| One of the most common questions we get on Good e-Reader is how to load e-books on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3. The vast majority of users simply use Windows Explorer to copy and paste content, but this method does not offer much flexibility. Today, we show you how to use Calibre, Dropbox, and Kindle Documents Manager. Calibre is a free download and it is a very powerful tool for people who want maximize freedom to craft their own experience. This software allows you to convert e-books from one format to another and also change the author, book title and virtually all other metadata. Kindle Documents Manager simply allows you to email books to your Kindle from Outlook, Thunder Bird or any other email client such as Yahoo or Hotmail. Dropbox is fairly popular and you can upload any e-books from your PC or MAC directly to your cloud account. Once uploading is complete you can use your Kindle Experimental Browser to access any of the books you have stored.
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Sunday, July 26, 2015
How to Load e-Books on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3
Audible Launches Subscription Audiobook Service in Japan
| Audible has just entered the Japanese market with a subscription based system that allows you to listen to unlimited amount of audiobooks for 1,500 yen per month. If you are on the fence and not sure if this service is for you there is an initial 30-day free trial period. There are two thousand audiobooks in Japanese that are available right now and Audible plans to boost that figure by this fall to more than 10,000 titles, including novels, business books, recorded storytelling performances and works from other genres. You can listen to as many audio editions as you want, as long as your smartphone or tablet is running Android or iOS. It is important to note that Audible is doing something truly unique in Japan that should help it surpass local competition, such as Tokyo-based Otobank. They are offering an all you can eat subscription service, which is a stark contrast to their North American and UK business model which merely offers a book of the month type club. via AsiaOne |
eBook Piracy Virtually Nonexistent in the UK
| The vast majority of UK residents have never pirated an e-book. There are so many options now available to legitimately pay for anything you may want or download it for free from the public library or websites such as Project Gutenberg. The Intellectual Property Office conducted a three month study into the extent of online copyright infringement in the UK. It found that 1% of UK internet users aged 12 and over read "at least some" ebooks illegally. This is a stark contrast to 9% consuming pirated MP3 files and 7% who download the latest Game of Thrones TV episode. Why is ebook piracy virtually nonexistent in the United Kingdom? The government has taken an extremely hard-line against rogue websites. In June it was mandated that seven pirate websites were to be blocked by the largest internet service providers. There is even a new law currently being examined that would extend the amount of time e-book pirates would spend in jail. Currently the maximum sentence is two years and the government wants to dramatically increase it to ten. I think it comes down to the simple fact that the ebook market has matured tremendously in the last five years. There are so many options to legitimately consume content. If you are a voracious reader you can subscribe to Scribd and read as much as you want. If you are a casual reader, it doesn’t cost very much to buy something from Amazon. |
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Wattpad Quote Art Helps Stories Go Viral on Social Media
| Traditionally e-Book companies that hype up sharing book quotes on social media are relegated to plain text. Wattpad is doing something quite different, they have devised a new system that takes a quote and allows people to generate pretty backgrounds to help stories go viral on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Tumblr. This new quote sharing feature that not devised due to a the company having it on their strategic road map. Instead it was created on Hack Friday, where the Wattpad team is given free reign to work on unique projects that support their users. Quote Art is available exclusively on mobile and has been fully integrated into the Wattpad iOS and Android apps. Getting started is really simple , to create Quote Art users highlight text and select the Quote Art icon. Then they choose from one of several curated images, or can upload their own. The Quote Art is then ready to share on the network of their choice. When this project was first introduced on June 24th 2015 over 35 million quotes have been shared on social media within a month. This is a testament to how popular the Toronto company has become with user generated stories. |
Amazon Kindle Voyage vs Kindle Paperwhite 3
| This is the e-reader comparison you all have been waiting for! Today we take a look between Amazons two flagship e-readers, the Kindle Paperwhite 3 and the Kindle Voyage. Today we take a look at all aspects of these two e-readers that matter to people on the fence about purchasing either device. We look at the hardware, PDF experience, reading digital manga and an e-book. As an added bonus we look at reading in complete darkness and in direct sunlight. These two e-readers are very similar in hardware specs, they both sport a six inch screen with a resolution of 1430 x 1080 and 300 PPI. During this comparison we noticed that for all sense and purpose the Kindle Paperwhite 3 is the exact same as the Paperwhite 2, the only thing that is different is the screen technology. If you are thinking of buying either of these two devices or want to see how they perform head to head, check out the video comparison below.
