Kindle Android App Arrives on Windows 11

Thanks to the latest Windows 11 update, users can now run Android apps natively on their PCs. Prior to this update, Android app support was a beta feature exclusive to Windows 11 Insiders, but now, anyone can download and install apps—as long as you meet Microsoft's requirements.

In order to run Android apps in Windows 11, your computer must meet a few basic requirements. 

RAM: 8 GB (minimum), 16 GB (recommended)

Storage type: Solid State Drive (SSD)

Processor: Intel Core i3 8th Gen (minimum) or above, AMD Ryzen 3000 (minimum) or above, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8c (minimum) or above

Processor architecture: x64 or ARM64

Virtual Machine Platform: This setting needs to be enabled. For more info, go to Enable virtualization on Windows 11 PCs.

Once everything is updated and all requirements have been met, open the Microsoft Store and search for "Amazon Appstore". (Note: The Amazon Appstore on Windows is only available in the US. ) Select the entry and click Install > Set Up. After it's finished installing, the Amazon Appstore and the Windows Subsystem for Android™ Settings app will appear in the Start menu and your app list. When you're ready, open the Amazon Appstore and sign in with your Amazon account. Once you are signed in, the Amazon Appstore is available to browse and install Android apps.

For example, if you want to install the Amazon Kindle Android app, just search Kindle, and click the Get button to install it on to your computer.

The app will be downloaded and act like any other Windows desktop app—minimize it, make it full screen, or multitask with Snap Layouts. Find it later in the App List.

Announcing The Shortlist for The B&N Children's & YA Book Award!

The Children’s & YA Book Awards play an important role in shaping children’s literature and celebrating exceptional talent in children’s publishing, which creates a national platform for new, little-known, and emerging talent in Children’s Publishing. 

Shannon DeVito, Director of Books, Barnes & Noble, said, “Our booksellers have curated astounding shortlists of books that have captured the essence of Children’s and YA publishing over the past year. The six titles in each category represent such a diverse offering, highlighting books that have been percolating throughout the past year as well as books that will be a new reading experience to our customers.  Narrowing it down and voting on the winner will be a challenge our booksellers are surely up for.” 

The shortlist reveals 6 books in each category of Picture Books, Young Readers, and Young Adult. These 18 books are selected by the booksellers at Barnes & Noble who specialize in Children’s bookselling in stores across the country. These great books are:

The Barnes & Noble Book Awards Picture Books Shortlist: spark the imaginations in our youngest readers.

The Barnes & Noble Book Awards Young Readers Shortlist: Magic, myth, and real-life choices appeal to our independent readers.

The Barnes & Noble Book Awards Young Adult Shortlist: Hard-hitting plotlines and complex characterization

The winner in each category will be announced in May. At the same time, the overall winner of the Barnes & Noble Children’s and YA Book of the Year will be crowned.   

Are there any books that are appealing to you? You can get them on BN.com. By the way, you can back up all your purchased Nook books and take control over your own books. Then you can share them with loved ones freely. 

HUAWEI Launches MatePad Paper E-ink Tablet on March 16

  

On March 16, HUAWEI has launched the MatePad Paper, a 10.3-inch tablet that relies on an E Ink display. However, HUAWEI MatePad Paper can do a lot more than contemporary eReaders, such as Kindle Paperwhite. Below are the 5 things to love MatePad Paper.

1. 10.3" Eye Comfort HUAWEI FullView Display4

According to HUAWEI, the MatePad Paper offers a 10.3" HUAWEI FullView display and an 86.3% high screen-to-body ratio. It means you can view PDF files on a large screen without having to frequently turn pages. The smart refresh rate adjusts according to the content you view, leading to a smooth and clear reading experience for both business reports and GIFs.

2. Efficient Writing and Recording

HUAWEI M-Pencil (2nd generation) magnetically attaches to the frame of HUAWEI MatePad Paper, ready and waiting whenever the mood to write strikes. The texturized surface of MatePad Paper and 26 ms low latency offers a superior writing experience. You can swipe down from the top right of the screen with the stylus to activate a split-screen, which means multiple screens for multiple tasks.

