Cheaper NOOK Tablet 8GB tipped for Wednesday

[Sil_liS]

Source: http://www.slashgear.com/cheaper-noo...sday-20214363/
I'm living in Europe so this is not going to affect me directly, but the prices are probably going to down again since I don't think that Amazon would let B&N sell a cheaper tablet. There is no news on how low the price is going to be, but the assumption is $199.99.

[AnemicOak]

Looks like a cheaper Nook Tab, not a Nook Color (which already costs $199). This would put a Nook Tab at the same pricepoint as the Kindle Fire.

[aagstn]

I would imagine the Nook Color is going away once stock is sold through and they will use this 8GB version of the tablet to replace it.

[Kumabjorn]

if they are going up against Kindle Fire I would have imagined that they would have opted for 16 GB storage. If the price is the same they need to offer a visible advantage and since storage and lack of card slot is the biggest complaint about the Fire...

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

if they are going up against Kindle Fire I would have imagined that they would have opted for 16 GB storage. If the price is the same they need to offer a visible advantage and since storage and lack of card slot is the biggest complaint about the Fire...

The NT already has twice the RAM, a card slot, a mic, and physical volume buttons. Definite advantages over the Fire.

[Kumabjorn]

Card slot? Yes, a clear advantage. The rest? Not so sure it matters to an average buyer. Tech savvy buyers is a different segment.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Card slot? Yes, a clear advantage. The rest? Not so sure it matters to an average buyer. Tech savvy buyers is a different segment.

But those that are not tech savvy enough to understand why more RAM is better are more likely to be impressed by a lower price than by more storage space, especially since more storage space can be easily increased with a microSD card.

[BeccaPrice]

this is enticing, although I'm not really in the market for a tablet, but B&N loses me with their requirement to have a valid credit card on file in order to not brick the unit. A friend on one list said that she had to reformat her nook and redownload all her books when her credit card expiration date changed. That's too much like work for me.

[azazel1024]

I wonder if there will be any user accessible storage on an 8GB version.

*sigh* I think BN need to get their head out of their rear. Personally I am not that interested in a 7 inch tablet (I am a bit) and I have an iPad 2. That said, as cheap as these are I'd consider getting a cheap 7 inch tablet as a play toy and ultra portable. However, both locking down almost all storage for BN content only and then locking the device in to your own market and prohibiting sideloaded apps just kills it for me.

I'd bet it probably kills it for a fair number of people as well.

The limited user storage space annoys me about my nook simple touch, but at least the ~240MB is plenty for a couple of hundred books and some wall paper. The 1GB on the nook tablet MIGHT get you a single feature length movie at resonable quality (about 25% of my SD movies fall under 1GB in size). At least the fire could fit 2-3 movies and some apps, a bit of music and some books on it and it could all be sideloaded.

The nook tablet could fit some music and some books and maybe a TV show or a low quality movie sideloaded (and no sideloaded apps, because those won't run).

Get your head out of your butt Barnes and Noble. Remove the ridiculous ban on sideloading, or at the VERY LEAST, remove the restriction on the user inaccessible storage space. Even at price parity, the extra costs in having to buy from your limited app store (which tends to have higher prices, some significantly higher) as well as pretty much being forced to buy SOME kind of microSD card to get storage space parity, and a fast one too if you want stuff to load at any kind of decent speed (to the card, not say playing a movie or something which a class 2 card is fine for) means that the device, both immediately and down the road is not at price parity to the Fire.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

But those that are not tech savvy enough to understand why more RAM is better are more likely to be impressed by a lower price than by more storage space, especially since more storage space can be easily increased with a microSD card.

I believe the premise was that it would have the same price point as Kindle Fire. Hence, the card slot would be its advantageous feature vs KF.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

this is enticing, although I'm not really in the market for a tablet, but B&N loses me with their requirement to have a valid credit card on file in order to not brick the unit. A friend on one list said that she had to reformat her nook and redownload all her books when her credit card expiration date changed. That's too much like work for me.

