Barnes & Noble has announced its latest quarterly financial results, and the retailer has its digital arm to thank for its 1-percent year-on-year sales growth. According to the results, online sales – including NOOK and ebooks – increased 59-percent over last year, whereas in-store sales decreased by 3-percent. B&N now reckons it has around 20-percent of the ebook market.
The popularity of digital devices and content – together with other recently expanded departments, such as Toys & Games which saw a 42-percent sales increase – has left Barnes & Noble confident about predicting $170m to $205m EBITDA for the full year. As for talk of selling the company, B&N’s special committee is still looking into the possibility and “meeting with both strategic and financial institutions.”
Press Release:
Barnes & Noble Reports Fiscal 2011 Second Quarter Financial Results Barnes & Noble.com Comparable Sales Increase 59% – Driven By Digital Initiatives
Barnes & Noble Launches NOOKcolor™ to Critical Acclaim
Holiday Sales Off to a Strong Start
New York, NY (November 30, 2010) – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today reported sales and earnings for its fiscal 2011 second quarter ended October 30, 2010.
SECOND QUARTER RESULTS
Total sales for the second quarter were $1.9 billion, including sales of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers (“College”) of $798 million. Excluding College, total sales increased 1% over the prior year period. Comparable sales at Barnes & Noble.com increased 59% driven by increases in core products and sales of digital devices and digital content. Barnes & Noble comparable store sales decreased by 3.3% and College’s comparable store sales decreased by 1.5%.
The expansion of the Toys & Games department at Barnes & Noble stores produced a 42% sales increase for the department during the second quarter. In the third quarter, the company began testing additional concepts, including an expanded children’s offering and digital and electronics accessories, to drive further sales increases in 2011.
For the second quarter, the company reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $46 million. The consolidated second quarter net loss was $12.6 million, or $0.22 per share, in-line with previously issued guidance of earnings of $0.05 per share to a loss of $0.25 per share.
As previously announced, the company continued to invest heavily in digital initiatives including: software and cloud services development costs; expenses relating to NOOKcolor; the addition of hundreds of thousands of titles to its digital catalog including a subscription management platform for digital newspapers and magazines; creating interactive proprietary content for children’s books; developing applications to serve multiple reading and smartphone devices – including iPad®, iPhone®, Android™ and BlackBerry®; and the rollout of NOOK Boutiques in Barnes & Noble retail stores.
The additional investments are expected to continue and peak during the second half of the year, and then increase moderately in the years ahead. Payoff for these expenses is estimated to begin to appear in the third quarter, when NOOKcolor is expected to be one of the world’s most sought after eReaders, and in the third and fourth quarters, when NOOKcolor owners will begin downloading digital content, including books and magazines.
BARNES & NOBLE LAUNCHES NOOKcolor
At the end of the second quarter, Barnes & Noble launched NOOKcolor, the first Reader’s Tablet that enables customers to purchase interactive digital content on a full color touchscreen. Concurrent with the introduction of NOOKcolor, the company introduced NOOKnewsstand™ and NOOKkids™, enabling customers to access periodicals, magazines, and interactive children’s books. Additional device features include web browsing, the ability to listen to music and much more.
NOOKcolor has received widespread critical acclaim from many technology publications, including The Wall Street Journal, which called the product “a winner.” Orders for NOOKcolor significantly exceeded the company’s expectations, and since going on sale on November 16, 2010, it has become the single bestselling product at Barnes & Noble.
“Since launching our eBookstore in the second half of last year, Barnes & Noble has quickly captured approximately 20% of the exploding eBook market. We have plans to grow our share well beyond 20%, and the early success of NOOKcolor is encouraging,” said William Lynch, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. “Selling digital content is becoming a big business for us that we expect to grow at exciting rates. Based upon the double-digit comparable store sales achieved over the past weekend, we are further convinced that eReaders and accessories will be a key holiday gift item and driver of holiday sales this year, leading to accelerating eContent sales in the quarters and years ahead. We’re continuing to invest in this opportunity to build the most expansive catalog of digital content available for sale, the best reading software on the market, and devices that deliver the most innovative digital reading experiences.”
GUIDANCE
Barnes & Noble.com’s comparable sales are expected to increase by approximately 75% for both the third quarter and the full year. The company believes these sales increases will be driven primarily by growing sales in core products and the exploding digital content business. By fiscal year end, the company expects that digital content sales will achieve a $400 million full-year run-rate.
Barnes & Noble comparable store sales are expected to increase between 5% and 7% for the third quarter, and to be in a range of flat to 3% for the full year. Increases in sales will be largely driven by sales of NOOK™ devices and accessories, and by increases in children’s products and other non-book merchandise.
During the three-day post-Thanksgiving weekend, the company experienced a strong comparable store sales increase of 17.2% at Barnes & Noble stores and a comparable sales increase of 105.7% online.
College’s comparable store sales are expected to be in a range of flat to a decrease of 2% for the third quarter and the full year.
The company expects to achieve EBITDA of approximately $160 to $190 million and $170 million to $205 million, for the third quarter and the full year, respectively. Third quarter earnings per share are expected to be in a range of $0.90 to $1.20. Full-year fiscal 2011 losses per share are expected to be in a range of $0.75 to $1.15.
BARNES & NOBLE DECLARES QUARTERLY DIVIDEND
The company’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share payable on December 31, 2010 to stockholders of record on December 10, 2010. At the end of the second quarter, the company had borrowings of approximately $377 million under its $1 billion revolving credit facility. The company’s financial position remains strong and the revolving credit facility provides ample room for the company to fund its strategic investments.
UPDATE ON STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVE PROCESS
As previously announced on August 3, 2010, Barnes & Noble’s Board of Directors has created a Special Committee to review strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the company. This review process is currently ongoing and the company is meeting with both strategic and financial institutions.
There can be no assurance that the review of strategic alternatives will result in a sale of the company or in any other transaction. There is no timetable for the review, and the company does not intend to comment further regarding the evaluation of strategic alternatives, until a specific transaction is recommended by the Special Committee or the process is concluded.
CONFERENCE CALL
A conference call with Barnes & Noble, Inc.’s senior management will be webcast beginning at 10:00 A.M. ET on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, and is accessible at www.barnesandnobleinc.com/webcasts.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. will report holiday sales on or about January 6, 2011.
