barnesandnoble
Latest
NOOK for iPad now with Retina content, improved highlighting features
Better late than never, right? Only a couple of weeks after its rival Kindle, the NOOK app is finally ready to join the new iPad's pixel-packed party. While the main feature is obviously its Retina display compatibility, version 3.1.3 also brings an improved Highlight feature for books, the ability to read in one or two columns when in landscape mode and the enigmatic bug fixes. The refreshed app is up for grabs now, and you can snag it directly from your iPad or via the source link below.
Barnes & Noble establishes German base: Will the Nook visit Europe?
While Americans have more than one way to consume those e-ink verses, those in the old country are largely stuck with Amazon's still-expanding Kindle family or e-reader hardware lacking the clout of a publisher. But Europeans may get the chance to pick up a Nook in the future, following news that Barnes & Noble has filed for a new digital company in Germany. Add in the publisher's recent (and slightly bizarre) meet-up in London with app developers and it looks likely that we'll be seeing some European presence from the bookseller in the future -- hopefully with all the associated content already seen on the other side of the Atlantic.
Harry Potter e-books now available to muggles
The Hunger Games may have had a heck of an opening weekend, but let's not forget who the top box office spot belongs to: a certain bespectacled boy wizard. Roughly a decade and half after the publication of the first book in the series -- and after several months of promises -- the ultra-popular series has finally made its way onto e-readers like the Kindle and Nook. A couple of days after announcing the rather pricey Wizard's Collection, J.K. Rowling's books have hit the Pottermore site, priced at $8 to $10. The books are currently available in English, with French, German, Italian and Spanish versions coming soon. "Enhanced" versions are on their way as well. Check our some relevant press info after the break.
How would you change the Nook Tablet?
It's hard not to make a series of reductive comparisons between the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire. After all, it's the conflict between Barnes & Noble and Amazon that frames these two 7-inch tablet / e-reader hybrids. When released, this one was $50 more expensive, but is technically more impressive: you get more expandability, it's faster and the screen is better for images and video. Statistically, at least three out of every ten e-book readers purchased were Nooks, so plenty of you out there use 'em. What we want to know, is what are they like to use on a daily basis? What little gripes did we not pick up during our week-long review and, if William Lynch was reading what you had to say, what would you change?
Conde Nast to track iPad readership
It's been two long years for advertisers working with Conde Nast and their digital magazines. Until now, the publication has provided advertisers with only minimal details on its digital readership. An AdAge report suggests this is all about the change. Because of the newness of the medium, Conde Nast had to develop new tools and new ways to gather significant data from iPad, Kindle and Nook readers. The publishing company has ironed out some of the kinks and is ready to provide regular data on: the magazine's paid tablet subscriptions and single-copy sales during the reporting period the number of readers that actually opened the issue's tablet edition, including print subscribers using their complimentary digital access the total number of times that readers opened it and the time that readers spent with it The is welcome news to advertisers like Robin Steinberg, Executive Vice President and Director of publishing investment and activism at MediaVest, who said, "There is no doubt this is not only a good move but the right move."
PSA: Nook Tablet can be repartitioned in-store, Android app adds comic support
Did you take umbrage with Barnes & Noble's efforts to hoard all your Nook Tablet storage for its own content? Well, the book seller has made good on its promise to reassign a portion of your 16GB hard drive, opening up 8GB for personal content and leaving 5.5GB for Nook Shop content. As we said before, you'll need to physically take your Nook Tablet to the bricks and mortar outlets to get the storage tweak. Readers that decided to go for other Android-laced tablets have also been gifted with a Nook app update, adding support for comics and related graphical literature -- just make sure that the slab is running Android 2.2 or higher.
Nook Simple Touch gets upgrade to fix WiFi issues, offers 'minor enhancements'
Remember the Nook Simple Touch WiFi issues we told you about, way back when? Barnes & Noble promised that it was working "diligently" to address the connectivity problems, and now it seem that help has arrived. A rep for the company confirmed that a fix is among the "minor system enhancements" promised in the 1.1.2 upgrade for the e-reader. WiFi connected devices will start receiving the upgrade this week. If you're amongst those who can't connect -- or if you're just a bit antsy -- click the source link for a manual download. Let us know if the upgrade did the trick in the comments below.
