Barnes & Nobles Nook eReader: Top features

Barnes & Noble's new Nook e-reader made its debut on Tuesday and became the latest in a series of new eReaders popping up recently to compete with Amazon's Kindle.

Barnes & Nobles Nook eReader

On Monday, Spring Design unveiled Alex, the first Google Android-based eReader, and Plastic Logic also announced recently the name of its new eReader, the Que.

These new announcements follow last month's unveiling of a US-based iRex eReader, which is powered and backed by Best Buy and Verizon, and which, iRex recently announced, will allow readers access to 1,100 newspapers and periodicals.

Barnes & Nobles enters the scene with the Nook which has some snazzy features. The eReader will retail for $259, has 2 gigabytes of on-board memory and features two screens: a small LCD touchscreen at the bottom of the device and a standard 6-inch eInk display above the smaller screen.

The Nook also has a microSD card slot and interestingly enough, B&N will allow users to lend books to their friends.

Nook users can download titles over either AT&T Wireless's 3G network or a WiFi signal and runs on a version of Google's Android software and users are allowed to checkout and read local library ebooks for free.

The Nook is already available for ordering and will ship on November 30.