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The launch of our new platform Mapt has been a great success, with a lot of you diving into the platform, filling out Skill Plans, and starting getting the skills you need. However, we’ve had a lot of questions from customers new and old about the platform and we want to help you understand Mapt and its benefits so you can join the thousands of developers who have already joined. So below you’ll find a helpful collection of some of the more common questions we’ve received since launch, along with a clear cut overview of what to expect from Mapt if you’re thinking of subscribing! What is Mapt? Mapt is a learning platform we’ve designed to give you the best way to learn the skills you need to know. With access to more than 3,500 eBooks and video courses when you subscribe, Mapt is a simple and great value solution to the challenges of learning new software. But more than unrivaled content coverage, thanks to Mapt it's easier than ever to go straight to the content you want - which means you won't be wasting time searching for the resources you need. Add on top of that our Skill Plans – course paths that take you to the skills you need to know made from data collected from thousands of working developers globally along with our entire content library and Mapt takes you to exactly what you need - the best content on the most important tools. What happened to PacktLib? If you’ve been a recent subscriber to PacktLib you might have wondered what Mapt is and how it affects you. However, you don’t have to worry at all – it’s best to treat Mapt as the next evolution of PacktLib, something we’ve been working towards over the last few years and refining with new features and improvements. It’s everything you loved about the old library, but with a host of new, exclusive features and a completely redone UI designed for speed and usability. What do I get with my account? Signing up with Mapt is free, and with it you get access to the Skill Plan and Card features, allowing you to plan the skills you need to become the best developer you can. Plus you can read the first 2 chapters of every book in our library, along with 3 sections of any other chapter a month. With a subscription you get all that along with complete, unlimited access to our entire content library, with over 3,500 eBooks and videos on right now and dozens being added every month. Plus every month you can receive up to 2 Free Course tokens (1 given automatically, with another as a reward for using Mapt a certain amount of time each month). Each token gives you the ability to get a free download of any eBook or video you want to keep forever, even if you unsubscribe. These tokens let you take the opportunity to dive into subjects and skills you never would have tried before, or keep the titles you’ve found the most helpful for future reference where you can’t access Mapt. How do I subscribe? To get started with Mapt simply head on over to this page and get started by choosing the subscription plan that’s right for you. Remember, if you had a current subscription to PacktLib everything stays the same as it did previously payment-wise! Is there a trial? There is indeed! You can try out Mapt with a free 30 day trial to see everything it has to offer at its fullest. See the path you need to become the best developer you can be, and if you decide that Mapt isn’t for you feel free to cancel at any time.

Mapt Beta has now been live for almost a month. Since then, we’ve been working hard to improve and iterate based on feedback from you – so thanks for your help, you’re an important part of the team. We know that when it comes to software it’s important to stay up to date – so we’re going to update you on what new features and content we’ve added. Here’s what’s new this month…  New Skill Plans  First off, we’re changing the way our Skill Plans work based off feedback from you. We’ve had a great response to our first set of Skill Plans, but many of you mentioned you wanted to be able to focus on a specific technology within the role around which a Skill Plan has been designed.  In response, we are adding new Specialisations into our Skill Plans. This will be an extra layer of curation that enables you to pick a specific technology or stack to learn or hone your skills. We’ll be adding new specialisations on an ongoing basis, guided by the technologies developers are using today and tomorrow in their roles. Front End Web Development is moving fast right now, and it's tough to keep pace with the newest technologies. Our core Front End Web Development Skill Plan uses Angular, still a key technology for the web, but with new releases and new libraries emerging, there’s a strong case for looking at evolutions and alternatives. With this in mind we've added new specialisations in Front End Web Development, based on the cutting edge web technologies top developers are using. This month we have introduced two new specialisations: Angular 2, and React.  Angular 2 combines TypeScript with component-based development to create powerful web applications based on the newest web standards.  React, on the other hand, is the firebrand framework allowing developers to craft modular, reusable web application UIs.  Explore the new Skill Plans now New Courses  We’ll be adding over 50 new courses to Mapt every month. Here’s a selection of some of the great courses that were added in July:  Getting Started with Tensorflow Data Mining with Python: Implementing Classification and Regression Introduction to R Programming Mastering Docker [Video]  Explore all our new releases in the library now  New Features  Skill Assessments (coming soon!)  It's not just about what you think you know, it’s about how well you know it. Identifying the strengths and, crucially, the gaps in your knowledge is key to staying on top of your game and making sure your learning time is spent most effectively. That’s why from next month we’ll start launching Skill Assessments to help you understand and improve your proficiency on the key skills you need to stay relevant.  