Saturday, April 14, 2012

Barnes & Noble’s new Nook is for reading in the dark



If you are one of the 64 percent of people who read in bed, do you need a dedicated e-reader? Yes, says Barnes & Noble, so that you don’t disturb that special someone sleeping beside you.
The company’s newest Nook is the $139 Simple Touch with GlowLight (leaked Wednesday by The Digital Reader). It has a front-lit screen and it is aimed at the person who likes to stay up late reading while her partner snores beside her. B&N says the “number-one request from e-ink customers is the ability to read in the dark to avoid bothering a significant other.” (See more slightly hilarious statistics from Barnes & Noble’s “bedtime reading debate” survey below.)
Nook with GlowLight looks similar to the existing $99 Nook Simple Touch, until you turn the LED GlowLight on. Then you get “uniform light across an E Ink display, creating a better nighttime reading experience than LCD.” (The eBook Reader Blog explains a bit more about how this technology works.) The adjustable GlowLight is designed to behave more like a bedside lamp or sunlight and less like a computer, iPad or TV screen, so it shouldn’t affect users’ sleep patterns.
Specs At 6.95 ounces, Nook with GlowLight is a bit lighter than the 7.48-ounce original Nook Simple Touch. If the Nook with GlowLight has the light turned on continuously and Wi-Fi off, its battery life is supposed to be over a month. With GlowLight off, the battery life is over two months, the same as the original Nook SimpleTouch.
Availability Nook with GlowLight is available for pre-order today. It ships and will be available in stores in early May, in time for “moms, dads and grads.”
Competition Amazon may be working on its own front-lit Kindle; TechCrunch reported last week that “a new generation of glowing Kindles will be coming our way sometime this year.”

Barnes & Noble says the $139 for the Nook with GlowLight is a bargain. The device ships with a power adapter and “revolutionary built-in screen protector.” To get a similar experience from Amazon, B&N says, you’d need to buy the ad-free Kindle Touch ($139) and separately purchase a power adapter, reading light and screen protector.
Full story at Pain Content

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