Amazon Kindle for iOS gets line spacing options and multi-page highlights

Amazon Kindle for iOS adds line spacing options and multipage highlights

Now that the summer book frenzy is in full swing, anything that helps us read a little faster is welcome — so we’re glad that Amazon just pushed out a relevant update to its Kindle app for iOS. The new 3.8 release adds line spacing options, so readers can fit more (or less) on to a page without tweaking the font. Those whose eyes demand an extra-large font can now pick one, too. Amazon is also laying some early groundwork for back-to-school with a focus on notation. It’s at last possible to make highlights that span multiple pages, and Print Replica Textbooks gain filters for bookmarks, highlights and notes. Whether you’re trying to get a jump on classes or just want to cram in one more novel during vacation, you’ll want to swing by the App Store for the upgrade.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: App Store

Read and Wear: Smart Pajamas Can Read Your Kids a Bedtime Story

Too tired to read your child a bedtime story? Then let his or her pajamas do the work. This’ll only work if they’ve got the Smart PJs on, because all other jammies are presumably dumb and don’t have the embedded visual codes that make these pajamas so special.

smart pjs pajamas

The secret is all in the design. Or rather, on the secret dot codes integrated into the design on the pajamas. All parents have to do is download an app that’s compatible with both iOS and Android devices, and they’re good to go.

Smart PJs founder Juan Murdoch explained: “We purposely created Smart PJ’s with the scannable dot patterns all over them so that parents can help the child scan the stories on their backs where they can’t reach. We also put words to all the stories and animal information on the screen so that parents can turn off the volume and help the child learn to read the stories and words themselves.”

These interactive pajamas are available in four sizes for both little boys and girls and are currently priced at just $25(USD).

[via C|NET]

Purdue University’s ReadingMate makes the classic reading-running combo a little easier

Purdue University's ReadingMate makes the classic reading-running combo a little easier

Universities aren’t just places for students to cut classes and enjoy themselves before eventually embarking on careers. They are also places where problems get solved, like the one facing runners who find it hard to read on the jog. That bane is the focus of a group of researchers at Purdue University, who are working on a system called ReadingMate, which moves text on a display in reaction to the bobbing head of a runner to stabilize what’s being seen. The screen is sent information from a pair of infrared LED-equipped glasses, but it’s not as simple as shifting text in time with head movement — your eyes are performing corrections of their own, so the words dance slightly out of sync with your noggin to take this into account. It’s performed well in testing, and could have applications beyond the gym, such as in heavy machinery and aircraft, where vibration can hamper reading ability in important situations. Those uses make the most sense — we don’t often find ourselves eager to attack that next Twilight chapter during a near-death treadmill experience.

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Via: Gizmag

Source: Purdue University

A Beautiful Wooden Book Rest for Old School Readers

The world is overrun with iPad, tablet, and e-reader accessories, but the old school book market isn’t dead yet. So for the luddites and bibliophiles out there, this beautifully simple and fully adjustable reading rest will be a welcome addition. More »

The Day I Forgot How to Use a Book

I was shocked at what I had just done, so I laughed out loud. I was there, in a house in the Swiss mountains, lying comfortably on a sofa. I was reading Canetti’s Crowds and Power, a solid 400-page book. And then, as my eyes were approaching the end of yet another page, I swiped upwards. More »

Apple starts offering paid iBookstore content in Japan

Apple starts offering paid iBookstore content to Japan

While Apple’s iBookstore is available in numerous countries, readers who sit outside of a certain privileged zone have had to make do with public domain e-books at best. The Japanese won’t have to settle as of today: a low-key iBookstore expansion gives them access to paid content, including manga and other more localized material. Accordingly, there’s an iBooks 3.1 app update rolling out that both unlocks “hundreds of thousands” of titles in the Japanese store and improves support for Asian languages as a whole. Residents who’ve been looking for the most official means of reading JoJolion on their iPads just need to grab the refreshed iBooks at the source.

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Source: App Store

Meet the World’s Oldest Kindle: A Ferris Wheel for Books

It might be hard to imagine, but there was once a time where thousands upon thousands of books and arguably the sum totally of human knowledge was not readily available at your fingertips. And while it’s no Kindle, Agostino Ramelli’s 16th century bookwheel was a valiant attempt to make that happen. More »

Would You Buy Ebooks on a Pay-As-You-Read Basis?

A start-up called TotalBooX, baed in Tel Aviv, is planning to “disrupt” the ebook market by selling books on a pay-as-you-read basis. But would you be interested? More »

Five Books Every Aspiring Designer Must Read

Maybe you’re an engineer, or maybe you work with a designer. Or maybe you think that design is about using Photoshop. Maybe you just care about design. More »

Well, That’s Insulting: This Technology Wants You to Read Less

Time was “tl;dr” was the battle cry of lazy internet jackasses, people with no attention span who nevertheless found the energy and wherewithal to complain about the length of any digital piece of writing that dared to be longer than a few sentences. Today, at CES, tl;dr is an irritating new “innovation.” More »