Archive for e-reader
Amazon Kindle Fire Shipments Plummet in Q1 2012
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The Amazon Kindle Fire enjoyed copiously robust sales in the last quarter of 2012 that propelled it into one of the most sought after Android devices. Around 4.8 million Fire tablets were sold in the last few months of 2011 and things have not been the same since. In the first quarter of 2012 shipments have dramatically decreased to only 728k tablets shipped.
Research firm IDC recently issued a report on the current landscape of tablet computers and some of the results are fairly interesting. There is no surprise that the Apple iPad line of tablets continue to dominate and retain the number one position.Due to the decline in Amazon sales, Samsung has usurped its position to being the second most popular tablet company in the world.
Amazon currently has shipped 17.4 million Kindle Fire tablets since it was released last year. In the few months when it first came out it controlled 16.8% of the entire tablet segment. With rivals such as Barnes and Noble and Kobo pushing hard, Amazon only has a paltry 4% of the entire market.
Amazon has recently lost a major distribution partner, in the form of Target during this last week. You will no longer be able to purchase any Amazon tablet or e-reader after May 17th. This strikes a blow towards the Seattle company and should see its sales plummet even further.
Amazon Kindle Fire Receives 6.31 Firmware Update
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The Kindle Fire has just received a new firmware update that brings it to version 6.31. This update brings additional parental controls to Kindle Fire, including the ability to password-protect purchases, disable access to specific content libraries, and block access to the Silk web browser. There is a loophole, however. It seems that the device does not prompt you for a password to factory reset the software. Many parents are saying their kids are defaulting the device to gain access to the password protected content.
As with all software updates, these new features will be delivered automatically to your Kindle Fire. If you can’t wait for the new update you can download and install it manually HERE.
Barnes & Noble and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Bring e-Readers to School
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Barnes and Noble is teaming up with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to bring e-readers into the K12 school system. B&N will be providing the Nook Simple Touch Reader and the Nook Color loaded with custom ebooks. These books will include Island of the Blue Dolphins, Gathering Blue, and The Willoughbys.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is one of the leading K12 publishers in the world. Their books are currently being read by 60 million students in 120 countries. They get brands from Curious George to Lord of the Rings into schools where students can dive in and foster the love of reading.
Schools participating in this program have the option to decide whether they want the Nook Simple Touch or the Nook Color. They also can make the call on what books from HMH that they want pre-loaded on their devices.
“We’re excited to partner with HMH to give schools and students this unique opportunity to bring digital reading and continued learning to students all over,” said Jim Hilt, Vice President of eBooks at Barnes & Noble. “One of Barnes & Noble’s core values is to encourage children to read more, and providing our award-winning NOOK Readers to schools is a great way to make that happen.”
New Jetbook Color Firmware Increases Page Turn Speeds
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Ectaco has just released new firmware for the Jetbook Color e-reader. This is a massive update that really allows for faster page turn speeds and a ton of new options for the e-ink refresh rate.
Page turning speed has been increased, which should be a boon to anyone that was irate with very slow performance. Now you can flip through ebooks faster, because the program performs caching of preceding and subsequent pages relative to the page you are reading.
Three new Refresh Page modes have been implemented: you can choose to fully refresh the screen after page turn on every page, every 3rd page, or every 5th page. Use the every page refresh mode to avoid seeing any traces from recently viewed pages. The other modes allow you to reduce screen flashing.
There are also some minor updates, like 9 new workbook templates for onscreen drawing (various chart papers and lined papers). You can use the text-to-speech engine to get the device to read a desired book aloud starting from the page you are viewing. It speaks the text clearly, with no stammer. Speech recognition has also undergone a significent revision. Finally the hardware keys are working on the fly now, with reduced response time.
The latest firmware update and full instructions on how to install are available HERE.
Refurbished Kindle DX on sale for $244
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The Amazon Kindle DX is having a sale on their refurbished models for $244 for a limited time. This is a solid e-reader for the money and one of the only ones on the market that feature a 9.7 inch screen, which is the same as the iPad.
