B&N Nook 1.5 Firmware goes live, finally adds crucial features

[Bateluer]

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/container/standard_bothnavs.asp?PID=35681&cds2Pid=35699

NOOK V1.5 improves performance while adding great new features. Key updates include:
1. NEW! Stay in Sync Across Multiple Devices
Automatically sync the last page you read on your NOOK or NOOK app with another. For instance, if you stop reading on a certain page on your NOOK, you'll automatically open to the same exact place on your iPad, iPhone or Android-based Smartphone using our FREE NOOK apps.
2. NEW! Stay Organized with "My Shelves"
Create, name and organize shelves in "My B&N Library" and "My Documents" in "My Shelves". For instance, you can put all your cookbooks on one shelf, all your spy novels on another shelf, for quick and easy access.
3. NEW! Password Protect Your NOOK
Your NOOK can now be secured in two ways to prevent unauthorized use. First - you can set up your NOOK to lock when it goes into sleep mode, then unlock it with a pass code. Second - you can require a password to purchase content, so others using your NOOK cannot buy anything without your permission.
4. Faster page turns, improved search, and other optimization

Bout damn time.

 

[gorcorps]

This is not at all what was announced before. They said they were going to integrate the My Documents and B&N Library to be one collection, and you could use coverflow on everything on your device. All they did was add the shelves thing, which doesn't help much at all. I still have 2 separate libraries that I have to toggle between to get to all my books. What is so god damned hard about putting everything into a single fucking list?

Jesus christ... I wish I just got the Kindle. At least the page turns are actually faster.

 

[JACKHAMMER]

If I update, will Calibre still work? Just got my Nook today, and have only loaded a handful of books onto it

 

[gorcorps]

If I update, will Calibre still work? Just got my Nook today, and have only loaded a handful of books onto it

It shouldn't have any problems. The nook is always read as just a flash drive so calibre doesn't need to do anything special to see it. It still keeps all your books on it too after the update, and saves your pages in the books you were in the middle of.

 

[JACKHAMMER]

It shouldn't have any problems. The nook is always read as just a flash drive so calibre doesn't need to do anything special to see it. It still keeps all your books on it too after the update, and saves your pages in the books you were in the middle of.

Cool. Updating as we speak

 

[Bateluer]

This is not at all what was announced before. They said they were going to integrate the My Documents and B&N Library to be one collection, and you could use coverflow on everything on your device. All they did was add the shelves thing, which doesn't help much at all. I still have 2 separate libraries that I have to toggle between to get to all my books. What is so god damned hard about putting everything into a single fucking list?

Jesus christ... I wish I just got the Kindle. At least the page turns are actually faster.

The Shelves thing was something that the nook needed from day 1, having any more than 10 books on the nook, in either library, made the device tedious to use. Doesn't help at all my butt, it makes the device actually useful for the purpose it was built for.

Don't care much about Core Flow myself, its gimmicky and adds nothing to the device.

I haven't used a Kindle personally, but how much slower is the nook than the Kindle? Page turns for me on the 1.4 firmware take about the same amount of time as turning a printed page. I understand it gets slower as you decrease the font size though.

Calibre should work fine, I would think. And if it doesn't, it'll get support quick enough. Damn thing updates every couple of days.

 

[gorcorps]

The Shelves thing was something that the nook needed from day 1, having any more than 10 books on the nook, in either library, made the device tedious to use. Doesn't help at all my butt, it makes the device actually useful for the purpose it was built for.

Don't care much about Core Flow myself, its gimmicky and adds nothing to the device.

I haven't used a Kindle personally, but how much slower is the nook than the Kindle? Page turns for me on the 1.4 firmware take about the same amount of time as turning a printed page. I understand it gets slower as you decrease the font size though.

Calibre should work fine, I would think. And if it doesn't, it'll get support quick enough. Damn thing updates every couple of days.

It's not just the flow thing, it's that they should all be in the same list if I choose. I have some books that I got through B&N, then have some already on the PC that I upload. Having to go backwards in menus just to choose a "different library" that's on the same device is incredibly frustrating.

I'm not sure how the Kindle handles. I was just commenting that at least the Nook update actually DID make the page turns faster, where as it DIDN'T make it any easier to navigate (for me). I've just been waiting for certain basic features so long that I kind of regret choosing it over the Kindle.

 

[JACKHAMMER]

Confirmed, Calibre does work fine.

 

[Bateluer]

It's not just the flow thing, it's that they should all be in the same list if I choose. I have some books that I got through B&N, then have some already on the PC that I upload. Having to go backwards in menus just to choose a "different library" that's on the same device is incredibly frustrating.

Same with me, but I've many more books in the My Docs folder than the B&N Libary, so I spend most of my time there. Been avoiding buying many books because of the lack of organization. Once I get this set up, I'm going to starting buying more books instead of re-reading epubs of my printed collection. Woot!

 

[MagickMan]

I installed it and my Nook seems a lot more "snappy" now. Good update.

 

[gorcorps]

I installed it and my Nook seems a lot more "snappy" now. Good update.

Yup, they definitely boosted the page turn speed a lot. Now it's quicker then I can flip through a real book

 

[Bateluer]

I installed it and my Nook seems a lot more "snappy" now. Good update.

Definitely seems quicker for me as well.

Anyone have any experience with the magazine subscriptions on their nooks? Looking into getting a sub to one of the sci-fi magazines, 3 bucks a month seems like a steal compared to the 20+ a month for a printed edition.