Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


I'm not sure I would necessarily say the Kindle's store is better. They are pretty much equal at this point as far as title availability for the stuff I've looked at.

Don't forget, you can use Sony's store and Borders store on the Nook as well, you just have to sideload them.

That said, the Kindle is the superior hardware right now and is cheaper so if I were buying this moment I would probably buy the Kindle. But I don't regret my nook in any way and don't really feel the need to upgrade it.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


madprocess posted:

In my view the Kindle store advantage over the nook is not just that your books are accessible in more places after purchase

What places are your books accessible for Kindle that they aren't for B&N?

B&N already has an app for Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, PC, and Mac. About the only thing B&N is missing right now is a WP7 app, but I'm sure that's on the way.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


madprocess posted:


You said it yourself, Windows Phone 7. There's even a beta of a Kindle-in-the-browser service coming out soon that will let you use about anything with a browser, which could include a PS3, PSP, Linux, etc.

The Kindle app actually isn't out yet for WP7 as far as I know, it was only previewed. I think we can be reasonably sure B&N will follow with their own before too long.

The browser thing is neat, but we'll see if it actually goes beyond beta. I have a feeling publishers are going to get up and arms about that one. Regardless, neat as it is, it doesn't seem like it would extend the books to places where it would be worth trying to read them.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Paco de Suave posted:

Wow...it's amazing. Makes you wonder what they were doing wrong with the software before.

I imagine it just takes time to optimize.

What I really wonder is if they upped the Android version with this update.

I'm installing right now, I'm really excited for the shelves feature. I really wanted some better way to organize what I've read and what I haven't read. Before now I was just removing the books I had read, but I like the idea of being able to have everything with me. So, now, I can better organize my stuff.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Whoa, nice. Shelves are actually more like tags than actual shelves. You can assign a book to multiple shelves.

You can also now Archive and Unarchive books from the device.

I will also say wow at the page turn speed, it's a HUGE difference.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Nov 23, 2010

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Does it gray out after you archive it? If so, you just need to select the to hide archive books from the change view menu.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.



I was wondering about that. When I was reading last night I kept thinking, "This looks darker, it almost looks as good as the Kindle 3 screens."

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Looks like we may get Mirasol eReaders early next year.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/24/pocketbook-spills-the-transflective-colored-beans-announces-mir/

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Bascially 3 things have to happen.

1) I has to be rooted
2) The bootloader has to be hacked to be able to load a custom recovery
3) Someone has to create a stock android ROM for it.

These are all possible. It really depends on how much time the community wants to devote to the device to see that it's done.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Cardboard Box A posted:

because the Nook Color can't run apps

It can actually. It's been rooted and you can sideload android apps now.

So, you could easily run Droid Comic Viewer on it now assuming that it deals with the screen res ok.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


It's probably better to think about it this way.

How long until Amazon manages to leverage color content? Until then, we won't see a color Kindle.

The first hints of a color Kindle will be when we hear about Amazon cozying up to magazine publishers and/or graphic novel publishers.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


fishmech posted:

All Kindle titles do have color in the pictures enclosed as you can see in any Kindle application outside the physical devices.

Somehow I don't think they are going to launch a color reader only for color book covers though.

Color eink is still going to be expensive for awhile, so I don't see them creating a device around it until they have content to point at and go "see, this is why you need a color reader!"

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


madprocess posted:

Nothing has actual PDF reflow, you can't actually reflow PDF especially image-based ones.


That's not strictly true. The Nook (regular old eink one) has page reflow for PDFs.

It's not full document reflow so it leaves you with half full pages because it only reflows one page at a time and you can get some wonky margins, but you can read the stuff easily.

But no, it doesn't work great with images. Not even a computer can reflow image based PDFs.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


withak posted:

The problem is that even if Amazon adds native epub support it would still only be useful for DRM-free books until Adobe gives Amazon access to their DRM system (this will never happen).

Why do you think it will never happen? All amazon has to do is license it and they can add support. Amazon just doesn't want to do that because they would rather people buy books off of Amazon through wispernet than buy them in other places and side load them.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


ePub or mobipocket, the container is irrelevant.

What is becoming increasingly relevant is most non-Amazon bookstores are standardizing on Adobe DRM applied to ePub to sell their books.

