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YahooA few days ago I wrote a post all about e-books. Yesterday the Nook, a new e-reader with access to over one million e-books, newspapers, and magazines downloaded wirelessly was unveiled by bookseller Barnes & Noble for $259. (This price is so much better than the hefty $489 for the Kindle DX e-reader.)
The slim Nook can store as many as 1,500 e-books, newspapers, and magazines and with an added memory card you can keep up to 17,500. The cost for an e-book is about $9.99 and thousands of titles are free at the Barnes & Noble eBookstore. The Nook works on the 3G network and with WiFi.
The Nook features crisp B&W text. I haven't held a Nook in my hands, but after viewing the promotional videos I think the PR buzz is correct. I am disappointed that it does not feature color image/text of an entire book page. Full color pages would be so useful when viewing textbooks and books featuring rich graphics. (I predict digital textbooks are going to big the next big wave in e-books.) But it does have a colorful touchscreen at the bottom of the screen to help you select the book you want to read.
Features I like include the ability to make text bigger (5 different font sizes) and easily bookmark, highlight passages and make notes as you go. Also the E-Ink by VizPlex offers enough contrast (16-bit gray scale) so there is no glare or backlight making it easy on the eyes. You can adjust the screen lighting to fit the situation.
One of the unusual features of the Nook is you can share books from your nook with your friends for free for about 14 days at a time with the Nook's LendMe technology. The lending policy reminds me of the public library policy for lending e-books. All you have to do is send the book file to your friend's iPhone, iPod touch, laptop, select BlackBerry and other smart phones. Wonder how the book publishers feel about the free e-book lending? (More about the issue of intellectual property rights of authors in a SF Chronicle by Michelle Richmond.)
I'm a news junkie so the access to over 20 million newspaper subscriptions sounds great. Note that reading newspapers on the Nook is not free. I do love the NYT, WSJ, and Newsweek. Subscribing to them and a dozen more would be a huge temptation.
What's next on the horizon?
I'm waiting for the Apple's new e-reader tablet--an overgrown iPod. Unfortunately the Apple option won't be cheap at $700 or more when it is released in a few months. The price really turns me off because I was hoping this tablet would be a good choice for kids/teens, but at $700-$900 I am even nervous to carry it around in my backpack/purse. The Apple eReader-and-more is rumored to run iPhone OS and play MP3 audio files and videos. So cool. Just hoping the price drops soon.
I don't think so but...
Denise October 21, 2009 - 9:36am
once I heard about the LendMe feature, I was much more impressed with this new e-Reader.
I'm still having sticker shock over these devices. The price on all of them needs to come way, way down.
~Denise BlogHer Community Manager
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