Software advantages

[Sarthak]

I'd like to know what are the software / operating system advantages of Nook touch systems over the Kindle touch one?

[Ubermensch]

- You can open .epub files, which is nice and allow for more sources than one store.
- The NOOK runs on Android (although it's not obvious) so you can root it and access to regular Android features.
- You can borrow books.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

[baumgar]

Originally Posted by Ubermensch

- You can open .epub files, which is nice and allow for more sources than one store.
- The NOOK runs on Android (although it's not obvious) so you can root it and access to regular Android features.
- You can borrow books.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Thank you. Happen to have the problem. Solved...Thanks

[LoganK]

Free access at AT&T hot spots and free in-store reading. The page mechanism is very similar to real page numbers (although Kindle is creaping Real Page Numbers into some titles). Also, the Nook has support for quickly skimming through pages by holding down the page turn button.

Not really a software advantage, but it also has physical page turn buttons and support for a microSD card.

[bgalbrecht]

You can borrow ebooks from many libraries with the Kindle now, that's no longer an ePub ereader advantage. Amazon is starting a 1 book a month lending program for Kindle owners who also pay $80/year for Amazon Prime, which also gives other benefits, like free fast shipping if you buy other stuff from Amazon. The selection is limited to approximately 1000 books though. However, the Authors Guild is quite upset, so who knows if that lending program will fizzle.

As someone who has purchased a lot of ebooks over the years, I find the most important feature the Nook has over the Kindle is the removable microSDHC slot. The shelving feature and search for sideloaded ebooks are not as good as I would like, but I can bring all of my ebooks on my Nook anywhere I go, whereas with the Kindle, I would have to pick and choose before I leave home. If you travel a lot, this might be an important feature, but if you don't have a personal ebook library yet, it might not be of interest to you.

One other feature of the Kindles that I wish B&N would add is text to speech. I've never heard the TTS on a Kindle, and I've heard that it sounds rather mechanical, but it is something the Nook lacks.

[LoganK]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

The shelving feature and search for sideloaded ebooks are not as good as I would like

Out of curiosity, what does the Kindle do better for searching? On the Nook, I go to my library and all the books, sideloaded and Clouded, are there (browsable by recent, author, or title). Typing a few words in searches everything.

[Sarthak]

Originally Posted by Ubermensch

- You can open .epub files, which is nice and allow for more sources than one store.
- The NOOK runs on Android (although it's not obvious) so you can root it and access to regular Android features.
- You can borrow books.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

What is rooting and what are the features that are accessible,,is it like we can get free games and other stuffs or nothing like that???

[Sarthak]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

You can borrow ebooks from many libraries with the Kindle now, that's no longer an ePub ereader advantage. Amazon is starting a 1 book a month lending program for Kindle owners who also pay $80/year for Amazon Prime, which also gives other benefits, like free fast shipping if you buy other stuff from Amazon. The selection is limited to approximately 1000 books though. However, the Authors Guild is quite upset, so who knows if that lending program will fizzle.

As someone who has purchased a lot of ebooks over the years, I find the most important feature the Nook has over the Kindle is the removable microSDHC slot. The shelving feature and search for sideloaded ebooks are not as good as I would like, but I can bring all of my ebooks on my Nook anywhere I go, whereas with the Kindle, I would have to pick and choose before I leave home. If you travel a lot, this might be an important feature, but if you don't have a personal ebook library yet, it might not be of interest to you.

One other feature of the Kindles that I wish B&N would add is text to speech. I've never heard the TTS on a Kindle, and I've heard that it sounds rather mechanical, but it is something the Nook lacks.

I live outside the US in Nepal and i will get my brother who is currently in US to bring me one this holiday..based on that which will be a better option to buy ( i dont think i will be able to access cloud storage or visit online stores,,either on kindle or nook,,or will it be possible??? )

[linux_author]

Originally Posted by Sarthak

i dont think i will be able to access cloud storage or visit online stores,,either on kindle or nook,,or will it be possible???

the Nook Simple Touch's biggest advantage is that it has a microSD storage card slot; if you have a computer, you can easily transfer books to and from your Nook via USB - there is no need for using a 'cloud'

i've had my Nook for six months and only used wifi once to register, then 'upgrade' to enable Android Market, and install a few nice games, a calculator, and a desktop calendar... otherwise, wifi is turned off to take advantage of the wonderful battery life - literally weeks before needing a recharge

and a 16GB thumbdrive can easily hold 20,000 or more books

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by LoganK

Out of curiosity, what does the Kindle do better for searching? On the Nook, I go to my library and all the books, sideloaded and Clouded, are there (browsable by recent, author, or title). Typing a few words in searches everything.