That information is wrong. If you change your credit card you will still be able to read books downloaded with another credit card. You do not need to reformat your Nook, or to download your books again.

B&N requires a valid credit card because the B&N DRM uses your credit card number and name to encrypt the books.
This means that unlike with Kindle books that are tied to your device, a Nook book file can be read on any device supporting the DRM (and not just on one specific device). Which means backups are lot more useful.
It also means that you can copy a Nook book file to as many devices as you want, as many times as you want. Which makes sharing within for example a family much easier.

[geertm]

Originally Posted by azazel1024

I wonder if there will be any user accessible storage on an 8GB version.

*sigh* I think BN need to get their head out of their rear. Personally I am not that interested in a 7 inch tablet (I am a bit) and I have an iPad 2. That said, as cheap as these are I'd consider getting a cheap 7 inch tablet as a play toy and ultra portable. However, both locking down almost all storage for BN content only and then locking the device in to your own market and prohibiting sideloaded apps just kills it for me.

I'd bet it probably kills it for a fair number of people as well.

The limited user storage space annoys me about my nook simple touch, but at least the ~240MB is plenty for a couple of hundred books and some wall paper. The 1GB on the nook tablet MIGHT get you a single feature length movie at resonable quality (about 25% of my SD movies fall under 1GB in size). At least the fire could fit 2-3 movies and some apps, a bit of music and some books on it and it could all be sideloaded.

The nook tablet could fit some music and some books and maybe a TV show or a low quality movie sideloaded (and no sideloaded apps, because those won't run).

Get your head out of your butt Barnes and Noble. Remove the ridiculous ban on sideloading, or at the VERY LEAST, remove the restriction on the user inaccessible storage space. Even at price parity, the extra costs in having to buy from your limited app store (which tends to have higher prices, some significantly higher) as well as pretty much being forced to buy SOME kind of microSD card to get storage space parity, and a fast one too if you want stuff to load at any kind of decent speed (to the card, not say playing a movie or something which a class 2 card is fine for) means that the device, both immediately and down the road is not at price parity to the Fire.

The new 8GB tablet will have 5 GB user space.
I also noticed this footnote in the current tablet specs:
7NOOK Tablet- 16GB: 1GB = 1 billion bytes. Actual formatted capacity may be less. 13GB for content, of which 12GB is reserved for NOOK Store content. If you want additional memory for personal content, you may use a microSD card of up to 32GB. If you want to re-configure the internal memory of your NOOK Tablet-16GB for additional personal storage, you need to visit your local Barnes & Noble on or after 3/12/12 for help in doing so.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by geertm

If you want to re-configure the internal memory of your NOOK Tablet-16GB for additional personal storage, you need to visit your local Barnes & Noble on or after 3/12/12 for help in doing so.

Thanks for that info. This bit is very interesting. Any additional info, like what partitioning options are available?

[geertm]

Originally Posted by afv011

Thanks for that info. This bit is very interesting. Any additional info, like what partitioning options are available?

According to this PC magazine arcticle:
"For the $249 16GB version, meanwhile, Barnes & Noble announced plans for a March software update that will allow users to flip their tablet's storage allocation. Users will have the option for 5.5GB of Barnes & Noble content and 8GB for personal content. When it's available, users can bring their Nook to a Barnes & Noble store for the update. After that, users can choose which storage option they want when purchasing the 16GB Nook Tablet.".


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2400484,00.asp

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by geertm

According to this PC magazine arcticle:
"For the $249 16GB version, meanwhile, Barnes & Noble announced plans for a March software update that will allow users to flip their tablet's storage allocation. Users will have the option for 5.5GB of Barnes & Noble content and 8GB for personal content. When it's available, users can bring their Nook to a Barnes & Noble store for the update. After that, users can choose which storage option they want when purchasing the 16GB Nook Tablet.".


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2400484,00.asp

Sounds good. Now if they'd just restore things so you could sideload apps without rooting like you could when it came out.