Nook, Barnes & Noble's $250 e-reader, is now the cheapest Android tablet with today's addition of Android 2.2 Froyo to the Nook Color. B&N also announced the device offers 125 apps including Flash, Facebook and the ever-popular Angry Birds.

As Nook makes a run at iPad's market share by adding the "most-requested" tablet features, B&N also just rolled out a new advertising campaign for the Staples-bound device, "Read Forever," which touts the joys of reading, "whether by book or by NOOK."

Dow closes above 12,000 for first time since Japan quake on momentum from big deals, easing nuclear worries as Japan reports progress (though contamination fears linger) and the nation starts to rebuild its infrastructure.

With shares of AT&T and Deutsche Telekom trading up, Verizon and Sprint attract speculation in wake of AT&T/T-Mobile deal.

Facebook is getting serious about payments.

Microsoft is suing Barnes & Noble over the Android OS in its Nook e-book reader.

NFL and players' legal jousting continued today.

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty eyes the 2012 Republican presidential candidacy.Continue reading...

Just about a year ago, we were talking about the inevitability of a Borders bankruptcy. That day is finally here — and the only surprise is that it took as long as it did.

Borders, the embattled US bookseller that once competed with the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today and will close about 200 stores out of around 640 and reduce its staff.

It's still expressing optimism that it can manage a comeback. Its Twitter feed today responded to a concerned customer, "Our goal is to emerge from the Chapter 11 process as a vibrant destination for books & more for years!"Continue reading...

Barnes & Noble is running this new TV spot for its Nook Color e-reader, although the device is unavailable for two weeks, sparking all manner of speculation.

Barnes & Noble isn't letting Apple's iPad or Amazon's Kindle steal the spotlight this holiday season, if B&N can help it. It's pitching its NOOKcolor e-book reader directly to the market that most appreciates color pictures in books — kids, and their parents — opening an enormous and lucrative portal to illustrated e-books.

With more than 12,000 digital books for kids and some persistent marketing this holiday selling season, B&N just may succeed in reaching the one million e-readers shipped benchmark by year-end.Continue reading...

The online world has brought us the wonder of instant free global knowledge, but with it has come the reality that "free" really isn't. Often, advertising is the price the consumer pays for unfettered access to a vast wealth of information.

Now, it seems, that same principle is being tested with pretty much the last ad-free medium available — books. Publishers and authors have long resisted placing ads in printed books, but with the e-book market rapidly growing in acceptance, the publishing model not only might change; it is changing.Continue reading...

Amazon has made no secret of Kindle's success on its site. Its homepage has been promoting it with a call-out noting that it's the #1 best-selling, #1 most wished for and #1 most-gifted item for sale on its site. To the delight of analysts, the notoriously close-mouthed (when it comes to actual sales stats) e-tail giant went further this morning.Continue reading...

You can thank the e-readers Kindle and nook, just released in a color version, for pushing mass adoption of e-books.

Forrester Research says e-book sales could reach close to $1 billion in 2010, over three times the sales last year. But now that Amazon and Barnes & Noble have done the heavy lifting, the big bad wolf is getting into the market.

Search giant Google is on the verge of launching Google Editions — which was announced earlier this year in the wake of a landmark Google Books agreement and hotly debated since — in the US by the end of the year, and internationally early next year.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new service will enable users to buy e-books from multiple online retailers as well as Google. Users add the books to an online library connected to a Google account and can access them on virtually any device with a Web browser.

The Google Editions "read anywhere" model is what makes the service different.Continue reading...