Consumer Reports releases new ratings report on E-readers - Update

Consumer Report has released its latest survey of e-readers, and they have the Kindle at the top again.
  Click the image at the left to see the video.

 The video linked to at the left explains that the iPad was not included because they were testing the category of dedicated e-readers and the iPad is essentially a multimedia tablet and computer that also functions as an e-reader.
  They add that it's considerably more expensive while having an LCD screen which "is fine, though it is slightly less crisp than that of the best e-book readers" and is also quite a bit heavier than the dedicated readers they test and portability was a feature important to the set.  "Consumer Reports recommends buying the iPad for e-books only if consumers are willing to compromise to get a multifunction device."

Consumer Reports has its full story and ratings behind a paywall, but KABC's story on the CR report has a few quotes:

' "I'd say the color screens are almost impossible to read outdoors," said Rich Fisco, Consumer Reports.  "On the other hand the e-ink screens are almost like reading a real book."

In the end, Consumer Reports gave top ratings to the 3G Kindle, which costs $189.

"It's the best reader we've ever tested," said Paul Reynolds, a tester with Consumer Reports. "The type is crisp and easy to read. The battery life is outstanding, as is the speed of the page turns."

But you can save money buying the $139 Kindle, which is identical to the 3G except you can only download content via Wi-Fi.'

  Amazon Kindle forum regular Fool for Books points out that the Amazon Kindle Community Forum has had many notes from customers who had to upgrade their $139 WiFi only models almost immediately because they had not understood that in order to use 'wireless WiFi' in the home when one doesn't have the 3G cellular wireless feature (which all past Kindles have had), they had to have set up a WiFi network in their home -- which itself also brings expenses, while the top model with 3G cellphone-type wireless carries no additional costs for even the added feature of looking up info on the web, in about 61 countries) from almost anymore.

  See the blog article on differences between 3G/WiFi and WiFi-only access.

  Consumer Reports also recommends the Barnes and Noble Nook. "It doesn't score quite as high as the Kindle, but you can use it to download free library books.  The Kindle doesn't accept library books," said Reynolds."

I subscribe to Consumer Reports online and it's really worth the $26 or so per year as you can search it.  On the Recommended readers, there were these interesting comments and scores (excerpted):

' Best choices for use everywhere:
Amazon Kindle 3G + Wi-Fi -- 72
The best e-book reader we've ever tested, and one of the lightest and slimmest.  Superior page turns and the most readable type we've seen.  A jumbo font size and text-to-speech capability are boons for the sight-impaired.  Among the few models that doesn't support library rentals, however...

Barnes & Noble nook 3G + Wi-Fi -- 56
Though among the more challenging devices to use, due in part to its dual screens, it's also among the highest-scoring models that allow e-book rentals from public libraries, a potential cost-saver...

Best values
...you can load new content wirelessly only via Wi-Fi. These versions are better buys than their pricier siblings, unless you expect to frequently need new content when you're out of range of a Wi-Fi network.

Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi -- 68
[Same description as for the 3G-included model above]

Barnes & Noble nook Wi-Fi -- 53
[Same description as for the 3G-included model above] '

Consumer Reports always neglects to mention that the 3G on a Kindle allows you to use Wikipedia or to look up info anywhere on the Net, from your book, when on a bus or at the park or beach or at the dentist's office :-) etc...and that the now 3-yr experimental Free 3G Web Browser that does not confine you to the company store (nor carries a charge for web lookups) differentiates it from the other models to a considerable degree ... not to mention that it's WebKit based and faster than the earlier browsers.

  Also, this 3G instant downloading of Kindle books is available to you in other countries when you're traveling -- in about 100 countries -- a unique feature of the Kindle since no other e-readers offer this -- and allows you free web access in over 60 countries.   I suppose this is considered a non-feature.  It amazes me that a serious comparison of e-readers is done without mentioning this.

' If you need a big screen:
This newest DX is suitable mostly for those with a large budget who plan to read a lot of textbooks, with large diagrams etc. it's a fine performer, with very readable type and page turns are only slightly slower than its fleet 6-inch sibling.

