[somewhere in Cupertino, probably]

“Hey Rick?”

“Yeah, Bill?”

“We need a bunch of placeholder names for sessions at WWDC. The ones about… you know. That stuff we’re not really allowed to talk about yet. People tear these names apart looking for clues on what’s coming, so can you name them all ‘SESSION NAME TBD’ and throw them online?”

“Sure! But… how about we use puns instead? We’ll even use emoji.”

“Nahhh, let’s keep it simple and —”

“FIRST ONE IS UP. ”

“Ok Rick, one is fine. but let’s keep the rest —”

“I JUST POSTED ANOTHER FIVE. One in German!”

“Rick, stop. People are going to find these.”

“You  tell me what to do anymore Bill. We’re going to  this one for all it’s worth.”

“Rick how did you even just pronounce the donut emoji out loud?”

“I’m working here, Bill. Please ”

As anyone who works with me would probably tell you, I love me some good puns. Groans are my medicine. I try to keep it to our internal team chat rooms and not let it leak into posts — my colleagues are just more willing to cut me some Slack.

The makers of Epic!, one of many apps jockeying to become a “Netflix for books,” have raised $8 million in a round led by Reach Capital, the education-specialized venture firm. Additional investors in the Series C included TransLink Capital, Rakuten Ventures, Menlo Ventures, WI Harper, Brighteye Ventures and Innovation Endeavors.

Epic! at its core is an on-demand digital library that includes about 25,000 different books and videos appropriate for kids in elementary school, or between the ages of about five and twelve. Some of the books on the platform have audio components, allowing kids to listen as they read along. The startup, which was founded in 2013 and launched its app in 2014, claims to reach 5 million kids today, in part through use of Epic! in schools.

According to Epic! co-founder Kevin Donahue, formerly a VP of Content for YouTube, the startup thinks of itself as more of a consumer brand than an education one. The company charges kids’ families, not schools or districts, for use of its app. But Epic! does allow teachers to use their app and its massive digital library in class for free.

By giving away the app, of course teachers do some of the work of marketing for Epic!, a kind of symbiosis not uncommon in education tech. To date, the company reports 87 percent of K-5 schools in the U.S. are using Epic! for reading time in English language arts and other classes. The app includes a teacher dashboard and features that allow educators to track kids’ progress in reading, as well as to support and expand on whatever they’re learning on their own time.

Donahue said, “We wanted to see if we could encourage kids to read more on digital devices even though videos and games are right there. We did that!” Other apps, notably Kindle for Kids, encourage kids to read on mobile devices, but make reading into a task that earns them access to videos and games.

The Epic! app avoids that with an interest-driven focus. Its user interface encourages kids to jump from a video into a book or other interactive content and back. The idea is to engross them in reading about something they’re already obsessed with, but not to treat reading materials as sub-par to other formats.

Reach Capital General Partner Jennifer Carolan said one reason her firm invested in Epic! is the company’s ability to “bridge the gap” between home and school. She said, “A separation between school and home is a false one when it comes to learning. Learning happens in school, at home, on the playground… No other products cross that chasm.”

Given the funding, Donahue said, Epic! will be hiring, spending more on marketing and advertising and exploring partnerships in Asia where the company has recently seen a lot of demand for its app, even though its contents are for English-language readers, specifically. The company is also constantly adding new content types to its platform, including books, audio and video from desirable publishers. One day, Donahue expects Epic! will include some amount of VR and AR content, potentially.

The startup faces competition from a plethora of reading apps, including those sold to schools, like LightSail, Newsela or the nonprofit CommonLit, and consumer apps like the Reading Rainbow Skybrary, Tales2Go or Amazon’s Kindle for Kids.

Featured Image: Andersen Ross/Blend Images/Getty Images

Specifically, Nintendo is lacking components related to NAND flash-memory chips, liquid-crystal displays, and the motors used in the Switch’s HD Rumble feature. NAND memory chip supplies are said to be placed mainly upon the shoulders of Toshiba’s struggling NAND chip unit, which is still up for sale despite legal troubles that have plagued the company over the past few weeks. In April, Apple was rumored to be looking into spending several billion for a “substantial stake” in Toshiba’s NAND chip unit.

Apple’s manufacturing ramp-up on the upcoming “iPhone 8” is said to be behind some of the supply chain constraints faced by Nintendo, as well as ongoing demand for the iPhone 7. Currently, Apple manufactures iPhone 7 with an LCD display and various internal sizes of NAND memory. The Nintendo Switch has a multi-touch LCD display and 32GB of internal memory.

People in the industry say the rapid expansion of web-based services for corporations has driven demand for computer servers that use flash memory. Continued demand for Apple’s iPhone 7 and a 10th anniversary model of the iPhone expected later this year are also keeping parts makers at full capacity, helping power Japan’s economy to its longest growth streak since 2006.

“Demand for our NAND flash memory has been overwhelmingly greater than supply, and the situation is likely to stay for the rest of this year,” said a spokeswoman at Toshiba Corp.

For Nintendo, the company has said it hopes to make as many as 20 million Switch units by the end of its financial year, in March 2018. Thanks to supply constraints, the actual sales target of the year is 10 million units, although “strong demand suggests it can sell many more – if it can make them.” In its first month on the market, Nintendo sold 2.74 million Switch units.

Analysts watching the supply chain said that Nintendo’s rivals “offer better terms” than the video game company, and that smartphone makers like Apple specifically “issue larger orders than Nintendo.” This leads to manufacturers giving preference to companies other than Nintendo, and subsequent shortages for its products. Increased spending to secure more parts at a faster rate for the Switch isn’t a possibility for Nintendo, as president Tatsumi Kimishima doesn’t want the console’s $299 retail price to increase.

Smartphones are already computers in our pockets, but Intel’s new Compute Card turns an actual PC into something you can take with you wherever you go. Equipped with a range of processor options, including an ultra-efficient Celeron, and notebook-class Core i5s, this slab that looks like a USB backup battery is attracting a range of interest from Intel OEM partners hoping to use it for everything from smart signage to modular notebooks.

The Intel Compute Card, which was originally revealed at CES earlier this year, will come in a range of configurations revealed at Computex today that include up to 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage, as well as built-in AC 8265 wireless networking and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity. Intel also announced availability of the Compute Card Device Design Kit today, which will let OEM partners create devices that work with the modular computing core.

Already, partners including LG Display, Sharp, Dell, HP and Lenovo are working on accessory solutions for Compute Card – for now, though, Intel’s showing off a reference design that is basically a small desktop PC shell, complete with USB ports, mini DisplayPort, HDMI and Ethernet connectivity, which becomes a full-fledged computer when you pop in the Compute Card.

You can imagine how solutions like this might work together with similar notebook-style shells or even home theater equipment to make for a PC computing experience that remains at once tailored to you, but also becomes flexible for various different uses.