NOOK Color Update 1.4 [ Edited ]

[bobstro]

ArmyMomBookWorm: If you live near a B&N, you might just take the old charger and cable (I'd take both) into the store, pick up a boxed replacement set and go up to the register and let them know it's defective. Don't over-explain. When I did this, it was exchanged with no questions asked. They just kept the box, which I really didn't want.

I assumed B&N policy was to support B&N hardware, regardless of where it came from, so didn't think twice about it. 

If you can't make it to a store quickly, you can try calling 1-800-THE-BOOK and let them know you're having a problem. This is a very common issue, so there should be few problems. Again, don't over-explain. Just let them know your cord is defective.

If that fails, the quickest solution may be just to buy another charging kit. Unfortunately, they're about $25. Still, I'd recommend having at least two just for this sort of eventuality. Unfortunately, this is your only practical solution for a quick and reliable charge.

If you have a phone that uses the same connector, you could get a very slow charge off of its charger. Be sure to turn the screen on your NOOKcolor off after your connect it or it will never charge. It will likely take overnight for a full charge. Do this before it's completely depleted!

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

ArmyMomBookWorm wrote:

> Tonight all of a sudden... after i plug the cord in and plug into wall outlet, I noticed it hadn't charged at all... so i clicked the battery icon and it says "DISCHARGING" !!!!! What the heck is going on?! Help! Everything I have read about powering down by holding button down for15+ seconds, then turning back on and finally trying to charge again HAS NOT worked <

Try this: unplug from the wall, then from your Nook.  Replug into the Nook, then the wall.  It may then indicate (properly) that it is then charging.

I've experienced the very same issue you reported, 2 or 3 times in the year I've been using mine.  And the above fixed it every time.  Hopefully, it's just a transient problem, and this will fix yours too.

While it is definitely possible that your cable problem is at fault, and will require a replacement, it's also possible you may be able to recover via the above. 

Oh, and...

> I have babied the cord scared to death it will shock me <

No need to concerned about that, because on the cable side there is only 5 volts present.

- Mark

[Beachgirl75]

First, thank your sons for their service. About your NC,  I have heard some people have taken their charger back to a BN store for a replacement, no charge, no problems. That might work for you, depends on the store. It would be worth a try. Lots of people have had trouble with their chargers, so I think stores are pretty good about giving a replacement. If not, buying a new one sounds like the way to go. Good luck.

[furyu]

Had the same problem, intermittently, as others here described, with my NC not charging correctly.

One year warranty was about to run out so called BN's Customer Service.  They said it was a defective charger and not the NC itself.  They sent me a new charger with USB cable, and the problem hasn't recurred since I started using the new one.

BN's telephone customer service acted quickly and efficiently in this case.  I was quite surprised.  Pleasantly surprised.

[AuroraCarnegie]

I went to my local store yesterday and asked to have my nook partitioned for more app memory. Archiving did not seem to be freeing anything up. They told me that upgrading to the new software would solve the problem, and they upgraded it for me. Now some of my apps that I bought last May and have used since then with no problem come up with the message that there is a problem with the purchase. When I look at them in my account on the website it says that they were purchased with an invalid credit card. Archiving and unarchiving them doesnt help. I buy all my online purchases with gift cards and prepaid credit cards for security so the card I used may have since expired as suggested to a previous poster with the same problem. Adding a new gift card to the account doesnt seem to change anything. Other than not using prepaid credit cards in the future, or deleting the apps from my account and repurchasing them, any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[margaretl2009]

I was going to go to my local B & N but today by wifi i got the new update at 4:53pm est.

[Avery-1]

I'd love to be able to comment, but I am unable to download it. Watched the video. Read the instructions. Chatted on line and made several attempts without success. Any suggestion? Can I get help in the store?

[AuroraCarnegie]

Yes they'll update it for you at Barnes & Noble.

[PhotoNinja]

I took my NC to B&N a few weeks ago and had them update it. No problem there. But since then I have had problems turning pages. I don't have any animations turned on. I touch, and the page turns. Except that now, often when I touch to turn the page, it actually goes back two pages instead of forward one page. Then I have to touch three times to try to get to the proper page. If that is not annoying enough, sometimes when I get to the last page I read and touch to go to the next page - my original goal - it again jumps back two pages. Sometimes I can't get it to go to the next page at all by touching to turn the page. I have to use the "Go To Page #" command to get to the page, and sometimes to get that to work I end up having to skip a page. It it like it gets stuck and won't go. 

I thought this was a formatting problem with the book I was reading, however it has now happened to three different books, so I think it is the a NC problem with the update, not the ebooks themselves. 

So any ideas on how to fix this? I want to move forward one page when I turn the page, not go back two or get stuck and not be able to move to the next page at all.