Made up of real-world coding tasks, multiple-choice questions, and code completion challenges, we’ve designed them to give you the best understanding possible of your current skill set - and where you need to work to develop it.  Other Release Notes and Bug Fixes:  Added ‘Buy’, ‘Download’ and ‘Save’ functions to product lists, meaning users can buy, download and save titles for later more quickly than before. Buy buttons for courses now include the price of content so that during campaigns users can clearly see the promotional price. Enhanced the speed of the library and search functions. Sidebar navigation menu now behaves like an accordion in order to make the user experience more intuitive and useful. The dashboard sidebar now displays how many Skill Cards a user has in their ‘Completed’ list and how many Skill Cards they have remaining in their Plan Implemented a ‘Back’ button on pages where a user is reading an eBook or watching a video to ensure that they always know how to get back to the dashboard All PacktLib now redirect to Mapt Bug Fix: Completed sections within video courses were not saving upon page refresh Bug Fix: Fixed Broken reader layout on iPad Bug Fix: Video Titles now reflect the name of the video course Bug Fix: Video pages now show the correct number of tokens remaining for a user Bug Fix: Fixed broken reader URLs so they now resolve to either the dashboard or the course product page  Thanks for using Mapt. Please send us any questions you have on the release or leave us feedback and suggestions at maptsupport@packtpub.com.  Thanks, The Mapt Team 

When software can change overnight, developers need practical and immediate content to keep their skills up to date. Covering everything from game development to data science, security to web development, Mapt helps developers around the world stay ahead of the curve in the constantly evolving world of tech. Mapt has been specifically designed to help you tackle the contemporary challenges of software. Easing the frustration and time wasted sourcing critical learning resources, the new Mapt platform connects developers to the content they need to learn new skills and join the dots between problems and solutions in everyday development. New concepts Skill Cards A skill card is a unit of focused content which represents a specific real world skill, and contains a curated selection of learning materials designed to deliver the best possible route towards acquiring a new skill. Skill Cards help you put our skills in context, and combined with Skill Plans give you a clear visual roadmap on how to continue progressing for professional development, or simply to grow your individual skills. Completing a Skill Card contributes towards your overall progression which you can view via the dashboard progress tracker, allowing you to see exactly where your skills are, and where to go next. Skill Plans Skill Plans are made up of Skill Cards that have been curated based on real-world data from over 20,000 surveyed developers and extensive research. You might be a professional developer and already more than confident in the fundamentals of your field, but Skill Plans are updated to make sure you have everything you need to keep ahead of what’s new and what’s happening. This means you’ll always be equipped with the skills and knowledge you need to perform at the highest level. New features Dashboard side navigation Access to your Skill Plan and the wider course library are the fundamental elements of the Mapt experience. We’ve created a dashboard side navigation that enables a seamless transition between these two core offerings. The side nav also lets you jump straight into the last section you were viewing from a course or alternatively, to view a help section complete with useful FAQs. Set and manage a Skill Plan When you first enter Mapt you will be able to set a Skill Plan by browsing the list of available Skill Plans. All you need to do is select one. Once you have you will be able to see it from your dashboard screen; you’ll be able to view and manage all Skill Cards in your Plan. From this interface you will be able to access the content that is linked to a Skill Card and mark it as complete once you have learned everything you need to from the featured content. You can also view your progress through the plan in the context of how many Skill Cards you have completed. If you want to change your Skill Plan you can do so by accessing the Skill Plan tab. Here you can select a new Plan that relates to a different role. Because Skill Cards overlap across a variety of Plans, completing a Card in one plan will automatically complete it for other plans where it is listed. 3 Free Section Views for Non-Subscribers We want you to subscribe to Mapt to gain full access to our content. But if you’re not sure, once you’ve signed up you will receive 3 free premium section views every month. Refactored features Graphical overhaul Working closely with our friends Orb we’ve been able to create a distinctive look for Mapt. It’s a look that follows the Packt brand but also sets it apart as a brand new product that’s going to define our future. We’ve focused on material design principles, keeping it looking slick yet functional – exactly what developers need when learning. Library interface The library interface has been refactored to include product imagery and descriptions for product listings. This will give you much more information about a course before you click through to it. Tech Page categories also have their own menu within the library. This makes navigating content and topics much easier. Within the library the following features have now been given their own dedicated pages (these are all accessible from the side navigation): Bookmarks Saved (Renaming of ‘My Collection’) Purchased (Renaming of ‘Owned’) This side navigation also shows you how many courses you have in your ‘Saved’ and ‘Purchased’ collections. You can also seethe total number of Bookmarks you have made. Search Searching all of the courses available in the library has never been easier with the new improved search functionality. One of the newest