Besides handwriting, you can even make a mark on your recording while taking notes, then tap on the mark to play the exact audio clip. And your handwriting can be translated into text. 

3. A Multitude of Reading Content

HUAWEI MatePad Paper offers abundant high-quality reading content as houses as well as third-party reading resources. With dual speakers that optimize vocal clarity, listening to audiobooks is also available. 

4. HarmonyOS 2

The e-ink tablet boots HarmonyOS 2 bringing features such as the ability to easily establish a connection between the tablet and Huawei’s laptops, PCs, tablets, and phones. The connection takes the form of a USB drive but wirelessly, thanks to WiFi 6+ and Bluetooth 5.2 support onboard. Thus, you can easily share notes and PDFs between gadgets.

5. Powerful Chip & Large Memory

The combination of a powerful chip and 4 GB + 64 GB large storage provides faster downloading, smoother page-turning, and more than enough space for all your books, files, and notes.

Audie Awards Winners of 2022

The Audie Awards recognize distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment and are sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association. 2022 is the 27th year of the annual Audie Awards. On March 4, the winners were announced for the 27th annual Audie Awards. Winners are announced in 25 categories, including best male/female narrator, best Original Work, and best multi-voiced performance.

Here's a full list of winners.

Audiobook of the Year: Project Hail Mary, written by Andy Weir, narrated by Ray Porter

Audio Drama: Sherlock Holmes – The Seamstress of Peckham Rye, written by Jonathan Barnes

Performed by Nicholas Briggs, Richard Earl, Lucy Briggs-Owen, India Fisher, James Joyce, Anjella MacKintosh, Glen McCready, and Mark Elstob

Autobiography/Memoir: Somebody’s Daughter, written and narrated by Ashley C. Ford

Best Female Narrator: Deepti Gupta

The Parted Earth, written by Anjali Enjeti

Best Male Narrator: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World, written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Business/Personal Development: Machiavelli for Women, written and narrated by Stacey Vanek Smith

Español- Spanish Language: La casa de Bernarda Alba, written by Federico García Lorca

Narrated by Gloria Muñoz, Elena González, Rebeca Hernando, Carmen Mayordomo, Marta Poveda, Sol de la Barreda, Beatriz Melgares, Cristina Arias, and Antonio Martínez Asensio

Faith-Based Fiction nor Non-Fiction: 

The Gift of Black Folk, written by W.E.B. Du Bois, narrated by Arnell Powell

Fantasy: Rhythm of War, written by Brandon Sanderson, narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading

Fiction: The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, written by Dawnie Walton

Narrated by Janina Edwards, Bahni Turpin, James Langton, André De Shields, Dennis Boutsikaris, Steve West, Gabra Zackman, Robin Miles, and a full cast

History/Biography: Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other

Written and narrated by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish (with a foreword written and narrated by Diana Gabaldon)

Humor: How Y’all Doing?

Written and narrated by Leslie Jordan

Literary Fiction & Classics: All Creatures Great and Small

Written by James Herriot & Narrated by Nicholas Ralph

Middle Grade: Playing the Cards You’re Dealt, written by Varian Johnson

Narrated by Dion Graham

Multi-Voiced Performance: Heresy, written by Melissa Lenhardt

Narrated by Barrie Kreinik, Bailey Carr, Ella Turenne, Nikki Massoud, Natalie Naudus, Imani Jade Powers, and James Fouhey

Mystery: Later, written by Stephen King, narrated by Seth Numrich

Narration By the Author(s): A Promised Land, written and narrated by Barack Obama

Non-Fiction: The Joy of Sweat, written by Sarah Everts, narrated by Sophie Amoss

Original Work: Heroine, written and narrated by Mary Jane Wells

Romance: Reel: Hollywood Renaissance, Book 1, written by Kennedy Ryan 

Narrated by Eboni Flowers, Jakobi Diem, Nicole Small, and April Christina

Science Fiction: Project Hail Mary, written by Andy Weir, narrated by Ray Porter

Short Stories/Collections: Blackout

Written by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon

Narrated by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Dion Graham, Imani Parks, Jordan Cobb, Shayna Small, A.J. Beckles, and Bahni Turpin

