Hey BN These are the Options We Want! [ Edited ]

[FrogAlum]

This wonderful person posted YouTubes of a softrooted version, I tried to embed the videos but the message board isn't allowing it, it's worth clicking the links just don't forget to come back and discuss! 

Please, in the discussions, let's keep it productive, don't use it to bash BN, I'd really like for them to listen to us and learn from the discussion what we really think is important.  I don't know about you, but if all I see is griping, I don't continue to follow the thread and I bet they don't take it seriously either.

Temper Tantrum Free Zone!

If you find these helpful, please give her ratings a boost so she knows we appreciate all her work.

Nook with softroot and nookLauncher app

Nook nooklauncher app my books

Nook nooklauncher app Trook

Nook: Setting nooklauncher menu as default   Hey Phigment, she has the IMAX too!

For those always asking how to search for free books, she has a video for you too!

Nook How to find free ebooks with your Nook at Barnes & Noble

And one for nook and ADE

Nook Transfering DRM Books With Adobe Digital Editions

[FrogAlum]

Just found this one:

Nook Tutorial side loading content with Windows Explorer and Calibre

This addresses music, ebook sideloads, screen savers and Calibre.

[eDigest]

The "find free books", "Adobe Digital Editions" and "Calibre" videos would make good sticky posts since these issues pop up with regularity.

I wonder how long it would take to browse through the 95,000+ free books page-by-page? 

[icebike]

There are some neat features in the nook launcher, but the integration looks a bit messy, and the nook is already too complex for a lot of posters in this forum.  We shouldn't forget its a book replacement, not a PC replacement.  

I can see B&N adding support for eReader.com and other B&N owned outlets, but its questionable whether they would ever want to make it that easy to purchase elsewhere.  Maybe so, who knows.   

They definitely need to keep the entry level operating system simple and focused. 

You think these threads are whiny now, just wait till they are filled with people demanding to know when, and how B&N is going to fix the RSS feed from the Times of India, why isn't there a cover for the book downloaded from Stanza, and why was my credit card not working on XYZ bookstore when it works at ABC store.

The neat thing is because its based on Android, this kind of stuff is possible.  Try that with your Kindle.

But I think B&N would have to think very carefully about making it an open ended platform.  They are a book seller.  Not a tech company.  It could prove a huge expensive distraction, and throw more business to their competition than it brings to their store, and they would still be unable to compete with Apple or Microsoft.

Yes the nook doesn't to all the things it could do.  Neither does my toaster.  But it excels at making toast.    I have plenty of other computers and iPhones.  I don't need yet another underpowered device trying to be all things to all people and doing each of those things badly.  I don't need the distraction of a hundred menu entries while trying to read a book.

Color me unimpressed.

[FrogAlum]

eDigest wrote:

The "find free books", "Adobe Digital Editions" and "Calibre" videos would make good sticky posts since these issues pop up with regularity.

I wonder how long it would take to browse through the 95,000+ free books page-by-page? 

LOL  I know, and that is the one part she got wrong, she thought 1/95,XXX was the book count, that is the page count!  It really is showing all 95X,XXX books! 

[FrogAlum]

icebike wrote:

There are some neat features in the nook launcher, but the integration looks a bit messy, and the nook is already too complex for a lot of posters in this forum.  We shouldn't forget its a book replacement, not a PC replacement.  

I can see B&N adding support for eReader.com and other B&N owned outlets, but its questionable whether they would ever want to make it that easy to purchase elsewhere.  Maybe so, who knows.   

They definitely need to keep the entry level operating system simple and focused. 

You think these threads are whiny now, just wait till they are filled with people demanding to know when, and how B&N is going to fix the RSS feed from the Times of India, why isn't there a cover for the book downloaded from Stanza, and why was my credit card not working on XYZ bookstore when it works at ABC store.

The neat thing is because its based on Android, this kind of stuff is possible.  Try that with your Kindle.

But I think B&N would have to think very carefully about making it an open ended platform.  They are a book seller.  Not a tech company.  It could prove a huge expensive distraction, and throw more business to their competition than it brings to their store, and they would still be unable to compete with Apple or Microsoft.

Yes the nook doesn't to all the things it could do.  Neither does my toaster.  But it excels at making toast.    I have plenty of other computers and iPhones.  I don't need yet another underpowered device trying to be all things to all people and doing each of those things badly.  I don't need the distraction of a hundred menu entries while trying to read a book.

Color me unimpressed.

What I want is the ability to download a app for some of that, the library feature is awesome, I would love to be able to search for my book, or to sort by series, etc.  I'm not saying make it a wholesale OS change, but the ability to offer apps should be easy enough and look at how many have figured that out on the iPhone/iTouch, believe me they aren't all "rocket surgeons" either by any means!

