Hasta La Gadget!

Barnes & Noble might be pushing the Nook as hard as it can, but the retailer has always said it wants to build a reading platform across devices, and it’s making a big step in that direction with the launch of its eReader for iPad app today. The app allows Nook users to download most of their content to the iPad — the books all work, but some periodicals like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal aren’t available yet — and there’s a nice bookshelf view with jacket art and a library search function, which the Kindle app and iBooks don’t have. As with the Nook and other B&N clients, the iPad client supports LendMe for certain titles, but there’s no in-app purchasing — selecting “add books” from the bookshelf view kicks you out to the browser, just like the Kindle app. We’re not sure if this is an Apple restriction or a design decision, but we were told B&N is looking into adding in-app purchasing in a future release.

As for reading, eReader is actually quite flexible — you can customize the page, text, highlight, and link colors any which way you want (we made some hideous combinations), and there are some nice presets themes as well, ranging from “The Printed Page” to an inverted setting called “Night Light.” You can also set books to display using the publisher’s settings, and there are the usual line spacing and justification options as well. The only issues we had were with page turns and rendering — flipping from portrait to landscape too fast would result in some brief wonkiness, and flipping pages too quickly would eventually stall the app and lead to a brief load time. Neither was a deal breaker, but there’s clearly some room for polish here — we’re sure B&N is planning to iterate this rapidly, so we’ll see what happens. All in all, though the eReader app is a worthy competitor for your iPad ebook dollar — as long as iBooks has the only in-app store it’ll remain our favorite iPad reader, but if you’ve already purchased Nook content this is a solid free addition to the ecosystem.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble launches eReader for iPad app, we go hands-on

Barnes & Noble launches eReader for iPad app, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The government is just about the last place we’d look for helpful pointers on much of anything, much less when shopping for a new phone — but that didn’t stop the FCC’s Consumer Task Force from whipping up a PDF of things you can to do prevent yourself from getting burned with a multi-hundred dollar early termination fee when buying the handset of your wildest dreams. There’s nothing in here that isn’t obvious to a seasoned phone buyer — buy the phone at full price instead, ask about a trial period, look into proration, and so on — but it goes without saying that these are the kinds of tidbits average consumers should know before setting foot in the store. Perhaps the more interesting thing about this effort on the FCC’s part is that it indicates the feds haven’t forgotten about the stink it made about rising ETFs not long ago — and AT&T’s move to hop on the bandwagon can’t be helping to smooth things over in Washington. Anyhow, go get your learn on before some seedy carrier sales rep takes advantage of you, won’t you?

FCC offers ‘simple’ ‘tips’ for avoiding pesky early termination fees originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 22:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A forthcoming app from Mozilla will let Firefox users open Web sites on their iPhones. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20006090-233.html” class=”origPostedBlog”iPhone Atlas/a/p

Continue reading Modder transmits Wii games to iPod touch, which isn’t really as fun as it sounds (video)

Modder transmits Wii games to iPod touch, which isn’t really as fun as it sounds (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 20:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has been through some extreme ups and downs, but today the corporation climbed to an all-time high. Apple surpassed longtime rival Microsoft in market capitalization, making the Cupertino, California, company the most valuable technology company in the world, for the moment, at least.

The milestone is even more remarkable given Apple’s single-digit share of the computer market. Microsoft, by contrast, runs on about 90 percent of the world’s PCs.

Steve Jobs should feel vindicated. After being fired from his own company in the 1980s, the company gradually became less and less relevant, its market share dwindling and its innovative edge dulled.

Now, over a decade after his return as Apple CEO, Jobs — once viewed as an opportunistic entrepreneur who would never have the chops to run a really big company — is the king of the tech industry.

From the first iMac to the revolutionary iPad, what follows is a list of key turning points that took Apple from an also-ran into a champion.

Above:

Jobs Returns, 1996

A nearly bankrupt Apple Computer welcomed back its ousted founder Jobs in 1996. Apple purchased Jobs’ startup, NeXT, to help build a new, Unix-based operating system — but the real prize was Jobs himself. A year later, Jobs replaced Gil Amelio as CEO to retake the helm. With the help of some financial backing from rival Bill Gates, the return of Jobs marked the beginning of Apple’s gradual recovery.

Photo: Gil Amelio, left, and Steve Jobs appear together at the MacWorld exposition in San Francisco on January 7, 1997
Associated Press/Eric Risberg