Tag Archives | E-Readers

Nookcolor: The Third-Party Android App Story

Posted by Jacqueline Emigh on November 4, 2010 at 4:06 pm

Barnes & Noble has been intimating that Android applications for the upcoming color version of its Nook e-reader will be different from those already downloadable from Google’s Android Market. But exactly how?  For one thing, people accessing Android apps on the Nookcolor tablet won’t necessarily even need to know–or care–anything about Android, explained Claudia Romanini, the head of Nook developer arm Nookdeveloper, in an interview this week.

Instead, developers creating apps for the Nook e-reader will be urged to build “reader-center apps that will blend in seamlessly with our reader’s tablet environment,” she told me.

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Barnes & Noble Takes the Wraps Off of Nookcolor and Android Developers Program

Posted by Jacqueline Emigh on October 26, 2010 at 10:31 pm

Well beyond its seven-inch–yet iPad-like–color screen, Barnes & Noble’s new Android-based Nookcolor is packed with new features that include a video-capable magazine library, ArticleView, e-book “borrowing,” and much more, as demo’d at a New York City launch event on Monday night. B&N is in it for the long haul with the color e-reader, with an upgrade to Android 2.2 planned for early next year–and don’t expect the price to budge soon from $249.

Along with Nookcolor, B&N also unveiled a new library of children’s books called Nook Kids, plus the bookseller’s first application development program for Android.

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The Nook Goes Color

Posted by Harry McCracken on October 26, 2010 at 2:18 pm

Barnes & Noble just announced its new Nook e-reader–and as rumored, the big news is that it has a color screen. No, it’s not some bleeding-edge color electronic ink: The $249 Nookcolor uses an IPS LCD, the same type of screen used by the iPad, but in a 7″ size. Like the original Nook, it runs Android, and B&N says it will run for eight hours on a charge.

Barnes & Noble is calling the Nookcolor a “reader’s tablet,” cleverly splitting the difference between Kindle-style e-readers and  iPad-esque tablets. It’ll only succeed if it’s good, but its positioning seems distinct and comprehensible–unlike a Kindle, it has a color touchscreen, and it’s much more portable and affordable than an iPad.

That doesn’t make it the ideal device, of course–it can’t compete with the Kindle’s battery life or the iPad’s third-party app riches. (I can’t tell from B&N’s site if the device can run stock Android apps, but I’d tend to doubt it.)

The Nookcolor is supposed to start shipping around November 19th; more thoughts to come.

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The Nook in Living Color?

Posted by Harry McCracken on October 21, 2010 at 1:25 pm

Barnes & Noble is holding a press event in New York next Tuesday. (Jacqueline Emigh will be covering it for us.) Here’s an intriguing rumor: Supposedly, the news involves a $249 color Nook.

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Amazon Puts Kindle on the Web

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 28, 2010 at 9:49 am

Another day, another piece of Kindle news: Amazon has introduced Kindle for the Web. When I heard the name, I thought it would let me read all the Kindle digital books I’ve bought in my browser. It doesn’t do that. But it does something else that’s cool: It lets bloggers embed sample chapters of Kindle books, YouTube-style, so visitors can check them out then and there. (Here’s an example.) Pretty handy when a book is the topic of discussion–and it should come as no surprise that it’s easy to buy the entire book from Amazon if you like what you read.

I still want to read Kindle books I already own on any PC with a browser and an Internet connection, though, without having to download them. Now that Amazon’s built Kindle for the Web, it would presumably be pretty simple to introduce such a feature. I wonder if it’s on its way?

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Mossberg on iPad E-Reading

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 16, 2010 at 8:55 am

The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg prefers to do his e-reading on an iPad. (So do I, most of the time.) And he’s reviewed iPad e-readers: Apples iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

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