Future of the Nook

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

For all that people harp on Amazon low prices they tend to forget that when it comes to hardware it is Nook that is most aggressive in pricing their hardware. The closest (feature) equivalent to those $79 Nook STRs are the over $100 Kobo Touch and Sony T2, not the $69 ad-supported touchless Kindle 4.

Technically the Kindle Touch Wifi + 3G is the same price... A friend of mine just got one on eBay, almost brand new, for $82. Now the Paperwhite is out, and they don't sell the Touch anymore, it's been devalued -- even though it works perfectly.

Just thought you should be aware of the options.

By the way, notice I said 3G. Yeah. That's right.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by pastanley

Why stay with the nook ereader device when you can get ...say ...a Nexus 7 and get the kindle, sony and nook apps. It only makes sense. Who would want to invest in a B&N device dedicated only to the BN eco system.

But I don't like back-lit devices for reading. Whether Nook continues in business (or not) I'll be using an e-Ink device for as long as I can. I just happen to think the Nook Simple Touch is one of the best e-Ink devices out there.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Technically the Kindle Touch Wifi + 3G is the same price... A friend of mine just got one on eBay, almost brand new, for $82. Now the Paperwhite is out, and they don't sell the Touch anymore, it's been devalued -- even though it works perfectly.

Just thought you should be aware of the options.

By the way, notice I said 3G. Yeah. That's right.

I bought a used Kindle Touch in excellent condition for $40, bought a case for it, started using it -- then realized that the default serif font was too light for me. I liked the features (MP3 player was nice) but the font was too hard to read. So I went with the cheap Kindle. It's fonts are much darker then the Kindle Touch, but the Nook's fonts are still better. I liked everything about the Kindle Touch, except for that light font. But the Nook has a much nicer interface than either the Kindle Touch or Kindle "basic" or whatever it's called.

As for 3G ... is that something you use a lot?

[RAH]

Originally Posted by rcentros

But I don't like back-lit devices for reading. Whether Nook continues in business (or not) I'll be using an e-Ink device for as long as I can. I just happen to think the Nook Simple Touch is one of the best e-Ink devices out there.

I agree. I also think that e-ink devices WILL continue to be available for at least the foreseeable future (just maybe not the Nook). There are a lot of people who feel as we do. Even Consumer Reports, who used to lump everything together, now reviews e-ink ereaders and tablets separately. So the division into these 2 categories is now pretty well-established and recognized.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by RAH

... (just maybe not the Nook).

I would expect BN to release a new device to catch up to the competition; although they were first with front lit devices, they're now the only ones still using the old 600x800 panels, while the rest have moved to XGA panels. The nook eInk devices have usually been released in late Spring, so we should know in a few months what's cooking.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I bought a used Kindle Touch in excellent condition for $40, bought a case for it, started using it -- then realized that the default serif font was too light for me. I liked the features (MP3 player was nice) but the font was too hard to read. So I went with the cheap Kindle. It's fonts are much darker then the Kindle Touch, but the Nook's fonts are still better. I liked everything about the Kindle Touch, except for that light font. But the Nook has a much nicer interface than either the Kindle Touch or Kindle "basic" or whatever it's called.

As for 3G ... is that something you use a lot?

Couldn't you just change the font to a heavier one?

Not me, my friend.... I have no idea. But it's a nice extra, considering it's about the same price as a Kindle Touch Wifi only on eBay, according to the research I did for him. And then you can look up wikipedia from your book, and browse the store, from anywhere, for NO extra cost. I didn't find the Wifi one for $40, or I would've advised him to take that one. The 3G isn't used often enough to be worth more than $10 in my opinion.


I've tried out my 3 friends' Nook Simple Touch's (one with Glow Light) and I personally don't like the home screen. I like being able to immediately see my booklist (sorted by "recent" so my last read book is there on top) and wasn't really impressed with the Nook requiring me to select the library from the home screen. My standard method of navigation is to press the home button (the only reason why I REFUSE to consider the Paperwhite as an upgrade) and this adds an unnecessary step for me. And in my admittedly hurried perusal, I didn't find a way to turn off Home Screen Recommendations. I loved the cover view, but the latest update to the Kindle Touch provided that.

I guess the Nook does have a more elegant interface design, and that will sway a lot of people. It is, after all, the main reason why people still prefer the iPhone to Androids. But to me, sheer functionality is better, and I can find my way around the Kindle more easily than the Nook.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Couldn't you just change the font to a heavier one?

I could have gone to the sans-serif font, but I didn't like it. Believe me, if I could have gotten the Kindle Touch to darken its font I would have kept it.

(Paragraph snipped.)

