For the first time ever, a Nook has beaten the Kindle in the Consumer Reports ratings. [More]
Barnes & Noble Wants Submissions For Nook Apps
By April 8, 2011
Barnes & Noble is looking for help in making its Nook e-reader more versatile. The bookseller has opened itself to app submissions, allowing garage code-tinkerers everywhere to dream that their creations will be used by people who own the device. [More]
Microsoft Says Nook Infringed On Its Patents
By March 22, 2011
Believing the Nook e-readers are ripping it off, Microsoft is suing Barnes & Noble and the manufacturers over the devices, which it says infringe on several patents. [More]
How To Choose The Right E-Reader
By September 28, 2010
Sales of e-book readers, also known as e-readers, are way up and prices are dropping. Consumer Reports has tested a wide variety and has advice if you’re in the market for an ebook reader. [More]
Geek Squad Will Turn On Your Ebook Device For You For $29.99
By August 4, 2010
The best way to understand Geek Squad is to realize that they will help you with anything if it means they can charge you a fee. Want batteries in your remote control? Having trouble putting a USB plug into its port? Need to know the time? OPTIMIZE IT WITH GEEK SQUAD. Those are just solid business ideas and not (yet) actual services, but Geek Squad’s real offerings are almost as absurd. For example, Nate from the-digital-reader.com snapped this photo of their newish “eBook Device Setup” service for your Nook or Sony Reader, which promises to turn it on (“provide a functionality check”) and show you how to read (“what to expect when you take the device home”). [More]
Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Hardcovers
By July 20, 2010
Hardcover books have a lot going against them — they’re expensive, often unwieldy, easily damaged. And now Amazon.com, which first made its name by selling books at deep discounts online, says it sells significantly more titles for its Kindle e-reader than it does in hardcover. [More]
After Replacing My Broken Nook Four Times, Barnes & Noble Has Given Up
By July 5, 2010
Lisa’s luck with the Nook e-reader is bad enough to make Xbox 360 owners weep. Since buying her first Nook in February, she’s had to warranty it out five times. On the first four occasions the customer service department was quick to replace the busted device, but the fifth go-round has been anything but charming. [More]
If You Sell A Nook For $259 + $50 "Free" Gift Card, Then Drop The Price More Than $50…
By June 22, 2010
Here’s a puzzle for you. B&N just cut the price of the Nook e-reader by $60. Over the Father’s Day weekend, the Nook was $259 with a “free” $50 gift card. One PC World reader who got this deal called B&N to ask if he could have a refund of the price difference and was told he could only have $10 because he got a gift card. Now he wants to know if he’s been shafted. [More]
A Weird And Expensive Way To Get A Free Cup Of Coffee At A Bookstore
By June 8, 2010
If you’re one of the few people who own a Nook and enjoy taking it to Barnes & Noble to read a digital file you bought rather than paging through something off the shelf for free, you’re in luck this month. Barnes & Noble has some free coffee to reward your labor intensive, counterproductive, fiscally unsound practices. [More]
Once You Break Your Nook, No One Can Repair It
By April 3, 2010
If you buy a nook from Barnes & Noble and think there might be any possibility whatsoever that you could drop it, be sure to buy a protection plan for it. That’s because if the nook breaks and you didn’t buy an extended warranty, no one at Barnes and Noble can fix it. Not even if you offer to pay for the repairs. [More]
Barnes & Noble Is Unfailingly Polite While Breaking Promises To Customers
By January 23, 2010
Did you think that perhaps Barnes & Noble’s epic problems getting the Nook e-reader in the hands of customers by Christmas would be over after Christmas? Not quite. Jesse Vincent blogged about his experience of broken promises, mysteriously canceled orders, and how Barnes & Noble still hasn’t even sent the famous $100 gift card that Nook customers were promised. [More]
Sony Asks Customer For Her Reader, Breaks It, Then Sends It Back
By December 28, 2009
I’m not usually amused at the customer service horror stories that arrive in our in box, but this one is just so over the top that I can’t help but laugh incredulously. The lesson here, which Kate sadly learned for all of us, is if Sony ever asks you out of nowhere to send in your Reader for an update, run away. [More]
Barnes & Noble Will Send You $100 If Nook Doesn't Show Up By Christmas
By December 19, 2009
Barnes & Noble keeps pushing the delivery date for pre-ordered Nooks back. Realizing that many of the e-readers were purchased as Christmas gifts, they’re sending a $100 bribe gift card to the delivery addresses for pre-ordered Nooks that aren’t slated to arrive by December 24th. [More]
Borders Gets Into Ebook Business, Relaunches Shortcovers As Kobo Books
By December 16, 2009
Shortcovers, an ebook retailer that I recommended to a Sony Reader owner last month, has morphed into something called kobobooks.com, and it’s now partially owned by Borders. If you own an ereader other than a Kindle, or if you read ebooks primarily on a smartphone, you might want to add it to your list of sources for ebooks. [More]
Barnes & Noble Says They'll Accept Gift Cards For Ebooks Before Christmas
By November 16, 2009
Apparently Barnes & Noble meant it when they said that they were looking into the gift card issue for ebook purchases. Currently, B&N gift cards can’t be used to buy ebooks, but a new post on one of the company’s blogs says that should change by mid-December.
You Can't Use A Barnes & Noble Gift Card For Ebooks
By November 13, 2009
Update: Barnes & Noble says they’re changing this policy. If you or someone you know is getting a nook, Barnes & Noble’s version of the Kindle, this year and you want to use a gift card to fill it with books, forget it. For mysterious reasons, the retailer won’t allow it. (By contrast, Amazon does.)
Sony's Ebook Store Prices Too High? Try Shortcovers
By November 11, 2009
Michael bought a Sony Pocket Reader last month, but with the exception of $10 bestsellers, he’s finding that other books he wants are priced higher than he’s willing to pay. For example, Tad Friend’s memoir Cheerful Money is $10 on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, but $17.49 from Sony. Michael wants to know if we have any advice on how to get Sony to lower their prices.
B&N Ebook Reader Lets You Loan A Book Just Once
By October 23, 2009
One of the big selling points about the Nook, the new ebook reader introduced this week by Barnes & Noble, is that unlike Amazon they’ll let you virtually “loan” your ebook to a friend for up to 14 days (if the publisher allows it). What they don’t tell you–some smart readers over at MobileRead sussed it out–is that you can only do this one time per book. You’d better lend wisely–and your friend had better finish that book within 14 days.
