You’ve opened the box to find your shiny (at least the screen is shiny; the back has a comfortable matte finish) new NOOK Tablet, USB cord, and power adapter. What now? If you’ve already found the included “Quick Start Guide” tucked under the device, you’ll know how to press the power button to turn on the device, but not a whole lot more than that.
In this chapter, you’ll take a tour beyond the power button and opening splash screen to see what’s on the surface and get a taste of what’s just beneath in this easy-to-carry, do-everything device.
When we say that the NOOK Tablet is a do-everything device, that’s not hyperbole. That’s the honest truth. Take a gander at this list of its many capabilities.
The NOOK Tablet has been designed from the ground up to be a great ereader. It’s easy on the eyes, lets you carry thousands of books in its thin frame, and adds many reading extras, such as bookmarking, note-taking, and more. It lets you get books from the world’s largest bookstore, with more than 2.5 million books, sample the books for free—and when you do buy, get them at discount compared to hardcover and soft cover, with most under $10.
With a NOOK Tablet, books really come alive, because music and video can be embedded right inside the book itself. See a recipe you like, and want details about how to go about using it? A cookbook, for example, can have videos in it showing you exactly what to do. Books with additional content like this are called Enhanced. They’ll have that label on then when you shop for books, so you’ll know ahead of time that you’re getting one.
Interactive kids’ books can include video and music, and the NOOK Tablet can read them aloud to kids—in fact, you can record your own voice doing that.
Just like you can borrow and lend books with your friends, you can do that same thing with many books on your NOOK Tablet, using the LendME feature. You’ll even be able to borrow library books on it.
You’ll be able to read countless newspapers and magazines on your NOOK Tablet, usually either on a subscription basis, or buying a single copy.
The NOOK Tablet’s spectacular screen lets you watch TV and movies on Hulu Plus and Netflix that’s built right into it. (you’ll have to pay for subscriptions.) There’s also a video player for playing other videos.
The built-in music player and reader does all the work for you, and NOOK Tablet features makes it easy to find all the audio content you want.
The NOOK Tablet has a Web browser built right into it, so you’ll be able to go to any Web site on the Internet and view its full content, including videos.
Dying to play the latest game (Hungry Birds, anyone?) or run the latest cool app? The NOOK Tablet lets you do that, with its built in Apps store. Many are free, and even for-pay apps, are often quite inexpensive.
Note
Techies may want to know that the NOOK Tablet is based on the Android operating system from Google, which also runs many smartphones and tablets. Many of the apps written for smartphones and tablets also run on the NOOK Tablet.
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