No Daily tab on NC, or apps, but ... [ Edited ]

[Desert_Brat]

This was one of the things that I very much liked about the 3G, the Daily tab. I enjoyed the Day Book and the Grin & Tonic, not to mention Free Fridays! One would think that they would take the functionality of the 3G and wifi models and incorporate it into a new product with some added attractions ... but apparently they didn't check with the users themselves because I'm willing to bet the Daily tab would have been near the top of the list.

So today, I made the 160-mile round trip to go to my "local" B&N store to see what all my NC would do in-store while connected to their network.

Under the Shop Home, you are probably aware that the top panel scrolls just like the bottom one. While in-store, the first panel changed to a coupon for a free smoothie (which they didn't have because they are switching over to winter drinks ... hey buddy, other places don't stop selling milkshakes in the winter); and the second panel after a swish to the left was the More In Store, which brought up a bunch of freebie and low-cost books you could buy/download or read while in the store. There was only the one coupon for the smoothie, not several others like on the regular nooks.

Here's my workaround for the Free Fridays. Those of you that have/had the regular nooks will remember the word "Unbound" on the Free Fridays announcement. That was a link to the blog site here in the bookclubs forums. Why there is no tab or link to the bookclub forums/blogs from the main bn.com I can't anwer, sure would make life a lot easier though.

Anyway, this method will work whether you are connected to a network in the store, at home, or connected to some other network in a coffeeshop or library.

1- Select the Web icon

2- Tap on the location bar at the top (between the left arrow and the star)

3- Use the popup keyboard to type:  bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com and tap Go

4- When the bookclubs page comes up, tap on the star at the top to add it to favorites

5- Note that you don't have to sign in just to read the boards.

6- The third section (B&N Blogs) has the Unbound listing at the bottom of the section

7- Tap on the Unbound listing and view the Free Fridays title

8- Go back to shop and search for the Free Fridays title/author and download it

It sounds a little complicated, but once you mark it as a favorite in the web browser, it's just a matter of going to the browser, tapping on the star to bring up favorites and tapping on the bookclubs bookmark.

I haven't figured out how to find the Day Book or Grin & Tonic, but it's just a matter of time

This is also how I workaround no apps for things like Twitter. Go to the main page and bookmark it as a favorite in the browser. Then it's just a matter of selection Twitter or Facebook from the favorites and logging in with the popup keyboard.

It's too bad there isn't some sort of "push" notification like smartphones and the iPod Touch have. There is a notifications area if you tap on the far left of the bar where the home N button is at the bottom. But as far as I know, this is only to notify you that a software update is ready to download. From there it would be real easy to individually select things you would want to be notified about, such as Free Fridays. The boards have the ability to individually subscribe to RSS feeds or select e-mail notices for replies, it's not that much of a jump to do push notifications and make those an option too.

I hope this helps, I'm just as new to the nook as most of you are. I bought my nook 3G+wifi with my severance pay when I got laid off in September and my hubby got me an early Christmas present of the nook color so I could convert my photography manuals and software help files to pdf and read them on the nook while working with the camera or program on the computer. The Industriel Easel cover makes a nice little easel to stand the nook up beside your computer; or even read hands-free while you are working on a craft project or even eating dinner.

Good reading all. And best wishes for a safe, happy and book-filled new year!

[INQE]

Hi! I'm totally researching the purchase of a Nook Color vs. Galaxy Tab or iPad.  My BIGGEST concern is the fact that I'm a photographer too and I read a LOT of photography books...of course with pictures and diagrams etc, etc.  

So, of course I read your post here and I'm very curious to hear your opinions on the NC and reading photography books, images note-making abilities etc.  Are there aspects you wish the NC had that are available on a Tab or iPad?  or would you "green light" the purchase of the NC?  I don't want to regret my purchase and end up with another tablet device.  I suspect I'll be very happy with the NC...but, just want to make sure. 

Thanks for any advice you're willing to offer!