[Other e-reader scores in descending order]
    [The new Sonys were "In testing"]
enTourage eDGe -- 54
Pandigital Novel -- 50
BeBook Neo -- 50
Spring Design Alex -- 49
Aluratek Libre eBook -- 46
ViewSonic VEB620 -- 44
Kobo eReader -- 40
Augen The Book -- 40 '

The Kindles are the only ones with full red-circle 'Excellent' ratings for Readability.   For Navigation, they share that with the Pan Digital Novel.

From what I've seen in the news, the new Sonys will, after testing, wind up with best marks for Navigation due to its touch screen --  also, for flexibility of annotations, except that the Kindle annotations are backed up, and all your highlighting and notes are available to you on a private, password protected Amazon webpage, ready for not only viewing easily but also copyable for editing in a separate text file on your computer.

  That's invaluable for those studying a subject and needing to make reports.  It's also great for just reviewing the aspects of a book that were important to you or for use in discussing the book in a book club.  (You can also choose to disable backups of annotations.)

  The Sony with comparable features (though not free 3G web lookups) and the touchscreen carries a price about $100 more than the Kindle and Nook and is said to be very well made.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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E-Readers with Web Browsers, and WiFi vs 3G cellular access

At the right is a photo of my Kindle being used to look up reviews at Costco before any purchasing decisions.

  (You can click on the picture to see the larger image.)

 Now that Spring Design's $360 Alex is out and the Barnes and Noble Nook has been updated to enable web-browsing (I tried it out the other day), it's a good time to review what the differences are between those units' web-access and the Kindle's.

  A good example is from an email sent me two days ago by a woman whose son is in Spain with his Kindle (Int'l version sold since Oct '09) and who had just sent her an email from his Kindle --

" He is riding on a bus in a very rural area between Madrid and their destination city in northern Spain. "

 As a U.S. resident with the International Kindle, his cellular wireless web browsing is enabled also, when travelling abroad, at no added cost (as Amazon's wireless costs in the U.S. are said to be considerably less expensive for the company than is possible in other countries right now, though Jeff Bezos has said he hopes to make web-browsing available globally eventually).
  The speed of access of the Kindle's experimental browser has improved in the last few months.

  I have tips on speeding up the access and a downloadable file with links to mobile-device optimized sites and a guide for that.

Almost two years ago, I was riding in an Airporter going across the San Francisco Bay Bridge and used the older, original Kindle to send an email to someone.  With the shallow keyboard, you will not want to send a long email, but you can send short notes.

  Many gadget sites don't know that this almost-anywhere web-browsing is possible with the Kindle but not for the Nook, Alex, Sonys, Kobo or iPad (although the latter's web access when you're near a WiFi hot spot is a lot more pleasureable and colorful).

A LISTING OF THE DIFFERENCES
  1.  Cellular Wireless access from anywhere - That's 3G cellphone-type access from anywhere you happen to be if there is a cellphone tower nearby (AT&T or Sprint for the Kindle, depending on the model).
  The bookstore can be accessed wherever you are while reading a book.
  For the Kindle, that's true globally as well, and residents of the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico have general, unlimited web-browsing enabled, at no additional cost.
  Non-USA residents not in those 4 areas have 24/7 free 3G wireless access to Wikipedia on the Kindle.  The other devices are limited to accessing only their stores with that 3G access for downloading.

  The Kindle, Nook, and Sony Daily Edition all use cellular wireless for book-downloads from their bookstores and at no added cost to the user.  Book downloads are doable essentially anywhere.

  That is not doable with the Alex, the Kobo, most Sonys or the current WiFi-only iPad.  I've read that many current iPad owners are trading up to the later 3G model due in May.

  The $629 iPad coming out officially on May 7 will use 3G and that will also require an additional $15-$30 for any month that this type of access is used on the iPad.

 The Alex will not have this type of access either, on its first, current model, but it's planned for a later model.

