Daily Links and Deals: Lies, damned lies and ad blocking statistics

daily_links_1Today, can you really trust those headlines about ad blockers? Also, Microsoft’s browser heads for the bottom, Apple release an update to an update and your WiFi SSID can spout poetry. In deals, there are savings on men’s watches, an Anker Bluetooth speaker and a lovely fountain pen kit.

Daily Links for Thursday, June 2, 2016:

A new Play Store uninstall manager will offer to clear up space, says report (PC World) So now Google will tell you if you haven’t used apps for a while so you can delte them first.

Users abandon sinking Microsoft browser ship at record clip (Computer World)  IE used to be the number one browser, Now, it is racing towards the bottom.

How to delete your Netflix history (CNET) A dead simple trick that will save you a lot of embarrassment….

The Wi-Fi Poet is an amazing and horrible idea (The Next Web)  Well, it beats calling your home Wi-Fi Skynet. PS, this article points out some funny possibilities!

Apple releases iOS update to fix iPad-bricking bug (The Verge) So, this is an update to fix an update that bricked people’s devices. Yeah, I feel real comfortable with that!

Lies, damned lies and ad blocking statistics (Digiday) The problem with ad blocking statistics is that there are no neutral parties.

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s selection of Kindle Daily Deals includes WIRED by Douglas E. Richards for $1.99.

In Today’s Deals, Amazon is offering men’s watches for dads and grads starting at $39.99 and a Parker Urban Fountain Pen Medium Point Black with Gold Trim Kit with 4 Ink Cartridges. Also, a Anker SoundCore Sport Bluetooth speaker with microphone.

The Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is the first four novels in the Hellmaw series for $2.99 each. The Romance Daily Find is The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson for $2.99.

Kobo’s Daily Deal is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi for $1.99.

iTunes’ Weekly Bestsellers Under $4 includes Ordinary Daylight: Portrait of an Artist Going Blind by Andrew Potek 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.

Daily Links: Netflix comes to Australia

daily linksDigital Life:

Google Play Books Expands into Bulgaria, Croatia, Iceland, Slovenia, And Slovakia (Ink, Bits & Pixels)

Atria Halts Publication of ‘The Whole Pantry’ (Publishers Weekly)

Get ready for Optimus Prime shipping: FAA approves Amazon drone experiments (Ars Technica)

An Open Letter to Parents From a Teenage YouTuber (Recode)

Better World Books Will Sell You a Used Book, or a Scanned Copy for $2 More (Ink, Bits & Pixels)

Security:

Oh, Crap: Apple is Pulling Antivirus Apps from iTunes App Store (Ink, Bits & Pixels)

OpenSSL warns of two high-severity bugs, but no Heartbleed (Ars Technica)

Pernicious Mobile Ads Now Hijacking, Redirecting Some Users From Safari to iTunes (Ink, Bits & Pixels)

Telephone and Broadband:

NYC official wants Comcast to offer $10, 10Mbps Internet after merger (Ars Technica)

Comcast’s gigabit technology is ready for field testing (Ars Technica)

Gaming and Streaming:

Netflix New Releases for April 1st, 2015 (Gear Diary)

HBO GO comes to the Amazon Fire TV Stick  (Android Central)

Netflix Launches In Australia With Prices Starting At A$8.99 A Month (Android Police)

The NFL Will Stream a Game on the Web Next Year. Don’t Get Used to It. (Recode)

Tips, Tricks and How-to:

How to play and pause content on Chromecast with a TV remote (Google Chromecast)

Best iPad Bluetooth keyboards (Tab Times)

How to turn photos into Android wallpapers (Android Central)

Too Embarrassed to Ask: Wi-Fi v. Bluetooth (Recode)

In choosing a tablet, what screen size is right for you? (Tab Times)

Apps:

20 best kids’ educational apps and games on Android tablets (Tab Times)

Finds and Deals:

Amazon Kindle Daily Deals include the classic Mrs. Mike, as well as romance, science fiction and business titles.

Nook Find of the Day is Ruhlman’s Twenty: 20 Techniques, 200 Recipes, A Cook’s Manifesto by Michael Ruhlman, Donna Turner Ruhlman (Photographer) for $3.99. This is a super deal!

Kobo Daily Deal is Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult for $1.99.

There are some great promotional offers available with the purchase of a Chromecast streaming player. Offers include free trials of Quello concert service, DramaFever, Sesame Street Go and more. The offers appear after you have activated your device (see details here).

Onyx BOOX Afterglow 2 e-reader

onyx afterglowWhile I love my tablets, I really don’t like reading on them for any length of time. I had been looking for an e-ink e-reader that runs Android, has the Google Play Store and is capable of running the Scribd app. I had seen a few that looked interesting but weren’t quite what I wanted.  When I found the Onyx BOOX AfterGlow 2 at Amazon for $129, I decided to take the plunge and get one. The Afterglow 2 has a frontlight, runs Android 4.2 and comes with the Google Play Store installed on the device. It can read multiple file types, including ePubs, Mobi, and PDF files. It has physical page turn buttons and is even capable of text-to-speech (currently the languages are English and Polish).

Right now, I am keeping it in a JAVOedge Universal eReader Book cover  that actually fits pretty nicely. (This is the cover that didn’t fit the Fire HD 6 I bought a few months back.) I will be doing a full review after I have played with it for a bit, but, in the meantime, here are a few pictures:

onyx box

In the box…

The apps page showing Google play. Note the shadows at the bottom where the frontlight is.

The apps page showing Google play. Note the shadows at the bottom where the frontlight is.

In the Javoedge cover

In the JAVOedge cover

 Stay tuned for the review!