MacUpdate Weekend Sale :This weekend MacUpdate has slashed prices on Painter 12 and Painter Lite. Painter 12 retails for $429, but has been reduced by 54% to $199. Painter Lite has seen a 58% price cut from $69 to $29. Hurry, because these deals are only available until May 19th 2013.      
toggle

Barnes & Noble's dual-screen Nook reader official

updated 02:50 pm EDT, Tue October 20, 2009

 

Nook uses AT&T 3G, matches Kindle price


Barnes and Noble lived up to promises today and launched the Nook, its own e-book reader. The device is unique in having both a six-inch E-Ink display and a 3.5-inch color touchscreen LCD that serves to navigate and browse books. Also unlike most other readers in its class, it has both 802.11g Wi-Fi as well as AT&T-driven 3G to download books from Barnes and Noble's online bookstore.

Most books will be stored on 2GB of internal memory, but an SD card slot gives room for more. Barnes and Noble additionally plans to offer the Nook in multiple colors beyond the more traditional white.

The Nook's software is just as unique and brings a predicted sharing feature: owners can lend rights to a book to others for two weeks, including to smartphones and computers as well as other Nooks. Like the Kindle, the store's reader bookmarks properly regardless of screen size and lets users round-trip texts between the Nook and an iPhone, a BlackBerry or a computer.

Its OS is based on Google's Android, according to the bookseller, though it doesn't have access to the web or traditional third-party apps.

Pre-orders start today and have the Nook costing as much as Amazon's recently price-dropped Kindle, at $259. Barnes and Noble hasn't said when the device will ship but does promise free Wi-Fi access for all Nooks at its retail chain.




By Electronista Staff

Post tools:

TAGS :  

Amazon, gadgets, digital imaging, AT&T, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Nook

Related Articles

Recent Articles

toggle

Previous Comments

  1. MyRightEye

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2008

    +3
    10/20, 03:21pm | report spam | reply

    Hi Kate...

    I'd love to know more about your nook. How about tonight at 7.


  1. simdude

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2004

    -2
    10/20, 03:34pm | report spam | (2 replies) | reply

    appearance

    well, it looks prettier than a Kindle anyway. Sort of Apple-like actually.


  1. Feathers

    Grizzled Veteran

    Joined: Oct 1999

    0
    10/20, 03:35pm | report spam | reply

    love the way...

    I love the way "clever" type girls are always brunettes! Seriously, if the interface is a as sluggish and has those idiosyncratic flashes in real life, there's no way I'd buy one, even from pretty Kate! It's not like an eReader needs huge processing power. What gives?


  1. djbeta

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2004

    -1
    10/20, 03:39pm | report spam | (1 reply) | reply

    Oh my God!!! how horrible !!!


    Notice the screen flickering to black and then back to white every time she does something like change a page or changing the font size ??? That's just plain awful.

    Almost as awful is how choppy the images scroll left and right in the lower window.


    The only thing going for this device is the Barnes & Nobles affiliation & library.


  1. c4rlob

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2009

    -2
    10/20, 03:45pm | report spam | reply

    love the color touchscreen

    The idea to combine e-ink screen with a full-color touch screen is brilliant, and the fact that Barnes & Noble is offering free wi-fi in all their stores for the Nook will help it steal customers away from Kindle. Hopefully the screen response is better than the video indicates. I think Amazon screwed up by keeping the Kindle so boring for so long.
    And I tried the website www.nook.com - but got nothing! Not a good sign B&N


  1. andrewbw

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2001

    +4
    10/20, 04:04pm | report spam | reply

    Umm..

    More MacNN comment hilarity. The "flash" between change-states is a side effect of how e-paper works. All e-paper readers look like this (including the Kindle), as they are not constant-state LCDs. The difference is, they are also much easier to read when displaying content, and consume almost zero battery power.

    There, now you actually learned something.


  1. danviento

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Dec 2005

    +1
    10/20, 04:35pm | report spam | reply

    Color and Contrast... Price

    Is it just me, or does the glaring backlight of the navigation screen look like it would really distract from the dimmer reading screen? In full sunlight, there wouldn't be too much difference. Maybe with an auto-adjust ambience sensor, it wouldn't be so annoying.

    Even at the $259 pricepoint, I can't see myself buying books for $10+, much less the $17+ prices seen elsewhere. You know it's ridiculously cheaper to sell digital copies by the customer than to have to print and stock and ship large lots of physical books. Until we're seeing paperback prices or cheaper, almost all of the readers I know are going to stay away from ebooks.

    That being said, I do have a reader from a few years ago, and I do like having hundreds of books traveling along with me. The battery lasts for days straight worth of reading. Why don't I upgrade? Because I want full control of my content with tethered syncing, not wireless cloud syncing. I want my hundreds of scanned books under my control.

    Ok, who can call me crazy to day? Show of hands.


  1. testudo

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Aug 2001

    -2
    10/20, 05:12pm | report spam | reply

    Re: love the touchscreen

    The idea to combine e-ink screen with a full-color touch screen is brilliant, and the fact that Barnes & Noble is offering free wi-fi in all their stores for the Nook will help it steal customers away from Kindle.

    Oooh, free wifi. Except the Kindle works on it's own wireless network and doesn't need wifi.


  1. testudo

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0
    10/20, 05:14pm | report spam | reply

    Re: Contrast

    Is it just me, or does the glaring backlight of the navigation screen look like it would really distract from the dimmer reading screen? In full sunlight, there wouldn't be too much difference. Maybe with an auto-adjust ambience sensor, it wouldn't be so annoying.


    Based on what the video shows, I would think the bottom part disappears after some inactivity, or hitting the home button makes it go away.


  1. malax

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2006

    0
    10/20, 05:44pm | report spam | reply

    Nice, but

    This looks like a very nice competitor to the Kindle. My problem with any of these devices, however, is persistence of media. If I'm going to pay $10 or more for a book, I want to have it forever. Currently the ebook market is brand new with unproven proprietary formats. If I buy dozens of book on a Kindle and decide a few years from now I like the Nook instead, I can't transition those Kindle books (and vice versa of course). The same argument was made with music from the iTunes store of course, but non-DRM AAC is now a robust standard and we'll have no trouble converting those files to something else in the future. Not so with these book formats, right?

    Obviously if you're the type (and perhaps most people are) who reads a book once and then gives it away, then this isn't a major issue for you. Me, I like keeping books I read so I can read them again or lend them to friends. I can do without the physical book, but I want some assurance of long-term persistence.


Login Here

Not a member of the MacNN forums? Register now for free.

Recently Commented Articles

Related Forum Posts

 
close
Photo
toggle

Network Headlines

toggle

Most Popular

Sponsor

Recent Reviews

Brother HL-3170CDW LED Printer

We've mentioned before that we are far from a paperless society. For now, at least, there are tasks that require a piece of paper for ...

HTC One

It is hard to overstate just how critically important the HTC One is to the Taiwanese company’s fortunes. Despite its alarming decline ...

Samsung Galaxy S 4

Samsung's new flagship Android smartphone, the Galaxy S 4, faces even stiffer competition than its popular predecessor. With a five-in ...

Sponsor

 
toggle

Popular News