All you bookworms are going to get some digital love, as the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader software is now ready to go for the Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad. This app enters an increasingly-crowded market for digital book buying.
This is an update to a previous app and it has been re-branded under the “Nook” label. This is not a surprise at all because Barnes & Noble knows that its future will mainly be in digital distribution. If you ever go into one of its retail stores, you’re immediately assaulted with people trying to push the Nook e-reader on you.
The 2.2 version of the Nook app adds full Apple iPad support and you can see from the screen shot above that this includes a better use of the real estate. You’ll also be able to tailor the way the content looks and this includes adjustable font sizes, colors and more.
Apple iPhone owners will also be able to read a variety of digital e-books with the Barnes & Noble app, as well as purchase new ones over the air. You’ll be able to highlight passages, bookmark A review on iTunes says it doesn’t allow side-loading of Fictionwise e-books, so beware of that issue if that’s important to you.
“Nook for iPhone puts thousands of e-books in your pocket and the reading experience is fantastic,” said Douglas Gottlieb, VP at Barnes & Noble, in a prepared statement. “It’s another way that Barnes & Noble’s NOOK offering makes it truly easy to read what you love, anywhere you like.”
The move comes as the battle for e-books is heating up. Amazon and its Kindle line has a strong brand recognition and already has apps for the Apple iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. Apple is even stepping into this market by selling iBooks as part of iOS 4.
Barnes & Noble may have the stiffest challenge because it has such a large overhead with its retail bookstores and it’s utterly reliant on book sales – Amazon and Apple want the e-book market but both have the funds from other products to be able to run at a loss for years. On the flip side, Barnes & Noble does have more book-selling expertise than Apple and have been around much longer than Amazon.
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[Via Barnes & Noble]