What is the Best Music Organizer?

My music is a mess. It seems that I have accumlated lots and lots of music and it isn’t pretty. So, I need to find a way to organize my music.

I’ve thought a little bit about what I want and I think the basic requirements are:

• Remove duplicate songs
• Fix misspelled song titles, artist names
• Find missing titles, genres, artist info and attach it to each song
• Find missing artwork and attach it to each song
• Do all the above really well and automatically

Looking around on the Google I’ve found a couple of candidates: Tidysongs and TuneUp.  Both cost $20-30, but I’m planning on buying both and having a little shootout to find the best one.

I figure I’ll use a spare hard drive to make a back up of my iTunes collection and run both software packages on the collection to see which is the best music organizer.

If you have suggestions for a music organizer please let me know.

What is the Best Music Organizer? is a post from: Digital Podcast

Rapid Video Blogging – Making Money With Web Video

Click here to get the free report(aff).

Of all the questions I get about podcasting, one question seems to be almost universal. That question is can you make money podcasting? That’s the question people want the know about.

At the last Blogworld conference, I learned that there are people making money. The key is having your own product and using your content to promote your product.

The reason I revisit this, is that I just read a great report by a guy named Gideon Shalwick. I’had never heard of Gideon before, but I saw his report referred to by a number of people I know. So, I signed up and got his report. It’s free, so why not.

What I found was really interesting. Gideon has taken the next step in the business model. Gideon shows how to turn your video podcast into a business.

He combines YouTube, a video blog, an email list and a product into a business model. He calls the process Rapid Video Blogging. And he shows you how to do it in his free report.

The report is 95 pages long and covers a lot of material.

The report shows you how to

• Select a niche to build your product
• Create high quality videos
• Connect YouTube, your blog and email
• And how to monetize the setup

And if you want more, he’s offering a coaching class to help you turn your podcast into a business.

I highly recommend getting the free report, even if you just want to be more successful in growing and engaging your audience. The report has lots of good ideas for every video podcaster, and I’m sure the same ideas apply to people doing audio too. Just bypass the hype and dig out what helps you.

Click here to get the free report(aff).

Rapid Video Blogging – Making Money With Web Video is a post from: Digital Podcast

The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke – This Week’s Best Seller

This week we have a fresh best seller list, with James Lee Burke’s new audiobook The Glass Rainbow rocketing up to #1.

Stieg Larsson’s three “The Girl…” audiobooks are right up there too.

Coming in at #12 is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was this week’s free audiobook.

Hope you find an audiobook you like.

1. The Glass Rainbow: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Unabridged) by James Lee Burke

Summary: James Lee Burke’s eagerly awaited new novel finds Detective Dave Robicheaux back in New Iberia, Louisiana, and embroiled in the most harrowing and dangerous case of his career. Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered. While the crimes have all the telltale signs of a serial killer, the death of Bernadette Latiolais, a high-school honor student, doesn’t fit: she is not the kind of hapless and marginalized victim psychopaths usually prey upon. Robich…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Glass Rainbow: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Unabridged) audiobook…

2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Unabridged) by Stieg Larsson

Summary: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue…. It’s about the disappearance 40 years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden…and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance…and about Lisbeth Salander, a…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Unabridged) audiobook…

3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Unabridged) by Stieg Larsson

Summary: Lisbeth Salander lies in Intensive Care with a bullet lodged in her head. She will face trial for three murders and one attempted murder on her release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, Salander must not only prove her innocence, but identify and denounce the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vulnerable to become victims of abuse and violence. Salander is now ready to fight back.