As you may well know if you’ve been following especially closely, we were supposed to be FINISHED with our review of the NOOKcolor – the final word was just laid down earlier today, right? It went by the name A Week with NOOKcolor: 3rd Party Apps and Final Wrap-Up and spoke of everything that was outside the hardware and the reading experience. But what’s that? You say I’ve forgotten to talk about reading books you’ve downloaded from sources outside of Barnes and Noble? And wait, what happened at basically the same time that post was posted – a root? Let’s talk!
Let’s talk first about loading some books you’ve downloaded some books and documents and such in PDF form and you’d like to know if you’d be able to read them on NOOKcolor – the answer is yes. You certainly do not get the same controls over the text that you get over Barnes and Noble distributed books, magazines, and newspapers, but you do get another set of controls that, hey, aren’t all that bad.
Manually Loaded Books
Each PDF book I’ve downloaded here has opened without hassle. If you remember the battle it is to get a video file working, you’ll know that this is an excellent sign – just as easy as it was to get photos and music files loaded, come to think of it. Each PDF not only loads seemingly as quick as the last, but flicking through pages (up and down, not left and right as you would in a B&N book), is quick and nice too. Each PDF file is instantly added to your library in the Books section, but does not appear to show up on your desktop with your recently read or updated items. Inside each book, full color works, and there’s that BACK BUTTON!
I KNEW it had to be somewhere here in the system, that ever-helpful back button that should, by all means, be present in the rest of the OS. But I’ll settle for knowing it exists here for now. It is a bit confusing to see it exist only here though, as it doesn’t just pull you back out of a PDF, it brings you back from the PDF menu too – this tells me the back button might be working everywhere by the time they send out an update for this device.
In the controls for how you’re able to view these unofficial books, you’re able to zoom in close, fit a single page to page (helpful single button incase you’re zoomed WAY in,) fit width incase you just want to get that far out of a large vertical document, go to page (allowing you to go to any page by just typing in a number), properties (this is neat and strange in that it just tells you the name of the file you’re looking at and how many KB in size it is), and About.
What About tells you is that you’re not just looking at this document in some no-name document viewer – nay! You’re viewing it in Quickoffice. It’s Quickoffice 3.3.44 to be precise, and I’m sure it’s directly to thank for the excellence found in this viewing of third-party documents. OH and also you can turn NOOKcolor on its side and view pages in landscape mode the same way you’d be able to if you were viewing a children’s book or magazine.
What the Root?
If you’ll take a look over to this NOOKcolor Rooted! thread, you’ll see that indeed those clever turnips over at XDA Developers Forum have discovered their way into the insides of the NOOKcolor, allowing first and foremost a playable NOOKcolor version of Angry Birds. What does this mean for NOOKcolor? It doesn’t mean much at all for the people who aren’t verst in the dark arts, aka those who are ballsy enough to hack their $250 devices in a way that might wreck them forever.
But for those who WOULD hack, well then, look at it this way: NOOKcolor is, once uncaged from its Barnes and Noble bonds, a perfectly wonderful Android tablet – and it’s cheap! Those unsure of why they’d want a $250 e-book reader now see that they might be able to use it for so much more than Barnes and Noble’s target audience would ever dream of. This is definitely a whole new consumer door opened for Barnes and Noble (whether they like it or not.) Will you buy one because of this? Remember that roots don’t always stick.
Welcome to the final installment in our “A Week with” review session with NOOKcolor. This particular installment will ask the big questions and seek the big answers. This installment will show you what lies beyond the reading, what’s on the mind of those who would seek developers for apps, and will deliver a final sentence on whether you, the everyday average dude or lady, should invest in this device. Behold! NOOKcolor’s fancy dressing.
If you’ve been following along with this epic journey we’ve taken with NOOKcolor, you know that it’s a lovely looking device, certainly feels nice to hold and to handle, and without a doubt is a unique device that is a centerpiece for Barnes and Noble’s electronics department. Along with the main reason it exists, that being that whole “reading” thing, there’s a tiny pack of apps, a simple web browser, and a files section in your NOOKcolor library.
First let’s chat about this files section. It seems to be rather secondary in that you’re going to have to know exactly what you’re doing as far as file format goes if you plan on using any files you didn’t download from B&N directly. After an hour of trying for a video file format that worked on the device (even after having check the manual hosted on NOOKcolor,) I was unable to get a file running. I’m no magician, but if I’m unable to find a file format that works, you bet your biffy Grandma Edna won’t be able to do it either.
The web browser is nice and big. Whenever you’ve got a screen this large and have a web browser that functions half-nice (this one functions quite well, actually,) that’s a big plus. A very forgiving keyboard and memory for addresses typed in the past make this browser a functioning piece of your day if you, for example, are the sort of person who doesn’t own a smartphone but does carry this device around in your backpack and wants to check their web-based email (gmail for example) or social networking sites.
YouTube works but plays relatively low-quality video for what you know this device is capable of (you see a magical array of video when you first turn your device on), NetFlix does not function. Above you’ll see an example of how well the browser handles the first TRON Legacy sneak preview trailer – notice a couple things – the reflection you see of the camera I’m holing up to film the screen (this device has a somewhat lowered glare, but you can still definitely see yourself in it when the screen is black), and the sound- it’s a bit muffled as the speaker is on the back of the device.
In your “Extras” tab, aka your apps folder, you’ll notice instantly that these were never meant to be the main attraction. The name of the folder is “extras” – get it? This bin of everyday device mainstays like chess, Sudoku, and crossword enforce the fact that this device is aimed at those who read and enjoy games that live inside the reading universe. You’ll also find a contacts app which contains people who also own NOOKcolors with whom you can interact with elsewhere (this app acts as a sort of flip-file of all your people, where you can add or subtract them and their info.) There’s another app for LendMe (accessible also through your Library, as we spoke about in a previous post) where you can ask to borrow or lend books from and to your contacts.
There’s a super simple Music app where you can play music files you’ve added through your “My Files” – THIS is the simplest and best implementation of the My Files feature, just drop your music files (more than likely MP3s) into your Music folder upon finding it once you’ve plugged your NOOKcolor into your computer, and poof! They’re in your Music app. Simple. This app is in place so that you might plug in your headphones and listen to music while reading. Of course, you could also use this function as a giant music player if you’re the sort of person who plays music in your car through a headphone jack, but seeing as how MP3 players are basically given away these days, this might be a bit unreasonable.
