Comments on: Barnes and Noble’s new Nook Considered (From a Distance) http://paulbogan.com/2009/11/03/barnes-and-nobles-new-nook-considered-from-a-distance/ The best of everything... just a little bit late. Thu, 23 Dec 2010 12:41:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: paul http://paulbogan.com/2009/11/03/barnes-and-nobles-new-nook-considered-from-a-distance/#comment-16244 paul Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:27:47 +0000 http://paulbogan.com/2009/11/03/barnes-and-nobles-new-nook-considered-from-a-distance/#comment-16244 My understanding of this is that the pricing of B&N e-books will be pretty much in line with Amazon's pricing; there's also supposed to be a decent number of free content available via B&N, and when you throw Google Books, Creative Commons, and Wikimedia into the equation, that opens up yet more free content. Another drawback, as I mentioned in the post (and could have elaborated upon, but I'll do that here) is that Nook doesn't appear to take full advantage of its wireless capability. I've seen the point made elsewhere (by B&N flacks and a handful of prospective users) that this is supposed to be a reader and not the Swiss Army Knife of electronic devices, but this explanation/excuse is too simplistic by half. I don't necessarily want to play Tetris on an e-reader, but I fully expect to be able to read on it. Not being able to do something as simple as set up an RSS feed so you can read newspapers, news aggregators and blogs (maybe they're afraid it'll cut into their subscription revenue stream?) seems to defeat what is, after all, the stated purpose of the device. My understanding of this is that the pricing of B&N e-books will be pretty much in line with Amazon’s pricing; there’s also supposed to be a decent number of free content available via B&N, and when you throw Google Books, Creative Commons, and Wikimedia into the equation, that opens up yet more free content.

Another drawback, as I mentioned in the post (and could have elaborated upon, but I’ll do that here) is that Nook doesn’t appear to take full advantage of its wireless capability. I’ve seen the point made elsewhere (by B&N flacks and a handful of prospective users) that this is supposed to be a reader and not the Swiss Army Knife of electronic devices, but this explanation/excuse is too simplistic by half. I don’t necessarily want to play Tetris on an e-reader, but I fully expect to be able to read on it. Not being able to do something as simple as set up an RSS feed so you can read newspapers, news aggregators and blogs (maybe they’re afraid it’ll cut into their subscription revenue stream?) seems to defeat what is, after all, the stated purpose of the device.

]]> By: Philip Yurchuk http://paulbogan.com/2009/11/03/barnes-and-nobles-new-nook-considered-from-a-distance/#comment-16229 Philip Yurchuk Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:45:25 +0000 http://paulbogan.com/2009/11/03/barnes-and-nobles-new-nook-considered-from-a-distance/#comment-16229 My random comments: I agree about piracy fueling the success of MP3 players in general. As for the iPod specifically, I think Apple does a better job than any other tech company of creating - and mass producing - objects of desire. This is coming from someone who appreciates aesthetics - I haven't owned an Apple product since the IIc. The technical book industry already allows you to buy print or electronic (usually PDF) versions, and both for a discount. I usually stick with PDF because it's easy to cut and paste code examples. And there are online tech book libraries. O'Reilly's Safari is well stocked. As you suggested, the full library search is extremely useful, as is searching just your "favorited" books. As for the Nook, I was discussing this with my roommate the other day. He's a Kindle (2nd gen.) owner, and I find the display crisp and the text to speech feature really useful. While the Nook looks like it may have some improvements, it has one drawback the Kindle doesn't have: Barnes & Noble-priced books. Either way, I'm afraid I just don't read enough to make any reader cost effective. That's why I need to retire soon :) My random comments:

I agree about piracy fueling the success of MP3 players in general. As for the iPod specifically, I think Apple does a better job than any other tech company of creating – and mass producing – objects of desire. This is coming from someone who appreciates aesthetics – I haven’t owned an Apple product since the IIc.

The technical book industry already allows you to buy print or electronic (usually PDF) versions, and both for a discount. I usually stick with PDF because it’s easy to cut and paste code examples. And there are online tech book libraries. O’Reilly’s Safari is well stocked. As you suggested, the full library search is extremely useful, as is searching just your “favorited” books.

As for the Nook, I was discussing this with my roommate the other day. He’s a Kindle (2nd gen.) owner, and I find the display crisp and the text to speech feature really useful. While the Nook looks like it may have some improvements, it has one drawback the Kindle doesn’t have: Barnes & Noble-priced books.

Either way, I’m afraid I just don’t read enough to make any reader cost effective. That’s why I need to retire soon :)

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