Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Pushing their PSN network outage as far under the rug as possible, Sony is uniting all of its online music, video and gaming services under one new banner. The Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) is the Consumer Electronics giant’s way to unify all of its products, delivering content to TV’s, tablets, smartphones, computers,eBook readers, gaming consoles and more. The SEN website is now live and all of its services are ready and usable. Here’s hoping Sony can keep the hackers away from even more of its data…
Amidst rumors (and near confirmation) of a 7″ Amazon Kindle tablet comes an interesting feature from Amazon allowing readers the ability to question authors about their work. It’s called the @author feature and lets Kindle users highlight passages in an eBook, add questions about the passage, and send them off to the book’s author to get a response–a pretty neat idea if you ask me. To start, only 16 authors are actually taking part in the program with more expected to get on board in the future.
Amazon has launched a very cool Kindle Cloud Reader, allowing users to read their Kindle books directly in their browsers – and when we say “browsers,” we mean every browser–including mobile. The Cloud Reader gives full access to a customer’s Kindle account and doesn’t require any software downloading whatsoever. It automatically syncs your library as well as your position in the book and works as an offline reader as well. If you haven’t checked it out already, it’s definitely worth a look.
Looking for a social network that’s slightly more meaningful tracking your friends’ last visit to Starbucks? Amazon has quietly rolled out a new social networking service over the weekend designed just for you, Kindle owners. Amazon Kindle owners will now have their own dedicated profiles online, allowing them to follow other users and keep them up to date with their current reading list (or things they plan on reading). It doesn’t appear that Amazon has any intention of facing off against the big boys; but it does seem like a great way to get recommendations on what books your friends in your network are into.
Great news from Samsung Mobile today…
When the 10.1 Galaxy Tab was released last month, we all knew that Samsung planned on releasing a software update that would include a brand new TouchWiz user interface, as well as a brand new Media Hub experience and access to Amazon’s cloud-based music service. Though there’s still no word on when the software will officially be available for download, Samsung is hosting an event in New York City that will allow the public to update their software in person! After a media event, (during which Samsung will give the press some hands-on time with the new software) those bringing their 10.1 Galaxy Tab between the hours of 1 and 6pm can have the new software downloaded to their device. The process takes up to 10 minutes and will wipe all personal data from your Tab–so make sure you have everything backed up before you partake. For those not lucky enough to be in attendance, fear not–we’re sure that the software will be available to the rest of us not too long after.
It seems lik
e this was just a natural transition for a company like Amazon – and I’m sure many others will follow suit: Amazon has rolled out a new textbook rental service for Kindle. If you are not the kind of student who wants to hoard your books for the rest of your life, then rent them and save some cash. Amazon is promising to save students up to “80 percent” off the list price of textbooks, with discounts on books from a number of sources–including John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. Check the full release after the jump. +Continue Reading
So you want a 3G kindle but don’t want to shell out the extra $50? AT&T has the solution–as long as you’re really good at ignoring advertising. The Amazon Kindle 3G is now available for the same price as the Kindle WiFi–but this version will be Ad supported. The price includes the 3G subscription (which is a pretty good deal for $139) and perhaps you’ll actually find some good deals with the on-screen ads that will slow you down a bit, but save you some of that summer spending dough. If you still don’t want 3G, you can also get an Ad-supported WiFi version for only $114, giving you some pretty decent price points for owning one of the most popular readers. Check the full release after the jump. +Continue Reading
More and more publications are heading to the iPad, which is a great sign in terms of the adoption of the iPad as an e-reader. Thanks to Apple’s new in-app subscription model, it appears that companies are feeling a bit more reassured that digital versions of their content would definitely be consumed if on the new platform. Such is the case for Hearst Publications, the publisher behind magazines like Esquire, Popular Mechanics and Oprah’s O magazine. The Wall Street Journal has reported that a deal is done between Apple and Hearst, and iPad versions of those magazines will start selling as early as this July. Magazines will be sold at $1.99 a month or $19.99 for a full year.
Time Inc. has finally announced a deal with Apple that will allow its print magazine subscribers to access the company’s iPad editions for free. Beginning this week, subscribers to the print editions of Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Time will be able to download their iPad counterparts at no cost directly within the magainzes’ apps. A similar agreement was already established months ago with HP, which is hopefully going to offer the same feature to HP TouchPad users upon its release.
With all of the talk about smartphones and tablets running Android, we sometimes forget that other devices carry the same OS and are just as hungry for updates; such is the case for Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color. The Nook Color now runs on Android 2.2, (Froyo) courtesy of a free firmware download. Users will now be able to access free and paid apps as well as various web-based email services using the device’s full-screen virtual keyboard. Other noticeable changes include the ability to have embedded video and audio within multimedia titles. The Nook Color WiFi only model retails for $249.
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Depending on your choice of electronic book readers, you may be happy to know that Apple has released a minor iBooks update, bringing the app to version 1.2.2. The update itself offers some minor improvements that affect the stability of the app itself, as well as the performance when playing videos with enhanced books from the iBookstore. Other issues corrected include a fix for incorrect fonts being displayed when a book is opened, as well as more responsive navigation of books when you have a lot of selections in your personal library. Head on over to your AppStore link to get the free update.
If you are a fan of the Globe and Mail in Canada you can finally start reading the online edition of the paper via its proprietary iPhone App. The latest edition of the iPhone app is dubbed the “News Edition” as opposed to its original “Politics edition,” offering a simple to use layout that presents you with the latest news of the day. Sections of the app can also be customized to allow you to trim down the news to topics of interest, plus the usual sharing via Social Networks (twitter/Facebook) lets you pass along stories of interest. You can get the Globe and Mail app from the AppStore now.
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