Monday, September 30, 2013

3 Highlights of new Kindle Paperwhite You Can't Ignore



Amazon quietly announced new generation of Kindle Paperwhite on their website, and the new Kindle Paperwhite will be shipped on September 30.

At the first look we can hardly find an exciting new feature on the list, but at least 3 of them you cannot ignore.

The biggest defect on the old Kindle Paperwhite is the delay in response. When I filp the page, I need to wait for about 1 second, if I need to check the definition of a stange word, it might take me 3 seconds. If I need to take a short note, it takes me at least 60 seconds. If I need to flip many pages back find some clues, it takes... Alright, it stucks.

But in the new Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon has already begun to solve this issue from 3 angles: a 25% faster processor, the improved touch screen, and flip through without losing your place.

All the three points are directly focusing on improving user's reading experience, and I like the 3rd point most.

In the past, the most terrible experience when reading on Kindle is flipping back to check who is the guy, as I don't know the exact page I can get the clue, so I can only flip back one page by one page. Now the new flipping technology perfectly solve this problem.

For the detail list of the improvements and news about the new Kindle Paperwhite, please visit the product page: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AWH595M

Friday, September 27, 2013

Why Amazon Stops Announcing New Big Screen Kindle?

When I asked this question first time, I thought the answer is: Amazon is not a company earning money by selling hardware, its revenue comes from the digital contents, therefore Amazon need not to devote itself into developing new devices all the time.

But now I think the answer is wrong. Yes, Amazon doesn't reply on selling devices to make money, but it doesn't mean Amazon will not release new device, or why they upgrade the Kindle and Kindle Fire?

First let's talk about the difference between eBook reader and tablet:

  1. eBook reader provides the reading experience more like reading a paper books;
  2. eBook reader makes people focus on reading.

The 6-inch Kindle has already covered these two characteristics "almost perfectly", a further step is not happening under today's technology. Look at the new generation of Kindle Paperwhite, all the improvements are focus on the minor details. There is no highlight which makes me exiting on this device.

Therefore, here is the point: There is not much space for Kindle to upgrade, so does a big screen Kindle.

The primary problem for a big Kindle is the weight: Kindle DX 535g, new iPad WiFi 680g. It is not a nice experience to hold a 535g device to read for a long time. I can carry an iPad and a Kindle Paperwhite when I am out, but it's no way to carry an iPad and a Kindle DX.

The only advantage for a big Kindle is people can use it to read scanned PDF more comfortably than a 6-inch Kindle. But this advantage is fading away with the quality of epub and mobi files rising. In my own experience, I'd rather reading a scanned PDF on my iPad, but not on the Kindle DX.

That's why there is no upgrade on big screen Kindle since Kindle DX.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

How to remove thumbnails and search box from Chrome new tab page

Recently Google Chrome had updated to another new version, and in this version's "new tab page", we sees a giant Google logo, a search box, and the thumbnails of the web pages you have browsed.


It's OK if you are the only one use this computer. But if not, your privacy might be leaked because anyone who open the Chrome would see your browsing history.

So how to remove the thumbnails of your browsing history and revert the new tab page to the normal? Here is the solution.
  1. Input chrome://flags in the Chrome's address bar then press "Enter";
  2. Find the term "Enable Instant Extended API Mac, Windows, Chrome OS";
  3. Change the status to "Disable";
  4. Re-launch the Chrome and check the result.
4 simple steps, we can turn off the thumbnails in Chrome start up new tab page.


Sunday, September 22, 2013

Rebirth of Meego - The first Sailfish phone has announced

Meego is a mobile phone operating system created by Nokia and Intel. It was onced considered to have huge potential and be Nokia’s powerful weapon against Android. But Nokia and Intel both gave up Meego in 2011. Luckily Meego doesn’t disappear from our eyesight therefore. In the May of this year, the Finland cellphone maker Jolla claimed that they would launch the first Sailfish phone – a smartphone based on Meego OS. This news made Jolla quickly got people’s attention. And recently, a more excited new has come out – Jolla has announced the technical specification and price of its first Sailfish phone officailly.

 According to Jolla’s announcement, the Sailfish phone has a 4.5 inch display with a 960*540 resolution (245 ppi). It adopts a 1.4 GHz dual-core Qualcomm chipset with 1GB RAM and 16GB flash memory (supports MicroSD card). In addition, this phone has 8MP rear camera and 2MP front-facing camera. The battery capacity is 2100 mAh.

 As you can see here, the configuration of Sailfish phone is so ordinary, or rather say, lower-end. But it has a high price of 399 € - about 539 $.  Low configuration with high price, maybe the prospect of Sailfish phone is not so optimistic. At least for general people, they have other options in this price class.

Perhaps there are two bright spots of Sailfish phone you may be interested in. One is that Sailfish is compatible with Android apps. This sounds great - at least it’s better than Windows Phone which is lack of apps. The other is that it supports replaceable rear cover. The theme color of the phone will adjust automatically as the rear cover’s color. But these can’t be the main motivation of people choosing a new phone.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

A new sneak peek of iPad 5 vs iPad 4

The Apple products always give us much expectations and imaginations. The latest launched iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c have let us see Apple's extraordinary creativity and industrial design once again. But the iPhone is not the only thing we would expect. There are still two Apple products we should concern this year – the iPad 5 ad iPad mini2. You may have seen some leaking photos of the appearance. But today you'll see a more detailed video about the iPad 5 and iPad4. With it we can know some features of the iPad 5.
As the rumor says, the iPad adopts a slim bezel design like the iPad mini. Its width has reduced much but the length should be same as iPad 4. The battery of iPad has smaller size. Generally this means a shorter battery life. But we could not make this conclusion yet as an efficient battery management system is also very important. iPad 5 has a 9.7 inch Retina display with 2048*1536 resolution. This is the same as iPad 4.

