We're excited to announce that nook is now available online and will be in stock at the majority of our stores by mid-week -- just in time for Valentine's Day!
Customers can visit the Barnes & Noble nook In-Store Locator at www.bn.com/nook/instore, updated daily beginning February 10, to find local stores with devices in-stock.
And, when you stop by any of our stores, you can know access and enjoy our exclusive “More In Store” content and promotional offers, which this month include:
- A short story by bestselling favorite Adriana Trigiani featuring characters from her newest blockbuster, Brava, Valentine.
- A Valentine’s Day recipe for red velvet cupcakes from Anne Byrn, the Cake Mix Doctor.
- “Read Between the Wines,” a regular feature by renowned wine expert Kevin Zraly, guides readers and wine lovers through the mystery of pairing books with the perfect vintage.
New "More In Store" content will be updated weekly and available for a four-week period. nook users can stay apprised of upcoming exclusive More In Store content at www.bn.com/nook/moreinstore. Also in February, nook users in Barnes & Noble stores can enjoy 10 percent off any CD. nook customers need only show the special offer on their nook to the cashier to redeem.
nook V1.2 continues to improve nook performance to provide enhance the overall reading experience and in-store connectivity for nook customers to enjoy exclusive content and promotions in Barnes & Noble stores. Key updates include:
- Enhanced in-store seamless connectivity to enjoy free Wi-Fi, with our More In Store content and promotions exclusively for nook owners.
- Improved opening of eBooks and periodicals
- Improved response to Reading Now & Settings buttons
- Current reading page and bookmarks on all eBooks is properly saved when your nook is powered off
- Bookmarks display page number
- Eligible LendMe(TM) eBooks in My Library include a LendMe(TM) flag
- Easier navigation of daily subscription with issues rolled into one folder
- Improved “back” button functionality for navigating eBooks and periodicals
- Personal files downloaded onto nook and displayed in My Documents can be sorted by author & title
- Overall system improvements and battery optimization
How do I get nook software V1.2?
The V1.2 update will be distributed Over the Air (OTA) via B&N's Fast & Free wireless service and Wi-Fi or if you want it right now you can get it as a manual download. Beginning today, we are sending OTA over the next week. If you want to get V1.2 immediately, follow the instructions for manual download here. If your nook is registered and has connectivity, it will automatically download the software and install it on your device, during the next week. Depending on your connection, the whole process takes 10-15 minutes via Fast & Free wireless and 5-7 minutes via Wi-Fi or 4-5 minutes for the manual download, during which time you should NOT turn your nook off. Once the software update is completed, your nook will automatically restart and display the Home screen. The software update will preserve your personal settings, including your registered account information, content, display settings, and Wi-Fi settings.
The Annual Awards are reader-nominated and Engadget's editors cull the list of nominees to present the best devices of 2009. There are two awards per category; the Editor's Choice Award and the Reader's Choice Award, which is based on your recommendations! You have up until Monday, February 20th to vote on the eReader that's "nearest and dearest to your heart."
Click here to cast your ballot!
For a man known as the "Prince of Darkness" and the "Godfather of Heavy Metal", Ozzy begins his biography on a somewhat humble -- if not completely understated -- note: "I'm just John Osbourne: a working-class kid from Aston, who quit his job in the factory and went looking for a good time."
And good times were certainly had, although Osbourne surely can't remember them all. His legendary blackouts rivaled those of London during the Blitz -- he once emerged from an alcohol induced stupor to find himself smack dab in the middle of a busy freeway.
But there were also scores of bad times for the onetime Black Sabbath lead singer. Aside from Ozzy's penchant for biting the heads off winged creatures, he was constantly under fire for his purported Satanism and he has been arrested for everything from disorderly conduct (urinating on an Alamo monument) to attempted murder (strangling his wife, Sharon).
Despite all his insane antics, Ozzy is a true "Iron Man". He and Sharon created Ozzfest, starred in the MTV hit show, The Osbournes, and they are currently one of the wealthiest couples in Britain.
Fan or not, Ozzy's tale is as captivating as it is shocking. A must read.
