To paraphrase Francis Church " ... yes Virginia, you can use a Barnes & Noble Nook in Canada."
I recently acquired a Nook to replace a Sony PRS-505. I also own a Kindle. The background on the Nook decision is relatively straightforward. The PRS-505 is a great reader, but feature limited. Primarily lacked connectivity, dictionary, and highlighting/annotating features. While the Kindle has all these, it is does not support ePub as a native format and has poor PDF handling (the update to 2.5.2 improves PDF handling somewhat). With ePub as the emerging standard used by most eBook merchants (including Kobo, Sony, and Barnes and Noble), I consider this a significant limitation on the Kindle. While conversion to an Amazon compatible format such as mobi is very possible with tools such as Calibre, there are three reasons why I prefer to have both a Kindle and a native ePub reader: conversion does produce strange formatting at times; ePub appears to be a superior format; and the tools necessary to load rights-protected content from non-Amazon sources onto a Kindle are soon to be considered illegal in Canada. While format shifting is currently, and will remain, legal ... the act of breaking a digital lock will become prohibited.
In looking at ePub readers, I considered the Kobo reader but ruled that out for the same limitation issues as the PRS-505. I also looked at the newer Sony models, but they use different screens from the 505 and the reviews and user feedback all point to more glare and less readability.
What attracted me to the Nook were three factors: the same basic eInk display approach that the PRS-505 and Kindle use which has outstanding readability; the Android OS which has been softrooted and has third-party apps; and the Wi-Fi connectivity.
So ... what does it take to use a Nook in Canada? Well, first ordering one. Two ways to do it are through Barnes & Noble, but you need to use a third-party shipper like Bongo or MyUS.com; or eBay. Once you get your Nook, you need to set up a B&N account (like you do with Amazon), connect your Nook to your WiFi network at home, and login to activate it. From there you can purchase content from B&N (more on that in a second) or "sideload" eBooks using either Calibre or Adobe Digital Editions. Sideloaded content appears as a separate library ("My Documents" instead of "My Books") which is a bit of an irritant. Fortunately, a soft-rooted Nook can take advantage of the "NookLauncher" and "NookLibrary" apps which substantially improve the user experience. I have loaded eBooks purchased from Kobo, Sony, and B&N without difficulty. It it's an ePub (or PDF) it's no problem. In other words, in terms of function as an eReader ... the Nook is completely usable and functional in Canada.
Where Amazon locks you substantially into their ecosystem, Sony and Kobo are the other extreme. They use simple ePub with standard Adobe DRM so that their content is readable and loadable on any reader that supports ePub. Barnes & Noble steer a course between Amazon and Kobo/Sony. Their device loads ePubs/PDF natively allowing you to load content acquired from most eBook retailers (except Amazon). However, Barnes & Noble use a different encryption scheme to wrap ePub files, so B&N content is locked to B&N readers (either software or Nook). Like all eBook formats, there are tools out there that restore full format shifting flexibility, but those tools are not necessarily something that everyone is comfortable with, especially with pending legislation change. As long as you have a Nook, you shouldn't be concerned with this, but if you're next eReader is something different you should be aware that you may have an issue porting your library. This is also true of the Kindle. Amazon abandoned a previous eBook format and left users out in the cold. Microsoft did the same thing with PlaysForSure although they did back off partially in the face of major criticism (although only to 2011). The worry about abandoned formats is not an idle concern and one cannot assume that Amazon or B&N will always do the right thing ... they haven't in the past and there is not guarantee that they'll always be a thriving concern and not a bankrupt one.
A couple of paragraphs above, I mentioned that I would add something about purchasing B&N content in Canada. Like with all eBook retailers, geographic restrictions are an issue. From my observation, B&N has very few books that it has secured retailing rights for Canada. It isn't that big an issue in that B&N's pricing is not usually better than Kobo, Sony, or Amazon. That said, like with Amazon, there is a workaround for these geographic restrictions.
Last thing is the actual usability of the Nook. The eInk display is outstanding. The stock fonts are much better than the Kindle's making for a better reading experience. To get the same experience from the Kindle, you need to use a font hack which gets broken with every software update from Amazon. Page turning speed is identical. Instead of a keypad like the Kindle, the Nook has a small LCD touch screen occupying the bottom portion of the device. I find the Amazon dictionary better and easier to use. I find the navigation on the Nook (especially using NookLauncher and NookLibrary) to be superior to both the Kindle and the PRS-505. Battery life is a little shorter than a pure eInk device because of the LCD display.
The Nook is extremely comfortable to hold (as is the Kindle). The Kindle has the worst hard button layout of the three eReaders I've owned. The Nook is probably the best, but it has the advantage of not needing hardware buttons for functions that are easily managed from the touch screen.
The Nook is a little buggy still but B&N have delivered several firmware updates with more on the way that improve the reader with every iteration. All in all, I like the Nook. I find I am preferring it to the Kindle right now so much more of my book purchasing is at Kobo instead of Amazon. Once I get a longer view of the Nook, I'll probably update this thread with more specific "review" like thoughts.
