Hand the new corner

Barnes & Noble announced a new corner in New York and I was able to get some practice with the device time, although this time "practical" mainly consisted of watching a rep company flip pages and show the new features in the corner while I, and a host of other journalists, took notes.

The device comes with a touch screen, design, two months of life of the battery, super compact, and may even be a solution to this screen keep flash on all E Ink screens. Although officially, no press were to touch the device, I managed to get a few fingers on its rubber exterior. And it feels like the Kindle has a real from competition.

6.5 On 5 by 0.5 inch, the corner is much more compact than previous editions. It's almost like the Sony Reader Pocket Edition. The matte black device has carved back that makes it easier to hold in one hand. The whole face of the device is taken up by a touch screen of 6 inch and corner button. Almost all navigation is done using the touch screen and unique corner home button. By comparison, the Kindle 3 has 38 buttons, including a full QWERTY keyboard.

The touchscreen uses infrared technology to detect your finger and appeared to be sensitive enough, although I wasn't allowed to touch indeed. It supports 16 levels of grey and seemed to be as clear as any other E Ink display that uses the latest technology Pearl. The screen is more pointed than, for example, the Sony Reader Touch Edition, which was clearly opaque.

I should note the small, color, touch icons that were at the bottom of the display of the original corner disappeared. I never hated these buttons as much criticism, but the touch screen is certainly more intuitive. It will help you in the life of the battery.

The home screen is another area that differentiates the Kindle corner. The Kindle shows you the list of books on the device. the corner shows you the book you are reading, your most recent downloads and reading recommendations. This new corner will also include friends of the corner, an array of social hooks to Twitter, Facebook, and the collections of the companions of the corner owners that allow you to quote the text, make recommendations and similarly share books.

The corner running Android 2.1, but it does not concern anything as Android and that it does not run apps. If you want this experience, you have to go with the color of the corner, including Barnes and Noble is touting as "Tablet Android bestseller" in the country. Although without an Android market.

The device runs a MHz TI OMAP 3 800 processor and 2 GB of storage on board, enough for about 1,000 pounds. POP in a card microSD and you can store up to 32 GB, a value of books. Of course, the device can also access your library via Wi - Fi cloud-based. The new corner is Wi - Fi only, which has a meaning for a drive of entry. Non-3 G version is planned.

The company says the will battery last place for two months with Wi - Fi is disabled, or two times longer than the Kindle. Of course, I could not test this today.

Perhaps the most exciting new feature in the corner is that it decreases the screen flashes that have cursed E Ink displays since their creation. Turn the page has always required a flash of obnoxious screen; you you get used to it, but it definitely breaks the reading process. Barnes & Noble argues that the corner a proprietary technology that allows to reduce these flashes of 80 per cent. In my time limited to look at the corner, I always saw a good amount of flashing, but I suspect, I saw a pre-production unit. If Barnes & Noble can achieve 80 percent, it would be a major asset.

$ 139, New corner prepares to go right after the Kindle 3 in terms of price. But in the past, each time that Barnes & Noble has launched a new corner or reduce prices, Amazon has them. We will need to obtain more time with the corner before we can really compare it to the Kindle, but from what I've seen so far, it is a compelling product.

The new corner is now available for the pre-order and will be in stores by June 10 retail.