The Kindle DX features a 9.7 inch screen and 50% better contrast and resolution from previous models. Its screen displays a 1200 x 824 pixel resolution at 150 ppi, it also has 16-levels gray scale, and a new 10:1 contrast ratio.
One of the great elements on this device is the free 3G internet access provided by Amazon. You don’t have to pay any monthly fees and can buy books anywhere in the world.
The main benefit of this device is reading PDF and academic textbooks. The large screen gives you full screen Adobe documents and seldom requires tweaking via the zoom function. Many students and professionals find these larger screen e-ink devices are very suitable in the field.
The main drawback on the Kindle DX e-reader is the paltry amount of firmware updates it has received during its lifetime. It does not have support for the new Kindle Format 8 eBook format and remains an afterthought with Amazon. Still, it remains one of the best quality large screen e-readers on the market but is mainly available online. Stores and retail chains seldom carry this model because of the prohibitive cost.
Target Will Suspend Sales of Amazon Kindle e-Readers by May 13th
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Target is discontinuing sales of all Amazon Kindle e-Readers and the Kindle Fire by May 13 2012. The company has already suspended all online listings for Amazon devices. The Kindle Fire accounts for most of Target’s sales in the tablet department, which sold out nationwide on Black Friday 2011. The reason why they are not selling them anymore? A conflict of interest with Apple.
Apple apparently has made Target an offer to provide all their new projects and devices at a better rate if the retail chain plays nice. Target does not make much of a markup selling Amazon e-readers and tablets. The allure of “all things Apple” is a siren call that is hard to resist.
Many Target locations have Kindles in stock right now, but will be no longer ordering any and will remove them from all retail stores by May 13th. You can expect some massive deals to be had in the next few weeks leading up to the cutoff. Internal documents suggest the company is going to have a firesale leading up to Mothers Day.
Update: Reuters received an email from Target saying “Target is phasing out Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012,” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder wrote in an email to Reuters. “We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of e-readers and supporting accessories.”
via The Verge
New Barnes and Noble Nook to Ship with NFC
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Barnes and Noble is in the midst of developing new versions of their Nook e-Readers that have a Near-Field-Communication chip in them. This will allow for greater synergy between their e-readers and books in the retail stores.
William Lynch, the CEO of Barnes and Noble, dropped a bombshell in an interview with Fortune today. “We’re going to start embedding NFC chips into our Nooks. We can work with the publishers so they would ship a copy of each hardcover with an NFC chip embedded with all the editorial reviews they can get on BN.com. And if you had your Nook, you can walk up to any of our pictures, any our aisles, any of our bestseller lists, and just touch the book, and get information on that physical book on your Nook and have some frictionless purchase experience. That’s coming, and we could lead in that area.”
I could see NFC being popular with Barnes and Noble stores, and also allowing greater flexibility in their Nook Friends Platform. Lending ebooks out to your friends would be massively easier if you could simply just bump the Nooks together or just be in close proximity.
Onyx Boox to Use New LG e-Paper Technology
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Back in March, LG revealed new e-paper that should give e-ink Holdings a run for their money. One company that is interested in using this technology is Onyx, who is well known for their BOOX series of e-readers. Their new device using Plastic Paper will be launching sometime this month.
The new e-Paper by LG features a inch XGA display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels and relies on e-ink to render a monochrome display of texts and images. However, the biggest USP of the EPD is its ultra thin construction. This has been achieved with the use of plastic that is as thin as a display guard used on cellphones. This has resulted in the EPD being just 0.7mm, about a third in size from similar EPD that are made of glass. The use of plastic has also made the LG produced EPD weigh just 14 gms. This in turn has added to the durability of the display, something brought forth in repeated drop tests performed by LG. The e-papers were dropped from a height of about 1.5 meters, and the displays not only survived each time but also remained very devoid of any scratches. Even hitting the displays with a small urethane hammer failed to leave a mark on the e-paper displays.
