| Auckland University Press has released more than 240 classic books from the region in ebook format. This can be considered a significant development considering many of the books that have been launched in digital format have ceased to be in print for long. Not only do the literary works get a new lease of life, the newer generations too get the chance to get acquainted with past works of literature. This has been made possible thanks to the efforts of Creative New Zealand, the country's national arts developmental agency, Copyright Licensing New Zealand and the Vice-Chancellor's Strategic Development Fund at the University of Auckland. Among the titles that has been released in ebook format include 'Keith Sinclair's Origins of the Maori Wars and M. P. K. Sorrenson's three-volume, collected letters of Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, Heather Nicholson's award-winning story of knitting The Loving Stitch, Ian Wedde's Spells for Coming Out and Roger Horrocks's superb biography of Len Lye.' “Over a hundred of the titles were published long before PDFs, so we sent hard copies off to India for conversion and then checked them back in New Zealand. For many of the old books, our information on the author and the title was shaky. Finding covers, updating websites, contacting authors and their estates – all of this work allowed us to get to know again the amazing depth of the Auckland University Press list,” the press release revealed. Auckland University Press also stated all of their ebooks are available with major ebook retailers, which includes Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, Apple, Whitcoulls and so on. “Along with our US distributors IPG, we have been fortunate to partner with Faber Factory who handle our digital distribution outside North America. Rooted in one of the world's great publishing houses, the Faber Factory team have developed innovative ways to make sure ebooks get out to multiple retailers in multiple formats around the world, to monitor availability, sales and pricing in real time, and to promote ebooks to readers,” the press release stated. The ebooks are available in epub and mobi ebook format along with PDF for many of the titles.
NZ Classic Books Released in eBook Format is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sunday, November 17, 2013
NZ Classic Books Released in eBook Format
eBook Review: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
| Verdict: 5 Stars This book should come with a warning: Don’t even open the cover until you’ve got your adult diapers firmly in place. Even from the Introduction, Brosh will have you crossing your legs while you laugh. Fans of Brosh’s blog, Hyperbole and a Half, turned out to purchase the author’s debut graphic novel (Touchstone), complete with her intentionally crudely drawn illustrations that just put the finishing touches on her amazing storytelling capability. In what is probably not even close to the weirdest thing about this book, it is at this very moment the number one bestseller on Amazon in the Love/Sex/Marriage, Satire, and Biography & History Graphic Novels categories. There’s not a metadata genius on Earth who can explain that. For the most part, Brosh’s writing serves as an amazingly hilarious cautionary tale for the rest of us. Our lives look stellar in comparison, and that’s even if we were facing jail time for a minor but repeat offense. However, the author also pours open several veins when she tackles the topics of self-loathing and clinical depression, even while making you laugh. Some of the criticisms of this graphic novel have been that there’s not enough new material, citing that most of the content within the book has been posted previously on the author’s blog. While frustrating for longtime fans of the site, new readers will delight in the side-splitting stories; additionally, a number of well-known bestselling titles that were curated from popular blogs contain previously published content. Readers will still enjoy having a collected volume of their favorite Brosh stories. The Hyperbole and a Half book is available now.
