Hasta La Gadget!

Think you can finish a 168-page novel in a month? It might pay to opt for Amazon’s new Kindle rental feature, now available on an incredibly limited number of titles. A few options published by Princeton University Press appear to represent the site’s introductory offering. The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking isn’t exactly a bestseller — we weren’t able to locate any eligible books from that list — but it’s a popular enough title, with a current rank of 1,432 (if the rental option takes off, that position’s likely to change). You can buy it outright for $9.99, or you can instead opt for a 30-day rental. Prices there start at $5.50, increasing by pennies each day until you reach the buy price (in this case, that’ll happen at the end of June).

This new rental option certainly seems appealing, unless you’re the type who slowly makes your way through a text over the course of a year. The feature appears to be open to any US-based Kindle owners, though you’ll need to do quite a bit of digging before you locate any titles with the rental option affixed. In fact, if you wouldn’t mind, do us a favor and share your findings in the comments section after the break — we have quite a few bookworms on staff who wouldn’t mind saving a buck or two.

Update: It’s likely that the book rentals currently available have been internally categorized as textbooks, which is prompting such an offer to appear. We’ve reached out to Amazon and are awaiting confirmation.

Filed under: Internet, Amazon

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Via: Zatz Not Funny

Source: Amazon

Hardbound books, apparently, are soooo 20th century — at least for the upcoming BiblioTech library in San Antonio, Texas’ south side. When the shiny, new public library opens its doors to bookworms this fall, visitors will notice something important missing: actual books. Instead, the facility will be serving up ebooks — about 10,000 digital titles or so — in an attempt to supplement the area’s traditional library system with some new-school cool. To help users partake in its content, BiblioTech will also carry actual e-readers for users to check out. Footage of the media event shows what appears to be a Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch as the facility’s e-reader of choice. Checked-out ebooks are also programmed to be accessible by the borrower for a two-week period. Going the digital route has certainly been a growing trend — 3M recently launched a Cloud Library lending service while one Austrian town kicked off its own unique e-book repository based on stickers equipped with QR codes and NFC chips. As ongoing issues involving Penguin show, however, digital lending sadly still has some hurdles to overcome.

Filed under: Misc, Alt

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Via: Gizmodo

Source: San Antonio Express-News

Perhaps there’s something to be said for setting the bar low — at the very least, it leaves you with ample room to shine in the next round. That’s where Kobo, the Canadian-turned-Japanese company, was when the Arc ($200 and up) landed on our desk, and we’ll tell you right now that the 7-inch tablet mops the floor with its predecessor. In the time since that device was released, however, the rest of the budget tablet market has stepped up its game, with Google’s Nexus 7, Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD running neck and neck. Has Kobo sufficiently cleared the bar this time out? You’re gonna have to click on through for the answer to that one.

Continue reading Kobo Arc review: another 7-inch Android tablet steps into the ring

Filed under: Tablets

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By Billy Steele, Sarah Silbert and Christopher Trout
Illustration By ILoveDust

While planet Earth has yet to meet its demise, the end of 2012 is nigh. It was a year of lengthy legal battles and shifting power dynamics in the tech industry. It brought with it great advancements and great failures — and, for some, the promise of the end of days. We’ve combed our archives to bring you just a few of the stories that made the biggest impact on our reporting this year. Herewith, an abridged look back at the year that was.

Continue reading 2012 Year in tech: A timeline

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Cameras, Displays, Misc, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Household, Laptops, Tablets, Transportation, Wearables, Wireless, Networking, Science, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile, Alt

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Good news for those looking to give the gift that keeps on refreshing every six pages or so: Barnes & Noble’s hitting its holiday stride by shaving a good $20 off the current price of its last-gen e-reader, down to $79. A price, the company helpfully points out, that comes *ahem* “without distracting ads.” The discount goes into effect tomorrow — the privilege of glowing while reading, meanwhile, will still cost you $119.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble drops Nook Simple Touch price to $79 for some unilluminated holiday reading

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