Hasta La Gadget!

App updates are always nice, right? Well, if you’re an avid user of Kobo’s intellectual offerings on Android handsets and slates, you’ll be happy to know the all-things-eReader service has rolled out a fresh update to its eBooks application. Most notably, this new version brings support for an array of new languages within the app, such as French, Italian, Dutch, German and Spanish. That’s not it, however, and in addition to gaining a “multi-language experience,” Kobo’s eBooks application now also offers an in-book progress indicator, a two-page landscape view for folks using tablets and the ability to share current readings with friends on Facebook or Kobo Pulse. As usual, you’ll find the refreshed goods inside Google’s Play store, link for that is down below.

Continue reading Kobo for Android gets updated with support for extra languages, more Facebook integration

Filed under: Software

Kobo for Android gets updated with support for extra languages, more Facebook integration originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sad news for global freeloaders travellers looking to keep up with Gmail and Twitter on their Amazon e-reader. The online book seller has started closing in on excessive free web browsing, policing a 50MB data limit on its keyboard Kindle iterations. According to users on MobileRead, you’ll still be able to browse Amazon’s Kindle store and Wikipedia, but anything beyond that gets locked down. After some further investigation, it looks like Amazon added a provision outlining the data limits on its site, dated around July 1st. It stipulating that users “may be limited to 50MB of browsing over 3G per month.” The data cap only applies to older Kindle versions, including the Kindle Keyboard and Kindle DX. If you’ve got Amazon’s latest e-reader hardware, then you’re not missing anything — the free web browsing option was sidestepped on the likes of the Kindle Touch.

Filed under: Internet

Amazon puts 50MB limit on 3G Kindle’s ‘free’ experimental browser originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talk about flying under the radar. While everyone’s focus on Qualcomm’s results last week centered on the mobile chip business going gangbusters, the company quietly revealed during its fiscal results call that it’s backing out of producing Mirasol displays itself. CEO Paul Jacobs instead wants the company licensing out the butterfly-inspired screens to interested companies and will limit its direct commercialization to “certain” devices. The company isn’t explaining why beyond the plan more closely matching “addressable opportunities,” although the absence of any widescale launches (and unconfirmed but repeated talk of low yields at The Digital Reader) suggests that factory output never quite reached critical mass. We’re hoping that someone picks up the color e-reader torch before too long and delivers more than just the reference model derivatives we’ve seen to date.

Filed under: Displays

Qualcomm axes its own Mirasol production, will only bring some devices to market itself originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Believe it or not, but that whole e-book price fixing fiasco is still an ongoing issue for the Justice Department. New York’s senior senator, Chuck Schumer wishes it wasn’t however, he simply wants the DOJ to drop the case and walk away. In a lengthy (factually questionable) op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the distinguished gentleman from the great state of New York said that a successful suit against Apple (he didn’t bother to call out the others involved) would set the e-book industry back several years and allow Amazon to dominate the market unchallenged. He also makes a broader call for the administration to develop more clear guidelines for deciding what non-merger cases to pursue. Unfortunately, we have to point out, that his argument is undercut by some questionable data referenced in the editorial. According to Schumer Amazon once owned 90 percent of the e-book market — a number that, if true, most certainly predates the release of the Nook. This is followed by an insinuation that Apple all but single-handedly toppled the retail giant with the launch of iBooks, cutting Amazons market share to just 60 percent. While the latter number sounds about right we’d hesitate to lay responsibility for that 30 point drop entirely at Apple’s feet. To dig into Schumers op-ed yourself hit up the source link.

Senator Schumer calls on DOJ to drop e-book price-fixing suit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kobo’s clearly been focused on important stuff like being bought by Rakuten and launching in Japan as of late, but the e-reader manufacturer’s got a few bits to announce this week. At the top of the list is a software upgrade for its neglected Touch eReader, which brings a new wish list feature, so you can set aside titles for future purchase. A newly redesigned home screen promises to streamline things a bit and the Bookshelf feature has gotten a bit more customizable, letting you organize selections by genre, author and interest. The Kobo Desktop app, meanwhile, has gotten some tweaks to its profile quiz, to better help the company recommend books to suit your taste.

The company also announced that it’ll be bringing the Touch eReader to Italy, courtesy of the Mondadori Group. At launch, 30,000 titles will be available in Italian. Italian e-reading enthusiasts will be able to snap up the Nook / Kindle competitor for €99 in the fall.

Kobo updates Touch eReader software and Desktop app, heads to Italy this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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