B&N eReader Update

Looks like along with streamlining the Nook on the 21st Barnes and Noble has updated their iPhone and iPod touch readers as well.  Here's the official B&N release:

We've made several improvements to our service which will provide you with a better reading experience. eBooks now open faster so you can get right to your reading, and you can begin turning pages or jump to a table of contents right away.

We've also heard of a few problems opening new eBooks purchased after our most recent software update. We apologize for any inconvenience; if you have experienced this, there is an easy fix:

1.  Simply remove the ebook from your iPhone / iPod touch by swiping from left to right across the title in the list view and tapping the “delete” button when it appears.

2.  Then tap “My Online Library” and re-download it to your iPhone / iPod touch.

We'll continue to make further improvements and add new features, based on feedback we've received from the nearly 1 million customers who have downloaded the app.

We'll release a great new version of the B&N eReader early in the New Year.

Until then, we wish you a very happy holiday season, and thank you for shopping with us.

Barnes & Noble eReader Team

Wednesday LinksOSX Snow

Periodic Table at Chicago's Daley Center From Flickr User Mike Mer

• Purchase a qualifying Mac after June 8th upgrade to OS X Snow Leopard for $9.95. Windows 7, your move. [Mac Rumors]
  
  
• iPhone users rich, smart, more productive...and you thought iPhone snobbery was unfounded! [Apple Insider]
  
  
• Sales decline at Adobe. Could it be the 8 Gazillion dollars charged for CS4? [NYT]
  
  
• The East African Coast gets an upgrade - Fiber Optic Cable expected to cut cost of communication across the continent [IT News Africa]
  
  
• Super Heavy news, the periodical table gets a new element [BBC]
  
  Also check out the Periodic Table of Cupcakes or the Periodic Table etched on a notebook with a laser from MIT

USA Today Laments Free iPhone App

Everyone knows the print newspaper is dying, well everyone but the publishers it seems. But, USA today, the plucky, colorful if not slightly lacking in depth, national newspaper is not giving up.

Plans are in the works to introduce a pay digital version in August. This digital edition would be emailed daily to subscribers for $10 per month, dropping the price from the existing $13.95 per month and introducing new features. That's right, emailed. Perhaps to get those subscribers still uncomfortable with a computer, but comfortable enough to work email?

USA today already offers a free iPhone (and Android) app that's very clean and quite usable. The new publisher of the Gannett-owned title, David Hunke, said he regrets not charging for the app."I'm not sure we realized what we had," Hunke said. "I think that's a value readers will be willing to pay for."

And there in lies the rub. If readers were willing to pay for services like it, they probably already would. iPhone users routinely balk at applications for $5.99 and even $.99.  It probably would have been hard for USA Today to charge anything given that the New York Times, LA Times, even the Wall Street Journal, the paper Hunke said they would be going after for readership in hotels, all offer their apps for free.

For info on the design of the USA Today app,read an excerpt from an interview in Communication Art's Interactive Annual 15 with Rusty Mitchell, the creative director/interface designer.

Via Yahoo! Finance