Hasta La Gadget!

Target said Wednesday that Amazon’s Kindle will be available at all of its stores starting June 6.

Target started selling the e-reader at its flagship downtown Minneapolis store and in 102 south Florida locations on April 25, and is now expanding nationwide.

“Our guests’ response to Kindle has been overwhelmingly positive,” Mark Schindele, senior vice president at Target, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to bring guests nationwide this incredibly light, portable, easy-to-read product that allows them to get all the news and books they want.”

The Kindle sells for $259. Target is the first brick-and-mortar store to sell the device; it is also available via Amazon.com.

Best Buy started selling the Barnes & Noble Nook on April 18, and is featuring Barnes & Noble’s e-reader software on select laptops and desktops, netbooks, tablets, and smartphones.

If you’ll allow us to do a little dot-connecting and hand-waving here, we think we may have just stumbled across a new version of Barnes and Noble’s Nook that drops the GSM connection and soldiers on with WiFi alone, matching up nicely with a rumor that spread across the webs not long ago. You see, the Nook’s FCC ID is BNRZ100, and this thing that we just found in the FCC’s filing system under Barnes and Noble’s name has an ID of BNRV100 — and the test reports are very explicit about the fact that this is for “EBOOK, WLAN, AND USB PORTS WITHOUT WWAN.” WWAN, of course, is a fancy way of referring to a cellular connection, so that’s that. If this thing can sell for, say, $100 less than the Nook’s $260 — a price that puts it out of reach of the average person’s impulse purchase limit — we could see some significant new uptake of the platform, we’d wager. No word on a release, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground.

WiFi-only Nook gets FCC approval? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  FCC  | Email this | Comments

Self-publishing has long since been possible through Amazon, but you won’t catch us kvetching about a little competition in the market place. In an attempt to do for indie writers what InstantAction has done for indie game developers, Barnes & Noble has just announced its intentions to open up a self-publishing portal this summer. We wouldn’t say that the PubIt! name is the greatest of all time (for a variety of reasons, frankly), but the world’s largest bookseller is hoping to expand its importance in the digital realm by giving wannabe authors the ability to upload and sell their material through B&N’s website and eBookstore. Details on the compensation model (read: profit split) will be announced “in the coming weeks,” but the real kicker here is this won’t be limited to the Nook; pretty much any e-reader, tablet or PC will be able to tap in and make purchases, so the potential audience is quite large. Hit that source link if you want to be notified when invitations are going out, and given just how close we are to this mythical “summer” thing, we’d suggest you start putting pen to paper — and fast.

[Thanks, Victor]

Continue reading Barnes & Noble to open ‘PubIt!’ self-publishing portal this summer

Barnes & Noble to open ‘PubIt!’ self-publishing portal this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 10:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Barnes & Noble  | Email this | Comments

Given DigiTimes‘ spotty record when it comes to pushing rumors you might be inclined to read “Digitimes Research” as a kind of oxymoron. Unfortunately, as long as Amazon refuses to publish specifics with regard to units sold, these analyst estimates are as good as it gets. What’s interesting is that DigiTimes‘ checks at upstream suppliers reveal that Barnes & Noble’s Nook accounted for 53 percent of all e-book readers shipped to US vendors in March. Interesting since Kindle is Amazon’s bestselling product and an increasing share of the company’s revenue is based on sales of electronics and general merchandise. Still, it’s our guess that Amazon doesn’t care too much about selling its own hardware (it’s in the business of selling other people’s content and goods). Besides, the Kindle app is already available on a wide range of devices including Apple’s iPad and a wide variety of smartphones. One place you can’t install it, however, is on the steadily improving Nook.

Nook outsells Kindle in March? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  DigiTimes  | Email this | Comments

Barnes & Noble has updated the firmware of its Nook e-reader to v1.3. The update tweaks existing features and adds a few brand new ones.

The most exciting is the addition of a web browser, classified as “experimental”, just like the one on the Kindle. It uses the e-ink screen, not the touch-sensitive color one at the bottom, but it will let you choose bookmarks from the LCD, as well as using its virtual keyboard to enter urls.

There are also chess and sudoku games, which both seem perfect for a slow-updating grayscale display. The chess game offers a computer-controlled opponent with three skill levels. This is one of those things that seems obvious once you hear about it, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see chess on the Kindle in the future, if its non-Android OS is up to it.

There are also a few interface and menu tweaks, but the addition B&N seems most proud of might actually be the lamest, which is why I have shifted it to the end of this post. The Read in Store feature has been updated to let you read entire books when in an actual B&N store. You know, just like you can do with a real paper book. Why is this lame? From the blurb: “you’re free to read any parts of any available eBook for **up to an hour** per day!” [emphasis added, excited exclamation mark in original].

Yeah, one measly hour. What is the point of limiting reading time when the person in the store can just go and pick up the freaking paper book? This, rather than being a feature is just a way to piss off Nook buyers. Way to annoy your most loyal customers, B&N.

UPDATE: A B&N representative got in touch to clarify that this one-hour limit is per-book, which should be plenty long enough to decide if you want to buy.

Despite this, the update looks to add a lot of extra stuff, and free. Your Nook should update itself over the next week when connected to Wi-Fi. If you’re desperate to grab it right now, you can use the “Check for new B&N content” command the under “My Library” section, or download it to your computer from the update page.

New to NOOK: Version 1.3 Available Now! [Barnes & Noble]

Support and download page [Barnes & Noble]

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble Nook
• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen 'Nook' E-Reader …
• Nook Torn Open, Hacked, Rooted
• Nook E-Reader Gets Hacked to Run Apps, Browser
• Barnes & Noble's Shiny, Sharing-Friendly 'Nook' eBook Reader …