Archive for the ‘nook’ Category

American Booksellers Association concerned that rapidly falling book prices will be bad for consumers. Yes, you read that right. Low prices = bad.

Books, books, books! The American Booksellers Association, a trade group that represents small bookstores (not Barnes and Noble and the other big guys), has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether or not Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Target have “[devalued] the very concept of the book” with their ongoing price war. Well, they’re actually asking for an investigation into their selling practices. That is, because Amazon wants to outsell Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart wants to outsell Amazon, they both sell the latest book (think Stephen King, Dan Brown, etc.) for some really low price, like $10. When you consider that the average hardcover “should” cost something like $20-$30, just based on the wildly outdated economics of book-selling, then you understand why the ABA is so upset.

Here’s what the ABA is thinking: it represents The Little Guy, the indie bookstore on Main Street, USA that doesn’t have the clout of Barnes and Noble or Borders. If these big guys keep trying to undercut each other, it lowers the price Main Street can set for a book. Why would someone pay $30 for a book when they can buy it for $10 from Wal-Mart? The problem becomes, after Main Street goes out of business, that limits the amount of information (books) out there. And what if some author releases a crazy book about some controversial topic, one that Wal-Mart refuses to carry because it doesn’t want to “offend” its customers or whatever? Now there’s no Main Street bookstore to turn to, and that information never gets out there. Then the marketplace of ideas suffers, and we’re all worse off. That’s the ABA’s thinking, at least, and it’s not entirely unreasonable, I don’t think.

If you want, this topic could easily balloon into a much deeper, philosophical discussion on the entire book industry—remember, Barnes and Noble said the other day that the book industry is still bigger than Hollywood, video games, etc.—but other, better people have already begun to tackle that debate.

And why is this on CrunchGear? Yup, e-books. You can make the argument, and the ABA has done just that, that it was the initial release of the Kindle that got this whole dangerous price war started. Amazon needed to jumpstart the public’s acceptance of e-books, so they did the inverse of what game companies do when they release a new system: game companies make money on the software and lose money on the hardware (at least initially), while Amazon was selling these e-books for something like one-third their “actual” value. Gotta get those Kindles out there!

So that’s basically it. The ABA is concerned that a price war, started by the introduction of the Kindle, will eventually limit the number and quality of ideas available to y’all. You’re free to disagree, and I get the feeling that many of you will.

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Don’t Get too Excited About the Nook’s Lending Feature [Nook]

One of my favorite details about the Nook—the 14-day “lending”—just got a lot less enticing. Turns out there are very specific rules about this lending process, and they pretty much nullify the feature’s promise.

Lending seemed too good to be true: Sure, we knew about the 14-day lending period, but we wondered if it’d work like a library, where you can renew a book before its due date. No such luck. As it turns out, publishers have the right to allow or not allow lending (and book publishers are at least as uptight as record labels) in the first place, so who knows if you’ll ever even get to try it. Besides that, you can lend each book one time only, forever. When you lend it, it’s unavailable for you to read, which admittedly is what happens when you lend a physical book—but THESE AREN’T PHYSICAL BOOKS. For god’s sake, let us enjoy the benefits of digital text!

I’m a little pissed off by this, especially since I was so excited about the Nook, but not entirely surprised. It’s like when Microsoft introduced the Zune’s sharing feature. They understood that people share physical media and want to share digital media, but still forced (probably at the record labels’ behest, but whatever) a 3-play, 3-day restriction that was so strict nobody ever used the feature. And now Barnes & Noble is following in Microsoft’s footsteps. Balls. [MobileRead, thanks Gideon!]

Amazon’s international Kindle surprises owners with $20 refund, limited web browsing

The only thing better than unannounced functionality is an automatic, surprise refund on your purchase. With the international version of Amazon’s 6-inch Kindle you get both. Several readers who ordered the $279 international Kindle have received the following email:

Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6″ Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don’t need to do anything to get the lower price–we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.

By “strong customer demand” we assume that Amazon means “we’re trying to stay competitive with the $259 Barnes and Noble Nook,” but that’s just a hunch. A hands-on at the Gadget Lab also reveals the inclusion of web browsing thought to have been disabled. For the most part it is disabled but Amazon does let you browse to the English version of Wikipedia and nowhere else. The hands-on also notes “dead slow” 3G performance and Amazon’s decision to ship the international Kindle with a US power plug regardless of destination. Weird.

[Thanks, Simon]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds

Amazon’s international Kindle surprises owners with $20 refund, limited web browsing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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5 Things that Make Us Want Barnes & Noble’s Nook E-Reader

The latest device to join the explosively-growing e-book reader crowd is the $260 Barnes & Noble e-book reader called ‘Nook.’ Nook debuted Tuesday and will be available at the end of November, Barnes & Noble says.

E-readers are one of the fastest-growing consumer electronics products, although the overall category is still small. About three million e-readers will be be sold in the U.S. this year, says research firm Forrester, with sales doubling in 2010.

