Today is the day of the Barnes & Noble press event where it is expected they'll announce their new e-reader. Last week Gizmodo leaked some images of a curious device with two screens: a larger e-ink greyscale for book reading, and a smaller color LCD screen for (presumably) web browsing.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reinforced the leak by giving us a name: the Nook. Get it? Like a reading Nook? That's a good name for a Barnes & Noble device. Friendly, nonthreatening, evocative of lazy evenings spent curled up with a good book. My mom would use something called a Nook.
In addition to the name, the WSJ (which says its information comes from an ad set to run in this Sunday's New York Times Book Review section) offers a price ($259) and, says the device has a color touchscreen (lending credibility to the leaked Gizmodo shots), some kind of wireless connectivity and that the device allows lending e-books to friends.
I've said before that the lending aspect seems like an important step in making e-readers family friendly; I want to let my partner read a book I've bought without giving up my e-reader (she would have her own). The accepted way to do this currently is to tie both e-readers to the same store account, but that feels clunky to me. When the store gives me recommendations I want them to be based only on prior books I've bought, not get suggestions based on what we've both purchased. We don't have kids, but if we did this could be an even bigger issue. Granted e-book sellers could solve the problem on the store end of things by letting us set up individual profiles tied to one master account, and have the e-readers use the profiles for recommendations and the account for DRM purposes. The easiest and best solution, of course, is for book sellers to learn from the music industry's painful past and just give up on DRM altogether.
My DRM tirades aside, we should know all the details of the Nook later today.
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
Brian Proffitt
Microsoft/Novell: Breaking Down the Coupon Numbers
Esther Schindler
Drupal's Dries Buytaert on Building the Next Drupal
Tom Henderson
Top Ten General Operating Systems Rants
pasmith
PS3 motion controller delayed; goes up against Project Natal
sjvn
Neolithic Windows security hole alive and well in Windows 7
claird
Perl source code comparison makes for good reading
mikelgan
Cell phones don't create stress or interrupt much
Sandra Henry-Stocker
How to: The Unix Interview
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password
I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
- Ubuntu advances: Why Ubuntu server installations will surge in 2010
- Social media marketing: How to make friends with benefits
- More...
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
Barnes & Noble, Inc., the
Barnes & Noble, Inc., the world's largest bookseller, have announced the launch of nook, the Barnes & Noble eBook reader, which marries technology and minimalist design with access to the company's digital store of over one million eBooks, newspapers and magazines. It's also set up to operate on 3G wireless and Wi-Fi, and since B&N stores have Wi-Fi, it's setup for use in stores. It might be worth an instant cash loan for a Barnes and Noble Nook.