I recently acquired a Nook to replace a Sony PRS-505. I also own a Kindle. The background on the Nook decision is relatively straightforward. The PRS-505 is a great reader, but feature limited. Primarily lacked connectivity, dictionary, and highlighting/annotating features. While the Kindle has all these, it is does not support ePub as a native format and has poor PDF handling (the update to 2.5.2 improves PDF handling somewhat). With ePub as the emerging standard used by most eBook merchants (including Kobo, Sony, and Barnes and Noble), I consider this a significant limitation on the Kindle. While conversion to an Amazon compatible format such as mobi is very possible with tools such as Calibre, there are three reasons why I prefer to have both a Kindle and a native ePub reader: conversion does produce strange formatting at times; ePub appears to be a superior format; and the tools necessary to load rights-protected content from non-Amazon sources onto a Kindle are soon to be considered illegal in Canada. While format shifting is currently, and will remain, legal ... the act of breaking a digital lock will become prohibited.
In looking at ePub readers, I considered the Kobo reader but ruled that out for the same limitation issues as the PRS-505. I also looked at the newer Sony models, but they use different screens from the 505 and the reviews and user feedback all point to more glare and less readability.
What attracted me to the Nook were three factors: the same basic eInk display approach that the PRS-505 and Kindle use which has outstanding readability; the Android OS which has been softrooted and has third-party apps; and the Wi-Fi connectivity.
So ... what does it take to use a Nook in Canada? Well, first ordering one. Two ways to do it are through Barnes & Noble, but you need to use a third-party shipper like Bongo or MyUS.com; or eBay. Once you get your Nook, you need to set up a B&N account (like you do with Amazon), connect your Nook to your WiFi network at home, and login to activate it. From there you can purchase content from B&N (more on that in a second) or "sideload" eBooks using either Calibre or Adobe Digital Editions. Sideloaded content appears as a separate library ("My Documents" instead of "My Books") which is a bit of an irritant. Fortunately, a soft-rooted Nook can take advantage of the "NookLauncher" and "NookLibrary" apps which substantially improve the user experience. I have loaded eBooks purchased from Kobo, Sony, and B&N without difficulty. It it's an ePub (or PDF) it's no problem. In other words, in terms of function as an eReader ... the Nook is completely usable and functional in Canada.
Where Amazon locks you substantially into their ecosystem, Sony and Kobo are the other extreme. They use simple ePub with standard Adobe DRM so that their content is readable and loadable on any reader that supports ePub. Barnes & Noble steer a course between Amazon and Kobo/Sony. Their device loads ePubs/PDF natively allowing you to load content acquired from most eBook retailers (except Amazon). However, Barnes & Noble use a different encryption scheme to wrap ePub files, so B&N content is locked to B&N readers (either software or Nook). Like all eBook formats, there are tools out there that restore full format shifting flexibility, but those tools are not necessarily something that everyone is comfortable with, especially with pending legislation change. As long as you have a Nook, you shouldn't be concerned with this, but if you're next eReader is something different you should be aware that you may have an issue porting your library. This is also true of the Kindle. Amazon abandoned a previous eBook format and left users out in the cold. Microsoft did the same thing with PlaysForSure although they did back off partially in the face of major criticism (although only to 2011). The worry about abandoned formats is not an idle concern and one cannot assume that Amazon or B&N will always do the right thing ... they haven't in the past and there is not guarantee that they'll always be a thriving concern and not a bankrupt one.
A couple of paragraphs above, I mentioned that I would add something about purchasing B&N content in Canada. Like with all eBook retailers, geographic restrictions are an issue. From my observation, B&N has very few books that it has secured retailing rights for Canada. It isn't that big an issue in that B&N's pricing is not usually better than Kobo, Sony, or Amazon. That said, like with Amazon, there is a workaround for these geographic restrictions.
Last thing is the actual usability of the Nook. The eInk display is outstanding. The stock fonts are much better than the Kindle's making for a better reading experience. To get the same experience from the Kindle, you need to use a font hack which gets broken with every software update from Amazon. Page turning speed is identical. Instead of a keypad like the Kindle, the Nook has a small LCD touch screen occupying the bottom portion of the device. I find the Amazon dictionary better and easier to use. I find the navigation on the Nook (especially using NookLauncher and NookLibrary) to be superior to both the Kindle and the PRS-505. Battery life is a little shorter than a pure eInk device because of the LCD display.
The Nook is extremely comfortable to hold (as is the Kindle). The Kindle has the worst hard button layout of the three eReaders I've owned. The Nook is probably the best, but it has the advantage of not needing hardware buttons for functions that are easily managed from the touch screen.
The Nook is a little buggy still but B&N have delivered several firmware updates with more on the way that improve the reader with every iteration. All in all, I like the Nook. I find I am preferring it to the Kindle right now so much more of my book purchasing is at Kobo instead of Amazon. Once I get a longer view of the Nook, I'll probably update this thread with more specific "review" like thoughts.