14 DAY TRIAL // After months of delays, insufficient inventories and the need for last resorts such as gift certificates and delivering on orders on a first-come-first-served basis, Barnes and Noble seems to have finally managed to get enough Nooks, or the demand has calmed down enough for the famed e-book-reading electronic to finally be listed online. Granted, this occurred about five days prior to when availability was expected, but this can only be seen as a fortunate development for those consumers that could not sleep at night wondering when they'd finally get to buy their own Nook.
For end-users interested in a reminder of the gadget's specs, the Nook measures 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches, has a weight of 12.1 ounces (the equivalent of 343 grams) and boasts not one but two distinct displays. One of them, the larger, greyscale one that is, is an E-Ink Vizplex electronic paper display that is sunlight-readable and imitates actual paper.
The other one is a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, which is meant to allow navigation and one-touch control, with the entire book library being displayed in color. The internal storage is of 2GB, but this can be expanded through the use of the built-in SD slot. Additionally, besides booking file formats, the product also handles audio files (including MP3), imitating an mp3 player and allowing the enjoyment of music or audio books.
The actual file types supported by B&N's e-reader are e-pub, PDF, PDB, the aforementioned MP3 and even image formats such as JPG, GIF, PNG and BMP, also usable in setting up personalized screensavers. Finally, the Nook features a microUSB connector, an integrated speaker, a universal 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and, most importantly, integrated Wi-Fi ( 802.11 b/g), allowing the buying of e-books wirelessly.
Consumers that are interested in acquiring the device may do so for the price of $259.99.