Consumer Reports: Nook Beats The Kindle

[rxmom03]

Originally Posted by 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?

I have Stanza on my iPhone, and they have a setting that I love (and I don't think any other reader has). I have it set that whether I tap on the right or left side that it moves forward, and to move back I swipe to the left. Since I very rarely back-track while reading, I can hold my phone in either hand and read

Mary

[charleski]

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 But, the format is obsolete.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.

ePub is still pretty primitive, even in its latest incarantion (no coherent page model? WTF!). But if ePub is Homo neanderthalensis, then Mobipocket is a bunch of baboons flashing their bottoms at each other. Amazon needs to stop using a decade-old format if it ever wants to win any sales from me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jocampo

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.

The problem is that Mobipocket is not as used as ePub. And AZW DRM is a lock-in. I can buy a nook and authorize it to my ADE account and load on ePub with DRM no problem. If I'd rather a Kobo, no problem. But if I had a Kindle and decided I wanted to move to a different brand, I'd lose most of my library. Sure, it works well enough if you want a Kindle. But the moment you don't, it sucks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by charleski

ePub is still pretty primitive, even in its latest incarantion (no coherent page model? WTF!). But if ePub is Homo neanderthalensis, then Mobipocket is a bunch of baboons flashing their bottoms at each other. Amazon needs to stop using a decade-old format if it ever wants to win any sales from me.

Even if ePub is still in its infancy, it is still a better format with more control of how eBooks look then Mobipocket. Mobipocket was obsolete when MS Reader was the format before ePub. ePub then killed MS Reader and should have killed off Mobipocket, but Amazon decided to keep on using Mobipocket. Now we have a splinter that's not getting any narrower. Amazon is getting people hooked in to something that they may end up regretting someday.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is that Mobipocket is not as used as ePub. And AZW DRM is a lock-in. I can buy a nook and authorize it to my ADE account and load on ePub with DRM no problem. If I'd rather a Kobo, no problem. But if I had a Kindle and decided I wanted to move to a different brand, I'd lose most of my library. Sure, it works well enough if you want a Kindle. But the moment you don't, it sucks.

B&N customers are as locked as Kindle users when buying directly from their stores, assuming you don't know or don't. want break the encryption. You cannot read B&N books outside of B&N environment.
The main problem is DRM protection. If I buy a DRM free mobi book I can read wherever I want, even on your Sony via Calibre conversion.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by jocampo

You cannot read B&N books outside of B&N environment.

You can in a few Android apps and I believe Bluefire on the iThingy's and I believe one of the Jetbook's.

Have we had a report yet as to whether B&N DRM is working on the new Kobo or not?

[Ditchleyportrait]

I've thought it over. In ten years we'll all be saying, why oh why couldn't they keep it simple like the kindle 3.

It is corny to have a virtual bookshelf. I like how kindle does it. Just titles. Not shelfari. I like how the kindle company tells you to email it on that one screensaver and in the experimental page.

It's about reading. Maybe touch is good. I think touch is fun for ereading. You're actively engaged with reading. You're constantly harassing you're ereader. Great, great.

I would want one, however, I bought a DX; didn't wait for a decent touch model.

Who has the last laugh is really the guy whose reader lasts the longest. Which reader is more durable, the touch or the button one?

Will a touch screen endure as long as non-touch? More importantly, ... .

Of course, the touch is better. It is better than a non-touch. The kindle 3 is worse than the Nook Simple Touch. Kobo's awful. It's sold by Borders, ok. At least B&N sells Harney tea in their cafes. B&N gets passing marks. The kindle 3 is bland, but it's the perfect reader after the touch. I have a huge [profane language edit - moderator] screen, though, and if it lasts, I won the game, last year, ha!

[spellbanisher]

I find this bizarre:

"The first-generation Nook (now dubbed "Nook First Edition" by B&N) has a second, color screen below the reading screen for navigation and boasts an MP3 player, a game, and a basic Web browser.

The Simple Touch drops those bells and whistles and the second screen. As a result, it (like the Kindle) successfully "gets out of the way and disappears and lets you get on with your reading," as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in praise of the Kindle during my interview with him last month."

So the Nook Touch is an improvement over the original because it has less features? The only addition by subtraction in that list is the removal of the color touch screen. Otherwise, I hardly see how removing the mp3 player, web browser, and games improves the reading experience, especially since you can simply choose to not use those features. I hope amazon doesn't go the addition by subtraction route in their future readers. Imagine if Amazon releases a cheaper touch reader with all the features the nook lacks: "The Amazon Kindle-twice the features for a lower price."

