Calibre 5.0 Released with Highlighting & Dark Mode

calibre is a powerful and easy to use e-book manager. It’ll allow you to do nearly everything and it takes things a step beyond normal e-book software. This year calibre takes a major change. The newly released calibre 5.0 supports highlighting in the E-book viewer and dark mode. Besides, calibre has now moved to use Python 3.

New in calibre 5.0

Welcome back, calibre users. It has been a year since calibre 4.0. The two headline features are Highlighting support in the calibre E-book viewer and that calibre has now moved to Python 3.

There has been a lot of work on the calibre E-book viewer. It now supports Highlighting. The highlights can be colors, underlines, strikethrough, etc. and have added notes. All highlights can be both stored in EPUB files for easy sharing and centrally in the calibre library for easy browsing. Additionally, the E-book viewer now supports both vertical and right-to-left text.

calibre has moved to using Python 3. This is because Python 2 was end-of-lifed this year. This should be completely transparent to calibre users, the only caveat being that some third party calibre plugins have not yet been ported to Python 3 and therefore will not work in calibre 5. For status on the various plugin ports, see here. This effort involved porting half-a-million lines of Python code and tens-of-thousands of lines of extension code to Python 3. This would not have been possible without the help of Eli Schwartz and Flaviu Tamas.

• Highlighting in the E-book viewer

• Dark mode support

• Enhanced search in the E-book viewer

• Backwards incompatibilities

calibre users have been looking forward to these new features for a long time. From the start, calibre has brought great convenience to our readers’ lives. We really want to thank calibre for every change they make along the way to make this all-in-one ebook management tool get better and better. 

Bonus tip: You can remove DRM from Kindle books by installing the De-DRM plugin to calibre. 

Audible Escape will Be Shut Down on November 1

Audible Escape was launched in 2017 under the name Audible Romance, which was immensely loved by subscribers for giving listeners access to an immense library romance audiobooks in exchange for a flat monthly fee. However, last month, Audible introduced a new general interest all-you-can-listen plan called Audible Plus which has essentially replace Audible Escape. 

Audible Plus includes titles across multiple genres, including Romance, as well as shorter-form titles, podcasts, and Audible Originals.

On September 15, 2020, Audible sent out an email, informing authors and users that it is going to shut down Audible Escape subscription service on November 1. Here’s the email that was sent to users:

Audible Escape (formerly known as the Audible Romance Package) will end on 1 November per an email from ACX.

Since November 1, 2017, Audible Escape has provided avid romance fans with countless hours of entertainment and enjoyment, including your titles. We’ve learned so much about what customers are looking for in an unlimited listening membership, inspiring new offerings and services that present members a diverse selection of titles across a mix of formats (such as audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals) as well as lengths and genres.

As of 1 November, Audible will no longer offer the Audible Escape subscription. This means titles will be removed from subscribers’ libraries on that date.

You will receive royalties for all Audible Escape listening of your titles, and qualifying creators will receive author/producer and title bonuses based on the full Q4 2020 bonus pool.

After November 1, all titles previously in Audible Escape will be available for purchase with cash or an Audible monthly credit. A selection of titles previously in Audible Escape will also be available in Audible Plus.

If you are sick of such behavior, you should back up your Audible books to your computer and take full control of your purchased property.

Microsoft Surface Duo Supports for Reading eBooks on Both Screens！

Today, Microsoft released its first Android smartphone -- Microsoft Surface Duo. It's a dual-screen, foldable Android-based device with each panel coming in at 4.8mm thin.

Unlike previous Microsoft products, which run an in-house operating system. Microsoft Surface Duo will run Android instead. Surface Duo can do everything you'd expect from a modern smartphone and tablet. For instance, you can use it to play with apps and make calls, and it can even fit in your pocket. However, Microsoft is reluctant to describe the device as a smartphone.

"We didn’t set out to combine two existing devices – the tablet and the laptop. We had a vision for how we could take the best elements of each to create something entirely new. To find that perfect intersection of hardware and software that unlocks a more intuitive way to work and create," said Microsoft Chief Product Officer. 

One particular detail might catch the eye of some of those that read Kindle ebooks. It turns out the Kindle Android app has been optimized for Microsoft Surface Duo to display two pages at once.

Comparing to other Android-based smartphones, Microsoft Surface Duo is quite expensive - starting at $1,399 for the entry-level model. Would you consider purchasing a Surface Duo for reading ebooks?