additions to this feature is the ability to filter search results by ‘Ownership’, which allows you to search a vast library of owned content to find the exact content you want. As a refactor of the old PacktLib search, the filters now have their own dedicated menu from the side navigation. This improves your ability to navigate the library. eBook and Video reader The eBook and video reader has been enhanced in the most recent update. It now provides a much better experience using the side navigation and a clearer indication of a title’s completion. Rather than adding a border color on the side TOC to indicate completion, you can now see what you’ve read thanks to the ‘Tick’ marks against content. Refactored API As part of the new service, the API which retrieves data from Drupal has been refactored and optimised to increase the overall performance of the website. Coming soon… Skill Assessments We’ve partnered with the recruitment assessment platform DevSkiller to bring assessments to Mapt. Starting with the Skill Cards within the ‘Web Development’ Skill Plans we will begin integrating white-labelled assessments into every Skill Card on Mapt. The scores and reports from these assessments will be visible to you if you’re a subscriber. Retakes will not be capped, so keep learning to get past the assessment... Enhanced product listings To make buying, saving and downloading courses easier than ever, we’ll soon begin adding the ability to complete these actions on the product listing level. You will then be able to see the price of a course, save it for later, buy it and download it from your Skill Plan, library, search results, saved courses and purchases. My Account To minimize the need to to visit packtpub.com to manage your account, we will soon allow you to manage your account settings and subscriptions from within the Mapt interface. If you’re a business partner, we’ll also make it possible for you to manage your licences from within Mapt. Get started with Mapt here. It’s free to build a profile – subscribe for complete access to all our content and new licensed resources from our partners.

Today, Packt is changing. To coincide with the launch of our huge Developer Skills Report, we’re also excited to introduce you to our brand new look and a brand new product – Mapt. For the past 6 months we’ve been working hard to develop a vision of a way that we can better support developers – like you – to learn the skills you need to remain on top of the new tools and libraries that are a reality of a fast-changing the software world. Thanks to insight from our Skill Up research throughout 2015, and the first 6 months of 2016 we’re better placed than ever to understand and help you meet today’s challenges. We know that it’s important to understand the changing shape of the software world, to find your way through the tools and trends that define how you work and what you build. Mapt empowers you to do exactly that – it will redefine the way you experience our extensive library of content. With more than 4,000 eBooks and video courses, we know it can be hard to find exactly what you want. With Mapt, you will receive personalized learning plans that have been curated from the very best of our content on the areas and job roles that are important to you. Mapt takes you straight to what’s important. Taking your skillset, as well as data and insight from thousands of developers around the world, we’ve rebuilt our library so you can use it in a more effective and efficient way. We know Mapt represents an important change in how developers learn. But it’s not yet finished – we need your feedback and your insight to help us iterate and improve it. All great software is built on great communication and clarity – from UX to team collaboration – we want to put that into practice with Mapt. Get started with Mapt here.  

Skill Up 2016 Report Reveals Global IT Salaries, Emerging Software & Most In-Demand Tech Skills Which industry leads in global tech salaries? What do developers say the next ‘big thing’ in tech is? Is the constant change of software driving the rise of the virtual classroom? Birmingham, UK, 19 July 2016 - Packt, the company delivering software skills and training since 2004 in their mission to “help the world put software to work in new ways,” today announces the results of their June 2016 Skill Up survey. More than 11,500 worldwide developers and IT professionals weighed in to share insights on global salaries, new and emerging technology defining software today, and the most in-demand skills and tools in tech today. With responses from software developers and IT professionals across Europe, North America and Asia, Packt’s Skill Up survey captures a snapshot of the modern tech community. More than just a salary survey, Packt’s survey unveils detailed insight into the most vital skills and trends in today’s world of tech. The full Skill Up 2016 survey report is free and available for download here. Packt’s aim is to keep developers relevant so they can gain a competitive edge in their careers. The Skill Up report reveals the trends, the figures and the up-and-coming skill sets those working in tech need for the future. Skill Up 2016 Highlights What do developers say the next ‘big thing’ is? Top three responses: Virtual & Augmented Reality; Machine Learning & Big Data Analytics; and The Internet of Things Leading IT salaries: Security is one of the highest paying industries in 2016, particularly for freelancers. Bash, Perl & Scala come out as the programming skills commanding the highest salaries. Staying relevant in tech today: With technology constantly in flux, developers note that learning new skills is absolutely critical for staying current in their fields and for future employment prospect. Online training is a great driver for new skill acquisition and there’s a strong tendency across all demographics for people to use a mix of media -- videos, eBooks, print books, blogs and online courses -- to keep current in their fields. Age affects learning styles -- younger developers prefer video training and formal education, while junior