Did B&N Pass On the 6.8" E-ink Screen That Kobo Snapped Up?

Nate the greatest writes "Rumor has it that the new high resolution E-ink screen on the Kobo Aura HD was originally intended for another ereader maker. Inside sources have told me that B&N had first claim on the initial production run of 300,000 6.8' screens, only B&N decided to pass. If this rumor is true then this was the screen that B&N would have used on their new ereader this year. Can you imagine what a Nook Glow HD would have been like? I think it would be the next best thing to a 7" Android tablet with an E-ink screen. It's a shame we might never see it." While flying cars are still on my wishlist, daylight readable screens for more portable devices are even higher up the list.

Comments

Re:Still lacking

[SuperBanana]

Contrast this with Kobo and B&N. Their hardware looks and feels great.

Agreed. The Nook Touch is brilliant ergonomically. People constantly ask me about it; when they hold it, they love the rounded, rubbery texture. Thing's durable as hell, too; it's survived 2 years of being in a bag with all sorts of other crap (note, the glow models are NOT durable, any screen marks show up as brighter specks. They require a screen cover!)

The problem, though, is that their stores are smaller and have worse prices, and no syncing for side loading (and less easy to accomplish, as well).

Sorry, what? I plug in my B&N Nook Touch, internal and external storage volumes mount, and I copy over an epub. Unmount, and presto, it's there.

Root either the Nook or the Kindle and you can use whatever reading software you want. The only negative I see with the Kobo is that it doesn't run Android, and thus you don't get access to all the wonderful goodies you can install - however, it's reportedly very easy to hack as a linux system.