The Nook - No Buyers Remorse Here.
Some people around the nets are talking with great enthusiasm and excitement about Barnes and Nobles "Nook". After watching a couple of videos and I feel I have seen to enough to make some preliminary comments.
1/ When demoing the nook they didn't let reviewers like Engadget get their paws on the Nook. The video of Nook in operation taken by Engadget shows a less than stellar response time to command inputs. It looked slow and clumsy. Watch the video for yourself. It is certainly not anywhere near iPhone fluidity. I am yet to play with my Kindle so I can't make any judgement calls, but it just made me go "hmmmm". If B&N were so confident surely they would have let tech bloggers get their mitts on it.
2/ I then watched Kate promoting the Nook over at nook.com. In that video you will see a great big cut between opening the book and the opened book. Suggesting a significant lag between input and output.
3/ The Nook "coverflow" is about as a smooth as the non-slip surface on the bottom of my shoes to stop me slipping on ice in winter; it looks jagged, sputtery, it doesn't glide.
This is not to say the Nook doesn't look cool, it does, it looks very cool with a whole lot of potential. This current model looks unfinished and underpowered; there is a lot of Windows ME or 98 about it. Just watch Kate, and you will see what I mean. Maybe a firmware update or a rev'd version will make the Nook more appetising.
But for now - I am not suffering any buyers remorse for dropping my cash down on a Kindle.
