Tag: barnes and noble

Nook HD+ from Barnes & Noble

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Books, Christmas, eBook, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, Google Chrome, Kindle, Nook, Pictures, Products I Like, Reading, Social Network, TVLeave a comment

Nook HD+ from Barnes & Noble

I love my Nook HD+.  I have been having so much fun with it since I got it for Christmas, actually the week before Christmas.  Yeah we don’t conform to the traditions of opening your presents on Christmas day, or even on birthdays.  We open presents the day we get them.  Screw tradition lol.

My Nook HD+ has a 9” screen, so it’s bigger than the Nook HD in the sense that it has 2 more inches, but I’m telling you that because there are certain apps that work with 7 inches, but don’t work with 9 inches.  Like The Sims FreePlay and Viggle for example.  The Sims FreePlay is downloadable, you just can’t play it because you get this warning when you try.

The Sims FreePlay

I am not sure if The Sims FreePlay will even work with a Nook HD 7” tablet.  I know it works with the Kindle Fire because I’ve seen people taking pictures and video of it on that device.  I’m pretty sure it was the 7”, so if it runs on the Kindle Fire 7”, then it probably runs on the Nook HD 7”.  If so or not, please let me know.

Viggle on the other hand doesn’t even show up in the Google Play Store, so they don’t even give you the option.  I know it works on 7” tablets because I installed it on my partner’s tablet to see if I could do trivia when trivia wasn’t giving me any points with my phone.  It installed and looked great too, but the trivia was not working on his tablet any better than it was on my phone.  Although, just because it installed on his tablet doesn’t mean I know if it will install on a Nook HD 7” tablet.

Facebook isn’t great on the Nook HD+ when you use the app.  Using the browser is so much better because you get the full website that you get on the computer, but the only problem I have is when I use another tab to visit another website, or even if I use an app, like if I go check my email, when I come back to the Facebook tab, it goes straight to the mobile version.  If I wanted to use Facebook mobile, I would just use the Facebook app.

The Twitter app that comes with the Nook HD+ from the Nook store isn’t updated, so it’s better to let Google Play update it.  It’s easy to use and if you have multiple twitter accounts, you can switch back and forth very easily.  It’s actually better on the Nook HD+ than it is on my phone.  When I am using @xanapus on my phone, then try to switch over to another twitter name, for some odd reason it switches me back to @xanapus.  It doesn’t do that on my Nook HD+.

I didn’t like the Google+ app on my phone and I rarely ever use it on my computer, but it is great on the Nook HD+.  That’s one of the social media websites that I wanted to start using more often.  It has a much better look than Facebook does in my opinion.  Google+ doesn’t force you to look at ads or suggested posts.

One annoying thing that I noticed is that when I am in my library, I scroll down to My Files and see there are 564 files.  How the heck am I supposed to weed through all of those files to get to the ebooks I have downloaded?  Well, I discovered that if you click the words My Files, it brings up a new window which shows folders.  They are in the Download folder.  I have 6 ebooks that I downloaded from the EverQuest Next website that are fiction based books based on EverQuest the game, but they are all in PDF format.  Ebooks that I’ve downloaded in ePub format will show up with my Nook books, but the PDF files don’t.  I did download an app called File Manager HD which allowed me to create a new folder in my download folder so I could keep the EQN ebooks in there to keep that folder more organized.

PicsArt Photo Studio is a good app that I use on my phone to add stickers and frames and text to my pictures, but it’s such a small screen that sometimes it’s difficult to see what I’m doing.  My Nook HD+ doesn’t have a camera, but I can use Google Drive to retrieve my files.  What I really like most is that I can write on the screen with this.  I can do that on my phone, but it’s too small.

Happy New Year 2014

Okay, so my handwriting isn’t the best, it’s even worse on paper lol.

ChromecastSome useful apps that come with the Nook HD+ include Netflix and Hulu+ and if you have a Google Chromecast, you can watch them on your TV.  You don’t even need to have the Google Chromecast app installed to use it.  I know this because I bought it for my partner and I couldn’t get it to connect to his tablet.  I connected it with my CR-48 aka Chromebook, then was able to connect it to his tablet.  I don’t have the app installed on my Nook HD+ or my phone, but the icon is visible on YouTube, Netflix and Hulu+.  I guess any Android or Apple device that is connected to my network will have that ability.

