9 ms·

Barnes & Noble treats Nook Color to Froyo; unveils Nook Apps

93 points by rkudeshi 16y ago

bane 16y ago
This is great news. It's now the cheapest tablet on the market (that doesn't have atrocious build quality).
- dpritchett 16y ago
  I played with a Nook Color and with an iPad 2 at Best Buy last weekend. The Nook felt like it was worth approximately half an iPad, which is about how it's priced. Granted, that's a great niche to be in. My reservations: it had a weak speaker, it felt a bit bendy, and it didn't seem to rotate the screen too often when I switched from horizontal to vertical orientation. I don't think its software was designed to rotate as often as iOS does. I can definitely see having one of these around the house to hack on but it's got flaws.
  - eropple 16y ago
    That's basically my take on it - I bought it to play around with (and, of all things, run the Kindle app) and it's good for that and not really a ton more. The speaker's very weak, but mine doesn't feel bendy at all. It's very solid, considering the price.
  - bane 16y ago
    I don't think its software was designed to rotate as often as iOS does. I've noticed this too, that iOS devices do the screen rotation thing with far more grace than Android devices.
    - ydant 16y ago
      I don't know how iOS handles it, but Android treats rotation... oddly. If you haven't specifically handled it, it basically kills your activity, loads the new rotated layout (which can be radically different from the other orientation's view), and then reloads your activity. Any initialization, etc, happens again (which is why, sometimes in some apps, you rotate and form fields are cleared). You can cache data and make rotates pretty seamless, but it still seems like a decent amount of overhead that wouldn't necessarily be there.
      - dpritchett 16y ago
        What I saw was even worse... Nook just doesn't even try to rotate most of the time. In iOS the default seems to be that any and every app will rotate in a meaningful way when I turn the device. Not so in my 5 minute demo of the Nook. It's not that it can't smoothly rotate the screen when it wants to, it's that it doesn't attempt to rotate the screen to match my position as often as iOS apps do.
        allwein 16y ago
        >it doesn't attempt to rotate the screen to match my position as often as iOS apps do It was your particular phrasing of this issue that made me think that this may be a feature of the Nook, and not a bug. My biggest complaint about any iOS device used to be that when I was reading in bed, sometimes I would lie on my side, causing the screen to rotate when I didn't really want it to. Obviously, the screen-orientation lock functionality was a godsend for fixing this issue for me. It occurs to me that maybe, since the "primary" function of the Nook is reading, that it doesn't attempt screen rotation unless it really thinks that was your intent.
  - muhfuhkuh 16y ago
    "My reservations: it had a weak speaker, it felt a bit bendy, and it didn't seem to rotate the screen too often when I switched from horizontal to vertical orientation." The speaker is positioned in the rear and it pushes sound away. I'm sure they did that for aesthetic (decluttered front bezel) and functional (no worrying about getting schmutz in the speaker grill) reasons. But, yeah, that causes distant, disembodied sound. I find my Nook Color solidly built for the price. The nice glass screen (I use an anti-glare screen protector to use it outside) is super-responsive almost to a fault. The plastic bezel is solid and finished well and doesn't seem to flex or pop when I hold it. The back plastic has a really grippy rubber coating that makes it nice to hold in one hand, as well. I think if they were to iterate, they should do away with the front plastic bezel and rock a total glass front, but I give it nice marks. I'd certainly consider paying up to 100 more for it and not be dissatisfied. About rotation, I think it's Apple's use of transitional animation that makes it feel like it's more responsive and, thus, more "accustomed" to it. The NC has the same accelerometer chip as the Xoom, so I think if you perceive any lag, it could be in the redrawing of the screen. That said, if you'd ever buy one, forgo all the installed software, root the device, and put a version of Cyanogenmod 7 (2.3 Gingerbread) on it. I use phiredrop 6. Stable as a table, full Android Market (and Amazon, btw), and youtube in fullscreen and flash in the browser.
    - skunkworks 16y ago
      Weird, I have had the opposite experience re: touch screen responsiveness. Difficulty turning pages, multiple "clicks" to get a button to work, etc. Being the owner of both an iPad and a rooted Nook Color, there's a pretty large quality gap between the two. That's not to say the NC is terrible -- the NC is actually a serious value buy -- but it's a testament to the competitive advantage that Apple has over everyone else in the tablet market.
      - nollidge 16y ago
        I have the same problems with touch responsiveness. It takes often takes multiple hits on the edge of the screen to get the page to turn.
    - 16y ago
