When Amazon launched Alexa Skill Blueprints last week, they drastically lowered the skill level required to develop new tricks for Amazon's smart speaker. Now anyone can put their work in the Alexa Skills Store...
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Category: Tech
Bookmate Hacked (?), 8 Million Account Records Stolen (?)
Mike Cane brought my attention to a story over on The Register: Some 617 million online account details stolen from 16 hacked websites are on sale from today on...
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Google Plus is Shutting Down on 2 April
When Google announced last October that they were sunsetting Google+, they didn't tell us when they were going to turn off the lights. According to the emails Google started...
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Scribd Reaches 1 Million Subscribers
The only real competitor to Kindle Unlimited continues to thrive in Amazon's shadow. Scribd announced today that they now have one million subscribers paying for their limited ebook subscription...
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Viewtag’s E-ink Equipped Luggage Tag Clears the FCC
For the past six years or so E-ink luggage tags have been just over the horizon; multiple models have been announced but none have made it to a retail...
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Kindle Unlimited Per-Page Rate Dips Below Half a Cent in December 2018 while the Funding Pool Grew
Amazon sent ut an email to authors on Tuesday with the news that the Kindle Unlimited funding pool grew to $23.7 million (plus bonuses) in December 2018 , up...
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Amazon Drops Product Display Ads, Launches Lockscreen Ads for Authors
Over the past few months I have been hearing rumors of Amazon changing its ad program while at the same time I've been seeing indie titles show up in...
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Someone Was Impersonating My Blog on Facebook in 2012
I learned two things on Facebook this morning. The first is that I apparently won an award in 2012 for being one of the 50 best blogs for authors....
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Facebook Helped Other Tech Companies (Such as Amazon) Spy On You Better
There may not be any honor among thieves, but there is certainly a collegial quid pro quo among tech companies. The NYTimes published a story yesterday that explained just...
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PSA: eBookMall Has Gone From eBook Retailer to Phishing Site
If you were a customer of eBookMall,com then you might want to look for a new ebookstore. The site has somehow come under the control of a scammer of...
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The First Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica is Now Available Online
The Encyclopedia Britannica is now little more than an entry in the annals of the history of encyclopedias, but at one point it was one of the preeminent reference tools...
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Google Site Kit Will Make It Easier to Integrate Google’s Services Into WordPress Sites
Between its SEO, traffic analysis, and performance optimization tools (Search Console, Analytics, and PageSpeed Insights, respectively), Google supplies a number of key tools used by just about everyone who...
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What’s the Best Option for Rescuing Your Content From Tumblr?
Tumblr's announcement this week that all adult content will be deleted on 17 December has many users running for the exits, and that really should include you (even if...
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Here’s What You Can Do with That Old Blog After Launching a New Website
If you write online for years on end there will come a point where you will end up with multiple old blogs and abandoned writing projects residing on various...
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Tumblr Reminds Us Why Creators Need to Own Their Platform, Part Three
Almost like clockwork, every couple years Tumblr gives us another example of how if you don't own your own platform, you don't get to decide what you can say....
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