Today B&N announced a new eReader device in the nook family - nookColor. From a hardware perspective, the new nookColor is really more like the iPad than the current nook device. It has a backlit color touchscreen and is powered to run a variety of applications. The current nook is focused on being an eReader device with an "easy on the eyes" screen and a long battery life. As much as B&N tried, the current nook is really only good for reading books. It turns out that's why most of us bought it!

While the new nookColor shares more in common with the iPad from a device perspective it has a smaller screen and a highly customized B&N interface (built around the Android platform). Make no mistake the nookColor will not function just like an iPad or Samsung Tab - it will have a very strong focus and tie to being an eReader.

Here are some of the known benefits over the nook:

Works with the new "Nook Kids" technology for kids interactive eBooks.
Highly optimized interface for reading magazines and periodicals. 
Will likely work with nookStudy (but no word on that yet).
New social apps including sharing LendMe books (very nice feature).
Manage & View other files (PDF, Word, Powerpoint). 
Includes more non-reader apps than the nook.
Special screen cover to reduce glare (maybe from the screen itself)
A promised "App Store" for developers to add new apps.
More memory for storing books, music, etc. 

All that color and extra functionality may not be your thing. Here are some disadvantages of the nookColor:

Cost. The nook will probably be $99 for the Wifi version soon - that's a big price difference.
You'll find yourself wasting the 6-8 hours of battery on non-book reading (if my iPad usage is any clue!)
Distractions. Since it's more than a book reader and that may distract you from enjoying books.
Applications will only be from B&N now, not as full-featured as a tablet.
No free 3G to buy books.
Backlit screen. It's not going to be as easy on the eyes - it's a computer screen. 

So the question is ... would you rather spend $500 for an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab and have something potentially "bigger and better" with some of the same B&N apps? Do you like the idea of the current nook with the long battery life, simple interface, and clear screen? I think if you are looking for a great eReader the B&N nook and the new Kindle are the best deals for the money. I'll be honest I'm not sure what I think of this new nook yet!

It's available for pre-order now and should begin shipping November 19th. It may get back-ordered so if you really think this is "your thing" I'd order today with FREE shipping. They are planning on having it available by December at Best Buy and Walmart.

Ok, So besides the "Gee I wish I didn't just buy a nook" reactions... what do you think of the new device?  Ebay the nook and pre-order nookColor? Happy with what you have?

Textbooks for my nook?

Nope, B&N rebranded all electronic book products to the "nook" brand.  nookStudy is a computer program for reading and annotating eTextbooks. You can't read any of the textbooks B&N sells on your nook for a few reasons I won't go into here.  We've added a new forum and FAQ for nookStudy users.

Is it revolutionary?

Most of my current work revolves around social media, so the prospect of integrating study with social networks is quite interesting to me.  When nookStudy arrived on the scene I had a list of features I hoped I might find in the product.  Maybe nookStudy would facilitate killer note & highlight sharing with your social network. Why not share notes with other students of the same text around the world - or at very least with your classmates. What if readers could share content recommendations with other nookStudy users by having related material funneled into a recommended resources page "in the book"!  Well, nookStudy does none of that, so let's talk about what it does do.

nookStudy is an eReader desktop-only application that works with both DRM and unprotected PDF and ePub formats. It offers the ability to categorize books into courses and augment those books with notes and highlighting that is backed up on the B&N "cloud". Sadly that about covers it what nookStudy 1.0 has to offer.

Installation

Looking for the nookStudy iPad application on the App Store? Look no further.  nookStudy can only be used on Apple and Windows computers. If you are a Mac user you'll be quite surprised it requires Snow Leopard.  B&N claims it is because nookStudy is so advanced but I suspect it has something to do with the development team relying on libraries that are only available in the latest OS (big mistake).  I got the mac version for my new MacBook Pro and found the install to be quite simple (as are most Mac installs).  One of the post installation steps included putting in your college and setting up an Adobe account to be tied to your B&N account (more on this later). My hopes were it would show me textbooks for currently offered courses at the University I selected!

First Look

When I started the application the first thing I noticed was that it was decidedly not "Mac". The user interface has the feel of an Adobe Air application like Tweetdeck. Initially it was just an annoyance, but later I realized it was a detriment when I couldn't use my trackpad to control zoom in a textbook. My first in my evaluation was to get a sample eTextbooks.  I hoped to find a nice in-app browsing experience based on textbooks at the college I selected after install. Instead I was dumped to the B&N website which didn't even have a filter for my selected school.  

To make things "easy" I got the "Exploring Engineering" and things worked pretty well.  I pulled in some of my fiction novels and a few ePub files from my hard drive (they give you the impression you can't use study features with non B&N books but seems to work).  The display of the book was about what I expected for nookStudy.  Adding notes and highlighting was functional. Navigation was a pain. Scrolling with my trackpad wasn't reliable and I had to resort to full page turns with the arrow keys or mouse navigation.

The tab style interface and dual book view were nice. So far it hasn't crashed and the features it does have, while sparse, seem to work well so far.

We'll see if nookStudy 2.0 takes it to the next level on social network and OS integration! IMHO eTextbooks are going nowhere until they can be used on the iPad and Samsung Galaxy (and other Android tablets).   

B&N just might be getting it.

B&N has released an update to the iPhone & iPad eReader. The application name is now "nook" brining the app into the new "nook is a platform" strategy. It seems both Apple platforms now share the same application (based on the iPad B&N Reader).  Some new features for iPhone users:

1) Font size and setting pages that don't take minutes to "reformat" the book.
2) Support for the iPhone hi-res screen.  The iPhone may now be one of the nicest ways to read an ebook (if you don't have a nook device).
3) More feature parity with other platforms. 
4) Sync book positions between devices.
5) Ability to remove books from device. 
6) FAST! 

NOTE: You need to be using the new "nook" version of the e-Reader on your machines for sync to work.  It does not work with the nook device, which is still ... lame.

I use the nook app on the iPhone and iPad as well as read on my nook.  I'm quite happy to see the iPhone display support because the B&N Reader was a terrible app and looked terrible on the iPhone 4!  

I've updated both my iPhone and iPad and tried out the page position sync and it works so far. I really liked the iPad application and was quite happy to see the application on the iPhone. It's nice to see the same "branding" (fun nook logo) no matter if I'm using my iDevice or nook.

So fire up those App Store updates and try it out!