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10.3-inch ereader Boyue Likebook Mimas provides snappy performance for writing and reading

2019-02-21

Ereader devices have found a new life and new customers after manufacturers started designing large-screen products with handwriting capability. 8, 10 and 13-inch ereaders can be used for taking notes, annotating documents, reading comics, PDF documents and ebooks. The Boyue Likebook Mimas is a 10.3-inch ereader that comes with a Wacom stylus, Android software and speedy performance.

The Likebook Mimas is priced competitively against other 10-inch ereader/notetaking devices, such Remarkable and Onyx Boox. The price for the Mimas was 469 euros at an EU retailer (see all stores at the end of the article).

Android 6.0.1 software is powering the Likebook Mimas, which means it is possible to use Android applications downloaded from the Google Play Store on the device. It is possible to download, for instance, Kindle ebook reading app and turn the Mimas into a large Kindle ereader.

Most people, however, are likely to use a product like the Mimas for note taking, handwriting, sketching, and reading ebooks, comics, and PDF documents.

A video review of the Mimas shows its reading and handwriting features (in French, but it is easy to follow what is happening):

Tablette-Tactile.net has posted a thorough review of the Likebook Mimas, and the conclusion is favorable for the product. The reviewer liked the build quality of the device, user interface, stylus responsiveness, front light, physical buttons, ports, and good overall performance. The reviewer didn’t like language implementation (poor translation), EPUB ebooks can’t be annotated with the stylus, and there is no gyroscope.

Key features and specifications of the Boyue Likebook Mimas

– 10.3-inch Eink HD Mobius screen.
– Display resolution 1872 x 1404 pixels (227ppi).
– Front light.
– Touchscreen that can be used with fingers and with the included Wacom stylus.
– Android 6.0.1 operating system software, including Google Play Store for downloading apps.
– Processor RK3365 8-Core 1.5GHz.
– RAM 2GB LPDDR3.
– 16GB internal storage space.
– microSD memory card slot.
– WiFi (802.11b/g/n).
– Bluetooth 4.1.
– USB-C port.
– Loudspeakers.
– Microphone.
– 3.5 audio jack.
– 4700mAh Polymer Li-on battery.
– Dimensions 191 x 262 x 8 mm
– Weight 430 gr.

Boyue Likebook ereaders are available, for instance, at AliExpress, Amazon.com and Ereader.Store (a retailer in EU).

Boyue Likebook Muses

The Ebook-Reader.com reports that Boyue has made available a compact version of the product as well: Likebook Muses. The Muses comes with 7.8-inch screen, and essentially with the same features as the Mimas. The price for the Muses at Amazon.com was USD 329.

Is it still a library after books have been moved to a warehouse?

2019-02-17

Libraries are at a crossroads. In many countries, especially in Europe, Asia and Middle East, new massive libraries are being built. Often, they are architectural wonders that are designed to store as many books as possible. In the US, however, some libraries, like Georgia Tech and Bexar County want to get rid of paper books. They focus on ebooks and other digital material. Let’s take a look at Georgia Tech’s library that has been transformed into a new type of reading and learning space.

The library Crosland Tower at Georgia Tech College campus in Atlanta was built for books in 1968. The large library building is eight stories tall, and because excessive sunlight is harmful to paper, the south side of the tower didn’t have windows at all.

Library management realized that books, journals and other media required by students and personnel was rapidly turning digital – and that’s what people wanted to borrow. In 2016, the Georgia Tech Library was closed for a full renovation.
Book storage site.

The objective of the renovation project was to move 95% of the library books (about one million copies) to a warehouse, and allocate space for students where they can study, for multimedia labs, and for collaboration projects. The south side wall was replaced with large windows, and tables, chairs and sofas were brought in.

Students still can borrow library books – if they want to wait a while. The request to borrow a print book is sent from the library to the storage site located five miles away from campus. The book is fetched from the warehouse shelves and delivered to the library.

In addition to creating a comfortable space where students and college personnel can read, study and collaborate, the reason behind the radical transformation of the library was digital media.
Georgia Tech Library.

