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Since introduction of the ebook reader, a fire has been lit at the book retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders, each selling their own e-reader, namely the Kindle, the Nook and Kobo. Now name brands such as Sony, Augen, Aluratek and many others have joined the party.
With so many options becoming available, our goal is to provide information about the various ebook readers on the market, especially the Nook and Kindle as they are the top sellers. But rather than counting on "experts" or people paid to write reviews, the reviews you find here are from regular people sharing their experiences or opinions on the product they are reviewing.
We encourage everyone to explore the site, rate the products and vote on the polls so we can share the good and the bad about the various products and provide feedback to those looking to purchase an e-reader for themselves.
Nook vs Kindle .Info
With so many options becoming available, our goal is to provide information about the various ebook readers on the market, especially the Kindle and Nook as they are the top sellers. But rather than counting on “experts” or pay people to write reviews, the reviews you find here are from regular people sharing their experiences or opinions on the product they are reviewing.
Nook vs Kindle .Info
February 15th, 2011 
Nook vs Kindle Since introduction of the ebook reader, a fire has been lit at the book retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders, each selling their own e-reader, namely the Kindle, the Nook and Kobo. Now name brands such as Sony, Augen, Aluratek and many others have joined the party.
With so many options becoming available, our goal is to provide information about the various ebook readers on the market, especially the Nook and Kindle as they are the top sellers. But rather than counting on "experts" or people paid to write reviews, the reviews you find here are from regular people sharing their experiences or opinions on the product they are reviewing.
We encourage everyone to explore the site, rate the products and vote on the polls so we can share the good and the bad about the various products and provide feedback to those looking to purchase an e-reader for themselves.
E-readers: The Next Generation
April 16th, 2012 Nook vs Kindle Once tablets like Apple Inc.'s iPad hit the scene, one of the livelier debates in the gadgetsphere was what they would mean for e-readers, those one-trick wonders that displayed electronic books on razor-sharp monochrome screens. After all, the thinking went, why buy a device that does just one thing, albeit well, when you could buy a device that does many things perfectly adequately? Many thought that the e-reader purchasing decision would become very simple: There would be no more e-readers.
But that's not what happened. The major vendors—Amazon.com, Barnes Noble, and Sony—tweaked their technology and their business models, and brought out models that boasted even better screens, along with touch controls (like swiping to turn pages), and dramatically reduced prices. That last change was particularly significant. With prices now under $100, the leap to a tablet was no longer a no-brainer. And if customers still were tempted, well, the vendors would offer low-cost tablets of their own.
So instead of a market devoid of e-readers, we've got a market with more choices than ever. More complicated? Sure. But it also means that users who understand their needs and the various devices can home in on the right product, at the right price. To help that process along, we went hands-on with each of today's major e-readers.
Amazon Kindle Fire ($199)
Our first surprise with Amazon's new tablet was that it is, even at its cut-rate price, a pretty decent tablet (a postrelease software update ironed out some early kinks). Our second surprise was that's it's a fairly ho-hum e-reader. We figured that given Amazon's long history with e-readers, the company would serve up a tablet-based version that offered something new and exciting. It didn't. This is strictly Tablet Reader 101. Sure, the Fire has a bright screen and offers many ways to customize the way a book displays (you can pick from different fonts, type sizes, and background schemes), but these days almost every tablet boasts the same. And in some key ways, the Fire lags behind. For example, its swipe-to-turn-page mechanism is clumsily executed. Often pages don't turn unless you run your finger completely across the screen—no halfway swiping here.
Yet if you look at the Fire with your tablet buyer's hat on—willing to take an okay-not-great e-reader because you've got other ideas for your device—it becomes a much more compelling purchase. The Fire's Web browser is relatively fast (not iPad 2 fast, but you won't be brewing coffee while waiting for CNN to load, either). Video can be rented or bought through Amazon, and watched on the device (if you've got an Amazon Prime membership, you can stream thousands of titles for free, too). We liked that you can store titles locally to the device (there's 8GB of space, though you'll have more like 6.5GB at your disposal). That's handy if you want to watch movies somewhere you won't have Wi-Fi access (like on a transatlantic flight).
