I did a search and couldn't find any threads... not sure if this should be in tech talk, entertainment, chit chat or lounge so I went with tech talk.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp?cds2Pid=32280



You can lend books & borrow e-versions from the library. You can also read Google books for free

Anyone have one? I have been kind of in the market for an e-reader for longer trips. I prefer regular books overall but for example, I am away for 2 weeks and have about 6-7 books with me, would much prefer them on a slim e-reader!!

I went to B&N today for something totally unrelated and while I was checking out the nook display, the employee at the customer service desk mentioned that someone returned one today and that it was still in the original packaging. If you ordered one today, you'd get it sometime in Feb. So I went after it...a bit impulsive but I'm an avid reader and have some great opportunities to get some serious use out of it.

12/26/2009 6:21:22 PM

message_topic.aspx?topic=579287

didn't think of checking the stores for returns to get one early, good idea

it's function + its price makes it fall in the category of being something i really want but at the same time being something i'm not gonna buy for myself

12/26/2009 6:51:45 PM

a ha! a thread with a title you don't think of searching

it was totally unexpected to find one in the store, and i guess today was the perfect day to go. i am currently advocating for it to be an early birthday gift, asking my mom to go in half for it. at that price, i can justify spending some money on it and at the same time it being a gift

12/26/2009 6:58:55 PM

A thread about a product that actually contains the name of the product in the title? Brilliant!

I will probably end up getting one of these at some point, if for no other reason than they've already figured out how to hack this to get free wireless internet from anywhere in the US. Apparantly the entire OS is just stored on a microsd card inside so hacking it is as easy as replacing the stock sd card with one with the hacked OS on it.

Seems like they did a pretty decent job with the actual device but didn't bother to think that someone might want to hack it. Which seems like a win/win to me.

12/26/2009 7:40:48 PM

so i dropped trying to get part of the nook paid for with birthday credit

i remembered that i had a shit ton of points on my credit card so i cashed them in for a $250 credit on my balance and i bought the nook on the same card so it'll basically cancel itself out

now i can open it up and not feel so guilty

12/26/2009 10:08:40 PM

I'm going to let this thread live and lock the other one, due to having a better title.

12/27/2009 1:09:26 PM

I'm going to let this thread live and lock the other one, due to having better titties.

12/27/2009 1:16:59 PM

I hear there are titles in this thread? WHERE

12/27/2009 3:28:29 PM

FREE THEM TITLES

12/27/2009 3:55:46 PM

wolfy does look like she has nice titties. congrats on winning the thread, wolfy!

12/27/2009 6:08:21 PM

Death of My Shitty Titled Thread

12/27/2009 6:14:55 PM

someone else needs to buy a nook then buy a bunch of ebooks i want to read and let me borrow them

BANKROLL MY FUCKING ADDICTION K?

12/27/2009 6:22:47 PM

I would love to fill your Nook

12/27/2009 6:59:45 PM

^ hahah, that's a good one

12/27/2009 7:04:57 PM

ive been looking for a case and havent found anything im thrilled about

then i came across this

http://www.etsy.com/shop/hobop

custom covers. wahoo! she does kindle & sony readers too so anyone with a reader that wants a case but cant find one they like could use this. im sure she can do dude prints so you're nohomo while using your device

im actually in love with this one



[Edited on December 27, 2009 at 11:17 PM. Reason : pic]

12/27/2009 11:16:18 PM

I played with the Nook for a little bit. Wanted to get a feel for it for the same reasons El Nacho mentioned (namely Androidhack+free 3g).

The whole thing was frustrating as hell, slow as molasses and painful. The screen looks good while it's static. It looks like it's shitting itself every time it refreshes.

Maybe I'm just not ready for the eInk revolution, but there is no way I could deal with that for an entire book, and certainly not for web browsing.

12/28/2009 4:34:29 AM

they all look like that when they do page changes.

Its an eBOOK, for reading books. I don't even know why any of them have browsers. If I want to cruise the internet I'll use something else.

12/28/2009 11:49:18 AM

use the browser for something that is only available that way and is lengthy to read?

12/28/2009 11:59:14 AM

^ Yep


Kindle screen looks like crap during page change.

