Every now and then, a device comes along and challenges you to consider the viability of an entirely new product category. That’s precisely what Lenovo is doing with the Yoga Book 9i. By replacing the traditional physical keyboard with a second display, the company is rethinking what a laptop can do. In tight confines, you can rely on a virtual keyboard or an included magnetic alternative. But when space isn’t a concern, you can prop the whole system up on its custom folding cover to create an engaging dual-screen workspace. It’s like a miniature all-in-one PC that’s incredibly easy to carry around. And while its software still needs work and it costs twice as much as a standard clamshell, the Yoga Book 9i is proof that it’s worth exploring this new branch of the laptop’s evolutionary tree.
Design and displays
There’s a profound elegance to the Yoga Book 9i’s design. Though the laptop’s bottom half is a bit thicker than the top, it feels like Lenovo has boiled the device down to its most basic components: two halves (in this case, screens) joined by a hinge in the middle. The dual 13.3-inch displays (2,880 x 1,800) look great too, boasting OLED panels with rich colors and a tested brightness just shy of 400 nits.
Around the outside, the Yoga Book features a polished metal frame with three Thunderbolt 4 ports, which is nice to see on a system this size. Unfortunately for fans of wired audio, you don’t get a 3.5mm audio jack. Thankfully, Lenovo’s 5-megapixel IR webcam is sharper than what you get on most competing devices, and holding everything together is the company’s signature speaker bar hinge, which is impressively loud and punchy. All told, despite being slightly heavier than a typical 13-inch ultraportable due to that second layer of glass, it’s still very easy to carry around.
The remaining pieces of the Yoga Book 9i’s kit are its accessories, which include a stylus, a detached magnetic physical keyboard, a folding kickstand cover and even a sleek travel mouse. The keyboard communicates via Bluetooth and has its own USB-C port for charging. Despite its size, it doesn’t feel cramped and offers more key travel than you might expect. During transport, the cover wraps around the keyboard to keep it protected, while Lenovo’s Digital Pen 3 can be stashed in the attached loop.
The mouse is the odd one out because while it's a handy inclusion, it’s also rather basic (its only noteworthy characteristic is having a toggle on the bottom for quickly switching between two paired devices). Plus, it doesn't attach to the rest of the system in any way. However, what you can create when you put these pieces together is when things get really interesting.
A dual-mode machine
In clamshell mode, the Yoga Book 9i looks and functions like a regular laptop. But of course, it’s missing a discrete keyboard and touchpad, so what do you do when you need them? That’s easy, you just tap eight fingers on the bottom panel and instantly you get virtual stand-ins. And for times when you only need to mouse around, you can use a three-finger tap instead, which summons a floating touchpad that leaves room for Lenovo’s widgets (weather, news, etc.) or anything else you’d like to put down there.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Surprisingly, typing on a touchscreen isn’t as bad as you might think. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not nearly as fast or accurate as using a physical keyboard. But it’s serviceable, as long as you’re willing to make some adjustments. You can’t slam your fingers down because there are no switches or actual keys with depth to cushion every strike and you need to be more aware of when your hands start to drift lest your sentence devolves into a jumble. But after a little practice, I’m able to hit 60 to 65 words per minute, which is down from around 85 wpm normally. As for mousing, the tackiness of the glass means swiping around isn’t quite as fluid either. But that’s OK, because if you don’t want to rely entirely on a virtual keyboard or touchpad, you don’t have to.
Dropping Lenovo’s keyboard on the bottom screen instantly converts the Yoga Book into a more traditional setup. The magnets inside even help align it properly. From there you can type away on physical keys if you prefer. Just don’t forget to remove the accessory before you close the lid.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
What’s most impressive about the Yoga Book 9i’s is its ability to transform into a portable all-in-one PC when it’s propped up on its kickstand cover. In this mode, there are two options for its displays: a stacked setup with one screen on top of the other and a side-by-side arrangement. Both configurations have their uses. Dual portrait-mode panels are great for quickly referencing materials like spec sheets while writing. Alternatively, the vertically stacked orientation is excellent for keeping an important project open up top while the bottom screen is reserved for email or messaging apps.
Regardless of your preference, simply having the ability to use two displays on a device gives the Yoga Book 9i a unique advantage over pretty much every normal laptop. Sure, you can recreate a similar situation using a bunch of add-ons, but it’s never going to be quite as sleek.
Software
The biggest downside to the Yoga Book 9i is that while its hardware is solid, its software is hit or miss. Lenovo attempts to mitigate this with its User Center, which does a great job of showcasing the laptop’s dual-screen features and is an easy place to adjust settings like display modes, brightness and more.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Unfortunately, even with the extra assistance, it’s clear Windows 11 isn’t designed for laptops like this. Sometimes when launching full-screen apps like a game, the Yoga Book gets confused and puts the window on the wrong panel. Other times, like when you’re installing a program or logging in, a prompt pops up that completely disables the lower display, which is kind of annoying when you’re relying on a virtual keyboard and touchpad. I can understand that it's hard to optimize software when you don’t have a device to test things on. But even so, there’s no hiding that this creates a stilted experience compared to a standard laptop, and if you’re considering buying a Yoga Book 9i, this is a truth you’re going to have to live with (at least for now).
