| When you think of tablets doubling as an e-reader, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo or even Apple may come to mind. Seldom do you think of HP as being relevant when it comes to reading any sort of digital material. This might change with the advent of the HP Slate 7, a fully fledged Windows tablet that costs $99.99. The HP Stream 7, is apart of a new range that is seeking to make Windows 8.1 relevant. It features a seven inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800, as well as Intel Atom Z3735G with Intel HD Graphics (1.8 GHz, 2 MB cache, 4 cores), 1 GB RAM and 32GB of storage. Of course, this device has WIFI, Bluetooth, a Micro USB and Micro SD support to enhance the memory further. HP is starting Black Friday early with a new exclusive to Microsoft Store, the Stream 7 Signature Edition variant. It comes protected with premium, free anti-virus software that never expires. And best of all, it comes without any annoying junkware or trialware, giving you peace of mind that your tablet will always be clean, fast, and protected. Developers have slowly been adopting the Microsoft Store with a ton of apps for reading eBooks, comics, manga, digital magazines and newspapers. This might be a totally viable tablet that costs $100 less than the new Kindle Voyage. HP Stream 7 will make a Good e-Reader is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Monday, November 10, 2014
HP Stream 7 will make a Good e-Reader
Card Readers are Showing Entrepreneurs to Think Local
| When young artists and small business owners are just starting out they tend to sell their content on platforms with the largest audience. Amazon Marketplace, Alibaba, eBay, and ETSY are all the most notable examples of being able to reach a huge audience and generate revenue without the need to setup a dedicated website and maintain strong social media. The downfall of these sites is that you may be known in a small niche segment online, but are completely unknown in your own backyard. I see small business owners and young entrepreneurs feel lost and deflated because they never get to meet their customers face to face and seldom do you ever see jubilation or a simple smile. Normally a customer dispute and angry emails are the everyday norm and it's rare that someone actually sends you a thank you email. I think in order to broaden your base and have a sense of real world accomplishment you have to get out there and develop a local presence. The one big concern about selling local is getting a distribution deal through an existing store and requires a lot of wheeling and dealing. If you live in a small town, your prospects might be bleak, which is why they turned online in the first place. A number of artists and authors end up going on tours to conventions or trade shows to get their name out there. I know a number of self-published authors that religiously visit the Romance Writers of America show and sell their books directly. The one big problem is people really don't carry a lot of cash around on them and instead rely on their credit and debit cards. I hear lots of authors complaining that the process of selling directly to readers is too hard. This problem has been remedied by mobile credit card readers such as Square that can not only process payments directly on your tablet or smartphone directly with customers, but can also be used online in conjunction with your Shopify account to take orders. I really recommend if you're a young writer or artist trying to make a name for yourself, don't rely entirely on the online world. You need to meet your target base directly and cultivate relationships and get that sense of satisfaction that someone is legitimately excited about what you got. Card Readers are Showing Entrepreneurs to Think Local is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Sony Developing New DRM to Make Used eBooks Viable
| Sony is developing a new form of digital rights management to combat Adobes stranglehold on on the eBook market. The new encryption system will have an SDK that can be integrated into any existing e-reader or mobile app. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this new security system is a viable platform in which eBooks can be resold. Adobe Digital Editions is the current industry standard when it comes to eBooks having a layer of security to curb piracy. If you purchase a digital title from one store and want to load it onto your favorite e-reader or tablet you have to download and install the ADE Software, make an account and enter your credit card details. This software is also required for people who borrow eBooks from the library and aren’t using an official app from 3M, Baker & Taylor or Overdrive. The new Sony encryption system has been a product of three years of development at Sony DADC. This is a Sony subsidiary that primarily focuses on the development of storage media (CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays), but in addition offers Digital Rights Management Services. Sony plans on making their new eBook encryption system very appealing towards publishers and e-reader manufactures. The developed a brand new SDK that will play nice with any 3rd party reading app on Android, iOS or Windows. It