NOOK Apps for NOOK Color launched

NOOK Developer(TM) Program Brings Popular, High-Quality Applications For Customers to Play, Learn, Connect and More on Award-Winning Device

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, recently opened its doors to developer innovation with its NOOK Developer program. Today, the company is pleased to deliver new and innovative reading experiences through NOOK Apps, a collection of high-quality applications launched for the company's award-winning NOOK Color Reader's Tablet. The addition of popular apps and other most requested tablet features to the newly updated NOOK Color make the best reading device on the market the best value tablet on the market at $249.

NOOK Apps offer NOOK Color customers a broad collection of popular applications from the world's best publishers and third-party developers, including Chronicle Books, Condé Nast, Concrete Software, Gameloft, Goodreads, Loud Crow Interactive, my6sense, The National Geographic Society, NAMCO, Rovio, Wordnik and more. NOOK Apps were introduced with the major NOOK Color software update launched today (available at no cost at www.nookcolor.com/update). The update delivers what customers want: shopping for popular apps, full-featured built-in email, an enhanced Web experience, as well as new ways for adults and children to enjoy rich content. NOOK Color v1.2 includes a platform upgrade to Android OS 2.2/Froyo, along with support for Adobe® AIR® and Adobe Flash® Player.

"We are thrilled to add to our robust eReading ecosystem a differentiated and unique portfolio of high-quality applications, which enrich and extend the reading experience that our customers know and love and keep the whole family entertained and engaged, connected and organized. With an update to the operating system, NOOK Apps, email, an enhanced Web experience and more new, great features and content to enjoy, we have made NOOK Color - already acclaimed as the best reading device on the market - truly the best value tablet on the market for $249," said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble. "The response from the developer and content communities has been terrific, as many great companies are enthusiastic about bringing their strong brands, products and content to NOOK Color and the NOOK Bookstore, and taking advantage of the unique benefits of our open platform and merchandising opportunities."

NOOK Apps represent an exciting and unique opportunity for developers to reach a targeted and passionate audience of millions of Barnes & Noble customers. The company offers unmatched marketing and merchandising opportunities for developers through NOOK Color, BN.com's storefront, and unprecedented merchandising opportunities to drive discovery and demand in more than 1,300 Barnes & Noble retail and college bookstores.

Developers are invited to join and qualify to submit their applications by visiting www.nookdeveloper.com.

Subscribers to The New York Times on NOOK to Receive Free Access to NYTimes.com

(Press Release) Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, today announced that all subscribers to The New York Times through NOOK Newsstand(TM) will also enjoy access to the NYTimes.com website. Barnes & Noble customers can already enjoy their digital subscription to The New York Times, reading the daily e-edition content on NOOK Color(TM) Reader's Tablet, NOOK(TM) and NOOK Wi-Fi® eReaders. Coming soon, NOOK subscribers to The New York Times will also be able to access NYTimes.com, The Times's award-winning website, including timely news updates, opinion, blogs, video, interactive graphics and more, at no additional cost.

"We are excited to expand our long-standing relationship with The New York Times to provide NOOK customers with online access to even more great content any time," said Jonathan Shar, Vice President and General Manager of digital newsstand at Barnes & Noble. "Our customers already enjoy access to one of the leading NOOK Newspapers(TM) on their favorite NOOK device, and we believe they'll appreciate the easy access to all of the wonderful online content available at NYTimes.com at no extra cost."

The New York Times continues to be one of the bestselling NOOK Newspapers and, as with other digital periodicals, is available for a risk-free, 14 day free trial for all customers.

"The Times's digital subscription plan was designed to offer access to our high-quality journalism across a variety of platforms," said Yasmin Namini, senior vice president, marketing and circulation, and general manager, reader applications, The New York Times Media Group. "We are pleased be able to offer online access to NYTimes.com as part of the subscription experience for our loyal readers on NOOK devices."

Barnes & Noble customers with current subscriptions to The New York Times through NOOK Newsstand(TM) will be notified via email in the coming weeks with more information on how to enjoy free access to NYTimes.com.

Barnes & Noble Introduces NOOKcolor

Barnes & Noble Introduces NOOKcolor, claiming it will be the ultimate reading experience, featuring:

• First-Ever Reader's Tablet with Full-Color Touchscreen and Wireless Access
• Enhanced Graphic Books, Magazines, Newspapers and Interactive Children's Books
• Amazingly Thin and Portable
• The Most Social Reading Device Ever Built: Lend, Borrow and Share with Friends

Time will tell how true that claim willl be. Anyway, it sounds really good.

NOOKcolor is now available for $249 for pre-order at www.NOOKcolor.com and at Barnes & Noble stores tomorrow, and will begin shipping on or about November 19.  Also at the  NOOK(TM) Boutique or display at  Barnes & Noble bookstore, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million starting late November.
 
"With NOOKcolor, we've combined the functionality and convenience of a 7-inch portable wireless tablet with the reader-centricity of a dedicated eReader, and employed a breakthrough color screen technology that will wow customers," said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. Added Lynch, "NOOKcolor enables Web browsing over Wi-Fi, music, games and much more, but reading anything and everything in brilliant color is the killer app and squarely the product's focus. At $249, NOOKcolor offers a tremendous value, particularly in comparison to the many other 7-inch tablets coming to market at twice the cost and often requiring expensive data plans.  Most importantly, NOOKcolor is designed for and differentiated by what Barnes & Noble knows best: reading."

NOOK eBook Reader Will Be Sold at Walmart

The world’s largest bookseller, has announced its award-winning NOOK eBook Reader will be sold in 2,500 Walmart stores (NYSE: WMT) and online at www.walmart.com. The popular NOOK devices are expected to arrive on Walmart shelves beginning as soon as October 24, in advance of the holiday shopping season.

The NOOK eBook Readers will be prominently featured as the premier eBook Reader in the consumer electronics area. Many Walmart stores will feature a NOOK-branded eReading area where shoppers can see and touch a demonstration device.
Walmart will offer both great choice and value with two NOOK by Barnes & Noble eBook Reader models – NOOK 3G, which offers free AT&T 3G wireless and Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as NOOK Wi-Fi, a Wi-Fi only model. Both offer a crisp, paper-like E Ink display for reading and a beautiful color touchscreen for navigation, and access to shop the Barnes & Noble expansive eBookstore with more than one million eBooks, magazines and newspapers, most available for $9.99 or less and more than half a million free titles. Digital content from Barnes & Noble is downloaded wirelessly in seconds. NOOK devices are also the only to offer sharing of eBooks with friends through Barnes & Noble’s breakthrough LendMe™ technology.
“Sales of NOOK devices continue to exceed our expectations, and we are thrilled to be able to partner with Walmart, one of the world’s greatest retailers, to expand the distribution of our award-winning NOOK eBook Reader,” said Chris Peifer, Vice President, Digital Business Development at Barnes & Noble. “Walmart’s millions of shoppers will have an easy and convenient way to try NOOK devices in many stores and to learn why NOOK is the most full-featured eReading device on the market, and the perfect gift solution for anyone who loves to read.”

Source: Barnes & Noble

B&N Rebrands Its Nook eReader Software For Various Platforms

E-reading software is swiftly making its way from eReaders to mobile handsets. Barnes & Noble had unleashed its highly anticipated Nook sometime back and the company now updates its Nook-branded eReading software for the iPhone.



Less than a month after introducing an Android App, Barnes and Noble has released a completely revamped version of their apps for iPhone and iPad. The iPad app now includes a familiar one- to five-star rating system, and the ability to sort by ranking.

The improved iPhone app ads some of the best functionality from its iPad counterpart, allowing users to completely customize the look of their pages or choose from several professionally-designed themes. Additionally, you can change font styles, size, and spacing for the best reading experience possible. The iPhone app is optimized for viewing on the iPhone 4's retina display screen, but will run with the same functionality on older iPhones.

E Ink Working On Color And Capacitive Touch Displays

According to Digitimes, E Ink Holdings, the company behind the popular E-Ink displays, is busy working on color E-Ink displays, and the device vendors are already sampling the fruits of their labor at the moment. Hanvon has already provided some good news by promising to offer color E-ink readers by the end of the year, one with a capacitive display, and other which will use a digitizer for input. The newer display panels also offer better response times and reflectivity, which has us dreaming about color eBook readers from companies such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

E-ink ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook offer, in the opinion of many, the best digital book-reading experience available. The battery life is astounding (the new Kindle gets up to a month of battery life. An entire month!), they can be used outside without glare, and they quite simply look more like printed, physical ink and paper than any other display ever created. You can lose yourself in e-ink, which is about the best compliment I can give to a digital reader.
On the other hand, LCD devices in a similar package, including tablets like Apple's iPad, offer a passable reading experience on top of a whole host of features e-ink will never, ever be able to handle. Ebook readers are better for books; tablets are better for everything else. So tablets and ebook readers exist in an odd sort of stalemate right now: neither can quite replace the other.