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February 21, 2010
A few days with a nook
My nook arrived Tuesday last week, I've now read a book on it (seemed one of a few fitting
The ergonomics of the device are very good, it's comfortable to use one handed and the e-ink screen lives up to it's promise of readability in various lighting. It's a bit heavier than it seems it should be at first glance, and as much as I resist accessorizing devices, I'll probably end up with a cover once I find one that doesn't add significant thickness or mandate a two-handed grip.
The current software load (1.2) is good, but not perfect.
In particular the touch screen responsiveness leaves much to be desired as compared to an iphone/ipod touch (which, I think, speaks to the cost of running Java on the device, as the CPU is actually clocked faster than the ARM in the iPhone 3G). The artificial split between B&N purchased content (which appears in "My Library") and side-loaded content (which appears in "My Documents") is pretty lame.
Oh, and I'd like the device to have at least a rudimentary browser, and I'd even be happy for that browser to only work over WiFi. (Yea, I know there are options, but I haven't decided to root the device, yet...)
I've bought a book from B&N, mostly for the experience (they were selling the first A Game of Thrones novel for $2), and it was simple and convenient.
Most of the books I searched for - while available as ebooks, aren't price competitive with their mass market paper back editions, and I'm unwilling to re-buy books I already own just for the convenience of carrying them with me. Time will tell if I choose to purchase new works as ebooks.
I'd really like someone (like B&N, for example) to setup a "format-shift" program - I'll bring them my physical books, they can take the the dead-tree (and potentially re-sell them as used books), and offer me the ebook for a nominal fee - I'd pay a buck or two.
The ability to borrow books from the Seattle and King County libraries is awesome. It's annoying that the content catalog at Overdrive (the company both partner with for digital lending) is split between Adobe PDF/EPUB (which nook can read) and Mobipocket (which nook can't). Fortunately, there are ways around the format incompatibility. <cough>google mobidedrm</cough>
While the nook is pretty nifty, I don't expect to get rid of my dead-tree editions any faster because of it (I've been divesting of them over the past few years anyway, as I rarely re-read, and I'd rather the library assume the cost of storage than me).
Posted by dberger at February 21, 2010 1:59 PM
Comments
Thanks for the review! I'm sure an e-reader will be in my future, esp if I can borrow from libraries (that's cool; a digital version of what I'm doing now anyway). I'm not thrilled by format incompatibility issues, though, so I'm kinda hoping to wait for the dust to settle....
Posted by: Dru Pagliassotti at February 22, 2010 7:18 AM
Just curious about those ePub library loans - you can do that remotely? How deep is the catalog? Wondering if the Stanza app on my iPhone, which groks ePub, would work with those...
Posted by: Hendel at February 23, 2010 9:12 AM