| There once was a dream in Germany that local businesses could band together to combat the Amazon threat. The Seattle company controls 75% of the digital book market in the US and 95% in the United Kingdom. Germans did not want a foreign company to have that much clout and the dream was realized. Weltbild, Hugendubel, Bertelsmann Club, Deutsche Telekom and Thalia all formed a company called the Tolino Consortium. Their mandate was to open up a digital bookstore and develop a series of e-readers to sell. This allowed the Tolino Shine and Vision to receive major publicity and high availability in bookstores all over the country. One of the big advantages that Amazon has over their competitors is their Kindle Direct Publishing system. This gives independent authors authors to submit their latest novel and have it available to purchase all over the world. This was the missing piece of the puzzle for Tolino, but now they too have a self-publishing option. The new self-publishing portal is called Tolino Media. Authors earn a 70% commission on the title sold and their books will be promoted in the Tolino bookstore. There are other companies that also offer a self-publishing solution for Germans, such as Xinxii. The problem is, their chiefly just digital platforms and not an all in one solution like Tolino. German authors can not only have their e-books sold in their home country, but also in other markets that Tolino operates in. This includes Austria, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland. International authors, such as those in the US can use Draft2digital to distribute their titles into the Tolino Bookstore. Self-Publish Your e-Books in Germany via Tolino is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Self-Publish Your e-Books in Germany via Tolino
Windows 10 Rumoured to Support Android Apps
| There are few things a tech geek likes more than a good rumour, so news that Windows 10 devices (like smartphones, tables, and PCs) may be able to run Android apps is a rather exciting possibility. If we are lucky, this possibility will be confirmed at the upcoming Microsoft Build 2015 conference being held in San Francisco. We don’t know much about how it would work or what it could look like, but it makes sense for a number of reasons. For Android, it gives access to a wider range of hardware (the one thing that is generally not too harshly criticized when it comes to the Windows Phone platform) –not to mention a solid foot in the corporate door. For Microsoft, it’s all about a stocked app store (complete with the kinds of opportunities developers are looking for). It does raise more than a few questions though –like would this announcement make way for Android apps to find their way onto Microsoft’s successful Xbox One console? Will Android be able to emulate in such a way that Windows Phone apps would also work on their devices? Will developers abandon the idea of creating platform specific apps (at least as far as these two contenders are concerned) –and if that’s the case, whynot move toward a completely platform independent technology like HTML 5 that would also then cross iOS devices off the list? Will the corporate world tolerate ‘open source’ apps on their Windows devices? From Microsoft’s short-term perspective, the only question they are likely concerned with is whether access to Android apps makes you more or less likely to consider a Windows Phone?
Windows 10 Rumoured to Support Android Apps is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Starts Innovation Fund for Digital Publishers in Europe
| Google has started a digital news initiative in conjunction with eight major newspaper publishers. The aim is to develop new products and services that will gain more eyeballs on their publications. When it comes to search in Europe, Google enjoys a 90% market-share and this is garnering some unwanted attention. The European Union is investigating whether or not Google is using search results to illegally promote their other products and services. News is not directly affected by this investigation. However, publishers have complained for years about the impact of Google's use of their content. In order to placate major news organizations and generate some possitive press, Google is going to work with the Financial Times and the Guardian to establish a working group to focus on product development as well as providing a €150m innovation fund over three years, alongside additional training and research. Google promises the end result of this fund will "increase revenue, traffic and audience engagement". Google Starts Innovation Fund for Digital Publishers in Europe is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New ‘Dragon Ball Super’ Aims to Air in July
