Android and Me » barnes & noble

Barnes & Noble releases cheaper Nook Tablet to compete with Kindle Fire

Taylor Wimberly — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:31:37 +0000

Last year Amazon and Barnes & Noble released their low-priced Android tablets to for $199 and $249 respectively. The $199 Kindle Fire sold an estimated 3.9 million units while the $249 Nook Tablet sold 1.92 million units. Seeing that customers were responding to the lower price point, Barnes & Noble quickly decided to roll out a cheaper Nook Tablet priced at $199.

The latest addition to the Nook Tablet lineup includes all the same features as the original $249 Nook Tablet with 16 GB storage, but with 8 GB of storage, 512MB of RAM and a lower cost of just $199.

“For any customer who likes to read digitally, watch movies or TV shows, browse the web, or help their kids read and learn through interactive books and apps, our new $199 NOOK Tablet with 8GB is the best product value on the market,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Office of Barnes & Noble.

Starting today, the 8 GB Nook Tablet is available for purchase at nook.com. In the coming weeks the newer Nook Tablet should also be available in Best Buy, Target and Walmart stores. Barnes & Noble also announced that the older Nook Color had been reduced to $169.

Now when customers are looking to purchase an entry-level Android tablet at $199, the choice becomes a little tougher. Both devices feature 7-inch ISP displays, 8 GB storage, 512 MB RAM, heavily customized versions of Android, and their own app stores. They also have their own development communities and we have seen custom ROMs that offer the stock Android experience on both devices.

The only advantage I can see with the Nook Tablet is the inclusion of a microSD card slot for expandable storage, while I believe the Kindle Fire offers a better overall ecosystem of content.

It will be interesting to see if Barnes & Noble can catch up to Amazon in terms of market share. Offering a $199 tablet with competitive specs is a nice start, but they will need to do more to sway customers away from Amazon’s Kindle.

Nook Tablet attempts to one-up Kindle Fire, but is it worth the extra $50?

Taylor Wimberly — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:08:27 +0000

Can Barnes & Noble launch a device that can compete with Amazon’s wildly popular Kindle Fire? Today the oldest and largest book retailer in the US announced the Nook Tablet, which launches next week and will retail for $249. That’s a $50 premium over the $199 Kindle, so let’s take a closer look at the specs to see how they match up.

Hardware highlights of the Nook Tablet include:

1 GHz dual-core OMAP4 processor
1 GB RAM
16 GB internal storage with expandable memory slot
7-inch “VividView” IPS display developed by LG

That means the Nook Tablet tops the Kindle Fire with a better display, twice the RAM (1 GB vs 512 MB), twice the internal storage (16 GB vs 8 GB) and expandable memory.

For those of you thinking about gifting an Android tablet for a friend or family member, the Nook Tablet comes with free in-store support. That could come in very handy for those who don’t want to play the role of tech support for their friends.

Like millions of you out there, I already handed over my $199 for the Kindle Fire pre-order, and I’m not regretting it yet. Barnes & Noble clearly offers slightly superior hardware, but we will have to wait and see which device has the best user experience.

For hands-on impressions, check out Joanna Stern’s take on The Verge. More as it develops…

Show Press Release

Barnes & Noble Introduces NOOK Tablet, Its Fastest, Lightest Tablet with the Best in HD Entertainment

Everything You Want in a Reading and Entertainment Tablet – a Great Value at $249

Popular Movies, TV Shows and Music from Top Services Including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora; Plus Thousands of High-Quality Apps, Web Browsing and Email

Largest Digital Catalog: Books, Newspapers, Interactive Magazines and Children’s Picture Books, and Introducing NOOK Comics

Under a Pound, Breakthrough Battery Life, Best-in-Class Display and Plenty of Memory

Award-Winning NOOK Simple Touch and Highly Popular NOOK Color: Greatly Enhanced and Now Offered at New Incredibly Low Prices

New York, New York – November 7, 2011 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading
retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today expanded its portfolio of
bestselling NOOK devices with the introduction of NOOK Tablet, the company’s fastest and lightest tablet with the best in HD entertainment. NOOK Tablet offers access to popular movies, TV shows, music and more through the top entertainment services, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora and others, plus a collection of high-quality apps, fast Web browsing and email. NOOK Tablet features Barnes & Noble’s award-winning color reading experience, with access to the world’s largest digital bookstore via Wi-Fi. Now available for pre-order at www.nook.com and at Barnes & Noble stores for just $249, NOOK Tablet will be in stores and in homes on or about November 17. Find NOOK Tablet in the newly announced NOOK Digital Shops, which feature the full portfolio of NOOK digital devices and FREE NOOK Reading Apps™ at neighborhood Barnes & Noble stores.