professionals prefer informal learning, and senior professionals opt for a book. Languages: JavaScript and Python remain the most vital skills to today’s developers, with Java and C also making the list. Python especially is the tool for all trades -- whatever your background, there's never been a better time to take up Python. Google Go has become a very established presence in 2016. Newcomer Vue.JS. looks like it might be making a big splash in the next few months. Big Data: As predicted by the Skill Up 2015 survey, big data continues to grow even larger and more vital for modern developers to learn. Machine learning and big data maintain their status as the top topics in the industry. Top tools of the trade: Python still gains ground on many fronts, explaining why it remains the ‘tool for all trades’ again in 2016 Angular by far remains the reigning king of JS frameworks, with React quickly gaining ground Clojure and Ruby are drawing developers under 30, while Perl and SQL draw their user base almost entirely from more mature developers. It looks like Unreal is the game engine of choice for indie devs More than 1000 of our respondents are moving some aspect of their infrastructure into the cloud, demonstrating the dramatic impact Continuous delivery and DevOps are having on the industry Packt Launches Mapt, The Developers’ Online Learning Platform Equipped with insights gained from thousands of global developers, Packt today launches the Mapt skills management platform. Mapt is an online learning platform built exclusively for professional developers. Mapt empowers developers to gain a competitive advantage by filling in knowledge gaps and charting learning journeys towards professional goals. Users of Mapt simply select their dream job or the skills they need to master and the platform draws from Packt’s library of more than 4000 books, ebooks and videos to present the precise resources developers need to advance their careers. Stay relevant. Try Mapt now View the Mapt video on YouTube Mapt logos and screenshots can be found here About Packt Founded in 2004 in Birmingham, UK, Packt’s mission is to help the world put software to work in new ways through the delivery of effective learning and information services to IT professionals. Working towards that vision, the company has published more than 4000 expert-authored books and videos, providing IT professionals with the actionable knowledge they need to get the job done – whether it’s learning an emerging language or brushing up on their programming skills. As part of Packt’s mission, the company has awarded more than $1 million through Open Source Project Royalty program, helping numerous projects become household names along the way. Please visit Packtpub for more information.

Packt Launches Mapt, The Developers’ Online Learning Platform Packt responds to the needs of modern developers working in an increasingly diversified software space with a brand new learning platform - Mapt. Mapt's curated skill paths provide developers with practical content they need right now to get the job done and advance their proficiency in a technology skill set Subscribers receive unlimited access to Packt's library of 4000+ expert-authored IT resources Birmingham, UK - 19 July 2016 - Packt have been delivering software skills and training since 2004 in their mission to "help the world put software to work in new ways". Towards that goal, Packt today launches Mapt, an online learning platform built exclusively for professional developers. Mapt empowers developers to gain a competitive edge by filling in knowledge gaps and charting learning journeys towards professional goals. Mapt’s skills platform is built for and powered by developers, revealing the in-demand skills that every dependable developer needs. When software can change overnight, developers need practical and immediate content to keep their skills up to date. Covering everything from game development to data science, security to web development, Mapt helps developers around the world stay ahead of the curve in the constantly evolving world of tech. Guided by insights from more than 25,000 developers around the world through a series of comprehensive "Skill Up" surveys, Mapt has been specifically designed to help developers tackle the contemporary challenges of software. Easing the frustration and time wasted sourcing critical learning resources, the new Mapt platform connects developers to the content they need to learn new skills and join the dots between problems and solutions in everyday development. Mapt users simply go to Packtpub and select their dream job or the skills they need to master and the platform tailors the right resources of high-quality materials carefully created by working developers around the world. Drawing from Packt's library of more than 4000 books, eBooks and videos, Mapt curates the best materials to give developers precisely what they need to advance their careers, saving hours of searching for the right resources. Developers cite that the biggest hurdles to obtaining new skills are finding time to learn and choosing from the best resources amid a massive sea of available materials - a process that more than half of Packt survey respondents spend 60 minutes or more doing. Mapt is built for bite-sized bits of learning. Whether it is five minutes on a train or standing in line for a coffee, Mapt's modular learning fits into developers' lives. The platform makes it easy to pick up where they left off with previous materials, skip ahead or experiment with new languages. "Packt’s aim is to keep developers relevant so they can gain a competitive edge in their careers," commented Dave Maclean, CEO at Packt. "The tech world is ever evolving and through constant communication with our customers, we understand what resources they need right now to stay ahead of the curve. Mapt is a direct and personalized route to gain the most in-demand skills in tech, making it easier and quicker than ever for IT professionals to advance their careers." Mapt subscribers can now: Assess how current skills map to career goals Receive a