| The first new Dragon Ball TV anime series in 18 years has been announced for a Japanese premiere set for July! The new series based off of the original manga by Akira Toriyama will air on Fuji TV and other Channels on Sundays at 9 AM. The new series being called ‘Dragon Ball Super’, will take place a few years after the defeat of Majin Buu, when Earth has become peaceful once more. Fuji TV producer Osamu Nozaki commented on the new series as well, saying, "As I read the plot [of the series] I’ve already received from Akira Toriyama, my dreams for this begin to expand. An enemy even stronger than Buu or Freeza may appear…" The series will be overseen by the original Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama and is credited for the original story and character concepts. Toei Animation’s Kimitoshi Chioka is the series director and Naoko Sagawa (Yomiko Advertising) and Atsushi Kido (Toei Animation) join Nozaki as producers. Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, the new film taking place after the Majin Buu saga, premiered earlier this month and will eventually screen in 74 countries worldwide! Funimation also hosted the North American premiere of the film on April 11th in Los Angeles with plans to release the film in more theatres with an English dub this summer! For a lot of anime fans, the Dragon Ball series was a really pivotal part of our lives and to see that a new series is being released after the last Dragon Ball GT series was released in 1996, I know we’re already counting down the days to the new release! New ‘Dragon Ball Super’ Aims to Air in July is a post from: Good e-Reader |
How to Use Custom Fonts with Kindles – Embed Fonts in Kindle eBooks
| The number one thing that annoys me the most about reading on a Kindle is the lack of good font choices. Your stuck with a few options that Amazon gives, and you can’t modify the weight or boldness of the font at all like you can on other devices like Kobos. A lot of ereaders […] |
Amazon’s Newest Delivery Option: the Trunk of Your Car
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While Amazon keeps the ball rolling on attempts at Amazon Prime Air drone delivery and has already experiments with same-day and even one-hour delivery in larger markets, Amazon’s newest shipping option will speak to those busy consumers who might not want to risk leaving their new high-end purchase sitting on their doorsteps while they’re at work. Available for now only in Munich, Germany, and only to customers who own Audis, shipping partner DHL can now deliver your goods to the trunk of your car using GPS to find your car and the auto’s keyless entry code to open the trunk. Once the package is safely placed in the trunk, the car will automatically relock and the parcel will be waiting when you get there. If this trial proves beneficial, Amazon already has plans to work with other auto manufacturers and to offer the same type of service to customers in other cities. It might seem like a cross between gimmicky customer service and an all-too-eerie Big Brother scenario–after all, Amazon not only has your personal information, your credit card number, and your purchase history, they now have the location and keycode to your car–but this type of shipping option stands to benefit both the environment and companies’ bottom lines. While the data isn’t present on how many times a purchased item is stolen while the customer isn’t home, that replacement item can easily cost the manufacturer, the retailer, and the shipping partner, which results in higher prices for consumers to make up that loss each year. And why burn the fuel to send a truck to every house when their cars may well be parked closer together? However it works out as a viable shipping option, it is this kind of thinking that continues to keep Amazon on top. It might take off and other retailers might jump on board, or it might be the company’s next laughing stock. Either way, no one can accuse Amazon of thinking outside the box, especially when their job is the box. Amazon’s Newest Delivery Option: the Trunk of Your Car is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Author Bullying Saga Just Got Real
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Author and reviewer “bullying” has taken on a life of its own in the past few years, and it’s led to some pretty crazy stories of bad behavior on both sides of the issue. Authors have been targeted by whole gangs of haters, some going so far as to allegedly prevent the publication of books by trashing it before it ever appears. At the same time, reviewers have faced nasty criticism by authors and their fans to the point that whole groups of rabid followers will make life miserable for a reviewer who dares to not like a book. Through it all, unfortunately, is the reality that these opinions are no longer valid assessments of the book, but instead have become intentionally targeted attacks on the authors or reviewers as human beings. It’s enough that some consumers have stepped away from the book review space and refused to participate in reading or writing book reviews, all because their validity is now permanently smeared. One of the more famous