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View Full Version : Barnes and Noble nook ... Kindle has some competition

Drew2k
10-20-09, 10:11 PM
With the introduction of the Barnes and Noble nook, I think Kindle finally has some real competition, and all eBook fans will benefit.

Betanews has a good, quick intro to the nook here: LINK (http://www.betanews.com/article/Barnes-Noble-mashes-up-iPhone-Kindle-for-nook-ereader/1256065254)

Here's the Barnes and Noble page, with a video tour: LINK (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp)

Some of the nice things about the nook:


Has e-ink plus a touch-screen color LCD screen for navigation, browsing, bookmarks
Includes WiFi support (no more USB for transfers!)
Supports SD memory card

And best of all ...


includes a "LendMe" feature where the eBook owner can share the eBook with another nook user or anyone with a PC (and free B&N software) for up to 14 days.

This LendMe feature brings the joy of sharing physical books to the e-world and with the other additions makes this a VERY nice alternative to the Kindle.

I can't wait to see if nook has better organization systems than Kindle, as I hope it spurs Amazon to FINALLY listen to its users and allow us to create folders for our content. If nothing else, the nook should wake Amazon up ... competition is good!

http://images.betanews.com/media/3968.jpg
Sharkie_Fan
10-20-09, 10:44 PM
The "lend me" feature would be awesome!

My mom and I read alot of the same books, and we used to trade back and forth quite often. With the advent of ereaders (we both have Sony ereaders), that sort of trading went out the window, which is too bad.

I can't wait to see one of these in action. It sounds very cool!
Marlin Guy
10-20-09, 10:54 PM
Competition is always good.
Stuart Sweet
10-21-09, 08:14 AM
It's great that we're seeing some evolution in the e-book readers. I love my Kindle but I do see plenty of ways to improve it. Of course, one of the things I love about it is long battery life, and I don't think you'd get that with a color touch screen and wi-fi enabled.

Still, I think that the biggest difference between Kindle books and real books has to be the ability to share or give away a real book, and I'm glad to see someone addressing that.
LarryFlowers
10-21-09, 08:44 AM
I want a E reader that will let me buy books from any e book supplier.. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc...

I don't want to spend that much money and be tied to a single source.
ncxcstud
10-21-09, 09:41 AM
I love that there is more competition all the time in this arena (hopefully going to push the prices down across the board)

But, call me an 'old-fashioned' 26-year old...but I'd rather just spend the money on the book...not 250+ on the reader + 15-20 on the book.

These devices are cool and extremely portable, but I only read one book at a time and a book is still pretty portable ;)
Steve
10-21-09, 09:49 AM
It's great that we're seeing some evolution in the e-book readers. I love my Kindle but I do see plenty of ways to improve it. Of course, one of the things I love about it is long battery life, and I don't think you'd get that with a color touch screen and wi-fi enabled.In the video, that young lady claims 10 days of battery life with wi-fi "off". What she doesn't say is how may hours per day of use that is. If a weekly charge would allow you to d/l and read the daily paper and one book per week, that could work for me.
Stuart Sweet
10-21-09, 10:00 AM
That could be possible with wi-fi off... but with the Kindle I get about 20 hours of battery life with the 3g off.

Don't get me wrong, I hope the nook succeeds, and I hope most of all that everyone can agree on a single ebook format.

I want neither a format war nor a single monopolistic source for ebooks (like iTunes is for music.)
Steve
10-21-09, 10:19 AM
Looks like nook does NOT offer as good battery life as the Kindle. In this (http://images.barnesandnoble.com/pimages/bravo/whiteout/nook_product_comparison.pdf) comparison document, they're claiming 10 days vs 14 for Kindle.

No text-to-speech either. Otherwise, it looks pretty good on paper.
bobukcat
10-21-09, 11:51 AM
I love that there is more competition all the time in this arena (hopefully going to push the prices down across the board)

But, call me an 'old-fashioned' 26-year old...but I'd rather just spend the money on the book...not 250+ on the reader + 15-20 on the book.

These devices are cool and extremely portable, but I only read one book at a time and a book is still pretty portable ;)

The eBooks are usually no more than $9.99 and that's for hot releases. Other pluses for eReaders are the fact you can buy that new release and have it much more portable than a hard-back without waiting for the paperback to come out months later.

One other feature that has been used by my wife more than I would have expected is the ability to just buy a book on the spot if she has nothing else to read. We'll be by the pool or even in the living room and she decides she wants to read a book, two quick steps and in a minute or two it's in her hands.

For sharing, I loaded the Kindle app on my iPod Touch and registered it to her Kindle account, now we can both read the same book at the same time and it's much more readable on the touch than I would have ever imagined!