One of the things that B&N has been advertising since the nook first debuted is an enhanced in-store experience. With the recently released 1.3 patch, they’ve really delivered. Here’s how it works:
- Take your nook to any B&N store and get access to the store’s hotspot.
- Open up the nook’s store browser and find a book you’re interested in.
- Select your book and choose the “Read in Store” option from the menu.
- Enjoy!
It’s ridiculously simple and works for every last book in their ebook catalog. You get an hour per book per 24-hour period, so you’re not likely to see your way through to the end of a book in a single sitting, but there seems to be no daily limit on number of books per day or number of days per book. Read how to open DATA file.
I don’t claim to understand the business model, but it’s certainly fun. I anticipate many a lunch break around the country being spent in the local Barnes & Noble cafe. Whether you’re reading a bit at a time or previewing that new release you were on the fence about, you can’t really go wrong. It ties the nook device into the physical store better than anything else I could think of. I would really love to see something like this coming from the Kindle, honestly. It’s a neat feature that’ll give the nook a huge advantage should it catch on.