Hasta La Gadget!

Barnes & Noble’s new Nook Simple Touch has a touchscreen and promises better battery life. Photo: Lena Groeger/Wired.com.

Barnes & Noble on Tuesday unveiled a simplified touchscreen e-reader: the Simple Touch Reader. Designed for a “pure and simple” reading experience without buttons, keyboards or complexity, the new compact Nook will be available around June 10th in stores or online.

It’s got a 6-inch Pearl E Ink display and weighs in at just under 7.5 ounces, 35% lighter than the original Nook. It’s selling for $140, the same price as the Kindle 3, but not as cheap at the $114 Kindle with ads.

The first-generation Nook is available for a discount price of $120 (for WiFi only) and $170 (for WiFi/3G) until supplies run out.

CEO William Lynch announced at a New York press event that the Simple Touch would be the “easiest to use, most portable e-book reader ever.” He outlined several advantages to the new Nook over its Amazon rival.

The most impressive feature for avid readers is the device’s super long battery life: a whole two months at half an hour a day, or twice as long as the Kindle.

There is also 80% less flashing, or that annoying “ghosting” effect between pages, Lynch claimed.

As with previous models, readers will be able to browse entire e-books in the Barnes & Noble physical stores over Wi-Fi, and share recommendations with friends via Facebook and Twitter.

The display offers 50% more contrast than the first edition Nook, and has a “soft touch,” contoured back, presumably to make it comfier to hold. The Android-based device has 2 GB of memory (with an expandable memory slot that could boost it to 32GB).

While the touchscreen turns the new e-reader into more of a tablet than its predecessor, the new Nook does not offer apps or 3G. Those additions would interrupt the “straightforward reading experience,” said Lynch. The Simple Touch Reader will cater to a particular segment of the population: people who don’t salivate over newest generation apps and just want the basics, please.

For those who do itch for a little more, the company’s popular Nook Color recently got a software update, which includes new apps, support for Flash and built-in email. As it’s meant to be the “reader’s tablet for all forms of digital content and rich web browsing,” the Nook Color is second only to the iPad in tablet sales. More than a million apps have been downloaded since they became available in April.

With these two devices, the world’s largest brick-and-mortar bookseller is in a good position to vie with Apple and Amazon for the tablet and e-reading market. Barnes & Noble has already had surprising success since it launched its first Nook in 2009, and now accounts for 25 percent of the digital book market. No doubt this caught the eye of media billionaire John Malone of Liberty Media, who just offered $1billion for a 70% stake in the company.

The e-book market is growing rapidly: Amazon recently announced it is now selling more e-books than print books. Now it’s just a race for the best price.

Not to be outdone by Kobo, which just unleashed its latest E Ink reader yesterday, the folks at Barnes & Noble are back with the latest update to their line of Nook devices. The “all new” Nook has the same Zeforce infrared touch layer as the aforementioned Kobo, and lasts up to two months on a single charge. The Pearl E Ink screen boasts “80-percent less flashing” during page turns, something that many fans of the devices have resigned themselves to having their eyes assaulted by. B&N is also quite proud of its streamlined interface which it brags has 37 less buttons than the Kindle 3. Around the back is a soft-touch rubber surface that should feel great in the hand while reading, though, we’ll have to wait to manhandle one ourselves to be sure.

The new Nook has a redesigned home screen with your current reading list and suggested titles. It also adds a few new features like FastPage Zoom forward, which lets you jump to any page in a title, and (finally) displays the number of pages left to go. Inside is Android 2.1, 2GB of storage, which can be expanded using the microSD slot, and a WiFi radio — but sadly no 3G. You’ll also be able to share quotes, lend books, and update your status on social networks using Nook Friends, which debuted last year with the Nook Color.

You can pre-order online and in stores now and the updated Nook should start shipping to customers June 10th. You’ll also be able to pick one up at BestBuy, Walmart, Books-A-Million, and Staples for $139 at the same time.

Update: We just got a brief hands-on with B&N’s svelte new Nook, and it’s a sexy piece of hardware. It’s incredibly light and thin (quite a bit thinner than its predecessor) and the rubbery back feels pleasant in the hand. We were only able to poke around the software for a short while, but it’s certainly more responsive than the original Nook (as you’ll see in the video below). While there is less screen flashing during refreshes there is still some, and it actually might be more jarring now that you’re not seeing it every page turn.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble announces new touch-enabled Nook for $139 (video)

Barnes & Noble announces new touch-enabled Nook for $139 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 10:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Both Amazon and Sony have already hopped aboard the e-book library lending train and now, it looks like they’ll have to make room for 3M, as well. Yesterday, the company announced a new Cloud Library e-book lending service that will allow users to browse and borrow digital books directly from their iPads, Nooks and Android-based tablets. Under the program, 3M will outfit local libraries with its own software, hardware and e-book collection, which bibliophiles will be able to access via special apps, or 3M’s new eReaders, which will be synced with available digital content. The company is also planning to install so-called Discovery Terminal download stations in libraries, allowing visitors to leaf through the collection from a touch-based interface. Thus far, both Random House and IPG have signed on to the initiative, though licensing details remain murky. There’s also no word on when or where the service will launch, but 3M’s Discovery Terminal and iPad app will be on display next month in New Orleans, at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference. Full presser after the break.

Continue reading 3M announces Cloud Library e-book lending service for ’21st century’ libraries

3M announces Cloud Library e-book lending service for ’21st century’ libraries originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 12:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Barnes and Noble’s Nook Android app now supports magazines, tablets, your Cosmo obsession

Barnes and Noble’s Nook Android app now supports magazines, tablets, your Cosmo obsession originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The update dropping for the Nook Color today is the big one: It tries to take the Nook Color all the way to a full-blown tablet for $250. More »