First of all, what the hell?? It looks like a frigging iPod touch. Just look at that home button. So, SO much lack of originality. Dude, it has a touch screen! Use it! Add a return button (maybe even gesture-based)
on the frigging screen! I also don't understand the use of flipping buttons when you have a god damn touch screen. Is it so you won't smear the screen, leave fingerprints? Then use oleophobic coating, ffs!
Another physical characteristic that irks me is the bezel size. God... When will they release a BORDERLESS e-Ink reader already? Don't tell me about accidentally triggering something just by holding it, there are ways around that (3 finger gestures, screen locking except for the bottom corners and more).
Wow... 2 GB. But wait! It's not actually 2 GB, no. According to
this article, it has 1 GB out of which you can only use 250 MB for your own content. Oh, the joy... Why would I want an external card when 1 GB internal should be sufficient for about 15 books, which would probably last me 4 months or so?
But anyway...
I think they're definitely heading in the right direction. Except... after seeing how much it costs in my country I think I would rather add another 50% and get a new iPod touch (8 GB), with the new "Retina" display. Then I could enjoy much more content than just e-books. Like podcasts, TV shows, comic books, manga, casual games, organizing apps, educational apps, etc.
IMO, the ideal reader would be borderless, comes in classic paper colour
(meaning a very light brown on the front, dark brown on the back, with screen colour matching the bezel so you can't see where the screen begins and where it ends), that doesn't have anything except a 3.5 mm jack for USB connection, recharging (through USB) and, obviously, audio out. Meaning it will also be completely water proof. Absolutely no buttons, no card slots, docking slots, none of the silliness. At most it can have a tactile sensor that would wake it up, tho it could also be done by shaking the device, double taping the screen after it (automatically) goes to sleep, etc.
Alternatively it comes with two screens linked together with some sort of cable strip. Same light brown colour on the front but with a brown leather case this time, that closes just like a real book and which makes use of magnets to keep it closed, kinda like the iPad case.
So yeah. There you have it... Make it happen, Barnes & Noble !
PS: I did, however, enjoy the part where they took a stab at the Kindle. "Unlike
other eReaders that restrict your reading, NOOK lets you borrow books in the universally accepted ePub format—so you can read what you want from your local public library." Hahaha. It would be SO easy for Amazon to add ePub support (since it's basically very similar to what they use). But they're being stubborn about it and they deserve it.