Booktrack Raises $3M To Add Soundtracks To E-Books, Launches Classroom Version

E-book soundtrack platform Booktrack is announcing that it has raised $3 million in Series A funding, and that it’s launching of an education-focused version of its platform, Booktrack Classroom.

The idea may sound a little gimmicky, but co-founder and CEO Paul Cameron argued that the combination of music and ambient sound effects can make the reading experience much more immersive — it’s one thing to read that a character was standing on a noisy street, and another to hear the sounds of honking taxis.

The company’s last big launch was for Booktrack Studio, which allows anyone (not just professional publishers) to build e-book soundtracks. Booktrack says that in the five months since the launch, it has drawn 300,000 users to its site and mobile apps, with more than 3,600 Booktracks created in 30 different languages.

Cameron suggested that Booktrack is now pursuing “two distinct verticals”, publishing (including self-publishing) and education. With Booktrack Classroom, students will be able to read, create, and share soundtracked e-books for free.

When it comes to using the technology in the classroom, Cameron pointed to a University of Auckland study that looked at 248 middle and high school students and found that when they read text with a Booktrack soundtrack, they spent 30 percent more time reading and showed 17 percent higher comprehension compared to students who didn’t. (A previous study conducted at New York University found similar results among adults.)

Cameron also gave me a quick demo of the soundtrack-creation process. Users can select the text that they want to enhance, then add audio from a library of 20,000 tracks. (Half of those tracks are owned by Booktrack, while the other half is licensed, Cameron said.) The soundtrack is supposed to adjust to your reading speed.

The new funding was led by Sparkbox Ventures. Booktracks previously raised $2 million from Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, filmmaker Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Productions, and others — the company said those previous investors also participated in the new round.

Square Releases Spanish Version Of POS App To Support Latino Businesses

Square is releasing its point of sale app, Register, in Spanish, in an effort to onboard more Latino businesses. The company says Square Register, dashboard reports and analytics, online market, and mobile products are now localized in Spanish across the U.S.

Square is also going on a national tour to connect with Latino sellers and their communities in Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Latino-owned businesses comprise 22.4% of Florida businesses, 20.7% of Texas businesses and 16.5% of California businesses, according to the company.

While an IPO is reportedly on hold, onboarding more businesses appears to be one of Square’s major goals right now.

The payments company has been actively exploring ways to bring on businesses, both large and small, onto the platform. We heard Square has been debuting more custom pricing deals for medium- to large-sized businesses with more payments volume, and ramping up sales hiring. Square has also started offering cash advances to merchants.

Appealing to Latino businesses is a smart tactic–and outreach strategy will be key in whether the company can bring a meaningful amount of this segment of merchants online.

An improved version of Google Drive's spreadsheets webapp, simple called Sheets, is now rolling out

An improved version of Google Drive's spreadsheets webapp, simple called Sheets, is now rolling out to all users. Improvements include offline editing, better speed, support for larger spreadsheets, and a variety of other small features. Read more here.

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Google Starts Rolling Out New Version Of Sheets With Offline Editing Support To Everybody

Last December, Google announced a new version of Sheets, its online spreadsheet app that’s part of its Google Drive productivity suite. Until now, this new version was opt-in only, but starting today, Google will roll it out to everybody.

The new version of Sheets is one of the biggest updates in the product’s history, though the one feature users will likely appreciate the most is support for offline editing. This only works in Chrome, but if that’s what you use, you can now work on your spreadsheets even if you are offline and then Google Will sync your edits once you get a connection again. Both Google Docs and Google Slides already featured offline support before.

Earlier on, there were a few features that didn’t work in the new version and it seems Google has indeed decided to retire a few underused features with the update. These include support for the Solver tool in Sheets, autofill using Google Sets and a couple of other functions.

In return, though, it’s now easier to select multiple cells and add hyperlinks, for example. The new Filter views also make it easier to share different views of your data with your collaborators and those who need extra-large spreadsheets with millions of cells can now use Sheets for those, too.

Earlier this month, Google also rolled out support for third-party add-ons for its productivity apps and those, of course, are also available in Sheets.

Google says it will upgrade everybody to the new version over the next few weeks, so it may take a little while before you get access to it.