Michael Kozlowski

11735 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.

Scribd is making a big play for Spanish ebooks

Scribd is an unlimited audiobook and ebook subscription platform. The company has recently been making big inroads with Spanish ebooks and has just signed a deal with Grupo Planeta, Mexico’s largest publisher. This partnership will contribute to Scribd’s ever growing catalog of Spanish-language titles, which will now include over 85,000 titles!

Barnes and Noble is no longer selling tablets

Barnes and Noble had an extensive tablet portfolio. They had their own Nook Tablet 7 and Nook Tablet 10.1, in addition to their deal with Samsung, for a number of Samsung Galaxy Tab for Nook. They also had a number of cases and other accessories.  It looks like the bookseller might be getting out of the tablet business altogether and have removed them from their website. The only devices they are currently marketing are their e-readers, the Nook Glowlight 3 and Nook Glowlight Plus 7.8.

Sony Digital Paper DPT-RP1 is Discontinued in the US

The Sony Digital Paper DPT-RP1 is discontinued in the United States. Official distributors such as Adorama, Amazon and B&H all show the product is either out of stock or discontinued. This 13.3 inch e-note initially came out in 2017 and is getting long in the tooth.

Joan Meeting Room Panels now available from Good e-Reader

Visionect Joan is the simplest meeting room booking system out there. Place it in front of your meeting rooms for showing their current availability status and any upcoming meetings. There are three different products that are available from the Good e-Reader Store, Joan Home, Joan 6 and Joan 13. All have E INK screens and come with magnetic mounts to attach to the wall.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue is B&N Book Club Pick

The Barnes and Noble Book club is a relatively new program. The bookseller has a dedicated Facebook Page where people talk about the book and at the end of the month, the author posts a Q/A the channel, so people can watch it. The page is private, but anyone who applies can get approved. The August pick is the The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue.

Amazon says the Kindle Paperwhite 3 will get new firmware

The Amazon Paperwhite 3 has not received a firmware update since last year and most of the other Kindles are a full version ahead. This includes the Kindle Paperwhite 4, Kindle Basic, Kindle Voyage and the Oasis. Good e-Reader reported a week ago that the Kindle Paperwhite 3 was on the verge of being discontinued, due to the lack of support. Amazon read our story and confirmed a longstanding bug that was preventing the update system from working properly, which they are working on. The company has told me that “Third generation Kindle Paperwhite devices remain supported and we will continue rolling out updates as soon as possible. When we roll out the update, we will post the most updated software on the Kindle software website.

Amazon lowers price of the Kindle to compete against the Nia

The Kobo Nia is coming out in a few days, and Amazon is doing everything in their power to convince you to buy the entry level Kindle. They have just discounted it by $20 and it is now available for $69.99 USD. The Kobo Nia is going to retail for $99 USD, so it looks like Amazon has fired the first shot. Price is a big draw when it comes to entry level e-readers and Amazon is making a compelling case to go with the Kindle, over the Kobo. Amazon is just running this deal in the United States, the promotion is not active in Canada.

Wattpad logins and passwords have been stolen

Wattpad the self-publishing platform that is read by millions of readers every month, has experienced a data breach. Their database with over 270 million user records have been stolen and is being sold on blackmarket websites for over $100,000 USD. This is a serious blow to the Toronto company, as they are one of the top 150 websites in North America. The Wattpad community collectively spend 15 billion minutes each month using Wattpad. There are over 400 million story uploads on the platform.

Unboxing the Hisense Q5 RLCD Android Tablet

Hisense has released their first tablet with an transflective LCD display. It…

How does Kobo Plus Pay Canadian Publishers?

Each month, Kobo takes the total revenue  earned from Kobo Plus subscriptions. They also take the total minutes that all subscribers spent reading that month. Then, they divide the Monthly Revenue by the Minutes Read, which allows them to assign a monetary value to each minute of reading (let’s call it Value per Minute Consumed). This value will fluctuate month to month based on subscriber number and total reading time.

Kindle Basic vs Kobo Nia – Which one is better?

Does the Nia or Kobo provide better long term value? I feel Amazon does a better job with selling the hardware and frequently discounts the Basic and Paperwhite on a monthly basis. The OS seems more stable and the entire experience is designed for new users. Kobo appeals to new, but also advanced users. You can have more control and deeper customization options. If PDF files are your jam, Kobo Nia does a better job than Amazon.