also can integrated directly into any e-reader on the market. The key selling points of the Sony DRM are; to make eBook rentals viable, to lend an eBook to a friend easier, to define a clear path of ownership, better pay per chapter (metered) support and the ability to resell a book. The big problem in the eBook industry right now is the lack of clear ownership. When you click the BUY button on Amazon, Apple, Kobo, or Google you are simply licensing the book and it is never truly yours. Sony wants to change this and define a clear path of ownership, this will allow people to sell a used eBook and it will actually physically disappear from the original owners account. Sony plans on shopping their new DRM system in the spring of 2015 and will likely be conducting private meetings at notable events like the London Book Fair, Book Expo America and IDPF gatherings. I have heard from a reputable source that Sony already has six publishers locked up and will be leveraging those relationship in order to establish new ones. Sony Developing New DRM to Make Used eBooks Viable is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Listen up! Narrated eBooks now available
| With the most recent release of OverDrive Read, we’ve introduced eBooks that are enhanced with embedded audio. This new feature means that you can get eBooks (through OverDrive Read) that deliver professional narration along with the text. Here’s a sample of Spork, by Kyo Maclear and Isabelle Arsenault. Click Start narration to see how it works: Some of these eBooks include a full-blown soundtrack with sound effects, like Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch: These two samples aren’t just narrated; they’re also examples of fixed-layout eBooks. “Fixed layout” means that a publisher can design the digital pages of each eBook so that they look just like the ones in the print version, with every word and picture in its proper place. These look best in the full-screen preview mode so you get a two-page spread. In these two samples, each word is highlighted as the narrator reads. This works with many narrated titles (depending on the publisher), and is great for helping developing readers learn because they can simultaneously hear and read each word as a story progresses. The narrated titles we offer are high-quality productions that have been tested for quality before being made available for sale. Randy Travis, John Lithgow, and Robert Munsch are just a few of the great narrators we offer. Heck, we’ve even got Ray Charles (yes, that Ray Charles) reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin and John Archambault! You can find narrated titles by filtering your advanced search results by the special feature “Embedded audio” in the OverDrive MarketPlace. We’ve also compiled a list (you’ll need to be signed into MarketPlace to view this link). If you want to keep track of what’s getting updated in OverDrive Read in the future, you can check out our “What’s New?” help article (which we update regularly) for more information. OverDrive Help also has you covered with articles specifically for narrated eBooks that include the basic “how-tos” and compatibility information. With that, I bid you, happy reading! Er . . . listening? Both? In any case, go out and enjoy some eBooks! I’m off to partake of the dulcet tones of Mr. Ray Charles. Quinton Lawman is a Technical Writer at OverDrive.  |
New Fire HDX 8.9 has Dynamic Light Control to Mimic the Look of Paper (Video)
| I’ll admit, when Amazon announced their new lineup of Kindle ereaders and Fire tablets for this year, I barely paid any attention whatsoever to the new Fire HDX 8.9. I was too interested in the Kindle Voyage and new 6-inch Fire HD to care much about a Fire HDX with only a couple upgrades from […] |
Investors Satisfied with Blackberry 10 Fire Sale
| Blackberry is undergoing a resurgence under the leadership of John Chen and the fruits of their new strategy are resonating well with investors. No one really knows how many Blackberry Passport devices were sold, but 200,000 units were gone right away. The main Blackberry website has been sold out every day of the week since launch and the upcoming Classic phone is highly anticipated with its core customers. Blackberry is trying to liquidate their current inventory of older phones by having a fire sale during the month of November. The BlackBerry’s Q10 price dropped one hundred dollars to $199, ahead of the release of the Classic. Likely, Blackberry saw no need for a single keyboard device competing for the same market. The Classic features the inclusion of navigation buttons and trackpad, something that was missing from the Q10. The Z30 price drop is very dramatic and the phone itself was a victim of bad timing. When it got released the Blackberry leadership was changing and the company did not allocate enough of a marketing budget to run any kind of sustained media campaign. Can this be a sign to come that the company might be developing a phablet type of device? The two devices Blackberry is getting behind and pushing in a big way is the Passport and Classic. I like the fact it hearkens back to the glory days of Blackberry, where all of their phones had a great keyboard. According to SeekingAlpha “Investors are not convinced shares of BlackBerry should trade above the $10.50 level. There are still concerns of falling revenue from the services division. The company will make up for the drop first through BES 12 subscriptions. On the hardware sales side, speculation of strong Passport sales could finally push shares towards back to the $15 level. This is unlikely in the short-term. BlackBerry still needs a phablet or a tablet-like smart phone. This signals the company is confident with the BBOS 10.3 release. More importantly, it implies BlackBerry is confident demand for its family of devices will improve now, and heading into 2015.” Investors Satisfied with Blackberry 10 Fire Sale is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Raspberry Pi Model A+ on sale now at $20
| When we announced the Model B+ back in July, we said that we’d also be producing a lower-cost variant, analogous to the original Model A. Since then, James has been beavering away, and today we’re pleased to announce the release of the Raspberry Pi Model A+ at a new low price of $20.  Smaller, more energy-efficient and crazy-affordable Like the Model A, the Model A+ uses the BCM2835 application processor and has 256MB RAM, but it is significantly smaller (65mm in length, versus 86mm for the Model A), consumes less power, and inherits the many improvements that we made to the Model B+, including:
When we announced Raspberry Pi back in 2011, the idea of producing an “ARM GNU/Linux box for $25″ seemed ambitious, so it’s pretty mind-bending to be able to knock another $5 off the cost while continuing to build it here in the UK, at the same Sony factory in South Wales we use to manufacture the Model B+. You can buy the Model A+ today from our partners Farnell/element14/Newark. We handed out a very few preview units to some people we know with video cameras and microphones. Here’s what they had to say: |
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Marvel Secret Wars Battleworld the Big Digital Comic Event of 2015
| Marvel is rebooting the Secret Wars into a new project called Battleworld, which will launch in May 2015 and continue well into the summer. In the original Secret Wars, the villain known as The Beyonder took pieces from various planets and combined them to create Battleworld where he forced the heroes and villains of Earth to fight each other. This new Secret Wars seems to be taking that basic concept but using pieces from Earths of different realities. This trailer shows that each reality has their own separate region on Battleworld. Given the name of this planet, it's safe to assume that the heroes and villains of these worlds will have to battle one another. This event will hopefully be a do over from the original Secret Wars, which had a high concept but terrible execution. I am hoping this is going to be better than Age of Ultron or AVX, which has been fairly lackluster.
Marvel Secret Wars Battleworld the Big Digital Comic Event of 2015 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
e-Reader Buyers Guide – Winter 2014
| This year it seems more new e-readers have come out than almost any other year and it can be quite daunting to choose the best one as a gift, upgrade or just buying one for the first time. Some devices have built in bookstores that allow you to buy eBooks, magazines and newspapers on demand, others make the users rely on finding their own books online and loading them in via the USB cable. e-Readers tend to come in two sizes for the most part, six inches and 9.7 inches. Six inch e-readers tend to be the most popular, because of their pocket friendly nature and low entry price point. Larger readers tend to be most expensive because less people buy them and it costs more to manufacture small batches. What is an e-Reader? An e-Reader typically uses e-Ink technology, which mimics real paper. Smartphones and tablets use LCD displays which has light emitting from behind the screen into your eyes. This has been known to cause melatonin suppression, which basically makes you stay up late, unable to sleep properly. e-Readers this year have mostly adopted front-lit displays, which has the light emitting from underneath the bezel, splashing light evenly across the screen. This allows you to read in the dark, controlling the brightness levels, without the need of ambient lighting or a reading light. e-Readers for the most part have a singular use, to read eBooks. 95% of all electronic readers were designed to purely enjoy a great book, without the distractions that smartphones and tablets provide via emails, notifications and overall distractions. The Best Six Inch e-Readers Amazon Kindle Voyage – The Voyage is Amazons new flagship e-reader and has a six inch screen with the best resolution in the business. Amazon has incorporated some new technology in this model that no other e-reader on the market currently has. The first is manual page turn keys that are flush with the bezel, the buttons do not protrude. When you press down on the button to turn the page you are met with a barely noticeable haptic feedback vibration to let you know you turned a page. There is also an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust the brightness of the screen based on