12/28/2009 12:00:31 PM

Quote :

"I don't even know why any of them have browsers."

i think the people going online have hacked their ereader

the device wasn't really made for web browsing, which is why it sucks at it

12/28/2009 12:25:02 PM

Quote :

"Kindle screen looks like crap during page change"

what do you want it to look like? all it does is flash a negative image of the page display and then blinks with the new content. it's a quick transition, it doesn't even register as an issue for me while i'm reading

12/28/2009 1:39:27 PM

I can only assume that after a lifetime of 60+ Hz displays that people are expecting fancy animations because they don't really understand the nature of eink.

12/28/2009 1:49:50 PM

yes, it's the customer's fault for not lowering their expectations. If you'd lower your expectations, you'd really like our product!!!

12/28/2009 3:09:39 PM

^seriously. ^^I understand the nature of it, it's a super shitty experience that takes me back to the early 1990's monochrome laptops.

The point of eInk and readers was supposed to be PRICE, but the damn things are 300 bucks. Just my personal opinion, obviously millions of people think otherwise.

12/28/2009 3:21:44 PM

i think its more an issue of managing expectations, not lowering them

12/28/2009 3:22:04 PM

in the little I've used e-readers, i found e-ink to be easier on the eyes than an lcd, at least for static text. As far as browsing goes, i don't see it as a deal breaker for an e-reader... but it's a really nice feature. I wouldn't want to browse on an e-reader like I do on a computer, but I'd like to be able to look up a reference I didn't understand without getting up.

12/28/2009 4:06:29 PM

i think all e readers have built in dictionaries and you can select which word you want to look up

and some have access to wikipedia but im not sure if that goes for all of them

so it would seem the reference angle is covered

12/28/2009 4:20:11 PM

Quote :

"what do you want it to look like? all it does is flash a negative image of the page display and then blinks with the new content. it's a quick transition, it doesn't even register as an issue for me while i'm reading"

I read about 10 pages of a book on my brothers kindle over xmas. The page change over was shocking to me. Thats all I was posting about. I got used to it (hell i had no option).

It was also a pain when an image/illustration appeared in an Ebook. I couldnt possibly make out the image. I'm assuming there is a zoom of some sort for this problem?

I'm going to exit this thread now. I'm not an avid reader and obviously not the target audience for this product.

12/28/2009 4:44:25 PM

Quote :

"The point of eInk and readers was supposed to be PRICE"

False. The whole point of eInk displays is to replicate the readability of ink on paper. It's for people who want the ability to transport a library of books and who don't want to have their eyes scorched by a backlit LCD panel during extended reading session or have to struggle when reading in a brightly lit environment.

12/28/2009 5:20:37 PM

^it is now. I was at Comdex when it still existed when this was still being shopped as a display technology. It was PRICE that drove the marketing mumbo jumbo. The promise of a smaller battery for longer display life on static-screen devices. The display is CHEAP AS HELL, and the batteries can be cut to 1/3 of their traditional size for LCD/LED/OLED displays.

I don't know what happened, but there is a big disparity between that promise and the reality of reader devices in the market. My guess is that a ton of the price jacking has come from the AT&T 3G and ridiculous profit margins.

If Esquire magazine managed to put eInk on the cover for about a dollar, you tell me where the other 299 bucks is going. Sure isn't in the refresh rate.

12/28/2009 6:15:11 PM

Are people really paying $10 a pop for these digital books? I don't see how that's worth it over a used book store or a library

12/28/2009 6:21:08 PM

i likely wont buy many ebooks. my strategy is more on the borrowing from friends & library angle. also occasionally reading for free in B&N as i find myself killing time there more and more often

also i only plan to use my e reader on long trips so i will still use the hell out of used books and physical library books as i currently do

my problem is that when i travel for more than a week at a time, my books end up taking up too much luggage space. i'm a fast reader and an 8 hour flight can easily amount to 1-2 completed books... each way not to mention reading before bed and while on the beach, trains etc. on a recent trip to europe i think i read about 5 books. all of which had to travel there and back with me. pain in my ass.

12/28/2009 6:36:12 PM

^^ $10 a pop isn't bad when the new edition is $20-$30

I still check out older and less popular books at the library and borrow books from friends. But when I want to read the new bestseller, I don't have to pay as much and it's a lot more convenient to read on my Kindle

12/28/2009 9:25:18 PM

Well, i'm surprised that people bought $20-$30 for novels and the like, anyway.

12/28/2009 10:19:10 PM

Yes, people still buy books and read them. And yes, books cost money. Will wonders never cease?

