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Target, Walmart list price drop for B&N's Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight to $119
Check those calendars. It's September 29th, which means, for those who follow the world of e-readers, that we're two days from Kindle Paperwhite day. According to Target and Walmart, it also means that Barnes & Noble's own illuminated e-reader, the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, is getting a $20 price cut, down to $119. That price puts the reader on par with the entry-level Paperwhite (no 3G, with ads). Let the battle of the front lit e-readers commence! Update: Check out some official pricing update info from B&N after the break.
Barnes & Noble Nook HD, HD+ vs. Nook Tablet: what's changed?
When William Barnes and G. Clifford Noble set up their first bookstore in 1917, neither of them could have conceived of an e-reader or tablet, let alone trying to sell one of 'em. Their historical lack of foresight aside, the company outed a pair of second generation slates this morning, and it's our job to see what technical nips and tucks have been made from version one. If you love to start the day with a spec chart comparison, then why not grab a bowl of cereal and join us after the break?
Barnes & Noble hits the UK, launches Nook Simple Touch, Glowlight and a pair of HD tablets
American bookseller Barnes and Noble is planning to broaden its horizons with a little international travel. At the same time the Kindle Fire HD makes its first tentative steps across the pond, the company behind the Nook has appointed Patrick Rouvillois to spearhead its global domination -- starting in the UK. As such, it's releasing the Nook Simple Touch, Simple Touch with Glowlight and both of its new HD tablets this holiday season to win the hearts and minds of cynical Brits. If you're a Brit (cynical or otherwise) and curious whether Jeff Bezos and chums have something to worry about (hint: most probably) then join us after the break.
Barnes & Noble announces Nook HD+ 9-inch tablet, we go hands-on (video)
Sure we heard some early rumblings about a new tablet from Barnes & Noble, and no, we can't say we were particularly surprised by the revelation -- after all, no one expected the bookstore to sit idly by and let Amazon own the holiday shopping season with its freshly souped-up Kindle Fire line. But the company did manage to offer up a few surprises with today's announcement -- biggest of all (literally, in fact) was the launch of a 9-incher, the Nook HD+. And where the HD borrowed some style cues from B&N's Simple Touch line, its bigger brother is the aesthetic descendent of Nook tablets past, borrowing that long, skinny body and even offering up a winking reference to the carabiner that lent such a dramatic distinction to past products. That said, we're not simply repeating the move from Nook Color to Nook Tablet here. The Nook HD+ is a far more significant upgrade, even as it pays a little tribute to its predecessors. Barnes & Noble's really gunning to make a splash in the budget tablet space this holiday season, and while the company's clearly betting on the smaller and cheaper HD to be the big seller, a company rep told us that he expects that HD+ to be a sleeper hit for the company. And certainly it's easy to see why the company's got some confidence this time around -- the device is sleek, fast, hi-res and affordable. But can it succeed in such a cutthroat market? Check out some impressions after the break and judge for yourself.
Barnes & Noble's Nook HD 7-inch Android tablet, hands-on (video)
It was roughly this time last year that Amazon's Kindle Fire showed us just how successful an aggressively priced 7-inch tablet could be, becoming, arguably the go-to gift of the last holiday season. This summer, Google upped the ante, showing the world that a $200 tablet could be more than just an OEM-ed content delivery device, enlisting ASUS to design a really solid piece of hardware at a seemingly impossible price. Barnes & Noble's journey in the space, meanwhile, has been decidedly more convoluted. In mid-October of 2010, the company gave the world the Nook Color -- a product with a wildly original industrial design, but decidedly limited functionality, which was, for most intents and purposes, an LCD-based color e-reader. Halfway through the following year, the device got a Pinocchio-like upgrade, transforming it into an honest-to-goodness tablet, apps and all. The device's celebration was cut short, however, eclipsed entirely by the arrival of the aesthetically (nearly) identical, but internally superior Nook Tablet. When Amazon announced the release of the Kindle Fire HD and all of its many variants, there was little question that Barnes & Noble had something waiting in the wings as well. After all, much of the bookseller's hardware game plan seems to revolve around going toe-to-toe against Amazon offerings, and since the company beat its chief competition to the market with a glowing reader, a Nook Tablet seemed all but inevitable. With this week's announcements, however, the company has managed to offer up some surprises -- for starters, there's the fact that it's doubled its efforts with the release of two tablets -- with the 7-inch Nook HD and the 9-inch Nook HD+. Then there's the fact that the company has clearly put great effort into the hardware this go-round, rather than offering up yet another rehash of the Color / Tablet lineage. Let's start with the Nook HD, shall we? Join us after the break.