I don't know if the Kindle has better searching, I've never really used one. The Kindle's lack of a microSDHC slot was a deal breaker for me. However, the Nook's shelves are not really usable for people with thousands of books, because you have to select each book and then select the shelves, you can't do anything like search for books and then add the selected books to a shelf. The Nook search would be really great if it supported keyword search of the <dc:subject> and <dc:description> tags when the epub has them in their metadata. The Nook Touch also has a recent searches option, but it only gives you the book you selected, and I think it would be more useful to be able to see the results of the previous search and select another book.

I do like that the Nook Touch has a folder browser, although I don't use it much. It was much more useful on my original Nook, because it had problems with libraries with thousands of ebooks, and the Nook Touch works great even with over 5000 sideloaded items.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Sarthak

What is rooting and what are the features that are accessible,,is it like we can get free games and other stuffs or nothing like that???

Basically, the Nook Touch only allows you to run a few programs like the reader and a file browser. If you root your Nook Touch, you can load the Google and Amazon marketplace programs and download other programs, like the Amazon Kindle for Android, other PDF and Epub readers, eReader for Android, and yes, games. However, many games don't work well with the Nook Touch because E-Ink displays have slow refresh rates and is B&W instead of color.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Sarthak

I live outside the US in Nepal and i will get my brother who is currently in US to bring me one this holiday..based on that which will be a better option to buy ( i dont think i will be able to access cloud storage or visit online stores,,either on kindle or nook,,or will it be possible??? )

You won't be able to access the B&N online store from Nepal unless you use a VPN to make B&N think you're in the US. I don't know which ebook stores sell to Nepal, if any. If your brother gets a Nook, I think you should have him register it before he leaves the US. You can buy ePub format books from any online store except Apple's and load them onto a Nook. If you haven't already done so, you should probably ask in a Kindle format to see if anyone knows whether you can access the Amazon store/cloud in Nepal.

It looks like the Nook Touch and the Kindle 3/Touch both support Unicode fonts for non-Roman alphabets. I think that for the Nook Touch you may need to have books with embedded fonts, I'm not sure about the Kindle Touch.

I'm obviously biased towards the Nook Touch. It's a very nice eReader with a long battery life and I am happy with it.

[Sarthak]

i've been seeing in lots of reviews that nook's screen gets locked,,is that still a problem guys?? i was thinking of buying nook but when i saw that in reviews i'm not so sure,,,is it still a problem of they have fixed it???

[6charlong]

Originally Posted by Sarthak

I'd like to know what are the software / operating system advantages of Nook touch systems over the Kindle touch one?

Your question is hard to answer because these devices are reprogrammed from time to time and it all changes. One thing that won't change is the Nook's sculpted case that seems to me easier to hold than the Kindle although others may see it differently. They both have a good balance and I find them both easier to hold than earlier generations.

Right now, I think the Nook renders English language text more clearly than the Kindle Touch. The Nook also lets you sort within book collection by Title, Author or Most Recent while at present Kindle Touch only sorts by Most Recent.

Criticisms like these are artifacts of the firmware. Kindle will undoubtedly fix some or all of these features in future releases with a firmware upgrade. They usually distribute those directly to the Kindle wirelessly so I don't know what problems you might have getting the updates in Nepal. I know that B&N posts firmware updates on their website and Amazon may do the same. I hope someone more knowledgeable than me can answer this.

Other advantages: while there are countries other than the US to buy eBooks in either ePub or Mobi format I suspect that ePub is more common world-wide. The formats for both readers are changing--we hope for the better. Kindle to KF8 and Nook to ePub3. The transition should be gradual. The present build of Nook has some ePub3 features enabled but not all.

The Kindle Touch has better support from 3rd Party suppliers of things like eBook covers. Amazon has a superior Customer Support system and a larger selection of eBooks in European languages. If Amazon opens an online store in your neighborhood much of this would change. Amazon is very competitive and forward looking about marketing in places they serve but they are not technology innovators. Their technology is typically six to twelve months behind the competition and I think you see the result of that in this comparison at this exact moment in time.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by linux_author

the Nook Simple Touch's biggest advantage is that it has a microSD storage card slot; if you have a computer, you can easily transfer books to and from your Nook via USB - there is no need for using a 'cloud'

One doesn't need the cloud to sideload books onto the kindle. There's a USB cord for that.