Performance
Packing an Intel Core i7-155U chip, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, the Yoga Book 9i can handle most productivity needs. Even when multitasking across both displays, performance felt relatively snappy. However, if you’re planning on regularly doing more demanding things like video editing, you’ll probably want a beefier machine. On our video encoding test, the laptop took a minute and a half to convert a one-minute movie trailer from 4K to 1080p. That’s not great when compared to systems with faster chips that can perform the same task in 30 to 40 seconds.
Battery life
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Even with a relatively large 80Wh battery, for a system with two screens, the Yoga Book 9i fared better than expected on our standard video rundown test. It posted a time of eight hours and 12 minutes, which is a couple hours shorter than traditional similarly-sized rivals like the Asus ZenBook S 13 (10:39). But it’s longer than what you get from more powerful thin-and-light gaming notebooks, which often struggle to get north of five hours on a charge.
Wrap up
As the first laptop to feature two displays, the Yoga Book 9i is a rather divisive machine. Starting at $2,000, not only is it really expensive, its performance is also slower than more traditional competitors in this price range. However, for people like me who constantly yearn for more screen real estate when I’m away from home, Lenovo has created something that is more than the sum of its parts. When space is limited, the Yoga Book 9i’s clamshell mode feels right at home on an airplane tray table. But when it's not, it can expand into a portable dual-screen workstation–complete with all the fixings of your desktop at home. And when you need to pack up, everything collapses into a neat, semi-self-contained bundle that fits in the smallest of laptop bags.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The Yoga Book 9i is a nifty little transformer that’s more engaging than anything Michael Bay has directed in the last two decades. With how little laptops have changed recently, it feels like the Yoga Book has even more room to grow in the years to come. Sure, it’s still a bit awkward, but as the starting point for a new type of notebook, Lenovo’s debut dual-screen convertible has me convinced.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lenovo-yoga-book-9i-review-the-world-isnt-ready-for-dual-screen-laptops-but-lenovo-is-163009289.html?src=rss
It certainly didn't take long for AI's other shoe to drop, what with the emergent technology already being perverted to commit confidence scams and generate spam content. We can now add censorship to that list as the Globe Gazette reports the school board of Mason City, Iowa has begun leveraging AI technology to cultivate lists of potentially bannable books from the district's libraries ahead of the 2023/24 school year.
In May, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed, and Governor Kim Reynolds subsequently signed, Senate File 496 (SF 496), which enacted sweeping changes to the state's education curriculum. Specifically it limits what books can be made available in school libraries and classrooms, requiring titles to be "age appropriate” and without “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act,” per Iowa Code 702.17.
But ensuring that every book in the district's archives adhere to these new rules is quickly turning into a mammoth undertaking. "Our classroom and school libraries have vast collections, consisting of texts purchased, donated, and found," Bridgette Exman, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Mason City Community School District, said in a statement. "It is simply not feasible to read every book and filter for these new requirements."
As such, the Mason City School District is bringing in AI to parse suspect texts for banned ideas and descriptions since there are simply too many titles for human reviewers to cover on their own. Per the district, a "master list" is first cobbled together from "several sources" based on whether there were previous complaints of sexual content. Books from that list are then scanned by "AI software" — the district doesn't specify which systems will be employed — which tells the state censors whether or not there actually is a depiction of sex in the book.
“Frankly, we have more important things to do than spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to protect kids from books,” Exman told PopSci via email. “At the same time, we do have a legal and ethical obligation to comply with the law. Our goal here really is a defensible process.”
So far, the AI has flagged 19 books for removal. They are as follows:
The Apple TV+ film Tetris was copied from a book written years ago, according to a lawsuit filed against the tech giant and the Tetris Company. Dan Ackerman, the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, has accused the plaintiffs of ripping off his book The Tetris Effect, which tells the history of the game in the form of a Cold War-era thriller. In his lawsuit (PDF, via Reuters), Ackerman said he sent the Tetris Company and its CEO Maya Rogers a pre-publication copy of his book back in 2016. Later that year, his agent received a "strongly worded Cease and Desist letter" to stop him from pursuing film and TV opportunities.
Ackerman accused Rogers of working with screenwriter Noah Pink to develop a screenplay using content taken from his book without his knowledge or consent. Apparently, numerous producers showed interest in adapting his book, but the Tetris Company refused to license its IP for the project. "This was done at the direction and behest of Ms. Rogers so that she and the Tetris Company could pursue their own project and opportunities based on Mr. Ackerman's book without compensating him," the lawsuit reads.
In his complaint, Ackerman explained that for writers, the option to license their work for film and TV is typically a major source of revenue. That's why he takes the Tetris Company's actions not as a means to prevent the unauthorized use of its IP, but as an "economic attack" on his business. To drive the point home, Ackerman included quite a lengthy list of "glaring similarities" between his book and the film in his lawsuit. Several items in the list explain how scenes in the movie mirrored his versions of events. That said, those events were based on scenarios that happened in real life, so it remains to be seen if the court will agree with him. Ackerman is asking for actual, compensatory and punitive damages equivalent to 6 percent of the film's $80 million production budget.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/author-says-the-apple-tv-tetris-movie-ripped-off-his-book-061744399.html?src=rss
Sarah Silverman is suing OpenAI. On Friday, the comedian and author, alongside novelists Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, filed a pair of complaints against OpenAI and Meta (via Gizmodo). The group alleges the firms trained their large language models on copyrighted materials, including works they published, without obtaining consent.
