B&N's Nook Tablet details leaked ahead of launch

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AppId is over the quota
Summary: Rumored to debut at $250, does the Nook Tablet stand a chance against the Amazon Kindle Fire this holiday?

New addition to the Nook family, the Nook Tablet? Image from The Digital Reader

We’re expecting Barnes & Noble to unveil an Amazon Kindle Fire rival in New York on Monday, but details on the new device have been tightly guarded — that is until yesterday when both Engadget and The Digital Reader posted the same leaked documents with pricing and specs on the new Nook Tablet (pictured right).

Neither tech sites explained the origins of the following Nook-related pages but here is what they say about the so-called Nook Color 2:

Display: 7? touchscreenProcessor: Dual-core 1.2 GHz CPU  (TI OMAP4)RAM: 1 GBInternal Storage: 16 GB plus a SD Card slot (expandable up to 32 GB; possible dual-boot with Android if it’s anything like the Nook Color)Battery Life: 4 hours for videos; 8 hours with Wi-Fi offWeight: 400 gPre-orders start on November 7, arrive by November 16 in the U. S.Works with Hulu Plus, Netflix Pandora and more$250

Specs comparison between the Nook Tablet and Amazon Kindle Fire. Image from Engadget

Nook Tablet leaked features. Image from Engadget

If these documents are legit, then it seems the Nook Tablet will run slightly faster than the Kindle Fire as it has more RAM, offers more on-board storage, is more flexible to use with its internal SD Card slot, and supports more file formats like ePUB. But it will cost an extra $50 over the Kindle Fire, which makes no bones about selling the hardware at a loss to nab customers for its vast content ecosystem: music, movies, cloud services, shopping and even a personal e-library for Prime members. Of course, we will find out soon enough what the Nook Tablet will really offer to compete with the Kindle Fire, so hold off from cancelling your Kindle Fire pre-order just yet.

[Source: The Digital Reader, Engadget]

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Gloria Sin is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

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Amazon talks Kindle Fire app lineup ahead of Nov. 15 release

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Summary: The Kindle Fire’s Amazon AppStore will launch with just “the basics”: from Netflix, EA games to Quickoffice Pro, but will they be enough to satisfy app-savvy users?

In case you’re getting cold feet about your Kindle Fire pre-order now that you realize the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet offers the better hardware, Amazon wants to hit you over the head with all the software/apps that will be coming to your 7-inch Amazon device next week.

Because the Kindle Fire runs a highly customized version of Android, all the apps have to be optimized for this particular device. Here is a list of apps that you can expect in the Amazon AppStore at launch:

NetflixRhapsodyPandoraTwitterComics by comiXologyFacebookThe Weather ChannelAllrecipesBloombergLinkedInZillowPulseThe Cat in the HatQuickoffice ProJamie’s 20-Minute MealsIMDb Movies & TVMonkey Preschool Lunchbox Games: from Zynga, Electronic Arts, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio Fruit NinjaCut the RopeBattleheartJengaDoodle FitDoodle JumpAirport Mania

In addition, users will be able to download a “paid” app for free every day, as well as access Amazon’s over “18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games, free storage in the Amazon Cloud [as well as] Whispersync for books and movie.” Kindle Fire owners will also get to enjoy one-month’s free Amazon Prime membership, where they will have access to 13,000 movies and TV shows for unlimited streaming, and Personal Library privileges of one free book a month with no due dates.

If the selling point of the Kindle Fire is its limitless content/ecosystem, then Amazon has its work cut out to port more Kindle Fire-friendly apps to its slate, and quickly. For one thing, it’s not clear from this list just which app will be available for free and which one will cost money, which could mean even fewer app options for frugal users. Although these Kindle Fire apps may cover all the basis — games, social media, news/informational and productivity apps — I have a feeling users will go through them quickly and will soon demand more. It’s also possible that Kindle Fire owners have different expectations of their tablet app-wise because they are more compelled by Amazon’s content and cloud services than its app library la iOS. What do you think?

[Source: Amazon press release]

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Gloria Sin is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

View the original article here