Nook Partitioning Update

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by barryem

Will they sync side loaded books or just books from B&N?

Barry

I think they only sync books loaded from B&N. I'll check it out when I have a chance, to be sure.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by tiltowait

Something I've thought for a while now is that Amazon has the best services *surrounding* their eReaders, while other readers have superior reading experiences.

My comments weren't really about the Amazon experience but about the Kindle vs the Glowlight 3. I think the Glowlight 3 is, well, not a barebones reader by any means. It has all the important features and some niceties besides. But the Kindles are very feature-rich, which the Nook really isn't.

That said, simply reading the text on the page is better on the Nook and that really is the main thing.

That said, that said, reading the text on the Kindle is nearly as good.

Barry

[Pajamaman]

I think B&N have triumphed by demonstrating that real buttons on both sides is not a premium option. Adding the comfort light too is the coup de grace.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I think B&N have triumphed by demonstrating that real buttons on both sides is not a premium option. Adding the comfort light too is the coup de grace.

Yeah, B&Ns hardware is always nicer than their competition (in the same price range). It's just a shame that with such nice hardware, they don't manage to get ahead, usually due to their own, self-inflicted problems.

[barryem]

The orange night light is a feature I didn't care about but I played with it and found that another use for it is to adjust the warmth of the front light. I have a feeling that was the intention of the designers although that doesn't seem to be mentioned in the advertising.

With the night light turned off the light is very, very cool and bluish, more than most readers. By turning the night light on and giving it just a little bump I made it pretty neutral, which I like. I don't want orange but I don't really want bluish light either.

Something I forgot to mention in my explanation of why I think this is a bit more primitive than other readers is it's complete lack of progress indication. There is a page number at the bottom in the form of Page 186 of 226 which really does give me enough information to judge where I am in the book. But compare that with the Kindle, giving me my position within the chapter or the book, in terms of minutes, pages or locations.

Also while browsing through the list books there's no indication that I've read part of a book or it's relative length like I get on the Kindle. The Kobo also gives me a progress percentage in the list of books as well as while reading.

None of this is essential, in my view, but it's a nice feature and one more example of the fact that the Nook is a simpler, less feature filled device.

I read on it for a couple of hours last night and reading on it is very nice. I put it side by side with the Kobo and the Paperwhite to compare and the Nook has easily the display with the most stand-out text. It's the best looking screen of the bunch. Of course my Kobo is an original Aura, which has one of Kobo's worse screens.

Barry

[hank]

Hm. I got a Nook Touch/glow for $5 at an old-folks' sale recently; it lasted a couple of weeks before the screen broke. Liked it enough I bought the GlowLight 3 for the amber backlighting, but it's an incredibly annoying device, losing track of the book I'm reading (sometimes search by author finds it, sometimes not); having no simple screen-filling text list of books (who the heck needs black and white pictures of covers?!). I'm glad to see all the action here.

I'd been reading on a Sony Clie TH55, but those are getting old, the plastic has gotten brittle so they crack easily and there's no active online community I'm aware of improving them. They do run MobiBook Reader, which is my ideal (lots of choices of screen color, fonts, size and color, a 3rd party brightness hack). Amazon bought Mobi and gutted the company, sadly.

Waiting eagerly to see the Nook update its operating system, hoping the disappearing-books issue goes away.

What's the best way to communicate with the Nook operating system folks? I've done QA/QC/documentation/debugging for many years and think I could give useful feedback. They clearly need a lot of attention from critical users to get this thing into final good shape.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by hank

having no simple screen-filling text list of books (who the heck needs black and white pictures of covers?!).

You can get a list of books on board by going into the library (left most icon on the home screen) and then tapping the hamburger menu at the upper right and selecting List. Unfortunately it's only 4 books per page with just the title and author and a very small cover as an icon. But it's something.

As for finding your last book, the center icon on the home screen at the bottom will take you to the last book you've read. That hasn't failed on me yet. The listing does get it's sequence screwed up a lot.

Barry

[Pajamaman]

Can you not organize by collections?

[totasenior]

Where can I download Nook Glowligt 3 (non beta) firmware?
Could someone help me?
Thank you very much in advance!
totasenior

[barryem]

This is the link from an earlier post in this thread. I believe this is the latest version:

http://su.barnesandnoble.com/nook/pi....20/update.zip

Barry

[barryem]

I'm wondering if any of you who have installed the beta firmware are having the same problem I'm having with being unable to effectively use the page turn buttons on sideloaded books. They sometimes work but mostly they don't. I'll press a button and it'll kind of flash but then stay on the same page.

The double tap will take me somewhere else but rarely to the next chapter. More often than not it gets lost somewhere in the book or goes back to an earlier chapter.

I think this might be getting worse. I think I remember it working okay at first and Im not sure if it was before or after I installed the beta firmware. Probably after since I installed it shortly after I got the device set up. But I'm not sure.

It really does look like a software issue. When I press the button something happens, just not usually the right something. But I can't stop wondering if I have a defective reader since I haven't seen any other mentions of this.

By the way I only have sideloaded books to test this on. I haven't bought any B&N books and I don't plan to. But it's true of the 4 of 5 sideloaded books I've tested it on.

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Barry

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by barryem

I'm wondering if any of you who have installed the beta firmware are having the same problem I'm having with being unable to effectively use the page turn buttons on sideloaded books. They sometimes work but mostly they don't. I'll press a button and it'll kind of flash but then stay on the same page.

The double tap will take me somewhere else but rarely to the next chapter. More often than not it gets lost somewhere in the book or goes back to an earlier chapter.

I think this might be getting worse. I think I remember it working okay at first and Im not sure if it was before or after I installed the beta firmware. Probably after since I installed it shortly after I got the device set up. But I'm not sure.

It really does look like a software issue. When I press the button something happens, just not usually the right something. But I can't stop wondering if I have a defective reader since I haven't seen any other mentions of this.

By the way I only have sideloaded books to test this on. I haven't bought any B&N books and I don't plan to. But it's true of the 4 of 5 sideloaded books I've tested it on.

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Barry

I thought I was having an issue, but it turns out I was just an idiot.

Granted, I haven't used the device except for a new minutes at a time, but I don't seem to be having any issues as yet.

[ZodWallop]

Last night before wrapping it, I said 'what the hell' and installed the beta firmware on it.

Sure, it's a gift. But I'll be responsible for taking care of any IT issues on it, so why not roll the dice?

By the way, page turn button speed seems to have been improved since I first checked it out. At the time, page turns with the buttons were noticeably slower than by touching the screens. I don't notice it now.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

By the way, page turn button speed seems to have been improved since I first checked it out. At the time, page turns with the buttons were noticeably slower than by touching the screens. I don't notice it now.

Yeah, I checked out a GlowLight 3 at Barnes & Noble (again) and I didn't notice any difference either. Looks like they're going to actively improve the Nook. I was a little worried there wouldn't be any support personel to fix it.

[aronchav]

Originally Posted by aronchav

I just installed 48.3.20 and as raindog reported, no change to the USB issue.

I just wanted to update this USB issue now that I've had a few days to play with it. I noticed that on the eject menu for windows, there are two items: Eject BNRV520, then under that Eject USB Drive (F). File explorer is listing the device as USB Drive (F).

If I eject BNRV520, I get the problem we've mentioned -- the usb screen does not go away and the device is not removed reliably. But if I eject USB Drive (F), everything is fine and the usb connection screen goes away as it should.