I don't get it...why do people think the Nook is all that? It doesn't have a browser, and the touchscreen lcd is more or less a gimmick. I suppose it reads epub and pdf, but unlike the sony readers, it doesn't do library borrowing. It doesn't have text-to-speech like the kindle (youtube it, it sounds actually really good). The whole 'lending' thing is useless since it's a one-time-per-book deal. Book selection across all the ereaders is pretty much the same, and honestly, gadget cravers probably read more blogs than books. somebody please enlighten me
Yeah, there's a lot of hype over the Nook. There are two differences that I think may be significant: bigger catalog of ebooks (B&N is advertising more than 1 million, Amazon says it has 360 thousand) and native PDF support.
However, these may not be as significant though: it makes no sense for a publisher to seel an ebook only through B&N if it can sell the same ebook, with very little effort, through other vendors like Amazon, so it is quite possible that after a time the ebook catalogs of both should be about the same size. About the native PDF support, I don't know how really useful it can be in a small screen, as you can change text size. The Kindle DX is very good for PDF reading, you can read papers and technical stuff quite well in it, but it has a larger screen. Only after trying the nook for some time I'd be able to say if it's good for that or not.
The rest is clearly less significant or even gimmicks, like the touch screen. A full touch screen like some of the newest Sony readers is a good thing in terms of interface, instead of using the Kindle 5-way; however, many different reviewers of these Sony devices say that the touchscreen add reflex and decrease readability of the screen. I wouldn't sacrifice readability for this.
But we'll see. Competition is good, and if the nook becomes an important player this could be an interesting time for ebooks.
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I don't get it...why do people think the Nook is all that? It doesn't have a browser, and the touchscreen lcd is more or less a gimmick. I suppose it reads epub and pdf, but unlike the sony readers, it doesn't do library borrowing. It doesn't have text-to-speech like the kindle (youtube it, it sounds actually really good). The whole 'lending' thing is useless since it's a one-time-per-book deal. Book selection across all the ereaders is pretty much the same, and honestly, gadget cravers probably read more blogs than books.
somebody please enlighten me
Yeah, there's a lot of hype over the Nook. There are two differences that I think may be significant: bigger catalog of ebooks (B&N is advertising more than 1 million, Amazon says it has 360 thousand) and native PDF support.
However, these may not be as significant though: it makes no sense for a publisher to seel an ebook only through B&N if it can sell the same ebook, with very little effort, through other vendors like Amazon, so it is quite possible that after a time the ebook catalogs of both should be about the same size. About the native PDF support, I don't know how really useful it can be in a small screen, as you can change text size. The Kindle DX is very good for PDF reading, you can read papers and technical stuff quite well in it, but it has a larger screen. Only after trying the nook for some time I'd be able to say if it's good for that or not.
The rest is clearly less significant or even gimmicks, like the touch screen. A full touch screen like some of the newest Sony readers is a good thing in terms of interface, instead of using the Kindle 5-way; however, many different reviewers of these Sony devices say that the touchscreen add reflex and decrease readability of the screen. I wouldn't sacrifice readability for this.
But we'll see. Competition is good, and if the nook becomes an important player this could be an interesting time for ebooks.
Ok, I just found out that you probably won't be able to zoom in on PDFs:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60569
If this is true and you can't zoom, coupled with the small 6" screen, it makes PDF reading almost useless on the nook.
So all that remains in favor of the nook is the bigger catalog, IF Amazon doesn't catch up some time later, which I suspect it will.