Today is the day that you’re going to want to purchase one of two ereaders if you’ve not already done so – and if you want one, of course: both the Nook Simple Touch and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD have had their prices slashed this morning. The oddest thing has happened – two of the biggest competitors in the ereader space have discounted one of their hero devices – imagine that! Of course the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is not even beginning to be the same sort of tablet as the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch when it comes down to it, but they’re both on the cut – and in Amazon’s case, just for today!
We’ve had a peek at the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 very recently in our full review, this showing off how you’re not just getting an ereader with this package, you’re getting a full tablet. But not just a full tablet, mind you, an Amazon window into their full content library – don’t expect an Android tablet here, it only runs the software under the hood. This device has a full-color display as well, nothing like the Barnes & Noble offering. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has been discounted by $50, this making the price closer to $250 USD in its least expensive iteration.
The Nook Simple Touch on the other hand is an ereader in every sense of the word. Here you’ve got an eink display and a size that’s much tinier than the comparatively massive Kindle Fire HD 8.9. This machine has “16 levels of gray” and is made for reading text-based-books from start to finish. The hardware here is 6.5 x 5 x 0.47 inches and weighs in at a tiny 7.48 ounces, and the discount is permanent, it seems: $79 USD total, down from the $99 it was previously.
Have a peek at our lovely 2012 holiday gift guide for tablets as well to make sure you’re up to date on all of the best-of-2012 action for the holidays. It might be time to decide between the ereader and the full tablet experience here at the dawn of 2013 – perhaps time for a switch?
Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets went on sale in the UK towards the end of last month — without an on-board video service. That was due in early December and has been added today, as B&N has expanded its licensing partnerships — including with BBC Worldwide, HBO, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, STARZ, and Warner Bros — to offer the Nook Video service in the U.K. Content from other studios will be added in future, B&N added.
Nook Video offers TV shows and movies in standard and HD formats, for streaming and downloading from the Nook Store. Downloaded videos are stored in the Nook Cloud — enabling Nook owners to watch the content on other devices (once the free Nook Video apps launch).
B&N’s tablets are also compatible with the UltraViolet platform — meaning UV-branded digital content bought via other channels will also be viewable on the Nook HD and HD+, once a user’s UltraViolet account has been linked to the Nook Cloud.
Release follows below
LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NOOK Media LLC, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced its NOOK Video offering of films and TV shows is available in the UK for NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ customers through new and expanded licensing partnerships with major studios and leading content providers including BBC Worldwide, HBO, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, STARZ, and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Barnes & Noble is also the first digital retailer to offer UltraViolet titles in the UK, bringing unmatched convenience and portability to customers’ compatible digital video collections.
NOOK Video features a diverse digital collection of popular classics, blockbuster hits, new releases, original television series and local favourites available for streaming and download. NOOK customers across the UK can now shop and experience their favorite movies and TV shows like never before seen in spectacular colour and stunning definition on NOOK HD, the world’s highest-resolution 7-inch HD tablet, and NOOK HD+, the lightest full HD tablet, for an unparalleled portable entertainment experience. Offered in standard and HD formats, videos that are streamed and downloaded from the NOOK Store will be stored safely and securely in the NOOK Cloud, so NOOK Video content can also be enjoyed on other devices via soon-to-launch free NOOK Video apps.
NOOK Video offers something for everyone in the family to enjoy, including Sherlock, Call the Midwife, Game of Thrones®, True Blood®, Ted, The Bourne Legacy, The Amazing Spider-Man™,The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Men in Black 3, Spartacus, Party Down,The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Happy Feet Two, and many more. The company is also planning to make content available from other leading studios, to be announced.
The launch of NOOK Video makes it the first digital retailer of UltraViolet titles in the UK, making it easier than ever for UK customers to integrate compatible physical DVD and Blu-ray Disc purchases and digital video collections across their devices. As the first UltraViolet-enabled tablets to seamlessly integrate a customer’s compatible digital video collection across their devices right out of the box, NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ customers can now easily link their UltraViolet accounts to the NOOK Cloud allowing them to view their previously and newly purchased UltraViolet-enabled movies and TV shows via NOOK devices and NOOK Video apps. In addition to purchasing a digital version via NOOK Video, customers can shop for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs with the UltraViolet logo, add them to their digital collection, and instantly watch compatible titles from the NOOK Cloud.
