Consumer Reports: Nook Beats The Kindle

[SCION]

Maybe there will be a touchscreen Kindle with a slide out keyboard. That would be innovative. I would love to have access to a physical keyboard for notes.

[Namekuseijin]

I have a slide-out keyboard in the smartphone. It's much more useless than Kindle's keyboard, as it's even smaller. I don't use it at all. I use the awesome swype input method to quickly swipe my finger over letters in the keyboard to form words. Too bad I've not seen it used in tablets so far...

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Namekuseijin

... I use the awesome swype input method to quickly swipe my finger over letters in the keyboard to form words. Too bad I've not seen it used in tablets so far...

I'm using one on my tablet. You may have to purchase it.

[JSWolf]

The Kindle infrastructure is quote good. But, the format is obsolete. That makes Amazon behind the times. They need to drop Mobipocket/AZW and move to ePub or eventually, they'll lose out.

[jocampo]

-No landscape support
-Poor PDF capabilities
-Some firmware issues, including ghosting

I don't know how the Nook Touch can beat the Kindle 3 as an ereader.

I already mentioned that I like the Nook Touch, it was a big step forward comparing with the Nook classic (my 1st eink reader) but just because is touch screen does not make it a better device.

The dictionary, for example, is same or even slower than using a Kindle, and Nook Touch is touchscreen, should be faster. You need to tap twice on the Nook Touch. On the Kindle you just position the cursor and you get meaning immediately. A nice touchscreen implementation when talking about dictionary and words look-up is the iPad: you touch, you get the meaning just there.

The browser on the Kindle 3 is also better. Granted, is an eink device, what you can expect even from any other eink device, but its implementation is better.

I just sold or actually trying to sell my HTC HD2 cellphone because was looking for an Android phone with real/physical keyboard.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by jocampo

...

I just sold or actually trying to sell my HTC HD2 cellphone because was looking for an Android phone with real/physical keyboard.

Funny you mention this. I was staring at mine when I wrote the post about the physical keyboard. Each time I type something on it, I wish I had a slide out keyboard (landscape mode style). I'm not referring to the cell phones with the slide out tiny chicklet keys and the portrait mode style keyboard. Those are a joke.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Kindle infrastructure is quote good. But, the format is obsolete. That makes Amazon behind the times. They need to drop Mobipocket/AZW and move to ePub or eventually, they'll lose out.

Why you are going to drop a format or business model that is working? That does not make sense.

For a novel or pure text book, a Kindle (mobi format) vs any other ereader that uses ePub, reads and looks exactly the same! By the end of the year, we will also be able to use Overdrive. So there is no actual benefit for Amazon or a Kindle user.

[SkookumPete]

It's unfortunate that design decisions are more often based on "coolness" rather than usability. My favorite example of this is the disappearance of toggle switches from audio equipment. You used to be able to tell at a glance from across the room whether a set of speakers, for example, was on or off. Now you have to crouch close to the unit with a flashlight to see whether the tiny black button is in or out.

Over the last year we've all been saturated with advertising for touch-screen devices (enough to support a generation of "hand models" -- nod to George Costanza) and this has the effect of making the Kindle buttons look dowdy. But is touch-screen really an improvement?

BTW as this is a forum for readers, I hope I will be forgiven for pointing out that "Leary" is the guy that turned us on, tuned us in, and dropped us out some decades ago. I'd be "leery" of using his name as an adjective. :-)

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by SCION

Funny you mention this. I was staring at mine when I wrote the post about the physical keyboard. Each time I type something on it, I wish I had a slide out keyboard (landscape mode style). I'm not referring to the cell phones with the slide out tiny chicklet keys and the portrait mode style keyboard. Those are a joke.

Check these two: HTC G2 or Samsung G4 Sidekick.

By the way, I love HTC HD2 hardware, awesome cellphone with a very nice screen. But I really need a better keyboard, plus the custom ROM is driving me crazy with lot of bugs and poor battery life.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm afraid I really can't agree with you. I honestly don't believe that "helping the disabled" was even the tiniest consideration behind the creation of eBooks.

But touch screens don't rule out blind users. I'm sure you've seen, for example, what a superb interface the iPad offers for the blind user "out of the box". It's won all sorts of praise from blind organisations for that.

ePub 3 merges the DAISY specification into ePub 3 spec. DAISY is specifically designed to make ebooks accessible.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

DAISY is apparently an audio format, not the same as an ebook, and EPUB was created after ebooks had already been around for several years, so I don't think that is really accurate.

DAISY reading systems typically include voiceover type navigation and TTS but keyboard navigation and high contrast display modes are part of it also. It is not strictly speaking an 'audio format', though its effectiveness depends on audio.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

The only thing that will cause me to buy a newer Kindle is a significant screen quality improvement. Otherwise, my K3 is 'mission accomplished' for ebooks.

That's just how I've felt about my jetBook Lite since they released their latest firmware.

[tomsem]

I'd have to agree that B&N made the right choice in retaining physical page turn buttons. It is small and light enough to hold and operate in one hand easily, but if you are holding it in your left hand, how is your thumb supposed to reach across the screen to touch the right side and advance the page?

Also the new nook does have a Bluetooth chip in there (part of the chipset they are using). I'm not sure if it can be turned on, but if so, and the chipset also includes audio, there's a possibility that it could support wireless audio, keyboard etc. Eliminating the physical audio components like volume control, speaker, output plug would reduce the manufacturing cost while still leaving open the possibility of supporting audio at some point (not that there's any internal storage for it). At least we can hope that's the case until it is proven otherwise.

[stickybuns]

Originally Posted by SCION

Maybe there will be a touchscreen Kindle with a slide out keyboard. That would be innovative. I would love to have access to a physical keyboard for notes.

What about a keyboard dock like the ones you can get for an iPad? Maybe something that could be built into a new version of the lighted case?

[sbtx99]

Originally Posted by boswd

to pricing (remember it was Amazon who reacted to BN when they dropped the price of the nook);

And it could also be argued that the Nook price drop was in reaction Kobo having just released their ereader for $149.