These are the types of things we have the option of doing with paper books, so I don't see it as going away from the basic eReader principle, not every one has to use the Dewey Decimel system for instance, I can sort my DTB as I choose, that's the type of thing I would purchase an app for.

[icebike]

No, I disagree, Frog.

Sorts into a multitude of different orders and search SHOULD be part of the Basic nook OS.  So should Directory Support, integration of my documents with my B&N documents and ADE books.

That is just basic reader functionality.  We pretty much all agree on that.  But I don't want to buy and app for that.  It should be built in.  (And I'm confident it will be one of these next releases).

But news feeds and streaming music, and games, and all the other crapware that appears in the iTunes store seems like a huge waste of effort.  Why chase after that?  Nook is never going to be an iPad, or an ipod Touch, so why go there?   Would you leave your smart phone at home and only take your nook?  I won't.

[FrogAlum]

icebike wrote:

No, I disagree, Frog.

Sorts into a multitude of different orders and search SHOULD be part of the Basic nook OS.  So should Directory Support, integration of my documents with my B&N documents and ADE books.

That is just basic reader functionality.  We pretty much all agree on that.  But I don't want to buy and app for that.  It should be built in.  (And I'm confident it will be one of these next releases).

But news feeds and streaming music, and games, and all the other crapware that appears in the iTunes store seems like a huge waste of effort.  Why chase after that?  Nook is never going to be an iPad, or an ipod Touch, so why go there?   Would you leave your smart phone at home and only take your nook?  I won't.

I'm on record as being against the "whole I want a browser to do this, that and the other."

Those were not the options she was pointing out in the first two videos (Trook in the 3rd, yes, but I do like the wifi Calibre option there!).  It's the options in those first two videos that I want, but you are correct when you pointed out that we would be fielding many, many more "I can't make this work" posts!

The point is that I would be willing to take the app route, if I had to, to have those functions and the flexibilty she has in the first two videos with the options she pointed out.

Having had a smart phone since the early 90's, nope it stays with me at all times, I have to have my Chuzzle popping time!  Now if they could just add a blood glucose meter to my iPhone... 

[JJNook]

Oh goodness, the sideloading one is such a help, thank you!!!!

I'd like to use the menu options from the other videos, just not sure I'd know how to get it all on there.

[FrogAlum]

JJNook wrote:

Oh goodness, the sideloading one is such a help, thank you!!!!

I'd like to use the menu options from the other videos, just not sure I'd know how to get it all on there.

You're welcome, I'd love some of those options myself, it's very tempting!

[eDigest]

FrogAlum wrote:

LOL  I know, and that is the one part she got wrong, she thought 1/95,XXX was the book count, that is the page count!  It really is showing all 95X,XXX books! 

Gah!  I missed that, too.

When I have a spare month maybe I will browse through them all ...

[PsycheUtah]

Okay so really I don't want to much clutter... but that library thing, man, to see the cover flow with my side loaded books!  To sort by folder!!  To search sideloaded and b&n content together!!!

If I hadn't purchased the extended accidental damage waruntee etc etc  I'd be setting mine up like that in a nano second.

I keep hoping, with nieve optomism, that those things (the library related options) will eventually be in one of the upgrades coming directly from b&n...maybe? *wistful sigh*

[icebike]

@PsycheUtah:

I think those sorting options will/should be part of the next OS upgrade.  There is no reason why it should not be.  Some of these sort methods rely on metadata, and not all document formats have the proper metadata, so it might be imperfect.

I find cover flow to be the least useful selection method.  (For some reason iTunes users are all ga ga about cover flow, but it really is slow, imprecise and totally useless once you exceed 100 documents or so).

I think if we got to a unified library, and 6 or 8 different sort criteria (including directory structure) we would be in the sweet spot.

The only other thing I would like would be to have "Reading Now" pop up a list of recent books if you pressed and held it for a couple seconds.  That way, those of us who have several books going at once could switch between them easily without having to scroll thru lists. 

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

I have an iPhone and 2 Nanos (1st and 3rd Gen) and I don't ever use cover flow.  It's just not efficient for me.

[AnnSheridan]

icebike wrote:

I think if we got to a unified library, and 6 or 8 different sort criteria (including directory structure) we would be in the sweet spot.

The only other thing I would like would be to have "Reading Now" pop up a list of recent books if you pressed and held it for a couple seconds.  That way, those of us who have several books going at once could switch between them easily without having to scroll thru lists. 

