Barnes & Noble’s NOOK Simple Touch is an inexpensive eBook reader with an E Ink display. It’s designed for reading ebooks and not much else… yet.

While the NOOK Simple Touch features WiFi, all you can do with it right note is browse the B&N book store and download content. But according to a leaked memo obtained by TechCrunch, you could soon be able to surf the web or check your email.

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The move reportedly comes at least partially thanks to the strong response B&N received after updating the software on the NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ by adding support for the Google Play Store. Apparently people like devices better when they offer more functionality. Who woulda thunk?

The NOOK Simple Touch already runs an Android-based operating system, so adding web browser ans email clent apps should be pretty simple. Whether it’s easy to surf the web or respond to messages using an on-screen keyboard on a device with a grayscale display and a slow screen refresh rate is another question.

According to TechCrunch, the update will apply to both the NOOK Simple Touch and the Simple Touch with GlowLight.

Amazon has long offered a web browser as one of the “experimental” features on its Kindle eReaders. But the company has never included a dedicated email client.

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5 replies on “B&N to update NOOK Simple Touch with web browser, email client”

  1. Apparently not, it is the sixth of June and you can’t find anything on the net about an update.

  2. The response to B&N adding Playstore would have been even better if they had upgraded to a full android version. The HD and HD+ can compete with other tablets that run the android OS and do well. It would remove them from their market niche and heighten desirability.

  3. It’s a shame the Nook Simple Touch is not selling as well as it should be. Having owned Kindle Touch, the Nook is a way better e-reader in terms of UI and hardware. The Nook actually uses page numbers and not the weird “location” to identify/number the pages.

    1. Interesting. I use the Nook Android app to read eBooks on my Android phone. I like the B&N software much better than Amazon’s software, on both the Android OS and PC.

      Not sure where things are going for B&N. They seem to be on a rocky road.

  4. Even having paid full price for it a few years aback, I still consider my NST one of the best purchases I’ve made. I certainly got my money’s worth. At one point I hacked it to access the full android shell but was less than impressed with the result.

    I’m really looking forward to seeing what a stock browser/mail client would look like.

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