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Home»BlackBerry Software»News & Rumors, BlackBerry Apps

Borders opens eBook store; Launches BlackBerry app with five free books

by Adam Zeis on 7 Jul 2010 12:38 PM
51
 
Borders app for BlackBerry

We had reported on this a week or so ago, and sure enough Borders announced today that they have launched both their eBook store and a reader application for BlackBerry. The store has over 1.5 million titles both free and paid. The BlackBerry application supports the Curve, Tour and Bold models (yes again there is no Storm support) and is free to download. You can browse books by author, title, topic or keyword and download books for offline reading. As a bonus, between July 9th and 11th anyone who downloads the Borders app will get five free eBooks. Head to borders.com for more info.

Filed Under: News & Rumors, BlackBerry Apps; Tags: Borders
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51 Comments

Posted by Budrow1993 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

not for the STORM???

 
 
Posted by Valace2 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

not for the damn storm. Nobody cares about the frickin Storm, can't even use the damn photobucket app. Can't wait to switch.

 
 
Posted by pkcable Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

They are afraid that with such a large screen you might be tempted to skip getting a nook! Really the BB app is just to wet you appetite for a nook. ;)

 
 
Posted by bigwill5150 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Look at the list of devices that they support and think about what they have in common. Anyone see a trend? All the devices are not at the end of their support life. Why would they be afraid people are not going to buy a Nook if they have a Storm (an end of life device)? I would think they'd be more worried about people with PC's, netbooks, iPads, etc... BTW, the Nook isn't exactly a money maker (either is the Kindle). It's a medium for generating book sales. Just like cell phones are the medium for generating calling plan sales.

 
 
Posted by jgbrock Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

I am not a business major, but Borders putting out an application to wet my appetite for a Nook, a product made by their biggest competitor, seems like a poor plan

 
 
Posted by abelmb Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

To download...

 
 
Posted by MaryBethLowell-TeleNav Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

but I think reading a book on my Tour would just give me a headache. Love that they are giving away five free books though. That's a nice bonus.

 
 
Posted by pkcable Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

I wonder if I should get the Tour or the Bold version? I have a 9650.

 
 
Posted by sweetlittlehugs Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Yeah me too, I'll try to download the tour version on the 9th.

 
 
Posted by emery20 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

that is what I downloaded and it runs great.

 
 
Posted by decypher44 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Downloaded the app. Pretty cool UI. However, how do you get the 5 free books?

===edit===

So, I just re-read the post and saw that anyone who downloads between the 9th and the 11th get 5 free. What about those who downloaded today? Do we need to re-download during that period to get the 5 free?

 
 
Posted by decypher44 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Phone or microSD card?

 
 
Posted by sweetlittlehugs Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

MicroSD

 
 
Posted by CZeph Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

If/when they come up with support for the Storm will we get the opportunity to get the 5 free...

 
 
Posted by blessed2bamommie Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Now how does it compare to Kindle...

 
 
Posted by jlb21 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

I wonder if the free books will be in a form that with ease could be converted to kindle format.

I'm just sayin........

 
 
Posted by jgbrock Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

The Kindle is based upon the format first used by Mobipocket, whom they bought. The Nook is based upon the ereader (formally peanut press) format, who they bought.

There is software available to remove the encryption from the Nook or ereader files (which still exists) and create HTML files of the books. There is also software given away by mobipocket.com to create ebooks from, among other things, HTML files. The resulting files can be read on a Kindle. This is a big plus for me, because I have more than 100 books in the ereader format. There is a BB app for these now, but there wasn't always.

Interestingly, the encryption used by Kindle is not the same as mobipocket, just the underlying format. The same with Nook/ereader, although the software I mentioned will remove either encryption.

Now, that I have all that straight, I am off to figure out what Borders is using...

 
 
Posted by trblmkr71 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Do you have the links to get the software to remove the encryption??

 
 
Posted by loqutus48 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

This application doesn't (apparently) work on ATT 8310 Curve with v 4.5. Still waiting for some info from Borders. BTW, Mobipocket works great on my phone and I read with it everyday.

 
 
Posted by mas3222 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

I downloaded this on my 8530 and the Icon is HUGE

 
 
Posted by meadmakerman Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Looks like another cool App that I can't use on my 9650. I'm so disappointed in the 9650 (lack of) support. I "upgraded" from the Tour...Can't use the Sirius App, can't install WorldMate, can't use this Border's reader...on and on. Should have stuck with the old Tour and actually been able to install apps.

 
 
Posted by emery20 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

Just install the bold version. Worked flawlessly on my 9650.

 
 
Posted by dmarcus48 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

I'd get the bold with the 9650. On the site it says the bold version is for the 9000 and the 9700, the 9650 is the verizon version of the 9700. I wonder why they'd announce this today and you have to wait until the 9th to get the free books?

 
 
Posted by sweetlittlehugs Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

The 9650 Bold is most closely related to the 9630 Tour not the 9700 bold. Its also not just a Verizon phone as Sprint released it first. :-)

 
 
Posted by stevejb Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

This app and the books are only available in the US. Anyone know of a good reader and eBook site for us UK guys?

