Barnes & Noble releases branded iPhone eReader app
Barnes & Noble has just come out with the free Barnes & Noble eReader app for iPhone. (In fact, the app appears to have hit the app store early; the category for it on Barnes & Noble’s website is not yet live and simply says “Summer 2009”.) I have downloaded and installed it to my iPod Touch for a quick look.
The B&N eReader appears to be a rebranded, slightly crippled version of the plain-vanilla eReader app. It does not seem to have eReader’s ability to download books from public-domain sites such as Feedbooks or Manybooks.
I do not know whether using an “ereader://” link would open the book in the B&N app if plain eReader was not installed on the iPhone as well, but I would tend to doubt it. (I have since been informed that the URI style for opening third-party books in eReader is “bnereader://”. Marvelous. Now anyone who wants to make eReader-style books available for download has to add two extra links to his site instead of just one.)
The app comes with two public domain books (The Last of the Mohicans and Sense and Sensibility) and a Merriam-Webster dictionary installed, and Dracula can be downloaded on-line with the creation of a free B&N account. (The account is created through the B&N website, but the app includes buttons to open Safari to the right pages to create or request password reset for an account.)
Reading books works just like the ordinary eReader, with the same options for font size, line spacing, themes, and so forth.
As I mentioned above, the e-book category on Barnes & Noble is not yet active. However, tapping the “Shop for eBooks” link in the app launches a page with an “eBook of the Week” listed: The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper. List price $25, e-book price $9.99. The e-book is marked “not yet available.”
It would have been nice if Fictionwise could have added Barnes & Noble as another store within its own eReader app instead of coming out with a forked clone, but if the alternative were for B&N to absorb eReader completely and cripple that app instead I know which one I would prefer. Hopefully B&N will continue to keep its own reader separate and not interfere with the running of Fictionwise and plain-vanilla eReader.
(Moved up from last night because this is still pretty hot news. Oh, the limitations of the blog format! – D.R.)
July 17th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Question: Does this app and “regular” eReader share file directories? That is, can you see your existing eReader eBooks in this new app?
July 17th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Nope.
July 17th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
(How does one get a free B&N membership? Looks like it’s $25/yr for me. Unless you’re counting the $50 in coupons they are currently offering to join. )
I can see why they now have a B&N branded eReader for the people who already shop through the B&N website. (And it even looks nice — but I’m probably biased since I’ve always been a fan of eReader’s clean look and ease of use.)
But is there a benefit to using it for those of us who use Fictionwise? (Assuming the continued existence of Fictionwise). Different ebooks? More ebooks? Cheaper ebooks? And how does a B&N Membership compare to Fictionwise in this (eBook) context?
Wondering…
July 17th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Personally, I would have upgraded the B&N store app to have eReader built in. They took the easy and cheaper way out, but it’s only easy & cheap up front. In the long run they’ll find the apps redundant and will find for branding and convenience reasons that both will need to be rolled into one in the future.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Oops. Found the free B&N account signup. You do/get it thru the eReader app. Not directly thru the B&N website — does that mean they aren’t the same thing?
And what does that mean for book prices?
Ugh… gonna have to contact B&N website support.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Actually, you can do it directly through the B&N website. You just click on “Account or “Sign In” at the top, then click on “Create Account”.
An account on the website is not to be confused with B&N’s savings-program thing.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
While I think it’s cool B&N is jumping on the ebook bandwagon, why couldn’t they just add the ereader to their existing app? Bing is right, they took the easy way out. But if they wanna get serious with going digital, they will have to combine the 2 and give them easy functionality.
Of course, I still downloaded the app right away and plan on giving it a spin around the block. I have a weakness for ereaders!
July 18th, 2009 at 8:46 am
There appears to be a ‘backdoor’ into the site. Instead of ‘Shop for eBooks’ go to ‘Search All Products’ and select only eBooks as an option. You can see eBooks for sale now. Not sure if you can actually buy them. Also, the site claims that you can find free eBooks from Google, similar to what Sony is doing I believe. However, I couldn’t find any so I don’t think the site is really ready to go yet, even though the search feature works.
July 19th, 2009 at 5:31 am
Using the back door does lead to books for sale.
Everytime I tried to purchase one I was stopped
because I have a Canadian address. What balderdash.
Are B&N pulling another Amazon and blocking
Canadians from buying books from them? Given they
own eReader & Fictionwise this makes absolutely
no sense to me whatsoever. Disappointed in Canada.
August 13th, 2009 at 10:26 am
@Mike Cane and Chris Meadows,
No… and worse, eReader cannot read Barnes and Noble ebooks (and vice versa). At least on the iPhone.
I downloaded a free book from B&N book store, used MobileFinder to move the book from the B&N ebooks folder to the eReader ebooks folder… and the book was not even recognized by eReader.
The opposite is true as well, sadly.
mcc