Barnes and Noble Nook eReader: I wish I had a hands on review, so somebody send me one!
I've recently sold a few of the Sony PRs-505's on Amazon, I've used various PDAs and software (Palm, Microsoft, iPhone) for reading books over the years, and I actually owned and used a dedicate device: the REB-1100. Google that stuff if you want and I'll wait here. Remember Smartmedia cards? 128MB max capacity children. I had a voluminous 64 meg card...ah, memories. No pun intended.
With such things, my fancy has returned to eReader devices. (iTablet, Apple?)
Anyhoo, the new shiny to my eye is the Nook, from Barnes and Noble.
In years to come, we'll laugh at its black and white only paperlike screen, and wonder why they didn't make the whole thing color, like the touchscreen at the bottom.
Well, enough future and past tense wistfulness. In short, this thing looks to have the goods. It's all over the Kindle, from all directions. 3G? Course. WiFi? Check. Design? Dittoes. Memory slot, cool color browsing on the bottom, and the list goes on.
Since I don't have a Kindle or a Nook (someone send me review units please) I'll just have to say that it appears from what I've seen, my vast experience as a Gadget guru, and some tea leaves I just read, the Nook *IS* the Kindle killer, as long as Johnny 'Corporate Suit' Lawyerpants doesn't burden it with DRM, and resultant restrictions and rear end pain.
Here's a chart of features: (click for fullscreen)
What I hope to see change is the text to speech feature added (for accessibility), and Word doc compatibility. Although you can just use CutePDF to print PDFs anyway, it would be nice to be able to email a Word doc to someone's Nook.
What really could set it apart would be the ability to load Android apps and have them display on the screen at the bottom! Weather, headlines, stock, sports scores, games, you name it. Click a link at the bottom to say, a NY Times article, and read it at the top on the high res epaper.
Not only would that extend readability and features, but you might get some crossover purchases from the smartphone/laptop crowd.
In summary, it looks like a thoroughly thought out and and richly featured device.
Now someone send me a review copy. Mine to keep? Why, that's so nice of you B&N!
The official site: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/
With such things, my fancy has returned to eReader devices. (iTablet, Apple?)
Anyhoo, the new shiny to my eye is the Nook, from Barnes and Noble.
In years to come, we'll laugh at its black and white only paperlike screen, and wonder why they didn't make the whole thing color, like the touchscreen at the bottom.
Well, enough future and past tense wistfulness. In short, this thing looks to have the goods. It's all over the Kindle, from all directions. 3G? Course. WiFi? Check. Design? Dittoes. Memory slot, cool color browsing on the bottom, and the list goes on.Since I don't have a Kindle or a Nook (someone send me review units please) I'll just have to say that it appears from what I've seen, my vast experience as a Gadget guru, and some tea leaves I just read, the Nook *IS* the Kindle killer, as long as Johnny 'Corporate Suit' Lawyerpants doesn't burden it with DRM, and resultant restrictions and rear end pain.
Here's a chart of features: (click for fullscreen)
What I hope to see change is the text to speech feature added (for accessibility), and Word doc compatibility. Although you can just use CutePDF to print PDFs anyway, it would be nice to be able to email a Word doc to someone's Nook.
What really could set it apart would be the ability to load Android apps and have them display on the screen at the bottom! Weather, headlines, stock, sports scores, games, you name it. Click a link at the bottom to say, a NY Times article, and read it at the top on the high res epaper.
Not only would that extend readability and features, but you might get some crossover purchases from the smartphone/laptop crowd.
In summary, it looks like a thoroughly thought out and and richly featured device.
Now someone send me a review copy. Mine to keep? Why, that's so nice of you B&N!
The official site: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/
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