Touch Nook Simple Touch: First Impressions

[boswd]

Originally Posted by jridley

I bought mine the day they hit the stores, selling my old Sony 505 to a friend. For my use, this is THE absolutely perfect ebook reader. It displays books wonderfully, it's got the most comfortable feel in my hand as any reader I've ever touched, and the device itself just disappears from my consciousness, leaving me and the book. This thing is totally comfortable to hold in so many positions, I find that I can read longer and more comfortably with it than with my old Sony, my Android tablet, my old Palm pilots, my wife's Nook 1g or her Nook color, the Kindle, or anything else I've ever used.

This, in my mind and for my purposes, is perfection.

Yes, I'm sure there will be firmware updates. There are a few things that would be nice to have; better PDF rendering, landscape, etc. And there are plenty of people who want to play Angry Birds on their device. But if what you want to do is to read books and not fiddle with a device, IMO this is an excellent choice.

I love the fact that it's so light, yet at the same time feels solid to me. I can read for hours and my hands do not get tired from holding it. My old Sony was a lot heavier and after 20 minutes or so I had to find something to brace it against or my hand would cramp. Yet somehow the Nook feels less likely to break if I dropped it than the Sony 505 with its aluminum case did.

Anyone wanna buy my old Android tablet? I don't think I'll be using it anymore.

you're old android tablet wouldn't happen to be an Asus Transformer would it?

but anywho, thanks for the run down, it really is a pretty sweet device. I think BN rocked it with the whole nook family.

[Zarich]

Well.. I have only had my kindle for 3 months, but i might craigslist it for this.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by jridley

All of the Nook devices use a standard microUSB connector, as far as I know. I bought a generic microUSB cable from an eBay vendor and it works fine with my Nook Touch. My daughter has used my wife's Nook Color cable to charge her LG phone. So I'm pretty sure it's all just standard cabling.

Thanks for the response. However, my question was more specific. The NC comes with a USB cable that has been modified to increase the amount of power to help with charging the larger battery. I was wondering if the STR & NC had the identical cable part numbers. I looked it up on the B&N website and apparently they are selling two different cable (1 for e-ink & 1 for NC).

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Thanks for the response. However, my question was more specific. The NC comes with a USB cable that has been modified to increase the amount of power to help with charging the larger battery. I was wondering if the STR & NC had the identical cable part numbers. I looked it up on the B&N website and apparently they are selling two different cable (1 for e-ink & 1 for NC).

The nook str uses a standard micro-USB cable, unlike the nookcolor.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Thanks! I deduced that after looking at the website. I was curious after reading in the manual that they caution not to use any cable except the B&N supplied one.

[Japes]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

They do show under "books" and not just all. I think the key is to place them in the books subdirectory on the sd card and then they will show in the books category in the library.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but, I am ONLY seeing my sideloaded books in the "My Files" and NOT in the library. Is anyone else seeing this? And, yes, they are in the Books subdirectory, of the main memory (I haven't installed a micro sd card yet).

I would really prefer to see them in the library.

[negris123]

Originally Posted by Japes

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but, I am ONLY seeing my sideloaded books in the "My Files" and NOT in the library. Is anyone else seeing this? And, yes, they are in the Books subdirectory, of the main memory (I haven't installed a micro sd card yet).

I would really prefer to see them in the library.

I sideloaded books onto the main memory of the device and they show up in books.

Have you tried updating the library with the double arrow button?

[DarsVaeda]

Can someone with the nook try to load this file:

link deleted by moderator

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Fantasy ereader time. Not that this will ever happen but wouldn't it be nice if the big players would license their reader firmware/apps to third-party reader manufacturers and allow them to modify the apps and design said readers with multiple, built-in reader apps?

It would be heaven to have an eInk and/or tablet reader manufactured by a third-party, reputable company that could not only read Kindle, Sony, Nook bought books, but allow you to seamlessly buy from their stores (and other stores) and combine the books into a single library. Of course the reader apps would have to be greatly improved by third-party developers rather than the lackluster apps released by the big players.

It will never happen for many reasons, but it is nice to dream.

BTW, I'm NOT talking about an iOS or Android tablet capable of running third-party reader apps wherein each app is totally independent of the other apps nor cooperates with the other apps. I'm talking about an entire reader system based on multiple apps working together and sharing a common library and bookshelf without any push toward any individual or group of bookstores.

Sadly, the only way you're going to get that is to buy and decrypt. With a nook and a Kindle in the house, I buy and decrypt all the time.

[HistoryWes]

On the pull down menu in your Library select "All".

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DarsVaeda

Can someone with the nook try to load this file:

Moderator Notice
Do not post links to pirated books or you will be banned.

