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Ric_NYC
October 21st, 2009, 12:44 AM
Barnes & Noble launched its expected foray into the e-reader market today with the Nook, a $259 device that sports separate reading and touch screens, the ability to lend books, WiFi, and Google's Android operating system.


http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1534/bnnook2arsthumb640xauto.jpg



Back in July, Barnes & Noble made it clear that it, too, had designs on the developing e-book market, as it launched an e-book store and released reading software for a variety of platforms, from traditional PCs to the iPhone. Today, the company is releasing its dedicated e-book reader, called the Nook, at an event in New York City. The device has many features that distinguish it from its competitors, including a small color touchscreen for control, the use of the Android operating system, all at a $259 price.

Information about the device has been appearing on and off at the Barnes & Noble eBook site for the last hour or so, so it's possible that it will be accessible if you visit. At its most basic, the device evokes the Kindle, with a rounded white plastic frame sporting navigation buttons on either side of an E-Ink screen. The similarities end there, however.

In contrast to the Kindle's physical keyboard (and Sony's on-screen one), the Nook uses a color touchscreen for most of the navigation (it's listed as a 3.5" TFT-LCD); it's laid out as a wide band immediately below the E-Ink screen. Various demos show that this can be used to access a series of settings through hierarchial menus, and it will display book covers, either from the B&N store or in your library, in full color. It's not clear at this point whether it can also display an on-screen keyboard for note-taking and other text entry.

In other ways, the Nook is a bit of a throwback to the first version of the Kindle. It's a bit thicker and heavier, but that enables B&N to include a removable battery and an SD card slot for additional storage—2GB is built in. It also comes with free access to a 3G cellular network (this one from AT&T), but one-ups Amazon by including WiFi, which will allow some of its features to operate during foreign travel. It can be connected to a computer or charged via a mini-USB port, and the device also has a speaker and headphone jack.

All of these features may explain why the battery is removable. B&N estimates that the device will run for about 10 days on a single charge if the various wireless options are shut down, but heavy use of the optional features may drain it in as little as two days.

Some of these hardware choices may make it a compelling device, but the real differentiator is probably in the software. B&N turned to Google's Android operating system to power the Nook, which may be why it supports so many file formats, including PDF, EPUB, eReader, MP3, and PNG, JPG, and GIF image formats.

Like the Kindle, the software will synchronize content among a variety of devices, including PCs and Macs, as well as Blackberries, iPhones, and iPod touches. But it also allows users to lend their purchased items to friends with linked accounts. So, for example, you can choose a book and send it to a friend via the touchscreen interface. Once sent, your friend has 14 days to read it (presumably, the work is inaccessible to you during that period).

B&N also promises that it will provide access to subscription material, like newspapers and magazines, once the Nook launches. All of this is planned for general availability at the end of November. And, as it did when it first introduced its e-book store, B&N is playing up the fact that it provides access to lots of out-of-copyright works that Google has digitized.

Until we get our hands on the Nook, it's impossible to tell how well some of the hardware decisions work out. But the decisions made by B&N suggest that there is still room for new ideas when it comes to the very basics of enabling user control of an e-reading device. Combined with the other distinctions in the hardware, wireless access, supported formats, and DRM, and it seems that B&N has found a way to make a device that's notably distinct from those of its competitors, despite some visible similarities. And it's done that at a price point that is very competitive.


http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/10/barnes-noble-puts-android-on-an-e-reader-with-the-nook.ars


http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/7111/nookfrontview.jpg

earthpigg
October 21st, 2009, 12:54 AM
well...


give me liberty or give me death!
:guitar:

or, more specifically:

1) how difficult is it to gain root access, and bypass the Digital Restrictions Management? i don't need 'help' from Barnes & Noble understanding how 'copyright' and 'fair use' work, thank you very much. prosecute me when i break the law, don't persecute me because others do.

2) how difficult is it to flash the pre-loaded software and replace it with something else entirely?

and because my knowledge, time, and the effort i am willing to invest has it's limits:

are there any software solutions presently available with the right answer to the above two questions that will work well with that hardware?

i love gizmos and such, but if i am going to pay money for a computer, then i need to feel as if i actually own and can control that computer. not the other way around.

(ie: i am OK with my cell phone that i don't feel as if i truly own because i did not pay for it - it came gratis when i joined an already-existing 'family' plan.)

Mateo
October 21st, 2009, 01:06 AM
well...


give me liberty or give me death!
:guitar:

or, more specifically:

1) how difficult is it to gain root access, and bypass the Digital Restrictions Management? i don't need 'help' from Barnes & Noble understanding how 'copyright' and 'fair use' work, thank you very much. prosecute me when i break the law, don't persecute me because others do.

It uses ePub as its format, so you can load non-DRM (not sure if the B&N books are DRM or not) books on it yourself.


2) how difficult is it to flash the pre-loaded software and replace it with something else entirely?

probably not that difficult.


and because my knowledge, time, and the effort i am willing to invest has it's limits:

are there any software solutions presently available with the right answer to the above two questions that will work well with that hardware?

Of course not. It's a brand new device, without anything of it's kind. You might be able to run android on the bottom display, since what it currently runs is a modified android. but the top display, you're going to have to code all of that yourself. But that's the deal you make when you choose to have unusual demands.

markbuntu
October 21st, 2009, 03:07 AM
Buy it, hack it, brick it.

This thing will be totally hacked in a few weeks/days.

Mateo
October 21st, 2009, 03:10 AM
Actually I think this device by be upstaged by the Spring Design Alex reader. The Alex has the dual screen (eink on top and lcd on the bottom) just like the Nook. And it also has android. But an unmodified android; looks just the same as on your mobile phones. What is REALLY cool about the Alex reader is that you can browse the web on the Android screen, find an article you like, press a button and read the article on the eink screen. REALLY cool in my opinion. The type of game-changing innovation that the ereader market has been waiting for. Here's a video showing this feature:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dtgHfAMP5I

It's just too bad that this reader won't have the backing of the big corporations and probably won't have its own book market. So hopefully there will be a way to get books from B&N (their market will possibly be DRM free). And at the very least you can read any Google Books book and google upcoming Google Editions ebook store.