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Barnes & Noble offers to repartition Nook Tablet storage, concedes you may need more than 1GB
Are you one of the many infuriated with Barnes & Noble over how it partitioned the storage on the Nook Tablet -- leaving you just 1GB for you own files? Well, it looks like the company has learned from its mistakes. While only about 5GB is free to load with apps and media on the new 8GB model, just 1GB of that is reserved for Nook Store content. That's in stark contrast to the 16GB version which set aside a full 12GB for Nook Store downloads. Thankfully, B&N is offering to retroactively fix the boondoggle. If you visit a brick and mortar shop starting March 12th, a support rep will gladly help you repartition the internal storage, freeing up more than just one of the 13 available gigabytes for personal use. Having to bring it to the store is a bit of pain, but we suppose it's better that getting stuck with 12GB of Angry Birds and e-books.
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.
Barnes & Noble unveils 8GB Nook Tablet for $199, slashes Color to $169
Looks like those murmurings of a lower-priced Nook Tablet with only 8GB of storage were right on, though, the reduced RAM was conveniently left out. In most ways it seems the updated Android slate is identical to its 16GB forebearer, except that by slashing the storage and memory in half Barnes & Noble has managed to meet the Kindle Fire on price -- $199. And, unlike the Fire, the Nook sports a microSD slot, so the loss of 8GB of storage isn't necessarily a huge deal. In addition to the new Nook Tablet, the Color is getting a rather significant price cut to just $169, making it cheaper than the Kindle Touch without ads. Looks like the brick-and-mortar stalwart has finally thrown down the pricing gauntlet. The lower-priced tab is available today both online and in Barnes & Noble stores, with other retailers to join the parade soon. Check out the complete PR after the break.
Nook Tablet coming to Walmart with less storage and a lower price tag?
One of the things that has kept the Nook Tablet from hitting Kindle Fire-like heights has been the price tag. Sure, $250 is super cheap for a rather well specced slate, but when the Amazon's entry is a full $50 cheaper it spells trouble. Now it looks like B&N is getting ready to tangle a little more directly with the online retail giant by cutting the Nook Tablet's storage in half to 8GB and slashing the price. Details are pretty slim at the moment, but it does appear that Walmart will be selling the device starting February 22nd, this Wednesday. Sadly, we'll have to wait till then to find out just how much cheaper it'll be and, whether or not the Color will be receiving a corresponding price drop.
Barnes & Noble confirms Nook Simple Touch upgrade WiFi issues, fix coming
Been having WiFi troubles ever since you gave your Nook Simple Touch the old 1.1 upgrade? You are not alone. Barnes & Noble confirmed what e-reader forum frequenters have known since last year -- the firmware upgrade has done a number on some users' connectivity. The bookseller told us that it's aware of the issue and that its team is working "diligently" to address the issue. In the meantime, enjoy the video of a corgi puppy embedded after the break. [Thanks, Dina]
Refresh Roundup: week of January 30, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
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.
Barnes & Noble to pull Amazon Publishing titles from shelves over exclusivity concerns
Barnes & Noble bans aren't just for superheroes anymore. The bookseller let it be known this week that it will be pulling Amazon Publishing titles from the shelves of its 700-odd retail locations, in protest of exclusivity deals struck by the mega-online retailer. As one B&N exec told The New York Times, "Our decision is based on Amazon's continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent," adding, "Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content." Barnes & Noble will apparently continue to sell some Amazon titles through its own site, but good luck using its WiFi.
Barnes & Noble readying 'e-reading device' for spring, doesn't want to talk about it
Oh spring, flowers blooming, bees buzzing, the smell of new e-readers in the air. According to The New York Times, the folks over at Barnes & Noble's digital team are putting the finishing touches on a "fifth e-reading device," to be released during the aforementioned season. Not a lot of details on that at the moment -- the bookseller's not spilling the beans. Given last year's release schedule, timing-wise the device would fall closer in line with the company's e-ink line of products, so perhaps the non-tablet Nook line still has a bit of fight left in it, after all.
Nook Simple Touch gets USB host mode support via hack, plays nice with low-power devices (video)
Codemonkeys exhibiting the kindness of strangers? Why, yes, this is such a tale. When XDA Developers member verygreen came across the pleas of one user obsessed with attaching an external USB keyboard to an eReader, he did what any decent hacker would and created a workable solution. Using a loaned Nook Simple Touch, this self-styled Make-A-Wish Hack was able to patch Barnes & Noble's existing kernel, which already supported USB host mode, and send commands over ADB to enable the connection. It's not a foolproof workaround, though, as only low-power devices will function without additional juice and even so, at a great cost to the greyscale device's battery life. Sure, this may not excite you much, but it's certainly made for one very satisfied forum dweller out there in cyberland. After all, isn't that what haxxors are for?
Microsoft and Barnes & Noble agree to eliminate one patent and multiple claims from ITC infringement case
Patent lawsuits start out the same way: company X hurls a slew of infringement allegations at company Y, the court demands that the fat be trimmed, and the case's scope is distilled so that only the strongest claims remain. Microsoft's ITC patent case against Barnes & Noble is currently in the midst of this streamlining process, and the parties have agreed to drop claims from four of the patents at issue and eliminated one patent from the proceedings altogether. A full accounting of all the bits of IP that have been eliminated can be found at the source link below.
