Slashdot Mirror
The Kindle Killer Arrives
GeekZilla sends coverage from Wired's Gadget Lab on the Nook, Barnes & Noble's first e-book reader. "Sleek, stylish and runs the Android OS. What's not to like about Barnes and Noble's new e-book reader? Despite the odd name, the Nook looks like an eBook reader that would actually be a worthwhile investment. Best feature? The ability to loan e-books you have downloaded to other Nook owners. The reader, named the 'Nook,' looks a lot like Amazon's white plastic e-book, only instead of the chiclet-keyboard there is a color multi-touch screen, to be used as both a keyboard or to browse books, cover-flow style. The machine runs Google's Android OS, will have wireless capability from an unspecified carrier, and comes in at the same $260 as the now rather old-fashioned-looking Kindle." Here is the B&N Nook site, which is still not visible on their front page and has a few non-working links. (Nook.com isn't set up yet.) Their comparison page takes dead aim at the Kindle. Among the advantages in the Nook's column: Wi-Fi, expandable memory via microSD, MP3 player, and PDF compatibility. (But remember the cautionary note B&N struck six years back when they got out of the e-book business.)
i'll buy the paper books or download them on my iphone via the kindle or B&N reader apps. loaning books sounds like a good option and i hope they bring it to the B&N iphone app. with websites like Goodreads that link to facebook, it can be a viral marketing strategy
Can users install their own apps or replace the OS? If not, I don't see how use of Android OS would matter.
The Kindle Killer Arrives
How do you kill that which has no life?
I know the G1 has some DRM issues, and that irritates me. Will this new e-reader also have them? If so, how pervasive and extensive will it be? It sounds like they intend to allow PDF reading. So maybe you can just avoid buying anything with DRM on it?
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
It provides a nice readable display, and more importantly doesn't make me open my wallet to buy a separate gadget.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
According to the comparison sheet, they're using AT&T.
Some wireless. Less space than a kindle. Lame.
From the website: "Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time." So I'll wait to see the fine print before I jump for joy at another potentially crippled bit of electronics. I'll wait for a few months to see whether they've retained the power to delete user data or go about bricking the thing once someone "opens" it. If they reserve the 14 day to only titles under active copyright, then I'll be a bit more amenable to the gizmo (although eInk's refresh rate after a page turn still drives me up the wall). I simply don't trust any party related to the publishing and distribution industries to provide a device that simply meets my needs without resorting to underhanded tactics to impose their own agenda at a later date.
He who would be a man, must be a nonconformist. -- Emerson
Dear B&N,
Please partner with us.
Sincerely,
Thomas' English Muffins Inc.
We're going to get screwed over again aren't we? Can't kill the kindle up here because it's not around to begin with.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
The summary says nothing about where the ebooks come from, so does a book store allow the mere users to load any ebooks they like, or is it encumbered with DRM so mortals may only read the books B&S sells? I see it reads PDFs at least.
Lending to friends(In TFA) sounds suspiciously like copying, which distributors are supposed to hate, so how does one "lend books to friends"? is there a limit to how long they read for, before the file is deleted? or perhaps you can only lend them the first few chapters?
Looks spiffy, but I'm wary of the DRM it'll undoubtedly have. Will wait and see what others say about it first.
The real killer question is whether it supports remote deletion like the Kindle does. The feature comparison doesn't mention this. Of course we'll only really know for sure if and when the feature is actually used; claims that it doesn't support it can't really be trusted (and the feature might be added in a later firmware update anyway).
According to the comparison sheet, you can.
Why do all consumer electronic devices these days only come in -one- color, white. Thanks Apple, now all my gear looks like it was plucked out of Woody Allen's "Sleeper." I was so glad when the 70's ended, now I have to re-live that horrible decade each time I pick up my remote, ipod, etc. bleech.
Everyone should get a little Nookie!
"an unspecified carrier" seems to be AT&T. At the bottom of this page:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/features/techspecs/
is a link labeled "Check the coverage viewer" that points to
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/popUp_3g.jsp
As a current Kindle 2 owner, the thing that matters the most (at least to me) is book selection. An e-reader is only as useful as the books you can put on it. B&Ns claims of "over a million titles available" (thereby claiming they have more titles then the what's available for the Kindle) is spurious at best, as I believe (IIRC) it includes a lot of free public domain books, books that are freely available on the Kindle, just not necessarily from the Kindle store. Sure, it's nice that they include more of those books in their own store, but that doesn't mean their EXCLUSIVE selection is any better. For anybody looking to compare Nook from Kindle, look at which books are available in the respective stores first.
I'm not getting into this crap where you can control what I can and cannot read. Take your orwellian device and cram it.
"But remember the cautionary note B&N struck six years back when they got out of the e-book business."
A great deal has changed in six years. Small computing has become more ubiquitous with the arrival of the netbook, high capacity flash devices are a lot more common, low power cpu's more common, wireless hot spots vastly more common...