[withfeeling]

Bad news about Grin & Tonic:

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Grin-Tonic/bg-p/grinandtonic

But Day Book is alive and well:

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Daybook/bg-p/daybook

[Ya_Ya]

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Desert_Brat wrote:

This was one of the things that I very much liked about the 3G, the Daily tab. I enjoyed the Day Book and the Grin & Tonic, not to mention Free Fridays! One would think that they would take the functionality of the 3G and wifi models and incorporate it into a new product with some added attractions ... but apparently they didn't check with the users themselves because I'm willing to bet the Daily tab would have been near the top of the list.

---

Funny you say this, because if you read the v1.5 wishlist and a lot of the posts from before it came out, people were begging them to either turn The Daily into a real RSS reader or to eliminate it altogether since it was "useless."

I used to read Grin & Tonic (rest its soul) and still read Unbound on Fridays, occasionally other times in the week, but don't much care for Daybook.

[Desert_Brat]

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withfeeling wrote:

But Day Book is alive and well:

http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Daybook/bg-p/daybook

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For the Daybook by Steve King, there's also a more direct link, just add to favorites on nook browser. Personally I think the link withfeeling gives is a little cleaner, but try both and see what suits you:

http://www.todayinliterature.com/

[Desert_Brat]

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INQE wrote:

So, of course I read your post here and I'm very curious to hear your opinions on the NC and reading photography books, images note-making abilities etc.  Are there aspects you wish the NC had that are available on a Tab or iPad?  or would you "green light" the purchase of the NC?  I don't want to regret my purchase and end up with another tablet device.  I suspect I'll be very happy with the NC...but, just want to make sure.

---

I love the Nook Color for manuals. I've converted some of my software help files to pdf format with a freebie utility called dopdf from cnet dowloads, which installs itself as a printer. Anything you can see on the screen, you can print to pdf. This is real handy when researching and you found a bunch of things you want to go back and read later. It's better than a screen shot because you get the whole page and it looks exactly the same, even graphics.

The files in CHM format convert nicely to epub with Calibre, although you still see the next and previous buttons and the page lengths are shorter like in the CHM file.

This makes it easy to have some help at your fingertips while slogging through an Adobe program and trying to remember keystrokes or tools.

I've purchased several e-books through Digital Photography School. And they are just GOR-GEE-US! They looked good on my nook 3G+wifi as far as detail, but man they are eye-popping on the Nook Color. You can even tell HDR images.

The only drawback to pdfs is that on the Nook Color you have no way to search for a word like you can in epub. And I have had some success in converting pdf to epub using Calibre. Not all pdf files will convert however, not sure why. Maybe the file is too big or there is some DRM component that won't allow it. So it's just a matter of opening those pdf files up on your computer and doing a search in your Adobe Reader.

I don't own a tab or iPad, so I can't really addess that part of your question. Mostly I use my nook in conjunction with the computer or carry it around for when I need a tip on a camera setting. For camera stuff, Ken Rockwell's site has converted a lot of his help files and how-to's into epub format that you can download for free.

Do bear in mind, though, that there are no apps. I also have an iTouch with plenty of photography apps on it. Maybe B&N will let apps be sideloaded in the future, I don't know. That is the only limitation that I can think of for me. So I just whip out the iTouch if I need something other than written word.

But heck yes, great big green light! Buy that Nook Color, you won't regret it.

OOPS! Had to edit to address your notes and highlighting question. You can do that on epubs only, not pdf files. Again, you would have to open the pdf in your Adobe reader to add highlights and notes. I've not tried this, so I don't know if the highlights and notes will show up on the nook. The next time I have the nook connected to the computer, I'll try that directly on the document on the nook and see what happens, as well as trying it on a document and then sideloading it.

[withfeeling]

You can get rid of the previous and next buttons from chm files in Calibre. However, it requires some knowledge of what are called "standard expressions". The syntax of those things I think was invented by the same guy who invented other torture instruments, like the thumb screw, the wheel, and the rack.

[Desert_Brat]

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withfeeling wrote:

You can get rid of the previous and next buttons from chm files in Calibre. However, it requires some knowledge of what are called "standard expressions". The syntax of those things I think was invented by the same guy who invented other torture instruments, like the thumb screw, the wheel, and the rack.

