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Nook Tablet 8GB – $149

Richard — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:06:10 +0000

Through its eBay storefront, Barnes & Noble is selling new – not refurbished – 8GB Nook Tablets for $149. This is $50 off of the usual price and is probably not going to last long as the available quantities are said to be limited. This is a good deal; the Nook Tablets are quite nice and this is about the same price as a refurbished Nook Color, which is older hardware.

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B&N to get MasterCard’s new digital wallet service

Richard — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:36:50 +0000

Yesterday MasterCard announced PayPass Wallet Services. This is a digital wallet service that, in addition to providing a ‘Buy With PayPass’ button on participating online merchant’s websites, will also be integrated with Near Field Communication (NFC) chips embedded in mobile devices. NFC chips enable mobile devices to exchange information with other devices that have embedded NFC chips or objects with unpowered NFC tags when they touch or come into close proximity to each other.

In a recent interview with Fortune, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said that NFC chips will be coming to Nook devices, enabling Nook users to do things like hold their ereader up to a pbook on a shelf at a B&N store and get information on the book and possibly even purchase the ebook version and have it start downloading to their ereader’s library.

Indeed, MasterCard said in its announcement that Barnes & Noble and American Airlines will be among the first merchants to begin using the service by having the PayPass online checkout button on their websites. You can expect to start seeing the PayPass button sometime in the third quarter of this year. Probably the next generation of Nook ereaders will feature the NFC chips that will let them read NFC tags affixed to paper books in B&N stores.

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Digital Manga sale at B&N

Richard — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:03:16 +0000

Barnes & Noble is running a promotion on digital manga this month. Every Monday during the month of May a selection of digital graphic novels are on sale at the Nook store for 40% off of the regular price.

Today there are five digital manga titles in the sale for $2.99 each:

Death Note, Volume 1 by Tsugumi Ohba – The Death Note movies were a major hit in Asia; if you like Japanese horror films you should see these.
Dragon Ball Z, Volume 1 by Akira Toriyama
Bakuman, Volume 1 by Tsugumi Ohba
Rosario+Vampire Season II, Volume 1 by Akihisa Ikeda
Toriko, Volume 1 by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro

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Nook Mother’s Day discounts

Richard — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:26:31 +0000

Through May 12th Barnes & Noble is discounting both the Nook Simple Touch ereader and the Nook Color by $20. The deal is available both online or at stores. A gift bag is included in case the Nook is a Mother’s Day gift.

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Microsoft to invest in B&N’s Nook and College business

Richard — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:24:57 +0000

Microsoft is investing in Barnes & Noble’s Nook business. Yes, that’s the same Microsoft that was suing B&N over the use of Android in the Nook ereaders. Barnes & Noble is now in the process of consolidating its College and digital reading businesses into a new subsidiary, for now known as Newco, in which Microsoft will invest $300 million. Back in January B&N indicated that it was considering various strategic options for its Nook business, including spinning it off.

From the press release:

The new subsidiary, referred to in this release as Newco, will bring together the digital and College businesses of Barnes & Noble. Microsoft will make a $300 million investment in Newco at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion in exchange for an approximately 17.6% equity stake. Barnes & Noble will own approximately 82.4% of the new subsidiary, which will have an ongoing relationship with the company’s retail stores. Barnes & Noble has not yet decided on the name of Newco.

The inclusion of Barnes & Noble’s College business is an important component of Newco’s strategic vision. Through the newly formed Newco, Barnes & Noble’s industry leading NOOK Study software will provide students and educators the preeminent technology platform for the distribution and management of digital education materials in the market.

"The formation of Newco and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments," said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble. "Microsoft’s investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business."

"The shift to digital is putting the world’s libraries and newsstands in the palm of every person’s hand, and is the beginning of a journey that will impact how people read, interact with, and enjoy new forms of content," said Andy Lees, President at Microsoft. "Our complementary assets will accelerate e-reading innovation across a broad range of Windows devices, enabling people to not just read stories, but to be part of them. We’re on the cusp of a revolution in reading."

This is not, of course, Microsoft’s first foray into ebooks. The company launched its MS Reader application, which reads ebooks in the .LIT format, in 2000. Last year Microsoft announced that MS Reader will be discontinued in Aug 2012. Sales of .LIT ebooks were discontinued in November of last year.

As to the patent infringement litigation, the two companies have settled this and B&N and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft’s patents for its Nook family of ereaders.

The collaboration between the two companies will result in a Nook app for Windows 8, which will be available internationally. I would also expect that with this infusion of capital we could finally see the Nook ereaders themselves going international. The Nook ereaders and Tablets are excellent ereading hardware and will no doubt be welcomed by consumers outside of North America. They will probably be much less welcome by the other ereader makers who have not been able to compete effectively in the U.S. market. An international Nook will definitely not bring smiles to the faces of Sony execs.

