Kobo has launched their subscription reading service Kobo Plus in Canada, three and a half years after starting with subscriptions in Holland and Belgium. The company notes, “Rakuten Kobo recognizes books as the next frontier for subscriptions in Canada. Further, Kobo has seen demand for this service in global markets.” It is priced at $9.99 a month (CA). They say that in Holland, the program brought new readers and customers to digital (or at least to their service): “60 per cent of the country’s Kobo Plus subscribers had never before purchased an a-la-carte eBook from Kobo.” They say it has […]
eReaders
WH Smith Was The Potential Barnes & Noble Buyer
The WSJ names the “book retailer” that made offers to buy Barnes & Noble last spring that fell apart on June 19, as described in Demos Parneros’s defamation and breach of contract lawsuit against the retailer, and the company’s answer to those charges and countersuit. “People familiar with the situation say it was WH Smith PLC, a UK retailer that sells books, stationery and other products.” Though the Journal does not mention it, that makes sense contextually given where WH Smith turned next: Their deal announced October 31 to acquire US travel electronics retailer InMotion for $198 million. In announcing […]
Briefs: Obama Picks, BuzzFeed Book Club, New Kindle, And More
Picks Barack Obama published a few pre-election reading recommendations. They include How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt and The Broken Ladder by Keith Payne, in addition to magazine pieces by Matthew Desmond and Yoni Appelbaum. BuzzFeed has finally launched the monthly book club, they have been talking about for a while. Family Trust by Kathy Wang is the inaugural November pick. Enrolled members will receive two newsletters a month with “exclusive content from the authors, highlights from the Facebook group, blurbs from future selections, giveaways, and more.” Unfortunately, like Oprah, there is at least some kind of awkward Amazon promotional arrangement involved. Though it’s […]
New Kindle Oasis Is Waterproof
Amazon announced its new ereader, the Kindle Oasis, on Wednesday morning after a banner ad for the Amazon Android app leaked some of the details. The new device is waterproof: “it’s designed to withstand getting splashed at the beach or dropped in the bath tub, hot tub, or pool.” It also has a fast-charging battery that enables it to charge in two hours, plus the longer-than-before battery life. It’s priced at $249.99 for the 8 GB model and $279.99 for the 32 GB model, as ever, with ads. Other features include a 7-inch screen, the highest-resolution yet, and the “fastest page turns of any Kindle e-reader.” […]
Barnes & Noble Officially Recalls 147,000 Nook Tablet 7-Inch Chargers
Working the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Barnes & Noble has formally recalled the power adapter sold with their recently-introduced Nook Tablet 7-inch model. The bookseller stopped selling the tablet in early January after a few (now four) reports of “the adapter casing breaking apart while still in the socket” and recommended informally that customers stop using the charger while they investigated further. Under the recall, BN will replace the potentially fault units and provide customers with a $5 BN gift certificate (along with a prepaid shipping label to return the chargers). The company says the recall affects “about 147,000” units — the first […]
Barnes & Noble Tells New Nook Tablet Owners to Stop Using Adapter, Pending Replacement and Possible Recall
An internal Barnes & Noble memo posted on 9to5 Google and cited by a store employee on Reddit on Friday showed a January 9 advisory telling store managers to return all the recently-released $50 Nook Tablets to the company’s distribution center. At the same time, the tablets are listed as “not available” on the company’s web site. Shortly thereafter, the company said in a brief statement that they are investigating three cases involving “the adapter casing breaking apart while still in the socket.” They say that “out of an abundance of caution, we recommend that customers stop using the adapter until we […]