In 2017, Georgia Tech Library owned 909 730 printed books.
At the same time, the library had a collection of 1.01 million ebooks and electronic journals.
In 2017, 4.12 million ebooks and digital articles were checked out from the library.
During the same year, 21,892 printed books were borrowed from the library.

Georgia Tech Library has seen the future, and it is digital – even for an institution that originally was created to store physical products.

Is it still a library? Yes, Georgia Tech Library is a library – a modern one that welcomes people to learn inside its walls.

Via Business Insider.

Photos by Georgia Tech Library.

A writer doesn’t have to be a lone wolf, there’s an online community for collaboration

2019-02-13

Most writers work alone thinking, planning, researching and tapping a keyboard whenever they can, conducting the entire process the way they want. For many writers this is exactly the reason they love their independent work. Of course, there are writers who like to work with others – even if not in every project, but every now and then – trying to reap the benefits of collaboration. Now, it is possible to join an online collaboration community that is also providing tools for working together.

Collab Writers is an online community and digital place to work together with other writers, illustrators, photographers, musicians and film makers. As a brand new service, Collab Writers has started with writers and plans to extend the community and services to other creative work.

The idea for collaboration was born after co-founders Jennie Griffiths and Anjali Alford had written a book together on their commutes. Both had day jobs and writing was something they enjoyed to do when they had time for it. They realized there must be plenty of other writers in similar situation who might enjoy working with others.

Collab Writers is not only a digital community, but they have already organized events and meetings. The founders live in London, and that’s where the events take place as well.

The founders of Collab Writers told The Bookseller that the
long-term objective is to develop Collab Writers into a service platform that provides training, editing, indie publishing and also enables stories to get discovered for the screen.

“We want to disrupt ‘old ways’ as much as possible and breaking down barriers at each stage of the process to help get work out there. We’d also like to take Collab Writers into schools to encourage the younger members of society to collaborate and co-create.”

If you want to join the community, GBP 10 is the entrance fee to the club.

Fitur travel fair in Madrid is a show that sings and dances its way into tourists’ hearts

2019-02-09

Every January travel industry professionals gather in Madrid, Spain, to get the latest information on travel and to make deals and collaboration arrangements. It is a big trade show with eight large halls filled with sales booths of tourist destinations and travel related businesses. The fair is open for public only for two days (five days for professionals), but those two days are filled with music and dance.

Take a look at the video below:

Sure, it is possible to find valuable information and get travel tips from representatives at the booths, but as far as residents of Madrid who visit the fair are concerned, the best things are freebies and shows.

Stands that provide free food, beer, juice, and gifts are popular. As the morning turns into afternoon, queues at these booths grow longer by the minute.

The biggest shows were given by destinations, like Asturias (an autonomous region in northern Spain), Andalucia, and Costa Blanca, not by businesses. Tourism is a key industry in Spain, and every region wants its share of the revenue travel generates. Three out of eight large exhibition halls were dedicated to Spain.

Meanwhile, outside the busy fairgrounds, Madrid’s taxi drivers were on strike. The drivers had purposely chosen the first day of the strike to take place the day before the fair started. They blocked the traffic on a major road that led to the fairgrounds. Metro (underground) brought visitors to the travel fair instead of taxis. People didn’t seem to be bothered with taxi drivers’ loud demonstrations that went on for 24 hours a day. Taxi drivers opposed new competition, like Uber and Cabify.

Fitur fair is primarily a meeting place for travel professionals who arrive in Madrid from every region of the world. Two days of song and dance at the fairgrounds is plenty of fun everyone who is looking for ideas where to travel next, like Valencia in Spain or Portugal’s South Coast.

Top 20 most visited countries in the world

2019-02-05

France is still the number one tourist destination in the world according to the UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) statistics. The US has fallen third, and Spain has claimed the position of the second most visited country. At the continental level, the growth of visitors is the greatest in Europe, even though it already is the biggest tourist destination.

