O'Reilly NOOK User manual
NOOK
Tablet
Preston Gralla
Beijing | Cambridge | Farnham | Köln | Sebastopol | Tokyo
The book that should have been in the box®
NOOK Tablet: The Missing Manual, Ninth Edition
By Preston Gralla
Copyright © 2012 Preston Gralla. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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Editor: Nan Barber
Production Editor: Melanie Yarbrough
Copyeditor: Julie Van Keuren
Illustrations: Robert Romano and
Rebecca Demarest
Indexer: Bob Pfahler
Cover Designer: Monica Kamsvaag
Interior Designers: Ron Bilodeau and J.D.
Biersdorfer
March 2012: First Edition
Revision History for the First Edition:
2012-03-09 First release
See
http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781449317751
for release details.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
NOOK Tablet: The Missing Manual and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly
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products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book,
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While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher
and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting
from the use of the information contained herein.
ISBN: 978-1-449-31775-1
[LSI]
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Contents
The Missing Credits................................... ix
Introduction .......................................... 1
PART I
The Basics
CHAPTER 1
Getting to Know Your NOOK Tablet..................... 11
What Your NOOK Tablet Can Do .................................12
A Quickie Look at the Hardware ................................ 16
The NOOK Button...........................................17
Speaker and Volume Buttons .................................. 19
Headphone Jack........................................... 20
Power Button..............................................21
Sleeping, Locking, and Waking from Sleep ..........................21
USB Port, Connector, and Charger............................... 23
Microphone .............................................. 25
VividView Color Touchscreen .................................. 26
Home Screen ............................................. 27
CHAPTER 2
Setting Up Your NOOK Tablet .......................... 31
Charging Your NOOK Tablet ................................... 31
Initial Setup and Connecting to a Network ......................... 32
Register Your NOOK Tablet ................................... 36
Using and Troubleshooting WiFi ................................ 38
Using Your NOOK Tablet at a Barnes & Noble Store ................... 40
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iv CONTENTS
CHAPTER 3
Using Your NOOK Tablet for the First Time ..............43
Using Gestures to Control the NOOK Tablet ........................ 43
The Keyboard............................................. 46
The Quick Nav Bar ......................................... 49
The Status Bar ............................................ 51
Quick Settings ............................................ 53
The Keep Reading and More Menus .............................. 55
The Daily Shelf ............................................ 56
Media Shortcuts ........................................... 60
Customizing Your Home Screen ................................ 60
Changing Your Wallpaper .................................... 65
Returning Home ........................................... 70
Searching your NOOK ........................................71
PART II
Reading Books and Periodicals
CHAPTER 4
Reading Books, Newspapers, and Magazines ............ 79
Opening a Book ........................................... 79
A Tour of the Book Reader.................................... 81
Using the Table of Contents ................................... 89
Sharing Your Reading ....................................... 92
Changing the Text and Display ................................. 96
Selecting Text, Taking Notes, Highlighting Text, and More ............... 98
Searching in Books ........................................ 106
Reading Mode and Zooming in on Images ........................ 108
Video Inside Books ......................................... 111
Tapping Links............................................. 112
Reading PDFs ............................................ 112
Reading Magazines ......................................... 113
Reading Newspapers........................................120
Reading Comic Books .......................................122
CHAPTER 5
Reading NOOK Kids Books ........................... 125
What Can NOOK Kids Books Do? ...............................125
Buying a NOOK Kids Book ...................................126
Reading a NOOK Kids Book ...................................128
Record Reading a NOOK Kids Book for Your Kids ....................133
Editing or Deleting a Recording ................................137
Backing Up Your Recordings ..................................139
CONTENTS v
PART III
Buying, Borrowing, and Managing Your Library
CHAPTER 6
Buying Books, Magazines, and Newspapers and
Managing Your Library ............................... 145
Browsing and Searching for Books in the NOOK Store .................146
Sampling and Buying Books................................... 151
Browsing and Buying Magazines and Newspapers ....................158
Using the Library to Manage Your Books and Periodicals ...............159
Using The Wishlist .........................................172
Accessing Content on Your SD Card and NOOK Tablet’s Built-in Storage ..... 174
The Library on BN.com, PCs, Macs, and Mobile Devices.................176
Managing your NOOK Account .................................178
CHAPTER 7
Borrowing and Lending Books with LendMe and
Your Local Library ................................... 181
Both a Borrower and a Lender Be ............................... 181
Lending and Borrowing Books with LendMe ........................182
Seeing Your List of Lendable Books..............................184
Lending a Book ...........................................187
Borrowing a Book..........................................194
Borrowing Books from the Library...............................201
PART IV
Apps, Movies,
TV Shows, Music, Photographs, and Files
CHAPTER 8
Streaming Media: Pandora, Netflix, and Hulu Plus ....... 211
Understanding Streaming Media ................................ 211
Using Netflix .............................................212
Using Hulu Plus ...........................................219
