I love my nook, but...

[clintbradford]

>> ... I don't regret buying the nook ...

Don't you DARE regret you decision! Enjoy it ... support independent authors ... grab a user-replaceable spare battery in a year or so ...

I have a Kindle2 and a Kobo - and just impulsively sent Amazon money for a Kindle 3. But the MOST ENJOYMENT for me is derived from my Kobo.

[Rebo]

I do think in this tug of war between Amazon and B&N, Amazon is in a more reactive position. The Nook came out late last year. Besides having the best e-ink screen among its peers, the Nook incorporates a lot of innovative features such as touch screen navigation, color LCD, cover flow, “lend me” and in store reading/browsing. Not everyone appreciates the features but nevertheless, these features make the Nook unique and stand out in the pack. Back in June, B&N sets a new standard by reducing the WiFi+3g model to $199 and came up with a WiFi version priced at $149. One day after the announcement, Amazon responded by slashing the Kindle price to $189. One month later, Amazon came up with their own WiFi version and prices it at $10 below the Nook.

A lot of people are comparing the new Kindle with the first gen Nook which will eventually be phased out when Nook2 comes out in Septemberish (?). To stay competitive, B&N needs to match or beat Kindle’s price with the addition of what I’m hoping, more innovative killer features. Ultimately, we the free market consumer will come out as the winner of the price war as competition drives down price and we are all getting a better product.

[rblover]

The last I heard, the Sony Daily Reader could handle more formats, from more sources, including libraries; though it is more expensive. Apart from that, the Kindles seem to be great bargains.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rblover

The last I heard, the Sony Daily Reader could handle more formats, from more sources, including libraries; though it is more expensive. Apart from that, the Kindles seem to be great bargains.

You've been misinformed.
Sony support *two* ebook formats, one of which is their own deprecated LRF. They are near the bottom of the market on supported *ebook* formats.
Here check it out:
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

[boswd]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Yes the Nook has driven Amazon to make improvements and lower its price. Competition is a wonderful thing. In the long run, I end up with a less expensive e-reader that does more. That is great. How is this a bad thing? The Nook came into existence because of the success of the Kindle, which came into existence because of the success of Sony, and so on back in time. So should I not buy a Nook because it's existence was driven by the Kindle?

I think it is a matter of preference. I don't think the bar on the Nook is modern, I think it is silly and drains the battery. I could careless about seeing the cover art, I bought an ebook to read, not so I could display my books. I am going to read the book, not stare at the cover so a thumbnail, color cover is really not something I care about.

I could careless about having a touch screen on my ereader. The page turn buttons are easy to use, take no pressure, and do their job. I don't like finger prints on my cell phone, finger prints on my e-reader would drive me nuts.

There are a large number of book stores that sell Mobi books for me to put on a Kindle. I have yet to find a book that I want to read that was not available for my Kindle. Cnverting non-DRMed Epub to mobi is easy enough to do. So the lack of EPub is not that big of a deal.

Lending books? So I can lend a book once if the publishers let me for 14 days. I can lend books on my Kindle by registering a friends device to my account. As it is, I share my account with family members so we all have access to each others books.

I have not used the library for pleasure reading in a long, long time. I don't feel like I am missing much there.

I didn't need the expandable memory on my K1, I never kept that many books on my K1. I deleted books after I read them and reloaded them from Amazon if I wanted to read them again. Collections on my DXG allows me to keep all of my books on my DXG. They are sorted in a way that makes sense to me. That is awesome.

It appears to me that there are many folks with multiple e-readers. The K3 could very well be priced low enough that Nook owners end up with both. Who knows, if the new Nook comes out and is priced low enough and I decide that I want library books I might pick one up for that reason.

First off I would like to point out that I agree 100% competiton is great for us no matter which side of the fence you fall on the kindle side or the nook side.

second off even though it may seem like I was, I wasn't knocking the Kindle I just don't understand all the oooohing and awweeeing is about, Let's be honest this is Kindle's third Genereation and it hasn't really brought anything new to the table.

the touch screen is silly and not modern? and navigating with a directional touch pad or stubby joystick is?
So the iPhone and Droid that use color touchscreen is not modern.

as far as LendMe goes, first off it's the Publisher's who are making the restrictions, not BN and even if the lending time is only a day it's still a day longer than what Amazon offers which is Zero. So 14 days vs 0. the nook is still way ahead of Amazon in that dept.
Sure you can share with people on your account, but in reality how many people do you want access to your account? I love my friends but they aren't coming onto my account. and how many different people WOULD you WANT on your account, outside of family members? Even having family members on your account could create issues with different buying and spending habits.

