Hasta La Gadget!

When we first caught wind of Barnes & Noble’s Nook — a device clearly positioned to give the Amazon Kindle and Sony’s options a run for their money — we were understandably interested. As voracious readers and lovers of fresh gadgetry, a new contender on the e-reader scene is more than welcome. When we discovered that Barnes & Noble’s offering would not only feature a full color touchscreen component, but would run Google’s Android OS as well… let’s just say we were pretty much in gadget-hog-heaven. We weren’t without our reservations, mind you; the appearance of this device made for some pretty heated conversations amongst the staff over whether or not we were seeing the dawn of a truly commercially viable e-reader. Of course, for us the proof is always in the pudding, and since B&N is about to launch a full assault against the current offerings, it’s our duty to turn over a report. Is the Nook the answer to our e-reader prayers, or just a stepping stone to greener pastures? We’ve taken a long, hard look at the device — so read on for the official Engadget review.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble Nook review

Barnes & Noble Nook review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hardware construction is a funny thing. Sometimes, regardless of the money you throw at something, you just can’t get products to come together any quicker. Evidently that’s the case with Barnes & Noble’s Nook, which has seen its estimated ship date slip from today to sometime after the holidays, and now to January 11th. There’s still a sliver of hope that you’ll be able to snag one from a high-traffic retail location on December 7th, but unless you’re planning on abandoning ship and helping the Kindle have its new best month ever, the realistic choices are pretty clear: a) pay Tickle Me Elmo-like prices on eBay or b) drop an IOU in a nicely wrapped box, preferably with a cute puppy. We suggest the latter.

[Thanks, Dave and Wes]

P.S. – We’re also hearing that pre-orders (even those placed moments after it was announced) are also being pushed back, though hopefully they’ll still be received before December 25th.

Nook ship date slips to January 11th, supply chain managers weep originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s little green man has been getting quite an education lately, popping up in a number of e-book readers (why hello there Nook, Alex, eDGe). Not to be left out, Netronix is reportedly also looking to work with Texas Instruments on assimilating Android into its product line, according to company chairman Arthur Lu (via DigiTimes). Neither are bad trends to follow in this still-infant industry, but the questions remains as to when and how it’ll actually work. Also on the company to-do list? 3G and 3.5G capabilities, supposedly coming sometime in the middle of 2010. Bated breath? Hold it.

Filed under: Handhelds

Netronix looking to Android, 3G for its e-book readers originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Publicly, at least, The New York Times has seemed perfectly kosher with the way things are moving in the newspaper industry. Rather than freaking out and wondering why they didn’t make the move to digital earlier, it’s apparently looking to push the digital distribution of its content via discounts and partnerships with hardware providers. In a rather unique and unprecedented move, the paper has today announced that prospective readers can receive $100 off of a Samsung Go netbook if they subscribe to Times Reader 2.0 for a year. The machine will come pre-loaded with the Adobe AIR-based application — which pushes published content to one’s machine on the double — and will be sold exclusively through J&R Music and Computer World. Of course, NYT wants $179.40 for a one-year sub, so the deal’s not exactly awesome or anything, but the offer stands for first-time subscribers until March 2010 if you’re interested.

Samsung Go netbook gets $100 cheaper with one-year Times Reader 2.0 subscription originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re still not quite sure this mad rush to produce e-book readers will result in anything but tears and heartbreak, but that isn’t stopping BenQ from joining in: it’s just announced the nReader, which will hit Taiwan in January along with an online bookstore, followed by Japan and China. The hardware itself is pretty standard fare, with a six-inch touchscreen electronic ink display, 2GB of memory, and ePub / HTML / PDF support, so we’ll see if this thing manages to move 300,000 units next year like BenQ says it will — that seems fairly optimistic to us, but it’s just a drop in the bucket according to BenQ, which says that over 100 million e-readers will sold in ten years. We’ll see.

Filed under: Handhelds

BenQ bringing nReader e-book reader to Asia originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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