“But [my Mom] was having none of this ridiculous stalling. She had her mind made up, and there was no standing in her way. She ordered, and took delivery of her Nook a few weeks back,” ChrissyOne writes. “And that’s when the trouble began.”
“At first, all was well. The Nook had a few books pre-installed, and they were… accessible. But the actual book-reading experience wasn’t particularly great. Pages load GLACIALLY slowly. They scroll down choppily from the top with lots of ugly artifacts,” ChrissyOne reports. “Actually getting to the book and generally navigating the UI caused this reporter to keep trying to touch the main screen (blame my iPhone indoctrination for that) but the buttons and lower screen never quite gelled for me as an interface. I’m sure with more than an hour of use it would be fine, but this device wasn’t mine. Watching my mother navigate the system, it seems it never gelled for her either.”
ChrissyOne reports, “Then there was the battery.”
I asked if the Nook was getting the fantastically long battery life as the promotional copy claimed. Could you really use it for 10 days? “No,” she said. “It doesn’t last that long.”
Well, how much life do you get out of a charge?
“About 3 hours.”
Uh. What?
The full sordid story, which gets much worse, is here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ChrissyOne” for the heads up.]
Three hours? Imagine trying to read Warren Piece!
It’s a shame-I really hoped the nook would be able to compete with the Kindle.
When it was first announced I thought about getting one.
Good thing I waited, my iPad will be here on the 3rd.
B&N;-> sounds like it could be the abbreviation for a new thing like S&M;. Perhaps they’re synonymous? Take it back, get a refund, buy an iPad and never speak of the Nook again…
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“Warren Piece”
thanks for the laugh
“..the UI caused this reporter to keep trying to touch the main screen..”
Makes sense to me. Thanks C1!
So someone got a Nook with a faulty battery. That could happen with any device and does (including lots of Apple products). The real problem here seems to be some of the design faults and the lack of customer service.
I also suffer from “iPhone indoctrination”. I keep trying to flip pages with my fingers on the Redbox machine.
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ChrissyOne?!
OUR ChrissyOne?!!
Aaaah, they grow up so fast! …
Loved her blog. She writes really well. Nice flow. Kept me wanting to read more. I love her advice though: “just return the damn thing.”
Warren Piece – written by Leo DiCaprio
Wow guys, my WordPress hits are majorly spiking. Thanks!
Good write-up C1…I can just see your Mom’s frustration and ,I assume, you alternating between concern and laughter.
fook nucked
ChrissyOne was the first to report a story by ChrissyOne?
Imagine the embarrassment had this story been given to us first by Fred Mertz. Although, that wouldn’t have surprised me that much…
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Its 3G only works on battery, not if plugged in, so no book downloads if used without being on battery?
That’s a major design show stopper if there ever was one.
Wow, your mom is tough if you couldn’t get her to wait!
By Nook or by crook? LOL
It’s a crime and a shame that this device was so lame.
Was it designed by committee or is one person to blame?
Whatever the answer, there is no excuse for UI so brutal, I’d call it abuse…
@ajdowntown
so funny
Nicely done, C1.
One of the most awesome threads that ever appeared on MDN was several years ago when CrissyOne was sitting at a Windows Vista training at her place of employment and actually posting live posts to MDN about the presentation and its über lameness, as well as her impressions of the ultimate fail that was Vista. I was in awe. Oh, and if you haven’t seen her photography, you are missing out.
/gushing
@ aka Christian
Thanks! That was fun.
@ C1
“… put a real iPad in your hands. Play with it for a little while. Then see if you still want a Nook.
…and if you DO still want a Nook, that’s great!
I hope you find one that works.”
Delightful imagery. Thanks
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Wow , if C1 , with her tech background couldn’t convince her mom to wait for an iPad?!?
Are you sure you weren’t adopted?
And her photography is fantastic
And yes C1 is a great ph
Nook is not that bad but when you are used to the Iphone i get the pause with the nook.
I bought my dad the nook and he liked it better than the kindle.
Its for reading books guys not saving the world. My dad reads at a snails pace anyways so it works for him just great.
I guess you gues need to blaze through these books you read where our parents would rather just enjoy them. With the nook you don’t need to be ussain bolt. With everything else you do.
Peace
Hey, I can ALWAYS go for a little nookie.
Oh. Wait…
@C1: Great blog post! I think nook (as B&N;wants you to write it… wish they spent time on hardware and not marketing drivel like its name and usage) was rushed to market for the holidays and everyone who gets one is paying for that mistake.
And, oh yeah, what idiot did design it so you can’t download when it’s plugged in? Imagine if the iPhone’s wifi radio didn’t work except on battery! But that’s a definite design choice. I can’t figure it out. The heat from the charger is too much for the radio? Beats me.
i have a Nook and have pre-ordered an iPad. my Nook easily last for 10 days of use. and the page turns are at least as fast as anyone could do with a real book. everyone is always asking to try it out, friends and even strangers at coffee shops. they all love it. it’s an eBook reader, problems only come when people expect more out of it. I’m getting the iPad for a portable internet device. i’ll use it for reading news and browsing the web, but not as an eBook reader. the iPad will be a great eBook reader for anyone who doesn’t mind reading full books from a computer screen, but I don’t know a lot of people who enjoy that. the Nook is perfect for an eBook reader because it looks just like paper. everyone is always amazed at how it looks exactly like a book. most people can’t read for hours on a computer screen because their eyes start to hurt, that’s the whole reason why e-ink was created. e-ink devices like the Nook are perfect for replacing books, the iPad is not.
@john:
I respect your opinion and also your POV. However, I have one quibble; your use of the present tense in the last sentence. Since the iPad has not been officially released, its ability to display book pages versus the book-reader competition including the Nook is not generally known yet.
I have read that the iPhone is not the best phone, but it provides the superior experience for a smart phone. In the same way, the iPad may, or may not, be the best book reader, but it will provide a superior overall experience in many other ways.
If the iPad is as successful as predicted, it will most likely crowd out all other stand-alone, primarily book readers including the Kindle and the Nook since it will be able to do many other tasks the simple book readers can not.
C1
Nicely done site. Thanks for inviting us in.
John the whole digital ink thing is busted, ok? It’s busted. Nice try Amazon and all those spreading the fud that reading via the “computer screen” will burn your eyeballs out of your head. But the real experts have busted that claim and even have said a backlit lcd is actually easier on the eyes.
Yeah, I know, you know better, FUD dies hard.
@ silverhawk
Thanks! I recently moved the photo site over to WordPress. Still have some redesign to do (like the portfolio page) but I like the way it’s coming along.
Okay, so with your help, my Nook article was #19 on today’s WordPress Top Posts.
http://botd.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/top-posts-1433/
WOOT! Thanks for reading, everyone!
-c
a little self promotion?
3hrs!!!!!!!
BS
i own a nook and after a 8 hr reading session it still had 75% of battery left.
@ Jack DA Nook Master 3000
RTFA
@ Steev
Nobody volunteered.
@ ChrissyOne-
Your response gave me a chuckle.
Thanks, I’m here all week.