Mobi doesn't even come remotely close to the number of e book sellers than e-pub, I'm not even going to go beyond that argument.



Again the Kindle cleaned up it's design that's it. It's not reshaping e-book reading so I think we all need to come down from the clouds. There is nothing new to the ball game.

[Lanx]

daily reader vs kindle 2, they are physically the same size LxW. however the sony is so bulky (even w/o the included front leather cover) and even tho it's 6in vs 7in, the sony just physically adds 1in on the bottom basically, where amazon has the stupid keyboard is where the daily reader extra inch is located. Oh and daily reader has god aweful glare, don't know how anyone can compromise and read on that thing. Guess which one i returned.

[ProfCrash]

Just because something can be done doesn't mean it needs to be done. The value of the LCD screen is going to be determined by the user. For me, it has no value. It looks pretty and some folks love it but it adds nothing for me. (shrugs)

I know that the lending is restricted by the publishers, just like TTS is restricted by the publishers. It still is restricted and that needs to be pointed out to folks. Amazons system is easy enough to work with in a perfectly legal fashion so you can share books. So the lending a book option really isn't all that special.

I hate touch screens. I don't like fingerprints on things. It is a preference. My phone uses a touch screen and it drives me nuts. I don't own an iTouch or iPhone or iPad because I don't need the functionality and because I hate fingerprints on screens. drives me bonkers. For me the joy stick works perfectly.

The truth is that there are not that many features that are different between the Nook and the Kindle. People can buy the one that they think is best for them. I bought the K1 and am not likely to move away from the Kindle because that is where my books are. Even if I was looking to move away, the different features on the Nook are not attractive to me. I know others who feel the same way. They are mainly cosmetic and don't add much to the functionality of the device.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Just because something can be done doesn't mean it needs to be done. The value of the LCD screen is going to be determined by the user. For me, it has no value. It looks pretty and some folks love it but it adds nothing for me. (shrugs)

I know that the lending is restricted by the publishers, just like TTS is restricted by the publishers. It still is restricted and that needs to be pointed out to folks. Amazons system is easy enough to work with in a perfectly legal fashion so you can share books. So the lending a book option really isn't all that special.

I hate touch screens. I don't like fingerprints on things. It is a preference. My phone uses a touch screen and it drives me nuts. I don't own an iTouch or iPhone or iPad because I don't need the functionality and because I hate fingerprints on screens. drives me bonkers. For me the joy stick works perfectly.

The truth is that there are not that many features that are different between the Nook and the Kindle. People can buy the one that they think is best for them. I bought the K1 and am not likely to move away from the Kindle because that is where my books are. Even if I was looking to move away, the different features on the Nook are not attractive to me. I know others who feel the same way. They are mainly cosmetic and don't add much to the functionality of the device.

I guess someone who loves a rotory phone can say the same thing about a touch tone phone.

but you are right to each his own.

but again my whole point was I just don't understand why there are 455 posts about the new Kindle that has wi fi only etc. Especially since the Nook did this a few months ago making this Old news. There is nothing new to the ballgame.
That's all I'm saying. Why this beatlesmania like excitement over the new Kindle.

[ProfCrash]

Just as you think I am silly for not liking touch screens (smudges and fingerprints annoy me) or a small color lcd screen (drain my battery so I can look at thumbnail size book covers) I think that you are ignoring some improvements simply because you don't think they are a big deal.

It has a new screen that is much improved. The people who have the Sony 505 and the DXG have said that the new Pearl screen is better then the 505. I have never seen the 505 screen but it seems to be the screen people compare all other screens to.

It has better PDF functionality. Now you can take notes and use the dictionary, something people have complained is lacking since the K2 was launched.

It has greatly increased the number of languages that the reader can display making the reader accessible to people in Japan, China, Russia and a large number of other countries.

It has 4 GB of storage. So I can store 3,500 books on my device.

It has a battery life of one month with whispernet turned off. OK, so this one strikes me as a bit unnecessary but I can see some folks who do serious backpacking or sailing or who will be away from a power supply for some reason liking this.

It is 21% smaller then the K2. It is small then the Nook, even with a keyboard.

You can call all of that not much, others think that they are great.

[clintbradford]

>> ... The wifi only Kindle at $139.99 is now the best value in ereaders ...

We DID drink the Bezos Kool-Aid, didn't we? (grin) And although I have absolutely no need for one, I, too, pre-ordered one.

Other manufacturers and vendors would KILL for Amazon's (and also Apple's) kind of marketing power: Being able to snatch $140 or $190 from consumers - for a product no one here has touched nor demo'd nor will even ship for a month.

