New NOOK announced (no keyboard, touch eink screen)

[fistfulofmetal]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/b...nces-new-nook/

Not to be outdone by Kobo which just unleashed it's latest E Ink reader yesterday the folks at Barnes & Noble are back with the latest update to their line of Nook devices. The "all new" Nook is touch enabled and lasts up to two months on a single charge. The Pearl E Ink screen boasts "80-percent less flashing" during page turns, something that many fans of the devices have resigned themselves to having their eyes assaulted by. And B&N is quite proud of its streamlined interface which it brags has 37 less buttons than the Kindle 3. Around the back is a soft-touch rubber surface that should feel great in the hand while reading, though, we'll have to wait to manhandle one ourselves to be sure.

The new Nook has a redesigned home screen with your current reading list and suggested titles and adds a few features like FastPage Zoom forward, which lets you jump to any page in a title, and (finally) displays the number of pages left to go.

The new Nook has a redesigned home screen with your current reading list and suggested titles and adds a few features like FastPage Zoom forward, which lets you jump to any page in a title, and (finally) displays the number of pages left to go. Inside is a microSD slot and a WiFi radio, but sadly no 3G.

Available for pre-order online and in stores now and should start shipping June 10. You'll also be able to pick one up at BestBuy, Walmart, Books-A-Million, and Staples for $139 at the same time.

I'm a Kindle user but this looks real nice. I like the lack of keyboard - always thought it was a waste of real estate. Touch screen is interesting but I would still use the buttons. I'm fine with my Kindle for now but I want to see how Amazon is gonna respond to this.

[Mupepe]

Been looking for an E-Reader.  This will be mine.

[Van Cruncheon]

day one. love my nook, but i want somehting smaller and lighter.

[huckleberry]

Sounds nice but the border and the inset screen don't look very appealing....of course holding one may change my mind altogether.  Gonna check one out for sure.

[AdmiralViscen]

Mega bezel.

[Groogrux]

So they finally figured out how to make the e-ink into touchscreen format?  I'm impressed.  I still like my Nook Color, but I'm impressed.

[Cormacaroni]

day one. love my nook, but i want somehting smaller and lighter.

You have Kindle too, right? You prefer Nook?

[AdmiralViscen]

Sony has had an e-ink touchscreen for a while, but it made the text blurry and dull. I wonder if that has been resolved with this device.

[cool breeze]

So they finally figured out how to make the e-ink into touchscreen format?  I'm impressed.  I still like my Nook Color, but I'm impressed.

sony had touch screen ones for a while, but they flubbed it because it required an additional layer above the e-ink screen that defeated the entire "quality and clarity" appeal of e-ink readers.  I think last year Sony introduced readers with infrared touch screens, which to my understanding, has beams coming from the border or something (I think that's why the screen needs to dip).  I think this new Nook and another new reader also use that infrared tech.  don't take anything I said as fact as it's from memory; I'm on a too shitty netbook to bother looking it up.

edit: completely missed admiralviscen's post. this netbook is awful.

[cool breeze]

anyone get one of these?

I messed around with one the other day and it seems great.  I've had the song of ice and fire four book set ready to order and the books are huge (physically).  I've moved around like three times in the past year and it's getting annoying to lug stuff around.  Just reading the books on the small near weightless device will be more comfortable too.  So a few questions:

How does buying digital books even work? do books from the Amazon Kindle shop work on the Nook? (side-note: I don't get why the physical set cost $20 and the digital cost $30)

Are e-ink screens any better at handling images like manga or is it mostly for text?

How hard is it to add user files (pdfs, word, whatever) to the device? all I remember about e-readers is that 'email to amazon and they'll convert it to kindle format' thing, which I'm probably making up.

[fistfulofmetal]

I believe if you own a Nook you are limited to buying books from the Barnes and Noble store and vice versa with the Kindle.

The Kindle's screen is the same as the new Nook's and it handles images just fine as long as you greyscale the image and lower the bitrate a bit. It does take longer to load images into memory than it does text. I would imagine the new Nook may be a little speedier about it.

When it comes to the Kindle, it supports PDF's natively. The Nook probably does too. Other than that it's really easy to covert various ebook formats to ones the Kindle can read. There's bunch of software out there for it.

[AdmiralViscen]

The nook does not have the same screen, this one stores up to 6 at a time so it doesn't have to refresh as often, has significantly lower power consumption, nevermind the touch.

Nook can download any ePub book, unlike the Kindle, that is one of its major benefits.

[fistfulofmetal]

Page storing has nothing to do with the screen afaik. That's a software design and is more dependent on memory/cpu. The screen itself is the same. edit: though it's probably an improved version of the same screen. both are Pearl.

And it's not a literal touch screen. It has IR sensors along the inside of the bezel that picks up finger swipes/touches.

[Van Cruncheon]

i got one, best e-reader EVER

[cool breeze]

Kinda lame that I can't read amazon bought books on it.  I'd prefer to use Amazon because brand loyalty and dependence and I'm weak and shut up. 

screw it I'll probably buy it.  cost wise it's slightly above the novelty purchase range but I feel like I'd get real use from it,

I already hate that I have a few books I bought that I've been meaning to read, and now I'll get used to this, and I'll be forced to rebuy them.  And then Amazon will announce a touch screen kindle a week later.

[Cormacaroni]

Looks great. Although i'll probably just wait for amazon to put out something like this. Tech arms races

[Smooth Groove]

Do they sell vintage erotica with pictures in e-book format yet? 

[Cormacaroni]

Kinda lame that I can't read amazon bought books on it.  I'd prefer to use Amazon because brand loyalty and dependence and I'm weak and shut up. 

screw it I'll probably buy it.  cost wise it's slightly above the novelty purchase range but I feel like I'd get real use from it,

I already hate that I have a few books I bought that I've been meaning to read, and now I'll get used to this, and I'll be forced to rebuy them.  And then Amazon will announce a touch screen kindle a week later.

You can easily remove the DRM and convert them to epub so you can read them on the Nook though. It's a couple of clicks.

[cool breeze]

That's a relief.  I just don't want to be in a situation where I have a Nook now, then Amazon puts out a better product, but I'm stuck in the Nook format/drm content loop.  Because I won't be content with what I own if I know something better is out there.

[recursivelyenumerable]

300dpi or no buy