Top 10 most visited countries in the world in 2017 according to UNWTO:

1. France
2. Spain
3. USA
4. China
5. Italy
6. Mexico
7. United Kingdom
8. Turkey
9. Germany
10. Thailand

If you want to travel in 5 out of 10 most visited countries in the world relatively easily in a manner that doesn’t take too much time, here is our tip. France and Spain share a long border along the Pyrenees Mountains. Italy has a border with France. Germany is the northeast neighbor of France. The large island where England, Scotland and Wales are located is separated from France by a short train ride or ferry trip.

The best way to tour these countries is to do a road trip, or to get an Eurail pass or an Interrail pass for traveling Europe by train.

Top 11-20 most visited countries in the world are:

11. Austria (29 million visitors)
12. Japan (28 million)
13. Greece (27 million)
14. Hong Kong (27 million)
15. Malaysia (25 million)
16. Russia (24 million)
17. Portugal (21 million)
18. Canada (20 million)
19. Poland (18 million)
20. Netherlands (18 million)

Don’t leave on a trip without a guidebook. Riviera (Cote d’Azur) in France is the must-see destination in addition to Paris. Most travelers want to see the Mediterranean coast of Spain where the city of contrasts, Valencia, has both its long history and ultramodern contemporary architecture on display. The hot trending travel destination Portugal has its own sunny coast in the south in Algarve.

Via Quartz.

Compact writing tablet Mobiscribe is trying to replace paper notebooks

2019-01-25

Two trends in e-reader product development that started in 2018 have momentum in 2019 as well: ereading devices are growing in size, and many products are aimed specifically at people who want to take notes and write with a stylus. The Mobiscribe is a 6.8-inch E ink device that is designed for note taking and reading ebooks, and powered by Android software.

At 6.8 inches, the Mobiscribe is somewhat larger than a traditional 6-inch ereader, but it is still a compact device. Its dimensions are 132 x 175 x 10 mm. The E ink screen has relatively high resolution (1440 x 1080 pixels), and it comes with an adjustable frontlight. It means that the product can be used for reading and writing in direct sunlight and in darkness.

Wi-Fi connection allows sending and receiving documents and ebooks via the internet. Micro USB port is for charging and for connecting the device to a PC, and a microSD memory card slot provides additional storage space for books and documents.

Stylus is required for writing on the screen, but quite exceptionally, it doesn’t run on battery. There is no need to charge the stylus (as is the case with stylus products used with tablets, like the iPad Pro or Surface).

The company developing Mobiscribe (TeamUC) is specialized in products and technologies where E ink displays have an advantage over other display technologies. The Mobiscribe writing tablet has been successfully funded at Indiegogo. The product concept had raised more than double the initial target budget when two months was left to seek funding for the product.

The price point for the Mobiscribe is attractive – USD 199 – when compared to competitive products that typically cost 300-500 USD. Most competitive products are larger, often between 8 and 13 inches in size.

It is important to keep in mind that the Mobiscribe has been designed for a specific purpose: notetaking and reading. Even though the product runs on Android operating system software, two things restrict its use as a general purpose Android device. The Android version 4.4 is old, which means that some downloaded applications won’t run on the device. The second thing is the amount of RAM memory (512 MB) that is not enough for some modern apps – even a web browser may stumble here. Yet, many small and simple Android apps run on this kind of hardware.

View the video below for a brief introduction to the device:

Other writing slates designed for note taking and annotating documents are, for instance, Remarkable, Onyx Boox Nova, Sony DPT-CP1,

Mobiscribe reference via Liliputing.

In addition to ebooks, audiobooks, and paperbooks, there is yet another book format for readers to choose from

2019-01-20

We have seen this before: as a digital content product becomes mainstream, people who want something else, turn to an old, practically abandoned medium. For instance, think of MP3 music and the return of vinyl discs. Regarding books, papyrus scrolls were used until the 4th century in Europe. Now, papyrus scroll – a modern version – is making a comeback.

