Barnes & Noble announced Monday that it has enhanced its Nook Color e-reader with support for applications, improved Web browsing and new rich content. It’s still $249. The new features are available to existing Nook Color users through a v1.2 software update download.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]In addition to an e-mail client and Web browser, Barnes & Noble has announced titles including games like Angry Birds, Uno and More Brain Exercises, news and weather support through Pulse and My-Cast, foreign language translation through Lonely Planet Phrasebooks, and recipe support from Epicurious. There are calendar apps, streaming music apps and more.

To help Nook Color customers discover apps Barnes & Noble has set up its own online application shop; it launches with 125 apps alongside the millions of books, magazines and other content the Nook Color already supports.

The new update also includes support for Adobe Flash Player.

The Nook Color is, ostensibly, an e-reader built around a 7-inch touch-sensitive display. But the Nook Color is more like an iPad than a Kindle – as the name describes, it has a color screen, and it actually uses Google Android as an operating system. Already before now, some Nook Color buyers had hacked the device to run as a tablet. The software update installs Google Android 2.2 “Froyo.”