Barnes & Noble launches eReader for iPad app, we go hands-on

Barnes & Noble might be pushing the Nook as hard as it can, but the retailer has always said it wants to build a reading platform across devices, and it's making a big step in that direction with the launch of its eReader for iPad app today. The app allows Nook users to download most of their content to the iPad -- the books all work, but some periodicals like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal aren't available yet -- and there's a nice bookshelf view with jacket art and a library search function, which the Kindle app and iBooks don't have. As with the Nook and other B&N clients, the iPad client supports LendMe for certain titles, but there's no in-app purchasing -- selecting "add books" from the bookshelf view kicks you out to the browser, just like the Kindle app. We're not sure if this is an Apple restriction or a design decision, but we were told B&N is looking into adding in-app purchasing in a future release.

As for reading, eReader is actually quite flexible -- you can customize the page, text, highlight, and link colors any which way you want (we made some hideous combinations), and there are some nice presets themes as well, ranging from "The Printed Page" to an inverted setting called "Night Light." You can also set books to display using the publisher's settings, and there are the usual line spacing and justification options as well. The only issues we had were with page turns and rendering -- flipping from portrait to landscape too fast would result in some brief wonkiness, and flipping pages too quickly would eventually stall the app and lead to a brief load time. Neither was a deal breaker, but there's clearly some room for polish here -- we're sure B&N is planning to iterate this rapidly, so we'll see what happens. All in all, though the eReader app is a worthy competitor for your iPad ebook dollar -- as long as iBooks has the only in-app store it'll remain our favorite iPad reader, but if you've already purchased Nook content this is a solid free addition to the ecosystem.

Barnes & Noble launches eReader for iPad app, we go hands-on

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Barnes & Noble Introduces BN eReader for iPadTM, The Most Easy-to-Use, Customizable iPad App for Reading and Buying eBooks and Periodicals

Free App Offers Access to Company's Expansive eBookstore Featuring More Than One Million Digital Titles and Personal Barnes & Noble Digital Library

Only iPad eReading App That Allows Sharing eBook with Friends Free Classics and Bestseller Samples Pre-Loaded for New BN.com Customers

New York, New York – May 27, 2010 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today launched its free BN eReader app for iPadTM, offering the most personalized and easy-to-use eReading experience for Apple iPad owners. BN eReader for iPad users can customize the way they read with professionally designed or completely personalized themes, shop more than one million eBooks, newspapers and magazines in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, and access their personal Barnes & Noble digital library, including most periodicals. BN eReader for iPad is the only eReading app that offers eBook sharing with friends.

BN eReader for iPad is designed to offer an easy, yet sophisticated, customizable reading experience. Users can choose from multiple ways to view their library, including professionally designed themes with elegant and complementary text and page colors, as well as fonts; and instantly switch between portrait and landscape views based on personal preference. BN eReader for iPad users can further personalize their reading experience with unparalleled options: literally millions of colors for text, pages, highlights and links; eight typefaces and five text sizes; and a variety of margins and customizable spacing options. Learn more or get the new application at www.bn.com/iPad.

"We've designed the most easy-to-use, highly customizable eReading experience for the iPad. Ours is the only app that enables iPad users to share eBooks with friends, shop Barnes & Noble's vast catalog of eBooks and periodicals and access your personal Barnes & Noble digital library across multiple devices.," said Douglas Gottlieb, Vice President, Digital Products of Barnes & Noble.com. "We believe our customers will appreciate the book-centric touches we've incorporated into our iPad app experience – including some extra large text sizes, ample margins, and line lengths and spacing inspired by classic book design conventions – along with the opportunity to fully personalize that experience to enjoy reading books whichever ways they like best."

Lend to Friends
Using Barnes & Noble's breakthrough LendMeTM technology, BN eReader for iPad customers can share eligible eBooks with friends who can enjoy the titles on a NOOKTM eBook Reader, iPad, iPhone®, iPod touch® and PC enabled with free BN eReader software. Last page read, highlights, notes and bookmarks will also sync across BN eReader for iPad and PC, and in early summer, with iPhone and iPod touch, with more to follow.