Ithaca Scrollery is a beautiful, compact book printed on one long paper sheet. The entire sheet is rolled around a stick. Another stick is glued to the beginning of the book sheet. When you roll the stick, the text flows nicely forward (or backward if you rotate the other way).

This modern papyrus book requires handwork to make it a commercial product. The long sheet where the book content is printed on is made of special paper that is durable and doesn’t mind bending. The assembly of the two cases where the sticks are doing their job requires sharp eyes and precise fingers.

People behind the Ithaca Scrollery have built several working prototypes of the product. They were seeking crowdfunding to make the concept a commercial product, but in January 2019, the funding target was overwhelmingly achieved. So, it is possible to order a book, and read it like ancient Romans and Greeks did.

For 30 dollars, you get a classic book that is in public domain. Deliveries start in June 2019.

This could be a perfect gift for a book lover who already has bookshelves full of paperbooks, a Kindle ereader full of ebooks and a phone full of audiobooks.

View the video below for an introduction to the modern papyrus book:

Via Actualitte.

Travel guide to the city of contrasts: Valencia, Spain

2019-01-13

As long as Spanish people living in inland regions have had the means to travel somewhere warm, Valencia has been one of the most popular destinations. Over the years, Americans, tourists from other Europeans countries and recently also Asians have discovered Valencia’s charm. Some travelers arrive in Valencia for the historic city, others for the ultra-modern City of Arts and Sciences, others for the beaches, whereas some people want to join a genuine Spanish fiesta. Here is a travel guide to the city of Valencia that shows you where to visit, and what to do in this lively city.

Valencia is often regarded as the home of paella (a rice dish) and also the place where the Holy Grail is on display (in the Cathedral). They are only two of the curiosities that can be easily found in the city.

Batman fans know that Gotham City refers to New York City. Yet, there are very few – if any – signs or symbols of bats in New York City. There is, however, a city in Europe where bat is the key symbol: Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. When exploring Valencia, look closely, and you’ll find bat symbols on the facades of buildings, towers, and even on the streets.

Valencia, Spain – The Key Sights, Places, and Events covers the information a visitor needs on a city break, or during a vacation when there is enough time to explore also sights outside the city.

Spanish culture and customs are slightly different to the rest of Europe. The Iberian Peninsula was ruled by Arabs for five centuries, after all, and the long dictatorship of Franco ended only in 1975. The travel guide highlights the elements of the Spanish culture that travelers are likely encounter.

If you are already thinking what would be the best time to visit, here are a few tips. Summer months tend to be quite warm and very humid, which is why people escape to the beach or to the mountains in summer. If you want to join the biggest fiesta you have ever seen, the Fallas in March is your choice. Every weekend around the year is party time in the old city center, and every day is an exciting day in the City of Arts and Sciences. For outdoor activities, or exploring the city on foot or by bicycle, autumn, winter and spring are perfect seasons.

The Valencia, Spain travel guide book is available for download in all major online bookstores, for instance: Amazon.com, Google Play Books, and Kobo.

All photos from the Klaava Travel Guide Valencia, Spain.

If you love libraries, take a look at this

2019-01-06

People who like to read books, naturally like to visit bookshops and libraries. Sometimes it is only to find out if there is anything new that catches the eye, or to check if an interesting book has mysteriously appeared to a shelf. Then, there are people who love libraries so much that they have dedicated an entire web site for these wonders of civilization.
Royal library in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Library Planet‘s mission is to create a guide to the libraries of the world. Since there are a few of them around the globe, Library Planet relies on crowdsourcing. The site has already managed to get a large number of library introductions to its pages.

At the moment, the majority of library stories are from Europe, but all continents are represented on the site. Maybe the reason for having so many articles from Europe is that there are simply so many magnificent libraries in the old continent, or the founders of Library Planet happen to come from Denmark.

Anyone can contribute an article that introduces a library to the site. The process is simple. Send your story with photos to the Library Planet, and they will edit and publish it. The founders are also planning to publish a book of the introduced libraries once they have enough articles.
Tromsö library in Norway.

