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Barnes & Noble's Nook, Reviewed
harrymcc writes "Barnes & Noble's Nook — the most significant e-reader since Amazon's original Kindle — hits B&N's retail stores today. I've published an extensive review of the device, which is also the first e-reader to run Google's Android OS: It's an interesting and capable gadget in many ways, but the interface — which is sluggish and somewhat quirky — isn't polished enough to render it a Kindle killer."
What e-books need is not a kindle-killer but a dead-tree-killer.
Just need something that forces Amazon to keep innovating and keep pricing competitive.
Thanks, B&N!
Speaking as someone not living in the US ... and hence out of the AT&T whispernet, the fact that this can work over WiFi is a huge plus.
I'd totally pay 250 US for it, just for kicks. Especially if they'd publish something like a bird watcher's guide, which where I really miss having a ton of searchable content, but without the bulk to carry around.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Perhaps it is my slashdot bias, but the story about Kindles having books removed from readers' machines still strikes a sour chord with me. I recognize that most consumers don't know a thing about and many don't care. I don't see much difference between book burning and book deleting. To me the reasons, are irrelevant. Abuse will always emerge when opportunity is given.
Amazon's reluctance to let the gadget out of the US market earlier makes the Kindle just another e-book reader, it has no iconic status that would warrant the "killer" adjective for any competitors, who are competing against it in equal footing pretty much everywhere.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Damnit, I had no idea there was that much demand, and that this thing won't be available til January. I guess that kills my plans for my mom's "Atheist People Give Presents" day gift. Maybe a gift certificate and a picture of the Nook...
Name...That...Autocomplete!
will this be available to rest of us mere mortals living outside the US (like Europe)?
i can get the kindle and the sony reader so would i have to wait forever for this?
Which reads any .pdf .djvu .younameit, e-ink, etc?
They can not be the ultimate quality, but they will put some fire in competition! Then prices will begin to be fair!
The review mentions AT&T 3G, but I couldn't find any mention of whether a new AT&T contract is required to buy the device at the stated price. If it is, then fsck that. If it isn't, then 'meh'. Its still pretty expensive. Wait for v 2.0.
Also, if one plugs its USB in, does it appear as 'USB storage', that one can copy PDF's to and be able to read them? Or is one required to use its proprietary software on a proprietary platform to load only special files with DRM?
And how about on wifi? Can one use any sort of standard protocol (ssh, ftp, smb) to copy PDF's in (or out) and/or can it navigate to an arbitrary URL and download a PDF, or does it only support the device accessing company-specified websites to 'buy' books?
Bottom line - Mandatory contract bad. Mandatory proprietary software bad.
Wake me up when there's an ebook reader that works more like a real book.
It should have softish covers, and once you open it, there should be 2 screens inside (one for each page).
This way the screens would be protected all the time, and it would feel more natural as a reading tool
The whole phrasse Kindle killer evokes some epic struggle to knock off the top dog in the market. Right now the iPhone/iPod touch appears to be the number 1 ebook reader. Meanwhile Amazon is afraid to release sales numbers for the Kindle because it would show it has been a disappointing seller.
I think the Kindle is a good idea, but for a single use device with a very high price it is not going to make any inroads into the market.
I'm glad that more e-readers are starting to come out. I hope to get one after a couple more generations and a huge price cut. Plastic Logic is coming out with an e-reader soon too. Yay for competition.
Wake me up when there's an ebook reader that works more like a real book.
It should have softish covers, and once you open it, there should be 2 screens inside (one for each page).
This way the screens would be protected all the time, and it would feel more natural as a reading tool
Just Curious: How do you handle electronic mail, what with the absence of stamps and envelopes and licking and such?
The Kindle does have one disadvantage that is making me give the Nook a stronger look.
PDF's.
I buy a lot of Role Playing materials from Steve Jackson Games' "e23" site. They are in very high quality PDF documents and something that can display them without having to lug around a large, heavy, and massively power hungry laptop is a god send.
However, even though I legally own a copy of the PDF, Amazon refused to convert the PDF into a Kindle Ready file due to (as I was informed) copyright issues.
The Nook supports PDF out of the box and the internal file storage as well as the expansion slot gives me the room for all of the PDF's that I have.
So while it might not be a Kindle Killer, it has some features that put it close enough to the Kindle to make it a worthwhile contender.
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
Unless you're talking about those "books" with the padded plastic-covered pages and nice colorful pictures, it's not not really that safe to drop a regular book in the bathtub. Or are you some kind of alien who bathes using solvents which cannot be absorbed by paper?
ie.