Physically, the device is a bit short of elegant. It feels hefty for a 7-inch tablet, weighing in at nearly a pound. The power button is oddly located—a tiny nub nearly hidden on the side. There are no volume buttons (you have to use on-screen controls that could be more responsive). You also get a scaled-down version of the Android mobile operating system, which makes the Kindle Fire easy to use but does away with the customization options for which Android is famous. Keep in mind, too, that apps are purchased through Amazon's own store, and not everything available in the Android Market is available here (you won't find the New York Times Android app, for example, so Times print subscribers who want to view the paper on the Fire will have to view it through the Web browser or buy a special Kindle-only subscription—which is probably the point).
But heck, the thing is $199, and it doesn't stink. That's no small achievement. For those looking for a bit of tablet to go with a bit of e-reading, the Kindle Fire is very tempting indeed.
Nook Tablet ($249)
Barnes Noble's tablet looks great—it comes in a slick silver color and has a hip little notch (the nook, get it?) cut out of one corner. It's hard to believe that this tablet weighs just half an ounce less than the Kindle Fire, as it looks so much sexier. And its 7-inch screen is bright and vibrant. But the more we used the Nook, the more we came away thinking that the Fire was the better overall choice.
As far as e-readers go, the contest is a draw. The Nook's touch interface seemed more responsive, but Amazon does a better job integrating its e-book store. In short, both are competent, not revolutionary e-readers that are no better or worse than what we've already seen on a half-dozen other tablets.
While the Nook's Web browser also had an edge over Fire's—scrolling and pinch-zooming were a bit smoother—Barnes Noble doesn't offer the multimedia integration Amazon does. You can't rent or buy movies; instead you can view Netflix or Hulu titles over Wi-Fi (Amazon offers this, too). While the Nook lets you view PDFs, there were glitches, like files that failed to display (in our testing, this wasn't a problem on the Fire, though the small screens mean that neither device is ideal for complex documents).
Like the Fire, the Nook Tablet runs a version of Android that has been highly customized (or, as many Android buffs would put it, dumbed down). Apps are purchased through Barnes Noble, not the Android Market.
We tested the $249 16GB version of the Nook table, and thought the Kindle Fire, at $199, offered more bang for the buck. As is wont to happen in gadget reviews, Barnes and Noble released its own $199 model just as we went to press (it has half the storage space of its big brother, matching the Kindle's 8GB). While this makes the Nook-versus-Fire matchup a bit harder to call, we still give the nod to Amazon's tablet. It just does a better job of integrating different forms of media—and isn't that the whole idea of a tablet, anyway?
Amazon Kindle ($79 / $109)
Amazon Kindle Touch ($99 / $139)
Like many e-reader fans, we were afraid that Amazon's foray into tablets would mean the end of its basic Kindle readers. These devices might lack the multitalented versatility of their computer-like cousins, but wow, were they great for reading books. E-readers were built for books, with screens that went easy on the eyes, didn't wash out at the beach, and uncannily recreated the clarity of the printed page. Happily, instead of pulling the plug, Amazon administered some adrenaline.
The new Kindle is a fine e-reader, once again boasting a page-perfect screen and easy Wi-Fi access to Amazon's burgeoning selection of titles. It is also smaller than previous models, thanks to the company's decision to do away with the keyboard (the screen remains 6 inches). And it's much cheaper, at $79 (this gets you the "Kindle with Special Offers" version, which will deliver some ads to your device when the Wi-Fi is turned on. But it's not intrusive—you never see an ad when reading—and the coupons are actually handy sometimes, such as Amazon's $1 book offers. We recommend this version over the $109 ad-free model).
That said, we think the $99 Kindle Touch ($139 without "special offers") is the better way to go. For an extra $20 you get a responsive touch interface, which doesn't just make page turning easier, but makes the new virtual keyboard much easier to use (on the $79 model, you're hunting and pecking using a control pad). You can also play audiobooks (a longtime Kindle feature removed from the new entry-level reader), double the battery life, and double the storage (4GB instead of 2GB, though as with all e-readers, you won't have access to all of this). This is the best "old-school" Kindle yet.
