Peter Carotenuto
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May
17
Video: Google Play on the Nook HD
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Barnes and Noble announced a few weeks ago that the entire Nook HD Tablet line will get full access to Google Play. We have heard from many readers that they intend to buy one for the first time, or decided to stick with their device because of this new enhancement. Google Play gives international users a viable ecosystem of content to tap into, and for the first time, you can use the Nook outside of the US and UK.
The Nook HD and HD+ are fairly economical in price, due to the recent discounting. The resolution and internal processor speeds are fairly robust. To be honest, these are great tablets that give you a big bang for your buck. In the past, users had to make due with Barnes and Noble’s own curated app store. The one drawback is the absence of any business that competes directly with the bookstore chain. You won’t find any Amazon, Kobo, Sony, or comic reader apps. Now that the Nook’s have access to Google Play, you will be able to download all of this and more!
Now that Google Play is available via a new automatic firmware update, there is a breath of life infused into the Nook HD and HD+. 750,000 apps are at your fingertips, and in our video review, we show you how the entire experience looks on the Nook HD. You can get a sense on how big the update is, and how it looks.
May
16
Video: Amazon Coin Review
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Amazon has just released its new Coins program, which acts as a virtual currency to buy apps or to buy in-app content. Every account registered to a Kindle gets 500 free coins that you can spend on whatever you want. Amazon also sells packs of coins, which you can use to buy things in bulk. Not everyone has updated their apps yet to support coins, but there is a ton of stuff you can buy. This video navigates you through the coins program as we tell you all about it and even buy some apps.
Mar
16
Google Nexus 7 vs Barnes and Noble Nook HD
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The Google Nexus 7 and Barnes and Noble Nook HD are two devices that most people who want to read ebooks think about buying. You can go with the software agnostic approach of the Nexus, where you have tons of options on who you want to deal with, or you can instead go with the closed ecosystem with Barnes and Noble, whose sole premise is the reading experience. Both bring some interesting hardware and software elements to the table, which should appeal to all digital readers. Today, we compare both of these tablets against each other.
Our video comparison documents how ebooks, magazines, newspapers, comics, and a myriad of other content. We also conduct extensive audio, video, and internet tests, to see how it holds up under real world conditions.
The Barnes and Noble HD lives up to its name with a seven inch IPS capacitive touchscreen display and a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels. This is the highest resolution tablet the company has ever released. The Nook Tablet had 1024 x 600 and the Nook Color had the exact same. Newspapers, magazines, and videos look way better on this unit than the prior models.
Underneath the hood sits a TI OMAP 4470 1.3GHz dual-core CPU processor and 1GB of RAM. Memory wise, there is a 8 GB and 16 GB models, depending on your needs. Barnes and Noble is fairly consistent with giving customers expandable memory via the Micro SD. You can get it going to almost 64 GB of added storage, which would be perfect for your media.
The Google Nexus 7 features a seven inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1280×800. The resolution overall is fairly solid and videos looked a little bit better than the Apple iPad Mini and Kindle Fire HD. One of the strongest elements this tablet has going for it is the processor. It crushes all other e-readers on the market with a Nvidia Tegra 3, quad-core 1.3 GHZ processor. In conjunction with 1 GB of RAM, you can multitask to your heart’s content and not experience stuttering while watching videos or turning the pages in ebooks.
Dec
04
How to Configure Parental Controls on the Amazon Kindle Fire HD
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The Amazon Kindle Fire HD comes with a number of parental control options that make the tablet very family friendly. You can lock out specific aspects, such as email, store, videos, web-browser, and many others. In this Good e-Reader Video, we document the entire experience. You can receive step by step instructions on how to set this all up correctly and how it functions.
Nov
17
Nook HD and Nook HD+ Unboxing Videos
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Welcome to another Good e-Reader Video Unboxing! Today we are checking out two of the latest tablets from Barnes and Noble! We just got our hands on the Nook HD and Nook HD+ and we give you a solid run-down of the devices! You will get a sense on what these two bring to the table and everything that ships in the box. We even power it on for the first time, so you can see what the default setup looks like. If you feel like a full hands on review, check back on Monday!