Barnes & Noble launching Nook Video this fall with a little help from HBO, Sony, Disney, Viacom, more
We caught wind of an upcoming video offering from Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks back, as part of a tip on new tablet offerings from the company. And while we've yet to hear anything official on the latter, this morning the bookstore pulled back the curtain on Nook Video, a new service boasting support from heavy hitters like HBO, Sony, Warner Brothers, Viacom and Disney. The fruits of those partnerships include standard and high-def movies and TV shows like The Avengers, Brave, The Amazing Spider-man, Breaking Bad, The Daily Show and Game of Thrones, which can be watched on Nooks, and non-Barnes & Noble tablets and smartphones, courtesy of a forthcoming free app from the retailer, letting you pick up where you left off on different devices. The offering can also be linked to UltraViolet purchases, making it possible to add titles purchased with that feature logo to the Nook Cloud offering. Nook Video will be arriving in the US this fall, followed by a "holiday" release in the UK.
Barnes & Noble continues British invasion, forges pacts with Argos, Blackwell's and Foyles
Barnes & Noble has continued its quest to stock the shelves of United Kingdom bookstores with Nooks, by adding Argos, Blackwell's and Foyles to the list of where you can get one. Those retailers will join John Lewis in carrying the Nook Simple Touch and its Glow Light-toting cousin, giving UK'ers nearly a thousand bricks and mortar sites to get one -- including bookstores at 55 colleges and universities. Those locations will join Barnes & Nobles recently launched online website in selling the e-readers -- but if you like to Touch before buying, the PR is after the break.
Amazon Publishing inks deal with Ingram, opens e-book distribution to rivals
Amazon Publishing is continuing to broaden its distribution channels, as the New York-based imprint has formed a partnership with Ingram Content Group that will make the company's e-books available to competitors such as Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. As you may be aware, there's some uneasy tension between the rivals, as Barnes & Noble has previously removed Amazon's print editions from its retail shelves in response to the company's former e-book exclusivity in the Kindle Store. It remains unknown whether any of the competitors will indeed choose to sell Amazon's content in electronic form. It's also worth pointing out that because deal applies only to Amazon Publishing's New York-based imprint, the company's west coast division is excluded from the distribution deal. Regardless of how things shake out, it's encouraging to see Amazon extend the olive branch -- now let's hope the competition reciprocates.
Nook headed for UK as Barnes & Noble goes international, dabbles in the Queen's English
Well, our English friends, today is a good day. Your choice in e-readers is about to get that much better as Barnes & Noble has decided to make your homeland the first stop on its highly-anticipated international tour. The Nook and its associated store will be making their big debut in the UK this October, though how exactly the prices will translate to British Pounds remains to be seen. At first, only the Nook Simple Touch and its Glow Light-equipped sibling will be available through the storefront, but we imagine it won't be long before the company's line of Android tablets make their own splash in the land of tea and James Bond. The e-book store will be launching with a rather respectable catalog of over 2.5 million titles, which should give the new comer a nice running start. You'll find PR after the break, but sadly it's a bit light on finer details. Don't worry, though, we'll be back with more info as we get it.
Crackle's free movie streaming expands to the Nook Tablet, Android and iOS apps updated for TV playback
It may not have quite the catalog of Netflix (or the same HD quality), but Sony Pictures' Crackle streaming service does have one big thing going for it: it's completely free. It's also found its way onto plenty of different platforms (most recently Windows Phone), and that run has now continued with its expansion onto Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet (but not the Nook Color). What's more, while there's no release date confirmed just yet, Crackle says that the app is "coming soon" to the Kindle Fire as well. It's also revealed that the app has now seen 11 million downloads across all mobile platforms -- a figure that may now see a boost not only from the new Nook app, but from the just-updated Android and iOS apps, which each boast a redesigned interface and support for TV playback via AirPlay or HDMI.
Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 app lands on Nook Tablet, turns eBook fans' gazes skyward
eBook enthusiasts love some good quadricopter action as much as anyone, and now those with a Nook Tablet can get in on flying the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 that launched this May. Today Barnes & Noble announced that the AR.FreeFlight 2.0 app is available for a free download in its Nook Store. The program lets owners of the RC copter control the device over WiFi. Users can capture photos and videos with the Drone 2.0's embedded cameras and share them via the app or YouTube and Picassa, and double-tapping the button of the right side of the Nook makes the Drone 2.0 perform flips. The $299 AR.Drone 2.0 is available through B&N's site -- get more info in the PR below.
Barnes & Noble's Q4 and FY 2012: revenue up, losses up, hopes Microsoft hurries up
Barnes & Noble has released its financial results for both the final quarter and full financial year of 2012. It's a picture of a company that's holding steady in the face of continued onslaught from its rivals, albeit with some hope on the horizon. In preparation for its as-yet-unnamed venture with Microsoft, the company has begun the process of spinning off its Nook and College businesses -- while sales from stores and BN.com now come under the umbrella term of "retail." On that front, it sold $1.1 billion worth of books in the quarter and $4.85 billion for the year -- down from $4.92 billion in 2011. Nook-wise, the company had turnover of $933 million, with device sales increasing 1 percent for the quarter and 45 percent of the year -- but had to eat a loss on taking back unsold Simple Touch readers. Content sales on its various devices increased 65 percent in the quarter and 119 percent in the year -- clearly showing where the market is headed.
Microsoft's rumored tablet may be a Barnes & Noble collaboration with Xbox Live video streaming
Rumors swirling around Microsoft's mystery event on Monday have repeatedly centered on a tablet, but if TechCrunch sources are right, Microsoft may only play a partial role in the project. The unveiling, according to the claims, may instead be a tablet, e-reader or a crossover of the two built in teamwork with Barnes & Noble -- a company that just recently established a vague partnership with Microsoft after many months of legal wrangling over Android and the Nook. The slate may not include Windows 8 RT at all, despite earlier assertions, but that's not to say that Microsoft wouldn't be breaking ground in other areas. One of the reported insiders believes it could be the first device without the Microsoft badge to get Xbox Live video streaming, which might explain Redmond's eagerness to turn Xbox into a general media brand at its E3 keynote. It's still very much unknown if there will be any hardware at all, although decisions to host the event in the media capital of Los Angeles and detach the invitation from any existing Microsoft division provide at least indirect support for the notion. Whatever happens, we'll be there tomorrow to give you the lowdown.
iFixit reveals Nook Simple Touch With GlowLight's magic -- with lasers
Turns out the secret to the new Nook's patent pending magic glow isn't so magic after all. Nope, it utilizes the wonder of diffraction. Yep, the driving force behind this marriage-saving device is science! Says iFixit in its latest teardown, The display assembly contains the front glass, digitizer, and array of GlowLight LEDs, all fused together into one component. The glass over the E-ink screen takes the light from the eight LEDs and evenly distributes it across the screen. How did the site discover the pending patentness after peeling back the e-reader's layers? Why, lasers, of course, beaming one through the aforementioned glass, which diffracted the green light before it hit a wall, proving once and for all that science can be fun. And ripping gadgets apart, naturally.
IRL: Sparrow for iOS, Nikon D800 and the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. One of the reasons we launched this column was to make sure our reviews and hands-on posts weren't the final say on products -- after all, you often need to live with something for more than a week to notice its WiFi signal cuts off past 15 feet, or there's a nasty bug in the settings menu. Indeed, that theme is what ties together this week's roundup of stories: Darren explains why he ditched Sparrow for iOS, Kevin laments the file size of photos he's taken with his Nikon D800 and Brian finds a flaw in his Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight.
