| It’s astonishing that so many aspects of publishing are so slow to adapt. From the fight that libraries are still facing over ebook lending to the snail’s pace of digital textbook adoption, as well as the realization from booksellers that they will have to do something to accommodate ebooks if they plan to keep their doors open with big box and online bookstores breathing down their necks, it often feels like the industry as a whole would like to look the other way and let digital reading burn itself out. Now, a new study by Robert Seamans of New York University’s Stern School of Business and Feng Zhu of the Harvard Business School highlights just another way industry watchers want to blame technology instead of adapt to where the readers actually are. The study demonstrated exactly how much money print newspapers lost thanks to Craig’s List, the online classified ad site. By their calculation, that number is around one billion dollars. According to the research, following the rise of Craig’s List newspapers made strong chances to their models: 20.7% drop in classified-ad rates While the blame-digital game has had merits in other publishing arenas, the fallacy is that Craig’s List and newspaper classifieds don’t operate on the same wavelength. Online listings such as Craig’s List and eBay serve to connect people who did not live in close physical proximity, although eBay is somewhat more globally connected than Craig’s List’s regional opportunities. But newspaper classified ads serve to inform subscribers of something noteworthy in their own town. While people who may be relocating would want to know what employment opportunities there are in their new home towns, do people in Virginia really subscribe to The New York Times with the specific intent of looking for a job or finding out what’s for sale in the Big Apple? While the numbers are clearly there in Seamans’s and Zhu’s study, this sounds a lot like the tired refrain of blame the technology instead of blaming publishers who haven’t evolved and followed their readers to where they read.
More Publishing Blame: Craig’s List is Killing Newspapers is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, August 16, 2013
More Publishing Blame: Craig’s List is Killing Newspapers
Thursday, August 15, 2013
How to Load eBooks on the Pocketbook Color Lux
| Pocketbook has just come out with the Color Lux, which is the first e-reader in the world to use e-Ink Triton 2 and a front-lit display! This means it will easily display over 4600 colors and allow you to read in the dark. Many people are starting to purchase this device and want to know how to load in your own eBooks. Today, we show you how to load them in yourself, whether you have purchased them from another online retailer, or just downloaded from the internet. The first program we look at is Calibre. This is a free download and one of the best for e-Reader management. Often, when you download books from the internet they do not have cover art, or is the wrong one. In other cases you want to edit the authors name and title. Calibre allows you to not only do this, but also convert eBooks from one format to another. I will show you exactly what you need to do to accomplish all of this and then send the book over to your Pocketbook. Next, Adobe Digital Editions is a fairly popular program to load in books that you purchased from other retailers. The Pocketbook Color Lux has the ability to read books you purchased in EPUB or PDF format from companies like Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Sony and Smashwords. I will show you exactly how to use this program and offer advice on setting up an account. When it comes to storing your eBooks in the cloud, Dropbox makes it easy. Since the Pocketbook has a built in internet browser, you can access any of the music files, books, or pictures you have in your cloud locker and then have them instantly downloaded to your e-Reader. Since we live in a world where the average person has a number of devices, this is a good service to use. Finally, as a bonus feature, we check out the internal directory structure of the Color Lux. You can get a sense of how it is all managed and know exactly where you want to copy your books, mp3′s, pictures and other stuff! How to Load eBooks on the Pocketbook Color Lux is a post from: E-Reader News |
Overdrive Unveils New eBook in Big Library Read Program
