Classic Anyone else nervous about giving the nook as a gift?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by jcar302

I spent the night reading and thinking it over, and i'm just gonna keep the nook and give it as a gift as planned.

While it may not be totally polished as of yet, seems the hardware is pretty good.
Hackers seem to be having their way with it which normally means quick firmware updates. Would seem that they are going to totally exploit ATT's unlimited 3g on this device. Something i really don't plan to do but causes companies to stay on top of the software.
According to nookdevs a firmware update is coming likely this weekend, so hopefully there will be some fixes for complaints.

Good for you! I am certainly rooting for B&N to work this out. The more players and competition we have in the ebook market the sooner we're going to (as consumers) profit from it.

Now if we can get just get rid of that damn DRM!

[stangri]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Well it certainly appears to have been rushed to market based on the lack of information to potential buyers and to the stores. Also the pushed-back deliveries, not meeting promises, and according to some reviews somewhat slow or awkward operation.

Not sure what are you referring to as the "lack of information". They've been updating the delivery status for the pre-orders pretty well and it was also well-covered in online media.

Was I annoyed that people who placed their pre-order about an hour or so ahead of me got their nooks a good day earlier? Sure. Was it fair tho? Yes it was.

Also, I don't see how the overwhelming popularity has anything to do with the (presumably bad) quality of the product. They are pushing back the delivery times as they are constantly sold out of the product. Kindle also sold out pretty quick when it first came out and some people had to wait to get one.

So far everything that has been promised to me by B&N proved true (and I was highly suspicious they would be able to implement epub support in their software readers in time).

The only thing stopping anyone from giving nook as a seasonal gift this year might be just not having one to gift. Otherwise it's an awesome gift.

[stangri]

Originally Posted by jcar302

According to nookdevs a firmware update is coming likely this weekend, so hopefully there will be some fixes for complaints.

Not to trash nookdevs (the guys are doing and awesome job, I just wish they shared it quicker), but as everybody on this forum who is in the software/web industry can attest -- no update ever comes on weekend. Most companies don't do updates on Friday either, as there's nobody on the weekend to pull the plug if something goes wrong.

And occasionally things do go wrong -- at one of the companies I worked for I remember once devs had to roll-back the problematic update to make it to the release party and we've had the release party before the release actually went live.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by stangri

Not sure what are you referring to as the "lack of information". They've been updating the delivery status for the pre-orders pretty well and it was also well-covered in online media.
....
So far everything that has been promised to me by B&N proved true (and I was highly suspicious they would be able to implement epub support in their software readers in time).
...

The store and even the on-line B&N support didn't seem to have a clue (or were being deceptive) particularly about the "lending of books" -- people called the stores and still are and the stores can't answer many questions. This is indicative of not being properly rolled out.

There are issues with the epub rollout including that only a few books appear to be available and it is impossible to know if an particular book offered at the store is in epub format or the old ereader format without actually purchasing it or downloading the sample (if there is one). The DRM encryption is different than the current standard (I'm hoping they will converge at some point soon)

Was your nook delivered/shipped on November 30 as originally stated. That was true, right?

[Abulia]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Was your nook delivered/shipped on November 30 as originally stated. That was true, right?

The follow-up email with the adjusted delivery date was correct. So was the free $10 gift code.

I'm finding it difficult to muster outrage over my Nook order.
* Shipment was delayed a week. B&N sent me an email to let me know. Upgrading my shipping to overnight, and gave me $10 of merchandise by way of apology.
* I've had zero problems with my Nook and quite like it. So does my wife, which is causing...problems.

It's really tiring having non-Nook owners coming in here and trying to convince us that B&N has pulled the wool over our eyes or something. Like B&N is some evil empire. More so than Sony or Amazon?

[jcar302]

Originally Posted by stangri

Not to trash nookdevs (the guys are doing and awesome job, I just wish they shared it quicker), but as everybody on this forum who is in the software/web industry can attest -- no update ever comes on weekend. Most companies don't do updates on Friday either, as there's nobody on the weekend to pull the plug if something goes wrong.

