When Android hardware is cheap, people usually assume there’s at least one catch. That was the case with the $50 NOOK Tablet from Barnes & Noble which on paper and in practice just seemed too good to be true. Well, that might just be the case…
When tablets became the next big thing in 2010, every tech company jumped into the fray hoping to monopolize on the trend. There are definitely lessons to be learned from the dirt cheap Android tablets, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo, and the like—notably, how companies quickly stopped supporting them. However, some tablets, like the Nook Tablet, get reprieve thanks to CyanogenMod.
Last year, Samsung and Barnes & Noble introduced the lower-end Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook, and just last month the same companies partnered to launch the Galaxy Tab S2 Nook on the other end of the spectrum. Today, Barnes & Noble has announced that there’s now a Samsung Nook offering that joins the two halfway: the Galaxy Tab E Nook…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Following the introduction of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 a couple of months ago, it appears that the Korean company has now partnered with Barnes & Noble to launch a “NOOK” variant of the device. While the standard S2 comes in both 9.7-inch and 8.0-inch screen sizes, the S2 NOOK embraces the 8-inch variant and packs plenty of Barnes & Noble software on top…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Barnes & Noble has teamed up with Samsung for its latest Nook to compete in the ebook reader+tablet space where Amazon’s Kindle Fire exists. The two companies first announced plans for the new device earlier this year in June, and teased the device in a video shared last Friday.
So what is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook? Aside from a mouthful of words, it’s the same 7-inch Samsung Galaxy tablet introduced earlier this year with a splash of B&N’s software on the surface. That means the Nook now sports a 1,280-by-800 resolution display, 8GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot for expansion up to 32GB, both front and back cameras (1.3 megapixel on the front, 3 megapixel on the back), and the library of apps Google Play introduces.
It’s not a bad deal either if you’re in the market for an ebook reader and tablet. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook will be sold online and in Barnes & Noble stores in both black and white for $199, and B&N is taking 10% off the top at launch bringing the price to $179 for early adopters. The new Nook also comes with loads of content from Barnes & Noble including books, TV shows, and magazines as part of the deal. Check below for the latest video and the full press release…
Expand
Expanding
Close
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0c6djpd8E]
We’ve known since June that Barnes & Noble’s next Nook ebook reader would be a co-branded Galaxy Tab 4, set to be launched on Wednesday. Digital Reader notes that the company has now emailed out a 30-second teaser video, showing reactions to the device – including one from Grumpy Cat …
Expand
Expanding
Close
A little over two months ago, Samsung and Barnes & Noble announced that the next Nook e-reader would be a co-branded Galaxy Tab 4. Today, both companies began sending out invitations to a media event on August 20th that will take place in New York City. The two organizations will use this gathering as a platform to show off the next generation of Nook hardware, while further discussing their partnership.
Barnes & Noble has announced that its next Nook ebook reader will be a co-branded Galaxy Tab 4.
The co-branded devices will combine popular Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 hardware with customized NOOK software to give customers powerful, full-featured tablets that are designed for reading …
If you’re in the UK and have been considering a Nook, it looks like now is the time to buy: Barnes & Noble has cut prices again “while stocks last.”
Prices of the 7-inch Nook HD have been cut by £20, with the 8GB model down to £79 and the 16GB version at £99. The 9-inch HD+ sees a £30 drop to £129 for the 16GB and £149 for the 32GB.
9to5Toys recently had the 16GB HD+ for $110 shipped, but this has now sold out.
The Nook line has always been a loss-maker for Barnes & Noble, and the company said back in June that it was quitting the hardware business. The company then announced a change of plan after new CEO Michael Huseby was installed (not the first time the company has done a U-turn), though it’s not yet known whether the new Nook device expected later this year will be a dedicated ebook reader or another Android tablet.
Just two short months ago, Nook manufacturer Barnes & Noble was telling the world that it was moving out of the tablet business and focusing on content. Now it appears the company is scrapping that new strategy and going full-speed ahead with their original plans (memories of Netflix’s Qwikster plans are brought to mind).
Although the Nook business has been hurting Barnes & Noble’s bottom line since its inception – and the revenue continues to decline – CNET is reporting that B&N president today stated the company “intends to continue to design and develop cutting-edge Nook black and white and color devices” and one new Nook will be launched before the end of the year.
With the company losing nearly $87 million in the last quarter and lack of CEO (former CEO William Lynch resigned back in June and the company isn’t currently looking for a successor) paints a sad picture for the ailing company.