eBook Review: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh is a post from: E-Reader News |
Digital Comics Bargains for November 17, 2013
| Here’s our weekly look at the best-selling comics, as of Sunday evening. 1. The Walking Dead #116 You know, comiXology had some really great sales on really interesting comics this weekend, and it’s sort of disappointing to see that none of them showed up in the top ten—not the Hernandez Brothers’ Love and Rockets, not the excellent indie graphic novels published by Top Shelf. Just The Walking Dead and a bunch of superheroes who have been around since I was a kid. The top charting sale title was Eddie Campbell’s From Hell, a steal at $3.99, which made 14th place, and a bunch of Grant Morrison’s Superman titles did pretty well, too. 1. The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes Kindle users mixed it up a bit more, putting From Hell in fourth place (just behind another sale title). And the Calvin and Hobbes fans were out in force. George R.R. Martin’s The Hedge Knight did well in pre-orders and will probably be on the list for a while longer. 1. The Sandman: Overture #1 The Nook top ten is exactly the same as last week’s. Just sayin’. iBooks 1. Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Search, Part 3 The iBookstore remains reliably eclectic, with a heaping helping of kid-friendly titles (Avatar: The Last Airbender, My Little Pony) and some seriously adult titles (The Walking Dead, Blue Is the Warmest Color), as well as a mix of single-issue comics and graphic novels. Digital Comics Bargains for November 17, 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Rogers Media Pulls All Digital Magazines out of Zinio and Launches their own Service
| Rogers Media is likely the largest magazine publisher in Canada and they have pulled all of their digital editions out of Zinio. Rogers intends on launching their own Netflix-like app, called Next Issue magazine that will provide access to all of its magazines as well as dozens of high-profile American titles for a monthly fee. Rogers insists the decision to pull its titles from Zinio was not their own, and referred inquiries to trade association Magazines Canada. Zinio has been inroads in distributing their digital magazines all over Canada and the US by way of Recorded Books. Recently Zinio started offering back-issues available to be purchased, instead of just the most recent issue. The Toronto Public Library trumpeted their relationship earlier this fall, saying the digital magazines were extremely popular, with about 55,000 copies checked out in since June. Many libraries are voicing their disdain about the whole situation. Next Issue grew out of a joint venture started in 2009 by U.S. publishers Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp., and Time Inc. It provides subscribers with access to around 100 monthly magazines for $9.99 a month or both monthly and weekly publications for $14.99. Rogers’s Next Issue Canada service has adopted the same pricing as the U.S. service: $9.99 a month for monthly publications and $14.99 a month for monthly and weekly publications. Libraries may not have the large selection of Canadian titles via Zinio as they had before, but there is silver lining. In January, Magazines Canada is rolling out Canada's Magazine Store, promoted on its website as a "one-stop shop for all member titles." The association states that its "relationship with digital circulation suppliers is changing, including our Zinio-based program." It sure looks like Zinio is starting to get phased out and their one time allies are turning into direct competitors. Rogers Media Pulls All Digital Magazines out of Zinio and Launches their own Service is a post from: E-Reader News |
TWO MILLION!
| It took us almost exactly a year to sell the first million Raspberry Pis. Going on that basis, we calculated that we might, if we were lucky, reach the second million around January 2014, or slightly afterwards – we were confident we’d get there by the end of February 2014. So it was a bit of a shock at the end of last week when we got the latest sales figures and discovered that the 2,000,000th Raspberry Pi was sold in the last week of October. We don’t know who owns it – if you bought one between October 24 and October 31st, it might be yours. (It could even be the one we gave to Prince Andrew when he visited on Halloween.) Back in February 2012, we produced the first 2000 Raspberry Pis in China (UK manufacturing came later), and they were delivered to Jack’s garage in March, from where Eben and I split them into two lots of 1000, stuck them in the boot of our car, and drove them to Farnell and RS Components’ headquarters.  The first 2000 Raspberry Pis The Pis were in boxes of 50, stacked together to make a pallet of 2000. We took the web’s first Raspberry Pi unboxing picture. And on getting the news about the 2,000,000th Pi at the end of last week, it struck us that every single Raspberry Pi in that pallet represents 1000 of the Raspberry Pis that are spread around the world today. We never thought we’d be where we are today when we started this journey: it’s down to you, our amazing community, and we’re very, very lucky to have you. Thanks!
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Queens Library to Start Lending Nexus 7 Tablets Out
| Queens Library in New York will start offering tablet devices for free to its members from next week, or Nov 20 to be precise. The generosity can be attributed to Google donating 17,000 of its new Nexus 7 devices to the New York State Community Action Association to commemorate one year of Hurricane Sandy hitting New York and adjoining areas. Of these, Queens Library will be getting 5,000 units of the Nexus tablets. Valid card holders of the library will be able to retain the tablet for a month and can be renewed thrice at the most. What this means is that each member will be able to keep the tablet to themselves for four months at a stretch. The tablets on offer from Queens Library have proprietary software running on top which is based on icons. Further, each of the Wi-Fi capable devices being lent out by Queens Library will come pre-loaded with educational content, job searching resources, information on immigration and citizenship, information about health, and so on. The tablets also come loaded with curated content, which means users have access to lots of information irrespective of them being online or offline. Also, Queens’s move to lent out tablets running its proprietary software is perhaps a first among public libraries in the US. The other locations in Queens that will be lending the Nexus tablet devices include Howard Beach, Broad Channel, Arverne, Far Rockaway, Queens Library for Teens in Far Rockaway, Rockaway Beach and Rockaway Park. “Google is excited by the Queens Library innovative use of technology to engage their community and patrons,” said William Floyd, Head of External Affairs for Google. “With this tablet donation, we hope that the residents of this borough will have access to the information and resources they need to strengthen their communities.” “Public libraries are all about lifelong learning. The tablets provided by Google, coupled with innovative work by Queens Library, puts information and educational resources into the hands of Queens residents. It is a first step toward our strategic goal of bridging the information divide through digital resources, coupled with educational partners. We expect to advance adult learning, language learning, student resources, and more.”
