Barnes & Noble Announces A New $50 Android Tablet (teleread.org) 41
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.
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.
Re:And to think they could have had it all (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem was that their heart was never in it. Competing with a big company means taking big risks, and continuing to take big risks even when the numbers don't go up as quickly as you'd like them to. It means creating products that are innovative, and doing it on a regular cycle. And it means creating the perception that you stand behind your products and will continue to do so over the long term. B&N has completely failed at all of those things, and that's why we're all so shocked that they're even bothering to release a new model rather than dropping out of the e-Book business entirely.
At this point, B&N has been out of the hardware business for several years, with the possible exception of their E-ink model. Everything else is built by other companies. But even when they were still designing hardware, they kept shipping new hardware that didn't even run the latest version of Android on the day it shipped. Heck, their latest E-ink hardware was behind by two major versions on the day that it shipped. And AFAIK, they never update them to run current versions of the OS, so anybody who wants to stay reasonably current depends on third parties to hack together support. As a tablet, their products start out as crap and get further behind as they age.
If B&N really want to compete, they need to get serious, and make a pledge to always ship the current version of Android on all of their hardware. They need to provide OS updates for existing customers so that the products don't get farther and farther behind. Basically, they need to take the OS side of things seriously.
They also need to keep their RMSDK versions up-to-date so that book publishers won't keep having to cater to the most ancient devices with the oldest, most broken version of Adobe Digital Editions wrapped in a Nook UI.
They also need to make options available with faster hardware. I mean sure, there's something to be said about making a low-end device that they can build cheaply, but they ought to also have a step-up device that's a serious Android tablet with all the Nook-ization. Otherwise, people who want a tablet that's actually usable as a tablet will install Nook's Android app on a device from someone else, which means B&N loses not just market share, but also the psychological advantage of folks thinking of their devices as Nook tablets. As a result, they're more likely to also install the Kindle app, and they have less incentive to buy books from B&N.
Re: (Score:3)
That all made perfect sense, as long as you ignore how the other big companies operate. I'm serious... that's the plan I'd say they should follow too, but that's not what the successful companies are doing.
... and that's why we're all so shocked that they're even bothering to release a new model rather than dropping out of the e-Book business entirely.
Who all is in the e-book business these days?
* amazon, obviously. They're probably #1
* apple ibooks. They have no e-ink reader, but their ibook users won't buy another device for reading cause they love their ithing so much. I consider this a niche market, because no other hardware/platform is really goi
Re: (Score:2)
That's why I think they could so easily dominate the e-Book reader market if they did, and actually could cut into the tablet market significantly.
I assume that person meant the tablet market, not the e-Book reader market.
Because despite be
Re: (Score:3)
If B&N really want to compete, they need to get serious, and make a pledge to always ship the current version of Android on all of their hardware.
If they want to compete they need to find a market that is OK with 1024px screen resolution. Although to be fair, people who buy Amazon Fires probably don't know what that means.
Re: (Score:3)
It's a 50 dollar throw away tablet. I mean for 50 bucks you get a tablet that you actually can control what apps are on it. No more putting up with someone else idea of what software should be there. You get a slot for a 128gb micro sd card which now sell for less than 40 dollars. If you just want something to play with it's perfect. Ooops! I broke it! Oh well, no worries. What's not to like. I started to buy a Fire but when I saw Amazon crippled it I decided I didn't need something totally fucking
Can I hack it to put a Linux distro, not android? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. It's plain old vanilla Android on it.
Almost all apps have gone to hell! (Score:4, Insightful)
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: (Score:3)
Or get your apps from places like F-Droid [f-droid.org], and you don't need a Google account or useless spyware apps.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm extremely proud of setting the right example with this:
https://twitter.com/BramStolk/status/421750337750327296
In 2011, this was already a rare feat: two of the top100 apps pulled this off, including mine.
No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM (Score:2)
Neither TFA nor the product page says how much RAM is in the device, so it's probably 1GB and thus useless.
Bluetooth is also not listed as a feature on the product page, for want of a $1 chip a sale was lost. I want to use it in my car to do GPS and I need bluetooth to connect GPS to the tablet.
Re:No bluetooth and probably 1GB RAM (Score:4, Insightful)
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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.
Well, I like cheap. I want something that I can lose or destroy without being sad about it. I don't plan to actually build it into the car or anything, just find a graceful way to temp mount it on the dash.
Come to think of it, I want OBD-II via bluetooth also. OBDLink LX supports KKL.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, according to the FCC filing, at least, it does have Bluetooth:
https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas... [fcc.gov]
Probably right about that single gig of Ram, though, but I expect that this baby might be just as accurately named the 'Barnes&Noble Cut As Many Costs As We Possibly Could Because Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ We're Really Desperate For Money'.
To little to late (Score:4, Informative)
Genuine question (Score:2)
I seem to recall they lost the plot and were switching to a Microsoft solution? I know they did something that made me lose interest and ignore their new offerings, but I forget the details. Maybe someone here remembers?
Sounds like they are getting back on the right track.
Generic $50 tablet w/ Android 6 already (Score:2)
BestBuy sells a Digiland tablet for $50. 7" screen, 1GB RAM, 8GB storage, quad core, SD slot, Vanilla Android 6, bluetooth, camera.
I have a Fire HD 7" 4th gen. I like the Digiland better. The *only* advantage the Fire has is to run Prime Video. The screen might be slightly higher resolution. It doesn't have Google Play so there are many apps I can't get on it.
I had an earlier tablet (ASUS transformer) with only 1GB. The only way B&N could entice me is more RAM. My phone has 2GB and seems to make
Actually, my Fire tablet runs CM 12.1... (Score:1)
Wasn't really all that hard...
http://forum.xda-developers.co... [xda-developers.com]
Worse than the Fire, no thanks (Score:2)
This tablet is not better than the Fire, it is worse, for two main reasons:
One, cost. The Amazon Fire cheap tablet can be found on sale for $35, making it slightly cheaper. There is no word on whether you can get a cover for it with the words "Don't Panic" printed on it. But you probably can.
Two, Android version. While the Fire is restricted to Amazon's ecosystem, it is quite easy to override all of that with something like CM which makes it into a regular old Android tablet. And it actually runs a L