Barnes & Noble unveils NOOK Tablet

Barnes & Noble introduced its latest NOOK device today. The new NOOK Tablet looks almost exactly like the popular NOOK Color which was released last year — it has the same case design and the same display. But as expected, the new device has a faster processor, more memory, and more storage.

The new tablet will be available next week for $249. It’s available for pre-order starting today.

The NOOK Tablet has a 1 GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage space. Barnes & Noble is also offering users free cloud-based storage. There’s also an SD card slot for expansion… something that some other book store tablets won’t offer.

The tablet can handle 1080p HD video playback and comes preloaded with Netflix and Hulu apps for viewing videos. Barnes & Noble says the battery should provide up to 9 hours of video playback time, or 11.5 hours of reading time.

Other apps that will come preloaded on the tablet including the Pandora internet radio app — as well as the NOOK eBook and comic book stores. There’s also a NOOK Newsstand with 250 magazines and newspapers to choose from. All told, the company says there are also 2.5 million books available including free and paid titles.

Barnes & Noble also added a microphone to the tablet for use with a new “read and record” feature that lets parents record themselves reading a book to a child.

Customers will be able to use WiFi for free in Barnes & Noble stores. There’s no 3G version of the NOOK Tablet.

via The Verge and Mashable

Posted on Monday, November 7th, 2011, 10:17 am by Brad Linder | 9 Comments

AppleFUD

For $50 over the Kindle Fire I think it’s more than fair–it’s a good deal. However, I’ve never really liked the design of the Nook Color. After using a HP TouchPad for a while I’ve learned that THE MOST important factor of a tablet is, how it feels in the hand–how easy is it to hold the tablet? The PlayBook, and therefore the Kindle Fire, are very easy to hold–the design feels like a book and the grippy back makes is very easy to hang onto. The Nook Color’s smooth and slightly curved bezel aren’t optimal. . . shame. I would jump on the Nook Color II in a heart beat if it had the PlayBook’s design. . . wouldn’t even be a thought in my head about it.

Yes, design matters. . . especially on something you hold a lot.
Anonymous

I would add the Lenovo A1 to this list as it is selling for $199.80 at the moment.

PROS:
16gb
Bluetooth
microphone – so you can skype etc
Front and rear cameras
Full sized SD slot and micro SD
GPS with offline software

Cons
1ghz single core
512mb ram

Unless you need the dual core power this is a sweet alternative.
Anonymous

error
Bluebird6560

Does it have a functioning bluetooth?
Anonymous

It’s not listed but hard to know for sure yet, since features like Bluetooth may be there but simply not enabled by default.

Like the original Nook Color wasn’t suppose to have it either but people discovered it did have the hardware and got it enabled when they rooted it and installed a custom ROM. B&N just didn’t support it by default.

Though there are some options for WiFi based devices these days in case it really doesn’t have bluetooth as an alternative to get keyboards, etc working with it.

While B&N is also suppose to be coming out with a big software update in December that may enable more features by default. Since now they got more competition to contend with than they did with the original Nook Color.
Bluebird6560

I asked because I have read that the Nook Color has the transmitter for Bluetooth but no antenna. I find the on screen keyboard a bit difficult to use. A Bluetooth keyboard and maybe ear phones would be nice.
Anonymous

According to the specs, it’s one antenna for Bluetooth and WiFi on the WL1271 used in the original Nook Color.

Since the existence of Bluetooth wasn’t known right away, there wasn’t much of any work done for enabling Bluetooth until well after the Nook Color was released. So the reports you read were probably from a combination of lack of proper support and possible limitations of the chip itself that could limit range.

While we’ve yet to see a tear down of the Nook Tablet to see if it has a similar combo wireless chip but if it does then we should see it enabled in a custom ROM pretty soon.
Reed Waits

Well as we all now see if someone designs something that looks like something else they will get sued. (Apple vs Samsung). I call BS.
http://profiles.google.com/danielm.nc Daniel Marcus

@1fb0eb464443e5e339750a6620427ec3:disqus I both agree and disagree with you. Design and ergonomics are indeed very important. After playing with various devices, however, I am incredibly glad that B&N kept the same design with the Nook Tablet; I love the feel of the Nook Color in my hands, and would have been very disappointed to see it take any other shape.

Barnes & Noble unveils NOOK Tablet

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