| Many people are looking at investing in a new tablet for the springtime or are in the process of upgrading their old device. Researching is often critical in choosing the best thing that suits your budget. Today, we are going to give you a sense of the top new tablets that are going to soon be released. Jolla Tablet The Jolla Tablet is the first commercial device using the Sailfish 2.0 OS. What I like about it, is that their operating system feels fresh and unique in a world full of Android and iOS tablets. Its going to be available in early May and will be sold online for $299. Lets look a little bit about the specs, the 8-inch (well, 7.85-inch) screen has a 2,048×1,536-pixel resolution which made everything look very crisp. You will be available to play most games and watch videos in HD. Inside it’s running on an Intel quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz, a 5-megapixel camera sits on the back, and there are 32GB or 64GB storage choices available. A 4,450mAh battery provides the juice which should be plenty for a full day of use. The build quality is high and the final product looks amazing. Sony Xperia Z4 When Sony first started releasing tablets their design was very out of the box. After a few generations they slowly found their identity and the new Sony Xperia Z4 is a perfect example of why Sony should not stop making smartphones and tablets. The Xperia Z4 features a ten inch QHD display, with a resolution of 2048 by 1080. You will be able to bring this tablet in the bath or on the beach since it has IP68 certification. Its other features include 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, 32GB of internal storage, 8 megapixels main camera, 5 megapixels front shooter and supports LTE. The tablet is powered by a 6000 mAh battery, and Sony promises the amazing up to 17 hours on a single charge. It is also ridiculously thin at 6.1 mm and weighs less than 396g. It will be available this Spring and there is no price yet, but you will likely have to pay iPad Air type of money for it. Apple iPad Air 2 The Apple iPad Air 2 is likely one of the best tablets on the market and you will have to pay serious money to buy one. It has the highest resolution in the business and a huge library of apps to support it. Some Android tablets also have high resolution, but not a lot of developers are optimizing content for it. The 9.7 inch tablet features a staggering resolution of 2048×1536 and it makes playing games and watching videos a pure joy. In practical usage text in e-reader apps will be more defined, comics will be in HD and the magazine experience on the iPad is second to none. Underneath the hood is a Dual-core 1.3 GHz Cyclone CPU, 1 GB RAM, 5 MP rear facing camera, 1.2 MP front facing camera and fingerprint sensor. Really, with this hardware you should at least get three or four solid years out of it before it becomes obsolete. I think iOS is great because of the whole iCloud system. Whenever you switch to another Apple product, all of your settings, email accounts, multimedia and apps follows you around. This makes the process of setting up any future Apple product a walk in the park. This tablet is available now and an entry level model is : $499.00 – $639.96. Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 The latest generation Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a polished piece of hardware and has the best audio capabilities in the business. The world class Amazon ecosystem gives you a great selection of e-books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks and polished software to give you an experience that can’t be matched. One of the benefits of the entire Fire 2014 product line is that it is fully compatible with the Fire TV. IT has a feature called the second screen, which allows you to replicate exactly whats on your tablet on the television. This is similar technology that the iPhone and iPad employ to build synergy via Air Play to the Apple TV. The 8.9 slate has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels and 339 PPI. The screen composition is IPS LCD and features a capacitive touchscreen, able to display about sixteen million colors. One of the new graphical enhancements was the inclusion of "Dynamic Light Control", which changes the white balance of the pages in reading mode to make it look more like paper depending on the ambient light conditions. That means it can go from cool to warm, from blue to nearly yellow. Underneath the hood is Qualcomms Snapdragon 805 chip, which is top of the line. It clocks in at a staggering 2.5 GHz via the quad-core processor and has 2 GB RAM. Raw performance aside, Amazon is claiming 12 hours of runtime this year, roughly similar to its predecessor. In addition to that 805 chip, this is also the first tablet with Dolby's Atmos surround sound technology. This tablet has been available since late 2014 and retails for an entry level price of $379. Keep in mind, unless you live in the US or UK you won’t be able to buy everything Amazon sells, such as music and videos. Huawei MediaPad X2 The new MediaPad X2 features a 7 inch LPTS display with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels which covers more than 80% of the device’s front. This will provide users with a great tablet to watch videos, play games or read books. It is also extremely portable, at just seven inches. Underneath the hood is an “ultra” octa-core, 64-bit Kirin 930 chipset clocked in at 2.0Ghz. The 13MP camera at the back boasts a dedicated ISP chip, which is said to generally improve the low-light performance of the tablets’s camera sensor. Most tablets have poor front facing camera, but the MediaPad has a 5 MP edition, which beats most other devices on the market. The device will be available in two versions – one with 2GB of RAM/16GB of native storage and a beefier one with 3GB of RAM/32GB of available storage. Connectivity-wise, both of these are dual-SIM slates with LTE support. There is currently no release date, but will ship in the Spring of 2015, no price has been defined either. People suggest it will be between $199 and $250. The Best Tablets of 2015 – Spring is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
The Best Tablets of 2015 – Spring
Are Solar Powered E Ink eReaders Really Necessary?