battles involves key moderators and reviewers on Goodreads and a site called StopTheGRBullies.com. That conflict has been covered extensively in international news outlets, and had actually been thought to have died down under Goodreads’ policy change that said inflammatory reviews that attack the author will be deleted from the site. It’s important to know that authors are also under scrutiny from the Goodreads leadership, and their accounts can be deleted for lashing out at reviewers who didn’t like their books. The arguing, name calling, and finger pointing may have seemed like petty high school drama to some people, but one individual is taking the issue seriously. Rick Carufel, once a supporter of the STGRB website who has been accused of soliciting hackers to unearth the identities of online “trolls,” has now filed a lawsuit against StopTheGRBulllies and individuals he believes are involved in the matter, including outspoken opponent of author bullying, Anne Rice. In a press release by Carufel, he states, “Rice believes that anyone who disagrees with her are bullies and has repeatedly attacked the Amazon forum members. Recently she used a list from the hate website to target the Amazon forum members, specifically the Top Reviewers Forum, to her million fans using Facebook. Now she’s campaigning to have her fans dox anyone who disagrees with her, dubbing them notorious gangster bully thugs who need to have their personal lives exposed, attacked and damaged because they don’t agree with her. She has become a direct threat to my personal safety and that of others who use their own names. I no longer feel safe in my own home and dread every knock on the door.” Rice, the 73-year-old bestselling author of titles such as Interview with the Vampire, Cry to Heaven, The Vampire Chronicles, and the recently published Prince LeStat, could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit. “She seems to think she can harass, bully, threaten and terrorize people who disagree with her. I see her recent activity as being very close to domestic cyber-terrorism and illegal. She uses every possible device to harass and intimidate anyone with whom she disagrees. She professes to be a champion against online bullying but is the biggest bully of them all.” Good e-Reader was able to reach a spokesperson for the STGRB website named in Carufel’s lawsuit, but the individual is unable to comment due to the ongoing litigation. She did state, however, that Carufel’s assertion that STGRB is owned and operated by a single individual, Melissa Douthit (who is also named in the suit), is untrue. The lawsuit has reportedly been filed in Minnesota Third District Court, and the plaintiff “has requested $10,000 personal damages for every time Ms. Rice endorses/d the hate website publicly since the email exchange between she and the plaintiff in May of 2014.”
The Author Bullying Saga Just Got Real is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Reviewing Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot
| I began reading the Princess Diaries series when I was a similar age to the book's awkward heroine, Princess Mia. Now, as an adult 15 years since the series was first released, I pounced on the opportunity to revisit this familiar character now that she is all grown up in the first adult installment of the series.
Chronicled in the same diary format that longtime readers will know and love, Mia must now deal with paparazzi, death threats from stalkers, planning her upcoming nuptials to beau, Michael Moscovitz, and the revelation that she has a long-lost sister from a fling her father had 12 years ago. The scandal could not come at a worse time as Mia's father, Prince Phillip, campaigns for Prime Minister of the European principality, Genovia. It seems Mia must step up and manage the family crisis, a wedding and all the other duties that being a royal entails. This book is a fun read that I could not put down. It is filled with all the same characters from the teen years but instead of French class and prom, they're dealing with medical school, pop stardom or trying to pass the Bar exam. Don't worry, I haven't given away any spoilers since there are plenty of other twists and turns in this book that make it a delightful read. I'm glad Meg Cabot decided to bring back this series with the knowledge that most of her readers have grown up alongside Mia. And that like high school, the real world brings its own set of problems and triumphs. Royal Wedding will be available on June 2, 2015 but you can place a hold at your local library now! For Royal Wedding Read-alikes, check out these suggestions: http://bit.ly/1BO2Vjj
*BONUS: Younger readers are in luck since Cabot will release a new spinoff series that follows Princess Mia's long lost sister, Olivia. From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess chronicles 12 year old Olivia's life as she copes with transitioning from "normal" life to the life of a princess.