Queens Library to Start Lending Nexus 7 Tablets Out is a post from: E-Reader News |
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Pan Macmillan Signs Up Multi-Book Deal With Self Published Author Rachael Lucas
| Indie author Rachael Lucas has landed a deal with Pan MacMillan that covers publishing three of her books as well as an ebook. The titles covered include Sealed with a Kiss which will be launched in paperback form in May 2014. This will be followed by a sequel of it which will be released during Christmas 2014 along with a novel slated for a release in the Spring of 2015. Lucas' Sealed with a Kiss has seen over 70,000 downloads and has made it to among the top 10 Kindle titles. The story dwells on the topic of romance, friendship and rescued seal and is set on a remote island in Scotland. “I fell hook, line and sinker for Rachael’s writing from the first page. She writes with a warm, natural humour and creates characters that you feel you’ve spent years with, not just chapters,” said Senior commissioning editor Caroline Hogg explain the motive behind the deal.
Pan Macmillan Signs Up Multi-Book Deal With Self Published Author Rachael Lucas is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo Aura vs Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight
| Kobo and Barnes and Noble both have new six inch e-readers that will be vying for you attention this holiday season. These devices feature illumination technology that have been refined over the course of a few generations for each company. Today we compare the Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight and the six inch Kobo Aura. The big difference between these two e-readers is the fact Kobo uses a five point capacitive display screen and the Nook runs a rather old Neonode IR that was popular a few years ago. This allows for Kobo Aura users to enjoy more pin point procession when navigating around or turning the pages of a book. The glowlight technology is fairly similar on both units, but I think the Aura edges the Nook out again. In the video below we compare eBooks, PDF files and other written content. The objective is to provide you with the same content right next to each other. If you are thinking about buying or upgrading to either of these readers this is the video for you. Kobo Aura vs Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight is a post from: E-Reader News |
Book Discovery Enhanced with Stumleupon for eBooks
| There are millions of self and traditionally published out there and trying to discover the next good read is something everyone is focusing on. A new website launched today that is billing itself as the Stumbleupon for eBooks and at the click of a button presents over 10,000 eBooks. Developer Raimonds Plavenieks launched the site only today and has gained a ton of traction with hundreds of users online and 10,000 eBooks added. Authors can automatically submit their books into the discovery engine by Tweeting @stumblary with your teaser and link to the book. Books can be added from a myriad of websites such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords and Kobo. Raymond cites the reason for launching the platform as “ a fun experiment in recommending books.” The entire project is a bit of a lark with authors encouraged to submit ideas for features directly to Ray. Considering how much money is being sunk into discovering digital books by major publishers, this is a unique way to go about finding the next great read. Book Discovery Enhanced with Stumleupon for eBooks is a post from: E-Reader News |
Publishers Pleased with First Children’s Book Fair Held in China
