Oct 26

Nook Color first hands-on! (updated: with video)

Posted in: barnes and noble, BarnesAndNoble, breaking news, BreakingNews, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, hands-on, nook, Today's Chili
Sure, the lighting’s not great and its only a mock-up at this point, but that’s Barnes & Noble’s new Nook Color. We’re being told there will be a chance to handle a real working unit soon, but in the meantime, enjoy the shots below!

Update: We just got some more time with a functional unit, and while we aren’t allowed to use it, we can say the build quality is sturdy, there’s a good rubber backing, and the viewing angles are quite nice. It’s crisp, too, the screen, although page turning is somewhat sluggish, the software perhaps not finished. Article view is a nice touch, being able to read just the piece formatting-free — and you can skim through the articles alone by swiping to the left and right. You want some more shots of the UI in action? You know where to look.

Update 2: Well, that was tough! We finally got some “alone time” with the Nook Color, although we still weren’t allow to put our apparently grimy fingers on it. You can check it out in the video below, but we still seem to think there’s some software tweaking going on as it’s a bit sluggish to switch through menus. While we’re still of the mind that this device should have had a PixelQi or Mirasol display, we can report that the LCD is responsive to finger swipes and the viewing angles are quite good (believe us, we were looking at this thing from all angles as book-loving journalists swarmed it.) We can’t and won’t make a final call on the Color until we get one into our hands, but the video below should give you a better idea of the UI and performance until then.

Gallery: Working Nook Color hands-on

Gallery: Nook Color mockup hands-on!

Continue reading Nook Color first hands-on! (updated: with video)

Nook Color first hands-on! (updated: with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 26

Nook Color first hands-on!

Posted in: barnes and noble, BarnesAndNoble, breaking news, BreakingNews, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, hands-on, nook, Today's Chili
Sure, the lighting’s not great, but what you’re looking at is the first look at Barnes & Noble’s new Nook Color. We’re going back for seconds, but in the meantime, enjoy!

Gallery: Nook Color first hands-on!

Nook Color first hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 26

Barnes & Noble Nook Color revealed

Posted in: barnes and noble, BarnesAndNoble, breaking news, BreakingNews, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, LCD, nook, Today's Chili, touchscreen

Barnes & Noble just unveiled its all-new Nook Color, an Android tablet fronted by a 7-inch color touchscreen… so long, e-ink! (Not really, the $149 original Nook is sticking around for now, owns 20 percent of the e-reader market, and is about to get a major software update). B&N is billing it as a hybrid of e-reader and tablet device, and has beefed up its software with a full-on tablet-style UI, along with Facebook and Twitter integration. There’s built-in WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and 8GB of storage, but no 3G at this point. Thankfully, the price stays aggressive as a result: $249. You might think that means the screen is going to be weak, but B&N has managed to put an impressive-sounding “VividView,” 16 million color, 1024 x 600 IPS display in this thing. Interestingly, there’s a “full lamination screen film” on top of the LCD to reduce glare, apparently from the backlight, not just from external light sources.

Build-wise, there’s that striking corner handle we saw before (smacks of the XO-3, doesn’t it?) and a microSD slot, with a 0.48-inch thick body and a 15.6 ounce overall weight. Battery life takes a notable hit, of course, with a rating of 8 hours of reading with the WiFi off. Of course, underneath it all is still Android, and Barnes & Noble is launching the Nook Developer program to allow third party apps on the device, and it even ships with a few favorites like Pandora and Lonely Planet. The color screen also enables a new library of “Nook Kids” children books, full-color magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and video playback if you’re in the mood. The Nook Color ships on November 19th, pre-orders are available now.

Looking for more? Check our hands-on video, photos, and impressions of the Nook Color!

Gallery: Nook Color press photos

Continue reading Barnes & Noble Nook Color revealed

Barnes & Noble Nook Color revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 26

Live from Barnes & Noble’s ‘Very Special Event’

Posted in: barnes and noble, barnes noble, BarnesAndNoble, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, LiveBlog, nook, Today's Chili

To think, it’s been just over a year since Barnes and Noble’s Nook was officially unveiled, a 6-inch e-reader with a secondary, Android-powered colored display for navigation. And here we are now, in attendance at a “very special event” from the bookseller’s Union Square store in New York — for what, we can only guess. Stay tuned, things could get very colorful.

Continue reading Live from Barnes & Noble’s ‘Very Special Event’

Live from Barnes & Noble’s ‘Very Special Event’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 25

Kindle books outselling print 2 to 1 for Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers, and other relatively positive sales figures

Posted in: amazon, Books, business, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, kindle, sales, Today's Chili

Amazon has its own applied theory of special relativity, in the sense that we never really know definitive sales figures and instead have to rely on the occasional ratio and comparative figure (based upon aforementioned unknown variables) to glean any sense of success. Jeff Bezos and company are happy to announce the latest Kindle has, in its three months or so since release, surpassed sales of the previous device in its 2009 holiday season (the shopping-heavy October through December period) — in other words, it expects even greater sales for this year’s equivalent quarter, but it can’t exactly time travel to report on the future (yet). Ready for more? Amazon’s also boasting that, for its top 10 bestselling books, Kindle digital books are outselling print (both hardcover and paperback combined) at a rate “great than 2 to 1.” We’re going to guess those are better figures than its tipping point back in July, but Mass-Sales Equivalence was never our strong suit in college. More fun factoids and artistic displays of applied statistics can be found in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Kindle books outselling print 2 to 1 for Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers, and other relatively positive sales figures

Kindle books outselling print 2 to 1 for Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers, and other relatively positive sales figures originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 25

Barnes & Noble launching Nook Kids this week, set to be the Nook Color’s killer app?