| Bookeen, a small ebook reader company based in Paris, has announced that they intend to bring solar charging to ebook readers through a new partnership with Sunpartner Technologies, also based in France. The press release is slim on details, and doesn’t specify whether the technology will be used on Bookeen’s line of Cybook ereaders exclusively […] |
B&N Releases New Nook Android App – Version 4.0
| Today Barnes and Noble announced that they’ve just launched a new version of the Nook Android app, version 4.0, that introduces a new look and adds some additional features. B&N is also trying to entice new customers to sign up for a Nook account by giving them a free $5 credit to get started purchasing […] |
Barnes and Noble Unveils New Nook Android App
| Barnes and Noble has just revised their Nook Android App to mirror the same type of shopping experience as found on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook line of tablets. Basically the entire shopping system has been revised, giving you more of a channel view approach. This makes it easier to find magazines, e-books, comics and all the other digital content B&N sells. Likely the centerpiece of the fresh new app design is Nook Channels. Each Nook Channel is a collection of great reading content, both old and new. As a while, it is meant to give shoppers a the same type of online experience as you get when you visit a Barnes & Noble bookstore directly. This popular discovery feature is powered by Barnes & Noble's breakthrough recommendation system, which combines bookseller knowledge with advanced algorithmic technology to present an endless shelf of relevant, personalized, and surprising choices beyond the bestsellers. With the NOOK Reading App 4.0 for Android, readers also have more customization tools, including the ability to create profiles within the app and to organize favorite content by personal shelves. The updated app enables users to add a NOOK widget to the home screen of any Android phone or tablet, providing quick and easy access to NOOK reading content. Download the new Nook Reading App today from the Good e-Reader App Store or Google Play. Barnes and Noble Unveils New Nook Android App is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New York Times Bestsellers of yesteryear – A Look Back
| The New York Times Bestsellers list has been a monumentally influential force on publishing world for decades and decades. Authors and publishers dream to have a book that makes the list and readers trust it's authority to find their next book. Looking through past lists isn't just reading old lists of books, it's a time portal that illuminates history. See the grandeur for yourself in our lists below…. New York Times Bestsellers 1940s New York Times Bestsellers 1950s New York Times Bestsellers 1960s New York Times Bestsellers 1970s New York Times Bestsellers 1980s New York Times Bestsellers 1990s New York Times Bestsellers 2000s New York Times Bestsellers 2010s And of course, you can add the Current New York Times Bestsellers as well. A great idea would be to add these lists to your collection and do curated collections of best sellers! Questions? Email us at collectionteam@overdrive.com for more information today. Please note that title availability may vary by geographic location and platform. Rachel Kray is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive |
Launch day – what happened to the website?
