Walmart Begins to Sell Kobo

To be against the Amazon.com Inc, Rakuten Inc., one of the largest online retailer in Japan, announces a new strategic alliance with Walmart that will expand the customer reach and enhance how customers are served in Japan and the United States.

These two companies said on Thursday they would set up a joint venture to sell groceries online in Japan and sell e-books and audiobooks online at Walmart.com in the United States later this year. What’s more, they will also sell Kobo eReader at the Walmart stores in the US. Actually, it is a very good news that the Kobo eReaders can be purchased in stores in the US. This is a very good step which enables the customers to know more about the Kobo eReaders before buying. Also, this action will also keep Amazon one their toes. I hope Amazon will take this action as the biggest threaten at the very beginning of 2018. If Amazon does not take this alliance seriously, it may lose some market share on the online retailer.

According to the report, Walmart will also sell digital book cards in stores, enabling more than 4,000 stores to carry a broader selection of books for customers.—It does not give many details in this part so we do not know what kind of book cards are they referring. Also, we do not know whether the Kobo gift cards will be available at WalMart or Sam’s club.  But one thing for sure is that digital cards you purchased at stores can be accessed online or in the app.

Are you interested in purchasing the Kobo eReader at Walmart store? You are welcome to share your opinions in the comments.

Waterproof e-ink Readers Collection

With the improvement of technology and people's rising demand on eReaders, the water resistance feature of e-ink Readers becomes more and more sought-after. Where there is demand, there is a market. With the introduction of Kindle Oasis 2 in October 2017, all major players in ebook business now offer waterproof e-ink readers. In this article, I'll collect all the existing waterproof eReaders as well as the forthcoming new eReaders with water resistance feature.

Kindle Oasis 2 – The second gen Oasis is Amazon’s first waterproof Kindle, and it’s also the first Kindle to have a 7-inch screen. It has an IPX8 rating, meaning it can withstand being submerged in up to 2 meters of water for up to 60 minutes. See my All-New Kindle Oasis 2 (2017) Review for more info about the device.

Waterfi Kindle Paperwhite – Waterfi has been selling Kindle Paperwhites for the past 5 years that they waterproof themselves aftermarket. They aren’t officially endorsed by Amazon, and Waterfi isn’t even aloud to call it a Kindle on the product page, but they come with a one-year warranty and have an IPX8 rating. The problem is they’re pretty expensive; you can get a nicer Kindle Oasis 2 for only $20 more.

Kobo Aura One – The 7.8-inch Kobo Aura One has HZO Protection with an IPX8 rating, making it waterproof for up to 60 minutes in up to 2 meters of water. The Limited Edition 32GB model is also waterproof.

Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 – The second generation Kobo Aura H2O is the latest waterproof reader from Kobo. It has an IPX8 rating like the Aura One and it has a smaller 6.8-inch screen.

Kobo Aura H2O – The first gen Kobo Aura H2O was one of the first waterproof ereaders available. It’s IP67 certified so it’s not quite as waterproof as the other models, but it can withstand being submerged in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. 

Nook Glowlight Plus – B&N’s previous Nook model was waterproof, with a IP67 rating. It’s still available new on Amazon and B&N sells them refurbished for $79, making it the cheapest waterproof ereader available to purchase by far.

Pocketbook Aqua 2 – Pocketbook’s ereaders aren’t widely available but the Pocketbook Aqua 2 is another option for a waterproof ebook reader. It has an IP57 rating so it’s not quite as waterproof as some other models but it can handle being dropped into 1 meter of water.

Tolino Vision 4 HD – Tolino is a brand that’s not sold in North America but they’re readily available in parts of Europe. The Tolino Vision 4 HD is a 6-inch model with Water Protection by HZO, making it waterproof for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter.

Tolino Epos – The Tolino Epos is a 7.8-inch model. It has the same waterproofing as the Vision 4 HD, so it’s waterproof for up to 30 minutes in 1 meter of water.

Must-Know Tips and Tricks for Kindle to Boost Your Reading Experience

With one portable and light Kindle device, you can puts a library in your pocket effortlessly. But to get the most out of your Kindle ereader, there are some quick tips and tricks you should be aware of. 

