my experiences with my nook.
I have read both favorable and unfavorable reviews about the nook for the past couple of months.  My nook which I have named

Munchy, has been with me now for a couple of weeks, since the start of February and it has been completely trouble free.  I

have been reading ebooks from B&N, as well as an ebook in epub format I purchased from another website and PDF files just to

see how the nook handled displaying PDFs.  The nook also has a few blogs that appear in the section called 'the daily' which

is updated via wifi or AT&T, whichever is available.

I had no trouble connecting to my wireless network.  Like other wireless devices, networks are detected and if you choose to

connect to it you simply provide the encryption key if one is needed.  It is stored automatically and will reconnect next

time witthout the password.  The AT&T connection works automatically when I'm out and about.  I've also been to a couple B&N

stores and the device connects to the B&N wifi, providing more free content, and sometimes discounts like coupons which

display on your nook; you just need to present your nook at time of purchase to get the discount.

There are a few things in the design of the nook that I find interesting.  The decision to lay out the page turn buttons like

so:

<    <

>    >

The top buttons turn the page back, and the bottom buttons on either side turn the page forward.  I still get tripped up

thinking that the right edge buttons will flip the page forward, and the left edge buttons will flip the page backwards.  I

have my thumbs on the bottom buttons while I read, and both of those buttons flip the page forward.

I do like the fact that the bottom screen can be swiped to turn the pages, which is what I ended up using because I would

sometimes mistakenly flip forwards with the lower left button.

I hope at some point they figure out a way to add the ability to go to a specific page in a book.  It seems the only way to

do that is to bookmark it.  I can see a situation where one might want to flip to a specific page after a friend has refered

me to it.  I can also see why they would 'not' have that feature also, since adjusting the font size can change the number of

pages.  What I would suggest is that they have a goto mode where the touch screen can be used to flip ahead 5, 10, 25, 100

pages forwards or backwards.

-100|-25|-5|+5|+25|+100

buttons like above across the touch screen window.

There are some design issues that other's have pointed out which I agree with.  One of them is the way the dictionary will

look up a word; it doesn't use the root, so certain words will not be found in the built in dictionary.  Cover view for

sideloaded epub books in the 'my documents' section would be great.  Right now, cover view is only available in the B&N

folder where purchases from B&N are automatically placed.  Non-B&N epub books are ignored if placed in the 'my BN purchased

books' folder.

I have not yet loaded any music or audio books so I can't comment on that or the interface for audio.

Loading screensavers and wallpapers is as simple as connecting with USB to your pc, creating a folder under the 'my

screensavers' folder and dragging a folder of 600 wide x 800 tall images.  You then select that folder from the

display>screensaver menu.  JPG or PNG images can be used as screensavers.

Two other features I will appreciate will be the ability to replace the rechargable battery when it becomes worn out, and the

ability to expand the memory with an SD card.  To do both of these, you have to open the nook, so it will be a while before I

need to do that.  The Nook allows you to lend books with other Nooks, which is also great.  I am not sure other readers have

built in book sharing.  Not all ebooks can be shared, and is probably determined by an agreement with the individual

publishers.

It's just noise at the moment, but I saw articles that Amazon may find a way to give Amazon Prime members a free Kindle.  I

had passed on the Kindle because I was able to hold the Nook in my hands at a B&N, and as well, I like the Nook's aesthetics.

 The other reason I passed on the Kindle was it uses a kindle ebook format, which as far as I know isn't readable by other

readers, at least not easily.  Nook uses the epub ebook format which can be read by lots of other readers.  What this means

is that the books I purchase at B&N can be used in other readers, and I can purchase books from the many ebook vendors online

that use this epub format and they will work on my Nook.  Using proprietary formats is limiting, and I hope one day Amazon

will switch to the epub format and compete with price.  I will have to research the Kind