| Liz: As you may recall, back on February 2 we launched a new product. This website buckled a little under the strain (as did some of our partners’ websites). At the time, we promised you a post about what happened here and how we dealt with it, with plenty of graphs. We like graphs. Here’s Pete Stevens from Mythic Beasts, our hosts, to explain exactly what was going on. Over to you, Pete! On Monday, the Raspberry Pi 2 was announced, and The Register’s predictions of global geekgasm proved to be about right. Slashdot, BBC News, global trending on Twitter and many other sources covering the story resulted in quite a lot of traffic. We saw 11 million page requests from over 700,000 unique IP addresses in our logs from Monday, around 6x the normal traffic load. The Raspberry Pi website is hosted on WordPress using the WP Super Cache plugin. This plugin generally works very well, resulting in the vast majority of page requests being served from a static file, rather than hitting PHP and MySQL. The second major part of the site is the forums and the different parts of the site have wildly differing typical performance characteristics. In addition to this, the site is fronted by four load balancers which supply most of the downloads directly and scrub some malicious requests. We can cope with roughly:
Back in 2012 for the original launch, we had a rather smaller server setup and we just put a maintenance page up and directed everyone to buy a Pi direct from Farnell or RS, both of whom had some trouble coping with the demand. We also launched at 6am GMT so that most of our potential customers would still be in bed spreading the initial surge over several hours. This time, being a larger organisation with coordination across multiple news outlets and press conferences, the launch time was fixed for 9am on Feb 2nd 2015 so everything would happen then, apart from the odd journalist with premature timing problems – you know who you are. Our initial plan was to leave the site up as normal, but set the maintenance page to be the launch announcement. That way if the launch overwhelmed things, everyone should see the announcement served direct from the load balancers and otherwise the site should function as normal. Plan B was to disable the forums, giving more resources to the main blog so people could comment there. The Launch It is a complete coincidence that our director Pete took off to go to this isolated beach in the tropics five minutes after the Raspberry Pi 2 launch. At 9:00 the announcement went live. Within a few minutes traffic volumes on the site had increased by more than a factor of five and the forum users are starting to make comments and chatter to each other. The server load increased from its usual level of 2 to over 400 – we now had a massive queue of users waiting for page requests because all of the server CPU time was being taken generating those slow forum pages which starved the main blog of server time to deliver those fast cached pages. At this point our load balancers started to kick in and deliver to a large fraction of our site users the maintenance page containing the announcement – the fall back plan. This did annoy the forum and blog users who had posted comments and received the maintenance page back having just had their submission thrown away – sorry. During the day we did a little bit of tweaking to the server to improve throughput, removing the nf_conntrack in the firewall to free up CPU for page rendering, changing the apache settings to queue earlier so people received either their request page or maintenance page more quickly. Disabling the forums freed up lots of CPU time for the main page and gave us a mostly working site. Sometimes it’d deliver the maintenance page, but mostly people were receiving cached WordPress pages of the announcement and most of the comments were being accepted. Super Cache not quite so superUnfortunately, we were still seeing problems. The site would cope with the load happily for a good few minutes, and then suddenly have a load spike to the point where pages were not being generated fast enough. It appears that WP Super Cache wasn’t behaving exactly as intended. When someone posts a comment, Super Cache invalidates its cache of the corresponding page, and starts to rebuild a new one, but providing you have this option ticked… Re-enabling the forums
With stable traffic levels, we turned the forums back on. And then immediately off again. They very quickly backed up the database server with connections, causing both the forums to cease working and the main website to run slowly. A little further investigation into the InnoDB parameters and we realised we had some contention on database locks, we reconfigured and this happened. Our company pedant points out that actually only the database server process fell over, and it needed restarted not rebooting. Cunningly, we’d managed to find a set of improved settings for InnoDB that allowed us to see all the tables in the database but not read any data out of them. A tiny bit of fiddling later and everything was happy. The bandwidth graphsWe end up with a traffic graph that looks like this. Could do a bit betterThe launch of Raspberry Pi 2 was a closely guarded secret, and although we were told in advance, we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for the increased traffic. There’s a few things we’d like to have improved and will be talking to with Raspberry Pi over the coming months. One is to upgrade the hardware adding some more cores and RAM to the setup. Whilst we’re doing this it would be sensible to look at splitting the parts of the site into different VMs so that the forums/database/Wordpress have some separation from each other and make it easier to scale things. It would have been really nice to have put our extremely secret test setup with HipHop Virtual Machine into production, but that’s not yet well enough tested for primetime although a seven-fold performance increase on page rendering certainly would be nice. Schoolboy errorTalking with Ben Nuttall we realised that the stripped down minimal super fast maintenance page didn’t have analytics on it. So the difference between our stats of 11 million page requests and Ben’s of 1.5 million indicate how many people during the launch saw the static maintenance page rather than a WordPress generated page with comments. In hindsight putting analytics on the maintenance page would have been a really good idea. Not every http request which received the maintenance page was necessarily a request to see the launch, nor was each definitely a different visitor. Without detailed analytics that we don’t have, we can estimate the number of people who saw the announcement to be more than 1.5 million but less than 11 million. Flaming, Bleeding ServersLiz occasionally has slightly odd ideas about exactly how web-servers work: Now, much to her disappointment we don’t have any photographs of servers weeping blood or catching fire. [Liz interjects: it’s called METAPHOR, Pete.] But when we retire servers we like to give them a bit of a special send-off: here’s a server funeral, Mythic Beasts-style. |
