Nook Color Review!

Before I get started, I'll just say that my review comes from the unit we got at the bookstore to display. The overall product will still be the same, but some things (like the instruction manual) might be different.
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Reading: It's a nice clean picture & the backlit screen isn't too annoying, but I have a feeling that people will be feeling the eyestrain later. If you're looking to buy this for reading at length, you'll need to be aware of this.

Downloading: Pretty fast download times, although I only downloaded the free samples from the storefront. (Hilarious since I work at a Books-A-Million & the storefront's B&N. We're so going to lose money on ebook sales.)

Internet: Pretty decent. I pulled up facebook (didn't log in though- not on the store unit) & the page is crisp, clear & loads quickly. It'll probably get bogged down if you go to a site with tons & tons of things on the page, but that'll happen with any unit like this for the most part.

Battery: Not bad, but obviously won't last as long as the Nook or some of the e-ink units out there. You'll get about 3-4 hours if you leave the wifi on. Not sure about the non-wifi battery life right now, but since the company says it's 8 hours I'd say it's probably about 6-7 hours.

Extras: You can change the font, screen background color, & a few other things. While that's nice, I couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed by it. There's also the option to be able to toggle back & forth between the publisher default & your aesthetics of choice. You can also change the background on the main page of the NookColor, which is a nice touch. Since we're not supposed to change that with our store unit, I wasn't able to play with that any.

Touch Screen: It's OK. Pretty easy to use, but a few times I found myself really having to wrestle with it to turn pages. Sometimes it would be too sensitive & I'd end up a few pages ahead of where I wanted to be. Not a deal breaker, though. It didn't happen enough to where I'd get overly irritated, but people who are all thumbs with touch screens will be irritated.

User Friendly: It's not very intuitive to use. People savvy with e-readers & gadgets will be able to figure it out pretty quickly but people who are new to the scene will be pretty confused with everything. The unit for my store didn't come with any written directions- it was all on the unit. That means that if it's like this on the sale unit then that won't be all that helpful for the people who aren't able to navigate well on the unit.

Overall: My opinion is that it's OK, but not exceptionally so. Go for the iPad if you really want something like this. It's basically a Nook/iPad hybrid, but without the option for all of the extras & apps. Overall it isn't a bad unit but it just doesn't have anything to really make it stand out. If you're a big fan of the Nook then go for this unit, but I'd play with it in the store first.

If you're curious, the EBook Reader has also reviewed the NookColor & did a pretty awesome writeup on it.

Nook Color & children's books, Kindle lending

I was surfing the net a while ago & came across an interesting new Nook that is supposed to be coming out: Nook Color. The image below was originally posted on the B&N site as a way of showing off screen protectors, but as soon as people started realizing that this was a glimpse of the new Nook it was quickly removed. "Accidentally" leaked? Who knows?
Supposedly this Nook will be in vibrant color & rather than stay true to the e-ink technology that is so prevalent in the majority of ebook devices out there, this is going to be something along the lines of the iPad. It's going to be touchscreen, which will have its pluses & minuses. (For me I always worry about fingerprints getting on the screen when I try to read!) There's no news as to whether or not it'll support apps like the iPad does. I do know that it will have android software & will be sold for about $250, though.

There's also news that this new ereader will also carry children's books (ages 3-8), something that might either delight or horrify some readers. (Delight them to know that they can have hundreds of books at hand to let children read or horrify them to imagine such an expensive piece of equipment in the hands of the very young.) Supposedly there's going to be about 12,000 books & 15 publishers, so parents can expect a wide variety for their children.

I imagine that this awesome piece of literary electronics will be available just in time for the Christmas season for your purchasing pleasure. Supposedly B&N did purchase a Nook Color themed website name, so be on the lookout for a site by the name of nookcolor.com or something similar.

In other news, Amazon announced that they'd start lending out books- a concept that just about everyone can agree was long overdue. Just like with the Nook, you can lend out a book that you've purchased to another Kindle user but can't read the book while it's being lent. Hopefully Amazon will improve on the Nook lending policy & allow a user to lend out a book more than once. It's annoying to think that you can only lend out your ebook once, making you wonder which Nook buddy is more deserving of the title. It's still better than not lending at all, but just a little irritating in my opinion.

What is the future of Barnes & Nobles and the Nook?

As many might have heard, Barnes & Nobles went up for sale this month. This leaves many to wonder what will ultimately become of what was quite easily the strongest bookstore going for a while. As a bookstore employee for Books-A-Million I know that they're the biggest competition in our area. But I also know that like us, they've been hit by more & more people heading towards the e-book and/or online market.

What this leaves me wondering is what will become of the chain- and more importantly, what of the Nook? Does ownership of the product shift with the store or is that something to be sold independently of the chain? How will this affect the product's usage? I know that part of what is luring me into purchasing the Nook is that I can read many books for free while I'm in the store & I imagine that is the same for other buyers.

If the Nook is purchased along with the rest of Barnes & Nobles then it would be foolhardy for the new owners to discontinue the Nook or to cease some of the product perks. While the Nook hasn't had a launch as wildly popular as the first Kindle had, it is still considered to be one of the better e-Readers out there.