personalized Skill Plan to acquire or develop in-demand skills to stay competitive Quickly access nearly half a million pieces of content, curated from Packt’s best content and informed by data from more than 20,000 developers around the world Mapt has been informed by insights from Packt's wide-reaching Skill Up surveys. Conducted in July and December 2015 and June 2016, and capturing responses from more than 25,000 global developers, these surveys provide a detailed snapshot into the contemporary software world and what skills developers need to remain relevant as new tools and trends emerge. The full 2016 Skill Up report is free and available for download here. Packt Skill Up Survey 2016 highlights include: What’s the 'next big thing?' Top three responses were: Virtual and Augmented reality; Machine Learning and Big Data analytics; and The Internet of Things What skills are most vital to today's developers? Developers named JavaScript and Python as the most valuable skills in 2016 What skill sets command the highest salaries? Bash, Perl and Scala developers currently command the highest salaries How are today’s developers learning new skills? Online training is a great driver for new skill acquisition, but the most proficient programmers across all age ranges learn through mixed media of text and video courses Stay relevant. Try Mapt now View the Mapt video Mapt logos and screenshots on Dropbox About Packt Founded in 2004 in Birmingham, UK, Packt's mission is to help the world put software to work in new ways through the delivery of effective learning and information services to IT professionals. Working towards that vision, the company has published more than 4000 expert-authored books and videos, providing IT professionals with the actionable knowledge they need to get the job done - whether it’s learning an emerging language or brushing up on their programming skills. As part of Packt's mission, the company has awarded more than $1 million through Open Source Project Royalty program, helping numerous projects become household names along the way. Please visit Packtpub for more information.

Yes, it’s a truism, but we’ll say it anyway: Data Science has changed a lot over the past decade. It has always been central to research institutions – from geographers to chemists, statistics and detailed analysis is a fundamental component of moving knowledge forward. But it’s thanks to technological development that it has radically impacted the business world, and gradually taken over the popular imagination. But what does the data world look like today? It has become so entrenched in modern life, impacting not just business or academic research but also our politics, our shopping habits and even the way we think about love and sex. Nate Silver might have made a name for himself as a data-driven political Nostradamus, but today it’s not even about what we do with data – it’s also about what our robot overlords do with it. Google’s AI appears to have mastered Go better than most of us can begin to dream, and Facebook looks like it might well soon be populated by more chatbots than barely remembered school friends. But what’s driving all this? And who’s building the systems and the infrastructure that has got us to where we are. None of this stuff, after all, builds itself. It feels impossible to predict what’s ahead – so maybe we should stop trying to bother. Instead of thinking the future is out there, locked in our collective imagination, let’s talk more about what we’re doing now – let’s talk more about the trends and pressures that are impacting on real-life data scientists and analysts today. That’s exactly what we want to do here at Packt – whatever you do in data we want to hear from you. Take part in our 2016 Skill Up survey and help us better understand the changing shape of the software world. Tell us what’s important, what tools you’re using – even what you wish you were using. Take part in our survey here and help us not only better understand the software world but also to build a new way to explore it. Once you’ve completed the survey you’ll not only receive a discount code to save 75% on your next eBook or video purchase from Packt, you’ll also gain early access to a beta version of a brand new product we’ve been building – we can’t give much away, but you’ll be able to use it next month, so watch this space! Take the survey now!

The demand for IT professionals is growing now as more organizations reenergize projects deferred during the economic downturn, but do you have any idea of your real worth? How do you find out which IT positions are commanding the greatest salaries, and what training you may need to be an expert in that field? Last year was our first Skill Up campaign. The response was huge, with over 20,000 people who work in IT globally helping us make sense of the tech world – from web developers to big data analysts and everyone in-between. The reports that came from that survey - you can find them for download here - showed us some interesting facts, but have they stood the test of time? For example, last year Python emerged as the fastest growing language in the worlds of web dev and data, but did it live up to that hype? Or have other upstarts suddenly pulled ahead as Python’s weaknesses are picked apart? We want to find out and give you the best chance for a successful 2017. This short 5 minute survey will help us give you the best plan of action to start learning the skills you need for a successful 2017. Tell us what tech you think has gained prominence in the last year, and which has faded from use. And perhaps most importantly, find out what everyone else is planning to learn next and whether you are already ahead of the curve. As a bonus, when you complete the survey you will receive a discount code for 75% off any of our eBooks, videos, or blended courses! Why not use that discount to get an early start on your summer learning with one of our new releases? So go make yourself a drink, click the link below, and relax for 5 minutes with our survey as you help us to help you! You can find the survey here.

