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Barnes & Noble jumps into the eBook pool

by Mel Martin Jul 19th 2009 at 3:00PM

You knew it had to happen, and now it has. Book retailing giant Barnes & Noble, feeling no doubt a bit of pressure from the Amazon Kindle, has launched a free eBook reader for the iPhone and reports are that it is discussing a dedicated eBook reader as well.

The B&N eReader [App Store] is free, and comes with 2 free classic titles (Jane Austen and James Fenimore Cooper), and when you register you get three more. B&N claims they have more than half a million eBooks available.

B&N also is offering a free reader for the Mac and PC so you can read your books on a desktop or laptop computer.

You can change the text color, fonts and font size, and read in portrait or landscape mode.

I have to say that using the iPhone app was a festival of frustration. To do anything I had to create an account. I couldn't even read the free books without an account. To do that I had to give my email and a password. So far, so good. Then it asked me for a good security question. I chose my middle name, but it was rejected because it didn't have enough letters. Thanks Mom and Dad. When it gave me the error, it also removed my email and password so I had to start all over again, as I had to choose another security question. It suggested I answer what kind of car I have. I did, and was promptly rejected again, and had to go back and fill out the form because it erased my already entered email and password again.

I finally straightened all that out, but was hardly in the mood to read anything. Searching for titles was kind of weird. If you select an eBook, (or any other function) you're dumped to Safari and it then says 'search eBooks for:'. Kind of odd nomenclature. Nothing about title, author or subject. I entered photography and it came up with exactly 2 books. 'Flags of our Fathers' for US$6.50 and a book called 'Photography' that was free. There was absolutely no information about the book or what was in it. And the book cover image was missing.

At this point I was mainly interested in books about anger management. but I didn't want to spend the $9.99 to get the one book on the subject in the 'vast' B&N library.

So I tried something by Stephen King. I searched for Just After Sunset. Bingo! They had it in eBook format. $22.40. Hmmm. Seems a bit high. Yep. Kindle Store for the same book -- $9.99 delivered wirelessly.

Do you get my drift here? This is a bad product debut. It has an onerous and ill-thought out sign up routine, lousy selection and many prices are way too high.

I'd suggest the B&N execs read up on competition and capitalism, if they can find any books on the subject in their damned half a million book collection.


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You knew it had to happen, and now it has. Book retailing giant Barnes & Noble, feeling no doubt a bit of pressure from the Amazon...
 

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Jad

So far Kindle has the largest and cheapest collection and apparently the most convenient device

July 26 2009 at 2:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
diva333

I have no interest in reading entire books on my iPhone (screen's too small!), and this shoddy app doesn't help. The Kindle 2 is so much better... http://www.computersncs.com/rd_p?p=186122&t=9544&a=27127-tuaw&gift=27619

July 20 2009 at 2:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
FantomRedux

Personally I don't see what all the hubbub about transfering books onto the iPhone is about, all you need is the Stanza app on your phone and the Stanza app on your computer. On the PC all you need is Bonjour (which is probably there already with iTunes) and then just transfer them onto the iPhone app. I've never come across an ebook I couldn't get into Stanza, and it supports most, if not all, formats. All free stuff too.

July 20 2009 at 8:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
PSM

I would love to see them introduce a system much more open than Kindle and take all of Amazon's business. However, Amazon's user experience on the iPhone is pretty awesome (except for the DRM), and B&N would have to put a lot of work into it to make it so easy to browse for books and download samples, etc.

July 20 2009 at 12:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
betsyinsa

As someone commented, that eReader is the same one that's been around for years. I read books on my Palms and Windows computers, now my MacBook and iPhone. Same books. Yes you can download them to your computer and transfer them to any device (well, except the iPhone). Yes, they have DRM, unlocked by your credit card. However, you can also read for free any book in the public domain that's been converted to .pdb format. eReader and Fictionwise sell non-DRM books, too.

July 19 2009 at 7:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Odineye

In so many cases these e-book products each require their own proprietory readers. That is ultimately going to present as an impediment to adoption. When I want to read a book I am not interested in trying to remember which of my 15 different e-book reader applications it's in. And there's no way I'm shelling out for multiple proprietary dedicated reader devices.

It needs to work much more like the iPod & iPod apps on the iPhone and Touch do now - no matter where I got my music (or podcast or audiobook) I always go to the same place to listen to it.

Anything else is just going to confuse the average user, causing them to stick with the dead tree versions.

July 19 2009 at 6:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Odineye's comment
Rudy

$199-$250 would be the sweet spot for me to buy an ebook reader. the DX would be great for school, but not at that price tag.

July 19 2009 at 5:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff

I didn't have to sign up to open the free ebook, "The Last of the Mohicans." You might want to check that again.

July 19 2009 at 4:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Korpil

I believe is just the rebranded version of eReader everyone was expecting when B&N bought Fictionwise.


I'm downloading and checking if I can import my eReader/Fictionwise purchases.

And yes, if there is credit card-based activation, it MUST have DRM (except for the Google ebooks I suppose).

July 19 2009 at 4:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andre

Is there DRM involved? If so, FAIL.

July 19 2009 at 3:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Andre's comment
socioecoboy

They already own eReader, the best iPhone reader.

July 20 2009 at 3:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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