Zuckerberg Doesn’t Want Telecoms to Fear Internet.org
| Zuckerberg took the stage at Mobile World Congress to discuss the state of the union as it applies to his Internet.org initiative (with very little being said about Facebook at all). In an appearance that felt more like a public relations stunt than an actual interview (conducted by Jessi Hempel from Wired Magazine), Zuckerberg wasn’t his usual awkward self… instead choosing to appear modest and almost pandering to mobile carriers (which maybe isn’t such a bad thing when working with them is so much easier than the alternative). The idea behind Internet.org is to help bring the developing world online, giving users in those countries with low Internet usage access to the most-used apps available. Of course this includes the desperate need for every man, woman, and (over 13 years old) child to have a Facebook profile… right along side having access to essential services like health information and educational resources. In the end, no matter how silly it seems to put social media on that kind of pedastal –it’s about getting people online and connected. Big telecoms have been wary of the Internet.com initiative, openly expressing their concerns that access to certain apps could eat into their bottom line (eliminating the need for money-generating services they provide, such as voice calling and text messaging). Zuckerberg did his best to calm those fears, basically saying they all need to work together in ways that make the initiative mutually beneficial. (Personally, I subscribe to the ‘evolve or die’ philosophy of business… meaning telecoms need to re-think and re-invent the services they offer instead of relying so heavily on past revenue streams.) Connectivity is expensive. Data plans are expensive. Infrastructure is really expensive. Zuckerberg understands, but he also knows that Internet.org is capable of increasing smartphone use which should ultimately result in more subscribers than these telecoms may have had otherwise. Balancing out those expensive facts is the reality that (generally speaking) more customers means more revenue. Ultimately, the creator of Facebook knows a thing or two about growing a business and being successful. Sure it makes a few eyes roll when Zuckerberg talks about how Facebook (and Google) get too much credit for their efforts to “connect the second half of the world to the Internet,” but a little applause is probably reasonable for those who can see beyond their own front doors.
Zuckerberg Doesn’t Want Telecoms to Fear Internet.org is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digital Lending Reaches Japan
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An article for Mainichi.jp on the ups and down of digital library lending in Japan demonstrated some interesting parallels to what readers in other countries have faced when trying to shift into a digital lending mindset. Patrons have been quick to adopt the service, too, according to several librarians. One library only pursued digital lending after the numerous requests it received from patrons, and stated that in the three months they’ve offered this type of 24-hour access to ebooks, patrons have borrowed more than four hundred titles of the 3,400-book catalog. While the first library to offer ebook lending in Japan did so as far back as 2007, it seems that the mistakes US libraries and Japanese libraries made at the onset went hand in hand. Tokyo’s Chiyoda Public Library first started with renting out the actual readers, or in their case, tablets, that could only be used while in the library. The investment in the stockpile of devices was significant, as was the content to put on it, and there was no benefit to using it over simply reaching for a book off the shelf. US libraries initially experimented with in-house e-readers that could be checked out and borrowed, but still required the investment in the technology and a staff trained to assist patrons with the devices. Much like the headache of licensing ebooks to libraries stateside, Japanese patrons and librarians have been frustrated by the lack of bestselling and new release content available for digital lending, for many of the same reasons that publishers in the US have balked at making their entire catalogs available to libraries, namely fears that print sales will decline. However, one library conglomerate in Japan has seen enough of an impact in ebook lending that probably won’t translate in the states, and that’s an increase in people who do not live in the immediate area but who are traveling to other regions to take advantage of ebook lending. While many US libraries require proof of immediate residency to use their library, eliminating the benefits of ebook lending altogether, would-be patrons have actually traveled to the nearest library in order to sign up for library cards and take advantage of ebook availability, which has proven good for local businesses as these new patrons shop and dine in the region while they’re there. While so much of the Japanese ebook lending market has mirrored that of other regions, it will be interesting to see how the market takes to digital magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, and MP3 lending, all of which are available to US libraries through their agreements with their content providers.
