Latest Nook e-reader is apt to make customers glow - Business - The Boston Globe

Hiawatha Bray on the Nook and GlowLight

"Digital innovation has done wonders for Barnes & Noble. Even as sales stagnate at the company’s traditional bookstores, e-book hardware and software sales have soared, rising 38 percent last quarter alone. Microsoft, desperate for a foothold in tablet computing, will happily pay a mere $300 million to ride along. In return, Barnes & Noble gets Microsoft cash and brains to develop the next generation of Nooks, which will no doubt use the new Windows 8 operating system.
Judging by the new Simple Touch, however, Barnes & Noble’s engineers have been doing quite well on their own. In most respects, not much has changed with the Simple Touch. It uses Wi-Fi to download books, magazines, and newspapers; there are buttons on the left and right edges for turning pages, but you can also just tap the screen; and there’s a Micro SD slot where you can install up to 32 gigabytes of additional memory.
But there’s one major difference with the new Nook: It’s readable in the dark."

Latest Nook e-reader is apt to make customers glow - Business - The Boston Globe