The complaints center around the datasets OpenAI and Meta allegedly used to train ChatGPT and LLaMA. In the case of OpenAI, while it's "Books1" dataset conforms approximately to the size of Project Gutenberg — a well known copyright-free book repository — lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that the “Books2” datasets is too large to have derived from anywhere other than so-called "shadow libraries" of illegally available copyrighted material, such as Library Genesis and Sci-Hub. Everyday pirates can access these materials through direct downloads, but perhaps more usefully for those generating large language models, many shadow libraries also make written material available in bulk torrent packages. One exhibit from Silverman’s lawsuit involves an exchange between the comedian’s lawyers and ChatGPT. Silverman’s legal team asked the chatbot to summarize The Bedwetter, a memoir she published in 2010. The chatbot was not only able to outline entire parts of the book, but some passages it relayed appear to have been reproduced verbatim.
Silverman, Golden and Kadrey aren’t the first authors to sue OpenAI over copyright infringement. In fact, the firm faces a host of legal challenges over how it went about training ChatGPT. In June alone, the company was served with two separate complaints. One is a sweeping class action suit that alleges OpenAI violated federal and state privacy laws by scraping data to train the large language models behind ChatGPT and DALL-E.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sarah-silverman-sues-openai-and-meta-over-copyright-infringement-175322447.html?src=rss
Netflix just dropped the first reveal trailer for the forthcoming 3 Body Problem science fiction series at its Tudum fan event, along with a premiere month of January. This is a short delay for the anticipated series, as it was originally supposed to air this year.
If the name of the show sounds familiar, it’s likely for two reasons. First of all, the showrunners are the former Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with Alexander Woo. Despite the bone-deep hatred among viewers for the final season of HBO’s fantasy epic, Benioff and Weiss are still a known quantity that could draw in some eyeballs.
Secondly, 3 Body Problem is based on a highly successful book series, just like Game of Thrones, only this one is already finished. Let’s hear it for pre-existing endings! The book series, authored by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, is one of the most celebrated sci-fi epics of recent years, so we could be in for something special here.
To that end, Netflix dropped a trailer that’s heavy on eye candy and light on story. That’s okay, though, as those who want spoilers can just read the books. Some of the actors set to star in the series include Benedict Wong (The Martian, Doctor Strange), Eiza González (Baby Driver) and Game of Thrones veterans John Bradley and Liam Cunningham.
January is not that far off, so we don’t have long to wait until we learn all about the titular three bodies and any associated problems. Here’s hoping Benioff and Weiss earn back some goodwill with this show. At any rate, this is a much cooler idea than that weird alt history/slavery thing that the duo almost pushed through at HBO.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflixs-3-body-problem-first-look-confirms-january-2024-premiere-213927002.html?src=rss
We were enamored with the Kindle Scribe when we reviewed it, but we weren't blind to its shortcomings, including its limited editing capabilities. Now, Amazon has rolled out an update for the device, which solves some of the issues we had with it and makes it a much better option for note-taking. One of the new features is the ability to write directly on page. It's still not available for every book, but the Kindle Store on the Scribe now has a new section called "Write-on Books" where you can find titles that support the feature.
At the moment, the selection of books with direct on-page writing is mostly made up of guided journals, as well as games like crossword and sudoku. In other words, books that don't make sense on a device where writing on them is not supported. If you're checking out titles on a laptop or a phone, you can also see if they support the feature by looking for "On-page writing" under their product details section. For books that don't support on-page writing, you'll still have to create a sticky note and write within a designated rectangle. You'll have to keep your fingers crossed for the ability to doodle and take notes on the margin of a book if that's something you've been wishing for.
If you want to share or upload notes you've written on the Scribe, the update also gives you the capability to easily convert them to text. You'll find a new option that reads "Convert to text and quick send" in the share menu and another that says "Convert to text and email." Both options share your handwritten notebooks as a .txt file, but for the latter, you'll be given the the chance to review and edit the converted text before sharing them via email to five addresses.
There's also a new lasso select tool to move your notes and doodles around. You simply have to circle your handwritten text or drawings with it to resize them, drag them to another location or to cut, copy and paste them within a sticky note, a notebook or a PDF. Speaking of PDFs, files with the format uploaded through Send to Kindle are now more customizable. You can crop their margins to make their text easier to read, select text to highlight it and add text notes. You'll now also be able to look up the definitions, translations and Wikipedia results for text found in PDF files, as well as switch between portrait and landscape view.
These features will roll out to all Kindle Scribes in the coming weeks, but you can manually download the latest software update to get them right now.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-kindle-scribe-updates-include-support-for-direct-on-page-writing-051753157.html?src=rss
Anyone who stares at a screen all day probably doesn’t want to do so when they unwind with a book. But the convenience of getting a new read instantaneously and carrying a full bookcase in your pocket is pretty appealing. Ereaders combine the best of paper and computers, and they’re capable of storing dozens of books at a time. Amazon dominates in this market, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t worthy competitors. We tested out some of the best ereaders available to help you find which is right for you.
What to look for in an ereader
Plenty of apps will let you download and read a novel on a phone or tablet. What makes ereaders different is the screen: nearly all of them use technology from a company called E Ink. It manufactures electronic paper displays (EPD) composed of three sheets: one containing millions of microcapsules filled with black and white ink particles sandwiched between transparent electrode layers. When a charge is applied, either the black or white particles shift to the top, forming letters and the whitespace around them.
