Touch Nook Simple Touch shipping NOW!!!

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by yomer

The Kobo Touch will do just that out of the box. It can be done, B&N are just lazy.

Now that the new Nook is out. People should be able to try to root it. Does it run Android underneath? I thought I read it at a gadget site.

Well, i was also thinking of the, you know, color aspects of comics. Manga is one thing, as its primarily in BW, but if I'm reading my Batwoman or whatever I want to read it in color.

[anamardoll]

The PDF / Landscape thing for me is killer. A lot of my comics are in black-and-white PDF.

If Kobo Touch does landscape/zoom/pan out of the box, then they've got themselves a new customer. I'll miss the dedicated page turn buttons, but I'll adapt. Easier to re-train my thumbs than to re-train my reading habits.

Although I will hold off to see if someone roots this N2 and slaps a better stock reader on it. Here's hoping.

I really don't understand B&N. If you're going to put out a "simply read" reader with no browser and no audiobook / Text-to-Speech support, why would you not provide the READING aspects??? Between the ghosting (so glad that we have a pic posted in the other thread) and the no-landscape / crappy-PDF support (which were always the biggest frustrations with the NC), this seems like a brand killer, if you'll pardon my hysterics. I was just so excited, sigh.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

...why would you not provide the READING aspects???

The same can be said about the Kobo. You can't change the margins or line spacing. That's a red flag for me. Is one primarily reading ePubs or PDFs? Pick your poison. Perhaps if someone doesn't have a tablet, then yeah, it could be a showstopper. Seems like the trend is for people to have a dedicated eink device and a tablet now.

There's always folks who don't care for something. I'm sure many will enjoy the Touch. The Touch doesn't do pan and zooming on PDFs. If that's a no go for someone, there's no sense harping on it. Grab the Kobo, or sit back and see what new Kindle arrives on the scene this holiday season.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by SCION

The same can be said about the Kobo. You can't change the margins or line spacing. That's a red flag for me.

Really? *sob*

That would probably be a problem for me as well, although it would depend on whether the "defaults" suited me to start with.

But I just don't see this as a primarily epub/pdf thing. I have a 700+ library. I'd say about half of those are epubs and half are pdfs. I don't want a reader that can only read and access half of my library without that reader having some MAJOR "lifestyle advantage" like my PocketBook 360 which is small and fits in my back pocket. And even then, it still tries its best with PDFs, bless its heart. Not like this N2 which claims to be the cutting edge of modernity.

I think, to me, the biggest issue is that when the NC had such lackluster PDF support (no bookmarking, for starters), people complained. There were letters to customer service, and the B&N forums were full of people like me saying "Hey, will the next update provide better PDF support?"

The fact that B&N has basically ignored all that is -- to me -- the biggest possible red flag. I can totally get companies not doing things because they don't know how or because they don't realize customers want those things. But not doing something they KNOW customers want because they didn't want to? That worries me.

And, at the end of the day, even if I buy NO new reader this year, I still can't buy B&N's reader. I'm not going to pay over $100 for a "top of the line" reader that can't read half my library. My existing readers can already do that, AND they can fit in my back pocket and take custom fonts. Some of them even have web browsers and 3G support.

So, ultimately, not trying to whine, but I am disappointed. And I feel like B&N lost a sale -- last week I was really having to talk myself out of buying one of these. Now, I don't much see the point.

NOTE TO FANBOIS: THIS IS MY SUBJECTIVE OPINION ONLY.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

...

The fact that B&N has basically ignored all that is -- to me -- the biggest possible red flag. I can totally get companies not doing things because they don't know how or because they don't realize customers want those things. But not doing something they KNOW customers want because they didn't want to? That worries me.

The same applied to Amazon at one point with the 1st and 2nd Kindle. People were complaining from day one about lack of tags/shelves/collections. They took FOREVER to respond. That's why I bailed on the Kindle and went with the Sony. I haven't been back.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by SCION

The same applied to Amazon at one point with the 1st and 2nd Kindle. People were complaining from day one about lack of tags/shelves/collections. They took FOREVER to respond. That's why I bailed on the Kindle and went with the Sony. I haven't been back.

Brand loyalty is such a precious thing and when a company doesn't cultivate it, it's just disastrous for both the company and the consumers.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Brand loyalty is such a precious thing and when a company doesn't cultivate it, it's just disastrous for both the company and the consumers.

It sounds to me, with that much PDF, you might just want to look at a tablet to go with the reading and the comics? Is there a reason you're shying away from that route? I know cost can be prohibitive, but I'm just curious

[jocampo]

PDFs were not designed for eink readers. It is extremely difficult to implement a good rendering on an eink device, just because the way they work.

The closest thing I've found to a good PDF reader is the iPad using GoodReader app. You can do annotations, highlighting, notes, remember last page, you will get a full TOC or if absent, you can create it. You can jump between chapters in seconds and extremely fast turning pages.