Barnes & Noble also announced enhancements and incredibly new low prices for NOOK Color, the first-ever Reader’s Tablet, and NOOK Simple Touch, the first breakthrough touch E Ink device. The critically acclaimed NOOK Color will be even better next month, with more than 100 feature enhancements, access to top video and music services, popular apps, comics and more – and an even better value at today’s new incredibly low price of $199. The new and improved NOOK Simple Touch features the world’s fastest page turns and longest battery life, and an amazing new price of $99 – with no annoying ads.

“In NOOK Tablet, we’ve created the best wireless media tablet in the portable 7-inch class.
NOOK Tablet’s VividView display has been designed to be the world’s finest screen for
readability and viewing content. We’ve utilized that breakthrough display technology to bring
consumers the largest digital catalog of color and interactive books, magazines, children’s books and high-quality apps through our NOOK Store. Additionally, we’ve seamlessly integrated today’s top entertainment services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Pandora in a product that’s powerful, easy-to-use, under a pound, and a tremendous value at only $249,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “We’re also excited to announce that we’ve lowered the price of our award-winning and recently improved NOOK Simple Touch to just $99, ad-free. Lastly, our incredibly popular NOOK Color has a new low price of only $199, giving customers the ability to enjoy its unparalleled reading experience, apps, Web and email. These three products, at these super-low prices, represent the highest-quality portfolio of reading and entertainment products on the market at the best value. We welcome customers to learn more about our bestselling NOOK product line from our friendly and well-trained NOOKsellers at our new NOOK Digital Shops at their neighborhood Barnes & Noble.”

NOOK Tablet: Built for Speed … and Beauty

NOOK Tablet was designed for customers who want to read and be entertained with a variety of apps and media. Barnes & Noble designed the device for power, speed and responsiveness using the latest and most advanced technology. With a highly tuned 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, there’s plenty of memory to stream HD videos smoothly, browse the Web, and switch between books, magazines, videos and apps effortlessly. Barnes & Noble developed revolutionary battery life with NOOK Tablet, enabling 11.5 hours of reading time or nine hours of video viewing – the equivalent of five full-length movies. Everything looks stunning on NOOK Tablet, which features the world’s most advanced VividView display for viewing content, with 16 million colors and a resolution purity that’s simply gorgeous. Barnes & Noble invested in full IPS lamination to reduce reflection and glare and offer extra-wide viewing angles – perfect for sharing.

Best in Entertainment

NOOK Tablet gives customers the best names in entertainment so they can choose the TV shows and movies they love from leading services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, both pre-loaded on NOOK Tablet and offering free trials. Customers can instantly stream brilliant HD-quality
videos. Also coming soon to NOOK Tablet: Flixster with UltraViolet™, for newly released
movies and TV shows from Warner Bros. and other leading studios. NOOK Tablet owners can listen to millions of songs using the hottest music services, including Pandora, pre-loaded on NOOK Tablet, as well as Rhapsody®, Grooveshark and MOG, all available with a free 14-day trial. NOOK Tablet owners can also listen to their own songs wherever they go with the built-in music player.

Your Reading and Entertainment Content – Anywhere

A powerful HD entertainment machine designed for maximum portability, NOOK Tablet is well under a pound (14.1 oz.), making it one-third lighter than the leading tablet and 10 percent lighter than the award-winning NOOK Color. Sleek and thin with a soft touch back design, NOOK Tablet can be held comfortably for extended periods with just one hand and slips easily into a pocket or purse for reading and entertainment on-the-go. And with 16GB of storage – double the space of some other tablets – plus expandable memory, customers have ample space for their reading and entertainment content, regardless of Wi-Fi availability.

Customers can also access their personal NOOK Library™ through the free, stable and secure
NOOK Cloud™ service, which also powers the seamless integration and synchronization
between devices, as well as NOOK’s best-in-class shopping experience and social features.

