Update released 4/23/2010

[Jenniisme]

icebike wrote:

You won't like facebook (or cnn) on the nook.  Its the same as the kindle users, there are only a limited number of places they can visit.

You will be reading on a very slow device, in shades of grey, with a tiny keyboard fundamentally unsuited to the task of communication, without the ability do download or upload and no ability to follow links.  

Sounds like a real bitch-generator to me.  These boards will be filled with facebook rants by people SITTING AT A COMPUTER complaining that they can't access Facebook properly ON THEIR EREADER.  Just watch.  

You've already got it on your phone (come on, admit it).  You don't need it interrupting your reading too.

Bah Humbug!

I admit it!!!!!

I also do NOT want or NEED Fb on my nook. It would soil the cleanliness

[Delenn1]

All I can say is that, I did not buy my nook for social networking!  I brought it to read my ebooks on. How about adding the ability to search side-loaded documents.

B&N Fix what doesn't work and add some meaningful functionality to side-loaded content, before trying to conquer the world.

[Sterlic]

Regarding all of the cries of "Don't give us superfluous stuff while there's still bugs in the system," software design has never really functioned that way. No one on the nook team has the job description of "Computer programmer that is capable of working on every facet of nook software." They all have separate teams (i.e., firmware, web integration, networking, UI, etc.)

In essence it's the same as when people see seemingly useless scientific studies and complain that they shouldn't waste time on that when there's still no cure for [Disease X]. You don't want psychologists and mathematicians working in a bio-med lab culturing cells, they'll have no idea what they're doing and just slow down the process.

In the same thread you don't want the programmer who's working on making the browser to shift all of her attention on battery issues. In all likeliness she has never seen the code for that system since she was hired and placing her into the code would require costly hours of learning exactly what's going on with the system. It's better if the web team works on what they're doing and the firmware team works on what they're doing, it's an example of comparative advantage.

Besides, if companies waited to fix all of the bugs before releasing new features we would still be stuck in Windows 2000, or worse, Vista.

[Jeffell]

Wikipedia? Oh, I wish!

Google Books? Yeah, old stuff is good, but we have that now, actually. There are other "old books"??

Yahoo News? Cool.

AP News? Uh, huh!

Facebook??? Huh?? Ok, a bow to the young, social networked, connected people, those who can't afford an iPad. That's fine.

Maybe, we will be able to watch tiny YouTube videos in the color screen someday? Nah!

[Mandroid]

And a Flash player, don't forget Flash! 

[Delenn1]

Sterlic wrote:

Regarding all of the cries of "Don't give us superfluous stuff while there's still bugs in the system," software design has never really functioned that way. No one on the nook team has the job description of "Computer programmer that is capable of working on every facet of nook software." They all have separate teams (i.e., firmware, web integration, networking, UI, etc.)

In essence it's the same as when people see seemingly useless scientific studies and complain that they shouldn't waste time on that when there's still no cure for [Disease X]. You don't want psychologists and mathematicians working in a bio-med lab culturing cells, they'll have no idea what they're doing and just slow down the process.

In the same thread you don't want the programmer who's working on making the browser to shift all of her attention on battery issues. In all likeliness she has never seen the code for that system since she was hired and placing her into the code would require costly hours of learning exactly what's going on with the system. It's better if the web team works on what they're doing and the firmware team works on what they're doing, it's an example of comparative advantage.

Besides, if companies waited to fix all of the bugs before releasing new features we would still be stuck in Windows 2000, or worse, Vista.

You make valid points, however QA is a big part of software development. 

Known defects that can be resolved should be included in releases slated to go live. It's up to the systems manger and the QA manager to work out a schedule of what defects will be included within a release. Since the nook has had known issues since its release, these promised functionalities should be addressed as must be included within the next release. There after any enhancements ready for release should then be considered for inclusion.

[DogDoc2]

"Since the nook has had known issues since its release, these promised functionalities should be addressed as must be included within the next release. There after any enhancements ready for release should then be considered for inclusion"

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Perhaps that is what they did. We will find out soon. It just seems that there are a lot of people just waiting to pounce on B&N. They seem to be assuming the worst and have condemned B&N before we even have the product. I say chill and let's see what they come up with.

[Sterlic]

Delenn1 wrote:

You make valid points, however QA is a big part of software development. 

Known defects that can be resolved should be included in releases slated to go live. It's up to the systems manger and the QA manager to work out a schedule of what defects will be included within a release. Since the nook has had known issues since its release, these promised functionalities should be addressed as must be included within the next release. There after any enhancements ready for release should then be considered for inclusion.

True, the amount of issues the nook has had since launch have been...troubling... for an item I shelled out $260 for and I would love to see them fixed. My main gripe right now is that people seem to be reading half of these update rumors, skipping the boilerplate "issues will be fixed" statements and then focusing their rage at the current freezing/battery/whathaveyou issues on the new features.

[NickandNook]

Welcome to Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

If anyone can edit why is this considered to be so good?  Just because it if free?  Just because you can put your two cents worth into an entry?  It would be nice to have someone explain in one sentence and one sentence only how this website became the authority on everything when it is very often not accurate.

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

NickandNook wrote:

Welcome to Wikipedia,

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

If anyone can edit why is this considered to be so good?  Just because it if free?  Just because you can put your two cents worth into an entry?  It would be nice to have someone explain in one sentence and one sentence only how this website became the authority on everything when it is very often not accurate.

