[Nook Color Themes and Apps] agarber1:
I've been using my Nook Color in class for about a week now. I'll share my thoughts.

1. Note-taking is a pain, and you'll only complicate your life by trying to use handwriting recognition or drawing software. I work at our campus computer store, and people have tried for a year or more to use styluses for handwritten data entry on capacitive touch screens. The mushy point on the iPad stylus that allows it to work is much closer to Sharpie thickness than a typical pen or pencil. Unless you want to have hundreds of notes that look like they were written by a kindergarten student, you should go a different route.

2. Evernote is not as useful as I had hoped. I'm used to having the ability to record audio notes with my Droid, and that's impossible with the nook at this point because it doesn't have a microphone. I've seen audio minijack add-ons for the iPod Touch that would record audio despite the lack of native support, but it will be a while before we see that on the Nook, if ever. That said, I've also tried typing on both the default keyboard and SlideIT, the latter of which cannot hold a candle to Swype. My solution? I carry a small notepad and record the audio to Evernote using my phone.

3. eBooks are extremely frustrating at times. I had to pay ~$4 for a copy of the novel My Antonia on Amazon because the free/cheap versions often lack effective ways to navigate. You can flip through a paper book, but, in the Kindle app, trying to navigate to a certain chapter without a Table of Contents is a huge pain. I'm definitely spending less than on print books, but you can't count on finding free options.

4. The native note-taking abilities in the Kindle app are beautiful. I've noticed probably a 300% increase in how much I interact with text when I can touch the text to highlight it rather than having to get a highlighter or sticky note. Being able to see all notes and highlights is also great. Yes, that's more of a Kindle-specific thing, but it looks gorgeous on the screen, and I like that the display is true to the size of a book.

5. Productivity use will remind you how far Android has to come. I've yet to find a clean, simple, and easy-to-use to-do list that can sync to Google Tasks and not look terrible on the screen. Similarly, until moments ago when I saw another post here, I was frustrated that the Calendar didn't work. There have been times in the past week that I've been close to soliciting a developer to create an app that fills the gaps I see.

6. I'm an English major, so a lot of my professors are against having technology in the classroom. I've found that they've all been accepting of ereaders because they assume people won't be using them for Facebook/Twitter/whatever. That's a pretty awesome side, but I'd prefer to use my MBP and MS Office to record my lectures along with markers in the text for going to specific parts of the recording.

I look forward to the day that Bluetooth works on the Nook or when someone creates an iPad/XOOM-style keyboard dock. I know a girl who takes her iPad to class, docks it, and loves the whole experience. I want that, but for half the price and without the walled garden. Still, though, I think the Nook experience would improve dramatically if some skilled developers were given enough motivation/compensation for their efforts.