Can the Nook Color Compete?

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.nothingbuttablets.com/468' target='_blank'>http://www.nothingbuttablets.com/468</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The device sold well and launched B&amp;N into the emedia segment. But, using the e-ink display had its drawbacks.&nbsp; Page load times are noticeably slow, magazines and newspapers looked disappointing at best, and there was still a vast amount of information and content to be consumed that an e-ink display simply cannot bring to the table&nbsp; Fast forward to today and they decided to give users another choice in the market, the Nook Color ($250)."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/lpt/auto/1295368687.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>The world is more than Kindles, iPads and cheap Android tablets.&nbsp; Barnes &amp; Noble has their own line of eReaders with their most recent model being the Nook Color.&nbsp; It kind of straddles the line between an eReader and a tablet being an Android based device and offering a colour screen.&nbsp; Does aspiring to be more make it lose its focus?&nbsp; I do think that one of the most notable features of the Nook (and a select few other eReaders) is the ability to "loan" books from your local library.&nbsp;</p><p>Yes, that library.&nbsp; While the Internet now gets piped into almost every household and streets everywhere, the Library is still a great fountain of knowledge and has managed to take advantage of some of what the Internet has to offer.&nbsp; The ability to loan out books means that you suddenly have access to a huge wealth of information that does not exist (at least not yet) on the Internet.&nbsp; Couple that with buying books, and Android's web browser, the Nook Color certainly is compelling as an information device.</p>

[Jon Childs]

I absolutely love mine. I aslo convinced an avid reader friend of mine to ask for one for Christmas and now he loves it too. I already got 4-5 books from the library, which is great (me being too lazy to drive across town to physically check one out). Also, while I think the price of books could be lower at the B&N online store, it is still significantly lower for new releases than a physical book. I would also say that 60-70% of the books you buy can be lent to a friend too, which should cut down on costs without actually having to swap real books. Although it is only for 2 weeks so you have to read those ones quickly.

Also, I do most of my reading at night and love the backlit screen. I previously had the e-ink nook and hated reading it at night. I just could never get the LED light attachment to make the whole screen readable without a ton of glare.

Finally, there is a very easy "jailbreak" for the nook that allow access to the Android marketplace. So I can now play angry birds when I want a break from reading.