Click to hear an audio sample of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Unabridged) audiobook…

4. The Girl Who Played with Fire (Unabridged) by Stieg Larsson

Summary: The electrifying follow-up to the phenomenal best seller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ("An intelligent, ingeniously plotted, utterly engrossing thriller" The Washington Post ), and this time it is Lisbeth Salander, the troubled, wise-beyond-her-years genius hacker, who is the focus and fierce heart of the story. Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium , has decided to publish a story exposing an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Girl Who Played with Fire (Unabridged) audiobook…

5. Water for Elephants (Unabridged) by Sara Gruen

Summary: An atmospheric tale of life and love in a Depression-era traveling circus. Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It’s the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. Jacob introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and t…

Click to hear an audio sample of Water for Elephants (Unabridged) audiobook…

6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Unabridged) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Summary: In the more than 100 years since Doyle created the immortal Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. Watson, no other mystery writer has come close to eclipsing him as the standard bearer in crime fiction. A brilliant London-based "consulting detective," Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess and is renowned for his skillful use of astute observation, deductive reasoning, and inference to solve difficult cases. Holmes is at the height of his powers here in this collection of 12 of his mo…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Unabridged) audiobook…

7. The Forgotten Garden (Unabridged) by Kate Morton

Summary: A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, a maze, an aristocratic family, a love denied, a mystery – The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric, and a compulsive listen about the past, ghosts, family, and memories from best-selling author Kate Morton. Thirty-eight year old Cassandra is lost, alone, and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident 10 years ago, feels like she has lost everyt…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Forgotten Garden (Unabridged) audiobook…

8. The Dark Horse: A Walt Longmire Mystery (Unabridged) by Craig Johnson

Summary: The Denver Post hails Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire mystery series as a must-read. Joining the four previous novels – all of which have been Book Sense picks – The Dark Horse puts a unique Wyoming twist on the classic British village mystery. Sheriff Longmire investigates when his instincts tell him something isn’t right about a prisoner accused of killing her husband. Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past, locked his wife’s horses in their barn and burned the animals alive. In return, …

Click to hear an audio sample of The Dark Horse: A Walt Longmire Mystery (Unabridged) audiobook…

9. The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I (Unabridged) by Stephen King

Summary: Eerie, dreamlike, set in a world that is weirdly related to our own, The Gunslinger introduces Roland Deschain of Gilead, of In-World that was, as he pursues his enigmatic antagonist to the mountains that separate the desert from the Western Sea in the first volume of The Dark Tower series. Roland, the last gunslinger, is a solitary figure, perhaps accursed, who with a strange single-mindedness traverses an exhausted, almost timeless landscape of good and evil. The people he encounters ar…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I (Unabridged) audiobook…

10. The Heir (Unabridged) by Johanna Lindsey

Summary: The grandson of a Scottish clan laird, Duncan MacTavish is shocked to learn that his other grandfather was an English marquis whose title and London estate he is now required to take on. Worse still, he is engaged to a stranger who has mocked him in public. But his bride-to-be, Ophelia, has been guiding a lovely and witty, if dreadfully inexperienced, country girl named Sabrina through the latter’s all-important first coming-out season. The enchanting Sabrina enthralls Duncan much more than h…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Heir (Unabridged) audiobook…

11. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations (Unabridged) by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Summary: In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time: Greg Mortenson’s one-man mission to counteract extremism b…

Click to hear an audio sample of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations (Unabridged) audiobook…

12. Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans (Unabridged) by Brian Fagan

Summary: Best-selling author Brian Fagan brings early humans out of the deep freeze with his trademark mix of erudition, cutting-edge science, and vivid storytelling. Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges – including a rival species of humans, the Neanderthals. For ten millennia, Cro-Magnons lived side by side with Neanderthals, an encounter that Fagan fills with drama. Using their superior intellects and tools, these ingenious problem solvers s…

Click to hear an audio sample of Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans (Unabridged) audiobook…

13. The Search (Unabridged) by Nora Roberts

Summary: To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life: a quaint house on an island off Seattle’s coast, a thriving dog-training school, and a challenging volunteer job performing canine search and rescue. Not to mention her three intensely loyal Labs. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare. Several years ago, she was the only survivor of a serial killer – a madman who stalked and abducted young women, strangled them, and left them buried with a red scarf on their bodies….

