Michael Kozlowski

11786 posts
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Xiaomi Mi Reader Review

The Xiaomi Mi Reader features a 6 inch E INK capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels at 212 PPI. It has a front-lit display, which has a slider bar in the drop down menu, you can configure how bright you want the display. There is no color temperature system that is available on this model. 

Xiaomi Mijia Hygrometer Thermometer Pro Review

The Xiaomi Digital Thermometer Hygrometer measures both the temperature and humidity of the room and the parameters are displayed on a screen. The device features an 3.7 inch Ink display which ensures it conserves battery power, it will last up to a year on a single charge.

Steve Jobs sabotaged the Amazon Kindle app on iOS

Steve Jobs made it his mission to sabotage Amazon to prevent them from selling ebooks within their app.  According to new emails between between Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and various other senior Apple executives, disclose the exact thinking behind how Apple approached Kindle on iOS. The current precedent was outlined by Steve Jobs, who stated that “I think this is all pretty simple — iBooks is going to be the only bookstore on iOS devices. We need to hold our heads high. One can read books bought elsewhere, just not buy/rent/subscribe from iOS without paying us, which we acknowledge is prohibitive for many things.”

Scribd vows to cleanup SlideShare piracy

Linkedin Slideshare is a hotbed of piracy, there are thousands of ebooks available on the platform, in a myriad of formats. The repository for documents has been around for 14 years and so far, Linkedin has been ambivalent to the growing epidemic. Over the next several months, Scribd will be integrating their BookID system into the SlideShare platform to scan all uploads for potentially unauthorized content and will be removing anything that violates their TOS.

Onyx Boox is developing a color e-reader based on the Nova 2

Onyx Boox has submitted a letter to the FCC, letting them know that they will be using the same internals as the Nova 2, except they are calling it the Nova 2 Color. The company has just launched the Poke 2 color today, but they only produced 100 units and were sold out in a few hours. They have not submitted any documentation to the FCC for the Poke 2 Color, which leads me to believe this was a test to see if people would respond to a color e-reader, which they did. It looks like Onyx is now taking color seriously.

Kobo introduces ebook discovery

Kobo is pushing out a new firmware update 4.23.15505 to the Kobo Touch A/B, Kobo Touch C, Kobo Glo, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Touch 2.0, Kobo Aura, Kobo Aura HD, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 v1, Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 v2, Kobo Aura ONE, Kobo Aura ONE Limited Edition, Kobo Aura Edition 2 v1, Kobo Aura Edition 2 v2, Kobo Nia, Kobo Clara HD, Kobo Forma, and the Kobo Libra H2O. It has not been released to the Kobo Mini. This new update adds a number of features such as better ebook discovery and new clock!

Onyx Boox Poke 2 with Color E INK Screen is sold out in a day

Onyx Boox has just released the Poke 2 color e-reader. This device had a very limited production run and less than one hundred got made. The company wants to run an experiment to see if there is a market for this type of product. This is due to the limitation of E INK Kalidio, which is able to display over 4,096 different colors. The front-light has to be on for the colors to display properly, and they tend to look muted with a glass layer, so Onyx is using a sunken screen and bezel, which is what Pocketbook did with their color e-reader. This device is sold out in less than 24 hours.

E INK debuts new design for their foldable e-note

The new iteration of the foldable e-note now features a dedicated housing unit, to protect the display, when it is completely folded shut. When you open it, it now has 3-4 new gears that work in conjunction with the hinge system, to make sure there is enough torque when opening and closing it. The Wacom later has been refined, which is making it easier to make notes, highlights and annotations in a PDF file or the dedicated note taking app. There are now five dedicated buttons on the right hand side of the device. You can turn pages of an ebook forward or back. You can access the home menu, more and settings. On the top of the device are two new lighting bars that are built into the chassis and can be folded down, to project light evenly across the screen. Current front-lit technology found on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite or the Kobo Forma, do not have flexible screens, so E INK had to find a new solution.

Here are all of the modern Hisense E INK smartphones

The Hisense A5 and Hisense A5 Pro use the traditional black and white e-paper display. The A5 came out last year and the Pro is the better buy, due to a higher version of Android and better hardware specs. The Hisense A5C and A5 Pro CC both came out this summer and are the first phones to employ color e-paper, the same technology that the Pocketbook Color brought to the table. I think the Pro CC is the better buy, it has a better processor, a fingerprint scanner, a dedicated speaker, and better hardware specs. The Hisense A6L is a bit of an anomaly,  it is similar to the Yotaphone, with one screen having an LCD display and the other E INK. This device has been lost in the shuffle, even though it has great hardware, and a modern version of Android, it is very underrated.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite vs Pocketbook Color

Pocketbook basically allows users to have more flexibility and control, users will have to sideload there own things to the device, or access Dropbox from the internet browser. A full color screen is a major selling point, Amazon will likely not do color for a few years.  Amazon is more user friendly, you can do everything right on the reader, without really needing to sideload, although you can sideload in your own ebooks, you can’t do it with audio files.

