Author: Matt Burns

If you’ve been waiting to get the Nook experience on your iPad, your wait is over. Barnes&Noble just announced the availability of their Nook app, available free from the App Store.

Nook is behind in the race to ereader hegemony so they’ve decided to add a few iPad specific including eight different fonts, customizable line spacing and margins, different font sizes, and themes. In short, B&N reps said, “It’s a giant canvas.”

The app has two book “views:” grid – showing all of the covers and split which shows details of the book on a split screen with the cover. You can also lend books to friends by shooting emails to contacts using the built-in contact book interaction.

The app supports in-book search, bookmarks, and syncs among devices. It also supports ePub formats. They also said the Android App is arriving this summer.

Click through to read the full release.

Barnes & Noble Introduces BN eReader for iPad™,
The Most Easy-to-Use, Customizable iPad App
for Reading and Buying eBooks and Periodicals
Free App Offers Access to Company’s Expansive eBookstore Featuring More Than

One Million Digital Titles and Personal Barnes & Noble Digital Library
Only iPad eReading App That Allows Sharing eBook with Friends
Free Classics and Bestseller Samples Pre-Loaded for New BN.com Customers
New York, New York – May 27, 2010 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today launched its free BN eReader app for iPad™, offering
the most personalized and easy-to-use eReading experience for Apple iPad owners. BN
eReader for iPad users can customize the way they read with professionally designed or
completely personalized themes, shop more than one million eBooks, newspapers and
magazines in the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, and access their personal Barnes & Noble
digital library, including most periodicals. BN eReader for iPad is the only eReading app
that offers eBook sharing with friends.
BN eReader for iPad is designed to offer an easy, yet sophisticated, customizable reading
experience. Users can choose from multiple ways to view their library, including
professionally designed themes with elegant and complementary text and page colors, as
well as fonts; and instantly switch between portrait and landscape views based on
personal preference. BN eReader for iPad users can further personalize their reading
experience with unparalleled options: literally millions of colors for text, pages,
highlights and links; eight typefaces and five text sizes; and a variety of margins and
customizable spacing options. Learn more or get the new application at
www.bn.com/iPad.
“We’ve designed the most easy-to-use, highly customizable eReading experience for the
iPad. Ours is the only app that enables iPad users to share eBooks with friends, shop
Barnes & Noble’s vast catalog of eBooks and periodicals and access your personal
Barnes & Noble digital library across multiple devices.,” said Douglas Gottlieb, Vice
President, Digital Products of Barnes & Noble.com. “We believe our customers will
appreciate the book-centric touches we’ve incorporated into our iPad app experience –
including some extra large text sizes, ample margins, and line lengths and spacing
inspired by classic book design conventions – along with the opportunity to fully
personalize that experience to enjoy reading books whichever ways they like best.”
Lend to Friends
Using Barnes & Noble’s breakthrough LendMe™ technology, BN eReader for iPad
customers can share eligible eBooks with friends who can enjoy the titles on a NOOK™
eBook Reader, iPad, iPhone®, iPod touch® and PC enabled with free BN eReader
software. Last page read, highlights, notes and bookmarks will also sync across BN
eReader for iPad and PC, and in early summer, with iPhone and iPod touch, with more to
The LendMe experience was designed to be seamlessly integrated with the iPad. BN
eReader for iPad users can simply choose an eligible eBook flagged with the LendMe
icon, then access their existing contacts in iPad’s onboard address book, tap the contact
and send the lend offer — all without needing to type a single word. The friend can accept
the offer and enjoy the eBook for up to 14 days, a unique feature offered only by Barnes
& Noble. And BN eReader for iPad users will receive LendMe offers from friends within
the application, showing them the eBook’s cover and the message from their friend.
Additional features available in the BN eReader App for iPad include:
Shop the expansive eBookstore: Search, explore and browse through the Barnes
& Noble eBookstore of more than one million eBooks, magazines and
newspapers titles at www.bn.com/ebooks directly by touching Add Books from
the Library. There are more than a half-million free eBooks available, and free
samples are available for all eBooks. Learn more from thousands of editorial and
customer reviews. Pick a current bestseller, a classic or anything in between and
download it wirelessly in seconds.
Access your personal digital library: All eBooks and most newspapers, and
magazines purchased through the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, including those
purchased on NOOK, are at your fingertips in your Library. Customers with large
digital libraries will appreciate the search option that helps them find the desired
book quickly.
Choose from two views: Library Grid view displays big, beautiful covers that are
large and easy to read. Library List displays a column with digital content titles
and eBook covers next to a second larger section that provides rich product details
for the selected eBook including the synopsis and more books from that author.
Sort by recently read, author or title.
Get to your content, faster: The most recently read titles appear on top to easily
get you back to your last great read. And an in-book search also helps you locate
a particular word or phrase.
Take notes: Bookmark pages, make highlights and write notes. Simply tap a
word or drag your finger across a section to highlight it or make a note. In
addition to appearing on your iPad, your bookmarks, highlights and notes will
also appear on iPad and PC enabled with BN eReader software. iPhone and iPod
touch will be added soon, followed by other devices.
Read across multiple devices: Sync the last page read of the last eBook, magazine
or newspaper opened on your iPad with BN eReader software-enabled PCs.
Coming next month, both will sync with BN eReader enabled iPhone and iPod
touch with more devices to follow.
Learn more: Tap a word on the touch screen and the in-text dictionary offers you
the word’s meaning. Want to learn more? Simply tap one of the options to take
you to the Google or Wikipedia page on that word or term using the Web
browser.
Follows the standard: Read eBooks, magazines and newspapers formatted in
ePub, quickly becoming the industry standard.