Web-browsing (in addition) using the 3G cellular network access
Only the Kindle has this (in the 4 geographic areas listed above), and it's at no added cost.
I'll indent the next part so that it's clearer as it's about a unique feature.

This particular cellphone-style access to the full web instead of just to the bookstore means you can access Google or ESPN or NY Times, etc. (preferably in their mobile-device versions for speed) almost anywhere you happen to be, whether in a bus, in your dentist's waiting room, in the car (as a passenger or stopped), in any restaurant, etc.

  The portability factor is large with many.
You can also download books directly to the Kindle from a few other online book sites this way, detailed at the free-books page.

  What's unique about the Kindle's access is that if you're sitting, waiting somewhere (almost anywhere in the world) reading a book on the Kindle International, you can begin a highlighting of a word or phrase on the page, finish it with a spacebar and the Kindle copies that word or phrase into the search bar -- and then you can press the 5-way navigation button to the right until you see and click on "Wiki," which will take you to the Wikipedia pages that match the search phrase (your Wireless feature would have to be turned On of course).

 When finished, press the Back button, and you're back where you started on the page in the book.  The Wikipedia feature works for any Kindle International model, globally, with wireless access available in their area (most).

  2.  WiFi wireless access - This works when you are set up to use a WiFi network that is in your home, your office, or in certain hotspots you might find such as Starbucks or McDonald's.  You'll normally need to do a special connection to the network the first time, and if it has the minimal security recommended, you'd need the private code for it.  Sometimes it requires a log-on screen.
  Barnes and Noble Nook users would be able to use it at that store.

 This is the type used by the current iPad, and Alex. (Turns out the Kobo uses only either bluetooth or the simple USB cable method to get e-books onto it._

 The cellular-wireless iPad ($130 extra, or $629 total) will be ready late April for those who pre-ordered it, and the official release is May 7.  As mentioned, there are web-access fees ($15-$30) charged for any month you use that type of wireless for an iPad.  AT&T will provide the web-access.

  SPECIAL NOTE:  Apple has identified a WiFi problem in some iPads and they readily replace the iPad when you contact them.

  WiFi networks, although limiting you to local areas, are faster, generally, than cellular networks, for web-browsing.

NOOK web-browser upgrade
When I was at Barnes and Noble, a very helpful customer support person named Amanda (El Cerrito, Ca) took me through quite a bit of it.

  The Nook's newly enabled web-browser, although limited in where you can use it, uses the bottom LCD panel to 'Goto' the web.  When you get a webpage, the slice of it that you can see in that small window is in color, and when I tried a photo site, it was really pleasing to see that, even if you can see only maybe a 5th of the photo since part of the lower screen is still used for other things.

  The one thing that was somewhat problematical was that when I was on a webpage and wanted to go to another one and called up the GoTo or Location box and started typing the URL, the Nook's e-Ink screen above would flash and refresh after each and every keypress.  That was disorienting.  I spent only 20 minutes on it, but maybe there's a way to avoid it, or they'll fix that with the next update.

  If I'd never used a Kindle and known about its ability to use the web browser anywhere, I still probably would have bought it on the spot.  I saw it on the first day, so everyone was very 'up' about it and I enjoyed getting webpages on it.  The Nook is a great looking reader but, as a Kindle user, I still find it has too many menu steps and I don't enjoy controlling the top with the bottom controls on a separate screen, as it makes me feel as if I'm operating a remote control with accompanying mini-delays.  Nook owners have no problem with that though.

  My 2nd choice now would be the Nook, unless they improve the Alex, which has a full screen at the bottom, but it's $100 more expensive than either the Nook or the Kindle.

FUTURE COMPARISON OF MAJOR DEDICATED E-READER FEATURES
  I'll probably update this and will eventually do a a blog entry comparing the various features of the dedicated e-readers mentioned.  By then, there'll probably be another dozen e-readers out.

