Oh joy of joys!

The nook gets the new 1.2 firmware before my next trip.

Here’s the notes:

 nook V1.2 continues to improve nook performance to provide enhanced overall reading experience and in-store connectivity for nook customers to enjoy exclusive content and promotions in Barnes & Noble stores. Key updates include:

• Enhanced in-store seamless connectivity to enjoy free Wi-Fi, with our More In Store content and promotions exclusively for nook owners.
• Improved opening of eBooks and periodicals
• Improved response to Reading Now & Settings buttons
• Current reading page and bookmarks on all eBooks is properly saved when your nook is powered off
• Bookmarks display page number
• Eligible LendMe™ eBooks in My Library include a LendMe™ flag
• Easier navigation of daily subscription with issues rolled into one folder
• Improved “back” button functionality for navigating eBooks and periodicals
• Personal files downloaded onto nook and displayed in My Documents can be sorted by author & title
• Overall system improvements and battery optimization

Download it now from www.nook.com/support

Seriously, this is taking it a bit too far. Someone has gone and registered a Hotmail account, just to turn around and sell it on eBay.

I find it amusing that anyone would really even bid on this, you business does not gain reputation by having your email address at Hotmail.

But none the less people have bid on it, and it looks to sell. Now proceeding with the face plant.

Apple released iTunes 9.0.3.15 the other day, and sure fire here is the follow up. It isn’t the new version we all are waiting on, but it is a nice fix. 3.1.3 of iPhone OS has been released, and it addresses at least one item that I’ve been dealing with. The random close on open issue of some applications. That is where the app starts and immediately closes.

iPhone 3.1.3 Update Screen on Windows.

Wow, apparently I have been distracted by The Secret World and missed entirely the upcoming release of DataGrid for WPF v3.6. But none the less, here it is, fresh clean and ready to display your data in a narly boutique of love!

According to the release notes there are several new features:

• Xceed DataGrid for WPF Professional Edition v3.6 an innovative new group navigation control in the Tableflow™ view that greatly increases the datagrid’s usability. A first in any WPF datagrid, it lets the end-user go instantly to any group or sub-group with a single click in a combo box.
• Print preview capabilities let the end-user see what a document will look like before printing it—page view and layout configurations are reflected in the preview. The preview is generated in the background, so there is no waiting for the entire preview.
• HP’s QuickTest Professional (QTP) is now supported, allowing for automated UI testing.
• Multi-selection is now available when using the virtualizing collection view; an added benefit is that implementing drag-and-drop is easier than ever before.
• A vibrant new Windows 7 theme and the theme used in Xceed DataGrid for WPF Live Explorer.
• Scrolling speed has been improved when dealing with non-virtualized data sources (100,000 rows and up): the more rows in the source, the greater the improvement.
• Cells can now be selected (single, multiple, and extended modes), in addition to the standard row selection; as a result, end-users can select and copy blocks of cells like in Excel.
• Various cursors in different views—such as “busy”, “resize”, and “drag” cursors—can be customized.
• Several bug fixes.

I’m looking close at these new themes they mention. Lets see here…

Here are a couple images of the new themes, however nasty they look in PingNotifyXT is simply because the rest of the app doesn’t follow a theme with them. That can be easily fixed by either adding Xceed’s WPF theme pack or by editing the theme yourself in Microsoft Expression Blend.

3.6 Theme Options Dialog

PingNotifyXT running Live Explorer Theme.

Windows 7 Theme in Theme Options.

PingNotifyXT running Windows 7 theme.

So head on out as quick as you can and get this latest release!

LINK

The Apple event is coming up in a few days… and rumor mills are hard at work.

Items I find interesting….

1. iPhone OS 4.0: Supports 3G and 3GS. Will have a revamped UI and more multitasking support.

2. Apple Tablet… rumor has it it resembles an iPhone 1, smashed by a rolling pin.

Looks like things are firing up. Two important dates for TSW that have been found through the latest viral clues…

1. February 16th, 6:30pm – 8:00pm. (No specification of time zone, though I would guess it would be eastern to match the town.)
2. April 3rd.

www.KingsMouth.com

B&N has released an update for the nook, bringing the freshly released device to 1.1.0. Officially, it is not NOT a v1.0 device. So begins the rants and raves.