Nov
01
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 and Microsoft Surface RT Comparison
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Welcome to another installment of our Good e-Reader Video Comparison Series! Today we are checking out the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 and the new Microsoft Surface RT! This is a battle of Google Android and Windows 8!
In this video we show you the full experience that both of these devices bring to the tablet. We check out the hardware written on paper, but give you a full 360 view of them both, so you can get a sense on how they look.
In this video we show you video, audio, eBooks, Magazines, Newspapers and all sorts of other content. Each of these ecosystems are fairly unique and bring different content to the table. Let us know your thoughts on what device you like better, by commenting below.
Oct
31
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and Microsoft Surface Comparison
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In this Good e-Reader Video we check out the core reading experience on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and the Microsoft Surface Tablet! We give you a very strong sense of what these devices are all about. The main premise is to show you the Amazon ecosystem on both devices and the entire reading experience.
Sep
07
Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE Revealed
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The Amazon event in Santa Monica CA was great. First came the Kindle Fire HD 7″, then came the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, and now, Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ with blazing 4G LTE speeds. Normally this would mean overpriced data rates and a super high price tag, but not with Amazon.
Amazon is pretty much the only company (besides Barnes & Noble for a brief period of time) that provides 3G data for free. So we can assume the data plans will be affordable, but what about the hardware? Well, at this point during the event, with all these price drops, I can’t imagine Amazon charging an arm and a leg for this. Below is the data plan on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE.
That is a good price for data. With most other companies charging you 10-30 a month, depending on what features you wish to include in your plan, this is only $4.17 a month. As for the hardware, below is a picture showing the cost of the device and how it stacks up compared to an iPad 3.
Yes, it’s price is only $499, which is a steal, and the data plan cannot in incomparable. You may ask “but the iPad 3 is better?” though we detect hesitation in your question. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is the first tablet in the world to incorporate Dolby Digital built in, and the Kindle has 2x the Wi-Fi capabilities with 2 antennas. The price is also far lower, and it’s an Android OS, which is more customizable. However, this post is not to show you how much better the Kindle Fire HD is than the iPad 3, but more to just show how spectacular it is on its own.
So there you have it. With Amazon lowering the price on its past e-readers and tablets, increasing page turn speeds, doubling the RAM, and releasing unbelievable new products with hardware that overall trumps the competition, Amazon is really going to upend the market of e-readers and tablets.
Sep
06
Kindle Fire HD 7″ and 8.9″ Tablets Announced
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Now that’s how it’s done! A Kindle Fire HD 7″ in one hand, and a Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ in the other. This is why we went to this conference. This was obviously the most anticipated announcement we were waiting for during the afternoon, the release of, not one, but TWO tablets. So let us start with the 7″ The Amazon Kindle HD, which features something spectacular that I think we all take for granted: Wi-Fi. Not only does it support Wi-Fi, but the Kindle Fire HD has 2 Wi-Fi antennas! One for 2.4GHz wireless bands, and the other for 5.0GHz wireless bands. We all know a lot rides on 2.4GHz bands; home phones, cellphones, baby monitors, and even microwaves. So they thought 5.0GHz was the way to go, but why have just one when you could have both.
As you can clearly see, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is now even more capable than the Nexus 7 for wireless connectivity. It even more impressively trumps the new iPad.
Now let’s talk about POWER.
Both Kindle Fire HD devices are powered by an OMAP4470 Processor, which surprisingly offers more performance than Tegra 3. Here’s how they stack up against each other:
So as you can see, the graphics are going to be wild. The Kindle Fire HD is also the first tablet ever to support Dolby Digital.
And last but not least… (to quote Amazon) “Does all this cost more? You bet. Is it worth it? Absolutely!” The prices are as follows: the Kindle Fire HD 7″ is $199 and the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is $299. The crowd applauded as these prices were announced. I was totally shocked at the price tag on these items after sitting through what sounded like a 400$+ tablet. Honestly, these two tablets are going to upend the market! They are powerful, loud, fast, sleek, and most importantly, they are super light… on your wallet.