Nook Simple Touch ($99)
Boy, has Barnes Noble come a long way. We weren't big fans of the original Nook e-reader, which was big and slow. But the bookselling giant retrenched—with admirable results. The Nook Simple Touch is an outstanding basic e-reader (like the Kindle models, it has a 6-inch display). In fact, in two key measures—screen and touch implementation—we thought the Nook was slightly superior to the Kindle Touch.
But the Kindle has a couple of advantages that will, for some users, give it an edge. For one thing, the Kindle Touch boasts twice the internal memory of the Nook. More significantly for those who travel, Barnes Noble's e-book store does not allow users to make purchases while outside the United States (you can read and download purchases already made, but you can't buy anything new). It's the only one of the three major e-reader vendors that has this restriction. For well-read globetrotters—a group more than a few lawyers fall into—that's going to be a dealbreaker.
Sony Reader Wi-Fi ($129)
We've always had a soft spot for Sony readers—and have never been able to wholeheartedly recommend them. From a hardware standpoint, Sony's devices are consistently first-rate, boasting classy designs and cutting-edge technology (Sony was the first major e-reader vendor to implement E Ink displays, and the first to incorporate touch). But for years, the company refused to build Wi-Fi into its readers. Instead of purchasing titles directly from the device, you had to launch special Sony software on your computer, buy a title, and then connect the reader and transfer the book. How 1999, guys.
With the latest Reader, Sony sees the light, offering Wi-Fi store access. Is it too little too late? We hope not. The 6-inch display looks great, and at 6 ounces this is the lightest e-reader in the group. There are nice touches like direct links via the store to local libraries, where you can borrow e-book titles. And Sony's e-book store, while not as slick as Amazon's, is much improved, with a selection that is more extensive and more easily navigated than in the past.
But at $129 this is the most expensive basic reader of the bunch, and we're not sure if the extra features here—including an on-board Web browser that's a nice idea but fairly clunky—justify the premium, especially when the competing products are quite good themselves. Once again, this is an e-reader we like a lot, but probably won't be buying.
Article source: http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202545292191&hubType=Top%20Story&Ereaders_The_Next_Generation
Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1WC Review – the Best E-Reader No One is Talking About
April 10th, 2012 Nook vs Kindle 
In the e-reader world it seems like the Kindle and Nook have taken center stage, so it’s easy to forget that Sony was one of the first companies to jump on the e-reader bandwagon. One of their latest e-readers is the Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1WC. This 6″ e-reader sports a touchscreen display and Wi-Fi, and also claims to be the world’s lightest. Read on for our full review of the PRS-T1WC.
The Sony Reader Wi-Fi PRS-T1WC is a handsome device with classic aesthetics. The reader is available in a choice of white, red or black, which is more color choices than you get from the standard fare of e-readers. The device also has a soft rubber back finish which makes it nice and easy to grip. The fact that it weighs just 5.9 ounces, along with its soft rubber back finish, makes it a pleasure to hold for long periods of time. It’s also super thin, measuring just 3/8 of an inch, so that you can unobtrusively stash it in your bag.
The Reader Wi-Fi houses a 6″ display with a 600 x 800 resolution that uses E Ink Pearl technology with anti glare. The result is a display that we found held up well even under the harsh sunlight of Sedona, Arizona, which was a place where our iPad’s display was unusable during the daytime. So go ahead and take this reader with you on vacation and sit back and relax with it under the sun.
The display is also a touchscreen display which makes the device’s U.I. much more intuitive to operate. For example, you can pinch to zoom in and out, or swipe to the left or right to turn pages. However, at the bottom of the display are five dedicated buttons – a page back, page forward, home, back, and menu button. Speaking of the U.I., the Sony Reader’s U.I. is very straightforward. The home screen offers quick access to what you have been recently reading, the Reader Store is easy to navigate, and the onscreen keyboard is easy to use and pretty responsive
Besides for books, the Reader Wi-Fi can also display magazines, newspapers, and even comics. For reading magazines and comics we would generally prefer a color tablet over a Reader, but it’s nice to have the option available here. When it comes to text, the Sony Reader Wi-Fi is able to display a total of seven font styles and eight font sizes. When it comes to files, it has support for ePub, PDF, TXT, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP picture files, and MP3 and AAC audio files. The device comes with 1.3GB of internal available free memory, which is sufficient to hold about 1,200 ebooks, but fortunately it also comes with a MicroSD card slot so that you expand it with up-to an additional 32GB of storage.