| The first Children’s Book Fair held in China ran from 7th till 9th November and publishers who had been part of the inaugural edition of the fair report to having made a killing at the event. Publishers had to themselves two days before the fair was thrown open to the public which was marked by hectic activity. This also proved to be a golden opportunity for the publishers from the west and elsewhere in the world to interact directly with the public and their Chinese counterparts, something that they had to rely mostly on agents to get going. “It has been phenomenal: overwhelming at times. I have been in back–to-back meetings since I arrived. I planned to have 40–50 meetings but I have had about double that. I could have sold rights 10 times over if I was able to,” said Andrew Sharp, groups rights and digital director for Hachette Children's Books while speaking to ‘The Bookseller’. “The culture is very much that children read to learn but I have sensed that this fair is trying to get out the message of reading for pleasure,” said Sharp saying the focus has been more on fiction and picture books. “What this has really done is given us an opportunity to meet Chinese publishers,” Sharp further added. Abdul Thadha, founder of Leicester-based Sweet Cherry Publishing echoed similar feeling saying: “There was massive interest from librarians who wanted to buy books in different languages, which is a bonus I wasn’t expecting. Picture books have been of the main interest. I haven't signed any deals but I have got so many leads that I can’t help but think there will be a lot to come from it.” He also added: “I think this show has been absolutely brilliant. Those who have not come have missed out. I did not anticipate there would be this many publishers here . . . on the first day all my slots had gone, there was no time for lunch and I was meeting with publishers back to back. The only thing I would change for next year is to have more distributors here as there doesn’t seem to be any and obviously they are important." The Chinese publishers though weren’t as enthusiastic with the results they met, claiming there were less interest in their titles from UK publishers. This can be made for the words of Zhu Jing, foreign rights manager for Zhejiang Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House as revealed to The Bookseller: “We publish about 500 new titles a year, of which around 20% are imports. We do a lot of business with Dorling Kindersley in the UK. We really hope to sell more titles into the UK but right now we don't have much understanding of what the young readers are looking for or interested in. We have been to the London Book Fair, Frankfurt and Bologna and tried different agents to sell titles to the UK but it hasn’t been very successful so far.” The first Children’s Book Fair held in Shanghai saw attendance of publishers such as Publishers Association, Hachette Children's Books, HarperCollins, Nosy Crow, Top That!, Windmill Books and Brown Bear Books, World of Books, Digital Leaf, Sweet Cherry Publishing and Small World Creations, along with several other from around the world.
Publishers Pleased with First Children’s Book Fair Held in China is a post from: E-Reader News |
Pottermore Debuts on Tablets and Smartphone Devices
| The Harry Potter interactive website Pottermore is now available on mobile connected devices such as tablet PCs and smartphones. Up until now, the same was limited to just web browsers on traditional computing devices such as notebooks or desktops. Good to see the same transcending to the new age devices such as tablets which has emerged the most preferred device for personal computing needs. Pottermore though didn't reveal which platforms the site is compatible with except that it has got 'leading tablet devices' covered. This should include iOS and Android platforms at the least. As for the site itself, Pottermore has been found to be just as responsive and interactive as it has been known to be when accessed via a browser on a PC. Sure the smaller screen of a smartphone can't make up for the all the fun that the site provides for when viewed in a bigger display of a PC or even a tablet, though nevertheless, its availability in a smartphone provides a greater penetration than that was possible when it was exclusive to web browsers to be viewed on PCs. As with the site to be made accessible via mobile devices, there is also a huge demand for a Pottermore app and the good news here is that sources – though unconfirmed – have announced a collection of apps is already under development.
