Would I buy the New Nook?

[Hobbit]

Let me introduce myself as an avid reader and who was less than eager to shift from paper books to digital but was fascinated in trying to get back in my wife's good graces - she would no longer have to have moved 15 crates of books when we move.

On a trip to the US I saw the Nook and got one. Since then I have been of course less than thrilled with Barnes and Noble's less than robust implementation of their reader application on what is essentially a robust platform.

Barnes and Noble's less than noble implementation of the library management functions, the innumerable bugs in the software and the unashamedly partisan treatment to side loaded content leave me less than enthusiastic about looking at their latest offering with any degree of enthusiasm.

But the touch screen is attractive the price point isn't too bad.

What do you all think?

[elemenoP]

You will have no way of knowing if the new Nook has fixed the grievances you have with the old Nook until it comes out. Wait for actual reviews by actual users.

eP

[jbcohen]

My contetion has always been "No one reader is best for all people" and with that said the Nook Simple Touch is great reader however its not for everyone, here are some people that the Simple Touch simply is not the right reader for:

1) You don't want touch screen
2) You want to pay under $100
3) You want the simplest reader possible
4) You want to be able to buy odd ball books (let's face it amazon has everything)
5) You want to minimize the cost of the ebooks you buy (amazon has some very low cost electronic books).

[ProfCrash]

I am going to point out that we don't know if the Nook Touch is a great reader because it has not been released. It sounds nice but until it is out and about and we have the slightest clue if the tech works properly I think we should withhold comments like "Great" or "Sucky". Just being balanced.

I am sure the Nook Touch is going to he a good reader but lets see it in action before we call it great.

[jocampo]

We don't know for sure how good the Nook touch is or not. We have only seen a few clips from B&N people or press. I would wait a bit and get more and longer reviews from end users. If there are some bugs or not, they will tell you for sure here or online.

So far, it looks like a nice reader. They improved battery life and I believe there are physical buttons as well, but besides that, there is not much else that someone can provide in terms of end user experience.

I would also recommend you to buy or get an widely International reader. Nook is being marketed for USA customers only. So, unless you are willing to pay shipping back to USA from your country (which probably will exceed original cost) I would think about getting a Sony or a Kindle instead. Of course, you are entitled to buy whatever you like or want ... but getting something that you have customer support on your own country makes things easier when problems arise.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

4) You want to be able to buy odd ball books (let's face it amazon has everything)

Hmm, I love Amazon and my Kindle, but I think you are exaggerating on that one. They have a good selection of titles, huge, but they do not have everything.

[CRussel]

Honestly, I would not buy a Nook if you live primarily outside of the US. B&N has no international support at all, and while there are workarounds, they are less than satisfactory from what I can see.

For broad international support, it's hard to beat Kindle. But Kindle does not use ePub, so you'd have to deal with conversion (and probably DRM removal) of books you currently have. But that's not difficult, and is a one-time issue only.

[ShanMcG]

Would you consider the new Kobo touch screen? Kobo has a decent selection of books, prices are typically cheaper than Amazon. I think the price for the reader itself is fair as well.

[anabolina]

ITA about the whole moving books thing, we moved a couple of months ago and I never notice how many books I have until I'm carrying them into a new place and they are heavy.

I've never bought ebooks from B&N and only one from Amazon, but from searches I've done of their catalogs, I've yet to come across a book that wasn't available in both, although I have found books that are available in these 2 stores and not in Kobo, Sony, or Google Books. The prices have seemed similar across the board too for the books I looked at, granted not searching in a particularly focused manner. Still, most of the ebooks I have are epubs from project gutenburg or Fictionwise. I suppose you can do the whole conversion thing to get your ebooks on a kindle, but why bother?

I really like the touch screen on the Sony Reader, in fact, when I was preparing an old Sony 300(non-touchscreen) for my grandmother, I kept touching the screen and needed to remind with the Kindle at BB yesterday before I myself to use the buttons. Now that I think about it, I did the same thing remembered that I was looking at a kindle, not a Sony reader. YMMV about how important touch is for you, but I think it's more intuitive. While the technology works well on the Sony readers, B&N may not have implemented it as well on the new Nook. That said, I'm totally picking up the new Nook this weekend if my local B&N has any.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by ShanMcG

Would you consider the new Kobo touch screen? Kobo has a decent selection of books, prices are typically cheaper than Amazon. I think the price for the reader itself is fair as well.

Amazon has an overall larger selection of books then Kobo and the vast majority of those books are priced the same.

Under the Agency Model, the vast majority of the books are going to be the same price at Amazon and Kobo. The gift certificates offered by Kobo cannot be applied to any of the major publisher books under the terms of the Agency Pricing agreement.

So the only books that might be cheaper at Kobo are books outside of the major Publishers. While I am sure that there are some great books included in that group, it is a smaller grouping of books.