Our PacktLib subscription service has changed a lot since it was first introduced all the way back in 2008 and since then we’ve seen huge changes to what it offers you as developers. Fifty new text and video courses arrive on PacktLib every month. The platform is constantly evolving with new features - now you can earn free books as you learn, benefit from course playlists curated by our experts, get personalized recommendations. There's even more exciting things to come! Because PacktLib keeps getting even bigger, even better, we are changing our prices to reflect its value at helping you learn more to do more. From Monday June 6th, there will be an increase in PacktLib's membership prices for new subscribers. We’ve already seen a lot of questions about this price increase, and to give you all a helping hand with any questions you may have we’ve created a short FAQ that should help solve any questions you may have. Q: Why are you increasing the price? A: PacktLib has come a long way in the last 18 months: The UX and UI have had a complete ground-up redesign. The new PacktLib helps you find the content you need to get the job done, faster. We have nearly doubled our content range. With over 3,500 books, and access to a rapidly increasing video catalog, we have every topic that you need to be a productive developer covered. This is part of a continued investment in to PacktLib. As mentioned before around 50 new products are added every month; and a growing list of features contribute to our best-in-class developer learning library. Every subscriber (including Monthly subscribers) gets 1 token a month to buy any Packt product, for free. We want to give our customers options, and this is a popular feature that is itself worth up to $1000 a year. Our price change reflects these improvements over the last 18 months, and the improvements that we are going to make over the next few years. Q: I’m already a PacktLib subscriber, how does this price increase affect me? A: Depending on which PacktLib plan you’re currently subscribed to these are your following options: If you are a Monthly subscriber: If you’re a PacktLib subscriber with an existing Monthly subscription, don’t worry. As a reward for your loyalty to Packt as the PacktLib platform has grown, we’re freezing your monthly prices. Your subscription price will not change for this price rise as long as you remain a monthly subscriber. If you are an Annual or 18 Month Plan subscriber: If you’re a current Annual or 18th Month plan subscriber you can pay a one off payment to “top up” your PacktLib subscription at the current legacy price. For example, if you’re an Annual subscriber with 2 months left of your current subscription you can pay the current $130 price before the 6th of June to ensure you have PacktLib access for the next 14 months. Q: If I cancel my subscription and return to PacktLib at a later date, will I have to pay the new price? A: Yes, cancelling your subscription and then returning to PacktLib after the 6th of June after cancelling a subscription will mean you will have to pay the newer rate on all subscription tiers. Q: I was thinking about signing up to PacktLib, what options are available for me? A: As long as you since up to PacktLib before the 6th of June you can enjoy the current pricing structure – however, if you sign up after the date you will be subject to the pricing structure we are rolling out. We’ve got a lot of big changes and improvements to come to PacktLib over the next few years that will change the way you learn and get the skills you need, and we hope you can be there to enjoy them!

At Packt we're always looking for new ways for you to get the skills you want and need. In the last 12 years we’ve launched a multitude of different book types - Cookbooks, Mastering, Troubleshooting, and more; along with our highly well received Packt Video titles, all designed to offer a new way for you to learn the skills you need. Now we're ready to give you a brand new way to become the best developer you can be. We’re happy to officially announce the launch of our Courses range! A course takes what you love from our current range of titles and combines them with a host of extras that give you an all-in-one experience for learning the skills you want to learn. Each course is filled with hours of video content, tons of chapters from some of our best titles around, and interactive quizzes and projects for you to test your progress and ensure you’re on the right track. Best of all, everything is packaged inside our brand new DRM-free reader which you can read (or host!) locally. Whether it’s just for yourself or your entire team, our courses are the perfect way to get the complete learning experience. Here are the courses you can get your hands on right now: Flask – Building Web Applications: Looking to break into the world of web development without leaving your Python skills behind? If so then this is the course you've been waiting for. Starting by turning your computer into a modern web development powerhouse, and quickly moving beyond static websites to develop powerful database-backed dynamic Flask applications with everything a modern web app needs from full authentication systems and integrated third party APIs - all whilst providing you with hints and tips for expansion and customization along the way. React – Scalable Web Apps with ES6: Aimed at the more experienced JavaScript developer with a few apps already under their belt, this course is perfect for those looking to discover one of the hottest libraries around right now. There's no better way to get the essential exposure to an ES6-based workflow you need to get started creating. We’ll show you how you can leverage React in a modern development environment whilst building up an administrative ecommerce application that will help visually demonstrate best practices and provide you with a starter scaffold for your own work. In the coming months we'll be releasing even more courses on a whole range of different subjects for you to explore, so keep checking out our latest releases to make sure you’re the first to pick them up. Happy learning!