Thousands of Must-Have Apps, Web & Email

Barnes & Noble offers NOOK Tablet customers a wide array of top-rated NOOK Apps™ to play, learn, organize and explore with must-haves like Angry Birds Rio and Seasons, SCRABBLE, Epicurious, My Cast Weather, Taptu, Style.com, Spanish for Dummies, Bejeweled® 2, Ms. Pac Man and more. There are hundreds of popular apps for kids, including Dr. Seuss’ Cat in the Hat, Drawing Pad and Pop Up Peter Rabbit. All NOOK Apps are the best, highest-quality versions available, optimized for NOOK Tablet’s beautiful and ultra-responsive 7-inch color touchscreen. By the holidays, Barnes & Noble will offer thousands of high-quality NOOK Apps from leading third-party developers and content providers that can be enjoyed on NOOK Tablet, as well as NOOK Color.

NOOK Tablet also features lightning-fast Web browsing so customers can surf their favorite
sites, from Facebook to YouTube, and stream brilliant HD videos. NOOK Tablet’s built-in email also makes it easy to stay connected with friends and family.

Barnes & Noble’s Award-Winning Reading Experience

NOOK Tablet customers can shop the world’s largest bookstore, featuring more than 2.5 million books, enhanced books, interactive magazines, newspapers, comic books and children’s books. Content downloads lightning-fast, usually in less than 10 seconds over Wi-Fi.

NOOK Newsstand™: Choose from more than 250 newspapers and full-color, interactive magazines, delivered like magic to NOOK Tablet’s Active Shelf on the Home screen as soon as they become available. Barnes & Noble offers the largest digital collection of top 100 magazines, including PEOPLE, Food Network Magazine, Us Weekly, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, TIME, National Geographic and many others. Colorful interactive magazines offer Barnes & Noble’s ArticleView™, new animated page turns and smooth pinch, zoom and panning. Many special edition NOOK Magazines™ feature videos, quizzes, image galleries and more.
New NOOK Comics: Barnes & Noble is offering a vast new collection of full-color comics, graphic novels and kids’ comics in high resolution that virtually make the action jump off the page. NOOK Comics will feature the world’s greatest superheroes with the largest digital collection of Marvel’s graphic novels available through a third party, as well as titles from other leading publishers, including Archie, IDW and Dynamite.
. NOOK Kids™: This holiday’s largest collection of more than 1,000 interactive children’s picture books and more than 12,000 chapter books just got even better. Bestselling books feature animation and engaging activities. With the new Read and Record™ feature, parents and grandparents can use NOOK Tablet’s built-in microphone to record and save their reading of any NOOK Kids picture books so children can listen to their favorite storytellers anytime.
More to read: Barnes & Noble continues to expand its NOOK Bookstore™ with the vast majority of books available for $9.99 or less. New PagePerfect™ NOOK Books™ feature cookbooks, craft and art books rendered with rich precision to retain all the beauty of their stunning print versions.
Enhanced reading: Reading is even more dynamic with PDF thumbnail page views, and image pinch, zoom and pan in books and PDFs.
Unparalleled recommendations: Learn what to read next from Barnes & Noble’s knowledgeable booksellers, from must-read new releases to up-and-coming authors. Barnes & Noble’s personalized recommendations are based on what customers already love. In any book a customer is reading, a simple tap on the new NOOK Discover™ icon offers instant recommendations.
Get more social: NOOK Tablet now makes it easier than ever for customers to share their reading experience with friends. They can connect with Facebook friends and others through NOOK Friends™, and find out what they have to say about their books, magazines and newspapers. Customers can also share their thoughts about the books they’re reading via email, Facebook and Twitter. Owners can share books, as well as browse and borrow books, from NOOK Friends using Barnes & Noble’s exclusive LendMe® technology.
Continuous reading: Read what you love, anywhere you like™ on NOOK devices and with FREE NOOK Reading Apps. NOOK Cloud automatically syncs a customer’s library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across all of their devices, so a customer can start a book on NOOK Tablet, and dive back in on their computer or smartphone.
NOOK Color: Even Better, Now $199