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Amazon Starts Summertime Reading Contest
| Amazon has just initiated a Summertime Reading Contest where they want parents to submit pictures of their children reading. One Grand Prize winner will receive a Kindle Paperwhite, Fire HD 7 tablet, Fire HD 6 Kids Edition tablet, two Kindle Voyages, Fire TV, Fire Phone, three Kindle covers, one Fire HD 7 tablet cover, one pair of kid's headphones, and a $500 Amazon.com Gift Card. If you come in second of third place you will receive a $200 Amazon.com Gift Card. In order to win the contest you don’t need to just upload a cute photo, but Amazon has posted a list of judging requirements. They will look at how how well the photo submitted captures the child's love of reading, photo creativity and quality and composition of photo. The contest runs from July 20, 2015 and ends on August 3, 2015. In order to submit your photo you have to visit the contest page. Amazon will be posting the pictures they like on social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook, so you have to be cool with that. |
Friday, July 24, 2015
Amazon Paperwhite 3 vs Kindle Voyage – Glowlight Test
| The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3 is the latest e-reader to hit the market and it has the same screen technology as found on the Kindle Voyage. You might get a very similar reading experience on both of these devices, but once you compare them side by side with the lights out, the Voyage surpasses the Paperwhite 3. Good e-Reader recently conducted an extensive video comparison between the Amazon Kindle Voyage and the Paperwhite 3. The Voyage provided a superior experience when reading in the dark, because there are fundamental differences between the two models. The Kindle Voyage screen is totally flush with the bezel, much akin to a smartphone or tablet. This warrants a different approach to the illumination engine because of the way the physical screen is constructed. Peter and I are very sure that Amazon must be using different LED technology because of the way the hardware is constructed. In contrast, the Paperwhite 3 has a small dip between the screen and the bezel, and this model actually uses an older front-lit display. Want to see for yourself what we mean? Check out the video below.
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New Mapping Project Chronicals American Literary Road Trips
| There is something uniquely American about hitch hiking across the country or painting a big bus and touring all over the US. A new mapping project has chronicled famous literary road-trips from authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and Tom Wolfe. This project was created by Richard Kreitner and Steven Melendez, the map "includes every place-name reference in 12 books about cross-country travel, from Mark Twain's Roughing It (1872) to Cheryl Strayed's Wild (2012) and maps the authors' routes on top of one another." Each route is peppered with quotations from the book concerned, often with reference to that particular location on the map. |
Pocketbook Touch Lux 2 Gets New Firmware
| Pocketbook has just updated their Touch Lux 2 e-reader with firmware 5.9. It brings a slew of new features, including a user friendly setup process if you factory reset your device and support for a brand new PDF rendering engine. New Features 1. User-friendly setup wizard which starts during firmware update or factory reset. Fixed 1. Incorrect notes display in books in DjVu format (in some cases). |
Kobo Glo HD e-reader Now Available in Japan
| Kobo has just launched their new high resolution e-reader in Japan. The device is available for purchase from the Rakuten Kobo eBook Store and selected online and offline retail stores in Japan. The price of the device is JPN 12,800. The brand new Kobo Glo HD features a six inch e-ink Carta screen with a resolution of 1448×1072 and 300 PPI. It has the same front-lit display as the Kobo Aura H2O, so you will be able to read in low-light conditions or complete darkness. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ processor and 4 GB of internal storage. When you take the e-reader out of the box for the first time you only have 3.1 GB of memory, primarily because the OS takes up a fair amount of space. The Japanese version of the Glo HD includes two English-Japanese dictionaries pre-installed. In addition, Kobo has also launched the Kobo Glo HD Support Dial service, in which a team of specialized staff are ready to answer questions on everything from setting up the device to purchasing eBooks. This toll-free service can be used not only by those who have already purchased the device, but also those are considering purchasing it. The first 3,000 customers to purchase the device and log in with their Rakuten membership ID will receive a JPN 2,000 coupon for use on the Rakuten Kobo eBook Store. |
Pneumatic tooth fairy
| With the expanding global population, Jeff “BabyWrassler” Highsmith realised, the Tooth Fairy is probably finding it tough to keep on top of her job. He decided to help her out with a tooth transportation system using pneumatic tubes, controlled by a Raspberry Pi. This wonderful video is brought to us by Make: Jeff’s past projects include his older son’s Mission Control Desk and his younger child’s bedroom Apollo Mission. We desperately envy these children. The post Pneumatic tooth fairy appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
White Onyx Boox M96 Now Down to $318