Make your Kindle’s battery last longer

Turning off Wi-Fi and the Whispernet connection will help, which you can do by tapping near the top of the screen, on the brightness button, and selecting Airplane Mode. Dimming the brightness on the same screen is going to eke out more battery life, too.

Read Articles from the web

You can not only limited to read books on Kindle. You can read article by install the Pocket or Instapaper extension to your computer. When you saved article using the extension, the article will get pushed to your synced devices, like your Kindle, so you can read it later (even when you're offline). After downloading the app, just go into Settings on the app and choose Kindle as your delivery option.

Customize the dictionary

Customize the dictionary by going to Settings > Device Options > Language and Dictionaries, which is especially helpful if you're reading books in other languages.

Highlight text

To highlight a particularly important or impactful passage in a book, just press down at the start of the sentence, drag to select the whole phrase, hold down, and then tap "Highlight." Highlight option will bookmark the text so that you can find it later.

Customize the reading interface

Kindle allows you to customize it if you are happy with the reading interface. Tap near the top of the screen, then on the Aa icon to see a variety of options for text formatting. With a few taps you can adjust the font type and size, the line spacing, the page margins, and the orientation of your Kindle. 

Get online

The Kindle has a web browser: from the home screen press Menu > Experimental > Launch Browser. It's slow and horrible compared to a desktop or tablet browser, but it's perfectly adequate for browsing news sites and Amazon site.

Email things to Kindle

Each Kindle has a unique email address. All you need to do is email the documents to your Send-to-Kindle email address. Ensure that the sender's email address has been added to your Approved Personal Document Email List and verify that your document is a supported file type before sending it to your Kindle.

Lend books to a friend

You have the right to lend one book from your Kindle content for 14 days.

Go to Amazon.com/mycd. Select the title of the book you want to share and click on the ellipsis action button, then Loan this title. Then, choose who you want to share the book with. Only books that are eligible for sharing will have an action button.

Automatically Sync Books From Dropbox

BookDrop is a simple way to transfr books to your Kindle. Once a book is dropped into the BookDrop folder, it will be sent to your Kindle.

Listen to books

Open the book or document, press the Menu button and select Start Text-to-Speech. Your Kindle will read the text to you like an audiobook, but in a robotic voice.

Fix a Frozen Screen

Don't you find out your Kindle can do more than your think? If you know any other useful tips, please share with us！

How to disable and enable the touchscreen on the All New Kindle Oasis 2 (2017)?

You must be aware of the physical page turn buttons that come with the all new Kindle Oasis 2. This is a vintage and considerate design that many people are thrilled about. You can turn pages either by pressing the physical page turn buttons on the thicker end of the eReader or tapping on either side the screen on Oasis 2.

However, with the touchscreen enabled, some people find they always inadvertently turn pages when they only wants to define a word or highlight a passage. The waterproof Kindle Oasis 2 is designed to be used in a bathtub or on the beach. If we can disable the touchscreen temporarily, the touchscreen will not work when water splashes on it until we wipe off the droplets. Moreover, we can reply on the actual page turn buttons to turn pages exclusively which allows us to hold the Oasis 2 like holding an actual book without accident page-turns.

Now let me show you how to deactivate the touchscreen on Kindle Oasis 2 as follows:

1. Open a book from your Oasis 2. The option to disable the touchscreen is located on the setting menu list while reading.
2. Within the book go to the menu on top right of the screen, and tap the three dots located in the upper right corner.
3. Choose “disable the touchscreen” from there. A dialogue with instructions appears, you can cancel or select OK

If you want to use the onscreen features, don’t forget you’ve deactivated the touchscreen and assume that your Oasis is not functioning well. What you need to do is to enable the touchscreen again. I’ll list two methods to make it happen:

1. Press the power button to put the device in sleep mode and press the power button to wake it.
2. Turn the Kindle off and back on again, or you can close and open the sleepcover if you’ve got one.

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If you want to get to get more information about the flagship eReader Kindle Oasis 2, please check this article out All-New Kindle Oasis 2 (2017) Review.