BooksOnBoard has (hopefully temporarily) shut down their site for new purchases, though you can still download titles from your library. Instead of their usual welcome screen, you will be greeted by this when you attempt to access the site: That sounds concerning but not too worrisome. However, over at The Digital Reader, Nate thinks it's the beginning of the end. He has a detailed article about BooksOnBoard and their recent history of not paying their distributors. His advice, which I will echo, is, "download and back up your library now." If this is just a bump in the road, and they are back...

I'm always skeptical of articles and posts I read on April 1, for obvious reasons. Sometimes they look plausible enough to pull you in, and this year I decided to share some of the April Fool's posts I've particularly enjoyed this morning. Google, of course, had to have some fun with us by introducing Google Nose. Really, "Photo, auditory, olfactory sensory convergence?" Try saying that three times fast! Ron Charles, from The Washington Post, gives us "Apple Letters," Apple's latest patent. After patenting the page turn, there wasn't much left. Joe Konrath is tired of making too much money and is pulling all...

Hat tip to an alert reader on The Digital Reader for this one. As far as we knew, when the Kindle Paperwhite came out last year, Amazon retired the Kindle Touch. But now it looks like they plan to continue selling it, at least for a while. You can only find it through a search. It's not listed on the Kindle comparison page, but if you're interested, you can find it here. I'm guessing they brought it back some time this month. I did a search back through reviews, and reviews from February and January were primarily for "Certified Refurbished" Touches....

I was finally able to register with Feedly last night to give it a try. Most of the day they'd been down, but they added server capacity and were running well later in the evening. So far, I think it'll work for me. Setting up the account was easy. I signed in with my Google account, and they imported all my feeds. They have assured users that the transition will be seamless in July. If they achieve seamless, I'll be impressed. Tech doesn't always work that way. If they manage "not too painful" for the first day or two, I'll be...

Bookish has launched with much fanfare. Some good. Some bad. Nate over at The Digital Reader had an amusing look at their terms of service. DBW has three reasons they will succeed and three reasons they will fail. Hedging their bets much? So I decided to try using the site and assess it from a usability perspective. The first thing I tried didn't work out so well. There's a big box in the middle of the page that says "Enter a Book." I assumed I would enter a book title and get some recommendations based on that title. Failing that, I thought at...

If you haven't already seen it, run—don't walk!—over to this post from The Digital Reader, where our pal Nate has a review of what he's referring to as "the world's smallest e-reader," the TrekStor Pyrus Mini. And let me tell you, this thing looks ridiculously, incredibly small. (And as someone who absolutely loves miniature consumer electronics, let me assure you that I mean that in a good way.) One of the post's commenters, the inimitable Mike Cane, has requested that Nate post a photo of the Pyrus Mini next to the super-tiny Kobo Mini—and frankly, we'd love to see that as well. But if you've ever seen a Kobo Mini in...

Thanks to Nate over at The Digital Reader for pointing me toward Goodread's year-end infographic summary (see below). Some cool stats on there about the most reviewed book of the year (Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn), the most popular author interviews (Michael Chabon, Lois Lowry, Junot Diaz and Anne Lamott) and growth of the site's membership (it doubled in size). But what I found most interesting about the graphic was that it drew my attention to features I didn't even know Goodreads offered. You can 'like' quotes? You can enter giveaways? You can join a book club? Cool features, Goodreads! I had no idea! I've...

Toys R Us has officially listed the latest Android tablet that has been designed specifically for children. The model is known as the Tabeo, and it brings a 7-inch display along with a slew of aimed-at-children features such as a drop-safe number and child-friendly interface. The tablet will be running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS, and will come pre-loaded with more than 50 educational and gaming apps, including Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, and the ever-popular Temple Run. The Tabeo Tablet is currently available for pre-order only, and it's priced at $149.99. The Toys R Us listing is showing an...

If you're currently in the market for a Kindle but happen to be on a strict budget at the same time, head on over to The Digital Reader immediately, where our friend Chris Meadows has a tip on budget-priced refurbished models currently being sold at select Best Buy locations in the United States. Chris says he tracked down a Kindle Touch 3G (with Special Offers) at a Springfield, Mo. store for just $109.99. (It was marked down from $149.99.) He also found the $79.99 base-level Kindle (also with Special Offers) for only $55.99. If you happen to know of specific Best Buy stores in your...

Well, it’s been fun, but I’ve just made my last post to TeleRead as a regular contributor. Starting tomorrow, I’m moving to The Digital Reader, to write for my friend Nate Hoffelder. It’s important to note that there are no hard feelings between me and NAPCO or new editor-in-chief Dan Eldridge, who I’m confident will do a great job keeping TeleRead true to the vision of founder David Rothman. I just don’t have the time to write as much as I used to anymore. Still, you may see the occasional bit of content from me pop up here from...

Over at The Digital Reader, Nate Hoffelder has coverage of the Kobo Touch’s launch in Japan, which seems to have turned into something of a debacle. Bad reviews of the device were posted so prevalently to Rakuten’s website that it finally removed all reviews, both good and bad, from its site. Customers reported problems with buggy desktop software, lack of availability of Japanese titles, and unresponsive touchscreens. Nate writes: Folks, they took the reviews down from the website so new customers wouldn’t be warned about the many problems. I want you to look past the...

At The Digital Reader blog, Nate Hoffelder has heard from three different sources, at least a couple of whom are Barnes & Noble employees, that Barnes & Noble will be launching its next generation of Nook Color on November 7th. One source remarked on the huge “NOOK boutique” that his store built, complete with LED TVs, touchscreen point-of-sale systems, and so on, which his manager said “was not designed to house just 2 nooks.” It will be interesting to see whether this pans out. As Hoffelder points out, given that the Kindle Fire will be shipping soon, this is...