Consumer Electronics Daily News

Feigenbaum Receives IEEE Pioneer Award

Stanford University Professor Emeritus Edward Feigenbaum, known as "the father of expert systems," has the distinction of being named the IEEE Computer Society's 2013 Computer Pioneer Award recipient. Feigenbaum received the award "for pioneering work in artificial intelligence, including development of the basic principles and methods of knowledge‐based systems and their practical applications." The Pioneer Award is given for significant contributions to early concepts and developments in the electronic computer field, which have clearly advanced the state-of-the-art in computing. Feigenbaum holds BS and PhD degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, where his dissertation, supervised by Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon, produced the first computer simulation of human learning.In 1965, Feigenbaum joined the Stanford University computer science faculty, where he and Nobel laureate biologist Joshua Lederberg started the DENDRAL project, producing the world's first expert system. DENDRAL's groundbreaking accomplishments inspired an evolution of expert systems, moving artificial intelligence out of the laboratory and into countless software applications. It also changed the framework of AI science: the power of an AI program came to be seen as largely in its knowledge base, not in its inference processes. Feigenbaum coauthored the first public list processing language, IPL-V, and founded Stanford's Heuristic Programming Project. He also co-authored and co-edited "Computers and Thought," the four-volume encyclopedia "Handbook of Artificial Intelligence," and popular-audience books "Fifth Generation," and "Rise of the Expert Company." From 1994 to 1997, he served as chief scientist of the US Air Force; and was awarded its Exceptional Civilian Service Award.Feigenbaum is a 1994 ACM Turing Award recipient, an inaugural member of the IEEE Intelligent Systems Artificial Intelligence Hall of Fame, and a member of the Computer History Museum's Hall of Fellows. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was the first recipient of the Feigenbaum Medal of the International Congress on Expert Systems.The Feigenbaum Prize is awarded biennially by AAAI, (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). The Computer Pioneer Award was established in 1981 by the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society to recognize and honor the vision of those people whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry.The award is presented to outstanding individuals whose main contribution to the concepts and development of the computer field was made at least 15 years earlier. The recognition is engraved on a bronze medal specially struck for the Society. Recent Pioneer Award recipients include ENIAC programmer Betty Jean Jennings Bartik, VLSI expert Lynn Conway, parallel programming pioneer David Kuck, digital systems designer Edward McCluskey, MATLAB creator Cleve Moler, petri net theory developer Carl Petri, and programming languages pioneer Jean Sammet. For more information, visit http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/pioneer.

Turn Your Old Cell Phones into Books for Kids!

We all like to upgrade to the latest cell phone, tablet, mp3 player, e-reader or laptop.  It's human nature – we have to have the latest and greatest, right?  This means that millions of Americans have a drawer full of "old" devices gathering dust.

Make them useful!  Donate them to Books for America, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to build and improve reading libraries in schools, shelters, and many other organizations.  They'll sell the gadgets online to fund the organization's literacy efforts, and donors will receive a great (and easy) tax deduction. Some of the phones will be given to organizations the organization works with which support abused women (or otherwise disadvantaged women or families).  

Books for America is a federally-registered charity and sells the items itself, so that all fo the net revenue supports the organization's literacy and educational efforts. Books for America will provide a pre-paid address label for cell phone donations. It can be downloaded at the organization's website. 

Here's what Books for America is looking for: 

Cell Phones, Blackberrys, iPods, Tablets, E-Readers and other electronic gadgets must be from the last six years.  Must be in working condition.  Please be sure to include the power cable if you have one.

Laptops - Must be from the last seven years.  Laptops do not have to be functioning.  Prepaid labels are not available for laptop donations. Books for America suggests mailing them via USPS's parcel post service or with a flat-rate Priority Mail box.

All items should be shipped to:
Books for America
c/o Gadget Donations
3829 Picket Road
Fairfax, VA  22031

 

Sumbola Launches Social Reading Platform for the Cloud and Mobile Devices

Sumbola is currently launching a cloud-based reading platform for both the web and mobile that's designed to turn literature into a collaborative experience between authors and readers.

"It's the result of two years of design and development, testing with users—both readers and authors—and we're convinced it's one of the most advanced reading experiences, and very soon, the most innovative authoring tool, on the web," said Ernest Mbenkum, Founder and CEO of Sumbola Inc.