| Overdrive Big Library Read program originally launched in May and had libraries all over North America to give away an eBook with no lending restrictions. The first title was Michael Malone's 'Four Corners of the Sky' and was checked out more than 44,000 times in less than three weeks—quite impressive compared to its 200 total checkouts prior to the Big Library Read. The Read program really showed that if you take a solid book and give it away for free, it will drive sales to the authors other titles. To capitalize on the momentum of the first title Overdrive announced the next eBook in the program today. HarperCollins is contributing author Jane O'Connor, with her title 'Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth'. The juvenile fiction title is the first in the Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy series and will be available in both eBook and audiobook format from September 16-30 at participating libraries that do business with Overdrive. O'Connor brings us back to the glamorous world of our favorite fancy girl. Nancy Clancy may be a bit older and more sophisticated, but she hasn't lost her love for fancy words, outrageous fashion and dramatic flair. This title is perfect for generating excitement among young readers just in time for back to school. Overdrive may see more success with this eBook, because the original program launched super quickly and did not give libraries enough time to prepare to promote it or even opt into the offer. Interested in learning more? We conducted a massive interview with Sourcebooks and Overdrive at Book Expo America, where the two sides talked about the formation of Big Library Read and where it is going in the future. Overdrive Unveils New eBook in Big Library Read Program is a post from: E-Reader News |
The Toronto Star Launches New Digital Paywall
| The Toronto Star unveiled a new digital paywall program to charge for access to their website and online news service. The price for digital access is about $5 if you subscribe to the newspaper and $10 if you do not. The newspaper will allow ten article views per month, until they prompt you to subscribe. Earlier in the year the Toronto Star implemented the first phase of their new digital strategy with a freshly designed website. It introduced exciting features that enhance the reading experience for their subscribers and address the needs of advertisers. These include more videos, live blogs, chats and breaking news, as well as the in-depth journalism. Subscribers to the Toronto Star Digital Access program will receive full access to thestar.com, including all the news articles, columnists, investigative reports, profiles, sports, blogs, multimedia features and much more. The Star is just the latest major Canadian newspaper to develop and implement a paywall. The Globe and Mail already has one in place, as do Postmedia papers, including the National Post and Montreal Gazette, and the Quebecor-owned newspapers including the Toronto Sun. Newspapers are embracing this model due to the success of the New York Times. The Toronto Star Launches New Digital Paywall is a post from: E-Reader News |
Harlequin Announces New Digital First eBooks
| Harlequin, one of the world's leading publishers of books for women, announced that they are doing quite a number of digital first eBooks. The Harlequin, Harlequin TEEN, Harlequin MIRA and Harlequin HQN imprints will all introduce original digital first titles in the coming months. Harlequin will extend its iconic series brand with Harlequin-E, a digital first series program that allows writers the chance to turn out-of-the-box ideas that don't fit into existing series romance lines into ebooks. Harlequin-E will initially focus on mystery, romance, erotic romance, young adult, fantasy, fantasy romance, sci-fi and sci-fi romance categories. Harlequin-E will launch its first digital story in fall 2013 and feature stories with a minimum word count of 10,000. Harlequin TEEN will launch its digital first program on October 1, 2013, with Stir Me Up by debut author Sabrina Elkins, a contemporary young adult novel with New Adult crossover appeal. With a demographic that increasingly reads, shops and interacts digitally, the Harlequin TEEN digital first platform is a natural extension of the existing program and allows the young adult imprint to introduce fresh new voices to readers and to let no great book go unpublished. Harlequin MIRA and Harlequin HQN will launch their digital first programs in the first quarter of 2014 and begin by publishing a select number of titles, including I See London, a New Adult novel by debut author Chanel Cleeton (Harlequin HQN), and Wonder Girl, a women's fiction novel by Rebecca Coleman (Harlequin MIRA). "We're thrilled to further expand our reach in the digital space," said Loriana Sacilotto, EVP, Global Editorial at Harlequin. "In a retail environment that's increasingly challenging for new and emerging authors, digital publication and promotion allows us to continue to encourage author discovery and growth, bring books to market more quickly, leverage popular digital trends and offer authors an outlet for their nontraditional and ancillary streams." Harlequin Announces New Digital First eBooks is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo Discounts their Arc Tablet Product Line