Digital Lending Reaches Japan is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Blackberry Unveils Torch Inspired Slider Smartphone
| The last great phone Blackberry made was the Torch. This model had a full touchscreen a slider keyboard, it gave you the best of both worlds. Sadly, since then phones have either had a keyboard and a small screen or a large screen and no keyboard. It looks like Blackberry is releasing a modern version of the Torch, using their new BB10 operating system. One of the most exciting elements about this new phone is the fact it has an end to end screen. This means there is little to no bezel and similar to the new Samsung Edge. Not much is known about the phone itself, or the release date. In addition to the new slider, BlackBerry says it will launch a new Porsche Design device and another keyboard-based phone. No further details were given for those new models. Blackberry Unveils Torch Inspired Slider Smartphone is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Bookeen Developing New Solar Powered E-Reader
| Bookeen has been making e-readers for six years and the company has always focused on developing solid devices and marketing them all over the world. In order so stay competitive against Amazon and Kobo they are making a new solar powered e-reader that will do away with having to charge it via USB. The new e-reader will be powered by Sunpartner Technologies who is a a high-tech engineering company specializing in Solar NETs (New Energy Technologies). Since 2008, they’ve been developing the transparent PV component Wysips that seamlessly integrates into any surface, transforming it into a solar panel. Bookeen and Sunpartner are both based in France, so this new partnership makes sense. They can both promote it through their different marketing channels and hopefully more companies participating in the e-reader space will start to adopt solar powered technologies. Accross the entire industry there has been only a few companies that have invested in solar powered e-readers. Toshiba, in 2010, released the Biblio Leaf in Japan and it had six inch electronic paper display similar to the Kindle. Toshiba said that the solar panel that is built into the front of the device is capable of charging the battery enough for users to read up to 25 books, or 7,500 pages, on a single charge. Not only can you read tons but you can recharge it when you are not using it by just leaving it to catch ambient sunlight. LG developed e-Paper screen technology that was employed on a TFT-LCD screen. It never really got past the prototype stage. At 10cm wide and a thickness of just 0.7mm, its dimensions are almost akin to that of a credit card. This combined with the weight of a fountain-pen, it is unprecedented in its form. The photovoltaic cell provides a steady stream of solar energy, which gives LG an absolutely winning design. Sadly, no companies picked it up. There is no estimated date in which this new e-reader by Bookeen will ship. We do know that it will hit the market “sometime in 2015.” Hopefully it won’t be delayed like the Cybook Ocean was. Bookeen Developing New Solar Powered E-Reader is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Mortal Kombat X for Android Due in April
| Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for any mobile game that inspires nostalgia. Mortal Kombat X is one of those titles, having been a gaming staple for one platform or another since the classic arcade days. It concerns me more than a little that I can scarcely remember what I ate for lunch yesterday, but I can hear in-game phrases like “Outstanding!” and “Finish him!” inside my head with resounding clarity. Luckily for those of us who played this fighter game once upon a time (armed with a stack of quarters), Mortal Kombat X will be mobile-ready this April. Developed by Warner Bros., Mortal Kombat X for mobile will feature all of the classic (and beloved) characters we remember side by side with a few fresh faces –and if you watch the game trailer (linked below) you will see that the “brutal fatalities and x-ray hits” have all been maintained. It is somewhat difficult to imagine just how this game will translate onto a touch-screen. For those new to the franchise, defeating your opponent back in the day meant delivering a complex (and often somewhat mysterious) series of joystick moves and button presses as each character thrashes around with their signature moves. Chances are good this aspect has been dramatically simplified, but my hope is that the soul of the game successfully carries over. What passed for brutal and gory in the early days of gaming will seem pretty tame to most anyone now, but those who have played Mortal Kombat standing at a classic arcade machine will tell you it was the kind of game that really engaged you –remember with me just how hard you were pounding on those buttons by the end of any grudge match! There are no specifics yet regarding price, but other titles by this developer have hit the Play Store with a zero dollar price-tag (though apparently there is also a collectible card game component, so you can bet there will be a host of in-app purchases available for those willing to spend a little cash). Consoles will see Mortal Kombat X on April 14th, so while a specific day hasn’t been announced for mobile, it is safe to assume it will be on or around that date as well.