Shares of Barnes & Noble opened at almost double the price they closed at on Friday, although they have given some of that back – currently they are up about 67%.

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Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight update

Richard — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:00:03 +0000

I stopped by my friendly neighborhood Barnes & Noble store today to have a look at B&N’s new glow in the dark Nook ereader. B&N may have begun fulfilling early pre-orders, but the stores do not have stock to sell yet. They do have demos though, and I spent a few minutes playing with one.

My concerns before actually seeing the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight in person were mainly a: Is the lighting uniform and evenly distributed over the screen and b: Are the positions of the individual bulbs readily visible and, if so, is it distracting?

The Nook ST with GlowLight is displayed on a counter alongside the other Nook ereaders – it isn’t displayed in any kind of special darkened display case and obviously the staff is not willing to darken the store, so my impressions are limited to only being able to use the new Nook in conditions under which one ordinarily wouldn’t need the light.

Still, it is obvious that the GlowLight is quite bright when at the highest setting; probably brighter than most users will want or need. There is a virtual slider that easily controls the level of brightness, so it is very easy to adjust. Yes, you can tell where the bulbs are across the top of the screen, but at a normal reading angle I don’t think it will be a problem. Harder to say how even the light distribution is under the ambient lighting conditions I saw the demo unit in.

It looks like B&N were not just hyping when they said supplies of the new ereader are initially going to be tight. The staff at my local store told me that they were getting a very limited number of units in and they were all reserved already. They expect to receive their allotment on or about May 7. This is also the shipping date now shown on the pre-order page online.

If you do want one of these in time for Mother’s Day it would probably behoove you to pre-order one right away online or reserve one in a Barnes & Noble store. Reserving one of the new Nooks does not require a credit card, nor does it obligate you to buy it when it comes in – you can opt out when the notification arrives.

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Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight ships early

Richard — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:42:23 +0000

Barnes & Noble announced today that it has begun shipping the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight to customers who pre-ordered the new front-lighted version of the ereader. This is a week ahead of the originally announced shipping date.

B&N also says that due to “very strong pre-order demand” for the new Nook it will only be available in limited quantities through Mother’s Day. Beginning this week demo units of the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight will be at Barnes & Noble stores.

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Nook Tablet discount for Avengers fans

Richard — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:53:07 +0000

Barnes & Noble is offering a $30 discount on either model of the Nook Tablet to customers who buy any two Avengers graphic novels in digital format. The promotion runs from April 16 through May 6, 2012 and is available both in-store and online. The Avengers movie will be in theaters May 4.

The fine print on this offer may be perused here.

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Barnes & Noble unveils new front-lit Nook Simple Touch ereader

Richard — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:18:01 +0000

Barnes & Noble announced a new version of the Nook Simple Touch today. The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight features a front-lit display that will enable reading in bed or in other dark environments without the need for additional lighting. This is not to be confused with a backlit display such as a tablet with LCD screen – B&N’s new ereader will feature an e-ink display with the light built into the bezel.

The brightness of the GlowLight can be adjusted with a virtual slider switch and it can be turned off when not needed. B&N claims a battery life of over a month with the GlowLight in use.

It will be interesting to see how well this works. Sony tried using an LED front-lit e-ink display on the PRS-700 ereader that lit the glary screen unevenly and was not very nice at all. In the photos B&N’s solution does appear to provide much more even lighting.

Other than the GlowLight and anti-glare protection built into the display, the new Nook ST ereader appears to have a similar appearance and the same specs as the present model, with the exception of being slightly lighter.

B&N again makes a point of mentioning on the product info page that the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight will not distract you from your reading with annoying ads “like those that appear in some Kindle eReaders.” I think I’ve had enough of that particular taunt already – I have a Kindle with Special Offers and the ads are not annoying to me and they certainly don’t appear while I’m reading. If B&N were to offer a version of the Nook with GlowLight and Special Offers at a somewhat lower price I’d happily buy one.

The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight will be priced at $139 and is expected to be available at the beginning of May. It is available for pre-order at BarnesandNoble.com or in-store. There have been reports recently that Amazon is working on a front-lit display for the next generation Kindle, but it looks like B&N got there first.

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Refurb Nook Color + Nook ST bundle $149

Richard — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:14:41 +0000

At its eBay storefront B&N is currently selling refurbished Nook Color ereaders for $129 with the option to add a Nook Simple Touch refurb for just $20 more. Bundling the Nook Color and the Nook ST together for only $149 is a sweet deal even if they are refurbs. The free shipping is icing on the cake.