The eReader Megathread: Yes, all publishers hate Canada

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The eReader Megathread: Yes, all publishers hate Canada

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bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

The Aphasian posted:

I just assumed this was to allow library lending.

If that was the case, they wouldn't be asking book publishers to submit ePub to Amazon itself for its own store.

# ¿ May 19, 2011 17:54

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 06:49

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Sporadic posted:

What would make Amazon do a complete 180 and allow people out of their closed system?

It could be since Amazon is planning on launching a line of Android tablets, Google might said to them something along the lines of "you don't get google apps unless you make it so that your stuff works with Google Books."

# ¿ May 19, 2011 18:40

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Amazon HAS said though that they are going to release one, if not many, Android tablets before the end of the year. They may not give it a Kindle title, but it sounds like they are trying to make a competitor to the Nook color.

What better way to woo former Nook Color owners to the Amazon platform than saying "Hey, all your books you bought with B&N will work with our device too." Meanwhile, by selling ePubs, they are also telling all Nook and Sony owners "you guys can start buying your stuff here now and confidently switch over to our hardware at any time."

It a big, and good, play to squash their biggest competitor while simultaneously bringing people into the fold of the Amazon Android Application Store.

# ¿ May 19, 2011 23:38

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I'll have to handle one in person, but I could see myself trading in my Nook Wifi for one of these. It's not like I'd be dying to do so, but it's enough of an upgrade ereaders are cheap enough now that I could sell my current nook and pick up one of these new ones without really spending much.

I'm not 100% sold on the touchscreen as the reading surface though. That's why I need to handle one.

# ¿ May 24, 2011 15:53

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

http://thisismynext.com/2011/05/24/barnes-noble%E2%80%99-nook-hands-on/

The hands on is up. There are physical page turn buttons which has pretty much sold me now.

# ¿ May 24, 2011 16:49

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

See, I actually appreciate the smaller size. It's still pretty book shaped and I think the scalloped back and lighter weight will make it feel right right in the hand with the bezel being just the right side for one handed holding.

I always felt the bottom LCD was a bit superfluousness and I feel the same way about the keyboard on the kindle. Every so often I choose a new book. Aside from that, I only need to turn pages. So, having real estate dedicated to those other functions seems like a waste.

The ONLY thing I worry about is fingerprints on the reading surface, but I think a lot of that will be mitigated by the matte surface.

At any rate, I have a friend willing to buy my Nook wifi with cover for $60 which means the new one will cost me all of $80 to upgrade. I'm ecstatic that these things have gotten this cheap that it's pretty much no issue to upgrade like that.

About the only thing I would have liked them to include would have been some sort of edge lighting to eliminate the need for an external light source. I don't read that often in the dark though so it's not a huge deal to me.

# ¿ May 24, 2011 17:26

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Codiusprime posted:

drat, I just don't know what I want to do. I mean, my Nook works great for reading, I have no real need to upgrade. I have a Facebook friend that sounds like they would be willing to buy it but still, my Nook works great

I'd be lying if I said I was thinking of upgrading for anything other that pure aesthetic reasons and the desire to have a new toy.

# ¿ May 24, 2011 17:34

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Codiusprime posted:

I haven't had a chance to find any videos, the screen is nice and responsive? If so it is probably a sealed deal for me

Both Engadet and this is my next have videos now.

http://thisismynext.com/2011/05/24/barnes-noble%E2%80%99-nook-hands-on/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/barnes-and-noble-announces-new-nook/

It looks like you only get a flash of a full page refresh occasionally on page turns, usually it's a fade in and out of text.

The touch keyboard on the eInk screen actually looks more responsive has a quicker refresh than the current LCD on the 1st gen nook.

# ¿ May 24, 2011 21:32

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

hope and vaseline posted:

Durr, apparently the new nook doesn't have a web browser. Which sucks, considering how much better browsing would be on its screen.

The original nook has been out for two years and the browser is still listed as a beta feature. I'm pretty sure they've abandoned development on it.

# ¿ May 25, 2011 00:29

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Doc Faustus posted:

And I say good riddance. I think I've tried web browsing on my nook maybe twice, and it's such an awful interface I haven't tried since. In a world of 3G phones and laptop computers, an e-ink web browser isn't a needed feature.

Exactly. Then you add the fact that it's wifi only and you really scale back the specific instances in which the browser would be useful.

# ¿ May 25, 2011 01:30

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Quantify! posted:

Also the fact that they'll undercut everyone because they can.

Except when they can't which is pretty often due to the agency model.