Packt is proud to say that our products have always been free of DRM. From Mastering phpMyAdmin for Effective MySQL Management, our very first book, all the way through to our brand new releases - when you buy a Packt eBook or video, you are guaranteed that it will be completely, totally, 100% free of any DRM. What is DRM? DRM is called Digital Rights Management by its defenders, and Digital Restrictions Management by its opponents. It is the imposing of technological restrictions on your digital media. In eBooks, it might mean restricting the number of times you can copy a pdf or the devices that you can read your content on. As the 'Defective by Design' campaign says, 'DRM creates a damaged good; it prevents you from doing what would be possible without it. This concentrates control over production and distribution of media, giving DRM peddlers the power to carry out massive digital book burnings and conduct large scale surveillance over people's media viewing habits.' Why is Packt DRM-free? As a publisher committed to the idea of Open Source, we firmly believe that you should be able to read and interact with your content when you want, where you want, and how you want. Packt's MD Dave Maclean puts it best: Our top priority at Packt has always been to meet the evolving needs of developers in the most practical way possible, while at the same time protecting the hard work of our authors. DRM-free content continues to be instrumental in making that happen, providing the flexibility and freedom that is essential for an efficient and enhanced learning experience. That’s why we’ve been DRM-free from the beginning – we’ll never put limits on the innovation of our users. Day Against DRM 2016 sees the tenth annual Day Against DRM, a gathering of the global and internet community to show the world and media the need for a future free of DRM. To show our support, on May 3rd every single Packt eBook and video is going to be $10 for 10 years of Day Against DRM. Every eBook and video you pick up will be yours to read and watch as you like - put it on any device, copy it as many times as you like. It's yours to own, forever.

Here at Packt, things are evolving. Today, we can show you the first peek of what the future of Packt will look like with our new and improved PacktLib learning service. Over the last few months, we've been working on making your PacktLib so much more than a library of over 3000 Packt titles. These new features are based on your feedback, as well as our own exciting plans for Packt and the platform. So what's in the update? Nothing less than a complete redesign of our user experience, a bucket of new features to get you learning your way, and a score of backend enhancements for optimal platform performance. The things we're most excited for? How about: A brand new dashboard that will show you the most popular titles, latest releases, and our recommended content. Topic pages for different technologies, complete with customized learning plans. Enhanced usability for Packt video courses, including playback controls, autoplay, and bookmarking PacktLib New Features PacktLib's new features are all about letting you take control of your learning. Browse Topic Pages Included within the new release of PacktLib is the ability for users to browse topics and technologies by name. These topic pages include the 'Latest' and 'Most Popular' titles, as well as specialized Learning Plans to make sure you're learning exactly what you need too about a tech. All New Dashboard Your all new dashboard lets you instantly view the most popular titles available in the library, along with the latest releases and recommended titles. Through your dashboard PacktLib will serve you up relevant, dynamically changing content based on your needs and interests. Furthermore, from the new dashboard you'll be able to view everything in your reading list, titles you own and all of your current bookmarks. Learning Tokens Want to unlock free eBooks and videos to download and view at any time? Our new token system rewards you for learning using PacktLib. If you spend more than 4 hours using the reader and complete 25 sections within a month, you'll recieve a token to download any Packt eBook or video for free. Track your progress against your next reward using our 'learning tracker', and redeem your token all within the PacktLib ecosystem. And if you're an Annual or 18-month subscriber, you get a guaranteed token every month to cash in for a free title at any time. Improved Video Experience Users can now change the playback speed of the video player to 0.5x, 1.0x, 1.2x, and 2.0x, letting you choose a playback speed that suits you and your preferred learning style. Moreover, videos will now auto-play the next section once a video reaches its end point, saving you the time of pressing the 'Next section' button. Course Duration Estimation The length of every title on PacktLib is now displayed within a product listing, allowing you to quickly establish how much time you'll need to dedicate to learn a new skill, tool or language. PacktLib Enhancements Professional interest in what we've tinkered with under the hood? PacktLib's enhancements have all been about working to improve stability and load time for the platform. Improved User Experience We've changed the way our users work and interact with PacktLib. One of the big pain points in the previous version of PacktLib was the fact that if you wanted to search for a title, you had to be on the homepage to do so. We heard your cries of protest - and in the latest release, the search bar is present on every page in the top navigation. Furthermore, the ability to navigate back to the shop on packtpub.com is always available on the top navigation with the search function. In response to customer feedback the sidebar is now located on the left-hand side of the