ereader - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Apr

Barnes And Noble Equipping New Nook Simple Touch With Front-Lit E-ink Screen

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Barnes & Noble, News, Nook

Anyone that has ever spent any length of time with an e-ink based e-reader like the Kindle or Nook can attest to their uselessness in dark spaces. Now it looks like Barnes and Noble is going to be taking a crack at fixing that shortcoming of e-readers in an effort to gain some traction in its battle against Amazon. Leaked signage points to an updated Nook Simple Touch with a front-lit screen, and it might be here sooner than you think.

Barnes and Noble will apparently be calling the technology GlowLight, and if you don't like the name, tough. The retailer is going to be pushing it as a major feature of its Android-based e-reader.

Jan

Barnes & Noble Thinking About Selling NOOK Business – "It's The Right Time To Investigate Our Options" Says CEO

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Nook

Barnes & Noble announced today that it is considering selling its NOOK business, citing significant shortfalls in sales and cutting its full-year forecast.

B&N also cited NOOK sales which fell below expectations, and investments in advertising and expansion as reasons for a predicted shortfall in fiscal 2012 sales of between $200 million and $320 million less than average estimates of $7.32 billion.

The major bookseller indicated that it plans to market the NOOK for "years to come," but that it "over-anticipated the growth in consumer demand for single-purpose black-and-white reading devices this holiday," as the company's simplest e-reader lagged far behind in sales compared to other members of the NOOK family.

Nov

Information Surrounding Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet Slips Out - Look Out Kindle Fire

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Nook Tablet, Tablets

Looking to keep pace with Amazon, it seems Barnes & Noble has something up their sleeve this month - the Nook Tablet. Coming to market in just under two weeks, the Nook Tablet is a dead ringer for the Nook Color, but it brings to the table substantially pumped up specs that, in some ways, surpass its nearest competition - the Kindle Fire.

A nice set of photocopied documents leaked out today, giving us all the details we need about the Nook Tablet - it's set to launch November 16th at a cool $249. Yes, that is about $50 higher than the Kindle Fire, but wait till you see the specs:

OMAP 4 Dual-Core Processor at 1.2GHz
1GB RAM
16GB On Board Storage
7" VividView IPS Display at 1024x600 (169ppi)
About 8 Hours of Battery Life
A Trim(mer) 8.1 x 5 x .48" Form Factor

As you can see, the Nook Tablet actually bests Amazon's Fire in terms of both storage and RAM.

May

[Review] ReadItLater Strips Dirty Articles, Stores Them on Your Phone

Posted by Matt Demers in App Reviews, Applications, Reviews

Last Updated: August 2nd, 2011

It's not exactly news that mobile devices are quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to consume data. From Twitter feeds to RSS, it's becoming increasingly common to see people reading on their devices, whether it be a tablet, e-reader or phone.

The Search for Simplicity

However, a problem I ran into was that not all web sites are optimized for reading on a mobile device. While some sites have the decency to have a mobile theme, others load in full view and have trouble wrapping text to a zoomed-in screen. Dealing with page formatting while reading long articles wasn't something I felt like doing, so I began looking for alternatives.

Apr

NOOK Color Official Froyo Update: It's Almost A Real Tablet Now, No Hacking Required

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, NOOKcolor (Encore)

The Barnes & Noble NOOK Color has been the e-reader of choice for many Android power users because of its hackability, making it easy to transform it into a full featured tablet. B&N must've taken note from the Android dev community, because an update has just been released for the NOOK Color that brings Froyo, apps, flash player, and more to this budget friendly device.

Before you get too excited, though, it's not exactly what you think. There is no access to the Android Market, nor does it include any Google Apps. In order to keep the user experience consistent, B&N has its own set of proprietary libraries that developers must use when writing apps for the NOOK Color, so everything flows together within the NOOK ecosystem.

Jan

Ultra Low Power Qualcomm Mirasol Color eInk-like Screen Technology Teased Ahead Of CES Demos

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in News, Videos

Qualcomm's Mirasol technology has been in prototype form for a while, but at this year's CES, it seems like we'll finally see a working product - an Android e-reader by PocketBook that is called simply Mirasol.

For those who haven't been following Mirasol, it is a functional equivalent of a traditional black-and-white eInk display that has become so popular in e-readers over the last few years, except it is capable of displaying color and playing videos (refresh rates are rumored to be anywhere from 12 to 30 fps). At its core, Mirasol screens use a reflective display technology which "can create various colors through the interference of reflected light." Mirasol displays consume very little power and have superb visibility in direct sunlight.

Nov

Barnes And Noble NOOKcolor Rooted; Sub-$300 Android Tablet That Doesn't Suck Is Now Available

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Barnes & Noble, Development, News, NOOKcolor (Encore)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the only Android-based tablet worth considering. But is it? That question is now up in the air since Barnes and Noble's $250 NOOKcolor, an Android-based e-reader, has been rooted. While before the deed was done it was just that - an e-reader - it's now taken on a life of its own, a life complete with Angry Birds:

The procedure is still a bit complicated (as you'll see for yourself below), but it's definitely a start - until z4Root, SuperOneClick, or some other one-click solution becomes available, I've got a feeling this is your best bet.