is in work, but we promise to update it every week until we'll have all 100 green apps.

Last week's green app - GasHog: The Fuel Economy Tracker for iPhone.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Businesses rewarding environmental behaviour

This is a guest post.

As both customers and businesses become more environmentally aware, more and more companies are incorporating "green" measures into their everyday operations. When you consider the advantages to going with such a strategy - including cutting costs, increasing profits, gaining new business opportunities - it isn't difficult to understand why. You may also find that it boosts the collective morale of your employees, especially if you choose to reward their environmental behaviour in the workplace.

Some eco-printing businesses, including Flyerzone, have taken a rather innovative approach to maintaining the environment, as well as the satisfaction of their staff. Flyerzone is not only founded on green principles, but it also actively encourages its employees to behave in the same way. It offers rewards to its production staff for reducing wastage and pays bonuses to those who bring a new idea to the table that could get the company working even more efficiently.

You might also want to take inspiration from Flyerzone's office waste-reduction methods. For example, it only uses paper from well-managed forests and 99 per cent of its paper volume is certified under FSC's Chain-of Custody programme. The very little paper that is wasted is, of course, recycled or reprocessed, while Flyerzone also uses vegetable-based inks in its printing.

If you want to use eco-printing with such a philosophy at its core, a great way to do so is by investing in promotional materials and stationery from such a company. For example, there is a wide range of business cards, leaflets, flyers, posters and notepads on the market that prove there is such a thing as eco-friendly, functional and attractive printing.

In a world of social and corporate responsibility and growing eco-friendly opportunities, there has never been a better time to go green and reap the benefits.

5 reasons why the Nook spin off gets B&N closer to bankruptcy

Barnes & Noble announced this morning it is beginning “strategic exploratory work” to separate its rapidly growing Nook digital business. If you follow our blog, you're probably not that surprised - as we reported again and again on the B&N Bankruptcy Index series, B&N behaves for a long time like the Nook is its core business and not its 703 bookstore.

So you're probably wondering - would this spin-off will help B&N to avoid bankruptcy? Actually, I believe it only gets them closer to this unfortunate faith. Here's five reasons why:

1. B&N bookstore business is declining and B&N has no clear strategy how to transform it back from a liability to an asset. Frankly, this announcement only demonstrates that B&N is giving up on the brick and mortar stores and putting all its energy and resources just into the Nook. Don't believe me? Just count look how many times B&N mentions its bookstores in its press release from today (hint: less than one).

2. B&N is focusing all of its resources on one egg - the Nook. It's a good egg, but even if it will have a bright future as B&N is expecting it's still too risky, especially in a market where your competitors are are Amazon and Apple.

3. B&N doesn't have the deep pockets Apple and Amazon have. Just look at the balance sheets of these three and compare how much cash each of them has - Amazon has $2.8 billion, Apple has $9.8 billion, while B&N has $23 million in cash and cash equivalents (latest figures available). Now, who do you think has a better chance to develop better tablets and e-readers in the near future?

4. Bad management - B&N would have a much better chance if it would have spun off its management instead of the Nook. Why it's a bad management? How else you can call a management that takes an asset like 700+ bookstores and makes almost zero efforts to save it from bankruptcy?

5. "Mr. Lynch said Barnes & Noble doesn't see itself as a competitor with Apple, as it focuses more on digital reading, but said internal research shows customers prefer the Nook over the Kindle." (Wall Street Journal) I wish I have a faith in a company that this is the worldview that directs its strategy and this is the quality of research data it uses. Unfortunately I really can't.

To learn more on our B&N index series visit Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index on our website.

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

Top 100 book apps: Subtext - It's a community in the pages of your book

Since we believe in the digital future of books as a way to reduce eventually the footprint of books, we also believe in apps. Book apps are integral part of the digital age of books and we want to share with you some great book apps we find and thus we are assembling a list of the top 100 book apps.

In order to get into our list apps need to both book/ebook related and affordable - we choose only apps that are either free or cost less than $2.

So every Monday we will update you with a new app on out list of top book apps. Today we're happy to introduce you with a book app that believes that reading together is better. Our app today is Subtext by Subtext Video. This app is for the iPad and it's free.

Here are more details about the Subtext app:
Reading together is better—especially with access to the world’s largest collection of books! Subtext powers the first community in the pages of ebooks. With Subtext, you can engage in conversations with friends, authors and experts and access all types of information and multimedia—right in the margins of your books. It’s like sitting in your living room reading a book surrounded by your friends, the author and, if you’re up for the extra company, the most interesting people in the Subtext community. A totally new reading experience!

“...the app is just lovely to use.” —Gizmodo ‘App of the Day’

“...Subtext goes beyond the ‘enhanced ebook’ to actually offer an enhanced reading experience...” —VatorNews

“I love context when I’m reading, and if there is author commentary to be found, I’m not above scouring the Web to find it. Subtext pulls in this kind of supplementary information automatically...” —TechCrunch

Subtext from Subtext Video on Vimeo.

Last week's book app - Beatles Yellow Submarine

You can check top 100 book apps at http://www.ecolibris.net/bookapps.asp. As you'll see, this list is in work, but we promise to update it every week until we'll have all 100 book apps.

You're also welcome to check our list of 100 green apps.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Check our special holiday offer!

10 ways to green your reading on 2012

We're joining the long list of 2012 lists, but hopefully you will find our list valuable. This is a list of 10 simple things you can do to make your reading more sustainable. If every reader will do even just one thing of this list, we'll have a much more sustainable book space by the end of the year. If you have more ideas, please feel free to offer them!

10 Ways to Green Your Reading in 2012:

1. If you read more than 5-6 books a year and don't throw away gadgets after one or two years to get a newer version, buy yourself an e-reader or a tablet.
2. Buy (at least) one book at your local independent bookstore.
3. Get a book or an ebook at your local library.
4. Download an audiobook.
5. Join the sharing economy, using BookMooch for worldwide book swapping or an ebook lending service.
6. Buy from publishers with meaningful environmental policies.
7. Buy book from a self-publishing author.
8. Read your child (nephew/cousin/grandson) a green book (you can start with the great Little Green Books series).
9. Educate yourself and buy one book or ebook on a green topic.
10. Plant a tree with Eco-Libris for every book you read, now part of the Earth Day Network's A Billion Acts of Green campaign!

Happy New Year!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!