Barnes & Noble Improves Nook Color
Barnes & Noble on Monday introduced new features to its Nook Color e-reader designed to make the device more competitive with Apple's iPad and to offer more functions that Amazon.com's Kindle does not.
The world's largest bookseller added new features and content to the NOOK Color Reader's Tablet priced at $249. With a major update to its device, Barnes & Noble is delivering its customers apps, full-featured, built-in email and an enhanced Web experience. In addition, NOOK Color's reading experience gets even better with enhanced books featuring in-page video, new interactivity in digital children?s picture books, and now over 150 interactive magazines and newspapers, including new titles like The Economist and Food & Wine. All current and future NOOK Color customers can experience all the new features in v1.2 now available at www.nookcolor.com/update and provided for free over the air (OTA) via Wi-Fi to the company's customers beginning next week.
NOOK Color is offering a collection of t apps specially designed to take advantage of NOOK Color?s 7-inch color touchscreen. The apps include games like Angry Birds, Uno and More Brain Exercise, news and weather apps Pulse and My-Cast, the Lonely Planet Phrasebooks apps, pre-loaded crossword puzzles, chess and Sudoku. Other apps inlcude calendar, music from Pandora Internet Radio, the Drawing Pad and more made just for kids like Sandra Boynton?s Going to Bed Book.
NOOK Color users can also discover and download apps in seconds from Shop on NOOK Color, so they can browse complementary apps alongside books, magazines and other content. Users can explore a collection of more than 125 favorite NOOK Apps from leading third-party developers and content providers in categories including Play, Organize, Learn, Explore, Lifestyle, News and Kids.
Barnes & Noble offers a selection of free NOOK Apps ? including calendar and notes apps, requested by NOOK Color customers ? and paid apps, with approximately half of the collection available for $2.99 or less and the vast majority priced at $5.99 or less. Users will find their newly downloaded or preloaded apps by tapping the NOOK Apps button on the Quick Nav menu or Apps section in their library, as well as through the newly refined search. All updated NOOK Color devices will now include NOOK Email and NOOK Friends apps preloaded in addition to Pandora Internet Radio, Crossword Puzzle, Sudoku, Chess, Contacts and Gallery.
A new NOOK Email application is also built to organize Web mail accounts in one inbox. NOOK Email works across the top Web mail services including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail.
NOOK Color's update to Android OS 2.2/Froyo offers system improvements, enhanced browser performance and a more complete Web experience giving users access to enjoy even more video, interactive and animated content. NOOK Color now includes support for Adobe Flash Player. Surfing the Web is even better with the ability to switch between larger desktop or mobile Web experiences and enhanced pinch and zoom. Additional enhancements include improved global search and quick settings such as battery indicator, shortcuts to settings and audio.
NOOK Color now has even more engaging and rich content, plus a sliding page turn animation.
NOOK Kids: Barnes & Noble's NOOK Kids digital picture book experience - the first with the Read to Me feature - has been expanded with 15 new Read and Play titles that bring animation, activities and stories together. In NOOK Color?s Read and Play books, children can interact with their favorite characters and enjoy activities built right into the story they?re reading.
NOOK Books Enhanced: Watch that appetizing recipe being made step-by-step or learn how to perfect yoga poses with embedded video and audio in cookbooks, health and fitness, biography, photography and travel books, along with other content on NOOK Color.
NOOK Newsstand: Dozens more favorite magazines and newspapers are now available on NOOK Color. From Us Weekly and Elle to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, NOOK Newsstand delivers your morning paper and latest magazines right to your NOOK Color.
With the new NOOK Friends App (Beta), NOOK Color creates the go-to social network for people who love to read, and offers even more ways to connect. Users can create a group of NOOK Friends to easily swap books, get a friend's take on a new bestseller, discover new reads or see if someone?s enjoying a book they recommended on the Friends' Activity tab. NOOK Color customers can view their NOOK Friends' content ratings and reviews, shared quotes, recommendations and how they're progressing on their latest book. Check out all or individual NOOK Friends? LendMe books available and track all current and pending sharing activity. Updates to NOOK Color also make it easy for customers browsing the great content available in Shop to share which products they "Like" on Facebook and view how many other Barnes & Noble customers "Like" it, too.