Using Pandora ........................................... 228
CHAPTER 9
Downloading and Using Apps.........................233
Running Apps ........................................... 234
Managing and Deleting Apps ................................. 235
Built-in NOOK Apps ....................................... 236
Getting Apps in the NOOK Store............................... 238
Five Great Apps to Download ................................. 243
Troubleshooting Apps ...................................... 250
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER 10
Music, Pictures, Video, and Documents ................253
Getting Files into Your NOOK ................................. 253
Playing Music and Audio Files................................. 254
Using the My Media App for Viewing Photos and Playing Video .......... 267
Working with Oce Documents ............................... 272
CHAPTER 11
Transferring Files Between Your NOOK Tablet and
Your Computer......................................277
Installing an SD Card ....................................... 277
Transferring Files to Your NOOK Tablet .......................... 282
Finding Books Online to Transfer to Your NOOK Tablet ................ 286
Browsing and Managing Files on your NOOK Tablet .................. 287
PART V
The Web and Email
CHAPTER 12
Surfing the Web..................................... 291
A Tour of the NOOK Tablet’s Browser.............................291
The Address Bar.......................................... 294
Navigating a Web Page ..................................... 296
Tapping Links............................................ 298
Multiple Windows ......................................... 300
Bookmarks ............................................. 302
Most Visited and History Lists ................................. 306
Finding Text, Getting Page Information, and More ....................310
Refreshing Pages, Going Forward, and More ........................313
Saving Online Images .......................................314
Web Pages Designed for Mobile Devices ..........................318
Online Privacy and Security .................................. 320
Changing Your Home Page, Text Size, and More Settings .............. 323
Disabling the Browser ...................................... 325
CHAPTER 13
Using Email.........................................329
Set Up an Account ........................................ 329
Reading Mail ............................................ 335
Replying to Messages .......................................341
Composing Email ......................................... 344
Managing and Searching Mail ................................. 346
CONTENTS vii
Managing Multiple Accounts and Advanced Email Options ............. 352
Understanding Gmail’s Organization ............................ 355
Gmail’s Labels ........................................... 356
PART VI
Getting Social
CHAPTER 14
NOOK Friends, Facebook, Twitter, and Beyond ......... 361
What Can You Do with NOOK Friends? ...........................361
Getting Started with NOOK Friends............................. 362
Adding Friends to NOOK Friends .............................. 363
Using Friends Activities ......................................371
Using About Me .......................................... 373
Using LendMe ........................................... 374
Linking Your NOOK Tablet to Facebook .......................... 376
Linking Your NOOK Tablet to Twitter ............................ 379
Using Facebook and Twitter on Your NOOK Tablet................... 382
CHAPTER 15
Managing Your Contacts .............................387
Importing Your Google and Gmail Contacts ....................... 387
Importing Facebook Contacts................................. 392
Creating a New Contact..................................... 392
Searching and Browsing Contacts .............................. 392
PART VII
Advanced Topics
CHAPTER 16
Settings............................................399
Device Info ............................................. 400
Wireless ............................................... 405
Screen ................................................ 407
Sounds ................................................ 409
Time.................................................. 410
Security ................................................ 411
Power Save ..............................................413
Keyboard ...............................................414
Home ..................................................415
Shop...................................................416
Reader .................................................418
Search .................................................419
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viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER 17
Rooting Your NOOK ................................. 421
Understanding Rooting ..................................... 422
What You Need to Know about the NOOK Software and Rooting......... 423
Rooting Your NOOK Temporarily with a MicroSD Card ................ 424
Rooting the Built-in Flash Memory ............................. 428
Unrooting Your NOOK ...................................... 429
PART VI
II
Appendixes
APPENDIX A
Maintenance and Troubleshooting.....................433
Unfreezing a Frozen NOOK .................................. 433
Fixing SD Card Woes....................................... 434
Cleaning Your NOOK’s Screen................................. 435
Updating the NOOK’s Software................................ 435
Warranty and Repair ....................................... 439
Where to Get Help ........................................ 439
NOOK Accessories ........................................ 440
APPENDIX B
File Formats ....................................... 443
APPENDIX C
Visiting B&N with Your NOOK Tablet.................. 447
Index ..............................................453
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About the Author
Preston Gralla (author) is the author of more than 40 books
that have been translated into 20 languages, including Samsung
Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual,Droid X: The Missing Manual,
Droid 2: The Missing Manual, Big Book of Windows Hacks,
Windows Vista in a Nutshell, How the Internet Works, and How
Wireless Works. He is a contributing editor to Computerworld, a
founder and editor-in-chief of Case Study Forum, and was a founding editor and
then editorial director of PC/Computing, executive editor for CNet/ZDNet, and
the founding managing editor of PC Week.