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I've tried out my 3 friends' Nook Simple Touch's (one with Glow Light) and I personally don't like the home screen. I like being able to immediately see my booklist (sorted by "recent" so my last read book is there on top) and wasn't really impressed with the Nook requiring me to select the library from the home screen. My standard method of navigation is to press the home button (the only reason why I REFUSE to consider the Paperwhite as an upgrade) and this adds an unnecessary step for me. And in my admittedly hurried perusal, I didn't find a way to turn off Home Screen Recommendations. I loved the cover view, but the latest update to the Kindle Touch provided that.

I think it has a lot to do with where you start. I'm not going to argue with you about the Kindle's simplicity. You're right about the extra click sometimes being a bit of a pain in the Nook -- though I hardly ever use the Home Screen. You can list your books in text view from most recently read, if you want. I like the way Nook's Shelves work a bit better than the Kindle's Collections (though the Touch was better here). I don't see any way to hide the Collection list in the Kindle 4 (Basic), though I could choose "Book View" in the Kindle Touch. I like the fact that, in any view in the Nook, you can instantly go back to where you were reading with an icon at the top of the screen. As for the Touch's "cover view" I was disappointed with that when I upgraded. They used the whole bottom of the screen to advertise, so you only got one row of books and a horizontal scroll. The Nook is much more elegant here (in my opinion). But, really, this is small stuff compared to the choice of fonts that the Nook offers. That and the customization for margins and line width is (in my opinion) what makes the Nook superior to the Kindle.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I guess the Nook does have a more elegant interface design, and that will sway a lot of people. It is, after all, the main reason why people still prefer the iPhone to Androids. But to me, sheer functionality is better, and I can find my way around the Kindle more easily than the Nook.

Well, if more people prefer the iPhone, they don't show that by buying it. I think Android phones now have about 70% of the market compared to iPhone's 17% (or so) worldwide.

I see the newest e-Ink Kindle has a similar font Menu as the Nook -- so the font issue will probably gone if I ever decide to upgrade. (Though I'm in no hurry to do that.)

Thanks for all the information.

[Sardonic]

...for what it's worth...

I finally purchased an eBook from Amazon. I was surfing around and stumbled upon a deal Amazon had on "Impulse" by Steven Gould. Sounded fairly interesting and at $1.99 I'll take a gamble.

I quickly go to amazon.com, search for "Impulse", click and there I am. And to my pleasant surprise I see a note at the bottom stating [...at the request of the publisher this book is being sold DRM-Free...].

Well, that solves one problem/step in getting Amazon's proprietary format converted to ePub and onto my Nook HD.

So, with the 'famous' one-click' I make my purchase, scroll-down-and-around click on my digital products, find my purchase, go to the drop-down, click on download, then...wait...there's something missing...what could it be? Oh, there's no way to download my Famous-One-Click-eBook from Amazon to my desktop. What do I do?

Several more clicks around the Internet and back to Amazon to download Amazon's bloatware to my PC then 'whisper-sync' my purchase and click the book cover to download, then go to explorer and navigate to My Documents/yada...yada...yada... then I can finally drag the eBook over to Calibre.

I'm now tired and Amazon's eBook/digital content system is a joke. I deleted Amazon's bloatware and I won't be purchasing any more digital content from Amazon. All I hear about is Amazon this and Amazon that...Kindle this and Kindle that. Bunk. Give me two clicks and a very simple "DOWNLOAD" button - that's what I want. And that is what B&N delivers. Amazon doesn't deliver what I want (and Amazon doesn't deliver what I want in a proprietary format I do not want).

Should B&N go south, and it really would be a shame - the Nook HD/HD+ is better hardware than both the Kindle Tired and Google's Lexus - it'll be because B&N has no 'big' eco-system. I will go over to Google for my hardware if I must.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I think it has a lot to do with where you start. I'm not going to argue with you about the Kindle's simplicity. You're right about the extra click sometimes being a bit of a pain in the Nook -- though I hardly ever use the Home Screen. You can list your books in text view from most recently read, if you want. I like the way Nook's Shelves work a bit better than the Kindle's Collections (though the Touch was better here). I don't see any way to hide the Collection list in the Kindle 4 (Basic), though I could choose "Book View" in the Kindle Touch. I like the fact that, in any view in the Nook, you can instantly go back to where you were reading with an icon at the top of the screen. As for the Touch's "cover view" I was disappointed with that when I upgraded. They used the whole bottom of the screen to advertise, so you only got one row of books and a horizontal scroll. The Nook is much more elegant here (in my opinion). But, really, this is small stuff compared to the choice of fonts that the Nook offers. That and the customization for margins and line width is (in my opinion) what makes the Nook superior to the Kindle.

I know that the Nook has recent view as well. I just meant to say, I don't personally feel the need for dedicated screen real estate for your last read book if that is already part of the view I chose for my library.

By the way, The Kindle Touch cover view is the same as the Paperwhite (they use the same software after all.) And this very complaint is on a customer forum (which I have not been able to find again) that reached an epic post count -- I think within a week or so they rolled out ANOTHER update to give you an option under settings to disable that.

