Nook值得学习的三大前卫功能

    美国连锁书店巴诺（Barnes & Noble）近年来一直在勉力维持。不幸的是，它的Nook电子书和平板电脑没能扭转这个不利局面。巴诺公司本周公布，第四财季净亏损高达1.186亿美元，证实这家公司形势已经相当严峻。

    巴诺负责产品的副总裁史蒂芬•梅斯今年5月曾向《财富》（Fortune）透露：“HD和HD+没能达到我们的销售预期，这点众人皆知。”现实也的确如此，根据市场调研公司IDC的数据，巴诺平板电脑出货量在第四财季仅为100万部，比去年同期的140万部大幅下滑。究其原因，很容易想到的一点就是巴诺未能实现差异化，将自身产品与Kindle等竞争性产品区别开来，而亚马逊（Amazon）则一直在自己的网站和广告中大肆宣传Kindle是优质产品。

    现在，巴诺突然来了个180度大转弯，在发布财报的同时宣布将停止制造平板电脑，转而让有兴趣的第三方厂商生产与Nook兼容的设备。（不过，巴诺目前将继续销售传统的Nook电子书。）鉴于巴诺近来的失败，以及Nook这一品牌是否将消失这个迫在眉睫的问题，我们很容易忽略了这样一个简单的事实，即就产品本身而言，Nook电子书和平板电脑仍称得上是可圈可点，它们为电子书市场引入了不少颇为重要的创新功能。下面是Nook的三大创新。

内置背光

    去年第三季度Kindle Paperwhite推出后，许多用户对它的内置背光技术赞不绝口。成千上万的电子书用户可以和台灯、照明保护套以及卡夹式阅读灯说再见了。Paperwhite的背光也许做得非常出色，但它绝不是第一个吃螃蟹的人。发明家的称号应该授予2012年推出的Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight，虽然这个名字够傻的。这款电子书使用了LED灯，还在屏幕上覆盖了一层薄膜。LED灯点亮后，薄膜可以将灯光引导到整个屏幕上。这和Paperwhite的技术有点类似，但后者晚推出一年多。我们曾经的评测已经证明，Nook的光照效果不如Paperwhite均匀平稳，但也很不错。

（总体）优秀的硬件设计

    巴诺之前从来没有涉足过硬件设计，但它开发的Nook电子书堪称工业设计的典范，令竞争对手相形见绌，甚至连Kindle也不例外。柔软而有弹性的黑色波浪形后盖，使Simple Touch即使在两年后的今天看来仍然十分时尚，而且如果要评选最适合长时间端在手里阅读的电子书，其它竞争产品绝对望尘莫及。虽然最新推出的Nook平板HD和HD+相比之下乏善可陈，由科技界工业设计大牛伊夫•比哈尔操刀的Nook Color和Nook Tablet的确是当时最好的“针对阅读”的平板电脑，远胜第一代Kindle Fire。

绝佳的“三次点击”软件

    出色的硬件没有好的软件也是白搭。Nook电子书的软件也毫不逊色。Simple Touch推出时搭载的界面十分简洁优雅。巴诺高管曾放言，用户无论想做什么操作，最多都只需点击三次屏幕。确实，除非你是要搜索某本书籍，否则的确最多只需点击三次。三年来，Nook平板的软件系统变化很大，最初的系统十分强调前往书籍、应用程序和音乐的许多（或许有些过多）的快捷图标，但今年早些时候的大改版清除了一些快捷图标，使得使用更便捷、界面更精致。而通过允许Nook电子书的用户在谷歌（Google）的在线商店Google Play上完成购买，巴诺做了亚马逊不大可能做的事，即开放自身生态系统。（财富中文网）

    译者：项航

    Unfortunately for Barnes & Noble, its Nook readers and tablets just haven't been the home run the struggling bookseller had hoped, a hard truth that became clear when the company reported a $118.6 million net loss for its fiscal fourth quarter this week.

    "It's no secret the HD and HD+ didn't quite meet our expectations in terms of sales," Stephane Maes, Barnes & Noble (BKS) VP of product, told Fortune this May. Indeed, the company's tablet shipments tumbled to 1 million in the fourth quarter, down from 1.4 million a year earlier, according to research firm IDC. Part of that has to do with the simple fact that Barnes & Noble didn't differentiate its product enough from competition like the Kindle, which Amazon (AMZN) has aggressively plugged as a superior product on its site and in ad campaigns.

    Now in an abrupt about-face, Barnes & Noble announced alongside earnings that it would stop manufacturing its own tablets and let interested third-party manufacturers potentially make their own Nook-compatible devices. (It will continue to sell its traditional Nook e-readers for the time being.) For all the grief Barnes & Noble has been getting of late, and the looming question of whether the Nook now is a dying brand, it's easy to overlook the simple truth that the Nook reader and tablets remain quality products that have pioneered some important needle-moving features in the e-reading market. Here are just three:

Built-in illumination

    When the Kindle Paperwhite launched last fall, it got positive reviews for its built-in illumination technology. No longer would millions of e-bookworms have to turn on a nearby lamp, use a special case, or attach an awkward portable light to read in the dark. But while the Paperwhite may do it best, it wasn't the first such mainstream e-reader to the market. That honor goes to the somewhat awkwardly-named Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, introduced in 2012. Using a combination of LED lights and a thin film that sits atop the entire screen, the LEDs pipe out light, and the film acts as a conduit, distributing that light across the screen. It's a technology somewhat similar to one used by the Paperwhite, which arrived more than a year later. The Nook's lighting isn't quite as smooth and uniform as the Paperwhite's -- something borne out in our review back then -- but it more than gets the job done.

Superior hardware design (mostly)

    For a company that had never designed hardware before, the Nook e-readers are excellent examples of industrial design that outshine many competitors, even their Kindle counterparts. With its contoured soft, black rubbery back, the Simple Touch still looks slick two years later and remains hands-down the most comfortable e-reader to hold for long bouts of time. And while the latest Nook tablets, the HD and HD+, are far less impressive, the Nook Color and Tablet, designed by go-to tech industrial designer Yves Behar, were the best reading-focused tablets for their time, trouncing the first-generation Kindle Fire.

Excellent "three-tap" software

    Great hardware would be nothing without equally good software to back it up, and the Nook readers had this, too. The Simple Touch launched with an interface so simple and elegant that executives promised users should only have to tap up to three times to get anywhere they wanted to go. And unless you're banging out the name of a title in a book search, that's pretty much held true. The Nook tablet software has changed a lot in three years, first from an experience that emphasized a lot -- perhaps too many -- shortcuts to items like books, apps, and music, but a major overhaul earlier this year cleaned things up and made it easier to use and sophisticated. And by letting Nook owners readers also buy from Google's (GOOG) online store, Google Play, it did something Amazon likely wouldn't do and opened up its ecosystem.