Seriously, I travel a fair amount for work and I have seen literally 1 person using a kindle. I dont know..maybe people only use that at home, but to me it seems this is a device type with astonishingly little market penetration relative to actual books or ipod/iphone what have you.
That being the case, the only thing to take away from the kindle is media hype. IMO at least.
If their titles are bogged down with DRM I'm not buying it. Not as a political or philosophical statement; I've just burned my hand on that stove too many times. The music companies have figured it out (or at least have been clubbed into submission). Hopefully the book publishers will come to their senses as well.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Low sales ahead in the UK as British punters embarrassed to go into their book shops and libraries and ask for Nook e-books? :-)
For non-UK folks, "Nooky" is cheeky old fashioned slang for sex, so "nooky book" would mean a porno novel....
Many of the books seem to be ~$11; this is 10% more than the kindle. That adds up pretty quickly.
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
does it hvae the inernation wireless feature that the latest kindle has?
If not its not a kindle killer. Remember folks, there is the REST OF THE WORLD
Read what I mean, not what I wrote.
The wireless service is provided by AT&T. Says so at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/features/
This isn't the sig you're looking for... Move along.
Is this an iPod Touch killer also? I'm waiting for a hand-held android device that doesn't require a cell plan.
And like everyone else, I call them "hammers".
What's not to like about Barnes and Noble's new e-book reader?
PDF support? Check.
WiFi? Check
eInk? Check
SD reader? Check
Battery life? 10 days
I'm not seeing a downside yet.
I can read PDF just fine - the conversion process can be done in multiple ways and costs me a few pennies down to nothing for the Kindle. So that's no biggie. The MP3 player? I have that on my multiple year old Kindle too - I have YET to EVER use it so that's no biggie. The expandable memory? I have that on mine too but it's SD and they killed it on the new version - stupid of them IMO. That said the new Kindle has more base memory and quite frankly if it's just books you're putting on there it will hold a metric shit-ton of books! The average paperback book I get is under a meg and I have gigs of storage on my device. So, while a nice touch this advantage isn't that big a deal to me.The color touch screen for nav I don't get, what's the advantage? If it uses more power then I don't want it - make the device like the Energizer Bunny and last a long long time and I'm happy. Things like refresh rate changing pages are a bigger deal to me than this gimmick, honestly refresh on my old unit is okay by me.
Having owned and used an eBook reader for a good long time now I can tell you that capacity, battery life, and coverage for the radio are big concerns for ME. My very biggest concern is availability of BOOKS at decent prices - more magazines would be nice. That's what I am buying the thing for and if it cannot give me a ton of access to books then it's worthless. Right now Amazon gives me all the books I can absorb, with rare exception, at somewhat decent discount rates. Lending is nice but 14 days isn't long enough for most - I've seen how slow some people are with reading! Give it a full screen that does color I might be more interested but not at the expense of most of the battery life.
Really for me this is a yawner unless it starts a price war on content. I know I'm locked in with Amazon DRM but I also know how to break it if I really wanted to - I've got the tools. If I had NO eReader then yeah sure this would be more interesting but their past with eBooks would give me pause . Anyway, nice to see more entries into this realm. Perhaps with more and more readers coming out someone will make the breaking of Amazon DRM a little bit easier and more automated? That would be helpful!!
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
I like the idea of ebooks and dedicated ebook readers. I have one major problems with them, I can often pick up a used copy of the book for a significant savings over the ebook price.
I can stick a book on my pocket and know that when I pull it out it will still work. E-book readers are way to easy to break. Was reading my kindle in bed went to refill my coffee sat back in bed and crunch 300 dollars in the waste basket.
Plastic Logic's QUE will be released in January at CES:
http://www.slashgear.com/plastic-logic-que-wireless-ebook-reader-gets-ces-launch-1860791
"QUE will be able to download ebooks from the Barnes and Noble store either via WiFi or integrated 3G (courtesy of AT&T in the US)."
I never bought DRM music so I'm not going to buy DRM books. I always bought the CDs and ripped the music in a friendly non-DRM format. Now, for books, I'll just scan each of my books into a friendly non-DRM format--one page at a time. That'll show the book publishers that their DRM can't affect my life!
As a suggestion to manufacturers: Please offer a laptop lid or overlay with an eInk screen & drivers, and leave the rest to us.
The closer we see these things with open-able underpinnings, the more I'll trust them. If it simply started as an eInk peripheral (does that word date me?), I think we'd be way ahead of the game. But then again the publishers would be sour on that, I'm sure.
This will have DRM. It's that simple.
When you lend a book, you lock yourself out of that title on your reader for 14 days (Well, it's probably configurable up to 14 days). The copy sent to your friend is a time limited DRM version that self destructs (does not allow access) after the loan period, and can't be re-forwarded. Think of it as a more restrictive copy-once version of DRM.
This means two things
(1) it will be cracked and there will be ebooks floating around, but it will be fringe in quantity
(2) you can lend your ebook very similarly to lending a real book (you can't read it but your friend can), with the "bonus" that you automatically get the book back in two weeks.