The device also comes with a Dictionary, text memo app, and a handwriting app for taking notes. Speaking of the handwriting app, the Reader even comes with a dedicated stylus! The Reader can also play back audio files via a standard 3.5mm jack, it has a web browser, and built-in access to Public Library content. And although it hardly provides an ideal web browsing experience, the web browser loads up a website surprisingly fast.
Battery life for the Sony Reader Wi-Fi is supposed to be 3-4 weeks with wireless on, or up to 14,000 continuous page turns. Unfortunately we have not tested the Reader Wi-Fi long enough to verify this but it seems pretty accurate so far.
Overall, the Sony Reader Wi-Fi is an excellent top-of-the-line e-reader. It offers all of the “cutting-edge” features that you would want from an e-reader, including a touchscreen, built-in wireless, a web browser, and more. And all of this comes in a very lightweight and pretty stylish body. Unfortunately, the biggest challenge for Sony Reader Wi-Fi is that the Kindle and Nook brands have become household names, making it difficult to compete. But if you’re looking for an e-reader that is as lightweight as possible, yet packs in all the features you could want, there is no reason not to go with the Sony Reader Wi-Fi. The Sony Reader Wi-Fi is reasonably priced at $129.
Article source: http://www.chipchick.com/2012/03/sony-reader-wi-fi-review.html
Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 Review
April 5th, 2012 Nook vs Kindle 
There is no shortage of enterprise tablets. From the PlayBook to the ThinkPad Tablet to any number of Windows slates, business users have plenty to choose from. Though it seems like a slick consumer device, the Droid Xyboard 10.1 is Motorola's attempt to tap into that market.
Featuring a larger form factor than its companion, the Xyboard 8.2, the Xyboard 10.1 has 4G connectivity, houses a suite of business-friendly apps, and comes packaged with a capacitive stylus. Do enterprise users have the device of their dreams on their hands? And how does the Xyboard 10.1 fare in other areas besides being business-ready?
Build Design
With tablets that are anywhere around the 10.1-inch range, it's something of a given that they will be a little unwieldy and uncomfortable to hold with one hand. Nevertheless, I was surprised by how heavy the Xyboard 10.1 was at 1.33 pounds and how quickly I would grow tired from holding it with one hand. Perhaps making this even more puzzling is the fact that the Xyboard is not particularly thick, measuring 10 x 6.83 x 0.35 inches. The tablet is just dense, so I was caught a little off-guard when I first started handling it. But at least it's an improvement over the Xoom, which had a smaller screen but weighed more at 1.6 pounds.
It also has an odd shape that may appeal to some, but not to this reviewer. Its corners are cut off, leaving angles that give the tablet a hexagonal shape. This seems like an unnecessary alternative from the usual rounded corners (or even perfectly rectangular tablets); if anything, it just seems like an attempt to stand out in the crowd in a completely meaningless way.
That being said, what I did enjoy about the build was the fact that it has rubberized material on the back…well, part of the back, at least. The rubberized casing wraps around to the rear where it comes in about an inch on either side on the short ends, enough to give your fingers a place to rest on the back when holding the tablet in landscape mode. I would have preferred that the entire back of the casing be covered in rubberized material, that way I could enjoy it when holding the tablet in portrait mode too (or to provide comfort and grip to those who have longer fingers than I do). Still, the rest of the backing is made from aluminum, so at least it doesn't have a cheap feel to it.
Down towards the bottom of the front of the device is the Xyboard's built-in microphone, and in the middle of the bottom edge of the device, you will find a microUSB port (used for charging) as well as a microHDMI port. To the right of those two ports, there is a covered slot for a microSIM card, but unfortunately there's no microSD card slot. The top edge of the device, meanwhile, has an IR blaster and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Xyboard's front-facing, 1.3-megapixel camera is centered on the top frame of the device (when held in landscape mode), while the rear-facing, 5-megapixel camera is centered at the top on the back. The speakers are also located on the back of the Xyboard, but also near the top so they aren't covered by your hands when you're holding the tablet.