We’ve carved out a corner of TC Disrupt and created our own Little Shenzhen sweatshop complete with DIY MP3 players, MakerBot 3D printer, and a pneumatic robot called Stabby. More videos of each event will be posted shortly but if you happen to be at Disrupt, we’re down by the RedBull lounge.

LaCie wants to ensure that your data is safe. Like really safe. The company took its Rugged hard drive line, added a fingerprint scanner and 128-bit AES encryption and in turn, made what might be the Mad Max of hard drives.

The drive comes in both 500GB and 1TB flavors, but alas neither USB 3.0 or eSATA is available although the drive does rock Firewire in addition to USB 2.0. All the extra security and manly toughness costs a bit more with with the 500GB version retailing for $189 and the 1TB costing $299. It’s obviously up to you if you need the equivalent of the A-Team protecting your data.

Via first showed off its USB 3.0 host controller at CES 2010 and it just broke cover at Computex. The VL800 series chip can handle four USB 3.0 devices simultaneously while providing data rates up to 5Gbps. Via aims to put this single chip solution into desktops, notebooks, servers, and everything else on God’s green earth.

But we still don’t know when this is going to happen. Via hasn’t announced when we’ll actually see this chip make its way into any devices although we are getting in a 4-port USB 3.0 hub for review shortly, but we’re not sure if it contains this Via chip. Guess we’ll have to tear it apart to find out.

You really don’t need to know anything about the lens to appreciate it. It’s eff’n gorgeous. Mir.com has you covered just case you want the technical details and whatnot about the lens.

It’s so appropriate yet sad that Alyx is tasked with announcing the six-year old Half-Life 2’s Mac launch. But really there’s no shame in playing the some-what old Half-Life 2 even today. It’s one of the games that we agreed with in PC Gamer’s top games of all time list. But it’s yet another sign that the Mac gaming scene still has a long way to go.

Maybe the standard Sony Vaio P is a bit pedestrian for your taste. It’s just not enough, right? Well then, how about one covered with crocodile skin? It’s supposed to be a digital clutch anyway.

Pricing info isn’t available, but it’s not going to be low-cost. The model’s spec’d out with the Atom Z560 Intel US15X chipset, 256GB SSD, and optional 12-hour battery. Plus all that crocodile skin can’t be cheap. [SonyBrands via eeepc via liliputing]

2010 was called the year of the tablet and Via might make that come true. The chip maker plans on releasing five tablets by the end of the year. The kicker is that these five models will cost between $100 and $150 — or so says a Bloomberg report. These tablets are said to run Android and will be available in the states in the second half of the 2010.