The highly acclaimed, bestselling NOOK Color will be even better starting in December with
Barnes & Noble’s largest software update ever and a new low price of just $199 starting today. The first ever Reader’s Tablet, NOOK Color combines an award-winning reading experience with tablet essentials including apps, Web and email. The millions of existing NOOK Color customers will automatically receive the update at no cost via Wi-Fi, beginning in early December. Highlights, also available on NOOK Tablet, include:

More entertainment and apps: NOOK Color customers will be able to download Netflix to watch movies and TV shows. Hulu Plus will also be available for NOOK Color in the coming months. Customers will enjoy top music services and thousands of apps including games, children’s apps and many others.
Read your way: Customers requested the flexibility to read books in portrait or landscape and adjust the text with even more font sizes to choose from. The most user-friendly library: Customers will have faster, easier access to all of their content. NOOK Library is organized with tabs for books, magazines, newspapers and apps. The magazine display shows virtual stacks of covers with dates so customers can just tap on the issue they want and dive in.
Enhanced shopping: NOOK’s amazing new Shop experience makes it easier than ever for customers to find their next great book, kid’s book, newsstand title or app. The NOOK Store™ is even easier to use, and more social and streamlined to show the breadth of content.
Customers get suggestions based on their favorite authors, reviews and recommendations
from their NOOK Friends plus top NOOK Newsstand picks, free trials and new NOOK
Daily Finds.

NOOK Simple Touch: Best Reader, Best Price

The award-winning NOOK Simple Touch now has the most advanced E Ink display with
lightning-fast page turns – 25 percent faster than any other E Ink product on the market. Best-
Text from Barnes & Noble meticulously optimizes each letter so words are ultra-crisp and
clear, even in bright sunlight. NOOK Simple Touch has an ergonomic, contoured design with a soft-touch back that makes it easy and comfortable to read, even with just one hand, and for
extended periods of time. And Barnes & Noble has extended NOOK Simple Touch’s best-in-
class battery life even further for its customers who love to read for long stretches. On a single
charge, customers can now read for up to 2 months for one hour a day. NOOK Simple Touch
also puts the focus on reading with no annoying ads, and instead lets customers personalize their screensaver with their own photos.

Now just $99, still with no ads, NOOK Simple Touch is the world’s best reader at the world’s
best value and a must-have this holiday season for anyone who loves to read. Existing NOOK
Simple Touch customers can also enjoy these new benefits through a free v1.1 software update available today for immediate download at www.nook.com/update. Customers can also receive the free update over the air when connected to Wi-Fi in the coming weeks.

Give the Gift of Reading

This holiday, Barnes & Noble will make it easier for customers to give the gift of reading.
Whether shopping in a Barnes & Noble bookstore, or beginning next month, online at BN.com, customers can give any NOOK Book or NOOK App as gifts. NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color customers will also be able to apply their Barnes & Noble gift cards – physical or digital – while shopping on their devices.

Availability

NOOK Tablet can be pre-ordered for $249 today and is expected to be in stores and in homes
late next week, in plenty of time for the holidays. Experience NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color and NOOK Simple Touch at www.nook.com or at the NOOK Digital Shops and displays in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores and other leading retailers. Barnes & Noble offers Always Free NOOK Support in all of its neighborhood bookstores, with more than 40,000 NOOKsellers across the country ready to assist customers with setting up their NOOK devices or choosing their next great read.

About NOOK from Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble’s NOOK brand of eReading products makes it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Store of more than 2.5 million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. The new NOOK Tablet is Barnes & Noble’s fastest, lightest tablet with the best in
HD entertainment from top services and everything you want in a tablet at a great value ($249). Both NOOK Tablet and the award-winning NOOK Color ($199) feature a stunning 7-inch VividView Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love, shop popular apps, connect via email, browse the Web and more. The NOOK Simple Touch ($99), is the fastest, easiest to use reader with the world’s best reading screen and the longest battery life.
Barnes & Noble offers NOOK owners Always Free NOOK Support in any of its more than 700 bookstores, as well as free Wi-Fi connectivity to enjoy the Read In Store™ feature to read NOOK Books™ for free, and the More In Store program, which offers free, exclusive content and special promotions. Barnes & Noble was the first company to offer digital lending for a wide selection of books through its LendMe technology, available through NOOK
eReading products. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.BN.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Target, Radio Shack, Books A-Million, OfficeMax, Fred Meyer, P.C. Richard & Son stores, Fry’s Electronics and Systemax Inc. retailers.