Because these displays are so different from standard LED panels, you can expect most ereaders to do a number of things well. They’ll be easier to stare at for long periods of time and easier to read in direct sunlight. Also, since E Ink displays only require power to rearrange the ink, these devices have much longer battery lives than standard tablets: we’re talking weeks, not days.
The ereader market is not as saturated as, say, smartphones, but there are still plenty of options out there and they do have small but important differences among them. They tend to range from around $100 to more than $400, though usually the higher end options are read/write E Ink tablets. Beyond price, you should consider physical properties like buttons, lights, storage and resolution, as well as how the software lets you find and access books.
Reading features
With any ereader, you’ll navigate the OS via taps and swipes, and some add physical page-turn buttons. Most with built-in buttons have an auto-rotating screen so you can press with your right or left hand.
As E Ink technology has advanced, resolution has greatly improved – even the budget Kindle has a 300 ppi display. You can still find ereaders with lower resolution, but we don’t recommend them.
Some ereaders have front LEDs that support light temperature adjustment. That means you can switch to a warmer light after the sun goes down, which will feel easier on the eyes. If you’re concerned about blue light, you should go for a reader with that feature.
Other features
The capabilities of these pocket libraries have advanced considerably since the early days. In addition to storing books, some let you browse the web, run apps and play music. The screen’s frame rate can’t handle gaming, but it’s good enough to show you the Wikipedia entry for Constantinople while you read Cloud Cuckoo Land.
If you listen to audiobooks, you may want an ereader capable of playing them and many current models have that ability. If that’s the case, consider one with a larger storage capacity, since audiobook files can take up more space than standard ebooks.
Above all, you should consider where and how you intend to find books to read. Most ereaders make it easiest to shop through their own ebook store, but all of them (even Kindles) will now let you download titles from other sources, like libraries, unaffiliated ebook sellers and free public domain sites.
Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget
How to get books for your ereader
Kindle, Nook and Kobo all have their own stores that you access directly from each brand’s devices. Prices are fairly competitive between the sellers, too – as I write this, the current NYT bestselling fiction ebook is $14 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the Kobo store. The top nonfiction release, Prince Harry’s Spare, costs $18 at all three.
Amazon offers Kindle Unlimited for $10 per month, and it includes three million titles from which you can pick your next read. It includes audio and ebooks, but you won’t find many big, new releases or older bestsellers. Kobo has a subscription called Kobo Plus with about 1.3 million titles: it goes for $8 per month for ebooks only, $8 for audiobooks only or $10 for both.
Buying a book from a proprietary store instantly delivers it to your device, provided you’re connected to WiFi. It also syncs your reading across devices and apps, so you can pick up where you left off on your phone if you forgot your ereader at home. It truly is the most convenient way to go, but if you don’t want to be locked into one brand’s store, or if you opt for an ereader without its own marketplace, you do have options.
How to upload ePubs onto an ereader
Stores like ebooks.com and Google Play have millions of ebooks for sale as digital rights-managed (DRM) ePub files, which nearly all current ereaders (including Kindles) can display. Free, public domain classics from sites like Project Gutenberg are also packaged as ePubs, but without the added DRM. Books you get from these sources will look just like ones you bought from a proprietary store, thanks to the flowable, formatted nature of ePub files. While these device-agnostic ebook collections give you extra options for finding your next read, they require a few additional steps to get the files onto your ereader.
To do so, you’ll typically need a computer running a free program called Adobe Digital Editions (ADE). After buying and downloading the ePub file, open ADE and plug your ereader into your computer. Your device should pop up in the left panel. Drag and drop the ePub file from your downloads folder into the main panel in ADE. The file will display as an image of the book cover. Drag that image onto your device on the left panel. If the file includes digital rights management (which protects against unauthorized copying) you’ll need to authorize your ereader, which requires using or creating a free Adobe ID. Once you’ve finished adding files to upload, eject the reader from your computer to complete the transfer process.
Kindle and Boox devices use web-based uploaders instead of the ADE method. After downloading an ePub file, drag and drop it into your browser with the Send to Kindle page open. As long as you’re signed into Amazon, this wirelessly transfers the files to your associated device.
Boox allows for multiple methods. I prefer BooxDrop, which you can find in the App menu of your ereader. It generates a device-specific url which you can type in to access a file delivery portal that uploads directly to your library.
How to read library books on an ereader
Your local library card lets you borrow audio and ebooks through a program called Overdrive and its companion app Libby. Overdrive recently announced that it will sunset its legacy app, so Libby will be your one and only option if you access library books via Overdrive.
Kobo readers have built-in access to Overdrive, and that will not change despite the mobile app’s shutdown. Once you’ve linked your library card, the search function will include results for titles available from your local library; a few taps will upload your selections to your device for the length of the loan.
To read library books on a Kindle, you can either go through the Libby app or the Overdrive section of your library’s website. Once you click Borrow, you’ll see the option to “Read now with Kindle,” which takes you to Amazon’s site to sign in. After that, the book will be delivered to your device the next time it connects to WiFi.
For other ereaders, you’ll go through your library’s Overdrive portal and download the ePub after clicking the Borrow button. You can then use the ADE process we described above. Devices that run external apps, like the Boox Leaf 2, allow you to read library books via the Libby app, just as you would on a smartphone or tablet.