IPADS AND OTHER TABLETS.  IPADS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON MARKETPLACE
  And now, other tablets competing with the Apple iPad are also gearing up for release, while the iPad is often out of stock at stores.  Amazon marketplace stores have new iPads at elevated prices for those who don't want to wait, but I'd check the quality ratings and number of ratings for the stores.

---

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First Nook Reviews - pros and cons - Update7

[You can jump to Latest Update, #6 done on 12/10/09.
  It includes reviews by ZDNet's Matt Miller, NY Times's David Pogue, and WSJ's Walter S. Mossberg.]

[Original post]
More later, but here's the Engadget review, which has a video, which you can access directly with this link.

UPDATE 12/06/09, 10:22 PM - Original Posting 12/6 at 9:52 PM
  It's not the kind of review that Barnes and Noble will have wanted, but it shows the Nook has promise, and some people may not mind the pauses and the confusion in learning how to use it.

To be fair to Engadget's thorough work and their obvious wish to be supportive on an e-reader they're very drawn to, I won't quote any of it yet but encourage reading of the full review.

UPDATE2 12/06/09, 11:05 PM - Original Posting 12/6 at 9:52 PM
  Several reviews are coming in, linked to at the Barnes and Noble forums in a specific thread. Upshot is similar in the ones I've read though Gizmodo recommended that anyone needing to decide now should go with the Kindle but all are also high on the Nook with regrets over some software issues which later firmware updates may solve.

UPDATE3 12/07/09, 6:18 AM
  So far, there are 5 reviews listed at the link I gave above plus another one I just saw.

  Of the six, 5 are cautious and mentioned slowness and delayed features.
    The 6th, Slashgear, loved it.
      One mentioned that more than once, when selecting a book
      to read, another book was displayed instead.  B&N told
      him they'd be fixing that one soon.
    [ How will they display 100+ books? Some have 1000+. ]

Key statements from reviews so far:

  Engadget:
  "...the initial offering feels long on promises and short on delivery... performance feels stuck in mud."

  Slashgear:
  "Ease of use is the biggest element in the nook’s favor, with the touchscreen UI perhaps the most intuitive way of navigating the ebook experience that we’ve tried."

  Gizmodo:
  "In fact, if you have to pick one right now, stick with the Kindle.  It's a tough call, because I see a lot of potential in Nook that might not be in Kindle, but damn if the Kindle hasn't grown to comfortably inhabit its e-ink skin.  As long as you don't expect apps and extras on a Kindle, it delivers the best ebook experience there is at this moment. And it just went international."

  CNet (with video):
  "...the Nook's off-white border is closer to gray than to white, and the finish is shiny (we prefer the Kindle's matte finish, but that's a small nitpick).
  ... The color touch screen at the bottom of the device creates an interesting dynamic. For better or worse, because it's bright and vibrant when turned on, it makes the upper E-ink screen appear bland and dull.
  ... we did notice that every time you load a book--even if you've already opened it before--you get a message that says 'Formatting...' and have to wait a few seconds for the book to load. That's slightly irritating.
  ...you have a few fonts to choose from (Amasis, Helvetica Neue, and Light Classic), which is nice.
  ...the color LCD touch screen...negatively impacts battery life significantly.
  ...the Kindle--or, at least, Amazon's service--is more battle-tested, its battery life is better, and it does offer text-to-speech audio and basic Web browsing.  You also don't have to deal with some of the slow load times for books.
  ...Nook still has some kinks to work out and will require its fair share of tweaks and firmware upgrades to really shine.  But we have no problem recommending it as a worthy alternative to the current-generation Kindle."

  Technologizer: "It's an interesting and capable gadget in many ways, but the interface — which is sluggish and somewhat quirky — isn't polished enough to render it a Kindle killer."