[Nikki_H58]

I had the same problem after their so called "UP" grade, only it was more than a few pages, it was fully chapters I had to go back through to get to the page I had been on, and this happening WHILE I was reading that page, I hadnt touched it to turn, it just started flipped back and back and back. And then there is also the fact trying to close the book doesnt go as well either, I push the button and nada, I push the button and get the home, etc option so push home, nada.... it takes a few times of doing this to get it to finally close, and more than ONCE I have had to actually turn off the nook color so the book would close for me, I must say I HATE this bloody upgrade and wish they had at least given us the option to install it, then if I was stupid enough to have installed at least it would have been my own fault!!!

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

Nikki,

> I had the same problem after their so called "UP" grade, only it was more than a few pages, it was fully chapters I had to go back through to get to the page I had been on, and this happening WHILE I was reading that page, I hadnt touched it to turn, it just started flipped back and back and back. And then there is also the fact trying to close the book doesnt go as well either, I push the button and nada, I push the button and get the home, etc option so push home, nada.... it takes a few times of doing this to get it to finally close <

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having.  That would certainly be aggravating.  (I skipped the update, so avoided the recent problems.)

But the highlighted section doesn't sound like a software issue to me.  It sounds more like a screen problem.  Have you tried cleaning the screen recently?  Sometimes problems like this can be due to accumulated oils on the screen, even if it doesn't seem too bad. 

Unless there is some input signal (possibly spurious though!) I can't see how or why the software would decide to turn pages on it's own.

If you clean the screen and you're still having the same problems, you may want to look into getting your Nook exchanged.  Not all of them are perfect.

- Mark

[furyu]

I discovered that my NC had received the OTA update to 1.4.1 last Friday.  Since then, I've been playing around with it, testing the various new things, waiting for some problem to arise and so far, nothing.  I don't see a great difference between this update and the previous, and I've experienced no problems whatsoever.

What changes there are, I like.  I prefer the shopping area much more now.   I haven't spent a lot of time playing with the NC since the update, so there may be some things I have yet to discover.

The page turning is much more sensitive now; the pages turn quickly.  For those that are complaining that more than one page flipping at a time, have you tried using a lighter touch to turn the page?  The slightest tap turns the page now, and it's possible, perhaps, that a harder tap might make more than one page turn at a time.  I am quite surprised at how fast the pages turn now.

I don't mind that I now have to press the upside-down "U" to bring up the home page, which seems to be one of the biggest complaint about this update.  To me, it frees up the space at the bottom of the page, giving an overall cleaner look to the home page.  I'm not one for having a lot of stuff cluttering up that page anyway.

I don't see the NetFlix app anywhere.  I remember reading (here or somewhere) that the NetFlix app cannot work, as previously advertised, with the Nook Color, but only on the Nook Tablet.  For me, I find NetFlix of no value anyway, so that's not an issue for me.

All in all, I'm quite pleased.  I'm glad I've experienced no trouble with the update, and am glad I patiently waited for the OTA.  I can't say for sure, but I suspect the bugs were discovered and fixed (thanks to all of you who side loaded) before BN's tech-wizards sent it out for the rest of us.

[bntalk]

R.E. being forced to press 'n' button for navigation. imho this latest update for the Nook color is a move on BNs part toward planned obsolescence and forced replacement of these devices. It is very obvious to anyone that having to repeatedly depress the ‘n’ button to navigate is going to cause early failure of a mechanical switch.

After having done extensive comparison of ereaders, the touch screen navigation was a large part of why I selected the Nook. Now after having spent $225 on it, they remove functionality and place it squarely below other ereaders and tablets on the market.

When I brought the device to my local BN store and expressed my concerns I was told point blank and very rudely by the clerk "YOUR WRONG!" (yes, in just that tone of voice as implied here) and was blown off by being told that you can't reverse the update and that’s the way it is. My 15 year old son was astonished and immediately wanted to leave the store without shopping any further. Great customer service BN!

I won't even broach the other 'improvements' in this latest release - absolute garbage. Simply a way for them force the update to institute the 'n' button reversal of functionality.

Personally, I am going to get rid of my Nook and purchase another ereader. I don't want to invest any more money in ebooks purchased from a company that treats it customers so shabbily.

Shame on you BN!

[bntalk]

R.E. being forced to press 'n' button for navigation. imho this latest update for the Nook color is a move on BNs part toward planned obsolescence and forced replacement of these devices. It is very obvious to anyone that having to repeatedly depress the ‘n’ button to navigate is going to cause early failure of a mechanical switch.

After having done extensive comparison of ereaders, the touch screen navigation was a large part of why I selected the Nook. Now after having spent $225 on it, they remove functionality and place it squarely below other ereaders and tablets on the market.

When I brought the device to my local BN store and expressed my concerns I was told point blank and very rudely by the clerk "YOUR WRONG!" (yes, in just that tone of voice as implied here) and was blown off by being told that you can't reverse the update and that’s the way it is. My 15 year old son was astonished and immediately wanted to leave the store without shopping any further. Great customer service BN!

I won't even broach the other 'improvements' in this latest release - absolute garbage. Simply a way for them force the update to institute the 'n' button reversal of functionality.

Personally, I am going to get rid of my Nook and purchase another ereader. I don't want to invest any more money in ebooks purchased from a company that treats it customers so shabbily.

Shame on you BN!

[BruceMcF]

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bntalk wrote:

R.E. being forced to press 'n' button for navigation. imho this latest update for the Nook color is a move on BNs part toward planned obsolescence and forced replacement of these devices. It is very obvious to anyone that having to repeatedly depress the ‘n’ button to navigate is going to cause early failure of a mechanical switch.

... When I brought the device to my local BN store and expressed my concerns I was told point blank and very rudely by the clerk "YOUR WRONG!" ...

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Yes, that is bad. The clerk should have told you politely that you're wrong.

B&N quite obviously made the decision to reduce the confusion when someone who owns both a NST and either an NC or NT switches back and forth between the two touchscreen readers. The notion that they did this as a move toward "planned obsolescence" is absurd, since their hope is to make money by selling books: the profit margins on the hardware itself are clearly quite low (possibly negative if in-store service is taken into account).

Now, I do want to underline that I am not saying that all paranoia about what corporations do is silly ~ quite often they are doing something directly counter to our interests. Its just that this is not a case where a big corporation would want to build in planned obsolescence. They have tried to design the Nook to channel people into the B&N bookstore, and the longer each Nook continues to work, the more money they can hope to make selling books through the device.

I do agree that they should offer the option of going back to the previous system. Its straightforward to do, after all: just put up an app in their store that installs the touchscreen app bar widget into the status bar, and turns the "n" button into a single tap to the home page. Then the NC and NT systems that go out of the store will have a UI that is in sync with the NST, and people who prefer the other approach can download the app instead of complaining about it.

[bobstro]

I actually prefer the hard button. Yes, buttons will wear out, but given the average usage life expetancy of a device like this, I expect that will be long after I've stopped using it for day-to-day purposes. The old soft button really annoyed me as it made the status bar unnecessarily large, eating up screen space I'd rather have for content. I wish B&N provided an option to use the volume keys for next- and previous-page advancements!

[BruceMcF]

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bobstro wrote:

I actually prefer the hard button. ...

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Of course, people with a lot of experience with buttons "wearing out" may be using them with greasy fingers and be actually be experiencing grease insulating the button contact. We have a history in our house of mice "wearing out" for that reason.

But in any event, yes, part of why I'd like them to put an app in the store so people who worry about it is because I prefer the hard button myself, and having an app for those who prefer the soft pop-up in the status bar means I don't have to worry about losing the convenience of single click to get the app bar and double click to go home.

[Binksmom]

I received my autoupdate last night and am curious to find all the changes. I wasn't sure how I would feel about having to use the hard button. For the record, I don't like it! As previously suggested, an app to go back to the previous software would be wonderful. Seems like this update has just created more steps necessary to get to what I am looking for. I will try to keep an open mind, but not too impressed so far.

[Mark_OB1 Bibliophile]

Bruce,

> I do agree that they should offer the option of going back to the previous system. Its straightforward to do, after all: just put up an app in their store that installs the touchscreen app bar widget into the status bar, and turns the "n" button into a single tap to the home page. Then the NC and NT systems that go out of the store will have a UI that is in sync with the NST, and people who prefer the other approach can download the app instead of complaining about it. <

That's a good idea.  Having the option to make your device work your way is always a good thing.

You may want to register that suggestion in the Ideas section of the Forum.

- Mark

[roustabout]

On the NT, I took a run at installing the NC "home" app, which I think is part of what does the fully touchscreen controllable launcher, under 1.4.1.  I still needed to use the button. The other element on the NT that is involved in this is the SystemUI.apk app, which I don't know anything about in 1.4.1.  (Like, is it present?)

I didn't try this with the NC (since I don't have an NC running 1.4.1 and don't particularly need to have one) but if anyone out there is running a rooted 1.4.1 and is interested in trying it, it might be more successful using the app from the right platform. 

However, you might also need to install the other apps from 1.3 to get them all to play well (library, shop, browser)

A simpler solution is to

- reinstall 1.2 or 1.3 as you prefer

- flash in a copy of hte 1.4.1 build.prop file from a Clockwork disk, to keep your NC from thinking it needs the update

I have instructions for doing this posted at

http://nookworks.blogspot.com/2011/12/keeping-your-nc-at-12-or-13.html