Right now, it doesn't matter a whole lot since there really aren't any exclusives to any one book store. I do think Google could change the picture somewhat though if they decide to throw their weight around. I really don't expect amazon to licence kindle compatible DRM to Google to create a competitor on their own devices and I really don't see Amazon licensing Adobe Digital Editions as it would give Kindle owners access to several large alternative bookstores. It's not something that really needs to be resolved if publishers don't play favorites with eBook Stores. But, I would worry a bit about publishers getting it in their heads that the best way to secure their books is with Adoble Digital Editions (false as it may be) since "everyone is using it" which could provide resistance to future releases on Amazon's store.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Dec 9, 2010

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Badass

The nook color is getting Android 2.2 and the Android Marketplace in January officially from Barnes and Noble.

That makes it even relevant to Kindle people since you'll be able to run the Kindle app on it.

This has instantly become the best Android tablet on the market. I wonder though how they are going to handle the lack of physical buttons.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Trig Discipline posted:

Awesome. I talked to one of their tech support people about opening it up to the entire Android market and he said he didn't think they were going to. Glad he was wrong!

Well, in the source link it says that they might still limit some aspects of market access. It does appear as though it will not be some B&N market only, it will be the actual android market.

It's all very vague though. Remember, the Nook Color is a tablet without any capability for audio input. Whey they say they may limit the market, it may simply be that they are excluding apps that require hardware that the nook color lacks. It's really hard to say at this point.

Still though, providing a full regular Froyo interface on it's own is huge. There will always be other ways to get apps on to the thing.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Dec 14, 2010

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


madprocess posted:

That's not the actual market then, though.

Every Android device in existence doesn't have access to the full market though. Every phone carrier has the ability to (and frequently does) block apps. If full access to apps is the criteria for "actual market" then no device has the actual market. It will not likely have the market app that google distributes on phones, but indications from the source link are that there will be actual market apps available and not just B&N apps.


quote:


I don't see any evidence that they'll provide the full regular Froyo interface, it seems far more likely it will be like MOTOBlur or HTC Sense or that Sony Xperia piece of poo poo on top of 2.2, not the stock 2.2 stuff.

It was explicitly mentioned in the source article that it would provide access to the "typical Android homescreen" that could be toggled with the nook color interface. There was no mention of excessive skinning or anything else.

At any rate, there's not much point in arguing over it until the update comes out. It's pointless to talk in absolutes though when it comes to android as Google can, and frequently does, change the rules mid game.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


They aren't dropping their UI design. It said right in the source link that you could toggle between traditional android and the Nook Color UI.

It simply looks as if they are 'unwrapping' the underlying OS and allowing the end user access to it if they so choose.

Don't discount the touch strip with the nook symbol. It would be trivial for them to use gestures to make up for the lack of buttons in a way that would be transparent to the underlying OS. Touch for home, swipe back for back, swipe up for menu, etc.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Dec 14, 2010

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


withak posted:

So would you say that you don't have access to the full market?

Yeah, that kind of just proved my point.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


The new 2.5 update is rather striking in the improvements. There's very little (if any) screen refresh time difference between the Kindle 3 and the Nook now when turning pages. While contrast is a hardware thing, they did manage to do some tricks with the fonts post update to increase the perceived contrast of the screen.

Really, the 2.5 update felt like B&N released a new Nook and replaced everyone's for free.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Most eBook stores have a book if it's been published on eBook format to begin with. All number comparisons usually come down to manipulation of public domain and otherwise free publications on either side so it's all pretty much a moot point.

The biggest issue by far for eBook title availability is simply publishing electronically at all. There are so many things that simply aren't out for any device.

I'm a Heinlein fan, but there are only a handful of titles available in eBook format. They are still only "looking into" offering the Harry Potter series in eBook form. Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide series is in eBook format but Dirk Gently is nowhere to be found (which is something I think he would be really upset about since he was such a technophile.) You'll have random books in various series not be available.

Granted, there's a LOT of stuff out there too, it just feels like they could do better.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Dec 22, 2010

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


maxnmona posted:

That's what he's saying he doesn't want, although I'm not clear why.

Barnes and Noble is the same way.

It's kind of annoying to have all these small separate charges if I buy a few books at once. You'd think they would want to group charges if they could as well since it should save them some credit card fees.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


It actually would be pretty drat useful if the Nook showed the footnotes on the LCD rather than jump to wherever they are. That wouldn't require any changes in the standard, it would just have to open up the book a 2nd time on the LCD portion and go to the right footnote.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


I've had a lot of luck with Sigil. It's really basic, but it's nice for tweaking exploded epub files or even creating ones of your own. It does only work with epub currently, but once you get the epub the way you like, it should covert easily in Calibre.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


The Nook Color is widely regarded as having one of the best mobile LCD displays out there.