your lighting conditions. Amazon currently has the best in class eBook ecosystem, they control 75% of the market in North America and the UK. They have everything from fan-fiction to being able to read books before they officially hit the bookstores and even an unlimited membership that allows you to check out as many books a month as you want. The Seattle based company is in the news a lot, for good reason, they are the best. There are some drawbacks to the Amazon ecosystem as a whole. They have their own eBook format, which makes it impossible to buy books from other stores and load them on the device. The Voyage also has no SD Card support, so you have to use the 3.5 GB of memory with caution, especially if you are loading big PDF files on it. Kobo Aura H2O – Canadian based Kobo released a singular e-reader this year, that is being billed as the first device you can take with you anywhere. It is completely waterproof up to five meters, fully submerged, which makes it appealing to take with you in the bathtub to the beach or on vacation. The Aura H2O has the same resolution as the Kindle Voyage, but has a 6.8 inch screen instead of the standard six. It has an SD Card, so you can load up even more books than the Kindle and the Kobo bookstore is populated with millions of titles. The larger screen makes reading a bit more enjoyable because more text can be displayed, making books seem a bit shorter. Flexible font control allows you to change it on the fly and advanced options allow you to even load in your own fonts. Speaking of advanced options, Kobo is the only company to balance general level options to control simple functions but it also appeals to power users with being able to control font weight or even the bright/dark levels of the text. Kobo is second most popular eBook store in the world and you can buy digital content in almost every country. They use the EPUB format, so you can easily borrow books from your local library or even from other online bookstores and load them in via Adobe Digital Editions. Icarus Illumina HD – E653 – One of the big trends of 2014 was indie e-reader companies adopting the concept of open Android. This is the same type of user experience that smartphones and tablet owners enjoy, by being able to install their own apps. The HD model runs Android 4.2, which makes it highly capable of being able to run Kindle, Kobo, Nook or any other app such as Moon+ Reader or Aldiko. The Illumina HD is highly versatile and is able to read most popular eBook formats, you can buy books in EPUB or PDF formats from any major store and load them onto the unit via Adobe Digital Editions. There is no bookstore built into the unit of note, but because you can basically install your store of choice, this e-reader allows for unparalleled freedom and is more solid than any of the e-readers Onyx sells. Barnes and Noble Nook Glowlight – Barnes and Noble remains a force to be reckoned with in the e-reader industry, even though their market share has diminished due to Amazon and Kobo. The Glowlight was the only model the largest bookseller in the US released in 2014. One of the ways B&N continues to be successful is due to the fact the e-Reader is sold in bookstores and most people in the US and UK live in close proximity to one. Users who experience issues with the hardware only have to drive down to their local store and receive intimidate support or to have it replaced. Barnes and Noble was the first company to pioneer the very concept of glowlight technology and their online bookstore is well designed and highly curated. They put an emphasis on editorial and discovery in order to find the next good read. The Nook line of e-readers tends to get lambasted by the media because it makes a click worthy headline that the company is doomed. This is the similar type of syndrome that Blackberry has experienced over the year, but Nook remains relevant and a good e-reader. Best Large Screen e-Readers There are a number of reasons why people tend to buy large screen e-readers. As we get older, the eyesight tends to degrade and book lovers tend to buy the large print editions of books in their local store. Doing this can get expensive as these variants often cost two or three times the cost of a paperback,. Another popular reason why people love large screen e-readers is due to the screen real estate. PDF Files and eBooks can fit more text on the screen, which appeals to students and industry professionals. Icarus Excel – For the most demanding user that works with A4 sized documents, PDFs and has the need to interact with the content (notes, annotations, highlighting), the ICARUS Reader eXceL is unmatched. The 9.7" E-Ink PEARL touch screen has great contrast and swiftly responds to any command . With 1200 x 825 pixels it has much more detail than most e-readers (800 x 600). With the stylus you can make handwritten notes, highlight text, and make annotations. And with Wi-Fi connectivity you can wirelessly browse the web and access content on the go. This e-reader also runs Android 4.0 which allows users to select the digital ecosystem of their choice, but also install other news/RSS or magazine apps. Sony Digital Paper – Sony abandoned the consumer e-reader sector earlier this