The Spanish way of celebrating Christmas: a night out in Valencia

2018-12-20

In the Western world, Christmas traditions are similar in many countries: presents, Santa Claus, colorful lights, reindeer, Christmas tree, and songs about a peaceful celebration of the darkest time of the year in the northern hemisphere. In Spain, Christmas is not necessarily the number one festivity of the year. Here is how people in the city of Valencia celebrate it.

Valencia is Spain’s third largest city with more than a million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. The origins of the city are in the era of the Roman Empire that settled military personnel on the banks of the Turia River. Even though Valencia is increasingly attracting tourists from across the world, it remains a genuine Spanish city. It has its unique culture, traditions, and big fiestas, like Fallas (in March) and Los Reyes Magos (in January).

You can find out more about the fiestas of Valencia in Klaava Travel Guide to Valencia, Spain. The top sights, attractions, and cultural tips are introduced in the guidebook as well.

Although Christmas is not the flashiest and loudest fiesta in Valencia (or in Spain), it is a perfect excuse to go out and spend a night out in the city center.

Shops and department stores are open late, swarming with customers. Cafes and restaurants are so busy that queues may form outside the most popular ones. If the world’s biggest lottery El Gordo hasn’t been announced yet, people queue to the kiosks that sell lottery tickets.

In Valencia, two destinations attract the biggest crowds: Plaza de la Reina and Plaza de Ayuntamiento.

The famous Cathedral of Valencia stands at the north end of the Plaza de la Reina, and that’s where the traditional Nativity Scene is set up. These Nativity Scenes are constructed every Christmas in every city, town and village.

Plaza de Ayuntamiento is a large Town Hall Square that has plenty of action during Christmas. The Town Hall and many other buildings have been lit up, as well as the fountain. Something that you probably don’t expect to find on the sunny Mediterranean coast of Spain – an ice-skating rink – has been built on the square. Courageously, Valencians test themselves on the ice as others cheer skaters on from the sides.

Some places in the old city center of Valencia can be crowded during the evenings and nights of Christmas, but there is always a seat and a table in a restaurant or bar a short walk away from the busiest areas.

Inkbook Explore ereader with 7.8-inch screen, Android and PDF reflow feature

2018-11-27

Two important developments took place in the ereader product market in 2018: Android operating system is powering most new devices, and the screens have grown to eight or ten inches in size. These development trends are good news for ebook lovers because they allow larger fonts, nice layouts for comics, anime and comfortable reading of PDF documents. The Inkbook Explore e-reader comes with 7.8-inch E Ink screen, frontlight and Android software.

Inkbook hasn’t taken any risks with the Explorer product, but the device relies on proven technologies and solutions. The 7.8-inch screen is sharp (300 dots per inch), and it comes with a frontlight that has light temperature adjustment.

The conservative approach to the product design is evident also in the choice of Android software version that is 4.4.2. It is relatively old version, but it is still possible to install many Android apps from the app store to the device.

The included ebook reader application has a valuable feature for people who have to read PDF documents. PDF was designed for print which can make them difficult to read on a small screen. 7.8 inches is a good screen size but if you still want to make the text large in an PDF document, the Inkbook Explorer has a feature known as reflow. It means the lines and pages of an PDF are automatically adjusted to fit to the screen.

The Inkbook Explore is available in a number of brick-and-mortar electronics and bookstores in Europe and in the US, and also online at the vendor’s web shop. The list price is 239 euros.

Key features and specifications of the Inkbook Explore e-reader

7.8-inch EInk screen, resolution 1024×768 pixels, 300 DPI pixel density.
Front-light with light color temperature management.
Android 4.4.2 operating system.
i.MX6SL processor.
1 GB of RAM.
8 GB of internal storage space.
MicroSD memory card slot up to 32 GB cards for additional storage.
Bluetooth. Can be used for listening audiobooks on Bluetooth loudspeakers or headphones.
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n).
Micro-USB 2.0 port.
Included apps: Library (Books), Internet browser, Midiapolis Drive, Bookshop, Midiapolis News Reader, App Store.
User interface languages English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Czech.
Compatible formats for documents and books: EPUB, PDF (reflow) with Adobe DRM (ADEPT), MOBI (without DRM), TXT, FB2, HTML, RTF, CHM.
PDF documents can be read as they are, or the reading app can adjust the rows and pages for the screen (PDF reflow).
3000 mAh Li-ION Polymer battery.
Dimensions 192×140×9 mm.
Weight 243 g.

