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Books Handhelds Hardware

Insiders Say B&N Will Launch New Nook,Tablet In October 50

Nate the greatest writes "Rumors are circulating that Barnes & Noble is going to release their new hardware soon. Two different sources inside B&N have confirmed that a launch is imminent, with one saying B&N will launch both a tablet and an ereader. The other says that a new tablet is coming. I tend to think that the first source is probably right because product pages for several accessories leaked in early August. The pages referenced 2 different new models. Also, B&N recently announced plans to continue to develop both new ereaders and tablets, though they've changed their minds so much that I don't know if that announcement is worth anything."
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Insiders Say B&N Will Launch New Nook,Tablet In October

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  • by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @09:35AM (#44872371)

    Finally a device with a color e-ink display, pretty please? How about making it work as a computer display, too?

    • And I want it for under $25.00 and It needs to be more powerful by itself then all of Google's Data Servers.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        And I want it for under $25.00 and It needs to be more powerful by itself then all of Google's Data Servers.

        No Free - Ad Supported - ads for porno with 3 minute "teaser clips".

        Let's go for broke here, huh?

      • And it should run my Windows programs.

    • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      Sadly no, the refresh rates are just too slow.
      Other than a feeling that this is better to look at, what are the advantages? I look at LCD and AMOLED screens all day, they seem fine to me.

    • Finally a device with a color e-ink display, pretty please? How about making it work as a computer display, too?

      What's the advantage to making a cheap device which people would buy to use as a display instead of a means of reading books purchased from B&N? I think they are also unlikely to build ones that can be used as BBQ grills.

      • What's the advantage to making a cheap device which people would buy to use as a display instead of a means of reading books purchased from B&N? I think they are also unlikely to build ones that can be used as BBQ grills.

        As long as the device is sold at a small profit, or at minimum not at a loss, it's worth it to sell them to increase the distributed base. If you have the device for one purpose, you might use it for another. Plus, you get to claim the sales as... sales. It gets your volume up, so you can buy components at lower prices...

        • What's the advantage to making a cheap device which people would buy to use as a display instead of a means of reading books purchased from B&N? I think they are also unlikely to build ones that can be used as BBQ grills.

          As long as the device is sold at a small profit, or at minimum not at a loss, it's worth it to sell them to increase the distributed base. If you have the device for one purpose, you might use it for another. Plus, you get to claim the sales as... sales. It gets your volume up, so you can buy components at lower prices...

          Unless it's a loss-leader for content sales for the device, or the additional sales drive costs down through economies of scale, you are WRONG: it is NOT worth it to sell them at a loss, even a small one.

          If it's sold at a small profit, as in the device manufacturing process is self sustaining, then yes, it's probably worthwhile. But realize that self-sustaining in this regard includes amortized R&D costs, production tooling costs, manufacturing costs, shipping costs, and flooring costs for putting the

          • As long as the device is sold at a small profit, or at minimum not at a loss, it's worth it to sell them to increase the distributed base. If you have the device for one purpose, you might use it for another. Plus, you get to claim the sales as... sales. It gets your volume up, so you can buy components at lower prices...

            Unless it's a loss-leader for content sales for the device, or the additional sales drive costs down through economies of scale, you are WRONG: it is NOT worth it to sell them at a loss, even a small one.

            Please get back to me when you reach a junior high school reading level.

            • As long as the device is sold at a small profit, or at minimum not at a loss, it's worth it to sell them to increase the distributed base. If you have the device for one purpose, you might use it for another. Plus, you get to claim the sales as... sales. It gets your volume up, so you can buy components at lower prices...

              Unless it's a loss-leader for content sales for the device, or the additional sales drive costs down through economies of scale, you are WRONG: it is NOT worth it to sell them at a loss, even a small one.

              Please get back to me when you reach a junior high school reading level.

              You are neglecting what "at a small profit" implies.

              It is not worth it to go into business and break even. To do so ignores the time value of money, which is the profit you could be making on the investment capitol if you invested it in something else. This is called "opportunity cost".

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_value_of_money [wikipedia.org]
              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost [wikipedia.org]

              Or, to put it back in the same condescending manner you put it:

              ``Please get back to me when you reach a college freshman's level o

    • by DrXym ( 126579 )
      Colour e-ink looks terrible - like a badly tinted black and white photo printed on recycled cardboard. It might be better than pure grey but neither is it much use for anything. Comics and other colour media wouldn't benefit much from it, not least because the refresh speed is abysmal.

      Mirasol would produce a better picture for similar battery life however it's a question of whether Qualcomm are pursuing that market any more.

    • by nurb432 ( 527695 )

      Yes, color e-ink, 9.7" or don't bother releasing anything. We have enough 'tablets' called 'e-reader' out there now.

