Nook Color is Here!

[Over]

7"? Too small for magazines and PDFs. And for literature ebooks, i guess the colour is only good for covers.

But I guess that people who don't mind to constantly zoom and pan or are just used to do it on a smartphone, will like this.

[rty]

Originally Posted by Over

7"? Too small for magazines and PDFs. And for literature ebooks, i guess the colour is only good for covers.

But I guess that people who don't mind to constantly zoom and pan or are just used to do it on a smartphone, will like this.

Zoom and pan is only applicable to Kindle DX users. Nook has a feature called PDF text reflow, which concept is alien for most Kindle DX users.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Considering this is a device that B&N is positioning for newspaper and (color) magazine content, I'm surprised that no one has addressed the question of exactly what magazines will be available, and in what formats, on the device.

Personally, I would love to be able to start reading all of my magazines on a portable reader, in color (where appropriate), and ditch the boxes of paper that are piling up in my house. Two things, therefore, concern me: Are my magazines available; and how flexible is the format they'll be offering--can I convert the mags to other formats? Save them? Read them on other devices, like my laptop?

The site just has a big "coming soon" sign on the newsstand. Somebody let me know when magazines start showing up, and how we can expect to be viewing them.

[zinj]

Mirasol, Q1 of 2011? I can wait.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by zinj

Mirasol, Q1 of 2011? I can wait.

Any idea on expected prices?

[cjottawa]

NOOKcolor: It's a tablet PC, not an ebook reader.

This move, just as we enter Christmas shopping season, seems aimed at biting a chunk off the bottom of Apple's iPad market.

B&N will capitalize on the masses who couldn't afford an iPad, couldn't justify giving one as a gift or weren't interested in grey-scale e-ink devices.

[zinj]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Any idea on expected prices?

New tech always costs more, but the first screens are only 5" with no touch interface (last I heard) so hopefully it's not too high.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

And I stopped wearing glasses cuz every time I got a fingerprint on a lens, I had to buy a new pair. Clue: fingerprints wipe off.

I'm really waiting to see how the responses go from real owners. The concept is very appealing to me as a bridge between my wife's iPad and my ereader. Would give her a similar device for reading Library books, and would give me a possibly functional versatility without having to get an iPhone next time my contract runs out.

My concern is while I am impressed with the iPhone/iTouch/iPad apps I have seen on my wife's iPad and son's iPhone, I haven't heard really great things about Droid apps.

Plus, it appears the FW upgrades don't always make it from Google thru the device manufacturers to the consumers in a timely fashion. (For instance, I believe 2.2 is the current FW with 2.3 or possibly 3.0 imminent, but I understand the NC is coming out with 2.0.)

I will be waiting to see how much additional functionality the NC will end up with once it is actually out in the world on its own. I don't need an iPad or iPhone, but if its gonna have an LCD screen it needs to be more than an ereader, IMHO.

Edit: Duh. I see it has limited browsing, can check mail -- features the original nook has, but perhaps with a little more versatility. Maybe a nook classic will do the job, after all.

I have a Droid x , I'm coming from the iPhone the apps are on par IOW's they're great. Every app I loved on my iPhone, was in the Android marketplace. Looking forward to Amazons Android App market coming at some point as well. Im liking the overall custmization you get with an android as opposed to my limited ones with my old iphone. But i dont want to derail

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by zinj

New tech always costs more, but the first screens are only 5" with no touch interface (last I heard) so hopefully it's not too high.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

Part of my decision process in determining whether I'll get the NC is how soon alternative technology will make an appearance. IOW, how soon before we see a 7" multi-touch Mirasol display; and it doesn't appear to be as soon as I'd like.

[MV64]

It's only useful for magazines and manga, things with bright colors. Therefore, I doubt it'll sell as well as the nook because of the more expensive price and the more limited possibilities.

I'm still not getting what the point of an iPad or other tablets are at this point. Even if you don't use 80% of your laptop, why would spend a ton of money to not even have the possibility of using that 80% at some point in future?

Then again, most people aren't value shoppers like me.

EDIT: And to those of you on the fence, I would wait to buy this. It'll likely go down to $200 within the first 6 months.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by MV64

It's only useful for magazines and manga, things with bright colors. Therefore, I doubt it'll sell as well as the nook because of the more expensive price and the more limited possibilities.

Actually, it's more versatile than an eInk reader. It's also useful for newspapers, textbooks, childrens interactive books, and numerous web applications.

