MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
Aug 15 – Aug 22, 2010 Edition Barnes & Noble Apps Enhance Free eReading on Nook, iPhone, iPad
NEW YORK, NY/AUTHORLINK NEWS/August 17, 2010–Barnes & Noble today enhanced its offering of popular, free NOOK-branded eReading software with updated versions for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and PC (available at www.bn.com/NOOKapps).
The next-generation NOOK for iPhone application delivers a personalized and easy-to-use eReading experience for iPhone and iPod touch owners. NOOK for iPad adds customer-requested, in-app content rating and other improvements to the company’s popular iPad app, and NOOK for PC brings new branding to the company’s desktop software.
Taking a page from the company’s popular, highly customizable NOOK for iPad application, Barnes & Noble gives NOOK for iPhone users the ability to tailor the way they consume content, offering a simple, attractive reading experience from the handheld device. Users can create completely personalized or utilize professionally designed themes, and optimize content for day or night reading, with one-tap options and a preview before settings are changed. The NOOK for iPhone app offers customers the ability to choose from millions of colors for fonts, backgrounds or links, as well as the option to control screen brightness to make reading on the iPhone easy and comfortable. Barnes & Noble designed the NOOK for iPhone to optimize eBook cover art and text on the new iPhone 4’s Retina display, and it also works well on earlier iPhone and iPod touch models.
“We are committed to offering an easy-to-use, comfortable, and fun NOOK eReading experience across multiple platforms. NOOK for iPhone users can shop Barnes & Noble’s vast catalog of eBooks, while enjoying new, customization features and sharing their favorite eBooks with friends for free,” said Douglas Gottlieb, Vice President, Digital Products for Barnes & Noble.com. “NOOK for iPhone puts thousands of eBooks in your pocket, and the reading experience is fantastic. It’s another way that Barnes & Noble’s NOOK offering makes it truly easy to read what you love, anywhere you like.”
Lend eBooks to Friends Using Barnes & Noble’s innovative and exclusive LendMe technology, customers can share eligible eBooks, easily identified by the LendMe icon, with other NOOK software users. The lending feature, uniquely offered across the NOOK eReading platform, lets friends and family enjoy the eBook for up to 14 days. LendMe recipients have access to a wide variety of eBooks on both the NOOK eBook Reader and their NOOK software-enabled PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Android(TM) smartphone.
Like the iPad application, NOOK for iPhone users can initiate, accept and defer eBook lending right inside the app. The new app also seamlessly integrates LendMe into the device experience, so users can simply send the lend offer by tapping their iPhone or iPod touch contacts for the most streamlined sharing possible. And when NOOK software-enabled iPhone, iPod touch or iPad users receive a LendMe offer, it will appear within the application where they can see the eBook’s cover and the message from their friend.
NOOK for iPhone users can easily read across multiple devices by syncing the last page read of the last eBook opened on their iPhone or iPod touch with other NOOK software-enabled devices including iPad, Android smartphone (OS 1.6 or higher) or Windows®-based PC desktop, laptop or netbook. NOOK for iPhone also quickly syncs users’ entire library, current reading position, notes, highlights and bookmarks with other NOOK software-enabled devices.
Additional features available in NOOK for iPhone lets users shop the expansive Barnes & Noble eBookstore, access a personal Barnes & Noble digital library; take notes, bookmark pages, make highlights and write notes and more.
Now, iPhone users will read eBooks formatted in ePub, quickly becoming the industry standard.
NOOK for iPad, PC
The NOOK family of devices and software continues to evolve with an update for the iPad app, available at www.bn.com/NOOKforiPad and www.itunes.com/appstore. Complete with a new name, NOOK for iPad continues to differentiate itself from other iPad applications with an industry-first “Rate” feature – a fun and helpful way for users to indicate and easily sort their favorite reads. iPad users can simply tap the stars beneath all of the eBooks in the Library to give each a rating of one to five. NOOK for iPad also includes additional performance enhancements from the previous version.
In addition, today’s announcement also marks the company’s re-introduction of its desktop client as NOOK for PC (available at www.bn.com/NOOKforPC). With the ability to shop the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, access to a customer’s personal Barnes & Noble digital library and share eBooks with friends, NOOK for PC offers customers the ability to enjoy eReading on their Windows-based desktop, laptop or netbook.
For more information on free NOOK software and apps, visit www.bn.com/NOOKapps.
With Barnes & Noble’s Lifetime Library(TM), Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on BN.com and a variety of devices including dedicated NOOK eBook Readers, previously announced eBook readers powered by the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, and NOOK software-enabled iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry® and Android smartphones, HP computers, PC and Mac.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 720 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 637 college bookstores serving nearly 4 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States.
