Barnes & Noble Nook's first close-up (now with video!)
By Paul Miller 
posted October 20th 2009 5:30PM
posted October 20th 2009 5:30PM
Update: We got a closer look at the device, though they still haven't let us touch it. The LCD seems very "passive," and has a shallow viewing angle -- obviously to gather more ambient light and save on battery. The interface appears relatively intuitive, but we're a little confused and doubtful about the highlighting features -- it brings up a software d-pad on screen, and seemed a little unwieldy, though we'll only find out for ourselves when they actually let us get our grubby paws on the thing.
Update 2: We've got some video! It's so very exciting, and can be found after the break.
Android AND e-ink. I wonder if it's a reasonable textbook replacement. But then you can't sell your ebooks...looks like I'm sticking to good ole paper.
You can't steal real textbooks as easy as digital ones either :)
I imagine it more as a mustache.
>> "But then you can't sell your ebooks...looks like I'm sticking to good ole paper."
Surely to god they can make an e-book CHEAPER than a 20lb textbook.
Then, you won't have to sell them.
@ Mike: look at the Kindle versions of books on Amazon. At most they're only a few bucks cheaper! Unbelievable. The publishers will never learn.
On the nice side, "textbook torrents" has a nice alliterative ring to it.
It's too bad bn doesn't let you use the free internet for anything else besides buying books from them. Otherwise this device would be perfect. It has the pdf and epub support that the kindle lacks.
@paul34
Rats. Good thing I'm well out of college!
"look at the Kindle versions of books on Amazon. At most they're only a few bucks cheaper! Unbelievable. The publishers will never learn."
Depends on the book. Hardbacks are $10.00 cheaper in a lot of cases. Dan Brown's newest being one shining example. Paperbacks are closer in price. You also forget to note that Penguin Classics are about $5.00 to $8.00, but can often be had for free (legally!) on the Internet.
I do, however, agree that paperbacks should be cheaper than they are.
-Pie
if they had e-color ink to display all those nice diagrams, and pictures in text books, then sure,
really, the day they have faster refresh, without the annoying black and white flashing, and also have color, will be the day i buy a e-reader, until then, this technology is just a prototype to me. like those old first adepts at the portable computer that were the size of 3 foot balls.
@paul34: "look at the Kindle versions of books on Amazon. At most they're only a few bucks cheaper! Unbelievable. The publishers will never learn. "
Do you really think that the cost of a textbook has very much to do with the cost of paper? It takes years of research and a zillion edits to put together those things. I'm not saying that they're not overpriced, but to assume the price should come tumbling down just because you eliminate paper, printing and most of the distribution costs misses that the real value is in the content. (And people getting all righteous and claiming they're going to torrent the books in retalitation are just stupid criminals.)
@EatingPie
When did Dan Brown start writing Textbooks? I KNEW HE HAD AN AGENDA!!! /sarcasm
I want to see the first school to provide these to all students (for a small fee) with free text books.
The cost of most books, text books in particular is not in the dead tree but rather in the editing. Also consider that most text books are not exactly best sellers making it harder to justify the time and expense (use of assets) unless the selling price is high. I don't have a source for it, but I do recall reading that e-versions on average knock off only around 20% of the cost. Its a nice discount but hardly the near-free that most of you seem to expect.
@Motoken
"will be the day i buy a e-reader, until then, this technology is just a prototype to me"
Which is why us early adopters have a responsibility to throw down coin to make sure that "promising" tech has a chance to become "mainstream" tech and lives long enough to improve. I'm half joking, of course, but only half.
yeah and with the cost of textbooks being $100+ in college
this thing pays for itself pretty fast
hopefully the ebooks aren't expencive
And with spelling like that, neither was your education.
BTW whoever talked about textbooktorrents earlier, that got shut down almost a year ago.
Everyone uses another website starting with bib and ending in otic.
Is is just me, or does the "N" symbol they've chosen for the nook look like a frown? It just looks like an unhappy device.
It does have a slight resemblance to the Android symbol as well.
Maybe it's to emphasize the sharing aspect, since if you hold 2 next to each other it looks like happy eyes from an anime character.
It look like an arch, because it's the GATEWAY TO IMAAAAGINATION
Turn your nook upside down. Fixed.
nook evolves into koou!!!!!
wheres the e-ink pokedex?????
apparently this is such exciting news we needed to hear about it in back to back posts.
It is.
Serious, I'm so worn out because I had to use my scroll wheel to pass by two more posts... With the Apple news I'm not sure how much more abuse my scroll wheel finger can take...
Get over it.
IMHO, this is way better news than those mac updates, at least.
@Mark you need a Magic Mouse with momentum scrolling
Got mine on pre-order! I am looking forward to some Nookie in November.
me too though I doubt that your nookie is similar to mine. Wait that didn't come out right...
I'm just waiting to see if someone figures out how to hack the browser to display any website.
I'm married, what's nookie???
that is one sexy piece of tech.
agreed. I saw this here the other day and these new pics really make me want one.
k getting one.
My only worry is that it looks a little fat. I like that the kindle is a freaking blade.
Then again, I hate the stupid keyboard on the kindle and having to use the eInk display to navigate.
If this thing turns out to be a solid device, if B&N's nook store has a lot of titles, and the reviews are good, I will own one.
It's less than 3mm thicker than the Kindle
B&N say they have over 1 million books to download.
Last time I checked, Amazon has about a third of that.
Not sure about hard numbers though.
You're like the guys that say Scarlett Johansson is a little fat. Seriously.
@DarthVegas: I wouldn't say she's fat, but she's kinda manly looking(never really got the hype about her). That's not because of her weight or size or anything though, just something about her features...
It does look a little thick in the pictures. Keep in mind though that the iPhone 3GS feels very thin, even at its size, and its .48" thick. The Nook is only .5", so its not exactly thick. The Kindle 2 is 0.36", so as others have said, its only .12" thicker, or about 3mm thicker. Likely not a big deal. Probably required by the slight increase in power consumption, in order to keep the battery life the same. Seems like they could have just let the battery life go a little and made it just as thin, given that these things last roughly forever anyway, but I guess they didn't want to.
The B&N eBook store has a lot more titles than the Kindle store - and a ton of free titles that are in the public domain.
Of course it has memoirs of a geisha as its 1st book!
*sighs* With .epub and .pdf support, it makes purchasing my Sony Pocket Edition a bit...dumb...a few weeks ago. For only 50 more, I could've gotten this. :( Well, I still love my Sony. It reads books, and...and that's all I need..... >_>
Keep telling yourself that.
If you are in the USA and you paid by credit card, you have 30 days...its ze law!
Your Sony doesn't do PDF? My Sony PRS-505 does them well. I find that hard to believe!
The thing about this - if it runs on android, how long before people hack it to pieces so it runs all sorts of formats B&N would prefer you didn't have?
What would you need other than EPub anyway?
design-wise, this thing absolutely destroys the ugly-ass Kindle.