Kindle Firmware Update Package 5.9.5 is Available Now

On April  12th, Amazon has announced its new release of Kindle Firmware 5.9.5 for its Kindle devices which mainly improves the highlight functionality.

Now the Kindle firmware version 5.9.5  is available for most Kindle eReaders, including Kindle (7th and 8th generation), Kindle Oasis 1 and 2, Kindle Paperwhite (6th and 7the generation) and Kindle Voyage.

What's new at the Kindle Firmware 5.9.5?

1, It improves the highlight function which allows you to turn off the highlight menu when selecting a passage of text. This change will make the highlighting process faster and reasonable. You can make multiple highlights with less presses.
You can go to set this new function by this path>> Settings--Reading options--Highlights and About The Book--Highlight Menu.

2, It also mentioned the "Performance improvements and other general enhancements" in this update.

The update will automatically download and install to your Kindle devices if you have your wireless connection. But if you want to enjoy the new features of this new update, you can go to Amazon Kindle software update page to download it now.

How to Convert VBK to PDF

VitalSource is the most popular and used e-textbook delivery platform in higher education with over 4 million users worldwide.

What's a VBK File?

VBK files are DRM-protected eBook files used by VitalSource Bookshelf, an eBook application used for reading purchased textbooks. Once you download eTextbook from VitalSource Bookshelf desktop or website, then the book will be saved in VBK format on your computer.

How do I Open a VBK File?

Since VBK files are all DRM-protected eBook files. So all of your VBK files can only be opened by VitalSource Bookshelf software registered under your account.

The Inconvenience of Printing VBK File

Thought VitalSource improves the learning experience by making it easier to create and deliver effective and affordable digital content, there’s still some limitation about VitalSource Bookshelf, like you can’t print your purchased VBK files as a whole PDF file. Instead you got to print one page at a time manually, which will be painful if a VBK files contains hundreds of pages.

How to Convert VBK to PDF

So here we are going to show you how to convert VBK to PDF with a super powerful software- Epubor VitalSource Downloader. Epubor VitalSource Downloader uses the VitalSource web viewer to scrape every page of the book and strips DRM from the book. It only requires one-click to download the whole book efficiently and save them as EPUB or PDF files.

Step 1, download EpuborVitalSource Downloader to your computer and launch it.

Note: If you are a trial version user, please close the registration window and use Epubor VitalSource Downloader directly.

Next input your VitalSource account and password in the log-in window. Then all of your ebooks will be displayed in the main window.

Step 2, click the book cover to download the book.

There will be a downloading progress bar on the top the window. And don't click on anything before the book was downloaded succeeded to your computer.

Step 3, it will pop up a reminding window when the book was successfully downloaded to your computer.

When you close the reminding window, it will pop up a window contains the DRM free ePub or PDF files.

If you get Vitalsource book downloaded as PDF format, you can print the downloaded PDF book as a whole with one-click! Even if you get the epub format books, you can read DRM free ePub on many devices. And Epubor VitalSource Downloader will allow you to convert the formats between PDF and Epub format in the near future.

So if you want your purchased e-textbooks at your disposal, then you must try the above method to remove DRM from your VBK files and get the DRM free ePub or PDF files.

How to Recover Full Control of Your Purchased eBooks and Audible Books

eBooks purchased from the mainstream eBook stores, like Amazon/Kobo/Nook/Google Play Book, etc, usually come with Digital Right Management(DRM) protection. So does Audible audiobooks. DRM is a set of access control technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works, which locks all your purchased eBooks and Audible audiobooks to specific place. So is there any solution for us to fully control of our purchased eBooks and Audible audiobooks. And the answer is Yes!

Epubor software company is dedicated to provide you the best eBook and Audible audiobooks decryption tools. There’s no software company can rival with Epubor in this business. Here we are going to introduce its 2 star products.

1. Epubor Ultimate helps you recover control of your purchased eBooks

Epubor Ultimate is the most powerful eBook DRM Removal and eBook Converter on the market. It can even deal with Amazon’s newest ebook format—KFX. However, open source software—Calibre can’t handle KFX books yet. It also supports batch conversion and the conversion speed is 60X faster. Below is the guide about how to remove DRM from your purchased ebooks.

Step 1, download Epubor Ultimate to your computer and launch it.

Step 2, add the encrypted books from the left sidebar to the right main window. The books will be decrypted within seconds.

Note: Epubor Ultimate can detect your downloaded books automatically. And all the downloaded books will be displayed in the left sidebar of Epubor Ultimate.

Step 3, choose output format and hit the conversion button after decrypting the ebooks.

Super easy to easy and efficient to make the work done with only two clicks. Now you can recover full control of your purchased ebooks.

2. Epubor Audible Converter helps you recover control of your purchased Audible books

All Epubor software rock. So the next awesome software is Epubor AudibleConverter, the most awesome Audible DRM Removal and Converter.