  • by a_n_d_e_r_s ( 136412 ) on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @09:39AM (#44872405) Homepage Journal

    Since Microsoft bought out a big chunk of B&N from Nook to prevent B&N from destroying their "Linux" patents in a patent trial I presume this will be the new WP based Nook.

    Thus who cares ? I don't, this just looks like another slashadvert for Microsoft in the making.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Get everybody talking about what they might or might not have, so when a product actually ships a certain percentage will decide to check out what they've been hearing so much about. Nice.

  • by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @09:50AM (#44872515) Homepage
    I own two nooks.

    I have few if any problems with the devices. But the software could use some work. They need to be able to handle more document types (Word, PDF, etc.) with well designed user interefaces. Right now they depend on selling extra software to do that with is wrong.

    In addition, they need to redo their website. I have no problem finding books to buy when I go to their store. I go in, go to the section I desire and browse the "New Books" section. But trying to do it via the device is a waste of time.

    Partly because the store only holds a few new books, so they select out the best, ignore the crap, and do not try to 'push' certain books.

    On the devices, the opposite happens they don't limit the 'new' books in a section to the good stuff, instead they break the section downs to subsections, and fill the sub sections with every single book available.

    • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      Cyanogenmod runs on the Nook Color pretty well. The only issues are due to it having a very low amount of RAM. I am not sure why it is wrong to sell software to handle more document types, office software often costs money.

    • As a fellow Nook owner, I second the software problem. It is almost a requirement to root any Nook purchased, as B&N spends more effort trying to prevent people form rooting them than actually fixing their usability issues. Hardware and price wise, the Nooks are fantastic. Software-wise, they are atrocious. Adding the Google Play Store on the stock OS is a good start, but redesigning their store to be more friendly is the natural next step.

      • I'm confused, book is super easy to root in I experience (simple touch), and the new ones have come with Google store for a while. Are you sure you're not talking about kindle?

        • Much of the time when they update the nook software they break whatever mechanism was used to root. You don't notice because you're using a rooter.

        • I've owned Nooks since the first generation (with the little LCD at the bottom) up through the Nook Tablet. You are correct, they are easy to root...unless B&N's software gets loaded on again. Each software update has less features, and mostly code to prevent rooting/sideloading/etc. Even the less tech-saavy users in the B&N forums notice this.
          The Google Store was only announced earlier this year and only works on their newest Nook and Nook HD lines. They chose to leave any other product line out.
          Wh

    • why not just use Aldiko for other document types?

    • by 0racle ( 667029 )
      What issues with PDF's do you have? I have a Nook Color and don't seem to have issues with PDF's, I haven't noticed anything anyway.
    • As an owner of one of the earlier Nook Color models, I can't speak much about the software (put CM on it the first chance I got), but the hardware is mostly pretty nice. It doesn't have a lot of beef to it, but I've never been a touchscreen gamer sort, so that doesn't bother me.

      What does piss in my cheerios is those goddamn charge/sync cables. If spun sugar could conduct electricity, I'd swear those pieces of junk were woven from cotton candy. $15 for a new cable every 6 months, and knowing that eventually,

  • Name (Score:5, Funny)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @09:57AM (#44872589)

    Maybe they should call the new erader a Cranny instead

  • This time around it had better support Google Play out the door or it's DOA. Amazon, B&N, etc, all thought they could simply throw together their own private marketplace and reap lots of commission money like Apple does through its App Store. Problem is neither of them could grow their app store to reach that critical mass of selection to make it appealing to consumers, and simultaneously draw in developers to support yet another proprietary mess of App building and submission. It's the usual problem

    • Also, as Google moves what were os functionality apis to the play store, it's going to be a bigger deal. To prevent fragmentation they say...

    • by h4rr4r ( 612664 )

      I think part of the market at least is that they can easily be turned into generic Android tablets. Until the N7 2012 was shipped there were relatively few inexpensive but good tablets.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      B&N added the google play store to the Nook HD and Nook HD+ back in May. I can't imagine they will be removing it for the new version.

    • Because nook tablets ARE android with google play?
      As far as I know, they run pretty much everything a 'generica android tablet' runs.

  • I'm glad they are giving tablets another go. I just recently got a Nook HD+ and it's actually a fairly impressive tablet, especially at that price point. The 1920x1280 LCD is really nice to look at and it's got a reasonable CPU.

    I reflashed mine with CyanogenMod 10.1 but I know a few others who are quite happy with the stock firmware. Once they finally added the play store and such the stock firmware sucks a lot less. I'd buy another one.... I'm actually thinking of buying a few Nook HD's for the kids.

    As

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