Barnes & Noble isn’t done with its original tablet. The Nook Color is over a year old and it just got its largest update to date that brings Netflix, Flixster, and access to Nook Comics and PagePerfect Nook Books.
The Nook Color paved the way for the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet by showing there’s a market for a content-driven low-cost tablet. The Nook Color was almost instantly a hit partially because it is completely hackable. Modders quickly improved the device by opening it up to 3rd party apps, but B&N was clearly paying attention because the tablet’s official updates often followed the trends of recent hacks. Slowly the Nook Color gained access to email, a proper web browser and even apps. Now, a year after it was released, the Nook Color is more tablet than ereader. → Read More
The Nook Color is getting its first dedicated Twitter application today, an app called Tweek built by the boutique software consultancy DIG based in Tampa. To be clear, this isn’t the first app on the Nook Color to support Twitter. There’s already Seesmic, for example, which provides access to Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz and more. Celebrity Tweets, meanwhile, aggregates the musings from over 300 celebs.
However, Tweek is the first dedicated Twitter app designed just for the Nook Color. It does Twitter, just Twitter and nothing but Twitter. → Read More
Last Friday, Amazon sent out invites to a press conference being held this coming Wednesday. They didn’t give away any details in the invite, but given our scoop earlier this month, everyone assumed it was to unveil the new Kindle tablet. We can now confirm this is correct. And we know a bit more.
On Wednesday morning in New York City, Amazon will unveil the Kindle Fire. Yes, this is the name Amazon has settled on, to help differentiate the product from the e-ink Kindles, which will still be very much alive and for sale. And while Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will show off the Fire on stage, it won’t be ready to ship until the second week of November, we’ve learned. → Read More
It’s called simply the “Amazon Kindle”. But it’s not like any Kindle you’ve seen before. It displays content in full color. It has a 7-inch capacitive touch screen. And it runs Android.
Rumors of Amazon making a full-fledged tablet device have persisted for a while. I believe we were one of the first to report on the possibility from a credible source — the same person who accurately called Amazon’s Android Appstore. That source was dead-on again, it just took Amazon longer than anticipated to get the device ready to go. They’re now close.
How do I know all of this? Well, not only have I heard about the device, I’ve seen it and used it. And I’m happy to report that it’s going to be a big deal. Huge, potentially. → Read More
Barnes and Noble’s Nook Color eReader is a fan favorite, not only because it’s great for reading, but also because with a little hackery it becomes a surprisingly decent Android tablet. A new report from Taiwan today indicates that Barnes and Noble has a sequel in the works, and that it could hit stores shelves as early as this month, potentially before Amazon’s own big unveiling. → Read More
Getting Android on a Nook Color isn’t so much hacking anymore. It’s pretty damn easy at this point. But MeeGo, well, MeeGo is a different story. It apparently took one week of work to get the mobile OS onto the Nook Color, but the results are pretty impressive. It looks stable, quick and mighty sexy. Video after the jump. → Read More
Well, after several leaks, an SEC filing, and random speculation from random bloggers, Barnes & Noble just sent out an invite for a Special Announcement. Ready for more random speculation from a random blogger? Here! We! Go! → Read More
Barnes & Noble just announced that Nook Color users have downloaded over 1 millon apps so far, including Angry Birds, Drawing Pad, and Pulse. Obviously 1 million apps in comparison to the numbers downloaded (notice they didn’t say “sold”) is fairly paltry but it’s a great start.
This bit of news confirms what we’ve been saying for a while: the Nook is kind of a stealth Android device and, barring problems with processer power and general usability, it’s a fine entry-level tablet. → Read More
Tablets and electronic book readers are on a collision course. In this episode of Fly or Die , ChrunchGear editor John Biggs and I discuss the pros and cons of the new BlackBerry Playbook and the Color Nook from Barnes & Noble. The PlayBook is fast and a solid effort from our much-beleaguered Canadian friends. But is it too little, too late?
If you are a BackBerry user and want a tablet that syncs to your phone, this could be for you. (In the video, Biggs keeps saying Android, but he means BlackBerry—too many Four Lokos before the taping). I actually like the PlayBook better than most Android tablets. But if it’s incredible apps that you want, the PlayBook’s choices are still pretty limited.
The Color Nook is a different story. → Read More
B&N officially made the Nook Color the best iPad alternative tablet last week with the addition of email, calander, and apps. It was already a fan favorite with those features and more, but only by way of a healthy dose of modding. Now anyone can buy the Nook Color and most of the features modders have been enjoying for months. If you’re going to buy it, why not snag it from Best Buy this week? They’re throwing in a bonus $25 gift card, which could cover the cost of a case or microSD card. → Read More
The Nook Color has always been considered a wannabe Android tablet and the latest update makes the 7–incher more tablet than ereader. Previously, modders opened up the platform to all sorts of Android tomfoolery, allowing users to run nearly stock Android builds that brought email, proper web browsing and apps to the device. Never mind that nonsense, Barnes & Noble just added those features themselves.