  The Money Times:
  "...Barnes and Noble has presented the Nook to us in a more or less raw form.  This Android-powered machine is fascinating, but has a long way to go.
  The touchscreen turns out to be uncomfortably bright...The automatic brightness adjustment does not work well, but the problem is taken care off by a manual control...
  ...the navigation through the LCD is faster.  At 3.5 inches, it is as responsive as any smartphone.
  The LCD, sadly, is a battery hog instead of a saver. The interface is quite good, but cannot be called an upgrade, it is just an alternative.
  The unsupported formats are Microsoft Word DOC files or plain text TXT formats.. [and other vendors' proprietary ones of course].
  Kindle comes with HTML, DOC, non DRM MOBI files, but the EPUB gives Nook an edge.
  The control of the [music] player is easier and more straightforward than Kindle's due to the touch screen.
  Barnes and Noble books have always been known to be more expensive than Amazon's. They are planning to take care of that by leveling their prices.
  [Why not now?]
  Over all, the Nook might not be a Kindle killer, but it sure is providing a tough competition to the latter, and with a few tweakings left and right, it might very well cross Kindle's sales in a few months time."

A few days later
UPDATE6,   12/10 at 1:53 AM (not moved by datestamp, intentionally).

ZDNet's Matt Miller had recommended the Nook over the Kindle in October and now has the Nook. His article title is B&N Nook is the king of connectivity and content.
  "...you probably can’t find a happier ebook fan today. I recorded a 25 minute video walk through most all aspects of the device.
  IMHO it is the best ebook reader for my needs...
  I get MAJOR eReader rewards on the eReader site so I can get a lot of free ebook content.
  The Nook gives you the flexibility to obtain content from multiple sources with both convenient and not so convenient methods. [So does the Kindle.]
  ....the color display doesn’t take away at all from the ebook reading experience.
  ...the Nook is definitely slower than the [Sony PRS] 505.
  I also am pleased with both the AT&T and WiFi connectivity options that really unshackle wireless connectivity options you have to get content onto your Nook."
  [ He plans to do an updated report after more working with it more. ]

On the other hand, The NY Times's David Pogue, in Not Yet The Season For a Nook writes a devastating review of the Nook today.  Problems include the troubling fine-print, extreme slowness, crashes.  He describes it as "a mess."
  ' Unfortunately, we, the salivating public, might be afflicted with a little holiday disease of our own: Sucker Syndrome. Every one of the Nook’s vaunted distinctions comes fraught with buzz kill footnotes...
  ...At other times, the color strip feels completely, awkwardly disconnected from what it’s supposed to control on the big screen above.
  ...the Nook’s screen is achingly slower than the Kindle’s.
  Often, you tap some button on the color strip — and nothing happens. You wait for the Nook to respond, but there’s no progress bar, no hourglass, no indication that the Nook “heard” you. So you tap again — but now you’ve just triggered a second command that you didn’t want.
  It takes four seconds for the Settings panel to open, 18 seconds for the bookstore to appear (over Wi-Fi), and 8 to 15 seconds to open a book or newspaper for the first time, during which you stare at a message that says “Formatting.”
 ...missing features are symptoms of B&N’s bad case of Ship-at-All-Costs-itis. But the biggest one of all is the Nook’s half-baked software.
 ...it’s slower than an anesthetized slug in winter.  And it's buggy.
 ...the Kindle is still a better machine. It’s faster, thinner, lighter and much easier to figure out.  Its battery lasts more than three times as long (seven days versus two).
  [With Kindle]...Any notes and highlighting you’ve added to your books also appear magically on your other gadgets.  (Barnes & Noble says that these features will arrive — yes, you guessed it — next year.)
  ...the Kindle offers a few things that Nook lacks, like playback of audio books from Audible.com, a basic Web browser, a synthesized voice that reads your books out loud and the ability to rotate the device 90 degrees for a wider “page.” '

