A past blog entry of mine related my frustrations with borrowing from the Bibliotheque et Archives Nationales du Quebec. I expressed my frustration at the difficulty I had finding a book and loading it onto my Kobo eReader. Recently, the BAnQ moved to the Overdrive ebook lending system, and I have to say it’s a HUGE difference in ease of use. Last Saturday my husband and I went to see the movie The Help and as I enjoyed it I decided to borrow the book on which it was based. I logged into the BAnQ’s Overdrive site and discovered that both copies of the book were out. (Libraries can only lend as many copies as they have licences for that book.) However, there was a handy link nearby: Place a Hold. I entered my email address to register my hold. So, this evening I got an email from BAnQ saying the book was available, providing a link and directing me to My Holds page on the Overdrive system. A couple of well guided clicks and a login later, the book was downloading to my computer and then a drop and drag moved it to my Kobo. All in all, it took maybe…
Those of you who follow my blog will know how much I’ve lusted after the new Amazon Kindle Touch, and also shared in my frustration at Amazon’s refusal to ship it outside the US. Anyway, today I caved and took a short trip across the US border to Best Buy in Plattsburgh to purchase one. From my experience with the WiFi only Kobo, I did in the end decide to purchase the base model WiFi only with special offers for $99. I had a few tense moments when a Nook was produced that had been set aside for me and the saleswoman couldn’t find the Kindle Touches… I was very relieved to finally have it in my hand. As it is technically not available in Canada I was a little anxious about registering, especially as it took me three attempts with the virtual keyboard. However, it all seemed to go through and I am now happily downloading my content to my Kindle Touch. Size wise the Kindle Touch is noticeably smaller and lighter than the Kindle Keyboard – not surprising as it doesn’t have a keyboard! Comparing the screens to the Kindle Keyboard and Kobo, the two Kindles seem virtually…
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith follows a similar structure to his earlier book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in that it combines existing material with the fantastical. The premise of the book is that American President Abraham Lincoln’s life was spent hunting vampires as well as abolishing slavery. A mix of genres Now, straight historical biography is not a genre I tend to read very often; I’d rather be transported to a new world than learn about someone who lives or lived in ours. I found this particular combination of hard fact and fantastical fiction to be both fun and somewhat informative. A reader of this book would not finish it with an encyclopedic knowledge of Lincoln’s life – I must admit I kept Wikipedia on hand to check historical facts – but he may know more about him than he did previously, and possibly be inspired to learn more. It should be pointed out that as a Brit, my knowledge of American history is sketchy at best. It may be that American readers will learn little that is new to them. They however may enjoy trying to guess how the author will incorporate certain events into the…
So I have been using the Kobo now for almost a week, and I must say I have enjoyed using it. The touch interface seems responsive and is fun to use. There are many things I prefer about the Kobo user interface to the Kindle interface – the use of book covers for one thing. Some of those are very attractive and the Kindle’s text-based user interface seems a little basic by comparison. Of course, I have not seen the UI for the Kindle Touch, but from the video of the Amazon press conference it seems as if it is still predominantly text based. Amazon’s Collections feature where you can categorise your books into user defined groups for easier searching is one thing I find hard to live without. Currently I only have a few books on the Kobo, so choosing/finding one is not too tricky, but on my Kindle I have over 30 pages of books. A lot of the things I like about my Kindle are UI based. I enjoy sharing on my Facebook page and Twitter feed when I find an interesting passage or have finished a book. I just find that more intuitive on the Kindle…
So, I have unboxed the Kobo Touch and have spent my first few hours with it. My first impressions are generally positive. Hardware: The Kobo Touch has the same 6 inch eInk display as the Kindle. From what I could see, there was no discernible difference in contrast between the two, but as they use different fonts, it was tricky to say. In any case, both are clear and easy to read. I found the IR touchscreen reasonably responsive and easy to use. In comparison to the Kindle 3G Keyboard the Kobo seems tiny; of course this is because it doesn’t have a keyboard. I found the Kobo comfortable and easy to hold, and page turns were easy. I did miss being able to turn back a page with my right hand – the Kindle has page back buttons on the same side of the case as the page forward one. Personally, I found I had to use two hands – not easy with a cat purring in your lap. One thing the Kobo does slightly differently to the Kindle is the screen refreshes. By default it will only refresh the screen fully on every sixth page turn, minimising the…
