Chapter 11. Getting Started with Your NOOK

Congratulations on your new NOOK. The NOOK second edition was released by B&N on June 4, 2011. This new NOOK features a touchscreen interface, removes the dual-screen of the first edition, and is smaller in size; reading on it is comfortable, though, and you won’t notice any loss because of the size difference. Actually, the reading experience is significantly improved.

Before getting into the details of using your NOOK, you need to do some things right now.

Understanding NOOK Gestures

You control your NOOK, excepting the Power button, Home button, and page turn controls, with gestures:

• Tap: This is the most common gesture. Just press your finger to the screen and raise it. Usually you use this gesture with buttons and covers.

• Double Tap: This is the same as the Tap gesture, but just do it twice quickly.

• Swipe Left/Swipe Right: The gesture, mostly, for turning pages. Like a tap, touch your finger on the screen and quickly drag it to the left (or right) and lift your finger up.

• Scroll: Essentially the vertical version of the Swipe gesture. You can control the speed of the scroll by swiping up or down more rapidly. You can slow down or stop the scroll by tapping the screen (to stop) or pressing and holding to slow the scroll.

The NOOK Buttons

The NOOK features six physical buttons:

• Power: This does what it promises: turns your NOOK on or off. If you press it briefly while your NOOK is on, the NOOK goes to sleep. If the NOOK is asleep and you press it briefly, the NOOK wakes up.

• Home: The Home button (it’s the lowercase n below the screen) shows you the Quick Nav Bar and is your way to change settings, go shopping, and so on. If you want to get back to a starting point, just press the Home button and tap Home.

If your NOOK is asleep, press this button to wake it up (and then drag your finger from left to right on the arrows at the bottom of the screen).

• Page Turn: These four buttons turn the page backward or forward and are alternatives to swiping left or right to turn the page. By default, the top buttons advance you forward one page and the bottom buttons take you backward in the book.

Registering Your NOOK

When you first turn on your NOOK, it asks you to register it to get started. The first step in getting started with your NOOK is to register it with Barnes & Noble (simply B&N from now on). To register your NOOK, you need an account on the B&N website. If you don’t have one already, you can create one in the process of setting up your new NOOK.

Tap Next on the screen. You then see a screen with Terms and Conditions. Tap Agree if you agree to the terms. The next screen is the Time Zone screen. Tap the circle corresponding to your time zone and then tap Next.

The next part is to set up your Wi-Fi connection. (Or you can go into a B&N store where it has a connection you can connect to.) Your NOOK displays the available networks. Tap your network. If it is a secure network, enter the password and tap Done. Tap Continue with Setup.

On the Register Your NOOK screen, enter the email address and password you use to sign in to your account on the B&N website; then tap Sign In on the touchscreen. To move from the email field to the password field on the registration screen, tap in the Password field. If you need to create an account, tap Create Account and enter the required details.

You are then taken to the Get Started screen. You can tap Shop Now to begin shopping, tap Reader Guide to see the preloaded reader guide, or press the Home button to go to the Home screen.

For more information on connecting your NOOK to a Wi-Fi hotspot, see “Using Wi-Fi Hotspots,” later in this chapter.

Using Wi-Fi Hotspots

Your NOOK can also connect to other active Wi-Fi networks. B&N offers free Wi-Fi access in all B&N stores. If you take your NOOK to a B&N store, it automatically connects to the Wi-Fi hotspot in that store.

For more information on using your NOOK in a B&N store, see Chapter 17, “Shopping and Visiting B&N on Your NOOK.”

To connect your NOOK to a Wi-Fi hotspot other than one in a B&N store, follow these steps:

1. Tap the Home button.

2. Tap Settings.

3. Tap Wireless. (If Wi-Fi is turned off, tap the Turn On Wi-Fi check box.)

4. Tap the Wi-Fi hotspot you want to use. (Your NOOK displays the SSID for all Wi-Fi hotspots in range.)

5. Tap Connect and enter the password for your Wi-Fi hotspot. (If you want to hide the password while typing, tap the Hide Password check box.) Enter a username or login name as well if required.

6. Tap Connect.

Your NOOK should now show that you are connected to your Wi-Fi hotspot on the reading screen. You should also see the Wi-Fi signal indicator at the top of the screen next to the battery indicator.

If your Wi-Fi hotspot isn’t listed after you tap Wi-Fi hotspot, tap Other hotspot. You can then enter the service set identifier (SSID), select the type of security (if the Wi-Fi is secured), and enter the password for your Wi-Fi hotspot if necessary. If you don’t know this information, ask the person who set up the Wi-Fi network.

Your NOOK can connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot that requires you to browse to a web page to authenticate yourself. For example, many hotel Wi-Fi hotspots require you to enter a room number or other information to connect. When you tap this network name to connect to it, you are asked if you want to forget the network or continue on to a “redirect” to enter a password or other information. Tap Continue to continue the sign in procedure. (Your screen basically becomes a web page.)

Disconnecting from a Wi-Fi Hotspot

If you want to stop using a Wi-Fi hotspot, you need to disconnect your NOOK from the Wi-Fi hotspot. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Tap the Home button.

2. Tap Settings.

3. Tap Wireless.

4. To turn off Wi-Fi access completely, tap the Turn Off Wi-Fi check box. If you want to disconnect from a specific network, tap the name of the Wi-Fi hotspot you use. (“Connected” displays below the name of the Wi-Fi hotspot.)

5. Tap Forget to disconnect from the Wi-Fi hotspot.

For more information on configuring the settings in your NOOK (including turning off the Wi-Fi card), see “Your NOOK’s Settings” in Chapter 12, “Customizing and Configuring Your NOOK.”

Caring for Your NOOK’s Battery

Your NOOK uses a high-tech battery called a lithium polymer battery. Unlike older rechargeable batteries, your NOOK’s battery doesn’t suffer from a charge “memory.” However, you should still follow some basic rules to maximize the life of your battery:

• Try to avoid fully discharging your battery. Recharge it when it gets down to about 20% or so. Although charging it repeatedly is not necessarily a bad thing, the battery seems to function optimally if you charge it only when it drops down toward that 20% area.

• To maximize battery life, turn Wi-Fi off and leave it off. Turn on Wi-Fi to download your new books and subscription content and synch your reading across devices.

• Avoid high heat. Reading in sunlight is fine, but avoid storing your NOOK near a heat source.

• If storing your NOOK for a long period (a week or more), charge the battery to about 50% rather than giving it a full charge.

By following these steps, your NOOK’s battery should last years.

Charging Your NOOK’s Battery

You can charge your NOOK’s battery either by plugging your NOOK into your computer’s USB port or by plugging your NOOK into a wall outlet using the supplied AC adapter. Plugging your NOOK into a wall outlet is preferred because it charges the NOOK much more quickly.

When You Are Not Reading

When you finish reading, let your NOOK go to sleep instead of turning it off. I realize that it’s not intuitive to leave electronic devices turned on, but because your NOOK uses almost no power unless you do something that requires it to refresh the E Ink display, you can leave it turned on without draining your battery.

By leaving your NOOK on, it occasionally downloads content from B&N such as subscription content (assuming you have Airplane Mode turned off), updated information for The Daily (articles of interest to NOOKies), and any books that you purchase from the B&N website. When you’re ready to start reading again, simply press and release the power switch at the top of your NOOK to wake it up.