Click to hear an audio sample of The Search (Unabridged) audiobook…

14. The Odessa File (Unabridged) by Frederick Forsyth

Summary: Frederick Forsyth’s spellbinding novels are the natural outgrowth of an adventuresome career in international investigative journalism. Written in Austria and Germany during the fall of 1971, The Odessa File is based on its author’s life experiences as a Reuters man reporting from London, Paris, and East Berlin in the early 1960s. The "Odessa" of this title is an acronym for the secret organization that has protected the identities and advanced the destinies of former members of Hitler’s dr…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Odessa File (Unabridged) audiobook…

15. Private (Unabridged) by Kate Brian

Summary: Fifteen-year-old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy—the golden ticket away from her pill-popping mother and run-of-the-mill suburban life. But when she arrives on the beautiful, tradition-steeped campus of Easton, everyone is just a bit more sophisticated, a bit more gorgeous, and a lot wealthier than she ever thought possible. Reed realizes that even though she has been accepted to Easton, Easton has not accepted her. She feels like she’s on the outside, looking in. Until sh…

Click to hear an audio sample of Private (Unabridged) audiobook…

16. The Shack (Unabridged) by William P. Young

Summary: Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds the…

Click to hear an audio sample of The Shack (Unabridged) audiobook…

17. Loitering With Intent: Stone Barrington (Unabridged) by Stuart Woods

Summary: Dumped by his glamorous Russian girlfriend during dinner at Elaine’s, and running low on cash, Stone Barrington is having a bad week. So his luck seems to be improving when he’s hired to locate the missing son of a very wealthy man – lucky because the job pays well, and because the son is hiding in the tropical paradise of Key West. But when Stone and his sometime running buddy Dino Bacchetti arrive in the sunny Keys, it appears that someone has been lying in wait. When Stone very nearly lose…

Click to hear an audio sample of Loitering With Intent: Stone Barrington (Unabridged) audiobook…

18. All Together Dead: Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery #7 (Unabridged) by Charlaine Harris

Summary: Anthony Award-winning author Charlaine Harris has earned a devoted fan base with her USA Today and New York Times best-selling Sookie Stackhouse mystery series. All Together Dead features more dark but frequently hilarious adventures of buxom, blonde, beautiful, and telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie, who prefers the company of vampires to that of the living.

Click to hear an audio sample of All Together Dead: Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery #7 (Unabridged) audiobook…

19. Elegance of the Hedgehog (Unabridged) by Muriel Barbery

Summary: An enchanting New York Times and international best seller and award-winner about life, art, literature, philosophy, culture, class, privilege, and power, seen through the eyes of a 54-year-old French concierge and a precocious but troubled 12-year-old girl. Renee Michel is the 54-year-old concierge of a luxury Paris apartment building. Her exterior (short, ugly,and plump) and demeanor (poor, discreet, and insignificant) belie her keen, questing mind and profound erudition. Paloma Josse is …

Click to hear an audio sample of Elegance of the Hedgehog (Unabridged) audiobook…

20. In Defense of Food (Unabridged) by Michael Pollan

Summary: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food , the well-considered answers he provides to the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore’s Dilemma . Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to…

Click to hear an audio sample of In Defense of Food (Unabridged) audiobook…

Find more best selling audio books at Castlibrary.com

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Publisher’s Weekly

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The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke – This Week’s Best Seller is a post from: Digital Podcast

USA Network Uses Fake Blind Guy to Celebrate Americans With Disabilties Act

I’m not sure anyone else noticed, but I was stunned by a PSA run tonight by USA Network in association with its new show Covert Affairs.

In the PSA, USA Network has one of its main characters talking about the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and it’s impact. (the full press release is below.)

This would be great given the impact the ADA has had leveling the playing ground except they use a guy who can see to play a blind person.

A sighted person is playing a blind person, and there are not any real blind actors on the show that I know of.