Gallery works in a very similar way, upon dropping a bunch of photos into your pictures folder when you’ve got NOOKcolor plugged into your computer, they show up here instantly. A great way to carry along a simple portfolio for all of us creative types? Perhaps.
Then there’s Pandora. Clearly the folks at Pandora saw this as a giant opportunity to get their service out to the world in waves, as this app is developed above and beyond all the others. Works great, sounds great, connects easily.
Now the people at Barnes and Noble aim to make this device a place where developers make apps that are reader-based. Apps that work with readers, around readers, and to improve and enhance the whole reading experience. Will it work? That’s the million dollar question. Take a look at their strategy to make this happen and consider the following:
1. The profit share for developers selling apps is not yet released.
2. They plan on offering help in the form of personal support through NOOKcolor developer.
3. They plan on offering deals and promotions that would take place inside the B&N stores – what this consists of is still unclear.
4. These apps must circle around and stay within the boundaries of what Barnes and Noble considers reading-based. Again, what these limits are and will be remains unclear.
Do these limits and prospects for developers spell a certain name for the future of NOOKcolor? We’re in sort of an age where it’s being decided how open our tablet-based devices are going to be, devices are going to survive or die based on the applications that are offered on them as well as the functionality they present. If there’s not enough apps, will NOOKcolor fizzle? Or perhaps the question should be if there aren’t enough publications available for reading on NOOKcolor, will it fizzle?
Wrap-Up
The prospect of using this device to read the books you’re sure are available or are going to become available is exciting. If you read the magazines and newspapers you know are available or are going to become available on this device, it’s worth it. If you’ve got a kid who you’re training to become part of this digital world, having them work on screens as much as possible so their in-tune with the modern world before they even enter it, this device is rockin (as far as reading goes). Remember that starting at the beginning of next year, there’ll be interactive elements in both magazines and kids books, so if you’re unsure about those items at this point, feel free to wait and see.
The prospect of having this device completely unlocked and running a free-for-all Android OS, that’s spectacular. I’ve seen what this device is capable of video-wise and sound-wise, the display is crisp and bright and reacts extremely well to swipes, taps, and everything along those lines. Imagine the possibilities! That’s what I’m doing.
If you’re still on the edge, deciding on if you’d like to work with an e-ink device or this bright display, that’s still a question I think you’re going to have to answer yourself. If you’ve never experienced e-ink, maybe you’d find this device more excellent because it falls right in line with what you’d expect from a device you hold in your hands and read. On the other hand, if you’ve been using nothing but e-ink since it began to exist, maybe you should consider the fact that you’ve probably already got a device that’s going to continue to get the novels you enjoy for quite some time. But does it have magazines, newspapers, and kids books in full color? No. Are you going to abandon all of those things in the analog world just because you can access them here on this device? I doubt it.
The big choice ends up being between the NOOKcolor and it’s e-ink cousins if you’re a heavy reader, or between the NOOKcolor and it’s tablet cousins who’ve already got unlocked capabilities if you plan on using this device for activitiess other than reading.
You can purchase a NOOKcolor right this moment for around $300 ($250 direct from B&N), a NOOK (e-ink original) for around $225 ($149 direct from B&N), a Kindle for $180, and an iPad for $525. These items are the main competitors of NOOKcolor if you’d ask me on the street. Choose your destiny!
Welcome to the second installment in SlashGear’s “A Week with” review session with NOOKcolor, a device which Barnes and Noble promises will be for customers the culmination of all their knowledge on how people interact with what they read. This device is a reader-centric tablet, made by the world’s largest bookstore for the people who enjoy reading the most. Today’s review session revolves around the way you the user will potentially interact with the reading materials you’ll be using while utilizing NOOKcolor. As this device is aimed not at those who wish for an open Android tablet experience, this review will for the most part assume that the people who will buy this device are the same people Barnes and Noble intends to market to. On the other hand, I and we know there’s a large population of tech-smart individuals out there who indent to try this device out as a hacked device. While I won’t be hacking into this device for your pleasure, we will be keeping you in mind.
As you open up your NOOKcolor for the first time, you’ll be sort of dazzled by the brightness and colorfulness of it all. If you’ve only used an e-ink reader in the past, this will be like going from an original GameBoy to a GameBoy color (remember that transition?) In some ways spectacular, in some ways a bit of a draw back, especially since, like many of the games created for GameBoy back in those days, lots of books never needed color to function. NOOKcolor isn’t meant for people only intending on reading novels. Barnes and Noble might disagree with me, but if you’re only intending on purchasing books that don’t require color, stick with an e-ink device.
That’s not to say that there aren’t features here that you’ll appreciate, oh you lovers of e-ink, features that don’t necessarily require the color the display here presents, but features hereto unavailable in e-readers. Most of these features have to do with sharing and interactivity.
Inside a novels, you’re able to highlight specific passages or whole books and share them via Twitter, Facebook, or your Contacts (connected through NOOKcolor.) Using this same method*, you can also highlight, add a note, or use your highlighted text to search the rest of the book. You may also add a bookmark to a page by tapping the upper right hand corner of the screen (I consider this to be a function in the same house as the highlighting.) *This highlighting is a very fun function but don’t expect to be adept at making it work unless you try at it for a while. Attempting to highlight text in an incorrect manner can instead somehow lead you to a completely different page in the book (I must assume this has to do with your ability to reach other points in the book via the slider at the bottom of the page, accessible by tapping the bottom of the page, invisible otherwise.)
Continuing in on functions inside reading a novel, there are several ways you can adjust the text. One is font size – you’re given 6 different sizes to choose from, each one general, identified in a scale of “A”s. Next you’ll be able to choose the font you like to read in best, the list of fonts being: Century Schoolbook, Dutch, Georgia, Ascender Sans, Trebuchet MS, or Gill Sans. After that, you can choose from several color combinations, those named: Normal, Night, Gray, Butter, Mocha, Sepia – these are all very nice combos, the one standing out most being Night as it’s the only one with a dark background with white lettering. After that there’s three choices for how much space you’d like between each line of text, and three more options for how much of a margin you’d like around your text. If all of these options give you a nervous breakdown, you’ve always got the option of flicking on the “Publisher Defaults” switch. All of these options are awesome, the Publisher Defaults being the icing on this nice little cake.