Via’s upcoming tablets are of course in response to the iPad and is a classic CE move. Instead of producing a quality product, a company, in this case Via, is outing a whole range of low-cost (and likely cheap) alternatives.

This move hopefully won’t earn 2010 the title of year of the tablet alone. In fact there’s a chance that it could harm the consumer’s interest in the slate form factor. The iPad isn’t perfect by any means, but it is showing the entire consumer electronic market that they want and need a tablet computer with its slick user experience. However, it’s still an elite-type device with the $500+ price tag and obviously a low-cost Via model will capture some sales of those looking to be part of the cool crowd. However if these tablets fail to provide a good experience, it might turn off an entire market segment to tablets in general.

Microsoft is losing two high-profile executives. Both J. Allard, “Chief Experience Offer” and Entertainment and Device Division’s CTO, and Robbie Bach, President of Entertainment and Devices Division, are leaving the company per a Steve Ballmer email from this morning. These are the guys behind the Xbox, Zune, Project Natal, and the dead Courier project — so basically all of Microsoft’s hit entertainment projects from the last decade.

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 11:01 AM
To: Microsoft – All Employees (QBDG)
Subject: Executive Leadership Transitions

After almost 22 years with the company, Robbie Bach has decided to retire from Microsoft. I have worked with Robbie during his entire tenure at Microsoft, and count him as both a friend and a great business partner and leader. Robbie has always had great timing, and is going out on a high note – this has been a phenomenal year for E&D overall, and with the coming launches of both Windows Phone 7 and “Project Natal,” the rest of the year looks stupendous as well. While we are announcing Robbie’s retirement today, he will remain here through the fall, ensuring we have a smooth transition.

Concurrent with Robbie’s retirement, I am making several organization changes to ensure we have the right leaders in the right positions as we set ourselves up for the next big wave of products and services. Effective July 1, Don Mattrick, who leads our interactive entertainment business, and Andy Lees, who leads our mobile communications business, will report directly to me. Don and Andy have built out strong leadership teams and product pipelines, and are well-positioned for the years ahead. Independent of Robbie’s decision, J Allard (currently serving as senior vice president of Design and
Development for E&D), will also be leaving Microsoft. Given his ongoing passion and commitment to Microsoft, he will remain as an advisor to me, helping incubation efforts, looking at design and UI, and providing a cross-company perspective on these and similar topics. With J’s change in role, corporate vice president David Treadwell will join IEB to lead the core technology organization, reporting to Don. David has a great set of accomplishments at Microsoft, most recently working on the Windows Live Platform Services team. Over the next several months, Robbie and I will work together to finalize reporting and structure for the rest of his org.

Now that Office 2010 has been launched to business customers, Antoine Leblond, senior vice president in the Office Productivity Applications Group, will take a new role as senior vice president for the Windows Web Services team. This team brings together the integral Windows services that today deliver updates, solutions, community and depth
information for the Windows consumer. Kurt DelBene, senior vice president in the Office Business Productivity Group, will take on all of the engineering responsibilities for the Office business.

Transitions are always hard. Robbie has been an instrumental part of so many key moments in Microsoft history – from the evolution of Office to the decision to create the first Xbox to pushing the company hard in entertainment overall. J as well has had a great impact in the market and on our culture, providing leadership in design, and in creating a passionate and involved Xbox community, and earlier being at the center of our work seizing the importance of the Web for the company. But most important, both have been great team builders with a strong record of attracting, coaching and growing talent. As a result, their teams are primed to continue to step up and deliver great products, great services and great results for the company. Don has led the Interactive Entertainment Business since July 2007, where he’s significantly grown our entertainment footprint as well as our profitability. He can count as successes the evolution of Xbox Live, the launch of blockbusters like “Halo 3″ and the much-anticipated “Project Natal.” Previously, Don was president of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios. Andy has led the Mobile Communications Business since February, 2008, and has been instrumental in reinvigorating our mobility efforts, bringing in new business and development talent and
overseeing the creation of both KIN and Windows Phone 7.

