Barnes & Noble this week introduced the Nook, its $259 e-reader designed to compete directly with Amazon.com's Kindle.

"The Nook, which is based on Google's Android operating system, offers a 3.5-inch diagonal color touch screen for navigation and a six-inch electronic paper display based on E Ink technology," writes InformationWeek's Antone Gonsalves. "In addition, the device has integrated access to AT&T's 3G wireless network to buy e-books or subscribe to magazines and newspapers from B&N's online store."

"In many ways, the Nook looks similar to the Kindle, but instead of a hardware keyboard, the B&N eReader features a touchscreen that can show a keyboard and will allow users to browse books," writes ReadWriteWeb's Frederic Lardinois. "The Nook mostly uses the small color screen for navigation and doesn't try to add a lot of additional features like web browsing. The touchscreen is also used for browsing the B&N eBook store and for buying books while on the go."

"One of the differentiating factors of the Nook is that customers can 'lend' books to friends," notes the NYT's Motoko Rich. "But customers may lend out any given title only one time for a total of 14 days and they cannot read it on their own Nook while it is lent."

More here from Uncrate ... more here from Engadget ... more here from Android and Me ... more here from Gizmodo ... and the press release is here.