Thanks boswd! I think you answered all my questions.
I'm still wanting to hear from anyone who has a boox/neo; maybe I'll post in that forum.
Over the weekend, I went out and got some hands on on a few - Nook, Sony and Kindle. And it's only made the decision harder!
First I ran over the Best Buy because I heard about the mistake in their ads that I might get a $199 Nook with a free $50 gift card....but unfortunately they'd already put up a special sign explaining that wasn't so.
While there I tried the Nook, but they also had all three Sonys - the 300 I think, the 600 and 900, so I tried them all too.
The Nook was nice. I liked it but most things I wanted to try - wifi, note-taking and other stuff wouldn't work. The books on the device were only "samples" so you couldn't even try page-turning with them, let alone anything else.
The Sonys were nicer than I was expecting! Sorry to sound so mean about them in my last post to those of you championing them. The glare on the 600 didn't seem so bad! I actually liked it, but unfortunately it wasn't even set up to let you fool around with - you could pick it up and look at it, but the screen was on like a locked wallpaper mode that just told the features it had, without actually being able to try it out.
Thanks davidspitzer for letting me know Kindles were now sold in Target. I went there and sure enough they had them and a display. I tried it out, but like the Sonys at Best Buy, you couldn't really try it out - it was also locked on a wallpaper that told its features. I have to say though, I really liked it. Of all the ones I've seen in person, it's my favourite as far as looks. The physical keyboard is cheesy looking, but I tried it out and it seems like it'd work fine though, not too small to type quickly I don't think. The only part that was only OK-looking was that little joystick - but I might have really liked it if I could've tried out navigating onscreen with it, I don't know. Altogether though, between the ones I've seen now, if the Kindle wasn't locked to Amazon, I'd want that one. But now that I've seen it in person, it does make me want it more. Sigh, just making the decision harder!
I also made my way to a Barnes & Noble yesterday and tried out the nook there, thinking I'd get a better feel than I did in the Best Buy. It really did. B&N has a big display with knowledgeable staff there to tell you all about it and show you. I tried out pretty much everything - note-taking and highlighting, page swiping, navigating the menus, internet wikipedia and google, the in-store promotions you can get through it (the free coffee and free random e-book were OK, but I was impressed that it had a 10% off whatever coupon in there for the B&N physical store too).
Overall I liked the nook OK. It was funny, knowing what people here in these forums have said about it, that the knowledgeable staff were having trouble navigating and showing me certain features on it. But overall, like boswd said, I think it just takes a learning curve and then you're fine. From what I'm reading around here, many people who don't like it return it without getting used to it first. It's definitely not perfect - note-taking took longer than I'd want and I have to be careful while typing on that little onscreen keyboard, but it's doable. I don't think any e-reader is perfect right now; maybe in the next generation lines or the ones after that they'll start being great, but for now I think any you get will have quirks and things that aren't great.
So, I'm going to buy an e-reader this week - if I can make up my mind then as early as today. I'm pretty sure it will be either the nook, neo or Kindle. Just of those, I'm having a very hard time settling on one lol!
Of them all, I really want the neo. But now I'm even more reserved about it because I haven't heard anyone talk about them here and I can't try one out in person like I can the nook and Kindle. Add that to the twice as much price tag and it's a hard sell...but with the stylus and seeing how easy the note-making looks on youtube, it's hard to eliminate from my choices too since it's still (barely) in my price range. Overall I probably won't get it unless I just splurge and take a risk at the last minute.
Of the nook and Kindle, I like the look of the Kindle better and I hear it's easier to navigate and maybe easier to make notes with, but I can't get over how closed it is to file formats. I probably won't get the Kindle unless I decide the style and ease is more important to me than the openness.
So that means I'm still leaning towards the nook, at the moment anyway. LOL, I know I came in here a tech know-nothing with e-readers, but when I'm making a purchase like this I go into investigative journalist mode.