According to our Russian Source, Onyx will be launching an e-reader similar to the Onyx Boox A62. It will feature a Freescale i.MX508 Cortex A8 processor that runs at 800 MHZ. There is going to be 4 GB of internal memory and 128 MB of RAM, and I am a bit worried about the amount of RAM in a touchscreen display. One of the things this device will have going for it is the sheer amount of ebook formats that it will read. How about this for a format list? TXT, TXT.ZIP, HTML, RTF, RTF.ZIP, FB2, FB2.ZIP, DOC, DOCX, MOBIPOCKET, CHM, PDB, EPUB (DRM), EPUB (non-DRM), JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, CBR, CB7, CBZ, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, DjVu, PDF (DRM), PDF (non-DRM).
Barnes and Noble Simple Touch Available for $80
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The Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight is the second iteration of their Simple Touch e-reader line. With the advent of any new device the previous generation often goes down in price. You can now get the first generation model, which won many awards as the best e-reader on the market, for only $80.00. Stores participating in the deal are Target, Best Buy, Office Depot, and Staples. This is a fairly sweet deal and is more cost effective than other touchscreen ebook readers on the market, like the Kindle Touch and Kobo Touch. If you don’t know much about this device, check out our full review HERE.
The deal is not available yet, but is going to be in B&N’s upcoming new sales flyers.
Is Amazon Developing a 3G Kindle Fire?
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The Rumor: Is Amazon working on a new Kindle Fire 3G? A recent tip has mentioned that the company is internally toying around with the idea.
The Rational: Amazon has a long established track record during the last four years of providing free 3G internet access with their e-ink readers. They are always more expensive then their WIFI counterparts, but allow more freedom to purchase content while outside wireless areas. The drawback of their existing WIFI model of the Fire is that it limits the amount of impulse purchases that you may make when on vacation or during your daily commute. Amazon frequently offers the hardware at cutthroat prices and makes the money back selling you content. With a WIFI only edition right now, they are shooting themselves in the foot by limiting the amount of things you can buy. The 3G model would in essence allow more flexibility for people on the go. You will not have to pay anything extra for the 3G internet access, but the internal debate at the company is centered on what you can do while on 3G access.
The Amazon networks and S3 cloud servers maintain most of the content delivery networks on the internet. Some of the largest websites in the world use Amazons services to handle their bandwidth and server networks. I would imagine that the Kindle Fire 3G will not let you do high bandwidth tasks like streaming video or audio. Amazon wants people to buy books, newspapers, apps, audiobooks, and other low-bandwidth content while on the go. This has been a staple of their e-ink models with free 3G and it is good to have different models based on the needs of the customer.
If Amazon was really developing a 3G Kindle Fire it would probably limit the number of things you can do. There is no way the company could offer free 3G and let everyone watch Netflix or Amazon Prime movies while on the go. Likely you would receive a nag screen saying you need to be on a wireless network for this content. This would provide the solution for super high-bandwidth problems that plague the entire telecommunications industry. In essence, the 3G would let you buy books and other things that don’t take much room at all.
There is no dispute that the Amazon Kindle Fire has been very popular and currently controls 54% of the entire Android tablet market. There has been rumors for awhile that the company is working on an e-reader similar to the Barnes and Noble Glowlight and a 10 inch version of the Kindle Fire.
Although there is no concrete evidence that the company is developing a tablet with 3G functionality, but this is one rumor that actually makes a ton of sense. Amazon makes its money with content and sells hardware at near loss. It would make total sense to give people more freedom to buy content on the go, then be relegated to a WIFI zone.
The Best e-Reader and Tablet Devices for May 2012
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Springtime is in the air and its time to start reading outside with some of the great new ebooks coming out this month. If you are looking to upgrade your device to the latest and greatest, or looking to buy an e-reader for the first time, we got you covered.
What is an e-reader?
If you are coming into the game late, an e-reader is basically an electronic device used for reading digital books. e-Ink is the technology used in the majority of these devices and it mimics real paper. When you read ebooks, you can change the line-spacing, margins, and fonts. You can even make highlights and annotations without ruining the book like you would a real one. Some tablets are billed as e-readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet, Pandigital Novel, and so on. These are not true e-readers, but the distinction in 2012 is becoming increasingly blurred.
