Classic Nook 1.5 Update Confirmed

[astrangerhere]

As an aside, and since I started this mess, let me just say, I still love my Nook. I have had great customer service experience (replaced an early model with cracked beazel with zero problems), and I still love the device itself. It goes everywhere with me and I am reading more now than when I was a college student with all the free time in the world. I don't want a Kindle because its proprietary and doesnt let me expand my memory. Having said all that....

I will NOT softroot the device and thereby void my warranty. I'm an attorney, and I can get most of what I want from a company in terms of replacements, etc, but not if I've hacked the thing. I will in no case look to softroot the device unless it becomes absolutely necessary for me to do so. We're talking not-being-able-to-access-all-my-non-B&N-content necessary. That is, I think, why so many people are so vocal about wanting organization ability - either they lack the desire or skill to softroot.

I'm not frustrated to the point of changing readers, yet. I don't think the sky is falling. I'm just disappointed. But I will continue to support the device, because i love the hardware. I am just impatient for the software to catch up.

[jedema]

I just purchased my first E-Reader yesterday after much debate and playing with both the Kindle and the Nook. I was tempted to wait until I knew about a "2", but in the end I didn't want to wait that long.

Lets just say I was plesantly suprised to come here last night and see that 1.5 has been announced! I'm excited to see what it brings to the table.

[rty]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Because it has poor battery life which means I'll have to spend $30 for a spare battery.

Because it's white which means I'll have to spend $20 to get a black skin.

Now it's suddenly $200 while the Kindle (with these features) is only $140.

That's why.

... also, the screen is not yet the latest Pearl E-ink.

[AndyfromVA]

I have a simple suggestion - wait until the 1.5 update is actually released before criticizing it.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by rty

... also, the screen is not yet the latest Pearl E-ink.

That's true. The key thing to me is not so much the improved display, but its demand for less power. New displays and processors usually mean improved power management and that results in longer battery life; which is very important to me.

[mcooke66]

This is my first post, but I have been lurking for some time researching which reader to buy. I decided on the Nook wifi for many reasons which I will not go into now but I decided to weigh in in the discussion of the new update 1.5.

As a software engineer I can tell you that many times users have requests that seem extremely obvious or simple and yet there are many technical hurdles to achieving them. I will certainly not pass judgment on the new update until I see it but I do find it fascinating that there is an impression making software and hardware work together is easy because it has been done before. I am here to tell you it is not easy and many tens of thousands of decisions go into the software that runs on a custom hardware platform such as an eReader.

Page Turns – A big point of comparison from all Kindle owners, from a marketing standpoint this needed to be answered. I personally feel it is phony issue, the page turns are plenty fast and barley slower than a kindle. But once it is in the heads of the users it needs to be addressed.

Interaction between pc/mac apps, phone apps and the Nook - a big Kindle feature that also gets a lot of attention. B&N needs to compete on those platforms, everyone will not buy an eReader and those that do get the benefit of being able pass the time reading on their cell phone when their nook is at home.

Organization – Clearly the biggest complaint about the nook and I agree not getting it right will anger nook owners but having the feature at any level closes another gap with Kindle.

To me these are marketing features that the developers were given by the business to complete. These are Gap closers with the Kindle. We all hope they move the platform forward, but we all know B&N has some catching up to do in the software side.

I for one would not throw out my device because the marketing team at B&N did not consider my list of requests. B&N needs to be careful not to alienate Nook owners but they must also be working to eliminate the differentiators between themselves and the competition.

Okay let the bashing begin, I am new so be gentle – just kidding – have at me!

[Pomtroll]

I'm not having at you mcooke66 I'm waiting to see what 1.5 looks like. I have the Kindle3 & like it. BUT I like my NOOK much more. I like the touch keyboard & touch page turn. I'm not as concerned about collections nor organization but then I don't save that many books. I might once I get the hang of collections. We'll see. Of course I would like to have a longer battery life. I only get about 3 days of use with my NOOK. Hopefully that is something that will be addressed in future NOOKS.