Sep
06
Some Interesting Statistics on Kindle Direct Publishing
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Just as the picture says: Kindle Direct Publishing is a service that allows authors to take full control over what they publish. If you are an author, it is sometimes difficult to get a publisher to back you. Especially if you are new and have no track record. This way, you are your own boss. Publish for free, publish what you want, and get up to 70% royalties for your work.
These next two pictures actually show the true power of this program.
Out of the 100 Top Kindle Books…
27 of them are KDP
Sep
06
Kindle Fire $199? Not Anymore… Now Only $159.
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Dual-core Processor, 512MB ram, 8GB Hard Drive, and all the apps, tv shows, and movies you can handle. Yes, for 199$ this all seemed too good to be true, but how does a price drop sound? That is exactly what we are getting! The Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet is now only 159$, and you get all the amazing features of the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet for a great discount.
But is that all? Actually, no. JUST like what they did with the Amazon Kindle 4th Generation, they did not just lower the price, they also upgraded and refined it!
The following are some of the upgrades to the Kindle Fire.
- new faster processor
- two times the RAM
- 40% faster performance
- longer battery life
This conference we attended was a holiday for us. Just when we thought they were done, they kept bringing something better and sweeter out with every major announcement. The Kindle Fire, a year ago, was one of the best tablet choices you could make. And now it’s cheaper? AND upgraded? What more could we ask for?
Sep
06
Small Pricetag, Big Value with the New $69 Kindle
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Now we all know that Amazon had incorporated Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers into its Kindles to allow for a smaller price tag. This allowed Amazon to sell the device for a much cheaper price and still offer the exact same hardware.
But now, the company has gone one step further. It has already reduced the Amazon Kindle 4th Generation (without keyboard or touchscreen) down to 79$ with Special Offers. But now it has dropped it even further down to a miniscule $69.
Not only did Amazon reduce the purchase cost, but it has also improved on the software and the Kindle itself. Some of the improvements include:
-15% faster page turns
-crisper text
-new refined font styles
-sleek black housing
I think this was a very good step. One of Amazon’s many mantras is “People who want to read like this, should be able to afford to read like this.”
I think that is a great way of thinking, and I definitely agree. Now that the Kindle is 10$ cheaper, has cool black housing, and is the cheapest e-reader in its class, Amazon will have great success selling this to people who don’t require all the bells and whistles of the later models and just want to do what an e-reader was designed for… read.
Sep
06
Amazon Releases the Paperwhite e-Reader
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Today in Santa Monica, CA, Amazon held its product unveiling event. There the company announced several new devices and services including tablets, e-readers, and new programs and applications. Let’s focus on what Amazon is mainly known for… the Kindle. Today it released the brand new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite.
The Kindle Paperwhite features a six inch e-ink Pearl display screen with 212 PPI. The big hyping factor is that they jammed 62% more pixels into the screen to give you higher resolution them previous models.
Amazon really had to release a new type of e-reader that had the same glowing functionality as the Barnes and Noble Simple Touch with Glowlight and the new Kobo Glo. Customers now more then ever are demanding that they be able to read in low-light conditions, without needing bright ambient light. The new Kindle Paperwhite is their new flagship e-ink reader, that is set to take the market by storm.
Amazon claims that the battery life will last you around eight weeks with the light on, which far surpasses the competition. The only drawback is that there is no audio functionality, so you won’t be able to take advantage of audiobooks.
There will be two different models being issued, a WIFI exclusive and a 3G variant. With most of Amazon’s 3G models, it is FREE, so you won’t have to pay a monthly charge or worry about extra costs. This is perfect for people who don’t live in WIFI coverage areas, or tend to travel lots
This e-reader looks amazing. When amazon brought out the Amazon Kindle 4th generation, I thought that was a great improvement over the Kindle Keyboard. Then they released the Kindle Touch wi-fi and Kindle Touch 3G. I didn’t think it could get any better. But now they go and release this, an amazing ereader WITH a glow light built in. Whites are whiter and darks are darker on this brand new e-reader. Amazon has always been ahead of the curve in the e-reader market, but now it has outdone itself. But wait, it gets even better… this new e-reader is only $119. That’s right!
Kindle Paperwhite Wifi = 119$
Kindle Paperwhite 3G = 179$
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