Hooked on Nook

The Nook Sucks

Last week ended it, it’s over. The game is changing. I am sorry Amazon I love your website but your parlay into the E-Reader market is done, Barnes and Noble your stuff is up dude. I am sorry but anytime Apple decides to get into a market it usually works. We will look back on this week as the time the game changed. Yes its $499.00 but who cares, you can definitely do more then the Nook, or the Kindle. Take a Kindle DX add about 10 other remarkable stuff. Boom thats it, I am done it’s done the game is over. See ya later Tablet makers.

Ever Wondered What Google Knows About You?

You can find out how much Google knows about you and the Google products that you use, such as Gmail, Youtube, Docs, and Maps. Check out this nifty video from the Google Team, where they introduce the new Google Dashboard features that allow you to delete preferences and see just how much of your data Google is privy too.

Motorola Droid available for $149.00 at Amazon

The Motorola Droid smart phone made its debut on Verizon Wireless here in the US this past Friday. The device which runs Android 2.0 (Eclair) has been getting rave reviews, from various Gadget reviewing sites. Boy Genius Report says “It’s easily one of the fastest and smoothest phones we’ve ever used, easily the fastest Android device on the market”. Engadget says “Yes, the DROID is an excellent smartphone with many (if not all) of the features that a modern user would expect, and if you’re a Verizon customer, there probably isn’t a more action packed device on the network.”

Rave reviews from the Gadget reviewing blogs, has me really wanting to try it out. I am tempted because I found a deal at Amazon for the Droid for $149.00. Thats a great deal as most places including Verizon stores are charging $299 out the door with a $100 mail in rebate. Best Buy is also offering the Droid for $199 as they do not participate in the rebate business. I hope to put the Droid through its paces in the coming weeks. Meanwhile check out the reviews from Boy Genius Report and Engadget and let me know what you think in the comments.

Jason

Thoughts on Android

Verizon kicked off Friday by releasing two of the hottest handsets available for the Holiday Season. The super hyped Motorola Droid ($299.00/$100.00 rebate), and the HTC Droid Eris ($199.00/$100.00 rebate). Both of these phones look solid. The Heavy lifter is the Droid, it has a huge capacitive touchscreen 3.7” WVGA (480 x 854 Pixels); 16.9 Widescreen, both on screen and slide out full Qwerty keyboards. It comes preloaded with a 16GB microSD memory card with support for 32GB.

The Droid sports Android 2.0 operating system for smart devices which is quite the operating system, it comes with the great new Google Maps update with turn by turn navigation and although it is in Beta it comes just like many other Google apps for the great price of free. I can hear the share holders at Garmin and Tom Tom gasping for air. I will post more about the great Droid in a future hands on review. Suffice it to say although it may not be what everyone wants to dub the next iPhone killer. Who are we kidding no one has dethroned the king. It is a great entry into the App Phone market as David Pogue calls it.

The HTC Droid Eris was also released on Friday and it is as you guessed it another Android device. If you look closely it looks like the kissing cousin to the Droid. But when you fire the Eris up you can sense the difference it has the HTC Sense UI tweaks, it runs Android version 1.5 and it has a slightly slower processor. The Eris looks like a great entry for someone not interested in all the heavy lifting the Moto Droid can do.

So Verizon has struck out and finally gotten into the Android world. Two great entries. it looks like that Verizon is downplaying the Blackberry Storm 2 in favor of the Droid. Which is in my honest opinion a big slam in the face to Blackberry. Sure Blackberry has made inroads of trying to branch out to the general consumer. But its still mainly aiming its might at the corporate world, and it falls short in the consumer space. If I had to make a bold prediction I believe the future is in the App Stores for each platform. It’s almost like the 80’s when PC operating systems were running everywhere. Finally Windows won out to the masses. Who will win between Android and iPhone. It may be that both Operating Systems come out on top, with the other players Blackberry, Windows Mobile, And Palm WebOS as the odd ones out.

GTMax Rapid Car Charger + Home Travel Charger + Sync Tranfer USB Data Cable for Verizon HTC Droid Eris CDMA Cell Phone

Nook vs Kindle

Isn’t the world of Technology great. Amazon has been setting the world on fire with the Kindle brand. They had the original Kindle then the ultra successful Kindle 2 dropped last year. Now we have the Kindle DX while a great eReader is primarily aimed at the University Market with the ability to view and read college text books.

Along comes the new player in the game and thats Barnes and Noble. Of course they want to compete against the Kindle. Amazon set the bar high they provided an easy way to gain access to 1,000’s of books on demand through Whisper sync, do that over a fast transparent 3G network (Verizon) and naturally Amazon had a hit on their hands.