Of course, other good uses for the Nook HD+ is actually reading a book lol.  You aren’t limited to Nook books either, you can read your Kindle books plus your Google Play books.  In fact, if there is a service that sells ebooks, you can read the books you bought from them, including pdf files and ebooks.  Some writers only publish their ebook with Amazon KDP Select because they get more advertising, and if they chose KDP Select, they can only publish with Amazon for 3 months.  That’s why it’s good to use the Kindle on my Nook, because some ebooks aren’t available on the Nook.

One of the features that I do like is the Nook app “Your Highlights and Notes.”  If you do a lot of highlighting and like to add notes, this is a good thing.  It had all the highlights from the Nook for PC when I got it, but it didn’t show any text.  When I add new highlights, it shows the page number and the first couple of sentences that I highlighted, and if I left a note, it shows my note.  That makes it so much easier to find every highlight and every note on every ebook you own whether it’s downloaded or in the cloud.  Highlighting and leaving notes on my Nook WiFi was so difficult and as soon as I started reading another ebook, all of the highlights and notes disappeared, which was very frustrating.

There is also a Nook app called “Your Lookups” that shows you every word you ever had to find the definition for.  That does come in handy if you ever want to find that specific word again.  The list of words you looked up are on the left, and the word, the book you found it in, the page and the date and time you looked it up are on the right along with the definition of the word.  WOW!  Now you have a record of the date and time you learned a new word.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts on the Nook HD+.  I like it a lot and I will get a ton of use out of it.  I still have my Nook WiFi and I don’t think I will use it as often for reading ebooks, but if the occasion ever arises when I go outside to read, I will be able to use it.

Make Holiday Money Online

On By Michel McDonaldIn Blog, Make MoneyLeave a comment

christmas cash

Want to know how to earn money on your smart phone or computer for the holidays?  It’s not very difficult, although it does take a lot of time and patience.  Here is how I make extra money.  Blogging, surveys and watching videos online.

Blogging

Blogsvertise

Click Advertise on My Blog

Blogsvertise isn’t as good as it used to be, although I am not counting them out of the game because it is possible that some day I might get new opps, although it has been a long time so I’m not holding my breath either.  They usually send you an email telling you to write a 200 word, 3 paragraph blog post and you get paid a certain amount of money depending on your blogs rating.  The higher your PR is, the more money you will make.  Although from what I understand, Google doesn’t use PR anymore, advertisers still request PR1 or PR3.  They do have pay-per-click opportunities, but I have never made a dime from those, so they don’t work very well.

It takes 30 days to receive your payment through PayPal and there is no limit to the amount of money they will deposit.  If your payment is $10, then they deposit $10.

PayPerPost
PayPerPost is a company owned by IZEA.  They send you emails with leads and you can either accept or decline them.  You just write your blog post about the website and enter the link to the post and you get paid 30 days after it is approved.  There isn’t a limit to how much money you can withdraw, but know that if it is under $50, they will take $2 from you.  It’s a good thing to wait for that to build up to $50 though.  I still have $23.50 in my account, although it has been quite some time since I have gotten an opp.

SocialSpark

Set Your Price. Choose your Advertisers. Sign up for SocialSpark!

SocialSpark is also owned by IZEA and for some reason I get more opportunities here than PayPerPost, although it has been quite some time since I have.  I also have a pay-per-click (PPC) ad on my blog which does generate revenue each month, so whether I write a post or not, I will receive money in my account, although it is a tiny amount.

Much like the other blogging websites above, they send you an email telling you that you have a lead or an opportunity and you either accept the lead, or take the opportunity, whichever the case may be.  Unlike the other 2, when you are ready to write your blog post, you have to write it within the website, not your own.  They will post it to your blog on a specific day and time, usually the next day or so.

It also takes a month to receive your payment, and like PayPerPost, you can withdraw any amount you want, but they will take $2 out if the amount is under $50.

Surveys

Swag Bucks

Search & Win

Swag Bucks is a great way to earn money by doing surveys, watching videos, playing games, downloading apps and getting paid to shop or search the web.  I haven’t received a payout yet, but that’s because it is not the easiest way to earn money because I get disqualified from I would say 8 out of 10 surveys because I didn’t meet the criteria for whatever reason.  You earn very little for watching videos and I haven’t even figured out how to earn money from playing games yet.  When you do earn swag bucks from surveys, it is a good amount.

When you have 450 swag bucks you are eligible to redeem a $5 gift card for Amazon.  Some rewards are 500 for a $5 value, but Amazon seems to require less.  They do have good rewards though, like Amazon, Target, PayPal and Starbucks, just to name a few.

