The popular Barnes & Noble Nook Color received a major update the other day, adding even more tablet functionality to the eReader.

The update brings cool apps such as Angry Birds (my favorite iPad game), Pandora, Notes and email. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Here’s a full list of updates via the B&N website:

• Popular Apps (such as the ones I mentioned above, and more!)
• Full Featured Email
• Enhanced Web Experience with Video in Adobe Flash Player
• Nook Friends is the new B&N reading social network
• Nook Kids offers an enhanced reading experience that lets kids interact with the stories
• Upgrades that include faster page turns, multimedia and more!

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The argument over the right price point for ebooks still rages on, though many readers and writers can agree that ebooks should cost less than their print counterparts.

How much less? That’s the big question. Publishers argue if you set the price too low then it will give readers an expectation of that low price and they’ll refuse to pay a penny more.

That argument fails, at least on historic grounds. When paperback books were introduced around the 1930s-ish, people moaned they would be the death of the hardcover because of the cheap prices. Hardcovers are still around and flying off the shelves.

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Everyone wants to find a scapegoat during hard economic times. But to blame something as innocuous as ebooks is just plain silly. That’s exactly what one congressman is saying.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) says, more specifically, that the iPad is to blame. As an example, he cited the recent bankruptcy of Borders Booksellers as an example of how ebooks are ruining the economy:

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February was a good month for ebooks. Ebook sales outperformed all other publishing segments. According to Publishers Weekly, sales jumped over 200%:

E-book sales growth showed no signs of letting up in February, increasing at an even faster rate than they did in January. According to AAP

After taking a one week (unplanned) hiatus, I’ll be back to my regular blogging schedule. I apologize for the unexpected absence. Sometimes life gets busy, especially with a 7-month old baby.

I already have some posts in the works that will be published over the next week. Stay tuned…

I follow the Grateful Dead on Facebook. They might be an older band that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention today, but they sure know how to capitalize on the latest social technology trends.

Aside from giving bits of band history, updates on living band members and interesting GD trivia, fans who follow the GD on Facebook get free songs! I think I’ve downloaded three in the past couple of weeks. We’re talking about full tracks here, not just 30-second samples.

Does this take profits away from the band? Not in the least. Does it cheapen their brand? No way. In fact, since downloading those free songs I’ve been inclined to go onto iTunes and buy some more GD music. The key word being buy.

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If you’re a bargain hunter itching to get your grubby hands on a B&N Nook Wi-Fi, then you’re in luck. Barnes & Noble is selling their Wi-Fi only eReader on Ebay for only $79.

The only catch is you will get a refurbished unit from the manufacturer. This means it was returned for one reason or another but restored to fully working condition and comes with the same warranty you’d get with a new Nook.

For almost half off the regular price, you really have nothing to lose. Barnes & Noble is the Ebay seller in this case, so you probably won’t get ripped off. And no, I’m not an Ebay affiliate trying to rack up a few sales.

NOTE: Read the latest on JK Rowling & Harry Potter in my new post. And don’t forget to check out all the latest Ebook News.

For years JK Rowling has been avoiding ebooks like the plague, worried that an ebook version of her Harry Potter books will only encourage piracy. As I have written over and over again, she’s been making a huge mistake.

Rowling, her lawyer and literary agent have finally come to their collective senses and appear to be seriously considering the release of her Harry Potter series in ebook format.  A person close to Rowling says no definitive decision has been made.

What I find more interesting though is the predicted implications for the ebook industry as a whole if/when Rowling turns Harry Potter digital. It will also mean a very healthy payday for Rowling:

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I remember back around 2002 doing a Google search for ebooks. Most of the results that popped up were ebooks about getting rich, transforming your life in some way, how to work at home and be your own boss, but mostly how to get rich.

Another common thread running through the early days of ebooks was the concept of ‘reselling.’ Reselling means you buy the ebook, then you have the right to turn around and sell it again, often for a profit.

The ebooks in those days were mediocre, at the very best. Most were only available in PDF format. The content was poorly written, sometimes riddled with too many errors to count. A lot of the ebook content seemed like it was scraped together with no attention being made to quality.

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