Barnes & Noble today signaled that new orders for the Nook reader now won't ship at all in 2009. Those placed today will ship no sooner than January 4th, or more than three weeks after the delay to December 11th. The bookseller hopes to console those missing the Christmas target by giving them a certificate that promises a Nook reader when it ships.
Barnes & Noble will soon accept its gift cards as payment for purchases made in its eBook store, the book retailer announced on Monday. Not only will both physical and online gift cards be accepted online, but also through Barnes & Noble's own nook e-book reader and other wireless devices compatible with the B&N eReader software.
Barnes & Noble today alerted Nook buyers that new orders now won't ship until December 11th (subscription required). The delay from the original November 30th date follows a recent push back for some until December 7th and is credited by spokeswoman Ellen Keating to sales that have "surpassed our expectations." The book retailer hasn't said how many pre-orders it has taken.
Spring Design late Monday revealed that it has sued Barnes & Noble for allegedly infringing on the design of its two-screen Alex e-book reader. The company claims to have been working with Barnes & Noble in confidential terms since spring of this year but that the bookstore 'stole' the idea, unveiling its Nook reader without telling Spring Design in advance. The latter also says it has been obtaining patents since 2006, well before development of the Nook would have begun.
Plastic Logic and Barnes & Noble announced a partnership on Tuesday that will see Plastic Logic's QUE proReader e-book reader sold at the latter's stores and on its website. As part of the deal, the QUE proReader will be displayed near Barnes & Noble's own nook e-book reader, on its own free-standing display. Compared to the nook, the QUE is more business-oriented.
MSI is developing an e-book reader that would use NVIDIA's Tegra processor at its core, the company's chairman Joseph Hsu says today. Confirming an earlier rumor, the executive admits that a device with the fast graphics and ARM chip combo is in progress but has "some problems" that have pushed a formal unveiling back until sometime in the first half of 2010. Other details will likely only be supplied closer to the actual release.
Amazon today dropped the price of the international version of its Kindle reader to match the US-only version's $259 price tag while merging sales of the two. The lower-priced model is already being offered on Amazon and is a move believed prompted by the recently introduced Nook reader from Barnes & Noble, which also costs $259.
Barnes and Noble lived up to promises today and launched the Nook, its own e-book reader. The device is unique in having both a six-inch E-Ink display and a 3.5-inch color touchscreen LCD that serves to navigate and browse books. Also unlike most other readers in its class, it has both 802.11g Wi-Fi as well as AT&T-driven 3G to download books from Barnes and Noble's online bookstore.
Barnes and Noble's rumored dual-screen e-book reader gained credibility Monday night with the leak of a paper ad in advance (subscription required). A full-page placement due for the New York Times' Book Review next Sunday labels the reader as the Nook and says it will ship for $259, reaching the same price as the US Kindle. It also makes a direct reference to the previously leaked e-book lending feature, which would let users temporarily give rights to a book to someone else.
Plastic Logic today took the wraps off of its long in development e-book reader. Now known as the QUE proReader, the e-ink device is under a third of an inch thick but has a full 8.5-by-11-inch display that can show many documents at their full size. It also has a unique plastic touchscreen that the company claims is shatterproof and uses both Wi-Fi as well as AT&T-based 3G for downloading content from Barnes & Noble.
Spring Design today unveiled Alex, its own take on e-book reading. Beating Barnes & Noble to a dual-screen reader, the design has both a 6-inch e-paper screen for reading as well as a 3.5-inch color touchscreen for navigation and viewing related content. The entire platform is based on Android and is customized to integrate both displays, such as caching a web article to read it on the e-paper screen.
Google today set out official plans to launch its own paid e-book store. Known as Google Editions, the service will be one of the few truly universal stores and will work with any device that has a reasonably modern web browser, including most computers, smartphones and even normally locked-down devices like the Amazon Kindle. Unlike some web book services, Google's store will let users cache a book locally for reading when they're offline.
Barnes & Noble's imminent e-book reader may make a second, multi-touch display its central feature, a leak shows today. Renderings, photos and details obtained today by Gizmodo show the device having both a grayscale e-paper display, like most readers, but also a small, full color, multi-touch LCD. The interface would not only give a responsive, adaptable keyboard but would be used to browse and pick books.
Barnes and Noble this afternoon sent invitations to the press for its frequently rumored October 20th press event. The bookseller is short on details but exactly mirrors leaks in describing it as a "major event in our company's history." Most expect the event to involve Barnes & Noble launching a self-branded e-book reader that would be designed by Plastic Logic.
Plastic Logic today denied reports that it would have a color e-book reader ready by spring. The company tells PCPro that the Barnes & Noble contact was "misinformed" and further insists he wasn't speaking in an official capacity for the American book retailer. A color reader is still in development but isn't due to ship this year, a spokesperson says.
