The saying goes that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and it seems that Microsoft, from software giant fame, and Barnes & Noble, the operator of brick and mortar bookstores but also of the NOOK digital reading platform, are ready to put their past differences behind and get together in a joint venture.

Yeah the two companies had been entangled in a number of patent disputes, relating to B&N’s NOOK devices, and B&N has also been firing antitrust claims against Microsoft. Well the two past enemies have just announced today that they will forming a new company, with Microsoft taking up 17.6 percent for $300 million and B&N will be left with the remaining 82.4%.
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There is no better way to start your day than to find out that you lovely tablet/e-reader has received a software update, making it, well, more awesome. The Barnes & Noble Nook Color has just received an update to version 1.4.1 which brings a number of enhancements and additional functionality bringing it closer to the recently released Nook Tablet.

First off the new version brings landscape reading with books, something we had noted was lacking when we initially reviewed the Nook Color — you can find our pretty lengthy review here. There is also a new category of books named PagePerfect, which are carefully put together electronic versions keeping with the original colorful print version; the category includes cookbooks, art books and the rest.

Those of you who prefer to sit back and be entertained, the Nook Color is getting Netflix movies and TV shows support. Marvel comic book fans should also be excited as the Nook Color joins the Nook Tablet in receiving Nook Comics. Finally B&N is claiming over 100 minor enhancement which should make the Nook experience better.

You can connect your Nook Color to a Wi-Fi network and wait for the update to be delivered to your device automatically or if your are the impatient type (and we would completely understand if you were), head over here and follow the instructions under ‘Get Version 1.4.1 Today’.
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One of the limitations of Amazon’s new 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet, is that you are restricted to the apps available on Amazon’s Appstore for Android rather than the full Android Market. So what happens when you want to use an app that’s available in the Android Market but hasn’t yet reached Amazon’s store.

There is actually a not-too-complicated way around that limitation. Although, if you wanted to sideload applications on the B&N Nook Color you had to actually root it first, Amazon hasn’t really locked-down the Kindle Fire. It all falls down to enabling a simple option in settings.
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We already saw all the details of the Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble’s response to the Amazon Kindle Fire last week. Barnes & Noble has today officially unwrapped its Nook Color successor, and things are looking good for the book retailer.

The Nook Tablet shares the same unique Yves Behar design like the original Nook Color (which by the way is now selling for $199), save for a lighter grey paint job, and a slightly slimmer design. Inside however it’s been vastly improved. The Nook Tablet runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread underneath, but like its predecessor, the experience is very customized and is content and book centric.

It’s donned with a 7-inch 1024×600 IPS VividView touchscreen display and runs on a dual-core 1GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. It has 16GB of built-in storage and a micorSD card slot for up to 32GB additional space, trumping the Kindle Fire. You can check out how the Nook Tablet fares against the $199 Kindle Fire in our comparison. The Nook Tablet weights 14.1oz and is 0.48 inches thick. Battery life appears to have been boosted with a claimed up to 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video.

The Nook Tablet comes with Netflix and Hulu Plus out of the box, and is capable of playing 1080p HD video. Other loaded applications include, Pandora internet radio, Chess, Crossword, Sudoku, Media Gallery, NOOK Friends and email. As with the Nook Color, you will not have access to the official Android Market, but rather B&N’s own Nook apps market — though it remains to be seen how fast this can get hacked and loaded with custom ROMs for full market access, like the Nook Color. Barnes & Noble is offering a new ‘Nook Cloud’ free storage service with the device and free trials for Rhapsody, MOG and Grooveshark.

You can pre-order the Nook Tablet today for $249 from B&N, shipping on November 18th. The Nook Simple Touch device, with an E-Ink display, is now just $99 (from $149) and has received improved rendering software for faster page turns, while, as we’ve mentioned, the Nook Color can be had for $199 (from $249).

A host of presentation videos are after the break.
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Yesterday we brought you the news on Barnes & Noble’s upcoming tablet, the Nook Tablet, which will retail for $249. It only makes sense that the previous generation Nook Color, which currently retails for the same price, will see a price drop. B&N is planning to cut the Nook Color’s price by $50 to $199. It will also be getting a software update, version 1.4, with Hulu Plus and additional music streaming services from Rhapsody, MOG and Grooveshark with free trials — Pandora is already included with the NC.

