ereader

Put Kindle on your Android

The free Kindle app for Android is a rock-solid e-reader option that seamlessly ties to your Amazon account. It may not have many bells or whistles, but it does its job well, and can easily reach into Amazon.com's enormous library of downloadable works.

The app opens up directly into your Kindle library, which shows all of the books tied to your account. If you want to expand your library, you can tap the Kindle Store button on the top right and sift through Amazon.com's catalog of books, magazines, and newspapers. And thanks to a recent update, … Read more

My life among the Kindles: Comparing the models

In less than a year, I've gone from mocking e-books to never wanting to buy a print book again. Blame the Amazon Kindle. I've found it a great way to read.

A new generation of Kindles came out at the end of last year, including the Kindle Fire tablet. Here's how I've found them to measure up against each other, over the past four months or so.

Kindle's cool, but e-book high prices and limitations aren't Before I dive into the Kindles, let me get two issues that I hate about the Kindle out … Read more

Apple's iBooks reader with books and textbooks

iBooks is a stylish, crisp-looking, colorful e-book reader and storefront that runs on Apple's iOS devices. The latest version of the software includes support for textbooks, a new addition to the iBookstore for students.

As with other e-book readers, iBooks responds to the device's accelerometer and switches between landscape and portrait modes. Its controls disappear when unused, and a swipe (or tap on the left or right side of the screen) will cause the pages to turn. iBooks' page-turning is smooth and engaging, with page corners digitally curling toward you as you advance, but this behavior is only … Read more

No Mirasol e-reader for U.S., but China gets Bambook Sunflower

LAS VEGAS--Qualcomm's Mirasol display technology, which was supposed to be the next big thing in e-readers, still hasn't made it into a product in the U.S. or Europe, but the Bambook Sunflower E-Reader is coming to China in February.

"With the Bambook Sunflower e-Reader, Shanghai Nutshell and Shanda have raised consumer expectations for digital reading, both in terms of color content and an interactive user experience," said Clarence Chui, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies. … Read more

CES not always the greatest guide for commercial success

LAS VEGAS--We've seen it more than a few times.

A company at the Consumer Electronics show wows the tech crowd in Las Vegas with its new product. It's sure to be a hit, the tech press concludes. Then everyone heads home, gets some sleep, and months later we ask ourselves, "Whatever happened to (fill in the blank)?"

Despite the massive size and reach of CES, the show can actually be quite insular. With so many companies looking to display their latest and greatest products, the media is left scrambling to cover as much as they possibly … Read more

How to turn on night-reading in iOS

The iBooks app was updated this week, and with it comes a new theme for reading at night.

When reading in bed or the darkened cabin of a red-eye flight, your iPad or iPhone can appear too bright even with the screen brightness at its lowest setting. With iBooks 1.5, the new Night theme reverses the colors on the screen: text turns white and the background turns black. If you are reading a book with images, you'll notice that their colors also get reversed, creating a photo-negative look. For reading text, however, the new Night theme is easier … Read more

Content will be key to Kindle Fire's success

After more than a year of rumors, and six weeks after its official debut, the Amazon Kindle Fire is now in the hands of reviewers.

Although it's not being touted specifically as an Android tablet, the 7-inch device certainly will affect the landscape of "iPad killers." With upwards of 5 million Kindle Fires on order for the fourth quarter alone, it could already be considered a success. But what is it specifically that has everyone talking about the Amazon tablet?

… Read more

How to convert Web pages to e-books

If you want to save that long Web article for later, it's easy enough to bookmark it or send it to a consolidation site. But what if you want to take a look at your leisure using your favorite e-reader?

That's quite a bit trickier, or at least it used to be. There's a nifty bookmarklet called DotEPUB that will convert whatever page you're currently on into the widely used EPUB format. Here's how to use it: 

Point your browser to the DotEPUB page. (Note: the bookmarklet will not work using Internet Explorer, but … Read more

How to read EPUB files on your Kindle

If you use an e-reader, it's probably a Kindle, which means it can be a pain to use open-source e-book formats like EPUB. Calibre is a free, open-source e-book manager that lets users convert EPUB files to Kindle-readable MOBI files. Here's how to use it:

Download and install Calibre. When you first run it, Calibre will ask what language you want to use, and to select a folder to use as your e-book library. Next, select your primary reader. From the main screen, you can choose to add books by clicking the large icon in the top left. … Read more