TCHNOLOGY - TESTERS NEEDED FOR INTERACTIVE BOOKS & MAGAZINES TABLET APPS

Testers Needed for Interactive Books and Magazines Tablet Apps Posted: 14 Jan 2012 11:50 AM PST The Church's Media Services team released the LDS Ensign and The Coat apps for iPad and Android tablets in December to experiment with a new platform for digital content, and now they’re looking for feedback on the LDS Ensign app in addition to future help on similar testing. The Ensign app is an interactive digital magazine, but it is much more than just a PDF of the Ensign that you can read on your tablet. The LDS Ensign app provides audio and video features that enhance your experience with the Ensign. You can read, watch, or listen to each talk, and there are biographies of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the end of the issue.

A tutorial at the beginning will tell you everything you need to know about using the app, so it should be pretty easy to download and use right away. To download the LDS Ensign app, open your tablet's application store and search for “LDS Ensign.” Download and install the LDS Ensign magazine from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The app icon is as follows: Note that downloading the magazine requires an internet connection, but once you’ve downloaded it, you can use the app entirely offline. You can also download the app of The Coat—a true story from Heber J. Grant’s childhood—and see the same technology at work in an interactive, animated storybook.  The Coat has a number of animations, such as zooms, shifts of perspectives, and even snow angels, each triggered by finger swipes across the screen. To download the coat, search your tablet’s application store for “The Coat" and look for this app icon:   The technology for the Ensign and The Coat could be used in the future for other applications, so the Media Services team wants to know what you think of both the platform and—more specifically—the LDS Ensign iPad app. At this point, the apps are only for large-screen devices, like tablets. They are available on iTunes and the Android Market. How to Get Involved To give feedback on the LDS Ensign app, take the short survey that’s located in the Table of Contents in the app. If you are interested in future testing on similar apps for 7” tablets—such as Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, and other 7-inch Android tablets—then join the Interactive Books and Magazines project to be notified of these opportunities when they arise. To join the Interactive Books & Magazines project: Go to LDSTech.org and sign in with your LDS Account user name and password. You will be brought directly to the Projects page. If you are not directed to that page, click Projects in the top navigation bar. Under available projects, search for Interactive Books and Magazines. Click Interactive Books and Magazines. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Join button. (If you see a Leave button, it means you’ve already joined this project. You’ll be redirected to your Projects page, and Interactive Books and Magazines will appear under My Projects. You can also go to the Interactive Books and Magazines Forum to check up on the progress of the new project or visit the Interactive Books and Magazines wiki page for more information.

WORK/TECHNOLOGY - INCREASE YOUR EMPLOYMENT POTENTIAL BY GETTING INVOLVED IN LDSTech

Increase Your Employment Potential by Getting Involved in LDSTech

Posted: 06 Dec 2011 12:43 PM PST

When you’re looking for a job, you’re often faced with the following challenges:

• Gaps in employment. When you haven’t been employed for a period of years, the gap creates a problem with your resume. Employers are suspicious as to the reasons for unemployment and prefer to see an uninterrupted track record from one company to another.
• Lack of experience. If you’re looking to move into a specific professional field, you need experience demonstrating competence in this field. Without experience, assertions about skills often have no credibility.
• No portfolio samples. You can compensate for lack of experience or education by showcasing an impressive portfolio of work you’ve completed. But without a strong portfolio, you’re often at the mercy of your resume alone.

Involvement in the LDSTech community can help overcome these three challenges and increase your chances of finding employment. LDSTech is the community effort of the Church for IT projects. In the LDSTech community, project teams work together to develop solutions for technical problems. For example, every one of the official LDS mobile applications (Gospel Library, Mormon Channel, etc.) was developed by the LDSTech community effort.
LDSTech projects usually involve a mix of internal employees and remotely located volunteers. Currently there are about 50 projects you can join. The work you do on projects ranges widely and can include any of the following:

• Quality assurance
• Software development
• Documentation and training
• Database administration
• Project management
• Security architecture
• Web design and development
• Community management

After you join a project, the project manager assesses your skills and assigns tasks most suited to your capabilities. If you have little or no IT experience, you can still do testing, writing, support, management, communication, and other less technical tasks.
To join a project on LDSTech, click Projects in the top navigation bar. Log in with your LDS Account. Complete the Skills and Profile subtabs. Then click the Projects subtab and browse for a project to join.
You can contribute as much or as little time as your schedule allows. An active contributor usually dedicates about 10 hours a week. If you want to contribute more time, or even work full-time, you can also serve Church service missions for LDSTech.
Additional volunteer opportunities, especially for non-technical candidates, are available at another Church website: Helping in the Vineyard. The Vineyard allows members to work independently as they help with minute-sized tasks, such as checking document formatting, tagging videos, or adding keywords to images. Members who speak multiple languages can assist with community translation efforts. If you have photography skills, you can contribute your own photos.
Whatever amount of time you contribute, whether it’s through LDSTech or Helping in the Vineyard, the experience you gain helps you overcome employment gaps, find experience, and acquire samples for a portfolio. You will be much more likely to get jobs in IT fields and others as a result.

NEWS - DESERET BOOKS NEW BOOKSHELF APP: MIXING THE OLD WITH THE NEW

Deseret Book's new BookShelf app: Mixing the old with the new

Published: Friday, June 17, 2011

By Nick Galieti, For Mormon Times

The out-of-print works of B.H. Roberts, “Key to the Science of Theology” by Parley P. Pratt and other works from church history are back on Deseret Book’s shelves — electronically.
Of the more than 1,500 titles in the recently released Deseret BookShelf app for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, about half are considered out-of-print books, said Matt McBride, director of digital products for Deseret Book.

It’s taken years of scanning and retyping to present these titles in a digital and indexed format, said McBride. Future out-of-print titles include the volumes in the “The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley.”
Deseret BookShelf app is free to download from the App Store and includes eight free e-books with download. The free books include “Jesus the Christ,” “Discourses of Brigham Young” and the best-selling “Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt.” Hundreds of other books, including recently released books, are available to buy. An Android platform version of the app will be made available late summer 2011.
The BookShelf app is designed “to provide a tailored e-reading experience for LDS books,” McBride said. “This app allows the reader to interact with the books in a way that facilitates gospel study.”
This interaction includes being able to search your entire indexed library, not just one title at a time. Future versions of the app will include tools for lesson or talk preparation — all without leaving the app, he added.
The number of books available to buy on the app increases daily. McBride anticipates that the app will “offer an increasing number of exclusive direct-to-digital publications.”
The app builds a personal e-book library which allows for reading and marking books. It also links directly to the scriptures when referenced by the authors.
“This is a remarkable era for publishers when content can be made readily available in whatever format suits your personal tastes,” Sheri Dew, president and CEO of Deseret Book, stated in a news release about the new e-book technology. “We now have the capacity to publish books that can literally be accessed anywhere in the world in a matter of moments.”
E-books, or electronic books, are growing in popularity the world over. According to Book Industry Study Group (BISG) research, the first quarter of 2010 saw e-book sales jump to 5 percent of total book sales from the meager 1.5 percent in 2009. Wired Magazine reports that Amazon.com sells more e-books than hardcover books with a ratio of 143 e-books to every 100 hardcover books.
Nick Galieti is a writer, documentarian, freelance record producer and sound engineer with www.independentmusicstudios.com. He authored the LDS devotional book “Tree of Sacrament” and has produced a number of documentaries and albums.