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6 Non-Nook Reading Apps for the Nook Tablet, Nook HD

Yesterday’s news about the 3m Cloud Library app arriving in the Nook App Store inspired me to go look for other apps which could be used to read on B&N’s enhanced ereaders.

The selection is still limited (compared to Google Play, iTunes, or Amazon Appstore), even though it has been over 18 months since B&N launched the Nook Appstore. But it is improving.

I found 6 apps to recommend, and they all worked just fine on my unhacked Nook Color. I also found several RSS feed readers which I’m leaving out of this post.  They are not as good as Google Reader, Pulse, or Readability.

Speaking of which, I did find a way to get Google Reader on the Nook Tablet. The mobile version runs okay in the Nook Tablet’s web browser.

It’s not as good as the Android app or the regular website but it is usable in a pinch. In fact, the mobile version of Google Reader looks like it was built  by an intern in 2005 and then forgotten when the intern was hired away by Facebook. But it works.

I only wish I could say the same about the Kindle Cloud Reader. This will not run on the Nook Tablet, darnit – not yet, anyway.

The 6 apps I found are:

The first 2 items on this list are library ebook providers. One is the dominant distributor in the market and the other is still working to sign its first hundred or so library partners.

Pulse is a news aggregator app which pulls content together from any number of predefined channels. It’s immensely popular on Android and recently expanded to a browser version which works on PCs.

Instapaper and Readability are 2 services which let you save web content for later.  These apps can tie in to your existing account with the respective service and receive that content. Instapaper is not free, but Readability is.

And for my last app I am sharing an app which isn’t an app. Ibis Reader is an HTML5 based reading app which runs in the Nook Tablet’s web browser. It supports Epub and doesn’t do anything that the Nook Tablet’s own reading app can’t also do, but I’m including this app in the list as a reminder.

There are a lot of web based services which should work on the Nook platform. Just because B&N restricts which apps get into the Nook App Store doesn’t mean you can’t try to get around their restrictions.

P.S. If you know of an app which isn’t listed here but works on the Nook Tablet, please leave a comment.

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Comments


flyingtoastr October 4, 2012 um 10:43 am

Flipboard works quite well on the NT.


cookie October 4, 2012 um 2:10 pm

"Google Reader, Pulse, or Readability"

And Google Reader is not as good as JustReader or gReader.

Nate Hoffelder October 4, 2012 um 2:21 pm

Neither of those apps are available in the Nook App Store.

cookie October 4, 2012 um 4:27 pm

I know. I like to plug them.


Xyzzy October 5, 2012 um 4:51 am

I’m a surprised that you didn’t include the usual top reading apps — are they unavailable or non-functional on the Tablet/HD, or did you just figure that they were already really well-known? (To be clear, I’m referring to Mantano, Aldiko, Moon+ and Cool Readers, which I believe I discovered initially through some of your past recommendation posts.)

Nate Hoffelder October 5, 2012 um 7:07 am

No, they are not available in the Nook App Store. That’s part of the reason I am unhappy with the Nook platform.


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