Monday, June 24, 2013

Of Droids and Pen

On Father's day 2013, I got a nice present: the Nook HD+ 9". Yes, I have an iPad 3 and it is quite useful. So useful in fact, that we all share it. Li uses it to surf and read magazines. Richard uses it for learning and reading. I use it for all sorts of stuff, but mainly for reading. So the iPad is one of the most used device in our home. And I get to use it when no one else is.

So when Barnes and Noble decided to have a big sale on the Nook, I thought I would give it a try and see how good it is. Much to my surprise and delight, it is working out very well for me. For the main purpose of reading, it is great because of the excellent cross platform tools I use: DropBox, Box, Evernote, and of course Google Drive. My digital library consists of PDFs and epubs. So they are supported very well on multiple platforms as well. I also have a bunch of digital comics and it is a matter of finding the right application.

Of course, the Nook doesn't compare to the iPad in terms of pure CPU speed. The Nook is a fraction of the price. I would say that I put up with more stuff because it is so cheap. I wouldn't and didn't try the Nook at the previous price. But at little more than $120, it was worth a try. One thing I noticed, but isn't cause for alarm is that the device gets pretty warm just playing graphical games.