Article About Nook Apps

[lionel47]

Did anyone see this?

[lionel47]

I forgot to mention: this might make me get a Nook Color after all.

[Rebo]

Essentially she is saying there won't be any Android market app available on the NC even though they were tested to be able to run on it. I'll going to hack this as soon as I can. I like more than the B&N curation experience

[lionel47]

Originally Posted by Rebo

Essentially she is saying there won't be any Android market app available on the NC even though they were tested to be able to run on it. I'll going to hack this as soon as I can. I like more than the B&N curation experience

I don't see anything bad about it. They are just trying to quality control the user experience which, when you think about it, is also part of buying any device.

[chas0039]

The big brother attitude about what I "really" want is what kept me boycotting Apple. The nook was so close to great that it was massively frustrating to have such a crippled library for non-B&N content. Fortunately, rooting repaired this defect and had no impact on what I did with B&N content and it totally changed the nook into a very good epub reader. If B&N had just done this from the start, then hacking would have just been an interesting exercise rather than an essential repair.

If they continue their attitude about crippled firmware, then hackers will fight back. It is a shame that B&N can't see that their policies are doing them no good. Possibly 1.5 will fix their problems, but I am not betting on it.

[lionel47]

Originally Posted by chas0039

The big brother attitude about what I "really" want is what kept me boycotting Apple.

If they continue their attitude about crippled firmware, then hackers will fight back. It is a shame that B&N can't see that their policies are doing them no good. Possibly 1.5 will fix their problems, but I am not betting on it.

I agree with you about Apple. They definitely try to dictate what you want in a computer. A lot of their success is due to the fact that many consumers are not concerned with what happens at any layer except the use interface. They could care less what it is running as long as their functional requirements are met.

Now, B&N, on the other hand, appears to have a different goal. It seems to me that they are saying "We have a platform that can do many things. However, we would like to tailor that platform to do one thing very well: reading content delivery."

So, if you think of B&N as a sculptor and Android OS as a block of marble, B&N's mission is to chip away everything that does not look like an e-reader or contribute to the primary goal: reading content delivery.

I think they are succeeding and will continue to succeed with every new firmware revision they release. However, I do believe the software designers need to do a better job of managing the features they are to chip away and those they are to implement.

[thrawn_aj]

Originally Posted by lionel47

So, if you think of B&N as a sculptor and Android OS as a block of marble, B&N's mission is to chip away everything that does not look like an e-reader or contribute to the primary goal: reading content delivery.

I think they are succeeding and will continue to succeed with every new firmware revision they release. However, I do believe the software designers need to do a better job of managing the features they are to chip away and those they are to implement.

That would be a laudable goal were it not for the fact that B&N started out by removing everything that makes a good ereader and deliberately crippling the meager device functions that they kept (more so for non-B&N content). As I've said before, an ereader should have the ability to (1)find the book you need, (2)read the book, and (3)annotate/highlight in a useful & reasonably permanent way. Everything else is optional and a luxury and in some cases, sheer nonsense (3G/wifi delivery of content, web browser, games(!), blogs(!), etc.)

So far, B&N appears to have "chipped away" 2/3 of the most basic features required in an ereader and focused on a LOT of what I can only term "bling" (probably dreamt up by their marketing hacks) to entice consumers and make buying from them easier (fine, but hardly a priority for making a good ereader, which is why I can only deduce that they couldn't give a damn about that goal).

Most people seem to have softrooted their nooks to get that basic functionality back. In fact, look at most of the app library available for rooted nooks - they're doing B&N's basic job for them.

[lionel47]

Originally Posted by thrawn_aj

That would be a laudable goal were it not for the fact that B&N started out by removing everything that makes a good ereader and deliberately crippling the meager device functions that they kept (more so for non-B&N content). As I've said before, an ereader should have the ability to (1)find the book you need, (2)read the book, and (3)annotate/highlight in a useful & reasonably permanent way. Everything else is optional and a luxury and in some cases, sheer nonsense (3G/wifi delivery of content, web browser, games(!), blogs(!), etc.)

So far, B&N appears to have "chipped away" 2/3 of the most basic features required in an ereader and focused on a LOT of what I can only term "bling" (probably dreamt up by their marketing hacks) to entice consumers and make buying from them easier (fine, but hardly a priority for making a good ereader, which is why I can only deduce that they couldn't give a damn about that goal).

Most people seem to have softrooted their nooks to get that basic functionality back. In fact, look at most of the app library available for rooted nooks - they're doing B&N's basic job for them.

Agreed. Need some designers with political savvy that can satisfy both marketing and users.

[asjogren]

Interactive Field Guide apps are a natural extension of books to the digital marketplace. My first interest is Birds. A eBook conversion of Audubon, Petersons, National Geographic, or Sibleys from the paper guides would be disappointing.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Rebo

Essentially she is saying there won't be any Android market app available on the NC even though they were tested to be able to run on it. I'll going to hack this as soon as I can. I like more than the B&N curation experience

Definitely the way to go. Just hope they're fairly quick with the 2.2 upgrade next year.