100 libraries will loan out over 1 million ebooks in 2020

Over 105 libraries in Canada, the USA, Europe and Australia are on pace to loan out over 1 million ebooks in 2020. Digital circulation has consistently grown each year, but thus far in 2020, these top libraries are seeing a staggering 30% growth compared to 2019. And several of them are doubling their online checkouts. Continuing to lead the way with more than 4.4 million digital checkouts already in 2020 is Toronto Public Library, the highest circulating library system of 2019. They’re followed by six other systems with more than 3 million checkouts. Overall these top libraries have amassed nearly 130 million checkouts already for the year.

Amazon is changing their Kindle Special Offers Program

For over a decade, Amazon had subsidized the cost of a Kindle with a program called Special Offers. This put advertisements on the home screen and the lock screen, it costs around $20 to remove it. Amazon is undergoing a rebranding effort of Special Offers and is now calling it Ad-Supported and if you want the adfree model they are calling it Without Ads.

Good e-Reader Summer Sale is here!

The 3rd annual Good e-Reader Summer Sale is upon us and you can save big on brands such as Kobo, Hisense, Pocketbook, Onyx Boox and Fujitsu! If you are looking for an E INK enabled smartphone, e-note or e-reader, now is the time!

Pocketbook Color delayed until the end of July

The Pocketbook Color is probably the most eagerly anticipated color e-reader of 2020. It was supposed to come out in the middle of July, but the company has delayed the release until the end of the month. The global pandemic has slowed down international shipping, so this is the big reason that it has been delayed. Good e-Reader will begin shipping out pre-orders at the end of the month.

Onyx Boox has new features for reading and note taking apps

Onyx Boox is pushing out a new firmware update (2.3.1) for the Nova 2, Note 2, MAX 3 and Poke 2. The company has added some refreshing, unique features to its system, e-reading software and optimizes some functions for the built-in Note app.

Kobo Nia e-reader Review

The Kobo Nia is the first e-reader that the company has released in 2020. It is considered an entry level e-reader that is ideal for people who have never had one before or had an older Kobo branded device that is more than five years old.  It is great to read ebooks, borrow ebooks from Overdrive or read blog articles from Pocket. It seriously lacks the hardware power to read PDF files effectively or use the experimental web browser.

Kobo Unlimited subscription system has launched in Canada

Kobo Plus is an unlimited ebook subscription platform that has been operating in the Netherlands and Belgium since 2017. It took Kobo sometime to convince publishers and indie authors that self-published with Kobo Writing Life, that this was a viable distribution system. Today, Kobo Plus has finally expanded into Canada. Booklovers can now choose from hundreds of thousands of eBooks, including French-language titles as well as a variety of books in Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, and more, to serve those communities in Canada as well. With a risk-free 30-day trial, there’s never been a better time to discover new authors and series on a Kobo eReader or with the free Kobo reading app. The cost is $9.99 per month.

Quirklogic announces a new 13.3 inch e-note called Papyr

Quirklogic has just announced that they have developed a new 13.3 inch e-note, that is based on the Sony Digital Paper DPT-RP1 design. Inspired by its larger, 42” counterpart, Quilla, Papyr offers all of the same interactive capabilities for capturing, storing and managing your thoughts, ideas, notes and critical information, in a compact, portable size to take and use wherever you go. The paper-like surface and large 13” display make the digital writing experience feel as natural as writing on a piece of paper.

Amazon has ended support for the Kindle Paperwhite 3

Amazon has ended support for the Kindle Paperwhite 3 and the e-reader will not receive any future firmware updates. The only exception is if Amazon upgrades their Kindle Whispersync program and Kindle Store with a new version of TLS. The 7th generation Kindle Paperwhite 3 was one of Amazon’s most successful e-readers ever. It came out in 2015 and was heavily marketed for four years, before it was eventually replaced by the Kindle Paperwhite 4 in late 2018.  The last time the PP3 received a firmware update was in 2019, and it is currently running 5.12.2, while all of the other modern Kindles, are running 5.13.1. Amazon frequently suspends firmware updates on devices that are 4-5 years old, as a way to get people to always upgrade to the latest and greatest, if they want to receive new features, bug fixes and enhancements.