Hasta La Gadget!

This should come as a relief to all you anxiously awaiting your Barnes and Noble Nook pre-orders. We’ve received a statement from Barnes and Noble affirming that all pre-orders which had an original pre-holiday ship date will be fulfilled, and that the rest of the orders will be filled starting on Friday. Here’s the full, reassuring statement:

“We’re happy to report that all customers who pre-ordered nooks and were given a pre-holiday estimated shipping date will be sent their nooks in time to receive them by Christmas. As you know, there’s been an overwhelmingly positive response and unprecedented demand since Barnes & Noble announced its new eBook reader on October 20th. Customer demand continues to be strong and new orders will be fulfilled beginning February 1, 2010. “

Happy, happy holidays!

Nook shipping update assures pre-orders arriving on time originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Barnes & Noble has rolled out the first firmware update for its Nook e-book reader that includes performance updates in areas such as page turning of e-books and formatting of downloaded books.

The $260 Nook, which started shipping earlier this month, was criticized for its slow refresh rate as users flipped pages and for a software interface that didn’t entirely seem ready, as Wired.com pointed out in its Nook review.

The firmware update 1.1.0 attempts to fix some of these problems. The update improves the start-up time for features such as ‘My Library’ on the device. It also ensures that the device displays the correct time on its status bar, has better page numbering for books and removes some formatting-related issues.

Meanwhile, some users have ‘rooted’ the Nook or hacked the device’s firmware to gain system level access. This allows them to run on the Nook apps such as Pandora, a browser and other programs that Barnes & Noble does not support officially.

The latest firmware update does not lock the rooted Nooks, says nookDevs, a group that has created a wiki and an online forum for Nook enthusiasts. “The update is safe, if you’ve had your device already rooted,” says the group on its website. “It will stay this way.”

But that’s if you got a Nook in the first place. With some customers worried that their pre-ordered Nooks won’t arrive in time for Christmas, Barnes & Noble has sent an e-mail promising a $100 gift voucher to anyone whose Nook doesn’t make it.

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader
• Barnes & Noble Delays Nook Shipments To Stores
• Nook Torn Open, Hacked, Rooted

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

A tipster who has proven to be reliable in the past says that Barnes and Noble’s Nook will get a software update this week — most likely around Tuesday. The update itself looks to be fairly large, improving some of the major issues we’ve had with the e-reader — like page refresh rate and a lot of other little performance issues. Our tipster also says they’ve played with an updated unit and that it’s much, much better, so we’re interested to see for ourselves when the update goes down. Until then, check out the (partial) list of bugs and fixes we’re hearing the update will include after the break.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble Nook to get an update this week? Sure sounds like it

Filed under: Handhelds

Barnes & Noble Nook to get an update this week? Sure sounds like it originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer played the tease at today’s Reader content partnership presser, stating that while Sony could make the device into a multimedia tablet, it would rather wait and see if consumers warm up to current devices. Stringer’s watching if people find the form factor “comfortable and helpful” before Sony starts “plowing on a thousand apps” or building a “Vaio Reader.” We don’t really know how much e-reader acceptance points to the demand for color multimedia tablets, but in regards to the (non-existant, ever-present) Apple Tablet, Stringer says “we’re all working on variations of the same thing.” Hopefully we’ll figure out what exactly he means by that before we grow old and start reading books or something horrible like that.

Sony staying conservative with Reader device, aware of current tablet mania originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony e-readers get exclusive Dow Jones, New York Post content originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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