You can also use the Libby app to borrow audiobooks, but you won’t be able to access them through your ereader. (The exception is an ereader, like the Boox Leaf 2, that allows external apps). I found it was easier to listen to an audiobook on my phone anyway, regardless of whether I borrowed it through Libby or bought it from Kindle or Kobo.
Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget
How we tested
When putting together any guide, the first thing we do is spend hours researching the field. We look at what’s available, what’s new, and what shoppers and professional reviewers have to say. Then we narrow a list to the best candidates for hands-on testing.
I ended up getting eight ereaders, representing five different brands: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Boox and PocketBook. I bought, borrowed and uploaded books for each device using the methods above. Over the course of four weeks I evaluated each one in the areas of book access, ease of reading, extra features and overall value.
During testing, I’d grab the Kobo Clara 2E when I was off the clock and reading for my own satisfaction. That alone doesn’t make it the best ereader for most people, but the excellent design, performance and interface does. The Clara 2E is helpful from the moment you turn it on. It walks you through setting up an account so you can buy books, then asks about your recent favorite reads to improve its personalized recommendations.
It also tells you right away about its Overdrive integration that lets you check out ebooks from your library directly on the device. It was refreshing to be pointed towards something free, instead of just showing me more ways to spend money. The borrowing integration is seamless: you can find library books by searching for a title or browsing in the Overdrive tab in the Discover section, where the Kobo store lives.
The Discover tab and the Kobo store are nicely organized, with top sellers, deals and recommendations based on your history. Title pages are clean and uncluttered, giving you access to synopsis, reviews and preview samples. You can even mark a title as read, to deepen the algorithm's understanding of your preferences. Unlike Amazon’s Kindle store, audiobooks and ebooks are in separate tabs. I would have liked to have them together, and would love it if Kobo did what Amazon does and offer a discount if you buy the audiobook and text version together.
The customization options on the Clara are just right – there aren’t so many that it’s overwhelming, but you can fine-tune things enough to make the device yours. Features like sleep screens, gesture controls, and headers and footers are all customizable. You can also decide how your library is organized. Navigation is intuitive and I rarely had trouble finding what I was looking for in the settings.
But what really sets the Clara 2E apart is the reading experience. It’s lightweight and has a textured back for a sure grip, with one rear button controlling sleep, wake and power. The thin bezel makes the device compact enough to cradle in your hand like a smartphone, but is thick enough for your thumb to rest comfortably in a pinch grip.
On top of that, the front light is lovely. This model gives you both brightness and temperature adjustment, and the quality and subtlety of the glow creates a screen that’s the closest to paper of any ereader I’ve tried. You can also adjust the brightness on the fly by sliding your thumb up or down the left edge of the screen – such a simple feature, but one I used repeatedly. The text is crisp and the ghosting is minor. Text size, font style, line spacing and margins are minutely adjustable and available with a tap as you read.
Of all the readers, the Clara 2E was the most responsive to my touch. Rarely did it mistake a tap for a swipe or vice versa, and after I learned the controls, I was always brought exactly to where I wanted to go.
My favorite feature was how fast it woke up. Push the button and you immediately see the page you were last reading. Some ereaders make you push a button, swipe, then wait as the screen flashes and refreshes before finally loading your book. I like to fill spare moments by getting in a page or two, so a speedy wake is key. The page turns are also quick, though in a side-by-side comparison, the Kindle was just a touch faster.
For $140, the Clara 2E is pricier than other readers with six-inch screens. The standard Kindle is the exact same size and shape, and can be had for as little as $100 if you’re willing to put up with constantly being served ads on your lockscreen. You’ll pay $120 for the luxury of an ad-free model. The Kindle also isn’t waterproof and has no warm light option. In contrast, the Clara has no ads, can handle an accidental dunk in the bathtub and won’t kill your eyes with a ton of blue light. For those reasons – plus every little detail that made reading a joy – I’d recommend Kobo’s device to most.
Of course, if you’re already invested in Amazon’s ebook space, you may want to go for the Paperwhite Signature, which our editor Nathan Ingraham endorses in his review.
Kobo Clara 2E
Screen size: 6”
Resolution: 300dpi
Capacity: 16GB
Waterproof rating: IPX8 (submergible to 6 feet for 60 minutes)
Warm light: Yes
Best budget option: Kindle
Amazon has dominated in the ereader space for so long that I was surprised when a Kindle device didn’t win me over. A Kobo may have taken the top spot here, but nothing can beat the standard Kindle when it comes to price. It’s listed at $100 but has gone on sale every few months since its debut in October 2022, sometimes for as low as $75.
With it, you can access the best of what Amazon has to offer, including many exclusive titles. Kindle Exclusive is a catalog made up of a million titles, including books by established authors as well as newer, self-published writers; Kindle Unlimited offers the widest selection of any subscription-based reading service out there; and Audible Originals is made up of narrated titles and podcasts you can only hear through a Kindle device or Amazon-owned app.
If you like to switch between audiobooks and ebooks, Kindle is the way to go. When you buy both iterations of a title, you not only get a discount, but the Whispersync feature lines up where you are in the e-printed version with the narration, too. Say you listen for an hour and then want to read – the synchronization lets you pick up on-screen where you left off audibly. (Though we should point out that you can’t listen and read simultaneously on the same device.) In tests, the feature was fairly accurate, getting me close enough on the page or in the audio to figure out my spot.
