Quote:
Originally Posted by lionel47
So, if you think of B&N as a sculptor and Android OS as a block of marble, B&N's mission is to chip away everything that does not look like an e-reader or contribute to the primary goal: reading content delivery.
I think they are succeeding and will continue to succeed with every new firmware revision they release. However, I do believe the software designers need to do a better job of managing the features they are to chip away and those they are to implement.
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That would be a laudable goal were it not for the fact that B&N started out by
removing everything that makes a good ereader and deliberately crippling the meager device functions that they kept (more so for non-B&N content). As I've said before, an ereader should have the ability to (1)find the book you need, (2)read the book, and (3)annotate/highlight in a useful & reasonably permanent way. Everything else is optional and a luxury and in some cases, sheer nonsense (3G/wifi delivery of content, web browser, games(!), blogs(!), etc.)
So far, B&N appears to have "chipped away" 2/3 of the most basic features required in an ereader and focused on a LOT of what I can only term "bling" (probably dreamt up by their marketing hacks) to entice consumers and make buying from them easier (fine, but hardly a priority for making a good
ereader, which is why I can only deduce that they couldn't give a damn about that goal).
Most people seem to have softrooted their nooks to get that basic functionality back. In fact, look at most of the app library available for rooted nooks - they're doing B&N's basic job for them.