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by boswd

The question is and I'll admit I'm going to be very curious to the reacton of the kindle owners here. The ones who are saying this and that about touch and how the kindle's current form is the best etc etc.

Do people really find the keyboard part of the kindle design that great though?

I know I'd happily switch to a touchscreen kindle that was smaller than the current one provided that it included page turn buttons at a minimum and ideally a few others for menu etc below the screen so I didn't need to touch the screen for the most frequent current keys.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

And it locked every other ereader manufacturer beside Amazon and Sony from using Pearl for 6 months. If the other features of the kindle were that much better, they wouldn't have feared the competition.

Was this purely an exclusivity deal or did have more to do with those two companies simply putting in large enough orders that they used up all the production during that period anyway.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by SkookumPete

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?

I wouldn't say that a touchscreen is inherently an improvement, but given how little I actually use the keyboard on my kindle compared with the other buttons, I can't honestly think I'd miss it, whereas I would notice a k4 being smaller or even having a larger screen in the same size as a k3. Realistically, it all comes down to how people use their ebook readers as to what features matter most to them, as somebody who adds notes to everything they read is going to be using their keyboard far more than somebody like me who simply reads through his books and just needs navigation keys.

One thing to consider is that if there isn't another screen upgrade that would make the k3 look worse than a k4 then the ebook market is probably big enough that amazon could simply add a kindle touch to the existing range giving people more options regardless of their preference.

[mcooke66]

I have had the NST for about a week and it is a great reader.
I have played extensively with K3 and it is a great reader.

The review just edged the Nook ahead of Kindle mostly because of the touch interface. Touch interfaces are better because they simplify the input control and actually improve the users understanding of the interface (what the device can do) at the same time. Once you know its a touch interface most people start touching things and discover the capabilities of the device organically.


There are 2 main reasons a touch interface is usually better.
1. You have a simpler form factor smaller device less input options to use. This almost always tests better for usability. However removing all buttons (but one) like Nook Color can backfire on usability, NST did not repeat this mistake.

2. It is much simpler from a cognitive perspective to touch what you want the device to do e.g. open the book by touching the cover, selecting the word by touching the word. Using a pointer to first identify the option then select the option is slower on the brain. I think the reason it is so minor to everyone is all the years of mouse and keyboard practice, the kindle input fits our current mental model so even though it is slower on the brain it is familiar and comfortable. Touching what you want to do will always test better for usability.

Personal preference is always the winner for an individual. I work with many blackberry addicts that cannot get past the device that first made their business communications soooo much better, regardless of the enhanced capabilities of the iPhone and Android devices. Touch is the future of all small tech devices because the overall experience is improved by it.


I would expect Kindle4 to be touch because they will improve the device by making it touch. I also expect that defenders of what they have in their hands will continue to do so.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mcooke66

Touching what you want to do will always test better for usability.

Not necessarily. Human fingers (or at least, MY human fingers) are too big and clumsy to be able to accurately and reliably select text on a touch screen. On my Sony PRS-350 (which uses exactly the same kind of touch screen that both the new nook and Kobo devices have) I'm constantly ending up with the wrong word selected when I try to look up a word in the dictionary, and highlight text for the purposes of annotation. The Kindle's word selection cursor which you move around with a 5-way controller just works a lot better for me. A low-tech interface, yes, but it works WAY better for me.

[mcooke66]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not necessarily. Human fingers (or at least, MY human fingers) are too big and clumsy to be able to accurately and reliably select text on a touch screen. On my Sony PRS-350 (which uses exactly the same kind of touch screen that both the new nook and Kobo devices have) I'm constantly ending up with the wrong word selected when I try to look up a word in the dictionary, and highlight text for the purposes of annotation. The Kindle's word selection cursor which you move around with a 5-way controller just works a lot better for me. A low-tech interface, yes, but it works WAY better for me.

Your preference and experience will always outweigh the trade offs in interface design. My statement was that touch interfaces test
better for usability not that they work better for everyone. All interfaces are a series of trade offs, usability testing just helps to point to what works for the majority. NOTHING works better for everyone.

I am not one of those that equates low tech with bad tech, low tech solutions are often the best for the purpose at hand. The virtual keyboard is a perfect example, it is high tech but hard to use, people accept it and get proficient with it because it is the trade off for a thinner phone with all the other usability enhancements they want.

If the average reader did a ton of note taking. even though the NST keyboard is good it would not compare to a physical one, the tactile feedback is better for usability. The trade off is that most folks do not take notes while reading, they just read, so B&N made the correct trade off for the market place IMO.

[Nanopr]

For the record and a direct message to Amazon. I will not buy a Kindle or an ebook at Amazon until they fully support ePub. So by default... Nook beats Kindle, no contest.