Over the passed couple of years the eBook craze has all went nuts. While some early adopters went to Sony and others, picking up their respective readers, it wasn’t until Amazon kicked open the door like Steven Seagal with their Kindle that eBook readers became really popular. And truth be told, this writer has had a nerd crush on the Kindle since its inception but has never had the extra monies to pick one up. The Kindle dominated market, however, may be up to some stiff competition if Barnes & Noble has their way. Last week, to confirm many rumors, B&N unveiled its take on the eBook reader, and it is one sexy piece of plastic.

Called Nook, the unit has essentially the same display as the current generation of Kindle in addition to the ability to download novels over 3G and wifi, but instead of a physical keyboard, a color touchscreen sits comfortably in that spot. The screen allows the user to view their library and purchase books with an Apple-esque Coverflow aesthetic. When needed, an onscreen keyboard comes up that allows for searching or annotating (although we’ll still have to see how that works. Outside of the iPhone, most touchscreen keyboards are iffy). As far as storage is concerned, it comes with 2GB onboard, with the ability to expand using microSD cards. They tout the ability to download thousands of books, but let’s get serious for a second: no one will ever fill up that space with novels that they’ve read cover to cover unless they’re a dirty, dirty liar. Suffice it to say, though, you’ll have enough space to what you need to read.

Another interesting feature is that if you bring your Nook into a B&N store, you’ll be able to access extra goodies. First there’s free wifi if you need it, but you also get access to B&N’s library while within the store. So just like if you were browsing a novel, flipping pages here and there, you can browse the catalogue from within the store and look through full novels. When you’re not in a B&N store, however, you’re limited to just reading the first chapter of novels.

Also a new idea is the lending feature. If you know of someone who also has a Nook, you can “lend” some novels to them for 14 days. There are a couple of caveats with this feature, however. For one, while the book is lent out, you can’t read it. That logic makes sense, but that might upset some people who cry “well, it’s an ebook, it can exist in two places at once, unlike physical novels!” But those people will just have to make due. Additionally, you can only lend out a novel once. So if you reaaally wanted your thirty year old cousin to read Twilight and he doesn’t finish the first time, that’s it. He either has to buy it or realize he’s a thirty year old man reading Twilight and get over it.

The prices for B&N’s books are roughly the same as Amazon’s. Most new titles go for $9.99, but some snoopers have found that there are quite a few novels going for much more at the B&N store. The average of those higher priced titles generally sits around 20% more, but hopefully we’ll see the cost structure change once the ball gets rolling.

So there’s your preview of Nook (in no relation to a certain Animal Crossing tyrant). I, for one, think it’s a pretty damned sexy device and have hopes of picking one up, but only time will tell how well it does alongside the Kindle. At least we’ll now have some healthy competition.

Here are links to the Specs on the device and Product Comparisons.