Barnes and Noble Simple Touch with Glow- This electronic reader features the first e-ink screen in the world with accompanied LED lights to allow you to read in the dark. The lights are on the side of the screen and built into the chassis of the screen, much like IR Touchscreens.
The Barnes and Noble Simple Touch Reader features a six inch e-ink Pearl display. The new display that the Nook uses is similar to the Amazon Kindle 3rd generation, Kobo Touch, and Sony PRS-650. The screen gives you a solid resolution of 800×600 pixels and displays 16 levels of greyscale. Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ CPU processor and 2 GB of internal storage. The storage is where all of your ebooks and pictures are housed, and if that is not enough you can increase it via MicroSD up to 32 GB.
You can purchase comics, newspapers, magazines, fiction, and non-fiction books. Not only is this the newest one on the market, but also maintains the same processor, RAM, and hardware as the previous Nook Simple Touch. You can expect a lot of value for your money with this gadget. The drawback is that it does not have speakers or headphones to listen to audiobooks or music.
This e-reader hit the USA market in the first week of May of 2012. International users can purchase this device from Shop e-Readers.
Amazon Kindle Touch – People often expect e-readers to function much like their tablets and phones—with a touchscreen. The Kindle Touch leads the charge with one of the largest ecosystems on the market. There is no shortage of newspaper, magazines, books, and much more to satiate your literary thirst. One of the most popular uses of this e-reader is the “Send to Kindle” function for sending documents, blog posts, and much more to your device for offline reading.
The new Amazon Kindle 6 features a six inch e-ink Pearl display with a resolution of 600×800 Pixels. The same screen technology that the Kindle uses is found in many of the competing devices, such as the Sony PRS-T1, Kobo Touch, and Nook Simple Touch. It packs Freescale 800 MHZ processor under the hood and 256 MB of RAM, which keeps the reader speedy. There is also 4 GB of internal memory to house all of your content and has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and speakers. For wireless connectivity there are various flavors. such as 3G and WiFi.
One of the drawbacks is that there is no expandable memory via an SD Card. You have to make sure you keep space for all of your books. You are also locked into the Amazon ecosystem and many people don’t like this fact.
You can purchase this device from Amazon in many different countries and also Shop e-Readers.
Kobo Touch – The latest generation Kobo touchscreen e-reader has been on the market for almost a year now. The company is rumored to be working on a new device and you can get plenty of deals on this right now.
The Kobo Touch has a full touchscreen e-ink Pearl display that has a full six inches of screen real estate. It features an Infrared Touch or IR touch that drastically enhances the touchscreen sensitivity and makes interacting with the screen a pure delight. Part of the reason why the unit is so responsive is due to the Freescale 508 Processor. You have by default 2 GB of internal storage, which should be enough for around 1000 ebooks. If this is not enough for you, it can be enhanced via the MicroSD card up to 32 GB. Keep in mind the SD card slot does not have a flap or any kind of protection, so you might want to make sure water does not get into the device.
Kobo has one of the most expansive ecosystems in the world and books can be purchased from almost every major country. There are nearly three million free and paid books available, and also plenty of newspapers and other content. Currently Kobo has 54% of the entire Canadian market and is growing in international expansion.
Nook Tablet – The Nook Tablet is not really an e-reader per se, and is more of a multimedia device with a strong focus on reading. Barnes and Noble has one of the best ecosystems in the world to suit content for a full color touchscreen. You can download Android apps, kids books, interactive books, magazines, newspapers, books, and plenty more. I would say the Nook ecosystem beats the Kindle Fire’s hands down, in terms of reading content.
The Nook Tablet features a 7 inch multitouch display with a resolution of 1024×600 pixels. Underneath the hood it is running a dual-core 1GHZ processor and 1 GB of Ram. Internal storage bestows upon you a whopping 16 GB and you can further enhance it via the Micro SD up to 32 GB.
There are built in speakers and a 3.mm headphone jack for you to listen to audiobooks, music, videos, and other content. One of the few drawbacks is that you cannot order this from Barnes and Noble outside the USA. If you live in Canada, Australia, or anywhere else you can buy this from Shop e-Readers and they will ship to any country fairly quick. If you want to use this outside the USA you will need to use a USA address, which can be found anywhere on Google and your own Credit Card. Barnes and Noble will never send anything to you physically in the post and all confirmations for purchases are sent via email.