Long live Kobo.

[Noah98]

Originally Posted by clintbradford

>> ... The wifi only Kindle at $139.99 is now the best value in ereaders ...

We DID drink the Bezos Kool-Aid, didn't we? (grin) And although I have absolutely no need for one, I, too, pre-ordered one.

Other manufacturers and vendors would KILL for Amazon's (and also Apple's) kind of marketing power: Being able to snatch $140 or $190 from consumers - for a product no one here has touched nor demo'd nor will even ship for a month.

Long live Kobo.

How did I drink the Kool-Aid? I didn't pre-order one.

I think the nook is the best device for me. I'm not sorry that I bought one. However, I'm not too stubborn to admit when another company makes a great product.

People are forgetting that the name of this part of the forum is "which one should I buy?" not "why mine is better than yours."

The new Kindle is not perfect (no device is), but it is an amazing value based on the improvements that were made at the price.

The nook is not perfect. It uses an lcd screen that some people love (for some reason hard for Kobo owners to believe), and some people hate. It does not have the same long battery life as the competition (but still great compared to other electronic devices). Yet, some people find the overall package of the nook to suit their needs best.

The Kobo is not perfect (sorry to break it to you Clint). It is overpriced, the screen quality is worse than the competition (Sony PRS 505/300, nook, Kindle--shouldn't screen quality be important to those that stare at screens for hours to read), page turns are slow (I know, how could that be important to avid readers!), it doesn't come with a wall charger, and it uses antiquated bluetooth connectivity rather than wifi or 3g. It is also no longer the king of small form factors. But hey, some people are willing to pay more for less because they like the design. Good for them!

Just please don't try and make the argument that if someone finds the Kindle appealing, they are not intelligent and are being brainwashed. Maybe they just see a good value and want to get their money's worth. Also, don't tell me that if someone finds the nook appealing, they just like to see pretty color covers and are superficial. Maybe they actually like the lcd interface even though it diminishes the battery (I do). The style vs. substance argument works against the Kobo more than the nook because you aren't getting much for the money. But it is small, and has a quilted back!

At $150 I can't see how the Kobo stacks up to the competition, and I think that recommending it to new buyers is a little deceptive. I would never say that my nook is overall the better device than someone else's new Kindle, but I think it might be better for some people. The point is that the Kindle and the nook are both in the same league at a competitive price point. The Kobo is not, no matter how much those that own one love it. A new buyer wants to get the best device for the money, not the device that someone is stubborn about because they already own it (how hard is it to admit that, heaven forbid, another device might be at least just as good as yours).

As a consumer, I have no loyalty to any company. I don't care if it's Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, or Sony. I won't get on these boards and tell everyone to buy a nook because that's what I decided to do (after much research too Clint). I will read what they post as their needs, and try to make a recommendation based upon my experience with the various devices (not just my nook).

[Lastblade]

Well said. Kindle (3) and Nook are both great products and I consider them top of the class. Kobo is a step below that but they all do a good job for reading books so you can't go wrong in any of them.

[simplyparticular]

I like my Nook, but I am considering a Kindle 3. My biggest complaints about the Nook are satisfied by the Kindle:

battery life
weight/one-handed use
organization

However, I loathe removing Amazon's DRM. I'm a Mac user, so it is much harder and more tedious. And after getting caught in the Agency 5/Fictionwise debacle, I will ALWAYS remove DRM.

And I also loathe the slab serif font that Amazon uses. And I don't like reading with a san serif, which is their other new option. So I think I'll wait until I know the font hacks work on the new one.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by simplyparticular

However, I loathe removing Amazon's DRM. I'm a Mac user, so it is much harder and more tedious. And after getting caught in the Agency 5/Fictionwise debacle, I will ALWAYS remove DRM.

Does Calibre not work on a Mac? If you use the right plug-in, you don't have to do anything beyond adding the book to your library. (Was that cryptic enough?)

[simplyparticular]

Originally Posted by Alisa

Does Calibre not work on a Mac? If you use the right plug-in, you don't have to do anything beyond adding the book to your library. (Was that cryptic enough?)

It's getting at the book that is the problem, not Calibre's plugin. Last I knew, there is no DRM removal script for the Mac Kindle software because it uses a unique PID for each book. So I have to root around in my iPhone backups, and Kindle iPhone files are named a number (the ASIN?), not the title. So it is hard to figure out which ones I've already "fixed" and which ones I haven't. It just is more tedious than the easy removal of Adobe's DRM. And that's assuming it's not a Topaz file...I got stuck with two of those before I learned how to tell which ones are which thanks to this forum.