Both are user-photos, rather than official marketing photos. Click on either image to see more.
Several updates since Original Posting on May 30.
NOOK SIMPLE TOUCH AND KINDLE 3 FEATURES
In responding to articles or comments at the NY Times and the Amazon Kindle Forum, I included some information I had gathered, and I'm including a copy below of essentially what I posted to the Kindle forum. I'll try to do something in easier-to-read format later.
Where the new Nook has advantages are:
. a Touch screen (many will prefer it just for this feature,
for easier navigation)
. smaller size
. slightly lighter weight
. somewhat faster page turns
. shorter black-flash in between pages
. fastforward & rewind on held button
. expandable memory via micro-SD card
. No keyboard 'buttons' causing user confusion
. Claimed longer battery session per charge w/o WiFi wireless On.
Barnes and Noble's claim to a 2-mo. battery charge when Wireless is Off (Nook Touch and Kindle are the same for WiFi On, they said) was stated to be based on 1/2 hr of reading per day or 3.5 hrs reading a week. I would not say this stat was based on those who are avid readers.
The Kindle (as reported by some columns) has long been based on 1 hour of reading per day or 7 hours a week.
There's been a lot of press on this and then a bit of pique by Barnes and Noble when Amazon changed its battery-charge marketing claim to "up to two months" if basing it on the same, only-1/2 hour a day as B&N does, which makes sense. Barnes and Noble complained mightily that their testing of the Nook Simple Touch with Wireless Off showed a longer battery time for the Nook, regardless. Both companies have now included wording to the effect that it all depends on how you use the device. Those who need to sync their devices between the e-reader and smart phones and who download newspapers and magazines regularly (on either reader) will need Wireless On more.
However, in order to get the Touch screen technology for e-Ink, B&N apparently felt they had to cut some features that the older e-Ink Nooks had. Here's the list (mildly edited) that I made for a forum response at Amazon's Kindle forums, on the Kindle 3 with Special Offers ($164) topic question re a comparison with the Nook, and you can check the B&N Comparison chart for NookColor and Nook, used as a reference for the post. I've added some bold-facing here to try to make things clearer on a long piece.
' -- 1a. The "3G" Kindle has 3G cellphone network access and you can look up things on the web almost anywhere you are, at any time.
-- 1b. The new Nook Touch does not have '3G' web access. You have to find a local WiFi Network or hotspot to download your book.
-- 2a. The Kindle has a web browser that can read web articles in "Article Mode" concentrating on the article, with a cleaner layout..
You can use the web browser to look up things on the Web/Net with no monthly or hourly charges.
-- 2b. The new Nook Touch has no web browser, not even in WiFi mode. The old Nook had a decent one to use with WiFi though not with its 3G model, which was limited to the company store.
Update - The "hidden" web browser, discovered when using a web URL with the search mechanism, is described with quoted discussions of the likely reasons for its being hidden by B&N currently. It's a default, barebones Android OS-included web-browser that has not been tuned to the Nook Touch yet. Google searches crash the device, etc.
-- 3a. The Kindle has a music/audio player that can play your mp3's in the background. That includes audiobooks (and specifically also Audible books).
-- 3b. The Nook has no music/audio player.
-- 4a. The Kindle reads personal docs, newspapers, magazines, and books the publisher approves for text-to-speech (tts). It's computerized but better than most computer voices and is useful for times when you have to cook, wash dishes, drive somewhere...
-- 4b. The Nook Simple Touch doesn't have text-to-speech.
-- 5a. You can buy and download books from Amazon while outside the U.S.
The Kindle's 3G cellphone-access web browser is usable in about 60 countries.
Its '3G' Amazon book downloads are available in about 100 countries.
-- 5b. No one outside the U.S. can buy a Barnes & Noble book for the new Nook, not even a traveling U.S. resident. No web browsing is possible ever.
-- 6a. The Kindle can zoom any photo to full screen by clicking in the center of it.
-- 6b. The new Nook Touch can't. Not even maps with small text.
-- 7a. You can switch the Kindle to Landscape mode for regular books and the web.
-- 7b. The new Nook does not have Landscape mode as a feature at all.
It comes only in Portrait mode for reading.
PDFs that can't be read in Landscape mode on a 6" screen are often just not readable. This is important for those hoping to read PDF manuals.
Update2
-- 7c. You can adjust display contrast on PDFs, on a Kindle, important for color 'translations to 16 gray levels, as some colors are so faint as gray levels they're hard to read.
