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B&N Releases Nook Tablet To Rival Amazon Fire

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the more-options dept.

jfruhlinger writes "It looks like there's competition in the low-cost media tablet space — and that Barnes & Noble is determined not to go the way of Borders. Barnes & Noble today announced the Nook Tablet, an Android-based tablet with better specs than the Kindle Fire (though it's also $50 pricier). The Nook Tablet will allow Hulu and Netflix streaming and sideloading of content, but won't have access to the general-purpose Android App Store."

5 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Android app store is a deal-breaker by roc97007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Without access to the Android app store, it's not much different than the higher end Chinese clones.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  2. Someone gets it! by roc97007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From TFA:

    > [the kindle fire]'s 8G bytes of storage is not enough to hold media for those situations where the user is not connected to the Internet. "You're not always going to be connected to the cloud," he said.

    All together now: Bingo!

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    1. Re:Someone gets it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Although, from TFA: "The Kindle Fire's 512MB of RAM does not provide enough room to play a game app while reading a magazine or running another app, he said. Its 8G bytes of storage is not enough to hold media for those situations where the user is not connected to the Internet."

      Excuse me, what?! The iPad (which I have and use daily) has 256MB RAM (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-Teardown/2183/1); the iPad 2 has 512MB RAM (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-2-Wi-Fi-Teardown/5071/1). Both of those devices can "play a game app while reading a magazine or running another app." Likewise, I have a rooted Nook Color with an 8GB SD Card and it contains more than enough media for those times when I don't have a WiFi signal; hours upon hours of video, tons of books and other documents, etc (everything from lightweight ePubs to fairly dense scanned PDFs). My 16GB iPad isn't half filled and I've had it almost a year. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for 'better specs,' but the attacks on the Kindle Fire appear unfounded in reality. Hyperbole at best...

  3. Re:More market fragmentation. by Microlith · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Holy shit, choice! Competition!

    I never thought I'd see the day when people would whimper and cry because of it.

  4. Color E-ink by daenris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yay, a slight revision of the Nook Color... meh. Won't someone just release a color E-ink tablet already.