Refresh Roundup: week of March 5th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Dark Horse Comics graphic novels coming to Nook Tablet and Nook Color
Dark Horse Comics has penciled a contract with Barnes & Noble (it'll be sent off to be inked and colored next week*) to get the former's content onto the latter's Tablet and Color e-readers. Available in the Nook Comic store, you'll be able to pick up a mix of the publisher's licensed titles like Mass Effect and Star Wars as well as home-grown fare like Hellboy and Sin City. The range will gently expand month-on-month and is available from today, with titles priced around $10 depending on what you want. * This is a comic book joke.
Amazon Publishing to sell series of ebooks outside the Kindle Store
It remains to be seen if it's a full-on change of policy, but it looks like Amazon is at least shifting it stance when it comes to where some of the ebooks put out by its Amazon Publishing division are sold. As you may recall, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers recently pulled print editions of Amazon Publishing books from their store shelves because the ebook versions were only sold in the Kindle Store, a stance that B&N said "undermined the industry as a whole." Now, Amazon has confirmed that its latest addition to the Amazon Publishing roster, a series of short biographies edited by James Atlas, will indeed be sold outside of the Amazon ecosystem in both print and ebook form. Whether B&N and other bookstores will actually carry them remains to be seen, of course, but an Amazon spokesperson told The New York Times that its "intention is to distribute these books as broadly as possible." That change was further clarified by PaidContent, which was told by Amazon that "the books will be available to be sold everywhere in all formats."
Hack enables fast refresh mode on Nook Simple Touch (video)
As anyone who's used an e-reader knows, page refreshes aren't the most elegant feature of E Ink. Well, if you've got a Nook Simple Touch a hack released by XDA Developers member marspeople could put an end to your page-changing woes. You'll need to root your device and install an .apk, then simply activate fast refresh mode by a four-tap gesture -- sadly, not the Konami code. What is impressive, is just how fast the screen refreshing actually is. Fluidly browsing documents and the web on e-readers suddenly has the potential to be a whole lot less frustrating. Check the video after the break to see a demo, and touch the source link below if you want in on the fun.[Thanks, Nate]
Barnes & Noble offers to repartition Nook Tablet storage, concedes you may need more than 1GB
Are you one of the many infuriated with Barnes & Noble over how it partitioned the storage on the Nook Tablet -- leaving you just 1GB for you own files? Well, it looks like the company has learned from its mistakes. While only about 5GB is free to load with apps and media on the new 8GB model, just 1GB of that is reserved for Nook Store content. That's in stark contrast to the 16GB version which set aside a full 12GB for Nook Store downloads. Thankfully, B&N is offering to retroactively fix the boondoggle. If you visit a brick and mortar shop starting March 12th, a support rep will gladly help you repartition the internal storage, freeing up more than just one of the 13 available gigabytes for personal use. Having to bring it to the store is a bit of pain, but we suppose it's better that getting stuck with 12GB of Angry Birds and e-books.
Barnes & Noble 2012 Q3 Report: loss-making Nook generates sales, tears
It's that time of the year when Barnes & Noble's accountants reveal the figures for the quarter to determine if the age of print is over. Turns out there's some good news for bookseller. Overall sales for the chain increased five percent: the company took $2.4 billion through the cash registers. That was split $1.49 billion (up two percent) in high-street retail, online sales took $420 million (up 32 percent year-on-year) and the Nook in all its forms and glories took $542 million (up 38 percent). The only grey cloud was that sales in college-only stores dropped three percent, thanks in part to renting textbooks to impecunious freshmen. They're probably all using that money on buying digital content on their Nooks: digital content purchases increased by 85 percent in a single quarter. Like rival Amazon, it wouldn't release how many devices were sold, except to say it likely maintained its market share. However, all of that (pretty) good news is a bit of a smokescreen: B&N won't reveal its profits after interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization has been deducted. Pre ITDA income dropped 12 percent from the same period in 2011 and the company has revealed that the BN.com and Nook businesses made a combined loss of $94 million, with annual income looking to be in negative figures. Update: A tidbit from the conference call, the company believes the device currently holds around 30 percent of the overall e-reader market: using numbers direct from the publishers themselves.