What does that say about their real respect for the ADA.

If they wanted to make this about people with disabilities why not extend the principles they claim and find a blind actor to play the part. After all, if the CIA can do it why not Hollywood.

When this was about actors coloring their faces to play people of different colors this unacceptable, but when sighted people are used to play blind people this ok?

Are blind people incapable of acting? What would the ADA say about that?

But somehow the “American Association of People with Disabilities” thinks this ok according to USA Network’s PR machine.

I’m sorry, but I call BS.

#######################

USA’S ‘COVERT AFFAIRS’ PARTNERS WITH

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

TO HONOR THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

As Part of Network’s Characters Unite Campaign, Series Star Christopher Gorham to be Featured in an Original PSA on Combating Discrimination

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – July 27, 2010 – As part of its Characters Unite campaign to combat prejudice and discrimination, USA Network and its new, hit series COVERT AFFAIRS are teaming up with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it was announced today by Alexandra Shapiro senior vice president, brand marketing and digital, USA Network. COVERT AFFAIRS premiered on July 13, 2010, and is the #1 cable scripted series premiere in the important A18-49 demographic and also showed growth in total viewers for its second episode.

Christopher Gorham, who portrays a blind CIA operative (Auggie) in COVERT AFFAIRS, will be featured in an original Public Service Announcement (PSA) that highlights the progress of the ADA, which barred discrimination in employment against qualified individuals with disabilities. The PSA will premiere in the July 27th episode of COVERT AFFAIRS, the day after the 20th anniversary of when the landmark bill was signed into law.

“Thanks to the ADA, millions of people with disabilities like Christopher Gorham’s character have been able to work in virtually every field and every type of business, even the CIA,” Shapiro said. “But we also know that barriers for people with disabilities remain and we are proud to partner with the AAPD in our Characters Unite campaign to raise awareness and encourage viewers to join the fight against persisting discrimination.”

In addition to the PSA, USA will provide information for visitors online at charactersunite.com, including facts and statistics on people with disabilities in the workplace and links to important resources such as the AAPD and The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a free service that offers advice and information about workplace accommodations.

“As we celebrate 20 years of enforcement of ADA, we at AAPD are delighted to partner with the USA Network’s Characters Unite campaign and the ‘Covert Affairs’ team to promote authentic depictions of disabled characters on television,” said Andrew J. Imparato, president and CEO of AAPD. “This exciting new program will help change attitudes, and the PSA being launched this week will accelerate and amplify the show’s inclusive message.”

In COVERT AFFAIRS, USA’s newest original series, we meet Annie Walker (Piper Perabo), a young CIA trainee who is thrust into the inner sanctum of the agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to field operative. While it appears that she has been plucked from obscurity for her exceptional linguistic skills, there may be something or someone from her past that her CIA bosses are really after. The series also stars Christopher Gorham, Peter Gallagher, Kari Matchett, Anne Dudek and Sendhil Ramamurthy. From Universal Cable Productions, COVERT AFFAIRS is executive produced by Doug Liman and David Bartis through Dutch Oven and written and co-executive produced by Matt Corman and Chris Ord. James Parriott is the show’s executive producer and showrunner.

The PSA can be viewed via the following link: http://www.soapyfilm.com/reel.php?tx_user=ada&tx_pass=psa&sb_submit=Login

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country’s largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community to be a powerful voice for change – politically, economically and socially. AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). AAPD operates programs in five core areas: Political Participation, Leadership Development, Employment & Mentoring, Advocacy, Membership & Member Benefits. To learn more, visit the AAPD website: www.aapd.com

USA Network is the #1 network in all of basic cable and is seen in over 98.5 million U.S. homes. A division of NBC Universal, USA is the cable television leader in original series and home to the best in blockbuster theatrical films, acquired television series and entertainment events. The award-winning USA website is located at www.usanetwork.com. Characters Welcome.

USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.

