Nook Tablet

Rather suddenly and unannounced…

Barnes & Noble disabled side loading app functions in the Nook Tablet. Which I am sure would piss a lot of people off if they bought the Nook Tablet instead of the Kindle Fire because it was “open” and you could if you wanted to load apps not provided by the B&N app store.

This is why I keep saying stop buying electronic garbage from these cheapskate eBook sellers. No good will come of it and they really do not even understand why people were buying their product and not Amazon’s they are just that clueless about their own customer base.

This should hurt their sales due to this sudden change in functionality but they will still be clueless as to the reasons why so do not expect any miracles.

So Merry Christmas folks! Hope you did not stick one of these Nook Tablets under the tree for someone thinking they could use this functionality to make for a cheap Android Tablet because it is long gone with those automatic “over the air” OS updates. The Nook Tablet is now nothing more than yet another brain dead eBook Reader just like the Kindle Fire.

Barnes & Noble is obviously practicing for the part of The Grinch this year. I wonder if they will even be around for next year at this rate. Oh, who cares! The eBook format’s success does not depend on stinking mall bookstores with jacked up hardcover prices and failing business models like this.

B&N Nook For iPad
B&N updated the Nook app for us Apple folks so you can do even more cool things that have nothing to do with just reading an eBook. I guess they needed to feel that people were talking about them for more than the stupid Nook logo they settled on.

I just do not understand. At least the B&N logo made sense and plainly labeled the app as part of their Barnes & Noble bookstore. What does that stupid upside down green u represent? Maybe it symbolizes the inevitable lack of real innovation or ideas. Maybe it symbolizes the inevitable bankruptcy all traditional brands of publishing now face.

You got me!

Pandigital: Novel

Just the facts…

Android: (with no version information yet)
ARM 11 processor (capable of 1ghz but no information yet)
7 inch 600 x 800 pixels color TFT LCD screen
1 gig
Memory Card Reader: SD/SDHC, MMC/MMC+ up to 32GB
Wi-Fi
1 USB 2.0

Price reportedly $200.00

In a move I think Amazon needs to pull Barnes & Noble is doing a never mind the Nook take a look at the Novel. We were kidding about that eInk junk… Tablets for eBooks! Who knew? These are going to come pre-packaged with the Barnes & Nobles eReader for Android app I would guess.

Oh and I saw this recently over at Apple Insider about Apple rejecting OLED screens that messed up Google’s Nexus One. Seems that even though Samsung pumped the color on their OLED screens they could not hide the junky screen artifacting. I thought that was interesting and obviously the reason anyone looking to support eBook reading is staying away from OLED technology. Which is why the new iPhone will be a Hi-Def version of it’s current screen.

The Intentional iPad Revolution is now in full swing…

From: CNET ~ As iPad goes global, the birth of a new market?

The iPad, which beat industry expectations by selling 1 million tablets in the first month of sales in the U.S., will be released Friday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

The international rollout will continue in July with iPads planned to be released in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore.

Apple won’t release sales expectations in international markets, but market researcher IDC forecasts that the company will ship 6 million iPads by the end of the year.

No, not market… How about just the evolution of a new computer format for content viewing? How about that? You know, like the iPod/iPod Touch was a new format for music and eventually videos?

Barnes & Noble eReader for iPad

Hot off the iPad! It’s here finally.

The Consumerist: Barnes & Noble Says They’ll Accept Gift Cards For Ebooks Before Christmas

Hmmmm maybe we just might be causing problems for our Nook customers not being able to buy eBooks and all that.

Let’s look into this Gift Card deally!

Barnes & Noble Gift Card Does Not Work With eBooks

Brilliance and right before the Holiday Shopping Season to boot! Are these guys not thinking this through or what? Seems customers are just finding out their Gift Cards can not help eBook shoppers using the Nook.

The word is Barnes & Noble is currently converting their eBooks over to ePub. This extensive process will take time, so eBooks for sale may appear or disappear during the process. Barnes & Noble is in the process tweaking their conversion software and trying to minimize errors in finished eBooks.

Barnes & Noble: Nook

Well, it looks better than the Kindle but I still say this is not going to compete with the Smart Tablets.

UPDATE!

Just The Facts…
Screens: 6 Inch eInk and 3.5 Inch Color touch screen display
Memory: 2 Gigs with SD card slot up to 16 Gigs
Connections: Wi-fi and AT&T 3G and USB/charger
Supports: DRM PDF/ePub

Unique Functionality: Lets you share eBooks with a friend using one of the Barnes & Noble eReader clients for 14 days but the eBook cannot be read by you till it is returned.

Price: $259.00 currently in pre-order

Rumors are heating up around Barnes & Nobles entry into eBook Readers. From Gizmodo…

The device is expected to feature a six-inch screen from digital-paper maker E-Ink Corp. with touch input and a virtual keyboard, like the one used on Apple Inc.’s iPhone. The Barnes & Noble device is expected to also use a wireless connection to download books from the online e-book store that the books retailer unveiled in July, those people said.

Interesting to note Gizmodo also said it will run the Android OS from Google. Although I wonder if they might just be porting over their existing iPhone app…

Barnes & Noble’s rapidly-approaching eReader will be an Android piece, according to our source.

Barnes & Noble rebranded and reintroduced the Fictionwise eReader iPhone application. Yeah, you still have to switch back and forth between the app and Safari and app and Safari several times trying to register and then buy an eBook and then try and read said eBook.

Nothing new here just more lazy halfassed programming.
I can sorta see Fictionwise going with something like that just to get it out on the market back when something like this mattered but why did B&N not fix all the problems and fully integrate the seperate functions directly to their back end servers without having to drop to a web browser before slapping their name on it and announcing to the world they are THE eBooks leader now?

Yeah, biggest eBook wannabes maybe. Boy, will upper management be surprised when one of them uses the Amazon Kindle app and realizes what the programmers should have done.