Step 1, download Epubor Audible Converterto your computer and launch it.

Step 2, click Add to load your Audible audiobooks to Epubor Audible Converter to remove the DRM.

Note: Epubor Audible Converter can locate your downloaded Audible files by clicking the Add button instantly.

Step 3, choose output format after the successful decryption and hit the button to start the conversion.

Note: The AA Audible book is actually encrypted mp3 file, and the AAX Audible book is encrypted m4b file. So the decrypted AA file will be in mp3 format and the decrypted AAX file will be in m4b format.

By now, all of your purchased eBooks and Audible audiobooks are decrypted and you can take the full control of them. You can read or listen to these files on any supported devices you like.

Anyway, Epubor Software rock!

What are the Kindle supported formats?

 Kindle eReaders hold the most share of eReaders market in the whole world. Amazon builds a wall to confine all the books purchased from Amazon Store to Kindle exclusive formats. You may aware that AZW, AZW3, FKX, ect. are Amazon propriety formats. Well, in this post, i'll make a complete list of Kindle supported formats. Hope it's informative and helful to you.

1.Kindle supported ebook formats

AZW

AZW is the primary format which is used for ebooks you buy at Amazon's kindle store and can only be obtained from the Amazon website. It's the preferred format to allow maximum readability on the kindle devices. Sometimes azw files are called KF7 (Kindle Format 7) to distinguish them from KF8 (AZW3). 

AZW3

AZW3 is another name for KF8 and first came out for the kindle fire. It adds over 150 new formatting capabilities containing support for HTML5 and CSS3. All the new capabilities include embedded fonts, drop caps and CSS selectors such as line spacing, alignment, justification, margin, color, style, and border.

Extended reading: A Comprehensive Introduction to AZW3 Files

Mobi

Mobi is a file format created by Mobipocket and now is used by MobiPocket Reader and Amazon Kindle readers. It can be read only if it contains no Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection.

PRC

PRC files are used by the Mobipocket e-book-reader. Mobipocket ebooks can have either .prc or .mobi as their extension. Old MOBIs are always in .prc but the newer ones can be .prc or .mobi. DRM-free PRC format ebook can be read on kindle devices.

KFX

KFX is the latest format of Amazon Kindle, to get this format of file you must have an E-Ink Kindle, and the book should have the "Enhanced Typesettings" property.

KFX is the successor of AZW6, it's even not a real eBook file. You can see it as a downloader, it downloads all the stuff of a book into your Kindle, regarless of texts or images.

Of course, you can convert the KFX file into other formats: convert KFX to Mobi/EPUB/PDF.

Extended reading: An Overall Introduction to Kindle KFX Files

2. Kindle supported document formats

Members belong to this category: TXT, PDF, HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP.

Kinlde natively just supports two kinds of document formats. The first one is text file (TXT) and the other is Adobe's PDF format.

But there are also some available on kindle through conversion, such as HTML, DOC (a Microsoft Word file) and the graphic file formats JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP. The conversion can be successfully and easily completed by sending a file to your kindle email address.

3. Kindle supported audio formats

The kindle can play audio files. Music files in MP3 format are compatible with kindle. Apart from this, audio books from Audible with the AAX and AA extensions are also supported by kindle.

Ultimate Way to Remove Audible DRM

Remove Audible DRM from Audiobooks Downloaded via Android Devices

Convert Audible adh to mp3

Download Epubor Audible Converter (WIN)

Download Epubor Audible Converter (Mac)

Kindle Unsupported format: epub

The EPUB formats are most commonly adopted by many popular devices, such as iPad, nook, sony, kobo and Google. However, it's a pity that kindle devices don't support this common file format. But don't get disappointed. For you can get your problems solved by reading the following part. You can convert epub to azw or mobi if you intend to read epub files on your kindle successfully.

For drm-free epub files, you can choose calibre to convert epub to mobi and then transfer the converted files to your kindle devices.

For drm-protected files, I recommend Ultimate converter to you because according to actual operation it can help you one-click to decrypt and convert books purchased from popular retailers such as nook, sony, kobo, google play, Amazon in batch.

Download Epubor Ultimate (WIN)

Download Epubor Ultimate (Mac)

Download Epubor Ultimate (Linux)

Epubor wants you to be satisfied with our products. If, for any reason, the software you receive does not meet your expectations, you can claim a refund within 30 dayssince you place the order. So why not give it a try? You’ve got nothing to lose.

Best 4 Free Public Domain Book Websites

The legal term public domain refers to works whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired. So anyone is free to use or reuse it. You may find public domain books that are not free in major ebookstores. My advice is that if you want to get an ebook version of a classic novel, you should check the sits listed below.

1      1. Project Gutenberg 

Project Gutenberg offers over 56,000 free eBooks: Choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online. You will find the world's great literature here, especially older works for which copyright has expired. We digitized and diligently proofread them with the help of thousands of volunteers.