year. They developed a new product that sticky appeals towards people who need to get large PDF files. This reader is 13.3 inches in size and retails for around $999.99 in the US and has higher international availability via Shop e-Readers. The Sony Digital Paper features a 13.3 inch e-Ink Mobius e-paper screen with a resolution of 1200 by 1600. It was designed to give you a true A4 experience, displaying PDF files as they were originally intended. The lightweight nature of Mobius gives you amazing clarity in the fonts and pictures. It also one of the most lightweight products in its class, clocking in at .08 pounds. To give you some comparison, The Kindle DX has a 9.7 inch screen and weighs 0.91 pounds and the iPad Air is 1.3 pounds. The Digital Paper only reads PDF documents but it is possible to convert your standard eBook to PDF using online tools or eBook editing software like Calibre. Wrap up There was a number of notable e-readers that did not make our buying list for various reasons. Pocketbook has been making them for a number of years, but has made missteps with the internals, such as CPU and RAM which makes using it tedious. Onyx Boox also has a number of new units this year, but none of them were especially compelling. Our recommendations reflect the best new e-readers of 2014, in terms of usability, features and ecosystem. You could get any of these for holiday gifts or give them to someone and they will not have to go through much of a learning curve. e-Reader Buyers Guide – Winter 2014 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Saturday, November 8, 2014
The Benefits of an e-Reader – Fewer Notifcations
| If you have a tablet or smartphone running Android or iOS you are used to a constant barrage of notifications. Notifications have been a blunt instrument for apps to try to get our attention. Every time you install something new, you get a pop-up message that asks if you want to allow it to send you notifications. If you say yes, they arrive with the same intensity as emails, draining precious battery life, making your phone more annoying than savvy. e-Readers on the other hand have never had this issue, which gives it a higher level of immersion. I have been using an iPad for a number of years and my attention while reading an eBook is constantly shifting towards the notifications I receive. Simpsons Tapped Out is letting me know there are more aliens to be squashed or Spider-Man Unlimited is informing me that my energy is now full. Haven’t played a game in awhile, a ton of prompts suddenly say “we miss you, please come back”. Obviously you can turn these off, but if you have a ton of apps and games installed, it can take hours to tweak all of the settings. Dedicated e-readers such as the Kindle Voyage or Kobo Aura H2O are a very different beast than your average smartphone or tablet. There are almost zero notifications, aside from low battery life or new content being synced. Some tablets by Amazon and Kobo have tried to tackle the notification system with an improvement called “Quiet Mode” or “Quiet Time.” Its a simple feature found in the setting menu that will automatically disable all push notifications and disable popups. Sadly, these tablets have not been embraced by the global market and remain niche devices. If you find yourself being detracted by a constant barrage of notifications while reading on your mobile device, you might want to look at buying an e-reader instead. They certainly don’t provide the same type of generalist functionality, but if you want to lose yourself in a good book, you don’t want to buy anything else. The Benefits of an e-Reader – Fewer Notifcations is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Recent comScore Report Places Android on Top in U.S.
| According to the latest comScore metrics, Android is in the lead as the dominant smartphone platform in the mobile marketplace. With 52.1% of the market share, Android is a fair step ahead of Apple who is lagging behind at 41.7% (third place went to Microsoft at a pitiful 3.6%, with fourth landing in BlackBerry’s lap at 2.3%). Android didn’t lead every statistic, however… with Apple leading the pack as the top smartphone manufacturer (based on 174 million people with U.S.-owned devices), securing 41.7% of that market share as well. By comparison, Samsung is next in line with only 29.0% –leaving LG to secure third place with 6.9%. While it may seem a little difficult to understand how Android can lead in the platform category while lagging in the hardware division –it’s due to the range of OEM manufacturers. Samsung may be making the most sales, but others like LG, Motorola, and HTC are also delivering a large number of units that contribute to the overall total number of smartphones. The comScore report also identified the most downloaded smartphone apps (for U.S. smartphone mobile media users, aged 18+ on both iOS and Android platforms): placing Facebook on top, followed by YouTube in a distant second place. Boasting themselves as a leading Internet technology company, comScore “measures what people do as they navigate the digital world – and turns that information into insights and actions for our clients to maximize the value of their digital investments.”
