nook

Buzz Out Loud 1237: Facebook privacy hangover (podcast)

Our verdict on Facebook's privacy retool: well ... we're tough graders. Also today, will Steve Ballmer show up at the WWDC keynote? Palm loses its mobile UI design guy to Android, which is good news for Android, but continuing bad news for Palm and WebOS. Also, introducing Darth Vader's Dog.

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Google Latitude gives you an alibi

Links from Thursday morning's episode of Loaded:

Barnes and Noble launches an iPad app to sell books from the Nook store

Google Latitude will now track where you've been

BillShrink can help you compare cable and satellite TV services in your area

The iPhone 4G may launch on Sprint, not Verizon. Keyword: may.

Pandigital, B&N partner on $200 color e-reader

If you know of Pandigital, you probably know it for its photo frames. However, the company is moving into the hot e-book reader market with a device that a lot of people have been waiting for: an affordable color screen e-book reader with ties to a major bookseller.

Integrated with the Barnes & Noble's  e-book store, the Pandigital Novel is an Android-powered e-book reader that has a full color 7-inch touch-screen display, Wi-Fi connectivity, and multimedia capabilities. According to Pandigital, the reader will cost $199.99 when it ships in June.

While we're surprised to see Barnes & Noble partnering with Pandigital, but as anybody who has played around with the iPad knows, it's not a big leap from digital photo frame to e-book reader. Judging by the Novel's press shots, it looks a lot like the rumored smaller version of the iPad that some sites and analysts have been alluding to. That said, the Novel 800x600-pixel resolution display isn't as sharp as the iPad's is, and its resistive touch-screen interface--while responsive--isn't as responsive the iPad's capacitive touch-screen interface is.

An Arm 11 processor powers the Novel, which measures 7.5 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 16 ounces. It has 1GB of built-in memory and has an expansion slot for SD/MMC memory cards--with support for cards up to 32GB in capacity. Pandigital rates its Novel's battery life at six hours in reading mode.  That's not a terrible battery life, but it's neither near the iPad's battery life nor the battery life of dedicated e-ink-based e-book readers, such as the Amazon Kindle, that don't have to be recharged for days or even weeks.

While the Novel has multimedia features as well as a built-in Web browser, e-mail client, calendar, and alarm, Pandigital is billing its new devices first and foremost as an e-book reader. According to the company, Novel owners will have "easy access to Barnes & Noble's expansive eBookstore catalog of more than one million eBooks, newspapers and magazines, a wide variety of free eBooks and more than half a million free classics." Novel users can also use Barnes & Noble LendMe feature that lets you share certain e-books with friends and family for 14 days; however, currently you can only lend a book out once. … Read more

Analyst says Nook selling better than Kindle

The Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader shipped more than Amazon's Kindle in March, DigiTimes Research claims in a new study.

According to DigiTimes, it consulted "suppliers" of the e-readers to determine how many units shipped. Based on that information, the researchers found that the Nook "accounted for 53 percent of e-book readers shipped to U.S. vendors last month." The company didn't provide data on how much of the market the Kindle took, but based on the fact that the Nook accounted for more than half of all shipments in March, the researchers concluded … Read more

B&N delivers meaty Nook update, teases iPad app

When Barnes & Noble launched the Nook e-book reader late last year, the company said it would offer unique features such as e-book lending, free in-store streaming of many titles, and Android apps that would run on the color touch screen at the bottom of the device. Well, after releasing two smaller firmware updates that mainly focused on fixing bugs, improving performance, and tweaking the user interface, Barnes & Noble has finally rolled out a more substantial update that includes the extra features it originally promised would set the Nook apart from Amazon's Kindle.

While the lending feature has been available for several months, one of the key additions is the Read in Store wireless streaming feature. Once the new firmware is installed (version 1.3 should be automatically pushed to your device once you connect to a Wi-Fi network and check for new content in your library), you'll be able to read certain books from the company's e-book catalog free of charge on your Nook when you're in a Barnes & Noble store (free Wi-Fi is offered in stores). As previously reported, you can only access a title for up to an hour per day, but you could return on subsequent days to continue reading. Alternatively, you could also just sit in a store and read a hard copy of the book at your leisure, but that's so old-school.

Barnes & Noble didn't specify just how many books would be available for free streaming, but company reps said that at launch content would be available from all the major publishers and that some bestsellers would be on the list. (We'll be checking just how much content is actually available in the next few days).

Additionally, Barnes & Noble has added two Android games to the Nook--chess and sudoku--along with a Web browser that's labeled with the "beta" tag.

It's also important to note that because the device can now access the Web, you can log in to Wi-Fi networks that require authentication via a Web page. Nook owners have been asking for the ability to access more public Wi-Fi hot spots since the e-reader's launch. The firmware is also supposed to fix some outstanding bugs, including a freezing problem that affected certain units, and to speed up page turns (yes, they do seem faster).

