In which I have a boo and a yay about my Nook....

[lagilman]

I have been using my new Nook pretty much...well, not nonstop but quite a lot. So yesterday I went to recharge it, as I was going to be Out and About, and wanted to make sure that nothing interfered with my finishing the book I was currently reading. And the charger did not charge.

I plugged it in, the yellow glow started, and then...died. Nothing.

And, of course, B&N has made their charger proprietary (grr) so none of my other mini-usb chargers would work on it. That's the one thing I will not forgive them.

Anyway, while I was Out and About I stopped by a B&N, and they determined that yes, it was the charger, not my Nook that was broken (whew). They could not hand over a new one (having no extras) but got on the phone with customer service and arranged to have a new one shipped to me right away. So that was good.

And then they offered to top off the charge, to keep me going. And that was even nicer.

(I was told that, until the charger arrived, I could come into the store and have it plugged in, but alas, there is no B&N within walking distance of me, I have to take a subway, and I still have physical books to keep me company. Which is one of the great joys of physical books. They're bulkier, but they don't require a battery.)

And did I mention New!Bookcase arriving tomorrow? Am I maybe just a little too excited about that? Nah. Can't be too excited about New!Bookcase.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That's some good customer service!

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

Nice service, indeed!

And yay for New!Bookcase!!! When I moved to Awesome!Apartment, I went apeshit crazy and bought all matching bookcases. It was like I was in this weird geek heaven. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Love the Nook! Bookcases are also good. When we moved into this house, we built an entire wall of them in what is now my office. We had another wall o' books in the basement, but the 2010 spring floods in Rhode Island destroyed shelves and contents. Not the ideal start to transferring a personal library to digital, but it certainly jumpstarted the process.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Wow, better service than I've come to expect from B&N. Hooray!

I'm still in the throes of agony over what, if any, eReader to get. I've held both the Nook and the latest Kindle, and the Kobo is cheap...but the Kobo doesn't offer annotation ability. The Nook does, but I've heard its on-screen keyboard is sort of meh. The Kindle is a slick little piece of hardware, but I don't particularly want to sell my soul to Amazon...

[lagilman]

I have a Kobo and yeah it's the ideal weight (barely noticeable in your bag) and the eInk is nice if you have good reading light, but it's so bare-bones as to be annoying (no annotation, no wifi, no touchscreen, and you have to carry an external light with you to read in darker locations).

The keyboard for the Nook isn't QWERTY, but after 4+ years of using a smartphone's slide-out keyboard, I find I can double-thumb-type quite easily on it, for small amounts of typing required (I'm not composing stories on this, just tapping out notes and emails).

The Kindle was never an option for me, as Amazon has pissed me off, in a business and consumer capacity, too many times over the years.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

They have a WiFi Kobo available for $99 right now, which is AWFULLY tempting, but I'd sort of like to be able to mark up PDFs on whatever I've got, to keep track of things in manuscripts. Can't do that. :-/

So you can do notes and emails just fine on the Nook? That's really all I'd need to do - notes on manuscripts, quick email here and there, and lots of reading. Hmmmmmmm. I DO like its form factor, and the fact that it handles ePubs instead of a stupid proprietary flavour of Mobi.

Amazon irks the hell out of me. Even more now that they've created what is, honestly, a beautiful piece of hardware and an ideal integration system, from a business and consumer standpoint. Unfortunately, that doesn't recuse them from being an evil empire. I have to deal with them for a lot of bookish things....do I really want to tie my library to them so thoroughly? No, not particularly...

[lagilman]

the other thing to remember, much as it pains me to say it, is that the Kobo is linked to Borders, and Borders....


*sigh*

[firynze.livejournal.com]

It's also linked to Chapters/Indigo, though, which makes me feel slightly better about it. Although apparently the US-market version MUST have a Borders account to sync books. Which...

...yeah.

*sigh*

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Custom built new bookcase?

[lagilman]

alas, no - but Gothic had exactly what I needed, at the right price.

[ebonypearl.livejournal.com]

The charger is the primary reason I've yet to enter the eReader field...I don't want proprietary chargers because when it fails (and it will, every charger I've ever had to deal with has failed and been replaced more than once), I want the option to promptly and easily replace it. Better yet, if I could have one universal charger for everything I own that needs recharging, I'd be a happy camper! And probably have at least one eReader.

And yay! for new shelves!

