William F. Garrity

Technologizer's Harry McCracken reviews Barnes & Noble's Nook, including comparing it to Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader. 

Your First Look at Nook: The Technologizer Review

Barnes & Noble's E-reader is hardly perfect. But it's the most formidable Kindle competitor to date.

By Harry McCracken  |  Posted at 9:01 pm on Sunday, December 6, 2009

In retrospect, it was probably inevitable. Bookselling behemoth Barnes & Noble has spent much of the past decade and a half duking it out with online archrival Amazon.com. So when Amazon unveiled its Kindle e-reader two years ago, it pretty much demanded some sort of response from the 136-year-old merchant.

That response is the Barnes & Noble Nook, and its arrival this week signals the start of a digital transition for the bookselling wars.  The Nook has much in common with the Kindle, from its playful name to the paper-esque E-Ink display to built-in 3G wireless that lets you start reading a book seconds after you’ve decided to buy it. Even the prices–$259 for the device itself, and $9.99 for most bestsellers–are identical.

Con't