Barnes & Noble has updated its Nook app for Android to support HD magazines on tablets with a 1280×720 resolution or better. Other new features for version 3.4 are:
• Popular magazines now available on Android tablets: SELF, WIRED, Glamour, Vanity Fair, GQ
• Enlarge book illustrations for more detailed imagery
• Now accessible to blind and low vision users leveraging Android assistive technology, including screen magnification (OS 4.2 or higher required) & TalkBack (OS 4.1 or higher)
• Bug fixes
Barnes & Noble also updated its iOS app (which got HD magazines back in March) with “better organization for your book series” and some unspecified enhancements based on user suggestions.
The company has recently been working hard to keep its hardware Nook reader competitive, allowing access to Google Play after initially saying it wouldn’t, and introducing “temporary” price cuts in May that remain in place today.
From 9to5toys.com (Twitter, Feed, Facebook):
Just days after Barnes & Noble reversed course and began allowing NOOK owners access to over 700,000 apps and games (and books?) from the Google Play Store, both the HD and HD+ versions have received heavy price cuts. For the next week, you can pickup a NOOK HD tablet starting at just $150 (25% savings) and a NOOK HD + for $179 (34% savings). These savings are also available online and in-store from Best Buy. As of right now Barnes & Noble are saying these price cuts are temporary but we’re getting the feeling that they could become the new norm.
There is a good chance these price drops are in response to the Kindle Fire HD sale Amazon launched over the weekend.
During Google’s conference call with investors that took place this afternoon, Chief Executive Officer Larry Page asked about the success of Android tablets during a Q&A session.
Page, perhaps hinting at a 7-inch tablet branded by Google, said: “I think there’s also, obviously, there’s been a lot of success on some lower-priced tablets that run Android — maybe not the full Google version of Android. But we definitely believe that there’s going to be a lot of success at the lower end of the market, as well, with lower-priced products that will be very significant. It’s definitely an area we think is quite important and that we’re quite focused on.”
The most popular 7-inch tablets to date are Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which looks to be the hottest selling Android tablet, and the Barnes and Noble’s Nook. Both tablets are priced very competitively around $200.
Google is rumored to launch its own branded tablet, manufactured by Korea-based ASUS, this June. The tablet is reportedly priced at roughly $200 and features Android 4.0. Both the Fire and Nook feature a custom version of Android—almost to where you cannot even tell it is Android. NVIDIA also talked about its plans to launch a similar tablet. While there is not a lot of Android tablets out there, it is interesting that most of them are lower priced.
Source: Android Central
Barnes & Noble is optimistic for Nook devices this year, and to help along sales the company is offering discounts on all models with subscriptions to The New York Times or People (via TechCrunch).
Through this limited-time offer, customers will have access to the NOOK edition of The New York Times, plus all their favorite content on the go, through Barnes & Noble’s critically acclaimed devices. In addition to automatically delivering The Times directly to the customers’ NOOK device each day, NOOK subscribers will also receive unlimited access to The Times’ award-winning website, NYTimes.com, including regular news updates, opinions, blogs, video, interactive graphics and more. The NOOK subscription to The New York Times is $19.99 per month for full digital access on NOOK and NYTimes.com.
B&N announced the $99 Nook Simple Touch would be available completely free for users who purchase a one-year subscription to The New York Times. As for the Nook Color (usually $199), NYT subscribers will be able to pick it up for $99. The full-access NYT subscription currently costs $19.99/monthly.
The Nook Tablet, which usually retails for $249, will be available for $199 to users who sign up for a $9.99/montly, one-year People subscription. The promotion is running through March 9, 2012 at more than 700 Barnes & Nobile locations and at www.nook.com/nyt. The entire press release is available after the break:
Barnes & Noble reported record holiday sales today for its Nook business, including devices and digital content.
“During the nine-week holiday period ending Dec. 31, 2011, Nook unit sales, including Nook Simple Touch, Nook Color and the new Nook Tablet, increased 70 percent over the same period last year,” said the bookseller in a Jan. 5 statement. “Digital content sales also grew briskly during the same nine-week period, increasing 113 percent on a comparable basis.”
Content sales include digital books, digital newsstand, and the company’s apps business. The retailer of digital media and educational products is doing so well, as of lately, it is even considering a spinoff.
The company announced on Thursday it is embarking on a “strategic exploration” to separate the Nook division. The retailer also wants to report Nook-related sales as a separate business segment, and it is communicating with potential partners to expand the Nook’s presence abroad…
Plex, the very popular streaming media application, is on its way to the Nook Color and Nook Tablet’s Store, reports GigaOm. For those unfamiliar with Plex, it is a popular application available on iOS and Android that lets users manage their home’s media content through a custom server.