The rest of the functions inside a novel I don’t see everyone accessing all that often, that being brightness, search (aka searching through the book for a keyword), and Share (which includes Recommend (the book to your friends), Rate and Review (for B&N), and Post Reading Status (which just posts a status to Twitter or Facebook saying the percentage of the book you’ve completed.)) The furthest-left tab is Content, and this will be helpful if you’ve gotten the hang of highlighting passages and adding notes, as Content consists of three tabs: Contents (chapters in the book), Notes & Highlights (jump to any of your notes and highlights throughout the book), and bookmarks (working here the same as notes and highlights.)
Next are Newspapers. This category of reading material has 24 titles at the launch, so I recommend you take a look at the list before purchasing if reading your favorite title is high on your list of things to do with NOOKcolor. Once you’re inside one of these periodicals, you’ll find a very different experience than the reading of an actual newspaper – there’s sort of a disconnect, if you will, but not necessarily a bad one.
Each article is set up in a single column, one above the next, each with a tiny thumbnail preview image where appropriate. Newspapers have basically the same controls and functions that novels do, they having the ability to have their letters, margins, line spacing, etc changed at will since their content is here not the layout of the paragraphs, but the messages contained inside the paragraphs. The feature unique to newspapers (and magazines) is that if you purchase a subscription, new issues will appear in your desktop’s dock (and in your library) with a ribbon saying NEW as soon as they are released.
Magazines are a place where NOOKcolor really shines, and it really should, being brilliant in its display of colors and its simple navigation, it’s as if NOOKcolor were created with magazines at the forefront of the designers minds. You can view magazines in both portrait mode or landscape mode – I’d suggest landscape as that’s how people laying out magazines intend you to view their spreads.
You move through a magazine the same way you’d do it if you were holding the paper copy in your hands, but it’s better in that you’ve got the option to employ Article View. What Article View is is a way to have the entire article you wish to read (often otherwise spread throughout a magazine here and there) all in one place, floating above the magazine until you’ve finished reading it.
Everything else about reading a magazine here is great – zooming in works, finding a page you want by using the thumbnail scroller at the bottom of the screen works, getting new issues works (similar to newspapers). The only thing that you might think twice about, again, is if your favorite title is available, as there are only 67 titles at launch.
Next, there’s children’s books. If you’ve got a kid who is already technologically advanced (aka you give them your iPhone to mess around with while waiting in the doctor’s office lobby), plays video games, or is generally able to sit long enough to read a short book, they’ll probably enjoy NOOKcolor’s children’s books feature. Each children’s book is landscape mode only as far as I can see, mostly because the authors who lay out children’s books, again, do so by spread rather than by single page. Turning the page is done with a swipe, and at the bottom of the screen is simplified to a single arrow button which reveals the whole book in thumbnail mode, allowing you the parent or the child to select the page they want to find (“mom, lets start from where the goats and piggies perform for the chickens!”) You’ve also got the option of pressing the “Read By Myself” button or the “Read To Me” button. If you opt for the read to me option, the book is read aloud by a narrator, sometimes a famous narrator!
In the future there will be more interactivity with these children’s books (starting at the beginning of next year when the first big update to NOOKcolor happens) including moving images and the ability to move characters around, play with them, all sorts of things that work directly with the storyline. Over the phone I recently spoke with a Barnes and Noble representative who works in the department responsible for executing these children’s books, and she described their efforts as very much for the advancement of the storyline rather than just a distraction from it. Exciting!
One of the more interesting features available to you in place for you to be able to interact with other NOOKcolor users is the LendMe tab. You can access the LendMe function from other places on the device, but here you can both offer your books up directly to friends or browse the books they’ve got available and ask them to lend them to you. When you click one of your books that are available for lending (not every book is, mind you,) a message pops up giving you the ability to send the book out through Facebook or your NOOKcolor contacts. It reads: “You may only lend this book once. Your friend has up to 7 days to accept or decline this offer and then up to 14 days to read. Once the book is returned, you can download and read again.” Choose wisely!
Finally, there’s the organization of your collection. The organization of books in several places on NOOKcolor is everything you’d hope it to be. You can have them stacked on your three-screen desktop in different sizes, access them from your desktop dock (which consists of new issues from your subscriptions as they’re released as well as your most recent reads), or access all of your materials in your library. Your library is stacked according to the kind of material (Books, Magazines, Newspapers) or however you’d like in your “My Shelves” tab which you can edit however you’d like. There’s a “My Files” tab inside which there’s multiple folders which you can access when plugging the NOOKcolor in to your computer like an external harddrive. This is an interesting feature as it appears that basically everything else about the device is essentially closed-shop and curated, but inside these folders you can place basically anything. As you may remember from the hardware review portion of this “A Week with” set of posts we’re in, it’s not easy yet to put whatever file you’d like in a folder and expect it to open. Will this be rectified in the future by third-party apps? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Wrap-Up
Everything depends on how you choose to read. This is not a device for everyone, but a reader for people who’d like to access several kinds of periodicals, books, and children’s books from one device. First and last, I’d recommend checking to see if your favorite titles are available or will become available some time in the future – do not assume they’re going to certainly be here. Should the NOOKcolor blow up, that’ll be something you can assume, but for now, be sure to check. If your chosen titles are here, especially if they’re magazines and children’s books, definitely give this device a try.
As far as e-ink goes: you must be the one to decide. I personally do not have any issue with reading from a bright screen like the NOOKcolor uses, but you’ve got to take into account the fact that I work on a computer screen 10+ hours a day. If you do not use a computer at ALL during the day, then I’d probably recommend you get yourself an e-ink device instead of NOOKcolor for reading. If you’re a person who works in the food service industry during the day and can’t keep your eyes off your laptop at night, well, then, again, feel free to give NOOKcolor a try.
Be on the lookout the rest of this week for more posts like this, each of them accessible by searching “A Week with” in the SlashGear searchbar. [This paragraph will be replaced with links to the rest of this extended review at the end of the week]
Oh my goodness the padness of today. Let me tell you all about it, then, if you’re into new ways of chipping around, let Douglas L. Davis tell you all about it. First, lets get Douglas L Davis out of the way – he works at Intel and had a reconfigurable atom chip for you. Then we’ve got a Synology DiskStation DS211 review that I bet flew under a lot of folks radars as it was out late Friday. Then our Week with NOOKcolor began with Hardware on Saturday, Avi wrote an amazing column on 2014 VS 1984, Don tells us why his Wii is dusty, and iOS 4.2 is released for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.Then it gets really exciting: e-paper on regular paper, we get our hands on a Dell Inspiron Duo, and Notion Ink’s Adam tablet receiving its very own webpage – wowzers! All this and MORE on The Daily Slash!