Pottermore Debuts on Tablets and Smartphone Devices is a post from: E-Reader News |
Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight vs Simple Touch Reader with Glowlight
| Welcome back to another popular installment of the Good e-Reader Video Comparison Series! Today we look at the first e-Reader to use front-lit technology with the Barnes and Noble Simple Touch with Glowlight against the second generation Nook Glowlight. If you have the older model and want to see what all of the fuss is all about with the newer reader, you want to watch this video. Today, we directly compare the two e-readers against each other with the same book, magazine, PDF File and show you the entire digital reading experience. You can get a sense of the strengths of each model and even witness a nighttime reading test in action. Both e-readers have similar specs, they have six inch IR display and feature an e-ink screen. The newer Nook has 1024×768 for the resolution, whereas the older model has 800×600. There is also enhanced tech underneath the hood to eliminate the full page refreshes you are used to and instead the Nook Glowlight provides a more seamless experience. Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight vs Simple Touch Reader with Glowlight is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Nook Glowlight
| Welcome to another Good e-Reader comparison video! Today we take a look at two of the latest generation e-readers that will be vying for your attention this holiday season. The Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight just came out last week and the Kindle Paperwhite 2 has been available for the last three weeks. We directly compare eBooks, magazines, newspapers, PDF Files and show you how the glowlight looks. The Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Nook Glowlight both have comparable hardware specs on paper. They have six inch screens with 1024×768 for the resolution and both solely rely on the touchscreen to interact with content. The Kindle has a capacitive touchscreen, while the Nook has Neonode IR Touch. This gives the advantage to Amazon because you can pinch and zoom, while you cannot on the Nook. The Kindle has a 1GHZ processor whereas the Nook has 800 MHZ. When you take them both out of the box for the first time you have 2 GB of memory on each one to load in your own books and purchase content. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Nook Glowlight is a post from: E-Reader News |
Derek Jeter Starts Jeter Publishing in Partnership With S&H
| Getting into book publishing business isn't generally the most preferred post-retirement plan that most sportsmen would opt for though Derek Jeter, that is exactly what he had set his sights on. The New York Yankees shortstop and captain has already got on to the act, having sealed a deal with Simon & Schuster that would act as a partner to his own firm, Jeter Publishing. Jeter spent the most of this year nourishing injuries that had limited him to feature in just 17 games. However, that also provided him enough time to introspect what he'd like to achieve once he hangs up his boots. “I've had a lot of time to myself to think,” he said. “The whole last year has been sort of a blur. Being away from it for so long gave me the opportunity to think about what the future may hold after baseball.” As for his getting into the publishing business, Jeter explained that saying he has always harbored interest in business and content which made enough sense to set up Jeter Publishing. “I've always had an interest in business, and my interest in business has really expanded over the years,” Jeter said. “And I have an interest in content. So this gives me the opportunity to really combine the two. And it gives me the opportunity to curate and share interesting stories and share content with the public.” Among the first titles that Jeter Publishing wishes to release will be ‘Derek Jeter guide to baseball’, which is hardly surprising. Jeter also added the book will be updated every year. Among the other titles forthcoming from Jeter Publishing include children's titles, picture books as well as adult fiction, middle grade fiction, biographies among others. “I understand how important content is this day and age,” Jeter told reporters for the Daily News. “You get an opportunity to share people's stories–it doesn't necessarily have to be baseball–that I find interesting, I'm happy I get an opportunity to do it. I'm looking forward to it. This is my publishing imprint. It has my name on it. I'm going to try and make everyone proud.” Jeter though said his number one priority right now is to bow out of the game on a high. The 40 year old has recently been signed for one year in a deal worth $12million. Meanwhile, Jeter Publishing will have a working relationship with Wicked Cow Entertainment, a firm ‘that manages strategy for sports and entertainment brands and will be looking for “brand extensions” for books.’
Derek Jeter Starts Jeter Publishing in Partnership With S&H is a post from: E-Reader News |
Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight Review