And Wall Street Journal's Walter S. Mossberg adds his awaited review as a moderate reviewer.  His article is titled ...Has Potential, but Needs Work.
  "Overall, after testing the Nook for about a week, I don't think it's as good as the Kindle, at least not yet. At launch, the Nook has the feel of a product with great potential that was rushed to market before it was fully ready.
  ...over half of the Nook catalog is made up of free out-of-copyright titles published before 1923, the vast majority of which are likely to be of little interest to average readers. Barnes & Noble refuses to say how many modern commercial titles it offers, or even whether it has more or fewer of these than Amazon.
  During my tests, I found the Nook slower, more cumbersome to use and less polished than the Kindle. I ran into various crashes and bugs. And, while the Kindle's navigation system isn't exactly world class, it ran circles around the Nook's...
  The Nook may be wonderful one day, but, as of today, it's no match for the Kindle, despite advantages such as lending, because it's more annoying to use.
  ...the Nook constantly delayed taking me to books while the main screen displayed a message that said "formatting."
  ...Turning pages inside books was slower than on the Kindle. Looking up a word in the built-in dictionary, a quick process on the Kindle, was far harder on the Nook. Even swiping the touch screen to turn pages would suddenly stop working for periods of time.
  ...its software can be updated, and Barnes & Noble is promising to fix the problems...
 ...it also adds Wi-Fi, which is free at Barnes & Noble stores, though mostly unusable at other commercial hotspots, because the Nook lacks a Web browser that would allow you to log in.
  The Kindle has a crude Web browser, but no Wi-Fi.
  ...battery life, the Nook's is worse than the Kindle's.
  The Nook beats the Kindle in a few areas. Lending is a key one, though only about half of the commercial titles are eligible for lending, you can lend each one only once to a given person [only once, ever, actually], and loans expire after two weeks. In my tests, lending worked OK after a couple of false starts.
  [Interesting as others were told it wasn't quite ready yet and would start soon.  Maybe it works sporadically.]
  Unlike the Kindle, the Nook also has a slot for expandable memory cards and a replaceable battery.
 ...while Amazon will synchronize your last page read if you switch from reading a book on one device to using another, Barnes & Noble lacks that capability yet, though it says it will have it soon.
  The latest standard-size Kindle allows wireless book purchasing in multiple countries. The Nook does so only in the U.S.
  My recommendation on the Nook is to wait, even if you prefer its features to the Kindle's.  It's not fully baked yet."

UPDATE 6a - OTHER   12/10 (included here from another post)
SOME GOOD NEWS from there for Nookers. See the public library thread.  Some have confirmed that they can download to their computers e-books from the library and that they are readable on their Nooks if they move the book file VIA ADOBE feature (which is the rights-protection).

Missing File Format Support for TXT and WORD DOCs
What's odd to me is that the Nook doesn't support Microsoft Word doc files nor even text or .txt files.  Since many of us highlight info on the web sites and copy/paste them into Word docs, we can have them converted for free by Amazon for our Kindles. Obviously, it's nice to be able to put one's own Doc or text files on our ereaders. The Kindle even supports basic HTML renamed .txt
...
For best balance, be sure to visit the Barnes and Noble Nook Help Forum discussions.

There is of course the problematical as is shown in this thread about books being blank when downloaded, or skipping pages.

UPDATE7,   12/18 at 11:52 PM (not moved by datestamp, intentionally).

PC World's Melissa J. Perenson posted today a very moderate, detailed review, the gist of which (bottom-controller interface problems in addition to slowness) matched my own experience during my 1/2 hr. second visit at Barnes & Noble's Nook counter this afternoon.
  I still liked the look and feel of the unit and would buy it if I didn't know how direct, and how fast, basic reading & searching access can be on an e-reader.  She describes well the too-often awkward, delayed response of the controller as it is now.  She'll report again after a firmware update.