He has written about technology for many national newspapers and maga-
zines, including USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News
(for whom he wrote a technology column), PC World, and numerous others. As
a widely recognized technology expert, he has made many television and radio
appearances, including on the CBS “Early Show”, MSNBC, ABC “World News
Now”, and National Public Radio. Under his editorship, PC/Computing was a
finalist for General Excellence in the National Magazine Awards. He has also won
the Best Feature in a Computing Publication award from the Computer Press
Association.
Gralla is also the recipient of a 2010–2011 Fiction Fellowship from the
Massachusetts Cultural Council. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his
wife (his two children have flown the coop). He welcomes feedback about his
books by email at preston@gralla.com.
The Missing Credits
x THE MISSING CREDITS
About the Creative Team
Nan Barber (editor) has worked with the Missing Manual series since its incep-
tion—long enough to remember booting up her computer from a floppy disk.
Email: nanbarber@oreilly.com.
Melanie Yarbrough (production editor) lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
where she works as a production editor. When not ushering books through
production, she’s writing and baking whatever she can think up. Email:
myarbrough@oreilly.com.
Bob Pfahler (indexer) is a freelance indexer who indexed this book on
behalf of Potomac Indexing, LLC, an international indexing partnership at
www.potomacindexing.com. Besides the subject of computer software, he spe-
cializes in business, management, biography, and history. He can be reached at
bobpfahler@hotmail.com.
Julie Van Keuren (proofreader) quit her newspaper job in 2006 to move to
Montana and live the freelancing dream. She and her husband M.H. (who
is living the novel-writing dream) have two sons, Dexter and Michael. Email:
little_media@yahoo.com.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks go to my editor Nan Barber, who not only patiently shepherded
this book through the lengthy writing and publishing process, but provided
valuable feedback and sharpened my prose. Thanks also go to Brian Sawyer, for
making the introduction that ultimately led to this book.
I’d also like to thank all the other folks at O’Reilly who worked on this book,
especially Melanie Yarbrough for bringing the beautiful finished product to frui-
tion, Julie Van Keuren for excising errors, and Bob Pfahler for writing the index.
—Preston Gralla
The Missing Manual Series
Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that
don’t come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book
features a handcrafted index and cross-references to specific pages (not just
chapters).
