10:21 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

The latest competing for your backing dollars comes from a small group of Hong-Kong based inventors, who launched their "world's first EINK computer monitor" fund-matching campaign on Indiegogo. The idea is that you take a regular e-book reader with a standard E Ink screen, and connect it to your computer to function as a secondary monitor.

From the description:

It is the world's first EINK Ebook Reader and Monitor 2in1 device. We call it CBR. After the campaign ending, we will reveal what CBR stands for to our contributors.

The purpose of this project is to use a regular EINK ebook reader as a second computer monitor, displaying text or images that are displayed on LCD/TV monitors onto the EINK ebook reader device. It’s better for the eyes and much more readable for the user.

Color me a shade of skeptic, but I cannot quite see yet how the slow refresh and relatively low resolution of an E Ink screen could be any useful in a standard desktop work environment.

09:31 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Some of you may have come to realize that you're not buying your e-books. In many cases you are in effect just renting them, controlled by digital-rights management and subject to tough rules buried in small print. Legal issues put aside, Digital Trends names five reasons why you might want to free your e-book collection.

1. Leave the country, lose your ebooks
2. Anger Amazon, lose your ebooks
3. Own too many devices, lose your ebooks
4. Switch to a different book store, lose your ebooks
5. Bookstore shuts down, lose your ebooks

Related:

• Renting textbooks from Amazon? Do not dare to cross state borders
• Australian Parliament recommends consumers be educated on circumventing geoblocking
• Kindle store: Indies avoid DRM to reach wider audience
• Anti-piracy group wants to catch e-book pirates; vendors now required to help them

Image: peasap/Flickr

08:42 AM by tubemonkey in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Amazon Gold Box Deals for today are refurbished Kindle Fires and accessories.

see Current Tablet Specials for sale prices on new Fires

Deal of the Day -- exp 22 Aug

• Fire HD 8.9 refurb 16GB ($239) --> $179
• Fire HD 8.9 refurb 32GB ($269) --> $199

Lightning Deals -- exp 22 Aug

• 12am PDT -- Amazon 5W USB Charger ($20) --> $5
• 6am PDT -- Fire HD refurb 16GB ($169) --> $119
• 6am PDT -- Fire HD refurb 32GB ($199) --> $149
• 10am PDT -- LifeForm Capacitive Stylus ($15) --> $7.50
• 11am PDT -- Fire 1st Gen refurb 8GB ($119) --> $89
• 2pm PDT -- Kindle Fire Zip Sleeve ($10) --> $7
• 3pm PDT -- Fire HD 8.9 4G refurb 32GB ($349) --> $249
• 3pm PDT -- Fire HD 8.9 4G refurb 64GB ($449) --> $299
• 5pm PDT -- Fire HD 8.9 Leather Case ($45) --> $35

Terms

• valid only during time frames listed above
• must be purchased from Gold Box page
• while supplies last
• limit one per customer

10:04 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Here we have three delicious e-book readers, all to be launched in Russia this fall. Manufactured by Hong-Kong based QUMO, the e-readers go by the name Libro Basic, Libro Lux, and Libro TouchLux. Down to the details:

QUMO Libro Basic (= entry model)

• Display: 6-inch E Ink Pearl
• Storage: 4GB
• Dimensions: 162x110x8mm
• Retail price: RUB 2890 (~$90)

QUMO Libro Lux

• Display: 6-inch E Ink Pearl, with build-in lighting
• Additional features: audio player, FM radio
• Storage: 4GB
• Dimensions: 174x113x9mm
• Retail price: RUB 4490 (~$136)

Libro TouchLux

• Display: 6-inch E Ink Pearl 1024x758, touch-sensitive, with build-in lighting
• Additional features: audio player, FM radio
• Storage: 4GB
• Dimensions: 162x113x9.5mm
• Retail price: RUB 5990 (~$181)

[source: The-Ebook, via TDR]

09:40 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

It's been almost half a year since Apple last updated its popular iBooks e-book reading app. While this update doesn't introduce anything dramatically new, it does improve compatibility with iOS and iCloud, according to the changelog.

I could wax poetics here on about the features that iBooks has (or lacks) compared to other e-book reading software, but possibly the most important factor in determining its worth is whether you want to read e-books tied into Apple's iBook ecosystem.

iPad and iPhone users can give the update a try by following this link.

09:20 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

Just as predicted the updated version of the OverDrive Media Console app is now ready for the masses.

From the official changelog, here's what's new in V3.0:

• New look. Simplified menus put everything a swipe and a tap away.
• Sync across devices. Sync recent position and bookmarks across devices. (Titles must be downloaded to both devices for this to work).
• First-time user guidance. The app now provides some guidance to help new users get started.

Links to the free download: iOS and Android

11:44 AM by Alexander Turcic in E-Book General | News

There are many ways to view PDF documents on Android devices, but the free EBookDroid app has a few extras that make it worth your consideration. For instance, it allows you to automatically or manually crop margins and instantly zoom to a column's content. It's also super-fast.

Since V2.0 EBookDroid is a closed-source application. Earlier versions can be downloaded from Google Drive.

V2.0.6 includes the following changes and fixes:

Common changes

• Assembled APKs and source code for PDF and DJVU standalone decoders are available on Google Drive
• Tatar localization added.
• Width of navigation tabs in action bar is restricted

Book viewer features

• Manual crop view is re-styled and works in all view modes.

Bug fixes

• Attempt to fix black screen on return from settings
• Attempt to fix action bar padding
• Exit confirmation fixed.
• Menu button processing fixed
• Various crashes fixed

10:52 AM by fjtorres in E-Book General | News

Nobody likes curve busters, not even library directors. After 9 year old kid, 5-time champ of library summer reading contest, reads 63 books in six weeks, the library director suggests he should stop competing. Alternately, she suggests picking names out of a hat.

Everybody, it seems, but Gandron, who was surprised to learn Katie notified a Post-Star reporter about her son being a longtime winner. During a phone call Tuesday to Gandron, the library director said Tyler “hogs” the contest every year and he should “step aside.”

“Other kids quit because they can’t keep up,” Gandron said.

Gandron further told the reporter she planned to change the rules of the contest so that instead of giving prizes to the children who read the most books, she would draw names out of a hat and declare winners that way. She said she can’t now because Katie has come forward to the newspaper.

Nice way to "encourage" excellence!

This comes to mind: