Magazines for NT are not allowed on Galaxy Tab 7 w. Nook App: People, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit

[F14Scott]

Interesting.

I bought my wife a Nook Tablet, and, for the first few weeks, was having great success with it.  I had easily rooted it and installed the Android Market, and, using a third party launcher, was able to use it pretty much as a full-up Android tablet, as well as use it in "Nook mode."

During that time, my wife bought four magazine subscriptions: People, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, and Us.  All worked really nicely on the NT.

After 1.4.1 came out, destroying root and eliminating sideloading, I decided I didn't want to fight to keep the functionality I wanted, so I returned it and got a Galaxy Tab 7 Plus.  The extra $80 brought a bunch of extra hardware and the full Android experience.  I love the Tab 7 and the feeling that I'm not fighting it.

However, three of the four magazines are prohibited from being opened by the Nook app.  Only Us works, and it looks and behaves exactly like it did on the NT.  B&N tech support told me the other three magazines were hobbled by their publishers to only play on the NT and NC.  I cancelled their subscriptions, costing about $10 per month in revenue to B&N.

Why would a publisher specify that it would sell its magazines on only one platform?  Does B&N have anthing to do with the decision?  Is it really the publisher who makes this call?  

Seems like a lot of attempts at proprietary lock-down coming from B&N.  I (obviously) don't like it and will continue to resist by attempting to find my hardware and content elsewhere.  I went from a guy with six Nooks in his house, plus Nook apps on seven other computers and phones, to a guy who has stopped caring whether I support B&N and their brick and mortar stores.  This whole "walled garden" really hacks me off; I'm old enough to remember what it did to Betamax, and DRM MP3s, and plenty of other proprietary stuff that fell by the wayside.

[gilgomez]

Thanks for the heads up! I will go ahead and cancel my four design and architecture magazine subscriptions on the NT now to avoid another month in charges.

[floridaphil]

I think the publishing industry is in a period of very fast change and they struggling to figure out the new environment. Its similar to how the music industry struggled before a  legal way to purchase music online became established.

Luckily for me, all my magazine subscriptions obtained through B&N work just great on my Galaxy Tab. Overall, I find the Nook Android app to be much superior to the Kindle app so I intend to continue buying the majority of my digital print media from B&N.

As an aside, how is your experience of magazxines on a 7 inch screen? I must admit that I picked up a Galaxy Tab 8.9 today at Best Buy to compare to my 7+.   Magazines are much easier to read on it. However, size wise I much prefer the 7 inch dimensions. I have to return the 7+ by next weekend. Decisions, decisions.

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

The three magazines that aren't working for you are all Conde Nast and Time Inc. titles, which means they are not "normal" emagazines, but are instead "enhanced" with additional content (movies and such) and navagation. This means that the magazine files themselves aren't PDF's like a normal emagazine (which the NOOK app handles fine), but a full blown executable file (possibly even an .apk, though I haven't poked around enough to know). Thus there are major hurdles to overcome to bring these enhanced titles to the NOOK app (can an .apk even download and run antother .apk?).

It has nothing to do with "proprietary lockdown". BN makes it very clear on the site which magazines can be read on what device, and I'm sure they would love to sell more content across more platforms.

[F14Scott]

Good information; thanks.  Here's another data point I just learned.

The same magazines are apparently proprietary to the Kindle Fire, as well.  Meaning, I can't buy them for the Kindle app, either, only for the Kindle Fire (if I owned one).

Since the hardware sets on my Xoom and Tab 7 are at least as powerful as those on the NT and Fire, I must assume that BN and Amazon are not interested in improving their apps to allow for the enhanced content.  Doing so would just give people another reason to buy an open source tablet, rather than their proprietary machines.

Given BN's deliberate 1.4.1 lockdown, I stand by my statement that BN has conciously decided to make their content available only on their own hardware.  If BN wanted to develop the Nook app to the point where it could duplicate the NT experience, there are no hardware obstacles in their way.  Of course, that would cut into NT sales.  Same goes for Amazon.

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

Let me try this one more time. As I understand it:

A regular magazine (like your US Weekly) is just a standard PDF file wrapped in a DRM and a few markers that make it run through the magazine reader on the NOOK instead of the PDF reader. The NOOK app has no issues with files like this.

An "enhanced" magazine (like the three you're having issues with) is a fully executable file. In essense, it is a completely independant app that is automatically pushed to your device every time there is a new issue, which is why they have completely different navagation than a normal emagazine. 

I would guess (though I can't be sure, please interject Roustabout or Dean or someone knowledgable) that stock Android won't allow apps (NOOK) to automatically download and run another app within itself (the enhanced magazine), hence making it currently impossible to get that content directly through the NOOK app. I know on iOS you have to download the magazine's app directly from the Appstore for the Conde Nast titles, and I would assume it's roughly the same for Android.

Again, BN is not out to get you.

[mohawkx]

I am getting Nat Geo no prob on my nook ap using the GalTab7p. The only other mag I had was Time and it said that wouldn't work on the nook app but I just transferred my existing subscription over to the Gtab.

[roustabout]

FT writes "A regular magazine (like your US Weekly) is just a standard PDF file wrapped in a DRM and a few markers that make it run through the magazine reader on the NOOK instead of the PDF reader."

Actually, some aren't PDFs, from what I've seen.  For at least some magazines, the magazine is just an epub file.  (The Nook Touch edition of the New Yorker, for instance - the color/tab version is the enhanced version.)  I don't have a lot of subscriptions so I can't speak to all standard magazines, but many are just epubs.

This is why I spent a lot of time tinkering with the NST, so I could easily access my New Yorker subscription from the NC. 

The magazine epubs contain a lot more XML than HTML, which is different from most simple books, and contain it in an OPS folder, but I don't see PDFication in either of the mags I'm looking at, unless there's a PDFs have a lot of buried XML that I don't know about. 

The enhanced mags are (called, at  least) .epub files also, but they have a slight change in the naming structure, they are blahblahblaa_afs.epub files, where the 'regular' NC mags are blahblah_drp.epubs, and I think the NST ones are blahblahblah_gs.epub files.

The AFS epubs waste a lot of room, IMO.  I haven't yet tried to look at the New Yorker as an enhanced magazine;  I delete them, replace them with the more managable files from the NST and go happily about my reading. 

But yes, the wider range of available magazine subscriptions (and consequent reduction in paper floating in the house) is an advantage of getting a tablet from a company that has relationships with publishers.

[patgolfneb]

I have noticed that the magazines which offer the ereader version as a bonus if you have the paper subscription seem more likely to be available using my Xoom.

[BeckyWC]

Try the Zinio app for the enhanced magazines like Time, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit and People, you'll get the same experience like you did on the Nook Tablet.

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

---

roustabout wrote:

Actually, some aren't PDFs, from what I've seen.  For at least some magazines, the magazine is just an epub file.  (The Nook Touch edition of the New Yorker, for instance - the color/tab version is the enhanced version.)  I don't have a lot of subscriptions so I can't speak to all standard magazines, but many are just epubs.

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Good to know. EPUB3 must have helped a lot - I know at the beginning almost all of the magazines were PDF's because of the simple fact that EPUB didn't work well for anything but straight text.

[Larryb52]

to OP...

this is a BN forum not a Gallaxy tab, sorry you mags don't work but don't belly ache about a BN sold product for the NT to not perform in the Galaxy tab. Please take this content to CS not here its not about the NT tired of the non NT content & negative crab thrown at the  NT, take it else were, you've made it clear on your stance on the NT , its old news now move along

[gilgomez]

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BeckyWC wrote:

Try the Zinio app for the enhanced magazines like Time, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit and People, you'll get the same experience like you did on the Nook Tablet.

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BeckyWC, thanks for the information!  I will definitely check it out so I don't have to cancel my subscriptions to B&N enhanced magazines.  Have a terrific day!

[F14Scott]

Zinio has many magazines, but not those specific ones.

[F14Scott]

Larryb52,

By what authority do you order me to move along?  I own five Nook devices, recently bought and returned a sixth, and have been on this board for a year, with plenty of posts unrelated to the NT debaucle.

You're tired of these posts?  Don't read them or move along, yourself.

[Omnigeek]

Actually, this is a fair consideration for those who think they'll dump the NT or KF and use a more "full featured" (by their eyes) generic Android tablet using the Nook or Kindle apps.  It only matters if the magazines they want are in these non-standard formats but if they are then it's another factor to consider.

[deemure]

Many magazines function like apps and are specific to the firmware within a device.  Companies incur a lot of costs publishing such magazines for different devices.  Ereading apps for android devices do not read any apps-they are not like the native ereader software that devices have.  I won't get the tech part totally right, but ereading apps are meant to read specific formats and not to run programs.  The can interpret epubs and such, much like Word interprets docs.

Time Magazine for example has a lot of enhanced content for it.  Just because I may have already got it for an ipad, doesn't mean that version will work on my PC with an app.  You pay for the version you are using for the device you are using it on-this isn't a BN conspiracy to get all your money at work.  This is the result of added benefit with added content on NTs and NCs.  The app-like magazines connect to wifi to retrieve the enhanced content. 

Just for your knowledge, ipad magazines are all treated like apps and Apple charges companies a small fortune to get them to the devices.

The nook for android app is free, but it does not include all the features the native nook device ereading app includes.  You will see that magazines have listings of devices they can be read on beneath their descriptions.  Enhanced magazines cannot be read using nook apps available for PC, Android, and so on.

Honestly, I just can't get my hard copy of Wood magazine to work on my NT.  I keep pushing it at the screen and it still won't work.  What is B&N's problem?  Trying to keep me from reading my magazine. 

[TnTexas]

Omnigeek: Actually, this is a fair consideration for those who think they'll dump the NT or KF and use a more "full featured" (by their eyes) generic Android tablet using the Nook or Kindle apps.  It only matters if the magazines they want are in these non-standard formats but if they are then it's another factor to consider.

Same goes for the read-to-me and (I believe) read-and-record children's books. They can't be accessed through B&N's android app either.

[robotecture]

I'm sure somebody will create an app to read enhanced magazines eventually on the Galaxy Tab eventually... But in the meantime, this is one feature the nook tablet currently already has developed for it that has yet to be implemented on the android... I would post on the nook Apps section to request this feature be added to those other devices... It's really not an issue with the book tablet, but will probably be added to the nook for android app eventually...

[patgolfneb]

Wait, are we stsrting to recognize that BN has indeed made an effort to bring some added features to its fledgling ecosystem? I have seen a number of complaints about magazines displayed on the fire and even a few about specific mags on the fruitpad, others do evidently work well.