Emma Kanagaki is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
Picademy South West
| Next stop on the great Raspberry Pi Education Team Tour of Great Britain is the South West of England! That's right: we're taking Picademy, the offical Raspberry Pi Professional Development for course for Teachers, on the road again, thanks to our friends at Exeter Library in Devon! I'm already packing my bucket, spade and kiss-me-quick hat. As always, Picademy is completely free to attend. Raspberry Pi Certified Educators – April 2015 from cohort no. 8. All demonstrating their best super hero pose! Exeter Library is an appealing venue for Picademy, with an onsite Fab Lab (fabrication workshop) equipped with laser cutters, 3D printers, and more. I expect we will see some fantastic project ideas realised on day two of the course. Maybe even 'Biscuits' the robot will get a shiny new hat courtesy of Clive's mega-making skills. Picademy South West will take place on 4th and 5th June. We have space for 24 enthusiastic teachers from Primary, Secondary and Post-16 who are open to getting hands on with their learning and having some fun. We'd like to see lots of teachers from Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset take full advantage of this two day event. Sign-ups for teachers are open! Our Raspberry Pi Certified Educators Map shows that the team are needed in the South West! For educators in and around Leeds, remember that our Picademy@Google training events are open for sign-ups too, as we continue to spread free training opportunities across the UK. In the coming months we will announce other venues as part of the Google series. |
Monday, April 27, 2015
Google Wants to Buy (and Protect) Your Patents
| Anybody even halfway paying attention to the news these days will be familiar with patent-trolls and the never-ending quest for patent-owners seeking to protect their ideas from others wishing to capitalize on them. Google understands better than most, and wants to do their part to put an end to that ridiculous (and confusing, and expense, and frustrating) game. By creating a sort of patent marketplace, current patent-holders interested in selling their intellectual property rights can open a dialogue with Google (who just might be interested in buying it). This patent purchase initiative is a little bit white knight (saving smaller innovators from the expense of possible patent-troll litigation while also making it more likely that good ideas have the requisite production power behind them)… but it’s not without benefit for Google if they can purchase inspiration and turn it into a resounding success. It also shouldn’t be discounted, that a single patent may not hold much use to a company or individual –but it may be of significant assistance to a company like Google who could apply the innovation to another product or service already being developed. Google will begin accepting patent holder submissions on May 8, 2015 and continuing until May 22, 2015. Anybody participating can expect a response by June 26, 2015 (with payout to follow sometime in late August 2015). They may buy none. They may buy all. They may run this program once, again and again. It’s all an experiment. It should go without saying that there are plenty of details included in the fine print –be sure to take a closer look before you make a decision regarding the future of your patent.
Google Wants to Buy (and Protect) Your Patents is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Coating on Butterfly Wings Key to Reducing Screen Glare
| Everybody with a smartphone or tablet understands how difficult it is to read your screen in direct sunlight (or other situations where glare comes into play). It’s one of the reasons I turn to my e-reader after all of this time, because at least it does a little better job –but there is no question that the resolution is lacking and it limits the usefulness of the device. Many manufacturers have tried and failed to conquer the glare-monster… when the solution may have been (literally) fluttering under our noses the entire time: a coating present on the wings of the glasswing butterfly. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology discovered that the glasswing’s wings reflect very small amounts of light (due to pillar-like nanostructures, the details of which are far beyond what my non-biology-skilled brain can understand). Basically it all adds up to clarity coming from biological chaos –which we desperately need to find ways to duplicate. If (when) we do, the glass on our mobile devices should reduce glare and repel water. It isn’t just smartphones and tablets that would benefit from this advance, consider other possibilities: watches (smart and otherwise), camera lenses, and especially eyeglass lenses (anybody else with a toddler out there will be especially excited to imagine a world with fewer smudges in their line of sight). Coating on Butterfly Wings Key to Reducing Screen Glare is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Making Sense of Messenger Add-On Apps
| All kidding aside, social messaging is as popular as it is powerful. Many people are quick to joke that fans of technology love messaging between mobile devices entirely too much –pushing old fashioned telephone conversations toward extinction. Any grandparent living a distance from their grandchildren will tell you that this new style of messaging bridges gaps unlike any voice call ever could; sending photographs and videos is effortless and painless. Facebook gets it, and they want to dominate it. At Facebook’s F8 developer conference last month, their new Messenger platform was introduced (making it a little more obvious why the company invested billions in other technologies like Instagram and WhatsApp). So what? Even though Facebook Messenger boasts over 600 million active users, it isn’t like there is a lack of popularity with other services (not the least of which being plain-old SMS ‘text messages’)… and sure, they have added other ‘value-added’ features like voice calling and location sharing… but they also have vision (and more importantly, platform independence). So how do you win friends and influence people in this arena? Open things up for other developers and users to place their mark on the product, personalize it, and capitalize on the most popular social media platform available –while also making it independent and reasonably non-dependent (improving on both will prove critical to its long term success). How does it work? By taking advantage of add-on apps, which thankfully are installed (and removed) using traditional app store methods and not using some bizarre in-app, convoluted process. If you want to see how these things work, take a look at a few of my favourite add-on apps:
As you can likely imagine, there are countless others I could point you toward –and it is just the beginning… my only hope is that the average users (above high school age) doesn’t go overboard. I like a clever GIF as much (or more) than anybody, but I may go a little crazy if suddenly every message I receive is cluttered with them.