Mortal Kombat X for Android Due in April is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Veronica Roth Will Write Two New Books
| Bestselling author Veronica Roth has signed a new deal with HarperCollins to pen two new titles. The author of the hit Divergent series has a new movie hitting theaters soon called Insurgent. Likely the news of her upcoming novels will be met with wild abandon. Little detail has been offered about the two books, both of which remain untitled. According to HarperCollins, the saga will feature "a boy who forms an unlikely alliance with an enemy […] they help each other attain what they most desire: for one, redemption, and the other, revenge." The release also somewhat cryptically describes the narrative as "in the vein of ‘Star Wars.’" The first of Veronica Roth’s upcoming young adult novels will be published in 2017, with the next novel to follow in 2018. Going into the direction of a young male protagonist when all of Roth’s lead characters are female is interesting. Lets be honest, its mainly women that are the core reading audience of Divergent. Maybe the intention with the next two novels is to appeal towards a male audience, the sort that reads Ender’s Game and Maze Runner. Veronica Roth Will Write Two New Books is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, March 2, 2015
17th Century Assassins Poison Cabinet Disguised as a Book
| Some people have failed to embrace digital books because they lack that tectonic feel and book smell. Books have always been hollowed out and things stashed in it, from money to jewelry. If you were an assassin in the 17th century you might also hide the essential tools of the trade. This cabinet is actually the real deal and not just a viral picture. It was initially offered for sale for 5200 euros via the German auction house Hermann Historica back in 2008. The auction catalog identified the book as a 'poisoner's cabinet', and much of the press coverage centered on its potential as an assassin's arsenal, but many of the plants included have, or were reputed to have curative as well as toxic properties. At the very least, this would be an excellent conversation piece. 17th Century Assassins Poison Cabinet Disguised as a Book is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tinder Remorse Available For a (Variable) Price
| Did you mean to swipe left instead of right? The user interface on Tinder can move pretty fast, especially for those of us who are maybe a little quick to judge. Fortunately, Tinder’s new “Rewind” feature is finally live… but it doesn’t come free. Included in the premium tier of their service, the cost to change your mind seems to vary greatly depending on a number of seemingly random factors. Under 30? Pay $9.99 USD / month. With no official explanation, it would appear Tinder is doing a little market testing to see what people are willing to pay for past regret. For an app that feels like a somewhat fluffy dating tool, low prices seem critical –Tinder needs to catch us on the impulse buy (in the same knee-jerk, gut-reaction way that has made them popular in the first place). On the upside, the price paid also gets us out of seeing ads. Download the app for free if you happen to reside in the minority who hasn’t given Tinder for Android a try.
