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Barnes and Noble has officially introduced their iPad app called “Nook” that brings a ton of new functionality to using Apple’s iPad as an ereader. The app is available for free and offers lots of great reasons to choose it over other eReaders including ten free samples of current bestsellers, three free classics, and samples of any ebook.

One unique feature of Nook for iPad is the ability to share books with friends with the LendME feature with built in integration with your existing iPad contacts. Ebooks can only be lent once and for a period of no more than two weeks.

Nook for iPad also features adjustable font sizes (up to 10 different font sizes), multiple font types, swipe to turn pages (the nook ereader uses hardware buttons to turn the pages), background and text color options, and the ability to sync notes, bookmarks, and highlights.

A lot of the other features are similar to the features that exist on the actual nook ereader, which should make those who are used to using the nook comfortable with using the iPad, although I’m not sure there are many users who initially bought a nook only to purchase an iPad months later, but who knows.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the iPad is, “having difficulty being accepted at George Washington University and Princeton University because of network stability issues. Cornell University also says it is seeing connectivity problems with the device and is concerned about bandwidth overload.” Read more.

AP has unveiled plans to set up a division that would help the news cooperative and member newspapers and broadcasters sell digital content for use on a new generation of electronic readers, or e-readers, which is one function of Apple’s iPad.

In a keynote speech Friday before the Colorado Press Association, Tom Curley, president and chief executive of the AP, said the new business unit would be called the AP Gateway and would become “the launching pad for new products and services from AP and other interested news publishers.”

Curley told the CPA convention in Denver that the first Gateway application would be used to deliver news to the iPad, which Apple plans to release in late March. The application would incorporate a paid subscription model and would be open to AP members.

“Beyond that, we expect to offer our content partners a variety of ways to take their content to market, both individually and collectively, directly and indirectly, taking advantage of new business models, including the wide variety of pay-model services now under development,” Curley said, according to a transcript of his speech posted by PaidContent.org.

In launching Gateway, the non-profit is offering members a way to take advantage of the “splintering” of the Internet into many channels for news distribution created by the expected growth in the use of new Internet-connected devices, such as smartphones, Curley said. Quoting Forrester Research, the AP CEO said that while 80% of the U.S. population look to get their news for free, “there is a slice of that remaining 20% who will pay for it under the right circumstances.”

“Just how big a slice that becomes will depend on how creative and responsive we producers are,” Curley said.

The news executive listed three ways to make money in digital media, syndication licensing, advertising, and subscriptions; and said Gateway can enhance all three by tagging, tracking and enabling new business opportunities.

The AP is among news organizations looking to control, and charge for, distribution of its content over the Internet. While news content has been easily accessible for free through a Web browser on a PC, content providers are looking for business models in which subscribers would pay to receive content over mobile devices, which would also be used to deliver advertising.

The need to generate more revenue from content is imperative to the news industry’s survival. As subscribers moved to the PC-dominated first generation of the Web, so did advertisers, leaving newspapers and magazines with heavy losses. And as almost always happens, in order to survive, the news industry is changing, learning from other application makers who are currently making money online. E-readers are just the latest to to add to a long string of mobile devices now able to display news online and some, like Apple’s iPad are able to run applications like the AP Gateway.

For comparison, Barnes and Noble’s nook uses the open source operating system, Android, and Apple‘s iPad uses iPhone software for its OS.

The following table compares Barnes & Noble’s nook with Apple’s iPad on several different metrics and measurements, such as screen size, weight, dimensions, and other features, but it is important to note that while the iPad can be an e-book reader, the nook cannot (yet) be a mobile media PC, but there are some users looking to change that by adding a browser to the nook.

e-Reader Comparison Table: Nook vs. iPad

Did I mention that they named it the iPad?

But, they didn’t ask me for a reason, I suppose…

I’ve had this discussion with a doctor who uses the iPhone like crazy when dealing with patients. There are a ton of apps that help doctors. I asked her if the iPad appealed to her; for the same reason that we think it is bunk technology (giant iPhone that is less convenient without reducing the need for a computer) and she said no.

I can see the medical profession using something like an iPad in the future, if the cost comes down and they are more PC-like (i.e. EMR and Hospital (Citrix) systems can be installed on the OS). If Epocrates (and others) could unshackle themselves from Apple, it would change the medical community. As it stands, Epocrates is simply latching on to a known (and healthy) distribution channel.

I’m surprised they surveyed physicians so soon after the release. That’s an interesting demographic to target.

With the announcement of iPad with eBook capabilities, Amazon and Apple will be in direct competition.