Another day, another dual screen Android ebook reader

Coincidence? Or CONSPIRACY? Just a day after the announcement of Spring Design’s double display Alex ebook reader, Barnes & Noble launches the similarly styled but far more ridiculously-named nook.

Like Alex (we’re on first name terms already), nook has a 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen beneath a more traditional 6-inch E Ink display, and has Google’s Android OS roiling around inside. Unlike Al’s full web browser though, nook’s mini-screen is used only for flipping through book covers, adjusting settings and as a virtual keyboard for searching.

Priced head-to-head with Amazon’s Kindle at $259 (about £160), nook has some other intriguing features. LendMe allows you to digitally share purchased ebooks (even those with DRM) with friends and family for 14 days – they can read them on other nooks or using the free B&N reader software for PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPod Touches and BlackBerrys.

There’s wireless downloads, natch, via 3G or Wi-Fi, of over a million books, mags and papers from B&N online, including about 500,000 free, out of copyright titles courtesy of Google Book Search.

And just to make sure you don’t abandon real bookstores forever, Barnes & Noble says that taking a nook into one of its shops will activate special offers, discounts and free browsing of complete ebooks.

Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home