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Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

barnesandnoble.com

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Re: Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

#21

Post by jeremymcanally »

allenp wrote: post #3
phsr wrote: post #2

The biggest dealbreaker for the Nook will be its eBook store. Will it be comparable to the Amazon eBook store? If not, I doubt the Nook will take off.

In what regard? Depth? Breadth? Looking at their site I think they have enough of the popular stuff covered to give them time to work their way into the long tail before their ebook reader is in enough hands to matter.

Plus they have PDF for a much more affordable price than the Kindle (the Kindle 2's PDF support is mediocre at best, stupidly terrible at worst). That's a killer feature for people who may already own a significant library of PDF content.

Re: Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

#22

Post by yan »

there wrote: post #20
yan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

eInk keeps state without power. The Kindle displays famous authors and book covers when it's off. The side-effect of this, you can measure battery life in mostly 'page-turns' as it uses power to update the display, but not while you're reading.

the bottom display is a color lcd touchscreen, it's not e-ink.

Ah, next time I'll make sure to read everything before chiming in.

Re: Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

#23

Post by yan »

Xichekolas wrote: post #18
yan wrote: post #12

I really can't wait to see what the new generation of large-screen eInk readers will look like. I bought the Kindle DX specifically to be able to read PDFs, books, and papers I already had. The smaller format readers (nook, kindle 2, etc) are fine for reading fiction and non-formatted documents, but a lot less useful to me personally. I am fully convinced that eInk is a viable surface to read on and I can't wait to s…

Yeah I'm still holding out for something that simulates 8.5x11 paper. The upcoming QUE from Plastic Logic looks promising... 8.5x11, wifi, pdf and annotation (capacitive touchscreen) support. Supposedly in January. Coincidentally, it will also use the B&N ebookstore. How is reading say, a research paper, on your DX? I have been tempted by it, but the screen still seems too small.

To be honest, it is pretty small but it's very usable. In well-let areas that aren't moving, the scaled-down PDFs look readable and 'good enough'. If you want, you can send me a PDF and I'll take a picture of what it looks like on the DX.

I also thought about waiting for the Plastic Logic device, but decided on getting the DX for a few reasons. First, I had about $300 of Amazon gift cards from my credit card, and the Kindle became a great target to spend it on. Secondly, considering QUE's target market, I assumed it would be prohibitively expensive for a personal reading device. Also, the DX is available now and has a cell connection, which is nice.

Re: Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

#24

Post by stepherm »

allenp wrote: post #4

The real killer feature is this: "Share favorite eBooks with your friends, family, or book club. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time. Just choose the book you want to share, then send it to your friend's reader, cell phone, or computer."

Apparently you can only do this ONCE per book. Once a book has been shared, you cannot share it again.

Re: Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

#26

Post by nirmal »

Xichekolas wrote: post #18
yan wrote: post #12

I really can't wait to see what the new generation of large-screen eInk readers will look like. I bought the Kindle DX specifically to be able to read PDFs, books, and papers I already had. The smaller format readers (nook, kindle 2, etc) are fine for reading fiction and non-formatted documents, but a lot less useful to me personally. I am fully convinced that eInk is a viable surface to read on and I can't wait to s…

Yeah I'm still holding out for something that simulates 8.5x11 paper. The upcoming QUE from Plastic Logic looks promising... 8.5x11, wifi, pdf and annotation (capacitive touchscreen) support. Supposedly in January. Coincidentally, it will also use the B&N ebookstore. How is reading say, a research paper, on your DX? I have been tempted by it, but the screen still seems too small.

research papers look great, I read lots of two-column ACM style papers which are just fine. Here's a picture that someone else took for me before I decided to buy it: http://files.getdropbox.com/u/52575/photo.jpg

From this HN comment. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=655733

Re: Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

#28

Post by dchest »

tetsuo13 wrote: post #10
phsr wrote: post #2

The biggest dealbreaker for the Nook will be its eBook store. Will it be comparable to the Amazon eBook store? If not, I doubt the Nook will take off.

And how long until the B&N bookstore will be able to match the number of ebooks offered at Amazon? Until then B&N will lose customers to the company with an already established library.

They already had eBooks store for some time http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks/index.asp

Re: Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced

#29

Post by zach »

stepherm wrote: post #24
allenp wrote: post #4

The real killer feature is this: "Share favorite eBooks with your friends, family, or book club. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time. Just choose the book you want to share, then send it to your friend's reader, cell phone, or computer."

Apparently you can only do this ONCE per book. Once a book has been shared, you cannot share it again.

Oof. I haven't seen any definitive confirmation on one-lend-ever-per-title (they seem cagey about it), but looking at this purely economically:

This is by some measure a winning strategy, since if I only have one "lend", I will very likely want to share it to the person most likely to buy it and create an additional "lend" to propagate the book.

It does seem like they are missing out on the power of inter-consumer advocacy, i.e. "Everybody read this now!" They should at least re-credit you (if not several times over) if you share with someone who later buys the book.

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