The standard Kindle doesn’t feel particularly luxurious, but it doesn’t feel cheap either. The shell has a velvety finish that doesn’t collect fingerprints, but I found myself wishing it had more texture for a better grip. Navigating from a page to the menu isn’t as speedy as Paperwhite or the Kobos we tried. And it takes a few moments to wake from sleep after hitting the button and swiping.
Page turns are quick, but the touchscreen gestures didn’t always do what I wanted them to. I’d often find the page skipping forward when I thought I’d tapped to go back. There’s no warm light, which didn’t bother me during the day, but at night it felt like I was still staring at my computer.
Kindle’s reading customization is great, letting you dial in the font, size and margins. You can even save a set of settings as a “theme,” something not offered by other devices. I created one with larger text and wider line spacing called “tired eyes.”
Some people won’t be bothered by the lock screen ads that come standard on every Kindle device (unless you pay to remove them). They’re fairly innocuous, mostly promoting Kindle book deals or specific titles (it’s not like you’ll see promos for TVs or robotic pool cleaners). Personally, I like being able to set the sleep screen to the book cover of what I’m currently reading, but it’s easy to get over that if all you want is a more convenient way to consume books at the lowest price.
Amazon Kindle
Screen size: 6”
Resolution: 300dpi
Capacity: 16GB
Waterproof rating: None
Warm light: No
Best reader with buttons: Kobo Libra 2
My first ereader was the Kindle 2 with buttons everywhere, including a full keyboard – that was too many. The Kobo Libra 2, on the other hand, has just two buttons, which is perfect. It has the same streamlined interface as the Clara 2E, including an easy setup and intuitive navigation. You basically get everything that’s great about a Kobo device in a package that looks and feels premium.
One side of the reader has a wider bezel for the buttons and the screen rotates nearly instantly when you reorient the device, meaning you could have the buttons on the left, right or even bottom. Plus, if you want to lock the orientation when you’ve finally decided on a position, it’s a simple two-tap process. The wider bezel is also slightly thicker and slopes up at the edge, giving it a secure handhold. And I haven’t even mentioned the textured, rubberized back. All together, the Libra is the most comfortable ereader I've ever held.
At seven inches, the screen is only a little bigger than the standard Kindle or Kobo Clara 2E, but I noticed the difference. Out of all the ereaders I tried, reading the Libra 2 most closely resembles reading a physical paperback, especially after you balance the warm and cool light. But a paperback won’t adjust font size with a pinch or get brighter when you slide a finger along the margin like the Libra 2 will. The text and image clarity is nearly the best of the bunch – only the PocketBook Era was crisper. (That device also has a beautiful build. Unfortunately, the software doesn’t yet match the aesthetics.)
The Libra 2’s larger screen tempted me to use a few of Kobo’s bonus features found in the More section of the main navigation. The web browser is in beta, and it displays simple websites easily, if slowly. The Pocket integration lets you save articles from the web and then read them from the comfort of your Kobo. I used Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries as fodder for this testing and one entry is only available as a short story on Wired. I saved the article via the web extension on my laptop, then opened it up on the Kobo. I could then read it like it was any other part of the series.
At $190, the Libra 2 is one of the more expensive ereaders. But if you’re a voracious reader looking for a luxe experience, you won’t do much better than this. The Kindle Oasis also has page-turn buttons, a waterproof rating and seven-inch screen, but at $250 for the ad-supported, 8GB size, we think the Libra is a much better value.
Kobo Libra 2
Screen size: 7”
Resolution: 300dpi
Capacity: 32GB
Waterproof rating: IPX8 (submergible to 6 feet for 60 minutes)
Warm light: Yes
Best Android tablet with an E Ink screen: Boox Leaf 2
First, a disclaimer: I don’t recommend Boox’s Leaf 2 for people who are not very tech-savvy. The tablet runs on a fork of Android 11 and doesn’t hold your hand getting set up. The only books available through the onboard “store” are free public domain classics. However, you can do far more with the Leaf 2 than you can with any standard ereader.
After enabling Google Play, I searched for and downloaded apps much like on a smartphone or tablet. I even grabbed ereader apps from other manufacturers, including Kobo and Kindle, and installed Libby to read books I had borrowed from the library. Through the built-in Neo web browser, I downloaded Project Gutenberg files, reading them with Boox’s Neo reader. Via BooxDrop, I wirelessly transferred a few ePubs I had on my computer. In short, if there's an ebook you want to read, you can do so on the Leaf 2 in some way.
The device itself looks similar to Kobo’s Libra 2 with a wider side bezel housing two page turn buttons. Those buttons are programmable, as are most touchscreen gestures. In fact, “customizable” might be the best way to describe the Leaf 2. In addition to a dizzying amount of options built into the operating system, other Boox users have created APK files to tweak and improve your experience.
The Leaf 2 has a soft, adjustable front light with temperature control and a flush, glare-free screen. The display is as speedy as can be expected with E Ink, and the overall UI is simple enough for anyone familiar with Android to master. The ever-present nav ball is a small, on-screen button that lets you access a few quick functions, and this is the only device we tried with a built-in speaker (yes, it can play Spotify).
Tech that requires somewhat advanced knowledge often gathers devoted fans, and Boox devices are no different. Get one and you’ll join a club that laughs at proprietary ebook hurdles. You’ll also have tons of possibilities to divert yourself with when you want to do something other than read.
