Barnes and Noble to discontinue all eInk readers

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

B&N botched things when they stopped allowing direct downloads.

I agree with the bit about B&N botched things when getting rid of direct downloads. But I think the Nook Simple Touch was one of the best eReaders ever made. I like its UI and its ergonomics. It's comfortable to hold and nice for reading.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I agree with the bit about B&N botched things when getting rid of direct downloads. But I think the Nook Simple Touch was one of the best eReaders ever made. I like its UI and its ergonomics. It's comfortable to hold and nice for reading.

Oh heck no. The nook STR is awful. The shape is not nice to hold. The UI is ghastly, the partitioned memory is an abomination, and it is no nice for reading because the font rendering engine was not all that good. When comparing the nook STR to my 650/T1, it looks like the nook is using a different font even though they are using the same font.

[IvyR]

STR got rid of too much. It felt like a step backwards.

With the original, you used to get silly discounts, free cookies, that sort of thing. It was small, but it made the nook visible when everyone was pulling one out at the cafe. I can't tell you how many times that free cookie came with someone asking about the nook. That helped drive uptake. STR got rid of that.

With the original you had a few silly games. I think it was solitaire and chess. Might have been minesweeper. It was amusing, so it was a step back to get rid of it.

This was also the model they lost 3G with. A cost cutting move like that is bad when you're playing catch-up.

When they added a light, that was a huge step forward. When they made it a little waterproof kind of, that was a huge step forward. They innovated quite a lot. It's sad to see them exiting the arena.

[Katy Did]

I still love my Nook Glowlight, so much so that when my last one was lost/stolen a few months ago, I got another on eBay (where they’re still pretty sought after, surprisingly - not unusual to see them go for more than £50). I like the shape of the Nook and the way it feels so comfortable to use, and I like that I can stick all my books on the SD card. When I look at the newer ereaders, they all look so blocky and don’t sit as comfortably in the hand. The Glowlight has a real "homely" feel to it, perfect for curling up in an armchair and reading - it sort of becomes invisible so that you forget you’re using an ereader.

Where I get very frustrated with B&N is that they’ve always had these great products, but then they go and screw it up with the most basic things, like not creating an easy to use sorting system, or not allowing you to download books. It’s as if they have this great technical/design department but a really crappy sales/marketing/everything else department. You can see how they could’ve been really successful but it’s like they didn’t want to bother.

[JSWolf]

The original Glowlight was made cheaply because the light layer was easily scratched.

[Tarana]

I really like both the Nook ST and Glo and still use them. It is nice to hold and the font has always been pleasant on my damaged eyes. I hated the book organization. I love the fact that I could archive books in the cloud to remove books I've read from that very long grid list. First, it was the inability to download my Books. Lately, I download a book and open it only to get a screen where I have to reenter my credit card to unlock the book! I will buy one more book from B&N to use up my credit. Why make it harder for me? Fortunately, I downloaded all my ebooks previously, removed DRM and stuck into Calibre, so I'm not out.

As to the ergonomics, I think it depends on how you hold stuff and the shape of your hand. Clearly it doesn't work for you, Jon. It didn't work so well with my late sister either which is why she didn't want to use it. My Mom liked it, but she needed a light and preferred a touch screen. There were grumblings then that B&N was dropping readers, so I got her a Paperwhite instead of a Glo.

edit: Rebooting to factory settings eliminated the unlock book problem.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The original Glowlight was made cheaply because the light layer was easily scratched.

That doesn't mean it was made "cheaply", it was just the first step in the evolution of what became the light guide layers used today. By the time others started using them 5 or 6 months later they had evolved to become more robust.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

That doesn't mean it was made "cheaply", it was just the first step in the evolution of what became the light guide layers used today. By the time others started using them 5 or 6 months later they had evolved to become more robust.

Even if they weren't cheaply made, they were at least poorly made.

[electronicfur]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I really like both the Nook ST and Glo and still use them. It is nice to hold and the font has always been pleasant on my damaged eyes. I hated the book organization. I love the fact that I could archive books in the cloud to remove books I've read from that very long grid list. First, it was the inability to download my Books. Lately, I download a book and open it only to get a screen where I have to reenter my credit card to unlock the book! I will buy one more book from B&N to use up my credit. Why make it harder for me? Fortunately, I downloaded all my ebooks previously, removed DRM and stuck into Calibre, so I'm not out.

The Nook Simple Touch is great once you use NookManager to root it. I did that and then defaulted it to use FBReader, so that we can just use the FBReader book management, and download books directly from our calibre book library.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Oh heck no. The nook STR is awful. The shape is not nice to hold. The UI is ghastly, the partitioned memory is an abomination, and it is no nice for reading because the font rendering engine was not all that good. When comparing the nook STR to my 650/T1, it looks like the nook is using a different font even though they are using the same font.

Obviously your opinion and mine differ widely on the merits of the NST. I like the feel of it, it is easy to hold, I like the side buttons and I like the UI (I keep it in the Library Mode). And the fonts are easy on my eyes. The Glowlight version is the only front-lit eReader that I can actually use.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even if they weren't cheaply made, they were at least poorly made.

I've had good luck with mine – even though (before I had a case) I dropped it to the hard floor from about six feet.

[Katy Did]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I've had good luck with mine – even though (before I had a case) I dropped it to the hard floor from about six feet.

Same here - my first Glowlight lasted three years until it got a small scratch on the screen (and at the time I wasn’t using a cover, to be fair). And weirdly, even that somehow improved until six months later it was barely noticeable.

I actually find the Nook very robust, I think because of that thick bezel around the screen. Mine survived multiple drops onto hard wooden floors, which I’m pretty sure would’ve finished off my Kindle Keyboard (or at least led to yet another screen replacement), but which my Nook survived unscathed.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even if they weren't cheaply made, they were at least poorly made.

Nope, not really. Again, the screen that was somewhat easily damaged isn't an indicator that it was either cheaply or poorly made. It was a first stab at what would be the current types of frontlit screens we have today, it was refined and the ones that came out months later (Paperwhite, Glo) were better.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

This article:

http://www.cetusnews.com/tech/The-No...Jx70nJuo-.html

claims that B&N will be discontinuing all it's eReeaders, and only offer the Samsung branded devices.

I wonder what this means for their eBook store. Will they continue to support it?

That story is based on a misreading of Techcrunch's misreading of my story.
https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/...wn-towel-nook/

I'm fine with what I wrote, but a lot of people read it and got a very different message. I screwed up somehow.

[Nate the great]

And the reason i dug up this thread was that the Nook Glowlight plus is out of stock:
https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/...ly-went-stock/