Skip to main content

Buy a book from Barnes & Noble and get the Nook ebook version for $5

barnes noble sync up nook ebook holiday  amp
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Barnes & Noble will do just about anything to get people to buy real, physical books for Christmas. To entice holiday shoppers to enter its stores, Barnes & Noble is offering a special promotion for the gift-giving season. Anyone who buys one or more paperback books from its hand-picked selections will get the Nook ebook version of the same title for just $5.

The special is part of a larger, new service called B&N Sync Up, which offers a digital Nook ebook copy along with the physical paperback book. Of course, the digital version is only available for select titles, but Barnes & Noble says that many bestsellers such as The Secret Life of BeesThe Kite RunnerOutlander, and more are included in the promotion.

Recommended Videos

If you’re interested in obtaining both the physical and digital version of the book, you just need to take the following steps:

  • Select your paperback: Head to Barnes & Noble and look for paperbacks with the “B&N Sync Up!” bookmark. There should be 70 titles to choose from.
  • Present bookmark at the register: Show the bookmark at the register when you go to buy the regular paperback and you’ll get the ebook for $5 more.
  • Download the ebook or give it as a gift: Your receipt will have an access code for the ebook or you can get it via email. If you want to give the ebook as a gift, ask the cashier for a gift receipt. The Recipient can then visit BN.com/redeem, log in, and enter the access code to download the ebook.

Of course, you or your giftee will have to have a Nook or the Nook reading app to read and download the ebook version, but that shouldn’t be an issue. The Nook reading app is available for Android and iOS, so you can access the digital copy on any of your devices. It’s a handy way to give the gift of a good book and you can even keep one copy for yourself. Or, if you’re feeling generous, both copies can go to the same person or two different people who want the same book.

Of course, while this is a good deal compared to getting a full-priced ebook, we’d love to see those who buy a regular book get the ebook for free. We think this option will come at some point.

Malarie Gokey
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…
Google Photos is getting a cool new feature to speed up your photo edits
Google Photos' year in review feature for 2024.

Google Photos for Android is introducing a new feature that simplifies photo editing right before sharing. A tipster from Android Authority first reported this tool.

The new “Quick Edit” tool lets users easily enhance or crop individual photos before sharing them. It features an “Enhance” button, which functions similarly to the “Enhance” effect in the standard photo-editing options. A crop button is also similar to the one in the regular photo editor. When multiple photos are selected before hitting the share button, the typical share sheet appears instead of the new “Quick Edit” screen.

Read more
The base model Galaxy S25 will get a RAM upgrade we’ve waited years for
Someone holding the Samsung Galaxy S24 with the display turned on.

Back in November, we heard rumors that the Samsung Galaxy S25 might come with an upgraded amount of RAM compared to the base Galaxy S24. The Galaxy S24 Plus and S24 Ultra both start with 12GB of RAM minimum, but until now, the majority of base-model Samsung handsets only had 8GB.

Abhishek Yadav, a known leaker, shared a post on X that said the base storage variant of the Galaxy S25 would come with 12GB of RAM. This also implies that the base storage is likely to be 256GB too. As apps, operating systems, and integrated AI become more powerful, so do their technical requirements. A bump to the base amount of RAM and storage will yield improved performance (hopefully) without a significant cost increase.

Read more
It just got a lot easier to see what pictures are in your Google Photos albums
New Albums section in file details in Google Photos.

Google Photos is one of those apps that seems to constantly get new features. The updates aren't always game-changing, but they're much appreciated nonetheless. Google Photos is getting another such update in the form of a new "Albums" section that will be available when viewing a photo or video.

When looking at a photo/video in Google Photos, swipe up to view the details. Above the "Location" section, you should now see a new "Albums" area indicating which album that file is a part of.  You'll see the album name and how many items are in it. You can also tap the album to be taken straight to it.

Read more