Comments on: B&N’s $259 Nook: Friend-lend, sync between devices, WiFi AND 3G, Android operating system, ePub, PDF capabilities

By: Michael Pastore

Michael Pastore — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:10:12 +0000

Thank you, Felix. (about TTS).

About book lending:
Nook is now set up so that you can lend one title only one time. After that loan, you may never again lend that particular ebook.

By: HeavyG

HeavyG — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:48:57 +0000

Where’s the keyboard????

Does the color display switch to a keyboard?

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:23:21 +0000

No TTS is provided.

By: Michael Pastore

Michael Pastore — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:22:20 +0000

Looks nice from a distance. Amazon can’t be too happy about all those “x”-es on that feature comparison chart.

Can anyone tell if Nook will read the ebooks aloud?

The tech specs state that it plays audio books, as in official audio books. But will it read any ebook — any EPUB file or PDF file — that appears on the screen?

If yes, then they’ve just sold a Nook to a former ebook reading device skeptic and curmudgeon.

Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:13:47 +0000

Meaningful data trickling in.
1- WiFi is in-store only.
2- No browser. Don’t sound hostile to third party apps.
3- Book-lending is 14 days to any B&N reader plaform, can be blocked at publisher’s discretion so, just like Kindle’s TTS, it is *not* universal.
4- Anybody want to lay odds on the NYT bestsellers being lend-able?

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:02:00 +0000

C|Net slideshow link: (oops!)http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-3508_7-10001734-1.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:00:06 +0000

C|Net has a nice slideshow of the nook.
Right upfront, I have an issue; the secondary screen doesn’t seem to black out. A distraction as well as a power leach…

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:40:18 +0000

The ANDROID OS is a good start but that’s all it is; a start. It is an enabler but it is not necessarily sufficient for open app development. ANDROID is a Unix descendant and UNIXes in all their flavors are “onions”; layer upon layer of software. Kernel. drivers, environment libraries, etc.

With embedded systems you need more that just what ships in the gadget to write apps. Somebody (and it doesn’t have to be B&N) has to provide the enabling libraries and development tools.

Given that Android is “hot” and about to get hotter (keep an eye on the iDon’t Droid campaign), B&N’s timing is good; I expect the first few hundred Nooks are going to be scarfed up by hackers looking to explore the hardware and see how much they can squeeze from it. In the best of all worlds, B&N would be offering up a Software Development Kit and establishing a certification program and maybe even an app store. In the worst of all worlds they would have implemented a proprietary app-signing algorithm that would prevent execution of third party apps.

Reality will likely lie somewhere in between…

By: Court

Court — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:18:44 +0000

Whoa – elending? Now that I could get in to.

Felix, the B & N site says it has an Android OS – so I’d imagine that Android apps can be run on it …? But I’m way over my head on tech specifics.

By: GJN

GJN — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:35:10 +0000

Curious to see how flexible the PDF support will be; hopefully zooming will be possible unlike on the Kindle DX. And hopefully there’ll be a better way to scan through 17,500 books than through their covers. Otherwise I’m impressed and interested if it can be accessed via calibre.

By: rahlquist

rahlquist — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:18:10 +0000

OMG I think I just drooled into my shooes!

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:00:30 +0000

Formats:
Pdf, epub, pdb
Not clear which pdb flavor or which format has drm.
MicroSDHC support is good, wifi is good.
Lots of bragging about the google crapscan, tnough.
Will be interesting to see if it supports Android apps.

If it does, it might be worth it just to use as a webpad.

They may be aimjng at Amazon but they look to have scored a direct hit at Sony.