Posted in: barnes noble, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, nook, Today's Chili

Barnes & Noble launching Nook Kids this week, set to be the Nook Color's killer app?Say what you want about the current spate of e-books, few will do anything to hold the interest of your three-year-old nephew. To those who like to keep peanut butter and jelly out of the keys if their Kindles that’s a good thing, but for Barnes & Noble that’s a business opportunity waiting to be tapped. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company will soon launch Nook Kids, a dedicated collection for young readers expected to start with an impressive selection of 12,000 titles. Many of those will be “enhanced,” like the book Jamberry, having one page with falling blueberries that kids can pop with a tap. That seems to be further proof of a full touchscreen on the rumored Color Nook, expected to be unveiled this Tuesday. Later in the year look for a Nook Kids app on the iPad and other devices, so now might be a good time to start teaching little Joey about regular hand cleaning.

[Thanks, Carson R.]

Barnes & Noble launching Nook Kids this week, set to be the Nook Color’s killer app? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 24

Nook Color revealed by overzealous screen protector?

Posted in: barnes and noble, barnes noble, BarnesAndNoble, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, leak, leaked, leaks, nook, Today's Chili

Barnes & Noble’s done a pretty decent job of keeping a supposed Nook Color hidden from our prying eyes, but an errant accessory may have jumped the gun — the “Nook Color Screen Film Kit,” to be precise, whose product image is pictured immediately above. CNET discovered the protective film hanging out on Barnes & Noble’s website, and quickly grabbed this picture before it could be removed. Even if we’re legitimately looking at the new Nook, of course, this doesn’t tell us much about the seemingly button-less product underneath. How’s this: We’ll go out on a limb and tell you it’s got a color touchscreen.

Nook Color revealed by overzealous screen protector? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 22

How would you change Amazon’s Kindle DX Graphite?

Posted in: amazon, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, HowWouldYouChange, HWYC, kindle, Today's Chili

We both know you didn’t need a Kindle with a 9.7-inch display, but you went and did the deed anyway. Now that you’re a proud owner of Amazon’s Kindle DX Graphite, you’re obligated to tell the world what exactly you’d change about it if given the ability to do so. We noted back in our review that the revised display was indeed a lovely extra, but is it enough to justify the lofty premium over the standard 6-inch model? Would you have changed up the keyboard? What about the enclosure? Thrown in a kickstand? Added a helmet mount? Go on and tell us how you’d make the Kindle DX Graphite an ideal device down in comments below. We’re all ears, you know.

How would you change Amazon’s Kindle DX Graphite? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 22

Amazon announces 14-day lending feature for Kindle books, newspapers and magazines for Kindle apps

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, e reader, e-book, e-book reader, E-bookReader, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, kindle, Today's Chili
Nook users can already lend ebooks they’ve purchased to others, and it looks like Kindle users will soon be able to do the same. Amazon has just announced that it will be offering a similar feature “later this year” that will let folks lend books they’ve purchased to other Kindle users for a 14-day period, during which the person that actually purchased the book won’t be able to read it themselves. That feature won’t be available for all ebooks, however, as it will be up to individual publishers and rights holders to enable it for a particular book. What’s more, Amazon has also announced that Kindle newspapers and magazines will soon be readable on the various free Kindle apps available for other devices — look for that feature to launch in the “coming weeks.”

Amazon announces 14-day lending feature for Kindle books, newspapers and magazines for Kindle apps originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 21

Barnes & Noble prepping new Nook with full color touchscreen?

Posted in: Android, barnes and noble, BarnesAndNoble, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, nook, tablet, Today's Chili

Yeah, the Nook already has one color screen, but its primary display is depressingly monochrome. Now there’s word on the street, from a reliable source of CNET’s, that Barnes & Noble will be bringing a full-color, Android-based, touchscreen Nook to its event next Tuesday. That sure sounds a whole lot like a full fledged Android tablet, which would be quite a departure for Barnes & Noble — sure, the Nook is Android-based, but it hardly acts like it currently. Still, there’s a smell of Android tablets in the air, and it wouldn’t be horribly surprising to see B&N move in this direction. CNET’s tipster says the device will be called the Nook Color, and retail for $249. That’s pretty low for a 7-inch touchscreen LCD device, but perhaps (hopefully) B&N has its eye on an alternative tech like Mirasol or Pixel Qi? Either way, the existing Nook will apparently continue to be sold as a lower-end version, so e-ink aficionados have no need to throw their hands up in despair just yet. Stay tuned!

Barnes & Noble prepping new Nook with full color touchscreen? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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