Boox Leaf 2
Screen size: 7”
Resolution: 300dpi
Capacity: 32GB
Waterproof rating: None
Warm light: Yes
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-ereader-130013808.html?src=rss
A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in its high-profile case against a group of four US publishers led by Hachette Book Group. Per Reuters, Judge John G. Koeltl declared on Friday the nonprofit had infringed on the group’s copyrights by lending out digitally scanned copies of their books.
The lawsuit originated from the Internet Archive’s decision to launch the “National Emergency Library” during the early days of the pandemic. The program saw the organization offer more than 1.4 million free ebooks, including copyrighted works, in response to libraries worldwide closing their doors due to coronavirus lockdown measures.
Before March 2020, the Internet Archive’s Open Library program operated under what’s known as a “controlled digital lending” system, meaning there was often a waitlist to borrow a book from its collection. When the pandemic hit, the Internet Archive lifted those restrictions to make it easier for people to access reading material while stuck at home. The Copyright Alliance was quick to take issue with the effort. And in June 2020, Hachette, as well as HarperCollins, Penguin Random House and John Wiley & Sons, sued The Internet Archive, accusing the organization of enabling “willful mass copyright infringement.” That same month, the Internet Archive shuttered the National Emergency Program early.
Going into this week’s trial, the Internet Archive argued the initiative was protected by the principle of Fair Use, which allows the unlicensed use of copyrighted works under some circumstances. As The Verge notes, HathiTrust, an offshoot of the Google Books Search project, successfully used a similar argument in 2014 to fend off a legal challenge from The Authors Guild. However, Judge Koeltl rejected the Internet Archive’s stance, declaring “there is nothing transformative” about lending unauthorized copies of books. "Although [the Internet Archive] has the right to lend print books it lawfully acquired, it does not have the right to scan those books and lend the digital copies en masse," he wrote. Maria Pallante, the president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said the ruling “underscored the importance of authors, publishers, and creative markets in a global society."
On Saturday, the Internet Archive said it would appeal the decision. “Libraries are more than the customer service departments for corporate database products. For democracy to thrive at global scale, libraries must be able to sustain their historic role in society — owning, preserving, and lending book,” the nonprofit wrote in a blog post. “This ruling is a blow for libraries, readers, and authors and we plan to appeal it.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/internet-archive-violated-publisher-copyrights-by-lending-ebooks-court-rules-164629790.html?src=rss
ChatGPT is listed as the author or co-author of at least 200 books on Amazon’s Kindle Store, according to Reuters. However, the actual number of bot-written books is likely much higher than that since Amazon’s policies don’t explicitly require authors to disclose their use of AI. It’s the latest example of AI-generated writing flooding the market and playing a part in ethically dubious content creation since the November release of OpenAI’s free tool.
“I could see people making a whole career out of this,” said Brett Schickler, a Rochester, NY salesman who published a children’s book on the Kindle Store. “The idea of writing a book finally seemed possible.” Schickler’s self-published story, The Wise Little Squirrel: A Tale of Saving and Investing, is a 30-page children’s story — written and illustrated by AI — selling for $2.99 for a digital copy and $9.99 for a printed version. Although Schickler says the book has earned him less than $100 since its January release, he only spent a few hours creating it with ChatGPT prompts like “write a story about a dad teaching his son about financial literacy.”
Other examples of AI-created content on the Kindle Store include children’s story The Power of Homework, a poetry collection called Echoes of the Universe and a sci-fi epic about an interstellar brothel, Galactic Pimp: Vol. 1.
“This is something we really need to be worried about, these books will flood the market and a lot of authors are going to be out of work,” said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild. “There needs to be transparency from the authors and the platforms about how these books are created or you’re going to end up with a lot of low-quality books.”
Clarkesworld
Meanwhile, science-fiction publication Clarkesworld Magazine has temporarily halted short-story submissions after receiving a flood of articles suspected of using AI without disclosure, as reported by PCMag. Although Editor Neil Clarke didn’t specify how he identified them, he recognized the (allegedly) bot-assisted stories due to “some very obvious patterns.” “What I can say is that the number of spam submissions resulting in bans has hit 38 percent this month,” he said. “While rejecting and banning these submissions has been simple, it’s growing at a rate that will necessitate changes. To make matters worse, the technology is only going to get better, so detection will become more challenging.”
Clarkesworld currently prohibits stories “written, co-written or assisted by AI,” and the publication has banned over 500 users this month for submitting suspected AI-assisted content. Clarkesworld pays 12 cents per word, making it a prime target. “From what I can tell, it’s not about credibility. It’s about the possibility of making a quick buck. That’s all they care about,” Clarke tweeted.
In addition to the standalone ChatGPT tool, Microsoft’s new version of Bing uses a more advanced version of the tool to help with search queries.
JASON REDMOND via Getty Images
Apart from ethical issues about transparency, there are also questions of misinformation and plagiarism. For example, AI bots, including ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing AI and Google’s Bard, are prone to “hallucinating,” the term for spouting false information confidently. Additionally, they’re trained on human-created content — almost always without the original author’s knowledge or permission — and sometimes use identical syntax to the source material.
Starting last year, tech publication CNET used an in-house AI model to write at least 73 economic explainers. Unfortunately, apart from the initially cagey approach that only revealed it was written by AI if you clicked on the byline, it also included numerous factual errors and nearly identical phrasing from other websites’ articles. As a result, CNET was forced to make extensive corrections and pause its use of the tool — however, one of its sister sites has already at least experimented with using it again.
