Barnes and Noble Finds its Own Nook
October 21, 2009 by Lori Calabrese · View Comments
Barnes & Nobles looks to find its own cozy nook in the e-book reader department with what it’s calling the planet’s “most advanced e-book reader”: the “Android-based” nook.
Measuring 7.7- x 4.9- x 0.5-inches and weighing 11.2 ounces, the device includes a top e-ink display from Vizplex for displaying book text and a color touchscreen LCD (3.5-inches) below for easy navigation, which supports one-touch control and swipe-to-browse books with full-color covers.
Barnes & Noble claims the charge time is 3.5 hours, which will let you read for “up to ten days.” Also included is inbuilt WiFi (802.11b/g), AT&T 3G, 2GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, MP3 player, built-in mono speaker, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, a micro USB port and support for EPUB, PDF and MP3.
You can also bookmark, make notes and highlight passages on the nook. But what’s really special about this eReader are the sharing features. Just like Amazon’s Kindle iPhone app, the Barnes & Noble reader can be synced with the company’s various mobile apps. But in addition to that, there’s user to user sharing, allowing you to share your favorite eBooks with friends, family, or your book club. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time and can be sent to other e-readers, cellphones or computers. With its free eReader software, you can share to your iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC or Mac.
Many bestsellers and new releases are just $9.99, the company will also let you sample ebooks before you buy, and they now feature free WiFi in their stores. You can store as many as 1,500 eBooks, newspapers, and magazines on your nook, so you’ll never be without your favorites. And with an added memory card you can keep up to 17,500.
You can pre-order yours now for $259, with shipment expected around November 3oth.
Walt Disney brings their storybooks online
October 5, 2009 by Lori Calabrese · View Comments
The Walt Disney Company has brought the world of Disney Storybooks online. Disney Publishing has released a new subscription-based website, DisneyDigitalBooks.com, that offers Disney’s storybooks in digital format. Disney Publishing’s vault of digital files will be transformed into fun, interactive digital books filled with special features, including realistic page turning, an interactive dictionary and word pronunciation guides. For $79.95 a year, families can access over 500 electronic replicas of new and classic Disney books, from “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too” to “Up!”
DisneyDigitalBooks.com, which is aimed at children ages 3 to 12, is organized by reading level and aims to feature the full Disney experience. The eBooks come with a ‘look and listen’ section that will target beginning readers, where the books will be read aloud by voice actors to accompanying music (with each word highlighted on the screen as it is spoken). Another area is dedicated to children who read on their own. Find an unfamiliar word? Click on it and a voice says it aloud. Chapter books for teenagers and trivia features round out the service.
Substantial headway in the eReader race
September 4, 2009 by Lori Calabrese · View Comments
Sony recently unveiled it’s first e-reader with wireless capability. The Daily Edition will debut in December for holiday shoppers and cost about $399. The new e-reader has a 7-inch screen, can hold up to 1,000 books and can be read either vertically or tipped horizontally to mimic the two pages of an open book.
To read more about The Daily Edition, please read the entire article at Examiner.com
Move over Kindle?
August 4, 2009 by Lori Calabrese · View Comments
Sylvan Dell Publishing recently debuted its next generation eBook, proving the company represents “so much more than a picture book;” it represents a full-fledged campaign for literacy in America.Sylvan Dell publisher and co-founder Lee German said, “These are the most technologically advanced eBooks in the world today, featuring Auto-Flip, Auto-Read, and Selectable Language. There is nothing even close to this on the market. Amazon/Kindle and Barnes & Noble eBooks are not even in the same category. I encourage parents and teachers to take a test-drive and see for themselves. Let the children play with these for a few weeks, and you’ll be amazed at their excitement and improved reading performance. For children wanting to learn a foreign language or ESOL families learning English, these are phenomenal tools.”
Below is a link to a 90-day trial of all 45 Sylvan Dell eBooks:
http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ebooktrials.php?e=MSBL9J
Code expiration date: 10/31/2009
For guided directions: http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/documents/eBookOperatingInstructions.pdf
Sylvan Dell is no newcomer to literacy education and no stranger to technological advances. Since the company’s founding in 2004, co-founders Lee and Donna German have been ahead of the picture book publishing curve. Last year, Sylvan Dell awarded free eBook site licenses to over 2600 elementary and Title I/III schools nationwide through their School Resource Grant Program.
What’s next? According to German, “We want moms, dads, and grandparents to be able to record a reading of our books and add that audio to the language selection list. This is especially important for military families with a parent overseas. We are also developing an iPhone, iPod, and iPod touch application so that our eBooks will be available on handhelds and an online data capture system to allow teachers to track student reading and quiz performance.”
Sylvan Dell eBooks are available on the company website, http://SylvanDellPublishing.com, as are an array of free educational resources, which include Teaching Activities and Interactive Math and Reading Comprehension Quizzes. For more information about the eBooks, visit http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ebooks.php. For more about the eBook Resource Grants: http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ResourceGrant.htm.
Kindle vs. Sony Reader–The Competition Heats Up!
March 26, 2009 by Lori Calabrese · View Comments
Aiming to outdo Kindle: Amazon’s Wireless Reading Device
For now, Google can only make full digital copies available of books whose copyrights have expired, which means the books available to Reader owners were written before 1923 and include classics like “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” by Mark Twain, and “The Awakening,” by Kate Chopin, as well as harder-to-find titles like “The Letters of Jane Austen.”
Sony is hoping the partnership and its newly expanded library will help slow some of the Kindle’s momentum. Amazon currently has 250,000 books in its Kindle library, but it stresses they are the books people want to read, like new releases and best sellers.
Google is displaying only short snippets on its web site of books that remain under copyright protection, which are the vast majority of the books it has scanned. Under a sweeping settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by authors and publishers, which has yet to be approved by a judge, Google would have more freedom to sell copies and split the proceeds with rights holders.
Read the article in The New York Times.
Kindle Application for the iPhone!
March 5, 2009 by Lori Calabrese · View Comments
Man, I WISH I had an iPhone and a Kindle 2: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
The only negative is that the application doesn’t connect to the Kindle store, so you must access the Web browser on your iPhone, iPod or computer to buy the content.
FYI: Amazon currently has 240,000 books available for the Kindle, and its library will grow.
Publisher Simon & Schuster said the program’s release was a plus. Some of the company’s e-books are already available on the iPhone and iPod through Stanza and a program by ScrollMotion called Iceberg. Looks like Amazon’s keeping up with the competition!
Read Amazon Unveils Kindle Application for iPhone from The Associated Press.
Read Kindle for iPhone may benefit Amazon, analysts say from The Associated Press.
Follow Lori
-
Grab the Fish for a Free Book Button!
Places I Support
Networking
