New Nook!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I'm happy that your new Nook arrived (relatively) quickly.

Thank you.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

My Nook Glowlight Plus 2 arrived from the US today. I like it. It looks big and cumbersome, but actually is quite comfortable to hold and doesn't feel as heavy as it looks. The screen is nice, about the same quality as my Oasis. Bigger, of course.

I have to say that the Oasis is a lot faster, especially page-turns. But I'm not a fast reader and slower page-turns don't bother me much. Also I don't really like the inbuilt fonts, even Georgia at its thickest is too light. That's not a problem either, as I can embed my favorite fonts in the books before loading them on the Nook. I already tried with Katsunami's DejaVu Serif Eink and the result was very good. I've included the photo of the Nook and the Oasis side-by-side, using the same font.

All in all, I'm certainly going to use the Nook a lot.

In my opinion, fast page turning is bad. Think about it. Turning a page in a book is not fast, compared to an Oasis, and it being somewhat slow gives you time to think more about what you just read which is particularly important when reading non-fiction.

I find once you are in an actual book the reading experience is just fine and that is what really counts at the end of the day. I think the software experience outside of the reading is experience is not that great (partly because most of my books are sideloaded) but that just keeps my nose in an actual book which can be seen as a positive. No scatterbrained jumping between different books when I don't need to be which is most of the time.

On the percieved clunkiness. I used to own an Amazon Oasis before it was stolen. I dropped it and it was significantly dented. I dropped my Nook 7.8 and it was significantly less damaged just like minor marks or whatnot. So I like the Nook bezels and stuff better. The Oasis ergonomics looks like a fad or something.

If Bookari/montano did not have a proprietary license I would be in heaven since it just needs a few minor hacks or patches to be great on a rooted Nook.

What did you embed the fonts with ? Calibre ?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Raphi'Elohim

What did you embed the fonts with ? Calibre ?

Yes. I have to convert my azw3 files to epub anyway, for the Nook, and the easiest way is to embed the fonts during bulk conversion.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes. I have to convert my azw3 files to epub anyway, for the Nook, and the easiest way is to embed the fonts during bulk conversion.

Oh, yeah, BTW, in the developers' options you can switch from Dalvik to Art which should speed up your device. That is what I did. If you don't know how to get into Developers' options : Settings --> About and then you tap on the Barnes and Noble picture/symbol 3 or 4 times fast.

I am running with ART and it seems faster.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

...

Here's a modified version of Sirtel's image that's had the Oases part cut and pasted below and beside so that the edges are closely aligned.

For myself, I like the extra width that it has.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Raphi'Elohim

I am running with ART and it seems faster.

What is ART? Is this something specific to the Nook or can it be enabled with newer Android devices?

Nevermind, a simple google search is answering the question.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Here's a modified version of Sirtel's image that's had the Oases part cut and pasted below and beside so that the edges are closely aligned.

For myself, I like the extra width that it has.

Attachment 172449

It would be the extra height too, but unfortunately the Nook has unremovable headers on each page. The footers are about the same on both.

Still, headers on a 7.8'' screen are not as bad as they would be on a 6'' screen.

[Sirtel]

And still no new reviews to be found online. Only the same handful that were published/uploaded shortly after the release. It's almost as if the new Nook didn't exist.

Not that I'm awfully interested in reviews, having the device itself, but a bit strange. Perhaps it's the midsummer. All potential reviewers are on vacation.

I'm really liking the new Nook, now that I've found a good combination of font and font size.

BTW, don't Nooks have the landscape mode? I couldn't find it. I very seldom use it on my Kindles, so I'm not going to miss it, but other people might.

[cgsmom]

I'm surprised that there aren't more reviews. However, I shouldn't be because I haven't written one myself yet. I don't think Nook has landscape mode. I have never seen it on any of my Nooks. I like my new Nook. Occasionally it seems to do a resent when I wake it up from sleep. I am always afraid it will delete my sideloaded books when it does that, but it never has. I love the comfort light.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

And still no new reviews to be found online. Only the same handful that were published/uploaded shortly after the release. It's almost as if the new Nook didn't exist.

