the Nook

My spoiled husband got a Nook for his birthday, which meant yours truly got to play with it.

The first thing I noticed is the weight. That thing is heavy! It's probably a good 2-3 times as the Kindle, easily.

The touchscreen is glorious color and has very clear resolution. Ebooks are easy to read and backlit. The library shelf displays the covers of your ebooks, which adds a nice visual reference.

The magazine function is pretty cool. You can pan around and zoom in on whatever you want to read. I did think that some of the magazine subscription prices were a little steep.

The browser is awesome as long as the website you're trying to view doesn't use Flash or Silverlight. The screen is a tad on the small side for browsing but like the magazines, you can zoom in if you want to.

Youtube did not work. I also tried a video on another website, the Nook wouldn't play those either.

I think the Nook could serve as a suitable stand-in for the iPad for someone who just wants to use it to read and hop onto the internet occasionally.

The apps are practically nonexistant. The Nook came with chess and crossword and maybe a couple other games. It did come with a Pandora internet radio app, which is pretty cool. The speaker volume doesn't get very high, but there is a headphone jack.

If there are downloadable apps out there, I wasn't able to locate them.

The usb cable that came with the Nook was crap. We couldn't get it to plug all the way into the Nook. At first, I thought there was something wrong with the port on the Nook itself, but that wasn't the case. Luckily the connection was a common one, so we just used one of our other usb cords with it.

All in all, the Nook is a lot of fun. As far as functionality, it lies between Kindle (pretty much ebook only) and iPad (almost a computer). However, I think it's overkill if you just want to read books. The many features could be a distraction.

I love the shiny technology, but I think I'll hang onto my Kindle for hardcore reading.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find a download of three short stories (free ebook) and links to my novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1