2. Europeana

Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitised items – books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for. Their dedicated thematic collections on art, fashion, music, photography and World War I contains galleries, blogs and exhibitions to inform and inspire.

3. Digital Public Library of America

The Digital Public Library of America empowers people to learn, grow, and contribute to a diverse and better-functioning society. It also connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of the materials found through DPLA are free and immediately available in digital format.

4. Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, they provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.

The Internet Archive serves millions of people each day and is one of the top 300 web sites in the world. A single copy of the Internet Archive library collection occupies 30+ Petabytes of server space. 

If you want to load your e-reader or tablet with free ebooks, please collect this list.

If you like to purchased ebooks from mainstream ebook store, like Amazon/Kobo/Nook/

Google Play Book, etc, and you want to load all the different format ebooks to one e-ink reader, here’s one super powerful tool-Epubor Ultimate to solve your problem with only one click. Epubor Ultimate is an efficient eBook DRM Removal and eBook Format Converter.  In my opinion, this is a tool for every enthusiastic ebook lovers.

Where does the Android device store Audible audiobooks?

Listening to audiobooks with a smartphone on the go is the best way to keep you informed while resting your eyes. Audible website is probably your favorite choice to shop. Many Audible fans may wonder where the audible files stored on Android in the event they need to export the audiobooks from their Android smartphones.

You do need to hunt a little to find the path stores the Audible files on your Android device, but they’re there: 

This PC/Android Device Name/Internal Storage/Android/data/com.audible.application/files

Note: On 6/20/2019, Audible has updated their Android app. Since then, the Audible books downloaded via the Android app are all .AAXC format. Before that, they are AAX or AA format. 

You can read the following guides to learn how to remove DRM from Audible and convert Audible AAXC to MP3:

1. Remove DRM from Audible Audiobooks Downloaded via Android Devices

2. How to Convert Audible AAXC to MP3?

How to purchase and download Audible audiobooks to an Android device?

Step 1.  Install Audible app for Android from Google Play Store or Amazon Appstore.

Alternatively, you can install the Audible for Android app using an apk file as follows:

1.    Go to the Android home screen.
2.   Go to Settings > Personnel > Security, then tap OK.
3.   Download the apk file from the web browser on your Android device.
4.   Swipe from the top of the screen to the bottom to reveal the Notifications window.
5.   Tap on the notification for Audible-Market-Release.apk to install the Audible for Android app on your device.

Step 2. Purchase an audiobook in the Audible for Android app

1.    Open the Audible app and sign in.
2.    Open the My Library Screen.  
3.   Tap the Shopping Cart Icon in the top right corner to open the Audible Store on your app.
4.   Tap Magnify Glass Icon towards the top right of the screen to search for an audiobook. Or tap Browse under “Store” to find the audiobook you want to purchase.
5.   Tap on the audiobook you’d like to buy, and then tap on Buy with 1 Credit or Buy for $X.XX to make the purchase.

Step 3. Download your audiobooks to your Android device

1. Tap My Library in the top left corner
2. Tap Cloud
3. Select the audiobook you would like to download (A non-downloaded title will feature a small downward-facing arrow.) 
4. Tap the Download Icon
5. Tap Download.

Best 4 eBook News Sites to Keep You Well-informed

There are two groups of people who are interested in ebook news: users and professionals. Users are interested in product release, review, deals and tips. While professionals are more attracted by publishing business. 

However, finding a good ebook news sites will take up a lot of time. Luckily for you, I am going to share my precious ebook news sites with you. Hope you can find something useful for you.

1. The Digital Reader

The Digital Reader is a news blog covering publishing, indie authors, ebooks, and ereaders. The Digital Reader positions itself as the best news source for tablets and e-readers. Every day The Digital Reader shares digest posts with interesting articles from around the web, called “The Morning Coffee.”

2. Good E-reader

Good e-Reader is the leading provider of news, reviews and previews on e-readers, tablets, digital publishing, ebooks and more! The biggest benefit of Good E-reader is the fantastic review work. Not only you can read here up-to-date reviews of e-readers and tablets, you can also watch most of the review videos and tutorials on their YouTube channel.

3. Publishing Perspectives

Publishing Perspectives is an online business magazine that covers the trends, people, and companies shaping the global book industry. It is a leading source of information on global book publishing. The team of writers and contributors has a goal to bring and analyze up-to-date reports of global trends in publishing.

4. Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly is considered the bible of the book business. Its international coverage includes up-to-the-minute book, book selling and publishing industry news, book reviews, author interviews, deals & rights, ebooks, apps & digital publishing, self-publishing, seasonal announcements, bestsellers and much more.

If you don’t want to miss any important ebook news, this above list is for you. You can connect to every site via:

1. RSS feed.

2. Email subscription sign-up form.

3. Social networks: Twitter, Facebook, etc.