The only other controls on the Xyboard 10.1 are the power/standby and volume up/down buttons, and they are designed in the same atrocious manner as the ones found on the Xyboard 8.2. They are placed way too closely together on the back of the right short side of the tablet, with the distance between volume down and up being the same distance between volume up and the power button. As such, it's virtually impossible to tell which button you're pressing just by feel without looking. And not only are the buttons located on the back, they're barely raised, so they're more or less flush with the surface of the device. So even if you are lucky enough to find the button that you want without having to stare at it, it's not particularly easy or comfortable to press it.
Screen and Speakers
The screen on the Xyboard 10.1 certainly looks crisp enough, given its 1280 x 800 resolution, but I will admit that it looked better on the Xyboard 8.2 thanks to the greater pixel density (it had the same resolution, but on a smaller screen). Still, the viewing angle is very wide, colors looked vivid, and HD video was a pleasure to watch on the display.
Aside from the fact that they're rear-firing, I think that the speakers are well-placed up towards the top on the back of the device, since they have no risk of being accidentally covered. They are surprisingly powerful too, but just because they can be loud doesn't mean that they're of good quality. Like 99% of tablet speakers, it's not like you'll get any rich-sounding audio or bass out of them; they're still tinny and flat-sounding.
Specs
- Android Honeycomb (3.2)
- 10.1-inch TFT IPS touchscreen display, 1280 x 800
- 1.2 GHz dual-core processor
- 1 GB RAM
- 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB internal storage
- Front facing 1.3 megapixel, rear-facing 5.0 megapixel webcams
- 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Verizon LTE
- microUSB 2.0, microHDMI, 3.5mm audio input
- 10 x 6.83 x 0.35 inches
- 1.33 pounds
- Ships with microUSB wall charger, microUSB to full USB cable
- Price at launch: 16 GB: $529.99 subsidized, $699.99 full retail; 32 GB: $629.99 subsidized, $799.99 full retail; 64 GB: $729.99 subsidized, $899.99 full retail; 16 GB, Wi-Fi only: $499.99
Article source: http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3126&review=motorola+droid+xyboard+10.1+4G+lte+android
Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet (8GB): Full Review
April 1st, 2012 Nook vs Kindle When it first debuted, Barnes Noble's Nook Tablet went head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle Fire with a great screen, microSD card slot and a stylish design, but the company may have done itself a disservice by pricing its 7-inch color eReader $50 higher. The second iteration of the Nook Tablet keeps the same design, but halves the RAM and storage space, and, more importantly, matches the Fire's $199 price tag. However, is the Nook Tablet's performance still up to snuff?
Editor's Note: Portions of this review have been taken from the Barnes Noble Nook Tablet Review.
Design
Click to EnlargeStill one of the more attractive 7-inch tablets, the Nook Tablet's pewter-colored matte plastic chassis has a pleasingly rounded shape that looks and feels much more like a fancy tome than the sharp-angled Fire. At 8.1 x 5 x 0.5 inches, the Nook Tablet is slightly bigger than the 7.5 x 4.7 x 0.5-inch Amazon tablet, but at 14.1 ounces, it's 0.3 ounces lighter. It's also significantly lighter than the 15.5-ounce Nook Color, which is now $169.
The Nook Tablet sports an attractive N button below the screen, which launches the menu with one press or returns you to home with two clicks. We appreciate the dedicated volume up and down buttons on the right side. The luxuriously soft, rubberized back made it easy to grip the Nook Tablet with one hand.
Display and Audio
Like the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet has a 7-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel screen. According to Barnes Noble, the 16-million-color VividView display offers better picture quality and less glare than the competition because there's no air gap beneath the fully laminated surface. Sure enough, action scenes from "The Expendables" looked better on the Nook Tablet than the Fire. Viewing angles were wider, colors were much richer and we saw less pixelation.
Though the Nook Tablet's display was sharper and more vibrant, the Kindle Fire's was a bit brighter, measuring at 460 lux on our light meter, compared with 392 lux for the Nook.
The Nook Tablet's underpowered speaker is one of its biggest weaknesses. When we tried streaming tunes from the Napster app, the drums were tinny and audio was noticeably distorted. Worse, the back-mounted speaker on the Nook Tablet becomes muffled when the tablet is placed flat on a surface or mounted in a portfolio.
