Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color Features Android, Facebook Integration

by Nicholas Kolakowski

The Nook Color offers a 7-inch display, with a wide 178-degree viewing angle and ability to switch between landscape and portrait views.

Barnes & Noble is leveraging the Nooks color to sell periodicals and other image-intensive texts.

Periodicals include advertising—something that will likely become a point of negotiation and contention between e-reader/tablet manufacturers and publishers moving forward.??í

The Nook Colors touch screen allows users to scroll through content by swiping up, down, left or right.

The Nook Colors three home screens are relatively customizable, letting users “pin” and arrange their books on a changeable background.

Barnes & Noble hopes parents will gravitate toward the Nook Color as a platform for childrens books, given the devices ability to display vibrant images (and read aloud, via its “Read To Me” feature).

The Nook Color can also display traditional “grayscale” e-texts.

The Nook Color offers the option to share selected passages from e-books via Facebook and Twitter.

The Nook Colors library setup.

Barnes & Nobles LendMe technology allows users to lend their e-books to another Nook for a period of 14 days. While a book is being lent, the lending user cannot access it.

Nook Color also features a Web browser, powered by the devices WiFi capability, bringing it more in line, feature-wise, with tablet PCs.

The Nook Colors e-bookstore. Barnes & Noble also offers e-reader software for a variety of PCs and mobile devices, hoping to extend the reach of its e-books.