Tech Archives | The Digital Reader

Google Play Books is Cutting Out the Middleman, Now Wants a Direct Relationship with Authors and Publishers

16 May, 201916 May, 2019Google Books, Self-Pub10 Comments

Many authors and publishers use a company such as PublishDrive or Draft2Digital to handle their distribution to smaller ebook retailers. They trade a small cut of their revenue for...

Fourteen Amazing Google Docs Hacks to Make Writing Your Next Novel Easier

30 April, 201930 April, 2019content creation, Google, Tips and Tricks, Writing7 Comments

Google Docs is a popular word-processing tool that lets you access your documents and files from any internet-connected device. I for one have found it to be immensely useful...

How To Write A Book In Google Docs (video)

29 April, 201929 April, 2019Google, OfficeOne Comment

The above video is the work of Stefanie Newell. It came across my desk courtesy of The Book Designer's Carnival of the Indies monthly link post, and I thought...

How to Stop Amazon From Sharing What You Say to Alexa with Contractors

22 April, 201922 April, 2019Amazon, Security & Privacy, Tips and TricksOne Comment

Millions of people have smart speakers like the Echo. They are great tools that let you schedule tasks, play audiobooks, look up basic info, and what have you. Alas,...

Six Default Amazon Security Settings You Can Change for More Privacy

11 April, 201922 April, 2019Amazon, Security & Privacy, Tips and Tricks13 Comments

So as you may know, my mother is on my Amazon account. (There is a point to this anecdote, trust me.) We mainly use it to read ebooks; I...

Google Play Books 5.1.9 Adds Audiobook Download Quality Settings, Custom Skip Duration Settings

9 April, 20199 April, 2019Audiobook, e-Reading Software, Google BooksOne Comment

When Google started selling audiobooks last January, the Play Books Android app made the experience so frustrating that only masochists would try it more than twice. Google has slowly...

The Internet Archive Recovers 490,000 Music Files “Lost” by MySpace

5 April, 20195 April, 2019Blast from the PastOne Comment

It's not fair to expect a platform to host content for free forever (cough Flickr cough) but when MySpace deleted a dozen years worth of content last month, users...

Microsoft is Closing Its eBookstore (Again)

2 April, 20192 April, 2019eBookstore, Microsoft11 Comments

For the third time in eight years, Microsoft is throwing in the towel on ebooks. I just got an email from MS informing me that they are shutting down...

Did You Know Google Now Limits Search Results to Only 300 to 400 Links?

27 March, 201927 March, 2019Google5 Comments

Here's something new I learned at the Computers in Libraries conference this week. Google may claim to have indexed a million or more results for the term you're searching...

E-ink Partners With a Japanese Retailer to Develop World’s First Full-Color, ePaper Digital Point-of-Purchase Sign

22 February, 201922 February, 2019Screen TechLeave a comment

Remember about 3 years ago when E-ink announced their ACeP epaper signage? It was supposed to have shipped in 2017, but we have seen neither hide nor hair of...

How to Bring Your WordPress Blog Posts to Alexa as Audio

19 February, 201919 February, 2019Amazon, Web PublishingOne Comment

When Amazon launched Alexa Skill Blueprints last week, they drastically lowered the skill level required to develop new tricks for Amazon's smart speaker. Now anyone can put their work in the Alexa Skills Store...

Bookmate Hacked (?), 8 Million Account Records Stolen (?)

13 February, 201913 February, 2019Security & PrivacyLeave a comment

Mike Cane brought my attention to a story over on The Register: Some 617 million online account details stolen from 16 hacked websites are on sale from today on...

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