Barnes & Noble announces free Nook app for Windows 8

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have teamed up to offer Windows 8 users a free Nook app for books, magazines, newspapers, and comics.

Readers with Windows 8 PCs have a new free option for enjoying their literature. Barnes & Noble’s subsidiary Nook Media announced the release of a Nook app for the Microsoft operating system. The free app holds all of your books, magazines, newspapers, and comics within an easy-to-use new interface specifically for PCs or tablets running Windows 8.

Like most of the programs available through the official Windows Store, the Nook app capitalizes on the distinguishing features of the OS for a unique new experience. The Live Tiles allow you to jump right back to your spot or see when a new issue of a subscription is available. You also have the option to pin a specific title to your start screen, making it faster to hop back and forth between books. The app contains a Nook Store, so you can purchase additional books without needing to navigate in and out of the program. Between the 3 million titles in the store and the tailored recommendations of the Nook Channels service, you should never be hurting for reading material. 

Another handy feature of the app is the new “paper” user interface, which is meant to offer an uncluttered, easy reading experience. The Nook app interface is also designed to make browsing among your titles easy with the touch capabilities of Windows 8 tablets. And of course, the Windows 8 app will sync with the Nook app across your other mobile devices through the Nook Cloud. That makes it easy to access your books from any computer at any time without missing a page. 

It’s been a busy month for Barnes & Noble, which recently dropped prices on two Nook models as it rolls out the new Nook HD. The Windows 8 Nook app is the first digital property to emerge from the partnership between the bookseller and Microsoft. It shows an understanding of how developers will likely take advantage of the Windows 8 start page, especially in terms of Live Tiles and pinning apps. These types of extra perks will probably become commonplace among the companies that are able to collaborate with Microsoft to create special Windows 8 versions of their programs.