The LendMe experience was designed to be seamlessly integrated with the iPad. BN eReader for iPad users can simply choose an eligible eBook flagged with the LendMe icon, then access their existing contacts in iPad's onboard address book, tap the contact and send the lend offer -- all without needing to type a single word. The friend can accept the offer and enjoy the eBook for up to 14 days, a unique feature offered only by Barnes & Noble. And BN eReader for iPad users will receive LendMe offers from friends within the application, showing them the eBook's cover and the message from their friend.
Additional features available in the BN eReader App for iPad include:
Shop the expansive eBookstore: Search, explore and browse through the Barnes & Noble eBookstore of more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers titles at www.bn.com/ebooks directly by touching Add Books from the Library. There are more than a half-million free eBooks available, and free samples are available for all eBooks. Learn more from thousands of editorial and customer reviews. Pick a current bestseller, a classic or anything in between and download it wirelessly in seconds.

Access your personal digital library: All eBooks and most newspapers, and magazines purchased through the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, including those purchased on NOOK, are at your fingertips in your Library. Customers with large digital libraries will appreciate the search option that helps them find the desired book quickly.

Choose from two views: Library Grid view displays big, beautiful covers that are large and easy to read. Library List displays a column with digital content titles and eBook covers next to a second larger section that provides rich product details for the selected eBook including the synopsis and more books from that author. Sort by recently read, author or title.
Get to your content, faster: The most recently read titles appear on top to easily get you back to your last great read. And an in-book search also helps you locate a particular word or phrase.

Take notes: Bookmark pages, make highlights and write notes. Simply tap a word or drag your finger across a section to highlight it or make a note. In addition to appearing on your iPad, your bookmarks, highlights and notes will also appear on iPad and PC enabled with BN eReader software. iPhone and iPod touch will be added soon, followed by other devices.

Read across multiple devices: Sync the last page read of the last eBook, magazine or newspaper opened on your iPad with BN eReader software-enabled PCs. Coming next month, both will sync with BN eReader enabled iPhone and iPod touch with more devices to follow.
Learn more: Tap a word on the touch screen and the in-text dictionary offers you the word's meaning. Want to learn more? Simply tap one of the options to take you to the Google or Wikipedia page on that word or term using the Web browser.

Follows the standard: Read eBooks, magazines and newspapers formatted in ePub, quickly becoming the industry standard.

The Barnes & Noble Digital Library Advantage
Barnes & Noble's Lifetime LibraryTM helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on a variety of devices as well as on BN.com. In addition, Barnes & Noble's use of ePub format and Adobe technology allows customers to read all of their digital content across a growing universe of devices.

Get Started with Free eBooks
To celebrate the new addition to the BN eReader family, Barnes & Noble is providing customers who create new BN.com accounts and download the BN eReader software to their iPad or other mobile or computing device with another way to get a jump on their next great read. Barnes & Noble will pre-load three complimentary Barnes & Noble Classic Series eBooks – Dracula, Little Women and Pride & Prejudice – and 10 current bestseller eBook samples in new customers' digital libraries.
Barnes & Noble is also offering free eBooks from bestselling authors through its current Fun and Free eBook promotion, running over the next four weeks. Simply by visiting a Barnes & Noble store, show a bookseller your NOOK, an iPad or other device with the BN eReader and receive a special weekly access code. Booksellers at the NOOK display in any Barnes & Noble store will gladly help customers download the free BN eReader software to their computing or mobile device so that they can enjoy the promotion. Additional information about the promotion can be found at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-ebooks-bestelling-authors/379002210.

The new BN eReader for iPad has been thoroughly tested to ensure an optimal reading experience. BN eReader for iPad is available on the device through www.bn.com/ebooks/download-reader.asp and at www.itunes.com/appstore.