SuperPay.Me

SuperPay.Me is a new website (new to me) that I just started using.  In just a short amount of time I have earned $1.43 and 104 points from doing surveys, installing apps and watching videos.  One of the very odd ways of earning money is by clicking a banner ad which opens a new tab in your browser, and you have 5 to 60 seconds to look at a website before you earn your credit.  The credit isn’t a lot, but it’s free money, so why wouldn’t you do it?

The reason I am suggesting this website is because you can withdraw any amount of money you want at any given time.  Like say you have made $1.00 and you want that dollar, like right now, you can withdraw it to your PayPal account.  How you make money from points is you can either get a $5 Amazon gift card for 500 points, or you can convert your points to cash, or you can convert your cash to points.  It is up to you how you want to be paid.  I would personally keep earning as much money as I can until I need it, then withdraw it and get a lump sum.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is not the same thing as everything else I listed above this one.  You choose tasks called “HIT” and do whatever it is they want you to do.  Like for example, my first task was to write down everything in a store receipt along with their price, including coupons and voids.  You know how a receipt shows initials instead of long names because there really isn’t much room for a long name?  Well, you have to type in the long name I guess.  Anyway, that one particular task gave me 2 hours to do the task, well, that’s perhaps a 10 minute task if you ask me, but they kept saying I didn’t do something right and to keep checking.  I forgot to add 1 yogurt and 1 dozen eggs, but everything else was right.  I checked it, double checked it, triple checked it, quadruple checked it… I basically checked it about 20 times and it was correct.  I finally just submitted it whether it was right or not because it was right in my mind.  If I don’t get paid then that’s okay, it was only .06 cents anyway.

You aren’t going to make very much money with this which is why I don’t completely recommend it.  It is Amazon, so when you get paid, they will pay you money, or you can choose Amazon credit.  I personally would rather have Amazon credit because I’m always buying things on Amazon anyway, so I might as well just have some money in my account.  But I can’t say that I will be doing this enough to make much of a difference.  It takes way too long for only 6 cents for that one task.

Watching TV

Viggle

Viggle isn’t a website, it’s an app for your Android or iPhone.  You earn points for watching tv and doing trivia while watching your show.  They have some good rewards, although they come and go so if you want a specific reward, you may have to wait for it to come back.

In 2013 I earned $50 in rewards for Barnes & Noble.  It cost me 50,000 points for $25 which I redeemed twice (months apart).  I don’t see it on their website now, but I will continue earning more points to redeem more for the same reward.

RewardTV

RewardTV is a website I used many, many years ago.  I didn’t even know they were still around, but you can make a lot of points just buy doing trivia on shows that you watch.  Like say you watched Once Upon A Time last night, today you can do trivia on what you saw.  I completed the trivia and got 2 questions wrong, but they weren’t questions for the show, they were for the commercials during the show.  Look, I’m not paying attention to the commercials LOL.  Those are pee breaks people!  At any rate, for this specific show, I earned 10,500 points.

I can’t tell you how to spend your points.  They don’t have a rewards page for redeeming your points like the other websites I suggested.  They do have sweepstakes, pay for my stuff which I assume is basically sweepstakes, auctions, and shopping spree, which I have no clue how that works.

So even though I have no clue how you can make money from this, I am still suggesting it because points are very easy to make if you remember what happened in the show that you watched the day before.  I am sure you will figure out how to spend your points.

Those are all I can think of for right now.  I wrote a post about making money from your cell phone, but I didn’t keep those apps because I didn’t use them as often as I would have liked, but I stand by them because they are a good way to earn money if you are willing to do what they ask.

All-New Nook – The Simple Touch Reader

On By Michel McDonaldIn NookLeave a comment

Ok now I’m really jealous.  I bought the 2nd generation of the first Nook with the color display at the bottom.  Then a few months later they came out with the Nook Color and now this.

This Nook seems a lot cooler than my Nook because it is e-ink that is touch screen with a battery life of 2 months.  My nook is supposed to be 2 weeks but I’m lucky if I get 1 week.  This new Nook is cheaper at $139, mine was $150 and the Nook color was a whopping $250 which is also what the first gen of the original Nook was so if you waited this long then good for you, you saved a buttload of money.

Edit: The price went down to $99.  They also have the Simple Touch with GlowLight for $119.

If only I had waited a little bit longer.  But that’s ok, I’m very happy with my Nook so I will just wait for it to burn out and hopefully by that time when they come out with their 10th generation of Nook it will be $25 so I can buy as many as I need lol.

The newer features that this Nook has that mine doesn’t which really makes me jealous are the NOOK Friends and the Borrow Library Books feature.  Although, that really doesn’t affect me anyway because your local library has to have that feature available which ours doesn’t so it doesn’t matter for me anyway.  My Nook doesn’t have the Nook Friends feature which upsets my friend Sue because she is unable to add me to her friends list for some reason.  All I can do is add her as a contact but I have yet to use the lend feature anyway.