Software and User Interface
Click to EnlargeThe Nook's completely unique user interface--now at version 1.4.2--is built on top of Google's Android operating system. Unlike the Kindle Fire's bookshelflike home screen, the Nook has a more traditional-looking desktop on its three home screens.
Overall, we prefer the Nook Tablet's UI to the Kindle Fire's, because it allows easier access to recently used apps and media, gives users the freedom to personalize the home screens with wallpaper and shortcuts, and provides a physical button for returning to the main menu or home more quickly.
Nook Tablet Virtual Keyboard
The Nook Tablet's virtual keyboard is reasonably accurate and attractive, but offers no haptic feedback and no alternate input methods such as Swype. Still, we preferred the Nook Tablet keyboard's widely spaced keys to the tightly packed buttons on the Kindle Fire.
Barnes Noble Book Store
Click to EnlargeThe Nook Book Store has more than 2.5 million titles available for purchase and hundreds of popular magazines. In a quick survey of the top 10 New York Times best-sellers, all 10 were available for the same price on both the Kindle and the Nook.
Unlike the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet supports the popular ePub book format, so if you want to side-load some books from other sources, you won't have a problem. Like the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet supports library lending so you can borrow eBooks from your local public library for free. However, only the Amazon tablet gives you a free book per month from its Lending Library (provided you're an Amazon Prime member).
Barnes Noble Comics Selection
Click to EnlargeThe Nook Tablet has a number of graphic novels and even a few single-issue copies of comics, including 109 graphic novels from Dark Horse Graphic Novels. Through a relationship with Marvel, the Nook has a handful of superhero titles you won't find on Amazon, including two Spiderman collections, four X-Men collections, two Iron Man collections, two Hulks, two Thors and one "Captain America."
Barnes Noble Periodicals
The Nook Newsstand has hundreds of popular digital magazines and newspapers to which you can subscribe or purchase as single copies. You can even try any magazine for free for 14 days. All of the magazines feature a digital table of contents menu that lets you jump to different stories. Amazon's newsstand offers similar features for its magazines, and pages turned more quickly and easily.
A number of magazine titles also have interactive and multimedia features embedded in the content. The most recent issue of Parents magazine has a video cover with a barking dog and a number of hyperlinks within the pages that take you to other parts of the magazine. But there is no easy way to search for titles that offer that "something special."
Enhanced eBooks
Click to EnlargeBarnes Noble offers 700 interactive children's books, and a spokesperson told us that number should rise to more than 1,000 by the end of the year. Some of the books offer page-specific interactive features, such as the ability to change the color of the main character's costume on page two of "Awesome Man." A number of the books are labeled Read and Play, which means they have professional audio recordings that pronounce the text.
Enhanced Nook Books include audio and video embedded within the story, or as additional sections, like DVD extras on a movie. For $2 more than the normal eBook price, we downloaded the enhanced version of J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Hobbit." The 146MB file took 4 minutes longer than a normal eBook to download over Wi-Fi. Also, the extra content must be downloaded separately, taking up a possible 1.51GB of storage space on your Nook Tablet. The sheer file size of books like this gives us pause when considering this version of the Nook Tablet.
That said, the extras are pretty cool. For instance, in a matter of a second or two, we were able to click a Play button in the middle of the text and hear J.R.R. Tolkien read a passage from the Riddles in the Dark section for 30 minutes. Other enhanced books include video interviews with authors as well as animations on images. Enhanced books like this aren't available on the iOS version of the Nook app.
Read Record Feature
All of the children's books support Barnes Noble's new Read Record feature, which allows adults to record themselves reading each page of a storybook so their children can have story time with mom or dad's voice when they can't be there.
Social Features/Lending
The Nook Tablet's eReader has a built-in share button that lets you recommend the book to your contacts, post your reading status to social networks, rate the book, or like the book on Facebook without leaving the reader app. The reader also has a fantastic Recommend button that pops up a list of similar titles.
The Nook Friends app allows you to connect with other Nook users, see their recommendations and even loan them books. During testing, we added a friend and were able to easily send her a recommended book and see a history of every title she had commented on publicly.
