New Nook Tablet Official News

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jocampo

I don't see how (for movies at least) the B&N device can provide a better value.

Amazon Prime Video + mSD videos + Nook Tablet = better value

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by LoganK

That's not true. Amazon also offers paid content you can download, but, as yet, there are no mobile devices (assuming you don't count laptops) that support this feature.

I stand corrected (did not know about 'Amazon Unbox'). An edge case right now (windows only), but surely this is a capability that would be most useful on Fire, especially if you could side load via USB.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by LoganK

Android does not prevent applications from being installed in the user's space, so, Amazon allowing, you could install 5GB of applications, 1GB of content, and stream the rest of your content. It's not completely out of the question...

Of course, it is manageable for the most part. I'm just saying it might have been smarter for Amazon to have more storage so people wouldn't have to worry about it and would buy more apps. One EA game can chew up 500MB, and I bought about 6 or 7 of them for my iPod during a $0.99 promotion (not that I ever have time to play them). Even the stupid 'Active Content' games for Kindle routinely appear among the top sellers, adding to profit margins.

[ilovejedd]

I've actually yet to see a 500MB app for Android.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by tomsem

In terms of storage, obviously, if you are one of those strange people who have the time and determination to rip DVDs and maintain a library of digital content that is locally accessible, Nook Tablet is the way to go. But I would point out that the vast majority of people, including myself, don't fall into that category. It requires additional capital investment and most expensive of all, time.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

What additional capital investment?

Ripping DVDs is no different than ripping CDs. At one time I carried CDs around on vacation, then MP3 players appeared and that ended. Then I carried DVDs on vacation and that ended with my tablet.

I converted my CD collection and will soon have my DVD collection converted. DVDs will soon go the way of CDs, VHS, cassette, 8-track, reel-to-reel, and vinyl. It's a dying format.

Additional capital investment? Storage (unless you only have a small library of DVDs). Granted, that's gone down a big deal from before but with the flood in Thailand, hard drive prices appear to have doubled or even tripled. Ripping DVDs is also more time-consuming than ripping CDs particularly if you're encoding at the same time. You're pretty much only limited by drive speed when ripping CDs. A 2-pass H.264 encode takes quite a bit longer especially if you have a relatively old computer. Granted there's been major strides in hardware accelerated encoding in recent times (most notably QuickSync from Intel which provides fairly good quality encodes unlike earlier efforts from NVIDIA CUDA and ATI Stream).

This is speaking as one of "those strange people who have the time and determination to rip DVDs and maintain a library of digital content that is locally accessible". I had a local file server serving ripped audio and video content to HTPC's even before Netflix rolled out their instant streaming service.

Amazon Unbox videos can actually be transferred to Plays for Sure certified portable devices. In fact, when you buy a video from Amazon Unbox, you're given two downloads - one for your PC and another smaller file for portable devices. Plays for Sure is a misnomer, though. You'd have much better luck finding a unicorn than getting that to work.

[Fbone]

Netflix app is available for the Kindle Fire also. No need for Prime if streaming videos is desired. Netflix, I believe, has more content so it may be worth the extra money.

[LoganK]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Amazon Unbox videos can actually be transferred to Plays for Sure certified portable devices.

Sorry, you are correct. Amazon only lists one compatible device now, but the capability is there.

Maybe the Kindle Fire will be PlaysForSure compatible! How exciting!

[=X=]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I've actually yet to see a 500MB app for Android.

There mostly games, but yes there are plenty that require 500MB. They are done as a secondary download. (You download the app, and when you run the app for the first time it will download the rest of the content to you device.

=X=

[=X=]

Originally Posted by jocampo

To be fair, New Color will provide access to Hulu and Netflix, if I'm not mistaken. Now, let's do some calculations.

Basic Netflix subscription is about 9 bucks (monthly) and Hulu is about the same. Assuming people got both, will be paying almost 20 bucks per month, after a year is a bit more of $216.

Let's say a user only subscribe to Netflix, that $108 per year, without access to most recent movies or TV shows. Still, about 30 dollars more than being a Prime member.

I don't see how (for movies at least) the B&N device can provide a better value.

However, at least for movies or multimedia content, a Kindle fire user will be tied up to Amazon. So that's kind of a disadvantage, less freedom I think.

For the records: I'm Netflix user as well.

I don't think people are taking the price of Netflix into account because chances are most people already have Netflix account. So using Netflix with the nook is a plus. Where as I don't think everybody who is interested in the Fire has a Prime membership.

That said I think this argument is moot because the Fire is getting Netflix and Hulu.

And folks that have a nook can just as easily watch Amazon Prime movies over the browser with Flash. That's how it's done with google TV and it works just fine.

=X=

[menevets]

Both the Tablet and Color speakers are mono, not stereo, or that's what the specs say. How do the speakers on the Color sound? I am guessing that the speakers are so small, mono doesn't make that much of a difference. Or does it?