New Nook Tablets Announced

Barnes & Noble has announced their new Nook Tablets and they can now be pre-ordered. There will be a 7" model, the Nook HD, and a 9" model, the Nook HD+. On paper, both models will outdo the Kindle Fire HD equivalents, with better resolution in the screens, microSD card support and that extra .1 inches of screensize in the larger model. Both also weigh nearly two ounces less than the Kindle models and both feature a laminated screen (which reduces glare). They are also besting Amazon in color selection (white or black for the 7" model) and price (only on the 9" model, but they are lower by $30 for the 16GB model and by $70 on the 32GB model; the 7" models are actually more expensive, since they start with a lower memory configuration). Also, the Nook devices all ship with a power charger, which saves you another $10 (the price of the Amazon charger, if ordered at the same time as the tablet; if you order it later, it is $20).

Oh, and of course, none of the Nook devices have ads (which you can turn off on any of the Amazon tablets, for $15).

They don't have a model with cellular access (and probably won't) and there aren't a lot of details on their WiFi antennas (Amazon has beefed up this part of their devices, adding two antennas for better reception in areas with low signal, such as remote bedrooms in your house or when sitting outside at Starbucks). Battery and processors on both models are essentially equivalent to what Amazon is claiming in their marketing materials and both companies have included HDMI ports so you can watch on the bigscreen (nice for sharing movies or pictures). Both companies are now claiming unlimited storage for purchased content (which is easy to give you - they don't have to actually store it for each person, but just flag your account for access to a single stored copy).


For Families, both Nook HD models will have individual profile setup out of the box (Amazon has said their FreeTime app for this will ship next month), although it is limited to six profiles (not a problem for most families, but will be for others). There's no info, though, on what either company's choices of settings will be, or if they will be useful for adults to set up a full access profile and one for showing off the device to others (or when visiting the in-laws or using it at church).

Both companies also have built-in apps to sync email, calendars, etc. I'm sure they are great, but I suspect they'll chew up battery life and storage (which I've seen on my Android Tablet, which is always checking for new email). I prefer to keep mine on the web only, which means some features of the built-in browser don't work (well, at least on the Kindle fire - on the older Nook tablet I have, there isn't any type of 'share this page' choice, from what I can tell). You may not be able to install 3rd party apps (from outside the Nook store) on the Nook HD, but they do offer alternate browsers in their store (Dolphin, for example, which isn't in the Amazon store, but which I was able to install as a 3rd party app. One cool feature that I've seen B&N advertising lately is that you can trial Nook apps on your device (Amazon allows trials only on the PC and not for all apps), so you can see if you'll really like it before buying.

Whether or not you want one of the B&N models will come down to where you have the most content, I suspect. With Amazon, I know I can watch movies on my tablet, PC or Roku box, my music is also easily portable. Both lock you in to their platforms for Android Apps (and Google stubbornly refuses to let you set up either one so you can purchase from that store, easily). I haven't tried any of the magazine subscriptions at B&N, but I know that at Amazon, if you cancel a subscription, you lose all your purchased editions, which is why I won't buy much of anything there, other than TV Guide, which is worthless after a week, or single editions (which do stick to your account and can be accessed at any time in the future). A few of my paper subscriptions also have apps that allows me to read on the Kindle Fire; I don't know if they are available on the nook tablets (I haven't looked), but at least a couple were not available thru the Google Play store (at least, not yet).

There are groups already at work trying to root the Kindle Fire HD and will no doubt do the same with the Nook HD tablets, once released (doing this gives you access to the Android store, amongst other things, but sometimes breaks features you get from an un-rooted device) and they may find it easier to set up dual boot with the Nook HD (this has been an option, albeit not one sanctioned by B&N, for the current nook devices, for some time - this gives you the best of both worlds: a completely open tablet or a device tied to their store, so you can use Read In Store).

Today's Deals

Rovio, the creators of Angry Birds, have a new game out, Bad Piggies. You can buy the Premium HD version for $2.99 at Amazon (which will only install on a Kindle Fire) or grab the phone version or HD version free on Google Play (which I'm going to try to move from my Android tablet to the Fire HD). There is a place to report lower prices at the bottom of App pages and it seems to work: Google is celebrating 25 billion downloads by offering their top apps for 25 cents apiece and I am seeing some price matches, such as Angry Birds Space(Ad-Free) and OfficeSuite Professional 6 (Amazon/Google). The latter is usually $15 and I'd recommend you grab it in both stores, if you can, so you have it for all your Android platforms.

