Latest Stories

Living Social is running a promotion for an Audible subscription. The $1.90 fee will give you access to one free audiobook per month and is available for new members or people who have cancelled their account. If you feel like purchasing an audiobook, once your credits expire, you will save  30% off à la carte purchases. Once the promotional period expires, the normal rate will apply. You can cancel or pause your membership whenever you want too. You’re not obliged to pay the monthly subscription rate when the trial expires.

The Texture relaunch will be a premium product that will be rolled into Apple News. As part of this relaunch, Apple is looking to incorporate newspapers as well as magazines, but it sounds like some publishers aren’t sold on the all-you-can-eat approach to news. They worry that Texture may effectively steal subscribers by offering access for less than some of these publications charge for their own subscriptions. Top-tier newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are the primary focus for Apple, both of which provide a small selection of free content in the News app today. But getting just a small piece of Apple’s $10 subscription would be a huge drop in per-reader revenue for those daily newspapers. Apple believes that newspaper publishers would be making a substantial amount of money – potentially more money than some publications make from their existing subscriber bases. The pitch to newspaper companies is that the Apple News app is installed by default in 1.3 billion iOS devices (and is part of macOS Mojave, too). Even if just a fraction of those users subscribe to the premium Texture content, it could mean tens of millions of new subscribers or more. Just a few cents a month from each of them could generate millions in revenue for those newspapers.

Kobo has just issued a new firmware update for their complete lineup of e-readers, and most of the functionality came from the new Kobo Forma. The Kobo firmware 4.12.12111 is compatible with the Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Touch 2.0, Kobo Aura, Kobo Aura HD, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2, Kobo Aura ONE, Kobo Aura ONE Limited Edition, Kobo Aura Edition 2, Kobo Clara HD, and the Kobo Forma. It has not been released to the Kobo Mini The firmware will be pushed out to all e-readers in the next couple of days via WIFI.

Canadians read on the road, with the busiest reading time being during the morning and evening commute, as well into the evening hours. Sunday is the day where most of the reading (magic) happens. Our theory: it’s the best way to beat the Sunday blues, by relaxing and enjoying your favourite book. Globally, Canadians are our most active readers, having read on average 73 hours this year, with some of our top customers reading eight hours a day–it’s a full time job!

Social media’s small edge over print emerged after years of steady declines in newspaper circulation and modest increases in the portion of Americans who use social media, One-in-five U.S. adult (20%) are getting news from social media. Twitter and Facebook remain the most popular, but Youtube is catching up. These days it’s become a hot topic amid concerns that fake news, conspiracy theories, and hate speech can easily spread over these platforms. At the same time, both mainstream media groups and local newspapers have been trying to use social media to gain readers, but algorithm changes on Facebook and Google can tank traffic in a matter of hours.

Amazon is going to be releasing a new firmware update for the 10th generation Kindle, which is the Kindle Paperwhite 4. Within the next few days the 5.10.1.3 package will be pushed out via WIFI and it brings a slew of new features. Recommendations and tips will finally go live, this is a feature that Amazon was hyping when they first announced the e-reader. You will also be able to save your personalization and settings right from the main menu, instead of having to have an ebook open. Kindle Unlimited books can also be returned by long pressing on the title. The battery percentage will also be displayed as a numerical figure, to provide an indication on how much juice is remaining.

The Kobo Forma is one of the best e-readers ever made and…

ONYX BOOX Euclid is Android 6.0 device with the 9.7  E Ink Carta having the MOON Light system, SNOW Field function and touch controlling. The given model can be the perfect choice for those who often have to read academic or technical literature. Its large and comfortable for the eyes display with lighting, a powerful quad-core 1.6GHz processor with 1GB of RAM are optimal tools for reading PDF and DjVu files. A built-in Wi-Fi module allows one to use the device for full Internet browsing and pre-installed Google Play greatly expands its functionality-it gives access to hundreds of thousands of third-party Android programs, including free ones. Low power consumption of E Ink displays and battery capacity of 3000 mAh provides up to a month of autonomous work. The BOOX allows the user to read documents in different world languages. Amongst them there are such languages as Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Swedish, Chinese, Japanese and many others.

The Poke PRO features 6 inch E-Ink Carta HD display with a resolution of 1072×1448 with 300 PPI. The screen is not flush with the bezel and has a small dip.  This device has a front-lit display and color temperature system, to give a candlelight effect. Underneath the hood is a  quad-core 1.6GHz processor with 16GB of storage space and 2GB of RAM. The other big difference with the Pro model is that it is using Android 6.0, while the regular Poke has Android 4.4. It is powered by a 2500 mAh battery and also has USB-C and WIFI. This device has Bluetooth, which makes it compatible with audiobooks and music via wireless headphones or a stereo speaker. There are no manual page turn buttons or an SD card to enhance the internal storage. This is a basic six inch e-reader that has really good specs, but the market is flooded with these type of devices.