We are still doubtful that it will have much success even at the discounted price, since the Amazon Kindle Fire will also retail for $199, while the more capable Nook Tablet is only $50 more. You can check out our Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire and the original Nook Color vs. Kindle Fire comparisons. In any case, it’s good news for existing Nook Color owners who will be getting more from their e-Reader/tablet soon. Even better, you can grab yourself a Nook Color for free, just by entering our simple giveaway.
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Barnes & Noble is preparing its own 7-inch budget and book/magazine-centric Nook Tablet to rival the Amazon Kindle Fire. Where the Nook Color was lacking, the Nook Tablet has more than made up for it. On one hand, the Nook Tablet, has a faster processor than the Kindle fire, it’s lighter, has double the RAM and on-board storage and can take microSD cards. On the other hand Amazon has a huge cloud presence and a bigger library in terms of content — books, music, movies. The Amazon Appstore also has a bigger selection of apps. Confused? Well, we’ve got all the details for both devices for you in a handy comparison chart, which you’ll find after the break. You might also want to check our initial Kindle Fire vs. Nook Color comparison.
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So, remember the event that Barnes & Noble has scheduled for this coming Monday the 7th? Remember, when we were talking about a Nook Color successor to take on the Amazon Kindle Fire? Well, information on B&N’s new tablet/e-Reader has leaked ahead of the event, and we have it here for you.

The new device from B&N will simply be called the ‘Nook Tablet’. As you can see, it’s very similar in appearance to the Nook Color; but what you can’t see is that it’s thinner, at 0.48 inches (from 0.5 inches for the NC) and lighter at 14.1 oz (from 15.8 ounces). The Nook Tablet is getting a much needed processor upgrade, with a new 1.2GHz dual-core OMAP 4 processor, 1GB of RAM (double that of the Kindle Fire) and 16GB of built-in storage (again double the Fire’s capacity). You will be able to expand storage through the microSD card slot, something the Fire is missing.
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With Amazon preparing to ship the Kindle Fire on November 15 and the original Nook Color celebrating its one year anniversary in mid-November, we’ve been hearing a lot of noise building up on a second generation LCD touchscreen Nook.

Barnes & Noble has just sent out invites for a Nook related event for Monday the 7th of November in New York, and we would guess that the company will reveal the ‘Nook Color 2′. Although the original Nook Color doesn’t fare badly against the Kindle Fire, we expect that B&N would want to beef up the processing power of a Nook Color successor to match or supersede that of the Fire. It will also be interesting to see where B&N will price any new devices, to match or beat Amazon’s $199 offering.

In the meantime, why don’t you enter our giveaway for an original Nook Color.

We’ve decided it’s about time for another giveaway and what would be a better gift for a tech (and book) loving Stuff-Review follower than Barnes & Noble’s e-Reader/tablet, the Nook Color.

We’ve covered the NC extensively in our original review, and our overall opinion was quite positive. You can also check how it holds up to the one year younger Kindle Fire. We’re giving away our trusted review unit, running the official version 1.3, together with a B&N leather cover to protect your loot and a SanDisk 4GB microSD card to store all your extra media.

The competition is a simple tweet/retweet and follow until we reach 2,000 followers. To win, simply retweet or tweet about this competition (including @stuffreview and of course the link to the competition in your tweet) and follow us on Twitter. We will pick a winner as soon as we reach 2,000 followers and notify the lucky one, both on this page, and via Twitter.

Full rules can be found after the break.
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It’s no secret that the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire tablet has B&N’s Nook Color (NC) in its sights. The two have a lot in common, both have books and magazines deeply embedded in their DNA and both run a very customized Android experience, they are also two of the cheapest 7-inch Android tablet offerings out there. It might not be completely fair to compare the two though, as the Nook Color is a year older, but until B&N comes out with a Nook Color 2, it remains the Kindle Fire’s main competitor.

The Fire wins in terms of processing power and initial reports state that the experience is very smooth, the NC can get a bit slow at times, showing its age. Amazon has a huge cloud presence and its putting it to work with the Fire, which lacks on storage options, Amazon envisions your music and videos stored in its cloud. The Fire also utilizes Amazon’s cloud with its Silk browser which will offer an accelerated browsing experience.

Neither tablet has access to the official Android Market, but the Fire wins in this regard, because the Amazon app store simply has more apps than the Nook. On the other hand the Nook Color is one of the most ‘hackable’ devices out there, so if you get bored with B&N’s customized experience you can quite easily run standard Android with the full Android Market. The Nook Color also wins on looks; the Fire is a standard all-black rounded affair.

For the full spec lowdown between the Fire and the NC head after the break. Be sure to also read our very extensive review of the Nook Color and how much we like its magazine app.
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Barnes & Noble have just announced an update to their successful e-reader/tablet, the Nook Color. Version 1.3 will be begin to rollout to devices over the air during the week but you can update to the latest version immediately be following the steps outlined below. The latest update brings some performance improvements, better Wi-Fi connectivity and parents can now disable the web browser before handing the tablet to their kids.