(3) this means you can't give away or resell with this mechanism
Take these as the advantages and disadvantages that they are. It's a step up from Kindle.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The Kindle Killer Arrives
With all the Apple news in the last 24hrs, I immediately thought this was the Apple tablet when I read the RSS feed...
(sigh, pwnage from the Apple marketing group, crap!).
Android is great, we all know it, but I guess the only way to become legendary technology is to hype is up as much as any Apple product.
This device appears to be superior to the Kindle in every way. I told my friend just now, "hey, I know you're interested in the Kindle, but you should wait for the Nook!" I explained how it was better. His only question was "Cool, but can it get the Wall Street Journal like the Kindle?" I checked. It's not on BN's ebook site. Fail. Content is still king.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Only in US.
Books can not be given away.
"Pass"
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
"Who knows what [products] they'll [promote] between now and the time the [ebook concept] becomes unprofitable? -- Troy McClure
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
That may be, but they've been back in for a little while now.
As an aside, I've been using eReader for years, first on Windows Mobile, and now on my iPod touch. It's a nice reader, they have a decent selection of books, and it's easy to make your own from converted text or html files.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
My Android phone has a PDF reader on it. How will B&N prevent me from getting that program on their device and using books I downloaded illegally?
Imagine reading a pirated android development book on a rooted B&N Nook.... :: head explodes ::
Up here in the great white north we are still left out in the cold wrt eBook readers. Even the Kindle isn't shipping here yet (assuming I would want one, which I don't because of their damn kill switch). So I have an impromptu "Ask Slashdot" question. Does anyone know of a decent eBook reader that isn't DRM crippled that can display PDFs? And I'm looking for real owners, not responses from people who have read a spec on a website somewhere.
Who is John Galt?
with Animal Crossing? Then you can have Tom Nook's Nook.
Lending is definitely the killer feature here. Look at what happened to the iPod after Zune introduced sharing.
it can also render PDFs. What I like is the size. It is about the same size as a standard piece of paper. Not the screen, but the entire device. The screen is somewhat smaller than US letter/A4 paper. I also like that I can hook it to my PC via USB and it will emulate a hard drive. This lets me backup the device locally. I do wish that it had the ability to use an SD card. It's hard wired to 2Gb of memory.
I can't find a screen size. In a world of mm variation comparisons, I can only presume that the eInk screen on this reader is smaller than the Kindle2 screen.
Sadly, it's also not as svelte. Yes, it's slightly smaller in footprint, but it's noticably thicker. If Apple has taught us anything, thin is the cool part of being small. And it has shorter overall battery life, even with the extra 10% weight.
That's not to say the device isn't cool. I'm a little concerned about the touchscreen keyboard, but chicklets suck too, so maybe it's a wash. The color screen is really just eye candy, but it is kind of neat.
I'm holding out for the XL version (there has to be one, right?) 'cause most of my references I use are letter sized paper, and squeezing them to novel size isn't quite going to do it for my aging eyes.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
MP3 support on this thing would be cool.
You download an e-book along side the audio version.
You're at home reading your book on the Nook and when you hop in the car, it can play you the audio while you're driving. When you're ready to return to reading, it has your spot saved.
I'll use this slashdot post as evidence when I get in lawsuit over who patented the idea first.
$260? I'll buy an ereader when the price drops below $100. Till then I'll read on my handheld (iPod Touch as of now) as I've been doing for the past 5 years...
Thomas' English Muffins Inc.
I'll assume this has zero to do with Tom Nook from Animal Crossing series.
Is the display any better than the Kindle at displaying porn?
What can you actually display on the tiny color touchscreen? It looks best suited for software-defined buttons.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Doesn't the Kindle offer free, unlimited, live access to Wikipedia? Seems like they left THAT off their feature comparison chart....
Everyone should get a little Nookie!
"So you can take that cookie and stick it up your..." -- Fred Durst
Taken from Googles Android platform page: "Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications."
And that's probably the thing that makes it fly, it unifies the software stack and a big corp. is behind it. Guess that's a good thing.
Still, calling Android an OS is a misnomer, as the Java framework is the crucial part about it.
Some feature that would cause my paper books to come flying back after 14 days sounds good to me. I've had too many good books go out on a one way loan. If I give you my book, I don't ever want to see it again. However, if I loan you my book, I want the damn thing back. OK? Like those Baroque Cycle books and the Otherland hardcovers. You know who you are.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
They're one step ahead of you my infringing friend.
By including a PDF reader and wifi, they have prevented you from surreptitiously rooting their device to install such a reader, and then hacking the hardwired interface to load your ill-gotten reading material.
So go find all the pirated books you want - B&N has already won by taking away the thrill of victory by allowing you to load and read them as part of the basic package.
You can hang your head in shame, knowing that The Man has beaten you again. ;-)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I've read more than 120 books now on my iPod touch (which is very much an iPhone with no phone), no problems. Yes, a larger screen would be nice and you have to set a sensible brightness level (too bright in a rather dark environment is bad) but mostly I just forget that I'm reading on an electronic device and not a real book. I just read. There's not much more to say here, I'd say. I think the e-ink displays are overrated. They may have some slight advantages but they're far from perfect.