SlashSECURITY
If you’re living in the United States of America and have been for the past few weeks or so, or better yet have a connection to the internet and read basically any English news site, you’ve probably come in contact with a horror story regarding the TSA’s policies regarding their radiationtastic x-ray machine the Backscatter or their pat-down techniques. Today a story has arisen from a blogger by the name of Matt Kernan who was told he’d have to go through this TSA checkpoint. A quote from Kernan in response to a TSA manager telling him their policy: “I am aware that it is policy, but I disagree with the policy, and I think that it is unconstitutional. As a U.S. citizen, I have the right to move freely within my country as long as I can demonstrate proof of citizenship and have demonstrated no reasonable cause to be detained.” Matt Kernan, after 2.5 hours of reasoning with several levels of authority, was allowed through TSA security without being scanned or patted down, his constitutional rights fully in-tact. Read his full account at NO BLASTERS!
While those looking for an eReading device that features a colored version, rather than the more “traditional” e-ink display, have found some solace in the NOOKcolor, for all those adopters who picked up the original NOOK, it’s time you get a decent upgrade to your firmware version. Not too long after the official launch of the color version, the e-ink touting NOOK has just been granted version 1.5 of its software, which brings plenty of improvements to the eReader.
First and foremost, Barnes & Noble say that the new firmware version will grant the eReader faster page refreshes, something in the ballpark of 50% faster, in fact. You’ll also get better syncing across devices, as well as be able to customize folders. You should also get better battery performance after the update, as well.
The upgrade is available for both the 3G-equipped NOOK, as well as the WiFi-only model. You should be prompted on your device that you can download the update. And, it’s also a free one, too. After you install it, let us know what you think of the update, won’t you?
Press Release
NOOK eReader Firmware Update v1.5
As previously announced, Barnes & Noble is making the largest-ever update to NOOK 3G and NOOK-Wi-Fi firmware, which is now available. The update delivers the most-requested features and performance enhancements from NOOK customers, including:
· New Features
o Sync current reading position across devices. Sync across all NOOK eReaders and devices enabled with NOOK software and apps, including iPad, iPhone/iPod touch, Android smartphones and PC.
o Customize folders and group content for My B&N Library. The My Shelves feature enables users to organize B&N Libraries by a particular subject or theme, on easy-to-organize, easily-accessible Shelves .
o Password protection option for purchases made on a NOOK device. Customers can require their Barnes & Noble account password be entered before NOOK authorizes any content download (purchases, samples and free books). This is a helpful feature customers requested for NOOKs that are shared among family members, students in a class and company employees).
o Pass code security for the NOOK. Customers can configure NOOK to lock the screen after a certain number of minutes and then require a pass code to unlock it. The pass code security feature will activate each time the NOOK does powers on, awakens form Sleep Mode.
· Enhancements
o Faster page turns. Customers can enjoy a 50% faster turn rate than the previous version.
o Improved search functionality that includes My Documents (side-loaded content) in the results.
o Additional battery and other performance enhancements
NOOK version 1.5 software is available at no cost to all current and new NOOK owners via Wi-Fi or manual download at www.NOOK.com/support. You’ll find images and additional information about NOOK at www.bn.com/nook/media.
NOOK for Android v2.4
NOOK for Android v2.4 adds makes it even easier for customers to quickly browse and download new great reads from the NOOKbook Store with in-app shopping. Browse more than 2 million digital NOOKbooks and more from the NOOK for Android app, and with a couple of taps, your title or sample is downloaded and ready to read on your Android smartphone or across the complete line of NOOK devices and software.
The updated NOOK for Android also gives customers the ability to take notes and make highlights in their NOOKbooks. These highlights and notes will also sync on other NOOK apps and devices.
More information is available at www.bn.com/NOOKforandroid or download the new version from Android Market. We’ll continue to provide you with news of NOOK device and software updates.
Welcome to the official SlashGear NOOKcolor Unboxing and Hands-on. I received this lovely treat in the mail at about 9AM through FedEx – joyous day! You know the NOOKcolor from its first official coming out ceremony back on October 26th (2010). This is Barnes and Noble’s first fully color Nook: it’s a 7-inch portable tablet aimed directly at those wishing to have a full reading experience. It costs right around $250 and is host to over 2 million titles (books, enhanced books, newspapers, magazines, and children’s books.) Inside you’ll see the slick box it comes in plus the accessories and feel of the device itself.
The folks at Barnes&Noble really know what they’re doing as far as graphic design and packaging. This box makes the Nook seem amazing (we’ll see how amazing it really is (or isnt?!) in the review.) They’ve got that part down. The box is thick and brilliantly printed. Once you figure out (it took me a minute) that you’ve got to break the circle sticker seals on the side, you realize that it’s an excellent fold-back design, complete with magnets(!) to hold it open or closed.
Once inside you’ll find what appears to be a free-floating NOOKcolor, but in fact it is being held in place by two sturdy pieces of board padding. Alongside the NOOKcolor you’ll find a beautifully laid out pamphlet roughly the same size as the device telling you how to get everything going. The reason this pamphlet seems so short and limited is because it is: the extended User Guide, it says, can be found inside your library on the NOOKcolor device itself.
Next you’ll be searching for the USB cord and wall plug, both can be found in a cute little box in the smaller end of the folded back package. I’m foolish so I wrecked the side panel with the Nook “n”, of course, but you’ll know right away that this box opens just like any reasonable box, right on the top or bottom. When the cord is plugged into the device, you’ll see a cute little light up “n” again, in green or orange letting you know if the charge is complete.
Next, you’ll take a look at the NOOKcolor and think “oh let’s try it out” but you cant! Take a look at the plastic protective sheet on the front of the device (I tore it off without even reading it) and you’ll find that it says you’ll have to plug the device in before attempting to explore it. The instant you do plug it in, however, you’re able to turn it right on and start your reading adventure.
The device is medium weight – you’re not holding a telephone here, this device weighs at least as much as one of those soft-cover Harry Potter books you’ve heard so much about. The back is rubbery and will never slip out of your hands, the touchscreen is extremely responsive (more on this in the review), and the lights are bright. I can just barely wrap my hand around the device to hold it – I expect most people to be using two hands to keep a grip whilst reading.
