Amazon's 2022 Entry-level Kindle is Available Now!

Amazon has just announced its entry-level Kindle, which is available for pre-order and will start shipping on October 12th, 2022. The price starts at $99. 

“The new ultralight Kindle is the latest example of how we continue to bring premium features to our most affordable devices for even more customers to enjoy,” said Eric Saarnio, Vice President, Amazon Devices International.

The new Kinde has a six-inch capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1448x1072 with 300 ppi, a higher resolution than the 167ppi of the previous model. 300ppi is the same resolution found on the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Oasis.

It has 2x the storage, with 16GB, which is useful for listening to Audible audiobooks. More importantly, the Kindle finally has USB-C charging and longer battery life. Plus the built-in adjustable front light, and the newly added dark mode feature, lets you read comfortably indoors and outdoors any time of the day.

Bonus tip: Epubor Ultimate can help you back up all your purchased Kindle books effortlessly.

What’s New about Kobo Clara 2E?

Kobo released their first new Kobo e-reader - Kobo Clara 2E this year. It is the most environment-friendly eReader made with recycled plastic. It has a 6-inch ebook reader that looks nearly identical to the previous Kobo Clara HD, but it adds support for audiobooks, Dark Mode, dual band WiFi, and it has a USB-C port. It also has double the storage space (16GB), along with an upgraded higher-contrast Carta 1200 screen, and it’s waterproof. 

Technical Specs

Display: 6” HD E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen, 300 PPI, 1448 x 1072 resolution with Dark Mode

Storage - 16GB

CPU - 1 GHz

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 ac/b/g/n (dual band), Bluetooth® wireless technology, and USB-C

Battery: Weeks of battery life (Dependent on individual usage.)

Waterproof: IPX8 - up to 60 mins in 2 metres of water

Front Light: ComfortLight PRO – Adjustable brightness and colour temperature

Customizability

TypeGenius: 12 different fonts and over 50 font styles

Dimensions: 112.05 x 159.02 x 8.66 mm

Weight: 171 g (Actual size and weight may vary by configuration and manufacturing process.)

Supported Formats:

15 file formats supported natively (EPUB, EPUB3, FlePub, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ, CBR), Kobo Audiobooks (Audiobooks available only in select countries. Bluetooth® wireless headphones or speaker required.)

Here’s an introduction video about the latest Kobo Clara 2E., check it out:

Bonus tips: Epubor Ultimate is a powerful tool to help you back up your Kobo books.

Kobo Firmware 4.33 Has Been Released!

Kobo firmware version 4.33.19759 has been rolled out. This is available to all the devices except the Mini. Some new changes in this firmware are: Add more dictionaries option included in language dropdown, use pinch gesture to change font size when reading, and Turning pages in PDFs will now automatically maintain the current zoom level and position from the previous page. 

Here are the full notes from Kobo: 

Pinch to change font size in eBooks

   • You can now change the font size in your eBooks by using the pinch gesture.

   • As you pinch, a circular preview window will appear to allow you to see the font size as you adjust it.

   • Once you are comfortable with the size you can release your fingers to update the font size on the page.

   • You can also toggle this feature on or off in Reading Settings.

Zoom lock for PDF

   • Turning pages in PDFs will now automatically maintain the current zoom level and position from the previous page.

   • This can be useful if you have zoomed in slightly to remove excess margins and increase the legibility of the content.

General Improvements

   • Show “Add more dictionaries” button under the language dropdown menu in dictionary lookup

   • Bug Fixes

   • Improved Stability

If you want to remove DRM protection from your purchased Kobo files, you can follow this guide to remove Kobo DRM.

Check Out the Latest Onyx Boox Poke 4 Lite

Boox just released an affordable 6-inch eReader with Android 11 -- The Poke 4 Lite. it is a dedicated ebook reader, just as versatile and capable. It is available in black or white. It does a good job at reading manga, books, and listening to audiobooks, podcasts or music. Here are some highlights about this brand new versatile ereader. 

1. A Lightweight and Ultrathin Pocket-size

Measuring 153 x107 x7.1 mm and weighing 150g, the Poke4 Lite is easy to comfortably hold in one hand for hours of reading use. And Boox makes it convenient to slide it into your pocket.

2. Reading-purposed Software Build

With one of the best built-in reader apps - NeoReader, Poke4 Lite offers a superior reading experience on the paperlike screen. It is geared for distraction-free reading.

3. Read from Different Reading Sources in one place

It has Google Play preinstalled which allows you to install third-party reading apps such as Kindle, Kobo, Nook, etc, and sync eBooks from third-party cloud apps such as Dropbox and Google Drive. One eReader for all - eBooks, news, and magazines.