While you are over at Google Play, check out their updated list of free songs. Several are from bands I've listened to in the past and there are 9 free albums on the left side by some of the same artists, such as the Dave Matthews Band and The Civil Wars. The albums appear to be Google exclusives, as I couldn't find them on Amazon.

Google also has a 99 cent Banned Books sale; the ones I see in the US are all from publisher Open Road. So far, the ones I checked are not yet price matched at Amazon, but may be later this afternoon. Google's books are in EPUB format, so are compatible with the nook, Kobo and Sony readers, as well as many desktop apps (on the Kindle Fire, I read them with Aldiko).

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Wicked ($1.99), by Jill Barnett (Bell Bridge Books), the conclusion of her Medieval Trilogy.

Book Description
Winning a stubborn lady turns into the battle of his life for a powerful knight. Lady Sofia Howard has sworn never to marry, after her young heart was broken by an arrogant young squire. She's spurned every suitor to the dismay of her guardian, King Edward I, who finds that even increasing her dower prize will not lure men to offer for the defiant but lonely Sofia. So the king takes matters into his own hands and betroths Sofia to Sir Tobin de Clare, the man who once broke her heart. Passion explodes and Sofia’s tattered pride demands that Sir Tobin surrender his heart. A battle of wills that ensues that makes war seem tame, when nothing will stop this ruthless warrior from winning his lady. In a classic Barnett battle of will and wit, a knight and his lady find that love at first sight is dangerous at best and never, ever easy. Wicked has all the pageantry of Medieval England, liberally laced with poignancy and humor.

The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals ($1.61 / £0.99 UK), by Wendy Jones, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $9.99).

Book Description
Everyone has to make decisions about love.

Wilfred Price, overcome with emotion on a sunny spring day, proposes to a girl he barely knows at a picnic. The girl, Grace, joyfully accepts and rushes to tell her family of Wilfred's intentions. But by this time Wilfred has realised his mistake. He does not love Grace.

On the verge of extricating himself, Wilfred's situation suddenly becomes more serious when Grace's father steps in. Up until this point in his life, Wilfred's existence has been blissfully simple, and the young undertaker seems unable to stop the swirling mess that now surrounds him. To add to Wilfred's emotional turmoil, he thinks he may just have met the perfect girl for him.

As Wilfred struggles in an increasingly tangled web of expectation and duty, love and lies, Grace reveals a long-held secret that changes everything...

Wendy Jones's charming first novel is a moving depiction of love and secrecy, set against the rural backdrop of a 1920s Welsh village, and is beautifully told.

Evolution: A View from the 21st Century ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by James A. Shapiro, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. You will probably already have this in your library, if you are long time follower, as it has been offered free in both stores earlier this year.

Book Description
James A. Shapiro proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution, the core organizing principle of biology. Shapiro introduces crucial new molecular evidence that tests the conventional scientific view of evolution based on the neo-Darwinian synthesis, shows why this view is inadequate to today's evidence, and presents a compelling alternative view of the evolutionary process that reflects the shift in life sciences towards a more information- and systems-based approach in Evolution: A View from the 21st Century.

Shapiro integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism into a unified approach that views evolutionary change as an active cell process, regulated epigenetically and capable of making rapid large changes by horizontal DNA transfer, inter-specific hybridization, whole genome doubling, symbiogenesis, or massive genome restructuring.

Evolution marshals extensive evidence in support of a fundamental reinterpretation of evolutionary processes, including more than 1,100 references to the scientific literature. Shapiro's work will generate extensive discussion throughout the biological community, and may significantly change your own thinking about how life has evolved. It also has major implications for evolutionary computation, information science, and the growing synthesis of the physical and biological sciences.

The American Spirit: Celebrating the Virtues and Values That Make Us Great ($11.99 Kindle, $4.99 B&N), by Edwin J. Feulner, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012.