A book offers permanence. Books are created so the only infrastructure required to receive the information within is your brain. And how can you get rid of books authorities no longer like? Well, because of the light infrastructure requirements, you CAN'T. No book burning has ever deleted an entire work from the culture.
But if a corporation decides to "burn" an e-reader book, can they? They sure CAN! And the book will be gone with no chance of ever discovering an unburnt copy.
Sorry, no. The function I want is PERMANENCE. That cannot be built into an e-reader.
There was new firmware recently released (Amazon release notes) that adds, among other things like longer battery life, native PDF reader support to the Kindle 2. (Note, the Kindle DX had native PDF support since it was released months ago.)
Like pi? Try 10,000 digits.
Could someone please explain the advantage of a dedicated e-book reader? I don't understand why I would buy either when I can get a netbook for $50 more (at worst) that can read both PDFs and Amazon e-books. Is it the battery life of these things, or is the hardware form factor really nice? I don't know.
df -h
the nook is a huge advancement (if only to allow PDF's), but the e-ink display is not for me. Switching pages is just too flickery, and the 0.5 second refresh time is way too long (check out the reviews on youtube and see what i mean)
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
It makes extensive mention of BN's support for epub.
Best Slashdot Co
B&N are quite lame.
First, they call publicly, for a beta test of an Android reader. They use Android users, primarily with G1s, to test their new reader software.
Then, after a while, they transition to their lame Nook, proceed with months and months of testing on that platform, then release the Nook.
Where is the software for Android phones? When I emailed, they seemed to think the concept was quite bizarre.
They have software for WM6, and other phones, but when THEY USE READERS TO DEVEL SOFTWARE FOR THEIR NEW HARDWARE PLATFORM, HOW DO THEY REPAY THEM!
With a big finger!!
Frankly, I've stopped using my fictionwise.com account, which is part of B&N now. I'll just pirate books, it's easier.
(I used to buy an ebook a week, so "easy" is quite often "click to buy". It isn't, any more, since I have to undrm, decode and convert books to a txt based reader anyhow!)
I like the idea, but I'm not going to buy any eBook reader until I can safely read it in the bathtub like a regular book. Crazy, maybe, but that's my criteria.
This is exactly what my wife asked me when I ordered my nook this year - can you use it in the bathtub.
I don't think I've ever read a book in the bathtub, and I'm really not sure that I'd want to. Paper isn't exactly water-safe. I once made the mistake of bringing a book to an amusement park with me, and it was absolutely ruined when we went on some white-water raft ride. Completely destroyed.
Do people actually do this? Do folks actually read in the bathtub?
Don't the pages get all weird from the humidity? What if you drop your book in the water? Don't your wet hands mess up the pages?
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Is there a professional quality readers available?
To me, a professional reader need significant mark up and free hand note taking, using a stylus, not tiny keyboard. The iRex iLiad tried providing these features, but their product is rumored to be kinda "not done". Will anyone like sony ever introduce such a reader?
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
How long did it take before Apple had to allow non-AAC audio files to play on the first-gen iPods? They only did that because other companies started making players that would play the widely available mp3 files.
Please take the time to actually learn what the hell you're talking about
The iPod came out years before the iTunes Store existed, and played MP3 files as its primary purpose. No one cared about AAC yet (it existed, but it was only the iTunes Store that popularized it).
So...iPods have always been able to play non-AAC audio files. iPods have never been purely repositories for music from the iTunes Store.
Where in the world did you get such a ridiculous idea, anyway?
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
No book burning has ever deleted an entire work from the culture.
Are you sure no works died with the Library of Alexandria?
Having a kindle and a tendency of reading more then the average geek, due to my Ph.D. work (I read about a Robert Jordon book and a half a day between work-school-pleasure reading, not considering websites and email). I love my kindle for pleasure reading, but find that it does not do a good job for academic or professional reading where one has to cite the work. The form factor works for me, where a DX would be a little too large. I can do about four page flips per second with my kindle, which isn't too bad.
The PDF function works for me since the firmware update, but I don't read game manuals or such. Mostly I read journal articles and vendor documents. I prefer to print those out, since my note taking methodology is kindle-incompatable. I am building summary of the articles I am reading for annotated outlines, so it makes sense to print for my type of work.
What I like the best about the Kindle is the portability mixed with readability and battery life. I have mobipocket on my windows phone and could be a pain at times to read, due to the eye strain and backlight sucking the life out of the battery. I use a book light, which has an advantage with regular books and journal articles. In all, the kindle works for me.
I do have the Kindle app for the PC, but it doesn't really work for me. I wished they did have one for the android phone, just when I can't take my bag with me.
In God we trust, all others require data.
"You can lend a book once. Period."
