Barnes and Noble finds its own nook

October 21, 8:51 AMChildren's Books ExaminerLori Calabrese

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The "nook" electronic-book reader is photographed
during a news conference, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009 in
New York. Barnes & Noble Inc. unveiled the new reader
Tuesday that will compete with Amazon.com's Kindle
in a still-small arena where some see bookselling's
future. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Barnes & Nobles looks to find its own cozy nook in the e-book reader department with what it's calling the planet's "most advanced e-book reader": the "Android-based" nook.

Measuring 7.7- x 4.9- x 0.5-inches and weighing 11.2 ounces, the device includes a top e-ink display from Vizplex for displaying book text and a color touchscreen LCD (3.5-inches) below for easy navigation, which supports one-touch control and swipe-to-browse books with full-color covers. Barnes & Noble claims the charge time is 3.5 hours, which will let you read for "up to ten days." Also included is inbuilt WiFi (802.11b/g), AT&T 3G, 2GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, MP3 player, built-in mono speaker, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, a micro USB port and support for EPUB, PDF and MP3.

You can also bookmark, make notes and highlight passages on the nook. But what's really special about this eReader are the sharing features. Just like Amazon's Kindle iPhone app, the Barnes & Noble reader can be synced with the company's various mobile apps. But in addition to that, there's user to user sharing, allowing you to share your favorite eBooks with friends, family, or your book club. Most eBooks can be lent for up to 14 days at a time and can be sent to other e-readers, cellphones or computers. With its free eReader software, you can share to your iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC or Mac.

Many bestsellers and new releases are just $9.99, the company will also let you sample ebooks before you buy, and they now feature free WiFi in their stores. You can store as many as 1,500 eBooks, newspapers, and magazines on your nook, so you'll never be without your favorites. And with an added memory card, you can keep up to 17,500.

You can pre-order yours now for $259, with shipment expected around November 30th.

More information on nook™.