Don't sell it short. Just as there avid novel readers who prefer eInk, there are also avid magazine readers who prefer color; and to date, they really don't have a comparable portable device to read from. Who wants to hold a netbook in bed to read a magazine? Try that on a subway.

While the NC is not for you, it's just what many others have been waiting for - a quality, inexpensive color reader. And for that reason, it will be a very hot gift item this holiday season.

[mcooke66]

I think the NookColor is just one piece of a much larger move on B&N part to be on the leading edge of electronic books of every kind. There will come a day when printed books are no longer part of our culture. To me this is still a long ways off, but with devices like this coming into the market I may need to eat my words. Just consider families with small children that read books every day to their kids, My wife and I have older children and left behind is well over a thousand kids’ books, does it appeal to me that they could all be stored on a reading device, yes it does. My kids will be in college in the next 3 years, does it appeal to me to purchase electronic versions of textbooks for a much lower price and provide the student with a lightweight alternative to the tombs you see in college books stores, yes it does.

If you look at the branding on NookBooks, NookKids, Nook Study, NookNewstand, who can compete with that when you include a reasonably priced color platform to access those brands on. Right now nobody, expect Amazon to be having a “come to Jesus” meeting right now about how they will move forward in this market. B&N is pushing this market forward not competing with Amazon for the scraps of black and white eink subculture.

As stated in many other posts B&N has done the research and the truth is the majority of the public reads on LCD screens all day does not understand the issues this forum goes on and on about. That same majority of the marketplace charges their cell phone every night. Battery life and LCD will not hurt this product with the target audience, which is the average electronics consumer who reads many different sources where color is important but does not consume 2 novels a week.

I purchased a Nook 2 weeks ago, thankfully going with the conventional wisdom that any new device from B&N would be a higher end color device. It did not add up that they would keep competing with Amazon on tiny little inside baseball eink features. I am a novel reader so eink is fine for me for now but I will be very interested in how solid this device is. My daughter may inherit my nook in 8 months depending on the how good or bad this device is.

[mcooke66]

Originally Posted by MV64

It's only useful for magazines and manga, things with bright colors. Therefore, I doubt it'll sell as well as the nook because of the more expensive price and the more limited possibilities.

I am really unclear how this device has "limited" possibilities. It seems clear that B&N now has a dedicated eink ereader for that market and a much more versatile reader for the rest of the market that does not want black and white.

The possibilities are:
Full web browsing
video
games
Contacts calendaring email etc..

The current features of NOOKColor have many advantages over the current NOOK. Having said that the eink NOOK has lower price and longer battery life.

I think in 2 years people will all be wondering what the big deal with eink was, I say that as a fan of the technology.
The current features have many advantages over teh current NOOK.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by mcooke66

I think the NookColor is just one piece of a much larger move on B&N part to be on the leading edge of electronic books of every kind. There will come a day when printed books are no longer part of our culture. To me this is still a long ways off, but with devices like this coming into the market I may need to eat my words. Just consider families with small children that read books every day to their kids, My wife and I have older children and left behind is well over a thousand kids’ books, does it appeal to me that they could all be stored on a reading device, yes it does. My kids will be in college in the next 3 years, does it appeal to me to purchase electronic versions of textbooks for a much lower price and provide the student with a lightweight alternative to the tombs you see in college books stores, yes it does.

If you look at the branding on NookBooks, NookKids, Nook Study, NookNewstand, who can compete with that when you include a reasonably priced color platform to access those brands on. Right now nobody, expect Amazon to be having a “come to Jesus” meeting right now about how they will move forward in this market. B&N is pushing this market forward not competing with Amazon for the scraps of black and white eink subculture.

As stated in many other posts B&N has done the research and the truth is the majority of the public reads on LCD screens all day does not understand the issues this forum goes on and on about. That same majority of the marketplace charges their cell phone every night. Battery life and LCD will not hurt this product with the target audience, which is the average electronics consumer who reads many different sources where color is important but does not consume 2 novels a week.

Excellent! You have a keen grasp of what this new device is for.

[Over]

Originally Posted by rty

Zoom and pan is only applicable to Kindle DX users. Nook has a feature called PDF text reflow, which concept is alien for most Kindle DX users.

It's applicable to most devices. And PDF reflow isn't alien to me, at least. And I know iit can be a complete mess, except with simple/basic PDFs. And you loose the original format.