Holistic Wellness for Life North of 50

Posts Tagged ‘Nook’

The Nook

October 22nd, 2009 |

Author: John

Typically, I focus my blog entries on health and wellness. However, today I came across several related articles, notably one from Mashable.com about the Barnes and Noble’s new e-reader, the Nook. This gives food for thought on how reading can enhance our overall health and wellness. It’s a well documented fact that keeping the mind active and engaged can increase or extend our brain cell’s life. So, let’s take a look at the Nook.

Some details about the Nook; 2 GB of storage on board (enough to hold about 1,500 eBooks), an SD slot for expanded storage up to 16 GB, and wireless capability. As for the wireless, with the wireless turned off, the battery will last a reported 10 days on a single charge, pretty good for a small battery. The OS will be Google’s amazing Android system. The device connects to the Barnes & Noble eBook store using a free 3G AT&T connection, but it does lack a web browser. The Nook will have an added feature, lacking in other eReaders — the ability to loan a book to a friend. The friend won’t even have to have a Nook — the LendMe feature can be used to loan a book to any device that will run the B&N eReader software, including Macs, PCs, BlackBerries and iPhones. The lending is limited to 2 weeks at a time, but nevertheless, this displays exceptional user-friendliness, which definitely out performs Amazon’s Kindle in this regard. It also supports the open ePub standard, again further undercutting Amazon’s proprietary content store. Unfortunately, in terms of available title selection, Barnes & Noble can’t quite compete with Amazon, for now. So, if you’re primarily in the market for obscure titles or authors, you might want to verify their availability in the Barnes & Noble store to make sure the content market behind this device lives up to your expectations.

Unlike the Kindle, the Nook has a Wi-Fi connection that customers will be able to use at Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 physical locations and 600 college stores in 50 states. The current version does not allow connection to Wi-Fi networks outside the stores, but will allow Nook owners to digitally browse complete titles while they’re in a Barnes & Noble store and read free content.

Pre-orders for the device are now available (a photo for your viewing pleasure is below), with an expected ship date in November. So, does the Nook pique your interest? Or one of the other gazillion eReaders that seem to be on market?

There are many uses and opportunities to implement the Nook in our daily lives. Besides the enjoyment of leisure reading, how about references and support data? Normally, when I need information about a certain subject I either go to the library or try to find it online. Although I have acquired a variety of books over the years, I still can’t carry them around in any quantity or easily find the exact reference I need at that exact moment. Especially when I’m away from home or writing articles for Holistic Wellness, I usually need to reference or lookup. In steps the Nook – convenient, compact and travel friendly. Having the ability to carry around 1500 books plus another 16 GB of written material could at times be certainly helpful, not to mention the ability to not pack or keep up with several books. Now, add the ability to lend a friend a helpful reference, your favorite book or a new article, this is definitely an added plus. What about the ability to carry multiple guide books while traveling without the “books”? I certainly wish I had it on our last trip. What a weight and space saver that would be! My hope here, now that one company is doing it, maybe – soon – we’ll be able to download books and magazines from the library just like regular books. What a thought . . . that future technology will help us, personally, with our health and wellness!