Free books and magazines from Barnes & Noble using Windows 8 Nook app

[hwlester]

I ran across this on a number of sites, but haven't seen it posted here yet. Apparently Barnes & Noble is offering 5 free books and 5 free magazine issues as a welcome offer for using their new Windows 8 Nook app. To redeem this, install the Nook app from the Windows 8 app store and launch it. You can sign in with an existing account if you have one, or create a new one. If you create a new one, remember that Barnes & Noble's DRM requires a credit card, so you'll have to provide payment details to get the free books. Once you sign into the app, scroll to the right to "Popular Lists" and choose "Welcome Offer". From there, you can click on and "purchase" the following free books and magazines:

Life of Pi (limited to the first 100,000 people)
Hello, Cupcake! Series Special
The Enemy (Enemy Series #1)
Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods Series #1)
Best American Series 2012: Short Stories & Essays
HGTV Magazine - May 2013
Food Network Magazine - April 2013
GQ - April 2013
TIME Magazine - April 15, 2013
Real Simple - May 2013

Here's one of several articles on this deal:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...for-windows-8/

[bgalbrecht]

Thanks for the heads up. I finally had a reason to boot my laptop up in Windows 8 instead of Linux. However, it seems like the Nook app won't download when I have another app displayed on the monitor. I wonder if that's something programmed into the Nook app or if that's just another reason to hate Win8. No multitasking? Hello? 1994 wants its application back.

On the plus side, the Windows 8 Nook app can download comics and magazines, something I can't do with the Windows XP Nook app.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

Thanks for the heads up. I finally had a reason to boot my laptop up in Windows 8 instead of Linux. However, it seems like the Nook app won't download when I have another app displayed on the monitor. I wonder if that's something programmed into the Nook app or if that's just another reason to hate Win8. No multitasking? Hello? 1994 wants its application back.

On the plus side, the Windows 8 Nook app can download comics and magazines, something I can't do with the Windows XP Nook app.

Yes, the app/format thing is quite frustrating. Back last year, the TV show Grimm released a free companion ebook about the series and it won't show on any of my Android devices or my wife's first gen Nook WiFi, but the Nook Study app will read it. Of the five magazines in this giveaway, none are viewable in the Nook Study app, two are viewable on my Nexus 7 (HGTV and GQ), and only one is viewable on my Android phone (HGTV). I haven't tried my 10" tablet yet, but it's quite frustrating to have to have a specific device/app to be able to view content. It's not just B&N, though... Amazon has the same issues with certain magazines.

[koland]

I was told my connection was too slow to buy the app, the first time I tried.

Once in the nook app, you are stuck with one page/magazine until the blasted thing download entirely (even if you just wanted to get it on the W8 device to have it in your library and were going to download later, elsewhere ... no, you MUST download to W8 with every purchase).

Almost more trouble than it is worth (and two of the "free books" are samplers that are already free on Kindle, that B&N decided to only give to customers with W8, once again screwing their current customer base in favor of "gaining" potential new suckers ...errr.. customers). Two books (and I already have Life of Pi, so only one for me) and four magazines that take ages to download while the little blue bar works it's slow way across the screen.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by koland

I was told my connection was too slow to buy the app, the first time I tried.

Once in the nook app, you are stuck with one page/magazine until the blasted thing download entirely (even if you just wanted to get it on the W8 device to have it in your library and were going to download later, elsewhere ... no, you MUST download to W8 with every purchase).

Almost more trouble than it is worth (and two of the "free books" are samplers that are already free on Kindle, that B&N decided to only give to customers with W8, once again screwing their current customer base in favor of "gaining" potential new suckers ...errr.. customers). Two books (and I already have Life of Pi, so only one for me) and four magazines that take ages to download while the little blue bar works it's slow way across the screen.

I got the same connection too slow when I first attempted to install. I thought perhaps it was because it was a new install of Win8 and it was synching in the background (and running in a VM). If my UVerse 24Mbps connection is too slow, there's something REALLY wrong.

Yes, the download at purchase was annoying. All five books are available on all my devices, but only 1 or 2 of the magazines are available as I mentioned previously. My 10 inch tablet shows the same two magazines that my Nexus 7 does, so I suppose the other 3 are only available on Win and possibly Nook tablet devices.