It's not an authority on anything.  It isn't accepted as a legitimate source for any respectible academic or professional research.  I don't use it at all and don't understand why so many seem to believe that the information in it is credible.

[icebike]

Delenn1 wrote:

Known defects that can be resolved should be included in releases slated to go live. It's up to the systems manger and the QA manager to work out a schedule of what defects will be included within a release. Since the nook has had known issues since its release, these promised functionalities should be addressed as must be included within the next release. There after any enhancements ready for release should then be considered for inclusion.

Well said.

Now I have to add that I'm not against a web browser, and I know it didn't compete for resources.

And I have to add that all this talk about the "web browser team" vs the "firmware team" is largely guesswork.  I think if you knew the actual size of the department responsible for the software you would be shocked at how small it is.

The very first version of Android had a web browser.  It is drop dead simple to include it in the build. (Its most likely a slim version of Google Chrome).   The nookdev hackers have already done this. (as well as twitter clients, console shells, etc).

The restrictions to specific sites are controlled by virtue of the DNS server that B&N restricts the nook to.  If that DNS server won't let you access a site, your nook is not going to be able to follow any links.

However the nookdev guys have also found a way around THAT as well, (they just replace one tiny file, or they usurp one IP address in their in-house routers), and they can surf the net at will.  If it becomes commonly available that you can easily hack your nook to surf any site you want you can kiss your "free wireless access for life" goodbye.    (Even the nookdev people realize this and their browser only works on wifi - they are hackers, but not evil).

So getting FB and web into the nook was no big effort.  Drop in pieces.  But paying for it in terms of continuing maintenance and adding features to suppress the whining, and screwing up wireless for everyone is just not worth it to me.

[schatzieWI]

everybody take a deep breath, relax and wait for tomorrow. I truly hope this solves the issues that some others are having. It is so discouraging to read these boards sometime. I guess I have been fortunate, no problems at all.

[nookverse]

Facebook and/or other social networking aspects make sense in the context of expanding and enhancing the Lend Me feature and connecting customers via reviews and a marketplace in a Visual Bookshelf sort of way (with the obvious Buy@Amazon to Buy@BN switch).

One of the problems with FB is that you use your real name, however, so that limits how many folks would be willing to share with strangers and increases privacy concerns. If BN could develop an FB app that somehow anonymizes or does not allow access to the rest of the profile, a nook FB app could be attractive to some customers.

Still, with the slow-mo of e-ink, I'm not sure how enjoyable such a feature would be. It does make sense to implement a social network in a build toward the future maneuver. I don't suspect BN is going to concentrate exclusively on FB or Sudoku or Plants Vs. Zombies and will include bug fixes and expected feature expansion.

[FrogAlum]

DogDoc2 wrote:

"Since the nook has had known issues since its release, these promised functionalities should be addressed as must be included within the next release. There after any enhancements ready for release should then be considered for inclusion"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps that is what they did. We will find out soon. It just seems that there are a lot of people just waiting to pounce on B&N. They seem to be assuming the worst and have condemned B&N before we even have the product. I say chill and let's see what they come up with.

Ever consider it could be experience talking here???

Consider the poster before lumping everyone together.

[FrogAlum]

Sterlic wrote:

True, the amount of issues the nook has had since launch have been...troubling... for an item I shelled out $260 for and I would love to see them fixed. My main gripe right now is that people seem to be reading half of these update rumors, skipping the boilerplate "issues will be fixed" statements and then focusing their rage at the current freezing/battery/whathaveyou issues on the new features.

Maybe because it IS boilerplate and doesn't really tell us anything?  We have been through this before.

Maybe before people start pouncing on others they should learn a little about some of these posters, most of them are people that love their nooks but are losing faith in the company through experience with this issues.  These are the same people that have been helping other users for quite a while.

It's really quite rude, IMHO, to be a relatively new registrant with very few posts and to come on here and start bashing people that have probably solved more problems for people CS has!

[BigmouthStrike…]

icebike wrote:

People who read a lot don't spend any time if the meat market of facebook, and people who do spend a lot of time in facebook are too self absorbed to spend much time reading a nook.

So not true - I read a lot and I'm on Facebook a lot. 

[Chinook]

This is going to be the best update for the iPad Nook ever!

[Chinook]

BigmouthStrikesAgain wrote:

icebike wrote:

People who read a lot don't spend any time if the meat market of facebook, and people who do spend a lot of time in facebook are too self absorbed to spend much time reading a nook.

So not true - I read a lot and I'm on Facebook a lot. 

icebike! you let me down with your blazing generalizations. I didn't think you could ever be wrong. I'm in the same boat as Bigmouth though--I use facebook a good deal and read on my nook plenty.

[Mandroid]

There is allot of that on any board.  Someone shows up and is suddenly an expert on everything.  Also it seems like everyone wants the nook designed to their needs and their needs only.  Some want a browser, some want some light games, and with competition from other devices, B&N will be inclined to add these features just to say " we have that to".

[icebike]

nookverse wrote:

One of the problems with FB is that you use your real name,  

Ah, sorry.  Not true.  Never was true.  

Sure, if you sign up as Jimmy Carter, they may catch you, but there

are millions of trolls out there lurking under nom du facebook names.