The Sumbola platform really caters to book lovers, who are now part of a global platform where they can connect with other readers on the same page, see them on a map, and even find out which ones are close by. Readers can opt-in to share their page notes and chapter comments, highlights, favorite passages, make recommendations, add contextual dictionary terms... even their artistic inspirations.

"Readers, for the first time, can make a text-driven book, a transmedia experience by contributing content enhancements in the form of videos, music, images, tweets, blog feeds or other complementary content," said Mark Hempel, Co-founder of Sumbola. "Authors get to approve the submissions, and the platform makes it easy to enhance any book."

"Authors are really empowered with our platform," Mbenkum said, "not only in terms of accessing big data for the first time, but also how they will be able to produce their books on the web with social matter, wiki matter, video, audio, music, images, geolocation, and even merchandise."

In the coming weeks, Sumbola will launch its Beta Author Program. A limited number of 200 authors will be invited to upload their books and access the innovative publishing backend. Authors can sign up for the Beta Author Program on the Sumbola website on a first-come,-first-served basis.

 

 

Kobo Releases Android Jelly Bean Upgrade For Kobo Arc Tablet

 Kobo, a global leader in eReading, today announced its Android™ 4.1 Jelly Bean firmware update for Kobo's award-winning 7" Google-certified Kobo Arc tablet. This update optimizes the user experience with faster performance, improved search capabilities, increased touch responsiveness, and additional intelligence features to help organize and streamline information with actionable notifications.  The update is now available to Kobo Arc customers when they next connect to Wi Fi.

"Kobo Arc is the perfect tablet for people who love consuming books, movies, and surfing the web," said Wayne White, EVP of Devices, Kobo. "With the latest Jelly Bean update, Kobo Arc becomes the perfect eReading companion that offers more with intelligent search recommendations, voice-to-text, and a highly responsive touch screen."

Key Android 4.1 Jelly Bean features and benefits include:

Google Now™: Perfect for on-the-go Kobo Arc users looking for an easy way to organize their busy schedules, Google Now personalizes information based on a user's location, time of day, history, and calendar events. Google Now shows restaurants in the area, how much traffic to expect before the morning commute, when the next train is coming, the score of a current game, a flight status, and more.

Richer notifications: Kobo Arc users will never miss a beat due to a richer notification experience. They can now receive action notifications directly within the notifications area as well as expand and collapse notifications to display more or less detail.

Improved search: Finding online content has never been easier with text or voice searches, which are now presented in a visually rich way.  Google Search can be opened directly from the locked screen by swiping up and users have the option to simply say "Google" to activate Voice Search within the Google Search screen.

Optimized voice recognition and boosted predictive typing: To complement speech-enabled online searches, Jelly Bean introduces impressive text-to-speech capabilities and an embedded speech recognizer that enables voice typing without an Internet connection. For those who prefer typing, an all-new keyboard lets them swipe to text.

Face Unlock: Keeping the Kobo Arc secure has never been easier with the improved Face Unlock, which now calibrates in different conditions and can now optionally require a blink to verify that a live person is unlocking the device. In addition, users can feel safer with improvements in malware blocking.

Sony Reader Store Launches Kids Corner to Support EPUB3.0 Content

Reader™ Store from Sony announced the addition of Kids Corner, a dedicated shopping section that will offer illustrated and enhanced children's content. Kids Corner supports EPUB3.0 content, a new industry standard file format, allowing customers to enjoy embedded media and interactivity within the book itself when viewed on compatible Android tablets and smartphones.

Parents will be able to filter content in Kids Corner by appropriate age level and Reader Store will indicate per title which devices will be compatible with the new content. Reader Store plans to regularly add additional titles to the Kids Corner catalog. Some initial notable titles include: CURIOUS GEORGE by H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), titles in the award-winning Sally series (Trajectory) by bestselling author and artist Stephen Huneck as well as titles by bestselling author and artist Todd Parr (Hachette Book Group). Reader Store will also continue to support previous EPUB standard formats.

"We are proud to be one of the first retailers to support this open eBook standard," said Natascha Helbig , Director of Reader Store. "Kids Corner is the perfect place to offer this exciting new content. The enhanced books make reading even more immersive and interactive for children." Kids Corner is available in the US and Canada now at readerstore.sony.com/kidscorner. Reader Store helps book lovers discover their next story, from sweep-you-off-your feet romances to hard-boiled blockbusters, on Reader from Sony, or compatible PC, Mac®, iOS and Android devices. Read anywhere at any time with thousands of eBooks and periodicals. For more information please visit readerstore.sony.com.