Making Sense of Messenger Add-On Apps is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Chinese Smartphone Companies to get Worldwide Exposure from Qualcomm
| Qualcomm is setting up a new business unit that will help Chinese smartphone makers with getting worldwide exposure. Huawei and Xiaomi are getting a fair amount of attention in the Americas and Europe. Innovative new offerings have encouraged people to forgo mainstream brands like LG, HTC, Sony and Samsung. Qualcomm is betting that it could find companies who have a compelling product, but lacks the ability to sell it overseas. Jeff Lorbeck, senior vice president of Qualcomm China, stated that an office was set up in Shenzhen in early 2015 which will provide Chinese smartphone makers the ability to “connect with overseas markets:” Qualcomm derives half its revenue from China and this is a market where having an office and local staff is critical. There are a number of notable phone companies and start-ups that could benefit from the global distribution network. But, Qualcomm is facing exterior forces that are maneuvering against them. Qualcomm, which is the biggest maker of chips for smartphones, gets about 2/3 of its profits from licensing its wireless patents. That business model was the subject of a 15-month investigation by Chinese antitrust authorities, which analysts believe was prompted by several major Chinese smartphone makers complaining that Qualcomm was pricing its technology unfairly. This resulted in a landmark $975 million dollar fine and prompted Beijing to curb their reliance on foreign firms. I think the only way Chinese phones can make an impact in the wider global market is if they have something to difference themselves from the competition. The OnePlus One is garnering a ton of media attention because it they feature an OS done by the CyanogenMod team. Firefox, Tizen and Sailfish are also going to be more popular in the coming years, so there is room to impact the market in an meaningful way and build brand identity. Chinese Smartphone Companies to get Worldwide Exposure from Qualcomm is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Good e-Reader Radio Show – Kobo Glo HD, Pocketbook Sense and Growing up
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There are some new e-readers coming out soon, the Kobo Glo HD and Pocketbook Sense. Are these models worth upgrading to?
Good e-Reader Radio Show – Kobo Glo HD, Pocketbook Sense and Growing up is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Captivating Illustrations from 1906 Edition of War of the Worlds
| Brazilian artist Henrique Alvim Corrêa illustrated a number of drawings for the Belgian edition of H.G Wells classic, War of the Worlds. Only 500 copies were ever made, primarily due to the artists untimely death at 34. The art is currently up for auction and is captivating the publishing world due to his terrifying take on the aliens. H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds. Wells' tale preyed upon turn-of-the-century fears about the apocalypse and other Victorian superstitions (and social prejudices) about the unknown. Corrêa's fantastical, murky style is fitting of Wells' dark themes. The Martian fighting machines resemble frightening legions of massive spiders These illustrations are especially riveting for people who live near water towers in their towns. Imagine looking up to those water towers and hear the tripod horn blast from the movie.
