Barnes & Noble licenses Alex e-reader patents from Spring Design, settles dispute

You can now tack on one more footnote to the end of the Alex e-reader story — Spring Design has finally settled its longstanding dispute with Barnes & Noble, and granted the company a “non-exclusive, paid-up royalty free license for the entire portfolio of Spring Design patents and patent applications.” Terms of the settlement are otherwise confidential, with Barnes & Noble only saying that it is “pleased to add Spring Design’s patents and patent applications as a complementary addition to our rapidly growing digital portfolio.” Head on past the break for the short and sweet official press release.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble licenses Alex e-reader patents from Spring Design, settles dispute

Barnes & Noble licenses Alex e-reader patents from Spring Design, settles dispute originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Barnes & Noble now selling the Nook Color on eBay for $199

Well, this one strikes us as a little… odd. Barnes & Noble is currently selling its Nook Color on eBay (along with plenty of other things). The truly interesting part, however, is that the price, once a $50 coupon code is applied, is $199, which is of course $50 less than it sells them for in stores or on its own website. We aren’t sure what the motivation behind this move is, but we’d guess that the bookseller is attempting to compete with other, unofficial eBay retailers selling B&N’s goods. Either way, if you’re in the market for a Nook Color, eBay seems to be the place to get one, for now.

Barnes & Noble now selling the Nook Color on eBay for $199 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Barnes & Noble updates Nook Android app, promises a Honeycomb version this spring

On the heels of the announcement that it’s grabbed 25 percent of the US e-reader market, Barnes & Noble has decided to give the world a heap of details on its Android developments. First up, we’ve got an updated Android app, and while it’s not exactly a drastic upgrade, version 2.5 has been refreshed with a new library grid view (apparently optimized for 7-inch tablets), a book download progress bar, and a wish list feature. We told you they were rather minor updates, but our guess is that the Nook Honeycomb app that’s being promised for some time this spring will be far more exciting. Yep, it’s a lot of B&N Android, but while we’re on the topic, we’ve got to admit we’re wondering about the whereabouts of that Nook Color app store, which was announced back in October. Look not everyone has taken to rooting, okay? Alright, we’ve totally digressed — hit the gallery below for some screens of the new app or the source link to try it out on your own.

Barnes & Noble updates Nook Android app, promises a Honeycomb version this spring originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How would you change Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color?

Now that you’ve had ample time to get through a few novellas, we’re keenly interested in finding out how you’d change Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color if given the opportunity. For an e-reader, it’s deliciously hackable, giving you a way to blow off steam after a hard day’s night… of soaking up information, that is. We found it to be amongst the top of its class when we reviewed it back in November, but this space is all about you. Would you overhaul the user interface? Ship it with a fancier build of Android? Boost the battery life? Go on and get opinionated in comments below — we promise we won’t judge.

How would you change Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honeycomb for Nook Color released for download (update: video)

Android Honeycomb on a humble e-reading tablet? Why yes, it’s not only possible, it’s downloadable. Deeper-blue, the chap who’s been spending the past few days porting the Honeycomb SDK over to the Nook Color, has today decided to release his latest work out to eager users and fellow coders. He’s enabled the accelerometer, touchscreen, buttons, graphics acceleration, and wireless connectivity, but other things like sound remain on the to-do list. Hit the source link for all the code and info you require to be among the first to run Android 3.0 on their tablet.

Update: Video walkthrough after the break!

[Thanks, Forrest]

Continue reading Honeycomb for Nook Color released for download (update: video)

Honeycomb for Nook Color released for download (update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video

Can’t wait until February 2nd to see more of Android 3.0 in action? That’s not a problem, as today we’ve got a whole 129 seconds of video showing Google’s latest mobile software doing its thing on the Nook Color. The OS was ported to B&N’s tablet on Friday, when we were promised further work would be taking place over the weekend to enable hardware acceleration of the GUI, and what do you know, that goal has been achieved with plenty of Sunday to spare! Most core functionality is still not available, but the delicious Honeycomb interface is very much in effect. Jump past the break for the eye candy feast.

[Thanks, Jules]

Continue reading Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video

Android Honeycomb port for Nook Color gets graphics acceleration, first demo video originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nook Color earns its very early, very unofficial Android 3.0 Honeycomb wings

One of the first things that happens after a new platform emulator breaks loose is that a bunch of hackers far smarter than ourselves get hold of it, tear it apart, and port it to whatever’s convenient. In the case of this week’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb preview, “whatever’s convenient” would be the Nook Color, which reigns as perhaps the cheapest decent-quality Android tablet money can currently buy. Naturally, xda-developers has a thread going on the subject as we speak; the current port is said to be really slow and mostly broken — but then again, that kind of describes the current state of the emulator itself. Good news is that the developer says he plans on working on graphics acceleration to improve performance over the weekend, so with any luck, the Xoom might have some unofficial competition before too long. Follow the break for another shot.

[Thanks, s30zgt]

Continue reading Nook Color earns its very early, very unofficial Android 3.0 Honeycomb wings

Nook Color earns its very early, very unofficial Android 3.0 Honeycomb wings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Barnes & Noble brings pinch-to-zoom browsing, improved WiFi connectivity in Nook Color update

Got yourself a Nook Color, did you? If you’re not the type to wait for OTA updates to hit you upside the head, Barnes & Noble has just let loose a software update that’s free to download. Version 1.1.0 promises to improve the Nook Color’s WiFi connectivity, improve Home and Shop performance and to “enhance the reading experience for magazines and children’s books.” Frankly, the latter is quite a curious promise, but we suppose we’d rather have it than not. In other news, the update is adding pinch-to-zoom capabilities in the browser, and B&N also swears that other miscellaneous bugs were squashed in the making of v1.1.0. Hit the source link to get those bytes a-streaming, or just wait for it to be delivered over-the-air in the coming days. On second thought, just download it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Barnes & Noble brings pinch-to-zoom browsing, improved WiFi connectivity in Nook Color update originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Exclusive: Barnes & Noble phasing out the Nook 3G

Barnes & Noble may be selling millions of Nook products, but it’s sounding like the 3G variant hasn’t really done its part to help those figures. We’ve received hard evidence from within B&N that the Nook is being discontinued, with sales to seemingly continue until stock is exhausted. The outfit is encouraging retail partners to not send out any bulk orders for the Nook 3G, as there simply won’t be sufficient quantities to fulfill those orders. Of course, we’re told that the company never actually received a huge amount of Nook 3G bulk orders to begin with, so maybe WiFi really is everywhere these days. At any rate, grab yourself a Nook 3G post-haste if you’ve been thinking it over — once they’re gone, they’re gone for good. Or, you could wait for a next-gen version with a Pearl display. Just sayin’.

Update: We received clarification that the discontinuation isn’t due to the lack of bulk sales, they’re just the first casualty of a dwindling supply.

Exclusive: Barnes & Noble phasing out the Nook 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nook Color gets overclocked, further blurs the line between tablet and e-reader

First, they ported Ubuntu to the Nook Color, and now the intrepid hackers at the XDA Developers Forum have overclocked its stock 800MHz processor to run at speeds up to 1GHz. The mod allows users to have their cake and eat it too, as the custom kernel ups the speed of the CPU while running it at a lower voltage, which means longer battery life — though we don’t know exactly how much longer. Apparently, the developer who wrote the code found that the system became unstable at the 1GHz level, but there were no such problems at 950MHz and below. Hit the source link to download the kernel and see for yourself what a supercharged Nook Color can do.

Nook Color gets overclocked, further blurs the line between tablet and e-reader originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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