And occasionally things do go wrong -- at one of the companies I worked for I remember once devs had to roll-back the problematic update to make it to the release party and we've had the release party before the release actually went live.

Good point, and as a nokia user i should know that updates never come on weekends.

On a bright note, looks like they already hacked facebook and twitter onto the nook.
Would seem that the nook is going to be a hackers dream just like the iphone.
That adds to a device's popularity for sure.

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by kennyc

The store and even the on-line B&N support didn't seem to have a clue (or were being deceptive) particularly about the "lending of books" -- people called the stores and still are and the stores can't answer many questions. This is indicative of not being properly rolled out.

There are issues with the epub rollout including that only a few books appear to be available and it is impossible to know if an particular book offered at the store is in epub format or the old ereader format without actually purchasing it or downloading the sample (if there is one). The DRM encryption is different than the current standard (I'm hoping they will converge at some point soon)

Was your nook delivered/shipped on November 30 as originally stated. That was true, right?

So what if the format is in ePub or PDB. You can still read it on the nook.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

So what if the format is in ePub or PDB. You can still read it on the nook.

Right as long as you are happy with the books they offer, you're set. If you are more interested in the industry coming together in a common format to benefit consumers then...

[stangri]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Was your nook delivered/shipped on November 30 as originally stated. That was true, right?

I got mine around noon on December 2nd (was upgraded to overnight shipping for free). I know other people had theirs delivered on 1st. So it was delayed by 1-2 days (which as already been noted has been announced beforehand) -- big deal. I'm sure we both had much worse experience with other online orders fulfillment.

Gotcha about the "lack of information" -- yeah, the lending feature, in-store access and furthest read point sync between readers under same account are sort of WIP. Besides Kindle which does offer sync, all these features are equally unavailable with competing devices, so I don't see how nook is at loss here.

Originally Posted by kennyc

Right as long as you are happy with the books they offer, you're set. If you are more interested in the industry coming together in a common format to benefit consumers then...

Well, wherever we like it or not, looks like ePub is what it will all come down to. The fact that B&N DRMed their ePub is something we all will have to live with. After all, most of the media distributed online is DRMed, at least initially.

nook reads user-generated non-DRMed ePubs just fine tho, and afaik reads ePubs sold by other sites just as well.

Oh and you can read international epub/pdf files with no major problems right OOB -- did the Kindle do that in first incarnation? As far as I remember it had to be hacked to support russian. It's just that people who read tend to know a few languages so it might be important.

Originally Posted by jcar302

On a bright note, looks like they already hacked facebook and twitter onto the nook.

Well, yes and no -- you still need the computer nearby to launch the apps and you need to disable the module which allows you to control WiFi from the nook UI, so technically it's possible but it's not really useable yet. But as the first step it's very promising.

[Copynik]

I wish your recipient the best of luck with the nook. I've had nothing but problems. As of today (1 week later) my nook will not rouse itself from sleep mode, no matter what I try. This on top of numerous other issues. I'm sending it back and eating the restocking fee.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Copynik

I wish your recipient the best of luck with the nook. I've had nothing but problems. As of today (1 week later) my nook will not rouse itself from sleep mode, no matter what I try. This on top of numerous other issues. I'm sending it back and eating the restocking fee.

hmmmm, battery problem? Some of the Astak Pocket Pro's had battery problems when they rolled out.

[Copynik]

If it was a battery issue why would it remain in sleep mode and not turn off completely? I think it froze up, as it was doing in other respects during the past week.

[kennyc]

I don't know. I do know that eInk screens can be deceptive when diagnosing battery issues because they need no power to display but do need power to change the display.

[rdfry]

Originally Posted by jcar302

Good point, and as a nokia user i should know that updates never come on weekends.

On a bright note, looks like they already hacked facebook and twitter onto the nook.
Would seem that the nook is going to be a hackers dream just like the iphone.
That adds to a device's popularity for sure.

Android is a hackers dream. Have the original Android phone with latest custom rom on it.

[rdfry]

Originally Posted by Copynik

If it was a battery issue why would it remain in sleep mode and not turn off completely? I think it froze up, as it was doing in other respects during the past week.

Why would you not ask for a replacement?.