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The best Black Friday deals 2017 (updated)
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Kindle Oasis review (2017): Cheaper, waterproof and a bigger screen
Amazon's last Kindle Oasis felt like an e-reader meant for the very rich. It was astoundingly thin and light, but its $290 price made it a tough sell. The new Oasis is still the company's most expensive e-reader, but at $250, it's slightly cheaper than before. It also features a few firsts for Amazon's Kindle lineup: It's waterproof -- something that readers have been begging for for years -- and it has a larger 7-inch screen. While it's still hard to stomach paying so much for a mere e-reader, the new Kindle Oasis makes a stronger case for doing so than before.
Amazon is adding Audible support to its entry-level Kindle
The cheapest Kindle is getting the best feature for those who'd rather listen to books than read them. Based on its listing (as found by The Digital Reader), Amazon is rolling out Audible support for the $80 device "in the coming months." The e-retail giant's older Kindles used to have the feature, but it was eventually killed off like a supporting actor in a soap opera.
Amazon's new Kindle Oasis is waterproof and has a bigger screen
We called Amazon's last Kindle Oasis "the perfect e-reader for the one percent." That still describes the new Oasis, which Amazon is officially unveiling today. To be fair, it's slightly less expensive than its predecessor, starting at $250/£230 instead of $290. It also includes some genuinely useful features: a larger 7-inch screen, an all-metal body, and yes, it's waterproof. A decade after introducing its first e-reader, Amazon has finally delivered the first beach-ready Kindle.
Cruise through your Kindle comics with ComiXology's Guided View
ComiXology's Guided View is a great way to experience digital comics. Designed for mobile devices, it allows readers to view things on a panel-by-panel basis, mimicking how you read a print comic. Now, that feature is available on Amazon's Kindle app for iOS.
Fisher-Price built a stationary bike for your toddler
Fresh air? Sunlight? Who needs that mess when your kid can get all the exercise he needs while exploring the Great Indoors? Here at CES, Fisher-Price debuted its Think & Learn Smart Cycle. If you think it looks like a tiny $150 SoulCycle bike with a tablet stand, you're right.
Digitize your doodles with an e-reader you can draw on
No matter how useful a tablet can be, for many, nothing can beat the versatility of paper. Well, paper-loving reader, it might be time to re-think those analog allegiances as reMarkable has just unveiled an impressive new e-paper tablet.
Barnes & Noble debuts $50 Nook tablet to take on Amazon
The battle for bookworms' hearts and eyes this holiday season is officially underway! Barnes & Noble announced on Wednesday the forthcoming release of its new Nook tablet. The tablet will retail for just $50 -- 30 bucks less than the baseline Amazon Kindle and on par with the Amazon Fire -- when it becomes available on Black Friday, November 25th. It features a 7-inch IPS display, 7 hours of battery life and 8GB of onboard storage, which can be boosted by up to 128GB using a microSD card. Take that, Macbook Pro.
The Morning After: Monday, November 14, 2016
Engadget's weekend included a Japan-only Kindle made for manga and comics, an early tour of Nike's tech-packed store in NYC and staring at a supermoon. So it wasn't a bad weekend. This week, expect to hear plenty of car news direct from the LA Auto Show. And even if you're no petrolhead, there should be more than enough tech news, reviews and occasionally furious editorials to get you through the week.
Amazon Japan's manga-centric Kindle is all about storage
Japanese comics, called manga, are hugely popular. Although you probably knew that, you probably don't know the extent of it. In 2015, Japan's bestselling manga series, One Piece, sold more than 14 million copies. It helps that the format runs a hugely broad spectrum of topics; they're not just action-packed comics aimed at children but foodie series, sports, alcohol, comedy, romance and more. There are also plenty of one-off manga novels, like Steve Jobs: The Manga, to name one (ridiculous) example. It makes plenty of sense, then, for Amazon Japan to launch a special manga-focused edition of its e-reader, with faster page turning and eight times the storage for your digital manga collection.
Amazon Japan's manga-ready Kindle has 8 times the storage
Amazon Japan has an unusual challenge with the Kindle: it not only has to cater to your typical bookworm, but to a local fondness for image-heavy (and thus storage-intensive) manga books. What it's going to do? Release a special model just for those readers, apparently. The company has introduced a manga version of the Kindle Paperwhite with 32GB of storage, or eight times as much space as the run-of-the-mill 4GB model. You could cram every single volume of Asari-chan, Kochikame and Naruto into this e-reader, Amazon says. On top of that, a 33 percent faster page turning speed promises to keep you engrossed in your comics.