Not that I'm awfully interested in reviews, having the device itself, but a bit strange. Perhaps it's the midsummer. All potential reviewers are on vacation.

I'm really liking the new Nook, now that I've found a good combination of font and font size.

BTW, don't Nooks have the landscape mode? I couldn't find it. I very seldom use it on my Kindles, so I'm not going to miss it, but other people might.

About the lack of reviews ? It doesn't matter anyway as Forbes magazine calls it a good deal and says Nook eReaders are chronically underrated. You can't beat if for the price and as nice as the Oasis looks it is definitely more fragile and prone to damage.

Actually, Forbes said the Glowlight 3 was a good deal but the Nook Glowlight plus 2 is really just the Glowlight 3 on steroids or a healthy extra dose of vitamins.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by cgsmom

I'm surprised that there aren't more reviews. However, I shouldn't be because I haven't written one myself yet. I don't think Nook has landscape mode. I have never seen it on any of my Nooks. I like my new Nook. Occasionally it seems to do a resent when I wake it up from sleep. I am always afraid it will delete my sideloaded books when it does that, but it never has. I love the comfort light.

It seems to me landscape mode is only good for PDFs but I think reading PDFs on the vast majority of e-ink devices is pointless. But if you insist on trying to read PDFs you can easily root the Nook, install RelaunchX etc... then sideload koreader. There is a tutorial on xda developers forums.

probably B&N figured out landscape mode for epubs is largely pointless. For images in an epub I can double tap them and have them at full screen mode vertically and that suffices.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Raphi'Elohim

probably B&N figured out landscape mode for epubs is largely pointless. For images in an epub I can double tap them and have them at full screen mode vertically and that suffices.

Yes, it took me a couple of days to figure that out. On Kindles you long press an image and I was quite dismayed when this did nothing on the Nook. Then I googled the problem and found I have to double tap.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Here's a modified version of Sirtel's image that's had the Oases part cut and pasted below and beside so that the edges are closely aligned.

For myself, I like the extra width that it has.

Attachment 172449

I used to own an Oasis the avante-garde design makes it more fragile than the Nook Plus also it is significantly more expensive.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by Raphi'Elohim

I used to own an Oasis the avante-garde design makes it more fragile than the Nook Plus also it is significantly more expensive.

The Nook looks like it would be much easier to hold and manage. There's a thread about how e-readers can be too thin, I also think that they can have a bezel that's too small, making it hard to not accidentally touch the screen while using it.

[Raphi'Elohim]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

The Nook looks like it would be much easier to hold and manage. There's a thread about how e-readers can be too thin, I also think that they can have a bezel that's too small, making it hard to not accidentally touch the screen while using it.

This may seem/sound strange but I feel like the Amazon kindle Oasis is is optimized for mostly for fiction readers. For instance, it is meant to be held with one hand but if you are reading non-fiction you are going to want to highlight and take more notes than if you are reading fiction but that is awkward given it's design. I find myself holding the Nook with two hands one side page forward physical button other side page backward button, mostly, and when I want to take notes/underline the device is not off balance due to some pointless avante-garde design meant to impress other people and signal 'status'. It's called Analytical reading the real reading you do with non-fiction The kindle X-ray feature is useful for fiction but is a handicap for non-fiction. I don't care what other people highlighted when I am reading non-fiction as I am concerned with just my thoughts and the authors.

Nook is like minimal Zen experience just you and the book not even the experimental browser lets you go to wikipedia -- no distractions period. The browser is hidden and has no real use except making you register.

People mistakenly take this Zen minimal experience as poor software . Also, the latest firmware upgrade made my device more stable and not really buggy at all.

In contrast to Kobo I think Kobo dictionary sucks and the highlighting feature is worse or harder to use.

Also, there is not as much fonts to select from and ways to tweak fonts on the Nook but I do that through calibre. With Calibre I embed Amazon's Bookerly and Ember fonts into my books.

The only thing I like about or miss is Amazon's software was you could highlight a passage and if it went to the next page it would automatically turn the page. But Amazon is the top dog here and has more finances for firmware/os features.