4. Adjustable Front Lights

Poke4 Lite comes with dual-color temperature lights always gives you an interruption-free reading experience.

5. Indulge yourself with audio media

Connect it with Bluetooth-enabled wireless earphones and enjoy your favorite auidobooks, music, news, or podcasts anywhere you want.

Bonus Tips: if you want to know more about how to read kindle/Kobo/Google Play/Nooks books on Boox reader, here's the step-by-step guide for details. 

Spotify can Create More High-quality Voices by Acquiring Sonantic

Streaming giant Spotify, most famous for its music and podcast streaming services, has announced that it is acquiring Sonantic, a dynamic AI voice platform that creates compelling and stunningly realistic voices from text. 

You may not know the name Sonantic, but you may have seen its work. Its technology helped bring Val Kilmer’s voice to life in “Top Gun: Maverick.” Can you tell the differences?

With no doubt, Spotify's acquisition of Sonantic will bring more machine-narrated audiobooks. Spotify said in their newsletter, listeners come to Spotify for all of the best audio content in the world—and we believe that Sonantic’s technology will allow us to create high-quality experiences for our users by building on our existing technical capabilities. 

“We’re looking forward to joining Spotify and continuing to build exciting voice experiences,” said Sonantic co-founders Zeena Qureshi and John Flynn in a joint statement. “We believe in the power voice has and its ability to foster a deeper connection with listeners around the world, and we know we can be better than ever on the world’s largest audio platform.”

Let's hope that Spotify can bring us more high-quality voices.

Top Two Ways to Transfer Documents to Kindle

Although Amazon will drop support for the older MOBI format later this year, now they add EPUB as one of their new compatible formats, including PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, etc. Therefore, you can email EPUB file as an email attachment to your Send-to-Kindle e-mail address or send EPUB to your Kindle library using the Send to Kindle application. Let’s check it out!

Method 1: Send EPUB to Kindle using the Send to Kindle application

Step 1, you can download and install send to Kindle app here.

Step 2, send EPUB to Kindle via Send to Kindle service.

When you download and install Send to Kindle for PC or Mac, Kindle will appear when you right-click on a file and select Send to. So you can send multiple documents to Kindle without opening them, simply select documents and choose Kindle from the right-click sub-menu. It has never been easier to send your personal files to Kindle.

Method 2: Email EPUB as an email attachment to your Send-to-Kindle email address

Step 1, visit the Manage your Devices page at Manage Your Kindle to find your Send-to-Kindle e-mail address.

Step 2, visit the Personal Document Settings page at Manage Your Kindle, add your email account to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List.

Step 3, to send an EPUB to your Kindle, simply attach EPUB to an e-mail addressed to your Send-to-Kindle email.

Bonus tips: Epubor Ultimate can help you convert your files to EPUB effortlessly. 

New Kobo Firmware V4.32 is Available Now!

Have you got the latest update to your Kobo eReader? Well, Kobo has just released the new firmware version 4.32 for all of their Kobo eReaders. It has been three months since the last update. And here's the release note: 

Kobo Store Improvements

1. eBooks in the store now include an estimate of how long they typically take to read. Tap on the Details tab to see word count, number of pages, and estimated reading time.
2. You can now scroll the eBooks storefront to see books related to what you’ve recently read, new releases, and other featured lists.
3. Your Wishlist is now more easily accessible from the Kobo Store homepage.

Notebook Improvements

1. New notebooks will use your most recent pen settings as default
2. Selected blocks in the Advanced Notebook will show a menu with Convert/Edit, Copy, Paste and Delete options.
3. The Basic Notebook now has an improved stylus response speed.

General Improvements

1. Toolbar icons now show a selected circle to make it clearer when they are pressed.
2. Better alignment for VIP price icons in the store.

Bug Fixes

1. Highlights no longer disappear when editing a note.
2. Enabled filtering of highlights and notes.
3. Resolved a font rendering issue with sideloaded EPUBs that caused crashes.

Like always, the release note will not tell the whole story. Besides the above improvements they have listed out, Kobo has also added new fonts options and also allows you to add a supplemental font. Not only have they improved Kobo's responsiveness, but also the transcription seems to be more accurate. Now the writing notes experience is amazing, like night and day. What's more, Kobo allows sideloaded Kepub files to accept annotations instead of just Epub files. 

Bonus tips: if you need to back up your kobo ebooks, you can follow this guide to remove Kobo DRM.