That seals the deal for me. Let me lend my books I rightfully purchased, or I'll stick with dead tree versions. I knew it sounded too good to be true.
Sorry folks, but Apple's iDevice will sweep everything else away in its wake. The company I work for just received the specifications for delivering content to the device and, based on my deductions, I honestly don't know why anyone would bother with either the Kindle or the Nook come 2010. Like the iPod touch and the iPhone, it will be just open enough to make everything else redundant. And as for Barnes & Noble and the ignoble Riggio clan: I'd like to remind you of the Wal-Mart-ization of the book business that B&N wrought on the American literary landscape. Did you think it was a good thing? And you want to purchase a locked-in device from them? Good luck with that. Riggio is the Gates & Ballmer of the book trade. And let's also stop and consider his influence in the BILLION DOLLAR textbook business. He has a frakking pigolopoly on college bookstores.
I didn't realize there were dozens of other e-readers that have entered market between the Kindle and the Nook. This is the third, maybe fourth e-reader to have been introduced.
I'm reminded of stupid sports reporters who love to refer to everything in streaks. Two game winning streak! The most runs scored in a game since two weeks ago! Congratulations!
I'm not sure what's with this trend in recent years for Americans to be obsessed with product killers. What's with this notion that there needs to be a single dominant device? Can't two or these of these readers co-exist? It's like a self-imposed monopoly. Ignorant consumers hear this nonsense and they all have to jump on the bandwagon and go with whatever is perceived as dominant. And if a company is lucky enough to have that image as part of their brand, like Apple, then it's even more absurd. At this point all Apple has to do is introduce a reader incorporating their famous industrial design and it will be a surefire hit.
I'm fairly certain this is crippling upstarts, preventing them from being competitive. It's tough to lure investors if they aren't willing to commit over the long term. Everything has to be a something-killer and has to be able to do it overnight.
Reading a book scrolling is a much harder way to read compared to flipping pages. Besides, if your e-ink scrolled you would eat your battery up as fast as... well, as fast as an LCD.
Saying you will wait for e-ink to scroll before you try it is like saying you won't buy a car until they hover, fly and go 500MPH.
But, I guess that's your prerogative.
Incidentally, my spell checker made me investigate... I've always heard the word pronounced "perogative", not with an extra "r" in there, but I realize now that I've never seen the word written down. Odd. Anyone have any light to shed on that?
Everyone talks about the hardware, Nook vs Kindle. Am I the only one thinking that it's the books that are important, not the reader? Let's face it, as an actual e-book reader the Nook and Kindle are almost identical and unfortunately that similarity extends into the realm of book pricing.
I only buy paperbacks, hardcovers are insanely expensive, harder to read and require two hands to hold, etc, etc...mass market paperbacks are $7.99. E-books are $6.39 which is a miserly 20% off. There are no printing costs, publishing costs, duplication costs, no incremental costs whatsoever for e-books, so why only a minuscule 20% discount? Both the Nook and Kindle are $259. If I save $1.60 per book I would have to buy 162 e-books just to recoup the cost of the reader (259/1.6). That's simply a foolish economic decision unless you want to buy hundreds of books.
With no bulk discounts, or free e-books with the purchase of a physical book or the abiliy to get free e-books for physical books that you've previously purchased, e-books are a very poor investment. That's not even getting into issues of format portability, when the Nook 2 comes out will PDB formatted e-books still be supported? What about e-pub?
For me, until there's a standardized e-book format and the books accurately reflect publishing costs (I.E. e-books are next to nothing in price because that's what they cost to make) this whole argument over readers is pointless.
I don't have a Kindle, but I use the iPhone app, and it's pretty great. Carrying books in your pocket is very convenient, and I like the reading experience the Kindle app provides. I put it in landscape mode, crank up the typeface size a bit, and it's really wonderful. Ideal for reading on the subway.
The ironic thing is that the iPhone app made me less likely to buy a physical reader -- when I first got the app, I really wanted to run out and buy one. But most of the books I want to read aren't available, so two or three months after starting with the app, the experience of searching for book after book that isn't available has soured me on the product. No matter how convenient the device is, and no matter how nice the reading experience is, it's not a great solution for me.
I don't understand how publishers can live with a single company like Amazon controlling electronic distribution. And I don't understand how customers would be able to live with a balkanized world of competing readers that all carry different sets of books, due to different deals with publishing houses. And finally, I don't understand how a truly open format can come into being without creating substantial piracy problems.
Real books do have some upsides.
You guys don't understand. Most of the time, the birdwatcher is so far away from the critter that visual identification is difficult to impossible. They rely on sounds, movements and a variety of other criteria unknown to the Great Unwashed (i.e., the non birding community). Black and white isn't too much of a problem. Lack of waterproofing would be.
