On Tuesday, Barnes & Noble announced that the Nook, the company's e-book reader that aims to compete with Amazon's Kindle, is available for pre-order. That ancillary screen is used to navigate books via a Cover Flow-like interface, display an on-screen keyboard, and generally operate the device. It's a very interesting device: the first dedicated e-book reader that is powered by Google's Android operating system (it runs Android 1.5). The Nook should ship at the end of November and it'll cost you $259. That's the same price as the Kindle 2, though an international Kindle 2 that allows wireless access outside of the U.S. costs $279. (The nook doesn't include an International option at the moment.) Barnes & Noble's reader has a 6-inch diagonal E Ink display, just like the Kindle 2, but the clever folks at B&N have also added a 3.5-inch color LCD screen below the E Ink screen. The Nook comes with 2GB of internal memory, which Barnes & Noble says will hold about 1500 e-books, though that can be expanded by using the included Micro SD slot.
And should you wish, you can remove the Nook's battery, for fun and profit-and B&N will sell you an extra battery if the 10-day charge without using wireless isn't enough for you. You can even listen to MP3s on the nook, either through the built-in mono speaker or by plugging in headphones. The Nook, again much like the Kindle, comes bundles with wireless 3G access-via AT&T, while the Kindle uses Sprint's network-so you can download content wirelessly. Free samples of all titles will be available and users will be able to access special content when using their nook at a Barnes & Noble store. The Nook ups the wireless ante by also including Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11 b/g) and access to free Wi-Fi in all of Barnes & Noble's stores (which is a very good idea, though it doesn't appear that the Nook has a Web browser, as the Kindle does). An e-reader isn't of much interest without something to read on it, and Barnes & Noble boasts more than a million titles, though many of those are through a partnership with Google to distribute public domain titles; there are newspapers and magazines available as well. You can also read your own PDFs on the Nook, something you can't do with a Kindle 2 without converting the PDF first.
They will be able to read it on their Nook, or using the Barnes & Noble e-reader available for PCs, Macs, the iPhone, some Motorola smartphones, and the BlackBerry. One of the biggest differences between the Nook and Amazon's Kindle is that you can let your friends borrow a Nook book for up to 14 days. You can also start reading a book on your Nook, and then keep reading where you left off on your Mac or PC thanks to Barnes & Noble's Reading Now technology, which sounds very much like Amazon's WhisperSync feature. If you want to play around with a Nook in person, you'll be able to do so at any of Barnes & Noble's physical stores, thanks to special Nook displays that should be popping up in the coming weeks.
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