Nook Glowlight Plus Mac App

Review Date: June 2019 – Review unit purchased from Barnes and Noble

I use a rooted Nook Glowlight Plus with ADW launcher (minimalist theme). But the only widget it displays is Google Search. I've moved the launcher apk, the theme apk and apks with widgets to system app folder and gave them all (9) permissions, but it hasn't changed a thing. Cant find any solutions neither here nor just googling.

Nook GlowLight Plus (E Ink) In May 2019, B&N announced the GlowLight Plus e-reader. The device is the largest Nook e-reader to date with a 7.8-inch E Ink screen. The Glowlight Plus is waterproof, has 8GB of storage, a color-shifting frontlight similar to the GlowLight 3, and it has physical page turn buttons.
There's the $120 GlowLight 3, a 6-inch backlit basic model, and the 7.8-inch $200 GlowLight 3 Plus with a special Night Mode (more on that later) and some water resistance. A tablet-sized e-reader.
How to Find the Hidden Browser on the Nook Glowlight Plus 29 October, 2015 30 October, 2015 Barnes & Noble, Tips and Tricks 3 Comments Barnes & Noble’s latest (and probably final) ereader doesn’t have quite as many nifty software features as earlier models, but it does still have a few hidden options.
Barnes & Noble's Nook GlowLight Plus has terrific hardware let down by poor software. At $199.99, it's a strong buy for a big, waterproof ebook reader.It's light and comfortable to hold, with.

Nook Glowlight Plus Mac App

Overview

Barnes and Noble released the 7.8-inch Nook Glowlight Plus on May 27th, 2019. It was released in stores first, and then they started accepting orders online on May 29th.

It’s the first Nook ebook reader to have a screen larger than 6-inches, and it’s the second Nook to bear the name “Nook Glowlight Plus”.

It’s really more of a Glowlight 3 Plus because it’s basically just a larger version of the 6-inch Nook Glowlight 3 that was released back in 2017.

B&N did add waterproofing to the Glowlight Plus, along with Bluetooth and a headphone jack, but the software is the same as the Glowlight 3, which B&N still sells for $119.

The 7.8-inch Nook Glowlight Plus has a retail price of $199, with 10% off for B&N members.

Hardware and Design

The Nook Glowlight Plus looks a lot like the Glowlight 3. It has a similar design, albeit with slightly narrower bezels. It has the same soft rubbery coating covering the front and back, with two page buttons on each side of the screen and an “n” Nook button below the screen that functions as a home button (it can also toggle the frontlight on and off with a long press).

The power button is located on the top edge and there’s a micro USB port on the bottom edge. The Glowlight Plus adds a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth for audio, but presently they’re only for listening to B&N podcasts so don’t expect to listen to music.

Nook Glowlight Plus Covers

The new 7.8-inch Nook has a capacitive touchscreen instead of an infrared touchscreen like the Nook Glowlight 3, so text isn’t quite as sharp and clear but it still has the same 300 ppi so it’s not a big difference and the screen isn’t indented as far so you don’t get the shadows along the edges.

Like the Glowlight 3, the Plus model has a frontlight with cool and warm colors. It has 10 blue LEDs and 9 yellow LEDs. The frontlight is a little blotchy along the top edge, but the color adjustment is a nice feature for those that like to have the option.

The 1GHz processor is the same as the Glowlight 3, and so is the 8GB of storage space. The one difference is the Glowlight Plus has 1GB of RAM, twice as much as the Glowlight 3.

Software

The Nook Glowlight Plus runs the same software as the Glowlight 3. The software is based on Android 4.4.2. B&N’s software development seems practically nonexistent these days. I can’t think of a single new useful software feature that they’ve added in the past half decade.

