Barnes & Noble e-book Reader, Nook

After several months of waiting, Barnes and Noble finally debut its new e-book reader, Nook.  The new e-book reader is now available online and will be in stores by mid-week, the book retailer announced Monday.

You can buy the Barnes & Noble nook In-Store Locator at www.bn.com/nook/instore

Below is what CNet said about Nook:

The good: Large library with tens of thousands of e-books, as well as newspapers and magazines; built-in free wireless data network (no PC needed), plus Wi-Fi connectivity; separate capacitive color touch-screen pad for navigation, and a virtual keyboard for notes and annotations; 2GB of internal memory (capable of storing 1,500 electronic books) as well as an expansion microSD slot for additional memory; font style and size are adjustable; displays image files and plays MP3 music files; compatible with Windows and Mac machines; battery is removable and user replaceable; allows free, in-store browsing of full-text books while within Barnes & Noble stores; users can lend certain e-books for up to 14 days free of charge; ePub format compatibility lets you read free Google Books and loaner e-books from your local library.

The bad: Device can be slow, especially when booting up and first accessing a book; no protective carrying case included; color LCD appears to have a significant impact on battery life; in-store reading and loaning capabilities come with notable limits and caveats; no support for Word or text files; some bugs in software; no ability to download books when outside the U.S., even when on Wi-Fi.

X2 iTablet

Since Apple decided not to go with iTablet and instead went for iPad. A new company, X2 might have taken advantage of the name everyone expected – iTablet.

According to the announcement last week by X2 Computing, the company planned to launch a new tablet computer called the iTablet. The name is a clear attempt to take advantage of the notoriety surrounding the iTablet name since many expected the iPad to be called the iTablet for a long time.

It  is available in many sizes from 10.2 inches to 12.1 inches. It is powered by a 1.6 GHz processor and employs a hard-disk storage giving this baby a 35mm thickness, which is really thick. In exchange for the bulk, you get 250GB of memory, 3 USB ports and an HDMI out aside from WiFi, Bluetooth and a 1.3 MP webcam. The X2 iTablet also runs on Linux and is available in many colors. No pricing yet and this is a UK-only announcement, but this sounds like Apple iPad has been slapped with a glove.

You can read more about the company here

Apple iPad

It’s over a week since the launch of iPad. There is a lot of noise about the funny name iPad. But what do you think? Below is what Collin Miller of the Guardian has to say about the new Apple tablet.

I’ll admit it, when I first saw Steve Jobs proudly holding up the iPad, like many others out there I thought “it looks like a giant iPod Touch”.

While I understand the demand for such an item, I didn’t quite get all the hype. I mean for me personally it just seems like a natural progression for Apple. While the iPod Touch is a great little gadget, its number one problem is its size.

Read the whole story at Guardian