For quite some time I've eagerly awaited Amazon to extend the release of their Kindle e-book reader to the UK so I can reduce the number of physical books that I buy (hence saving space and the environment). Just recently they've finally allowed us to buy Kindles from the US and to use them over here and they will soon be offering them direct from Amazon UK as well.
However a shiny, gorgeously shaped spanner has just been thrown in the works with the revelation of Barne's & Nobles nook e-Reader. It is possibly one of the nicest looking e-Readers I have ever seen and my first thought after seeing it was "want!" which is generally not a good sign for my wallet. At the time of release there will be over 1 million books available which can be purchased and delivered over 3G or Wi-Fi. One of the best features I can see in the feature list is it's ability to have additional storage (in the form of microSD) so if an average of 1,500 books with the standard storage isn't enough you can enough extra to store 17,500 books (on a 16Gb card). They've even thought about people wanting to share their books with others - they allow you to share a book with a friend for free (for 14 days) and there are also a number of free books available for download.
You can share nook to nook, but it doesn't stop there. Using the new Barnes & Noble LendMe technology... you will be able to lend to and from any iPhone™, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC, or Mac, with the free Barnes and Noble eReader software downloaded on it.
Even the way you navigate books is brilliant - whilst the book part itself uses E-ink technology, the book browser is a full touch-screen colour display that shows the book covers. It's not going to be short on accessories either, at launch there are 30 different covers, and 7 different designer covers for keeping your nook protected in as well as a range of protective "frames".
The vital statistics don't look too shoddy either, 7.7" x 4.9" x 0.5" and weighing in at 317 grams. Even the battery does sound too bad as you can read for 10 days just so long as the wireless is turned off.
At $259 for such great features I've totally changed my mind about buying a Kindle. However there is the downside that it won't initially be available in the UK which is incredibly unfortunate. I do wonder though if I bought one from the US whether I'd be able to buy books okay whilst in the UK. Of course though, having to wait for this to reach the UK shores does mean the sacred Tablet of Apple could be released first. Let the race begin!