| Kobo has severely discounted the price of their 2nd generation e-Reading tablet, the Arc. The 16GB model now starts at $130, while the 32GB model is selling for $180 and the 64 GB edition for $200. Many of Kobo’s retail partners have also started to abide by the new pricing scheme, including Chapters/Indigo. The Kobo Arc features a seven inch HD display with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels and 215 PPI. The screen features IPS screen technology, which is an industry-leading display optimized for 178 degree viewing angles and ultra-durable glass, resistant to damage, scratches, bumps, and drops. Underneath the hood is a Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 1.5 GHZ dual core processor and 1 GB of RAM. It currently runs a fairly modern version of Google Android, with 4.1.1. The Arc even by today’s standards is fairly relevant with the hardware specs and overall performance. We consistently compare it against new tablets that come out on a monthly basis and it still keeps up. The big draw about this model is the focused attention on the entire e-Reading experience. There are a number of core features, such as Reading Life, and eBook discovery that are prominently displayed on the home screen. Kobo Discounts their Arc Tablet Product Line is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kindle Fire’s Silk Browser Gets First Major Update
| Remember the Silk browser that Amazon first introduced with the Kindle Fire about two years ago? You might be forgiven if you don't for the browser clearly lacked much of an appeal. Things though seem to be different this time round post a healthy dose of update that the browser has been provided with. Most of the update concerns ease of use for the users what with the brand new user interface to look forward to. Navigation has been made simpler while the new Reading View which presents a single page view of contents that is devoid of any sort of distractions in the form of ads and such. The new tab opens with an empty address bar as well as a list of the most visited sites, something that we have become used to with mainstream browsers such as the Firefox or the Chrome. Meanwhile, the update has also made the active tab more distinguishable than before, which is another nice aspect, it must be said. The same can also be said of the Full Screen view that does away with the top and bottom toolbar to open up more visible area. This apart, links to some of the most visited sites by other users of the Kindle Fire device can be reached via a tab on the top left corner. Similarly, other usual browser features such as Downloads, Bookmarks or the Most Visited section open up from the left. There are some enhancements meted out to the browser's rendering engines as well to allow for a smoother and faster performance. Overall, the Silk is now a lot more matured than what it was even just a year ago and while all of the improvements do make a positive change to the browser, it's still a work in progress sort of thing with the Silk. "We're in the early days of Amazon Silk, and there's plenty of work still to do," the team behind the browser revealed.
Kindle Fire’s Silk Browser Gets First Major Update is a post from: E-Reader News |
Rumor: LG Might Announce G Tab During IFA
| LG so far seems to have been over shadowed by its more illustrious domestic rival, Samsung though things seems to be poised for a change post the launch of the G2. LG's latest flagship smartphone device has garnered some positive reviews and the company now is training its gun on the tablet segment where it has largely been a non-player so far. However, as per the details that have emerged, it could be a very unusual 8.3 inch tablet that LG might be readying for a launch. The tablet though will still be handy given the extremely thin bezels that the tablet is reported to come with. With pixel count assuming just as importance as other aspects of the device, it's good to see LG considering no less than a full HD 1920 x 1200 pixel display for the tablet that is believed to have been named the G Pad. The source, which incidentally is a Greek website by the name Techblog further claim the tablet will be thin and light which again is another quality that manufacturers are eager to go after. LG is also said to offer voice calling capability to the device which if true will ensure the G Pad won't be relevant for a US release unless a modified version is introduced. Unfortunately, that's about all that is known of the device so far, leaving us to guess what chip the tablet will come powered with. However, given that the G2 has under its hoods the Snapdragon 800 chip, chances are that the G Pad too will benefit from the same as well, more so since the G Pad too is being projected to have voice calling feature. A 2 GB RAM is being touted to go with the quad core chip. More details are missing though with the IFA event coming up next month itself, chances are that we could be blessed with even a working prototype during the IFA.