“We purposefully designed our new NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ tablets with stunning high resolution displays for unmatched reading and entertainment experiences, and we’re excited to expand our content partnerships to bring NOOK Video to our growing base of UK customers,” said Jonathan Shar, Vice President & General Manager, Emerging Digital Content, NOOK Media. “NOOK Video provides customers with the flexibility to enjoy their favorite movies and TV shows wherever they go and however they choose – all in spectacular digital quality.”
“We’re excited to be part of the initial video offering by NOOK in the UK,” said Claude London, Digital Director, BBC Worldwide Consumer Products. “We hope that this partnership will provide consumers with flexible access to our wide variety of content including some of our major new releases and well-loved back catalogue.”
“Barnes & Noble becoming the first UltraViolet retailer in the UK is going to change the way consumers purchase and enjoy their digital movie libraries,” said Jim Wuthrich, President, International, Warner Home Video and Digital Distribution. “With UltraViolet-enabled movies, consumers know their collection is stored securely in the cloud and can be accessed across numerous devices, including the NOOK HD and NOOK HD+. This convenience, combined with the ability for consumers to share their digital libraries with up to five family members, makes NOOK Video a very compelling destination to purchase movies.”
Barnes & Noble have kept its “early December” promise to bring the Nook Video service to the UK. The company has signed deals with heavy-hitters like the BBC, HBO and Warner Bros., so Game of Thrones and The Dark Knight Rises are ready and gagging to be seen. It’s also the first to arrive in Blighty with full-fat UltraViolet access, enabling you to watch your (compatible) purchased DVDs and Blu-Rays without all of that fiddly ripping and re-encoding. If you haven’t snapped up one of the company’s Nook HD tablets yet, you’d better get writing that letter to Santa.
This week Barnes & Noble has made the call on their financial second quarter, citing increased spending on their Nook division to keep pace with Amazon.com and Apple. The company made it clear that as the Nook accounts for 8.5 percent of their total revenue, it wasn’t going away any time soon – meanwhile same-store in-store book sales dropped over Black Friday weekend – imagine that! Barnes & Noble also reported that quarterly sales of its high-margin digital periodicals and books went up significantly.
Chief Executive William Lynch let it be known that his forecast for the fiscal year stands – he believes that the Nook segment of the company’s loss will narrow without a doubt. It’s not out of the question as just half way through the fiscal year the business is in, loss had increased just 6.1 percent to $108.1 million – much narrower than it could have been.
Meanwhile the new Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets were launched right after the company’s second fiscal quarter – that being the one ending on October 27th of 2012. The real battle, then, is now for Barnes & Noble’s tablet warriors to take out the iPad mini as well as the Kindle Fire HD 7 and 8.9. They’re certainly making strides in Target and Wal-Mart stores, it seems, as the company reported sales doubling from last year over Thanksgiving weekend.
This was helped at least a little bit by the fact that Target and Walmart no longer sell Kindle tablets of any kind. Lynch noted that Barnes & Noble continues to rule a 25-30 percent share of the e-books market in the USA, while net quarterly income was positive at $2.2 million – this much, much better than last year’s results at this time which were a loss of $6.6 million.
Barnes & Noble’s NOOK apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android have been updated, adding broader language support and arriving in the UK download stores for the first time. The new apps – v3.3 – add British English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish language features, along with iPhone 5 support and VoiceOver functionality with Apple’s accessibility tools; there’s also screen magnification on iOS devices.
Barnes & Noble launched its NOOK ereaders in the UK market over the past month or so, initially with the NOOK Simple Touch and its GlowLight illuminated sibling, and then with the NOOK HD and HD+ earlier this week. The retailer has said that the NOOK Video download and rental store will launch in the UK sometime in December.
Cross device synchronization means that any downloads made to a dedicated NOOK device can also be added to a smartphone or tablet running the NOOK app. NOOK Sync keeps your point in the book up to date, as well as pulling across bookmarks, highlights, and any notes that have been made.
There’s also NOOK Newsstand, for digital magazines and newspapers, with print-style layout. You can find NOOK for Android in the Play store, while NOOK for iOS is available in the App Store. Both are free downloads.
