Barnes and Noble booksellers have thrown their hat in the ring to compete with this year’s highly anticipated selection of e-book readers such as Sony’s PRS-900 or Amazon’s Kindle 2.  The overall design of the Nook is pleasing and it separates itself from the Kindle 2 by having touch screen capabilities and a color “cover flow” scroll under the screen.

Having a touch screen keyboard is a bit more helpful for people with finger dexterity issues than the keyboard buttons on the Kindle 2.

The Nook loses ground on one particular omission to its software when compared to a Kindle 2 - no text-to-speech. The designers of the Nook excluded the text-to-speech function which might have helped people with visual impairment. Both the Nook and the Kindle have magnification options and both are able to download on the run with a 3G wireless network.

The Nook runs on Google’s Android Operating System, which has many talking about its potential as a future e-tablet device. For now, reviews of the Nook are sparse due to the fact that a majority of its shipment to retailers has been slowed until mid-January 2010. 

NOTE:   I tried personally to handle a Nook at several Barnes and Noble Bookstores in the Atlanta area with no avail.  Demos and actual devices for purchase are hard to come by following their holiday sellout.  I have seen their promotional video and read several reviews from people who have both the Kindle 2 and the Nook.  I hope to add a “hand’s on review” to this post by early February 2010.