Updated on March 19, 2023
After much consideration (and going over my future budget plans), I finally decided to buy the Nook Color, Barnes and Noble’s new LCD color eBook reader. Among my reasons for buying the Nook Color: something to read digital comics with (other than my laptop); giving the growing new area of eBooks a try; staying up on new tech (eBook readers and tablets); and possibly writing a few articles (or blog posts) out of owning an eBook reader.
Since the Internet apparently is infatuated with unboxing photos/videos for new gadgets, here’s my photos of opening and turning on the Nook Color (or “Nook” for short from here on):
Setting up the Nook was straightforward, as the automated setup asked for my information (email address, etc.). I noticed the address information allowed for inputting Canadian addresses; maybe an indication that Barnes and Noble might consider selling the Nook north of the border?
After fully charging the Nook, I placed some digital comics onto it. Given most of my comic files are in CBR/CBZ format (and the Nook Color doesn’t have a comic reading app, or at least not yet), I used an open-source program called Calibre to convert the files to PDF format (turning off the comic conversion preferences first, which ironically made the resulting images look better), then transferred them to the Nook. The Nook handled the PDFs nicely, though it was a big sluggish at page-turning on a few PDFs I didn’t make. One or two PDFs wouldn’t open at all, instead giving error messages. The pictures looked great on the Nook. If and when Barnes and Noble gets their app store up and running, I’d like to see a comic reader app as one of the apps offered, not to mention the bookstore offer a wider selection of comics (presumably from smaller-press or independent companies, per the big comic companies’ skittishness about comics).
I’ll post more about the Nook in the future, but for now, it seems like it’ll be a nice way to read certain electronic documents. I look forward to giving the magazine purchasing and public library eBook borrowing features a try…
