Nook Buyers Remorse

[AndyfromVA]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Do you have experience with library books on the Nook? I keep reading that the backlog is so big at most libraries that you have to wait months for anything decent.

In my public library you can put a hold on e-books (as well as regular books) and you'll get an email when it's ready to be downloaded. Some e-books you'll have to wait a long time for, others only a couple of days.

[SeaBookGuy]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Do you have experience with library books on the Nook? I keep reading that the backlog is so big at most libraries that you have to wait months for anything decent.

With cutbacks I'm finding that true of newer paper copies, but the e-books are maybe a month or so at most, if that; I haven't seen many (Steig Larsson aside) with more than one or two patrons waiting, and even then some folks do return books early.

[Rich_D]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Do you have experience with library books on the Nook? I keep reading that the backlog is so big at most libraries that you have to wait months for anything decent.

As long as you aren't reading vampire romance novels, you shouldn't have much of a wait.

[abeaty]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Hi All!

I discovered this forum the other day and have become enamored.

My wife bought me a Nook for my birthday (at my suggestion). The biggest selling point for me was the ePub support and the possibility of checking eBooks out of the library. I also liked the idea of the touchscreen and soft buttons.

Flash forward a few days after getting it and the reflectivity of the touchscreen is driving me nuts. It's particularly bad when the touchscreen is off/black. I can totally see my own ugly mug and/or any overhead lights. It's really distracting. I don't really like having to carefully angle the device to avoid the reflection. I also find the shiny white bezel distracting.

I put in my pre-order for the Kindle 3. There's no reflective touchscreen, and the bezel is matte. I'm also quite interested in the new higher contrast e-ink display.

However, I'm annoyed that the Kindle doesn't support ePub.

It sounds like Sony is coming out with some new models soon. I can wait a bit but I'm not going to put this off for months.

Any thoughts on what I can possibly expect from Sony? I've heard the current gen touch screen model had reflectivity issues. Is that always going to be a problem for touch screens?

Do you all think other manufacturers will quickly start adopting the newer pearl e-ink display or is Amazon going to lock that one down for themselves for a while?

Sounds like Sony 505 is tailor made for you...

[theDwarf]

Originally Posted by AdrianM

Um, okay. Cool.

But. Why would the vast majority of people ever want to do that?

Authors, writers and researchers will probably all exceed 6GB easily.
I currently have over 5GB of research material on my computer, and maybe 1GB of my own writings, and that is for my hobby! (much more for work)

I also have almost 6GB of workfiles (files I created for work) on my main work computer and that only encompasses the last 18 months ... I used to have copies of all my older workfiles and workfiles for the company on my home system but I burned them onto 8 DVDs. Yep, that is a lot of files, but some professions are like that.

There are some people & professions that will tend toward VERY high amounts of documents. Having swappable SD cards is high on my list for some unknown reason

Happy

[AdrianM]

Originally Posted by theDwarf

Authors, writers and researchers will probably all exceed 6GB easily.

Um, let me reiterate;

Originally Posted by Me from earlier

But. Why would the vast majority of people ever want to do that?

Originally Posted by theDwarf

I currently have over 5GB of research material on my computer, and maybe 1GB of my own writings, and that is for my hobby! (much more for work)

I also have almost 6GB of workfiles (files I created for work) on my main work computer and that only encompasses the last 18 months ... I used to have copies of all my older workfiles and workfiles for the company on my home system but I burned them onto 8 DVDs. Yep, that is a lot of files, but some professions are like that.

There are some people & professions that will tend toward VERY high amounts of documents. Having swappable SD cards is high on my list for some unknown reason

Happy

The Kindle, Nook and most other eReaders were designed primarily to read novels. Yes, you can do a few other things with them too, but I think no one pretends that they are very good at anything other than reading novels.

For the same reason I don't use a screwdriver to hammer in nails, I wouldn't use an eReader for storing many GBs of text for "research work" let alone for actually creating anything. For this I would use a tool like a laptop with a good screen - a Qi if possible - where I could create content, view many open files at once in any number of differing formats and have many storage and search options available to me.

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by abeaty

Sounds like Sony 505 is tailor made for you...

Bah! The PRS-350 and PRS-650 have thrown a monkey wrench in to my plans to stick with my K3 order (still hasn't shipped - should soon). The one thing I don't like about the Sony models is the lack of side page turn buttons.

I'm thinking of cancelling my Amazon order and waiting until I can actually get a Sony in my hands.

[vugtitan]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Hi All!

I discovered this forum the other day and have become enamored.

My wife bought me a Nook for my birthday (at my suggestion). The biggest selling point for me was the ePub support and the possibility of checking eBooks out of the library. I also liked the idea of the touchscreen and soft buttons.

Flash forward a few days after getting it and the reflectivity of the touchscreen is driving me nuts. It's particularly bad when the touchscreen is off/black. I can totally see my own ugly mug and/or any overhead lights. It's really distracting. I don't really like having to carefully angle the device to avoid the reflection. I also find the shiny white bezel distracting.

I put in my pre-order for the Kindle 3. There's no reflective touchscreen, and the bezel is matte. I'm also quite interested in the new higher contrast e-ink display.

However, I'm annoyed that the Kindle doesn't support ePub.

It sounds like Sony is coming out with some new models soon. I can wait a bit but I'm not going to put this off for months.

Any thoughts on what I can possibly expect from Sony? I've heard the current gen touch screen model had reflectivity issues. Is that always going to be a problem for touch screens?

Do you all think other manufacturers will quickly start adopting the newer pearl e-ink display or is Amazon going to lock that one down for themselves for a while?

