Touch Just got my wife Nook Glowlight for Mother's Day.

[apastuszak]

She has a nook STR, buy she's been using my Kindle Paperwhite the lasy few weeks, mosty for the illuminated screen.

I didn't take the thing out of the box, but just from the description, I'm really disappointed that the physical page turn buttons are gone. Is that a trend now with all eInk readers?

[apastuszak]

And now we opened it up. 508 MB for sideloaded content? Really?

[eschwartz]

Yes and yes.

Moral of the story: never buy fom B&N, and pick one -- frontlit display, or physical page turn buttons.

[eschwartz]

I will never understand why people demand physical page turn buttons on their ereaders, but I have never heard anyone complain about the lack of physical dialing buttons on their smartphone.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

And now we opened it up. 508 MB for sideloaded content? Really?

If side loading is important for you: If I remember correctly, the (quasi) predecessor of GlowLight, Simple Touch with GlowLight does have a Micro SD slot. Here you could add at least 32GB of sideloaded content. The display and light might be slightly outdated, but still might be worth exchanging the readers for you...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

And now we opened it up. 508 MB for sideloaded content? Really?

Was a surprise for me as well.
The limited storage for original B&N content even did bother me more: 2GB? Why not at least 4GB? What would be the price difference? 10 Euro?

But limiting the storage for side loaded content of course is understandable.
To quote Jeff Bezos (not from B&N of course, but the analogy still applies): "We don't want to make money when people buy our readers, we want to make money when they use it"...

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I will never understand why people demand physical page turn buttons on their ereaders, but I have never heard anyone complain about the lack of physical dialing buttons on their smartphone.

I went to a Blackberry for awhile specifically because I liked using real buttons for dialing, but there were too many trade-offs -- mostly lack of apps I wanted -- so I went back to my Motorola Admiral (which does have a real, Blackberry style, QWERTY keyboard, but not for dialing).

As for touch-screen eReaders, I don't know why but -- if I've got real buttons -- I'll use them with touch screen devices (Nook ST and Sony T2). I think I worry about smudging the screen (psychological hang up, I guess). But it doesn't bother me on the Kindle Touch not to have buttons. I do like the Nook ST's thicker bezel (where the buttons are) -- it seems more comfortable to hold.

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I will never understand why people demand physical page turn buttons on their ereaders, but I have never heard anyone complain about the lack of physical dialing buttons on their smartphone.

Smartphones with touch screens are a trade off. You get something in exchange for lack of buttons.

On the nook, the STR has page turn buttons. They're in the bezel. Removing page turn buttons didn't give me any new feature I am willing to trade for it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

Smartphones with touch screens are a trade off. You get something in exchange for lack of buttons.

On the nook, the STR has page turn buttons. They're in the bezel. Removing page turn buttons didn't give me any new feature I am willing to trade for it.

The new feature is the lack of clunky buttons. Just like it is with smartphones.

The newer ereaders, like smartphones, have all those buttons. They are on the screen. What else is a touchscreen for?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The new feature is the lack of clunky buttons. Just like it is with smartphones.

Except there's nothing "clunky" about the Nook Simple Touch buttons. If you don't want to use them, it's like they'e not there. Just curious, have you ever used a NST?

[ereaderSam]

How does your wife like her Glowlight?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I will never understand why people demand physical page turn buttons on their ereaders, but I have never heard anyone complain about the lack of physical dialing buttons on their smartphone.

Let me see if I can help you understand, 'cuz it's pretty darn obvious to me.

Keypad entry on a touch screen sucks. It's error-prone and imprecise, and requires you to look at the pad. You don't see business-quality office phones, or calculators for that matter, all going to touch screens, do you?

Many people do still have dumbphones for the keypad, and some folks seek out the few smartphones with real tactile keyboards. And I've heard plenty of people...senior citizens mostly...complain about the lack of buttons on a smartphone.

But you only dial numbers on a smart phone a tiny percentage of the time, like oh, say, 10 digits at the beginning of call, and that's when you're not using speed dial or a contact entry. Maybe a few digits now and then to navigate through a touch tone menu. The touch screen is so useful for OTHER stuff, that most of us are willing to accept the trade off for the small percentage of time we need to dial.

Page turning is the single most used operation on a reader.

It's done repetitively and constantly. I (and many others) find the ergonomics of touch-screen page turning to be horrendous. It requires constant stretching of the fingers, and often constant changing of the grip on the reader, depending on how it's most comfortable to hold it, plus you are putting your finger in the way of the screen, and touching it, which for many people is horribly distracting and requires excessive screen cleaning.
("But I never see fingerprints on my screen!" Well good for you. Accept that not everyone is the same and get over yourself. No one is telling YOU you must have a reader with page buttons.)
If I wanted that kind of inconvenient ergonomics, I'd just continue reading paperbacks. With good side-positioned page turn buttons, I can get a comfortable grip in almost any desired situation, and turn pages with just a slight increase of pressure. It's one of the things that made me love my K3.

ApK

[meeera]

Originally Posted by ApK

With good side-positioned page turn buttons, I can get a comfortable grip in almost any desired situation, and turn pages with just a slight increase of pressure. It's one of the things that made me love my K3.

I have to agree with this - the K3 buttons are brilliant. I'd love to have them on my Kobo.

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by ereaderSam

How does your wife like her Glowlight?

She loves the Glowlight. I was hoping to talk her into a Kindle Paperwhite, so I can stop the decrypt/convert method I use now. But she likes her nook, and the higher res scree and glowlight are great upgrades for her.

[Tarana]

I gave my sister my NST because she wanted a touch screen (arthritis) instead of the buttons on my kindles. I missed my Nook so much, I bought another one today, this time a Glo. I do like the kindles, but the fonts available for the Nook are so much better for my vision issues. I use the Nook HD+ for audio and pdf files and magazines.

I found I never used the buttons on my NST, but some people do so having it there as an option I think was great. Most of the elderly folks I know though prefer the touch screen once they get the hang of it. But, every add on adds cost to the unit.

FYI - the new Glo has 4 gigs - about 2.5 gigs of space for down or sideloading, the rest is system operation.