When I ran across $20 cell phones on Amazon, I couldn’t resist buying one to see if I could read e-books on it. Yes, I could—hour after hour. I’ll never...Continue reading
Author: David Rothman
On Tablets, Summer Reading, and Parental Role Models for Young Readers
It’s summer. Is your child reading—one way to guard against a seasonal slump? Oh, and here’s a very much related question. Are you reading? “You are a role model for your children,” writes Dr. Judy...Continue reading
Hip Video Explains All-Digital Library in Bexar County, Texas
–Read an e-book at home or in the library, or a digital comic or graphic novel. –Maybe even read E to your visiting child if you’re a jailed mother. –Use...Continue reading
‘Close The Libraries And Buy Everyone An Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription’ – Forbes
Amazon’s new subscription plan for e-book readers is already ammo for library-haters. Check out this gem in Forbes online. The headline I’ve quoted reflects the precise sentiments of the article:...Continue reading
Amazon, please unmute the Kindle Paperwhite: No need for the workaround shown in this video, when TTS chips cost next to nothing!
At first glance, the MIT-designed FingerReader shown in this video looks intriguing for people with print-related challenges. But major catches exist, beyond the robotic voice. Using the little text to...Continue reading
Should public libraries give away ebook-friendly tablets to poor people? $38 tablet hints of possibilities
Young people love suitable paper books, ideally new, that they can own. Could the same idea work for econo-tablets that public libraries gave away to low-income families—with a big, fat,...Continue reading
eBooks and Public Libraries vs. Cruise Ship Subsidies in Miami-Dade County, FL
Jessica Nunez and her family are just the kind of people who could benefit from well-financed physical libraries, paper books, the digital variety, loans of e-readers, and technical support along...Continue reading
New Pew survey helps show need for full-strength digital libraries— especially if we’re to help Hispanics, African-Americans and the poor.
Should Pew researchers survey Americans on the need for a national digital library endowment and two separate digital library systems—-one public and one academic? Definitely, if you extrapolate from a...Continue reading
Ouch! Text to speech is also AWOL from THIS year’s Paperwhite from Amazon
Drat! The newest Kindle Paperwhite E Ink reader from Amazon is still missing text to speech—among the very features Jeff Bezos touted when he unveiled the second Kindle in 2009. Doubt me? Just...Continue reading
Review: Voice Dream Reader e-reading app
A Catch-22 dogs those of us who most often read e-books visually but also want to hear them when we’re exercising or driving. The usual e-bookware doesn’t always come with or work...Continue reading
Saving Barnes & Noble from itself: The DRM angle
Here’s a heartfelt suggestion for the besieged people at Barnes & Noble, in the spirit of the recommendations that Joanna Cabot and my other friends at TeleRead have offered: Rid...Continue reading
Amazon’s zapping of customer’s Kindle library shows why we need library-provided ‘content lockers’ for e-books and perhaps other media
What if Amazon wiped out all your Kindle books and refused to let you open another account? I don’t know what if any sins a customer committed, but such an...Continue reading
All-text bold, multiple columns, other capabilities enhance OverDrive’s upgraded library app for iPads, iPhones and Touches
For years I’d hoped that OverDrive’s e-book-and-multimedia app for libraries would do all-text bolding. So many library fans have their own wish lists of accessibility features, and full bolding led...Continue reading
Good news for Stanza fans: It apparently works under Apple’s new iOS6
Stanza, one of the best e-reading apps around, was brokenwhen Apple upgraded to iOS 5. Amid the uproar from the app’s users, Stanza’s overlords at Amazon tweaked the ePub-capable app...Continue reading
No text to speech in Amazon’s new Paperwhite Kindles: Why? To push us toward Fire tablets and boost Amazon-owned Audible?
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ballyhooed text to speech in the Kindle 2 in 2009. But guess what’s now missing from the new Paperwhite Kindles even though it’s still present in...Continue reading