THE MISSING CREDITS xi
Recent and upcoming titles include:
Access 2010: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Buying a Home: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner
CSS: The Missing Manual, Second Edition, by David Sawyer McFarland
Creating a Website: The Missing Manual, Third Edition, by Matthew MacDonald
David Pogue’s Digital Photography: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Dreamweaver CS5.5: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland
Droid 2: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Droid X2: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Excel 2010: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Facebook: The Missing Manual, Third Edition by E.A. Vander Veer
FileMaker Pro 11: The Missing Manual by Susan Prosser and Stuart Gripman
Flash CS5.5: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover
Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Galaxy Tab: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Google+: The Missing Manual by Kevin Purdy
Google Apps: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner
Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover
HTML5: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
iMovie ’11 & iDVD: The Missing Manual by David Pogue and Aaron Miller
iPad 2: The Missing Manual, Third Edition by J.D. Biersdorfer
iPhone: The Missing Manual, Fifth Edition by David Pogue
iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual by Craig Hockenberry
iPhoto ’11: The Missing Manual by David Pogue and Lesa Snider
iPod: The Missing Manual, Tenth Edition by J.D. Biersdorfer and David Pogue
JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by David Sawyer
McFarland
Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual by Peter Meyers
Living Green: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner
Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
xii THE MISSING CREDITS
Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Microsoft Project 2010: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
Motorola Xoom: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Netbooks: The Missing Manual by J.D. Biersdorfer
Office 2010: The Missing Manual by Nancy Connor, Chris Grover, and Matthew
MacDonald
Office 2011 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover
Palm Pre: The Missing Manual by Ed Baig
Personal Investing: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual by Lesa Snider
Photoshop Elements 10: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage
PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual by Brett McLaughlin
PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual by E.A. Vander Veer
Premiere Elements 8: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover
QuickBase: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner
QuickBooks 2012: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Lion Edition by David Pogue
Wikipedia: The Missing Manual by John Broughton
Windows Vista: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Windows 7: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Word 2007: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover
Your Body: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Your Brain: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Your Money: The Missing Manual by J.D. Roth
For a full list of all Missing Manuals in print, go to www.missingmanuals.com/
library.html.
WHAT GIVES YOU ACCESS
to the world’s greatest literature, today’s bestsell-
ers, tomorrow’s up-and-coming authors, the world’s top newspapers and maga-
zines, TV shows and movies, great games, email, and more?
It’s the NOOK Tablet—a great combo eReader and Android tablet from the
bookseller Barnes & Noble.
This book will help you get the most out of your NOOK Tablet, and there’s a lot
you can get out of it, as you’ll see. Whether you’re looking just to get started or
want to dig deep into the tablet’s capabilities, this book’s got you covered.
NOTE This book covers the features available on the NOOK Color as well as the NOOK Tablet. When
the NOOK Color differs in any significant way from the NOOK Tablet, we’ll let you know.
About the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color
You likely already know that the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color are eReaders
that let you read thousands of books, magazines, and newspapers, as well as
documents created with Microsoft Office and PDF files—and do all that in a nifty,
lightweight, easy-to-carry, elegant piece of hardware.
But that’s just the beginning of what these amazing devices can do. Even though
at eight inches high, five inches wide, and less than half an inch thick, they’re
smaller, more portable, and less expensive than many other tablets, they do just
about everything that bulkier, costlier tablets can do. And they’re certainly light
to carry, at just under 16 ounces.
Introduction
2 INTRODUCTION
Want to stream the latest movies and TV shows to it? Yes, it can do that. And
you’ll find the screen well suited for TV and movie watching, because it’s crisp
and clear with a high resolution. Movies and TV shows are often clearer and
sharper on the NOOK’s high-resolution screen than on larger tablets.
There’s a lot more to the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color than reading and watch-
ing TV and movies. Want to browse to any website? Read and compose email?
Keep track of all your contacts?
Yes, it does all that as well.
How about playing Internet radio stations, playing games, sharing books with
your friends, discussing books with others, borrowing books from the library?
Yes, it does all that and more. You can also download thousands of apps that
do pretty much anything you want. In short, the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color
are eReaders but also powerful, very portable tablets. You don’t want to wait to
make use of all their amazing capabilities, though. That’s where this book comes
in—it will put you on the fast track to all the NOOK’s magic.
Buying a NOOK
Before you can start using a NOOK Tablet or NOOK Color, you need to buy one.
If you’ve got a Barnes & Noble store near you (and you likely do, considering
how many there are), head for the NOOK section—pretty much all the stores
have one, and the salespeople are more than happy to help you find it. You can
hold NOOKs in your hands, try them out, and ask for advice about them. And
once you do that, you’ll most likely want to buy one.
As this book goes to press, the NOOK Color costs $169, and the NOOK Tablet
costs either $199 or $249, depending on the amount of storage. Why the price
difference? For starters, the NOOK Tablet comes with a 1 GHz dual-core proces-
sor and 1 GB of RAM, while the NOOK Color has a 800 Mhz single-core proces-
sor and 512 MB of RAM. What does that mean in real-world terms? The NOOK
Tablet will do things faster for you than will the NOOK Color. That doesn’t mean
the NOOK Color isn’t fast, because it is. It means that that the NOOK Tablet
is super-fast. In addition, the $249 NOOK Tablet comes with twice the built-in
memory (16 GB for the NOOK Tablet versus 8 GB for the NOOK Color). The $199
NOOK Tablet comes with 8 GB of built-in memory.
