Potter mania on Kindle

Amazon announced that it will be adding all seven Harry Potter books to the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library for Amazon Prime members. All the seven parts of the series will be available in various languages, such as English, French, German and Italian.

Pottermore — a website launched in March 2012, is dedicated to Harry Potter’s games and all digital-related content. It also features the series in e-book format, however, the ebooks required the readers to first transfer the content to their Kindle device. Therefore, Amazon has now purchased an exclusive license from J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore to make the titles available in the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

Harry Potter goes to Japan

Japanese fans of Harry Potter will be delighted to explore the magical world of Hogwarts when Universal Studios Japan expands its theme park with a half-billion dollar investment.

The company is going to open the park in Osaka, western Japan, with the new attraction ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’, set to open in 2014.

Brad Globe of Warner Brothers said the Universal Studios Japan expansion was a boon for Harry buffs. “Harry Potter continues to captivate generations of fans around the world and we are delighted to announce this partnership... that will allow us to bring the magic of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Asia,” he said.

Universal Studios Japan, which opened in 2001, also has attractions featuring Sesame Street, Peter Pan’s Neverland, and the Land of Oz, among others.

The transit of Venus

Eclipses, whether solar or lunar, are among the most fascinating and mesmerising events around the world. However, this year, the Venus transit will occur on June 5th, Tuesday. This transit is said to be the bookend of 2004-2012 pair, and won’t reappear until 2117. So if the sky is clear that day and you want to witness this wonderful sight, this is your chance. The event will take almost seven-hours and would be visible in all the seven continents.

However, as warned by the Nasa, one should not stare directly at the sun. Venus covers too little of the solar disk to block the blinding glare. Instead, use some type of projection technique or a solar filter.

In 2004, the Venus transit gathered a lot of attention as it slowly passed through the corona of the sun and glided past magnetic filaments big enough to swallow the whole planet. As the technology has much progressed now, there are even better cameras and improved solar telescopes with which photographers will have a great day shooting the sun ‘punctured’ by the circular disk of Venus.

Microsoft launches So.cl social network

Tech giant Microsoft has launched its own social network So.cl. This tool aims to help students and academics for research purpose and the ability to network with their peers by sharing the information.

“So.cl is an experimental research project focused on the future of social experiences and learning, especially among younger people.” A Microsoft representative told.

Once logged in on So.cl (pronounced ‘social’), with Facebook or Windows Live accounts, users are presented with a variety of suggested topics of interest. They can share interesting websites with other users through “bookmarklet” feature. In addition to sharing, commenting and tagging, one can also “riff” on the post — a feature that Microsoft describes as “a new way to interact and improvise with content.”

Moreover, one can share, search and assemble videos through ‘video parties’. Microsoft also said it won’t automatically post users’ So.cl activity unless they opt in just like Facebook friends won’t be contacted unless users invite them.