Here's the quick rundown of what's new in v1.3:

Read in Store wireless streaming of certain e-book titles Web browser Two Android games (chess, sudoku) Bug fixes (allegedly addresses freezing problem with certain units) User interface and performance tweaks (faster page turns)

In advance of the update, we got a demo of the Read in Store feature at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan, and the streaming appeared to work just fine. While only e-books will be available for launch, company reps said the ability to stream periodicals would be added in the near future.

The demo was conducted in an in-store Barnes & Noble Cafe, and a couple of tables away from us, a patron was flipping through a few magazines he'd borrowed from the nearby magazine rack as he sipped coffee. At another table, a customer was using B&N's free Wi-Fi to surf the Web on his iPad, which begged the question, when would we see a new B&N eReader iPad app? … Read more

Rumor: Nook 2, Nook Lite coming later this year

Gizmodo is reporting that it has been tipped off about a couple of new Nook devices that will be released later this year. While there are no details about the so-called Nook 2, an update of the current Barnes & Noble e-book reader, the other Nook device will be a "lite" version that's Wi-Fi-only.

Both should include an integrated Web browser, as the software update reportedly due next week for the current Nook will grant it a full browser among other updates.

That all sounds plausible, as does the $199 price point for the "lite" … Read more

Best Buy hooks up with Nook

Barnes & Noble's Nook e-book reader will be getting wider exposure via Best Buy stores.

The Nook is due to be available to consumers at Best Buy retail outlets in the U.S. starting April 18, along with accessories such as covers and screen protectors, and free BN eReader software, the two companies said Monday.

The broader retail campaign comes hot on the heels of the Apple iPad going on sale amid intense media coverage and strong consumer interest. Not a dedicated e-reader like the Nook or Amazon's Kindle, the iPad tablet still promises to give people yet … Read more

Hands-on: The Apple iPad as e-book reader

Update (10:00pm PT): Just hours before the Apple iPad is set to go on sale, Amazon has made the iPad-optimized version of its Kindle app available. Like the iPhone version, it's free, and can access any Kindle books purchased through your Amazon account. We have not had a chance to load the new iPad version of the Kindle reader on an iPad yet, but screenshots indicate it had a similar bookshelf feature and page-turning animations. This is a surprising development, as Amazon had previously claimed they would not have the app available on April 3. Original post continues below.

At first glance, the new Apple iPad includes most of the features we've been complaining are missing from the current generation of specialized e-book readers, namely the Amazon Kindleand the Barnes & Noble Nook.

If one were to build from scratch a device for reading books and periodicals onscreen, there's a good chance it would include a touch screen for navigating and flipping pages; a color display for illustrations, photos, and book covers; and--infrequently mentioned but still important--the ability to download and read e-books from several different sources.

The current Kindle DXhas a display size similar to the iPad's, at 9.7-inches. But from a features standpoint, the iPad blows away the Kindle. In addition to its color screen, it's got a laundry list of functions above and beyond its e-book reader capabilities: a robust (albeit Flash-less) Web browser; built-in iTunes audio and video playback; photo viewing; and access to the entire library of tens of thousands of iPhone apps (let alone new, iPad-optimized ones that are just coming online).

Some first impressions when comparing the reading experience on both devices:

The screen: The Kindle's e-paper display has plenty of fans, with many agreeing with Amazon's sales pitch that the flat matte screen is easier on the eyes than backlit displays. It also makes the device readable in brightly lit environments, including direct sunlight. By contrast, the bright, colorful display on the iPad really pops at first glance. And it's backlit, so you can read in complete darkness. The question is: will that remain comfortable over long periods? During our short time with the device, we found the iPad's highly reflective glass screen to be problematic--we were always shifting angles to avoid seeing the reflection of overhead lights. (The iPhone may have the same issue, but it seems less problematic on its smaller screen.) Like many things, this is going to be a personal preference--but we'd give the Kindle (and other E-ink readers) the nod for brightly lit environments, while the iPad wins for darker ones. Meanwhile, if color is a necessity, the iPad wins hands-down.

Software--iBooks versus Kindle Reader: We were able to load up the Apple iBook reader on our iPad and we were impressed with many of the iBook features, including its browsable collection of book covers, the ability to see two pages at once in landscape mode, and the easy-to-use timeline at the bottom, which shows you the page count as you fast-forward through the book.

There's a cool page-turning animation as well, but that may get old rather quickly. Still, it beats the full-screen page flash that happens when you turn a page on a Kindle. … Read more

Smartwords aims to make readers smarter

If you've ever been immersed in a book and felt that some of its literary references were sailing over your head, a proposed software standard unveiled on Tuesday could make you a whole lot more erudite.

Known as Smartwords, the would-be standard is spearheaded by a start-up called Wordnik, and supported by media big shots like The New York Times, Forbes, the Huffington Post, O'Reilly Media, Vook, Ibis, Scribd, and the Internet Archive. The goal? To build a map of the English language, said Wordnik CEO Erin McKean.

Officially, the company refers to Smartwords as "a lightweight, … Read more