Amazon's latest Prime perk is free books and magazines
While members of the Amazon Prime club get all kinds of benefits with their subscription, bookworms don't receive a great deal of special treatment. Sure, they can borrow one e-book for free each month and access new novels early, but the all-you-can-read Kindle Unlimited service requires a separate, $10 per month subscription of its own. That isn't changing today, but Amazon has just announced something of a light version of Unlimited called Prime Reading, which is now available to Prime subscribers in the US.
Amazon's Kindle for Kids bundle offers children's books for $99
To offer kids a way to read via Kindle, Amazon is back with another $99 bundle. The Kindle for Kids offer combines the latest e-reader with a cover and a "2-year worry-free guarantee." It's meant to boost reading habits for children complete with tools for tracking reading goals, building vocabulary and access to 250,000 kids titles. Users can also borrow digital versions of books from their local library. Unlike the regular Kindle, this model doesn't come equipped with a backlight so it can't be used in the dark. When the lights are turned off for bed, reading time is over.
Amazon to open bookstores in Chicago and Portland
For an independent bookstore, few threats are bigger than Amazon. With its e-book store and brutally competitive print book prices, it can be hard for a family-run business to compete. Well, it's only going to get tougher now that Amazon is expanding its footprint of physical stores. The company has confirmed it'll be setting up shop in Chicago and Portland -- these locations will be joining Seattle, which opened in November, New York and San Diego. The details of each store is under wraps, but it's safe to assume they'll be packed with Kindles and Kindle Fire tablets.
Amazon will donate Kindles to promote digital reading
Amazon aims to promote digital reading around the world and has established a new program called Kindle Reading Fund to achieve that goal. The Fund will be in charge of donating Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and ebooks to various recipients, such as reading programs in developing nations. To make sure its devices reach the people who need them, the tech titan has joined forces with Worldreader, a non-profit that provides e-books to children and families in the developing world to promote literacy. The two already worked together in previous projects, according to TechCrunch, including bringing digital reading materials to 61 Kenyan libraries.
Kobo's new Aura One e-reader is big and waterproof
Whether you read before bed, in the bathtub, during your commute or at the beach, Kobo wants to be there for you. The e-reader maker just released the $229 Aura One, a 7.8-inch waterproof slate that features a colored backlight for better nighttime reading. I've been trying to find time to read with an Aura One for the past week, and I have to admit the tub and bedtime friendliness of the device are huge benefits.
The best tech for honor students
Look, not everyone is cut out for late nights of drinking and playing DJ for groups of frat kids. Some would prefer to campout in the library until the wee hours of the morning studying and poring over notes and lectures. Of course, the days of pen, paper and microfiche are pretty much over at this point. You need powerful, digital tools like an Evernote subscription to help organize all your notes from class. And there's nothing like a solid voice recorder to document all those early morning classes before you're fully caffeinated. Of course you'll also need the basics, like a backpack and a laptop. But, you might also want to invest in a portable energy light to help keep you awake and fight off bouts of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) when you're spending 90 percent of your day indoors. Check out the gallery below for all our best bookworm picks and make sure to check out our full Back-to-School Guide right here.
Target starts selling Kindles again after a four-year break
Years ago, visiting a Target was one of the best ways to check out Amazon's Kindle products in person before plunking down your hard-earned cash. But in 2012, Target stopped selling Kindles both online and in its stores. That's changing, however -- as of today, you can buy the Kindle Paperwhite and standard Kindle from Target online. And a report from Bloomberg indicates that you'll soon be able to buy them in Target's physical retail stores, as well.
Amazon Singles Classics brings stories from magazines to Kindle
If you're looking for some new reading material on your Kindle or inside Amazon's reading app, you're in luck. The online retailer announced Singles Classics: a collection of essays and stories from "well-known authors" that were published in "top magazines and periodicals." In fact, some of the selections will be available digitally for the first time. The articles are priced at $0.99 and up, but Kindle Unlimited subscribers are privy to the content at no extra charge.
Amazon made flipping through books on Kindles and tablets easier
As useful (and as crazy thin) as e-readers can be, there's something terribly satisfying about thumbing through a sheaf of processed plant matter with words on it. While you'll never get the same sensory experience using a Kindle, Amazon at least tried to make it easier to skim through digital books, and you'll get your chance to try it for yourself today. The feature is called Page Flip, and it's coming to Amazon's Kindle app for iOS and Android, along with certain Kindle readers and Fire tablets by way of an automatic, over-the-air update.