And the iPod has the advantage of being small and light enough to be safely held in one hand and to go into any pocket, which is great. And compared to most ebook readers the iPod is cheap. And it can be *so* much more than just an ebook reader.
meh, i really enjoy my kindle, and don't see any need for upgrading in the next 10 years or so.
If you want to put pdfs on a Kindle, you have five options:
1) e-mail the pdf to Amazon, they convert it, and send it wirelessly to your Kindle for $0.15/MB .pdf Kindle plugin off the web and install it on your Kindle. (No it isn't Amazon-supported, but it works just fine.)
2) e-mail the pdf to Amazon, they convert it, e-mail it back to you for free, and you transfer it onto the device using USB
3) You use any one of a number of different conversion packages to convert it yourself and transfer it using USB.
4) You download a
5) Buy a Kindle DX, which handles them natively.
SirWired
Just found it interesting that Ayn Rands book "The Fountainhead" is the image chosen to be on the first pictures of the Nook.
Q. I don't live in the U.S. Can I buy a nook?
No. At this time, nook is not for sale outside the U.S.
Well, that sucks. It's not going to kill the Kindle if 95% of the world's population can't use it.
And yet... All I can think of is, "Wow, this means the Kindle 3 is going to be out soon, and kick ass."
The device looks nice, but a quick comparison of some of my existing Kindle titles/prices vs. B&N eBook titles/prices indicates that B&N eBook prices are a full 25% higher than Amazon. A Kindle edition of a reasonably popular paperback costs $6.39, while the same title at B&N for their eBook edition is $7.99... whats up with that?
Metric shit-ton? Can you convert that to English shit-tons? Or better yet, slugs?
It's quite simple. A punt is a flat-bottomed boat which is propelled by pushing a pole against the river bed (similar to a gondola). A punter is to Oxford and Cambridge as a gondolier is to Venice. (Don't worry if you've never heard of Oxford, Cambridge, or Venice: they're in Europe).
I have no idea why people keep on bringing up the name of this device after Amazon named theirs "Kindle" which is, IMO, one of the dumbest and most irritating device names in recent memory.
So their just released gadget is uber-cooler the previous generation of Kindles? Whoopee. In related news, the Zune HD compares favorably to the original iPod. My DX has native PDF support, an MP3 player, and actually displays on a non-dinky screen. The only advantage their device seems to have is wifi, which is nice. But surfing the web (and I don't see any mention of the phrase "browse the web" anywhere. Does the machine not have a web browser? It says "browse and shop", but that's not exactly clear cut. Browse the B&N catalog, or browse the web?) on an e-reader sucks anyway. Nook is still just an e-ink display (with a color touch screen at the bottom, for added experience of....um....touching things in color?) for e-books.
Don't want amazon (or B&N, or Sony, etc.) 'killing' your books? Don't buy from them. Buy from publishers that support some level of openness. My Kindle exists for a couple reasons: Disposable literature, Freebie classics from amazon, A gadget-y way to get the Free Press, and making sure that I no longer have to find space for my mountain of O'Reilly books (and keeping them at my fingertips when I really, *really* need to look something up).
E-Readers are gadgets, and they probably always will be. They're handy gadgets, but they are probably relegated to a niche market.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
No free browser, apparently?
Seriously, a good chunk of these missing features (PDF support, for example) are in the Kindle DX, and could be backported to the Kindle 2 with a firmware / OS update. One I would wager is being approved right... about... now.
A shame that book industry didnt jump at it when was the right moment.
No unicorn. Less controversy than a Kindle. Lame.
Having owned a Kindle 2, I am not a fan of the e-Ink screens. They break way too easily, especially for a device one hopes to travel with. I also found the contrast to be merely borderline acceptable for my 41-year-old eyes (fine in bright light, bad in dim light).
After my screen broke in a 2-foot fall from a coffee table, I was completely unmotivated to replace the Kindle. If you get one of these things, treat it carefully!
Any news on a web browser being built-in with free 3G like all the Kindles? I have a Kindle 1 and was going to buy the International until I heard about this new reader. It looks nice, but I've found I actually enjoy reading blogs and other sites on my Kindle. This will be what makes/breaks it for me about jumping ship from Kindle to B&N.
What better place for your porn?
When the Nook site went live early, the information on lending stated: "You can lend many of your eBooks one time for a maximum of 14 days." To me this means you can only loan a book out one time, ever. Now the site states: "Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time." No mention of "one time." Better. Not ideal, but I can probably live with this as long as there is not a restriction on how many times a book can be loaned out. The inability to loan books is what totally killed my interest in the Kindle. I'm still sticking with dead tree books right now, but I have to admit that I'm now at least tempted by an ebook reader.
come on, obviously you already have a kindle so you have no reason to get this. but for everyone else who doesn't have a ebook reader, the Nook is an obvious choice. Same price but with more features. So stop crying.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/compare/ says it supports epub, eReader, and PDF. epub is an open standard according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats#International_Digital and you can convert docs in lots of other formate to epub.
