Archive for the ‘Reading apps’ Category
PressReader for iPad gets major update no comments
NewspaperDirect has released a major update for its PressReader for iPad app. PressReader 3.0 includes a number of new features including:
- Zoomed in view of article automatically positions itself at the beginning of the article.
- Tap and hold to enable contextually driven actions including: Printing of pages or articles, copy and paste, share on Facebook or Twitter, turn on text to speech and more.
- Pinch to adjust font and image sizes.
- Choice of font sizes.
- Keyword search across multiple publications.
But the biggest new feature is called SmartFlow, a new landscape reading mode that gives the user the ability to view articles as a continuous stream of stories that are optimally formatted. SmartFlow also eliminates the need to jump to the page where a story is continued as is required in the page replica viewing mode.
PressReader is a free app at iTunes and new users receive seven free newspapers with the app. Additional newspapers and magazines can be purchased on an a la carte basis or via a monthly subscription option. NewspaperDirect offers over 2,000 full-content newspapers from 95 countries.
NewspaperDirect has released the promotional video below which shows off some of the new features.
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Baker & Taylor to distribute ebooks from Gardners no comments
Baker & Taylor has reached an agreement to distribute ebooks from Gardners Books Limited. Gardners is Britain’s leading book wholesaler and currently offers ebooks from almost 1,000 publishers.
The new ebook selection will be available internationally over the Blio platform. As part of the agreement Gardners will manage the Blio ebookstore in the UK.
While Blio may not be my favorite ereading app, it is at least available for most devices.
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eBook Search for iPad/iPhone no comments
App developer Inkstone Software has several iOS ereading apps to its credit — MegaReader, Young Reader and QuickReader. QuickReader teaches speed reading and Young Reader is a version of QuickReader optimized for kids. Inkstone has just released a new app dubbed eBook Search that is quite interesting. 
eBook Search lets you search for, purchase and download free ebooks from several sources from within the app and will then transfer your ebooks to the installed ereading app of your choice. The app will, for example, load free ebooks you download with it into MegaReader, iBooks, the Kindle app, Nook or another ereading app that can read the format — obviously the Kindle app can’t handle ePub files — where you can begin reading it.
As you know, ereading apps from the ebooksellers (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc.) removed their in-app links to their ebookstores after Apple changed their rules for in-app purchases recently. This is irrelevant in this case as the app only lets you shop for free ebooks.
Out of the box eBook Search can access free ebooks from the following sources:
- Feedbooks
- Project Gutenberg
- Baen Books
- Smashwords
- Munseys
- Internet Archive
This is obviously a very convenient tool for getting public domain books, but several of the sources also have indie and contemporary titles. Baen Books specializes in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. There also appears to be the ability to add other sources, though I have not tried doing that yet.
I’ve had a few minutes to monkey around with the app and everything seems to function as advertised. You will see ads on the search pages for Inkstone’s other apps, but these don’t, of course, make their way into the books you download with the app. eBook Search is a free app at iTunes.
(via 148Apps)
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PBS and Jim Henson launch new children’s app no comments
PBS and the Jim Henson Co. have launched a new children’s edutainment iPhone app, Sid’s Science Fair, based on the animated preschool series Sid The Science Kid. The app is designed to interest children ages 3 to 6 in science.![Sids-Science-Fair-kids-learning-app_thumb[2]](file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Greenlee/Local Settings/Temp/WindowsLiveWriter-429641856/supfiles6877B6/Sids-Science-Fair-kids-learning-app[4].jpg "Sids-Science-Fair-kids-learning-app_thumb[2]")
Sid’s Science Fair includes three mini-games that help to improve science and math skills:
- Gabriela’s “Collection Inspection”: Choosing from several different exploration environments, children discover patterns in natural objects using an interactive magnifying glass.
- May’s “Chart It!”: Children use charts to explore a set of objects and then organize ten objects on a chart according to a shared trait, such as color, shape and orientation.