In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its FREE NOOK Reading Apps, available at www.nook.com/freenookapps. Customers can use Barnes & Noble’s free eReading software to access and read books from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library on
devices including iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android smartphones and tablets, PC and Mac. Lifetime Library helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on NOOK products and software-enabled devices and BN.com. Barnes & Noble also offers NOOK Study (www.nookstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education, NOOK Kids
(www.nookkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children, and NOOK Books en español (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooksenespanol), the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States.

For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOK Book releases, Free Friday™ NOOK Books and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/nookBN and www.facebook.com/nookBN.

Meet NOOKcolor, coming to Barnes & Noble on Nov. 19

Taylor Wimberly — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:03:57 +0000

It’s an e-reader. It’s a tablet. Meet the NOOKcolor by Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble just unveiled the successor to the original NOOK, which is a 7 inch Android-powered tablet that claims to be “The ultimate reading experience”. The NOOKcolor is already available for pre-order on bn.com at $249 and is expected to ship around November 19th.

Considering that the NOOKcolor is targeted at moms, kids, and families I expect it will be one of the hottest gifts this Christmas season. The original NOOK pre-order exceeded all expectation and orders were heavily delayed, so if you are considering getting one then order early. Hopefully B&N will be ready this year to keep up with demand.

Details on the actual tech specs are limited at this point, but we know NOOKcolor is based off Android 2.1. We know the “VividView” display is made by LG and features 16 million colors at a 1024×600 resolution. Internal storage is set at 8 GB which can hold six thousand books out of the box. If that’s not enough, a microSD slot allows for expanded storage. The NOOKcolor also features built-in WiFi, but there is no 3G support this time around.

Probably the most exciting thing announced for the Android community is NOOK Developer. Developers will be able to create their own apps for the NOOKcolor and then sell them to millions of users through Barnes & Noble’s own app store. The NOOKcolor SDK will be available in the coming weeks and will allow you to quickly and easily optimize your application for our e-reading platform.

In addition to being sold at Barnes & Noble, look for the NOOKcolor (along with NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi) at your local Best Buy, Walmart, and Books-A-Million in late November.

For a full run down of all the reasons the NOOKcolor could be the ultimate reading experience, check out the official Barnes & Noble blog.

Highlights of the NOOKcolor include:

Stunning 7-inch VividView Color Touchscreen and a thin, beautiful and highly portable design
The first full-color touch device dedicated to reading everything and built on Android
Access to the largest bookstore with an unprecedented selection of over two million digital titles a single search away
Read bestsellers to favorite magazines in full color, and interactive children’s picture books and enhanced cookbooks
Easy and fast book downloads in seconds over Wi-Fi
The most social reading device ever built; you’re only touches away from sharing with friends via Facebook, Twitter and email.
The new LendMe App, which enables NOOKcolor users to view LendMe books in their friends’ Barnes & Noble digital libraries and request to borrow a title they’ve been meaning to read
8GB of space plus expandable memory to store it all your digital books, magazines, newspapers and children’s books

New to Nook: Apps, browser, Read in Store

Taylor Wimberly — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:11:27 +0000

Barnes & Noble released their first major software update (v1.3) for the Nook which added several exciting features for e-reader fans. Read in Store, a feature announced back at launch, is now available when inside a Barnes & Noble store. Users can read any section of any e-book for free (but only 1 hour per day).

The Nook also received its first Android apps. A new games section includes versions of sudoku and chess. Neither game was that impressive to me, but what do you expect on an e-ink display? At least B&N is developing some games and should expand the lineup in the future.

Finally a beta web browser was added which lets users visit their favorite sites and read email. The touch screen at the bottom of the Nook is used for scrolling and zooming, while the e-ink display shows a larger view of the site. Performance was a little sluggish and features were limited, but it’s a nice bonus for existing Nook owners.

Other enhancements included an overall performance boost, faster page turns, touch screen improvements, and easier navigation. The main UI received a refresh and shortcuts were added to the audio player and WiFi settings.