Over the next few days (I mention the possibility of just one, but I’ve got to dive deeper than that) we’ll be taking a look at NOOKcolor and all of its neato aspects, seeing how it lives up to itself. You’ll have your full review then. UNTIL then, take a peek at this sweet shaky-cam unboxing and see me struggle like a fool attempting to decipher this easy-to-understand package.
What’s Slashin today? The Nook Color was released today at a very special Barnes&Noble special event. There were dancers, kids, old people, authors, and lots of yummy treats. Best Buy has the Galaxy Tab and the Huawei S7 on preorder, Barnes & Noble has the Nook Color on preorder. Fanboys take back their Droid-lovin internets, we get a Galaxy Tab in the mail, and the Color Tab has a loop in it. All this and more! Today! On the Daily Slash.
SlashFAIL The biggest fail of the day is also the funniest: the Wall Street Journal has had a poll up for a few days now and over the weekend, there seemed to be a really strangely large amount of people voting for a relatively new system. The poll asks “Who makes the best mobile operating system?” and over the weekend, Microsoft suddenly took the lead over Google, having almost 12,000 votes to its column. Opinions flew and questions were asked, but none of that mattered once the massive online presence of Android lovers had their say. Today, that poll is absurdly out of whack, with Google leading with 97.4% of the vote. Wildness. Fail for WSJ OR fail for the people who may have been trying to rig the vote in favor of Microsoft. Fail, fail, fail.
SlashWIN This is more of a guessing game than anything, but I’ve got to say that the loop on the lower left-hand corner of the brand new Nook Color is the SlashWIN of the day. Take a peek at the giant round-up post with hands-on images and B&N press release to see why I think it’ll be the halo around the angel’s head that is Nook Color.
Two things: let’s talk about what it feels like to use this device, AND, lets look at the full press release on the Nook Color just released by Barnes & Noble a moment ago. Our pals at CrunchGear are there at the event with commentary, Engadget too, plus a couple other friends are sure to pop up along the way. It’s thin, it’s got a rubbery back, and it’s got a loop to put a chain through. It’s nice to hold, very bright and easy on the eyes, and also you can read books on it!
So here it is. It fits in the palm of your adult-sized hand. It’s not perfectly flat, the screen being raised slightly higher than the edge, creating a smooth rounded experience all around. The back is a rubbery situation, completely blank and flat until right up near the edge, less than half an inch of the object’s casing. Near the bottom on the back is the Barnes & Noble branding, what appears to be a grid of holes (for the speaker?) and the rest of the copyright info.
Along the top there’s a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack, and on the bottom is the Micro-USB port for files transfer and charging. It seems very nice to hold and ever since I first realized it was there, I’ve been in love with the loop on the lower left corner of the device. As I mentioned in a post on Android Community, I find the implications of such a detail to almost be more immense than the fact that the device comes in color. I wrote recently a story on how a man purchased 4,500 iPads for his company, having purchased a small batch of them the same week they were originally debuted, shipping them to a conference where his employees used them to present their medical group. Huge hit. Lots of success.
Now what I think might happen as a result of this little loop being here is a similar situation, this time with mostly text-based presentations. This pad becomes something that can be safely put down on a table and walked away from because it can be locked easily through this loop. People hoping to show of their book, magazine, newspaper or whatever as a publication that rises above the tactile experience of holding paper and gets down instead to the words. I don’t know that I’d ever agree to such a presentation, as I’m a firm believer in the eternal nature of the book, but it could be neat!
Now, the folks at TechCrunch are of the opinion that “Nice Knowing You, Nook” might become a popular phrase soon as the Nook does appear to some to be trying to wedge their way into the tablet business, and that’s like, as I love they put it: “bringing a knife to a knife fight when someone else already brought a gun.” Thinking about buying a tablet can be confusing, and releasing another one, in color, with a market suddenly flooded with such devices might not have been the correct way to go about making cash. But then again, B&N is releasing this in a more “curated” way, meaning it’s not as “open” as Android users would have liked. But maybe that’s the key. Apple does it every day of the year. They aren’t doing too bad in the market, are they?
Below there’s a slew of images, all of them from either CrunchGear or Engadget for now. Nook Color looks natural to hold, and the interface looks relatively easy to use. Turning pages seems to be sluggish, but being able to skim news items in Article view is nice. Colors are crisp, viewing at any angle looks great. It costs half as much as an iPad, but it’s not the same device. It’s lighter, smaller, more compact, doesn’t support the Android App Store (or, since we’re on the subject, the Apple App store, but that’s a duh,) but in the end it is NOT a full tablet computer. But what do you really want? That’s the question.
You can pre-order the Nook Color over at Barnes & Noble for $249 now. Take a look at the full press release here, then below that, the gallery of images from CrunchGear and Engadget. NOTE that the images in the light are of the mockup version (we don’t know exactly how close it is to the real deal) of the Nook Color, while the photos in the dark are of the real functioning version of the device.
Barnes & Noble Introduces NOOKcolor™,
The Ultimate Reading Experience
First-Ever Reader’s Tablet with Full-Color Touchscreen and Wireless Access
Enhanced Graphic Books, Magazines, Newspapers
and Interactive Children’s Books
Amazingly Thin and Portable
The Most Social Reading Device Ever Built:
Lend, Borrow and Share with Friends
Pre-Order NOOKcolor for $249 at NOOKcolor.com and in Barnes & Noble Stores, Touch the Future of Reading™ Beginning in November
New York, New York – October 26, 2010 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced the launch of NOOKcolor by Barnes & Noble, the ultimate reading experience – the first full-color touch Reader’s Tablet that delivers digital books, magazines, newspapers and children’s books in immersive, gorgeous color, and all in one beautiful, thin and highly portable device.
NOOKcolor is now available for $249 for pre-order at www.NOOKcolor.com and at Barnes & Noble stores tomorrow, and will begin shipping on or about November 19. Touch the future of reading at a NOOK™ Boutique or display at your favorite Barnes & Noble bookstore, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million starting late November.
The first full-color touch device dedicated to reading everything and built on Android™, NOOKcolor opens up a whole new world of digital reading materials of all kinds, in addition to providing access to the largest bookstore with an unprecedented selection of over two million digital titles a single search away. Digital content – from bestsellers to favorite magazines in full color, and interactive children’s picture books and enhanced cookbooks – has never looked better than on NOOKcolor’s stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen.
