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According to The Digital Reader, Barnes & Noble will begin shipping out its all new and improved Nook Color 2 to stores on November 7th. Apparently, B&N will be sprucing up their in-store Nook kiosk to something that resembles more of an actual department, complete with LED TV’s and registers for checking out customers on the spot.
Still left up in the air are specs and pricing. Heck, this may no longer even be an Android device but given the success B&N had with Android on the previous model and versatility of the OS, I don’t see them moving on to anything else.
B&N has also been kicking up development for the e-reader/tablet, most likely in anticipation of this new model. Let’s see if they are able to pack enough punch in this thing to compete with Amazon’s already hugely successful Kindle Fire. Gotta love competition.
[DigitalReader via Gizmodo]
Of course it’s an Android device. To speculate otherwise is irresponsible. They’ve been pushing their developer program like crazy.
” To speculate otherwise is irresponsible”
For you to make that assumption is simply stupid. They may steer away from Android because microsuck is on their dick about royalties. That being said, I do hope it is Android because I hate Amazon and their android “ecosystem”. B&N FTW
Getting their new tablet out before Amazon’s is brilliant. I love it. I can’t wait to see the specs to see if it’s worth an upgrade. (I’ll of course also have to wait for the modding to begin.) :)
I don’t see how it can compete with the Fire on price, though. Amazon can sell at a loss and earn on the backside with all their various content.
Remains to be seen if that will actually work. I dont personally see myself buying content.
Same here… Cheap devices FTW!
In other words…. carriers should give me a phone before i sign up for a contract on the premise that i will….. amazon’s model is seriously flawed
The Kindle Fire seems to practically be the Nook Color’s replacement. The Color was cheap, has a great screen size, and could be hacked to run stock Android (with CM7.1). The Kindle Fire is basically at the same price point as the Nook Color, even tough the Fire has a much better screen, a dual-core processor, and (while, it may not contain the Android Market), has support for the well known Amazon Appstore.
Amazon crAppstore**.
Only way i’d even consider a kindle fire is if it gets rooted and Id be able to flash stock android on it. Otherwise, NookColor 2 ftw
“crAppstore”
Did you come up with that one all by yourself? Wow, you must be a big boy!
You sound butthurt, did somebody hurt you?
Yeah, so I really like my NC running CM7.1 but I am curious as to why we don’t have specs yet. You’d think there’d be a press release with less than 2 weeks until November 7th.
If this one is enough of an upgrade, AND if it is an easily rooted Android device, I would surely purchase it. My youngest (11 moths) uses mine for nothing more than Pandora and I have to steal it from him while he’s sleeping.
Costco just dropped the price of the 8″ Vizio tablet to $190. It is running Gingerbread and only has 2GB of memory, but you can expand it with SD and it has cameras. I love competition.
Releasing in two weeks and still no specs or pricing, doesn’t make much sense to me.
I don’t think their intended target demo gives a crap about the specs.
1. Kindle Fire doesn’t have microSD slot that, for example, Nook Color has thus it is stuck with 6 GB usable internal storage unlike Nook Color that can get up to 32 GB card in. Kindles are made to be almost like a “dumb terminal” of the past to make sure you’re tied up to Amazon’s storage on the web (for which you need Wi-Fi connection to get to) and you can only store content you get from Amazon there, not other files. Quoting Amazon on Kindle Fire: “Free cloud storage for all Amazon content”. Get it, Amazon content?
2. The stats of how long the battery can last (Kindle Fire theory is 7.5 hours) are taken with Wi-Fi off. It will last only about 3 hours if you use it to access content from their Cloud storage over Wi-Fi.
3. Amazon can spy on your web activity through their new cloud-integrated web browser of Kindle Fire.
4. VERY IMPORTANT – lack of microSD slot means that if you decide to root your Kindle Fire, you’ll have to root the actual device thus there will be no coming back. On Nook Color, you can make it boot from a “rooted” microSD card and if you want to get back to the original Nook you can just take out the card and reboot.
5. Kindle Fire doesn’t have a camera.
6. Kindle Fire has about 70% less usable screen area than iPad 2.
7. Kindle doesn’t support eBooks in ePub format that is the most used format in the world.
8. Kindle app store contains only Amazon approved apps and it does not include (and will not include) Netflix app that iPad has and Nook Color is getting thus again you’re stuck with Amazon content only.
9. Amazon confirmed that you cannot download anything to Kindle Fire when traveling outside US.
10. Amazon says it will review every app in its Appstore for Fire compatibility, as part of an automated process. Rejected apps will include those that rely on a gyroscope, camera, WAN module, Bluetooth, microphone, GPS, or micro SD. Apps are also forbidden from using Google’s Mobile Services (and in-app billing), which, if included, will have to be “gracefully” removed. In terms of actual content, Amazon has outlawed all apps that change the tablet’s UI in any way (including theme- or wallpaper-based tools), as well as any that demand root access.
11. I’d recommend waiting for Nook Color 2 that is rumored to be released by Barnes & Noble shortly.
Man, I didn’t realize people could feel sooo impassioned by the Kindle Fire v. Nook Color debate. Without knowing more about the Nook Color 2, I am going to reserve my decision before taking sides in this war. The Amazon services that are bundled with the Fire make it, at least on paper, appear to be the more compelling device. The Amazon Prime buffet style video consumption, with pay-per-view on demand for other content with more than 100,000 choices is something not available on any other android device. Sure, you can run it amazon instant using your browser and play video using flash, but this results in choppy playback on most tablet devices and burns battery life like crazy. The Amazon curated app store is great. Sure, it has less apps than marketplace, but most of the apps you really want are in the amazon appstore and the pricing on those apps is good (great if you can get them with the free paid app per day promo). Most of the games in the amazon appstore and android marketplace right now suck (no where near as compelling as on Apple Appstore) and purchasing directly from gameloft etc., is a pain in the butt. I think this will all change with the Fire. Once the Kindle Fire hits with sales in the millions–which is inevitable –developers will write apps tailored for the Fire–just like they do with the iPad. From a developer’s perspective–particularly game developers-=, it’s worth it invest in an app that will work well and be available to 7 or 8 million plus Fires (with sales probably hitting iPad like numbers in the next year). Ultimately, the Nook Color may be a great device, but I think it will be hard for B&N to compete with Amazon–it just doesn’t have the content to earn on and can’t absorb the low margins Amazon is forcing in the lower end android tablet market.
There are people who have jobs and have a few bucks to spend on a book or app. Amazon’s model is fine and will be a success. Besides, what the loss per tablet? It’s around $10 I heard.