| The Onyx Boox M96 is the only 9.7-inch ebook reader available on the current market, aside from older outdated models and a few obsure models only available in certain parts of Asia. A lack of options doesn’t usually equate to a lower price point since their isn’t any competition to compete with, but in this […] |
You can now merge end user barcodes and IDs
| We at OverDrive strive to give the people what they want which is why we are thrilled to introduce a new end-user support tool, in OverDrive Marketplace, that allows library and school staff to easily merge activity from one barcode to another. Just think, all those new cards your library issues can now be merged, easily and most importantly, quickly without delay to your end users! They can continue to borrow their favorite digital titles using their new ID/Card/Barcode/Username etc. without hassle. The tool to merge barcode activity has been a popular request among our partners and will help your staff act quickly to ensure end users retain all OverDrive activity (checkouts, holds, wish lists, etc.). You'll find the new tool in the End-user support section on the Support tab in Marketplace. Like the other end-user support features, "End-user support" permission is required to access it. The tool allows barcodes to be merged one at a time. When a user is issued a new barcode, simply enter the original barcode and the new barcode within the tool. (If your library uses a value other than barcode for user verification (e.g. record ID, username, token ID), enter that value.) Search, verify you've selected the correct barcodes, and click Merge. After merging, activity will be associated with the new barcode immediately. Easy as that! If you have any questions about this exciting new feature, please contact your Collection Specialist today! Christina Samek is a Launch Specialist with OverDrive.  |
Major Publishers Might Revise eBook Pricing for Libraries
| The Association of American Publishers has just released their annual data report and e-book sales are not doing that great. In the first three months of 2015 they have plummeted 7.5% from the same period last year. In all of 2014 e-books have more or less stabilize with only 3% growth from the year prior and this is forcing publishers to evaluate their policies on selling e-books to libraries. Libraries right now are at the mercy of publishers and these companies can charge whatever they want. The new Michael Connelly novel Burning Room costs $14.99 on Amazon, but libraries are paying $106.00 per copy. John Grisham's Grey Mountain costs $15.99 for a retail edition, but costs libraries $85.00. Some publishers make libraries repurchase the title after 25 loans, while others have them expire after one year. There is little consistency with the pricing, but hopefully this will change. Publishers are very aware of new entrants to the market that are bucking the trend of e-book distribution. Hoopla has an innovative model that has their entire catalog of books and comics available for online library lending, but the library only pays for the titles that are checked out. Freading, Total BooX, and BiblioBoard also have interesting business models. Major publishers have certainly not been asleep at the wheel and letting these small companies gain a meaningful foothold in the library space. This has prompted them to take more risks and experiment with new pilot projects. One of the most successful was the Overdrive Big Library Read project that started in 2013 when the company partnered with Sourcebooks. It made the title The Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone, available simultaneously to all patrons of over 3,500 OverDrive partner libraries. The book could be downloaded an unlimited number of times. This program was so successful that it prompted HarperCollins to contribute four different titles over the last two years and they continue to sponsor the event, even now. Back in April Simon & Schuster announced that it will donate a free electronic copy of Academy Award–winning producer Brian Grazer's new book, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, to school and public libraries for every ebook or hardcover book sold at retail, up to 5,000 copies. The promotion was coordinated by Overdrive and was a resounding success. Ultimately pilot projects are a great way for the publishers and libraries to promote a few titles in tandem with each other, but the high e-book prices to maintain a proper collection is draining the libraries budgets at an alarming rate. This has prompted a new coalition in Canada to be formed that is trying to bring public awareness to just how bad things are getting. For the first time ever all of the major organizations, which include The Toronto Public Library, Canadian Library Council, Ontario Library Association and the Canadian Library Association are seeking government intervention to adopt a uniform set of standards for publishers to follow. There is no denying that for the last few years the steady growth of consumer e-book sales have either stagnated or halted completely. Publishers need libraries now, more than ever to keep the digital gravy train rolling. This will result in more pilot projects and lower prices on books, in order to sell more of them. |
Thursday, July 23, 2015
The Worst eBook Cover Art – July 2015