Plex’s wide variety of supported media formats, available plug-ins, and the Windows and Mac application make it arguably the best solution for controlling media across the household. The Barnes and Noble review team approved Plex, so it should see its way onto the Nook Store in the coming days.
The Nook’s Plex app will be very close to the Android app, but it will have an added layer of approval process for software titles, GigaOm reports.
The Nook Color and Nook Tablet’s popular competitor, the Kindle Fire, also has Plex. The addition of Plex to the Nook Store will give customers the ability to better manage their media — something that customers love to do with their cheaper tablets.
As the production of the iPad 2 winds down, 7-inch panels are seeing a sales boost, reported trade publication DigiTimes. The sales boost of 7-inch panels is so high that they have passed the 9.7-inch panels for the first time in November. The 7-inch panels power popular tablets like Amazon’s Kindle Fire that is selling like crazy and Barnes and Noble’s Nook. They are both a very cheap buy for consumers this holiday season.
Earlier in the week, DigiTimes also reported that sources told them Apple was going to begin the production of a 7-inch tablet in the second quarter next year, for release in the fourth quarter. We doubt the 7-inch sales boost is due to any Apple orders just yet, even if the report is true. The 9.7-inch panel sales will most likely go up has Apple prepares for the launch of the iPad 3 that is rumored to hit in the Spring.
The guys and gals over at iFixit are once again tearing down our favorite electronic devices, this time the new Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble. The end result is a repairability score of 6 out of 10 and a few interesting findings, especially in comparison to the Kindle Fire. Today we also get our first root for the device, allowing the Android Market to run with some minor limitations. Liliputing (via SlashGear) has compiled a complete guide using tips from various posters on Xda-developers.
A few noteworthy findings that you may have previously be unaware of include:
Storage– While Barnes & Noble advertises 16GB of onboard internal storage (saying the 6GB included in Amazon’s Kindle Fire makes it “deficient for a media tablet”), the truth is only 1GB is available for content other than B&N content. iFixit says only 12GB of the 16GB is actually available to the user, while only 1GB of that 12 is available for content other than that downloaded from the B&N app store. Looks like the majority of your content (other than content purchased from B&N) will have to be stored mostly on microSD.
We also get a nice comparison of the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. iFixit explains:
Expand
Expanding
Close
It you want access to all of the apps on the Android platform (including all of Google’s great apps) on your Kindle, you’ll want to get the Android Market on there. Once rooted, it is a pretty straightforward process as outlined in the steps below. Is the Kindle going to replace the Nook as the go-to cheap hacking Android Tablet?
Expand
Expanding
Close
Mashable reports that some Google Marketplace apps are installable on Kindle’s new Fire tablet. A user simply needs to head to the device settings pane and enable the “Allow Installation of Applications From Unknown Sources” option. Then, the user needs to install GetJar.com. The Kindle Fire won’t appear in the GetJar options for app downloading, so the user just needs to select another Android 2.3 tablet. Not all apps will install, and Mashable uses the example of the Nook app. Quite the irony.
We’re playing with Google Maps right now (below). FYI Launcher apps don’t seem to work. It appears that the Kindle is about to be opened up bigtime for hacking in the next 24 hours….
Expand
Expanding
Close
.
If all of the rumors are true, Amazon has a 7-inch “media tablet” that runs a forked version of Android and will connect to all of Amazon’s services, including its Appstore, Movies, TV, Music and of course eBooks. It won’t be true multi-touch but the rumored price is half of the iPad’s (just like the screen) at $250. Who is making this for Amazon? Foxconn of course.
Yes, it sounds just like a Nook (which is getting an interesting update soon) with a better backend store.
Barnes & Noble’s all-new Nook e-reader is now shipping. The company announced via a press release yesterday that the new Nooks have been shipped to those who pre-ordered them. New orders placed via their website will ship immediately, in time for Father’s Day. The device will also be in stock at Barnes & Noble locations. The e-reader features a six-inch display with the latest E-Ink Pearl display technology that responds to touch input. It also surprises with other noteworthy goodies…
Barnes & Noble’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that makes mention of “an announcement on May 24, 2011, regarding the launch of a new eReader device” has become official as the company has sent out press invites. The invitation sports clean design and reveals nothing beyond noting stating that “a special announcement” is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, 2011.