Also, if you play with a regular nook in stores, make sure it's been updated to 2.5. There's nothing short of a night and day difference in operation between 2.5 and the previous version. For one, page refreshes are pretty much on par with the Kindle 3 now.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Battery life is also a huge thing. Going over a week without even thinking about charging and knowing you have probably 40 pages worth of reading left once you get the low battery warning (no matter how many times you sit the book down and restart reading) makes eInk invaluable for a reader.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


hotsauce posted:

It's 1.5 but who's counting...

Oops, but yeah. Same difference.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Fuzzykinz posted:

Amen to that. E-ink does have many virtues, but I'm afraid we're moving into territory that values the swiss-army approach instead of the single purpose one. And that will kill E-ink.

Fortunately, stuff like Pixel QI and Mirasol are going to bridge the gap in the next few years and we should have the best of both worlds.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Fuzzykinz posted:

It seemed like Mirasol has fallen off of the map lately.

You must have missed this article two days ago about Qualcomm pumping $1bil into a new factory. :)

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/02/qualcomm-lays-down-1-billion-for-new-mirasol-plant-in-taiwan-c/

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


The new screen is better on the Kindle 3, but the most recent Nook update narrowed the gap by a huge margin. Speed-wise, there's not a lot of difference in page turns now. The Kindle 3 screen is a bit darker and sharper, but they also messed with the fonts for the Nook update to increased perceived contrast and it works quite well.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Centipeed posted:

I can't be the only one who thinks that using e-ink for video defeats the purpose of e-ink?

Phones are the big market here. If you look at the power usage stats for most phones, display is by far and away the biggest consumer of power. If you can get an eink display that performs as well as a traditional LCD when it does have to show motion, then you open up a whole new world of power savings.

It would also allow you do to things like keep the display on all the time so you can see notifications or the clock at a glance.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Some people are confusing some issues.

The problem would be for a company to use their competitive advantage in one area to lock out competition in the another area. In MS case, it was using their success in the OS market to corner the browser market.

So, if apple had the majority of the tablet market and they used that to lock out competition in the ebook market, then they would be under investigation.

Apple already skirted with anti-trust issues in Europe over music sales in iTunes. THIS is the main reason why the vast majority of the music became DRM free as there was a growing concern that their success in music sales was preventing anyone else from competing in the PMP marketplace.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


maxnmona posted:

So if they had a huge share of the tablet market and then made it so you could only buy ebooks through their app system, wouldn't that be the exact same thing?

They would have to have a monopoly share in the market. Also, using "tablet" is probably wrong in this context and we should use eReader instead. Compared to the number of Kindles, Nooks, Sony Readers, Android Phones, and Android Tablets; Apple doesn't have a monopoly so nothing would be actionable.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


I think we can probably thank the iPad for the Random House pricing. Since they have to give the house of Steve 30% of the purchase price and they aren't allowed to sell them for any cheaper on any other store per the App Store rules, the price goes up and everyone gets hosed.

Thanks Apple!

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


SUPER IRAN-CONTRA posted:

can I load the Sony version onto a Nook Classic? I'd get it straight from B&N but their version is $8 more

You should be able to. Sony just uses epub with straight adobe DRM. The wost case is you'll have to install Sony's software to transfer it to the nook.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Doctor Meat posted:

I am sure they will mature over the next few years, but right now even major metropolitan libraries have an extremely poor selection of ebooks and most of the ones anyone would want are constantly checked out.

No, don't expect it to get better. Expect it to get worse.

Since the publishers are now renegotiating their licenses with libraries to limit the number of total lends per eBook (to mimic real wear and tear of course!) combined with the general lack of funds to run things like libraries, I would expect ebooks to start to be phased out of lending.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


fordan posted:

Do you really want books that aren't professionally edited, or with no vetting for quality? I know I don't; I like what the publishers add to the process.

I'm sure the same arguments were used when people started to record and master their own albums to release independently as well.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


It's honestly a brilliant move for them.

If they go with the very latest SDK for Adobe Digital Editions, B&N's DRM was incorporated into that standard. That would mean that whatever thing Amazon is planning with ePub support would be able to read books from B&Ns store.

That means they open up the possibility of a large number of Nook owners to jump ship to Kindle when they release new hardware since they would be able to bring their already purchased books with them.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


Hughlander posted:

Kindle4 announcement would be sweet though, with Nook2 announcement on Tuesday...

What's sweet is the prospect of cross book compatibility. You could buy a book from nearly any store and be able to use it on near any device. That really opens up the field for reader competition.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply