Barnes and Noble eReader app updated

I have come to prefer iBook reader. Page numbers is part of it but the big advantage is the way you can highlight a name or word and do multiple lookups: dictionary, wiki, google, etc. That's very handy when you don't know a word or want more info.
B&N & Borders are useless because even as an American with a US address and credit card, I can't buy from them when I'm out of the country on business or vacation--really stupid.
Main issue with iBook store is they don't have everything. But if it's there I buy on iBook first.

I agree with Stan that the Kindle's ability to hid the status bar is wonderful & it's a feature all other e-readers should emulate. A pure immersive reading experience is the goal.

That one issue aside I like the B&N reader on the iPad the most because of the themes it allows you to create & save. If I'm reading Twilight the text and paper color can be goth ... then when I switch to reading a sci-fi novel the text and colors can appear more digital ... or a biography in sepia. It's amazing to be able to carry a small library of books around with me, but having them all look the same when the content is often vastly different detracts from the enjoyment for me a bit.

Admittedly I haven't really used the notes/highlight/bookmark features thus far so in that situation one of the other e-reader apps might be king. But in the realm of immersive enjoyment-reading I award B&N the crown on my iPad.

@ Stan. I've got a Kindle, had it way before iPad was announced or speculated. It's nice except it doesn't have this newfangled thing called PAGE NUMBERS!! iBooks is nice to have this but I don't have an iPad. Also, Kindle bookstore kicks B&N et. al s butt! I tried to download the B&N iPhone app and just get a free book, was very clunky. Anyways, Kindle app and reader both have percentage, I would like to be able to choose %, page numbers or both. Sync is great btw em. Also, look at Spny b/c the $169 model has stylus a stylus(cough cough, iPad doesn't) though I'm sure selection is dismall. Bottom line- go Kindle for price and selection of books.

@2Wah(cool username, ;-)) Kindle has long supported sync accross many devices, same deal as iTunes, you and ten friends could set-up an Amazon account and share books. It will sync even across two iPhones which can be a pain if more than one person are readding the same book on multiple devices. Otherwise it works great just don't sync, it's easy to manually type in a location to go to if someone else is syncing w/the account. Not trying to be an Amazon evangelist but it does sync as well.

I'm liking the Kindle reader the most- it's the only one that gets completely out of the way. No status bar, no frame/border just pure text. Wish iBooks/B&N could get that clarity/simplicity going.

Its not all about features, its also about comitment to customers.

A little history. B&N purchased Fictionwise/eReader and built their platform on top of the eReader technology. The iPhone version had a somewhat convoluted way of bringing in Fictionwise/eReader books, but the iPad version completely dropped that functionality.

So B&N has actually gone out of there way to remove functionality in a way that screws the biggest and long-term eBook customers. Rather then locking the people who have been reading eBooks the longest into the B&N platform, they seem to be hoping that those same people will rebuy a bunch of booksfrom them again.

If they stuck it to their customers once in such a stupid and short-sighted way, you know they are going to do it again as soon as they think it will help them.

I have been buying books from eReader and Fictionwise for over 10 years, and I promise you I wouldn't buy eBooks from B&N if they were a tenth the price and their reader had twice the functionality. I buy most of my books from Amazon, and a few from Apple when the prices are a lot better.

I would like to see B&N actually start selling e-books overseas. I tried to order some from them, got a "No Europeans please". They told me they didn't have the "rights" to sell overseas when I emailed them about it.... funny, I never go that response from B&N or Amazon when ordering paper books from them. With e-books, pretty much all booksellers give me the same response, although some will accept Paypal and the address of a hotel in the USA to let me download books. Not a surprise that the Economist calls book publishers "even less clueless than the music industry" when it comes to electronic media.

One advantage that iBooks has?

Just like Apps — you can 'share' your iBook purchases with anybody that you trust with your iTunes log-in info. Just have them log-in with your info and download the book. Note that you'll want to wait until you've finished reading it as iBooks will continually sync your book back to the last read page on either iPhone.

I sync my apps (and now iBooks) with 6 other iPhones. Buy once — share with many. (That made it a little bit easier to justify spending $100 for that TomTom app. Until - they slashed the price to $39 a few months later!!)

Can't get the two page landscape mode to work.

"I would like to see a little more progress made with compatibility -- it's annoying to buy a book on one platform and not be able to read it on any other."

iBooks may be limited in that regard, but both nook and Kindle platforms have reader apps on Macs, PCs, and the iP*d. Kindle also has an Android app. nook and Kindle both have Blackberry apps. So, really, if you want to be able to buy books and read them on multiple brands of devices, maybe for now you should buy your books from Amazon or B&N instead of Apple? (Borders is also an entry as of this week, btw, but I'm not yet up on their offering. And Sony is a choice for many, too.)

/bought a nook over the weekend, myself
//if I wanted, my library could lend me some books on it, now.

Last time I checked, you still can't delete the sample books from your library. I like Barbara Bush just as much as the next guy, but I'm not reading her book and don't care to see it on my shelf.