Hasta La Gadget!

It was a bit over a year ago that Barnes and Noble introduced its Simple Touch with GlowLight ereader, something that has become old news as of today as the company announced the Nook GlowLight — no Simple Touch to be found. This ereader is said to be a complete redesign on all fronts, bringing […]

Bargain hunting? Good, because Barnes & Noble has just hacked down the price of its Nook HD range in the UK. The 7-inch Nook HD will now set you back just £79 for the 8GB edition and £99 for the 16GB version, while the 9-inch HD+ is now available for £129 (16GB) or £149 (32GB). We’re not sure if this is a Touchpad-style fire sale or if the bookseller is prepping for its traditional autumn refresh (albeit with a third-party tablet this time ’round) — but either way, the Nook is a great piece of hardware for under a ton.

Filed under: Tablets

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Barnes & Noble does not seem as though they are going to stop work on NOOK tablets down the road, despite what looked as though they were going to stop the manufacturing of color NOOK tablets such as the NOOK HD and NOOK HD+. In fact, it was earlier this year in June that Barnes & Noble announced plans that they would stop production of its NOOK tablet range, despite continuing to roll out NOOK eReaders with black and white displays. The whole idea back then was to work with other device manufacturers to continue ensuring that their tablets would be made available at retail locations. Well, it seems that a U-turn is in order as Barnes & Noble says it “intends to continue to design and develop cutting-edge NOOK black and white and color devices.”

Recently installed B&N CEO Mike Huseby claimed that many folks took what they heard from the company in June in the wrong way, although one does wonder how come it has taken a nearly a couple of months for this particular point to be clarified. It remains to be seen whether there will be a new NOOK tablet that will roll out later this year, but according to Barnes & Noble, there would be a minimum of one new NOOK device which will be introduced before the holiday season kicks off.

Barnes & Noble Continue To Work On NOOK Tablets original content from Ubergizmo.

Barnes & Noble can’t stem the losses from its digital books and device division, as the Nook department saw revenues drop 20.2 percent year over year according to the company’s just-released quarterly earnings report. Nook earned $153 million, and that’s up sequentially from $108 million despite the yearly decline.

Nook hardware fared the worst, dropping 23.1 percent year over year while sales of digital content for Nook apps and devices dropped 15.8 percent. B&N partly blames the decrease in content sales on poor Nook tablet and reader sales, but also on outside factors. Specifically, B&N calls out the fact that this year there wasn’t either a Hunger Games or a 50 Shades of Grey trilogy to drive consumer content purchases. Retail was down 9.9 percent year over year, with revenues of $1 billion total, covering business from physical and online stores.

Overall, the company seemed keen to express continued support of its Nook offerings via the earnings release. Board Chairman Leonard Riggio suspended an offer he had planned to make on the company’s retail business, saying that instead B&N needs to focus on building its 10 million Nook owning customers, and to increase sales of Nook devices both in stores and online. That means Nook will continue to operate in tandem with the retail business, rather than the two divisions being split up into separate companies.

Nook Media CEO Michael P. Huseby also said in a statement that the Nook line will continue to be offered “at the best values in the marketplace,” and that “at least one” new Nook product will be coming for the holiday season, with others in development for beyond that. No mention was made of the plan revealed last time around to open up Nook development to outside OEMs, but the conference call is at 10 AM ET this morning, so we’ll update if any new information comes to light at that time.

Do you happen to own an e-book reader? For those of you out there who are keen on getting ready way before the intended date, and want to prepare for the school or university year ahead, then check this out – Barnes & Noble has just announced that the NOOK Simple Touch GlowLight would receive a price cut, making this ideal e-book reader more accessible to the masses with a price point of just $99. Yes sir, don’t you think that at that particular price point, it would be more appealing to the masses?

At just $99 a pop, it is available at the nearly 700 Barnes & Noble retail stores nationwide as well as online if shopping via a digital platform is your cup of tea. The NOOK Simple Touch GlowLight is said to be the most versatile reader ever created, and it so happens to be the first designed to address E Ink customers’ number-one request – that is, the ability to read in the dark in bed without having to disturb the other person sharing your bed. Thanks to Barnes & Noble’s innovative lighting technology, the GlowLight is able to shine uniformly across the display, where it can be adjusted with just a touch, letting you control the amount of light that illuminates the device, regardless of whether you are in pitch black darkness or are in a dimly lit room.

Not only that, the NOOK Simple Touch GlowLight tips the scales at under 7 ounces, making it the lightest NOOK to date. Boasting an ergonomic back as well as soft-touch design, it is extremely comfortable to hold with just a single hand, making it ideal for those thrillers that can be difficult to put down, not to mention being extremely easy to bring around. Apart from that, it also comes with a revolutionary built-in screen protector that delivers paper-like reading with no glare, even when you are under bright sunlight. Any takers?

Press Release
[ NOOK Simple Touch GlowLight gets an even lower price copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]