Tag Archives: e-ink

Daily Links and Deals: Can this giant E Ink tablet make paper obsolete?

Posted on by

daily_links_1Daily Links for Friday, December 2,  2016:

Under pressure from national governments, Commission lowers VAT rates for e-books (EurActiv) New ruling allows EU countries to apply for a lower VAT for ebooks if they choose.

Kindle to support e-books in five Indian languages (The Hindu) Amazon is adding books in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati and Malayalam.

Can this giant E Ink tablet make paper obsolete? (The Verge) I am trying to convince my legal pad loving husband he wants one of these, LOL!

There’s a 99 percent chance your fake Apple charger isn’t safe (CNET) A staggering ninety-nine percent of these chargers fail safety tests.

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s selection of Kindle Daily Deals includes The Language of the Dead: A World War II Mystery by Stephen Kelly.

In Today’s Deals, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies on Blu-ray. Also, Bluetooth headsets from SoundPEATS and premium tea and accessories. (Who can say no to tea?)

The Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is over 30 music biographies (Leonard Cohen, John Lennon and more). The Romance Daily Find is all three books in the Tremayne Family series by Anna J. Stewart.

Barnes and Noble also has a selection of NOOK Books Under $2.99.

Kobo’s Daily Deal is Hawke (A Cold Fury Hockey Novel Book 5) by Sawyer Bennett. The Extra Daily Deal is The Protector by Jodi Ellen Malpas.

There is also a selection of Great Reads Under $5 and Bargain Reads in Fiction, in Mystery and other genres. The Kobo Aura One (and the Aura Edition 2 e-readers are now available for order at the Kobo store. (The Aura One is still out of stock until early 2017.)

iTunes’ Weekly Bestsellers Great Books, Amazing Deals includes The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman.

Google Books has a selection of Topsellers Under $10.

(A note on Daily Deals: All prices current at the time of posting and subject to change. Most items marked Daily Deals are good for only the day posted.

Many large promotions have discount pricing that is set by the publisher. This usually means that titles can be found at a discount price across most platforms (with iTunes sometimes being the exception). If you have a favorite retailer you like to patronize, check the title on that website. There is a good chance that they will be matching the sale price.)

Daily Links are interesting links I discover as I go about my online day. The frequency and number of links posted depend upon the daily news. I also post other, different links of interest on Twitter, Facebook, and on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.

Daily Links and Deals: YouTube’s Content ID program finally provides for ad revenue during disputes

Posted on by

daily_links_1Today, a breakthrough in the YouTube Content ID advertising money issue, news on how platforms are affecting digital publishers, Google podcasts and more. In deals, there a $50 Blue smartphone and e-reader and tablet sales from both Kobo and Amazon for Mother’s Day.

Daily Links for Friday, April 29, 2016:

YouTube’s Content ID program finally provides for ad revenue during disputes (PC World) It;s not nearly enough, but it is a first step in fixing a flawed system.

Why We Should Be Worried About Ancient Viruses Infecting Power Plants (Motherboard) A nuclear power plant infected by a virus sounds like something from a movie. Unfortunately, this really happened. Do we need to worry about more incidences like this?

The haves and have-nots: Small publishers are left adrift by shift to platforms (Digiday) Changes in the digital publishing landscape are making it harder for the small publisher.

This E Ink tablet is a cute way to manage meetings (The Verge) Way too expensive, but it is cute. 🙂

Windows 10 will no longer let you Google search from Cortana (The Verge) Is it just me, or is Cortana getting a little pushy? Back off, girl!

History of the Library of Congress (LOC) Fascinating piece on this institution and its importance to our history and as a world resource.

Google Play Music’s podcasts are convenient but lack features (Engadget) Don’t give up your favorite podcast app just yet.

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s selection of Kindle Daily Deals includes Shame by the incredibly talented Alan Russell for $1.99.

In Today’s Deals, there’s a white BLU Advance 4.0 Unlocked Dual SIM Cellphone, 4GB. for $50.

There’s still time for gifts for Mother’s Day! Amazon has some deals on both e-ink Kindles and Fire tablets. First, you can get $20 off the Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle for Kids bundle.  Amazon is also offering the Fire HD 10 for $50 off for a limited time.

Amazon is still offering savings on the Fire HD 6, and deals on pre-owned Fire tablets. I am also still seeing the option for 5 payments of $58 for the Kindle Oasis pre-order. Current delivery date is June 1, 2016.

You can also take advantage of a trade-in offer from Amazon on your old Fire tablet. The clock is ticking on this offer. Trade-in must be completed by May 9, 2016.

The Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is Beautiful, Dirty, Rich: A Novel by J. D. Mason for $2.99. The Romance Daily Find is Owning Violet: A Novel by Monica Murphy for $1.99.

Kobo’s Daily Deal is What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan for $1.99.

And for Mother’s Day, you can get $20 off the Kobo Glo HD.  Free shipping is included.

iTunes’ Weekly Bestsellers Under $4 includes The Incarnations by Susan Barker for $1.99.

(A note on Daily Deals: All prices current at the time of posting and subject to change. Most items marked Daily Deals are good for only the day posted.