Rumor: LG Might Announce G Tab During IFA is a post from: E-Reader News |
Next Big Library Read title unveiled!
| In May, OverDrive launched the Big Library Read program, designed to demonstrate the valuable role libraries play in connecting readers with books and authors. It was the first-ever global book club, connecting readers around the world who read the same book at the same time. Thousands of libraries embraced the program making it a huge success for its initial pilot. Users checked out Michael Malone's 'Four Corners of the Sky' more than 44,000 times in less than three weeks—quite impressive compared to its 200 total checkouts prior to the Big Library Read. Additionally, Malone's other titles experienced a sales increase, and checkout rate growth of more than 100%. Michael Malone trended on Goodreads long after the event as readers added his titles to bookshelves and provided reviews of 'Four Corners of the Sky'.
With the success of the first Big Library Read, OverDrive is excited to announce the next Big Library Read thanks to HarperCollins Publishers and author, Jane O'Connor: 'Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth'. The juvenile fiction title is the first in the Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy series and will be available in both eBook and audiobook format from September 16-30 at participating OverDrive-powered digital collections. O'Connor brings us back to the glamorous world of our favorite fancy girl. Nancy Clancy may be a bit older and more sophisticated, but she hasn't lost her love for fancy words, outrageous fashion and dramatic flair. This title is perfect for generating excitement among young readers just in time for back to school.
You can learn more about Big Library Read here . To participate in the Big Library Read, simply contact your Account Specialist today for more details.
You can access marketing materials in OverDrive's Partner Portal to promote Big Library Read to your community. Stay tuned for information about a Facebook chat with the author. Until then, you can join the conversation in our Facebook forum or on Twitter using #BigLibraryRead.
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive
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4 Things I’d Like to See on the New Kindle Paperwhite
| It’s the middle of August and that means new Kindles are just around the corner. There have been numerous reports online about what features and specs the new Kindle Fire HD tablets could have, but there’s been nary a whisper about what Amazon plans for the next generation Kindle Paperwhite. Don’t let the lack of […] |
Chegg Offers Subscription-Based Textbook Rentals to College Students
| A significant number of startups have tried–and for the most part, failed–to entice readers and publishers with a Netflix-style subscription model for reading. Users would pay a monthly fee or adhere to the freemium model of ads within the texts in order to get to read; the publishers would then receive compensation for the books that were consumed during that month, either in full or in page-view portions. This model hasn’t caught on in a global way, as access to inexpensive ebooks make it far too easy to find great books without paying a monthly fee. In addition, publishers have been wary of releasing digital copies of their authors’ works without a firm contracting stipulating the return. But one publishing arena that has had some success with subscription models for digital editions is the academic publishing sphere, specifically for digital textbooks. The difference in the two kinds of book consumption is what makes the model more attractive. Rather than paying a monthly fee for the right to technically borrow a book, something that hasn’t appealed to a lot of pleasure readers, students who consume textbooks are for the most part only doing so because it was required in order to participate in a college class. Even students who needed additional content for a better understanding of the concepts sought out expensive textbooks because they had to, not because they wanted to. This model is doing so well for one company, Chegg, that the group has just filed for IPO status with the Securities & Exchange Commission and is hoping to raise an additional $150 million dollars to grow its current offering as a digital textbook rental and online student learning hub into a much bigger entity. In the report on its filing with the SEC, Chegg stated, “In 2010, 2011 and 2012, we generated net revenues of $148.9 million, $172.0 million and $213.3 million, respectively. During the same periods, we had net losses of $26.0 million, $37.6 million and $49.0 million, respectively. In the six months ended June 30, 2012 and 2013, we generated net revenues of $92.5 million and $116.9 million, respectively, and net losses of $31.9 million and $21.2 million, respectively." Chegg has already operated with nearly $200 million dollars invested from other companies, but this move will make it a publicly traded company accepting investments from the consumer-level.
Chegg Offers Subscription-Based Textbook Rentals to College Students is a post from: E-Reader News |
This is your brain on Pi
| We’ve only just spotted Mens Amplio, an Indiegogo project which met its target last month. It’s now being put together for the Burning Man festival, where it’ll be displayed in a couple of weeks. Mens Amplio is a fifteen-foot tall, Pi-controlled sculpture: a part-buried, giant human head made from an enormous mesh of steel. And inside, there’s a brain packed full of Endlighten acrylic rods for its neuron branches, which diffuse light from LEDs along their length. Those lights are controlled by the brainwaves of a  Braaaaaains. Flames, also controlled by the Raspberry Pi, will be shooting out of the top of the thing. The Mens Amplio team is made up of people from all the backgrounds you’d need for this sort of thing: doctors, welders, graphic designers, Altzheimer’s and Parkinson’s researchers, electronics engineers, brain imaging specialists, kinetic fire artists – here they are, in the video produced for their (now completed) Indiegogo fundraiser. If you see Mens Amplio at Burning Man this year, be sure to take some video and send it to us. Best of luck to the ladies and gents of the Mens Amplio crew – we hope you have a blast on the Playa! Know about an art project using a Pi that you think we’d be interested in? Please tell us about it: while the hacker community is never backwards about coming forward, we’ve found that artists are curiously shy about approaching us when they’re using a Raspberry Pi, and we often learn about the Pi component of art projects like Mens Amplio too late to put the word out about fundraising or exhibitions. Rachel, our Artist in Residence, is busy doing artist and kids outreach, and we’ve got projects running with the UK Arts Council to introduce the Pi to young artists. We know there’s much, much more out there, but we need you to tell us about it. If you’ve seen something you think we should blog about, you can reach me at the usual address. |
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Pinterest unveils new Digital Elementary Teachers Program
| Pinterest has been a rising star in the social media realms. They gained popularity with their organizational structure of user generated pictures. People can add their own and borrow other folks images into a comprehensive collection. So what is the main selling point, if you have never heard of this company before? Let’s say you are a bride to be, and you are dress hunting. You can scope out what other people have wore, and integrate them into your own collection, for research or ideas. Pinterest is doing something new, and going beyond simple image sharing, with the new teachers program. Almost one hundred school educators have already joined Teachers on Pinterest. It is basically a nexus where teachers can find everything from lesson plans, home school ideas and even classroom decorating ideas. There is also a new area for educators dealing with special needs students. Mithya Srinivasan said in a recent blog post that “Tons of teachers are discovering and sharing ideas on Pinterest. In fact, more than 500,000 education-related ideas are pinned each day. And, according to an annual survey by Edutopia, Pinterest is in the top five of professional development websites for teachers.” The new initiative by Pinterest is to put a massive amount of public attention and take individual boards and make them easier to discover. This hopefully will provide an influx of educators using the service to share and discover. Right now this program is only geared towards on elementary school teachers and they should expand it into other arenas in the coming months. Follow Teachers on Pinterest and start pinning from the boards! You can also comment and mention your colleagues on pins to start conversations. Pinterest unveils new Digital Elementary Teachers Program is a post from: E-Reader News |
Macmillan titles now available for Canadian Library partners
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This morning OverDrive is proud to announce that more than 1,600 eBooks from Macmillan are now available in Marketplace for Canadian public libraries. The collection of mystery and crime titles from Minotaur Books specializes in thrillers, cozy mysteries, psychological suspense, and hard-boiled crime. Select from must-have mystery authors like Chris Ewan, Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Charles Todd, and more!
Popular titles from this collection include:
Macmillan eBooks will be available in the one copy/one user lending model for the earlier of two (2) years or 52 checkouts, most priced at $27 CAD each. Titles will be purchased in the 'Metered Access' section in OverDrive Marketplace. Click here for the full Terms & Conditions of Macmillan content.
Your Collection Development Specialist is available to help create recommended lists and packages of the Macmillan catalog. Email collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today!