Overall, I was really impressed with the update. It took around five minutes to install and I’ve experienced no problems at all. Several of the new features are clearly marked beta, which is a good sign more updates are coming. I would really love to see B&N release a Nook SDK so the community can begin to build some apps and then think about an app store.

YouTuber weggingt uploaded a video walk-through of the new features.

Highlights of the software upgrade include:

The breakthrough Read In Store experience, now in beta, which allows you to read complete eBooks in Barnes & Noble stores.
Sudoku and Chess
Wi-Fi® connectivity in more hotspots and a beta basic Web browser. Plus, additional reading and performance improvements, such as faster page turns and an enhanced home screen.

Good Morning Andy: 2.22.10

Taylor Wimberly — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:41:45 +0000

This is an experiment. I’m going to attempt to write a daily column Monday-Friday that covers early morning news and stories that broke overnight. There are so many stories that we pass over so each morning I will choose 3-5 items that might not deserve a full post, but they are still interesting.

T-Mobile exec talks Nexus One issues, Android OS updates – Cole Brodman was talking at Mobile World Congress last week and he shared a few details about Android updates. He said the G1 and myTouch 3G would receive updates together (2.1?), while other devices would follow a less regular schedule. Devices like the Motorola CLIQ will till longer to receive updates because of “integration issues” caused by the manufacturer-specific interface Motoblur.
Android Developer (Java) at Barnes & Noble.com – Barnes & Noble new mantra is: “any book, any time, anywhere”. This includes devices like the Nook and now an eReader application for Android. The company is now looking for an Android developer to help build the best eReader for Android devices.
Hands-on and under the hood: Ars tests Firefox on Android – Remember the sneak peek of Firefox running on the Nexus One? The guys from Ars have compiled the desktop Firefox using the Android NDK for a closer look. If you want to attempt building your own browser (or just see their results) head over for a detailed report.
Video hands-on: New HTC Sense ported to the Nexus One – with Flash 10.1! – Phil Nickinson from Android Central took the leaked Desire ROM and flashed it on a Nexus One. He has an 8 minute video up that gives a nice walkthrough of the new Sense UI. The leaked ROM is said to include a version of Flash, but some of the other components (like Maps) are older than ones found on the N1.

Today’s Android Events

AndroidGuys Podcast – Every Monday night is the AndroidGuys podcast hosted by Scott Webster. Tune in live and come join the chat room. If you can’t make the show, be sure to subscribe using Google Listen or your favorite podcast application.

Barnes & Noble Nook receives first update

Taylor Wimberly — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:29:09 +0000

The Barnes & Noble Nook (Android’s first eReader) has only been out a couple weeks and the first update has begun rolling out. The new 1.1.0 update is reported to focus on bug fixes and performance tweaks.

I’m one of the lucky few (reportedly 2,000) to own a Nook so I went ahead and performed the update to snap some pics (see below).

I have only spent a few minutes with the update, but the overall navigation does feel improved. I read it every day so I will need to spend some more time with it to see what else is new. Our friends over at nookDevs are reporting that the new update does not block root access for those who hacked their device.

NookDevs is also reporting the following changes for the 1.1.0 update:

Page turning and formatting of downloaded e-books has been improved.
Start-up time for My Library, The Daily, and Setting has been improved.
Barnes & Noble in-store content and promotions roll-out is fully supported.
Launches reader immediately on Select from The Daily and My Library for books and subscriptions that have already been downloaded.
Reading Now takes customer straight into the last book page read without reformatting the content.
Displays the correct time on the status bar.
No longer unprompted to the home screen when pressing the arrow or the select button.
Displays correct error-message for pre-ordering books that are not yet available.

Nook rooted: How-to and teardown pics

Taylor Wimberly — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:19:56 +0000

The Nook was released less than one week ago and the device has already been hacked. Our friends over at nookDevs tore down the device and discovered the operating system was being stored on a standard microSD card. They popped the SD card into a reader on a computer and made the necessary edits to the file system to obtain root access and enable ADB.

Now that a system dump of Nook operating system is available, it should be easier to exploit. I expect we could eventually see an easier hack that does not require tearing down the system.

Since gaining root access, the devs have been able to launch applications on the e-ink display including the terminal emulator. Since the Nook has a GSM SIM card and WiFi adapter, it will be interesting to see what kind of tethering hacks can be produced.