In addition to iPad, Barnes & Noble customers can enjoy their Barnes & Noble digital library across a range of devices including: NOOK by Barnes & Noble, previously announced eBook readers powered by the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, and a variety of other computing and mobile devices including iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry® and HTC HD2TM smartphones, HP computers, PC and Mac®. Barnes & Noble continues to enhance its eReader offering and expects to add a BN eReader for Android next month and update its iPhone app in early summer. For more information on free BN eReader software and apps, please visit www.bn.com/ebooks/download-reader.asp.

[gatesofbill Posted May 27th 2010 12:05AM]

Alien...bottom right corner of the picture

[John Lennon Posted May 27th 2010 12:13AM]

Didn't you mean to say "Barnes & Nobles launches eReader app for the iPad?"

[vshane Posted May 27th 2010 12:16AM]

"We're not sure if this is an Apple restriction or a design decision, but we were told B&N is looking into adding in-app purchasing in a future release."

Feature probably didn't make it into version 1.0 of the app. Apple provides an API for in-app purchasing.

[meade Posted May 27th 2010 12:36AM]

In app purchasing is clearly not there because it would mean apple takes a % of the sale.

[vshane Posted May 27th 2010 12:39AM]

@meade Good point. I forgot about Apple's cut.

[Jeff Kibuule Posted May 27th 2010 12:50AM]

@vshane

Ditto, but if you already have an account with Barnes and Noble (and I suspect most people who buy the app do), then they should already have credit card processing built into their server backend and they can avoid the 30% cut Apple gets.

That cut is only for companies who paying for CC processing fees would be unfeasible due to the small scale nature of most purchases. You wouldn't get that much back anyway.

[DreamTheEndless Posted May 27th 2010 3:29AM]

@Jeff Kibuule No - apple keeps 30% of all in app purchasing. It has nothing to do with credit card processing. If B&N wanted to sell books through in-app purchasing, they would need to raise their prices by a little more than 40% so that apple could then take their 30% cut. Then all B&N prices would be 40% higher than anyone elses. Which would you rather have? 40% higher prices or have to switch to a website to do purchasing?

[vshane Posted May 27th 2010 3:39AM]

@DreamTheEndless They don't have to go through Apple's in app purchasing API. They can get around it by using their own implementation.

[jellotime91 Posted May 27th 2010 12:35AM]

Omg, the Kindle doesn't offer this! Kindle sucks, it's such a closed ecosystem.


/sarcasm.

[LiQuiDFuSioN Posted May 27th 2010 12:39AM]

Funny how Barnes & Noble offers the competition these iPhone/iPad apps while still trying to market their own eReader, the Nook.

[LiQuiDFuSioN Posted May 27th 2010 1:17AM]

@LiQuiDFuSioN ..aaaand Engadget already pointed that out. Yeah, I fail.

[Clancycoop Posted May 27th 2010 2:38AM]

@LiQuiDFuSioN Not really. You aren't seeing the big picture. They want you to buy books from them. They are a book seller, not a hardware specialist. Think of it like this:

Lets say the average eBook buyer buys 4 eBooks a year. Would you rather have all the people with Nook's buy 4 eBooks from you in one year, or all the eBook buyers with an iPhone, Android, Mac, PC, Nook or iPad?

Plus, they want to get you locked into their system. If Amazon is offering reading on all these devices, and B&N only offered reading on their Nook they would get left behind like Macaulay Culkin.

[Emeek Posted May 27th 2010 12:41AM]

kicking you out to the browser lands your eyes on the web page with all kinds of goodies to see, DO NOT under estimate the power of this.

[Tuan X Posted May 27th 2010 4:06AM]

@Emeek

HA.. no.

[Wesscoast Posted May 27th 2010 1:09AM]

Awesome!

[r3loaded Posted May 27th 2010 2:38AM]

Is it a sign that I watch too much South Park when I saw the title "Eat, Pray, Love" and automatically thought of "Eat, Pray, Queef"?