# ¿ May 26, 2011 03:41

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

B&N and Amazon are having a battery life war.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20066255-1/b-n-fires-back-at-amazon-over-kindle-battery-life/?tag=cnetRiver

Basically, B&N is taking issue with Amazon changing the specs of the Kindle 3 to match battery life based on half hour reading times.

quote:

With up to two months on a single charge, the all-new Nook has the longest battery life in the industry and superior battery performance to Kindle 3. In our side-by-side tests, under the exact same conditions, continuous use of the device resulted in more than two times Kindle's battery life. While reading at one page a minute, the all-new Nook battery lasts for 150 hours, where the Kindle battery, using the same page-turn rate, lasts for only 56 hours (both with Wi-Fi off). We've also done a continuous page turn test and at one page turn per second, the all-new Nook offers more than 25,000 continuous page turns on a single charge.

# ¿ May 26, 2011 04:17

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

MrBond posted:

This, of course, presumes someone takes the time and effort to make the soft keyboard and/or touchscreen good. I remember people didn't like the touch screen Sony readers because of the extra glare the touch layer added.

The new touch readers don't have an extra touch layer, they are using a infrared technology to detect the inputs.

# ¿ May 27, 2011 21:44

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Well, now I know I will be taking a trip to B&N at lunch to see if they have any for me to buy.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2011 17:22

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

drat, all my stores are still saying the 10th before they have them in stock.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2011 19:51

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

After I saw they were shipping, I just decided to order one instead of playing store roulette all next week. I was initially freaked out that they are talking about it being delivered "before father's day" in the news today, but it's supposed to ship tomorrow so I should have it early next week.

I love my Nook wifi so I can't wait to get my hands on his new hardware.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2011 03:21

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Really, it should completely fly. It's running the same 800mhz OMAP chip that the nook color is running and it has far less to do.

I'm actually wondering what we'll see in a teardown. I wouldn't be surprised if the mainboard of the Simple Touch is the same as the Nook Color with just a different screen, software stack, and case making it different.

It's sad in a way. My new eReader will have a more powerful processor than my smartphone.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2011 06:19

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Try pulling the battery?

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 06:36

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

denizen posted:

yeah they didnt tell a lot of the stores that this happened though so some were or maybe still are holding them

Yeah, all the stores I talked to will still saying "check back June 10th."

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 17:53

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/16/bookeen-shows-off-fmv-on-a-standard-e-ink-pearl-display-video/

Notice that's using a cortex A8 as well like the new Nook.

My guess is it has something to do with processing power as well. Maybe it's less intensive to blank the whole screen as a single unit and put the new text on than to individually address and turn on and off the pixels necessary to change one page of text into the next one? With less powerful chips, they probably couldn't change the page as fast as blanking and rewriting, but when you got enough processing power you can pull it off?

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 22:31

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

In one of the most silly "I can't believe that works" ways, the Nook Touch has been rooted AND is running Angry Birds.

http://www.androidcentral.com/nook-touch-rooted-running-angry-birds

# ¿ Jun 7, 2011 13:42

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Sporadic posted:

What's your definition of running? That looks to be unplayable with the screen attempting to refresh every time there is movement.

Obviously it's not playable on eInk, but that it loads up at all, shows a picture, and even responds to touch input properly has pretty big implications as to how heavily B&N modified the Android build that's running under the hood.

It won't be a full blown tablet like the nook color, however I would say it's probably trivial to use the kindle app on it and have it work pretty much 100% properly. The same could be said for any number of non-graphically intensive applications if someone wanted to do so.

It's going to be interesting to see what uses the community comes up for this hardware. Again, it will never be a full blown tablet, but there's probably a lot of interesting uses for a display that uses zero power to maintain an image that has a well understood operating system behind it with a decent amount of processing power.

bull3964 fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Jun 7, 2011

# ¿ Jun 7, 2011 17:30

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Sporadic posted:

I didn't think this was anything new though. Didn't they hack Pandora, a week after release when they rooted it, to work on the Nook 1? It has always been Android underneath.

Right, but the nook 1 has a wierd hybrid LCD / eInk setup. Android stuff worked on the tiny LCD but the eInk display was pretty much off limits.

The Nook Touch is behaving much like a traditional tablet, just with a unique screen type. So, apps should work properly with properly formatted display, it just won't be good for anything that requires fast refresh.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2011 23:09

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I just got my new Nook. I can't play with it much right now because I'm at work (and charging it up), but all I have to say is pictures do not do it justice for just how TINY it really is. I'm seriously impressed with this thing.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2011 20:05

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

The in hand appeal of the Nook Touch is just incredible. I'm actually very happy that I didn't see it in person before mine was shipped to me or it would have been driving me crazy waiting for it.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2011 23:30

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Sporadic posted:

I also find it funny how a touchscreen = better hardware since that is the only real difference between the two, in that respect.

Form factor for a device like this is very key and B&N knocked it out of the loving park this time.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2011 03:24

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

torgeaux posted:

Different strokes and all, but if the touch screen doesn't provide a necessary function, I don't want one. I can't for the life of me see how it's not a step backwards ergonomically to have a touch screen ereader. Hold book, press button to turn page, never move hands. Or, hold book, take hand off book, swipe, put hand back on book, repeat every 15 seconds.

