My Nook review

[Nate the great]

I just posted a review of the Nook over on my blog. The Nook has been out a couple months now so it's difficult to say anything new, but I think I did. Here is an excerpt:

As you probably know, the Nook runs Android OS, and has Wifi & a small touchscreen. This potentially makes the Nook a small Android tablet, and that’s probably going to be the WOW Factor for the Nook – but only after someone figures out how to do something neat with it. When it comes to the stock firmware, the touchscreen is not used for anything more than a basic interface for the menu. It feels like they took a K2 and replaced the keyboard and joystick with the touchscreen and then did not bother to think up anything new to do with it.
...
My Recommendation

The only reason to get the Nook is if you are planning to hack it and install new apps. The stock firmware is limited in features when compared to the K2 or the Sony Touch Edition. At the very least, the current problems with battery life should give you pause.

A Second Opinion

I've heard from a number of people who love their Nook. They're right; it is a nice ebook reader. I'm sure if you got one you would be happy with it. But there are a number of nice ebook readers on the market; you might be happy with any one of them.

Just out of curiousity as I have no intentions of buying the Nook, is its feature set lackluster? I'm enquiring about its actual eBook reading functionality. I downloaded the Barnes & Noble Desktop eReader for the PC and was amazed at how lackluster it is. It is based off of the older eReader software, still available at eReader.com, that was originally designed by Palm for its PDAs way back when. It is interesting and sad that the newer Barnes & Noble Desktop eReader has far less functionality than eReader, and according to the User Guide this is by design!

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Just out of curiousity as I have no intentions of buying the Nook, is its feature set lackluster? I'm enquiring about its actual eBook reading functionality. I downloaded the Barnes & Noble Desktop eReader for the PC and was amazed at how lackluster it is. It is based off of the older eReader software, still available at eReader.com, that was originally designed by Palm for its PDAs way back when. It is interesting and sad that the newer Barnes & Noble Desktop eReader has far less functionality than eReader, and according to the User Guide this is by design!

I haven't used the older eReader software, so I can't compare. But I can say that the Nook is running Adobe's Reader Mobile software, so it's features are comparable to other readers that use RM.

[Guns4Hire]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/17/n...-for-starters/

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/nook-run-apps/

Looks like thats already happening. Obviously doesn't look like an "everyman hack" yet. But that will probably come eventually.

*Ah I see you already mentioned nookdevs. Sorry I only read your post here first, then posted and then read your blog lol.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I just posted a review of the Nook over on my blog. The Nook has been out a couple months now so it's difficult to say anything new, but I think I did. Here is an excerpt:

Probably outing myself as totally ignorant of my readers: You mention "indexing" as a huge advantage of Kindles over nook.
Why is this of any benefit? First of all, sometimes I simply don't know what my Sony or Kindle readers are doing. They are busy - for whatever reason. No biggy, but at least no benefit.
But second, I don't find any advantage of that. I don't recognise any indexing on iRex 800 or nook (are they doing it quietly in the background or not at all?). But why is this of any disadvantage? In which matter is indexing helping me?
Just for comparison: In my library of 100 B&N books and 400 side loaded books, nook (no idea, whether it's indexing or not) finds my title of choice in less than 1 second. Okay, without softroot I have 2 libraries instead of 1, so I have to decide where to search (or use nookLibrary).

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Probably outing myself as totally ignorant of my readers: You mention "indexing" as a huge advantage of Kindles over nook.
Why is this of any benefit? First of all, sometimes I simply don't know what my Sony or Kindle readers are doing. They are busy - for whatever reason. No biggy, but at least no benefit.
But second, I don't find any advantage of that. I don't recognise any indexing on iRex 800 or nook (are they doing it quietly in the background or not at all?). But why is this of any disadvantage? In which matter is indexing helping me?
Just for comparison: In my library of 100 B&N books and 400 side loaded books, nook (no idea, whether it's indexing or not) finds my title of choice in less than 1 second. Okay, without softroot I have 2 libraries instead of 1, so I have to decide where to search (or use nookLibrary).

The Kindle doesn't just create an index of the ebook titles, it makes an index for the ebook contents. This can be very useful if you want to search inside all the ebooks for a particular phrase. There are times where this is really useful, and when the Kindle was released this was the WOW Factor.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

The Kindle doesn't just create an index of the ebook titles, it makes an index for the ebook contents. This can be very useful if you want to search inside all the ebooks for a particular phrase. There are times where this is really useful, and when the Kindle was released this was the WOW Factor.

Thanks, didn't know that. Haven't used my Kindles for more than 3 hours in total. Probably should give them a try ;-)

[fugazied]

Indexing is very essential especially if your library is large. I love the aesthetics of the nook, in my opinion it's one of the cleanest looking e-readers available - very aesthetically pleasing.
If I didn't get my Kindle DX last year I would have a nook right now for sure.

[Madam Broshkina]

Nate, in your review you wrote:

The Nook can’t select a link, so there is no way for you to read a footnote and then return to the body of the text.

I have a bought one book with footnotes from B&N (D-Day by Antony Beevor) and you can select a footnote, read the footnote and easily return to the book. In fact if there is only one footnote on the page that footnote is automatically highlighted and by pressing the circle button it brings you to that footnote. Pressing the circle button on the number of the footnote brings you back to the book. If there are more then one footnote on a page you can use the arrow buttons to get to those footnotes. The only problem with this is that if you try to go to the furthest page read it will bring you to the page with all the footnotes on it.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

Nate, in your review you wrote:



I have a bought one book with footnotes from B&N (D-Day by Antony Beevor) and you can select a footnote, read the footnote and easily return to the book. In fact if there is only one footnote on the page that footnote is automatically highlighted and by pressing the circle button it brings you to that footnote. Pressing the circle button on the number of the footnote brings you back to the book. If there are more then one footnote on a page you can use the arrow buttons to get to those footnotes. The only problem with this is that if you try to go to the furthest page read it will bring you to the page with all the footnotes on it.

Thanks. I edited the post. I swear I tried it and it didn't work for me.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

The only reason to get the Nook is if you are planning to hack it and install new apps.

I appreciate we are all enthusiasts here ... but honestly this is a red flag for me (substitute e-reader for smart-phone or netbook OS) ... the LAST thing I want to do is fool around with "rooting my device" and making it into something different than what I purchased.

The whole point of buying an Amazon Kindle is that they've already figured out how to "make it go" so that all I do is drive. I don't care what's under the hood ... I just want to get to the library in order to curl up and read. The only features I am interested in are the ones provided by Kindle right out of the box.

Once upon a time I thought Heath Kit was a great way to get a stereo receiver ... build it yourself. And Wine Art was a cool way to bottle my personal Merlot. These days ... not so much. Give me an e-reader that let's me ... read. Period.

[Guns4Hire]

Actually I am completely opposite. Now that I know you can "root the nook" I am way more interested in it now. I was pretty much zero interested in it before. While I thought it was the nicest looking eReader. I wasn't going to go near it because of its limitations. Now I will start taking a second look at it.