Barnes and Noble NOOK ebook reader
For all of us who thought that the Kindle 
and the Sony Reader
will be dividing the eBook reader market between themselves, the bookstore giant, going strong over the ages. Everyone wants to know what makes the Nook special. If one has just ordered a kindle, he will read on, though he does not want to, lest he goes into a major dose of buyer's remorse.
The following are features that can be termed unique to Nook:
1. The Nook boasts of a 3.5 inch multi-touch color screen as compared to the 16 level gray scale display of the Kindle. The screen allows you to navigate content, be it books, newspapers or magazines, in full color. It can turn into a virtual keyboard or to browse books, take on the cover-flow style.
2. The "E Ink" screen is common to both the Nook and the Kindle. The E Ink display is more like a traditional book as far as clarity is concerned and moves away from being a condensed computer screen. There is no glare or backlight, making it reader friendly. The font can be changed to make way for comfortable reading.
3. The new 'e'kid on the block is proud to announce its city-library feature of being able to lend E-Books to friends. The borrower needs to be using Barnes and Noble application software in theiriPhone
, Blackberry Touch
, etc. and need not be a proud owner of the Nook. You can lend a book for a period of two weeks, provided the publisher is not averse to the idea.
4. Based on platform provided by Google's "Android
", the Nook has reduced its chances of going wrong. This software makes it sync up with almost all available smart devices, which the buyer can possibly think of. All these features are unique to the Amazon Kindle 2
.
5. The Nook supports the ePub, allowing readers to use books from a number of vendors and not being restricted to just the Barnes and Noble titles. This also helps the reader buy any book, anywhere and at any time.
6. The Nook has been designed to hold 1500 e-books and the memory can be increased using the Micro SD expansion slot.
As for Kindle, things that go in its favor include:
1. The Kindle 2 uses the same E ink but it however lacks a multi-touch color screen.
2. The Kindle 2 users cannot resort to the age-old tradition of lending books to friends.
3. The Kindle 2 however scores with its "text to speech" feature, indispensable if you are at the wheel or just feel like giving your eyes some rest but would not like to disrupt the flow of the story.
4. The Kindle 2 is compatible with a handful of smart devices when compared to the 100s that the Nook can sync up with.
5. Android
software is not a proven system as yet. So only time can tell how the Google's new operating system will evolve over the years and how users take on this software platform.
So, who comes out the winner is perhaps the most eagerly awaited topic. Needless to say, it's a close race with both the devices faring almost identically as far as pricing, 3G and Wireless capabilities are concerned. The one major aspect that set's the two apart is the color navigation screen, which has been speculated to be slow. And as for the lending feature, it does seem like a feature that can be termed as a bit unrealistic in the real world scenario. Surely both the Kindle and the Nook does have a loyal band of followers who swear by their individual choice. So in the end, all of this can boil down to what your requirements really are and which of the devices you think comes closest to fulfilling your demands.
And if you think you need help making up your mind, turn to e-reader forum to have your doubts cleared while the e-reader blog too can contribute immensely in your zeroing in on a particular device.
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