Tinder Remorse Available For a (Variable) Price is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Jolla Revives Potential With Updated Sailfish 2.0 OS
| Lucky attendees at Mobile World Congress are getting the chance to get hands-on with the updated, security-conscious, Sailfish 2.0 operating system. Inspired by the desire for increased security on mobile devices, Sailfish is starting to mature into itself –becoming a more full-featured, open-source operating system. Married to the Jolla tablet (made by the Finnish company staffed by former Nokia employees), the pairing may be ready to take on the likes of Apple and Google. Considered a contender in the low-cost tablet marketplace, the Jolla tablet hardware offers competitive specs: 7.85-inch screen with a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, Intel-based chip running 1.8GHz, 2GB of RAM, 32GB and 64GB internal storage options, and a microSD card slot. Nokia styling is present here as well, with flat and rolled edges on hardware that is compact and light (and affordable, with a final retail price expected around $249 USD). Ultimately, it’s less about the hardware and more about the software. Sure Sailfish 2.0 is more streamlined, and continues to support Android apps (though not using the Google Play store)… but the real news is the added support for Intel’s Atom x3 chipset (giving a new push into licensing with other OEM hardware). Based loosely on the old MeeGo platform (born of a partnership between Nokia and Intel), Sailfish OS is all about enhanced security by way of a deal made with the SSH Communications Security company in Finland (best-known for the development of the beloved Secure Shell encrypted communications protocol). As we move forward to a brave new world filled with mobile payment solutions and the like, interest in this kind of powerful ecosystem makes good sense (let’s not forget that BlackBerry made an entire business out of being trusted by government and industry). Does anybody else have the nagging feeling that Sailfish is much less likely to dominate Android or iOS and more likely to be purchased and then assimilated by one or the other eventually?
Jolla Revives Potential With Updated Sailfish 2.0 OS is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Samsung Debuts Design-Focused Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge
| After the underwhelming release of the Galaxy S5, Samsung proudly announced their new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones at Mobile World Congress this week. Unfortunately for the tech giant, the cheap plastic feel of the S5 overshadowed its diverse and considerable list of features –ultimately reflecting poorly on profits. Taking cues from the highly successful iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launched by Apple late last year, Samsung has opted for significant changes to the look and feel of their new smartphones (resulting in products that many describe as visually stunning). Ditching the now-familiar plastic Samsung smartphone frame, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge feature metal and (Gorilla) glass. For lack of a more descriptive term, these are sexy smartphones; they look classy and ooze curb appeal (which matters, no matter what anybody says). I can only assume that these new designs will carry the same risk of bending and sense of fragility that has plagued the iPhone, but it’s a compromise that people seem to be willing to make (particularly for business users, the likes of which seem to be the primary target for Android lately). Besides being beautiful, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are packed with all of the expected leading-edge features: 5.1-inch QHD Super AMOLED displays, 3GB of RAM, 32/64/128GB options for internal storage, 16-megapixel cameras complete with optical image stabilization, a home button with a fingerprint sensor (finally!), infrared heard-rate monitor, integrated support for Qi and PMA wireless charging, along with a louder speaker (which is especially great for those of us using our smartphones as alarm clocks!). It can’t all be good news. The prettier look and feel resulted in the loss of beloved microSD card slots and waterproofing; somewhere there are Apple executives smiling a little wider with this news. All things considered, extending your internal storage with microSD cards is an antiquated concept versus using cloud storage these days and waterproof smartphones aren’t really an industry expectation (and who truly trusted that anyway?). Without question, Samsung has taken a chance with these new smartphones –it’s entirely possible these changes will alienate loyalists who enjoyed the way things used to be. There is also little doubt that Samsung will have to field accusations and criticism over having followed behind Apple yet again (one only needs to put the iPhone 6 beside the Galaxy S6 to see the similarities)… but there is no harm in listening to the demands of the mobile device industry and making adjustments accordingly. Clearly Samsung is hoping it will all add up to good business sense, units sold, and profits logged. These latest offerings from Samsung will be available across the world beginning April 10, but we will have to wait a while to know exactly how much they cost. Samsung Debuts Design-Focused Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Students Continue to Resist Digital Textbooks
