October 20th, 2009
Meet Nook: Barnes and Noble's sexy new book reader
Barnes and Noble announced a new eBook reader today called Nook, and it’s already earned a place in our hearts (as well as our wish list). On the outside: a curvy industrial design that would make Apple engineers proud. On the inside: an ARM processor powered by the Android operating system. It’s available now for pre-order with shipments expected to start as early as next week in late November.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Nook is that it has two screens. The top screen is for reading, and like a regular book it’s high-contrast black and white (eInk). The bottom one is for navigation, typing, and other interactivity. It’s a standard back-lit LCD touch-sensitive display. Overall, the Nook is about the size and weight of a paperback book.
The Nook lets you use two different wireless networks for free: AT&T 3G Wireless (like Kindle’s WhisperNet), and WiFi. You can browse books, magazines, and newspapers using either network. When you’re inside a B&N store, you get free WiFi plus exclusive content, special discounts, and more. Soon you’ll be able to read entire eBooks for free at your local store.
Another innovation in the Nook is the ability to lend books to your friends for up to 14 days. They don’t even have to have a Nook, just the free B&N eReader software installed on a PC, Mac, or mobile phone.
After the break we’ll get into the technical specifications and other details…
Ed Burnette is a professional developer and author of several articles and books about computing including Hello, Android: Introducing Google's Mobile Development Platform, 2nd Edition. For disclosure of Ed's industry affiliations, click here or to view his full profile click here.
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| 10/21/09