The latest update is a doozy. The Nook Color now runs on Android 2.2 and supports Flash, real email, and get this, page turning animations. (Like the iPad!) The Nook Color is open to even more apps, but only designed specificity for the device. Epicurious, Pulse, and Angry Birds are the highlights out of the 125 mostly paid apps but it still can’t run any ol’ Android app. → Read More
The comments on yesterday’s post concerning the Xoom’s bungled launch stated loud and clear that people want inexpensive Android tablets — or at least that the high MSRP was the Xoom’s undoing. The thought is that if you’re going to spend over $500 on a tablet, the iPad is the only choice, which therefore makes the $800 Xoom a no-sale. I sort of agree with that even though I still feel the Xoom is a fantastic tablet. Still, I feel the poor marketing and product placement doomed the tablet rather than the price alone. Motorola never publicly justified the price. That said, the Xoom would be a similar, but still different fail whale even if it launched at $300. It wouldn’t be the same Xoom. The dual core CPU, lovely screen, and abundant amounts of memory would be the first options on the cutting board. From there Moto would have probably slash the build quality from solid to cheap along with opting for a weaker battery. A lower-priced Xoom tablet would not be a more successful tablet. The vertical iTunes ecosystem opens up a huge revenue stream that allows Apple to price products different than most Android tablet makers. It’s not fair, really. Still, it’s disingenuous to say companies are ignoring the low-end Android tablet market. It’s actually alive, well, and more than thriving. But please, don’t call the tablets after the jump iPad or even Xoom competitors. They’re not even in the same league. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth a look. → Read More
Barnes & Noble just announced that they’re opening their Nook platform to developers and will now begin accepting apps. If you thought this was a great opportunity to submit your “Fart Blaster” or “Ragdoll Boobies” app, think again: B&N will be running an “app review/acceptance process that will follow the company’s content acceptance policies as with books to ensure the content is appropriate for the Barnes & Noble customer.” Developers also have access to more debug modes on the Nook and a set of forums to talk about programming tips and tricks. All of these will be available at NookDeveloper.com. → Read More
This, multiplied by a million minus 1 million Digitimes “sources” are stating that 3 million Nooks Color have rolled off the assembly line and into stores over the past year, giving the Nook Color firmly at 50% of the “iPad-like” tablet market. They estimated 600,000-700,000 sales per month in January and February during the post-holiday gift card redemption season. → Read More
Looks like HSN wasn’t lying when they said the Nook Color would be getting an update next month. Of course, they continue to lie about the price of the device ($500, HSN? Really?), but that’s a whole other thing. → Read More
While the Nook Color may be a popular tablet for hacking, it’s also just a plain ol’ e-reader — or so they say. Now that they’re adding the Nook Store, a device-specific market for apps, like that on the Galaxy Tab.
It’s not the full Android Market, but if you’re looking to augment your Nook Color a bit, this is will be easier than hacking it.
Also, it appears that HSN thinks the Nook costs $500 and is a bargain at $300. → Read More
Now, this isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff, but it does really demonstrate the fact that all tablets (especially the more recent and hackable ones) are just small computers. Anything’s possible — convenient, perhaps not, but if you’re looking to take full advantage of the hardware you’ve just bought, there are definitely ways to go about doing that. → Read More
Microsoft has filed suit against Barnes & Noble, creators of the Nook and Nook Color e-readers, as well as the manufacturers of those devices. The companies allegedly infringe on a number of patents filed between 1998 and 2005, generally applying to UI elements associated with browsing and downloading information. Like many patents from that period (for example those cited by Paul Allen in last year’s omnibus suit) these are quite broad in their specificity, claiming methods that seem now to be no-brainer approaches to the task described. The larger question is, as before, is whether these patents are legitimately unique intellectual property — but as before, the larger question is being deferred for now, and in the mean time, we’re suing each other over the placement of download status bars.
Microsoft’s line is that Barnes & Noble, unlike game HTC, Amazon, and others, has failed to license these methods (yet uses them anyway, bold as brass), and now faces stern reprimand. → Read More
You know the drill: Valentine’s Day is next week so here’s come Nook Color cases that would make great gifts. Herp derp. We looked at Kindle cases yesterday so it only makes sense to look at the B&N counterpart. Not surprisingly, there’s a much smaller accessory market for Nook Color cases and that’s reflected in this gift guide. There simply aren’t that many to choose from and Barnes & Noble seem to understand this. The bookseller just put several very nice cases on special for the upcoming holiday. Check ‘em out. The official B&N cases are by far the best quality ones I tested. → Read More
Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) just recently got its first SDK release, and it looks like the enterprising hackers in the Android community have already ported it to the Nook Color hardware. Well, partially. It’s a “zombie” made by mixing the SDK with the Nook’s kernel, and it runs like a dog. Getting hardware acceleration (a major part of the UI snappiness in Honeycomb) working is the next step, and hacker dhoshman over at XDA says he’ll be working on that over the weekend. We’ll keep you updated. → Read More
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