- Gerald’s “Time Machine”: Children explore how different objects – from food to plants – change over time. They first order the events in sequence, and then the events form into a timeline that players can move forward and backward in time to see the transformation.
Sid’s Science Fair is $2.99 at iTunes.
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Scholastic to launch children’s ereading app no comments
Scholastic will be launching a new ereading app for young readers this fall that will connect to the Scholastic Book Clubs for purchasing and downloading ebooks. Available content will include picture books, elementary series, middle grade chapter books and young adult novels.
Scholastic is negotiating with publishers to bring their catalogs on board, and today announced an agreement with indie publisher Sourcebooks. Both Sourcebooks’ frontlist and backlist of children’s titles will be offered in the Scholastic app.
Some of the first Sourcebooks titles to be available via the Scholastic ereading app when it launches will be the bestselling Horrid Henry series by Francesca Simon, Kristi Yamaguchi’s Dream Big, Little Pig and I Love You More by Laura Duksta.
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Google adapts to Apple’s rules no comments
Tonight Google sent out an email pertaining to Google Books on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. While purchasing ebooks from the Google eBookstore from within the Google Books iOS app is no longer possible thanks to Apple’s current rules (which would require Google to pay Apple 30 percent of all in-app sales), by following the instructions in the email you can install an icon on your homescreen that will take you directly to the Google bookstore via Safari:
- Open your Safari web browser
- Go to the address: books.google.com/ebooks
- Tap the bookmark symbol at the top (box with an outgoing arrow)
- Tap "Add to Home Screen"
- Tap "Add"
- To shop at the Google eBookstore, simply tap the bookstore icon. Any ebooks you purchase or download will automatically appear in your Google Books app for you to read.
Any ebooks you purchase will show up in your Google Books library on your iOS device or any Android devices you might have. Of course there is nothing groundbreaking here — you can add a bookmark to any Web page to the homescreen of your iPad or iPhone in the same manner.
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Read2Go – a new accessible ebook reading app for iOS no comments
Benetech, the nonprofit behind Bookshare, today announced the release of Read2Go, a DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) accessible ebook app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Read2Go is designed to be used by people with vision disabilities or physical disabilities that prevent them from holding physical books or turning pages. The app can also be helpful to those with learning disabilities like dyslexia.
The Read2Go app connects with Bookshare, a membership site with a collection of over 120,000 accessible books. Books can be read using text-to-speech with synchronized word-by-word highlighting or in a VoiceOver mode. A wide selection of font sizes and font and background colors are also offered.
Read2Go is $19.99 at iTunes.
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Amazon updates Kindle for Android no comments
Yesterday Amazon updated the Kindle for Android app again. Besides the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements v3.1.0 changed the home screen, adds a slider of Kindle book recommendations and editor’s picks when you visit the Kindle Store from your device and adds upgrade notifications in-app.
I’ve installed this on my Xoom. The library screen does look cleaner to me, though scrolling through the grid of thumbnails still does not work as smoothly as it does in the Kindle for iPad app. I think this is a problem with the app and not the hardware, as scrolling through the library in the Nook app works fine on my Xoom. True, I do have many more titles to scroll through in my Kindle library.
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Nook for Android updated no comments
Barnes & Noble has updated its Nook for Android app. Besides bug fixes and performance improvements the new features include a couple of digital magazine items: “Top Free Newsstand Trials” is is a new feature in the Shop and the individual issues of the magazines you subscribe to now have a date label when displayed in the library. This is nice as it makes it easier to sort them.
The book and newspaper reader for tablets has been re-skinned and the search function improved. You can now (via the settings) opt to have the status bar hidden while reading.
It really is too bad that B&N did not add landscape mode for books to its recent Nook Color update — landscape is enabled in both the Android and iOS Nook apps.
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Blio for Android now available no comments
The Blio ereading app is now available in an Android version for smartphones and tablets running Android 2.2 or higher. Readers who have an existing Blio account will have access to their libraries once they log into their account from their device.
£149.00
£109
