Wondering on Wednesday: Nook Color Update

As you all know, on November 18th the Nook Tablet came out with a sleeker look and added features. (Click here to see our post on the Nook Tablet).  But many people, such as myself, only just recently bought the Nook Color.  But do not fret my fellow Nook Color fans, because at some point in December, Barnes and Noble will be launching update 1.4 for those with the Color.  With the update to 1.4, you’ll be able to access Netflix, Hulu Plus, Rhapsody, Nook Comics, and much more.

But my big question is, if they’re allowing those with the Nook Color to eventually have the same features as the Nook Tablet, then what’s the point in upgrading?  Although it does have some new features, such as being lighter and having more internal space, it really isn't too much different.  As for those that don’t have a Nook Color, in my personal opinion, the Nook Tablet would be the better buy/upgrade.

So what do you guys think? Has anyone gotten the Nook Tablet?  Let us know!

Wondering on Wednesday: Nook Tablet

Guess what Nook fans?! On November 18th, Barnes and Noble is bringing out the brand new Nook Tablet.  It’s the Nook Color, already noted “the readers tablet”, and then some.

Old Favorite Features:

• Adjustable reading text so that you can make the font bigger or smaller.
• Thousands of apps from the android market.
• Nook Friends where you can share what your reading with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.
• WiFi for web and email.
• Free Nook Support anytime you need a little help.
• Pandora already preloaded.
• Syncs between your Nook and your Nook apps so you never lose your place.

New & Improved Features:

• There’s now 16 GB of built in memory in addition to the expandable memory slot that we all know and love from the Nook Color.
• The battery life has been up graded to “more than the Kindle Fire”, upgrading from the Nook Colors 8 hours of battery life to 11.5 hours of battery life with 9 hours for video viewing.
• Nook Comics will provide a large selection of your favorites for the first time on e-readers.
• Netflix and Hulu Plus are preloaded onto the Nook Tablet with free trials included so you can watch your favorite movies and tv shows with the tap of the screen.
• With all of this new stuff added, you’d think that the Nook Tablet would be much heavier than the already sort of heavy Nook Color but it’s now thinner and lighter than not just the Nook Color but it’s a third lighter than the other leading tablets.
• The Nook Tablet now has a built in microphone so that you can record yourself reading for your kids to replay later.  

So what do you guys think?  Is this in your purchasing future?  Although I’m excited Barnes and Noble brought out something new in time for Christmas, I personally don’t plan on upgrading, especially since they’ll be offering some of the upgrades that they’re putting in the Nook Tablet, such as HD entertainment, for the Nook Color, which is pretty awesome of Barnes and Noble.  
 

Love, your team Nook writer, 

Making Notes on Your E-Reader

I'm always baffled when I learn new things that my Kindle can do, for some time I've known that my e-reader had the ability to take notes, but I hadn't actually tried it. Now that I've started highlighting and taking notes, I'm wondering why I never did this before! Hopefully this this will be helpful to all of you! The following are the steps that you need to know to make notes on your Kindle or Nook.

For the Nook Color:

To highlight within a book, open your book and find the passage which you want to highlight. Click on the word you wish you start with and drag your finger to the end of the selection. A tool bar will pop up where you will click "Highlight".
To make notes from that highlight, select "Notes" from the tool bar and type what you want then select "Post".
And unfortunately, from everything I've seen, you can't bookmark a page on any Barnes and Noble's e-reader. It's in their policy somehow. If someone knows differently, comment and let me know.

For your Nook:

To do this on the traditional Nook, click on your book you want to work in, click the menu button then "Highlight". A cursor will appear, touch the screen to the place you want to highlight and click "Begin Highlight." Use the arrow pad to scroll across to the end of the passage and press "End Highlight".
You can make notes from there by clicking "Add Notes" in your menu.

A couple of other little things to know are that your notes on the Nook won't transfer to the Nook Color (for now at least... they could update and fix this in the future.) and many magazines don't support highlighting or notetaking.

For the Kindle:

(These tips are for Kindle 3, I'll be updating everything once the Kindle Fire and Touch come out.)

To highlight words/ passages of a book, place your cursor on the work you want to start the highlight and hit the center button. Now move the cursor over until you hit the end of the passage and press the center button again. Now the passage will appear with a small underline!

Also, if you want to bookmark a page for future use hit Alt + B, you'll see a little tab folded over in the right upperhand corner. To unbookmark a page, just hit Alt + B again.

And while I didn't find a way to do this on the Nook (if I do find a way, I'll update this page and let you guys know.) You can also take notes on your Kindle outside of a book using a PDF type file. Here's how to do that:

1) From your computer upload a Wordpad document and save it as whatever you want it to be, I just used "Notes" as the title.
2) Open the folder you saved this document in.
3) Now plug in your Kindle using your USB cord.
4) Bring up the folder with all of your Kindle things on it. If it doesn't come up right away you can access it by going to My Computer -> Kindle -> Documents
5) Now go back to the folder you saved the document in, and drag and drop your Notes Wordpad page to your Kindle Documents page.
6) Unplug you Kindle, watch it download your new items.

From there you can go on your new document from your Kindle and click on "Menu" then "Add Notes". Type in what you want, and make sure you save your item. Then click "Home" and click on "Notes" again to see your new notes!

Now that you know how to do this on your e-reader, will you utilize it? As a college kid, I'm thinking I'm going to try and get my books on my Kindle next semester and start doing this even more. (Talk about a load off! My Kindle is much lighter than my 50 lbs books!)  What do you guys think?