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ROFL, actually they don't bother me because they appear as graphics on the page and don't seem to function.

[Dick1030]

On Christmas our daughter gave me a Nook and my wife a Nook Color.  I check the Daily on my Nook every day and find it quite interesting.  I was surprised when I found there is no Daily tab on my wife's Nook Color.  I definitely do not find the Daily useless but helpful and informative.  My wife says she would like to have it as well.

Dick

[Ya_Ya]

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Dick1030 wrote:

I check the Daily on my Nook every day and find it quite interesting.  I was surprised when I found there is no Daily tab on my wife's Nook Color.  I definitely do not find the Daily useless but helpful and informative.  My wife says she would like to have it as well.

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I still like it as well, but it probably went away because of all the complaints in that post.

I don't (yet?) have a NOOKColor, but someone mentioned that NOOKColor shipped with the blogs bookmarked in its browser.  It's not exactly the same as the "The Daily" button, but should get her to the right place so that she can read Unbound and Daybook, as well as the other B&N blogs.

[03FLHT2]

Which school are you using.  I would like to look into that.  

[Desert_Brat]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

... someone mentioned that NOOKColor shipped with the blogs bookmarked in its browser.

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Hmmm ... the only bookmark that came with my unit was the Nook color page on the main web site. They must be doing them a little different now. I had to bookmark the Unbound site myself.

[Ya_Ya]

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Desert_Brat wrote:

 Hmmm ... the only bookmark that came with my unit was the Nook color page on the main web site. They must be doing them a little different now. I had to bookmark the Unbound site myself. 

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I'll defer to you since I'm going on hearsay; I can't find the post where I (swear that I) read it, either.

Either way, one click and now you have the same functionality that "The Daily" has.

[rerose1975]

It was me!  My NC came with the Unbound Blog, BN Book Club, BN.com, Yahoo! Movies, Nookcolor, Nook Kids, Youtube (mobile) and Twitter all bookmarked.  I got it at a bricks and mortar BN store a week or so after Christmas.

:-) R

[Desert_Brat]

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rerose1975 wrote:

It was me!  My NC came with the Unbound Blog, BN Book Club, BN.com, Yahoo! Movies, Nookcolor, Nook Kids, Youtube (mobile) and Twitter all bookmarked.  I got it at a bricks and mortar BN store a week or so after Christmas.

:-) R

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You lucky thing! I just had the one bookmark and added all the others myself. But sometimes that's the way things go with mass production. Maybe the chip in my unit didn't get the whole "flash." That happens a lot with things like game CDs. Once in awhile you just get a flub. Thankfully I think that is the only thing that was missed on my unit. Everything else is beautious.

[rerose1975]

Not so lucky, just had to do a factory reset because my library just up and vanished.... I tried everything and it just wouldn't come back.  

Anyway, back to topic, the bookmarks were still there.  All my personal ones were gone, but the preloaded BN stuff still shows up!

R

[Desert_Brat]

@ INQE

Okay, I was finally able to carry out my experiment with pdf files and the nook color.

I opened a pdf in Adobe and highlighted some text, made a couple of notes, saved the file and then sideloaded it to the nook.

The good news is the highlighting shows correctly on the nook, the bad news is the notes didn't. On the notes, only the little balloon indicatind a note could be seen, but I couldn't select it to expand the note and read it. So yes, highlighting in a pdf file does show up, but it has to be done on the computer first, it can't be done on the nook.

However, I don't know what benefit just highlighting a pdf file would really have since searching a pdf isn't possible in the current pdf-reader the nook has. Maybe this will change with the new update and there will be a more functional pdf-reader.

So I guess the best bet is to convert the pdf to e-pub with Calibre. Then you can highlight and make notes just like in regular e-books. I have some pdf files, however, that I couldn't convert. Most likely this was due to some sort of drm, I really can't say; it just gave an error and said Calibre couldn't convert the file.

Cheers!