To succeed, Nook will have to battle Amazon’s market-leading Kindle–now in its second generation–and a host of e-readers from Sony and other companies. But Barnes & Noble is betting there are a few things about the newcomer that will set it apart.

Hear are five Nook features that we think could give the device a leg up over the competition.

1. Sharing capabilities: One of the best things about hardcovers or paperbacks is that you can give them to family and friends. E-readers, so far, haven’t offered that to consumers. Instead, devices such as Kindle have locked down books and made it impossible for users to lend books that they have bought. Nook tries to change that with its LendMe feature. Nook users can lend books to friends for two weeks and those e-books can be accessed through PCs or smartphones such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone. Lending the book through Nook makes it unavailable to the original owner, but at the end of the two-weeks, the book reverts back to its owner. Though Barnes & Noble says some publishers might not allow this for the books they publish, its a big step forward towards finding an acceptable solution to the question of digital rights management around e-books. Bonus: It means no longer having to bug your friends to return books they borrowed from you years ago.

2. Android OS: The Nook is the first e-book reader to run Android, Google’s operating system written for mobile devices. Android has become a favorite of mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola and HTC because it is open source and can be easily customized. It also gives users access to applications through the Android market. Barnes & Noble hasn’t announced anything about putting out a software developers’ kit for the Nook. But it hasn’t ruled out the idea either. “We do think, just because of the excitement and all the development around Android, that, in the future, putting out an SDK would be exciting for us and for our users,” says Barnes & Noble president William Lynch.

3. Color touchscreen: In the world of e-readers, Nook’s dual display feature is unique. Nook has the usual black-and-white E Ink screen for reading books, but it also has a color capacitive touchscreen, similar to the iPhone’s, located in the lower portion of the device. The touchscreen lets readers  browse through books by flicking through them. When not navigating books or magazines, the touch screen goes dark to let readers focus on the content (and to save battery power). Though the idea strikes us a bit of a gimmick, it is still interesting because it is a step forward from the rut that current e-readers design seems stuck in–which is a single black-and-white display stuck in a 8-inch frame.

4. Access to 3G and Wi-Fi: When Amazon first introduced the Kindle, it offered free over-the-air wireless book downloads through Sprint’s network. Kindle 2 bundled a basic browser into the device and extended the idea. The wireless connectivity feature put Kindle ahead of its rival Sony, whose earlier e-reader required users to plug the device to their computer via the USB port to download books. Since then, wireless 3G connectivity has become a nearly mandatory component of all e-book readers. But Nook is the only one to offer both 3G and Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi feature is limited for now: On launch, it will work only in Barnes & Noble stores, all of which offer free Wi-Fi. But we are hoping that its Wi-Fi will be soon opened up to access all hotspots.

5. In-store browsing: Most of us turn to Amazon when it comes to buying books, but there is something to be said for walking into a book store, sitting there with a cup of coffee and browsing. The Nook lets you do just that. In a neat trick that takes advantage of Barnes & Noble’s brick-and-mortar stores, the Nook lets users read entire e-books for free in-store. It’s something that none of the Nook’s rivals can offer for a very long time.

See Also:

• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen ‘Nook’ E-Reader
• Barnes & Noble’s comparison of the Nook and Kindle 2
• New Asus Color E-Reader Folds Like a Book
• Plastic Logic E-Reader is Slimmer than Kindle DX
• Sony’s E-Book Reader Adds Touchscreen, Wireless Downloads
• Cosmo Publisher Plans an E-Reader of Its Own

Photo: Nook (colony of gamers/ Flickr)

Gizmodo’s Barnes & Noble Nook Full Coverage in One Place [Nook]

The Barnes & Noble Nook is a singularly interesting piece of hardware, that’s for sure, and I would be negligent if I forgot to mention our exclusive unveiling and extended reporting. Here’s our Nook coverage, all in one place.

• Exclusive: First Photos of Barnes & Noble’s Double Screen E-Reader: In which we scoop the crap out of BN’s crazy two-screened reader.
• Barnes & Noble’s Dual-Screen Nook: $260, Eats the Kindle’s Lunch: In which the Nook leaks a few hours early.
• Barnes & Noble Compares Nook to Kindle 2: Biased But Fair: In which BN thoughtfully explains why the Nook whups the Kindle 2’s butt.
• Live From Barnes & Noble’s Nook Event: In which intrepid reporters John Herrman and Matt Buchanan bring you the Nook’s official announcement, live, with bonus Q & A.
• 8 Reasons You Can Finally Love Ebook Readers (Thanks to Nook): In which we explain why the Nook has finally gotten us excited about ebook readers.
• Barnes & Noble Nook Up Close: Yep, It’s Real Nice: In which we go hands-on with the Nook, and like it.

[Barnes & Noble Nook coverage on Giz]

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