Many large promotions have discount pricing that is set by the publisher. This usually means that titles can be found at a discount price across most platforms (with iTunes sometimes being the exception). If you have a favorite retailer you like to patronize, check the title on that website. There is a good chance that they will be matching the sale price.)

Daily Links are interesting links I discover as I go about my online day. The frequency and number of links posted depend upon the daily news. I also post other, different links of interest on Twitter, Facebook, and on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.

Amazon nags via snail mail, too….

Posted on by

In today’s snail mail:

kindle update mail

They are postcards sent to my husband and me reminding us that our kindles need a critical update. Postcards? From Amazon?

The irony: I tried to update one of my older e-ink devices yesterday, and for some reason, the update failed. I followed all the directions, but nothing happened. I am trying the others tonight, then calling Amazon tomorrow to try to pin down the problem (if necessary). I will post an update after I call. If I have to manually update all these Kindles, I am not gonna be happy…. 😦

How did your updates go?

Are you being nagged to update your Kindle?

Posted on by

A few weeks ago, I posted about a notice I got from Amazon to update my  older e-ink Kindles. Amazon was quite clearthat the update needed to to be done by March 22 in order to continue accessing kindles services.

Given the fact that it’s tax season, I haven’t gotten around to updating mine yet, although it is on the agenda for this week. But Amazon has definitely noticed that fact that I haven’t done it yet. Every time I go to Amazon.com, the site is reminding me that I still need to perform the necessary updates.

When I go to the Kindle page, I saw this banner ad:

kindle-software-update_hqp_355x70._CB294667646_

And if I click on the Amazon home page, this is the message I see:

kindle-update_2

Amazon has emphasized to customers that if this critical update is not done by March 22, we will not be able to download it by Wi-Fi and will have to up date our devices manually. Obviously, Amazon is not shy about nagging to remind us that we need to get this done.

Amazon is also being more specific about what will happen if you do not complete the update in time. Now, when you go to the update page (here), they have added the message that you will see on your Kindle if you don’t complete the update on time.

I suspect that Amazon is really, really trying to make sure customers get this done. I’m sure that they’d also like to avoid the influx of customer service calls from people needing to be talked through a manual update.

Okay, okay, Amazon! I hear you! I’m doing it….

How about you? Have you updated your Kindle yet? Are you being nagged?

 

CES Roundup 1-6-2016

Posted on by

CES_Logo_smToday’s interesting stories from CES 2016 for January 6, 2016:

Withings Go hands-on: dabbling with e-ink displays (Slashgear) – Great use for an e-ink screen! I think I would like to try this fitness tracker.

The Killer Chromebase: Acer Unveil 24-inch Chrome OS All-In-One PC (OMG Chrome) – This looks like it could be an interesting choice for a second computer.

The URB-E Is A Foldable Electric Scooter For The Urban Commuter (Techcrunch)-  Do you want one of these? I am not sure how they would work during winter in the Midwest, but…

Intel’s next NUC will be a quad-core mini PC with Iris Pro and Thunderbolt 3 (Ars Technica) – I have several aging desktops that need to be replaced.

This remote control transforms to match the gadget it’s pointing at (The Verge) – I think that this brings new meaning to the term “universal remote.”

Dell has a $199 laptop, and it looks pretty good (CNET) – This might look interesting for the price if it weren’t for the fact that Dell was hacked…

No, I am not going to CES, but I love reading about the gadgets. I will be doing these roundup posts intermittently during the week. The official CES website is here.

Did you know that Amazon has a page for products from CES2016? You can find it here.

Did You Know: How to take a screen shot on a Kindle

Posted on by

Did you know that you can actually take a picture of your Kindle’s screen? And, no, it’s not in the manual. Nate from The Digital Reader blog has a great how-to post for taking screen shots that gives instructions for each model of e-ink Kindle. He also gives some tips for Fire owners as well. You do need to hook the Kindle up to a computer to locate and download the screen shot. 🙂

News Bits and Bytes for February 9, 2012

Posted on by

Lots of news happening today:

Reports are saying that E-ink revenues are down for the month of January. A lot. However, downloads of digital media jumped in 2011. 

A big shake-up in the library lending world today. Penguin is terminating their agreement with Overdrive to supply library books. With Harper Collins still only offering libraries the crippleware 26 loan contract for books, Random House is essentially the only Big Six supplier of library books. If you pay attention to the subtext in the article about the meeting between publishers and the American Library Association, this should not come as too much of a surprise, unfortunately.

If you have been following the reaction to Amazon’s foray into the publishing world, the responses are still coming in. Today, Indie Commerce joins Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Indigo in boycotting Amazon titles. Interestingly, this article from Paid Content says they’re not – well not exactly, that is.

Mike Shatzkin has a very thoughtful take on the Amazon vs Barnes & Noble saga that I highly recommend reading!

And finally, from  Evo Terra (Podiobooks) and Jeff Moriarty’s “It Isn’t Rocket Surgery” broadcast, a rather extreme point of view on the quality of self-published ebooks on Amazon.com. Here’s the video: