It looks like Barnes & Noble plans to release a new 8GB model of its Nook Tablet that is only available in a 16 GB version for $249. The proof comes from documentation acquired by The Verge, and as the publication pointed out, it is pretty much safe to assume the new 8GB Nook Tab will come in closer to the price tag of its biggest competitor the Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire. At the launch of the Nook Tablet, B&N CEO William Lynch claimed the Kindle Fire is “deficient for a media tablet” due to its 8GB of storage (6GB available for user content). According to the document, the 8GB Nook Tablet will be landing in Walmart this Wednesday, Feb. 22.
On Monday we updated you on Microsoft’s ongoing attempts to collect royalties from Barnes & Noble for their use of Android in Nook devices. In the process we got a look into some of the tactics Microsoft has been using to sign up Android vendors in licensing agreements.
Now, in another detailed report from Groklaw, we learn that Google has filed an objection to Microsoft’s most recent request for the company to respond to its motion in a reduced period of time. More importantly perhaps, Barnes & Noble has bombarded the ITC with almost 44 pages of prior art, in a “Supplemental Notice of Prior Art” filing. We of course can’t go over even a fraction of all the prior art listed in the full PDF, but you can expect to see just about everything from a ton of old Netscape Navigator stuff, to articles and technical documents on Adobe products, Hypercard, Mosaic, IBM OS/2, the Arena web browser, and articles on Apple’s Newton MessagePad 2000.
Barnes & Noble is also requesting the ITC issue a letter rogatory to Canadian company MOSAID Technologies, who hasn’t voluntarily handed over evidence of a deal it made with Nokia and Microsoft. As they describe (below), B&N seeks to use evidence of that deal to defend itself against Microsoft’s claims. A letter rogatory is essentially a letter of request from one country’s court to another, in this case the appropriate Canadian court, to request permission of an act that might “constitute a violation of that country’s sovereignty” otherwise. In other words, they need to get the Canadian’s court permission before going after MOSAID.