USA Network Uses Fake Blind Guy to Celebrate Americans With Disabilties Act is a post from: Digital Podcast

Free Audiobook – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Castlibrary.com is giving away a free audiobook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories that were originally published as single stories in Strand Magazine.

The audiobook has been formated into a 4 volume set, each with three of the short stories. You can listen to them in any order and they still work great.

The audiobook has been formated for iPod, iPad and iPhone. An mp3 version is also available for other players.

Click here to get your free The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Audiobook.

Free Audiobook – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a post from: Digital Podcast

Making Movies with the iPhone 4

A couple of students from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Michael Koerbel and Anna Elizabeth James, have written and directed an entire movie – well a short film called “Apple of My Eye” using the iPhone as the camera and editing device. They did it all in 48 hours.

Considering what how they made this short film the video is excellent. At the end, they show you how they made the movie. That part is especially fun to watch.

Via. Podcasting News

Making Movies with the iPhone 4 is a post from: Digital Podcast

iPhone – EVO 4G Video Wars (NSFW)

Techcrunch had some funny videos from Youtube about the crazy behavior of some iPhone users and a rebuttal by the iPhone fans.

And here’s the rebutal.

iPhone – EVO 4G Video Wars (NSFW) is a post from: Digital Podcast

10 Challenges for Social Tech

Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group has a good post about the challenges facing the social technology industry.

Jeremiah does lots of good work exploring what’s going on the social tech industry and usually has lots of good content.  I really like this post however, because it sets the stage for some focused innovation on some of the issues that need to be addressed to make social tech more useful and productive.

A good list to provoke some innovation if you ask me.

Here’s his list of ten challenges he thinks the industry needs to address:

1. Noise overwhelms signal
2. Amateurism threatens expertise
3. Power shift to participants
4. Fast moving industry creates confusion
5. Risk of overhype
6. Lack of qualified talent
7. Measurement elusive
8. Disparate Data and Irregular Standards.
9. Culture shift creates an internal rift inside institutions.
10. Privacy Woes scare companies and consumers.

He does a good job of expanding on these topics in his matrix. I think this is a good list of issues for the industry, although I’m not so sure about #2. I don’t see amateurism threatening expertise as a challeng. I’ve seen lots of “experts” are anything but experts, and plenty of amateur who know what they’re talking about.

It’s worth checking out his post if you’re looking for some ideas about where innovation is needed.

Click here to see the post.

10 Challenges for Social Tech is a post from: Digital Podcast

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – This Week’s Best Seller

This week we have lots of new material hitting the best seller list. I’ve just started on the Stief Larsson books and really enjoy his writing. Can’t wait to catch up to the newest one.

And I’m sure my daughter will want the newest Twilight book, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Apparantly, it’s a must have before seeing Eclipse, the Movie.

And don’t forget Father’s Day is coming up in the US. Audiobooks make a great present.

Here’s the top sellers for the week. I hope you find something you enjoy.

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Unabridged) by Stieg Larsson
Summary: Lisbeth Salander lies in Intensive Care with a bullet lodged in her head. She will face trial for three murders and one attempted murder on her release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, Salander must not only prove her innocence, but identify and denounce the corrupt politicians that have allowed the vulnerable to become victims of abuse and violence. Salander is now ready to fight back.
Click to hear an audio sample of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Unabridged) audiobook…

2. The Burning Wire: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Unabridged) by Jeffery Deaver
Summary: Lincoln Rhyme is back, on the trail of a killer whose weapon of choice cripples New York City with fear. The weapon is invisible and omnipresent. Without it, modern society grinds to a halt. It is electricity. The killer harnesses and steers huge arc flashes with voltage so high and heat so searing that steel melts and his victims are set afire. When the first explosion occurs in broad daylight, reducing a city bus to a pile of molten, shrapnel-riddled metal, officials fear terrorism. Rhym…
Click to hear an audio sample of The Burning Wire: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Unabridged) audiobook…

3. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga) (Unabridged) by Stephenie Meyer
Summary: Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse , and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to an unforgettable conclusion.

