Nook Touch Loses Charge or Discharges Quickly

Is your brand new Nook Touch lasting 4 days instead of 2 months? The Nook Touch can't hold a charge? This is the problem I ran into days after getting this wonderful new e-reader.



Solution:

This appears to be a software problem. To "fix" the battery try the following.



(1) Turn your Nook all the way off. Hold the On/Off button for like 5 seconds. A popup will appear asking if you wish to turn off the device. Confirm this and let the machine go off. Wait a minute or so. Hold the On/Off button for about 5 seconds to get the device to turn on.



According to the Nook forums, this has solved the problem for a number for people. However I had to do a little more.



(2) Let your Nook battery run all the way down. The Nook will display a message stating that you must plug in your Nook if you wish to turn it on. I was unable (or too impatient) to drain the device any further. I then plugged the device in for 4.5 hours. Then I did step (1) above.



The 2nd set of steps was given to me by Nook tech support. It worked for me. If neither of these methods works for you, please call Barnes and Noble Tech Support.

Nook Touch Battery is not Holding Charge

I just got back from a week long trip. Much to my frustration, my brand new Nook Touch can't hold a charge longer than 4 days. This is not good for a device advertised to hold a charge for 2 months under normal use.



So to eliminate possible issues I:

1. Turned off Wifi


2. Removed my 8gb MicroSD card

The Nook showed no improvement. If anything it got worse.



So I called tech support this morning. First person was clueless. Second person disconnected. Third person (who was helpful) suggested I drain the device 100%. Then let the device charge for 4.5 hours to see if that resets the battery.



That should take 24 hours to try (for the battery to drain all the way). I will report back with the results.



Update: I fixed my Nook. Details can be found in a newer post here.

Impressive ePub3 Book

Cult of Mac has a cool link to a sample ePub3 book. The amount of interactivity is quite impressive. I did not know something like this was possible.



Of course, I not sure it would look real great on a Black and White Kindle or a Nook.

Nook Touch Cannot Read Anything on MicroSD Card

After copying some epub books to the MicroSD card of my new Nook Touch (the My Files/Books directory), none of the books can be read. Instead the following error message is displayed:

The Nook cannot read this file. It may be an unsupported format.

Note: They are valid books files and work fine when copied to the free space on the Nook.



Solution: Create a new directory in the My Files directory named My Documents. Once that is done, you can read the books in the My Documents directory or the Books directory.



As to why? It beats me. I called tech support. Got help right away. Waited for the dude to research about 5 minutes. He came back with the answer. It works. Kudo's Barnes and Noble for great customer support.

New Nook eReader 1 ups the Kindle

Barnes and Noble released its new Nook e-reader today. The $139 device is wifi only and has a touch interface. Battery life is 2 months compared to the Kindle's 1 month.



I really want to try this out. The Kindle is a great device, but the user interface is awful. Read Write Web has the details:



Read Write Web: Can Barnes & Noble's New Nook Top the Kindle?

B&N NookColor graduates to big boy pants, brings apps and Flash

Well... It looks like the NookColor has just graduated to big boy pants. Today, Barnes and Noble has released version 1.2 of their software with full Android support. This includes an e-mail client, contact manager, and app store. Basically, many of the features you would get with the iPad but at only a $249 sticker price. Pretty sweet if you have not dipped your toe in the tablet lake yet.



Up until today, the NookColor was primarily a Wifi color ebook reader with a very nice web browser. But unlike the Kindle, the NookColor has always been a little more. It has a touch interface with an color LCD screen which makes it closer to an iPad than a Kindle. It is about the same size as a Kindle (a little bigger) and weights a bit more (around 1 pound). From what I can tell, book prices are about the same as Amazon.com and selection is similar. Haven't tested battery life yet, but is supposed to be similar to an iPad. Oh and one other thing... No syncing with iTunes! Yay! A device that is actually designed to work stand alone.



With today's update, the NookColor is now firmly in the iPad category of tablets. So if you have been looking to try a tablet, but don't have $600 for an iPad, you may want to give this a look. Click the picture if you want to buy one from me. :)



Engadget has all the details on todays update:

B&N Nook Color update released, brings Froyo, apps, and Flash, we go hands-on (video) -- Engadget