This week I’ve started doing a brief five minute TechRaw gadget review for NBC LA’s NewsRaw channel. The first feature comparing the new Barnes & Noble nook to the Amazon Kindle can be found at the NewsRaw site, or as an embedded object below.

I’m impressed with the nook so far. Some features like 14-day book loan to a friend, secondary color screen, and it’s Android pedigree will turn a lot of heads. More importantly, customers can handle and test it out in person at B&N stores, something that Amazon cannot boast. It will be an interesting competitive race between them.

I’m thrilled that Don Norman took the time to write about e-books here, and reminiscing about Bob Stein and Voyager CD-ROMs. His comments below are a response to my original post.

Wow. I stumbled across your review while trying to research a paper on things that get published ahead of their time.

I still love my Voyager books, even if they only sold about 5 copies. The concept was fantastic, as was the team that worked on them. Many have moved on to very successful careers, but not in ebooks. (I’m friends of Peter Merholz now but i didn’t remember that he was working on the book until you pointed it out).

Your analysis is absolutely right. As for the future of ebooks? The Kindle is wonderful for reading page-rutners: mystery novels, sci-fi, etc. It sucks if you have to take notes, or go back and forth. and it doesn’t even pretend to do multi-media. In the essay I’m writing, I say that Stein was 15 years ago, but that it will still be another 10 years before his dream becomes widespread.

Thanks for the wonderful essay. And the memories.

Don Norman

In testing geocoding with Google Maps, here’s an example showing where the Wikimedia offices are located in San Francisco, not far from Citizen Space.