Seems you'll be able to read any document on this device. Very nice.
The problem with pdf support on the kindle is how to scale a page meant to be 8.5 * 11 to much smaller than that.
This device faces the same problem. Your options are still hassle with pan + zoom or squint alot.
On a side note, why in the world is there a color touchscreen LCD on this? is that necessary to select books? Would i rather have more battery life / cheaper price, or a lcd screen on my bok reader. . .
A Kindle killer is an ebook reader this size that costs 50$ OR an ebook reader that is color 8.5 * 11.
How is this a "killer" product when it is basically the exact same thing? As far as i can tell, it is the exact same size, costs the same, and does the same thing as the kindle.
The real selling point of these devices isn't that they can play MP3s. Its content. Who ever has the books and the newspapers / magazines will win this war.
Limp Bizkit doing a song... "I did all for the Nook[ie] so you can take that Kindle... and stick it up your ass!"
www.entourageedge.com
At best a successful product "killer" merely fractures the market. It doesn't really do anything to eliminate the dominant product. If there were ever a truly successful iPod "killer", iPhone "killer", Microsoft Office "killer", or whatever there would still be plenty of people who used and enjoyed the market leader. And plenty of second place vendors would be quite happy with their slice of the marketplace even if they didn't manage to commit market leader product homicide.
Something tells me Apple is quite happy and successful with their slice of the PC market. As I suspect SanDisk is with their slice of the personal music player market. Barnes and Noble could do well in this market without displacing the Kindle, just as Pepsi does well without surpassing Coke.
Kindle has the web browser removed for international version according to wifinetnews. Sadly this means I will be waiting for a next generation ebook reader or software update that includes a browser as I live in Europe currently.
The LCD screen is supposed to be touchscreen in which case I should be able to write notes with it. A book with the ability to scribble on the side is actually the beginning of something useful. Now I just need color e-ink and then I might buy it.
I would like to have one of these devices, but not until they stop charging such ridiculous prices. E-book readers will never go mainstream until they cost less than $50. Eventually they should just give these things away.
The non-wired Sony ereaders are superior. The battery life is measured in weeks, not hours or days as with these wired devices. Any one who still reads books really doesn't need to be able to download books on the fly when they probably will load far more books on to their device than they can hope to read in many years. I can see wired if you absolutely must be able to download the daily newspaper but I find the battery life trade off vs marginal convenience (news papers are still beter read at newspaper size).
So please, keep your kindles and nooks.
Well, since the Kindle and ebook readers are still new, this "we are better because we let you lend" idea has a little bit of logic still, but the minute that the market phases over to ebooks being the preferred format for enough of the customers, we're going to see a revolution in the book publishing field, just like what has happened in the music field, where DRM is fading from memory.
Most people are just not going to stand for the stupid restrictions which DRM places on them, and they will obtain, somehow, non-DRMed copies of their books in order to be able to still do what they think they should be able to do with them. And when going to get the copies of the books they bought legally, they will discover how available and easy it is to obtain books which they didn't buy. In addition, there will be tons of public domain and freely licensed content which will be easily found via the wonders of the net, search engines, and the inevitable rise of sites which try to survive based on replacing the edit/review/recommend function of current publishers for this wealth of free content.
To sum up, the current business model of book publishers isn't going to survive. My guess is that its new form will include a lot of mutations of the Street Performer Protocol.
...I can't wait to hear Jon Stewart say that out loud.
rj
The price. They need to use a razor blade model; reader cheap and easily replicable, media priced as market value has it.
Why? Because when an e-book is $9.99, and a paperback is the same (or less), and the paperback continues to offer advantages over the e-book (like, actually owning the damned thing and not requiring batteries), the value of the reader as an usurper of your rights is more than a little questionable.
For instance, the Kindle app for the iPod adds no cost to the iPod; but turns the iPod into a full-fledged reader with a metric poop-ton more capability than any standalone reader. That's the way to do a reader. Standalone readers that cost more than say, a book does, are silly. They're crippled as compared to most general purpose devices, they fiddle with your ownership of the media in various ways, and consequently they really don't deserve the under-the-arm or handbag space that, say, a general purpose tablet or iPod does.
When I see a dedicated reader they want hundreds of dollars for, I just laugh. And... the moment a viable tablet computer comes out (probably in the spring, and probably from Apple), that will be the end of e-readers unless, as I suggested above, they adopt the razor blade model.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
What we need is sellers like Steam, Gamers-Gate, and Good Old Games for the ebook market. Give me weekend deals, give me surprise specials on publishers, give me a discount if I buy an author's entire catalog. From what I've seen, there's little incentive to go ebook over dead-tree. They should be taking advantage of the low cost of distribution and selling as much as they can. If I can't get it for cheap online then I'm either going to pick it up used or from a library, I'm guessing neither of which profits them as much as if I get it directly.