Click to hear an audio sample of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella (Twilight Saga) (Unabridged) audiobook…

4. 61 Hours: A Reacher Novel (Unabridged) by Lee Child
Summary: Jack Reacher is back. The countdown has begun. Get ready for the most exciting 61 hours of your life. Number-one New York Times best-selling author Lee Child’s latest thriller is a ticking time bomb of suspense. Sixty-one hours. Not a minute to spare. A tour bus crashes in a savage snowstorm and lands Jack Reacher in the middle of a deadly confrontation. In nearby Bolton, South Dakota, one brave woman is standing up for justice in a small town threatened by sinister forces. If she’s goi…
Click to hear an audio sample of 61 Hours: A Reacher Novel (Unabridged) audiobook…

5. The Passage (Unabridged) by Justin Cronin
Summary: Just one credit through July 7, 2010. "It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born." First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear – of …
Click to hear an audio sample of The Passage (Unabridged) audiobook…

6. The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home (Unabridged) by Dan Ariely
Summary: The provocative follow-up to the New York Times best seller Predictably Irrational Why can large bonuses make CEOs less productive? How can confusing directions actually help us? Why is revenge so important to us? Why is there such a big difference between what we think will make us happy and what really makes us happy? In his groundbreaking book Predictably Irrational , social scientist Dan Ariely revealed the multiple biases that lead us into making unwise decisions. Now, …

Click to hear an audio sample of The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home (Unabridged) audiobook…

7. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Objective (Unabridged) by Eric Van Lustbader
Summary: Facing down mercenaries in Africa, Jason Bourne witnesses the death of an art dealer named Tracy Atherton. Her killing dredges up snatches of Bourne’s impaired memory, in particular the murder of a young woman on Bali who entrusted him with a strangely engraved ringA-A- – an artifact of such powerful significance that people have killed to obtain it. Now he’s determined to find the ring’s owner and purpose. But Bourne never knows what terrible acts he’ll discover he committed when he digs in…
Click to hear an audio sample of Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Objective (Unabridged) audiobook…

8. Innocent (Unabridged) by Scott Turow
Summary: The sequel to the genre-defining, landmark best seller Presumed Innocent , Innocent continues the story of Rusty Sabich and Tommy Molto who are, once again, 20 years later, pitted against each other in a riveting psychological match after the mysterious death of Rusty’s wife. Rusty is the prime suspect. Reunited with his charismatic lawyer Sandy Stern, he will do anything to convince his beloved son, Nat, of his innocence. But what is he hiding? In an explosive trial which will expose …
Click to hear an audio sample of Innocent (Unabridged) audiobook…

9. Vows, Vendettas, and a Little Black Dress (Unabridged) by Kyra Davis
Summary: The peach taffeta Bridesmaid dress- that should be Sophie’s problem. Not attempted murder. Overjoyed at Maryanne’s engagement, amateur sleuth Sophie Katz can’t wait for the wedding vows and party toasts to begin. But then Dena – best friend, bridesmaid, and all-around vixen – is mysteriously shot just after the announcement. Leave this to the authorities? No way. Dena may never walk again, and Sophie vows to marry her fists with the shooter’s face. Problem is, the number of suspects i…
Click to hear an audio sample of Vows, Vendettas, and a Little Black Dress (Unabridged) audiobook…

10. The Spy: An Isaac Bell Adventure (Unabridged) by Clive Cussler, Justin Scott
Summary: Detective Isaac Bell, hero of The Chase and The Wrecker , returns in the remarkable new adventure from the number-one New York Times best-selling author. It is 1908, and international tensions are mounting as the world plunges toward war. When a brilliant American battleship-gun designer dies in a sensational apparent suicide, the man’s grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father’s name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case,…
Click to hear an audio sample of The Spy: An Isaac Bell Adventure (Unabridged) audiobook…