Building on Barnes & Noble’s nearly 40 years of bookselling and publishing expertise, the company quickly became a leader in the digital arena following the introduction of its award-winning, bestselling NOOK devices, popular free software and expansive digital bookstore last year. This newest addition to the NOOK device family was designed for people who love to read every kind of content imaginable – and features 8GB of space, plus expandable memory, to store it all. NOOKcolor enables quick and easy shopping and book downloads in seconds over Wi-Fi®. NOOKcolor is also the most social reading device ever built – with Barnes & Noble’s new NOOKfriends™ technology, you’re only touches away from sharing with friends via Facebook®, Twitter® and email.
“With NOOKcolor, we’ve combined the functionality and convenience of a 7-inch portable wireless tablet with the reader-centricity of a dedicated eReader, and employed a breakthrough color screen technology that will wow customers,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. Added Lynch, “NOOKcolor enables Web browsing over Wi-Fi, music, games and much more, but reading anything and everything in brilliant color is the killer app and squarely the product’s focus. At $249, NOOKcolor offers a tremendous value, particularly in comparison to the many other 7-inch tablets coming to market at twice the cost and often requiring expensive data plans. Most importantly, NOOKcolor is designed for and differentiated by what Barnes & Noble knows best: reading.”
NOOKcolor’s Vast Array of Digital Content
NOOKcolor offers all the content you love, at your fingertips, experienced like never before, through Barnes & Noble’s newly expanded NOOKbook™ Store.
- Shop over two million titles: NOOKcolor provides access to the most expansive digital catalog available so you can browse more than two million books, enhanced books, newspapers and magazines, engaging children’s books, and other interactive content in a single search. Find classics, new releases and bestsellers, including 194 of 205 current New York Times Bestsellers. Sample NOOKbook titles for free and download all content wirelessly in seconds. Since the launch of PubIt!™, Barnes & Noble has also added thousands of titles from independent publishers and self-publishing authors.
- NOOKnewsstand™ – periodicals in vivid color: From The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA TODAY to Rolling Stone, Esquire, US Weekly, National Geographic, Martha Stewart Living, Cosmopolitan and Elle, NOOKcolor customers will find an impressive and growing list of the best daily, weekly and monthly periodicals, all optimized for the device in rich color. Magazine reading is easy and engaging with full-color pages and Barnes & Noble’s exclusive ArticleView™ puts the focus on the content, customized to your favorite reading style. Periodicals, available by subscription and single copy, will continue to become even more interactive next year.
- NOOK kids™ experience: For the first time ever, enjoy the largest collection of popular children’s picture and chapter books in an engaging digital form through the new NOOK kids offering. Through exclusive AliveTouch™ technology, your child can interact with words and pictures, easily find a favorite story, and even have some read aloud to them. Enjoy a broad and growing selection of more than 130 digital picture books – an unprecedented offering that will double before year’s end – and nearly 12,000 chapter books for children, plus exciting enhancements coming soon. Learn more at www.NOOKkids.com.
- Enhanced and engaging titles: Coming soon, NOOKcolor customers will also enjoy a growing collection of multimedia titles offering instructive video and audio to learn about travel, cooking, music and more.
- Great reads, great prices: The vast majority of titles in the Barnes & Noble NOOKbook Store are $9.99 or less, including most current New York Times Bestsellers. In any Barnes & Noble store, read NOOKbooks for free through the company’s innovative Read In Store™ program. On any given day, peruse as many books as you wish, for one hour per title. And enjoy more than one million free classics and even more free reading by checking out additional titles from public libraries.
eReading Gets (More) Social
NOOKcolor makes it simple and reflexive to get social about reading. In another industry first for Barnes & Noble, the new LendMe™ App enables NOOKcolor users to view LendMe books in their friends’ NOOKcolor digital libraries and request to borrow a title they’ve been meaning to read. Customers have the ability to easily lend their favorite NOOKbooks with friends through Facebook and email, even using their imported Google® Gmail™ contacts, and recommend a title, share reading status or a quote via Facebook, Twitter and email.
Your Reading Experience, Your Way
Barnes & Noble recognizes the uniquely personal nature of reading and designed NOOKcolor to be flexible and highly customizable, so each customer can truly make it his or her own.
- Simply more than a touch of fun: Everything you want to do is simple and intuitive. Shopping for new content, finding and reading titles in your library and customizing the way you view your content are all a touch or two away. With a simple tap of the screen or swipe left or right, book pages turn in a flash.
- Personalized reading experience: Experience the flexibility and fun of completely customizing your reading experience. Choose what titles will appear on your home page and Daily Shelf™, organize and view your library your way, find the right text type, size and color theme that’s right for you, and read in portrait or landscape.
- All your content at your fingertips: Your entire library is always a touch away with 8GB of memory. That’s approximately 6,000 NOOKbooks or a combination that might include 1,000 books, 25 full-color magazines, 10 newspapers, 50 kids’ books, 500 songs and 150 photos. Plus, NOOKcolor has expandable memory using a microSD™ card. And with Barnes & Noble’s Lifetime Library™, existing customers of NOOK products and software-enabled devices will instantly be able to access their personal Barnes & Noble digital libraries on NOOKcolor. With this digital library advantage, Barnes & Noble ensures that your content always goes wherever you go and is always protected and accessible on a variety of devices, as well as BN.com.
- NOOKbook Personal Shopping™: Barnes & Noble offers exclusive, personalized book recommendations from its expert booksellers, based on the genres, authors and subjects you like.
- Continuous reading experience: Read NOOKbooks seamlessly across your NOOKcolor, NOOK 3G and Wi-Fi devices (following a NOOK firmware update in late November), third-party eBook Readers powered by the Barnes & Noble NOOKbook Store, and your favorite mobile and computing devices enabled with free NOOK software. These include iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android™ smartphones, and Windows-based PCs, laptops or netbooks. NOOKcolor syncs last page read, highlights, notes and bookmarks. For more information on free NOOK software, please visit www.bn.com/NOOKapps.