Amazon has just released a new bundle for the Kindle Paperwhite 4, called the Audible Bundle. The e-reader comes with a pair of wireless headphones and a three month subscription to Audible for $139 for the 8GB Kindle and $169 for the 32GB version.

Amazon has discounted the latest generation Paperwhite 4 in the United States. The regular price is $129.99 and it on sale for $99, which is a savings of $30. The 32GB version is also available for $119.99. This is the first time that Amazon has offered a great deal on the Kindle, since it was released in October.

Shonen Jump is one of the most beloved magazines and it has been going strong since 1968 and the online edition was translated to English since 2012. The magazine is going to launch a subscription service on December 17th for $2 per month, delivering the latest chapters from popular series the same day that they’re released in Japan. Not only will you be able to get access to the latest and greatest, but there will be access to nearly the entirety of Shonen Jump’s 10,000-plus chapter English-language back catalog. That’s actually less than what the publication currently charges for an annual subscription.

Google has announced that they are discontinuing support for Ice Cream Sandwich,…

Christmas is a few weeks away and Boxing day soon thereafter. There…

Icarus is based in the Netherlands and has been developing e-readers since 2010. The Icarus brand belongs to Distriread, who first got their start by developing the iRex series of e-readers. It looks like the company has quietly gone out of business. Their website has been down for the past couple of weeks and they deleted their Facebook and Twitter page. Over the course of the past 12 months many of the executives have all fled, including Roberto Damen who was the managing director of the company and organized all of their Indiegogo campaigns. Jeroen Breuer was tapped to replace Roberto, but he left the company a few months later. There are 13 people who have left the company lately and there are no current employees listed on Linkedin.

Just in time for holiday gift giving, Goodreads has released its list…

In order to drive traffic to their 600 bookstores and generate meaningful revenue for the holiday season B&N has just announced that over 100 books, including some of the year’s hottest gift books and new releases, will be 50% off starting today, through Monday, December 24th.

Digital book sales increased for the second time in two years in October 2018. Publishers saw modest revenue growth in eBooks (4.4%), with increases for the format across all trade book categories. Aside from downloaded audio, eBooks had the largest percent of revenue growth for the month, compared to October 2017. eBook revenue increased in October for Adult Books (3.0%), Childrens/YA Books (17.3%), and Religious Presses (12.0%). However, for the year-to-date (Jan. – Oct.), eBook revenues were down 3.1% from the same period in 2017. Downloaded audio remains the format with the highest percent revenue growth year-to-date (37.7%).

Bookeen has been making e-readers since 2003 and has a long and storied history of developing unique products. In the past few months the company seems to be in trouble. Audrey Keszek has been responsible for Bookeens social media accounts since 2010 and recently left the company in August. A successor was hired, but so far he does not done any work. All of the products on the Bookeen online store are unavailable and the company has stated that they were victims of their own success and everything is out of stock. They recommend everyone buy things from other online companies such as Le Clerc.

Everyone involved in journalism are doing their annual best books of the year lists.  Good e-Reader has decided that instead of doing a megapost, where every single news source will be featured and hopefully aid in book discovery. This post will be constantly updated as new lists come out, if we are missing your favorite website or online publication, please drop a comment and let us know.

The Amazon UK website has quietly been testing an ebook gifting system. This will allow users to purchase an ebook and gift to another person, as long as you have their email address. There are further options to establish a date in which the email will be sent and a little room for a custom message. The ebook gifting system has only been available in the US, since it launched in 2010. I have heard the new system will go live on Friday.

The Amazon Kindle app for Android now allows users to store content on the SD card. This is useful if you have an extensive collection of large files, such as PDF files, cookbooks, comics or magazines. Once you have the new version of the app, simply go the settings menu and grant Kindle permission to write to your SD card and Kindle will prompt you to move all of the digital content over.

Remarkable has just released a series of new carrying cases for their writing tablet. The first is a durable wool felt sleeve available in Rose Burgundy and Petrol Blue and retails for $99 If you feel like you need to dress up your device with a timeless and fashionable look that ages beautifully, you might be interested in the premium leather case that is available in Maple Brown and Graphite Black for $129. They also have polymer weave covers in Charcoal Grey and Coral Red and they are retailing for $79.99.