I've had a Sony Reader for a while now. I was longing for an upgrade since my PRS-505 has limited internal memory. Granted, Sony put a card slot on there, but boy is it slow. Any books I load off the slot are brought up at a glacial rate. So this year I have been looking at upgrading, either to a new Sony device, or a competitor's.
So, first and foremost, I had to rule out Sony's new devices. Not because they are Sony, I actually really like my Reader, but because the memory "upgrades" went all the way up to 512MB. Wow. Thanks, Sony. Again, already have more than that on an SD card in my current model, so this isn't much incentive to buy a new Sony.
I looked at Kindle. I don't particularly think the keyboard will get much use, and the fact they decided to hide the battery (Sony does as well, mind you) and remove the expansion SD slot, I figured maybe that isn't much of an upgrade either. Also, the inability to use PDF without further conversion kinda turns me off as well.
So, sure, I could look at all the other "open" models. IRex is nice, but dang, when are they going to lower prices? Some of the other models are interesting, but either they have limited format support (and often no sales of ebooks themselves, just the readers), or are by companies I've never heard of. I resigned myself to basically sticking with the model I have until something came along that seemed like an upgrade and not just a replacement.
Then along came the Nook announcement. 2GB RAM, should be enough for me, but also has the SD slot should I want to utilize it. Replaceable battery, which my Sony doesn't have. 16 shades of gray instead of my Sony's 8. The ability to customize (to an extent, though truthfully not sure I'll use this) both the screen and the player. A smaller "subscreen" that utilizes a color touch screen LCD for menus and other navigation (this is a plus for me). And the backing of a major retail chain.
So, for these reasons and some others, I decided the Nook was a worthy upgrade for me. I wanted to post this if only because since this forum was put up, so many negative posts have been placed. What they got wrong! Why is there still DRM?!? Why can't I lend out my ebooks freely?!? Why doesn't it browse the web?!?
I have to say, I always find it interesting how many people will bash a product that hasn't even been released yet.
Anyway, so far none of the negatives mean much to me. I don't like DRM, but I also realize it took the music industry YEARS to concede that issue, so expecting less of the publishing industry is a bit much. I am not worried much about lending my digital files to people, though I could see why you might want to. But hey, the fact that lending exists at all seems a step in the right direction to me, however limited it might be. And I'm really not worried about my ebook reader being a web browser. Yes, it has wireless built in, and that is mainly used to wirelessly shop. So what? It's a book reader, not a PDA. That's my view anyway.
Yep, I preordered. I'm very much looking forward to my new Nook, which should arrive at the beginning of December I imagine (provided the Nov. 30 date doesn't slip or anything). I like the cover flow option, and while some may dismiss it as a gimick, I hope it will speed up the time it takes for me to get to my content. While I can live with slow page "turns" on e-ink, navigating menus through e-ink can be downright excrutiating on my Sony, particularly with the large number of books I have on it; I imagine part of that speed is also the slow processing of all the titles by the processor.
There you have it. My long worded way of showing the Nook a little appreciation and passing along what, at least for me, is worth looking forward to.
K.
