Earlier this month, I reported that Barnes & Noble had removed the install files for Nook for PC and Mac. Well, now they're back. Although Barnes & Noble has said they aren't supporting the apps anymore, something made them decide to make them available again. Hue and cry, perhaps? Without an actual Nook, it's difficult to read Nook books without the apps. Although there is a Nook for Web, lots of books are not viewable through it. My guess is that enough readers protested the loss of access to their books that B&N felt they had to respond by putting the apps...

 Barnes & Noble is extending its Father's Day Nook HD sale. Just to recap in case you missed it, that means the Nook HD (7-inch model) is starting at $129, while the HD+ is starting at $149. I kinda wish I'd waited when I bought mine during the Mother's Day sale. I thought $149 for the HD was a good deal. Saving another $20 would have been nice. Of course, this raises the question about the future of the Nook hardware, and I can't help but read this as negative on that front. Companies do not discount successful products this heavily. This...

David Rothman tipped me to this one. The Ebook Reader is reporting that the Nook for PC and Mac download links have been removed from the "Nook Mobile Apps" page. I just checked, and yes, they really are gone. The only PC-based Nook app currently available on that page is the Windows 8 version, which won't help very many people. As the article notes, you can still read Nook books on your PC using the browser-based reader, but that doesn't allow you to download books for archival (or DRM-removal) purposes. It's also not helpful for indie and self-published authors who want to...

German book press has picked up on the news that Barnes & Noble is still pressing on with its launch plans in Germany. According to the original article, “Barnes & Noble still wants to expand to Germany this year,” this follows on the establishment of Barnes & Noble GmbH in Berlin and a statement by the U.S. book giant’s CEO that the company would be debuting in international markets from June 10th. June has come with no sign of B&N, the article points out, but company staffers are still heralding expansion into 10 international markets within the next six months. The report singles...

I received the Nook Snaps press release in my email today, and my first thought was "Cool! B&N is trying to compete with Kindle Singles." According to the release: Insightful and witty, the NOOK Snaps program features high-quality short fiction and narrative non-fiction hand-picked by NOOK editors offering fresh perspectives on modern life, all in an easy-to-enjoy length and at an attractive price. The program offers 3 to 5 new NOOK Snaps selections of at least 5,000 words every other month for only $1.99 each. And from the text of the email I received: an innovative bimonthly program offering original, commissioned short-content works by...

While Maya Cross and other authors tried to figure out why their e-books couldn’t get past #126 on Barnes & Noble bestseller list, some authors who had books in B&N’s UK store noticed something even stranger. Their e-books went missing altogether. Barnes & Noble didn’t make an announcement to authors or readers, but the company seemingly removed many adult-themed romance books from its store without prompt. Last Friday, May 24, author Portia Da Costa mentioned on the KBoards something she'd spotted in April: “It's not just Barnes and Noble. Nook UK has simply DELETED thousands of erotic romance/erotica titles. No algorithm shenanigans, no rank tinkering... just...

Author Maya Cross wrote on a message board recently about a problem she noticed with her books on the Barnes & Noble bestseller list on its website. Her book, Lockout, jumped up the charts all the way to number five, but then she noticed something strange happen. I noticed something weird with book one, Locked. Sales for it spiked pretty dramatically when book two came out. It was sitting around #300-400, but it gradually began to rise. Except, once it hit #126, it stopped. And it held that position for over 24 hours. Never moving, never going up or down by even...

Since the middle of 2011, the London Evening Standard has been focused on increasing literacy in the UK with their "Get London Reading" initiative. To date, they've raised £1 million (about $1.5 million) and helped more than 2,000 children. Now Barnes & Noble and Nook Media have joined the campaign, along with several large UK publishers (Hachette UK, HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House). Last month, Barnes & Noble donated 100 Nook Simple Touch readers to the program, which has allowed volunteer reading helpers to use the e-readers during their work. [caption id="attachment_85168" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo credit: London Evening Standard[/caption] I just checked out...

TechCruch had a story on this yesterday. They have obtained some internal documents discussing the proposed deal, with Microsoft reportedly offering $1 billion for Nook Media. I agree with Nate over at The Digital Reader that this sounds plausible. Microsoft has been working with Barnes & Noble since April of last year on Nook devices and content. Last year, they offered $300 million, much of which was aimed at developing content for Windows 8 devices. There was even speculation at the time that the next Nook would be Windows powered. Obviously that hasn't happened, and now it looks unlikely. Apparently the documents...

Of course they put them on sale two days after I bought one. :( But my griping aside, this is a great deal. For B&N's Mother's Day sale, the Nook HD is priced at $149 while the Nook HD+ is only $179. Those prices are for the lower memory versions, but the higher memory versions are on sale as well. The sale runs through Mother's Day, which is exactly one week from today—Sunday, May 12. I'm still finishing up my review of the Nook HD with the new Google Play integration, but I can say right now that this is a great...

All right! Barnes & Noble has finally listened to its customer base, and the tech bloggers. They recently announced that they'll be rolling out a software update that adds the Google Play Store to the Nook HD and HD+ tablets. This is excellent news. The Nook HD tablets have consistently received great hardware reviews, but the Nook App Store lags so far behind other app stores that there's no point in drawing comparisons. Good hardware plus crappy app selection does not equal a winning combination. I confess to being surprised by the news. While it's what I've been writing about for a...

As a PubIt! author, I received a lovely invitation email today to check out Nook Press, Nook's new publishing platform. So what was the first thing I did when I had a moment to look at the email? I clicked on the link to check it out. And got a "Page Not Found" error. Not a good sign. I finally got to the site by a work around. I went PubIt, and it redirected me to Nook Press. Lucky for them I was willing to take a few extra steps. I was greeted by a screen that invited me to start by syncing...