nook

Nook goes HD to face-off with Kindle

Wednesday's CNET Update puts a filter on it:

Barnes & Noble added two Nooks to the tablet family that have better screens and faster processors. Arriving in October, there's the 7-inch Nook HD (starting at $200 with 8 GB) and the 9-inch Nook HD+ (starting at $270 with 16 GB). They weigh in lighter than the competition and both have slots to add your own memory cards. But neither has a camera.

Gamers will be interested in the Wikipad, 10.1-inch tablet that has a controller dock with two analog sticks, a directional pad and four buttons. It … Read more

Myspace gets a new face

Tuesday's CNET Update is bringing sexy back to Myspace:

Myspace is getting an extreme makeover. The former king of social media has a video teaser of what the site's relaunch will look like. It's focused around displaying your photos, videos and music in a horizontal-scrolling profile. It looks like a mash-up between Pinterest and Microsoft's Windows 8 interface.

Music is still a major part of Myspace. There's an area to create playlist mixes, and those mixes can also have photos. (You could post a party playlist along with the party photos, for example.) There's … Read more

Nook Video opens new chapter for B&N e-reader

Last year when it launched its Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble strongly hinted that it was looking to add a video service to the device that would allow users to buy and rent movies and television shows.

Well, it took a little longer than expected, but today the company has announced that it's launching Nook Video this fall in the U.S. and the U.K. this "holiday season" with content from major studios, including HBO, Sony, Starz, and Warner Bros, and Disney.

That Barnes & Noble would build its video offering in house is a bit … Read more

Barnes & Noble fixes Nook Simple Touch sync issue

Barnes & Noble has fixed a library syncing issue with new Nook Simple Touch devices after customers took to support forums to complain for at least two weeks.

Barnes & Nobles spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said the issue, which according to the company affected less than 0.3 percent of Nook customers, was resolved overnight.

"We had a temporary and minor glitch as a result of recent internal maintenance," she wrote in an e-mail to CNET today. "All customers should be able to register and sync their devices. We apologize to those few customers affected by this … Read more

Nook Simple Touch users irate that it won't sync their e-books

Barnes & Noble has had "known" connectivity issues with its Nook Simple Touch line for more than two weeks, according to complaints on its customer discussion board.

The customers had trouble syncing their e-book libraries with the new device, an issue that B&N support staff apparently acknowledged individually to customers.

One customer wrote that an online support representative said the issue was server related, but he hoped it would be resolved within 24 to 48 hours. That was two weeks ago.

"My comment to him at the end was -- why are they continuing to … Read more

Barnes & Noble Q1 loss narrows to $40M as Nook sales decline

Barnes & Noble narrowed its fiscal first-quarter loss, but suffered through a few hiccups with its Nook e-reader business.

The book retailer posted a loss of $40.9 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a loss of $56.6 million, or 99 cents a share, from a year ago. Revenue rose only slightly to $1.45 billion from $1.42 billion a year ago.

Analysts, on average, estimated that the company would post a loss of 98 cents on revenue of $1.48 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company's Nook unit, which includes the e-reader and … Read more

Nook line to expand to U.K. with mid-October launch

Barnes & Noble will for the first time expand its Nook business internationally.

The company announced today that its e-readers and digital bookstore will be launching in the U.K. in mid-October. At that time, customers will be able to access the company's e-books, as well as purchase either its Nook Simple Touch or Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight.

As with its service in the U.S., Barnes & Noble will let U.K.-based customers read titles on their Nook or "mobile and computing devices."

The Nook Simple Touch has earned high marks from CNET, landing … Read more

Get a Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet 16GB for $140

It was just the other day that Barnes & Noble cut prices on its Nook tablets, making all three of its top-end models more competitive and more affordable than ever.

But those price cuts can't compare with this: While supplies last, Overstock.com has the refurbished refurbished Nook Tablet 16GB for $140, plus $2.95 for shipping.

(Interestingly, Overstock also has the refurbished Nook Tablet 8GB for $135, but for a mere $5 more, the 16GB model is obviously the much better buy.)

In case you're not familiar with it, the Nook Tablet is a fairly robust Android-powered … Read more

How tweets reveal where you live

Monday's top-story rundown knows where you live:

Just when you think it's safe to tweet, here comes WeKnowYourHouse.com. The site is a social media experiment designed to show how easy it is for tweets to be used against you. If a Twitter user has location turned on, and they send a message with the word "home" in it, then the site will display it along with a Street View image of the location. Similar to PleaseRobMe.com, it showcases how some users may not be aware of how much information they are sharing.

But you … Read more

Barnes & Noble cuts prices on Nook tablets

Barnes & Noble announced a price cut this morning for its line of Nook tablets in an apparent attempt to better compete with the Nexus 7.

The bookseller's 16GB Nook Tablet is now priced at $199, a $50 price cut from its previous $249 price tag, while the 8GB model's price was dropped $20 to $179. The Nook Color's price was also cut $20 to $149.

While the move better positions Barnes & Noble's tablets to compete with Google's Nexus 7, which sells for $199 for the 8GB model and $249 for the 16GB version, … Read more