| Barnes and Noble has just released their second generation glowlight e-Reader and has dropped the “Simple Touch” naming convention. The Nook Glowlight has a design that is entirely unique and features a piece of rubber that circulates the device in a bid to minimize the damage from dropping it. The company has refined the lighting technology that allows you to read in the dark and can now give Amazon and Kobo a run for their money in terms of clarity. How does this device perform under real world conditions when reading newspapers, magazines, eBooks and other content? Is the new design a boon or bane for the average customer? Is this worth the upgrade if you own previous Nook e-Readers? Today we look into all of these issues and more to give you the definitive answers. Hardware The Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight features a six inch IR touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 X 758-pixel and 212 PPI. This is a huge upgrade from the previous generation Nook that only had 800×600 for the resolution. Under heavy tests we noticed that the blacks were deeper in cover art and the way fonts look when you maximize their levels. The Glowlight technology that allow you to read in the dark has been dramatically enhanced. B&N still continues the philosophy of bucking the major industry trend of putting the LED lights on the top of the device, instead of the bottom. Overall, the light is now almost pure white, where the NST with Glowlight would often have a blue hue to it. The entire Good e-Reader review team think that that the new model has 75% brighter and clearer lighting. We did notice some drawbacks with the way light was handled. When you have it above 65% in brightness you tend to notice a layer of grey film at the very top of the screen. This is where the 5 LED lights are positioned and point downwards. To turn the light off you can access it in the settings menu or hold down your finger on the home button for two seconds. The settings menu itself is at the top right hand corner and the Nook screen is sunken, much like the Kindle is. You will often have to try and few times to hit the settings menu to control the brightness. Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ processor and 256 MB of RAM. There are 4 GB of internal memory that you can use to store purchases made from the bookstore. When you take it out of the box for the first time and power it on, there is only 2.1 GB available. If you like to load in your own PDF Files or eBooks there is only 500 MB reserved for user files. Unlike prior models of the Nook line of e-Readers, there is no expandable memory via SD in the Nook Glowlight. The specs on paper are very much akin to most other e-readers on the market by Sony, Amazon, Kobo and most of the indie companies. The Nook Glowlight has a full piece of rubber that circles the entire length of the e-Reader. You can take it off, but it exposes some of the assemblies and the motherboard is showing. It also is a bit jagged in parts, so you don’t want to do this. This was one of the most oddest design choices ever in e-Readers. Why they did this is beyond me, they don’t even offer different colored bumpers to buy to customize your device, which I would have done. I realize the essence of the rubber is to protect your device from drops, as the weight of it would change the momentum to land on its side, rather then face down. Really, how many people are reading when they are walking down the sidewalk or in a position to truly damage their e-readers from big falls? We run a drop test on the previous generation Nook Simple Touch and it was fine after dropping it from five feet in the air on concrete. Battery Life is on this device is somewhat consistent with other e-readers on the market. You will get two months of battery life out of a single charge and you power it up by hooking it into your computer with the USB cable. Barnes and Noble has elected to not bundle a wall charger, so you will have to buy your own. In the end, the overall resolution and glowlight enhancements are the main drivers to upgrade to this device if you own one of Barnes and Noble’s earlier devices. Text and pictures look way better and the light is more evenly distributed across the screen. The physical construction of the device has a bit to be desired for and I quite frequently found myself starting to peel off the rubber when holding the device. It is not held in place very tightly and easily comes off. Software Many uninformed tech sites cited that the Android 2.1 OS that comes bundled on the Nook Glowlight to be old and outdated. It is true that its an older version but to the average user no one cares. You certainly would not gain any compelling benefits of a recent version of Android because B&N heavily skins their UI, so you wouldn’t even know. The UI has been really simplified on this version of the Nook. You no longer have to tap the home button to bring up all of your quick options, instead they are persistently at the bottom of the screen. Library, Store and Search are the only three options available. The settings, social and other functionality is now at the top right hand side of the screen. No one really changes their settings on a daily basis or adjusts the lighting every few minutes, so I dig the fact its neatly tucked out of the way. The main library shelf has not received an upgrade and you can sort your collections by newspapers, eBooks, documents, and even an “Everything else” option which shows your apps and other content you may have purchased using the Nook HD line of tablets. This is actually their “cloud” option, but everything listed in here is a bit of a tease because you can’t even use it. You can also do a cover art few, or a list few, fairly basic stuff and nothing advanced of note. If you have the Nook Simple Touch or the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight most of the menus and sub-menus look exactly the same. There are no exciting software enhancements of note. Things are organized a bit differently and I think its more intuitive now than before. The Store experience right now is quite buggy and we reached out to Barnes and Noble for comment. If you are reading a book and select “more” it brings you to the store. In the past, there were options to change your e-reading experience from the stock portrait view to landscape. If you go into your settings menu and click