[superhero]

I am new to the forum but have been lurking for quite some time. I got my Nook a few days ago and I have been playing with it for a while. I currently own and love my Sony PRS 505. I have only briefly seen a Kindle so I can't really compare this to that unit. I did compare the Nook's screen to my Sony and found the contrast on the Nook to be noticeably better. I really like the form factor of the Nook and believe it is well built, sturdy and comfortable to use. I also like the removable battery, and ability to use an sd card but I believe the SD card could have been placed better instead of needing to remove the back of the Nook to access it but that is just a minor quibble.

As to the experience of reading a book, it is pretty good, not great...yet. Certainly far better than some of the reviews I read. I have to believe the reviewers had more beta software since I have experienced no crashes and nothing really wonky...yet. Several things I like: the screen, ability to change fonts and sizes much faster than the Sony. The page turns while definitely slower than the Sony are not so slow as to be painful but they should be much faster. My 4 year old Sony device should not be faster than the new Nook. I also like the touch screen and use it to turn pages. Once you get the hang of it, it is very easy, works every time and gives the feeling of really turning a page which I like. To explain, once the touch screen goes dark, it can be used to turn pages or you can hit one of the side buttons. In order to use the touch pad, you have to quickly swipe your finger or thumb on it. Not the entire length just a small twitch will do but if you don't do it fast enough it won't recognize the motion. It also has to distinguish a "swipe" from a "tap". A tap causes the screen to light up so you can then choose the options there.

What I did not like is the inability to sort my books according to my preference as I can with the Sony. From what I can tell so far, it sorts the books by author's last name and then according to book title. I would prefer to sort by most recently read, etc. I also dislike not being able to go to a specific page, not being able to quickly jump through pages as you can with the Sony (if you hold the button it jumps 10 pages I think). I would also like to browse side loaded books by cover like you can books downloaded from B&N. That is another weird thing. The Nook separates content downloaded from B&N from that sideloaded into the Nook. I would prefer to have it all together.
I also believe the unit should start up faster after it sleeps.

Another minor aggravation, everytime you go back to or open a new book, the unit briefly (5 seconds or so) displays "formatting". Again, this seems like a software error and should be resolved with a software update.

Shopping at the store is just OK. There is no ability to filter the content except by genre. I would prefer the ability to sort by price, author, rating, new to paperback, newly released, etc. As to ratings, if I am interested in a book I would like the ability to read the reviews which the Nook does not allow but at least the number of stars is shown.

Battery life seems fine but not as good as it probably will be. I do believe there is a memory leak which should be fixed in a firmware update. I generally keep my unit in Airplane mode which basically turns off the wifi and 3g. I don't see any reason to keep them on all the time anyway and thus, I expect significantly longer battery life.

I primarily read side loaded materials since the 505 didn't have the ability to download wirelessly.

My overall impressions are positive. I think this is an upgrade to my Sony. As an early adopter, I expect problems will arise and will be fixed in software along the way.

Now, a few reasons why I chose Nook over Kindle. Don't need a keyboard. I will not use a Kindle to surf the web and believe it is silly for people to expect to do this. It is a book reader. If you want something to surf the web buy a net book or use a smartphone. I also hate DRM and do not like that Amazon uses a proprietary format that I cannot transfer to anything else. Yes, I know software hacks exist to strip these out but I shouldn't have to go to the trouble. I read a fair amount of PDFs and, at the time I ordered my Nook, Kindle could not read them natively.

Finally, as to hacks, I really hope people who are far smarter and more creative than me will take advantage of the android platform and make a decent reader into a fantastic one by adding wonderful features. If the hacks that have come out for Kindle and other book readers are any indication, I believe people are going to be very satisfied with Nook and will be able to eventually customize it to their liking. Just my two cents.

One final point, I want to thank the creator of the Calibre software. I know he frequents this site and I use his software all the time. It has saved me a lot of frustration and the new version works with the Nook. I am not affiliated with this in any way, just a fan who appreciates the hard work on that program.