Barnes & Noble Nook is Official — Knocks the Kindle to the Curb
The much ballyhooed e-book reader from Barnes & Noble is now officially announced. The Nook is smaller and thinner than I originally thought and from the photos and promotional video is pretty darn nice. The 6-inch E-Ink screen is indeed augmented with a small color LCD touchscreen at the bottom. This screen is used to interact easily with the Nook, making it simpler to operate than other readers.
The Nook has free 3G via AT&T which is used to shop for and download books to the reader. The Nook can be synced with other Barnes & Noble readers and devices, making it as versatile as the Amazon Kindle. Nook owners can lend e-books to friends for 14 days by “squirting” them to the friend’s reader, cell phone or computer. B&N is also touting the availability of free content available while in B&N stores.
The Nook can be pre-ordered now, but a firm shipping date has not been specified by B&N. The Nook is $259 with free shipping.
Specs:
- Height: 7.7 inches
- Width: 4.9 inches
- Depth: 0.5 inches
- Weight: 11.2 ounces (317 grams)
- Wi-Fi
- 3G – AT&T
- 2GB internal storage, microSD slot
- MP3 player
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- internal mono speaker
- USB charging, 3.5 hour charge time
- Android OS
My big question is will it read my eReader.com purchased library of books? The new Barnes and Noble software will open them just fine (its really just the latest version of the eReader software with a B&N sticker on it). I dont know how you’ll sync them to the Nook though. Maybe sideload via the microSD slot.
This is what’s kept me from buying a Kindle for my wife. The giant library of books she’s got in eReader format. Right now she’s using a old Palm TX which I was planning on replacing with an ipod touch but if the Nook will read them, that’d be the way to go.
I have that very question in to B&N and will report back when I get an answer. Or they are welcome to chime in here, if they wish.
I’ll be waiting to hear that answer too – ’cause the Nook is high on my wish list and if it can read ereader.com purchased content…whoo hoo!
Anyone know if FictionWise purchases can be read on it since B&N owns them now?
From the Nook blog- Nook can read any ebook format sold at B&N.com. Sounds like a yes, to me.
I’m just wondering how you get the books on there. The B&N version of the eReader software wont download directly from an eReader account. Only stuff purchased through Bn.com. It will open the files if you’ve already downloaded them though.
If only they pulled an Apple and they were available “Today”. Wife’s birthday is tomorrow and I’m not sure how well an e-mail pre-order confirmation would go over…
@William
I was thinking you’d put the ereader .pdbs on the micro SD card…
But I was curious – not having bought any books from B&N.com for their iPhone ereader yet, if the ereader.com DRM would foul up the idea.
weighs in at 1.1 ounce more than the Kindle
it’s not much but it’s something.
Looks nicer than a kindle and I bet it does read my ereader collection.
And while i’m at it
It has 30% less battery time.
So it weighs more and has worse battery life but it has a snazzy color screen! (give me a break)
I just want to read a book so i’ll skip all the glitz.
continuing…..on (sorry)
On the other hand, the DX has real problems and really needs something like the color screen as PDFs need to be browsed.
But this device is too small for text books PDF’s so we just haven’t gotten there yet
Just found this on the Nook blog- read any ebook for free at any Barnes & Noble store. Over that free Wi-Fi. Wow, that’s huge.
http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Unbound-The-eReading-Blog/bg-p/Unbound;jsessionid=E05EBD5D4EF8107C07BC9528CCFF7CB3
The blog says shipping on Nov. 30 – http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Unbound-The-eReading-Blog/bg-p/Unbound
Yep, I just pre-ordered and the email shows shipping on Nov 30.
This one looks very similar to the Alex. Basically, a kindle with an lcd screen replacing the keyboard.
The only thing that might catch my attention on it is: can you use it’s AT&T 3G + wifi as a mifi type device :-}
Otherwise, I’m still more interested in the Entourage eDGe as my Android e-book/tablet.
New Releases pricing is comparable between B&N and Amazon but a quick check shows that older titles are a buck or two more expensive on the B&N site. Am I missing something?
who knows.
as it is, you can buy the exact same secure ereader version of a book on 3 sites (all owned by the same company) for 3 different prices:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Born-Round/Frank-Bruni/e/9781101133453/?itm=1&USRI=born+round
http://www.ereader.com/ebooks/b92381/?si=59
http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b92381/?si=0
this makes sense how?
so is use of the android component free over 3G? if so this is huge.
For once I show restraint on a tech purchase (never bought a Kindle), and am happily rewarded!! Now…to wait until 1Q 2010 to see what Apple comes out with?? This looks great though!
anyone know if this will this work with the public library ebooks, like the sony reader?
I received a B&N and Adobe press release just now that claims the Nook will work with any site’s Adobe DRM ePub format.
Can you point us to that release? I tried and failed to use the BN ereader software to open either pdf or epub files from the public library. Files open fine on Sony’s software, and if BN software won’t open the files, I’m doubtful about the nook’s ability.
Also, don’t know if there are any mac users out there, but the mac client from BN is a hot mess. No “bookshelf” or viewable list of your books makes it really a pain to use. So even if it DOES open public library books, it will likely be tedious. Sony’s pulling ahead on my list…
The ePaper part probably has exactly the same contrast ratio as the Kindle. They all use the same spinning charged balls technology from the same companies.
I’m curious about the daily feature. Basically I read a whole lot of blogs each morning (including this one). The question is…is there an automatic way of picking the RSS feed and reading it using the Nook. You know…just show up? Or since it’s android, can we browse Websites?
Since it’s Android, you could add the RSS feed to Google Reader, and read Google Reader feeds via the Android browser.
I do that on my phone now. Unfortunately, the Android version of Google Reader is somewhere in between the WAP and Desktop versions (WAP == the mobile version for dumb-phones … very low frills; Android and iPhone get a version that’s like the mobile/WAP version, with finger friendliness tacked on, but still not the features you get with a Desktop web browser).
that pretty much fits my needs and my reading style. I already own a bunch of B&N books but I don’t like reading on a computer (heck I do that all day). I have a JetBook and like the LCD screen better than e-ink (no flicker), but no browsing and no blogs (converting all the RSS etc stuff every day takes the fun out of reading them). Something that can give me DRM book reading (yeah I know DRM sucks but I’m too lazy to break them), library Adobe DRM downloads, and blogging in a sub-pound package is all I need.
No support for Canada, pfeh, another Sony win !
Books bought from the Sony eReader website are DRM type formats. Next year, all of the books at the Sony store will be converted to ePUB format. So next year, you can re-download all the books you bought at the Sony eReader store in ePUB format, and those can be read on the Nook. http://ebooks.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ebooks.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=133
I pre-ordered a Nook and was told that it would be shipped on Nov 30. I checked my order status yesterday only to find out that they had changed myship date to Dec 7 without even telling me.
Bad way to start a relationship with your customers.