When we reviewed the Nook Color we really enjoyed it as a device for reading magazines, even calling magazines the “killer app”. The latest update now brings special interactive editions of Nook Magazines — People, Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Parents, and Fitness for now — which feature videos, audio, polls, quizzes and slideshows; imagine reading about a new exercise but also seeing a video demonstrating it.

Finally all you print subscribers to People, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune can now get free Nook editions of these magazines. B&N is quick to mention that it has one of the largest collections of online magazines and that you can try all magazines and newspapers for 14 days for free.
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So you’ve taken the plunge and rooted your Nook Color, tasted the fruits of freedom and now there is no going back. Now there is only the endless search for new and exciting apps and games. Well, we are here to help with a series of reviews of cool Android apps tried and tested on the Nook Color.

This first installment is all about games. All of the below games take advantage of the Nook’s larger screen and perform decently. They can be played without the need for fixed back or option buttons (you can put SoftKeys away) and most importantly they are loads of fun. Each of the below games can mostly be played for free, so that you can see how each performs on the Nook without committing. The screenshots were taken directly from the Nook Color. continue reading

B&N have just announced the new 2nd generation Nook E-Ink e-Reader now with touch.

The device features a 6-inch E-Ink Pearl (50% better contrast and faster page changing) screen. All hardware buttons have been replaced by just one (37 fewer than the Kindle 3 as B&N CEO William Lynch joked). Navigation has now moved to the new touch-screen interface.
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Well if you would have us guess what the new device to be announced today by Barnes & Noble would be, then we would say a refresh of the original E-Ink Nook.

The Nook Color seems to be selling well and the 1.2 update, which brought curated app support, has only been released a few weeks ago. On the other hand the original Nook is starting to show it’s age and there are definitely proponents of the advantages of E-Ink for a dedicated e-Reader device. B&N is a book retailer after all, so although the Nook Color is breaking new ground for the company, it can’t really forget about it’s bread and butter business.
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Barnes & Noble has announced that, just after one week since the Nook App Store came online, Nook Color owners have browsed and downloaded one million apps onto their devices.

Considering that Nook users, bearing rooting their device, have been holding tight for some time to get their hands on any new apps, this comes as no surprise.
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Well The long wait for Nook Color owners seems to be over. Barnes & Noble’s popular e-reader has finally been updated to Android 2.2 (‘Froyo’) while at the same time users can for the first time install apps without having to resort to rooting their device.

When we initially reviewed the Nook Color, the update was still in the works; nonetheless we thought it had great potential as a well-designed budget Android tablet. However, the $250 device is still not getting full Android Market access, but rather its own app store with applications having to first be approved by B&N for inclusion. This means that you will not find every obscure Android app out there, actually the catalogue right now is quite limited with no Facebook app or any of the standard Google apps like Maps, but available apps should increase over time.
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We already knew that Barnes & Noble’s Nook line, and especially the Nook Color, was creating some waves and it didn’t take long for Microsoft to take aim at the largely popular e-reader. Microsoft has filled legal actions against Barnes & Noble and its Nook device manufacturers, Foxconn and Inventec.

The Nook runs on Android and the claimed patent infringements relate to the key Android user experience such as interacting via tabbing through various screens and interacting with documents and e-books.
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It’s been almost three months since this e-reader / tablet landed on our doorstep and I’ve already spent several hours of quality time with it. Barnes & Noble has taken a different approach with its second e-reader device, donning the Nook Color with a full 7-inch color touchscreen and doing away with E-Ink. Despite this move, unsurprisingly, the Nook Color is still a book centric device out of the box.

This review of the Nook Color centers on its suitability as an e-reader device. Despite this I must note that the Nook Color has great potential as a full-fledged tablet and, the never-tiring Android hacking community has really embraced the Nook Color and continues daily to unlock its potential. A follow-up review will be posted soon that will look into the Nook Color as a tablet.

Moving right along, I must say from the kick-off that B&N has created a really great e-reading device that is a pleasure to take everywhere, hold and use and is offering it at a very attractive price, $249. However the Nook Color is not without frustrations and the software experience is still rough around the edges; with each over-the-air update, however, bringing it closer to perfection. Despite these, it still might not be the device for everyone, and we will try to convey both the shortcomings together with the benefits of this device. Hopefully by the end of this lengthy review you should get an idea if this is the right device for you. So read on to find out.
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