Book Description
The United States is an exceptional place to call home thanks to the character of the American people. With conviction and urgency, Ed Feulner and Brian Tracy affirm our core tenets?from patriotism and optimism to faith and generosity?and challenge all of us to live out the timeless principles of citizenship.

Packed with engaging stories, insightful profiles, and eye-opening statistics, The American Spirit serves as an indispensable primer on the bedrock belief that an indomitable spirit does exist, that it defines us as a people, and that it must be preserved for the nation to flourish.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Heat ($2.99), by Mike Lupica (Penguin).

Book Description
Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat. But his firepower is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after his father led the family’s escape from Cuba, Michael’s only family is his seventeen-year old brother Carlos. If Social Services hears of their situation, they will be separated in the foster-care system—or worse, sent back to Cuba. Together, the boys carry on alone, dodging bills and anyone who asks too many questions. But then someone wonders how a twelve-year-old boy could possibly throw with as much power as Michael Arroyo throws. With no way to prove his age, no birth certificate, and no parent to fight for his cause, Michael’s secret world is blown wide open, and he discovers that family can come from the most unexpected sources.

Grade Level: 5 and up

Today's Deals

Members of the Codex Writer's workshop will be giving away a number of their SciFi and Fantasy books on Amazon Sept 26-27.

Get 50% off select Android Games from RealNetworks (limited time sale, but I don't see an end date published).

Additional formats on free books:

• Sweet Venom (K/N/E)
• A Little Bit of Everything For Dummies (K/N)

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Raven Ring ($1.99), the fifth novel in the Lyra series by Patricia C. Wrede (Open Road).

Book Description
In this book from Wrede’s acclaimed Lyra fantasy series, a young woman must fight for her life while on a quest to claim a magical family heirloom....

Three weeks after Eleret’s mother is killed, the messenger arrives with the tragic news. She died far from home, succumbing to wounds sustained in battle, and Eleret must travel to reclaim her belongings. The overland journey to the city of Ciaron is treacherous, but Eleret has no fear. She straps a dagger to her leg and sets off to recover one of her mother’s prized possessions: a ring etched with a raven. Though she makes it to Ciaron safely, getting home is another story.

Eleret doesn’t know what’s special about her mother’s ring, but someone wanted it badly enough to kill for it. To make it home in one piece, she must unlock the mysteries of the ring her mother died to protect.

The Goddess Test ($1.93 / £1.19 UK), the first novel in Aimée Carter's YA series The Goddess Chronicles, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $7.01). There is a novella that follows in the series, The Goddess Hunt (Main/UK) that is a dollar cheaper for those in the US, then a series of five novellas which are being released in the UK next month at £1.59/$2.58 apiece and are already available in the US as The Goddess Legacy ($7.49). A third novel is already scheduled for release and the author has a contract for another trilogy thru Harlequin Teen, so expect to see more next year.

Book Description

It's always been just Kate and her mom—and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate's going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear her mother won't live past the fall. Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld—and if she accepts his bargain, he'll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests. Kate is sure he's crazy—until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she'll become Henry's future bride, and a goddess.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Rae Carson, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa has always felt powerless, useless. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king who needs her to be the chosen one, not a failure of a princess. And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies, seething with dark magic, are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could save his people. And he looks at her in a way no man has ever looked at her before. Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn't die young.

Most of the chosen do.

Grade Level: 8 and up

With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Glenn Greenwald, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
From "the most important voice to have entered the political discourse in years" (Bill Moyers), a scathing critique of the two-tiered system of justice that has emerged in America

From the nation's beginnings, the law was to be the great equalizer in American life, the guarantor of a common set of rules for all. But over the past four decades, the principle of equality before the law has been effectively abolished. Instead, a two-tiered system of justice ensures that the country's political and financial class is virtually immune from prosecution, licensed to act without restraint, while the politically powerless are imprisoned with greater ease and in greater numbers than in any other country in the world.

Starting with Watergate, continuing on through the Iran-Contra scandal, and culminating with Obama's shielding of Bush-era officials from prosecution, Glenn Greenwald lays bare the mechanisms that have come to shield the elite from accountability. He shows how the media, both political parties, and the courts have abetted a process that has produced torture, war crimes, domestic spying, and financial fraud.

