Quote:
Originally Posted by SpiderMatt
I don't think that's true. I'm another Kindle owner, so I'm biased, but my experiences with the nook show me that it's still slower and less intuitive than the Kindle. If you like your nook, then that's great. I wouldn't try to change your mind (I couldn't care less), but I have been unimpressed with the nook since it came out. Granted, I've only played with the display units, but I was messing with it the first day they went on display and now look at them pretty much every time I'm in a B&N (which is actually pretty often since there's one just a couple miles from my apartment). I seriously hate the touch screen. I don't know why they set up the menus like they did (I'm sure this is something you just get used to) and it's always unresponsive or slow to recognize my command. When navigating on the e-ink screen, I find myself constantly having to look at the LCD because it's hard to tell if I'm about to press the right direction. It's different with the Kindle joystick, of course. This is why I've always been a bigger fan of hardware buttons. Ironically, I hate Apple but Amazon has kind of become the Apple of the e-reader market. I own a Droid and an iPod Touch, so I think I know the drawbacks for each pretty well. My theory is that Amazon has a smoother UI because it's all custom (even though it's based on Linux). Even their e-book format is proprietary. Apple pretty much does the same thing and that makes it less customizable. This is why I favor my Droid. I can just do so much more with it. On the other hand, I don't know what I'd do different with an open source platform on my e-reader. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think ePub generally takes a little longer to load (I'm not saying it takes a long time to load, just a second or two longer) than other formats like Mobipocket. I know it needs to load each chapter individually, as well. I've also heard about formatting not looking as nice on the Sony Readers compared to LRF files. Even though I think ePub is a great open source format, I don't think that necessarily translates into a better general-user experience. Just a theory, though. Not knocking anyone who likes the nook, but I think there's a reason the general response hasn't been as positive as that to the Kindle.
|
Interesting because I chose the Nook for the exact opposite reason you don't like the Nook. Now I did buy it post v1.3 so I cant comment on it's past performance in terms of sluggishness but in the here and now it's quite fast and very comparable to the Kindle's speed.
I am fortunate enough to have a co-worker who owns the Kindle. In fact it wa his Kindle that sold me on getting an e-reader. but after playing around with my wife's nook. I went back to use the Kindle and Just couldn't do it. It felt way too antiquited. But anywho my co worker and I have put them up side to side for performance test.
Opening a brand new book: the Nook took between 2.5 seconds to 3 and the Kindle about 2.5. just about dead even. Def. not enough to be a deal breaker in any shape or form
Prev. Opened Book : Both poped up in just about 1 sec if not less. Dead Heat.
Page turning: both are spot on. Kinlde maybe the slightest of the fraction faster. Maybe. Pretty close to call.
Opening out of sleep mode: Both came in under 5 seconds, very impressive on both units.
We didn't test a total shut down. But the Nook takes on average about 1min to 1min and 10 seconds (yes I timed it) Doesn't bother me for two reasons. 1. I only power down about maybe once or twice a week. and 2. one minute just doesn't bother me in the least.
But as far as navigating. I came into the e-reader world on a clean slate, not bias towards any particular brand. In fact I was going actually order a Kindle.
The difference to me in terms of hardware was the Nook is just a better look device, it looks like a device made for today. The Kindle in comparision really is rather ugly and does look like a bad combination of the 1980's electronic games meets a 1990's PDA trying to be a blackberry but in white.
The navigation via the joystick again felt very very outdated. The touch screen navigation of the Nook just felt better. I enjoyed it so much more. Now granted Yes their is a little bit of a lerning curve. But again so does every new technology and new device. I remember when I bought my iPhone, the first couple of days I was ready to toss it in the river, I wanted my old clam shell easy phone back. After a week , I laugh at myself now. You can't go back
That's the same way I felt about using the Nook and then trying to use the Kindle again. I just couldn't go back. And then of course doing more research and DRM's and e-Pub and all the fun extra's you get with the Nook as compared to the Kindle made the choice easier.
I find the response to the commands excellent and not sluggish. I finding out that many people have similiar reactions to the Nook. At first it's kind of like "Hmmm" then after a while it becomes such a joy to use. It's very easy to navigate.
This is another criticism I'm finding very difficult to grasp That it's not intuiative. So I'm wondering what is confusing about navigating.
You touch Shop when you want to shop
You touch Reading Now when you want to pick up where you left off
You touch My library when you want to choose a new book
When reading all your actions are right there. If you want to change the font or text size, it's right on the screen when reading, same as if you want to look up a word or a character or what have not's .
If you need to change your settings You touch Settings. If you can navigate around an Ipod Touch then this is BEYOND EASY.
Anywho, to each his own.
to me the Nook is a joy to use