The Nook gets free unlimited data on AT&T’s 3G network, but surely they have it walled in somehow.

Devs are currently working to backport applications from the stock Android install. Hopefully we should have some screens of the web browser by tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what other cool hacks can be done with the OS.

The internals of the Nook included:

Samsung S3C6410 Processor
Synaptics TM1369 Touchscreen controller
Internal 2GB Sandisk microSD card for internal storage
Sierra Wireless MC8777V wireless modem in data only mode

For a complete how-to, visit the nookDevs rooting wiki.

The inside of a Nook.

Nook to receive its first software update

Taylor Wimberly — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:45:02 +0000

As some of you guys know, we got a Nook and I think it is one of the coolest gadgets I’ve ever owned. I’m a huge Android nut and I’ve never used a Kindle (so my opinion is biased), but the Nook has exceeded all my expectations.

When I look at my Nook, I see huge potential because it is powered by Android. Either Barnes & Noble will open up the device and allow devs to release applications for it or hackers will root the device and create their own black market for apps. I can already picture using a web browser, RSS reader, and Gmail from my Nook.

According to nookDevs, it sounds like the first software update (of many) is on its way. They have several reports that claim Barnes & Noble could be pushing out the first update this weekend. We expect the update to be minor and focus on bug fixes since the device just came out this week.

Stay tuned for our full review of the first, Android-powered electronic reader. I wanted to spend a couple more days with the device before posting my final judgment. Leave a comment if you have any questions and I will try to address them.

Hands on the Nook, unboxing and initial thoughts (photos + video)

Clark Wimberly — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:09:28 +0000

The Nook has finally arrived. And while a full review is still on the way, today we thought we’d better get up an unboxing with initial impressions and photos of the hottest e-reader on the market this Christmas season.

It arrived late last night via UPS and we’ve only just opened it and played with a short period of time but so far I’m impressed. It feels very svelte and sturdy in my hands. All the buttons seemed to be in natural places and the e-ink screen looks just phenomenal. It looks sharp and clean from all angles. Overall the unit feels rather petite, although I’ve never used a Kindle so I don’t really have a real point of comparison.

The color touch-screen down below is a nice bonus. Seeing the covers of the books and being able to swipe through large lists is a definite plus.

The Nook isn’t the snappiest though, the boot-up and first load of some titles requires some patience. Thankfully this should improve with future software updates. The e-ink screen flickers a tiny bit when refreshing but the annoyance is minimal.

Below you’ll find a 10 minute walk-through of Taylor first opening his Nook and a gallery of Nook photos (full flickr set here). In the next few days we hope to shoot some more video of this thing and get a full review online. Let us know if there are any specific sequences you’d like to see on video or any points you’d like us to test or cover in the review and we’ll do our best to answer everyone.

Currently the Nook is back-ordered but Barnes & Noble is scheduled to send out the next round on January 11 (subject to change of course). Remember, the sooner you order a Nook, the sooner you are likely to receive it.

Nook pre-orders get delayed

Taylor Wimberly — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:35:36 +0000

We already knew Nook pre-orders had exceeded all expectations, but it appears Barnes & Noble has encountered some other issues with their supply chain (maybe). I read early this week that the Nook’s in store date had slipped to January 11th and just today I received word that my pre-order had been delayed.

Barnes & Noble had sent me several emails informing me to expect my Nook “on or around November 30th”. Unfortunately, they missed their target date and I received a new email which says to expect the Nook by December 9, 2009. In order to compensate customers for the delay, Barnes & Noble has upgraded early pre-orders to overnight shipping and began handing out $10 gift cards.

Some sites are speculating that B&N’s legal troubles with Spring Design (remember the Alex?) could be the source of the most recent delay. Spring Design had been trying to get an official injunction (claiming their design was stolen) to halt the sale of the Nook, but it was denied. The court recognized there was a “genuine dispute” between the two parties so B&N is not out of the woods yet.

Anyone who wants a Nook for the holidays is pretty much out of luck if they did not pre-order. I have seen Nooks on eBay going has high as $500-600 and I expect the price to keep climbing as we approach Christmas.

Amazon appears to be the big winner in this story. They now offer their Kindle for $259.99 and have reported sales are going through the roof.

E-mail from B&N.