Barnes & Noble, the largest book retailer and top bookseller in the United States just entered the e-reader market yesterday when they officially unveiled their own version of the e-reader, nicknamed the “Nook”. Features that stand out are the dual screen, one is the main screen used for reading the books and the other one, a smaller screen that lets the users type on a virtual keyboard, browse ebook covers and settings to personalize the Nook e-reader.
Basic Features:
- 6″ inch E Ink screen
- 3.5″ inch color capacitive touchscreen
- Google Android
- AT&T 3G
- WiFi
- Ebook lending
- 2 GB storage
- SD card slot
- 1 million+ ebook titles
- Thousands of free ebooks
Additional Photos:
The Barnes & Noble Nook’s main selling points are the dual screens – a 6″ inch electronic paper display with E Ink technology and a 3.5″ inch diagonal color capacitive touchscreen used for navigating. This device is powered by Google Android‘s operating system. The Nook lets you download ebooks, magazines and newspapers in seconds, lets you navigate your ebooks and other content on the small color touchscreen below the main screen, lets you sync your ebooks to your iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, Mac or PC (Windows Mobile support coming soon), can be mounted as a mass storage via USB, lets you “lend” books to your friends using B&N’s LendMe technology (lent books last 14 days) and lets you read any ebook for free in any Barnes & Noble store.
Some downsides include no web browser, WiFi only works on Barnes & Noble stores, you can only stream but can’t download books with the in-store book browsing feature and only a few select books can be lended.
Although Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader addresses some of the Amazon Kindle’s flaws, its still not a revolutionary device in the e-reader market. But if you’re shopping for a better and cheaper e-reader than the Amazon Kindle and can’t wait for the Asus Color E-Reader, then the Nook is something you should consider.
The Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader starts shipping November 30th but is now available for preorder from their website for $259. You can also test drive the Nook in any Barnes & Noble store.
[image source: Gizmodo]
@Clare – Do you have B&N over in the UK? If you do, then I guess they’d also release it there. With the rise of the number of ebook readers and its increased popularity, I’m expecting the price of ebooks to go down.
Last year I really wanted a Kindle but as they were only on sale in the US I didn’t bother – of course they’ve now released a UK version. I wonder if B&N will do the same. The thing that still keeps me from adding a kindle to my Xmas list is the price of the books. I can pick up a paperback for less than £5 – and hardbacks at that price too sometimes. Why would I pay double for an e version??
@dimaks – Yup, this is B&N’s answer to Amazon’s Kindle. The Nook is better than the Kindle but not that great. What I’m looking forward to is the Asus Color Reader. Anyways, the storage capacity is expandable via an SD card slot.
wow, so this is B&N’s take on Kindle. I think the wi-fi capability is great. i just hope that the storage capacity is expandable, any idea?