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The Nook iPad app is back in iTunes & it brought some magazines with it

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Late last night a reader alerted me that the app had returned. I updated it this morning, and after looking it over I can confirm that it has been crippled just like the other apps.

There’s no ebookstore link nor can you create an account from inside the app.  There’s not even any indication that B&N have an ebookstore where you can buy ebooks.

I was initially going to let this pass with out notice, but then I remembered that I wanted to see what the B&N version of the National Geographic Magazine looked like. Like all B&N periodicals, it’s only available on the NookColor, the Nook Android app,  and (as of last night) on the Nook iPad app.

It’s okay, but it’s really not anything more than a PDF. I suspect that most of the B&N periodicals will also be PDFs, so the iPad app version of a given title might be a better buy.

It doesn’t have any annotation abilities beyond bookmarks, and it does not reflow the articles ( not quite). All you can do is zoom in on the pages. It does have a feature called "article view" which lets you read the text of an article sans ads, and that’s nice. But this feature doesn’t work with all the content (articles, sidebars, etc); just the feature articles.

It’s not as good as the iPad app version, which has active content (oh my ghod it is so neat), a better layout and design, and costs the same. The NG Magazine iPad app is now available as a subscription for  either $2 a month or $20 a year.

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Comments


ReaderDude July 30, 2011 um 10:08 pm

Nate, thanks for mentioning me indirectly! One thing I wanted to point out though – periodicals have been available on the Nook app for android tablets for several months now, in addition to Nook Color. iPad is last to the party but seems to complete the trifecta for reading Nook magazines.

Nate Hoffelder July 30, 2011 um 10:13 pm

Thanks for catching that. So I’ve been wanting to see what a B&N periodical looked like and I could have pulled out a tablet? *facepalm*


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