Friday
Dec302016

Canadian audiobook listeners prefer Amazon and Audible over iTunes

David Clare/Flickr

A new study from BookNet Canada explores the local consumers’s audiobook listening habits and methods for discovering new titles. It was found in this follow-up to a 2014 study that most users found audiobooks on websites of retailers as well as from recommendations by friends. However, it doesn’t mean these are the top places for downloading. People still prefer to borrow from public libraries or make use of free downloads to acquire new audiobooks.

But for those who do purchase audiobooks from retailers, the popular retailers to turn to are Amazon and Audible. Amazon is used 21 percent of the time this year (compared to 21.5 percent in 2014 and Audible is used to buy audiobooks 20.7 percent of the time (compared to 14.2 percent in 2014). Apple’s iTunes sees a 3 percent dip in use from 2014—they’ve gone from 17.7 percent in 2014 to 14.7 percent this year.

Source: Forbes

Friday
Dec302016

Microsoft could be on track to selling 30,000 Surface Studios

The most notable desktop release in 2016 is undoubtedly Microsoft's first desktop PC, the Surface Studio. With a stunning 28-inch PixelSense Touch display, an articulating arm with the ability to sit flush as a large drawing tablet plus an ecosystem that includes not just mice, keyboard and Surface Pens but also a new Surface Dial, this is the ultimate vessel for a more creative-focused Windows 10.

A report from Digitimes says that the Surface Studio, which is sold at a premium price and still unavailable in many markets, is on track to sell an estimate of 30,000 orders. This is remarkable for a machine that starts at US $2,999 for the base model. Surface Studio has not yet been introduced in Canada, with the exchange rate being what it is, we can expect pricing to be stratospheric for a desktop.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Dec292016

Twitter CEO gives us the ‘It’s complicated’ spiel for editable tweets

Safe to say, it’ll make our lives easier if Twitter opted to add an edit feature to our tweets. But apparently, it isn’t as easy as it would be but it looks like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been giving it some thought. When asking users what they want to see Twitter improve on, people are asking for the ability to edit. And Dorsey looks like he wants that for users, too. However, it doesn’t seem to be as easy a task or rather there are things to consider, including whether this should be for quickly editing mistakes or edit anytime.

Adding this feature will require work on the backend but it’ll also affect how the service works. As The Verge points out, what if someone edited an old tweet that you retweeted and it turns out different from what you wanted to share. It’ll take a lot of work on Twitter’s part to see how this can be implemented. But it looks like they are at least thinking about this.

Thursday
Dec292016

LG G6 renders show it might not carry on G5’s modular design

If this rendered leak from @OnLeaks and Gear India on Twitter is true, LG might be dropping the modular approach for the G5 in favor of what looks like a more conventional, iPhone-esque device. The renders show a flat 5.3-inch quad-HD display and the lack of a removable chin like in the G5. The bottom bezel of the G5 can be detached so users can swap LG’s accessories (what they call “Friends”) and have different experiences and functionality from the phone. Unfortunately, that doesn’t look like it’s being carried over to the next flagship. That’ll be a bummer for those who heavily invested in the accessories.

Click to read more ...