nook color

Acer drives tablet prices lower, plans $99 model

Tablet prices just seem to keep dropping.

Acer is the latest company to lower the bar on pricing. The company is planning to sell a $99 Android tablet, the Iconia B1, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company plans to target consumers in emerging markets, though the report notes that Acer will get clearance from the Federal Communications Commission for use in the states.

The report, which cites unnamed sources, said the Iconia B1 will come with a 1.2 gigahertz processor and pack a 7-inch display with 1,024x600-pixel resolution -- which matches the specs from the older … Read more

Turn your Nook Color or Nook Tablet into an Android 4.1 tablet

Do you own a Barnes & Noble Nook Color or Nook Tablet? If so, perhaps you've wished for a way to stretch beyond Barnes & Noble's custom OS to enjoy a more traditional tablet experience -- and run whatever apps you want to run, not just those curated by B&N.

N2A Cards has long offered such a way: a bootable microSD card that transforms the Nook into a real Android tablet, complete with the Google Play store and everything.

Originally, that option limited you to Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, but N2A Cards now offers a … Read more

Barnes & Noble chops e-reader prices for Father's Day

As it did in the days leading up to Mother's Day, Barnes & Noble is chopping $20 off its Nook Simple Touch e-ink e-reader and the Nook Color tablet for Father's Day. The only catch is that you have to use a MasterCard credit card to get the discount.

Barnes & Noble has run a similar promotion with MasterCard in the past. You can now pick up the Nook Simple Touch for $79 and the Nook Color for $149. The sale runs until June 17 and is available in stores and online at BN.com. … Read more

Barnes & Noble chops e-reader prices for Mother's Day

A day after getting a $300 investment from Microsoft, Barnes & Noble is on the offensive again, chopping $20 off its Nook Simple Touch e-ink e-reader and the Nook Color tablet for Mother's Day.

You can now pick up the Nook Simple Touch for $79 and the Nook Color for $149. The sale runs until May 12 and Barnes & Noble will also throw in a free Nook gift bag with purchases of those devices (while supplies last). The bag doesn't look all that exciting, but hey, it's better than a plastic bag. … Read more

Get a Nook Color and Nook Simple Touch for $149

Holy unexpected bundles, Batman!

While supplies last, Barnes & Noble is offering a refurbished Nook Color e-reader and Nook Simple Touch e-reader for $149 shipped.

The deal is available only through eBay. To get it, click the above link, scroll down a bit until you see the Special Offer section, click the check box next to the Simple Touch (which is shown at $79 but will drop to just $20 in your cart), and then click the Buy These Items button on the right.

This is a fairly unprecedented bundle. The Nook Color alone is a steal at $129, especially … Read more

Is the 8GB Nook Tablet worth your $200?

There's a new line in the sand drawn for 7-inch tablet pricing, and that number is $199.

Barnes & Noble and Amazon were already locked in a fierce rivalry in the "bargain tablet" space with the $249 Nook Tablet and the $199 Kindle Fire. Barnes & Noble delivered better specs for that $50 premium (double the RAM, double the storage, and a microSD expansion slot). But now B&N has removed the price difference between the two products by releasing a new step-down Nook Tablet that levels the playing field on both specs--halving the internal storage … Read more

New $199 Nook Tablet to compete with Fire

Barnes & Noble has Amazon's Kindle Fire directly in its sights. Its latest ammunition: a $199 Nook Tablet with 8GB of memory.

The new version of the Nook Tablet--$50 cheaper and with half the memory of the original--now matches the Kindle Fire in price and memory specs. The book retailer hopes the lower price will make it more of a rival to Amazon's tablet, which has established itself as the No. 2 player behind Apple's iPad. Amazon has attracted customers through a lower-end price and a decent selection in its online store.

Barnes & Noble … Read more

Developer offers $5K prize for bootable Nook Tablet card

Do you have mad Android hacking skills? Put them to good use and you might just earn $5,000--or more.

N2A Cards LLC, best known for transforming Barnes & Noble Nook Color e-readers into full-blown Android tablets, has thrown down the gauntlet to the development community: first person to create a bootable Android microSD card for the Nook Tablet (the Color's successor) gets $2,500.

And if you do it before midnight on January 22, you get a $2,500 bonus.

Here's a summary of what the contest entails:

N2A Cards LLC will offer a $2,500 reward … Read more

Nook Color gets major software update, adds Netflix streaming

Call it an early holiday gift or just making good on a promise, but Barnes & Noble has just released an expected software update for Nook Color owners that adds many of the features now found in the company's step-up model, the $249 Nook Tablet.

What does the update, which Barnes & Noble is calling the "largest ever for the device," add?

Well, beyond some "ongoing performance improvements," here are the highlights:

Access to popular movies and TV shows streamed through Netflix. New Flixster app (allows you to access digital movies and TV shows on … Read more

What's the best Nook Tablet case?

The other day I did a best cases and covers roundup for the Kindle Fire and a few readers asked for some equal blog time for the Nook Tablet and suggested I make some case recommendations.

Well, Barnes & Noble makes a lot of nice cases for the Nook Tablet and Nook Color (the devices are the same size, though the Tablet is a bit lighter), but like with the Fire, I'm only interested in cases that convert into a stand. After all, the Nook Tablet is a "media" tablet, and Netflix looks really good on it, so why shouldn't you be able to prop it up properly? … Read more