Five days ago, a review code for Hogwarts Legacy landed in my inbox. I’ve been thinking about this moment for more than a year, ever since the backlash against the game started gaining traction online. The author of the Harry Potter novels is transphobic and she’s targeted transgender women in particular. For this reason, some people in the LGBT+ community, and allies beyond, have decided to boycott Hogwarts Legacy and admonish anyone who chooses to play or stream it themselves, sparking explosive arguments across social media, Twitch and YouTube. Those in favor of the boycott argue that playing the game benefits the author financially and indicates support for her beliefs. On the flipside, potential players point out that the author wasn’t involved in the creation of Hogwarts Legacy and her status as the world’s richest author won’t change regardless of the game’s success. Also, they really want to play it.
I fall into the second category. I’m currently about 15 hours into Hogwarts Legacy and I’m just barely scratching the surface; I’m having an incredible time. This feels like the RPG that Harry Potter fans have been waiting for, rich and alive and absolutely packed with magic.
It’s slightly frightening to write that down, knowing the condemnation I could receive. It’s an extra-light version of the dread I felt while publishing literally anything during Gamergate, but this time it’s more personal: The hate would be coming from people I actually care about.
I’ve been a video game journalist for the past 13 years, I’m a bisexual woman and I have a big ol’ Harry Potter tattoo next to an anti-TERF tattoo. I feel uniquely positioned to care about this particular topic, and to that end, I have a quick story to tell. It involves literary internet culture in the early 2000s, and I hope it illuminates factors that entwine the Wizarding World with the LGBT+ community, while demonstrating the vast divide that’s existed for decades between the fantasy and its creator.
As a pre-teen and throughout high school, I found solace in Harry Potter fanfiction, a bustling online ecosystem powered by Livejournal, FF.net, AO3 and other community-run sites. I cannot overstate how popular Harry Potter fanfiction was and still is, nor how queer it’s always been. Most stories in Harry Potter fanfiction center on LGBT+ characters, and for good reason – in the early aughts, media for and by gay people was ridiculously hard to come by, and then when you did find something, it was often campy, trashy, or both. It was a pre-streaming, pre-YouTube, pre-TikTok way of life. So we wrote our own stories as fanfiction. Long before the release of the final Harry Potter book, we infused the halls of Hogwarts with magically amplified, non-heterosexual and non-cisgender characters, and we wrote millions of words about them living full, fantastic lives. We made Dumbledore gay long before the canon did.
In those early days, an important part of the Harry Potter fanfiction process was critiquing the world and recognizing the limits of the author’s imagination. With each new book release, the forums would light up with praise and criticism, and our own stories would continue to evolve outside of the pages of the novels. These fics are more real to me than the source material; when I traverse the hallways of the Slytherin dungeons in Hogwarts Legacy, my mind accesses memories from my favorite fanfics – not the books – and I’m infused with warmth. The halls of Hogwarts are my safe space, still.
I recognize my circumstances are incredibly specific, but I also know mine isn’t a unique experience. Fantasy worlds offer an escape for queer and non-queer people alike, and coming-of-age fiction can be powerful, formulative stuff. This particular fantasy universe was a place of belonging for me, and I think its latest iteration, Hogwarts Legacy, could offer a similar slice of peace to young players today.
I understand the anger and protective energy from people who don’t want to play the game. It’s a terrifying time to be transgender: Ultra-conservative lawmakers are writing discrimination and blind hate into law, while neo-nazi rhetoric has found new life on mainstream social media platforms. Deadly violence against trans people, particularly Black transgender women, remains a pervasive epidemic in the United States. Among these real-world threats, we’re clashing over the virtues of playing or not playing Hogwarts Legacy. It’s been depressing to observe as this conversation sows division and sucks attention away from our shared goals, limiting our ability to celebrate new successes.
Harry Potter will outlive its author. She is not the future of the franchise. Avalanche, Portkey Games and Warner Bros. have been well aware of the pervasive disgust for the author’s ideology for years, and I believe it encouraged them to include more representation in the game than the series has ever seen. Hogwarts Legacy allows for various expressions of gender identity in the character creator and casually drops “they” pronouns in conversation; all around, the cast is diverse and Avalanche writes non-white characters better than the original author did. There’s still room for improvement, and that’s why the conversation needs to be ongoing: Positive progress is our shared goal.
As someone who searched desperately for an example of my own identity in the pages of Harry Potter novels, I deeply appreciate the evolution and inclusion in Hogwarts Legacy. This level of representation didn’t exist in AAA games 15 years ago, and it’s the result of all the progress made, through protest and education, since the books were published. Long before the in-fighting over a choice to play a video game.
If you don’t want to engage with Hogwarts Legacy, please, boycott the game – just don’t boycott the players. It’s usagainst the transphobic people in the world, not us against each other. Some of us will choose to play, some of us won’t. Even more will wonder why anyone even cares about this fictional kid and his heteronormative, whitewashed, multibillion-dollar franchise. These are all valid options. Playing Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t automatically make you transphobic. Boycotting it doesn’t automatically make you an ally – supporting our community members does.
We’ll have a full review of Hogwarts Legacy later in the week, once I’ve had enough time with this enormous game to fully form an opinion on it. Even if I catch hell for this perspective, I’ll be here, supporting local inclusion efforts, protesting discrimination, calling my lawmakers, loving my community and playing the gayest version of Hogwarts Legacy possible.