 
 
Posted by causbrite Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 685 days ago

it works in the UK just fine. At least it does on mine, first time I tried to install it said no, but did it again and it works. will try for the books tomorrow. But it seems ok for me.

 
 
Posted by stevejb Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 685 days ago

To download any books you need a valid US address...

 
 
Posted by Number_6 Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 685 days ago

www.manybooks.net with Mobipocket, sweet as a nut.

The Gutenberg Project is pretty good too, ManyBooks have nice 'cover' icons though.

 
 
Posted by AgTitan06 Wednesday, Jul 07, 2010 686 days ago

so I have to wait till the 9th to get the free books..that sucks, i want to download it now!

 
 
Posted by lmengerink Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 685 days ago

It appears that you can download the Bold's version and it works fine. Haven't signed up and used other than starting it up (I want the free books), but it started fine and worked better once I disabled the compatibility mode.

 
 
Posted by Mountain Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 685 days ago

Why not for Storm? WTF

 
 
Posted by voltaire64 Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 685 days ago

that this is available for US customers only. Those who reside in Canada (me) or elsewhere are out of luck.

 
 
Posted by stevejb Thursday, Jul 08, 2010 685 days ago

For anyone interested, http://www.kobobooks.com/ is in the UK and has a free ap that is exactly the same as the Borders app here.

Taken me all day to find it and also found this statement on their site;

'Kobo is a global eReading Service, backed by strategic investors Indigo Books & Music (Canada), Borders Group (US), RedGroup Retail (Australia), and Cheung Kong Group (Europe and Asia). '

Maybe the guys in Canada may be able to take a look also.....

 
 
Posted by The_Adventist Friday, Jul 09, 2010 685 days ago

I live in Ontario Canada and I downloaded the app for my 9700 and registered an account (it was at 12:15AM EDT).

No problem. It didn't ask me for any city, province or country. Just name, password and email.

I did not see any congrats you have 5 free books. The site has many free books to read and download.

I have a free one set up already to read.

Give it a try.

 
 
Posted by stevejb Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

Until you want to buy a book then the US address is needed. Maybe folks just want to browse though.

 
 
Posted by tulsastorm Friday, Jul 09, 2010 685 days ago

I just downloaded this to my tablet. The 5 free books are not a choice. it gives you 5 classics in your library automatically.

 
 
Posted by haymond Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

which books do they give?

 
 
Posted by CHMNH Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

7:20am Eastern Time, July 9th. Just downloaded the Borders app for my Tour. Cannot get the 5 free book deal to work. Is there some sort of promo code that needs to be entered at checkout? Is Borders going to email me something? Can't seem to find any info on this. Anyone else in the same boat?

 
 
Posted by riff_raff Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

I downloaded about 7:30 this morning. Still nothing. Anyone got this figured out?

 
 
Posted by bamakid366 Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

Still can't find any info about the free books. I waited until 9am EDT to download, but nothing showed up about free books.

 
 
Posted by strykerv1 Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

I downloaded the app and it appears to be working correctly but my library is empty.

 
 
Posted by decypher44 Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

We aren't seeing the 5 free books...

 
 
Posted by pmy Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

Apparently a false alarm.

 
 
Posted by Coffey123 Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

Here is how you get the free books. http://www.borders.com/online/store/ListView_freeebookoffer

 
 
Posted by CHMNH Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

Found the free book deal. Lame. Gonna keep using Kindle.

 
 
Posted by don2u Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

Coffey123's link to the free books worked for me. At first I thought they were only excerpts, but after fumbling around, I discovered that the first one or two sections of the eBooks are excerpts, followed by the complete book.

I also discovered that installing the free Kobo reader on my PC gave me 5 more free "classics". Haven't figured out how to get those transferred to the Blackberry yet.

Maybe only coincidence, but when I had the BB app open and was downloading the books to the desktop Kobo app, my BB rebooted. Makes we wonder if they have stability issues.

 
 
Posted by don2u Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

Found that if I search for the "classics", they're free to download. Just not automatically added when the app is installed.

 
 
Posted by arieltf Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

This is true for at least one of the ebooks, "The Alchemist". It is an excerpt, the first four pages, of the book. I didn't check the other ones.

The ereader looks nice. The fonts, style and size, can be changed.

You can read the books either online or offline. The ebooks are stored on the media card.

 
 
Posted by clicchick Friday, Jul 09, 2010 684 days ago

If you already have an ereader, don't bother downloading the app. The free ebooks you get when you download the BB app are free for everyone. However, the 5 ebooks you get when you download the desktop app are different. But they don't sync with your borders library, so you can't download them for use with other readers anyway. Don't waste your time.

 
 
Posted by sweetlittlehugs Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 683 days ago

I have tried getting 2 contemporary romance novels that are free, however I don't see any where to get them to download. This will be of no use to me on my flight back to CA.

 
 
Posted by MaryJane197 Thursday, Jul 15, 2010 678 days ago

i shop exclusively at borders for my paperback books. to bad there is not storm support yet.