Latest Stories

Latest Stories

Audible is changing their subscription packages

Audible has just launched a new subscription tier called Audible Plus. It will provide subscribers access to 68,000 hours of content from more than 11,000 original productions, audiobooks, and podcasts. The new offering will be available for $7.95 per month. They are also are changing their Audible Gold program and are now calling it Audible Premium Plus, which costs $14.95 per month.

Pocketbook Touch Lux 5 e-Reader Review

The Pocketbook Touch Lux 5 is brand new e-reader that has just…

Kobo issues emergency fix for their e-readers

Last week, Kobo issued a big firmware update for their complete line…

These are all of the Color E INK e-Readers from 2020

This year E INK released Kaleido, a new form of color e-paper that was designed for e-readers, e-notes and smartphones. Most of these devices have 300 PPI to read black and white content, such as ebooks. These devices can display  4,096 different color combinations up to 100 PPI. The way the technology works, is that you can read both black and white text at 300 PPI and colors at 100 PPI, on the same page. This is useful if you are reading a biography ebook, where there are tons of pictures in the center, and also text, giving readers context. It also works using a web-browser,  or other ebooks. The B&W and Color filter have a hard time with PDF files, because they are basically big image files, although some PDF render engines can convert the PDF images to pictures AND text. CBR/CBZ, are popular formats for comics or manga, but they are basically containers for a series of jpg/png files.

Wil Wheaton is going to narrate Ready Player Two audiobook

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline is going to be coming out at the end of November of this year. This is the sequel to Ready Player One that basically lived on various bestseller lists for years. Wil Wheaton narrated the original audiobook and he has just confirmed the narration of Ready Player Two.

Google is working on a API for Digital Ink Recognition

Google is putting the final touches on a new API for digital ink recognition for Android and iOS. It will give developers the ability to create a new breed of apps where a stylus would be the the primary mode of interaction with the displays. This is not just going to be great for a new breed of writing tablets, but also give digital note taking devices that run E INK, an alternative to using a WACOM screen. Digital Ink Recognition is different from the existing Vision and Natural Language APIs in ML Kit, as it takes neither text nor images as input. Instead, it looks at the user’s strokes on the screen and recognizes what they are writing or drawing.

Amazon upgrades to Fire OS 7 on Fire HD 8, HD 7, and Fire 7

Amazon has just issued an Operating system update for the 2018 Fire HD 8, 2017 Fire HD 7, and entry level Fire 7 that came out in 2019. It upgrades to Fire OS 7, which is based on Android 9. Amazon hardly ever supports their older tablets, so this gives them a second life.

Unboxing the iFlytek EBOOK C1 Color e-Reader

The front of the iFlytek ebook is white, with royal blue accents on the side, and the back platting is royal blue. There is a speaker on the back, for TTS, music or audiobooks. Bluetooth is available so you can connect up a pair of headphones or a wireless speaker too. No buttons of any kind are on the device, everything is software driven. On the bottom of the e-reader is a USB-C port, power button and microphone.

Boyue Likebook Mars receives Android 8.1 Update

Boyue has been promising an Android update for all of their modern…

New Barnes and Noble CEO is committed to the Nook e-reader

Barnes and Noble CEO James Daunt sounds like he is ready to give Nook the attention it has desperately needed, as Amazon’s Kindle has run away with the space. “I absolutely love Nook, and I think my predecessors had fallen out of love with it,” he said. “It’s under-promoted to our customers, it became the sort of wayward child that had become embarrassing. But if you want to read digitally, the app is fantastic. I’m a champion of digital books and digital book retailing, but above and beyond that I’m a champion of reading. There are many reasons why people want to read digitally, but Nook needs to be much better supported within the Barnes & Noble ecosystem.”

Unboxing the Pocketbook Basic 4 e-reader

Opening the box for the first time, you are greeted by the e-reader sitting in a tray, front and center. It is encased in a static proof bag. Underneath the reader is your warranty documentation, a full color promo document, encouraging people to buy a case and a quick start guide. There is also a Micro USB cable contained in a little cardboard flap. The color scheme of the e-reader is black. The pocketbook logo is green. The home button is different than the Pocketbook Color or the Touch Lux 5, it is rounded with a little boarder around it, so you won’t accidently misclick on it, while reading an ebook. The page turn buttons are next to the home button. I like the overall design, it is just a shame,  it does not have a front-lit display. 

Amazon discounts the Kindle Paperwhite in Canada

Amazon frequently runs sales promotions for the Kindle line of e-readers in the United States, but rarely in Canada. The company has just announced that the Kindle Paperwhite is now on sale for $114 for the 8GB model, the regular price is $139. The 32Gb model is also available for $139, regular price is $169. The entry level Kindle e-reader with a front-light is on sale for a paltry $84.99, the normal everyday retail tag is $119.

