Cool reader nook android#

And while it’s sticking with the “reader’s tablet” idea and saying it’ll focus on reading materials and complementary items, it’s also saying that it’s listened to consumers who think that a $249 Nook Color has a place as an alternative to pricier, more powerful tablets.īarnes & Noble gave me a demo of the new software last week.

Cool reader nook android#

(Already, some geeky buyers had rooted their Nooks to turn them into standard Android tablets.) Today, B&N is launching that marketplace–which is a new section in the shopping area where it already sells books and magazines–as part of the Nook Color’s version 1.2 upgrade. It’s ’s cheaper, E-Ink-sporting Kindle that’s been in B&N’s crosshairs.īut when the company released the Nook Color last year, it did say it was working on an app marketplace of its own–a move that would make the Nook Color a little less of a dedicated e-reader and a little more of a general-purpose device. It calls it a “reader’s tablet,” and it gave the device a modified version of Android that doesn’t have the standard Android interface or access to the Android Marketplace. Of course, Barnes & Noble has never pitched the Nook Color as an iPad killer. Its 7″ color screen and industrial design are quite nice, but it doesn’t have a 1-GHz dual-core processor or cameras or gobs of storage (it has a merely adequate 8GB) or 3G or other features which are becoming de facto accouterments on higher-end models. At $249, B&N’s Android-based tablet is half the price of the cheapest iPad. A couple of commenters said that such a beast already existed: Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color e-reader. A little over a week ago, I wondered whether the world needed tablets that were significantly less costly and significantly less fancy than the iPad and its most prominent rivals.