From The Digital Reader: A follow up – Textbook publisher backs down on first sale rights for paper books
From The Ebook Reader: A tutorial – Sideloading ebooks and PDFs on the Kindle App for Android
From Techcrunch: This IOS app sounds too interesting to ignore: Turn doodles into video
From Teleread: A tutorial – How to turn the wi-fi off on the Kindle Paperwhite (And, yes, in this respect, the Paperwhite is counterintuitive!)
Okay, who is this crazy lady and why is she wishing her Kindle a happy Mother’s Day?
Well, the truth is that for me, the Kindle and Mother’s Day are linked together in my mind. I received my first Kindle, what’s now called the Kindle 1, for Mother’s Day 2008. That makes six years of the magic of reading e-books for me. I still have my original Kindle – and it still works! Since then, I have owned most of the e-ink Kindle models and several Kindle Fires (with a couple of NOOKs thrown in, to boot). At this point, I could not imagine not having an e-reader to read on.
Since I am waxing nostalgic about my Kindles today, I was thrilled to see this article on The Goodereader on The History of the Kindle in Pictures. Take a look; it is a fascinating look at the changes in model styles over the past six years.
From the Digital Reader: Can you apply the first sale doctrine to paper books?
From the Goodereader: Why do we abandon reading a book?
From Make Use Of: Add your personal e-books to Google Play Books
From Digital Book World: Subscription service Oyster hits half a million book milestone
From The Digital Book Reader: Sony is closing their reader store worldwide
For Wednesday, May 7, 2014:
From Publishing Perspectives: A peek at the world of Arabic e-books
From Digital Book World: Is everyone a publisher? and The Navy commissions e-reader and gives e-books to sailors
From The Digital Reader: Touch Screen that enables the blind to see with their hands
From Overdrive.com: Overdrive now works with Kindle Free Time to offer children’s e-books for libraries
Some interesting “e-stories” stories from today.
From Digital Book World: Self-published e-book anthology by High school freshman number one at iBooks.
From Open Culture: 15 free e-books from University of Michigan Press.
From TechCrunch: Books are free *after* the author gets paid.
And, O’Reilly Books is offering a 50% off promotional code for International Day Against DRM 2014.
May 6, 2014 is International Day Against DRM.
One of the most frustrating things about purchasing e-books is paying top dollar for books that we have virtually no rights to use. This year’s image is very expressive and makes the point. 🙂
For more info: https://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm
There is a really interesting infographic on E-Books in America on dailyinfographic.com. It gives a useful overview on formats and profiles of those who like to read e-books.
However, the part that I found fascinating was the part at the bottom on which format, print or e-book, is best. It shows the percentages where one format is preferred over another and for which activities. E-books win hands down for traveling and getting a book quickly. Print books dominate for reading with a child and on lending to others. I was most surprised by the fact that reading in bed was pretty much a tie between the two formats. 🙂
I think the infographic confirms a lot of things those of us who read e-books already know: They make it easy to buy books and easy to carry them around with us. I also think that it is interesting to note that little sharing is done on e-readers – only 25% – mostly because publishers don’t allow us to do it! That number is actually higher than I would have imagined it to be.
Anything in the numbers that surprises you?
For a limited time, Amazon has the basic Wi-fi Kindle with Special Offers on sale for just $49. The Wi-fi Kindle Paperwhite with Special Offers is on sale for $99. That’s a savings of $20 off the regular price.The Paperwhite without Special Offers is also on sale.
I own both of these and think that they are great devices. The ads are fairly unobtrusive (I actually like them better than the regular screensavers!). The Paperwhite has become the Kindle I use the most and with the built-in light for reading in bed (especially without disturbing your partner), it can’t be beat.
This is a great entry level price if you are thinking of trying the Kindle or if you want to take advantage of the many free books that are offered exclusively for the Kindle.
There was a post on Digital Book World today that caught my attention. The headline read: “Apple Pumps Another 60 Million E-Reading Devices Into Market.”
Whoa. Sixty million. Pretty impressive. The problem is, Apple doesn’t actually make a dedicated e-reading device. And, sure enough, buried in the middle of the short piece are the words:
… publishers should be more interested in the 16 million iPads and nearly 44 million iPhones the company sold last quarter. Each one is a potential ebook reading device.
Yes, note those words. “A potential ebook reading device.” While you can arguably read on a tablet sized device, thinking of a cell phone as an reader is a totally different story.
Personally, as someone who defines an e-book reading device as a device designed or purchased primarily for reading e-books, I find the article’s title rather misleading. Few of us actually purchase our phones for reading. I will certainly argue that there is a huge difference between reading on your phone while standing in line at the grocery store and using your phone for your primary e-reader, particularly if you are a heavy reader of e-books. And I say this as someone who owns a large-screen Galaxy Note II that has almost every e-reading app you can think of installed on her phone! While you certainly can read on your cell phone, using it as your primary e-reader for any length of time is a less than satisfying experience.
I would be interested in seeing current statistics on this as the reading landscape is changing.
So, how about you? Do you use your phone as a primary e-reader?
Fascinating post! What kind of a reader are you?
The eBook Evangelist 