Adam Sockel is a Marketing Communications Specialist with OverDrive  |
BookRix Offers Higher Royalties, Cover Art for Authors
| Good eReader first met ebook developer and retailer at BookExpo America several years ago, and in that time the German ebook retailer has been quietly growing its brand and its user base. BookRix emerged at a time when ebooks were still not catching on among German readers, largely in part due to the odd tax laws that made ebooks fall under an almost punitive taxation rate as they were considered to be software downloads rather than books. Now, BookRix made an announcement today concerning two new ways it is helping authors and readers. The first is a collection of over one million stock images that authors can use for free in order to create their book covers, and the other is an increased royalty rate and the pending switch to monthly payouts of those royalties. For the covers, BookRix will be partnering with Getty Images to allow open access to license-free photographs and images from the Getty collection. Getty has been a long-time supporter of accessibility of this kind, and only requires credit given within the front matter. “The cooperation with Getty Images gives us the possibility to enhance our book cover editor in a way which enables authors to create affordable, professional, and commercially usable book covers with just a few clicks,” explains Nils Oppermann, Director of Marketing at BookRix, in the first of two press releases today. As for pricing, beginning in October BookRix authors will enjoy a 70% of net royalty rate, as well as the ability to sell their books for free, something that few platforms offer or that is limited to only so many days per calendar period. This will be a pleasant surprise for the 500,000 BookRix self-publishing users who rely on the platform to make their work available in online outlets outside of Germany. “We are continuously improving and optimizing BookRix, always taking the needs of our authors into account. As a result, we always offer our authors the best service," continued Oppermann in a press release on the royalties.
BookRix Offers Higher Royalties, Cover Art for Authors is a post from: E-Reader News |
Penguin Goes Digital with Value Added Content
| One thing digital publishing has done on a widespread basis for the industry as a whole is give content providers–from the newest writer venturing into self-publishing to the largest, oldest publishing houses–the flexibility and freedom to provide additional incentive for readers to pick up their books. Authors and publishers alike have experimented with bonus content in ebook form, bundling titles, and even offering special promotional pricing that couldn’t have happened when there was a minimum profit margin that had to be maintained on an expensive print edition. Now, one of the most well known brands in the publishing industry bar none, Penguin, is adding digital-based content to commemorate the work of one of its authors, Kelley Armstrong. Through Dutton, an imprint of Penguin, the iTunes store will feature the interactive world-building app Cainsville Files ahead of the August 20th release of the newest book, Omens. The game and bonus content were all written by Armstrong prior to being developed for iPhone, iPod, and iPad by Inkle. This app will give Armstrong’s fans a deeper insight into the town of Cainsville, the residents, and the goings on before reading the new book. "Cainsville Files is our first app to tell a new story and an interactive story, but it's also just another example of how we're collaborating closely with authors to help them engage with readers in new ways,” said John Morgan, Penguin's Director of Digital Publishing, to Good eReader. This is just another great example of how readers can interact more fully with a novel, especially one that has yet to be released, while publishers can reach a whole new segment of consumers through the technology that is already available. To coincide with the release of Omens, Penguin has also reduced the price of the app for a limited time to $2.99.