Captivating Illustrations from 1906 Edition of War of the Worlds is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kobo to Exclusively Publish Jian Ghomeshi e-book
| Kobo has picked up the exclusive digital publishing rights to the upcoming title, Jian Ghomeshi – Secret Life. The book will reveal details and background info about the superstar radio interviewer, his tell-tale past and how his actions conspired to getting fired from his post at CBC Radio One. Jian had a spectacular fall from grace, amidst heavy controversy on his personal life. The upcoming title will be penned by Toronto Star investigative reporter Kevin Donovan, and is slated for release in late June. In an industry first, the book will be published by Kobo, which will offer the digital version, and ECW Press, one of Canada’s most diversified independent publishers, which will offer the print version to the North American marketplace. Kobo to Exclusively Publish Jian Ghomeshi e-book is a post from: Good e-Reader |
The Wheel of (BASIC) Excuses
| Back in the day, over at IEEE Spectrum magazine, the editorial elves had a sheet of paper stuck on a wall, with a spinning arm which pointed to any number of plausible excuses for not having handed in The offices were renovated last year, and Stephen Cass thought that it was time to update the paper version, bringing it kicking and screaming into the 1980s with a Raspberry Pi-based BASIC system. You can’t fit many excuses on wheel drawn on a sheet of paper. With a big enough SD card, you can fit all the excuses onto a Raspberry Pi. I remember struggling with getting BASIC to do things fast enough to be useful when I was at school back in the dark ages. The RISC OS version on your Pi is much evolved from the BBC BASIC we knew and loved in (squints) 1980-something; it’s also much, much faster by virtue of all that extra RAM. Stephen was pleased and alarmed by this. Stephen didn’t put the code for the spinner in his original piece, because he had the aberrant view that nobody would be interested. Happily, he’s fixed that and pasted everything into a comment below his article. (Hit “See more” to view the whole block.) There are, of course, plenty of non-journalist applications for this snippet of code: games for the kids, allocating chores, automating decision-making…we hope some of you will end up adapting it and letting us know what you did below. |
Join us at DigiP: 100 Days and Counting!
| The countdown is on: there are officially 100 days to go until Digipalooza '15 and we are busy working to make this the best DigiP yet! We recently captured a planning meeting in session where things turned a little… musical. As you can see, we work hard, play hard (and sometimes even sing and dance) – come join in the fun at DigiP! Register today athttp://digipalooza.com/#registration. Questions? Email digipalooza2015@overdrive.com and join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #digip15.  |
Sunday, April 26, 2015
How has e-Reader Lighting Evolved?
| E-Readers first became popular when the original Amazon Kindle debuted in 2007. A few years later Barnes and Noble started to sell e-books and release a slew of devices, ditto for Kobo. It was during this period in which if you wanted to read at night, you had to invest in a book light or a case with the light built in. It wasn’t until 2012 that Barnes and Noble unveiled the Nook Simple Touch with glowlight, the first e-reader had the lighting system built into it. Later that year almost every major vendor in North America, Europe and Russia started to adopt this technology. The Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight broke e-reader conventions in 2012 when it shipped with 5 small LED lights inside the top of the bezel that projected light downwards. This makes it easier to read because unlike a smartphone or tablet, the light isn’t projecting directly into your eyes. Sadly the Nooks lighting system was blue, instead of pure white. Despite the color, it was one of Barnes and Noble’s most successful e-reader ever. The Kindle Paperwhite really refined front-lit technology and the experience for the reader was brilliant. Amazon decided to put the LED lights on the bottom of the bezel and was the first e-reader whose light enhanced the e-paper, not detract from it. How has front-lit screen technology evolved over the last several years? Today we have a video where we look at the lightning system on the Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Aura, Kobo Aura HD and the Kobo Aura H2O.
How has e-Reader Lighting Evolved? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Pocketbook Sense e-Reader Review
| The Pocketbook Sense is a brand new e-reader and has just hit the open market in Europe and North America. One thing that is clearly evident at first glance is how well designed it is. Pocketbook is not known for having sexy looking digital readers, but the Sense is their best offering to date. Hardware The Pocketbook Sense features an e-ink Pearl HD screen with a resolution of 1024×758. I was afraid that the outdated screen might make this reader dead in the water, but I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of going with infrared touch, Pocketbook made the decision to go with a capacitive touchscreen display. This makes pinching and zooming, as well as drawing very robust. The screen on the sense is not flush with the bezel, like the Kindle Voyage or Kobo Aura. Instead, it has a sunken display, but it is not as deep as the Kobo Glo HD or Kobo H2O. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ processor, 128 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage. You can enhance the memory up to 32 GB via the Micro SD card and it also has a Mini USB to charge and send data to your e-reader. One thing I really liked about the design is the manual page turn keys. Rather than have them on the front of the device, Pocketbook has them on the back. They are positioned exactly how you would hold it, so its very intuitive to hold it with one hand. Alternatively you can simply use the touchscreen display. The Pocketbook Sense has a front-lit display, which means you can read in the dark without the need of an external light source. Sadly, you have a pale blue hue, very much akin to the Barnes and Noble Simple Touch with Glowlight. Strangely, the longer you leave the light on, the more white it becomes, so I recommend to let it breath for awhile before reading, similar to how you would use a decanter for wine. This e-reader features wireless internet access, so you can use your home network or a hotspot. There is a built in internet browser to access the net, but image heavy sites tend to take awhile to load. I think you might want to use the dedicated Pocketbook RSS app to read the latest news. I think Pocketbook hit a homerun with the Sense, from a design prospective. It is very light due to the plastic design, instead of using aluminium. It feels like it should cost more than it actually does. Software The Pocketbook Sense is running a custom kernel of Linux, but it sort of feels like Android. Most of the main Android gestures are in this model, which makes interacting with it rather glorious. The main home screen comprises of the last few books you have purchased from the Pocketbook bookstore or have manually loaded on your device. The e-books are presented in a carousel format, so you can swipe and gesture to look at your collection. Pocketbook has bundled a bunch of apps they have developed onto this e-reader, such as Send to Pocketbook, Pocketbook News, Dropbox for Pocketbook and some drawing apps. Basically you can easily access your e-book collection stored in your cloud storage accounts and add them. The entire modern line of Pocketbook e-readers has a built in store called Bookland. I have never been a fan because of the modern bestsellers called anywhere from $22 to $33 US dollars. You can buy the same book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Kobo for $9.99, so if you are looking for a one stop e-reader to buy and read books, this one may not be for you. Reading Experience Pocketbook has always maintained excellent support for a wide array of popular e-book formats. The Sense can easily read PDF, PDF (DRM), EPUB, EPUB(DRM), DJVU, FB2, FB2.ZIP, DOC, DOCX, RTF, PRC, TCR, TXT, CHM, HTM, HTML, MOBI, ACSM. The one aspect of the Sense that is immediately apparent when you open an e-book for the first time is the sheer number of reading options. There are over 60 different fonts and a slider bar to adjust the size. It normally takes a few seconds for each change to resister because it it immediately applies it to the entire book. I won’t talk about every option the Sense has, but the ones that truly standout. First of all, you can draw or take notes with your finger. There are few e-readers on the market with the capability to do this, most notably Sony, who abandoned the e-reader market last year. You can’t save your drawings or edits as pictures or files, but they are stored in the note app to access at your leisure. You can draw on any book format, including EPUB and PDF. There are over 30 built in dictionaries available to automatically translate a specific word or a phrase. You can even translate a word from one language to another, which I know many people will like. If this is not enough there is an option to look up a word via Google. The overall e-reading experience with your standard e-book is brilliant. This might be the best Pocketbook device ever crafted, turning pages is lightning quick and the text really pops out. Reading PDF files is solid too, pinching a zooming is actually more fluid than the Kindle Voyage and Kobo Glo HD when you are just looking at pure text documents. Larger PDF files or those with a complex layout tend to have a small lag, but I am sure you all can deal with it. If you have a large e-book collection, inevitably you will be using the library feature. This is to access all of the books you have loaded and the Sense does not disappoint. You can create custom folders to store your books, but also sort them by file format, author, genre, or series. There is also customization to sort the titles by cover art or just the name of it. Wrap Up Over the years I have reviewed almost every single Pocketbook e-reader ever made. Most of them have been disappointing and provided a lackluster e-book experience. I have been quite vocal about my disdain for most of their lineup, but the Ultra and the Sense have changed my mind. The Pocketbook Ultra was the first e-ink reader with a built in camera and for the first time was a stark departure from the standard design principles Pocketbook was known for. The Sense builds on the success of the Ultra, but also drops the camera gimmick and focuses on providing a great reading experience. I would recommend this e-reader for mid level or advanced users that already have an established e-book collection and won’t be relying on the Pocketbook bookstore to find and purchase titles. These are the types of users that have their book collections on SD cards, use a cloud storage solution or are Calibre veterans. PROS Great screen Cons The Lightning system was a bit of a let down Rating: 8.5/10 Pocketbook Sense e-Reader Review is a post from: Good e-Reader |