E-books Price-Fixing Lawsuit Settled

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro , a consumer-rights law firm today announced that the firm, along with 33 state Attorneys General and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), have reached a proposed settlement with Macmillan over allegations of e-book price-fixing.

The settlement resolves claims filed by the DOJ, numerous state governments, and a class-action suit brought by Hagens Berman on behalf of a nationwide class of consumers.

The lawsuits alleged that Macmillan participated in a conspiracy to fix the price of e-books by coordinating with several of the nation's largest publishers, including HarperCollins Publishers, a subsidiary of News Corporation; Hachette Book Group; Penguin Group Inc., a subsidiary of Pearson PLC; Simon & Schuster Inc., a subsidiary of CBS; and Apple, Inc. to suddenly switch to an agency model for selling e-books. Hagens Berman 's complaint estimated that the scheme may have increased the prices of many e-books by as much as 50 percent by eliminating the ability of retailers to offer discounts.

"We were extraordinarily pleased that we could work alongside so many talented and dedicated attorneys general and the DOJ to present a unified front in dealing with Macmillan," said Steve Berman, Managing Partner of Hagens Berman and lead counsel for the proposed class of consumers. "We look forward to moving the consumer class-action litigation forward against the remaining defendants, Penguin and Apple."

Macmillan was the last of five defendant publishers to settle claims brought by the DOJ. In that case, Apple is the only remaining defendant, with a trial scheduled for June, 2013. In the consumer class-action case, Penguin and Apple have not agreed to a settlement.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Macmillan would create a settlement fund totaling $20 million from which claims to consumers who purchased e-books would be paid. In addition, the publisher has agreed to lift restrictions on discounting for e-books and will not be allowed to enter into new agreements restricting prices until December 2014.

The settlement must be approved by the court before funds can be distributed.

"This is a big win for consumers and is a testament to the hard work of the Justice Department and state attorneys-general, all of who devoted significant resources to this case," said Berman. "We look forward to presenting the settlement to the court and getting funds distributed to consumers who were wronged by Macmillan's alleged anticompetitive behavior."

You can learn more about this case by visiting www.hbsslaw.com/ebooks.

Best-Selling Author Stephen King Publishes Kindle Single “Guns,” Available Exclusively in the Kindle Store

Amazon.com announced that best-selling and iconic author Stephen King has published a personal essay—“Guns”—available exclusively in the Kindle Store as a Kindle Single. This essay highlights one of the compelling features of Kindle Singles—they allow top authors to publish their works quickly. “Guns” is available now, and exclusively to Kindle customers in the Kindle Singles Store (www.amazon.com/kindlesingles) for $0.99.

“I think the issue of an America awash in guns is one every citizen has to think about,” said King. “If this helps provoke constructive debate, I’ve done my job. Once I finished writing ‘Guns’ I wanted it published quickly, and Kindle Singles provided an excellent fit.”

“It’s exciting to offer a way for a brilliant writer like King to publish quickly, and to reach a large audience of loyal readers and new customers,” said David Blum, editor of Kindle Singles. “King finished this essay last Friday morning, and by that night we had accepted it and scheduled for publication today.”

Like all Kindle books, Kindle Singles are “Buy Once, Read Everywhere”—customers can read them on their Kindle, on the web with Kindle Cloud Reader and on free Kindle reading apps for Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Windows 8, PC and Mac.

Launched in 2011, Kindle Singles are typically between 5,000 and 30,000 words. Too long for a magazine article and too short for a book, Kindle Singles allow ideas to be expressed at their natural length. Writers can learn more about submitting their work for consideration at www.amazon.com/singlessubmissions.

Mobicip Adds Support for Filtering by Custom Keywords and Phrases

Mobicip, a parental control and internet safety service for mobiles, today announced the availability of custom keyword filtering to subscribers of its Premium Web Monitor service.

Mobicip offers a parental control solution in the form a Safe Browser app for iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and iPad mini, and Android-based devices like Google Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, and Nook, among others. Parents can optionally upgrade to the Premium Web Monitor service, a web-based application that allows them to customize the internet filter and monitor browsing history without touching the device. The new custom keyword feature allows a parent or school administrator to define a set of phrases or keywords that need to be filtered.