Those prices may change, though. So be on the lookout for the special deals
that Barnes & Noble occasionally runs. For example, in one special, you could
buy a NOOK Color for $99 if you also purchased a one-year subscription to the
digital versions of either
The
New York Times or People magazine to read on
INTRODUCTION 3
the NOOK Color. Deals like this come and go, so make sure to ask whether any
specials or discounts are available before you buy. Barnes & Noble is pushing
the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color heavily, so there’s a good chance you’ll be
able to find some kind of deal. Do a web search for terms such “NOOK deals” to
see if any are available. Also make sure to head to
www.barnesandnoble.com
or
www.bn.com on the Web, and then click the NOOK icon to see if there are any
specials in effect.
TIP Barnes & Noble stores aren’t the only retail outlets where you can buy a NOOK Tablet or a NOOK
Color—other stores have them as well. For example, many Best Buy stores also stock them.
If you’re not near a Barnes & Noble store or other retail outlet that stocks NOOKs,
or if you just prefer buying over the Internet, the www.bn.com website is a great
place to buy. Shipping is typically free, so you won’t pay extra for the conve-
nience of buying online. And you can also buy at some other online outlets, such
as www.bestbuy.com.
Finally, if you plan to use the NOOK outside your home, strongly consider buy-
ing a cover or case. A cover protects your NOOK and its screen from damages,
so they’re well worth the small investment. They typically range in price from
$15 all the way up to $90 for designer-name leather ones. Some covers are great
for commuters, because you can just flip open the top, start reading, and then
flip the top down when you’re done. You’ll find a good selection at Barnes &
Noble and other retailers.
About This Book
There’s an entire world to explore in the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color, and the
little leaflet that comes in the box doesn’t begin to give you all the help, advice,
and guidance you need. So this book is the manual that should have accompa-
nied the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color. This book refers to the NOOK Tablet, or
the NOOK generally, but that information also applies to the NOOK Color. The
book indicates those few instances in which the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color
work differently.
The brain running the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color is a piece of software from
Google called Android. Barnes & Noble then tweaked Android quite dramati-
cally to turn it into an eReader and tablet. So the NOOK doesn’t look like or
work like other Android tablets you may have seen—but underneath it all, it’s
an Android.
Free ebooks ==> www.Ebook777.com
4 INTRODUCTION
There’s a chance that since this book was written, there have been some changes
to the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color. To help keep yourself up to date about
them, head to this book’s Errata/Changes page, at http://nooktab-mm.
About the Outline
NOOK Tablet: The Missing Manual is divided into eight parts, each of which has
several chapters:
• Part 1, The Basics, covers everything you need to know about using the
NOOK as an eReader and a tablet. It gives you a guided tour of the hard-
ware, shows you how to set up the NOOK so it works just the way you like,
and then shows you how to use it for the first time. By the time you finish
you’ll be a pro.
• Part 2, Reading Books, Newspapers, and Magazines, shows you every-
thing you need to know about reading using your NOOK. You’ll become an
instant expert at using all of its remarkable reading tools, including using
bookmarks and notes, changing font and text size, and searching inside
books and publications. And it also has an entire chapter devoted to kids’
books, including how you can record your voice reading a book to your
children.
• Part 3, Buying, Borrowing, and Managing Your Library, covers how to
buy books, newspapers, and magazines, and then track them in your own
personal library. You’ll find out how to find what you want to buy fast and
get the lowdown about it, and then keep track of everything in a customiz-
able library. And you’ll also see how you can borrow books from friends,
and lend to them as well—and how you can borrow books for free from the
library.
• Part 4, Apps, Movies, TV Shows, Music, Photographs, and Files lets you
take advantage of many of the NOOK’s most remarkable features. You’ll
see how to find, download, install and use thousands of apps, and get
recommendations for some of the best ones on the planet. You’ll also see
how you can watch movies and TV shows, as well as listen to streaming
Internet radio stations—or play your own music collection. Also included
is how to transfer files to your NOOK, and how to use the NOOK’s built-in
music player.
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Table of contents