I am seeing more and more Ipad owners going back to or going to ereaders. Ipad showed them how nice an ereader is in concept, and how unwieldy the Ipad is for that function. It's the weight that most I've talked to have cited as its big drawback for a day to day reader.

As mentioned, the touch nook still has physical page buttons. I don't use the touch screen to change pages.

What makes it so great is related to your second paragraph. By eliminating the input area (physical keyboard or touch LCD screen), it's that much closer to the form factor of a small paperback.

99% of the time you are using these things for just reading and you only need input controls when changing books or navigating your library. It makes sense to essentially hide those controls until needed to make a smaller device.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2011 17:31

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

torgeaux posted:

The fact that the nook has physical buttons is great, and makes me wonder, "why is there a touch screen again?" That's my point, what is a touch screen bringing to the game?

Again, it's about what it's not bringing to the game. It's a 19% shorter device while keeping the same screen size. If you don't care about a smaller size, fine. Everyone I've shown it to so far has said ereaders have finally matched the paperback. It has quite the effect in person.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2011 17:54

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

That's perfectly fine. There really won't be a clear revolution in devices until color eInk comes out and the past two generations have just been about refining the design. What's nice is they are cheap enough now that upgrading over personal preference is trivial.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2011 18:06

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

The 1.5 update for the 1st gen nook increased perceived contrast by basically bolding the fonts.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 01:35

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Again.

For the big 1.5 update that B&N did for the Nook 1st gen, they applied bold to all the fonts to increase perceived contrast to compete against the new Pearl screen in the K3.

So, there is no apples to apples comparison to be done here. Even on the same font for both devices, the Nook 1st gen one is going to be bold whereas the one on the nook touch is going to be non-bold.

The Pearl screen on the nook touch unquestionably has more contrast than the 1st gen nook, you have only to compare the default screensavers to see that.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 01:48

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Sperg Victorious posted:

The Nooks don't have the same font sizes, probably because the Touch simply doesn't have the same contrast as the N1 when using the exact same front sizes. Thats not terribly surprising since even Sony's touch screen ereader a while back suffered the same problem.

Good enough, even if its less? If someone looks at an Eink Pearl screen on the K3, they're going to notice a big difference. That seems like it would be a better selling point over getting finger prints on a screen that doesn't have as good contrast.

The screens between the K3 and the nook touch are the same. There is no 'touch layer' on the nook touch that caused problems on the Sony readers because that's not the way the touch works on the device. The touch works by using an array of IR emitters and sensors around the edge of the device to form a grid to detect input.

What you are seeing is simply a difference in font rendering between devices due to the tricks that B&N put into the 1st gen software to try to up perceived contrast.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 01:54

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Here's 1.4 and 1.5 side by side on the first gen Nook.

The text looks darker because they basically applied edge enhancement on the font rendering leading to slightly jaggier fonts.

The background of the screen was also made slightly darker (possibly to allow faster page changes.)

So, there's a tradeoff.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 02:06

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

As with most lithium ion powered devices, I'm not going to even keep track of battery life until it goes through the first couple charges.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 19:12

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Model Camper posted:

Engadget's review of the Kobo Touch is up. I'm glad I grabbed the Nook when I had the chance... I do love me some physical turn page buttons.

Yeah, the whole review can be surmised by saying "Barnes and Noble effectively stole all of Kobo's thunder by launching quicker with a slightly better product."

It's not a bad product by any means, it's just not as good as the two market leaders.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 19:47

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

So, all the information about Pottermore is coming out now and it's mentioned that it will be the exclusive location to buy the Harry Potter eBooks. They don't give any details beyond that though so we really don't know what formats they will be in, what DRM they will have, or even if they will be files that can be downloaded to ereaders.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2011 15:32

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I wouldn't be suprised if it was an "online only" sort of thing.

Then again, Washington Post says this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/pottermore-to-sell-first-harry-potter-e-books/2011/06/23/AGUVrFhH_blog.html

quote:

In an announcement launching Pottermore, an interactive Harry Potter Web site and online store, Rowling said that the full series will be available in digital form. The books will be in several languages and will work on any electronic reading device.

So, I don't think we'll know until the site opens in October.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2011 16:03

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

WattsvilleBlues posted:

Why was it called The "Sorcerer's Stone" in the US?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_in_translation#Americanisation_as_translation

Long story short, we Americans apparently aren't capable of figuring out British dialect.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2011 18:26

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Good news everyone. The Harry Potter eBooks are going to be DRM free. Instead they are opting for watermarking.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/jk-rowlings-pottermore-reveal-harry-potter-e-books-and-more.ars

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 05:25

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 06:49

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

That's only true if it's a cube, which it's not. It's only thick at the very edge, the backside of the device scallops inward a good bit and is VERY thin in the middle.

There's no point in arguing though, if you don't use what fishmech uses, you are Wrong�

# ¿ Jun 28, 2011 23:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The eReader Megathread: Yes, all publishers hate Canada

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