In 2010, I looked at a Princeton study that found using harder-to-read fonts actually improved memory retention. Recently, writer Alan Jacobs at The Atlantic has considered that same study (via the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman) in light of what it might mean for e-readers. Jacobs writes that he prefers the slow, click-intensive method of annotating common to e-ink readers rather than the “easy” method with tablets, because he is better able to remember what he annotates through e-ink readers’ more difficult process. E-books are in their infancy now: there's...

Over the last few days, a new social networking fad seems to have arisen: suddenly I’m seeing posts about Pinterest on PaidContent, Gizmodo, the blogs of my friends, and results that come up in my Zite searches on reading. “Stacked” book blogger Kelly Jensen writes about discovering it’s a great way to spread awareness of some favorite books. Journalist Adam Tinworth writes that “It does what so many people use Tumblr for—visual curation—better, and in a more agreeable layout,” Laura Hazard Owen discusses the unusual demographics of the social network—it seems to appeal more to women than men and higher...

Does self-publishing represent a threat to traditional publishers, or perhaps an opportunity? A number of people in the publishing industry seem dismissive of self-publishing writers or their numbers. But Philip Jones of FutureBook thinks that this is a mistake. He notes that readers who buy cheap self-published books will be spending time reading them that they might otherwise have spent reading more expensive works from traditional publishers. What strikes me most about indie writers, however, is not what they write, but how they publish it. Konrath may be a 'downmarket' writer for some, but he is...

Analysts’ predictions are often not worth the electrons they’re printed on, but CNET reports Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley has said in a research note to investors that Amazon could launch an iPad-sized 9-inch Kindle Fire by the middle of the year. Such a device could increase expected Kindle Fire sales from 12.7 million to 14.9 million units this year. He based this information on his contacts with Amazon component suppliers, which does not necessarily mean it will be accurate. This is only the latest in a number of reports that have suggested a 9-inch Fire could launch sometime this year,...

AllThingsD reports on information from anonymous sources who claim that the next Apple event will happen the first week in March, and will debut the next iPad. This one is supposed to do for the iPad’s large screen what the iPhone and iPod Touch 4 did for their small screen: a faster processor and double-resolution (in this case 2048x1536) Retina Display. If 2011 was the year of the iPad 2, will 2012 be the year of the iPad 3? Said a source familiar with the device: “What do you think?” Assuming it really does...

Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet from School Library Journal on Vimeo....

New Features Auto-adding: Add an option to check for duplicates when auto adding. Content server: Export a second record via mDNS that points to the full OPDS feed in addition to the one pointing to the Stanza feed. The new record is of type _calibre._tcp. Allow specifying a set of categories that are not partitioned even if they contain a large number of items in the Tag Browser. Preference is available under Look & Feel->Tag Browser Allow setting a URL prefix for the content server that run embedded in the calibre GUI as well. Allow output of identifiers data in CSV/XML/BiBTeX catalogs Driver for Motorola Droid...

We’ve previously reported on the FAA approving and several airlines switching to iPads to replace multipound stacks of paper in the cockpit. Now that is spreading to the government. The US Air Force is purchasing 18,000 iPads to use in C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster cargo planes. By reducing the weight that its planes carry, the move could save the Air Force as much as $1.2 million in fuel costs per year. (I wonder how much is saved in fuel costs by airline passengers bringing Kindles instead of a bunch of print books?) "Moving...

The Sun has an op-ed by “chick-lit writer” Adele Parks—another one of those conversion stories about e-book doubters who become e-book evangelists. In Parks’s case, she became curious enough to buy a Kindle after learning she was selling a huge number of e-books. After buying the Kindle, she discovered she liked it so much she has used it it constantly ever since—though mostly for travel and commuting, where a slim device that can replace a ton of books is most useful. She will “always choose a ‘proper’ book” for reading at home. Parks does not have an...

A couple of weeks ago I blogged a post by author Will Entrekin about why he felt Amazon’s Kindle Select program (in which authors give Amazon exclusivity over their work in return for getting paid for Kindle Prime subscriber e-library checkouts) was a very good deal. Now I see another post, by Christopher Wright on Eviscerati.org, about why self-publishing authors might want to stay far away. Wright compares Kindle Select to Michael Roberts’s MP3.com independent music distribution site, which allowed independent musicians (such as Wright) to upload mp3 tracks to catch the attention of the Internet audience. ...

From a Chip Chick post. The QOOQ tablet really shines with a subscription to QOOQ’s services, though. A subscription will net users 3,500 interactive recipes from some of the world’s top chefs, 1,200 of which include video instructions. Those recipes are accompanied by a comprehensive and detailed wine list and suggestions for each meal. There are also 100 featured chefs that offer up video tutorials for individual cooking techniques, in addition to whole recipes. That by itself isn’t overwhelmingly impressive – those kinds of resources can be found with a little poking around the Internet. The QOOQ tablet does have some...

From the Worldreader blog.  Worldreader aims to put a library of books in the hands of families worldwide, using e-reader technology.  They have a post on their blog thanking volunteer  for his efforts.  Here is part of it: Here are a few things that have us in awe with Carl back in our Barcelona office and excerpts from his blog: 1. His knack for trouble-shooting and encouraging kids to use built-in features on their Kindles: “I suggested they tried out the ‘text to speech feature’ one day, a function of the Kindle Keyboard, which reads out a book’s content with a computer voice....