TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics » e-reading apps

Prices of e-books for libraries could slow their digital growth

Susan Lulgjuraj — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:00:47 +0000

While I’ve been reading e-books for several years, I didn’t get catch on to borrowing e-books from the public library until recently. I’m a big proponent of the library and borrow physical books often, but using the Overdrive app happened a bit too late. Once I started using it, well, I haven’t been able to [...]

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Bookboard announces paid subscription model for streaming children’s books

Susan Lulgjuraj — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:22:29 +0000

After launching a free public beta late last year, Bookboard is ready to put itself on the market. The iPad app features a way to stream children’s books and uses incentives to unlock achievements. The company announced the start of paid subscriptions with premium features on Thursday. In addition to the already more than 300 books available, Bookboard [...]

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Amazon Introduces “Send to Kindle” Button on Websites for Offline Reading on the Go

Matthew Marchesano — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:35:45 +0000

We’ve discussed ‘read later’ apps before. Personally, I like the simplicity of Pocket, as Evernote is so overly-capable that it seems daunting to dive into head-first. Perhaps in due time, I suppose. Another nice option I’ve used is Google’s ‘Read it Later’ feature on its Reader service, but well, yeah, we all know where that’s headed. Anyway, Amazon has been on [...]

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Why are the better e-reading apps only on one platform?

Juli Monroe — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:45:55 +0000

E-book stores tend to have their apps on multiple platforms: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc. But the discerning e-book reader wants more features than those apps usually provide, so we start looking for third-party apps. And then we run into an issue. Think about some of the better-regarded e-reading apps. Many of them are only on [...]

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Five Useful ‘Cloud Syncable’ Apps for E-Book Fans

Joanna Cabot — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:43:40 +0000

I started reading e-books back in the stones ages of plain text Gutenberg files on a handheld Palm device. My, how times have changed! Now, we can read on phones or tablets, in full glorious color—or on battery-efficient E Ink devices—books with sophisticated layouts and embedded multimedia. But those sorts of bells and whistles pale in [...]

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Don’t upgrade your Kindle for iOS app!

Juli Monroe — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:00:26 +0000

If you’re like me, you keep a close eye on your app updates on your iDevice. This morning, as I was leaving the house for an early morning meeting, I noticed an app update available. Good thing I always check what’s new before updating. This was the first time I’ve ever seen this message: Note: [...]

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App Review: Nota

Susan Lulgjuraj — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:00:13 +0000

With tablets becoming part of the classroom, new apps regularly arrive on the market to aid educators. One of the newest releases for Android devices is Nota, an app that allows users to add videos, links and images to the pages of textbooks. Nota could aid a wide range of people, providing a comprehensive way [...]

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Bookish Now Has E-Reading Apps. Hooray?

Juli Monroe — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:30:37 +0000

Earlier this month, I wrote about the launch of Bookish. At the time, their e-reading apps were “coming soon.” And now they are here. Are we impressed? Not really. It’s a bare bones e-reading app with nothing to recommend it. The Android version isn’t bad. You can override publisher defaults to get some font and [...]

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Moon+ Reader (app review)

Juli Monroe — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:54:47 +0000

Remember how I wrote that Whispersync was so important that I’d put up with a less feature-full app to have syncing between my Touch and Nexus 7? Oh, how things change. After Moon+ Reader was reinstated in the app store, I bought a copy to play around with. I figured it would be like other [...]

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Moon+ Reader Back on Google Play! And On Sale!

Juli Monroe — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:00:12 +0000

Some of you may have read that Moon+ Reader was pulled from Google Play about a week ago, for a bogus copyright infringement claim. Nate over at The Digital Reader had a good story about it. A few days later, the developer had an apology from Litres, the company who made the bogus claim. I [...]

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App Faceoff: Pocket vs. Instapaper

Juli Monroe — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:30:30 +0000

“Read Later” apps have become more popular as people use their smartphones and tablets on-the-go. I’ve used Pocket for years, and I recently decided to pay for Instapaper because it offered features Pocket does not. I use both, but for different purposes. Pocket is great for short articles, especially ones with images. I’ve set Flipboard up to share with Pocket, and [...]

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Needing multiple reading apps — problem or not?

Juli Monroe — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:23:55 +0000

Last week, Joanna wrote about giving up on the iBooks app. It generated quite a number of comments, but one in particular, from reader Michael W. Perry, caught my eye. He said: “One final note. You’re starting to discover an issue that ebook retailers have been averting their eyes from. In the near future, ebook buyers [...]

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App Review: Marvin e-reader app for iPad

Juli Monroe — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:59:13 +0000

Move over iBooks, there’s a new e-reader for iPad in town: Marvin. I heard about it from a KindleKorner reader, and it’s almost enough to make me wish I’d bought an iPad Mini instead of a Nexus 7. First, the basic information. Marvin is free, for now, but their website indicates that will end at some [...]

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Using Applause as an e-book app rating system

Juli Monroe — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:50:26 +0000

I recently wrote an article for GadgeTell about a new site, Applause, that ranks iOS and Android apps. I thought it would be fun to run various e-book reading apps through the site, and see how they rated. Here’s the list, organized from high to low: • FBReader: 84 • Moon+ Reader Pro: 81 • [...]

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Kindle FreeTime workaround for non-Amazon books

Juli Monroe — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:00:13 +0000

An interesting question popped up last month on Kindleboards. A mom wanted to set up FreeTime—the app included on Kindle Fire HD that allows parents to create a customized content experience—for her son on the Fire HD. A lot of his books were not purchased from Amazon, so when she sent them to the Fire, [...]

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