Barnes & Noble Releases the Nook Against Kindle

Today, pictures and details about Barnes and Noble’s forthcoming e-book reader leaked, and it looks exciting, both inside and out. On sale next Tuesday, it looks set to take the wind right out of the Kindle’s sails.

Named the “Nook,” Barnes & Noble’s reader strongly resembles Amazon’s white plastic e-book, except for the chiclet-keyboard being replaced by a multicolor touch screen, which can be used as a keyboard or for book browsing, cover-flow style. The reader runs Google’s Android OS, as well as coming equipped with wireless capability whose carrier remains unspecified. The Nook also rings up at the same $260 the Kindle goes for.

Gizmodo leaked the images, but they also have information about Barnes & Noble’s plans to heavily discount titles in their electronic format, which is as it should be. The Nook will also be able to download books from the Google Books Project.

The biggest difference between the Nook and the Kindle lies in the Nooks ability to loan e-books to friends, a perk that has the potential to destroy the Kindle model in the market. This loaning function could even be the viral feature that will make the device’s popularity grow. The Nook is already shaping up to be the real internet to the Kindle’s AOL. Courtesy of wired.com