Why don't you convert from epub to text or kindle?

[vugtitan]

Originally Posted by theDwarf

Authors, writers and researchers will probably all exceed 6GB easily.
I currently have over 5GB of research material on my computer, and maybe 1GB of my own writings, and that is for my hobby! (much more for work)

I also have almost 6GB of workfiles (files I created for work) on my main work computer and that only encompasses the last 18 months ... I used to have copies of all my older workfiles and workfiles for the company on my home system but I burned them onto 8 DVDs. Yep, that is a lot of files, but some professions are like that.

There are some people & professions that will tend toward VERY high amounts of documents. Having swappable SD cards is high on my list for some unknown reason

Happy

Why can't an overpaid researcher like you afford a laptop or notebook, eh?

i mean you are telling us you cannot afford a measly £300 to £500?

maybe you should cut down on the nights out and the caviler.

[ManosHandsOfFate]

I've had my K3 a few days now. A few things stand out in the Nook vs K3 debate raging in my head:

* The K3 feels a lot lighter than the Nook. It's easier to read in one hand. The flip side of this is that it feels more delicate.

* Page turns are quite a bit faster on the K3 (although the speed of the Nook didn't especially bother me)

* Very little reflectivity from the K3! Yeah!

* The dictionary implementation is *much* better on the K3.

* I prefer the Nook "Page Numbers".

* I like the way you can use the touch screen slider bar on the Nook to find specific points in the book.

* I prefer the size of the Nook page turn buttons. But I'm getting used to the ones on the K3.

* I like seeing the clock on the Nook while I'm reading.

It sort of sounds like they're evenly matched, but for me the K3 gives a better reading experience. The drawbacks of the Nook are more irritating than those of the K3.

Once she's finished reading her current pbook, my wife is going to give the Nook a try. If she doesn't like it then I'll sell it.

[ProfCrash]

Glad to hear that you are enjoying your K3.

[nieperdragon]

Originally Posted by Logseman

I stand corrected. I mistook it for another device. So far, all sources point to the Sony PRS-350 having a touchscreen.

I have one of these new Sony PRS-350 and yes it does have a touch screen. However it does not suffer from the reflectivity issues of the old model.

Basically it has the same pearl e-ink display as the Kindle 3. The touch functionality is provided using a neat infra red system in the bezel. Here's a quote from a PCWorld Review.

"The optical-technology touchscreen uses infrared sensors to detect where your finger is; it compares that information against a matrix that identifies your finger's position and what action you are trying to accomplish, and then performs that action. The result is striking. I found the display brighter and dramatically sharper than Sony's previous touchscreen technology, with better contrast and clarity, as well as crisp grayscale images. Furthermore, I could make selections with featherlight touches to the screen. Previously, Sony used a resistive touch overlay on its Touch Edition PRS-600; the effect was unfortunate, with muted responsiveness, a persistent glare, and fuzzy text."

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by nieperdragon

I have one of these new Sony PRS-350 and yes it does have a touch screen. However it does not suffer from the reflectivity issues of the old model.

Basically it has the same pearl e-ink display as the Kindle 3. The touch functionality is provided using a neat infra red system in the bezel. Here's a quote from a PCWorld Review.

"The optical-technology touchscreen uses infrared sensors to detect where your finger is; it compares that information against a matrix that identifies your finger's position and what action you are trying to accomplish, and then performs that action. The result is striking. I found the display brighter and dramatically sharper than Sony's previous touchscreen technology, with better contrast and clarity, as well as crisp grayscale images. Furthermore, I could make selections with featherlight touches to the screen. Previously, Sony used a resistive touch overlay on its Touch Edition PRS-600; the effect was unfortunate, with muted responsiveness, a persistent glare, and fuzzy text."

I have a 600, and it's very slow when copying text. I'll underline a passage, then while waiting for the black to turn to gray so I can turn to the next page, I'll go make a pot of coffee, smoke a cigarette, and play a game or two of Sudoku.

OK, it's not that bad, but it is very sluggish. Is the new generation any better at annotation?

[nieperdragon]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I have a 600, and it's very slow when copying text. I'll underline a passage, then while waiting for the black to turn to gray so I can turn to the next page, I'll go make a pot of coffee, smoke a cigarette, and play a game or two of Sudoku.

OK, it's not that bad, but it is very sluggish. Is the new generation any better at annotation?

Not sure. I had the old 300, but it didn't have annotation.
The 350 seems to be reasonable. It's not super fast but it does seem perfectly usable. On the whole the 350 is definitely quicker than the old 300, although I have managed to tie up and crash the the thing with particularly large books. I had a 6+meg copy of a BBC news feed and it really didn't like that. Nothing conclusive but I think it struggles with lots of graphics (I do mean lots) the news feed had many short articles, each with at least one jpeg. This would be a very unusual situation.

On the whole I find it pretty good. I'm a software test manager to trade so I do tend to fiddle with stuff 'till it breaks I just can't help it!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by nieperdragon

Not sure. I had the old 300, but it didn't have annotation.
The 350 seems to be reasonable. It's not super fast but it does seem perfectly usable. On the whole the 350 is definitely quicker than the old 300, although I have managed to tie up and crash the the thing with particularly large books. I had a 6+meg copy of a BBC news feed and it really didn't like that. Nothing conclusive but I think it struggles with lots of graphics (I do mean lots) the news feed had many short articles, each with at least one jpeg. This would be a very unusual situation.

On the whole I find it pretty good. I'm a software test manager to trade so I do tend to fiddle with stuff 'till it breaks I just can't help it!

Thanks. I may have to trade up one day.