Any web content that contains any of the the blacklisted keywords will be disallowed. "The feature was developed in response to requests from parents to add this capability to our dynamic filtering engine," says Suren Ramasubbu , co-founder and CEO of Mobicip. "Traditionally, the filtering industry has relied on a database of URLs that needs to be constantly updated. Not only have parents embraced Mobicip's approach to scan internet content dynamically, but they are now savvy enough to customize our filtering engine to suit their needs."

Visit www.mobicip.com to create a safe and customized internet for your family across all the devices and platforms. Current subscribers to the Premium service can simply login at mobicip.com and use the new feature at no additional cost.

In addition to iOS devices, Mobicip offers the same protection and single-point control on Android devices and Windows laptops. Learn more at www.mobicip.com. 

Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Now Available on Amazon.ca

Amazon.ca today announced that the new family of Kindle e-readers is now available to customers in Canada. The all-new top-of-the-line Kindle Paperwhite is the most advanced e-reader ever built with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast compared to the previous generation Kindle, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, up to 8 weeks of battery life, a thin and light design, and is available in both Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 3G models. Never pay for or hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot with the free 3G wireless Kindle Paperwhite for just CAD$199 or choose Kindle Paperwhite with Wi-Fi for only CAD$139. The new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle ever, with new, improved fonts and faster page turns at the low price of CAD$89. Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G support multiple languages, including French, and are available starting today at www.amazon.ca/kindlepaperwhite.

In addition, Canadian customers can now access the Canada Kindle Store directly from their Kindle. The Kindle Store offers the largest selection of the most popular books, including the most best sellers from the Globe and Mail and Le Devoir best seller lists, winners of the Giller prize, and a broad selection of works from leading Canadian publishers and authors, including Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Yann Martel. The Canada Kindle Store has over 1.5 million Kindle books, including over 250,000 exclusive books customers won’t find anywhere else, over 35,000 free books, and over 50,000 French-language titles. Visit www.amazon.ca/kindlebooks for more information. All Kindle books are “Buy Once, Read Everywhere”—customers can read their Kindle books on Kindle devices and on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and Windows phones and Android tablets using the free Kindle apps.

“We’re excited to make the best-selling and most advanced e-readers in the world available to our Amazon.ca customers for the first time, making it easier and more affordable than ever for Canadian readers to own a Kindle,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “With a Kindle in their hands, Canadian customers can now directly access the Kindle Store with the largest selection of the books people want to read, including the largest selection of best sellers and over 250,000 titles that are exclusive to the Kindle Store.”

 

The Kindle family is available at Amazon.ca and at over 1,000 retail locations across Canada.

Kindle is available for CAD$89 at www.amazon.ca/kindle.

Kindle Paperwhite is available for CAD$139 at www.amazon.ca/kindlepaperwhite.

Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G is available for CAD$199 at www.amazon.ca/kindlepaperwhite3G.

PhatWare’s WritePad Updated to Improve Handwriting Recognition for Any Android App

PhatWare Corporation has updated the WritePad for Android application, vastly improving text input in the user's own handwriting with a stylus or even a finger.

WritePad's input method for Android OS aims to replace the on-screen keyboard with PhatWare's proven handwriting recognition technology and can be used for text input in any Android application. The latest version of WritePad has been optimized for the best performance on a variety of Android tablets and phones, including Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab, HTC Inspire, and others. It is especially useful on pen-enabled tablets, such as Samsung Galaxy Note.

WritePad features 4th generation handwriting recognition technology which supports practically any handwriting style, including cursive (script), print, and mixed in eleven languages – including English, Dutch, Danish, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish, and Spanish languages. The software analyzes pen strokes written in the designated WritePad area, then converts those pen strokes into text and sends the recognized text to the target application.

While many handwriting recognition tools for smartphones and tablets leave users frustrated with the app’s inability to correctly interpret their handwriting, WritePad’s state-of-the-art handwriting recognition software uses a statistical analyzer to adapt and learn the user's style of writing.

WritePad offers four basic recognition modes: cursive/mixed or print for general text entry; Numeric for entering numbers and phone numbers; and Internet for entering email addresses and URLs. The app also offers a built-in calculator, enabling users to write simple equations such as "22.3+15.66=" and WritePad will calculate the result.

A short video demonstration of WritePad is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-eoU_r1Gw0.

WritePad 3.3 is available now and is sold through Android Market and other authorized resellers and is priced at $9.99. A free 24 hour trial version of WritePad is also available and can be downloaded from PhatWare's website. For more information about WritePad for Android, visit http://www.phatware.com/writepadandroid.