Here are some other outstanding tales from the Rock & Rock life that are currently available for download:
High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips
Miss O'Dell by Chris O'Dell
Tommyland by Tommy Lee (incidentally, Ozzy's got a story about Tommy in his book that I can't reproduce here, but is quite enlightening nonetheless...)
What are your favorite Rock & Roll memoirs?
Belated Happy New Year and already what a year it's turning out to be for eReaders! At the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 in Las Vegas, manufacturers rolled out more than a half dozen new eReading devices. Steve Smith at minonline is actually calling the influx of electronics an "E-Reader Tsunami".
Among the devices that were unveiled was our partner, Plastic Logic's QUE proReader. In introducing the electronic reader, CEO Richard Archuleta said that "The QUE proReader was built from the ground up for people who need to read. Starting today, mobile professionals can look forward to a paperless briefcase, a lighter load, and a better way to work.” Response from attendees at the show was great and On Twitter, Open Road Media said that the Plastic Logic Booth "pack(ed) them in..."
The QUE can be pre-ordered now and will be available in our stores by mid-April.
The Consumer Electronics Association is predicting double digit growth for electronic reader sales this year alone and -- if the amount of devices that were introduced in Vegas is any indication -- manufactures are banking on that prediction.
From time to time, we like to point out something we call "nook in the news."
This week, we're noting Time magazine's latest piece on ereaders, which heralds some of nook's features and ponders the future of ereading.
Time's a fave around here these days, especially considering its December report naming nook one of the Best Travel Gadgets of 2009 as well as rating the device # 2 among the Top Ten Gadgets of the year. While emphasizing nook's "classy book-lending feature", the magazine also cited "the powerful, flexible Android operating system that the whole package runs on."
In case you missed it, Time's sister publication, Money magazine, names nook the "Top Pick" Ereader in its January/February issue. "Besides having the biggest bookstore (from which you can download wirelessly), the nook has the best access to all kinds of content," Money says.
We think it's all kind of cool.
Joe Pike, the somewhat reserved partner of L.A. Detective Elvis Cole, is back for his second stand alone thrill fest!
Following the murder of Pike's old friend -- and onetime colleague in the military contract business (i.e. Soldier of Fortune) -- Joe strikes out to set things right, going head to head with some Eastern European heavies! Not to worry Cole fans; our man Elvis is in the building for this caper too.
Don't miss The Watchman, the first book in the Joe Pike series, which is also available on eBook.
Robert Crais will be with us next week in the Tagged! Studio. Tune in on Monday to see the interview.
Amy Bloom, who has been justly compared to E.L. Doctorow and Charles Frazier, has a new collection of short stories out this week. Janet Maslin, in her New York Times review on Monday, called the book a "work of extravagantly fine fiction."
In Away, Bloom's previous book, the characters she put to page were uncannily believable and her in depth knowledge of the human condition is center stage once again in Where the God of Love Hangs Out.
Check out our One on One Interview with Amy Bloom.
Next week, Willig joins our Romantic Reads discussion board to dish about the books that have been hailed for their "heaving bodices, embellished history and witty dialogue."
What are you eReading right now?
Check out our recent Tagged! interview with Elizabeth Gilbert in which she not only explains her unlikely “exploration” into the age old bonding of two like souls, but also her newly found belief that feminism “saved the institution of marriage.”
What’s cued up on your device this week?
In her 2007 book, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, MaryAnne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist by day, put forth the notion that, “We were never born to read. Human beings invented reading only a few thousand years ago.” She also logically solidified the point that reading “altered the intellectual evolution of our species.” Perhaps tellingly, her book is not currently available as an eBook.
In an article in last week’s Christian Science Monitor, Wolf now expresses her fear that in replacing text reading with screen reading we are actually in danger of developing a “less enriched” aptitude for the written word. In other words; by digesting ever increasing amounts of content -- via Twitter, blogs, Facebook and yes, even eReading devices -- we’re actually neglecting, what Dr. Wolf calls, the “deep dive reading” that we get from physical books.
What do you think? Do you gain (and retain) as much from digital content as compared to physical content?
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