Focused on short, quick-read books, the new TED Books app, set to launch this month, is a dedicated platform for TED‘s publishing efforts. Most of the e-titles will be in the 20,000 word range. The nifty app will offer optional browsing through in-line items that can also link to graphics, maps, video and audio files. 
The TED Books app will be free, but individual book titles will set you back $2.99 and there will be a subscription model that offers six books for $14.99. Check it out—
Eurolapse takes us on a whirlwind three month tour of Europe in under five minutes. The film, created by photographer David Smith, was taken between May and August 2011.If you look closely, you can pick-out Vilnius, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Riga, Santorini, Heraklion, Milan and the lovely Cinque Terra in Italy.
Today marks the end of Independent Booksellers Week in the UK. To celebrate their love of indie bookshops, the “Bookshop Band” composed and recorded “A Shop With Books In It’ and toured England for three weeks performing at indie bookstores.
This summer, New York subway riders might be able to actually get some work done on the train (rather than just beating their high scores in Temple Run). Beginning Monday, free Wi-Fi will be available at a number of stations courtesy of Google.
Boingo Wireless, the Wi-Fi provider well known for its wireless service for airports, has teamed up with Google Offers, the search company’s Web page for getting deals, to offer the free Internet. Google is paying for the service from now until Sept. 7.
Here’s a list of the stations where free Wi-Fi is available:
• A, C, E station at Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street
• L station at Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street
• C, E station at Eighth Avenue and West 23rd Street
• 1, 2, 3 station at Seventh Avenue and West 14th Street
• F, M station at Sixth Avenue and West 14th Street
• L station at Sixth Avenue and West 14th Street
Boingo said its Wi-Fi would be available in 36 New York subway stations by the end of the year, and in 270 stations in the next five years. The company offers several service plans for its Wi-Fi, such as $10 per month for unlimited use on any two Internet-enabled devices, or $8 per month for unlimited access on a mobile device.
Though Google’s promotion of the service ends in September, Boingo expects that it will continue to receive sponsorships to provide free Wi-Fi for the New York subway system regularly, according to Katie O’Neill, a spokeswoman for the company.
The free Wi-Fi promotions would add to the city’s existing initiative to bring cellphone service to the subway system. Transit Wireless, the company offering the service, started a pilot program last year, in which it installed fiber optic networks for cellphone connections on some platforms. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has said it hopes to extend the service to other parts of the system.
While a free Internet connection may sound like good news for everyone, the prospect of a wired subway system has been deeply controversial in New York. Sure, you could shoot off some e-mails and rearrange meetings while commuting, but some people may be offended by self-absorbed smartphone addicts standing in the middle of a crowded train, mesmerized with their Facebook updates.
(Source: NY Times)
I just received a gratis copy of a new, glossy travel magazine; it’s one of the perks of the blog. This new contender reminded me of all of the ambitious, and failed, travel magazines that have been unable to sustain a readership and have quietly disappeared over the years. Maybe the publishers should go back to some of the travel periodicals that demonstrated amazing staying power. Travel , which was published between 1902 and 2003 was just that kind of magazine. The marvelous graphic artwork attracted readers, and more importantly subscribers for over a century. Could be a lesson there even in the internet age.
Londoners and tourists alike can now enjoy a sky high trip across the Thames between North Greenwich and the Royal Docks courtesy of Emirates Airlines. After two years of construction (and a mere £60 million), last week Britain’s first skyline was inaugurated. The cable car system was designed to bring tourists to the Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Victoria Docks, serve commuters and encourage growth in the area.
The 34 car skyline takes about 5 minutes each way, but promises spectacular views of the city skyline. And all for the “low” price of £3.20 with an Oyster Card, £4.30 without and £6.40 for a roundtrip. The line will operate on weekdays 7am-9pm, Saturdays 8am-9pm and 9am-9pm this summer.
Visitors to the United States sometimes wonder: “What’s up with all of those food trucks”. Although the “food truck” has been around since the 1920s, the tiping point for the massive spread of the phenomenon around North America was probably 2008. If you want to learn all about the food truck boom, take a peek at this infographic which was created by Lindsey McCormack and Stephanie Buck for Mashable.
At 309 meters tall, London’s Shard is now Europe’s tallest building. On July 5th, it will be celebrating the official completion of the external structure. The inauguration will be capped-off by a light show using 12 lasers and 30 massive searchlights. The extravaganza will target 15 London landmarks, including the Tower of London, Big Ben and the London Eye. The spectacule will commence at 10:15 pm and will be livestreamed from the Shard website.
The Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. opened an exhibition last week celebrating “Books That Shaped America.” The exhibition is on 88 books that they’ve deemed to have the most influence on American culture .
The selection was hotly debated over by curators and experts at the Library, the list is wide-ranging in terms of genre; it includes children’s books like The Wizard of Oz, political treatises such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, works that shaped American language like Noah Webster’s A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, and works of drama and poetry, including Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Tennessee Williams‘ A Streetcar Named Desire and novels such as Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest.
One of the most controversial picks on the list is Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book.
The full list of books is available on the LOC website, but if you want to see them in person, the exhibition will only be open from June 25 through September 29 in the library’s Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, DC.
Fans of the wildly popular A Song of Ice and Fire series and the A Game of Thrones tv show will be tickled by the video Write Like the Wind (George R.R. Martin) which encourages the author to finally finish the next 
installment The Winds of Winter. It’s been an entire year since the release of A Dance With Dragons, which took six years to arrive after A Feast of Crows. So let’s hope that George Martin is watching.
Travel Between The Pages 