Barnes and Noble introduces the Nook

B&N is introducing a new ereader, to compete with the Kindle.

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/EmSwM
Publishers Weekly: http://bit.ly/4B6ehO
TechCrunch http://bit.ly/4p5Hnj
TechCrunch eReader comparison: http://bit.ly/11Qjhn

Key details:

1. It's $259.
2. It uses eInk for the top (same as everyone), but has a small color LCD screen at the bottom, apparently for selecting books.
3. Has a Wifi/Cellphone system like Amazon.
4. Certain books (ie., books from certain publishers) will be lend-able. Lending will be allowed only once per book, for 14 days—during which they won't be usable on the original Nook, and after which they vanish from the recipient's Nook.
5. No provision for libraries, of course. My post there (http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2009/10/ebook-economics-are-libraries-screwed.php) looks increasingly obvious, I think.

I'm having a hard time keeping up. There is also the Alex, QueReader, Ectaco JetBook, enTourage Edge, a solar charged ereader from LG, and who knows how many will be introduced in the next six months. Tablet rumors abound. Price wars ahead!

Kindle, Nook, and Sony are probably the big players for 2010. After that? Beats me.

So far, I'm underwhelmed by the selection of eBook devices, despite the fact that the two that I have are 8+ years old.

When I can get unfettered content (that is portable to any device, more or less), then I might get interested.

#1 and you missed out - it's only available in the US. Not the way to develop a worldwide market when your competition are international.

#2 - Irex, Cool-ER, Astec, and the next big thing will be PlasticLogic's Que due early 2010 with colour.

#3 - that's not the devices' problem it's the publishers. Although Amazon/Kindle didn't help. There is a lot of unrestricted content available - but it's mostly 'classics' or selfpublished.

Hmmm: Kindle, Nook ... maybe it's time for Tim to launch an LT competition to predict the names of forthcoming ebook reader devices? I suppose we can rule out Poker, Spit and Hearthstone, but what about Grate, Chimney, FireScreen, CoalScuttle, iNgle (the new Apple ereader), Tongs (for the Asian market), and of course the Dingley from Dell...?

I'm hoping for the "Spine eReader." Could get into that.

Spine eNorman, shurely...?

And what about the BarBook-U for cyclists?

#6 Found at the chiropractor's office?

I like the Dingley. it has a nice ringley... the Dingley...

and, besides, Dinglies Dangle and who doesn't like Dangling Dingleys?

More coverage
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/nook-is-different/

This guy doesn't like B&N's pricing strategy.
http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/The-Crook-in-the-Nook-Barnes-Noble-ebo...

$259 = kiss my ass Barnes & Noble.

Actually, if you look at the comparison (http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/10/20/chart-how-the-nook-stacks-up-in-the-ereader-race/) most others cost even more.

But yeah, I think the idea of spending that much money on a device that can't even handle all ebook formats (let alone that you have to pay extra for the books themselves) is pretty ludicrous. Would it be acceptable for other reading devices such as glasses, for example? "Yes, you buy these reading glasses for good your money, but you can't use them to read books from our competitors"... Sure! As long as those ebook people don't get to a universal format, it's a no go area for me.

There's an SF story, I think by Vernor Vinge, about what happens when this sort of thing develops further. One student helps out another student by letting her read off of his reader. She has to do this because she can't pay her monthly rental fee for her e-textbooks (or something like that). It is understood that they're both taking a horrible risk by doing this. Scary stuff.

EDIT: No, it's The Right to Read, by R. Stallman. Thanks to Lorax for the citation and link.

By the way, no one seems to have remarked on another very scary aspect of this: THEY know what you're reding. Now, you can just go into a bookstore and pay cash, and no one will ever know. If e-readers become the norm... oh bad oh bad oh bad.

>14 Carnophile:

They not only know what you're reading, Kindle knows what page you're on, what pages you've marked and all annotations. They're stored on their servers.

Wasn't there a case a few years back where a public library (New York?) provided a client's book check-out history which was used against him in a court proceeding? Or maybe this was just an urban myth, but it strikes me as something I heard a lot about a few years ago.

>15 timspalding: Gaaaaah!

Amazon has always been stingy with some of their data. It drives some analysts crazy. Yesterday in their bofo report for their latest quarterly results they announced that the Kindle was the number one selling item on their sites. How many do you think they average selling daily? 2,000 to 3,000? 4,000 to 6,000? More? Less? Based on some other estimates I've seen for ereaders I'd guess 4,000 a day at this time. Buy it's just a guess.

I'd rather spend that $259 on real books. :)

15: timspalding - you sure about that? because some of my book folders have a file other than the book and i thought that held my notes, comments, bookmarks, all that stuff. If not, just what is the second file?

15 & 20:

On my Kindle 1 -- on the Settings menu, you can choose to disable backup of annotations. In that way, Amazon won't know what page you are on etc. Yes, they will still know what you read.

k4k

>20 spoiledfornothing:

Oh no, they're on there. But if you lose the Kindle, they'll give you them all back.