
Nook, Barnes & Noble eBook Reader Announced - phsr
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/
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allenp
The real killer feature is this: "Share favorite eBooks with your friends,
family, or book club. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time.
Just choose the book you want to share, then send it to your friend's reader,
cell phone, or computer."

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stepherm
Apparently you can only do this ONCE per book. Once a book has been shared,
you cannot share it again.

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zach
Oof. I haven't seen any definitive confirmation on one-lend-ever-per-title
(they seem cagey about it), but looking at this purely economically:

This is by some measure a winning strategy, since if I only have one "lend", I
will very likely want to share it to the person most likely to buy it and
create an additional "lend" to propagate the book.

It does seem like they are missing out on the power of inter-consumer
advocacy, i.e. "Everybody read this now!" They should at least re-credit you
(if not several times over) if you share with someone who later buys the book.

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fossuser
It may give the illusion of a good strategy, but limitless invites will spread
the book faster leading to more buys overall (in my opinion). Since many
people like to own books they've enjoyed and the freedom this model gives also
pleases consumers I'd prefer it.

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zach
Happily, this report appears unfounded. There are no per-title limits on Nook
lending. Yay!

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harpastum
"Free wireless from Barnes & Noble via AT&T, the nation's fastest 3G network."

I absolutely love this trend in eBook readers.

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jrockway
I absolutely hate that I have to pay $60 a month to get 5 gigs of 3G on other
devices.

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zokier
I absolutely love my 10e a month uncapped ubiquitous 3G internet.

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simon_
Looks like they took the overview page down... you can still see features
here:

<http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/features/techspecs/>

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smokinn
Unless you can hide the full screen book cover display at the bottom I think
that'll be very distracting.

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Xichekolas
I wonder how that screen works... surely it's off most of the time...
otherwise you'd need a honking huge battery to keep it alive for 10 days.

~~~
yan
eInk keeps state without power. The Kindle displays famous authors and book
covers when it's off. The side-effect of this, you can measure battery life in
mostly 'page-turns' as it uses power to update the display, but not while
you're reading.

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there
the bottom display is a color lcd touchscreen, it's not e-ink.

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yan
Ah, next time I'll make sure to read everything before chiming in.

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yan
I really can't wait to see what the new generation of large-screen eInk
readers will look like. I bought the Kindle DX specifically to be able to read
PDFs, books, and papers I already had. The smaller format readers (nook,
kindle 2, etc) are fine for reading fiction and non-formatted documents, but a
lot less useful to me personally.

I am fully convinced that eInk is a viable surface to read on and I can't wait
to see what the displays will look like when they mature.

~~~
Xichekolas
Yeah I'm still holding out for something that simulates 8.5x11 paper. The
upcoming QUE from Plastic Logic looks promising... 8.5x11, wifi, pdf and
annotation (capacitive touchscreen) support. Supposedly in January.
Coincidentally, it will also use the B&N ebookstore.

How is reading say, a research paper, on your DX? I have been tempted by it,
but the screen still seems too small.

~~~
yan
To be honest, it is pretty small but it's very usable. In well-let areas that
aren't moving, the scaled-down PDFs look readable and 'good enough'. If you
want, you can send me a PDF and I'll take a picture of what it looks like on
the DX.

I also thought about waiting for the Plastic Logic device, but decided on
getting the DX for a few reasons. First, I had about $300 of Amazon gift cards
from my credit card, and the Kindle became a great target to spend it on.
Secondly, considering QUE's target market, I assumed it would be prohibitively
expensive for a personal reading device. Also, the DX is available _now_ and
has a cell connection, which is nice.

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mapleoin
This is nice. I wonder if it'll be available outside the US. It would be cool
to have even without the 3G.

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tetsuo13
This reminds me a lot of the video game console market, where newcomers
compete with: the existing consoles with the established customer base,
library of games and even second or third generation consoles that have the
initial quirks ruled out.

B&N will have to compete with the Kindle and even Sony's readers to an extent.
The biggest question is always what will B&N bring to the table that is
different enough or better than its competitors to woo customers over? It
seems a lot like just another iPod and iTunes clone.

~~~
allenp
I think one notable difference is the ability to go to a local store and see
the device in person - this is a huge advantage and one that may help them
cover a lot of ground quickly.

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phsr
The biggest dealbreaker for the Nook will be its eBook store. Will it be
comparable to the Amazon eBook store? If not, I doubt the Nook will take off.

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protomyth
Looking at the comparison chart with the line "More than a million titles
available" and thinking about the leverage they have with publishers, I think
B&N has already passed Amazon.

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just_the_tip
Most of those titles are public domain books scanned as part of Google Books
and complete with OCR typos. Right now, Amazon's selection is better.

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protomyth
Confusing chart then because they list the free books as a separate line item.

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oomkiller
Hmm, AT&T's 3G pales in comparison with Verizon Wireless, but it could
possibly be better than Sprint.

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joubert
And Richard Dawkins is speaking at the Tribeca Barnes & Noble tomorrow night.
Can't wait.