I don't mind Steam-like DRM. Make it easy to use and make sure it WORKS and people will love it. There are customers now who try to buy on Steam whenever possible, sometimes even when the same product available elsewhere with no DRM and at a lower price.
That's not to say I wouldn't prefer something like RTF. Good Old Games is selling tonnes (how many bits are there in a gram?) of games DRM-free and are constantly adding to their catalog. There was nothing stopping me from pirating Fallout 2, but I bought it from GOG anyway because it was cheap enough to be a no-brainer. Older books, discounted, and DRM-free in a GOG-type store would be great and would make a lot of money.
Unfortunately, ebooks are more likely to go towards the Microsoft XBOX Live store model. Sales are rare and often lame. Microsoft just added the ability to buy XBOX 360 games online. The main problem is, it's twice or three times as expensive as picking up a physical copy.
From a no name company, but this number that just got posted on Engadget seems incredible. Android, and apparently an open OS that runs ordinary Android apps.
Same concept, but seems like more of a generalist device (and also much uglier). Can read not only ebooks, but can surf the web on the little LCD on the bottom, and then when a button is pressed, mirrors the content on the eye friendly e-ink display.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/20/watch-spring-design-alex-push-the-web-to-e-reader-format-video/
I was under the impression that only the bottom portion was a touchscreen. One of the Kindle's biggest design issues is that taking notes or annotating passages is a PITA. In addition the silly thing "renumbers" pages when you change font size. The page numbers it DOES use have NO relation to the paper copy either.
These are the things that make reading self-help books with others or using it in the classroom a failure. These things could be changed with a simple firmware update. Speaking of which - to my knowledge the firmware on my Kindle has NEVER been updated, I have NO idea what these "experimental" features are for if they never come out of "beta".
The Kindle ain't perfect but the improvements that this new thing are touting simply don't knock my socks off. I'm happy to see competition of course but it's going to take many more features before I'll be switching. Kindle still rules this roost IMO.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
These clowns are, essentially, going to lose my business, forever.
I've owned an Android device, since day one. There is not one single good ebook reader on the device. Not one.
(hint: if you don't support raw HTML or TEXT, as well as your proprietary format, you're not a good ebook reader. You also shouldn't crash all the time, as well.).
So, good old Barnes and Noble said a year ago, that they'd be releasing ebook reader software for android. Good news, I thought! Good to hear! After all, Amazon bought out Mobipocket, and instantly ended all releases of that software. There will most likely never be an Android release of Mobipocket, because it conflicts with Amazon's Kindle.
Gee, good to see competition, eh?
Now B&N decide to develop their own device. Well, la-de-da! Instead of releasing for the very OS their device is based upon, they hold back. Worse, they even use Android users as beta testers, but don't release the goods! Where is my ereader software for Android, you useless bastards? WHERE IS IT?!
So, now we have Amazon, preventing generic ebook reader software for Mobipocket being developed, and now we have B&N doing the same, it would seem?!
WTF?!
These people are CLOWNS.
so ... imagine Beowulf of those ...
Dual screen design is pretty, but seems like wasted space. Granted, e-ink makes a poor interface for much more than basic device control, but I don't care for having so much wasted space on what should be 99% page. Not a fan of the Kindle design and it's keyboard for the same reason.
Sticking with my Sony 505.
"Among the advantages in the Nook's column: Wi-Fi, expandable memory via microSD, MP3 player, and PDF compatibility."
I was an early adopter for the Kindle. I loved it from the beginning as it has WiFi, an SD Card slot, an MP3 player, and the ability to load PDF's on it.
In short, this "story" loses. I am shocked this made the Slashdot front page; it reeks of Google fanboyism.
Ok, some facts. The technology behind this is from Plastic Logic. Plastic Logic got all out there and the drooling when it presented its first reader (which was not available for the public) more than 1 year ago. I have waited ever since to buy an ebook reader, knowing full well what I wanted: large screen, possibility to add my own pdf, e-ink. Essentially I think this product is a really bad. The screen is too small. It will fit novels, but if you aim to use it to read real A4 pdf you are in no luck. But Plastic Logic has now explained that it will come up with a new product: Que ( http://www.quereader.com/ ) for the business market. The press release says: "Extra thin, lightweight and wireless-enabled, QUE is the size of an 8.5 x 11 inch pad of paper, less than a 1/3 inch thick, and weighs less than many periodicals. The innovative QUE proReader features the largest touchscreen in the industry, an intuitive touch screen user interface, and provides access to a file cabinet’s worth of documents, plus your favorite—and most necessary—publications. " This is much more similar to the product they presented two years ago. This is what I will buy, not this silly nook-toy. I have waited 2 years, I can wait an extra month.
Will I be able to lend any book available at my library for free (tax dollars and all)? I woudn't mind DRM then.