I question a few of the moves by Barnes and Noble, notably they do not have any background in Electronics sales like Amazon. They are primarily a brick and mortar store with an online website. Amazon has no brick and mortar equivalent. It is not quite known how B&N will go about selling the Nook (Either through the B&N Stores or through the website exclusively). Plus they chose to partner with AT&T for its 3G network, which if you are an iPhone or technology fan you know there is big time problems with the data side of that network. Now the Nook will not be making calls and will only rely on the AT&T Network to download books which are probably not the hugest files in world, but what if I live in an area not served by the 3G network of AT&T do I have to rely on Edge service?

And finally I am not sure what is going to happen with the Lawsuit by Spring Designs against B&N. Perhaps Nook will release and it will be a viable competitor to Amazon’s Kindle 2. This would be great as competition breeds innovation. I look forward to Amazon’s next chess move. What do you guys think?

Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6” Display, U.S. Wireless)

Lawsuit Could Pull Nook Out of Production.

Hold the presses, what looked like a sure fire hit for Barnes and Noble a mere two weeks ago, could come tumbling down like a burning bridge on the way to the eReader hall of fame. Barnes and Noble and Spring Designs a Cupertino, CA startup company signed Non Disclosure Agreements 10 months ago. Spring Designs showed its Alex eReader prototype, equipped with dual screens, one a multitouch enabled screen and the other an eInk screen. Other similarities include the use of a version of Android, the Google open source software for mobile devices, and a 3G radio. This is where it appears that the Alex design and the Nook differ. Alex is not very attractive, and from pictures that I have seen online it looks considerably thicker then both the Alex and Amazons Kindle.

If Barnes and Noble really did steal this idea. I would be very surprised if the Nook was developed and manufactured in such a short time. Projects such as this take quite a bit of planning and development to come to fruition. What do you think?

Jason

twitter.com/hookedonnook

eReader News Spring Design Alex Hands On

Here is a breakdown of the new Alex from Spring Design. Honestly this product looks nothing like the Nook IMHO. The secondary screen is much larger. I wonder if this will hinder battery life? And isn’t this just a tablet PC if it has other functionality like an Iphone device? Here is the link to the article. Besttabletreview.

What is a very thin eReader? For 500, Alex.

Engadget has the scoop on the new eReader Alex from Spring Designs. It looks super thin. Check it out here.

The Holiday Season is fast approaching

It is hard to imagine that the Holiday Season is upon us. This is a great time in a Gadget Freaks life. Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa (enter your gift giving holiday) will be here before you and I know it. Right now I have a short list of items that I am hoping to see in my stocking. First of all yes I want a B&N Nook, this new eReader and the subject of this blog is sexy. It has that beautiful multitouch navigation, and the proverbial eInk screen, it runs on AT&T’s Wireless 3G network, and although AT&T has its problems I am assuming the Nook will not be taking up that much bandwidth when compared with the iPhone.

Second on my list is a new phone. I have been debating the iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid. Both are sexy devices. The iPhone has the Droid in pure sexiness, but since I am a current iPhone 1st generation owner/early adopter, my contract ran out back in July. My only problem with buying the iPhone 3GS is that my current location is awaiting a 3G network upgrade from AT&T, meanwhile Verizon for which the Droid runs on is already available here. The Droid runs Android 2.0 it has built in turn by turn Navigation via Google Maps new turn by turn feature. The only thing I am not sure about is the physical keyboard becoming a hassle, and the fact that Android 2.0’s Webkit based browser does not currently support multitouch.

Third on my list is the new MacBook Pro 13”. What is not to like about this computer. I have been a Mac user since the 90’s and even though I had brief stints owning other PC’s mostly ones that I built myself. I came back to the Mac in 2003 and I haven’t looked back. This will be my third Apple laptop and I am looking forward to owning a new one soon. I have thought about just buying the regular MacBook that was just introduced the other day, but I realized I use the firewire backup interface quite a bit with my Western Digital MyBook and appreciate the threading possibilities over USB 2.0.

Fourth on my list is a new Panasonic 50” Plasma HDTV. Enough said here Panasonic Viera is a great brand, I would love to have one of their sexy HDTV’s.

This is it if you would like to respond to what your wanting for the Holidays, please send me a message at twitter.com/hookedonnook. Thanks, Jason.

Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV

Nook vs Alex

So if your like me and cannot sleep, I thought I would post on the new drama between Spring Designs and Barnes and Noble. I am assuming the Spring Designs people knew about the B&N eReader and were just jumping at the bit to sue over the bigger companies announcement, but some things are fishy here. Yes both eReader have dual screens (One and eInk screen and the other a color multitouch), they both run the Android operating system by Google and thats about where the similarities end. The Nook is strikingly sexy, meanwhile from what I have seen of Alex, I would pass in a heartbeat.

Who is Spring Design kidding that thing is hideous. The Nook is iPhone sexy. The Nook with its Multi Touch interface makes the Kindle look like a child’s toy with its chic-let style keyboard. Honestly I am guessing Spring Design bet its whole startup on teaming with B&N and becoming a house hold name when the company decided to use it for its eReader. I guess Spring Design will have to pitch its ugly design to another company, hello Borders or Books-A-Million.