Purchase and rent textbooks from Google Play Books

Compared to Amazon's digital content and apps, more and more people are moving towards Google's eco-system from Chrome browser to Google Drive cloud. Many folks even purchase eBooks from Google Books exclusively. At a press held in San Francisco last Wednesday, Google announced that it would integrate digital textbooks to its eBook business. Starting from this month (August this year), students will be able to purchase or rent e-textbooks from Google Play Books, which can be achieved on iOS, Android as well as desktop webpage.

Google Play Books acclaimed to offer a "comprehensive selection of titles" from the primary textbook providers, which means students will be able to get textbooks of different genres and subjects they need. Textbooks will be offered at a discount of 80% (at most) and students can rent textbooks for a period of 6 months. However, this service is only available for US students by far.

In the meantime, Google also released a new Google Play Books app for iOS with textbook purchase and rental service added, which is likely to impact Apple's iBooks textbook offerings.


When using Google Play Books to read textbooks on the mobile devices (Nexus 7, iPad, iPhone, etc.), students can search (through the book, web or wikipedia), highlight, bookmark, take notes and switch reading modes. All highlights and notes will be auto synced across different smart devices under the same Google account.

When using Google Play Books to read textbooks on the mobile devices (Nexus 7, iPad, iPhone, etc.), students can search (through the book, web or wikipedia), highlight, bookmark, take notes and switch reading modes. All highlights and notes will be auto synced across different smart devices under the same Google account.


All the time, textbook cost is a big burden to most students. Google Play textbook purchase & rental service will no doubt benefit those who read a lot but can't afford much. Refer to this page if you also want to rent textbooks from Amazon.

MS Office app available on Android phones instead of Android tablets

PC users who have been used to MS Office all the way hope Microsoft will release a version for mobile devices. After Office for iPhone app released last month, the Android version eventually came to Android market (Last Wednesday). Cheers!

Compared to similar office apps free offered in Google Play, MS version requires a $100-a-year-subscription to Office (Office 365 subscription) and won't be sold separately. In addition, MS Office package will come in a simplified version with complex features removed, which may be more stable and have better compatibility than non-MS office apps, but not that functional as the desktop version. Note that Office 365 app can't be installed on Android OS lower than 4.0.

As with iPad, Microsoft does not offer a version for Android tablets while the fact is that most users prefer to view or edit docs on larger-display tablets when they have to use Office on the go. Windows (8) tablet users are lucky in this case as Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint come with Windows OS by default.

Although there is no MS Office for Android tablets provided, customers can rely on other office apps such as Kingsoft, QuickOffice and Olive Office. Refer to this post to use Office on Android tablets (Kindle Fire).

Leaked details of iBooks for Mac App

Months ago Apple announced they will release the latest version of Mac OS X in this fall in WWDC 2013, and the Mavericks will contains the iBooks for Mac app.

Days ago a Mac app developer shared some details of the iBooks for Mac app in his Mavericks developer preview on MobileRead. I extract the highlights and listed here:

• Text to Speech feature. It's no wonder that the iBooks for Mac supports TTS as the VoiceOver on Mac is pretty powerful and impeccable；
• Highlight a word to search the web/wikipedia;
• Share sentences by email, Message, etc.;
• Local ePub files loading;
• Collections feature like iBooks app for iOS;
• 7 fonts available: Athelas, Charter, Georgia, Iowan, Palatino, Seravek, Times New Roman;
• 3 themes available: White, Sepia, and Night;
• Sync last page read between different iBooks apps under same Apple account;

And the screenshot.

From the features list above, I personally think the iBooks app is more powerful than Kindle PC/Mac app. However, we will soon be able to get the official release.

LG announced a new Android flagship - LG G2

As the second mobile phone producer in Korea and an important role of Android market in the world, it seems that LG has no much brilliant performance comparing with Samsung, another Korean mobile phone giant and the leader of Android phone at present. Most LG phones don’t impress us much except the Nexus 4. But this time as the new flagship – the LG G2 announced, we sees to have a reason to choose LG.

The 5.2 inch display is one of the main highlights of LG G2. It adopts an IPS LCD with 1920*1080 resolution and 450nit brightness rating. These make G2 has an excellent display effect. 5.2 inch is not a common size but it’s also suitable for two-hands holding.

As Sony Xperia Z Ultra first adopted the Snapdragon 800 chipset, more and more new phones choose this new and powerful chipset. LG G2 has a 2.3GHz CPU and Andreno 330GPU, with a 2G RAM and 16/32 GB ROM. This monster-level configuration almost catches the desktop PC and may have performance surplus.

LG G2 has a 13MP camera and can record FullHD 1080P video. But we haven't known what lens it use.