A few of her thoughts:
  "...when browsing my book library, I was often stymied by having to put my finger just so on the touchscreen strip of up/down arrows and then having to look up above as my selection moved.  When I found something to choose, I would press the nondescript radio dial button on the right of the LCD, look above to see what the E-Ink screen now had on it, and then look below to see what additional navigation choices were available.  And all of these recalibrations would occur with a lag...
  ...in the end, having two screens in play simultaneously was a jarring experience:  It meant that my eyes had to dart continually from the too-bright lower screen to the more muted, easy-on-the-eyes E-Ink screen.  The auto-brightness feature lowers the brightness, but not enough;  I had to dial the brightness down manually to as low as 4 to 10 percent to get to passable contrast with the E-Ink screen above.
  The Nook's LCD screen makes it easy to jump into the type of content you want, including your daily content, your library, shopping options, what you last read, and settings. You get the sense that no important features are buried in a hidden menu item (in contrast, Amazon has its store link as a menu item, not as something visible on the screen)
  I also appreciate the page-forward and page-backward navigation buttons...
  And the Nook's fonts (you can choose from a set of two to three fonts, depending on the book) are easier on the eyes than the Kindle 2's, with more clarity and definition...
  At least for now, though, I can't confidently the [sic] recommend Nook.  If the promised software update dramatically improves performance, the Nook could emerge as a worthy competitor to the Kindle 2.  But it's current sluggish performance, along with the caveats about the LCD's interaction with the E-Ink screen, can't be ignored.  I'll revisit this review after Barnes and Noble pushes out its firmware update. "

SUMMING UP
So, for those who've been trying to decide between the Nook or a Kindle -- outside of slowness problems and some bugs, the Nook has:
  No audible.com books playing capability, a mono speaker instead of stereo, no web browser, no text-to-speech capability.
  The Nook does read ePub file format and allows you to loan a book once, for 14 days if the publisher approves this (50% are said not to).
  The color navigator shows the books very nicely but the light may be distracting.  Many will prefer the Nook's touch screen navigation though.

OTHER INFORMATION THAT IS NEW TO ME
Also, Barnes and Noble staff have confirmed that, unlike Amazon's international travel policy since the first days, a Nook owner cannot buy B&N e-books while travelling outside the U.S., not even for download to the computer.
  The exception will be Canada sometime this month but Canadians won't be able to purchase the Nook itself, only B&N Nook books.

In-store WiFi access to B&N books and alerts or coffee shop offers won't begin until probably January.  As mentioned Saturday, the WiFi for the Nook will access only Barnes & Noble's store and can't access via a home/office WiFi network if WEP or similar security keys are protecting the network.

UPDATE5, 12/7 at 2:50PM
  See a previous update on the WiFi and security-input changes or differences from B&N Forum administrator statements in November that security-info input wouldn't be possible.  The User Guide is online today and they've made a menu option to provide it, so this will make home/office WiFi network doable although the lack of a web browser will mean no web surfing but good additional access to Barnes and Noble's store if cellular wireless doesn't work well or is unavailable.  (There are additional quotes and links for the B&N forum Wifi thread there also.)

UPDATE4, 7:05 AM
IF INTERESTED BUT STILL UNSURE WHICH MIGHT BE BEST FOR YOU
  The Nook has a 14-day return policy, with 10% restocking fee if it's been opened.
  The Kindle has a 30-day return policy, with full refund, even if it's been used.

  (The Sony Daily Edition coming soon will be too expensive at $400 now, without a web browser or text-to-speech but with a touch screen, using an extra display layer that results in less contrast and some glare for many.  The other Sony models don't have wireless book-downloads.)

[Edit added] CBS's The Early Show today took a look at the e-readers.  Interesting conclusions.

[Edit - added 1/20/10] There is one note on the Barnes & Noble Nook forum that illustrates better than most what the problems have been after the 2nd firmware update, version 1.11, which has proved more troublesome than 1.10.  The posting stood out because it also shows the extreme patience and understanding of some customers who remain optimistic and may well be proved right that future updates may remove the problems being experienced.  The entire thread, pro and con, and the forum are an interesting read.

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Also see
1. Follow up to David Pogue's NYT review - Q&A
Collected feedback to the review, with David Pogue's responses
2. A very thorough, more recent review by Dave Slusher, who has concerns but remains interested.  He put together an inline-Spanish-to-English dictionary for the Kindle and is interested in doing the same for the Nook.
3. Nook-Kindle comparison info
4. Nook User Guide online Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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