Penguin Goes Digital with Value Added Content is a post from: E-Reader News |
How to Create a Table of Contents in Microsoft Word
Ever wanted to add a list of chapters or a table of contents to a long Word document? It's easy! Find out how! |
Video: Rob Bishop talks to MAKE
| Rob’s in the US at the moment for a few weeks, covering the bits of the country we’ve not been to before, and he’s filled every waking moment with Pi-vangelism. You can read more about his schedule at this earlier post: the last unconfirmed date, in Kansas City next Friday, was just signed off today, and there are still places left at a few of the talks he’s doing, so check out the list to see if he’s visiting somewhere near you. Last night, Rob took part in a hangout with MAKE magazine and Matt Richardson. (He’s calling in from his hotel room in this video, hence the depressing lighting environment.) He’s talking here about the history of the project, where we’re going, and what he’s up to on his odyssey across the midwest. It’s well worth a watch. |
Dutch eBook Sellers Mandated to Provide Customer Data to Anti-Piracy Agency
| The Dutch eBook scene has grown up in the past few years and many companies have embraced the digital watermark. 62% of all digital publishers who produce digital books use this technology, while 24% use conventional DRM. Customers rights are coming under fire with a new agreement reached with anti-piracy group BREIN. The agreement signed last week will affect any publisher that uses the eBoekhuis platform to use their digital watermark technology. Publishers will then share previously-private customer data directly with copyright holders and anti-piracy group BREIN. This means that should digital books turn up on Torrent networks, with a minimum of fuss, BREIN will be able to match the embedded watermarks with the customer who bought them. In a blog entry, Kurt Roeckx, who runs the Dutch speaking e-book store E-webshops, shares his doubt about the legality of working hand in hand with the anti-piracy group. “We got a new contract that states that we must directly give information about the buyer if some anti-piracy agency (BREIN) finds an e-book file online. We must keep the information about the buyer for minimum of 2 years and maximum of 5 years. And if we don’t sign the contract we won’t be allowed to sell e-books with watermark anymore. So this means that they want to bypass the normal judicial system, and probably contact those buyers they accuse of piracy directly. I questioned that this was legal. They say that it is legal according to the Dutch privacy law, but I have a hard time interpreting any of the options in article 8 as that we can give that information without the explicit consent of the person.” This will be the first time that a formal agreement between a technology company, publishers and an anti-piracy agency has been formed. In the past, watermarked eBooks have leaked online, but rarely is anything done about it. Also, customers are now reselling their watermarked books to secondary parties, which violates the terms and conditions. Publishers have their work cut out for themselves to keep this quiet and to make existing customers agree to their updated terms and conditions. After all, who really reads the small print these days. Dutch eBook Sellers Mandated to Provide Customer Data to Anti-Piracy Agency is a post from: E-Reader News |
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The Battle of e-Reading Tablets – Kobo Arc vs Google Nexus 7 2013
| The Kobo Arc is a tablet designed for reading and this is very evident during the first few days of use. The company has integrated aspects of their Reading Life program, which monitors your book habits and aids you in eBook discovery with a series of recommended reads. Kobo also developed “tapestries,” which is a cool way to browse directories and keep your commonly accessed programs at the forefront, via their new widgets. The Nexus 7 second generation is about as Vanilla as you can get, it is a pure Android experience. How do these tablets stack up against each other in the core process of e-Reading? We dive into it, and pit these two head to head. The Kobo Arc features a seven inch HD display with a resolution of 1280×800 pixels and 215 PPI. The screen features IPS screen technology, which is an industry-leading display optimized for 178 degree viewing angles and ultra-durable glass, resistant to damage, scratches, bumps, and drops. This is the same type of screen technology that airline pilots have in their flight instruments. If you figure most airlines are flying above the cloud line and susceptible to lots of sunlight, this tablet excels under direct light where others fail. Underneath the hood is a Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 1.5 GHZ dual core processor and 1 GB of RAM. There are three different storage options depending on the type of user you are—16, 32, and 64 GB. This is the first device the company has offered that actually does not have expandable memory. There is no support for MicroSD or SD cards, so you want to make sure you buy the best model to suit your needs. The Google Nexus 7 second generation features a 7 inch full color touchscreen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. This blows away most other tablets on the market, including the Kindle Fire HD 7 (1280 x 800 pixels) or the iPad Mini (1024 x 768 pixels.) If you watch HD videos or play really good games, you will notice an increase in screen quality. You get a solid boost in audio performance, with a speaker at the top of the bezel and one on the bottom. It also has 2 GB of RAM, a 1.5 GHZ Quad-Core processor and 2 cameras. Over the course of this e-reading comparison we check out eBooks, comics, newspapers, magazines and audio/video. We put them both through a battery of real world conditions, to give you a sense on how they both handle the same content, side by side. The Battle of e-Reading Tablets – Kobo Arc vs Google Nexus 7 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