As we finalize and ship so many of our key products (“Project Natal,”Windows Phone 7, Office 2010, Windows Live Wave 4 and others) it is a natural time for us to look ahead and make sure we have the right talent in the right roles to fuel our next set of offerings. I am confident that the changes above will set us up well for the months and years ahead.

I want to close by thanking Robbie for the incalculable contributions he has made to Microsoft over the years. He will be greatly missed when he retires this fall, and I am glad that I’ll have the opportunity to continue working closely with him between now and then. And as J makes a similar transition, I look forward to working with him in a new way.

Call us skeptical but we’re not quite sure this is legit. A regular on myDroidWorld’s forums just posted a bunch of screenshots that are supposed to be a Droid running Froyo. There are shots of the app launcher, new Car Home, the camera, and updated search options. Really everything but the About Phone screen which will show the phone’s model number, firmware, and kernal version — you know, everything that would confirm his claims. So yeah, this might be the first look at the Droid running Android 2.2 or, well, it’s not. [MyDroidWorld via Droid-Life]

Ready for your daily dose of viral marketing? This Lenovo video is just that, but it’s also an interesting look at the development of Lenovo’s upcoming ThinkCentre M90z all-in-one desktop PC. These folks know all-in-one desktops and the M90z looks to be the best yet. Launch data and specs should drop soon. Hopefully.

Don’t cry to AT&T or Apple if you crack your iPhone screen. They don’t care. Besides as this pictures and Cnet story clearly shows, with a bit of patience, nearly anyone can replace an iPhone screen. This 10-year boy used a $20 kit available from 3gcrackedglass.com to replace the glass on his dad’s iPhone and in turn saved him from the $200 repair bill that Apple would have charged for the same service.

But it’s not the act of saving this particular iPhone that’s compelling. Think about how proud this dad must feel watching his 10-year preform the operation. I get excited when my 3-year old son hits the baseball off the T ball stand. Fatherhood is great.

People might not be buying houses and cars at the pre-recession levels, but laptops are flying off the shelves led by netbook sales. (Quiet, don’t tell John. He hates netbooks.)

Consumers clearly want mobility. Laptop shipments are up 43.4% over last year with 20% of them being low-cost netbooks. The notebook segment as a whole made up 13% of the total PC sales in the first three months of 2009.

But it was the netbook numbers that’s most surprising. We’ve been hearing for weeks that netbooks are dead, no one buys netbooks, blah, blah, blah. However this Gartner seems to say differently by finding netbooks sales are up 71% over last year. So maybe the netbook segment isn’t dead, Mr. John Biggs. Perhaps the is a market for small, low-cost notebooks.

I’m not sure if this device is really a waterproof flashlight with a video camera or a video camera with a bright light. Either way, it records video at VGA quality on a 4GB internal drive and sports a 1W LED flashlight. There’s a USB port, rechargeable battery, and everything else that’s supposed to be in a camera. But then it’s shaped like a flashlight so I’m still not sure. All I know is with a price tag of $192.99, I really don’t care. Click through for a video demo.

There clearly isn’t enough computer speaker options available and so iLuv has three new solutions coming out. There’s a speaker bar, cube speakers, and even a mini clip speaker that features a clip for you know, clipping.

• iSP130: Mini Clip Speaker – The perfect speaker companion for any laptop, the USB powered iSP130 includes a built-in hanging clip for mounting
• iSP150: Portable Speaker Bar – Ideal for iPad, iPhone, iPod, laptops and other portable audio devices with a 3.5mm jack, this powerful speaker bar is perfect for travel and features a built-in power switch, volume control and  2 power source options – USB or 4 AAA batteries
• iSP170: Cube Speakers – A small cubed designed, USB powered speaker solution perfect for laptop users, the iSP170 is only 2.8” x 2.8” x 2.8” in size, features loud and clear sound, built-in volume control

The new speakers are now available at i-luv’s site for $19.99, $34.99 and $39.99, respectfully.

