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Mobile devices bring kids back to Sesame Street

A new partnership has formed between the kids’ entertainment company and Kobo ereaders.

One of the global leaders in ereading mobile devices, Kobo, has just announced that it has entered into a partnership with Sesame Workshop in order to make it possible to produce Sesame Street ebooks through its proprietary platform.

This agreement will bring over 50 kids ebook favorites onto the screens of their ereader gadgets.

Some of the titles that are expected to be among the most popularly downloaded to the Kobo ereader mobile devices include “The Monster at the End of This Book”, “How to Be a Grouch” and “Count to 10”. These, among others, are already all available at the mobile commerce Kids’ Store on the brand’s platform.

This will help to enhance the offerings for children over these mobile devices in a meaningful way.

Mobile Devices - Kids eBooksAccording to the Kobo chief content officer, Michael Tamblyn, in a press release from the company, “We are thrilled to make the Sesame Street titles available to Kobo customers.” He explained that Sesame Street is among the leading global children’s entertainment organizations. Kobo has wanted to create an agreement with the brand for quite some time and Tamblyn stated that they “knew that making their books available to our customers was one of the best ways to round out our Kids’ Store catalogue.”

As a part of the launch of this brand into their mcommerce offerings, the audio ebook “The ABCs of Cookies”, which typically retails for $4.99, will be available to North American readers for $0.99 from this week through until March 22, 2014.

The Sesame Workshop vice president of worldwide publishing, Jennifer A. Perry, explained that the company was happy to launch their eBooks on the Kobo platform, “As it is one of the most popular reading devices around the world.” She went on to point out that their primary goal is to be able to reach children no matter where they are, so choosing this ereader provided them with one of the best possible opportunities with which to achieve that goal.

The Kids Store at Kobo already offers children almost 100,000 titles. Its design makes it easy for kids and young adults to be able to use their mobile devices to find exactly the book that they want to read, whether it is from a bestselling series, a picture book, or a read along.

Wearable technology take from Google: “We’re just scratching the surface”

Sundar Pichai, the head of Android, Chrome, and mobile apps, made the quote at his SXSW appearance.

While speaking at the SXSW, Sundar Pichai explained that wearable technology is only just getting started with Google, and that “Android for wearables” will be released before the conclusion of March.

Google is getting ready to launch an SDK that is specific to wearable devices later on in the month.

They are hoping that hardware firms will choose to implement Android in their wearable technology devices such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, and other gadgets in the form of jewelry or clothing clip-ons. The senior vice president of Android, Chrome, and Apps, Pichai, made the announcement for the plans for the software development kit and the operating system specifically for wearables while he was at the Austin, Texas based SXSW.

The wearable technology Android software development kit will be out in under two weeks.

Pichai made this statement as he discussed Google’s vision when it comes to the market for wearables. He explained that when they picture these mobile devices, they think of them from the perspective of a platform. “We see a world of sensors… Sensors can be small and powerful, and gather a lot of information that can be useful for users. We want to build the right APIs for this world of sensors.”Wearable Technology - Google Android

He also pointed out that while fitness bands and trackers, and smartwatches are easily the most obvious categories in the overall environment of wearables, Google is hoping that its SDK release will only encourage a greater evolution of different gadgets and devices. He said that he believes that “we are just scratching the surface” in this ecosystem.

Android was added to the various responsibilities under Pichai last year when the founder of the operating system, Andy Rubin, stepped into other areas within the company. He did not give any details regarding Google’s intention to create its own wearable technology devices. Instead, he spoke exclusively of the platform and the APIs and the plans that the company has for those in the near and more vaguely distant but foreseeable future.