NOOK Color users can experience all the new features in v1.2 immediately at no cost via manual download at www.nookcolor.com/update. A free over-the-air (OTA) update will begin rolling out via Wi-Fi over the coming weeks.
NOOK Color is offering a collection of t apps specially designed to take advantage of NOOK Color?s 7-inch color touchscreen. The apps include games like Angry Birds, Uno and More Brain Exercise, news and weather apps Pulse and My-Cast, the Lonely Planet Phrasebooks apps, pre-loaded crossword puzzles, chess and Sudoku. Other apps inlcude calendar, music from Pandora Internet Radio, the Drawing Pad and more made just for kids like Sandra Boynton?s Going to Bed Book.
NOOK Color users can also discover and download apps in seconds from Shop on NOOK Color, so they can browse complementary apps alongside books, magazines and other content. Users can explore a collection of more than 125 favorite NOOK Apps from leading third-party developers and content providers in categories including Play, Organize, Learn, Explore, Lifestyle, News and Kids.
Barnes & Noble offers a selection of free NOOK Apps ? including calendar and notes apps, requested by NOOK Color customers ? and paid apps, with approximately half of the collection available for $2.99 or less and the vast majority priced at $5.99 or less. Users will find their newly downloaded or preloaded apps by tapping the NOOK Apps button on the Quick Nav menu or Apps section in their library, as well as through the newly refined search. All updated NOOK Color devices will now include NOOK Email and NOOK Friends apps preloaded in addition to Pandora Internet Radio, Crossword Puzzle, Sudoku, Chess, Contacts and Gallery.
A new NOOK Email application is also built to organize Web mail accounts in one inbox. NOOK Email works across the top Web mail services including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail.
NOOK Color's update to Android OS 2.2/Froyo offers system improvements, enhanced browser performance and a more complete Web experience giving users access to enjoy even more video, interactive and animated content. NOOK Color now includes support for Adobe Flash Player. Surfing the Web is even better with the ability to switch between larger desktop or mobile Web experiences and enhanced pinch and zoom. Additional enhancements include improved global search and quick settings such as battery indicator, shortcuts to settings and audio.
NOOK Color now has even more engaging and rich content, plus a sliding page turn animation.
NOOK Kids: Barnes & Noble's NOOK Kids digital picture book experience - the first with the Read to Me feature - has been expanded with 15 new Read and Play titles that bring animation, activities and stories together. In NOOK Color?s Read and Play books, children can interact with their favorite characters and enjoy activities built right into the story they?re reading.
NOOK Books Enhanced: Watch that appetizing recipe being made step-by-step or learn how to perfect yoga poses with embedded video and audio in cookbooks, health and fitness, biography, photography and travel books, along with other content on NOOK Color.
NOOK Newsstand: Dozens more favorite magazines and newspapers are now available on NOOK Color. From Us Weekly and Elle to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, NOOK Newsstand delivers your morning paper and latest magazines right to your NOOK Color.
With the new NOOK Friends App (Beta), NOOK Color creates the go-to social network for people who love to read, and offers even more ways to connect. Users can create a group of NOOK Friends to easily swap books, get a friend's take on a new bestseller, discover new reads or see if someone?s enjoying a book they recommended on the Friends' Activity tab. NOOK Color customers can view their NOOK Friends' content ratings and reviews, shared quotes, recommendations and how they're progressing on their latest book. Check out all or individual NOOK Friends? LendMe books available and track all current and pending sharing activity. Updates to NOOK Color also make it easy for customers browsing the great content available in Shop to share which products they "Like" on Facebook and view how many other Barnes & Noble customers "Like" it, too.
NOOK Color users can experience all the new features in v1.2 immediately at no cost via manual download at www.nookcolor.com/update. A free over-the-air (OTA) update will begin rolling out via Wi-Fi over the coming weeks.