I'd really like to have an eBook reader. I'm one of those people who doesn't have the time to buy books from a bookstore or browse the library. I hate trying to find new creative places to store them in my home and don't want to deal with simply reselling them. I would love to read when I'm waiting in the doctor's office, winding down for the night, or driving to work but paperback books are just too inconvenient. The Kindle doesn't do it for me because the device has so much potential but is locked down with custom software and a "we control all your rightfully-purchased books" mentality. (Can't stand the keyboard, either.)
I've been waiting for an eBook reader that's closer to a general computing device than any of the options out there now. The hardware is certainly capable, no doubt about that. You can do a surprising number of useful tasks on a low-framerate monochrome display, but none of the current readers even attempt anything beyond reading a book. You could download and listen to podcasts, do (limited) web surfing, play some simple games, manage your schedule, and so on.
The LCD screen on the Nook already gives it an edge that other readers don't have, and I'm surprised that the price is as low as it is. If the Android app store is available as well, this could be a killer device. Let's hope B&N doesn't screw it up too badly.
So... does it have a proper SDK (well, ok, at least unlocked hardware that can be freely reflashed with guerrilla builds of Android), or maybe an API for UI customization (repurposing buttons, changing the way it works, etc)?
Up to now, there's one eBook market that should have publishers absolutely salivating: computer and technical books. It's the one niche where non-crippled eBooks really DO have a compelling value proposition. Think about it... what's the biggest single problem with most computer books? They're already a version behind 6 weeks before they even arrive at Amazon, let alone Borders or Barnes & Noble. Computer-related eBooks have the potential to change that, by letting you auto-update the books regularly to incorporate fixes and revisions long after the book first became available. Plus, they have the potential for instant gratification. I'd probably buy twice as many books if I could have them *right now*, *this instant*, instead of having to wait until at least tomorrow afternoon to get them from Amazon (I've pretty much given up entirely on Borders -- once the gold standard of local computer book availability -- and Barnes & Noble has maybe 3% of the books I actually want available for immediate purchase at a store within 50 miles of my house whenever I go searching).
What I *really* want is an ebook that starts with the button configuration of an Ectaco Jetbook ( http://tinyurl.com/ctaq3q ) that keeps the transflective LCD, but bumps the resolution up to 1280x960 or 1600x1200, has approximately the width and height of a Manning book, and adds a capacitive digitizer for finger-friendly Graffiti-like handwriting recognition. And of course, a published, programmer-friendly API that lets you more or less reinvent its user interface without having to actually reinvent Acrobat reader *itself*.
Why LCD instead of e-ink? Latency. Novels are usually read page by page, sequentially. Computer books are ready by jumping all over the place, and rapidly flipping through pages to find something nearby. Frankly, 500-800ms is just plain unacceptable in that context. It would drive me nuts. I want to hit the 'next page' or 'previous page' button, and have the page visible before I even finish releasing the button (using onboard ram to cache the entire active pdf file since flash is painfully slow). Hell, if it becomes affordable, give me a second display while you're at it, so I can either see adjacent pages, or have two books open at once side by side. Maybe make one display e-ink, and one LCD (with a UI that juggles them around, so the page of interest during active page-flipping always ends up on the LCD instead of e-ink).
Would I pay $40-50 for an ebook that costs the same in print form, that can only be read on a Kindle, and is basically a warmed-over scan of the print edition? Hell no. At best, current ebooks are basically a crutch to get me over today's crisis until the paper copy arrives tomorrow. Half the time, my workflow can be described as: 1) find book(s) at Amazon; 2) order before the FedEx deadline; 3) download it 20 minutes later from eMule, since I *really* need it *right now* (admittedly, skipping step #2 most of the time if it's already past the evening deadline for next-day delivery and too late to get the real book by tomorrow anyway. It's amazing how not being able to get it tomorrow under any circumstances has a way of diminishing the perceived urgency of buying it). Yeah, I DO get my money's worth from my Amazon Prime membership. The FedEx man personally knows my name ;-)
Would I do it for a book on something rapidly-changing, like Android programming, with constant revisions for at least 2 or 3 years as Android evolves from 1.5 to 1.6, 2.0, and beyond? Hell yeah. In fact, even limited to reading it on my PC, I paid the author of the Busy Coder Android books for a 12-month subscription that gives me permanent pdf copies of his Android books (3 so far), plus constant revisions. Google 'warescripti
I suspect if Apple comes out with some sort of e-ink device you'd be singing a different tune
Kindle locations bear no relation to page numbers, but they are not dependent on text size. Just tried it on my K1.
My kindle (K2) has been updated a few times already. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200324680 for more details. Also, it is hitting about 6 months since the release, so I would expect a big one soon.
I'm sorry, but I don't care if it has a vibrating codpiece with an attachment to automatically clean up the mess after the happy ending, if a reading device doesn't have a web browser, I'm not interested.
Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
I can tell you that with TWO Kindle side by side using different fonts the "page numbers" did NOT match up. This with a pair of K1. I and a woman I was seeing were both trying to read a self help book and when we would try to compare notes we found it impossible because we would both end up in different parts of the book. I read at smallest font, she read closer to largest.