Recent comScore Report Places Android on Top in U.S. is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Free Kindle eBook and Audiobook: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
| This month’s Whispersync for Voice freebie is a classic tale that delves into the darker side of humanity, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. After you get the free version of the Kindle ebook, the audiobook copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde will […] |
Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 10.1
| Amazon and Barnes and Noble both have flagship large screen tablets in the form of the Fire HDX 8.9 2014 edition and the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 10.1. These devices both cost over $300 and provide large screens to read digital books, newspapers, magazines, comics and graphic novels. How well do they compete against each other head to head? Today we compare the full experience to give you a sense of how the hardware and software elements play out. Lately, I have not been going into full details about the specs during these comparison videos. Tablets these days all give you quad-core processors, plenty of RAM and internal storage, on paper they are fairly even. My opinion is that it is all about real world conditions and how content looks. The Fire HDX 8.9 model has a few software functions that make it standout in a crowd. You can listen to a song and quickly ID it, and then buy it from Amazon, or scan a bar code, UPC and just snap a picture of a physical book and instantly get a price comparison. There is also the consumer friendly technical support system that allows you to talk to a real person via Mayday. The best aspect of the HDX, is the Dolby Audio, which really fills a room with full and vibrant sounds, currently the sound quality is the best of ANY tablet in the world right now. The Nook 10.1 has the larger screen, which really makes visual content look really good. It is certainly no slouch in the sound department either, with the stereo speakers. I think the most compelling aspects is the ability to access the classic Nook Store to buy any content you need, but also the inclusion of Google Play greatly enhances customers ability to download other reading apps, such as Kindle, Kobo, Comixology, and thousands of others. In this comparison video we mainly look at how the same content looks side by side, to give you a sense of the resolution and quality. We look at an eBook, magazine, and comic book experience.
Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 10.1 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, November 7, 2014
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 7 VS Nook 10.1
| Barnes and Noble issued two new tablet devices in 2014 and they ironed out an agreement with Samsung to provide the hardware. This was the first time the hardware was outsourced and provides a very unique experience, compared to the Nook HD and HD+. Today, we look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 10.1. In this official comparison video by Good e-Reader we look at the overall user experience. During this process we noticed that the 10.1 inch model had an extra widget on the home screen to give you quick access to your library. What are the main differences between these two models? We dive deep into the reading experience. We compare eBooks, digital magazines, digital newspapers and look at all of the Nook apps that come loaded on it. Both of these tablets have Google Play, Galaxy App Store and the Nook App Store. There is no shortage of content distribution systems available, and its really easy to download whatever 3rd party e-reading app or game you want. This is total freedom, something Nook users of the past were not able to really enjoy.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 7 VS Nook 10.1 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Blackberry CEO Pens Open Letter to Former Users
| Blackberry CEO John Chen has just penned an open letter to existing and former users touting the abilities of the new Blackberry Classic. This phone reminds many of the Bold, which was the quintessential business device of its time. The Blackberry Classic, otherwise known as the Q20, will come with a complete top row of navigation keys and a trackpad. Those are features that many BlackBerry fans missed when the company rolled out its revamped BlackBerry 10 line of devices last year. The device is powered by a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal memory size. There is also a microSD card slot that allows memory expansion of up to 128 GB. It is also reportedly sporting a 13-megapixel primary camera with a 2-megapixel secondary camera for video calls. The Amazon App Store is bundled on the phone as well, to provide not only a wellspring of apps, but also video and music. Chen conceded in a blog post that the company has made some mistakes in the last few years saying: “It’s tempting in a rapidly changing, rapidly growing mobile market to change for the sake of change – to mimic what’s trendy and match the industry-standard, kitchen-sink approach of trying to be all things to all people. When we lose sight of what you want and you need, we lose you.” In my opinion, the Classic will sell. It hearkens back to the days of when Blackberry meant something to the business world. The physical keyboard still has a place in the world for people who don’t like touchscreens. Being a former Blackberry user myself, I have noticed that when I respond to text messages on an iPhone, I usually speak in Ebonics. My thoughts were more cohesively laid out when using a Blackberry. Blackberry CEO Pens Open Letter to Former Users is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Onyx Boox AfterGlow 2 Features Android 4.2 and Google Play