Barnes & Noble offers discounted Nooks with one-year subscription to The New York Times
In the market for an e-reader and a subscription to the digital edition of The New York Times? Then Barnes & Noble has a new promotion you might want to consider. From now through March 9th, it'll give you a Nook Simple Touch for free or a Nook Color for $99 if you also sign up for a one-year New York Times subscription at a rate of $19.99/month. That's a savings of $100 in both cases, and the subscription also includes access to the New York Times website in addition to the Nook version. Alternatively, you can get $50 off the Nook Tablet (bringing it down to $199) with a subscription to People, which will run you $9.99/month. Complete details are at the link below.
Barnes & Noble looks to sell publishing arm, keeps the other to hold a Nook Tablet
In a sign of ever shifting priorities in the ole book business, Nook's papa is reportedly looking to sell its publishing unit, Sterling Publishing. According to the Wall Street Journal, B&N acquired Sterling in 2003, ramping up its publishing efforts after more than 30 years in the business. News of a possible sale follows last month's Q2 earnings report that saw a $6.6 million net loss for the bookseller. That same quarter, the company's Nook business took an 85 percent leap forward, landing it a $220 million value. Barnes & Noble has yet to comment.
Plex media app: streaming soon to Nook Tablet and Color
Well, well, if it isn't the famed iOS and Android media jock (read: Plex) making its way to the Nook universe. The application's now gone through yet another good-to-go regime, and if all goes according to plan, it should be hitting Barnes & Noble's virtual stores in the coming days. For those of you out of the loop on Plex's offerings; the service acts as a media server ready to stream online and locally stored content, which are great features to have -- especially when someone limits how your internal storage can be used. We've got no info on how much cash you'll have to spend to start using the goods on your Nook slates, but we can imagine it'll be around the same ($4.99) as its other platform variants.
Nook Tablet update closes sideloading loophole, lacks holiday spirit
Remember all that extra functionality your Nook Tablet used to have? Well, that's what memories are there for. The recently-released Nook 1.4.1 firmware update apparently prevents the Nook Tablet from installing Android apps from non-Barnes & Noble sources. As a result, the unit is confined to the roughly 2,000 apps available through B&N's app store (many of which are priced higher than their Android Market equivalents). This lockdown has already been performed on the Nook Color and trying to sideload a new title will pop up a warning that only apps from the Nook store can be installed on the device. At least it appears that third-party apps already on the tablet will continue to run and there's always the hope of a custom ROM that could reenable the feature on Christmas morning.
Refresh Roundup: week of December 12, 2011
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Nook Color gets multimedia upgrade, further blurs the tablet battle lines
Barnes & Noble's Nook Color is getting a piece of that promised multimedia upgrade. This round features video content from the likes of Netflix and Flixster, access to comics from the true believers at Marvel and a few other tweaks, like the ability to read books in landscape mode, to fully take advantage of that seven-inch display. The update further blurs the lines between the Color, which began life as little more than a color screen e-reader and the recently introduced Nook Tablet, which features souped up internals but an otherwise similar design. The Color is currently priced at $199 -- $50 less than the Tablet -- and will be getting more software upgrades in the future, including access to music services like Pandora and Rhapsody. Press info after the break.
Barnes & Noble's Q2 earnings reveal Nook to be a $220 million business, Nook Tablet said to be fastest-selling yet
Barnes & Noble's second quarter earnings weren't all good news for the company -- it reported a net loss of $6.6 million and an ever-so-slight dip in total sales from $1.90 billion to $1.89 billion -- but it did have a fair bit to boast about on the technology side of things. Sales on its B&N.com website increased 17 percent year-over-year, totaling $206 million for the quarter, and the value of the company's Nook business (including devices and content) now stands at $220 million, up a full 85 percent. The company also revealed that its new Nook Tablet has been the fastest-selling Nook device to date, although it's not providing any specific sales numbers, noting only that it expects to sell "millions of devices" during its third quarter. Additional figures can be found at the source link below.
Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: e-readers
Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! We're well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties surrounding the seasonal shopping experience, so we're here to help you sort out this year's tech treasures. Below is today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. The e-reader space is really -- if you'll pardon the expression -- heating up just in time for the holiday season. Industry leader Amazon dropped the gauntlet yet again, with the introduction of three new devices, including the entry-level fourth generation Kindle (which starts at an enticing $79 for the ad-supported version) and the Kindle Fire, which is helping to further blur the lines between the e-reader and tablet worlds. Not to be outdone, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Sony are also offering up impressive new devices for the holiday season. All in all, there's never been a more exciting time to give the gift of reading.
Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet review
Back in April, the Nook Color underwent a magical change of sorts: a software update that transformed the device from a color screen e-reader into an honest to goodness Android tablet. It was the company's first swipe at the space -- a backdoor approach that beat out fellow e-reader manufacturers like Amazon and Kobo. Its follow-up, the Nook Tablet, marks the company's first out-of-the-box shot at the consumer tablet market. Not to mention, it also goes head to head with the Kindle Fire, a device that's sure to be one of the best-selling gadgets of the holiday season, thanks to its price and wide content selection. Does the Nook Tablet have what it takes to topple the Kindle Fire? Do the product's benefits justify its $50 premium over Amazon's device -- or the recently discounted and soon to be upgraded Nook Color for that matter? Find out the answers to these questions and so, so many more, after the break.%Gallery-139965%%Gallery-139473%