Anyways, the update actually seems to have greatly improved performance of the device from menu access to page turns. Although an actual ‘update notes’ has not been released by B&N yet, there is speculation of what it did do.

Some notable items are page turns speed, random crashing of books, time display, and the dreaded ‘Formatting’.

Skipping the unboxing event here, as everyone has seen those video’s by now.

Moving ahead to the file copy, size comparison and PDF displays.

The nook when compared to the brochure you can obtain from B&N is almost spot on. The sizes are just a tiny bit different, but you get the idea when shown next to an iPhone 3G.

The nook switches to one of its states, this one known as USB Drive Mode, when plugged into a computer.

The copy progress to the nook is a bit slow as you can see in this screen cap. I am copying 1.26GB of files to the nook internal storage, which the usable space of the storage is actually less than 1.27GB. I had it connected to a USB2.0 port, but the speed was still quite slow. Though, in reality how often will I be doing this?

The nook displaying the cover page of a PDF pulled from the Training Kit for 70-432 disc.

Lesson from same PDF displayed in Medium size.

  Same page displayed in Small size, this size tries to keep the original formatting and zooms out the page to fit on screen.

Yay, my nook will be delivered today!

But the bad news? I’m in Texas and won’t be able to use it for another couple days. Isn’t that the way the world works?

So today, B&N was to start shipping the nook’s to all those who had preordered early enough for a November 30th ship date. Unfortunately, they have missed that mark, or at least appear to have missed it. As an email suggests, the ship date is delayed for an unknown reason. But it does not actually say it is delayed. It’s like they know it will cause a back lash of complaints, and didn’t want to speak those words!

They did offer us a $10 gift card and free upgrade to overnight shipping, which as a member you already got expedited air service. But these seem like a slap in the face. They missed the mark, won’t admit or explain why, and send us this email that hints at a delay without saying it is delayed.

But none the less, I still sit with my brochure and camera ready to take pictures of it. Assuming it gets here before I leave on my next work trip.

B&N nook begins shipping today for those who pre-ordered early. I was one of those lucky people. So to add to the wonderful intensity of this purchase, I have my nook brochure available from the local B&N. My plan is as soon as I get the unit, I will do an unboxing and take shots of it in comparison to the brochure. Not an important task, but would be nice for those who are curious how the unit stacks up against the paper version.

Stay tuned!

While sitting in the boarding area I see the total encompass of the need in my life for coffee. If it were not for starbucks I would be sleeping across from my gate…. And miss my flight. Which in turn would cause the end of all things as I myself lay sleeping a deep uninterrupted sleep.

Ok not really, but they sure are trying to take over the world.

The nook has received such high demand that the preorders placed on or after today 30th of October, will not ship until the 7th of December instead of the 30th of November. That is still not a long time to wait, but I’m sure glad I preordered the day of announcement!

So I’m toying with an auto update feature that I will embed into the little apps I write. Currently I’m testing out how to detect forced manual updates and full local installers, as opposed to just a quick file patch. But in the process I found that I need to advertise myself for elevated privileges with UAC to perform updates on Windows 7. So the code to do this can be found over here! Basically you are modifying your applications manifest, and then checking the level in the app through a function to ensure you have it.

I had to revisit an old installer I had made that relied on a script running in the background for some additional software to be installed. This script also did a little cleanup of shortcuts, etc. I have since changed it all to run in InstallScript, however, this particular visit I didn’t want to change it over to the new install. My problem is the installer for Citrix has gone through a drastic change. But never fear, the command line is super simple.

CitrixOnlinePluginFull.exe /silet ADDLOCAL=”ICA_Client,SSON,Flash,USB,DesktopViewer”

Now you also need to know that PN.exe is officially gone in this release, so if you need the functions of that program, you can get the Citrix Quick Connect Tool to perform the same functions. But in a more RDP style screen.

Download the Quick Launch from here.