What are people reading and listening to on Overdrive Libby?

One of the best apps that Overdrive ever release, was Libby. This is an app that focuses the listening and reading experience, and that’s it. It is a simplified approach that caters to people who grew tired of the main Overdrive app, which was designed not only reading, but watching videos and listening to music, or reading magazines. Libby was released in 2017 and since then, millions of readers have borrowed hundreds of millions of digital books from public libraries around the world. What are the most popular audiobooks and ebooks have been the most popular? Read the entire list on goodereader.com

HarperCollins ebook sales are up 26%

One of the bright spots for the quarter were ebook sales, which were up 26%. The big genre sales within the digital division were children’s and general fiction. Audiobook and ebook sales represented 29% of consumer revenues for the quarter, which are higher than average. In the past, digital normally accounted for 21% on a quarterly basis

Kyocera KY-01L Card Keitai Review

The Docomo Kyocera KY-01L Card Keitai came out in late 2018 and…

Indigo Books revenue dropped by 30%

During the second quarter, Indigo Books has experienced a net loss of about $31.6 million for the 13 weeks ended June 27th,  compared to a net loss of about $19.1 million in the same quarter the previous year. This was basically a 30% drop in revenue, primarily due to all of their book stores being closed during the pandemic and online sales were not strong enough to offset it.

First look at the Xiaomi Mi Reader

The Xiaomi Mi Reader features a 6 inch E INK capacitive touchscreen…

Simon & Schuster ebook sales increased by 51%

Simon & Schuster has just recorded their second quarter financial results for April, May and June 2020. The publisher reported that there was a 51% increase in ebook sales and a 34% increase in sales of physical audiobook. CEO Jonathan Karp said that there is “no reason to believe the new consumer behavior will change any time soon.” And while that will likely keep online sales strong, brick-and-mortar stores remain vital.

The Sony DPT-RP1 and DPT-CP1 are now Discontinued

The Sony Digital Paper division in the United States is now closed.…

Spend $30 on Kindle Books and get $8 in free credit

Amazon is running one of their rare promotions for free ebook credit…

Here is the Kyocera KY-01L Card Keitai E INK Smartphone

We have been waiting to our hands on this phone for years.…

Onyx Boox is having a back to school sale

Onyx Boox is having a back to school sale and some of the bestselling e-notes are at rock bottom prices. The Onyx Boox Note 2 is a 10.3 inch digital note taking device, and the regular price is $549 and it is now available for $519. The Onyx Boox Max 3, which is basically one of the best 13.3 inch devices on the market, with HDMI out and able to read A4 documents. It normally retails for $859 but is on sale for $779.

Tablets sales are through the roof due to COVID

Many people have been working from home in April, May and June of this year, due to COVID. This means that certain tech segments are doing really well, such as tablets. Worldwide tablet shipments hit 37.5 million units in Q2 2020, a remarkable 26% year-on-year increase. Tablets, part of the PC market, had faltered in recent years, but demand in Q2 2020 was boosted by consumers and businesses wanting affordable access to basic computing power and larger screens to facilitate remote work, learning and leisure.

Tolino Web Reader now has text to speech

Tolino is well known for their line of e-readers, but the company also has an online web reader, where you can read ebooks with major internet browsers. The company has just issued a 5.1 update that brings text to speech, which will allow users the ability to have their books read aloud. The new function offers an advantage especially tolino users with visual impairment. Although they were able to adjust the font to their individual size beforehand, the reading function allows them to listen to their eBooks comfortably.

USB-C is useless on e-Readers

Everytime a new e-reader comes out that uses Micro USB, there is a vocal minority of users that say they are going to skip it due to the lack of USB-C. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Pocketbook, which traditionally uses Linux as an OS. These brands rely on selling digital content directly on the e-reader and discourage the use of sideloading content, so USB-C is useless. Most e-readers that use Android tend to use USB-C and this includes. Boyue Likebook products, modern Onyx Boox e-notes, iReader C6, Pocketbook InkPad X and the Xiaomi Mi Reader.