Check out the Nook Color and the newer Nook Simple Touch at the Barnes and Noble Nook website for all of the other dimensions and features.

Nook Update v1.5

On By Michel McDonaldIn eBook, NookLeave a comment

Nook had a software update yesterday from version 1.4 to 1.5 and I am so happy.

I got the email yesterday from Barnes and Noble saying the new update is finally here so I quickly turned my Nook on, went to the Daily and as soon as it connected to my WiFi network, it began downloading immediately. It took about 10 minutes or so to download and I was very thrilled with the results.

They said that the page turns are 50% faster and boy is it ever. I loaded a book and turned the page and it was instant. I mean, you still see it flash like before but it shows the next page really fast. Page turn speed was never really an issue for me but considering it’s faster I’m probably going to notice it more now and appreciate the new speed.

One of the things that I’ve wanted since I got my Nook is an easier way to store my books. For example, I wanted to be able to have folders for all of my books so I can find them easier. Like a folder named Xanth so I can click on that to find the next Xanth novel at the top of the list instead of having to scroll through pages and pages of books.

They finally gave me that feature, although it’s not exactly a folder but it works just as good. You can create shelves then add specific books to those specific shelves. It works in the “My B&N Library” and the “My Documents” libraries. When you are in the Library, look at your touchscreen and click Shelves, click go to shelf and you can see the shelves you have created.

You have many shelf options like creating a shelf, reordering a shelf, renaming a shelf and removing a shelf. I like reordering because you can alphabetize your different shelves either by author or by book name like Xanth would go at the bottom or you can rename the shelf to the authors name and then it would be in the P’s for Piers (or A’s for Anthony, if that’s how you alphabetize).

I have a shelf called Sookie Stackhouse and I see all 3 of the Sookie Stackhouse books that I bought from the Nook store in that shelf. It shows the one that I am reading on the top of the list and it even shows what page I’m on. How cool is that? It says I’m on page 28 of 200. I guess that’s how they make the cross-platform feature work. Since it shows what page you are on in a certain book in the library then that is how it lets your other gadgets know what page you are on so when you load your account on your iPhone or Blackberry (or whatever gadget you have) then it knows what page to automatically turn to.

The email talked about a longer battery life and that I can configure it so my battery lasts longer. Well the battery for me is a real issue because they said that it lasts 10 days with WiFi turned off. Well, it really only lasts me a couple days with WiFi turned off. I don’t know where they got this 10 days crap but that is so way off. Hopefully it will last longer than 2 or 3 days now but I have to figure out how to configure it the way they said you can. And what am I supposed to configure to make it last longer? Am I supposed to make the screen’s brightness 10% so I can barely see it to get 10 days worth of battery life?

They graduated the web browser from Beta to regular browser but to me it’s the same. I don’t see much of a difference. I do use it from time to time only because I can. The only thing different is that it no longer says Beta on the icon but if you load the browser, the website that shows up still says it’s in beta so they’ll have to fix that too.

I wish they would add more games, that would’ve been nice but I see they didn’t. I know they can’t add animated games but I’m sure there are more games that don’t require a lot of animation. Sudoku is a good paper puzzle game which I’m sure is the reason they added it. Well, crossword puzzles are the same, it’s pen and paper. Anything would be nice than just Sudoku and Chess lol. I don’t even play chess.

Well, I’m very happy to have this update because I love how fast the pages turn and I love that I can create shelves now. I think it would be great if they gave us little updates every so often instead of making people wait for a major update like this. But I’m not complaining because I’m thrilled with what I have now.

Nook Update Coming Soon

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, Products I LikeLeave a comment

I just got this email from Barnes & Noble with some great news about my Nook. Nook 1.5 will be available later next month via wi-fi download or through my computer. I’d personally rather update it with my wi-fi connection rather than having to plug it in to do it but that’s me.

I’m thrilled by everything they will have available because I’m kind of unhappy with certain things.

Ok let’s go down the list shall we? I’m actually ok with the speed of the page turns, they could be a little bit faster but I’m fine with it. It’s actually not that slow but you know, faster is a great idea and I welcome that.

Improved search, I think that means when you type a word it searches that word faster. When I read the Colorado Kid, well, when I finished it rather, I did look up the word Haven and it couldn’t find it but it didn’t take that long to tell me that. I wish that when I’m in the bible I could type in the book, chapter and passage instead of having to scroll through all the chapter numbers until I finally get to the number I want. It would be so much faster if I went to church lol.

