E-book Echo: Welcome the Nook; Kindle on the PC, Android is King of E-book Readers
Our platform focus continues this fine Sunday with the e-Book Echo, our take on the week in the digital publishing world. Barnes & Noble lit a fire under Amazon with the introduction of its own e-book reader, the Nook. The Nook matches Amazon’s Kindle feature for feature, and adds a small color touchscreen. The Nook will take advantage of the e-book experience with the ability to lend e-books to friends for two weeks. Nook owners will be able to read any e-book for free while inside any B&N brick and mortar store. It is running the Android OS, which opens the possibility up for homebrew apps for the Nook.
Amazon will be releasing a PC version of the Kindle reader, to allow reading Kindle books on any PC. The software is full-featured, with a library manager and reader that is touch optimized for Windows 7 PCs with a touchscreen. The PC program will work with the Amazon WhisperNet, so it will sync libraries and reading positions the same as the Kindle and iPhone versions. The PC Kindle reader program will be available in November. Amazon is working on a version of the program for the Mac platform, but no release date has been provided.
Two other e-book readers were announced this week, the first being Spring Design’s Alex. Alex is similar to the Nook, with a second screen that is a color touchscreen for navigation. Another unique dual screen reader is coming from enTourage that foregoes a tiny color touchscreen for a 10.1-inch variety. The eDGe has a unique hinge that allows operating the reader in a number of forms, including configured as a laptop. Both the Alex and the eDGe are running the Android OS, which is rapidly becoming the OS of choice for the e-book reader.
>>>Both the Alex and the eDGe are running the Android OS, which is rapidly becoming the OS of choice for the e-book reader.
That’s a premature statement. Most eBook devices run on Linux.
“feature for feature”? What button do I press on the Nook to get the Text-to-Speech feature?
There is no TTS on the Nook.
From wikipedia:
“Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel.”
I was looking at the eDGe, but now I think I’ll be looking at the DR800SG myself. As soon as that gets annotation support (hopefully on all formats, not just a single one) then it’d be perfect for me.
What ebook reader have people used the most?
I’ve probably read more books on my old Palms, a whole series of them going back to before the (IIIC, M100, M515, Tungston C (probably read least on that), E, E2, and legacy stuff on my Pre, mostly using eReader software and Plucker.
I’ve also been reading on my Touch (inherited from my daughter) (using eReader and Kindle), and on my Samsung Q1 and Q1UP-V (now with Win7!) using eReader and OneNote for Project Gutenberg texts.
I have a Plam Pre and have been using and really enjoying the Shortcovers application and service. So far I have read one complete novel and have purchased and downloaded two more. What’s great about the e-book experience on a smartphone is the form-factor. Hold it in one hand and use the thumb of that hand to turn pages.
The other delight is that your library is always with you. I thought about getting a kindle or nook but I know that they would sit at home. Being able to pick up the “book” wherever I am and whenever I have a few spare minutes and quickly read a chapter or just a couple of pages is a true pleasure.
I am beginning to think that a good smartphone is a great investment in that it does so many things well and is in one small accessible package. No need for a separate MP3 player, satnav, digital camera, e-book reader or even netbook.
Sure a $150 digicam will take better pictures but how many times have you not had yours when you wanted it? And a separate satnav is a little more user friendly but what happens when yours is in your wife’s car? More font choices and battery life in the kindle but how many hours can you hold that one pound package?