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Barnes and Noble launches Nook kids iPad app
Barnes and Noble has just released its Nook kids app for the iPad. The app -- which is already available on B&N's Nook Color -- is essentially an e-reader with kid-friendly features, and enhanced storybook reading options, making full use of the Nook Color's (and now the iPad's) color LCD. Other features of the app include the two free books that come with download, and, of course, the fact that the Nook app will actually read to your kids for you, so that you can spend your time doing other, more important things. Like flirting with girls on Twitter. The Nook kids app is available for free in the app store right now. Full press release is after the break.
NOOK kids for iPad app -- another reason to buy the kids their own iPad
Did you see those Barnes & Noble ads over the holidays where they were showing off those nice interactive color children's books that run on the company's US$249 NOOKcolor e-book reader? Well, if the kids were drooling at the NOOKcolor, now they can start hounding you for their own iPad. Barnes & Noble has released a new free NOOK Kids for iPad app that is specifically designed to play over 230 interactive picture books. More than 50 of the books have professional narrations, including the Thomas and Friends, Richard Scarry and Olivia series. Parents can decide what books are appropriate for kids of different ages by using the "Parent's Corner" to set limits. To sweeten the pot, Barnes & Noble is offering two free interactive books -- Richard Scarry's Colors and Kipling's The Elephant's Child -- when you sign up for the NOOK service and place a credit card number on file with the bookseller. For the adults in the family, Barnes & Noble also provides the free NOOK for iPad app. [via The Mac Observer]
Barnes & Noble Nook trademark applications offer speculation fodder aplenty
So you're Barnes & Noble and you have a successful product like the Nook -- what do you do? Trademark the heck out of the name, of course. As PocketNow has noted, the company's filed a number of Nook-related trademark applications over the past few months, which may offer some hints of future Nook hardware, software, or both. That unsurprisingly includes an application for "Nook2," which was first filed back in June, as well one for the name "Nook Smart" (possibly related to the existing Nook Study education platform?), and one for the impossibly catchy "Nook Cook." Unfortunately, it's not clear which (if any) of those might actually be the name of a new Nook device -- there's also a trademark application for "Nook Kids" with a description similar to "Nook2," for instance, but it may well just be for the company's Nook Kids store and iPad app. The most recent of all the filings is one for "Nooksellers," which appears to be for a combination in-store kiosk and online service that would offer personalized recommendations and various social networking tie-ins. Of course, there's nothing more than the trademark applications to go on at the moment, but it does certainly seem clear that the Nook name is here to stay.
Barnes & Noble launching Nook Kids this week, set to be the Nook Color's killer app?
Say what you want about the current spate of e-books, few will do anything to hold the interest of your three-year-old nephew. To those who like to keep peanut butter and jelly out of the keys if their Kindles that's a good thing, but for Barnes & Noble that's a business opportunity waiting to be tapped. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company will soon launch Nook Kids, a dedicated collection for young readers expected to start with an impressive selection of 12,000 titles. Many of those will be "enhanced," like the book Jamberry, having one page with falling blueberries that kids can pop with a tap. That seems to be further proof of a full touchscreen on the rumored Color Nook, expected to be unveiled this Tuesday. Later in the year look for a Nook Kids app on the iPad and other devices, so now might be a good time to start teaching little Joey about regular hand cleaning. [Thanks, Carson R.]