Customized library B&N organization. I think that is referring to the B&N library not the My Documents library. That really bites because I have more books that I have from other websites than books that I’ve purchased from Barnes and Noble. I think that they might be saying that all my newspapers will be in “newspapers” and same with magazines and books like you see in the Nook for PC software.

What I want is to have folders in the My Documents folder showing the author’s name or the book series. Then I can go in and find the books easier. This way I can have all of the Xanth books in 1 folder so I don’t have to keep turning the page to find the book that I want to read. Right now I’m deleting books that I’ve already read then adding the next book so I don’t get lost in a sea of titles trying to find the book I want to read.

Password protection doesn’t bother me because nobody uses my Nook. Although I would hope that what that means is when I want to buy a book I would have to enter a password. I would hate it if someone got a hold of my Nook then started buying books left and right and put me in the poor house, well, I’m there, the even poorer house. Actually, I think the even poorer house would be the alley behind Winchell’s.

Sync my last page to other devices, that actually doesn’t sound bad if I had other devices. I guess it would be cool if it were sync’d to the Nook for PC because today I could’ve used that option. I was reading and a letter was shown in the book that I could barely read even with the bifocal part of my glasses. I would’ve loaded the Nook for PC program but I didn’t want to have to find the page. Also that program takes forever to load.

I can’t wait for a few of those much-needed upgrades which I have to wait for a MONTH to get. Why couldn’t they tell me when it happens instead of making me stew for a month? Damn them!

Pubit!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Amplify, Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

I was just browsing the Nook page on the Barnes and Noble website when I came across this new thing called “pubit!”. It’s a thing that will allow regular people like me write their own book and upload all the files to the pubit page and they will sell your book and give you a cut of the money.

You know it’s funny because I am in the process of writing an autobiography. I’m not famous enough to write one but people have been telling me for years that I should write a book with all the stories I have told about my messed up childhood. So why not write a book?

Well, I’ve been thinking, if I do write this book I have no guarantee that a publisher will publish it for me. I could spend the next 6 months to 2 years writing just to be turned down. So, this gives me a chance to do it and make it happen.

So I signed up. It’s not available yet but they say to sign up and I will be told when they start-up so I can begin uploading all my files. Well, I still have awhile. I’m only in the middle of my first chapter and who knows how long this book will end up being with all the stories that I have to tell.

One thing I’m going to do is read an actual autobiography from someone who is famous to give me more of an idea of what I should put in it and what I should leave out. Oh there are a ton of things that I’m not going to reveal only because it’s very sexual. Yeah that part of my life will be left out lol.

Amplify’d from www.barnesandnoble.com

See more at www.barnesandnoble.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/96cc

Cool Nook Skins

On By Michel McDonaldIn Nook, Products I LikeLeave a comment

Now that I’ve made my choice to buy a Barnes and Noble Nook, it’s time to think about giving it a cool look. I found this website called DecalGirl that has cool skins for many gadgets and this is the skin that I want to buy. It’s only $15 plus shipping and it adds a lot of character to the nook.

They have many other skins that all look good but I really like this one. Who knows, I may get tired of it one day and want to take it off and buy a new one. While I’m there I might get a cool skin for my PSP. The PSP skins that I was looking at are $10.

What I love about these skins is that the screen matches the skin. They give you a code when you buy it to download the image so when you turn it on you automatically see that image. That’s pretty cool. Now I wish I had an iPod and a iPhone that I could skin lol.

Kathy Griffin and Levi?

On By Michel McDonaldIn CelebritiesLeave a comment

kathyleviKathy Griffin is all a twitter about Levi Johnston.  You know, Bristol’s baby daddy.  She has been blogging about spooning with him and even saying she is pregnant.

I love you Kathy Griffin.  You are so funny.  She just loves to hook up with someone who is constantly in the spotlight so that she will be in the spotlight (aka tabloids).

Anybody who is a big giant fan of Kathy Griffin (like ME) knows that she loves the attention so if it takes hooking up with Levi for some attention then you go girl.  Although in my opinion and in many other peoples opinions, she is already off the D-list so she doesn’t need to hook up with Levi.  I’m sure she could get George Clooney if she tried.  Or she could try and steal Brad away from Angelina just like how she took him from Jennifer.  Hey it could happen.

Kathy Griffin’s My Life on the D-List is over for the season and I can’t wait for the next season to air.  In the meantime if you would like to pre-order her book Official Book Club Selection click the link to visit her website and order it through Amazon or Barnes and Noble (BN).