[Calibretto]

Hate to barge in on a review, but did you or does anyone else with this reader notice that when moving through menus or even shopping on B&N store on the nook, that you'll see ghost images of previous screens behind what you're currently viewing? I'm new to E-Ink and I don't know if this is normal or not. A faded residual image of what you saw prior to the screen refreshing to a new page. Its not something I see all the time but I do notice it when it is there.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Calibretto

Hate to barge in on a review, but did you or does anyone else with this reader notice that when moving through menus or even shopping on B&N store on the nook, that you'll see ghost images of previous screens behind what you're currently viewing? I'm new to E-Ink and I don't know if this is normal or not. A faded residual image of what you saw prior to the screen refreshing to a new page. Its not something I see all the time but I do notice it when it is there.

There's info in this thread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=138256

[Care]

Originally Posted by trekchick

Most of my books are on my SD card, and my library loans are in the Digital Editions folder on the Nook. Everything appears together in my Library with my Nook Books when I look at "All" or "Books". But, I can single them out by selecting "My Files" and tapping either Nook Files or Memory Card.

The shelves are a be-yotch to set up, because it only sorts titles alphabetically. There's no Calibre plugin, like for Sony collections, either. I wish it could sort by author, or most recent, or search and add, or sync shelves with a Nook App or... or something. I imagine that maintaining shelves will be a chore, because I'll have to find a title alphabetically to add it.

I've not noticed any bothersome ghosting, and I didn't notice it on the store demo (which I discourteously hogged for far too long, but since I sold a nook color and a nook touch while I was there, the staff left me alone). I think you may be right that it affects individual units differently. I had a similar issue with e-ink saturation on Kindle 2s. Mine was horrible, but my daughter's was fine. A font hack improved my display, but left too much ghosting. I wound up making exchanges until the third unit I received was a keeper.

Overall, I'm happy with my new nook. I'd like it more if it ignored articles (A, An, The) when sorting by title. And there are a couple of things that seem weird to me, especially the way B&N books are hidden in reserved memory , leaving minuscule on-device storage for other content. I was surprised that library loans aren't differentiated - no overlaid icon, no remaining days noted. And it seems odd that I can't delete a book from the device (I can archive a nook book, but removing side-loaded content requires a USB cable and a computer.

Thanks so much for the info. I am glad I can see all of my books in the library, I hated that on the Nook 1, but of course rooting took care of that.

I went to the US this weekend and looked at the NT. I loved it! I really wanted to get one while there, but I was worried about the ghosting. I live in Canada and wouldn't be back in the US for a while to exchange it if something happened. I hurt my right wrist this year and sometimes it really bothers me while holding my Nook or NC, so this really appealed to me in. Also my bag is so frakking heavy, a smaller/lighter reader would be ideal for me. *sigh* I really can't justify spending the money though if I don't sell my Nook 1 since it is in perfect shape. I have a niece that really wants a reader though, so I have been thinking of giving it to her.

[thrawn_aj]

I've used my Nook2 for a week or so. There is ghosting, but it really hasn't seemed obvious. I don't think I would have noticed it if I hadn't read about it all the time (on compulsive pre-purchase forum lurks ). It's very hard for me to notice it in an indoor setting, a bit more noticeable in bright (and I mean sunburn-level bright) sunlight. Hardly a deal-breaker for me. I still kept mine and retired my old nook (rooted it finally and am planning to pass it on to my cousin who asked for it ).

YMMV but I have to work hard to really see it . If you really want to simulate these conditions, wear a bicycle lamp or a miner's headlamp to your B&N store and ask to see the store model. If the people with the butterfly net fail to catch you, please post the results of the experiment here. The things we do for science .

Other things:
1) Combined library is nice. All covers show up. Non-B&N books STILL do not show metadata other than title and author (like summary, publisher, tags, etc.) This still bugs me a bit but I've given up hope on B&N implementing this. *shrug*

2) Otherwise, there seems to be no distinction in capabilities of B&N and non-B&N books (oh, the highlights and currently being read stuff only syncs for B&N books of course).

3) I put all my sideloads on an SD card. They all show up under "Books" with covers. Highlights, etc. work equally well for both and highlighting is a pleasure to behold (after a few clumsy starts). Highlights and bookmarks are intelligently handled and listed with a few words and page number to remind you what they are.

4) I've been to the Home screen exactly twice. It is entire unnecessary unless you buy heavily from B&N and want recommendations - I don't like it at all. Luckily it is eminently ignorable and you can go straight to the library using the n key menu. No harm done. Every device has unnecessary features. As long as they are unobtrusive - *shrug*.

5) I've given up hope on intelligent shelving and exporting notes, etc. It's a zen thing at this point . Basically, B&N has matured past its "transparently force the reader to buy from us by hobbling basic features for non-B&N books" business model. This is a good thing. Now they can move forward and actually start building a great e-reader. The nook2 is a good beginning towards that end.

6) It's fun to read on it - really .