More specification of LG G2:
• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band UMTS/HSPA, penta-band LTE support, LTE-Advanced
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9 mm, 143 g
• Display: 5.2" 16M-color 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) power efficient capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD with Gorilla Glass 3 and ~424 ppi and 450 nit brightness, extremely narrow bezels (2.65 mm)
• CPU: Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400
• GPU: Adreno 330
• Chipset: Snapdragon 800 chipset
• RAM: 2GB
• OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• Memory: 16/32GB storage, microSD card slot (region-specific availability of the slot)
• Cameras: Primary 13 MP auto-focus optically-stabilized camera, 8X digital zoom, face detection, HDR mode, panorama, geo-tagging; Full HD (1080p) video recording at 60fps, Secondary 2.1 MP front-facing camera with FullHD video capture
• Connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, standard microUSB port with MHL and USB host, GPS receiver with A-GPS, GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, wireless screen sharing (Miracast protocol)
• Misc: Camera has sapphire glass cover, customizable system key (can assign different functions to back, home, menu buttons); tap twice on the screen to turn it on and off
• Battery capacity: 3,000mAh Li-Po unit (2,610mAh in some markets)

Kobo to release a 10-inch Kobo Arc tablet

iPad, Nexus 10, Kindle Fire HD 8.9, Samsung Galaxy Note together with previous Nook HD + are what people talk about when it comes to a larger-display tablet. Yes, no Kobo Arc. I even have no idea that whether or not Kobo (the famous eBook&eReader provider from Canada) ever released a 9 inch or 10 inch model. I guess not. Anyway, the 10 inch model is rumored to come this fall, which is currently known as Kobo Arc 10 HD. Well, I personally think this title a bit too long. Kobo Arc 10 would be better, or simply a new name.

Strangely, that Kobo is to release an extra tablet model (the 10 inch model) more or less shows there is an appetite for android tablet while Barnes & Noble did a terrible job on the whole Nook HD line and was forced to vacuum up its Nook tablet models several months ago. At least, Kobo has profited from 7-inch Kobo Arc. It's likely that what Kobo indeed wants is simply a larger model, which can be used to counteract the larger models released by Amazon Kindle Fire, Google Nexus and Samsung Galaxy Note, instead of another costly yet striking model parallel to Kobo Aura (the best eReader by far). However, it is probably to be striking.

According to a post from GL Benchmarks, Kobo Arc 10 may come with following features (tech specs):
1. 10-inch display with a resolution of 2560*1600 pixels;
2. Powered by 1.5 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 4 ARM Cortex A15 quad core processor;
3. 2 G RAM supported;
4. Android 4.2 or 4.3 OS.

Pocket: How to read it later among computer, Android and iOS

When we come across something funny or useful online, we may not have enough time to enjoy at that moment. Thereby a "read it later" function will be very useful. Although current browsers, such as Google Chrome and Firefox, support bookmark well, the built-in bookmark feature is just less convenient when it comes to another computer or platform. Here I will show you how to use "read it later" feature and share webpages among PC, Mac, Android, Kindle Fire, iPad and iPhone with free Pocket.

As I have mentioned, there are five versions of Pocket app, which supports both Google Chrome browser and Firefox browser. In this guide, I will show you how to use Pocket to read it later between Google Chrome and Android Google Nexus 7.

1. Launch Google Play on the Nexus 7. Search for "Pocket" and tap to install. If you are using Kindle Fire or any other mobile device, search and install Pocket from the corresponding app store.

2. Launch Pocket app on the device. Register. Create a pocket account with your email address if you don't have an account.

3. As per the tips, tap one app to add to Pocket. Here I tapped Chrome.

According to the demo below, go to a webpage, select "Options" icon in the top right corner, then select "Share..." and "Add to Pocket". Go back to Pocket app on the device, you will find the webpage added. You can also read videos, images or any other webpages later in this way.

4. Now it's time to check the "read it later" function on the computer browser (Google Chrome). Before switching to computer, go to Pocket (on the mobile device) and tap "Email Me Instructions".

5. Check your email (on computer). You will find an activation email and an instruction email.
Activate your account first and click "Pocket for your computer" link from the instruction email.

6. I recommend you to click "Or install the bookmarklet" button instead of "INSTALL". The "INSTALL" button creates a desktop version for pocket, but the bookmarklet feature will add an "Pocket" button to the browser tool bar, which is what most readers indeed want.

7. Click "Log In" to log in with your Pocket account. The Pocket button will be installed in seconds and display next to the browser address bar (or tool bar).

8. Go to a webpage on the computer and click the Pocket bookmark button to add to Pocket. You can also add tags for different kinds of webpages.

9. Check Pocket on your mobile device. The webpage added from computer browser now display on my Nexus 7.

Epubor Updates the eBook Converter Product Line

Epubor today updates all the eBook Converter products, including Ultimate Converter, eBook Converter, Kindle to PDF Converter, Mobi to EPUB Converter, and EPUB to Kindle Converter.

At the moment all the upgrades are only for Windows users, the upgrades for Mac are on the way.

The Epubor Ultimate Converter updates to V 1.51.0.2, and the change log:

1. Fixed the bug "drmcheck can't load";
2. Fixed the bug "global name 'IGNBOLEEerror' is not defined";
3. Support format .azw3, solve most of Kindle eBook conversion issues;
4. Cleaner UI, easier to use;
5. More bugs fixed.

The eBook Converter updates to V 1.51.0.1, and the change log:

1. Support format .azw3, solve most of Kindle eBook conversion issues;
2. Cleaner UI, easier to use;
3. More bugs fixed.

The Kindle to PDF Converter updates to V 1.51.0.1, and the change log:

1. Upgrade the conversion library;
2. Cleaner UI, easier to use;
3. More bugs fixed.

The EPUB to Kindle Converter updates to V1.51.0.1, and the change log:

1. Upgrade the conversion library;
2. Cleaner UI, easier to use;
3. More bugs fixed.

The Mobi to EPUB Converter updates to V 1.51.0.1, and the change log:

1. Add support to azw3 and azw4;
2. Cleaner UI, easier to use;
3. More bugs fixed.

Notice: If you are using the current version well, it is not necessary to upgrade to the latest version.