- View your personal files: Transfer and view personal PDF and ePub files to NOOKcolor, as well as JPG, PNG, GIF and BMP files, and use personal photos for wallpaper. With Quickoffice® software, view Microsoft® Office files including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Punctuate your style: Read in style with a full line of exclusive NOOKcolor accessories from Barnes & Noble, including covers with rich Italian leathers, European broad cloth and more from leading designers kate spade new york, JACK SPADE and Jonathan Adler coming soon.
Attractive Design & Features
To create the most exquisitely designed dedicated eReading device on the market, Barnes & Noble worked with award-winning industrial designer Yves Behar at fuseproject. NOOKcolor’s elegantly simple design in classic graphite features an angled lower corner that evokes a turned page, along with a beaded border and lustrous, soft-touch back that make holding NOOKcolor comfortable and pleasurable. No other full-color touch reading device is thinner or more beautiful.
- VividView Color Touchscreen: NOOKcolor features a best-in-class 7-inch color touch display like nothing you’ve ever seen before, particularly on a dedicated reading device. The screen displays more than 16 million colors and offers a wide viewing angle for personal or shared reading. The special design provides enhanced color tuning, gradation and reduction of glare to reduce distracting reflections.
- Wi-Fi connectivity: Easily connect to personal and public Wi-Fi hotspots as well as free Wi-Fi in Barnes & Noble stores to shop the Barnes & Noble NOOKbook Store and download content in seconds, surf the Web, stream music and more.
- Lightweight and portable: The compact device fits easily into your purse, jacket or bag at 8.1 inches (height) by 5 inches (width) by 0.48 inches (depth) and 15.8 ounces.
And Even More Extras
NOOKcolor offers many extras with fun and useful additions to the reading experience.
- Game on: Enjoy fun and free games on NOOKcolor, including crossword puzzles, Sudoku, chess and many more to come.
- Listen to music while reading: Stream tunes from your favorite artists over Wi-Fi with Pandora® internet radio’s free, personalized music service. And load your MP3 and AAC songs to enjoy music while reading anywhere using the built in 3.5mm headphone jack or speakers.
- Surf the Web: Over Wi-Fi, use a full browser to visit your favorite Web sites, check email, and more.
- Fun and free in-store features: In Barnes & Noble stores, connect to free Wi-Fi to browse and read the content of complete NOOKbooks for free through Read In Store, which features enhanced performance for NOOKcolor, including instantaneous page turns. And download exclusive content from bestselling authors and enjoy special promotions and discounts through the More In Store™ program.
- More extras coming: Get ready to discover more engaging content and applications in the coming months. Barnes & Noble invites content providers and application developers to create innovative reading-centric experiences through the just-announced NOOKdeveloper™ program. More information is available at www.bn.com/NOOKdeveloper.
NOOKcolor Availability
NOOKcolor is available for pre-order for $249 and is expected to begin shipping on or about November 19, making it the perfect holiday gift for people who love to read everything. Experience NOOKcolor today at www.NOOKcolor.com or at the NOOK Boutiques and displays in one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores beginning in late November. Barnes & Noble’s 45,000 knowledgeable booksellers will provide walkthroughs of the entire family of NOOK eReading products and free software. NOOKcolor, along with NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi, will also be available at Best Buy, www.bestbuy.com, Walmart and www.walmart.com, and Books-A-Million in late November.
Major NOOK 3G and Wi-Fi Firmware Update Next Month
For book lovers who crave a paper-like reading experience, NOOK continues to be the most full-featured dedicated E-Ink® device on the market at a great value, starting at $149. Following the launch of NOOK 3G a year ago, and NOOK Wi-Fi last summer, Barnes & Noble continues to enhance the overall reading experience and performance of its award-winning, best-selling NOOK E-Ink devices. A major update coming in November will dramatically increase the page-turn speed, and deliver the most-requested features and performance enhancements from NOOK customers, including improved search functionality, customized Barnes & Noble Library organization, password protection and continuous reading across all NOOK devices and software. NOOK version 1.5 software will be available at no cost next month for all current and new NOOK owners via Wi-Fi or manual download at www.NOOK.com/support.
“Our large installed base of more than a million NOOK customers will get our biggest enhancement release yet, all based on their most-requested features and inclusive of performance enhancements like even faster page turns,” added Lynch. “With our software updates and product enhancements, we’re continuing the Barnes & Noble commitment of relentless customer service to the legion of existing NOOK owners who have so faithfully contributed to our success and growth in digital reading.”
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 NOOKbook™ Store of more than two million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. NOOK products are the most full-featured, dedicated eReading devices on the market. NOOKcolor ($249), the first full-color touch Reader’s Tablet, provides the ultimate reading experience with a stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love. For book lovers, NOOK 3G ($199) and NOOK Wi-Fi® ($149) offer a paper-like reading experience with a color touch screen for navigation. In Barnes & Noble stores, NOOK owners can access free Wi-Fi connectivity, enjoy the Read In Store™ feature to read NOOKbooks 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.NOOK.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million.
In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its free line of NOOK software, available at www.bn.com/NOOKapps. 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™, BlackBerry® and other smartphones, 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 NOOKstudy™ (www.NOOKstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education and NOOK kids™ (www.NOOKkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children.
For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOKbook releases, Free Friday™ NOOKbooks and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/eBooksBN and www.facebook.com/NOOKBN.
Just over a year ago, Barnes & Noble released their “Nook” device, a reader for books with a secondary Android-powered navigator. Now it’s time for color. Revealed (to the slight surprise of some, expected by half the universe) today at Barnes & Noble’s “very special event” is this lovely machine with a giant color touchscreen, and it’s half an inch thick.
All sorts of lovely things! First, there’s the claim that this portable tablet and e-reader in one is an “entirely new product category.” Then the awesome note that this is designed in part by Yves Béhar (industrial designer and founder of Fuseproject). Then, details!
8.1 x 5.0 x 0.48 inches in dimension. 15.6 ounces weight, partnership with Random House, MacMillan, Hearst, Penguin, Conde Nast, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins. Share your love via contacts, Twitter, and Facebook with the Recommend button, highlights, and notes. Over 100 newspapers and magazines in full color.
The screen is Vivid View from LG. It displays in 16 million colors, and they say “We invested in a full lamination screen film technology.” MicroSD slot, corner handle for locking it up, holding 6 thousand books out of the box. Daily Chef shows latest content like newspapers, latest books you’ve purchased, and etc. Pandora, music, sudoku, chess, and other Apps. All of this coming November 19th for $249.
