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12/08/09
12/08/09
In many cases the ebooks cost just pennies less than physical copies, with all of the restricted use that goes with the digital download. Ereaders are not purchased at their premium price to save pennies per purchase, and the companies have no right charging even 80% of full price for a digital restricted copy of a book.
12/07/09
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12/07/09
I typed in Bill Simmons, and it gave me 3 pages of results, A LOT of which were duplicates, and NONE were for any of the Bill Simmons I was looking for.
Now if I search on Amazon, the book I'm looking for is the first thing it showed.
I might look at a Nook in say 2 years, after they shake themselves out. For now, I'm perfectly happy with my Sony.
12/07/09
12/07/09
They must have fixed it, because the 3 pages of things it finds are the same things it found in my first 2 searches.
12/07/09
Seriously, B&N, fire your engineers and find better ones, there's plenty of good talent out there. I can't believe anyone would pass off the Nook's slow-ass interface as their best, polished work. It's disgusting. Why buy eBooks when I could (sarcasm here -) fill the time needed to open a book by reading - and finishing - a paper book?
Those of you who wonder why Apple doesn't have an eReader yet - the Nook is exactly why. Honestly, take the Nook in your hands at a B&N when you get the chance, and ask - is this something that Apple would make? Is this something that had designers with half a brain trying to actually make FUNCTIONAL products and not just salaries? Does this instill that sense of childhood wonder of simplicity and speed?
No - it doesn't. Because this is an engineering prototype sent to market. It seems like hardware companies are starting to adopt the practice of software companies to treat their customers as free beta testers. If you have any independent thinking you will REJECT devices like the Nook, regardless of apologetic and defeatist reviews at the major tech blogs.
12/07/09
!^_^}
but seriously dude, i think that waiting for an apple tablet might be best. we can almost deduce that
-portability
-screen resolution
-ease of navigation
will prob best all these current e-book readers.
i was gonna get this for my wife, but i think your comments just made me put the safety on the wallet trigger.
thanks.
12/07/09
And in response to some unapproved commenters, no I do not hold Apple shares. In fact, I think Apple has been a load of crap in recent years - no true innovation has come out of Apple since the original introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the resurgence of Steve Jobs's medical problems - and there's still a load of bull surrounding their app approval policies. But I do not deny that what products they do make are good (even if their computers are overpriced).
12/07/09
Thanks for the great review, I've been seriously considering a nook since I first heard about them. One quick question... You sort of touched on PDFs, so I'm assuming there's no issues with loading/importing them for access on the nook? I'm using PDFs on nearly a daily basis for work, wondering if the e-ink screen can keep up with the graphs commonly used in reports?
12/07/09
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12/07/09
As someone who has been caught in the early adopter trap many, many times before, I'm definitely not racing to buy a nook. All too often I have purchased a device thinking that bugs would be fixed promptly and the promise of new features would be filled quickly, only to be disappointed. I am wiser now, and I never buy a device for what it might do in the future, only what it can do now.
The one open question that I have about the nook is about sideloading documents. I'm still very mad at Amazon for raising their fees for wireless delivery of my own content, which went from a flat $0.10 to $0.15 per meg of the original document, rounded up. Not that I do it that often, but it's a big jump - effectively a 300% increase for a lot of ebooks in Word or PDF format, and potentially even more. Granted, Amazon will still convert them for free via email and I can load them with my USB, but it takes away a lot of the convenience. How does the nook handle this? Can it even convert documents from DOC, HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TXT, RTF, MOBI, or PRC? Is it free to send wirelessly to nook? I guess even if it is, that could change (as Amazon has shown).
12/07/09
Right now, I have my money on the Kindle. For all the awesomeness that browsing in a bookstore with a Nook will be, I just don't see it happening for most people when they can purchase books from anywhere with a cellular connection. People will read book reviews online and purchase books online. B&N is betting on brick-and-mortar because none of their higher-ups are willing to realize that brick-and-mortar, as a general business model, is failing and will be completely dead within a decade for everything from clothes to groceries to electronics (especially).
In the meantime, Amazon has a better catalogue, international support (which, for those of us to whom that matters, is a big deal), and suggestions of multi-user lending. The problem? Their hardware needs more work. Like I said, the industry is still very much in its infancy, but I would not be betting on B&N right now.
I would not be surprised if Amazon made a big push for their other services with the Kindle - like offering 6 months of free Amazon Prime with purchase, in a push to completely supplant retail for consumers.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
I own a G1 Kindle, and love it. In my opinion, however, the smartest thing Amazon could do is get out of the hardware race and simply license their entire Kindle library for use on other e-ink devices, like this. They'd win by not having to compete in an area they don't normally play in (making things) and excel in an area they're best at (delivering things).
That said, one benefit I see to having more than one quality e-book system on the market is that competition always fuels better products at lower prices. I look forward to what both of these companies have in store for us in coming years.
12/07/09
12/07/09
And yes, both B&N and Kindle will have pretty serious presences on Apple Tablet—you can bet a lot of money on that (not that anyone would bet against you).
12/07/09
Quick question: how did it actually feel when you were handling the Nook versus the Kindle? When handling the Kindle I was always under the feeling that I was handling something a tad more delicate, but looking at the Nook, do you think that this is something that I could safely travel with throwing it in a backpack, taking it through airport security, throwing it under the chair in front of me, etc.? It looks more substantial than the Kindle, but all of that extra screen also slightly worries me.
12/07/09
12/07/09
Great article, now I actually want an e-reader.
12/07/09
ASSumptions, assumptions....
12/07/09
That sure as hell looks like an LCD. It is also logical; if the tablet is an evolution of the iPhone, then it should be able to do everything the iPhone can, like, say, play a color video. No e-ink displays that I know of can do that, I think we can eliminate plama because it hogs energy, so all that is really left is LDC or LED.
I think you should know that yours shift key is acting up.
12/04/09