B&N Dropping out of Tablet Market

I think we all saw the writing on the wall when B&N started with the massive discounts on the Nook HD and HD+, but now it is official: they will continue selling existing inventory "at amazing prices through the holiday" (or until they run out) and will then concentrate on their eInk readers (the Simple Touch and Glow) and Apps (which leaves those on computers prior to Windows 8 out in the cold, as well; if you read on your PC, be sure to save your install file for the Nook or Nookstudy application, somewhere). Here's the press release (which also talks about how much they've lost in hardware business). If you've been wanting a tablet, the Nook HD/HD+ isn't a bad choice, especially at the prices they have been charging recently.

Those with Nook libraries should be fine for now and B&N says they will be coming out with new eInk readers in the future, as well as continuing their reader Apps on various platforms. If you own stock in the company, that's taken a big hit today and I suspect the resale value of the nook tablets may take a bit of hit, as well (it isn't that high on most electronics, anyway, though). B&N says they will continue to create Nook Apps, as well, but I don't see the point (unless they allow them to run on any tablet that can access the Google Play store, which would free the apps I have at B&N, now).

I just hope that they continue with their read-in-store program (which was broken, yet again, when I went to the store Sunday, after a 2 week lapse; yet, I was told my time for the day was up as soon as I arrived and given the usual lame (and incorrect) advice that maybe I'd been there the night before or perhaps a particular book had a time limit ... yet the several books I tried all refused to work), although I suspect it may eventually disappear as well (it stopped working entirely on the original nook, long before I decided to just sell it, along with the nook Color I replaced).

Reader News

If you buy books from B&N, but read on your PC, be sure to back up the programs you downloaded, as they are discontinuing Nook for PC. There will be "Nook for Web", but that sounds suspiciously like the Cloud Reader at Amazon (which is slow and clunky and only to be used for previews or emergencies, in my opinion). The iOs App remains (and, for now, so does Nook Study, but that is no doubt on borrowed time, if the Microsoft sale of the education unit at B&N goes thru). So far, the download button remains (and there are still many readers out there who download and transfer via USB, so I don't see it leaving soon), for thoae that back up their purchases offline.

In other Barnes & Noble news, you can pick up one of their NOOK HD Tablet or HD+ Tablets right now, at a substantial discount: $70 off the 6" HD ($129) and $120 off the 9" HD+ ($149)!. That's so low, that the only reason to stick with the 6" is that your purse won't fit the larger one inside. I have the larger of the two and it is a good screen and I use it to read in the B&N store. You are limited only to the Nook and Google Play stores for music, books and apps, but that covers most of what is out there (if you root the device, you can do more, but I suspect most people won't be doing that). It works well for web and email access, playing games, etc., although I mainly use it for reading and email access. The battery life seems to be better than the Kindle Fire (but nothing like the iPad, which has amazing battery life for a tablet).

If you've been hanging on to your Kindle DX for reading PDF's, then keep an eye out for the new 13.3" eInk slate device coming from Sony this year (hopefully to be released in the US and not just Japan). It's super thin, lightweight, has a 3 week battery life, comes with a stylus that not only is used for page controls, but lets you make notes on PDF's (and hopefully blank documents). The 4GB of storage on board can be expanded via the microSD slot and you can share your notes with others (miss a class, get another's notes and view them on your own copy of the textbook!).

Microsoft to buy Nook Media (and Axe Nook Tablets)?

Engadget is reporting that Microsoft has made an offer to buy Nook Media, which is set up to handle the Nook e-reader, tablet and college bookstore business arm of Barnes & Noble and that if the sale goes thru, the academic arm will be shut down and Nook tablets will dropped sometime next year, leaving them to concentrate on the app running on third-party tablets (such as Windows 8 devices and MS Surface, perhaps?).

Those investing in eInk readers don't appear to need to worry, though, "as the leaked documents state that Nook Media's e-reader division won't be killed off". Of course, even if B&N stops creating new tablets, that doesn't really have any bearing on you using a tablet you've bought recently or even later this year; tablet generations are running at only about a year, so by mid-2014, an entirely new generation of devices will no doubt be released by multiple vendors.

