How I Became a Freelancer (Give Me Back my Five Bucks) Over the past few months, I’ve gotten a lot of requests to talk about my freelancing – where my money is coming from, how I approach potential clients, and how I got started. I’ve talked about it before, but figured I could go a little more in depth here. --- How Do We Make Freelance Journalism Sustainable? (Media Shift) Last month the Chicago Sun Times fired its entire staff of photographers -– 28 full-time journalists — and plans to rely primarily on freelancers. This news is just the most recent in a growing...

 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...

I'd thought that Swype was a pretty good keyboard replacement, and I still think so. Unfortunately, it's not compatible with the Nook HD, so someone recommended I look at SwiftKey. My first impression wasn't positive. It's not nearly as good at swipe entry as Swype, and I'd gotten used to swiping. Beside, it looks totally cool when taking notes in a client meeting, especially if I'm using a stylus. I've gotten lots of raised eyebrows and "What's that?" while using Swype. But Swiftkey has a lot going for it, especially if you're willing to retrain how you perform data entry. Its text...

I know, I know, there are oodles of tablets cooler than Barnes & Noble’s Nooks around, starting with the uber-cheap Nexus 7 and the sleek iPad Mini. But with B&N holding constant “yard sales”, I dare you to find a slate with more bang for the buck. Leading to Father’s Day for instance, the Nook HD goes for just $129 both in physical stores and online, while the Nook HD+ is $149. That gives you roughly five days (Father’s Day is this Sunday, remember) to decide between the two. Our advice? Get them both. One for you, one for your dad,...

I'm back from a week-long camping trip (and remember, by "camping," I mean hanging out in nature in a small travel trailer—with AC), and I decided I'd see if my new Nook HD could cut it as the sole tablet device. All right, the iPad did come along with me because I was in the middle of editing my latest novel and I'm used to Pages, but other than that, I used the Nook for everything. How did it do? Pretty well, actually. It remains my favorite e-reading device, and I did a lot of reading. I made a big dent...

I'm still loving my Nook HD, and it has become my go-to device. I only use my Nexus 7 for app testing that requires either Jelly Bean or working with widgets. Since the HD goes with me everywhere, I needed a case, and I found a really inexpensive one on Amazon. The Poetic Slimline Portfolio case adds very little bulk to the HD, but it protects it from bumping around in a backpack while still giving access to all ports and buttons. (The picture is a live link to the case on Amazon.) It even offers a magnetic sleep/wake function. I actually...

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...

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...

I've wanted a Nook HD from the moment they came out. The reviews of the hardware were great, but I swore after I sold my first tablet, a Nook Color, that I'd never buy another crippled device again. The Nook App store is just terrible, and while I tried to make my Nook Color work as a tablet (including buying an N2A card), it was never quite satisfying. I needed to boot to the card to have the apps I needed. But for reading, I've always preferred the stock Nook reader, so I spent too much time either being unhappy or booting...

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...

Did you miss out on last month’s Barnes & Noble deal bundling every purchased Nook HD+ tablet with a free Nook Simple Touch e-reader? Well, I wouldn’t sweat it too much, seeing as Walmart is now offering the same Nook HD+ as part of an equally as lucrative promotional offer. Every 9-incher purchased via the retailer’s website gets you a free $70 eGift Card that you can then use at Walmart.com, Samsclub.com or in Walmart and Sam’s Club brick and mortar stores. The gift card doesn’t have an expiration date and it can be used towards the purchase of any product, but of...