Via The Ebook Reader.

Top 5 must-see historical places in the city of contrasts: Valencia, Spain

2018-10-27

Our travel guidebook author has explored the ins and outs of the city of Valencia in Spain, and this is his conclusion: Valencia is a city of contrasts, an exciting destination even for travelers who think they have seen it all. The ancient city center with majestic buildings and ancient shops and bars is simply remarkable. A fifteen minute walk away from the old town, the ultra-modern City of Arts and Sciences drops the jaw of any globetrotter. These are the five top sights in the historical city center of Valencia in Spain.

The top 5 sights have been extracted from the travel guidebook Valencia, Spain – The Key Sights, Places and Events (published in Klaava Travel Guide book series). The text has been edited for this blog post.

Plaza de la Virgen

Plaza de la Virgen is a home for a number of key buildings in the city. It is not a coincidence, because the plaza is the former center of the city. The town hall used to stand at the west side of the plaza. During the Roman era, the square was a Roman Forum, a central place in the city.

The key historical buildings around the square are:

Basilica Virgen de los Desamparados
Cathedral
Palau de la Generalitat
The fountain at the square is a new work of art, revealed in 1976.

Plaza de la Virgen is a meeting place for Valencians, a central place for many fiestas and one of the sights that attracts plenty of tourists who like to snap selfies in front of the fountain.

La Lonja

The original purpose of La Lonja building (opened in 1533) was trading. It may not sound like an exciting, soul-stirring experience, but judge after you have seen it yourself. Nevertheless, La Lonja was built for merchants who arrived in Valencia to negotiate about silk produced in the region. The city wanted to impress merchants, and invested in the architecture of the building.

Pere Compte and Joan Ibarra were the architects who conducted the work for 50 years. Today, La Lonja is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Barrio del Carmen neighborhood

Barrio del Carmen is the oldest district of Valencia where many buildings are so old that they can’t stand straight anymore. This part of the city used to stand on an island in Turia River. As the city expanded south, the south side of the island was connected to the mainland. The entire river was diverted away from the city center in 1956.

The Carmen neighborhood shows its age in many ways. Houses are small, many of them are worn down, and alleys are more narrow than in other parts of the city. Near Plaza del Tossal, a number of restaurants and bars keep the nearby streets busy all day and night.

Plaza de Ayuntamiento

The buildings around the Town Hall Square are big, tall and decorated around the largest square in central Valencia.

It wasn’t always like that. Until late 19th century, Convento de San Francisco, a monastery, covered the space that is today the Town Hall Square. The city wanted to move the town hall to a more spacious place away from Plaza de la Virgen, and when the monastery couldn’t maintain its property anymore, it was demolished. The new central square of Valencia was established, and the Town Hall moved to a large school building overlooking the plaza.

Facades of many other beautiful buildings line the square, like

Correos (Post Office),
Ateneo Mercantil and
Teatro Rialto.

Plaza de Ayuntamiento is also a central place of many big fiesta events, such as Fallas.

Torres de Serranos: medieval towers and gate to the city

Valencia has had fortified walls around it three times during its long history. Only two gates have survived the third wall: Torres de Serranos and Torres de Quart. In addition to being watchtowers, they are also gates where entrance to the city was controlled.

For tourists, Torres de Serranos is the primary destination because it is located near Plaza de la Virgen and the Cathedral.
The massive towers were built in 1392-1398. It is possible to ascend to the tower to see the city from a bird’s view, but even taller towers that let you see over the roofs of the city are, for instance, in Santa Catalina Church and in the Ateneo building.

More about the travel guide Valencia, Spain here