ANOTHER new Nook this spring? Really??

[ilexq]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.ht...

So B&N is developing yet another Nook? I'd be excited and curious if I wasn't so irritated. How about an update to fix the crap that's still wrong with the "new" Nook from last year? 

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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ilexq wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.ht...

So B&N is developing yet another Nook? I'd be excited and curious if I wasn't so irritated. How about an update to fix the crap that's still wrong with the "new" Nook from last year? 

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Why do you assume that developing a new Nook will detract from any time working on the already released Nooks?

[MacMcK1957]

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AlanNJ wrote:

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ilexq wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.ht...

So B&N is developing yet another Nook? I'd be excited and curious if I wasn't so irritated. How about an update to fix the crap that's still wrong with the "new" Nook from last year? 

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Why do you assume that developing a new Nook will detract from any time working on the already released Nooks?

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I would think that the same staff might well be involved in both products.  Is someone working on the WiFi connectivity for the new one, and therefore is not fixing the NST issues?  Doesn't seem that unlikely.

[sharno22]

Based on past practices, the NST may be forgotten the same way the original nook was.

[kamas716]

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sharno22 wrote:

Based on past practices, the NST may be forgotten the same way the original nook was.

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Which would be a tragic shame.  I think the NST, minor flaws and all, is the best reading device on the market.

[RHWright]

Well, it's all conjecture at this point, isn't it?

The most likely story I heard was expanding the Nook internationally with a partnership with Waterstone's in the UK. http://paidcontent.org/article/419-reports-barnes-noble-partnership-with-waterstones-new-nook/

That seems a more likely scenario than an all-new product.

Also, it wouldn't surprise me if they drop the Color in favor of the Tablet. Not owning either, I find them hard to differentiate and would likely go with the newer model simply because it is newer, not for any deep understanding of its improved abilities.

[tmr4]

The NYT article mentions both a new nook ("the fifth") and the UK possibility on the third page. The new nook is characterized as getting the "final touches" and executives saying it would be released this spring. Seems more than rumor and conjecture at this point. From page 3: " Barnes & Noble is trying to strike at Amazon with another device. At its labs in Silicon Valley last week, engineers were putting final touches on their fifth e-reading device, a product that executives said would be released sometime this spring. (A Barnes & Noble spokeswoman declined to elaborate.)"

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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kamas716 wrote:

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sharno22 wrote:

Based on past practices, the NST may be forgotten the same way the original nook was.

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Which would be a tragic shame.  I think the NST, minor flaws and all, is the best reading device on the market.

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I agree.  As far as the original Nook being forgotten that is an absurd thought.  It is a product that is not being manufactured any more but is still receiving support.  A "forgotten" product would not be receiving support.

[Technologirl]

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AlanNJ wrote:

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kamas716 wrote:

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sharno22 wrote:

Based on past practices, the NST may be forgotten the same way the original nook was.

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Which would be a tragic shame.  I think the NST, minor flaws and all, is the best reading device on the market.

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I agree.  As far as the original Nook being forgotten that is an absurd thought.  It is a product that is not being manufactured any more but is still receiving support.  A "forgotten" product would not be receiving support.

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Indeed. Like all the support that those of us who lost Wifi with the 1.1.0 update have been getting.

Oh wait.

[fjrichman]

They're still supplying CS for the original Nook, but last I've heard they've stopped putting out updates, meaning that any bugs in that last update are there, forever. They've stopped producing the device in favor of the newer sleeker e-ink reader. I think the only way they wouldn't do the same thing to the NST is if the newest device as either

A) Color E-ink

or 

B) Nook Color 2

In the first case the Color E-ink could be considered a new branch of device different from both a traditional black and white reader and Nook Color LCD readers. Meaning there's more likely a chance they'd support all four devices together. 

The second case would mean making improvements to the Nook Color which I think is unlikely considering their latest device "Nook Tablet" which is really just a suped up Nook Color with a couple extra features like microphone.

I suppose a third case in which Nook Simple Touch would still be supported with a new device coming out is if the new device was the Nook Simple Touch  3G/4G or something similar. Another case in which they might not drop support for the Nook Simple Touch would be releasing a new device, same everything save for a bigger memory. Meaning if this were the case the Nook Simple Touch would probably become NST 2GB and then a NST 4GB etc.     Anyways these are just my thoughts on the matter.

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

With the availabiity of SD cards at the currently inexpensive rates I don't see the advantage to putting out a higher capacity NST.  Books alone don't take up that much space and that's all the NST does.