Intel is ready to take on the Apple A4 CPU and will show off its solution at the upcoming Computex conference. The chip maker is apparently almost ready to unveil a silicon meant specifically for tablets. Who knows if Intel PC Client Group VP actually had the green light to reveal the upcoming announcement, but that’s exactly what he did.

CarryPad has the audio clip but the man basically stated the chip will be physically thinner than the current crop of ULV chips. Of course it’s also designed for lower power consumption and heat output, which is a must for a tablet.

The VP didn’t let anything else slip, though, so we’re going to have to wait until Computex for any more details.

Pioneer is taking a big step in bridging the two landmasses of Internet radio and vehicle entertainment. By utilizing a free iPhone app, Pandora Link, the company is bringing Pandora to two of its latest systems, the Pioneer AVIC-Z120BT and AVIC-X920BT navigation systems. Simply run the app and connect the iPhone to head unit with the USB cable; the in-dash radio system will then displays all of Pandora’s trademark functions like thumbs up and thumbs down formatted in Pioneer’s great-looking interface.

The two worlds are bound to collide eventually with a truly integrated solution, but until in-dish systems offer mobile wireless modems, a smartphone is currently required. Ford is bringing a very similar solution to first its 2011 Fiesta line later this year, and has plans to roll it out to future Sync vehicles next year. Ford’s system, however, works with Android and BlackBerry phones instead and works over Bluetooth while Pioneer’s system relies on a USB cable.

Perhaps relying a mobile phone rather than building in the function isn’t all that bad. Many users that will want this function likely already have a smartphone and possess the technical know-how to connect the two. But building in the function will no doubt introduce the platform to more users. The market will no doubt decide the future.

The Inkia inPad is a shameless iPad clone right down to the bezel and name. We first spotted the clone a few weeks back but hardware details didn’t accompany the pictures. Basically, a Chinese manufacturer got our attention by photocoping the iPad and installed Android. But we’ve kind of lost interest now that we know what’s on the inside.

It seems both the WiFi-only inPad 701 and the 3G-equipped inPad 702 are powered by the 600Mhz Rockchip RK2808 that’s found in many Chinese clones. They will be available with either a 128MB or 256MB of RAM and 4GB or 16GB SSD. Both models will also sport 2 USB ports, a MiniHDMI, a 2200mAH battery, and WiFi. Still interested?

Pricing and availability still isn’t available, but we kind of don’t care. The device seems woefully underpowered and probably won’t provide an iPad-meets-Android experience. Ping us when someone does that.

The Audi A8 is already a nerd’s wet dream with more gadgets and technology than any baby boomer can handle. But Audi wasn’t done with the available option lists, though. Now buyers can order an HSDPA hotspot modem directly from the factory. Unlike other options — like Autonet — this system is polished and seemingly beautifully integrated into the vehicle. This is the future.

Autonet is GM’s and Chrysler’s high-speed provider of choice. This system is a bolt-on solution. The self-contained device, just needs power and a subscription to broadcast WiFi throughout the vehicle. But while it’s a one-size-fits-all solution, it’s a tad ugly and Audi doesn’t do ugly.

Audi’s system is integrated totally into the vehicle. From the press release.

Using the WLAN hotspot is remarkably simple. To activate Internet access with speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s, the driver merely needs to insert a data-capable SIM card into the Bluetooth online car phone. Alternatively, an Internet connection can be established via Bluetooth by using a compatible mobile phone with a SIM Access Profile. Any existing mobile phone contract can be used for this – often coupled with a flat-rate data plan.

So yeah, you just slip in a SIM card and you’re off. Hopefully Audi’s owner, VW, plans to offer this cross-platform rather than keeping it tied down to a $100k car. The world doesn’t need cars with Tegra-powered Google Earth navigation. But we need rolling hotspots and now.

It’s a TV with Street Fighter IV branding. Just what the world needs. [ChipChick]