This was before the Touch received their update, so it was included from the start in the Kindle Touch's new look.
Of course, this isn't the default, but...

You can find the option under Menu --> Settings --> Device Options --> Personalize Your Kindle. The third option is to toggle Recommended content off.

As for your font issues, it's a matter of personal preference and I just don't find it an issue. Whatever works best for you.

Originally Posted by rcentros

Well, if more people prefer the iPhone, they don't show that by buying it. I think Android phones now have about 70% of the market compared to iPhone's 17% (or so) worldwide.

I'm sorry, I should've made myself clearer: This is why there are still some people (those 17%) who stayed with Apple. I didn't mean to insinuate, heaven forbid, that more people prefer the iPhone.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Sardonic

...for what it's worth...

I finally purchased an eBook from Amazon. I was surfing around and stumbled upon a deal Amazon had on "Impulse" by Steven Gould. Sounded fairly interesting and at $1.99 I'll take a gamble.

I quickly go to amazon.com, search for "Impulse", click and there I am. And to my pleasant surprise I see a note at the bottom stating [...at the request of the publisher this book is being sold DRM-Free...].

Well, that solves one problem/step in getting Amazon's proprietary format converted to ePub and onto my Nook HD.

So, with the 'famous' one-click' I make my purchase, scroll-down-and-around click on my digital products, find my purchase, go to the drop-down, click on download, then...wait...there's something missing...what could it be? Oh, there's no way to download my Famous-One-Click-eBook from Amazon to my desktop. What do I do?

Several more clicks around the Internet and back to Amazon to download Amazon's bloatware to my PC then 'whisper-sync' my purchase and click the book cover to download, then go to explorer and navigate to My Documents/yada...yada...yada... then I can finally drag the eBook over to Calibre.

I'm now tired and Amazon's eBook/digital content system is a joke. I deleted Amazon's bloatware and I won't be purchasing any more digital content from Amazon. All I hear about is Amazon this and Amazon that...Kindle this and Kindle that. Bunk. Give me two clicks and a very simple "DOWNLOAD" button - that's what I want. And that is what B&N delivers. Amazon doesn't deliver what I want (and Amazon doesn't deliver what I want in a proprietary format I do not want).

Should B&N go south, and it really would be a shame - the Nook HD/HD+ is better hardware than both the Kindle Tired and Google's Lexus - it'll be because B&N has no 'big' eco-system. I will go over to Google for my hardware if I must.

If you don't want to buy on Amazon, you don't have to.
Amazon's whole store is built around the assumption that you will use a Kindle to read Kindle books -- not so unreasonable, as B&N does the same thing. You may find if you care to try a balanced approach that one-click buy does indeed send your book directly to your desktop -- if you actually have a method of reading it. Or perhaps they have prophecy and thus anticipate 0.1% of their customers really wanting to go through a 4-step process to read all their Kindle books on a nook?
(By the way, I would love for someone to confirm for me whether B&N allows downloads from the browser without either a Nook or Nook app registered.)

As you have a Nook tablet, just download the Amazon app and everything will be far easier for ANY books you may buy from Amazon. Plus, you even get a download button!!!!!

And how does the Kindle 4 PC qualify as bloatware any more than the Nook 4 PC, besides for your obvious bias towards B&N? Bloatware is anything installed on a computer that doesn't serve a useful purpose. Kindle/Nook 4 PCs provide a seamless one-click buy-download-and-read for ebooks, something I hope you will come to recognize is a useful purpose for people actually buying an ebook from the respective sources.

If you would like to continue insulting everything non-B&N-related with bad puns and accusations of malicious intent, I suppose we can't help you. Feel free to rage somewhere in private though.

By the way, since you've earned my ire, you can now listen to my lecture on PROPRIETARY FORMATS. THIS MEANS NOTHING!! As you so astutely point out, calibre is readily available to convert between mobi and ePub -- the only thing that matters is if they are locked with DRM.

[geertm]

(By the way, I would love for someone to confirm for me whether B&N allows downloads from the browser without either a Nook or Nook app registered.)

Yes, the only thing you need is an B&N account with a credit card registered for the DRM. On the B&N website go to your B&N library, click on the book, click on the download button. That is all you have to do.

The reason you cannot do this with Kindle books is because Kindle DRM ties the book to the hardware ID of your device. With B&N's social DRM there is no such problem.

[eschwartz]

I thought maybe they would want to tie you to their software as well.

Either way, I prefer Amazon's method. No credit card required.

[geormes]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I thought maybe they would want to tie you to their software as well.

Either way, I prefer Amazon's method. No credit card required.

How do you pay?

[eschwartz]

Gift cards.

And it's more the fact that you have the option.

[geormes]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Gift cards.

And it's more the fact that you have the option.

Are Amazon gift cards obtained/used differently from Barnes and Nobel's?

I have bought books(and other items) on Amazon. Even when using a gift card, to my knowledge, at some point, someone used a credit card.