Barnes & Noble Announces A New $50 Android Tablet (teleread.org)

Next Friday Barnes & Noble will release a $50 Android tablet, competing against Amazon's tablets with a more-open version of Android. Long-time Slashdot reader Robotech_Master writes: The specs are similar to slightly better than the $50 Fire, but the kicker is this tablet will ship with plain-vanilla Marshmallow Android 6.0 and the Google Play utilities -- unlike the Fire, which limits its users to only those apps Amazon deems suitable to offer. Might this be enough to rescue the ailing Nook brand?
If you truly care about your app ecosystem, this would at least save you the trouble of having to root your tablet just to install apps from the Google Play Store.

Comments

Almost all apps have gone to hell!

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost all android apps now want permissions to access things on your tablet that they have no business or need to access! What this amounts to is that almost all apps want to spy on you, and send your personal info to people who should definitely NOT have it!! In addition, almost all game apps now have ads in the paid versions, and to complete the game you need to make significant in-app purchases. This is just wrong!! After all, you have already paid for the game!!! On top of all of this, the tablet makers all expect you to buy a new tablet every year, so after the tablet is a year old, there are no security updates, even though the tablet still works just fine. All of the above applies to so called "smart" phones too! All of this kind of spying, money grubbing, and planned obsolescence makes it not worthwhile to even own a tablet any more!

Re:No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM

[Howitzer86]

The original Nook Color unofficially had bluetooth. Wifi is provided by the same chip and rooting it enabled this feature (though the range was truly pitiful). You may be able to do the same with the new tablet, but considering your needs, you're better off not buying a tablet from a bookstore company in the first place.