The Nook can be an essential tool for today’s students. This six-inch reading tablet, with an Android operating system, has an easy to use touch screen which allows you to turn pages freely, change the font size and highlighting passages with little effort. The touch screen gives the reader a high-contrast 16-level grayscale, displaying text as clear as a printed page. The E Ink screen uses a network of infrared beams above the touchscreen, making it possible to read without glare even when outdoors under direct sunlight. The Nook has a USB port for connecting to a computer, and with just one full battery charge, will give you enough life for two months of reading, the longest battery life of all eReaders available today. The Nook weighs less than 8 ounces, which is lighter than most paperback books. This slim design can surprisingly hold up to 1,000 eBooks, newspapers and magazines, with a 2GB capacity. There are over 2 million books, newspapers and magazines available to the Barnes & Noble Nook for a minimal cost. The cost of most eBooks, are usually considerably less than purchasing the actual book.
Purchasing eBooks is not the only option for Nook readers, as there are many ways to read for free. Many classic novels come already downloaded for free on the Nook. One of the best things about having a physical book is being able to borrow and lend to friends. Through the LendMe feature, Nook makes this possible again, with the ability to lend eBooks to friends for up to 2 weeks. The borrowed books can be read using any device that has an Android, Blackberry, iPad, Mac or Windows application. Having the 3G WiFi connectivity allows readers to check out eBooks from their public library, as well as browse and read books for free while inside a Barnes & Noble store.
A great Nook feature for students is eTextbooks. With eTextbooks students can digitally download actual textbooks, with the option to rent or purchase and read them using a free application called NOOKstudy. Often, the purchase price of an eTextbook is significantly cheaper than purchasing the physical textbook. In addition, NOOKstudy can also help students organize their course work, with search, tag and highlighting tools. Students can access class notes, lectures, sylibi, slides and images and then synch this information with their own notes taken in the Nook eReader or using the NOOKstudy application. With upgraded models being introduced often, older models which run equally as well can be very affordable for students. The cost of the Nook is an investment, but a wise one. As students will save considerable money on textbooks in the long run, and time. Of course the greatest feature out of all is not having to carry heavy books or backpacks to class each day.