| Indie Authors traditionally have the most tragic e-book cover art. Many writers don’t hire a graphic designer to do something really solid, instead they download images from Google and do it themselves. The end result is a product that is totally cringe worthy, but impossible to turn away. The list today looks at the growing erotica craze of girls falling in love with the darnedest of things. Two of the most weird feature the Apple iWatch, and an HDMI cable. I suppose these gadgets gain the power of locomotion and sprout googly eyes, whats not to love? |
Yahoo News Digest is Now Compatible with Android Tablets
| Yahoo has updated their News Digest app for Android that finally brings support for large screen tablets. The premise of this app is to give you 10 new stories every twelve hours, focusing stories relevant to the UK, US, Canada and international events. The top Yahoo brass is happy that 40% of all users who have the app installed, access it on a daily basis. The news that Yahoo curates basically give you the gist of a major news item or event. Every story consists of a Yahoo summary, plus several "Atoms," or key quotes, images, videos, Wikipedia excerpts and other material relevant to the story. Since the news on this app is basically a summary each story has close to 10 references, so you can dive deeper into something that rivets you. Twitter also plays apart in the layout with sites such as Cnet, Verge, Reuters all weighing in. The idea is to give you more information than the typical wire service story or single-sourced report. If you have an Android tablet, give Yahoo News Digest an install and see what all of the hype is about, only on the Good e-Reader App Store. |
Step-by-Step Guide for Jailbreaking Kindles Using Serial Port Method
| When Amazon released the Kindle Voyage and $79 Kindle Touch last fall, they came with newer software that completely blocked previous jailbreaking methods. It’s the same story with the new Kindle Paperwhite 3, and the older Paperwhites all have the newer software as well. It all started with the release of software version 5.6. To […] |
The hottest titles coming this fall from the Baker Publishing Group
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 Digipalooza is less than two weeks away which means that soon the center of the library world will be downtown Cleveland. We’re excited to have our good friends at the Baker Publishing Group joining us for the conference and so we wanted to share some great titles from their collection coming this fall. Whether you’re attending Digipalooza or not you can add all of these titles by adding this list to your cart in Marketplace. The Imposter by Suzanne Woods Fisher Katrina Stoltzfus needs time to heal her broken heart. What she doesn’t need is attention from Andy Miller, a farm hand who always seems to say the right thing, and be in the right place, at the right time. Is Andy for real, or too good to be true? Refining Fire by Tracie Peterson Militine and Thane, who meet while serving Seattle’s poor, both feel tainted by past choices. Can God build something new from the debris of the past? Irish Meadows by Susan Anne Mason At Irish Meadows horse farm, sisters Brianna and Colleen struggle to reconcile their own dreams with their father’s demanding marriage expectations. The Mistress of Tall Acre by Laura Frantz In the aftermath of the American Revolution a destitute young woman agrees to a marriage of convenience and becomes Mistress of Tall Acre. But when secrets from her husband’s past are revealed, loyalties and ties are torn asunder. The Memory Weaver by Jane Kirkpatrick Eliza was just a child when she was taken hostage by the Cayuse Indians during a massacre in 1847. Now her husband wants to make a new start in another territory–the land of her captivity. Can she lay the dark past to rest and move on? Or will her childhood memories always hold her hostage? Hope Harbor by Irene Hannon Coming home to Hope Harbor wasn’t on Tracy Campbell’s agenda and neither was romance, but when she meets Michael Hunter, everything changes. Christmas Joy Ride by Melody Carlson Christmas takes on a new jingle when two unlikely companions take off on the adventure of a lifetime along Route 66 in an RV that looks like Santa’s sleigh on steroids. Gone without a Trace by Patricia Bradley When a high-profile case strikes homicide detective Livy Reynolds as eerily similar to her own cousin’s disappearance, she must work with the distractingly handsome Alex Jennings to solve the mystery. Trial Run by Thomas Locke In this high-concept thriller, three competing interests race to master a dangerous and mind-bending technology even as time itself twists in unexpected directions. As perception and reality become entangled, no one escapes unscathed. The Innocent by Ann H. Gabhart At the close of the Civil War in the Shaker village of Harmony Hill, Carlyn Kearny must come to terms with a personal tragedy and find a way to open her heart to love again. Keeping Christmas by Dan Walsh When years of holiday traditions are threatened, a box of ugly ornaments might be the key to saving one family’s Christmas. Murder at the Courthouse by A. H. Gabhart Former Chicago police officer Michael Keane has no trouble relaxing into the far less stressful job of deputy sheriff in his small hometown. After all, nothing ever happens in Hidden Springs, Kentucky. Nothing, that is, until a dead body is discovered on the courthouse steps. Not by Sight by Kate Breslin When a misguided suffragette hands a white feather of cowardice to an English spy, neither could have imagined the dangerous consequences that follow. The Potter’s Lady by Judith Miller Rose McKay has plenty of ideas on how to make her family’s newly acquired pottery business a success–too many ideas, in