Thriller/Suspense: Local Woman Missing, written by Mary Kubica

Narrated by Brittany Pressley, Jennifer Jill Araya, Gary Tiedemann, and Jesse Vilinsky Published by HarperAudio

Young Adult: Be Dazzled, written by Ryan La Sala, narrated by Pete Cross

Young Listeners: I and I Bob Marley, written by Tony Medina, narrated by Jaime Lincoln Smith

These incredible audiobooks are the best ones to get you started on your listening extravaganza. FYI, you can share your purchased audiobooks with your friends by converting them to MP3.

Kindle Firmware Update 5.14.2 Introduces New Home Screen!

Kindle Firmware version 5.14.2 is now available for all Kindle devices dating back to the 7th generation Kindle Paperwhite (PW3). Here's what's new:

Performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements.

Well, this new firmware also introduces a new UI and a different settings structure. Normally, you should get a new home screen after installing the new firmware and syncing and restarting your Kindle. However, this is not the case for most people. We guess Amazon might roll out this change gradually. So there are some people who have been successfully updated to the latest Kindle firmware and have the new home screen, which looks like this:

As you can see from the screenshot, it shows a scrollable list of recent books on the Home screen instead of just three.  Also, the cover thumbnails in the library list view are also present. And the progress bar in the list view is no longer the dots.

Kobo Firmware 4.31 Support Sideloaded Mode

According to Kobo official note about the new released Firmware 4.31,  Kobo has made the below changes in this firmware:

Increased Language Support

 • Added Catalan dictionary

 • You can now select Simplified Chinese in Settings > Language and dictionaries

 • Added Pinyin keyboard

 • Added English - Simplified Chinese dictionary

Book Covers on Sleep and Power Off-Screen

 • Book covers will now appear on the sleep screen for Fnac customers.

 • Tip: You can hide book covers or make them full screen in Settings > Energy saving and privacy.

However, besides these changes included in the Kobo official release note, there are also many new features added to the 4.31 firmware. Here is the detailed version of what’s new about the 4.31 firmware:

• Sideloaded mode

• Improvements in handwriting performance

• FNAC affiliate now has options for showing the cover

• Catalan dictionary added

• Simplified Chinese support:

    o Language in UI

    o Three new fonts any of the Chinese languages are selected (after syncing)

    o English - Simplified Chinese dictionary

    o Pinyin keyboard

• Fixes:

    o Crash when opening sideloaded epubs (Adobe OOM issues)

    o Move Notebook section from More view back to the tab widget on the home page when stylus is detected

    o Remove File Size limit when parsing text document. Previously text files over 2MB were ignored.

    o Syncing annotations across devices

    o Timezone database has been updated.

As you can see, one of the most useful features is that Kobo now adds Sideloaded mode. Once you are in sideloaded mode, it does not force you to sign in and can continue using the device, but, the sing in option is still there. This is definitely designed for users who cannot connect to a network during the setup. In a word, the device works without having to sign in.

Bonus Tips:

You can sideload DRM Free eBooks to Kobo here.

You can sideload DRM Free Audiobooks to Kobo here.

Audible Windows App Has Been Discontinued

On January 13, 2022, the Audible for Windows desktop app has been discontinued. Now it's currently not available in the Windows Microsoft store.

Here is a screenshot of the email message shared by a user:

According to the email sent from Audible,  users who already have the app installed on their PC can continue to use it until July 31st, 2022. But after that date, people won't be able to use the Audible Windows app to access the library.

And they encourage users to use their iOS or Android apps, the Audible Cloud player or the Echo devices to listen to the audiobooks. 

Audible Windows app has provided us a way to download Audible books as AAX format. But now it's discontinued. So the only way to download Audible books in AAX format is to download from the Audible official site www.audible.com. (According to some users, the download on the Italian Audible site has already been discontinued.)

In case Audible will discontinue the downloads from audible.com one day, it's high time that you should download and back up them to your computer.

Here is the detailed guide you can follow to download your Audible books from the Audible official site:

How to Download Audible Books to PC/Mac Computer