Amazon Kindle Fire – The Amazon Kindle Fire remains the highest selling Android Tablet in the world. It controls 54% of the entire segment and is rising every quarter. There are plenty of features not found anywhere else that really make this a worthy tablet to buy. Amazon Prime is a streaming video service that gives you thousands of TV shows and movies. When you are a Prime member, you can also borrow one free ebook a month and you have over a hundred thousand to choose from. If audiobooks are you thing, there is no beating Audible.com, which is owned by Amazon. You can listen to a copious amount of books while on your daily commute or out with the dog.
The Amazon Kindle Fire features a 7 inch Gorilla Glass display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The glass on the display is one of the most stable screens the market. Gorilla makes very dense screens that prevent dings from dropping it on the ground and are almost shatterproof. Many YouTube videos exist where people jab it with a wide array of sharp objects, only to be harmlessly deflected.
The tablet is very robust with the dual core 1 GHZ CPU processors and 512 MB of RAM. Menus fly with abandon and videos never seemed to stutter. When we tried the web browser, you could scroll up and down a website and not see any artifacting or checked backgrounds. I was worried at first that when compared to the Nook Tablet, this one would fail and be slow. Against our expectations, in our head to head tests the Kindle Fire kept up with its B&N counterpart in every aspect.
Audio in tablets often earns my tremendous disdain. Mainstream e-readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook Color present the speakers on the bottom. This ensures that when you hold it in landscape or portrait mode your hands physically muffle the speaker. When you are laying down and the tablet is resting on its back, the same muffled sounds are emanating. The Kindle Fire features stereo speakers on the top. This won points with me right away and let me tell you, they are LOUD! When we compared the audio against the Nook Color and Apple iPad, the Fire blew them all away. It is that good.
The Kindle Fire overall hardware design is fairly minimal, with the only ports being the Micro USB, Power Button, and 3.5mm headphone jack. The majority of the functionality for volume, settings, and page turns are all software base. This cuts down on the weight of it and makes it more slim than competing devices on the market.
Amazon does not ship this tablet outside the USA, so the only way you can get it is through Shop e-Readers.
Contest: Win a Barnes and Noble Nook Color
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We are proud to give away our review edition of the Barnes and Noble Nook Color! This was the first tablet that B&N ever issued and still remains relevant in today’s market climate. It allows you to tap into an expansive ecosystem and buy almost a million books. You can also download and install Android Apps from their online app store.
The Barnes and Noble Nook Color is a 7 inch capacitive color touchscreen with a resolution of 1024×600. It has a built in accelerometer that will switch the screen between landscape and portrait mode. It has 5 GB of usable memory and can store all of your books, music, movies, and apps.
How do you enter the contest? Simply Tweet or Share on Facebook “I want to win a Nook Color with @Goodereader.” You may also elect to use #goodereader, too! Once you do this, you can comment on this post to cement your entry to the contest. You can enter Tweet or Facebook share once per day until May 15th, which is the draw date. Good Luck!
Vietnam Opens Up Their First e-Reader and eBook Store
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Phuong Nam Cultural Joint Stock Corporation’s ebook store has opened in Saigon and is the first of its kind in that country. The company has opened a 500-square-meter store in floor B2 in the Vincom Shopping Mall in District 1, where it sells e-readers, tablets, ebooks, accessories, and apps.
There are not many books to start but Phuong Nam says more will be added in the very near future. When customers purchase an e-reader, all 28 books in EPUB and PDF formats will be loaded on their device, free of charge.
Phuong Nam is no stranger to books and currently maintains 30 individual bookstores. The company is making inroads with telecommunications companies in Vietnam to have e-reader apps come pre-loaded on the smart phones that are sold.
The one drawback of the digital publishing scene in Vietnam is that no one is really making ebooks. Traditional publishers have stayed away from converting their books into EPUB or PDF formats. Hopefully with the success of this store and the fact Phuong Nam operates a number of stores, people would be more willing to jump on board.