Barnes Noble makes some of its titles available as LendMe books, which means you can loan them to one of your Nook friends one time for up to eight days.
Parental Controls
In the settings menu, you can set a four-digit PIN and then block access to the Web browser and all the social features. In a completely different settings menu, you can also set a separate password for buying items from the store. However, there's no way to restrict library content by user or to disable email access.
Apps
The Nook's app store won't put Google Play or Amazon's App store out of business anytime soon. A Barnes Noble spokesperson told us that the device currently has thousands of apps.
While there is a Twitter app, there's no official Facebook app. The only graphically demanding game we could find on the device was the racing game "Raging Thunder." Most of the other games were very casual fare, including the $0.99 Combat Helicopter from Karmic Apps, which reminded us of the original Mario Bros with a helicopter. After about a minute of monotonous play the basic flying app crashed.
Discovering apps is no picnic, either. You can browse through categories, but there's no way to search just the apps inventory. When we tried to find the game Fruit Ninja, we got a guide book to the game, but no app.
Performance
With its 1-GHz TI OMAP4 dual-core processor with 512MB RAM, the Nook Tablet offers half as much RAM as the $199 version. Still, in everyday use, apps loaded fairly quickly, videos streamed smoothly and pages flipped fast. In comparison to the Nook Color, which includes a 800-MHz TI processor and 512MB of RAM, the 8GB Nook Tablet consistently opened apps a second faster, including Netflix, Twitter and the Web browser. When compared with the Kindle Fire, the Nook opened Pulse slower by a fraction of a second, but was faster opening Netflix and Twitter. The browsers for the two tablets seemed to open simultaneously.
Storage and Expansion
The Nook Tablet comes with 8GB of internal storage, as does the Amazon Kindle Fire. However, 3GB is taken up by the operating system and then 1GB of the remaining 4GB is reserved for Barnes Noble content you purchase, including books, apps, magazines and any future downloadable content the company may offer. That leaves 4GB of internal memory for you to fill with personal photos, music or video files, which oddly is more space than is allotted for personal content on the 16GB version.
Unlike the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet has a microSD expansion slot that supports memory cards as large as 32GB.
Video
At present, the two main ways to play video on the Nook Tablet are through Netflix and Hulu Plus, both of which require membership and neither of which allows you to download files for offline viewing. Though each has its strengths, neither has the kind of comprehensive selection of new releases you'd find with a pay-as-you-go service such as Amazon Video On-Demand or iTunes.
Music Playback and Options
Barnes Noble offers a number of streaming music options, including Grooveshark, Pandora and Rhapsody. However, if you want offline music, you will need to bring your own MP3 files to the device.
Web Browsing
Web pages rendered very quickly over our Wi-Fi connection. With Flash disabled and the browser in desktop mode, we downloaded desktop versions of the NYTimes.com, Laptopmag.com and Espn.com in an average of 7.6 seconds, which is exactly the same as what we got on the Kindle Fire with the page loading accelerated. And it's only 0.2 seconds slower than the 16GB version of the Nook Tablet.
Setting up the client to check our Gmail account was a breeze. However, we were unable to configure our office Exchange account, because the client only offers IMAP and POP mail support. The simple UI is attractive enough and places alerts in the status bar when you receive new messages.
Battery Life
Barnes Noble claims that the Nook Tablet will last for 11.5 hours or reading or 9 hours of video playback. With Wi-Fi on and the battery pumped up to 100 percent, we used the device on and off from the morning until after midnight, so we believe Barnes Noble's claim. We were unable to run our standard LAPTOP Battery Test.
Verdict
With a fantastic eReading experience, the best selection of interactive children's books, and a newsstand loaded with magazines, the $199 Nook Tablet is a great color eReader. We prefer the display on this device to the Kindle Fire, but Amazon's device has a superior app selection and better offline media options. Those who aren't planning to play videos or use the Read and Record feature should consider the cheaper $169 Nook Color, because it runs the same software and has the same great display. The 8GB Nook Tablet is a very good option, but it's not the best choice in this price range.
Article source: http://www.laptopmag.com/review/tablets/barnes-and-noble-nook-tablet-8gb.aspx
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