Cogent, sharp, and urgent, this is a no-holds-barred indictment of a profoundly un-American system that sanctions immunity at the top and mercilessness for everyone else.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Jungle Bullies ($1.99), by Steven Kroll and Vincent Nguyen (Illustrator). This book features Kindle Text Pop-Up for reading text over vivid, full-color images when using Kindle Fire or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android); unlike some other Text Popup books, this one won't work on any of the eInk Kindles.

Book Description
Even bullies can learn to shareWhy should a large animal get away with bullying a smaller one? That's what happens when Elephant takes Hippo's spot in the pond, which causes Hippo to pick on Lion, Lion to pick on Leopard, and Leopard to pick on Monkey. Vincent Nguyen's illustrations-a mix of watercolor, charcoal pencil, and digital techniques-enrich the story as Monkey asks his mother for advice, and she comes up with just the right solution to solve the problem.

Grade Level: 1st and up

Today's Deals

Warren Adler is repeating his offer for a free download of Never Too Late for Love.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is two Richard Castle mystery novels for $1.99 apiece. Amazon has picked the middle two titles in the series, but the initial volume, Heat Wave, can be read for free by Prime members; the latest title, Frozen Heat, was released just this month.

Naked Heat (Nikki Heat #2)

Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook are together again in Richard Castle’s thrilling follow-up to his New York Times bestseller, Heat Wave.

When New York’s most vicious gossip columnist, Cassidy Towne, is found dead, Heat uncovers a gallery of high profile suspects, all with compelling motives for killing the most feared muckraker in Manhattan.

Heat’s murder investigation is complicated by her surprise reunion with superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook. In the wake of their recent breakup, Nikki would rather not deal with their raw emotional baggage. But the handsome, wise-cracking Pulitzer Prize-winning writer’s personal involvement in the case forces her to team up with Rook anyway. The residue of their unresolved romantic conflict and crackling sexual tension fills the air as Heat and Rook embark on a search for a killer among celebrities and mobsters, singers and hookers, pro athletes and shamed politicians.

This new, explosive case brings on the heat in the glittery world of secrets, cover-ups, and scandals.

Heat Rises (Nikki Heat #3)

Fast-paced and full of intrigue, Heat Rises pairs the tough and sexy NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat with hotshot reporter Jameson Rook in New York Times bestselling author Richard Castle's most thrilling mystery yet.

The bizarre murder of a parish priest at a New York bondage club opens Nikki Heat’s most thrilling and dangerous case so far, pitting her against New York’s most vicious drug lord, an arrogant CIA contractor, and a shadowy death squad out to gun her down. And that is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a dark conspiracy reaching all the way to the highest level of the NYPD.

But when she gets too close to the truth, Nikki finds herself disgraced, stripped of her badge, and out on her own as a target for killers, with nobody she can trust. Except maybe the one man in her life who’s not a cop: reporter Jameson Rook.
In the midst of New York’s coldest winter in a hundred years, there’s one thing Nikki is determined to prove: Heat Rises. This ebook includes an alternate cover created by one of Richard Castle's biggest fans!

The Hills is Lonely ($1.61 / £0.99 UK), by Lillian Beckwith, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (no US edition; that's too bad, as it looks to be hilarious).

Book Description
“. . . I got the impression that they could imagine only two reasons why a woman should choose to settle down in Bruach: either that she was running away from the police, or escaping from a lurid past.” Neither reason applies to Lillian Beckwith, in this memoir of her convalescence on an isolated Hebridean island where “even the sheeps on the hills is lonely”. On Bruach island, she observes, muses at and joins the native crofters in their unique rhythm of life; where friends fistfight in the evening and discuss bruises the next morning; where the taxi-driver is also the lorry driver, coal merchant and undertaker; where the locals don’t remove their hats during a funeral so their heads won’t get cold; and where the post-office’s ‘opening hours’ fit around the daily milking of cows and not the other way round! In a series of vividly drawn sketches, taking in birth, death, marriage and the seasons of life, Lillian Beckwith’s writing is shot through with warm, cozy affection and droll wit.

