Hey, remember the Nook?
Leading up to Christmas, the Barnes & Noble eReader was the hottest thing, and appeared poised to give Amazon's Kindle a run for its money. But a slew of bugs, along with the impending arrival of Apple's mighty iPad relegated the Nook to the backburner.
Despite the Nook's launch woes, Barnes & Noble still managed to sell a ton of the devices, which has been practically sold out. Until, now that is.
An announcement at the Nook blog states that Nook availability is finally looking up. The device is now in stock online and is also supposed to be arriving in Barnes & Noble stores by the middle of the week, according to B&N. Apparently, the ladies love to read as B&N was extra-motivated to make the Nook extra-available right before Valentine's Day.
B&N is also throwing in a few deals this month, including a short story from bestselling author Adriana Trigiani and a Valentine's Day recipe for red velvet cupcakes from Anne Byrn. Yes, guys, you can now start running for the hills. (One married co-worker of mine, actually got super-depressed after seeing Wal-Mart's Valentine's commercial during the Superbowl. Nothing against Wal-Mart, though. Dude's just flat out traumatized from past experience.)
Speaking of the aforementioned bugs, B&N also released its second update for the Nook, and this appears to be a major one. Cosmetically, the most noticeable difference involves the new icons. But B&N says the update also includes:
- Enhanced in-store seamless connectivity to enjoy free Wi-Fi, with our More In Store content and promotions exclusively for Nook owners.
- Improved opening of eBooks and periodicals
- Improved response to Reading Now and Settings buttons
- Current reading page and bookmarks on all eBooks is properly saved when your Nook is powered off
- Bookmarks display page number
- Eligible LendMe(TM) eBooks in My Library include a LendMe(TM) flag
- Easier navigation of daily subscription with issues rolled into one folder
- Improved "back" button functionality for navigating eBooks and periodicals
- Personal files downloaded onto Nook and displayed in My Documents can be sorted by author and title
- Overall system improvements and battery optimization
Meanwhile, a look at the comments on the blog, reveal that some people are still having problems after the update. While page swipe now appears to be working every time for some folks, some are apparently still having issues with it. Other problems reported by people include dictionary issues, lost page numbers and progress bars (for books being read prior to the update), lost libraries and freezing. Not sure, though, if this is actually widespread or simply a case of squeaky wheels getting the most attention.
On the plus side, at least the device is now as available as a bachelor — warts and all.
Photo © Barnes & Noble
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