Barnes & Noble's first e-book reader should launch soon and could introduce a watershed feature for any reader, a contacts claim this evening. The bookstore supposedly has a "major event" scheduled for October 20th where it's likely to introduce the e-book reader it promised for the end of the year. The device is likely to be a grayscale reader but to use AT&T 3G for downloading books online.
Barnes & Noble spokesman Daniel Joresson at CTIA appears to have confirmed a timeframe in a video (available below) for what's likely the first color e-book reader available in the US. The Plastic Logic device would be smaller than the 8.5x11-inch large model proposed early on and would have just a paperback-sized display. However, it would have its own direct access to Barnes & Noble's bookstore and would be ready by spring 2010, or considerably earlier than an Amazon Kindle with color or most other rivals.
(Updated with Android rumor) Barnes & Noble is developing its own high-end e-book reader to help boost its online store, a source close to its plans purportedly revealed this afternoon. Most features are unknown, but it would have a touchscreen and use an iPhone-like on-screen keyboard for searches and similar tasks. A wireless link is also seen by the Wall Street Journal as a key ingredient, though whether this would involve 3G or simply Wi-Fi isn't immediately evident.
iRex today more officially stepped into the US market for e-book readers by cementing a deal for the Barnes & Noble online bookstore. The company now plans to integrate the digital book service both with its own readers as well as for "other devices." It's not specified which readers would be involved or when the deal will take effect.
Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo made conscious moves to thwart Google on Friday with word all three are joining the Open Book Alliance. Created independently by the Internet Archive, the group is resisting the outcome of a copyright dispute that has resulted in Google creating a Book Rights Registry that would see it manage many digital books' rights and let it publish digital versions of books with unknown publishing rights. The Alliance claims the registry would give Google too much control over e-books and hurt literature in the future.
The economic downturn is causing some coffee shops, including Naidre's in Brooklyn, NY, to restrict when users can browse the Internet on their notebooks, says a Thursday WSJ report. The local neighborhood shop offers free Wi-Fi but a sign put up since the spring of 2008 warns that laptops are not allowed at certain mid-day hours unless the customer is eating as well as surfing or otherwise using their notebooks. Shop owners argue they find it hard to cater to a client who takes up the space and uses electricity for hours on end while ordering little to nothing else.
Sony has almost immediately followed up on late rumors with an official update to its Reader line of e-book devices. The new PRS-300 Pocket Edition and PRS-600 Touch Edition readers are less expensive than the PRS-505 was when new but have a similar 600x800 e-paper display and in some cases make significant improvements: while both have just 512MB of memory built-in, either will take not only Memory Sticks for extra storage but also SD cards. They also get a new, native Mac client for loading books over USB in addition to the existing Windows version.
Barnes & Noble on Tuesday announced it has teamed up with AT&T for free-to-access Wi-Fi hotspots at its stores across the US. This will give customers access to the Internet as a whole but is naturally intended as an incentive to use the company's e-book store. Those who sign up will also have the option of receiving messages from the book store chain, including coupons to the cafés, recommended or best-seller lists, author signings, and other events.
Plastic Logic announced on Wednesday that it will partner with wireless provider AT&T to deliver content over 3G for its e-book reader. The news comes just after Plastic Logic's alliance with bookstore Barnes & Noble. The feature will give readers relatively wide-area wireless options to download newspapers, magazines and other periodicals in addition to books.
Actus LLC, patent holding company based in Marshall, Texas, has sued Apple, Amazon, Ebay, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and a number of other companies for infringing on several patents relating to methods for "conducting electronic commerce transactions using electronic tokens." The patents - Nos. 7,328,189; 7,249,099; 7,177,838; and 7,376,621 - were originally filed by a company named PayByClick.
Foxconn Electronics, the manufacturer of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader lines, may be planning to develop its own e-book reader. According to a Thursday DigiTimes report pointing to industry sources, Foxconn has recently hired a few software technicians with e-book programming experience. Foxconn has not responded to inquiries regarding the report.
Barnes & Noble is allegedly working on an e-book reader to compete with products such as Amazon's Kindle, according to TheStreet.com. If true, the device could provide the company with fresh entry into the expanding market for specialized products with integrated wireless connectivity. The unnamed insider claimed the bookstore chain has decided to partner with Sprint, after unsuccessful attempts at talks with Verizon.
Barnes & Noble has recently purchased Fictionwise for $15.7 million, a retailer of electronic books, says a Friday Wall Street Journal report, and will launch a new e-book store later this year. William Lynch Jr., president and CEO of Barnes & Noble, said the retailer bought Fictionwise because it has "one of the most popular applications on the iPhone, and they really understand merchandising," among other reasons.Fictionwise was the first e-book retailer to offer third-party e-books supported by Amazon's Kindle reader back in 2007.
