The Nook Color has apparently been pulled from store shelves, but only temporarily. The ereader is backordered at Best Buy, and the Barnes & Noble site says that the device is not shipping for two weeks. They gave no reason, but several outlets are reporting that Barnes & Noble wants to make the Nook Color hack proof.

You might remember that the Nook Color was rooted and new unofficial Android OS firmware was available to turn it into a full blown Android tablet. It’s possible that Barnes & Noble feels that custom firmware allows users to download competing e-reading apps like Kindle. But who is going to want it after they “fix” it?

Barnes & Noble hinted at the fact that the Nook may have led to a major turnaround in its business. They certainly needed it. The company said that its “comparable store sales,” or those at large stores open for more than 1.25 years, were almost double what they had expected, at 9.7 percent. So what happened? Not surprisingly, they credited sales of Nook e-readers to the overall spike and to having its best-ever single day of sales on December 23. Seems like the Nook has saved the day.

The company said that more details will be made available on January 6. The company’s paper sales have been declining, especially at retail, so they have turned more toward digital devices and Apple-style displays that push the Nook.

Rooting a device will allow you to install any app you want on it. It’s a pretty useful trick if you have the know-how. And now the Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor has fallen victim to this. The result is a NOOKcolor that allows you to read Kindle books. How do you like that irony?

Obviously Barnes & Noble is not happy about this. It doesn’t just stop at Amazon’s Kindle app, though. The rooting process in this case also added Gmail, YouTube and some other Android tricks to the NOOKcolor.

Barnes & Noble just announced its all-new Nook Color, an Android tablet with a 7-inch color touchscreen. B&N is calling it a hybrid of e-reader and tablet, and it even sports a full-on tablet-style UI, along with Facebook and Twitter integration.

Other features include built-in WiFi (802.11b/g/n) and 8GB of storage, but no 3G. The price is $249. For that price you get a decent screen thanks to the “VividView,” 16 million color, 1024 x 600 IPS display. Not sure how we feel about that corner handle though.

Barnes & Noble will soon be rolling out Nook Kids, a collection of e-books aimed at young readers by offering over 12,000 titles to start with. Most of those will be “enhanced,” like Jamberry, with stuff like a page that shows blueberries that kids can pop.

It’s yet another thing you’ll need to buy for your kids. Damn expensive buggers. You could be living in a castle right this minute playing chess with real human pieces if it weren’t for those whiny little trolls. Oh well, what can you do? Get them Nook kids, that’s what.

Barnes & Noble has announced the NOOKstudy online reading and study platform for students. The program allows students to manage eBooks and notes all in one place. Users will be able to access their textbooks, lecture notes, slides, images etc all from one place, which should make their college lives easier.

The best part is that students won’t have to carry those heavy textbooks around like they used to. It might save their aching backs. NOOKstudy is compatible with both Macs and Windows PCs, and is already being used in research institutions. Pretty nice.

Pandigital’s new 7″ e-reader boasts access to Barnes & Noble’s eBookstore and can also share content via LendMe. The Novel (that’s the name) will feature an 800 x 600 resolution touchscreen display, integrated Wi-Fi connectivity, and 1GB of internal memory that can be upgraded via an SD/MMC memory card.

Other specs include an orientation sensor, a rechargeable battery for up to 6 hours per charge, support for PDF, ePUB and HTML formats. The Android-powered device will run on an ARM 11 processor, and should retail for about $199.99.

Self-publishing has been possible through Amazon for some time now and it’s time for some healthy competition. Barnes & Noble has announced that it will open up a self-publishing portal this summer, called PubIt!. It will give unknown authors the ability to upload and sell their material through B&N’s website and eBookstore.

Details on the compensation model (or profit split) will be announced soon. And it won’t be limited to the Nook either. Almost any e-reader, tablet or PC will be able to get in and make purchases, so the potential audience for the author is large.

There have been some rumors lately that Barnes & Noble wouldn’t be accepting its own gift cards for ebook purchases, but the company now denies those claims. The company says that they will be accepting physical gift cards and online gift certificates as payment for ebooks very soon.

The cards will work on purchases made on B&N’s website and also for sales through the Nook itself. It also applies to other devices that use B&N’s eReader software. The new policy goes into effect in “mid-December.”

If you want to get a Nook for this holiday season, you better get on that right away. The Nook is proving so in demand that they are pushing the second wave of pre-orders into the first week of December.

Many customers are delaying their order until they see the e-book reader in person at Barnes & Noble. Apparently display units should start arriving at the end of November, but it looks unlikely that there will be any units to sell. That means that you may have to get it sight unseen if you want delivery before the holidays. The cost is $260.

We’ve been waiting for more info about Barnes and Noble’s new color e-book reader and it looks like we have some. According to the Wall Street Journal, they’ve seen an upcoming ad for Barnes & Noble’s e-book reader.

It’s called the Nook. And according to the article, you can expect it to be out on Tuesday, when it will retail for $259. Interestingly, the device will let users “lend e-books to friends.” That last bit is intriguing. More tomorrow.

Barnes & Noble, the ginormous US book store chain has just announced its very own eBookStore. And as you might expect from a heavy literary retail hitter like B&N, they are doing things big. It already features some 700,000 eBooks. According to them, that’s the largest eBook store ever.

And you can bet that they expect that selection to grow quickly. The company also announced a partnership with Plastic Logic, which is an eBook manufacturer and says that they will be catering to every platform.

Peer pressure. It affects companies too. And since everyone else is getting in on the e-book reader craze, why not Barnes & Noble too? That’s the rumor anyway. Why wouldn’t they want a slice of that action? Some “insiders” have supposedly been talking about the possibility.

Just like the Kindle, it would supposedly be connected to a cellular carrier for some connectivity. According to one mysterious someone, Barnes & Noble had been in talks with Verizon, but that didn’t pan out. Now it would seem that Sprint is a possibility. Some aren’t ruling out AT&T.