The release of iOS 7 is hardly a surprise…unless, of course, you’re Barnes and Noble. They’ve apparently wasted so much time updating their NOOK app that it won’t be up to date for iOS 7’s release. So, if you’re an iOS fan who uses NOOK, you have to choose-your books or your phone?
Sadly, this is not a joke. Barnes and Noble released an email today explaining you shouldn’t upgrade to iOS 7 if you use your NOOK app regularly. See, they’re not sure if you can read your books. Maybe it will work for you, or maybe you’ll get so mad you’ll switch to iBooks or Kindle.
Specifically, here’s the risk of combining iOS 7 with the NOOK app (sort of like feeding gremlins):
If you rotate the screen while reading, it may cause the page to render incorrectly or may cause the app to crash. To prevent this, we suggest locking the rotation while reading. Click here for iPad instructions and here for iPhone instructions.
If you sign out of your app and then sign in again, the app may crash or you may have trouble accessing your Library.
Or, as Gear Diary’s Mike Anderson just put it, “If you’re planning on upgrading your device, please download the Amazon Kindle app.”
If you’ve ever doubted that B&N is in over their head in the tech world, this is a big clue that perhaps they’re stretched too thin. If they had a reasonable expectation the update to the NOOK app would be released tomorrow, I can’t see this email being sent, which makes me wonder if the update isn’t ready, or it’s stuck in Apple approval limbo. In any case, everyone from small developers to their main competitor, Amazon, has managed to pump out update after update to get ready for iOS 7…what’s B&N been up to during that time?