Barnes & Noble Nook (CNET Product Review)

When Barnes & Noble unveiled the Nook, the first Android-powered e-book reader, a lot of people were excited, because it appeared to offer some key competitive advantages over Amazon's Kindle e-reader.

First and foremost, while the Nook features the same 6-inch E-ink screen (600x800 pixels; 16 shades of gray) as the Kindle, it includes a separate color capacitive touch screen (144 x 480 pixels) that allows you to navigate content and use a virtual keyboard for typing searches and annotations. Furthermore, on top of its free AT&T 3G wireless connection, the Nook packs in Wi-Fi connectivity and a memory expansion slot; you get 2GB of internal memory, but can add up to an additional 16GB via the microSD card slot. And finally, Barnes & Noble offers an e-book-lending option (for participating titles) and the capability to browse the full text of e-books on your Nook if you're in a Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar store (the latter feature is due to launch in early 2010). Unfortunately, both the lending and in-store browsing features come with some significant restrictions, which we'll detail below.

Caveats notwithstanding, those features are nice extras, but the big questions are: how much of a difference do they really make in the overall user experience, and are they enough to push the Nook to the top of the e-book reader heap? Alas, the answer, you'll soon find out, isn't as clear cut as it might seem.

Your Motorola Droid questions, answered

By Ben Patterson / Yahoo! Tech

"I asked in yesterday's hands-on post if you had any Droid questions I hadn't addressed, and you hit me with some good ones. Read on for the answers.

Note: Click here for details on Verizon Wireless's Motorola Droid announcement from yesterday, including info on specs, pricing, and release date; then click here for my initial hands-on impressions of the Droid."

2009 Hi-Tech Wishlist

Courtesy of MSNBC Technology

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Amazon Lightning Sales Offer Up Cameras, Netbooks

By Chloe Albanesius / PC Magazine: Yahoo! Tech

"For those not up for braving the Black Friday crowds, Amazon.com is still running its week-long lightning sales on various tech gadgets – from netbooks and laptops to cameras and HDTV's.

These limited-time sales last only several hours – or until they sell out. Amazon reveals the Black Friday price minutes before the device goes on sale, and then runs a count-down clock and a tally on the percentage of its inventory that has been sold.

A Pentax Optio W80 waterproof digital camera, for example, is selling for $242.61, a savings of about $43, and has about an hour left on the clock.

Later today, Amazon will unveil pricing on a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 10.1-inch netbook, which normally retails for $399.99.

For those who don't want to watch the clock, Amazon's deal of the day is a 4.3-inch Garmin nüvi GPS navigation device for $129.99, nearly $50 off the retailer's regular price. The 285W/285WT devices have a wide screen, Bluetooth capability, turn-by-turn directions that call out street names, and the ability to deliver real-time traffic, weather, and gas price updates.

A PlayStation 3 with 120GB, bundled with Infamous and Killzone 2, is selling for $299.99, also a $50 savings.

Other deals include a Sony 1080p Blu-ray player for $129, a Panasonic Viera 50-inch plasma HDTV for $685.96, and a Dell Inspiron Mini IM10 netbook with integrated TV tuner for $299.99."