Barnes &amp; Noble releases NOOKstudy for e-Textbooks

As promised, Barnes & Noble has released their NOOKstudy app for both Windows and OS X computers -- you can get the app for free on their webpage now, and then use it to download textbooks for school this fall (either buying them at a discount compared to the real paper copies, or just checking out a free trial).

The app comes with some study guides and over 500,000 books for free, and B&N says it has over a million e-textbooks up for sale already. It'll be interesting to see how a system like this takes off this fall as students go back to school -- I always thought textbooks were a huge hassle when I was in college (and I even made it through a few classes without ever buying them), and I think digital copies would certainly seem a little easier. Too bad for the resellers, though -- I know they make a killing selling used books every year, and a market like this is a definite threat to that one.

[via Engadget]

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Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nookstudy/index.asp?cds2Pid=34…

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As promised, Barnes & Noble has released their NOOKstudy app for both Windows and OS X computers -- you can get the app for free on...

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artifex

Disappointed that the textbooks won't work with nook. Seems odd to be pushing an e-reader and then not support it for textbooks. Sure, they'd have had to come up with a better interface to view diagrams and the like, but gee, they have a web browser built in already that can scroll around; obviously they know how.

August 07 2010 at 7:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

There is more than just one problem. Most books pricey and rentals. Which is a slap in the face to students. An example is a Calc book I'd use for 3 sems. I bought a new hardcover us version online for $120, normal price is $160. Nookstudy wants basically $99 per semester to rent it.

This is the same crap that coursesmart has been pulling for years. They give you a rental, restrict where you can use it and how (nookstudy only allows laptop vs coursesmart's iPad, laptop, iPhone ), and then charge 70-90% of an owned book.

At least with an owned book you can resell to a bookstore or via amazon, etc to recoup some cost.

Why does a new novel cost $15 but a textbook that has been revised every 2 years with small corrections, and homework problem reordering and no real material changes in 10 years cost $200?

August 06 2010 at 11:20 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Mike's comment

Jason

I agree that the price and restrictions of digital textbooks are a problem, but you can't compare a $15 novel to a textbook. It costs MUCH more in terms of authorship, editors, and research to produce a single textbook. That's why they cost so much.

August 10 2010 at 12:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jason

I really like what B&N is doing here. Time will tell, of course, whether or not they get build a helpful, comprehensive textbook-study system. I think the biggest obstacle is getting a wide selection of textbooks. I'm sure there will always be profs who pick some obscure book that B&N will almost certainly not carry, but that wouldn't be a dealbreaker. Also, they will need to make sure that they sell the digital books at such a discount on the print version that it encourages students to buy them.

Personally, I really hope that they come out with an iPad app. I'm trying to get away from carrying a laptop in favor of my iPad. I can almost do it. As an instructor, I would love to have a resource like this on my iPad so at I could carry this and little else around campus.

August 05 2010 at 8:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kweenie

Only problem, though - it's for Snow Leopard only. So far, it looks like they're trying to bring it to Leopard, but without much success.

August 05 2010 at 8:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply