Hasta La Gadget!

American bookseller Barnes and Noble is planning to broaden its horizons with a little international travel. At the same time the Kindle Fire HD makes its first tentative steps across the pond, the company behind the Nook has appointed Patrick Rouvillois to spearhead its global domination — starting in the UK. As such, it’s releasing the Nook Simple Touch, Simple Touch with Glowlight and both of its new HD tablets this holiday season to win the hearts and minds of cynical Brits. If you’re a Brit (cynical or otherwise) and curious whether Jeff Bezos and chums have something to worry about (hint: most probably) then join us after the break.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble hits the UK, launches Nook Simple Touch, Glowlight and a pair of HD tablets

Filed under: Tablets

Barnes & Noble hits the UK, launches Nook Simple Touch, Glowlight and a pair of HD tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 02:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not content at stopping with its recent European tour, Google Play Books has made the trip to Japan and brought back a handful of new features. In addition to support for reading Japanese books in a vertical, right-to left layout, Mountain view now lets users tap on names of geographical spots within text and see them pinned to a Google Map alongside the option to find more information using Larry Page’s favorite search engine or Wikipedia. A freshly added translation feature takes user-highlighted words and phrases and spits them out in the reader’s language of choice. Particularly studious literature lovers can now mark up their digital books with notes and highlights that sync to the web and across their personal fleet of devices. A new sepia tone theme also joined the existing day and night views on their journey abroad. Hit the source links below for more details and the download.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Google Play Books app arrives in Japan, adds translation, place info, highlighting and more originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 20:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a lonely world when you’ve no storefronts to call your own. Shortly after Target decided it best to halt the sales of Amazon’s Kindle products, it’s being reported that Walmart is following suit. A quote obtained by Reuters suggests that Wally World’s bigwigs won’t be carrying Amazon tablets and e-readers “beyond the existing inventory and purchase commitments.” And yes, that includes “all Kindle models current and recently announced.” No actual reasoning was given beyond the conventional company line, but one has to wonder if Walmart isn’t somehow considering getting into some of the businesses that it was previously helping Amazon push.

It’s also taken a plunge with Vudu, as it’s offering an in-store disc-to-digital UltraViolet conversion as well. You might say that Walmart would never, ever start hawking its own e-readers, but crazier things have happened — Best Buy has an entire brand devoted to in-house goods, and Amazon itself has expanded from an online storefront for laundry detergent and bestselling novels to a bona fide hardware mainstay.

Walmart to stop selling Amazon’s Kindle line of readers and tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As often as companies love to toy with flexible displays, we’re seldom told how we’d control that newfound freedom. Are we supposed to make e-paper cranes? Credit LG for some forward thinking — it’s just receiving a US patent for a 2008-era user interface invention that would use a bending screen to its advantage. The implementation includes two displays, one of which flexes while the other accepts touch; bend or fold the first display, and the touchscreen changes to suit the context. Having two closely linked displays would also let the panels run either in unity or independently. Suffice it to say that the technology is unlikely to roll out as-is on a smartphone, if ever: LG’s attention has swung towards having one big touchscreen as of late. However, the interface does give the Korean firm a place to start if it develops devices to match its new flexible batteries.

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Mobile

LG gets patent for mobile UI that reacts to flexible displays, encourages origami originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There we were, thinking touch-based versions of gaming classics were a bad idea on a device intended for gaming — and then we saw Sonic the Hedgehog 2 running on a Nook Simple Touch. YouTube user “ndncnbvcuyuys” rooted his touch-based Barnes & Noble e-reader, installed the Android 2.1 OS on it, and hooked up a Sega Genesis emulator. The results are not what we’d call “ideal,” but as the hacker says, “It is playable.” Sure, technically speaking, the on-screen virtual buttons allow interaction with Sonic and his buddy Tails, but whether it’s any fun at all is another question altogether. “ndncnbvcuyuys” seems to have a penchant for the impossibly fast games on touch-based e-readers, as he got PlayStation 1’s WipeOut running on the Nook Simple Touch just a few weeks back. Might we suggest a PlayStation Vita instead?

[Thanks, Ron]

Continue reading The Nook Simple Touch can run a Genesis emulator, but should it?

Filed under: Gaming, Mobile

The Nook Simple Touch can run a Genesis emulator, but should it? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 05:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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