Lived with an avid birder for years and never got the hang it. Trying to determine the difference between one Little Grey Bird and another Little Grey Bird because one hopped three times and bent over or two times and bent over seemed less fun than learning COBOL.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Do people actually do this? Do folks actually read in the bathtub?
Don't the pages get all weird from the humidity? What if you drop your book in the water? Don't your wet hands mess up the pages?
Short answer: yes people do.
There are obstacles of course, but once you're settled down there are few things as relaxing.
I'm sure everyone has their own routines. One way is to lower oneself into the bath while holding the book, without getting either hand wet. Another is to put the book on a reachable dry surface, then get into the bath, then towel your hands dry, and get the book.
When it's time to stop reading and start washing, toss the book onto a dry surface. I've never found that the temporary humidity did lasting damage to a book. Dropping one in is obviously disastrous.
Best only read light paperbacks or magazines in the bath.
You will not get an argument from me if you say that e-books should be cheaper, but...
Speaking as someone who does buy hundreds of books, it does indeed save money over time. Your supposition of saving $1.60 per book is a worst case scenario. I buy lots of books as they are new releases in hardback, and I save $15-20 on those. Many authors give the first couple of books in a series for free on Kindle (the first one's always free) in the hopes that you will purchase more. Those obviously save the full $7.99. This doesn't even count the free public domain books that would still cost you $7 in paperback. Also it's good to note the http://www.baen.com/library/Baen Free Library for loads of free modern SciFi and Fantasy. All Authors and Publishers aren't super greedy.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/KeyMasterOfGozerMy physical library is at 642 books right now, but it hasn't increased much in the past year since I bought my Kindle. The Kindle is way more convenient for me when I travel, and yes, I've saved more money in books than I spent on the device.
My biggest complaint is that I can't share my books with a friend. If the price per book was cheaper, as you say, then it would be easier for them to give a book a try.
Reading in the tub is the killer app for e-books.
Just put your nook or kindle or sony or whatever in a zip-lock bag, and you don't have to worry about it getting wet.
Why would anyone want to buy a device for the exclusive use of reading books + being locked into specific retailer's network? I got my second hand Fujitsu Stylistic Tablet for 450 EUR on eBay. To put it as short as possible, it is a computer. I can do anything short of playing 3D intensive games on it. Netbooks, eBook readers, iPods... so what do you do when you have all this? Carry a suitcase?
"Blah blah blah." - [citation needed]
Seriously, nook? The name is going to condition people to feel disappointed upon realizing that someone was talking about an ebook reader instead of sex.
"You want my nook? REALLY?? Oh....oh, right, that. Sure. It's in the other room." (sigh)
From TFR: "The Nook’s Wi-Fi should also work with open and password-protected Wi-Fi networks elsewhere, as long as they don’t have a sign-in page. (The device lacks the browser you’d need to enter credentials or agree to terms of service.) That means it should operate on your home network, but not at many public hotspots, such as those at Starbucks and hotels."
Well that bites. I see multiple hacks and counter hacks in the Nook's future.
Do people actually do this? Do folks actually read in the bathtub?
Don't the pages get all weird from the humidity? What if you drop your book in the water? Don't your wet hands mess up the pages?
I love to read in the bathtub, it's really relaxing...
The problems you mention are certainly real, but it just takes a bit of care to avoid them -- keep the door open a bit to avoid excessively humidity, a towel nearby to dry your hands before touching the book, and a place to store the book out of splash-range while washing etc (I just have a plastic bag hanging on a hook, works great).
Actually one of the biggest probs I have is that if the book is really engrossing, the water eventually cools down to the point where it's uncomfortable!
We live, as we dream -- alone....
digital versions of things will last much longer than anything physical
Then why can I still read the Illiad, while the term paper I wrote as a college freshman and stored on an 8" floppy is beyond reach?
One is 3000 years old, the other 30 years old. But one is MUCH less likely to ever be read again. One has a smaller audience, true, but I would like to read both but CANNOT.
Just need something that forces Amazon to keep innovating and keep pricing competitive.
Thanks, B&N!
The innovation I want most right now is the ability to cleanly borrow DRM'd library books. Right now, libraries are hashing out their e-book lending schemes. From the San Francisco Public Library, I can borrow some e-books in one or more of several formats, some with DRM (epub, mobi) some without (PDF, mobi). (SFPL doesn't roll their own e-book lending system, they use OverDrive and NetLibrary.)
