We interrupt Wednesday’s normal yarn related news for this important update.
Yesterday Barnes & Noble publically announced the release of their new ereader, called the Nook. The Nook is the first device to take on the Kindle camp, and the battle is shaping up to be a strong one. B&N brings huge name recognition with it, along with a huge library of digital books. Yes, it’s bigger than Amazons, with over 1 million titles available.
Many of the features of the Nook are copied from the Kindle and, dare I say it, improved upon? There’s a main top screen, in 16 level grayscale (same as the Kindle). The Nook eschews the Kindles keyboard and provides a 3.6” color touch screen below the main screen for viewing your library via a “cover-flow” design and other navigation. It looks totally cool.
3G wireless coverage is provided by AT&T (for free) to download new content, but the Nook also supports wifi connections, one presumes for an even faster download. While the intneral 2GB of storage will hold 1500 books, there’s a micro SD slot for more room – which you’ll need for the jpgs and mp3s you want to carry around too.
The Nook supports PDF, ereader’s pdb and PUB format – although it’s uncertain whether or not DRM’d files are supported. I hope so, as then all the content I’ve purchased from ereader.com, now owned by B&N, is readable on the Nook.
One feature B&N didn’t include was the ability to upload Word documents to the reader. Kindle required $$$ to use that feature, so I suspect it won’t be missed on the Nook. Enterprising authors wishing to upload their manuscripts to the Nook should probably be able to figure out how – simply PDF your Word doc and upload that instead. For free.
One video indicates the Nook suffers from the same problem as all other ereaders – that lag during the page changes. Not having to deal with that when purusing a book on the iPhone or computer, I’m not sure how much I’m going to like that. I suspect you get used to it after awhile.
I was a little disappointed to see the internal dictionary is the Merriam-Webster’s version instead of the Kindles Oxford English Dictionary, but you can’t have everything.
Since B&N also released applications for most mobile phones as well as desktop and laptop computers, they include synching between devices so that you can pick up right where you left off.
B&N has product pages for some great looking covers to protect the device, a couple versions of a light for that late night bedtime reading and other accessories. I’m lusting over the cute Kate Spade library cover, myself.
And the other really, really cool feature? Loan a good book to your buddy for a couple of weeks. He can read it on his Nook, phone, or computer too! This is a novel first among DRM’d content and something the technogeeks have been wanting for a long time.
Rumor has it that there will be another version released sometime next year that features a color, backlit screen. But in the meantime, this Nook should do nicely.
Preorders are being taken now at Barnes and Noble.com. Asking price is $259, same as the Kindle’s current price.
Maybe someone you know would like this as a Christmas present?
