Hasta La Gadget!

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.

Continue reading Barnes & Noble announces Nook HD+ 9-inch tablet, we go hands-on (video)

Filed under: Tablets

Barnes & Noble announces Nook HD+ 9-inch tablet, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s Barnes and Noble’s rebuttal to the Kindle Fire HD: The 7-inch Nook HD and the 9-inch Nook HD+. This is B&N’s frontline offensive against Amazon, as well as the rush of smaller tablets muscling in on the turf it tried to stake out. Does it have a chance? After spending a little time with it, well, maybe. More »

If your ecosystem of choice happens to be the Barnes & Noble platform, you’ll be happy to know that the book retailer is now offering Nook Video, a service that lets you buy digital copies of your favorite movies and TV shows directly from your Nook device.

But that’s not all, the service stores content in the Nook Cloud, much like Amazon’s digital locker, so that you can watch the content from anywhere, including other tablets, TVs, the web, and smartphones using free Nook Video apps.

Though the bookseller is a bit late to the digital video game, Nook Video is a fully functional service, packed full of content and integrated with Ultraviolet. That means users who own Ultraviolet-labeled DVDs or Blurays will have a digital copy available to them in the Nook Video app.

Barnes & Noble is partnering with HBO, Sony, Starz, Warner Bros Entertainment, and even Walt Disney Studios to bring you your favorite content, including The Avengers, Brave, Toy Story 3, The Artist, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, True Blood, Game Of Thrones, The Dark Knight, The Hangover, and the Harry Potter movies.

Movies and TV shows are available to rent or buy, and just like the Nook Reading apps, Nook Video apps will save your place in various movies and TV shows across devices, so you can switch between Nook tablet and smartphone without missing a beat.

The service will debut this fall, though exact availability is unclear.

This week may belong to Amazon and whatever information the mega-retailer decides to drop on our heads tomorrow at its press conference in Santa Monica, but Barnes & Noble’s apparently won’t be letting the Kindle maker hog the spotlight for too long. We’ve been tipped off from a reliable source that there is, in fact, a successor to the Nook Tablet heading our way this fall. The device is said to be “super light,” while packing an “incredible display,” rocking 243 ppi. Industrial design on the apparently forthcoming tablet will be handled by Barnes and Noble favorite, Robert Brunner of Ammunition, who’s already got some Nook design under his belt. All of this is said to coincide with a brand new video store from the company, in an attempt, no doubt, to take advantage of the aforementioned “incredible display.”

That’s about all we’ve got for the moment, but we’re told more information will be forthcoming from more official channels soon.

Source: Barnes & Noble prepping Nook Tablet followup with ‘incredible display’ for fall release originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

Amazon Publishing inks deal with Ingram, opens e-book distribution to rivals originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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