As those of you who follow my blog will know, I am a strong advocate of e-reading and in particular, Amazon’s Kindle. I have had a Kindle now since January 2010, and have built up a significant library of ebooks. However, I’ve recently become very frustrated with Amazon’s US-centric focus and am beginning to wonder if the Canadian Kobo might be a better way to go. With this in mind, today I purchased a Kobo Touch e-reader and plan to take advantage of Chapters’ two week return policy to review it and decide whether that is the way to go. I believe both of them are good, reliable e-readers and I don’t think a purchaser would be disappointed in either. Both have the eInk display which is easiest on the eyes. At the point where I was considering going into ereading, before I bought my Kindle, I did experiment with both Kobo and Amazon stores and customer service and was equally happy with both. At that point the Kobo ereader was not yet on the market. As of yet, I have not unboxed it, but from what I understand, the following are the relative merits of Kindle and Kobo. Kindle…
I thought I would write a short entry today about a few thoughts that have occurred to me. First, Pottermore announced yesterday on its blog that it is extending the beta process for another month, new registrants will have to wait weeks or even months for their welcome emails granting them access to the site, and that the Pottermore store selling Harry Potter ebooks and audiobooks will not open until mid 2012. None of this comes as a surprise to those of us in the beta program, who have borne witness to the numerous downtimes and the notorious Purple Screen of Death. Indeed, it's probably the sensible – if only – decision the Pottermore site managers could make. It is very disappointing though. The site itself is fun and interesting when you actually get on, and of course, I was anxious to be able to add the Harry Potter ebooks to my collection. Speaking of ebooks, I realised over the last couple of days just how much more enjoyable I find long form reading on my Kindle rather than my iPad, my iPhone or my iMac. In all fairness, I should add that reading magazines is a delight on the iPad. The…
Amazon recently announced a press conference to take place tomorrow, September 28th. It is widely expected to introduce the Kindle Fire, Amazon's long expected entry into the tablet market. As per Time, the specs are: based on Android 2.1, but modified to the point of being unrecognizable, Siegler reports. The software will emphasize Amazon's own digital content—movies, TV shows, music, e-books and the Amazon Appstore—with a carousel view of all content on top and pinned app icons on the bottom. The idea is to make content purchases and consumption as simple as possible. In terms of hardware: According to Ryan Block at gdgt, Amazon's tablet will look a lot like Research in Motion's Blackberry Playbook tablet—a 7-inch slab with sharp corners. That's because Amazon reportedly hired manufacturer Quanta, which designed the Playbook, to "shortcut" the Kindle Fire's development process. Naturally, everything is speculation until Jeff Bezos gets up on stage and introduces the new product. Many believe that it will be the first tablet offering to be a serious competitor to Apple's iPad. Rumour suggests Amazon will be pricing this most aggressively – below cost at $250-$300. That is half the price of the lowest spec iPad. Equally importantly, it…
Further to my blog entry yesterday regarding ebook borrowing from the BAnQ in Montreal, I received a very useful and informative reply from them which I would like to share with you: Thank you for sharing your comments regarding our ebook collections. We recognize that the process includes numerous steps and can be cumbersome at some times. Please find below some information about recent developments in our services. Finding ebooks on our portal Regarding the visibility of our ebook collections on our website, we have recently implemented a new page entirely dedicated to ebooks. There is a link to it on our homepage, at the right side (where it says Livre numériques on a green banner). The page has not been translated into English yet, but we hope that our subscribers will be able to navigate our ebook collections easily from this page and will find answers to most of their technical difficulties in the page’s FAQ (Foire aux questions) :http://www.banq.qc.ca/ressources_en_ligne/livres-numeriques/index.html. This page is updated regularly. Once you are on the Livres numériques page, you may use the search box to search for ebooks in the Iris catalogue (it is a different search box from the one that you have used on our Online Resources pages)….
Amazon recently announced that their flagship Kindle ebook reader was now capable of borrowing from public libraries. As my ebook budget is a source of, um, friendly banter between my husband and me, this is one functionality that was very welcome to me. However, at this point, this ability is only available in the US. I know from past experience that the Montreal public library, of which I am a member, does have some limited ebooks to borrow, so I decided to check it out. When I last checked several months ago, the selection available, at least in terms of my preferred genre of fantasy, was extremely limited, especially in English. Well, it is the main city of Francophone Canada, so I guess I’ll forgive it for having most books in French. In all fairness I believe their selection has improved markedly since my initial investigation 18 months or so ago. My experience borrowing from the library was painful and I felt it would have been easier to write the darned book. I am no technophobe by any means, in fact more the opposite, but I found the numerous stages ponderous and unnecessary. I really hope Amazon’s process is much easier….