Breakfast view at the Beachcomber.
The storms have passed through and we’re looking forward to a relaxing Labor Day weekend here at the Creek. Our friends on the Gulf Coast haven’t been so lucky. A donation to the Salvation Army or Red Cross will help those who are now cleaning up the damage Isaac left behind.
I’ve been putting Evernote to work as a tech reference library and it does a beautiful job. Whenever I find an interesting how-to article, I just clip it to my How-To notebook with appropriate tags so I can find the information when I need it. Here are some of the things I’ve added this week:
- Mac|Life has a great article on how to use iPhoto to restore old photos you’ve digitized.
- How to add a title in iMovie also comes from Mac|Life.
- Learn how to create ebooks for the iPad from Blurberati blog.
- MakeUseOf Directory shows how to make your own notifications on your Mac.
The Wall Street Journal has equipped their journalists with smartphones to supply their new section – WorldStream – with short video news stories. The journalist records a video report using the phone’s camera and sends it in for editorial review before its posted to the WorldStream site. The Republican National Convention was the event they planned as the kick off for this new site, but Hurricane Isaac is also getting a lot of WorldStream attention. The video clips are about a minute long and are used to add “color” to the day’s “big” stories. I was surprised to see Cameron McWhirter’s reports from Biloxi – some even in my old neighborhood there – showing that effects of the hurricane. You can see for yourself at the WorldStream site. Wouldn’t something like this be a great addition to the big genealogy conferences? Hmmmm . . .
According to James Tanner, FamilySearch is hard at work digitizing family history books from the Family History Library and several others. You’ll find them included in the catalogs at FamilySearch. I noticed the Allen County Public Library is mentioned as one of the collections included here. You’ll also find they have their own section at Internet Archive. All of this is good news for researchers as it makes access to these publications much easier.
[tweet https://twitter.com/Genealogysstar/status/241171387463647232]
Kobo Books has negotiated an agreement with the American Booksellers Association that will give independent booksellers the opportunity to sell Kobo e-books along with their reader devices and accessories. This partnership will begin this fall in 400 bookstores. Kobo plans to support the program with in-store merchandising and marketing. As the e-book market continues to grow, this will help independent bookstores survive and provide e-book devotees (like me!) with a way to browse for interesting reads and enjoy the personal service a small bookseller provides. Of course, there will also be indie online booksellers – like here at Moultrie Creek Books – supporting niche markets with a personal touch.
More book news . . . there’s a settlement in the ebook price fixing lawsuit. According to Ars Technica, “the Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster will award consumers monetary compensation if they purchased e-books from those publishing companies between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012.”
[tweet https://twitter.com/arstechnica/status/241220227956887554]
[tweet https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly/status/241126959298535424]
And we’re starting Kindle watch – in preparation for next week’s announcements from Amazon, here’s some of the juicer tidbits from around the net. Since both Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire are listed as “out of stock”, I’m wondering if the new devices will be available for purchase the same day as the announcement (next Wednesday).
[tweet https://twitter.com/EBookUpdate/status/238429011754242049]
[tweet https://twitter.com/DroidNewsSource/status/241280113780617216]
This week’s spotlight at Moultrie Creek Books is Denise Levernick’s new book, How to Archive Family Keepsakes. This book is a must-have reference for archival information and should be a part of every family historian’s reference library.