The popular bookseller Barnes & Noble surely have a great pair of tablets on their hands, but they are rarely mentioned while talking about budget friendly tablets. With a strong focus on e-readers and digital content the Nook HD puts up a great fight against the competition. With the iPad mini selling like crazy, the Nexus 7 popular in the Android world, and the Kindle Fire HD does their new Nook HD stand on its own? Read on to find out our thoughts on this impressive 7-inch HD tablet that doubles as the perfect reader.
Barnes & Nobles tablets have always been pretty great for what they are, but it’s their content and ecosystem that still wasn’t quite up to par with the competition. Now that they have even better hardware, millions of books, magazines, newspapers, apps and even a Nook video store it’s time to take another look at the Nook. Their new Nook HD has the highest resolution display of any 7-inch tablet, runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and is designed with readers in mind.
Hardware
B&N hasn’t wandered too far from the original tablets they’ve offered in terms of design, but it’s the small things that make the new HD their best tablet yet. B&N says their Nook HD display is “better than any other 7-inch tablet” while it features a 1440 x 900 HD resolution, still manages to be rather sleek coming in at 11mm thick and weighing only 11 ounces too. After using the tablet you’ll quickly see why. The screen is bright, vibrant, and crisp and the viewing angles are excellent. This makes reading a breeze. We’ll talk more on that below but for now lets round out the specs. The Nook HD rocks a 7-inch 1440 x 900 HD display, a 1.3 GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and comes with 8 or 16GB of storage options, not to mention a micro-SD slot for expanding those options.
The display rocks 243ppi and support for 720p video playback. Tipping the scales at 315g, it undercuts the Kindle Fire HD and, at 127mm wide, is narrower too. The Nook HD is lighter than the Fire HD, Nexus 7, and the iPad Mini and is smaller than them all except the Nexus 7. This makes it easy to use on the go, hold with a single hand, and of course you can read with ease. There’s no cameras on board, but then again this is more about content consumption than creation. The micro-USB port has been dropped in favor of their own 30 pin connector on bottom, which doubles as HDMI-out but you’ll need a special dongle for full support. We have the familiar Nook home button on the front, and they’ve placed the usual power and volume rocker buttons in easy to access places. The power is on the left top side, while the volume is placed on the right. They are out of the way during reading, but easy to find and access when needed. Overall we actually found the design in general to be quite pleasing after using the device for more than a day or two. It isn’t too pretty, but functions great.
Just like the Kindle Fire HD the Nook is more a reader than a tablet, but B&N has no problem showing us that. The Kindle is slowly becoming more and more a device for games and movies, while the NOOK HD is clearly geared for reading. You’ll notice that right off the bat with their soft-touch contoured design, curved edges for an easy grip, and the bezels up front. At first we weren’t too fond of the bezel on the front being in the way of the display, but once you read a few magazines you quickly realize just how comfortable it makes your experience — something no other tablets can tout. Despite the plastic edges and buttons the device doesn’t feel too cheap, but certainly doesn’t give you a premium feeling like the iPad mini.
The display was one of our favorite aspects on the Nexus 7, aside from Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but the NOOK HD takes the cake here. Viewing angles are great and overall reading a book or enjoying a video you quickly notice just how much effort they put into the display. Sadly they focused a lot of attention on the display and didn’t think about adding a camera or better audio. While we don’t miss the camera the SRS sound wasn’t nearly as nice as we’d hoped.
Software
With the new line of NOOK tablets B&N added a long list of new features. Trying to better compete with the Nexus 7 and the iPad mini they’ve certainly stepped up their offering, but you still get a feeling this is all about reading. We have over 3 million books, magazines, apps and more, and they’ve added a new Nook Video option for movies. Movies look amazing on the HD display, but it’s the reading experience that shines on this slate. Running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich but you’d never know it, B&N has added plenty to make this stand on it’s own. We have tabbed browsing now, something that sadly was missing before, and the Nook profiles are a breeze to set up.