Dark Horse Comics graphic novels coming to Nook Tablet and Nook Color
Dark Horse Comics has penciled a contract with Barnes & Noble (it'll be sent off to be inked and colored next week*) to get the former's content onto the latter's Tablet and Color e-readers. Available in the Nook Comic store, you'll be able to pick up a mix of the publisher's licensed titles like Mass Effect and Star Wars as well as home-grown fare like Hellboy and Sin City. The range will gently expand month-on-month and is available from today, with titles priced around $10 depending on what you want. * This is a comic book joke.
Amazon Publishing to sell series of ebooks outside the Kindle Store
It remains to be seen if it's a full-on change of policy, but it looks like Amazon is at least shifting it stance when it comes to where some of the ebooks put out by its Amazon Publishing division are sold. As you may recall, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers recently pulled print editions of Amazon Publishing books from their store shelves because the ebook versions were only sold in the Kindle Store, a stance that B&N said "undermined the industry as a whole." Now, Amazon has confirmed that its latest addition to the Amazon Publishing roster, a series of short biographies edited by James Atlas, will indeed be sold outside of the Amazon ecosystem in both print and ebook form. Whether B&N and other bookstores will actually carry them remains to be seen, of course, but an Amazon spokesperson told The New York Times that its "intention is to distribute these books as broadly as possible." That change was further clarified by PaidContent, which was told by Amazon that "the books will be available to be sold everywhere in all formats."
Barnes & Noble 2012 Q3 Report: loss-making Nook generates sales, tears
It's that time of the year when Barnes & Noble's accountants reveal the figures for the quarter to determine if the age of print is over. Turns out there's some good news for bookseller. Overall sales for the chain increased five percent: the company took $2.4 billion through the cash registers. That was split $1.49 billion (up two percent) in high-street retail, online sales took $420 million (up 32 percent year-on-year) and the Nook in all its forms and glories took $542 million (up 38 percent). The only grey cloud was that sales in college-only stores dropped three percent, thanks in part to renting textbooks to impecunious freshmen. They're probably all using that money on buying digital content on their Nooks: digital content purchases increased by 85 percent in a single quarter. Like rival Amazon, it wouldn't release how many devices were sold, except to say it likely maintained its market share. However, all of that (pretty) good news is a bit of a smokescreen: B&N won't reveal its profits after interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization has been deducted. Pre ITDA income dropped 12 percent from the same period in 2011 and the company has revealed that the BN.com and Nook businesses made a combined loss of $94 million, with annual income looking to be in negative figures. Update: A tidbit from the conference call, the company believes the device currently holds around 30 percent of the overall e-reader market: using numbers direct from the publishers themselves.
ITC judge throws out Barnes and Noble's patent defense against Microsoft
Microsoft's patent dispute with Barnes and Noble is likely far from over, but the spat saw some movement today, when a judge at the International Trade Commission rejected the bookseller's patent misuse claim. In his ruling, ITC Judge Theodore Essex threw out B&N's argument that Microsoft is misusing its patents against Android, effectively nullifying the company's major defense against Redmond. Microsoft, as you'll recall, is targeting the retailer and its Nook e-reader for allegedly infringing upon a (declining) number of its Android-related patents. Essex's decision is still subject to review from a six-member panel, but Microsoft is already heralding his decision as an early victory. "Today's action by the ITC makes clear that Barnes & Noble's patent misuse defense was meritless," Microsoft Deputy General Counsel David Howard said in a statement. "This case is only about one thing -- patent infringement by Barnes & Noble's Android-based devices." Barnes and Noble, meanwhile, said it has no comment. A full trial on the case is scheduled to begin on February 6th.
Nook Tablet bootloader bypassed, Android 4.0 takes its first steps onto the platform
No points for calling this one, but it looks like Android 4.0 is well on its way to the Nook Tablet -- in a decidedly unofficial manner, of course. Just a few days after the tablet's bootloader was bypassed, developer Brandon Bennet (aka Nemith) has now apparently managed to get an early version of the Android 4.0-based CyanogenMod 9 up and running on the device, although you'll still have to wait a bit longer for something that's actually useable. What's more, some other developers have also managed to get the tablet to boot from a microSD card, and there's been some progress with Ubuntu on the tablet as well. Hit the links below for all the details and the latest from the xda-developers forum.