on LENDME titles, you would think it would bring you into the section of the Nook store with titles you can share with your friends, nope, its the same stock store. If you try clicking on any eBook you can’t actually click on it to get the book description and even to buy it. Instead, you have to login to the Nook website and sync your content directly. Finally, if you click on Social and try and enter passwords to connect up your Facebook or Twitter account all of the password fields are blank when you enter text. I ran into the situation where I knew the password I entered was correct but there was no place holder symbols to let me know how many characters I typed. When I scrolled up the page the it for a second showed me the password in plain text but then quickly disappeared. Maybe we have a bum unit, maybe its the software acting up, maybe its the fact we live in Canada but could buy content on our other Nooks, likely the device was rushed out too fast, who knows. In the end, most e-reader companies release a new model every year and some have some cool new software features that offer a compelling reason to upgrade. Kobo unveiled “Beyond the Book” which is their answer to Amazon X-Ray. Amazon announced GoodReads integration and Kindle Freetime for their e-readers, both are not available yet, but will be soon. Sony and B&N generally remain fairly consistent with slowly refining core elements of their device but not introducing any new software enhancements that make users turn their heads around and take notice. e-Reading Experience Barnes and Noble has always maintained an elegant e-reading experience and not providing a ton of advanced options to confuse their customer base. When it comes to reading you are mainly using EPUB and PDF Files. EPUB is what the Nook store sells and you can load in your own PDF’s. The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Nook Glowlight have similar text augmentation features when it comes to changing the size of your font, line spacing, margins and font size. If you hold your finger down in the middle and select text you are able to customize your changes and it dynamically updates. There are six different fonts, 7 different font sizes and 3 different ways to edit margins and line spacing. When inside a book you can make highlights, look words up in a very basic dictionary, share a specific passage with your friends on Facebook or Twitter. You hold down your finger on a word to drop an anchor and then can select an entire sentence or page of text. You can load in your own books on the Nook and have access to all of the functionality as books purchased from B&N. One thing I noticed about the reader is the lightning fast page turns! You do not have full page refreshes at all. We turned 100 pages and did not even experience one refresh. I don’t know what Barnes and Noble did to make this happen but its pleasant. The last two Nook readers did one every six pages and every single page you turned tended to blur the text. The Nook Glow is the best reader to date for the company in terms of not taking you out of the immersive reading. The PDF experience on the Nook Glowlight is lacklustre to say the least. You cannot pinch and zoom on this unit like you can on the Kobo Aura or Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2. Instead, you will have to chance the size of the font to initiate a reflow. This is much akin to the old way that Sony used to do things by relying on you to switch up your Zoom level. The page numbers change depending on this. Our DND Monsters Manual was around 280 pages but on the first level of zoom changed to 600 pages and 3rd 800 pages. You also don’t get a preview window that helps orient you on where in the document you actually are. This is likely the weakest part of the Nook e-Reader and likely a deterrent to anyone looking to purchase one. Finally, you can purchase magazines and newspapers via the Nook ecosystem but you can think of them as eBooks. Aside from the cover art everything is basically the Nook Edition, and allows you to augment the text size, font type and add notes. Anything you can do in a standard eBook you can do in either of these. Wrap Up – Is it Worth It? If you have the Nook Simple Touch or the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight this is worth the upgrade if you read a ton in the dark and if font clarity matters to you. Aside from those two things this reader is very much the same as previous generations in terms of the hardware. The lack of SD card is a black mark on this device, because it does not allow you expandable storage to load in more content. PROS Resolution is on par with Kobo Aura and Kindle Paperwhite 2 CONS PDF Experience is Woeful Rating: 7.5/10
Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight Review is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, November 15, 2013
Smashwords Adds Dropbox Delivery for eBook Reading
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Interestingly, this new feature will be compatible with ebooks that consumers have already purchased and stored in their libraries, making the virtual storage application a cloud-based access-anywhere portable library. Readers simply have to click the Send to Dropbox button that will appear next to their titles. According to a blog post on the announcement by CEO and founder Mark Coker, “Each time you purchase an ebook at Smashwords, we'll automatically transfer up to three file formats – epub, mobi and PDF – to your Dropbox account. File format availability is determined by the author or publisher. You'll find your files in Dropbox's "Apps/Smashwords" folder. You can transfer previously purchased books to Dropbox by clicking the Send to Dropbox button in your Smashwords Library.”