So on my kindle2, I can read non-DRM'd books and DRM'd mobis (legally, but through a clunky process to overcome kindle's hostility towards books not bought from Amazon). But I can't read the stuff that requires Adobe Digital Editions, which is a lot of the good stuff. (And after using a kindle, reading a book on the PC is unbearable.) IIRC the Sony Reader does support Adobe Digital Editions (but Sony doesn't have the online commercial library of Amazon or B&N, plus is it safe to stop hating Sony yet?).
Dear Amazon Kindle Team,
Please improve Kindle's support for commonly used public library e-book formats. Specifically:
1) Support legally acquired DRM'd mobi's without requiring clunky conversion with kindlefix or the like.
2) Support Adobe Digital Editions (DRM'd epub).
Thank you, and have a nice day.
It's obvious why Amazon would prefer you to buy a new bestseller from their store rather than borrow it for free from a public library, but I want to do some of both, and I hope competition from device makers will spur improvement in the public library lending scene.
I am so tired of hearing "e-readers will never replace books" arguments, as if it were an all-or-nothing thing. I can well imagine stone carvers makers the same "permanence" argument against books.
E-readers still can't do a lot of what books do, but so what? Half the books I read, I read once, then give them away or return them to the library. For these, an e-reader is perfectly fine. And as the technology advances, a physical book will have fewer and fewer advantages.
Frankly, I think all this strident ranting against e-books is just people resisting having to learn new ways of doing things. Which is fine for them, but why must they lecture the rest of us all the time?
And as a writer myself, I have very little patience when this attitude shows up in the people I work with. In particular, it's a pain when editors and reviewers insist on physical copies so they can scribble comments in the margin. So then I have to decipher their handwriting and cryptic comments. And once, when I did an actual mass-market book, the publisher's editor and I had to FedEx pages back and forth, at great cost in time and money. Learn to use Acrobat, people!
Christmas has social significance to me, just not spiritual / religious. My answer to this is New Year's Day. For several years now, I've given (to the people who I'd have given "Christmas" presents before) New Year's Presents instead. It's arbitrary (not like we get a special celestial signal at midnight, Dec 31), and it's already a holiday for random celebration, and (but?) that's part of why I like it.
My goal is not to be a jerk about it, though -- for some kids who expect Christmas presents per se, that's just what they'll get ;) But that's because I see it like this: their holiday is Christmas, and I'd like to make them smile.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
But wouldn't the Kindle have to actually be popular, rather than a niche toy, before it makes sense to refer to something else as a kindle-killer?
One thing that I've definitely noted in searching the B&N ebook store is a complete and total lack of any computer/technical books. Here is a search for "programming" in B&N's ebook store, where I should see something about Perl, Java, Python, etc., but instead it's Glenn Beck???:
http://books.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=EBOOK&WRD=programming&box=programming&pos=-1
I can't be the only one on slashdot with shelves containing hundreds of pounds of technical reference material... I've been thinking about getting an e-reader to replace the mountain of paper with something that I can slip in my laptop bag and take with me, and I was leaning towards the nook. However, B&N's complete lack of technical tomes in ebook form means that I'll probably go the kindle route since Amazon has a plethora of books from O'Reilly, Wrox, Apress, etc.
I know the e-readers are definitely marketed outside the bounds of us gadget loving nerds, but I would have to imagine that there is at least a significant percentage of us that either have and e-reader or are looking to buy one. I can't believe that B&N seems to be dropping the ball on this market segment. I know it's early in the life of the nook, or the B&N app for the iphone, but it really feels like B&N is missing out by leaving us high and dry.
\033:wq!
I borrow and read books from Overdrive all the time on my Sony e-reader. I love the free service. The only problem I have is when I travel I have no way to renew or get new books as I leave my computer at hoem.
Good to hear that it works well enough on Sony's device. It's definitely going to be a consideration for my next e-reader purchase.
I know that with NetLibrary at least they have a way to renew items via the web, so that might work using Kindle's browser -- if only Kindle supported NetLibrary's book formats!
And we haven't even mentioned audiobooks -- most of the DRM'd ones on public library sites are WMA. Ugh!
I like the idea, but I'm not going to buy any eBook reader until I can safely read it in the bathtub like a regular book. Crazy, maybe, but that's my criteria.
I read books on my netbook in the bathtub, carefully...
The meme is dead, long live the meme!
I'll buy an ebook reader when it will be able do display CBR/CBZ formats, in a readable form.
I have never used one of these devices before but I would like to try! Probably not for around $250 though. With the way that I am, I would be scared of breaking them like i do every cell phone i've ever had. Can anyone tell me how durable they are? Perhaps in comparison to your average cell phone... I think they are a great idea and definitely a very useful device.