| Onyx Boox dramatically enhanced their e-reader portfolio in 2014 with the advent of the T68 Lynx, M96 Universe and the Midia e-ink Smartphone. The company has just quietly released the last new product, the Afterglow 2. The Onyx Afterglow 2 features a six inch capacitive touchscreen with e-Ink Pearl HD with a resolution of 1024×758. You will be able to read in the dark via the front-lit display, which is the same sort of tech you see in the Kindle Voyage and Kobo Aura H2O. This e-reader has a few things really going for it that makes it standout in a crowded marketplace. I really like the dual core 1.2 GHZ processor which should keep things really speedy, most other digital book readers all have single cores. It also has a stock version of Google Android 4.2 and the Google Play store in order to access all of the apps you can shake a stick at. There is a 3.55mm headphone jack to take advantage of Ivona text to speech. Onyx has incorporated this technology in the Lynx e-reader, but it was bug ridden and did not work properly, it remains to be seen if they have solved the bug with this new product. I don’t know if there is much of a market for this product, despite the inclusion of a better processor and the ability to install your favorite apps via Google Play. Anyways, the Afterglow 2 is available now and costs $154 US. New Onyx Boox AfterGlow 2 Features Android 4.2 and Google Play is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Facebook Allows Better Customization of Your News Feed
| I would ask if any of you have been annoyed by the content featured on your Facebook news feed, but we all know the answer. What you see (and don’t see) has long been a bone of contention for those who check Facebook regularly… filled with things you don’t want to see. While it may seem like an easy solution to say that we can just unfriend those people who we find annoying, it isn’t always that easy (everybody has a few people on their friends list that can’t be removed without offending somebody or causing unnecessary drama). Or maybe you really like the person who keeps posting sappy Internet memes and game requests. Either way, Facebook has rolled out an update that allows for better news feed customization. Now you will see a list of the top people and pages found in your news feed, complete with a one-click option that provides the option to unfollow them. Using a filtered view is also a choice, giving more granular control over people, groups, or pages (letting you identify whether it was the person or the content you would really rather not look at again). Of course, if you change your mind about anything you’ve eliminated, you can reverse these decisions at any time. This functionality already existed to a lesser extent, but now it applies to more than just an alphabetical list of friends that you have unfollowed. This update is available today for mobile and desktop. Are you thrilled with the changes –or is this another instance where Facebook should have just left well enough alone?
Facebook Allows Better Customization of Your News Feed is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Zuckerberg Hosts First Townhall Q&A at Facebook HQ
| There are two types of people interested in quizzing Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg: those who envy his success and others who are avid users of his social media website (or perhaps better described as a sort of empire). Fortunately for both groups, Zuckerberg opened himself up to questions at the first Townhall Q&A session held at the Facebook HQ this week. A few questions and responses stand out: Why did you force us to install Facebook Messenger? How accurate is the movie Social Network? Is Facebook intending to take over the mobile industry? How do you keep the passion running for Facebook? Is Facebook becoming boring? The sessions ended with a lot of questions that carried less weight, wanting to know what Zuckerberg’s passion is or how Facebook intends to get involved in the fight against Ebola… but this is the point where my interest kind of trailed off (unless you count that we learned he wears the same shirt everyday because he thinks it is a waste of his precious time to make frivolous decisions of this type –I am paraphrasing, but barely).
Zuckerberg Hosts First Townhall Q&A at Facebook HQ is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Team OverDrive’s Best Books of 2014
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Click here for the complete list of titles! All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson Red Rising by Pierce Brown The Weirdness by Jeremy Bushnell The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen Redeployment by Phil Klay Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear / Read by Nicola Barber We Were Liars by E. Lockhart The Jim Henson Biography by Brian Jay Jones
If you would like more recommendations, we're always happy to create custom lists. 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.  |
Onyx Boox AfterGlow 2 Released with Android 4.2 and HD E Ink Screen
| There’s another new ebook reader from Onyx that was just released yesterday through Onyx-Boox.com (Arta Tech). It’s called the AfterGlow 2. It’s a lot like the Boox T68 and Boox M96, but it’s smaller and comes with newer software and a faster processor. The AfterGlow 2 has a 6-inch E Ink screen with a resolution […] |