If you only want to read Nook books the software is pretty good. But unfortunately the Glowlight Plus has the same problem with sideloaded books disappearing and getting corrupted as the Glowlight 3. Some people seem to manage it somehow (is seems to help if you use Calibre and don’t use shelves) but I’ve encountered nothing but problems trying to get sideloaded content to work on the new Nook. Frankly it’s not worth the hassle, and that’s exactly how B&N feels about it.

Nook Glowlight Plus Mac App Setup

7.8″ Nook Glowlight Plus Review

Pros

Nice larger screen with 300 ppi and it has a frontlight with adjustable color temperature.
Page buttons.
Waterproof design.
It’s one of the least expensive 7.8-inch ebook readers on the market.

Cons

A hassle to use with sideloaded books and public library books, software too unreliable.
Quite a bit larger and heavier than other 7.8-inch ebook readers.
Same software as the Glowlight 3, and B&N rarely issues updates to add new features or fix problems.

Verdict

The 7.8-inch Glowlight Plus is a nice ebook reader overall if you’re just looking at the hardware. The screen looks good. The frontlight color is adjustable. The page buttons are comfortable to use. It’s waterproof, and the price is reasonable compared to competing products.

But like usual with Nooks the software will disappoint just about everyone except hardcore Barnes and Noble fans. It’s fine if you only want to read Nook books from B&N, but I would not recommend either current Nook when it comes to sideloaded content. B&N simply does not care enough to provide adequate support for non-Nook content. It doesn’t matter how nice the hardware is if the software is designed to confine users into a small box. If you’re fine with what’s inside that box the new Nook is possibly the nicest Nook yet, but if you want something with flexibility the Nook is the last device to get.

7.8″ Nook Glowlight Plus Specs

7.8-inch E Ink Carta display.
1404 x 1872 resolution, 300 ppi.
Frontlight with adjustable color temperature.
Capacitive touchscreen.
1GHz iMX6 ARM A9 processor.
8GB internal memory.
1GB RAM.
Waterproof – IPX7 rated.
Bluetooth.
3.5mm headphone jack.
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n.
Supported formats: EPUB, PDF.
Battery Life: few weeks.
Weight: 279 grams.
Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.34 inches.
Price: $199 USD from B&N.

7.8″ Nook Glowlight Plus Video Review

It’s been four days since B&N launched their 7.8″ ereader, the Nook Glowlight Plus.

It has shown up in B&N stores, as promised, and what’s more, several members of MobileRead report that they were actually able to buy one today, two days before the device officially goes on sale.

Alas, early reports are not sounding good.

There’s a discussion over on MobileRead where two new Glowlight Plus owners reported that their units had defective pixels right out of the box. One owner even found a dead pixel on the replacement unit:

Got a replacement, same stuck pixel at the same spot (or something under the substrate that’s reflecting the back light).

Manufacturing defect?

While we don’t know the scale of this issue, of the five units purchased by MobileRead, three have proven to have defective pixels. That is the kind of failure rate we haven’t seen since the original Nook Glowlight in 2012, when B&N was in too much of a hurry to beat Amazon, and rushed an ereader with a defective frontlight to market.

Barnes & Noble is making the least effort possible to sell their device; not only have they neglected to do QA on the initial production run, they don’t even care enough to release the specs and support into. While a version of the user manual (PDF) was uncovered by a MR sleuth, this device still hasn’t been listed on B &N’s website, so at this time we still don’t have all the information.

I actually had to find out via Mike Cane that the Glowlight Plus didn’t have a card slot:

Micro USB port. No card slot. Nook home button is very small. Page turn buttons are nothing special. Bezels are too damn large even in person. No way to get to Android Settings, so the version number is a mystery. Android Open Source legalese is 607 screens (pages)! Plus side: It has a headphone jack. And seven typefaces, one of which is Open Dyslexic.

I don’t know about you, folks, but this almost looks like sabotage, and at the very least it rises to the level of intentional neglect. This launch helps explain why B&N’s digital revenues fell 20% last quarter, to $24.3 million; Barnes & Noble is making sure that the Nook division can’t recover under any circumstances.