Dear Barnes & Noble - FIX THE NOOK COLOR!!!

I got a Nook Color for Christmas several years ago. I LOVE the thing, and I haven't even rooted it yet. With the wifi support, I can jump online just about anywhere. It has Flash support, which gives me a bit more flexibility and control than Apple products do (even though I loathe Flash). It has support for apps, though I don't like that I'm locked into B&N's app store, and don't have access to either the Android Marketplace or the Amazon store (and yes, I know if I root it it solves those issues, but that's beside the point).

But there is one thing about the device I DO NOT like, at all, period, end of story.

There is a software issue around battery life.

How do I know it's a software issue? Because a hard reset to factory defaults resolves the problem.

So, what's the problem with the battery? Well, occasionally the device will stop going into sleep or hibernate modes, even though the screen blanks out. This means battery consumption is going on at full tilt in the background, even though you think you shut it down. 8 hours or so later, you have a dead Nook. Recharge, wash, rinse, repeat. The only way to "fix" the problem is to do a hard reset to factory defaults.

Once you do that, say goodbye to your background, your desktop settings, basically any customizations you've made to your setup. You get to do all that again, and it can be a pain.

I had hoped the last OS patch would fix the problem, but evidently not, since it just happened to me again. At least this time, I've figured out the common cause, and least for every time I've experienced the issue.

DO NOT LET YOUR BATTERY FULLY DISCHARGE!


Every time I've had the problem, it's after I've allowed the battery to run flat. Keep it charged up, and it keeps trucking. If a reset to factory defaults resolves the problem, then there must be a software fix that will resolve the problem.

B&N Engineering and Development and R&D, I'm looking at you guys. I've diagnosed it for you (but I'm going to guess you're already aware of it). Now reproduce the problem (won't take you more than 10 hours or so) and fix it.

I am waiting not-so-patiently.

Edited to add: The @NOOK_Care twitter feed provided me an email address to someone at B&N, and asked me to send them an email. I have done so, and will post any updates or replies that I receive.

Updates, get your updates!!

Well, look here.

Barnes & Noble has released update 1.4.1 for the Nook Color.

The biggest feature in this update is that they added the Netflix streaming client. Since they had it on the Nook Tablet, I was hoping they would put it over on the Color as well, and it seems they have.

It also looks like they finally added landscape mode support for reading, which given the free-flow nature of ePub, I always wondered why they didn't have.

Now, the one thing that I hope is in here, but I don't see mentioned specifically, is a fix for the suspend mode issue. Basically, periodically it will refuse to go to sleep, and the battery runs down inside 8 hours. The only way to fix this is to do a hard reset to restore to factory defaults. That didn't start happening until I installed 1.3.1 (as best I can tell) so I'm hoping it's just a software glitch that they have finally corrected.

Oh, and there are a few other eye candy updates as well that seem interesting.

So, you can either wait until the rolling update hits your Color automatically, or you can follow that link above and manually update by side-loading the update file.

I don't get e-book pricing

So, Barnes & Noble announced today that Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is now available on the Nook.

I love that book, and so was excited about the opportunity to get it as an e-book. And then I saw the price. $10?!?!?!?!

Really, B&N?

Your own website has the trade paperback for $7.

Manufacturing and distribution costs are significantly lower for e-books, so why the markup? Just because it's new?

I'm reminded of 6 months or so ago when a bunch of old Star Wars books were released. These are books that were last printed 15-20 years ago, and the hit the Nook at $8 - $10 price points.

Even if it's newly released, I have a hard time believing that an e-book should be priced the same as the brand-new cover price of a trade paperback.