11. The Lion (Unabridged) by Nelson DeMille
Summary: In this eagerly awaited follow-up to The Lion’s Game , John Corey, former NYPD Homicide detective and special agent for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, is back. And, unfortunately for Corey, so is Asad Khalil, the notorious Libyan terrorist otherwise known as "The Lion". Last we heard from him, Khali had claimed to be defecting to the US only to unleash the most horrific reign of terrorism ever to occur on American soil. While Corey and his partner, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, chased him across…

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12. Storm Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel (Unabridged) by John Sandford
Summary: The brilliant new Lucas Davenport thriller from the number-one New York Times -best-selling author. "Sandford’s track record as a best-selling author is amazing, but it’s not an accident," wrote Booklist of Wicked Prey . "His plotting is sharp, his villains are extraordinarily layered, and his good guys are always evolving. And this time, there’s a storm brewing…Very early, 4:45, on a bitterly cold Minnesota morning, three big men burst through the door of a hospital pharmacy, du…
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13. The Help (Unabridged) by Kathryn Stockett
Summary: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid, Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman rai…
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14. Bullet: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 19 (Unabridged) by Laurell K. Hamilton
Summary: The all-new novel in the number-one best-selling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. The triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude, necromancer Anita Blake, and werewolf Richard Zeeman has made Jean-Claude one of the most powerful vampires in the U.S. He’s consolidating power in himself and those loyal to him, doing in America what Belle Morte did in Europe when she was at her height of power. She almost owned Europe, and there was those who are determined that Jean-Claude won’t do …

Click to hear an audio sample of Bullet: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 19 (Unabridged) audiobook…

15. The Eyes of Darkness (Unabridged) by Dean Koontz
Summary: A year had passed since little Danny’s death – A year since his mother began the painful process of acceptance. But Tina Evans could have sworn she just saw her Danny in a stranger’s car…Then she dreamed that Danny was alive. And when she awoke, she found a message waiting for her in Danny’s bedroom – Two disturbing words scrawled on his chalkboard: NOT DEAD. Was this someone’s grim joke? Her mind playing tricks on her? Or something …more? For Tina Evans, it was a mystery she couldn’t e…
Click to hear an audio sample of The Eyes of Darkness (Unabridged) audiobook…

16. Heart of the Matter (Unabridged) by Emily Giffin
Summary: Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her own mother’s warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie – a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance – and even, to some degree, fr…
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17. Fever Dream (Unabridged) by Lincoln Child, Douglas Preston
Summary: At the old family manse in Louisiana, Special Agent Pendergast is putting to rest long-ignored possessions reminiscent of his wife Helen’s tragic death, only to make a stunning – and dreadful – discovery. Helen had been mauled by an unusually large and vicious lion while they were big game hunting in Africa. But now, Pendergast learns that her rifle – her only protection from the beast – had been deliberately loaded with blanks. Who could have wanted Helen dead…and why? With Lieutenant Vi…
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18. Deliver Us from Evil (Unabridged) by David Baldacci
Summary: In South America, a 96-year-old man of great wealth reads a book late one night and an hour later he lies dead in his bed, the secrets of his past starkly revealed. Six months later, another mystery man lies dead at the bottom of his pool in a villa in Provence. This time, however, there’s a witness at the scene: Shaw, the shadowy operative from The Whole Truth who barely escapes with his life. Meanwhile, a half a world away, photojournalist Katie James is working on a story of internat…
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19. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (Unabridged) by James W. Loewen
Summary: This national best seller is an entertaining, informative, and sometimes shocking expose of the way history is taught to American students. Lies My Teacher Told Me won the American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship. James W. Loewen, a sociology professor and distinguished critic of history education, puts 12 popular textbooks under the microscope, and what he discovers will surprise you. In his opinion, every one of these texts fails to m…

Click to hear an audio sample of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (Unabridged) audiobook…