What this might mean for the Nook ebookstore is a little more unclear. I suspect nothing much (especially in the short term) and that it will run as-is (perhaps without offers to get you into the store with BOGOF deals), just with Microsoft at the helm. Even if they eventually kill off the proprietary DRM, their past track record on the LIT format suggests that the licensing servers will run for many years, even after they stop selling any books.

BooksonBoard "Temporarily Closed"

BooksonBoard now is showing a closed notice when you try to check out their catalog. They say they'll be back after "re-organizing", but if you have any books in your library there, I'd go make sure you have them all downloaded and backed up, just in case this turns into something more permanent.

I haven't heard any rumors yet on what will happen to the rewards dollars we have them (mine were only around $5, but that could have been a book purchase, if we'd had any notice ahead of time.

Housekeeping and more on GoodReads Acquisition

First, for those who are getting updates by email, I've changed the publication time to every four hours. This may result in two-three emails a day, but I was seeing price changes by the afternoon and those on email were missing out on notices. Also, any late posts (like this one) were being held until the next day. If you don't like getting multiple emails a day, you'll find a (very tiny print) link at the bottom of the email that says "preferences". Click there and you can set how often you want to receive emails.

I've also been playing with Squidoo, to see if I could still post a notice of free Kindle books there. I don't know if it will last, but I have a "lens" (page) up there for you to try out (and a couple of books to get, of course).

Over on LibraryThing, read their take on the Amazon/Goodreads acquisition (quick take: it's a good thing ... for LibraryThing!).

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Amazon Acquires GoodReads

You may have already heard the news, but be sure to check out the post on Goodreads itself that discusses the acquisition.

Let's hope that GoodReads isn't marginalized as Shelfari was (the only good thing I saw happen at Shelfari was that you could add all your Kindle books to your shelves, then export in a list that could easily be added to LibraryThing; having them in Shelfari was useless, since there's no search ability, at least, not the last time I bothered to log in there). It does look like they are making a link from your Kindle Library to GoodReads a priority (it might even import paper book purchases), but no word on when it will be implemented.

In the meantime, there are rumors circulating over on the Amazon forums that a new Manage Your Kindle page is coming (some people, on slower connections or machines, can't access their entire libaries, although I've not seen a problem, other than the extreme slowness to load the entire list so it can be searched).

Credits from Agency Settlement Coming (But Not Soon)

Just received my email from Amazon, so you should see this in your inboxes as well. I haven't seen anything from any of the other stores yet, but it looks like they have plenty of time, since Amazon says the courts have until Feb 2013 to approve the settlement! We do now have an estimate of the amount and it looks like it will be enough to buy an indie book or two (maybe even one from a former Agency publisher, for some), if you bought any books from the Agency publishers (even the lower priced ones that have been on sale).

Dear Kindle Customer,

We have good news. You are entitled to a credit for some of your past e-book purchases as a result of legal settlements between several major e-book publishers and the Attorneys General of most U.S. states and territories, including yours. You do not need to do anything to receive this credit. We will contact you when the credit is applied to your Amazon.com account if the Court approves the settlements in February 2013.

Hachette, Harper Collins, and Simon & Schuster have settled an antitrust lawsuit about e-book prices. Under the proposed settlements, the publishers will provide funds for a credit that will be applied directly to your Amazon.com account. If the Court approves the settlements, the account credit will appear automatically and can be used to purchase Kindle books or print books. While we will not know the amount of your credit until the Court approves the settlements, the Attorneys General estimate that it will range from $0.30 to $1.32 for every eligible Kindle book that you purchased between April 2010 and May 2012. Alternatively, you may request a check in the amount of your credit by following the instructions included in the formal notice of the settlements, set forth below. You can learn more about the settlements here:

www.amazon.com/help/agencyebooksettlements

In addition to the account credit, the settlements impose limitations on the publishers’ ability to set e-book prices. We think these settlements are a big win for customers and look forward to lowering prices on more Kindle books in the future.

Thank you for being a Kindle customer.

The Amazon Kindle Team