Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name - Gizmodo Comments

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:33:47 EST

And when the battery is flat you can bug your fellow bus commuters on how Nuut should be pronounced.

Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Dhamu — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:46:41 EST

@Darex - Yes, e-ink is hideously expensive. PVI is the only company that has a production line going, so until more companies start making it, it's not going to be cheap.
On ergonomics, no e-ink reading device has gotten reading right. Basically, you want to be able to hold the book securely with one hand, and to be able to page forward and back with the same hand, without accidentally hitting buttons. None of the e-ink units has gotten button placement and size even as right as the pre-2000 LCD ETI-2.

Dhamu

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Pender — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:54:07 EST

@theimmc: I'm not convinced. People carry real books around.

Anyway, this thing looks great if there's no mandatory DRM. I can't wait for the day when the book industry gets Napstered.

Pender

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

berribrand — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:43:46 EST

@darex:
I'm sure it also has to do with demand. I'm not sure how many people are buying these devices (I mean, what percentage of people actually read regularily?) but I am sure ebooks don't sell nearly as much as Nintendo DSs.

I got mine for Xmas, so I'm happy with my ebook (Sony Reader).

berribrand

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

DG — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:22:12 EST

It looks like the first ipod...Anyway, too expensive, i realy don't get why they cost so much. Besides the E-Ink, the rest it's just cheap tehnology these days.

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

senorbelly — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:51:25 EST

Funny how we've pretty much decided that all eReaders must be white.

senorbelly

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

92BuickLeSabre — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:12:51 EST

@HaqDiesel: I like the auto-translation for their privacy policy:

"email address unauthorized acquisition denial"

92BuickLeSabre

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

aidan_cage — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:18:53 EST

.CBRs?

aidan_cage

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Xenocide — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:08:01 EST

@jriga: It's not a LCD display. E-paper my friend. Reading is fundamental!

Xenocide

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

HaqDiesel — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:07:07 EST

From the product page:
"2.4 (SD) with a pleasant gratification!"
"Product Status: Vitamin"

I'm pretty sure the Koreans are just effing with us.

HaqDiesel

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

strider_mt2k — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:40:18 EST

For some reason I stopped being into ebooks when I got out of Palm Handhelds.
I've got a fair collection of them backed up somewhere.
Actually was building up a fair Larry Niven section too...

strider_mt2k

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

theimmc — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:24:34 EST

I've thought long and hard for about 30 seconds on this once when I had nothing better to do, and decided the only way ebooks are going to take off is when flexible displays come out. Everyone wants a high res, large surface but don't want to carry a huge device around. Something that rolls up would be perfect.

theimmc

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy! — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:16:54 EST

When will Sony finally utilize its flexible OLED and create the first real live Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book?

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

trojan — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:03:41 EST

@Apple comments: Apple owns the iBook trademark and can reuse it at will.

@FredRamsey: Totally agree. I've been looking into these for a while and none seem to 1) be large enough to display the books I read and 2) have enough content available that I'm looking for.

The Kindle may be shaped nice but page turning buttons run the length of the side. You wouldn't be able to grip it on the side without turning a page. Read the product reviews on Amazon and you'll see a lot of people complaining about this. I also hear the keyboard gets in the way a lot. For four bucks you'd think they could have included a slide out keyboard.

trojan

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

jriga — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:03:13 EST

I don't see any Jon Ives in that piece. How are these shitty LCD screens so freaking think and the don't even do anything? My iPhone is thinner and cooler, if it was just a display and tiny processor for turning pages I'd imagine it'd be even thinner than the Touch.

All I see is white plastic junk from Sony, Amazon, and now NUTT.

jriga

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

denis_bda — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:45:50 EST

@STRANGEPORK
Thats easy, they'll call it iRead

denis_bda

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Scott_T — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:43:09 EST

Rebadged Sony Reader anyone?

Scott_T

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Windhawk — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:59:27 EST

Me likey. It doesn't say anything about DRM or PDF support. I'd like something where I can read my PDF, HTML, and Microsoft Help files (pretty much my entire library of samizdat technical books).

Windhawk

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

notfred — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:46:04 EST

@darex: Don't look at what it's made of, look at what it does. Sure, ePaper is expensive, but it enables a lighter, smaller device with longer battery life, plus it's more readable outdoors.

You're paying for what it does.

notfred

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

permissionmag — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:31:48 EST

@MacGod: Design isn't just about making it white and shiny. It has to feel right in your hands, page turning should be natural and easy, and build quality is crucial.
I can't determine any of those things from a photo. It looks like the page turning is done with one of the small buttons on the front, though, which would be annoying after a few dozen pages.

I've never held the Kindle either, but the fact that they made one side slightly thicker to mimic a paperback with the pages flipped around, and put large page turning paddles on both sides, tells me that they at least gave some thought to the design.

Looking up the specs on this doesn't tell me much good news either - it only supports TXT and XML. Fine for Korea, not so good here where most ebooks are not in those formats.

Mostly though, it just looks like the STAReBOOK, which is available here now.
There's plenty of eInk alternatives to the Kindle and Sony Reader here: [wiki.mobileread.com]

permissionmag

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

strangepork — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:45:41 EST

@Gilliam: Oh jeez, good point -- iBook is taken! What are they going to call the Jesus Book?!

strangepork

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

uptonogood — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:22:46 EST

ah dammit. so tempting to find this thing. but the new sony model also looks awesome.

uptonogood

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

darex — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:53:42 EST

Here's what I don't get about these devices:

What technology do these devices possess that justifies the high cost?

They don't do much, and aside from the ePaper, the technology involved is extremely old hat, is it not?

Are ePaper displays THAT expensive? It can't cost more than a full-color hi-res LCD display, can it?

These devices all look as though they shouldn't cost more than $100, if that.

???

darex

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

MacGod — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:17:50 EST

Amazon, are you paying attention? See, it's not that hard to produce a product that has some thought put in to its design...

MacGod

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

fredramsey — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:02:17 EST

Who's going to finally break the mold and give us an 8 1/2 x 11 one? Many early adopters are going to want to read technical and programming books on one - 6" doesn't cut it.

fredramsey

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

cabowah — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:51:15 EST

I believe apple will enter the market, when the color e-paper is mature.

cabowah

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

bobdobbs — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:51:06 EST

Peanut butter on the left + grape jelly on the right + fold together = DEElicious.

bobdobbs

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

Gilliam — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:41:09 EST

@strangepork: you mean when Jobs makes the iWhatsabook?

Gilliam

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

strangepork — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:21:39 EST

Oh when will Apple come to this market segment and save us?

strangepork

Nuutbook 6-Inch Portable e-Book Has Great Looks, Even Greater Name

curses — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:05:10 EST

I.Want.

curses