I keep seeing all of these fancy ebook readers coming out on the market, and I keep watching Amazon bulk up their Kindle ereader with “apps” and gadgets and gizmos. Even Barnes & Noble, I’m afraid, is falling victim in their short lifespan and throwing games and simple internet browsing at us on our little device.
Yet, despite all these bells and whistles that the various companies are adding to their ereaders, I’m still satisfied with the simple reading pleasure of the nook. I didn’t buy an ebook reader to browse the internet, play games or “tweet” from. I bought it to purchase and download books for easy portability and use. In that, the nook excells in leaps and bounds, just as the Kindle does (or did) back in its youth. You know what? I have an mp3 player, I love it. I have a cellphone, I love it. I have a computer and a laptop … I love ‘em. I don’t want, honestly, one device that “does it all.” Apple has proven my point as to why I don’t want one device – the Apple devices can only do one thing at a time. You can’t read a book and listen to an mp3 and play a game. The Zune does allow you to listen to music while playing games or surfing the mobile web, but it isn’t perfect either.
So … Barnes & Noble, I still love my nook … please don’t ruin it by trying to integrate every personal device I own into your little compact white and gray frame. If you want to add Twitter or Facebook Status integration, that’s fine, but really … you aren’t designed to handle web browsing and most games anyways. Stick to what you do best … providing a wide variety of ebooks for my enjoyment.
On an odd, yet “up” side, Best Buy has recently signed a deal with Barnes & Noble to sell their ereader in their stores. The “up side” I was talking about is the fact that I was actually able to walk in to our local Best Buy and finally pick up a cover for my nook. M-Edge is providing accessories, including reading lights along with Best Buys accessories of an extra battery, memory cards and the USB charger plug. Oddly enough, you still can’t find accessories in the local Barnes & Noble stores … Get on the ball, B&N 🙂
And, finally, as of their last software update, v1.3, the nook (or, at least, my nook) seems to respond faster to touch on the bottom screen, and the e-ink response time to loading books and turning pages seems to be faster as well. Some folks were having wifi issues, I believe, but so far, mine has been fine. And I do admit, though it isn’t a major selling point, I enjoy working a Suduko puzzle, so the addition of the Suduko game to the nook is a nice added bonus.
Chemical Fawn 