Beating Google to the punch here we have multiple user accounts that work quite seamlessly. Each has its own apps, settings, background, profile picture and more. Flipping between them is as easy as hitting the power button and sliding in, but the delay to change backgrounds and apps was longer than expected. the carousel homescreen is ever so familiar if you’ve used a Nook or a Kindle Fire, and populates with recently opened apps or books for easy access. They’ve managed to keep the Android 4.0 multi-tasking feature with its own dedicated on-screen button, something that is sorely missing from those Amazon slates. Overall the Nook user interface has a nice 3D effect and pops out at the user, giving it another element of refinement. Sadly there didn’t seem to be a video resume option in their software (which were told will be addressed in an update) and the audio was lacking so much we tried to find a setting to turn it up — which wasn’t available.
Those few qwerks aside B&N has done a lot to make this more than a reader, even though at heart that is still what it is. As you saw in our video above they’ve added tons of new additions. From Nook Magazines that look amazing in both portrait or landscape for dual-page views, Nook Scrapbooks so you can easily crop out and save your favorite excerpts, and even Catalogs. Yup, New with the NOOK HD catalogs offer a convenient way to browse and shop HD catalogs such as the Pottery Barn, L.L Bean, Frontgate, and more. The NOOK will populate top choices, and again the HD screen makes viewing and turning the pages just gorgeous and vibrant. You can then use the Scrapbook feature to save things of interest for later, or share them with family or friends.
Newspaper and magazine reading has multiple options to enjoy the content, or to just read the text. There’s on screen keys to zoom out and get a full magazine view for easy panning through content, or you can cut out all the images and just enjoy the text if you choose. NOOK video is also a new option that brings the NOOK lineup closer to their competition. Offering thousands of films, movies, and TV from multiple major studios. They don’t have anything like Apple or Google yet, but it’s a work in progress and one more addition that makes the NOOK HD “do it all” instead of just being a reader. They even offer these in up to 1080p downloads to take advantage of their brilliant HD displays.
NOOK Comics and Books are just as they’ve always been, which are excellent, but they’ve put some focus on high quality comics as well as new fonts to make books have a “paper” feel while reading. With more than 3 million digital books and more you’ll always be able to find what you want — for the most part. Even Twilight if you must. Overall the software is quite pleasant, even if it doesn’t feel like Android, and their app store has grown enough to stand on its own for those that don’t need the full Google experience. With 10 times as many apps as last year they’re doing ok, but still don’t offer many games and apps that most tablets enjoy. However, B&N has secured most of the top 100 apps from competing platforms to stay relevant and keep users happy. So enjoy that Angry Birds and Words with Friends.
As mentioned above the browsers been improved and now finally supports tabbed browsing, and their new built-in email app also offers features that were previously missing. Things like Microsoft exchange support, as well as calendar and contact sync for Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! and more. Sadly everything just wasn’t quite as fast as we’d hoped. And that’s in all aspects of the UI, not just email and browsing.
Competition
For $199 and $229 the NOOK HD is an awesome tablet and reading experience. That is for sure. Whether or not it’s worth the price compared to the competition is another story altogether. At the same price point the Nexus 7 is a complete tablet and Android experience, yet offers more storage at 16GB for $199. Then you have the iPad mini. Obviously there’s a little price premium topping the $300 mark but you’ll get much, much more. While not everyone wants to spend the extra for the iPad, the little difference just delivers so much more in terms of content. We only state that for the simple fact that B&N is trying to offer so much content for the device. In the end it still fails as a “tablet” and thus we must give the Nexus 7 and iPad mini the win here. For those seeking a tablet mainly for reading but will still enjoy those other features, we believe the NOOK HD is a better choice than most. The design is geared for reading and the experience just feels better than that of the Kindle Fire. B&N also doesn’t have ads in your face like those Amazon folks.
Wrap-Up
In the end Barnes & Noble invested a lot into both their hardware and software, and it shows. The screen is vibrant and crisp, performance is snappy and family friendly, and their unique industrial design stands out from the competition while remaining familiar. Overall while B&N has made an excellent product the software and ecosystem still needs some help. Riddled with poor performance in the OS and gaming, everything but reading books and magazines just takes too much effort when you’ve used iOS or regular Android.
When it comes down to what we want in a tablet this delivers in terms of hardware, but still fails just enough in the software and content to truly make it worthy of a full recommendation. While we love where the NOOK line is going — and hope it will get there — the Nexus 7, iPad mini, and Kindle Fire HD still offer more that make them an easier and better choice. Lacking the ecosystem of true Android or iOS, not having a camera, and not delivering enough content for consumption like the Kindle Fire HD achieves makes this a miss. If you’re invested in the B&N world already, this is a worthy update in all aspects and is by far the best NOOK yet.
Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD and Nook HD+ have gone on sale in the U.K. today, landing on shelves in retailers John Lewis, Argos, Asda, Dixons, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Blackwell’s and Foyles, and available via www.nook.co.uk.
In the battle of the mini tablets, the 8GB model of the 7-inch Nook HD undercuts the iPad mini’s price-tag by more than £100 — with a £159 price-tag vs the iPad mini’s starter price of £269. The Nook HD also offers a higher resolution than the iPad mini, with a 243 pixel per inch screen versus 163ppi for Apple’s mini slate. The Nook HD is powered by a 1.3GHz dual-core processor.
The larger Nook HD+ has a nine inch display, with a full HD resolution (256ppi), and starts at £229 for the 16GB model. Under the hood is a 1.5GHz dual-core chip.
Of course, buying a tablet is far more about buying into an ecosystem than buying a slate-shaped slice of hardware — which explains the enduring popularity of Apple’s iPad. On the ecosystem front, the Nook tablets have access to the ~2.5 million books on the Nook Store, plus “a large selection of magazines and apps” (vs 275,000 native iPad apps, at the last Apple count). In early December the Nooks will also gain access to Nook Video: aka “a broad collection of popular films and TV shows available for purchase or rental”.
Barnes & Noble’s tablets are also competing with Amazon’s seven inch £159 Kindle Fire HD tablet in the U.K. Barnes & Noble notes that the Nook HD is more than a fifth lighter and a centimeter narrower than Kindle Fire HD slate, weighing in at 315g. The company also claims the Nook HD’s processor is “smoother and faster” than the Kindle Fire HD — claiming graphics processing is 80 percent faster.
Following the arrival of Barnes & Noble’s e-reader products in the UK, today’s the day that the company’s tablets follow suit. The Nook HD and HD+ are a pair of tasty little high-definition tablets, which can be snagged at stores such as Argos, Sainsbury’s and John Lewis. The 7-inch HD can be yours for £159 with 8GB storage or £189 for 16GB, while the HD+ is priced at £229 for 16GB and £269 for 32GB.
Barnes & Noble’s NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ tablets have gone on sale in the UK, taking on the iPad and iPad mini with competitive price tags. The two Android-based slates use B&N’s latest customized version of the open-source OS, replacing the standard interface with a more multimedia-friendly version complete with hooks into the retailer’s own stores for ebooks, magazines, apps, and – eventually – video.
That NOOK Video store – which will offer titles for purchase and for rental – will go live in the UK in early December, Barnes & Noble says. Until then, there are 2.5m books to choose from and an unspecified number of magazines and apps.
The NOOK HD, which has a 7-inch display and a 1.3GHz dualcore processor, is priced at £159 for the 8GB version and £189 for the 16GB version. Each is available in white or grey, has a 1440 x 900 resolution display – besting the iPad mini‘s non-Retina resolution – and a microSD card slot for adding more storage.
As for the NOOK HD+, that has a Full HD 9-inch touchscreen and a 1.5GHz dualcore processor. B&N steps up the memory options, too, offering a 16GB model for £229 and a 32GB for £269. Like its smaller sibling, it has an expandable memory slot, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, and stereo speakers.
Both tablets will be offered online as well as through high-street retailers including John Lewis, Argos, Asda, Dixons, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Blackwell’s, and Foyles.
Nook HD and HD+ owners will be very happy to know that more gaming titles from Electronic Arts are on the way, with a couple even being available as we speak. Earlier today, the renowned developer announced its Plant vs. Zombiesand Bejeweled 2are now compatible with Barnes & Noble’s newest pair of slates, while other EA titles like Real Racing 2, Tetris, Monopoly and The Game of Life are expected to launch “through the holiday season.” Both Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled 2 are up for download now for $5 and $3, respectively, and you can snag your favorite one from the source link below.
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