The Daily Mail Launches an Online Bookstore

The Daily Mail and the Sunday edition are the most well read newspapers in the United Kingdom, with a circulation of over a million people. They have just opened an online bookstore, that is selling all sorts of bestsellers from major publishers, with an obvious emphasis on the UK market, so they have a big section on the royals. The new bookstore is powered by Monwell, who also provides bookstores for the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement and Archant Community Media. The overall design of the store is sleek and stylish, prices are on par with the listings on Amazon.

China is unavoidable for the e-reader industry

The entire modern e-reader industry is assembled and manufactured in China. There are hardly any devices that are currently available that are not made in various factories, the only exceptions are the Kobo and Nook line of e-readers, which are made in Taiwan. The Japanese version of the DPT line of e-notes is made in Japan, but the ones that were available in the US, where made in China. Modern day China can be considered a villian, by many mainstream media outlets. They are constantly accused of implementing spyware on smartphones, televisions, routers and other enterprise solutions. Many companies are blacklisted from doing business in Canada, US and the UK. The country recently invaded Hong Kong and has received condemnation from virtually every country. Maybe the straw that broke the camel’s back was COVID, first a regional thing and now a very real global pandemic. Basically, there is lots of negative sentiment towards China and Chinese companies, some deserved, some not. I know we have received lots of emails lately about product recommendations that don’t come from China, and it is almost impossible to avoid it.

Amazon Discontinues Kindle Owners Lending Library

Amazon launched the Kindle Lending Library in 2011. This was a program where Prime members can borrow a free book once a month. Once a book is borrowed, it can be re-downloaded for free at any point in the future. Books that are included in the free lending library will have a “Prime” logo next to them and a “Borrow for free” button beneath the traditional “Buy” button. There was no expiring date for the books and it was very popular. In 2016 Amazon released Prime Reading and it basically killed Kindle Lending Library, and Amazon no longer promoted it on their website or via press releases. Today, Amazon has just discontinued the Lending Library and are now telling people to use Kindle Unlimited or Prime Reading instead.

A new Blackberry with a keyboard and 5G coming out next year

Blackberry  is making a comeback, a new smartphone with a keyboard and 5G internet access will be released next year. The Canadian smartphone pioneer has been out of the hardware business for several years but licensed the BlackBerry name to other partners. Their new partner is OnwardMobility and they will outsource to  Foxconn — a Taiwan-based company best known as the primary manufacturer of Apple’s iPhones. The new blackberry phone will be using Android, instead of Blackberry 10. It will also be bundled with all of the Blackberry Android apps that have been developed and are all available on Google Play.

Good e-Reader Android App Store and E INK Store Updated

For the first time in almost two years the Good e-Reader App…

Amazon is under fire from various publisher associations

The Association of American Publishers, Authors Guild and American Booksellers association have jointly written a letter to House of Representatives’ Antitrust Subcommittee about the power that Amazon represents to publishers and authors. 

Unboxing the new Pocketbook Touch Lux 5

The Pocketbook Touch Lux 5 is a brand new e-reader that is…

US ebook sales were up 39.0% in June 2020

Ebook revenues have been soaring since April, when most people were self-isolating and thousands of bookstores were closed. This trend continued in June when eBook revenues were up 39.0% for the month as compared to June 2019 for a total of $110.3 million. On a year-to-date basis, eBooks were up 12.7%, coming in at $544.5 million for the first six months of 2020. Notably, eBooks revenues in the Children’s and YA category saw a 132.5% jump during the month, coming in at $14.6 million. On a year-to-date basis eBooks revenues in the Children’s and YA category were up 62.4% for the first six months of the year, generating $61.6 million.

Andy Weir has a new novel coming out next Spring

Andy Weir’s most famous book is the Martian, which sold a copious amount of copies and spawned a movie. His second novel came out in 2017 and was titled Artemis, which was a near-future thriller–a heist story set on the moon. His third novel is going to come out in Spring 2021 and is titled Project Hail Mary. Project Hail Mary will be published by Penguin Random House and according to Ballantine, the novel is about “a lone astronaut who awakens to find himself on a ship deep in space, his crewmates dead and his memories missing. All he knows is that he alone must now complete a desperate, last-chance mission to save the Earth from disaster.”

June Bookstore Sales declined by 35.3% in the US

Some bookstores slowly began reopening in the United States, but overall sales have been lacklustre. June bookstore sales fell 35.3% compared to a year ago, according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. As steep as the June drop was, it was a marked improvement over May, when bookstore sales fell nearly 60%, to $270 million. Bookstore sales in June were $384 million, compared to $504 million last June.