An interesting report is circulating the book blogs, alleging that e-book sales in Canada are down almost five percent. I've seen reporting on the Booknet Canada report on at least 3 blogs (for example, here and here and here, but nobody seems quite sure what to make of it. We're selling lots and lots of devices here in Canada, aren't we? We're Kobo's number one country! So what, exactly, are we reading? Are e-book sales on the decline? Here are a few thoughts about what may be going on here: 1. Device Availability is Limited This is partly because the retail scene is limited! We've only just gotten Target here, and it opened...

Lifehacker has a great analysis of why Yahoo's recent Flickr tweaking is a little but underhanded—paid users, who never had a storage limit in the first place, suddenly do, and there are ads now... Briefly mentioned, but not fully explored, is the bigger issue: How many of us really care about the service Flickr offers these days? I used to use Flickr as a place to park photos so I could share them in a blog post or via a link. Now, I can snap the photo directly on my phone and share it from my camera roll, via email or blog...

Reports on Androidos.in and later picked up on Engadget and elsewhere have outed the Notion Ink Adam II Android tablet, successor device to the much-hyped Adam device produced by India’s Notion Ink Design Labs, and apparently supported by the Indian Department of Science & Technology Technology Business Incubators program. Documents indicate a reasonably specced and very price-competitive tablet, but one without the Pixel Qi screen that was the key differentiator for the prior model. Notion Ink’s original Adam design engendered considerable pre-launch interest because of the promise of a daylight-readable display that could switch back any time to regular mode. Sadly, the device was both...

LibraryCity knocked Amazon for not letting users of the Kindle Fire HDs adjust their line spacing. But guess what I noticed just now within the font-related submenu of my Kindle HD 8.9” model running version 8.3.1 firmware? Alas, on my several files tested, I still couldn’t narrow the spaces sufficiently on the HD even though the Kindle app for Android, as in previous versions for my Nexus 10, pulled off this trick just fine. Apologies if the HD improvement is old news, but Amazon pushes out updates automatically, and this is the first time I myself became aware of the line-spacing change. May Amazon...

And this is why I try very hard not to report on rumors. Last week I wrote about a rumor that Microsoft was considering buying the Nook Media division. Well, the rumor was good for Barnes & Noble stock, which spiked up to $22 a share the day the rumor was announced, and then continued up to almost $24 a share later in the week. (Today it's down to $21.) However, as with many rumors, this one has now been dispelled (maybe, assuming dispelling the "rumor" isn't just part of the big plan.) Insider Monkey says they had an email on Friday...

If you've taken advantage of the great sale on the Nook HD (ending today), or if you've had one for awhile and recently upgraded to add the Google Play Store, you might be wondering what apps to add. Here's my list of must-have apps, not available in the Nook App store. 1. Feedly With Google Reader going away this July, you'll need another way to keep track of your feeds. I've been using Feedly for awhile now, and it's an excellent Google Reader replacement. In some ways, I've grown to like it better. For example, I've found its integration with Pocket to...

By Stephen Silver Ever reach into your pocket at the end of a long flight to turn on your phone, only to realize it was on all along? You’re not alone. A study released Thursday found that 30 percent of U.S. airplane passengers have accidentally left a personal electronic device turned on while on a plane. According to the “Portable Electronic Devices on Aircraft” study, jointly conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX),  69 percent of respondents say they have used an electronic device in-flight. The study comes as the federal government is considering relaxing restrictions on in-flight...

Samsung might have already started rolling out the third generation of Galaxy Tabs with the Tab 3 7.0, but that doesn’t mean it has forgotten all about the aging members of the family introduced back in 2011 and 2012. In fact, one of those, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, is reported to be receiving some much awaited and at one point highly unlikely love in the form of beans. Jelly Beans, to be somewhat specific. Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, to be fully specific. The 4.1.2 update is slowly but surely making its way through Asia, being expected in Europe and North America in the...

The Consumer Electronics Association released some interesting data yesterday about electronic devices on planes. • Ninety-nine percent of flyers bring a portable electronic device on a flight with them. That's a lot of gadgets! • Thirty percent of them have forgotten to turn off a device at some time. Whoops! Another interesting breakdown is this: The study found that when asked to turn off their electronic devices, 59 percent of passengers say they always turn their devices completely off, 21 percent of passengers say they switch their devices to “airplane mode,” and five percent say they sometimes turn their devices completely off. Of those passengers who...

You're familiar with the saying “Go big or go home?” Well, it doesn’t exactly apply to the tablet market nowadays, but the tide could turn soon enough. One of the biggest ongoing battles is for the small tab crown, with Google, Asus, Amazon, Apple, but also Acer fighting each other guns blazing. Meanwhile, the bigger throne remains in Cupertino, Calif., with only Samsung (timidly) trying to steal the 9.7-inch iPad’s thunder. However, if we are to trust newly emerged online reports, Amazon is planning to spread its Fire instead of cooling it down. The next generation of the company’s Kindle Fires will...

Yesterday, I wrote about the Nook HD mostly from a stock OS perspective. But I know the question you really wanted to have answered was this: "Does it work as an Android tablet?" After three days of using it, my answer is a cautious "yes." Because I still don't have a tablet case for it, I haven't run it through a typical work day. However, from my use in the house over the weekend, I can tell you that it's got potential. Let's start with what it can and can't do. Loading apps from Google Play is a breeze. When you install the...

I've wanted a Nook HD from the moment they came out. The reviews of the hardware were great, but I swore after I sold my first tablet, a Nook Color, that I'd never buy another crippled device again. The Nook App store is just terrible, and while I tried to make my Nook Color work as a tablet (including buying an N2A card), it was never quite satisfying. I needed to boot to the card to have the apps I needed. But for reading, I've always preferred the stock Nook reader, so I spent too much time either being unhappy or booting...