DBW featured a press release for BookLikes, a new social reading platform that is supposed to combine the features of Tumblr and Goodreads. I consider one of my roles here is to involve trying things out, and potentially wasting my time so you don't have to waste your. And my reaction to this site? Don't even bother. (Click here to see what TeleRead's Susan Lulgjuraj has to say about BookLikes.) Everyone seems to be wanting to get into the social reading space today, and honestly, I don't think we need yet another one. Especially not one that acts so much like Goodreads....

As soon as I published the post about Astrid being bought by Yahoo and mentioned I was looking for a new app, my in-box started chiming with suggestions. Wunderlist was one of the more interesting ones, and I’ve been checking it out this week. It has some interesting features that make it worth downloading. It’s usable across multiple devices. I currently have it downloaded on my computer, installed on my iPhone and Nexus 7, and there’s even a Web-based interface if I should need it. It mostly looks and acts the same across all devices, so there’s little learning curve as you move from one...

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...

The New York Times and Reuters ran articles recently that tell opposing stories about Apple's role in agency pricing. In the Times story, the Justice Department paints a picture of Apple as the ringleader of agency pricing. In the Reuters story, Apple insists that it just had tough talks with the publishers about the future of e-books and pricing. Apple had an interesting claim in the Reuters article that had me hunting down some history. Here's their claim: It [Apple] says that e-book demand "exploded" with Apple's iPad launch, and the average retail price of an e-book dropped to $7.34 from $7.97. I can't...

A few days ago, Sony announced they they were launching a large format reader aimed at the educational market. E Ink is making the screen, which has been touted as flexible and durable. Here's the relevant section of the press release: E Ink Mobius will be the first flexible display technology that will go into mass production for a large format digital paper product based on flexible Thin Film Transistor (TFT) technology developed by Sony. Mobius uses a TFT technology that will enable the development of much lighter and rugged products. Mobius displays can weigh less than 50% of the weight of...

And this is why I try very hard not to report on rumors. Last week I wrote about a rumor that Microsoft was considering buying the Nook Media division. Well, the rumor was good for Barnes & Noble stock, which spiked up to $22 a share the day the rumor was announced, and then continued up to almost $24 a share later in the week. (Today it's down to $21.) However, as with many rumors, this one has now been dispelled (maybe, assuming dispelling the "rumor" isn't just part of the big plan.) Insider Monkey says they had an email on Friday...

When I stopped by Amazon this morning to check the Daily Deal, I saw something cool for you Kindle Fire owners. You've got free Amazon Coins! In case you missed the announcement of Coins earlier this year, they were supposed to start in May, and it looks like this announcement is the launch. What can you do with Coins? Buy Kindle Fire apps, games and in-app items at a discount. I dropped by the Coins page, and it looks like the discount ranges from four percent (if you buy 500 coins) to 10 percent (if you buy 5,000). 100 coins equals $1. Since I...

If you've taken advantage of the great sale on the Nook HD (ending today), or if you've had one for awhile and recently upgraded to add the Google Play Store, you might be wondering what apps to add. Here's my list of must-have apps, not available in the Nook App store. 1. Feedly With Google Reader going away this July, you'll need another way to keep track of your feeds. I've been using Feedly for awhile now, and it's an excellent Google Reader replacement. In some ways, I've grown to like it better. For example, I've found its integration with Pocket to...

The Consumer Electronics Association released some interesting data yesterday about electronic devices on planes. • Ninety-nine percent of flyers bring a portable electronic device on a flight with them. That's a lot of gadgets! • Thirty percent of them have forgotten to turn off a device at some time. Whoops! Another interesting breakdown is this: The study found that when asked to turn off their electronic devices, 59 percent of passengers say they always turn their devices completely off, 21 percent of passengers say they switch their devices to “airplane mode,” and five percent say they sometimes turn their devices completely off. Of those passengers who...

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...

This one's pretty specific. If you have a Nokia Lumia Windows 8 phone and are a user of Zinio, you can get $50 worth of free magazines. All this is in celebration of Zinio partnering with Nokia to release an exclusive app for the Nokia Lumia phone. By exclusive, they mean that the Lumia is the only Windows 8 phone that can run the app. Zinio is available on other platforms, including iOS and Android. More details in the press release. According to an earlier release, the app is optimized for the smartphone environment and takes advantage of the Windows 8 smart...

Yesterday, I wrote about the Nook HD mostly from a stock OS perspective. But I know the question you really wanted to have answered was this: "Does it work as an Android tablet?" After three days of using it, my answer is a cautious "yes." Because I still don't have a tablet case for it, I haven't run it through a typical work day. However, from my use in the house over the weekend, I can tell you that it's got potential. Let's start with what it can and can't do. Loading apps from Google Play is a breeze. When you install the...