I agree with icebike...a unified, sortable library and a 'reading now' list would be the icing on the cake for me. 

[FrogAlum]

AnnSheridan wrote:

icebike wrote:

I think if we got to a unified library, and 6 or 8 different sort criteria (including directory structure) we would be in the sweet spot.

The only other thing I would like would be to have "Reading Now" pop up a list of recent books if you pressed and held it for a couple seconds.  That way, those of us who have several books going at once could switch between them easily without having to scroll thru lists. 

I agree with icebike...a unified, sortable library and a 'reading now' list would be the icing on the cake for me. 

Yeah, those are the items I want also, and you would think it would be simple after all we have the videos to prove it!

Count me in as one that never uses coverflow, not on iTunes, iPhone or my nook.

[Nookstream]

All the posts are very good and I support them ---- unified library, better dictionary which can identify the root word so the software is not fooled into cannot find word since it has an ending as in tense forms but is still the word. Kindle's dictionary is vastly superior.  I would like a web browser which Android, of course, supports so that I can look elsewhere on the web for books and download them directly to the Nook instead of my harddrive and then sideload the book to the Nook.  I still have two Kindles and love their options  but I really enjoy the options which Nook provides which are not available on Kindle and thank BN for producing the fine ereader. Folders would be helpful as well so that when I look in my documents I don't have to scroll through 20 pages.  Much of this has been addressed in softroot so why couldn't BN incorporate most of those features in the Nook. I did not softroot my Nook so I would not invalidate my two year extended warranty, but I wish Nook would look to incorporating the features of the softroot into the Nook in future software updates. I look forward to future updates and changes in the Nook.  

[PsycheUtah]

icebike wrote:

The only other thing I would like would be to have "Reading Now" pop up a list of recent books if you pressed and held it for a couple seconds.  That way, those of us who have several books going at once could switch between them easily without having to scroll thru lists. 

I will admit that I do not use cover flow very often, but it's sort of neat to be able to now and then (generally when I'm "showing off" my Nook to somebody).

I LOVE your idea of a multi book reading now mini list!!  That would be an amazing feature to add.  For those of us that share a nook (my husband reads on mine now and then) or that read more then one book at once... it would be so much easier to switch between the current books being read.  I think I'm adding that to my "dream" updates.

I'm glad you said that you thought it would be a reasonable upgrade to have the sorting options.  That is the thing I really want.  Everything else is really "good enough" but to integrate my libraries, and to be able to sort through the books with directory structore (or as I call it folder trees) would make it so much easier to go quickly to the next book I want to read.  Or browse the general genre/author of the book I think I may want to read.

I'm holding my breath

[mykoffee]

Personally I love the color flow feature but then I'm a very visual person.   The idea of having more than one book option for 'reading now' is fantastic!  I tend to read a few at a time, usually different types.   Of course, I also want all my books sorted into the same library, having them separate is an annoyance.

That said I don't want things to get too complicated,  when I read some of the posts on this forum I realize just how many miles ahead of me many of you all are when it comes to the inner workings,  techno speak, etc.   Not that I'm not grateful for your knowledge! 

Linda

ps - having both the kindle and the nook for a time I agree the kindle dictionary is superior, it defined words that my nook could not find a meaning for.   The nook is also painfully slow to scroll down and over to find your word as compared to the 5 point button on the kindle.

[illmunkeys]

icebike wrote:

But news feeds and streaming music, and games, and all the other crapware that appears in the iTunes store seems like a huge waste of effort.  Why chase after that?  Nook is never going to be an iPad, or an ipod Touch, so why go there?   Would you leave your smart phone at home and only take your nook?  I won't.

I think you're missing the point.  Barnes and Nobles doesn't need to provide any of this.  They just need to release the SDK and allow people to modify their Nook without violating the hardware warranty.  B&Ns should only be worried about its core function:  being a brilliant eReading device.  Outsource the rest.

You don't see a benefit in RSS feeds on the Nook, however, there are many people who do.  The ability to have caibre send me a feed of my library anywhere I go:  awesome.  Ability to download free books from sites other than Google:  awesome.  Ability to easily access news on the nook:  awesome.

You keep pointing out that B&Ns will release fixes in the future for sorting, etc.  The people who have rooted their Nook already have this feature.  They have a combined Library - this is a feature I doubt B&Ns will ever implement.  They have a (buggy) coverflow.  You don't like it, but I do.  Cover art can be awesome and I don't want to lose it just because I have gone digital.

The simple fact that someone has taken the time to create these applications, means there is a demand.  

B&Ns release the SDK.  Focus on the core.  Let software developers fill in everything else.