Gadgetory

recently Barnes and Noble announced their dual screened eReader the Nook it takes direct aim at the Amazon Kindle and with features like Wi-Fi a micro SD card slot and Android it looks to be a major challenge let's take a look at what all the Nook has to offer and see how it measures up to the rest of the pack the first thing you will notice about the Nook is the 3.5 inch color touchscreen which sits below the six inch e-ink display where the standard can no packs are reasonable keyboard the Nook fills the space with a nice-looking auxilary touchscreen it is used for selecting books navigating menus and much more while it may seem somewhat like a gimmick it not only adds some added value but also opens up the possibilities for using the Nook in ways you wouldn't with other readers because of the color touchscreen one of the most promising uses of the touchscreen stems from the operating system of the Nook Android Android so far has been mostly confined to smartphones and it is a first to see it running an e-reader Android is an open source OS made by Google and as such is extremely open to modifications aka hacking and apps opening up a huge world of possibilities adding to the promise of an open platform is the fact that Barnes and Noble has as good as announced that they're going to allow applications to run on the Nook however promising it is however it is of course an e-reader first or foremost in that case it seems is very formidable it shares the same six inch e-ink display as the Kindle which is perfect for reading books and magazines in a natural way unlike how standard LCD screens are backlit and can be a strain on your eyes after reading for extended periods of time downloading books a simple via the Barnes & Noble ebook online storefront with most books coming in and right under $10 in addition you'll be able to download over 500,000 free ebooks mostly being of the classic variety such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea etc downloading the books is simple via 3G through AT&T network and it's free just as it is on the Kindle where the nook has an advantage is with the included Wi-Fi which opens up a lot of possibilities once the device has been fully outfitted with apps being able to download content went away from ATT's notoriously spotty 3G network is also helpful among the nooks unique if disappointing features is ensuring functionality with it you can wirelessly share your ebooks with any other device that has the client including the iPhone iPod Touch blackberry PC Mac and of course other nooks however this will not likely be a well utilized feature as any ebook you choose to share will be unavailable to you while that is being Lent in addition some if not most ebooks won't be available to share and those that well can only be shared once forever it's certainly disappointing however it may be handy in some limited situations the Nook contains two gigabytes of on-board storage which will be good for up to 1,500 ebooks however you can utilize a microSD card slot in the device which will allow you to insert cards up to 16 gigabytes in size which should be plenty for you assuming you have less than 15 thousand or so ebooks which hopefully isn't a problem the note doesn't break any new ground price-wise it will cost two hundred and sixty dollars the same as the Kindle 2 when it is released on November 30th that said between the wealth of unique features such as the added touch screen Android easy sharing feature along with Wi-Fi it really stands to be the first very interesting eReader we shall see once the Nook is released if it can really match up against the Kindle but for now I think it's safe to say Amazon should be pretty worried thanks for watching