[williamk Posted May 27th 2010 2:58AM]

I love how they base the reader on the tech they acquired when they bought eReader and Fictionwise, they even call the app ereader, yet it wont read books purchased from Fictionwise or ereader.com.

[patches66 Posted May 27th 2010 3:47AM]

@williamk
while every real book i ever purchased continues to operate, free of DRM restrictions. i can see the appeal, but only if you have money to throw away and don't actually like books very much, as such. because yes, some people like books the way other people like vinyl records, only with good reason.

[cromulentgeek Posted May 27th 2010 11:07AM]

@williamk Except that's not true. I bought some books from eReader.com about 10 years ago and they work just fine on my nook. True, I had to sideload them to the device rather than download them OTA from B&N. True also, the title formatting for these items was horrible right out of the gate (I was in the 2nd round of pre-orders) but the latest firmware update solved most of those issues. I haven't lost a thing that I bought a decade ago from Ereader.com.

[cromulentgeek Posted May 27th 2010 11:14AM]

@patches66 I do like actual books. But, by that, I mean the words and ideas that the author is trying to transmit. I'm not tied up in having glued together wood pulp. When I'm reading, the thing I'm reading from should disappear. It does with a "real" book and it does with a real E Ink book.

The advantages of digital readers are so numerous that I prefer them to the paper books I so used to treasure. The only reason I would still by a paper book is as a signed collector's item.

[williamk Posted May 27th 2010 3:37PM]

@cromulentgeek I am talking about the ereader app on the iPad specifically, the subject of this article, which doesn't allow you to side load anything.

[isights Posted May 27th 2010 3:07AM]

How many totally incompatible ebook reader apps do we need?

[fast Posted May 27th 2010 3:29AM]

@isights ...at least one too many.

[cromulentgeek Posted May 27th 2010 11:28AM]

@isights I guess we really just need the one, don't we? Which is why we need so many in the App Store. Or are you imagining an iPad with every reader app on it? I'm not sure who that customer would be.

Since I have a nook and not a Kindle, I won't have the Kindle app on my iPad. I almost certainly wouldn't have the iBooks app on mine. B&N has released an iPad specific app for the iPad owners who are in their ecosystem. So, when I get my iPad, the number of reader apps it will have is, well, just the one.

[Ops Posted May 27th 2010 3:12AM]

they require a credit card to even get free books,

they dont need that info. they get a huge fail here

[ounkeo Posted May 27th 2010 5:19AM]

The app as I've used it on winmo is a pretty darn good e-reader, flexible and looks nice (relative to many other readers out there).

THE ONLY PROBLEM with B&N is their digital books are costed at highway robbery prices. The physical books are cheaper than their digital counterparts in some cases.

[ounkeo Posted May 27th 2010 5:24AM]

@ounkeo

There's also the issue of the books being temporarily stored on your device when you download it. I don't know how many times I've had to re-download books from B&N because they don't allow you to store locally/move it onto SD card.

When I use my HD2 e-reader, it lets me store my books anywhere I want and resets and whatnot won't delete my books.

[mbmanning Posted May 27th 2010 10:51AM]

This is nice and all, but I'd like an them to produce an app for android...

[cromulentgeek Posted May 27th 2010 11:22AM]

I don't have an iPad so the value of this as a standalone may be something I can't imagine. I do have an iPhone and a nook. Using an Apple device as an extension of the nook as B&N seems to suggest is a horrible experience. I whip out the iPhone when I'm out and have a few minutes to wait for something. But I tend to use most of that time hunting for where I left off on the nook.

Until they create a way to sync your place across all these devices, it's not very useful for me. I'll get excited when they announce that and I'll cease to be jaded when they announce yet another device-specific app where I'll need to hunt for my place in my book.

[Darkhunter139 Posted May 27th 2010 12:23PM]

@cromulentgeek Yeah agreed I find myself doing the same thing! If they could make it sync across devices that would be awesome.