Yes, it is not eink, it's a tablet, but that's the trade off. Besides, 10" screen gives you more display area avoiding zooming and panning; I barely need those when using the iPad. Any reader below 10", you will probably need landscape or any type or zooming feature, specially with tables or images.

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

It sounds to me, with that much PDF, you might just want to look at a tablet to go with the reading and the comics? Is there a reason you're shying away from that route? I know cost can be prohibitive, but I'm just curious

I'm not trying to answer for her, but I'm pretty sure she has a nookcolor (NC) which is a tablet. The stock NC is rather lackluster as a PDF reader, as she mentioned. I personally hate PDFs even on my 23" monitor, but unfortunately there are times when I cannot avoid them. I do agree they can look terrible on smaller screens and even on larger ones. Sony went a long way to help with their two and three column views which allow you to read a single column (from a 2 or 3 column page). But even that falls short on those damn scanned PDFs that sometimes look like 12th generation xerox copies.

[anamardoll]

Jack is correct: I have a Nook Color as one of my devices and I'm quite fond of it now that it's running CM7 from the SD card and has QuickOffice installed.

But let's be realistic: a tablet can't be read in the car (which is where I do a lot of my reading), and taking the darn thing on vacation is right out considering that it has about 4 hours of battery life for full-blown reading.

I don't need a new eInk reader in the slightest, but I would like to have a "whole solution" reader that meets my needs. However, in order to do that, I would need full PDF support (not this half-support that the N2 provides), and I would need sideloading from an SD card to be fully integrated with folder browsing.

I'm looking for the perfect device that has:

1. eInk screen
2. PDF support (pan, zoom, landscape)
3. ePub support (including landscape)
4. SD card expansion and integration with library (with folder browsing)
5. Touch screen for highlighting and notetaking (with export to text file option)
6. Physical page turn buttons

So far, nothing seems to offer this. My PocketBook 360 comes close (1, 3, 4, 6), but lacks good PDF support and touch integration. I had hoped this N2 would bridge the gap. Oh well. I'm disappointed, but what can you do.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Jack is correct: I have a Nook Color as one of my devices and I'm quite fond of it now that it's running CM7 from the SD card and has QuickOffice installed.

But let's be realistic: a tablet can't be read in the car (which is where I do a lot of my reading), and taking the darn thing on vacation is right out considering that it has about 4 hours of battery life for full-blown reading.

I don't need a new eInk reader in the slightest, but I would like to have a "whole solution" reader that meets my needs. However, in order to do that, I would need full PDF support (not this half-support that the N2 provides), and I would need sideloading from an SD card to be fully integrated with folder browsing.

I'm looking for the perfect device that has:

1. eInk screen
2. PDF support (pan, zoom, landscape)
3. ePub support (including landscape)
4. SD card expansion and integration with library (with folder browsing)
5. Touch screen for highlighting and notetaking (with export to text file option)
6. Physical page turn buttons

So far, nothing seems to offer this. My PocketBook 360 comes close (1, 3, 4, 6), but lacks good PDF support and touch integration. I had hoped this N2 would bridge the gap. Oh well. I'm disappointed, but what can you do.

The Sony PRS-950 or 650 sound like they fit your description quite well.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

The Sony PRS-950 or 650 sound like they fit your description quite well.

I'm hearing that lately. I'd ruled out Sony because I've used my mom's 350 and I didn't like that you have to use their reader software to load your books and I didn't like that it didn't support folder browsing. Does the 950 support folder browsing where the 350 didn't? (I also notice that my other major gripe with her 350 -- no SD card -- is fixed in the 950.)

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm hearing that lately. I'd ruled out Sony because I've used my mom's 350 and I didn't like that you have to use their reader software to load your books and I didn't like that it didn't support folder browsing. Does the 950 support folder browsing where the 350 didn't? (I also notice that my other major gripe with her 350 -- no SD card -- is fixed in the 950.)

Hi, anamardoll. I sent you a PM answering some of your 950 questions so we don't go too far off-topic in this thread.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm hearing that lately. I'd ruled out Sony because I've used my mom's 350 and I didn't like that you have to use their reader software to load your books and I didn't like that it didn't support folder browsing. Does the 950 support folder browsing where the 350 didn't? (I also notice that my other major gripe with her 350 -- no SD card -- is fixed in the 950.)

You don't have to use the Sony software at all. You can either drop & drag or you use Calibre.

Both the 650 and the 950 take SDcards up to 32GB.

No folders but collections you can name anyway you want to. Browsing of content by author, title, date of putting it onto the reader, name of file, date of last reading or collections is possible.

If you insist on folder structure you can install Kartus PRS+ software.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm hearing that lately. I'd ruled out Sony because I've used my mom's 350 and I didn't like that you have to use their reader software to load your books and I didn't like that it didn't support folder browsing. Does the 950 support folder browsing where the 350 didn't? (I also notice that my other major gripe with her 350 -- no SD card -- is fixed in the 950.)

I'll follow Bookworm_Girl and keep this brief: I suggest the 950 as it is very close to what you require.