The internet can, and should be, everywhere!

I recently picked up a Nook, intending to try it out and perhaps return it before the 2 week return policy ran out. I guess that’s the first thing to note. You have 14 days to return a nook if you don’t like it.

At $150 dollars, the Nook Wi-Fi appears to be a fairly good deal. It should, however, be noted that this is a bare bones price. It does not come with even so much as a cloth slip-cover. It comes with a USB cord, a 2-prong outlet adapter to the USB cord for computerless charging, and a 1 year manufacturing defects warranty. For about fifty bucks you can get a 2 year full coverage (accidental damage) warranty, and for another twenty five to sixty there are a variety of cases for it. In the end I spent about $250 to walk out with a Nook that could be expected to last a year.

It may be amusing to note that the cashier didn’t miss the opportunity to try and sell me a Barnes and Noble membership, though she admitted the member discount wouldn’t apply to the Nook, and would also not apply to ebooks. Obviously I declined. This is the second major thing to note about the Nook. Thus far there has not been any discount offered, membership or no, that can be applied to digital content. This isn’t to say there aren’t any perks, there just aren’t any ebook discounts.

The Nook is definitely easy to read. The electronic ink redraws quickly enough and all the paid books I’ve tried so far look right on the screen. One of the first major advantages of the Nook is that it is fairly versatile. It will accept epub’s and PDF’s, and you can copy them in from your computer. It also comes equipped with an MP3 player, for music while you read or, I suppose, an audio-book. The player’s UI leaves much to be desired, but in essence you can muddle through if your files are the right type. It does me the courtesy of listing songs whether or not it can play them.

This brings up the primary complaint about the Nook. The software. The Nook is actually running a version of the Android OS, a convenient choice for the lower power consumption processors. This has a lot of Linux fans pretty excited because it suggests the possibility of getting down to root and making it do things that Barnes and Noble didn’t realize it should do, like play songs from Pandora rather than an internal MP3 library. This is all well and good if you have mastered Linux and fancy spending several long nights hacking and tweaking and writing code, but for the rest of us it’s a non-issue. To the average user the software running on the Nook may just seem a bit poorly designed or counter-intuitive. Page turning has been said to be too slow on the Nook, and it can take some time to learn how to slide or drag things the way it wants you to. I would say that most of these complaints are a bit outdated by now.

In the wake of the Kindle, and Sony’s eReader, the Nook seems to have been rushed to the market. Although this allowed them to put themselves in the game, it gave the Nook a rather bad start. Since that time, software updates have made regular improvements to the speed of the eInk screen, the interface, bookmarking, underlining and making notes, and have even added new features such as a web browser. Don’t go too crazy over that one yet, the web browser’s main purpose is to allow users to get through authentication pages commonly found on public Wi-Fi hot spots. I would not consider it an easy way to check facebook, though it can work in a pinch.

Battery life seems to meet expectations. With normal usage my Nook only needs to be charged on weekends. This assumes that I’m switching it to airplane mode when I’m not browsing for new books, but that’s not too hard to do.

Barnes and Noble is very excited to announce the upcoming release of the Nook Color, with full color touchscreen. I, for one, am not at all interested. The main reason E Ink is so great is the ultra-low power usage. Adding a full-size color touch screen puts it one step closer to devices like the iPad, but that one step, I’m willing to bet, will be hardly worth taking without walking the rest of the way. If you want a full color eReader, bite the bullet and buy an iPad or some other comparable device. I’m betting the Nook Color will be used more for social media than for books, and will be a disappointment the entire time. Besides, E Ink is easier on the eyes than conventional LCD screens. The release seems to be coming up quick, we’ll see if I’m right.

Update: Should have bought the 3G model. Totally worth the extra $50.

This was an earlier netbook, and although I don’t consider it obsolete, it’s no longer the one they’re shipping and marketing. Nevertheless it was my own first netbook and the one I’m using to create this site. At the moment I’m travelling down I-15 at 76.1 mph, at a bearing of 179 degrees, almost due south, as determined by the GPS in my ASUS A639. Despite it’s age I have to give it a review in honor of it’s service. Let’s focus on the important factors first.

Battery life: Initially, about 6 hours. This is on the 6-cell battery pack, not the standard 3 cell. This pretty much equals what was advertised for the configuration I have.  Right now at 59% I’m showing an estimated 3 hours 8 minutes remaining. In about a year of frequent use the battery life has depleted to about 4.5 hours on a full charge. Given my current usage levels I can forget to charge it for a night or two and still have time to get some work done, just don’t leave it in standby for hours on end, I’ve found it’s never worth the battery-drain if it’s unplugged.

Speed: Startup for windows xp takes about a minute. This includes starting up Avast Antivirus, as well as dropbox, windows live mesh, and my now-grandfathered Alltel version of the Quicklink Mobile software (same program I used to use on the Cricket network). I’ll update soon with TTI results (time to internet).

Weight: light, almost unnoticeable to me. If you really need to know it’s about 2.5 lbs.

Screen: 8.9″, 1024 x 600, plenty bright for most conditions, could stand to go a bit dimmer for low/no light situations.

Ports: 3 usb2.0 slots, 1 ethernet port, 1 VGA output, mini-plug audio in-out ports, 1 Multi-card reader spring loaded slot, one SD “storage expansion” slot, which is just a deeper, no-spring SD card slot (apparently foradding to the limited space given by solid state media options. It works, but doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for this model, given that a 16gb SD card adds just 10% to the existing storage space. Oh, and it has one of those security key slots.

Other features: Ships with a 160gb HDD, 1gb of RAM, built in webcam and mic at the top of the screen. No extra hotkeys or multimedia keys, unless you count the function buttons for brightness and volume. One extra toggle switch on the front edge for the 802.11g wireless. Built in touchpad with simple two-touch functionality (zoom in/out).

Pros: Ergonomics. the keyboard was given maximum width and decent sized keys, it has a comfortable feel. The touchpad was comfortably placed.The battery extends down about half an inch giving ample ventilation to the underside of the netbook.

Cons: Upgrades. There is only one panel on the back of this netbook which you can open. What’s in it? In this case nothing. The non-3g-ready version has an empty space for the 3g module, which would be connected to a pci express slot which was also left out in this assembly. The motherboard does include the space where the slot would connect, but without modification it’s just dead end circuitry. There are no other access panels.If you wish to upgrade the RAM or the 2.5 inch SATA HDD, be prepared to void the warranty and have the whole thing pretty much disassembled. Not easy, not recommended, not a consideration in the original design. Also, the screen only opens to about 135 ° Since I work whenever and wherever I find the time, I like the option to open to a full 180°. Why? Try lying on your back against the base of a tree with your netbook on your (nearly vertical) lap,  screen looming over you like a bird of prey. Lastly, the “home” and “end” buttons are function keys. Maybe you don’t use them a lot but I do. This is the one ergonomic failure (to me) of the keyboard platform. Despite this I still give it two thumbs up for comfort. I’ve never wanted an external keyboard or anything. I do use an external mouse when I’m at a table or desk, but otherwise don’t think it an annoyance.