Priceless Memories ($1.99 Kindle, B&N), by Bob Barker and Digby Diehl, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
In front of the camera, he has been invited into the homes of millions of Americans as host of The Price Is Right, Truth or Consequences, Miss USA, Miss Universe, The Rose Parade, and many other programs and specials. Now Bob Barker shares stories of favorite contestants, episodes, celebrity encounters, and behind-the-scenes happenings.

Beyond his public persona, he will open up about his personal life. From being raised on a Native American reservation by a single mother through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, to training as a pilot in the Navy during World War II, through his romance with the love of his life and high school sweetheart, Dorothy Jo, and his success at retirement.
His support of animal rights has always been a central part of his life. Bob delves into stories of how he has taken on Hollywood and the government in his crusade, including his anti-fur stand-off with beauty pageants, his involvement in uncovering animal abuse in movies and television, and the legislation he helped to pass. He also shares personal stories of rescuing animals, from dogs to elephants.

For the innumerable fans who have welcomed Bob into their homes over the last fifty years, this book will be like catching up with a dear and familiar friend who continues to lead a full and endlessly interesting life.

The Great Game of Politics: Why We Elect, Whom We Elect ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Dick Stoken, is the Nook Daily Find: Election 2012, price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
From our nation's inception there has been a constant dynamic of tension between those political philosophies that we have labeled the left and the right, despite the fact that the vast majority of American voters really fall into the category of moderates. During the early years, the shifts between the two were dramatic and frequent: the Federalists on one side, the Jeffersonians on the other, as the young democracy came to grips with the two opposing political forces that were to mold the new nation. On one hand we have the concerned with business, conservatism, and the development of capital and wealth. They want the government to provide security that will protect the nation's interest while allowing free-market forces to increase prosperity. On the other hand we have the left, concerned with personal rights, equality, and the fostering of prosperity for all citizens through an active and involved federal government.

By explicating the Presidency from George Washington to George W. Bush, The Great Game of Politics examines the American Presidency as a cyclic reflection of the concerns of the electorate vis à vis the excitation of the ideologies of our two major parties in a constant left-right swing where the will of the people sets the pendulum in motion and determines the direction the country will take for another four years. From the early years, where the dynamic tension that forged the nation initially required numerous shifts to establish an acceptable political equilibrium, to the revered legacies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, whose presidencies not only initiated major political shifts but also instituted fundamental changes in the apparatus of government that would prove to be integral to the administrations that followed them, both Democratic and Republican.

They seized the reins of government and made a lasting mark. Indeed the truly great presidents¾Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Reagan¾shaped the course of history for our nation and in doing so proved themselves to be masters of The Great Game of Politics.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Zombie-Kids ($1.99), by Julia Dweck and Mark Draisey (Illustrator).

Book Description
Zombie-Kids is a ghoulishly fun rhyming adventure. Did you know that zombies are people that have feelings, too? They like to be loved just like me and like you. Join the zombie-kids as they bowl, dance, skate, and go to the movies in their unique zombie-way. You'll have an eerily good time.

Get a Select Kindle Book for $1 (KSO)

This offer for those with a Kindle Fire with Special Offers only. On your Kindle Fire with Special Offers (2nd Generation or HD), swipe the top menu to the left until you see Offers, then press/click in order to see the current offers. At the bottom, you should see the offer to Get a Select Top-Rated Kindle Book for $1. Click on the offer, then on the orange button to add the credit directly to your account. It's nearly instant and the next screen offers to take you to Amazon so you can see the list of books included in the offer. If you miss that screen, though, don't worry - a document about the offer will appear on your home page, complete with a link to the qualifying books. I thought the offer said I would also get an email, but haven't seen anything show up, which means you have to keep the Doc on your Kindle if you want a reminder about the offer until you take advantage of it, although you can shop from your desktop, using the link I've included above; I tested this and it does work, including still allowing you to send the $1 book as a gift (the full price shows all the way thru, but on the invoice summary, you will see the $1 promotional price).

I already have several of these, but there are at least a couple that look interesting; two of them also have $1.99 companion audiobooks and another two are $4.99.

Offer is good for one book and only one per account (if you have multiple KSO devices, they need to be registered to different accounts when you apply the credit to any of the accounts). The credit must be claimed by Sept 27 and used by midnight (PT) October 4.