-- 7d. The new Nook has no PDF screen-contrast control. [End of Update2]
Update5 The Nook can 'reflow' text with some PDFs. You won't see the original layout intended, but it'll be readable in that case.
With the Kindle 3, I keep the original PDF and use Landscape mode, Zoom features and Screen-Contrast Adjustment but, if needed, I email a -copy- of the PDF to my Kindle (using [me]@free.kindle.com with the word "Convert" in the subject) and get a Kindle-formatted copy delivered to the Kindle that, unless the page is complex, is readable and uses the usual Kindle features. [End of Update5]
-- 8a. B&N advertises the Nook store has 2 million books but counts the free Google books, which are about 1.2 million.
-- 8b. For the Kindle, a publishing outfit offers Free immediate conversions from Google's ePub to Kindle format always, and we can do it ourselves in about 2-3 minutes w/Calibre and send it to the Kindle or side-load it.
See http://bit.ly/milkbooks for how easy the conversion is, either by the Kindle owner or for free by the small publishing outfit who then puts up a copy of each converted files for anyone to download in Kindle format.
-- 9a. Kindle users can download, directly to the Kindle, over 2 million Kindle-compatible books & docs from Internet Archive also -- either MOBI or text format. Sideloading (transferring books from computer to Kindle via a USB cable) is rarely needed as it is for the Nook.
Also downloadable direct to Kindle are another 30,000-40,000 Project Gutenberg books.
Other bookstores with huge mobi book stock are feedbooks.com and manybooks.net.
-- 9b. For non-B&N books, the new Nook's owner must "sideload" other bookstores' books because it has no web browser. It can't directly download them as the Kindle can.
-- 10a. Amazon supports MS Word Doc files. I can highlight sections from several websites, copy/paste them to a Word doc, send the file to Amazon servers and it gets sent to my Kindle via WiFi, converted. It's very useful for work and informational docs.
-- 10b. New Simple Touch Nook e-Ink model does not support WORD doc files.
-- 11a. B&N advertises that the Nook can access all AT&T hotspots and says that the Kindle cannot.
-- 11b. Amazon has always advertised that the Kindle 3 has free access to AT&T hotspots (I used one yesterday at Shattuck Cinemas).
-- 12a. B&N's chart says that library lending is not available for the Kindle but they are aware that Overdrive and Amazon have announced that the Kindle will be able to borrow library books this year with extra features of being able to download direct to Kindle instead of sideloading it to the Nook via a computer, a process that aims to be "seamless" and takes about 60 seconds to do.
Also, the Kindle will save annotations for the borrower in case the person either borrows the book again (if they'd not had time to finish it before it was due back and disappeared from the e-reader) or decides to buy the book.
That's it for now. '
Update3 - If Customer Service is an important factor:
As before, I'll mention that interested parties might want to google 'customer service nook barnes' (without the quote marks) if interested in that aspect, or click this link for the general Google search results on Nook customer service.
Here's the same search for 'customer service kindle.'
Update 3a
NO-EBOOK-RETURNS is the policy of B&N for its Nooks, even with bad formatting or missing pages.
EBOOK-RETURNS allowed by Amazon, within 7 days of purchase, usually done for bad formatting, no linked Table of Contents, missing pages, etc.
I'm a NookColor owner who uses the NC daily, by the way, and I enjoy magazines and portable web-browsing on it. But the new Nook E-Ink, for me, skimps far too much re many features I value, although those who prize touchscreen navigation above other features will want the Nook.
Update4 - June 11. Also see the entry on screen contrast - Nook Touch vs Nook 1, with images from a post at Nook forums.
See Update5
Update6 - Annotations - These are logged with a copy to a 'clippings' file you can edit on a computer and backed up in full to a private, password protected website where it's displayable by book -- good for copy/edit/print.
There's no safety backup or editable file done for the Nook.
For daily free ebooks, check the following links:
| Temporarily-free books - Non-classics - USA: by: NEW: June July Aug 2011 Publication Date Late-listed Bestselling High-ratings UK: PubDate Popular What is 3G? and "WiFi"? Battery Care Highly-rated under $1, | Most Popular Free K-Books U.S. & Int'l (NOT UK): Top 100 free UK-Only: Top 100 free USEFUL for your Kindle (U.S. only, currently): 99c Notepad 1.1, 99c Calculator, 99c Calendar, |
Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's) K3 Special ($114) K3-3G Special ($139) DX Graphite
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