I’m more excited about the Nook than I have been about any other ebook reader. This might be the one that finally gets me to buy one. Why?
8 Reasons You Can Finally Love Ebook Readers (Thanks to Nook) from Gizmodo
- It’s cost-effective even with Wi-Fi, native PDF support, an SD slot and that crazy second screen makes it seem out of the Kindle’s league.
- Lending and Sharing – 2 week loans to you can lend to tons of different devices: Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod Touch, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile (soon).
- Free in-store reading – take the Nook to any of Barnes & Noble’s stores and read one ebook, for free, each time—the same way you might wander into the store, pick up a book and read it for an hour or two. (I do this!)
- Head-turning looks
- Android – two things to be excited about when it comes to Android. First is the legit apps, which B&N seems open to. Second the more illicit possibilities: The Nook both runs Android (which we already know is easily and enthusiastically modified) and has a microUSB jack, which should make for easy hacking
- The second screen – a keyboard and Cover-Flow-esque browsing in color without the awkwardness and lethargy of e-ink, allows for multitasking. You’ll be able to read a book and control your music at the same time, and because the music browser will be on the LCD screen, it won’t look like e-inked crap.
- Battery Life – 10-days and it’s replaceable!
- Both 3G and Wi-Fi
From the New York Times Live Blog: Barnes & Noble Unveils E-Reader
The digital books in Barnes & Noble’s e-bookstore are available in either epub or Adobe Pdf format. Customers who want to buy books in those formats from other digital bookstores may do so and transfer them onto the Nook, but those who want to buy e-books directly from the device will be connected to Barnes & Noble’s own bookstore.
From the Wall Street Journal Live From the Nook Launch (Don’t Call It a Kindle)
Digits commenter provides useful info: Derek writes, “Just bought 2 online – Per invoice ‘Expected Ship Date: November 30, 2009′.”
I have just one question – Will they play ball with libraries?
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Librarian by Day 
Really nice overview, Bobbi. Thank you.
Your final question is (partially) my same question. Does the supported Adobe PDF format mean that the free downloadable Adobe PDF books available through through public and academic library e-book services will work on the Nook?
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They should, no official word yet though.
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it does support .pdf, and most importantly, .epub, which means all the books I’ve downloaded and converted to those formats using calibre are usable.
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Yep they’ve confirmed PDF & ePub but still no work on DRM so we don’t know yet if they will work with library services like Overdrive or Netlibrary
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I’m glad to see the progress in ebook readers, but I keep saying I won’t buy one until I know I can use the same device to purchase and read ebooks (that I can also back up to my computer) and to check out ebooks from the library. If someone can work that out for me, that would be awesome. 😉
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looks like this might be the device!
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I’ve used my Blackberry, and before that Palm Pilots, for that for a good 5 or 6 years now. Can purchase e-books, and can sync my borrowed library e-books to those. But… I don’t mind the small screen (the newer ebook readers do have larger screens). I love having an e-library that can fit into my pocket.
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This is really an exciting development. Makes me glad I’ve held out on buying an eReader. I was reading this week about the pilot project with Kindles and several universities. Not being able to read PDFs apparently has been a BIG drawback for the students.
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I am right there with you! I was interested in a Kindle, but never got to the point where I was trying to figure out how to get one. Now I am, but it’s for the Nook. (And for me, it’s mostly about point 2.)
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