Barnes & Noble unveils 8GB Nook Tablet for $199, slashes Color to $169
Looks like those murmurings of a lower-priced Nook Tablet with only 8GB of storage were right on, though, the reduced RAM was conveniently left out. In most ways it seems the updated Android slate is identical to its 16GB forebearer, except that by slashing the storage and memory in half Barnes & Noble has managed to meet the Kindle Fire on price -- $199. And, unlike the Fire, the Nook sports a microSD slot, so the loss of 8GB of storage isn't necessarily a huge deal. In addition to the new Nook Tablet, the Color is getting a rather significant price cut to just $169, making it cheaper than the Kindle Touch without ads. Looks like the brick-and-mortar stalwart has finally thrown down the pricing gauntlet. The lower-priced tab is available today both online and in Barnes & Noble stores, with other retailers to join the parade soon. Check out the complete PR after the break.
Nook Tablet coming to Walmart with less storage and a lower price tag?
One of the things that has kept the Nook Tablet from hitting Kindle Fire-like heights has been the price tag. Sure, $250 is super cheap for a rather well specced slate, but when the Amazon's entry is a full $50 cheaper it spells trouble. Now it looks like B&N is getting ready to tangle a little more directly with the online retail giant by cutting the Nook Tablet's storage in half to 8GB and slashing the price. Details are pretty slim at the moment, but it does appear that Walmart will be selling the device starting February 22nd, this Wednesday. Sadly, we'll have to wait till then to find out just how much cheaper it'll be and, whether or not the Color will be receiving a corresponding price drop.
Barnes & Noble confirms Nook Simple Touch upgrade WiFi issues, fix coming
Been having WiFi troubles ever since you gave your Nook Simple Touch the old 1.1 upgrade? You are not alone. Barnes & Noble confirmed what e-reader forum frequenters have known since last year -- the firmware upgrade has done a number on some users' connectivity. The bookseller told us that it's aware of the issue and that its team is working "diligently" to address the issue. In the meantime, enjoy the video of a corgi puppy embedded after the break. [Thanks, Dina]
Refresh Roundup: week of January 30, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
ITC judge throws out Barnes and Noble's patent defense against Microsoft
Microsoft's patent dispute with Barnes and Noble is likely far from over, but the spat saw some movement today, when a judge at the International Trade Commission rejected the bookseller's patent misuse claim. In his ruling, ITC Judge Theodore Essex threw out B&N's argument that Microsoft is misusing its patents against Android, effectively nullifying the company's major defense against Redmond. Microsoft, as you'll recall, is targeting the retailer and its Nook e-reader for allegedly infringing upon a (declining) number of its Android-related patents. Essex's decision is still subject to review from a six-member panel, but Microsoft is already heralding his decision as an early victory. "Today's action by the ITC makes clear that Barnes & Noble's patent misuse defense was meritless," Microsoft Deputy General Counsel David Howard said in a statement. "This case is only about one thing -- patent infringement by Barnes & Noble's Android-based devices." Barnes and Noble, meanwhile, said it has no comment. A full trial on the case is scheduled to begin on February 6th.
Barnes & Noble to pull Amazon Publishing titles from shelves over exclusivity concerns
Barnes & Noble bans aren't just for superheroes anymore. The bookseller let it be known this week that it will be pulling Amazon Publishing titles from the shelves of its 700-odd retail locations, in protest of exclusivity deals struck by the mega-online retailer. As one B&N exec told The New York Times, "Our decision is based on Amazon's continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent," adding, "Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content." Barnes & Noble will apparently continue to sell some Amazon titles through its own site, but good luck using its WiFi.
Barnes & Noble readying 'e-reading device' for spring, doesn't want to talk about it
Oh spring, flowers blooming, bees buzzing, the smell of new e-readers in the air. According to The New York Times, the folks over at Barnes & Noble's digital team are putting the finishing touches on a "fifth e-reading device," to be released during the aforementioned season. Not a lot of details on that at the moment -- the bookseller's not spilling the beans. Given last year's release schedule, timing-wise the device would fall closer in line with the company's e-ink line of products, so perhaps the non-tablet Nook line still has a bit of fight left in it, after all.