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I started hearing the siren song of the e-reader again when one of my bookshelves collapsed. So I started poking around various sites and then remembered that I'm waiting for the market to become more efficient. (There are a bunch of out of print books I would want in e-form, but since they aren't commercially viable enough for a print edition, there is no legal ebook either. In my imaginary future reading utopia this won't be a problem ... but I have no idea if that's realistic.)

It's also confusing when there is no ebook of a title available on Amazon or Fictionwise but there is one on Diesel (which seems legit, but I'm not 100% sure). And I'm not sure how to tell without contacting the author. Assuming Diesel is legit, how many other such retailers are out there that I haven't heard about? Argh.

Meant to add, thanks for the note about the charger issue. I've had problems with computer chargers dying. Not with many other devices, but certainly something with non-proprietary accessories would be preferable.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Meant to add, thanks for the note about the charger issue. I've had problems with computer chargers dying. Not with many other devices, but certainly something with non-proprietary accessories would be preferable.

I get nervous with rechargeable batteries themselves. Great idea in theory, but every work laptop I've had has had the battery lose the ability to hold a charge after 1.5 - 2 years. At least with a laptop you can replace the battery, but some of these devices are built to be thrown away after the battery goes kaput.

[lagilman]

I did note that B&N sells a replacement battery and extra chargers at the store, so getting a new/extra is a matter of shelling out $15 or thereabouts. Not ideal but not "wait three weeks for a new one to be sent" either.

A universal charger would be a lovely thing (does anyone have the new cordless charge mat?) bu I suspect the various companies offset the reduced prices on the Main Object by keeping us tied to them for the accessories....

[in related news, my sister has offered to knit me a sleeve (soft-lined) for my Nook. I think this is one of the best uses of knitting I've heard yet... ]

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

New Bookcases are always good. In wandering through Scandinavian furniture stores yesterday, I drooled over large bookcases...

OT, speaking of books, a review of the book I won in your contest:


http://princejvstin.livejournal.com/1622118.html

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Doesn't the Nook use a Micro USB type B connector? (one of these) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MicroB_USB_Plug.jpg)

[lagilman]

It uses a mini-usb, but you are sternly warned to use only the branded one (and when I, being That Sort, tried to use another in desperation, it didn't work at all).

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Why those little- You've got a Nook Color, don't you?

[lagilman]

Yep.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Found something of interest...

"When the screen is active, NOOKcolor draws more power than the USB is able to provide. Using the device while plugged into USB will cause the battery to drain less slowly. If the screen is inactive (and it's not playing music or Pandora), then the device will charge, but just not as fast as it would charge with the NOOKcolor cable/charger."

However, because of the lower power output of the regular USB, the device won't *tell* you it's charging if you do this.


source (http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/NOOKcolor-Technical-Support/Color-Nook-MicroUSB/m-p/724221) (fourth and second-last posts)

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

New!Bookcase

do we get pics of when it arrives empty and then after, when it gets filled up>

[lagilman]

I may take photos. Well see.

But this bookcase is upgrading from an existing (2' shorter) one, so most of its real estate is already claimed...

[cassie-o.livejournal.com]

Would you recommend getting a nook?

[lagilman]

So far (admittedly, it's only been a week) I'm extremely happy with the Nook, especially when compared to the lighter but more limited Kobo. A recommendation would depend on what you were looking for, and how you planned to use it... for some people, the Kobo is fine, and other folk prefer the multi-taslking capabilities of the iPad... or are going for the Android-powered Galaxy pad, instead.

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

The Android powered Galaxy pad is an option, but there are very good Android tablets that are considerably less expensive.

I have the Archos 70 and paid $277 for it. Five minute easy install of the full Android market and you have the Nook app, the Kindle app, and iReader, which reads secure Mobipocket.

[argillaceous-d.livejournal.com]

I seriously *heart* my Nook. I got it last year, when it was fairly new and they didn't have the WiFi only version. That's fine, because I don't have WiFi in my house and there are very few hotspots where I live.

The whole first batch had a plastic that was too brittle and the part of the case where you press to turn the pages tended to crack (mine did). It was under warranty, so I was able to quickly and easily trade mine in at the store.

I briefly toyed with the idea of trading up to a color Nook, but decided against it. I have enough of computer screen eye-strain from staring at a computer screen all day long while I work. I'm also not interested in magazines, kids books, or using it as a tablet. I really like the display the way it is.

I actually keep mine in a cheap Ipad case I bought at a Marshalls or TJ Maxx or some other discount store. it's a little big, but it works just fine.