long-time employee Rylan Campbell’s opinion. But can these two put aside their differences and work together to win an important design contest? Vendetta by Lisa Harris Detective Nikki Boyd’s Missing Persons Task Force is desperately searching the Smoky Mountains for a missing girl when the case becomes very personal–and deadly. In Good Company by Jen Turano Millie and Everett are eager to prove themselves–as a nanny and a society gentleman, respectively. They both have one last chance . . . each other. A Bride at Last by Melissa Jagears Silas and Kate both harbor resentment over failed mail-order engagements. But for the sake of a motherless boy, can they move beyond past hurts? Through Waters Deep by Sarah Sundin In 1941 as America teeters on the brink of World War II, Mary Stirling and Ensign Jim Avery work together to expose a saboteur. Will the dangers they encounter draw them together or tear them apart? To Capture Her Heart by Rebecca DeMarino Kidnapped by a rival tribe, a Montauk princess must choose between loyalty to the Dutch soldier who rescues her and the Englishman who has loved her from the start. A Reason to Stay by Kellie Coates Gilbert A Houston news anchor and a bass fishing champion are newlyweds on the brink of divorce until a tragedy stops them in their tracks. Last Chance Hero by Cathleen Armstrong Doctor Jessica McLeod and Coach Andy Ryan have nothing in common until they join forces to help a high school football player achieve his dreams. We'd like to thank the Baker Publishing Group for sponsoring this great event and showing their support for libraries!  |
Pigeon Pi
| By day, Robert Threet is a systems manager at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. But when he’s not knee-deep in network hardware, he races homing pigeons. Credit: Robert Threet Pigeon racing, which I’d always thought was the preserve of people from the north of England with flat caps and whippets (calm yourselves, commenters: my granddad was a man from the north of England with a flat cap – no whippets – and his friends were all over this stuff; budgie shows, too) turns out to have a following in the USA as well. Things are far more sophisticated than they were when I was a kid. Back in the 70s when my Granddad’s friends were racing, each pigeon carried a little removable rubber ring around its ankle matching the unique number on a permanent band fitted when the pigeon was a chick. The rubber band was collected manually and logged when the pigeon arrived back at its loft by placing it in a special compartment in a pigeon clock, which stamped a piece of paper with the time. I was never allowed to touch one of these endlessly fascinating pigeon clocks, and they’ve always been objects of mystery – I was really chuffed when researching this post to find that a giant database of the things exists. 1955 Jundes pigeon clock. Click image to view at the Pigeon Clock Museum. Nowadays, the pigeons are kitted out with RFID tags, and counted in by an electronic clock. The pigeons race over distances between 300 and 500 miles, depending on age and experience. Pigeons belonging to a number of different racers all start at the same location, and fly back to their home lofts. The lofts’ GPS coordinates are taken, and used to calculate the distance flown. The pigeon with the best yards-per-minute score overall wins the race. What does this have to do with Robert Threet in Indiana? Robert has been using a Raspberry Pi to augment the pigeon experience. Whenever one of his own pigeons arrives back in the loft after a race, a Raspberry Pi (which he also uses to monitor weather and the temperature conditions in the loft) uses a motion detector to trigger a camera, so each bird gets a photo-finish. Robert plans to set the Pi up to automatically tweet those pictures, but for now, there’s a problem: his WiFi doesn’t extend to the pigeon loft. Please drop us a line when your setup is tweeting, Robert (as opposed to cooing softly); we’d love to be able to watch what your pigeons are doing. The post Pigeon Pi appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
New Hotel in Tokyo Allows you to Sleep in a Bookstore
| Many bookstores in Tokyo have adopted cafes so you could have a drink and read some interesting new titles. If you are simply having tea, your eyelids could get droopy and sometimes you doze off. When the location closes, you are normally kicked out, since bookstores aren’t open 24 hours a day. What if you could get the best of both worlds, a bookstore that encourages you to sleep? Set to open this September, Book and Bed is a cooperation between designers Suppose Design Office, bookstore-cum-publisher Shibuya Publishing Booksellers, and real estate boutique R-Store. The one big selling point behind this new operation is you don’t have your own private room, but has a communal vibe. Suppose Design Office's bookshelves have bunks you can crawl into, capsule hotel-style. And like a capsule hotel, these are not exactly private rooms, but I suppose if you are dreaming of dozing off in a bookstore, you are OK with that. There is no word yet on how they are handling showers, washrooms and changing areas, likely it will be all shared, hostel style. There isn’t any information yet on if it will be c0-ed or not, or whether everyone will share the same space. I think this is an excellent idea, a hotel, cafe and bookstore blended together where you can buy books and lounge around. This might make an excellent location to meet fellow bibliophiles or a meeting place for a book club. |