20. How We Decide (Unabridged) by Jonah Lehrer
Summary: Since Plato, philosophers have described the decision-making process as either rational or emotional: we carefully deliberate or we "blink" and go with our gut. But as scientists break open the mind’s black box with the latest tools of neuroscience, they’re discovering that this is not how the mind works. Our best decisions are a finely tuned blend of both feeling and reason – and the precise mix depends on the situation. When buying a house, for example, it’s best to let our unconscious mull…
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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – This Week’s Best Seller is a post from: Digital Podcast

The State of the Games Industry – View From The Top

At the LA Games Conference 2010, industry leaders discussed the current state of the games industry as the business continues its transition towards a digital future. Focusing on questions like: What does it take to make a blockbuster game these days? What trends and developments are leading the industry? Does the industry need to take more creative risks in breaking new styles of play? What players in the games space will push the creativity? How do you make money in this more and more complicated gaming universe with new digital platforms now competing with the time and pocketbooks of consumers? Who will be the winners and losers in the years to come?

The panelists at the conference were:
Michael Pachter, Man. Dir., Ent. Research, Wedbush Morgan Securities
Nanea Reeves, SVP & COO, Global Online, Electronic Arts
Brian Ward, SVP, Worldwide Studios, Activision Blizzard
Teemu Huuhtanen, EVP, Business Dev. and COmmunications, Sulake Inc. (Habbo Hotel)
Phil Rosenberg, SVP, Bus. Dev., Sony Computer Entertainment America (PlayStation)
Moderator: Eric Goldberg, Managing Director, Crossover Technologies

Michael Pachter opened the session by observing that we are in a state of flux right now. Games used to be in a packaged goods industry, but the digital side is growing fast. It has gone from 0 to $10 billion in the last 10 years. Packaged products are experiencing 2-4% growth. Digital is growing at 25-30% rates and will quickly over take the packaged goods business.

Nanea Reeves is the SVP/COO of EA’s Global Online team that centralizes many of the online services used across the company. From her perspective, they have made a significant investment in digital. In aggregate, the EA online business is now $500 million and should be at $1b by end of 2011. Most of that comes from a player putting a disc in a tray. One of the challenges is to find other ways to connect and acquire customers.

Teemu Huuhtanen says that Habbo Hotel is now on Facebook. The next big thing will be a Facebook game that can get to 150 million users. Habbo is now at 20 million. He is somewhat cautious about Facebook. He says you need to be careful with Facebook because you can never predict what they will do. He says that it can be a great source for acquiring customers, but can be unpredictable if you run 100% on the Facebook platform.

Next generation blockbusters in the console world are defined differently in the packaged world where it takes 1 million units to ship to be a real blockbuster.

The digital blockbuster of tomorrow will come from big revenue – ($150 -300 million). 15 million unique users per month is the target for digital blockbusters in social games (at $1 per month per user). Zynga for example is running at $450-600 million.

The growth of the online side will lead to much more focus on measurement and mining the data to understand sources of value and how you manage the value drivers. Habbu always knows cost of acquisition, acquisition cost by source etc. That means that they can be much more focused on how to drive value.

The largest audience has been teenagers through young men. The second biggest market is 30-50 year old women. Game mechanics are critical to getting women more involved. The bottom line is that women and girls like “good games”, even WOW and Call of Duty should be appealing to women.

We are in the midst of a social sea change with games like Farmville opening up more of the market with much simpler games, although this may not be appreciated by the developers of “hard core” games.

Facebook has been a big open market, although it is getting harder to market there. Pachter says that the Android market is exploding and with HP acquiring Palm there may be another platform available for developers.

Lessons learned about sales from subscription users after the digital download include timing of releases of upgrade packs and how to test new IP experiences. Some of the other big lessons have come from improvements in measurement, such as being able to identify the core customers within the first 7 days of online play.

Overall, the panel was quite positive about the state of the industry and the future ahead. Good news for gamers.

The State of the Games Industry – View From The Top is a post from: Digital Podcast

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