[NightGoat]

Originally Posted by mcooke66

Okay let the bashing begin, I am new so be gentle – just kidding – have at me!

Beware of the Pygmalion-effect

Seriously, why would anyone bash you? You made some good points.

[Ryan_Phx]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I will in no case look to softroot the device unless it becomes absolutely necessary for me to do so. We're talking not-being-able-to-access-all-my-non-B&N-content necessary. That is, I think, why so many people are so vocal about wanting organization ability - either they lack the desire or skill to softroot.

I don't think that's necessarily the case. Even if one didn't know about softrooting, asking for better organization is an obvious request. If this update does not provide that, I will softroot mine. The reason I haven't done it yet is because I would prefer to have that as a supported function, and I was willing to give B&N the chance to do it. If they fail to provide such a necessary, obvious, and oft-requested feature, then I have no problem at all with softrooting it. As to your point about skill, I would say that most people who know about softrooting learned about it from boards like this one, and either have the skill, or they're on boards with people very willing to help them do it.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Ryan_Phx

I don't think that's necessarily the case. Even if one didn't know about softrooting, asking for better organization is an obvious request. If this update does not provide that, I will softroot mine. The reason I haven't done it yet is because I would prefer to have that as a supported function, and I was willing to give B&N the chance to do it. If they fail to provide such a necessary, obvious, and oft-requested feature, then I have no problem at all with softrooting it. As to your point about skill, I would say that most people who know about softrooting learned about it from boards like this one, and either have the skill, or they're on boards with people very willing to help them do it.

I wasn't trying to make a point about skill so much as I was making a point about voiding your out of the box warranty as well as any extended warranty you may or may not have purchased from square trade. Softrooting automaticaly voids either of those.

[Ryan_Phx]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I wasn't trying to make a point about skill so much as I was making a point about voiding your out of the box warranty as well as any extended warranty you may or may not have purchased from square trade. Softrooting automaticaly voids either of those.

True, but that's just part of the calculation. Softroot to gain features, void the warranty, and hope nothing goes wrong that would ordinarily be covered by said warranty, or leave it as-is and endure the inconvenience of having no organizational system in a folder with hundreds of books. It's a good point to make about the warranty, and everyone considering softrooting should be aware of it, but it also shouldn't stop anyone who sees the immediate benefit of increased functionality as outweighing the possible need for a warranty at some point in the future.

[sjkevin]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Softrooting automaticaly voids either of those.

Yeah, but if the nook is working at all, you can un-softroot it, so it's not as risky as you might think.

The main thing is, Barnes & Noble, quite understandably, does not want to spend money supporting software they aren't in control of.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by sjkevin

The main thing is, Barnes & Noble, quite understandably, does not want to spend money supporting software they aren't in control of.

That's the problem with mobile devices - they're too tightly controlled.

MSI doesn't tell me what I can or can't load into my netbook; so why should smartphones, tablets, and ereaders be any different?

[chas0039]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I like it also, but I'll be pretty annoyed if they greatly improve the cataloging and accessibility of books bought at their bookstore, but continue to require that I find the book I want to read out of the 1600 I bought at their subsidiary Fictionwise by looking through 200 or more pages (10 books per page). If they don't want to do it themselves, set up a Nook marketplace, and get a cut of every app that's sold through it.

BTW, I've rooted my nook, and the nookdevs nook library app is very nice, but it runs out of memory at about 3000 books, and I have more than that on my nook these days.

Could you be more clear about what happens. Hari, the developer of nookLibrary.apk and I have discussed this and he is unaware of any limits. He said that if I encountered any, he wanted to know.

Thanks

[chas0039]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I wasn't trying to make a point about skill so much as I was making a point about voiding your out of the box warranty as well as any extended warranty you may or may not have purchased from square trade. Softrooting automaticaly voids either of those.

I think you may be wrong on this, for the Squaretrade version, they are sold with accidental damage coverage.