12/28/2009 10:36:12 PM

Yes, there is a clear advantage in price when buying new release books in ebook format compared to a new release hardcover.

The difficult area to justify an ebook purchase is when a book is in print in paperback or a non-new release. Many paperbacks are only less than a dollar more expensive than the kindle version.

With such a small price difference, I can't justify buying the ebook version over the physical version. I would much prefer to read it on my Kindle but it just doesn't make sense to spend 1 dollar less and lose the ability to loan/resell and display on a shelf.

12/28/2009 11:24:14 PM

no one has pointed out the major problem with ebooks... you dont get to stack your cool looking bookshelves with books that make you look smart and interesting

12/28/2009 11:26:19 PM

Anyone know where to "obtain" ebooks in .mobi format?

12/28/2009 11:34:43 PM

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp?Language=EN

If the prices are significantly cheaper for content, I'm all for it, but like ^ said, a dollar difference is really shortchanging the consumer in the long run. These content systems completely eliminate the secondhand market, because you are buying content that has no post-sale value. You can't trade it in, resell it, or pass it on to someone else when you are done.

12/29/2009 4:30:45 AM

I thought that was what B&N was trying to combat with the whole lend the books to a friend thing.

Not disagreeing with you, I just haven't looked up how that works.

12/29/2009 4:36:18 AM

^ 2 week loan; unavailable from loaning device while loaned out;can only be loaned out once; loaning feature can be disabled by publisher

12/29/2009 11:16:43 AM

i got a kindle for xmas and i'm really happy with it. i'm glad i didn't get the nook (the network issues, plus it's on at&t). i'm in rocky mount and i'm probably the only person in the city with an ebook of any sort, and none of my other friends have kindles, so i don't need the loan feature.

most of the books i read are not new releases and i can't find them here at our booksamillion. i read a lot of science books, stuff about the universe, mountaineering/everest stuff, very rarely any fiction. they're paperback, no less than $15 typically, so i'm good with $9.99 and no physical copy. at least i can read it w/o having to go to raleigh to buy it.

i never thought i'd be interested in one of these b/c i really liked keeping the book (same reason i didn't use the library much), but after researching it and now using one, it's soooo much easier to hold, read, tote around than a regular book. it weighs nothing, no prying the pages apart to read w/ 1 hand, no rustling of pages when reading in bed w/ my husband.

i think the screen is awesome. i bought it to read books with words on, not picture books or anything else, so the lack of extreme detail in some photos doesn't bother me at all.

12/29/2009 11:58:27 AM

^They ALL use AT&T, dawg.

12/29/2009 2:44:40 PM

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/sprint-kindle-att/

12/29/2009 2:57:26 PM

oh, well i missed that change then.

12/29/2009 3:37:55 PM

i really want an ebook reader and would love for someone to do a nice unbiased chart of the differences between the two. *sigh*

12/29/2009 3:46:11 PM

Wikipedia is your friend

12/29/2009 3:51:29 PM

hmm, well they cost the same. according to businessweek.com:

Quote :

"NOOK The Good: Includes an additional color screen, permits friends to borrow downloaded books from one another, and allows free browsing of entire books when the user is in a Barnes & Noble store. Also has a replaceable battery, SD card slot. The Bad: Slow to boot up (1min 50sec compared to 3sec of the Kindle), format text, and display it on the screen. Color screen and Wi-Fi connection drain battery life. KINDLE The Good: Lighter and faster than the Nook, it boasts longer battery life, and each of its features has been thoroughly tested in the market. The Bad: The physical keyboard seems clunky and unnecessary. And it lacks some clever features, such as lending rights. "

it depends on what you want vs what you're willing to compromise on. lending books, wifi, and color screen but slow and a battery drain, versus faster, lighter, longer battery life (4 days longer), but weird keyboard, no color, & no lending.

to throw a bit of my own experience in there, i rarely use the keyboard (only to look up a book) so i spend a very tiny amount of time typing on it. yeah, it's awkward but i don't really care.

here's a long list of things to look over when comparing the two
http://ireaderreview.com/2009/10/20/kindle-nook-comparison/

i asked for the kindle for xmas mainly b/c of the longer battery life, speed, availability, and i thought at the time they were still with sprint.

12/29/2009 4:00:22 PM

^^ You do know that there are more than 2, right?

12/29/2009 4:00:27 PM

speed? every eBook reader is slow as molasses.

12/29/2009 4:09:14 PM