According to Apple's tradition, the iPad usually has more powerful chipset than iPhone. We' ve know the latest iPhone 5s has the new A7 chipset. It's possible that iPad 5 may adopt the more power A7X chipset with the 64-bit architecture. It has an improvement of GPU and supports Open GL 3.0. This could result in a leap in the game performance.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

New Kindle Fire HD Leaked Photos


I bet until this weekend most of people will keep talking about the iOS 7, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 5c. We are not gonna do this, let's shift the focus from Apple to Amazon. The new Kindle Fire HD's photos has been leaked by a source of BGR.


The new Kindle Fire HD abandoned the old arc edge design, instead it adopts tough lines, express strong industrial smell.


Two speakers placed on the slope of device, in the middle is a big Amazon logo. The location of the power button has been adjusted , located on the side slope to prevent accidental touch , while the older power button design makes users crazy.


The volume buttons are also places on the slope.


The slopes angle of top (left side of the image) and bottom device are different, and this device is not gonna be thin.

All the images are coming from GBR.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Sony Officially Announced PRS-T3


I used to think Sony would announce PRS-T3 on the press conference of Xperia Z1, but I was wrong. Sony chose another day to introduce the latest generation of their eBook reader, Sony PRS-T3.


The Sony PRS-T3 has the same 6-inch pearl screen compare the PRS-T2, and the resolution rises to 1024*758 from 800*600. User can flip the pages by touching the screen.


The default ROM is 2GB and people can extend to 32GB with MicroSC card. It supports eBooks in ePub, PDF and TXT format. Just like all the popular eBook reader except Kindle.


The only “highlight” is people can embed a protective snap cover on the side of device body, it’s much lighter and convenient than a traditional smart cover but not inferior in capability.


And Sony also brings Quick Charge feature to PRS-T3, 3 minutes of charging enables people to read 600 pages. A full charge can stand for 2 months without WiFi and 1.5 months with WiFi. And it also has a simple built-in web browser to help people search book information and visit wikipedia.


People can choose among Black, White and Pink, it will land on Europe by the end of September. But Sony didn’t tell the price on their website. Nate Hoffelder from The Digital Reader said the price would be 139 euro (about 183 US-Dollar).


I think even the price includes the protective snap cover, it rarely gets competition with Kindle.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Look the Android Phone Released by Hugo Barra's New Company

Not long ago, the news Hugo Barra left Google for a Chinese Company Xiaomi is taken all the media's headlines. And I bet not everyone knows about the Hugo's new company, Xiaomi.

On September 5, Xiaomi announced their latest product, Mi 3.


As usual the Mi 3's specs are exaggerated:
  • CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8974
  • GPU: Qualcomm Adreno330
  • RAM: 2GB
  • ROM: 16GB/64GB
  • Battery: 3050 mAh
  • Camera: 13M on the back, 2M for front
  • Screen: 5-inch, 1920x1080, 441 PPI
And the price: $326. I am not miss-typing, with such powerful specs, the price is only $326.

On the other hand, Xiaomi is long-time blamed for its hunger marketing strategy. People need to wait for long time for the sale date, and if you are not lucky or your network speed is poor. Sorry, you have to wait for another period of time.


However, can Hugo Barra brings Xiaomi to a new level? We will just wait and see.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Epubor EPUB to PDF Converter Free Giveaway!

The rule is simple:

  1. Click the any of the buttons under "Enter now";
  2. Your entry will be recorded in our database;
  3. 5 Days later we will randomly pick 10 entries to send the registration code for Epubor EPUB to PDF Converter 2.0 for free!

Tips:

  1. Click the "Via Email" button is much simpler, but you can only get 1 entry with it;
  2. Click the "Connect" button you will need to connect to Facebook and click "+1" to our Google Plus page, but each step you can get 1 extra entries, by this method you can get 4 entries in total;
Details about the giveaway Epubor EPUB to PDF Converter 2.0: http://www.epubor.com/epub-to-pdf-converter.html


Monday, September 2, 2013

Barnes & Noble Nook Video app available for iOS, Android and Roku

Launched in last fall and aimed for the US market primarily, Barnes & Noble Nook Video app does not seem to forge ahead over the year. In the meantime, Netflix and Hulu are the first options when it comes to video apps while Kindle Fire (HD) users mostly choose Amazon’s Instant Video (Prime).


Anyway, Barnes & Noble has launched new offensive in the mobile & multi-media market after its big failure in Nook tablet line. This time, Barnes & Noble is making the Nook Video app available for iOS, Android, and Roku streaming devices for free.

The latest Nook Video enables users to browse, buy and rent TV shows as well as movies (videos) on different mobile platforms. Nook HD users have been able to access this app since its debut last year and will now lose this Privilege, but a wider audience may well facilitate Nook's improvement in video business.

Nook Video does not have the inside track when compared to its peers. The company is unable to offer as abundant video resources (movies, TV show, etc.) as or and Hulu by far, but is working hard to partner with more production companies, such as Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM. It seems tough for Barnes & Noble to make a dent in the video field, at least it should let people know "Why we choose Nook Video", and let more know. Promotion together with Nook books may be an outlet.