The Digital Reader

The Best News and Info on Ebooks and eReaders

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Entries Tagged as 'apps'

Coliloquy’s “Active Content” Ebooks Don’t Actually Let You Do Much

February 4th, 2012 · apps, Coliloquy, kindle app, software reviews

A couple weeks ago a new digital publisher burst onto the scene.

Coliloquy was getting all sorts of buzz for their apps for the Kindle.  Like many developers before them, Coliloquy had adapted the idea of the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books to  digital form. And like a number of other developers, Coliloquy set out to release their books as apps that you can run on the Kindle.

I was given a review sample earlier this week, and a few days before that I bought one of the apps on my own. I’ve spent several hours reading the ebooks as well as paging through and seeing where the decisions took me. Aside from the fact that the stories didn’t interest me,  there were a couple things I didn’t like about these ebook apps.

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Sony Reader App Now Available for (Some) Android Tablets

January 28th, 2012 · apps

A few months back Sony released a new version of their reading app for Android tablets, only they did a rather odd thing: it was only available for Sony’s new tablets.

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Kindle for iPhone, iPad Updated – Now Supports PDF, Kindle Cloud, and More

December 21st, 2011 · Amazon, apps, Kindle Cloud, kpr

click to enlarge

Christmas came a little early for iPad users this year. Amazon has just rolled out an update for their reading app on the iPad and iPhone, and they added a bunchaton of new features.

The iPad app is getting support for the new magazines and other periodicals currently found on the Kindle Fire. That’s over 400 titles with new and rich formatting. You can buy a single issue or subscribe and Amazon will  automatically deliver them to your gadget.

But wait, there’s more.

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Flipboard for iPhone Debuts

December 16th, 2011 · apps, iPad, iPhone app

The wildly popular iPad news and blog aggregator app, Flipboard, finally released an iPhone counterpart last week. The enthusiasm for the app resulted in several hours of downtime for Flipboard during the morning of its release, with many users unable to access the service, login or create new accounts.  That didn’t stop over 1 million downloads of the app since its release on December 7.

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Aldiko Updated – Now Optimized for Android Tablets

December 6th, 2011 · apps

My second favorite Android reading app was just updated today, and it’s worth a look.

Aldiko just posted a major update to their reading app. The new version is much better designed for a large screen tablet. Look at the screen shot at right and then try to picture it on a 10″ screen. The older v2.0 app was designed for small screens (5″ and under) and wasted a lot of screen real estate on 7″ screens and above.

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Google Books Update Adds Support for 7″ Android Tablets

October 6th, 2011 · apps, Google

Google launched the UK eBookstore today, but that wasn’t all they did. There’s also a new update to the Google Books Android app. The update brings a couple minor improvements, several bug fixes, and one or 2 major new features.

The one new feature that is probably the most important is the improved support for 7″ tablets. I can’t say that I see any difference, but then again I don’t have a 7″ tablet to check. Google also added better support for smaller screen (phones), including in-book search and a landscape mode for with reflowable text. You can also now +1 a book while reading, a feature which won’t matter once Google kills off gPlus (as they inevitably will).

You can find the updated app in the Android Market.

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B&N Now Abandoning the Blackberry – Playbook Support a Lost Cause

October 4th, 2011 · apps, software news

Barnes & Noble have been sending out emails to Blackberry owners this week with a sad warning.

As of tomorrow, the Blackberry  Nook app will no longer be able to buy ebooks from B&N. Anything you’ve already bought will still be accessible, and you can still side-load any content you buy. But B&N have made it clear that they don’t plan to support the app anymore.

Here’s the specific changes:

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Yet Another Set of 4 Free TouchPad apps

September 15th, 2011 · apps, free ebooks

HP sent out another newsletter tonight with a new offer for 4 more free apps. Like the last set of free apps, these are limited in quantity and probably also limited to the US. Also like the last apps, this set has a theme (Learn-Explore-Discover-Play), only this set has a more explicit and better conceived theme.

Hmm. I was looking over the past free app offers, and I noticed that HP appear to be giving away a set of apps every week. Counting the two 6 packs that HP announced on their blog, this is actually the 4th such offer. I wonder if this is going to be a weekly event for HP?

If so, that would be a sign of an ongoing marketing effort which would indicate that HP might be planning to bring back the TouchPad.

BTW, you might want to visit this page from your TouchPad; it would give you the chance to copy&paste the promo codes and that would be the easiest way to enter them.

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New Sony Reader Android app out – Only Works on Sony Tablets

September 15th, 2011 · apps

Sony released a new Android app last week, but good luck getting it.

I heard earlier today that the new Sony Reader for Android tablets was now available in the Android Market. I immediately wnet over and tried to get the app for my Asus Transformer. I couldn’t even see it in the Marketplace when I visited from the Transformer. Then I double checked on the website, and it was indeed there (released on 9 September). It’s my guess that Sony won’t let you download it if you don’t have a Sony Tablet. And no, it’s not a mistake; the name of the app is Reader™ for Sony Tablet™.

Update: My competition found this page on the Sony eBookstore. The Reader Tablet app will be available for other tablets in December.

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Levar Burton to Relaunch Reading Rainbow as Enhanced Ebook Apps

September 15th, 2011 · apps

Actor and author Levar Burton, star of the much loved show Reading Rainbow, has just gone public with his plans to launch a new company.

He has partnered on the project with Buffalo’s WNED-TV, rights-holder to the 1983-2006 PBS series Reading Rainbow. He’s raised $3 million in capital for the new venture, which is going to be called RRKidz.  Burton said that the company plan to release a reading app for the iPad and for Android. The app will be free, and users will be able buy any of 300 interactive ebooks from a collection that will be curated by Burton. He also plans to narrate a number of the ebooks himself.

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