Barnes & Noble employees aren’t satisfied with the Nook training they are receiving, and feel it is affecting their ability to provide customers with good technical support.

I frequent a lot of forums in the book, technology and gadget areas to see what others are saying. One such forum is called the Barnes & Noble Breakroom. It’s for employees to talk shop about working at the largest book chain in the country.

Here’s an interesting thread that recently caught my eye:

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Amazon announced yesterday that subscribers to the Kindle edition of the New York Times will gain free access to the NYT website. The paper recently erected a paywall (which is ridiculously easy to bypass) that officially went live Monday March 28.

Here’s the press release from Amazon:

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I’ve purchased a lot of ebooks since I bought the 1st generation Sony eReader back in 2007. Most of the books I bought were really good, but others I didn’t even finish.

Because of the ‘convenience factor’ ebooks have (you can buy them on a whim without a trip to the bookstore), it’s easy to start buying ebooks without much thought. And even at the average price of $9.99 a pop, it adds up fast.

Let’s face it, not every book we buy is a ‘winner.’ I’ve bought some pretty bad books in my life. I’d hate to add up how much I’ve spent on bad books. It’s pretty depressing think about.

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Amazon has caught on to at least one Kindle lending website, where users can borrow ebooks from other users by utilizing Amazon’s ebook lending service.

The website Lendle had their API cut off by Amazon. The API allowed Kindle users to link their Amazon accounts to the Lendle site, giving others access to lendable ebooks in their library.

Ars Technica describes how the service works:

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Amazon officially launched their Android AppStore today, they said in a press release. The AppStore will allow customers to buy apps for any of their android devices, whether it be a phone or tablet.

One interesting feature of the AppStore is what they call ‘Test Drive.’ This allows you to try before you buy. According to the press release:

“Test Drive lets customers truly experience an app before they commit to buying. It is a unique, new way to shop for apps,” says Paul Ryder, vice president of electronics for Amazon.com. “Our customers have told us that the sheer number of apps available can make it hard to find apps that are high quality and relevant to them. We’ve spent years developing innovative features that help customers discover relevant products. By applying these features – plus new ones like Test Drive – we’re aiming to give customers a refreshing app shopping experience.”

Amazon also says they will be giving away a paid app for free, every day.

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Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest bookseller, is exploring the idea of buying their competitor Borders Group. This comes after a tough year for Borders, which declared bankruptcy earlier and had their stock delisted on NYSE.

There has been previous rumors of Borders acquiring Barnes & Noble with the help of investors, but so far those rumors have been unfounded.

According to this post on thebookseller.com, a B&N takeover of Borders could pose antitrust issues:

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Ebook sales continue to increase, despite a shaky economy and Borders Booksellers declaring bankruptcy earlier in the year. No doubt the increased sales are helped by the recent flood of tablet computers.

An article from Reuters says that ebook sales for January are up 115% compared to January 2010. This is according to the Association of American Publishers.

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I almost didn’t write this post because I didn’t want to appear insensitive to the disaster in Japan. Nor do I want people to think I only care about how the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown affects the technology we enjoy in the US and around the world.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese people first and foremost. I can’t imagine what they are going through and I hope they can get on the path to rebuilding soon.

That said, a lot of the components going into the iPad 2 come from Japan. So there are going to be supply issues down the road.

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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that even major news publications can make mistakes. Everything from spelling and punctuation errors to getting names wrong in a story. It happens.

But I usually don’t see many mistakes in news headlines – online or print.

Yesterday, I found a doozy.

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We’ve known this has been coming for a long time. And now it’s here. The New York Times has implemented it’s paywall in an attempt to increase revenue.

NYT offers three subscription levels. For $15 you get unlimited access to everything on the NYT website. For $20, you get unlimited access to the website plus access to their tablet app. Finally, for $35, you get all the above plus access to their smartphone app. Note that all plans are billed in increments of 4 weeks.

Why they can’t just have the two plans: The basic $15 and the $35 plans. It seems silly to pay $20 for website access and tablet access only.

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