screen. From the Library page it has become the navigation for Tech pages, from the search page it shows your filters, and within a title it's the table of contents for easy navigation between sections. If you were suffering some bugs with the sidebar before - good news! In the new version the whole feature has been refactored to ensure global browser support. In an effort to make loading times even faster and the whole experience more lean, the new version of PacktLib does not contain the cover images of titles. The new presentation of eBooks and Videos has become unified and displays the release date, author, title and series type to allow you to quickly pick your perfect content. Refactoring for Speed The design of PacktLib was completely overhauled to maximize usability and consistency between all the various pages of the application. In addition, the design of content pages for eBooks and Videos was unified to pave the way for an exciting new Packt product. The API calls and controllers have been refactored to make them more efficient and stable. As a result of this, the loading time of the library has been greatly improved, along with the time it takes for content to load. In addition, the latest update contains many optimisations to the implementation of the AngularJS framework to dramatically improve loading times and overall stability. What's next for PacktLib? This new update is just the start - exciting things are coming for Packt and PacktLib in the future. Some of the coolest bits we're keeping under wraps for now, so you'll just have to wait in suspense. But up next, PacktLib will be boasting social sharing for you to share you learning with colleagues and friends. After that? Expect to see additional personalization with avatar images and more; features for personal and public annotations to eBook courses, and enabling searchable video transcripts. We're working constantly to keep PacktLib improving and evolving to make it the perfect platform for you to upgrade your tech knowledge.

6 months ago we launched our Skill Up campaign to help everyone in the technology community become the developers they want to be - and over 20,000 of you got involved. The results were fascinating; showing just how having the right skills can lead to a better salary for everyone. The results of the first Skill Up report revealed to us, along with a host of other facts about our industry, that: Back-end web developers, on average, make $10,000 more than front end developers and $30,000 more than web designers The top earning industries for data oriented jobs are in software, web services, and consulting Android development platforms are far more popular than iOS for professional – almost double the amount of developers use them in fact! Enterprise data administrators are, on average, earning $10,000 more than their kin Now we need your help again to update our initiative for the new trends and trials that 2016 is sure to bring. Here at Packt, it's all about you. And to help you we’ve created a follow-up survey, asking for participants from all over the world to answer our short questionnaire even if they didn’t take part in our original Skill Up call to arms. What have you been learning in the last six months? What are you planning on learning in 2016? The answers will help us make sure we can provide you with the content and support that will let you bring your best. In return for completing our survey you’ll get a copy on the new report’s findings when it’s complete and a fantastic discount for your next eBook or video purchase for just $5! Buy the eBook or video you’ve been wanting and get started on your 2016 learning before the New Year even begins. So grab a coffee (or a tea if you prefer), click below and relax for 5 minutes whilst you complete our short survey! Update: The survey is now closed. A huge thank you to everybody who took part! You can find the results of the survey in our 2015 Skill Up report.

Here at Packt we've always aimed to be ahead of the curve when it comes to new formats for learning, that's why we offer a whole range of eBooks, videos, and even our Mapt subscription service so you can get the best experience no matter what type of learner you are. Sometimes you just want an old-fashioned book though; after all, who doesn't like to actually hold a physical page or have a handy print book to pass around the office when problems start springing up? So if you've bought an eBook directly from us and it wasn't a free download we’re offering an Upgrade to Print, which allows you to save 35% off the print version! No more worries about sharing your new eReader with your colleagues. All you have to do is log into your account from where you have purchased the eBook, go to the product page of that ebook where you will see a 35% discount applied to the 'Print + eBook'. You’ll save 35% off on the list price and a brand new print copy will be on its way to you! Plus when you upgrade to print we'll throw in another copy of the original eBook for you to share out to someone else – all you have to go is go back into My eBooks and just click the Share button, no hassle!

What does the world of app dev look like now? As the importance of mobile development and a host of new trends on the horizon we interviewed over 6,000 app developers to see what where the skills and knowledge they were making the most of to earn top salaries. What industry offers the best salary for the less experienced? Does C++ or C# rule the roost for desktop developers? What’s the next trend that everyone needs to know? And which engine do game devs absolutely have to know to get onto the market these days? All this and more is found in our Skill Up report – and you can get the answers by watching our results animation now. View the full report here: www.packtpub.com/skillup/app-dev-salary-report