Sony has issued another firmware update for the Sony PRS-T1 that enhances performance and addresses an issue that some folks have when turning pages using the touchscreen and having it mysteriously activate the dictionary instead.

This update is the second in the past two months. In the past Sony was notorious for seldom releasing firmware updates for their ebook readers; it’s good to see the PRS-T1 getting more attention.

Filed under: Sony | Tags: firmware update, sony prs-t1 | 1 Comment »

Earlier in the week, PocketBook’s RSS feed pinged about new firmware for the PocketBook Pro line of ebook readers. The actual news article is dated December 16th and the firmware is dated December 15th, so who knows why they waited so long to announce it officially.

The new firmware, version 2.1.2, is for the PocketBook Pro series and includes the touchscreen models and non-touchscreen models—the Pro 602, 603, 912, and 902. The new firmware adds some significant changes. Mostly good.

Filed under: PocketBook | Tags: firmware update, pocketbook 602 | No Comments »

The Kindle Fire is Amazon’s first tablet and while it has a lot of good things going for it, one of the three biggest disappointments with the Kindle Fire is the fact that it comes with just 5.37 GB of available storage space (plus an additional 1.17 GB for apps) and doesn’t have any memory card slots or support for USB drives for memory expansion.

Amazon opted to use the opportunity to promote their cloud storage service on the Kindle Fire instead, where you store your files online with Amazon to access them from anywhere you have an internet connection. Cloud storage is a good option, and you can use other cloud storage services too (more on this below), but there are some other ways to add more storage, ones that don’t require you to be connected to the internet to use them.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, How To | Tags: kindle fire | 3 Comments »

PocketBook International recently introduced a new tablet called the PocketBook A 7″, which is essentially a smaller version of the PocketBook A10 that was shown at IFA back in early September.

As the name implies, the new PocketBook tablet has a 7″ screen. In fact, it has the same screen size and resolution as the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, but with a TFT screen instead.

Filed under: New eBook Readers, PocketBook, Tablets | Tags: pocketbook a7 | 1 Comment »

When it comes to reading ebooks, the Kindle Fire is a lot different than other Kindles. For one, the Kindle Fire automatically sequesters sideloaded ebooks and documents from Kindle Books, making them appear in a separate section for documents instead of the main ebook library list.

Thanks to Calibre, there is an easy fix for this if you want to get your sideloaded ebooks (non-Amazon ebooks) to appear in the ebook library along with all your other Kindle ebooks.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, How To | Tags: kindle fire | 2 Comments »

At CES 2012, Asus unveiled what has a chance to be one of the best 7″ tablets of the year, the Asus Eee Pad MeMo. The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet better watch their backs.

What makes the Asus Eee Pad MeMo so attractive is the combination of high-end specs and low price, not to mention the fact that Asus is one of the top tablet manufacturers thanks to the success of their line of Asus Transformer tablets.

Filed under: New eBook Readers, Tablets | Tags: asus eee pad memo | 3 Comments »

The big news this week was Apple taking a big step into the eduction sector by releasing a new updated version of iBooks that supports interactive digital textbooks on the iPad.

Apple also introduced iBooks Author, a new app for Mac for creating and publishing those fancy new digital textbooks, along with cookbooks, picture books, and other interactive books.

Filed under: Apple iPad | Tags: etextbooks, ibooks | 1 Comment »

Coby makes some of the most popular budget tablets on the market and are getting set to release a new line Coby Kyros tablets in the next couple of months that all run Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

The tablets range in size from 7-inches to 10-inches, each with a capacitive touchscreen. Coby is expected to release nine variations of these new tablets with the price range of $179 to $299.

Filed under: Android, Tablets | Tags: coby kyros | 7 Comments »

If you saw the video I posted the other day showing the partial refresh trick on the Sony PRS-T1, you probably noticed the modified homescreen on my PRS-T1 that looks just like the regular homescreen but adds some nifty new features.

The new homescreen has three pages instead of two. The third page is an app drawer that list the Android apps installed on the PRS-T1. The second page consists of shortcuts to certain apps and the first page lists recently read titles instead of the default recently added.

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Amazon started rolling out a firmware update for the Kindle Fire earlier today. The new software version is 6.2.2.

Your Kindle Fire may have already updated itself automatically. To check, open settings then scroll down to “Device”. The software number is listed below “System Version”.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle | Tags: firmware update, kindle fire | No Comments »