All this is conjecture anyway until there is official word from B&N...

[fjrichman]

Indeed it is, conjecture that is. Though I feel a need to point out the some people don't want to for whatever reason buy SD cards and may feel that there isn't enough storage (240MBs) for sideloaded content. Also anyone who has PDFs would find the limitations of sideloaded content (without SD card) to be a pain considering PDFs tend to be more than twice the size of your average epub books.

I think if B&N could see the profit of "increased capacity" NST's they'd probably try it. Without my SD card (if for some reason it was lost or I just hadn't had one) I'd find that limited space to be insufficient for a library of my size, having several PDFs in it my sideloaded library comes to a whole 598MBs.

I am however curious as to what B&N could possibly come out with next but short of Color E-ink I probably won't be buying it. I suppose we won't find out, until whatever April announcements they make, what it is unless it gets leaked like the Tablet did.

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

It will be what it will be.  Unless they come out with something really earth shattering I'm fine with my N2E and my Android tablet.

[Aathroser]

Maybe they are trying to compete with the non-touch based kindle and relase a nook with navigation controls with no ads for like $49. That would seriously hurt the kindle.

Also, I wish kindle was more truthful in their ads about the $99 touch one. They don't clearly say this is the ad-supported one.

[sharno22]

In response to Alan NJ, as an owner of the N1E, I don't feel my statement is absurd.  The last update for the N1E came out around the same time as the NST, and we were told that would be the final update.

[JL_Garner]

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AlanNJ wrote:

With the availabiity of SD cards at the currently inexpensive rates I don't see the advantage to putting out a higher capacity NST.  Books alone don't take up that much space and that's all the NST does. 

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I guess it depends on the kinds of books you read. I have fewer than 300 books in my B&N library, and got the "memory low" warning last week. I'm guessing some of the books had photos or illustrations, and "1000 books" is one of those specs that definitely falls under the heading of YMMV, but I was quite disappointed to have to start archiving already. Really, would it have killed them that much to give it 4GB of memory instead of two?

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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sharno22 wrote:

In response to Alan NJ, as an owner of the N1E, I don't feel my statement is absurd.  The last update for the N1E came out around the same time as the NST, and we were told that would be the final update.

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And why would you expect continual updates on a product that is not manufactured any more?  Maybe I'm just used to this but it seems to me that the fact that N1E still receives technical support is extremely positive.

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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JL_Garner wrote:

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AlanNJ wrote:

With the availabiity of SD cards at the currently inexpensive rates I don't see the advantage to putting out a higher capacity NST.  Books alone don't take up that much space and that's all the NST does. 

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I guess it depends on the kinds of books you read. I have fewer than 300 books in my B&N library, and got the "memory low" warning last week. I'm guessing some of the books had photos or illustrations, and "1000 books" is one of those specs that definitely falls under the heading of YMMV, but I was quite disappointed to have to start archiving already. Really, would it have killed them that much to give it 4GB of memory instead of two?

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And course the first thing that comes to my mind is to wonder why not archive some of those books?  Personally I've never seen the need to carry every book I own with me at all times.  How many can I possibly read at once?

[keriflur]

My guess (and hope) is that the Spring device will be a color e-ink device.  I'd love to see B&N beat Amazon to market with a color e-ink (or other color reflective, aka, not back-lit) device.  The new e-ink Triton screens, while not as vivid and fast as some would like, still seem like potentially good screens for first generation color e-ink nook.

I do not expect a new 6-inch (screen) monochrome e-ink nook, because technology has not advanced screenwise - the latest tech is still the Pearl screen that the nook has.  So, this new device is likely a larger tablet (better for magazines, etc), or a larger monochrome e-ink nook, or a color e-ink device.

I've read speculation that the new device will release along with a new-and-improved nookstudy and will be targeted at students.  I could see this also, and I could see this being a larger device (either tablet or e-ink).

In any case, none of these will be direct replacements for the nook, so I'm not worried about B&N discontinuing the N2E and ceasing to provide updates for it.

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

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keriflur wrote:

My guess (and hope) is that the Spring device will be a color e-ink device.  I'd love to see B&N beat Amazon to market with a color e-ink (or other color reflective, aka, not back-lit) device.  The new e-ink Triton screens, while not as vivid and fast as some would like, still seem like potentially good screens for first generation color e-ink nook.

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I would rather have a fast black and white e-ink screen than a slow color e-ink screen.  Just my opinion.