| Every single year new statistics and polls emerge about digital textbooks in the classroom. Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Google have all tried very hard to offer digital editions for rent and resale, but they have not caught on in a meaningful way. A new report by the University of Washington found that even when eTextbooks are given away for free, students continue to buy print. A recent pilot study from the University of Washington showed that about 25% of students who were given free versions of digital textbooks still went out and purchased a physical copy of the same book. These are people who aren't supposed to remember what it's like to even smell books," said Naomi S. Baron, an American University linguist who studies digital communication. "It's quite astounding." Meanwhile a Student Monitor survey polled college students and found that 87% got their textbooks as physical books, whether renting, purchasing new or buying used. Why are students continuing to buy print editions and not worry about digital? Many students believe that they comprehend the information better when they can read it on a page, build a cognitive map, and reference their highlighted and handwritten notes, and there is research to support these claims. Students Continue to Resist Digital Textbooks is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Samsung Pay Makes Bid to Win Mobile Payments War
| Samsung had a lot to talk about during their address at Mobile World Congress this week, not the least of which being a new mobile payment system. Designed to compete with the likes of Apple Pay and others like it, Samsung Pay promises to offer more choices to financial institutions interested in letting their clients pay using mobile phones. Much like the other options already available, Samsung will take advantage of near-field communications (NFC) –but what sets them apart (and makes all of us a little more excited than we have been about competing services) is that they will also support magnetic secure transmission (MST) and barcodes. Loosely translated, this means Samsung Pay could be supported by nearly any electronic payment terminal (which should mean an increase in the current and meagre 10% adoption rate for mobile payment technology). Speaking about their new service, Samsung CEO JK Shin noted that Samsung Pay is intended to “reinvent how people pay for goods and services and transform how they use their smartphones.” His statement seems realistic, when you start to read the things banking spokespeople are saying in response. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan is just one of many, stating that: "Samsung Pay is another significant move in that direction for our 17 million mobile customers." Samsung Pay will come preloaded on the latest Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones this summer, with initial support expected for the US and South Korea. Other regions, including Europe and China are planned with no schedule provided (it appears those of us in Canada may have to wait a while to give it a try). Which mobile payment service are you most interested in? Are you likely to embrace Samsung Pay as soon as you are able?
Samsung Pay Makes Bid to Win Mobile Payments War is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Huawei Announces MediaPad X2 7-Inch Monster Phablet
| On top of being a company whose name is rather fun to say, Huawei joined those making big announcements at Mobile World Congress. During their unveiling of a phablet-style smartphone, we learned that the new MediaPad X2 is a little hard to grip (literally)… with a screen measuring a mere 7-inches (somewhere out there Shaquille O’Neal is delighted that there is finally a phone made especially for him). Two versions of the MediaPad X2 will be available: one featuring 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, the other with 3GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. Other specs for the device include a 1920×1200 resolution display, 5000mAh battery, 13MP rear camera and 5MP front-facing camera, Cat 6 LTE support, and boasting a 2.0GHz Kirin 930 ultra-octa chipset. During the release, Huawei assured would-be users that it isn’t uncomfortable to hold –but a headset may make phone functions a little easier to handle (while also enjoying 12 hours of streaming online video, 15 hours of Internet surfing, or 60 hours of music playback). We have no idea yet what this beauty will cost us, but it does feature the more stylish aluminum casing we have come to love from the likes of Apple and their iPhone lineup. I have to admit, that my tiny little hands would be challenged by a 7″ phablet –but after falling in love with my iPhone 6 Plus, it’s easy to understand why somebody with more finger-span might enjoy having that little bit of extra screen real estate.
Huawei Announces MediaPad X2 7-Inch Monster Phablet is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Yen Press Announces a Trio of New Manga
| There was a lot of excitement this weekend when Yen Press, a North American manga publisher, announced a brand new trio of mangas to be released scheduled for this summer and fall! Yen Press teased the announcement via twitter though we didn’t have to wait long for the exciting news! Though they did say there would be "no light novels this time around, but stay tuned!", we can hope to see a new development soon! So let’s take a look at the new mangas that will start hitting shelves this summer and fall! Rose Gun Days Season One Final Fantasy Type-0 Side Story: The Reaper of the Icy Blade Horimiya Yen Press Announces a Trio of New Manga is a post from: Good e-Reader |