Smashwords Adds Dropbox Delivery for eBook Reading is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kindle Fire HDX Alternate Launchers and Wallpapers
| Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX tablets come with software based on Google’s Android 4.2 operating system. But you would never know it by using the HDX tablets because Amazon has customized the software in a number of ways to better reflect their products and services instead of Google’s. The software for the HDX tablets is called […] |
Digital Comics Bargains for November 15, 2013
| Just in time for the holiday travel season, we have a ton of great digital comics deals. Load up your e-reader now, and you’ll be good until the holiday gift cards come in. Indie publisher Top Shelf is having a big digital sale across all platforms—that’s comiXology, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Comics Plus. The sale includes steep markdowns on two of the most acclaimed books of the year, Rep. John Lewis’s March, the first volume of his memoir of the Civil Rights movement, and Rob Harrell’s Monster on the Hill, an all-ages tale (set in a delightful alternate Victorian England) of a monster who can’t quite sum up the energy to be scary any more. Pick up the two of them plus Diana Thung’s delightful Splendour in the Snow and you’ll get a couple of cents back from your virtual sawbuck. There’s plenty here for all tastes: Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell, Jess Fink, Jeff Lemire, Harvey Peckar—you can’t go wrong. Here’s another cross-platform sale: Superman comics by Grant Morrison, on comiXology, Kindle, and Nook, for 99 cents an issue. This includes his much-loved All Star Superman, a good starting point if you’re new to superhero comics or maybe just haven’t read Superman in a while; it’s one of those comics that you don’t have to be a hard-core comics fan to enjoy. There’s been a lot of talk about women in comics lately (just Google it!) so it’s nice that comiXology is stepping up with a Women of Marvel sale on titles with strong female leads, such as She-Hulk, Spider-Woman, and Captain Marvel, all for 99 cents each. Over at Dark Horse, they’re marching to a different drummer, literally, with a selection of rock and roll comics for 99 cents each. Check out a couple of Gerard Way’s Umbrella Academy miniseries or his The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (with art by the always awesome Becky Cloonan), or maybe Orchid, by Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine). Digital Manga is having an Autumn Sale with 25% off 15 different manga titles; be warned that some of them are adult manga and the link may be NSFW. But there are also some teen-friendly yaoi titles and Harlequin romances available at good prices. The best price of all, of course, is free. So check this out: You can get a free bio-comic about Alan Moore, in which writer Gary Millidge strings together panels from different Moore comics to tell the writer’s life story. You’ll have to download the Sequential app, which is iPad-only, but go ahead as it’s a nice app and they have some interesting free content (including a collection of lost Neil Gaiman comics) and they are also marking down some of Moore’s comics. Finally, you can stay home on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all those other shopping holidays and pick up some free digital comics from DC—they will be giving away the first issues of a number of their digital-first series, including Batman ’66 and Adventures of Superman, but just one a day, so check the list and mark your calendar. Digital Comics Bargains for November 15, 2013 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Can you hear me now? Audiobook checkouts hit the roof in 2013
| Audiobooks are on fire! In the past year, OverDrive mp3 audiobook checkouts have gone through the roof, growing 127% from November 2012 through October 2013. Total checkouts exceeded 13 million just in 11 ½ months. Last month saw more than 1.4 million checkouts, and this month is on pace to double last year's November checkouts.
Millions of others agree, highlighted by an average 8 percent month over month increase in audiobook checkouts. Libraries and schools across the world are stocking up on titles from OverDrive Marketplace to make sure they have the audiobooks their patrons and students want.
Want to see what all the noise is about? Go to search.overdrive.com to browse our catalog of mp3 audiobooks, and get listening!
Heather Tunstall is the Public Relations Specialist at OverDrive.
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PiePal: order a pizza at the push of a button
| Here’s a Friday night quickie (no, we’re not nipping off to the pub unfortunately—we’re getting ready for tomorrow’s Manchester Raspberry Jam). Ordering pizza can be such a chore. At the very least you have to pick up the phone and shout, “Bring! Pizza! Here!” At worst it can actually involve going outside and all that that entails. The fine folks at iStrategyLabs have put paid to this nonsense with PiePal, a one button pizza ordering system. PiePal was designed in SketchUp and printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2. Inside, the Raspberry Pi hooks into the API of Domino’s online ordering system to automatically order your favourite pie when you press the button.  Press the button. You know you want to. If this has tickled your taste buds–or, indeed, your fancy–you can sign up as a beta tester. Now: how to stop people—who have gone to sleep on your floor a bit worse for wear—waking up at 3am with the munchies and mashing the PiePal like a crazed lab rat while repeatedly grunting, “Peeeeee-ZAAAAHH! Peeeeee-ZAAAAHH!” |