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
I ve read a lot of books (maybe 50 per year in the last two years) on an ancient Palm TX with a great reading software called PalmFiction. I love it. I carry it everywhere and since i bought it i really enjoy commuting, having to sit in waiting rooms, etc. The display is great, it has one of the best screen to overall size ratio, it has a reasonable battery life and with PFiction i can read in green over black with a very decent font. TX is great with txt, docs, rtfs, but i reckon it sucks big time with PDFs. But i heard that Palm is no longer manufacturing the TX, and honestly i dont see any succesor in the market should i ever lose or break my TX. The samsung q1 was a step in the right direction, but was expensive. Maybe the Ipod Touch fills the screen size and price criteria, but does it have a reading software designed for the hardcore ebook reader like the Palm has??
If there is no automatic reflow of text to fit the screen you need a device able to show the whole page. Kindle DX does that, Nook doesn't.
Is there a comparison page which outlines the supported formats for the Kindle, Sony (Libre?), Nookie (sic) etc.? .txt, .rtf, .lit, .pdf? Whatever happened to .lit?
The $259+ tag is obviously not subsidised. The e-books are not subsidised either at $9.99. So, these guys are trying to have their cake and eat it too?
But it's so small!!! I can't get absorbed in what I'm reading.
Metric shit-ton? Hak5 FTW!
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Since I strongly suspect that Apple would do this only if and when e-ink has gotten much better (at least much faster), this is not totally impossible... I'm not a fanboi, though.
Try Stanza, it's even free. There's also Kindle.app from Amazon, iSilo, eReader and several others.
Two problems for me: 1. No web browser (can be fixed later, after all it is running android so in the field of hackability looks promising). 2. Not available to international customers.
But can it read DRM-free ebooks, other than PDFs? (TXT, RTF, HTML especially) I have hundreds of DRM-Free books that I've bought from Baen.com and I'm always looking for a better reader. For years I've used various PDAs with varying levels of success. If this does the job well, I'd be happy to pay that price.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
It wouldn't matter if it was too slow when scrolling, but I think typing could be the issue. If there's a significant delay between hitting a key and the letter appearing, it would be awkward to use.
Though I'm seeing a far bit of delay on this web form right now, and I'm coping with it...
If I already have an iphone, or itouch, or netbook, or whatever; why should I also have to carry around a separate device just to read text?
I have a Kindle. Can I move any of my Kindle books to the Nook, if I buy one? Or, if Nook users decide Kindle is better, can THEY move?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
All of your points are good, but if DRM does not interfere, e-books actually win in this category. If your books are files, you can back them up on multiple media in multiple locations. Your physical book will wear out eventually, but your files don't have to.
I don't understand what B&N is doing with their prices. I'm one of their members (pay $25 a year to get 10% off purchases, and an additional 5% off when using their credit card). They're not giving the 10% discount for digital objects, including eBooks, which means that as a mass-market paperback buyer, I would have to pay more for my eBooks than for my paper ones, and it makes my membership useless. Look, for example, at the novel Low Red Moon. B&N's member price for the paperback is $7.19 and the non-discounted price for the eBook is $7.99. Amazon, on the other hand, prices the paperback at $7.99 and the Kindle version at $6.39. So B&N is screwing the people that they have enlisted through their loyalty program. It makes no sense.
There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.
Posted upon release of the first iPod.
What are the "multiple ways" that you've successfully converted PDFs? I've tried converting using Amazon's service, Stanza, Calibre, and the Windows Mobipocket thing, and the conversion process was extremely weak for pretty much everything except for documents which are essentially plain text.
Forget about reading academic papers or for example, previously purchased O'Reilly PDFs.
If you have any other suggestions, I'd be thrilled to hear, because strong PDF support is what I'm missing most on my Kindle.
I didn't RTFA or the summary, and I don't know what all this talk about books is about, but there's a killer on the loose. I want to know if I need to keep my tazer under my pillow or if they caught the bastard.
nook is perfect. makes you think comfy-chair
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The specs actually look pretty good, including expandable memory with cards, replaceable battery, wi-fi in addition to dedicated high speed wireless.
But that stupid screen design is a killer. I have the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX (disclaimer). The color display at the bottom of the Nook is cute and all, but I couldn't read with that distraction. I didn't see; can you turn it off? I'm pretty sure you can't expand the reading area to reuse that space, so at best it's a blank spot at the bottom of the screen, at worst, a fatal distraction.
Nice try, no cigar. I'm curious to see how Amazon counters this. No matter what, I LOVE this competition; within a few years I'll be using a much better reader than anything on the market now, reading DRM-free books. And no, I don't care if it's Amazon's or some other reader. Worst case, I'll crack the DRM of any books from Amazon and take them with me to the new reader.
Don't take it personally, but I'm not going to read your pithy response to my post.
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Hello, Mouse. Here's a device where you push the button and get a fix of the dope you're hooked on. Of course, every hit will put $10 on your credit card . .
"..don't you eat that yellow snow."