People considering an eBook reader for themselves or as a gift have more options than just the Kindle and Sony. The Nook from Barnes & Noble the latest entry into the market is taking pre-orders for a ship date sometime this month. Jason Griffey has written a thoughtful review on ALA Tech Source that compares the Nook against the Kindle.
Via ALA Tech Source:
“The Amazon Kindle’s first real competitor saw the light of day for the first time this week, and it looks very, very impressive. The Barnes & Noble Nook launched Oct 20th, and it stands toe-to-toe with the standard that has been set by the Kindle, even exceeding it in many ways.
The important bits: The Nook has the same 6-inch eInk screen as the Kindle, and is $20 cheaper (the Nook preorders for $259, while the Kindle 2 is still $279). The Nook also has a remarkable navigation system: a secondary color touchscreen display, directly under the eInk. It’s a great-looking innovation, and one that gives the reader’s interface flexibility that the Kindle just doesn’t have. In my opinion, as you go through the specs, the comparison seems to favor the Nook over the Kindle.
Lend to a friend :LendMe
One of the most intriguing features of Nook, is it’s LendMe feature which allows you to loan an eBook to a friend to read for 14 days. The LendMe feature works across platforms so you could share a book to your friend’s Blackberry or iPhone. While the book is on loan to your friend, it’s disabled on your reader, so it becomes inaccessible to you. Whether publishers will support LendMe or try to pull the plug on it is another question entirely.
posting by jim
1 response so far ↓
myounker // November 4, 2009 at 9:39 am
curious to see what happens with the spring design lawsuit, http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/02/spring-design-sues-barnes-and-noble-over-the-nook/