narrator 16y ago
Congratulation to Barnes & Nobles. They are one of the few brick and mortar retailers that was able to embrace the Internet age instead of fighting or ignoring it. Their agility would make a great business school case study.
- woodall 16y ago
  Are we talking about the same store?[0] [0]http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=1y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c= http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=1y&l=on&z=...
  - narrator 16y ago
    They finally started making money again last quarter: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=BKS http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=BKS They also managed to survive while Border's went broke: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=6m&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=BGP http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=6m&l=on&z=... The stock is so beaten down because when Borders started to fall over it looked like book stores were all going to die one by one just like the brick and mortar music stores did.
cydonian_monk 16y ago
I'm not sure I like the whole "updates will be pushed to WiFi conncted Nooks" thing. However, given the way the NookColor recovers from failed boots (by restoring the system from a couple of ROM-"protected" zip files), there is at least a mechanism in place to do a remote full-system update in a sane way. Even with Froyo, I'm still looking to turn mine into a non-Android tablet. (Or perhaps a hybrid...?) Especially since it's so easy to run a system from the μSD card. $250 toy indeed. Yet so well-built for the price.
GiraffeNecktie 16y ago
Yet ANOTHER Android app store? Gimme a break. How many is it now? I've lost count.
- spiffworks 16y ago
  Its three. Crows can count that much.
  - GiraffeNecktie 16y ago
    When you need a count of app stores, don't ask a crow. Let's see there's ... Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Android Marketplace, GetJar, various device manufacturers (Lenovo, Motorola, General Mobile), and various phone companies around the world. http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/12/30/the-ongoing-mess-of-android%E2%80%99s-app-store-fragmentation/ http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/12/30/the-ongoing-mess-of-andr... There's probably at least a dozen, if not more.
    - runjake 16y ago
      So what's the problem? Android pundits normally champion Choice as one of Android's features, as opposed to the single store (without jailbreaking) available on iOS. This sounds like a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't".
    - Kylekramer 16y ago
      How many stores can you purchase Windows or Mac software from? That towers over the Android stores. Why should mobile be different?
      - GiraffeNecktie 16y ago
        Actually there's a massive difference. I'm not forced to buy software only from Dell just because I bought a Dell computer, or only from Verizon just because Verizon provides my Internet access. Or join the "HP Developer Program" and download the "HP SDK" just so I can sell my Windows app through the "HP App store" to someone using an HP laptop. If all the app stores were just stores competing on a level playing field it would be a good thing, but they're obviously not. Most of these are not real "stores", they are schemes for extorting money from users and developers by removing (not enhancing) their ability to choose.
jeffreyg 16y ago
You still need a rooted version to access the Android app store (and probably always will since they won't want people buying this to install other eReader apps). It's a shame they need a whole new app store mainly to prevent access to a handful of apps.
- trotsky 16y ago
  The nook lacks hardware features (a camera, at least) that google requires for a device to qualify for google branding and google apps including android market.
  - windsurfer 16y ago
    I thought tablets had exceptions to those rules?
    - trotsky 16y ago
      The rules are based on the OS version. There are some differences for 3.0, but in this case 2.1/2.2 doesn't officially support tablets at all so there weren't any exceptions. Froyo did require a camera, and the four android buttons - I don't think the nook has those either.
crocowhile 16y ago
Too bad the original nook is still stuck to an obsolete version for that is the one with paper screen that may compete more with kindle ( i have one of those and I regret buying it btw)
ck2 16y ago
Nook has had froyo for some time, just not officially http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices/nook-color http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices/nook-color
npalli 16y ago
Early reports suggest almost 3 million NC's sold in four months[1]. That would mean a run rate of at least 6 million per year. That is astonishing for a brick and mortar retailer with no consumer electronics background. The very attractive price point (could drop under $200) and decent ergonimics (lightweight 7") would mean NC could end up taking a major chunk of the light browsing/reading/email/ebook-reader market. 1. Amazon now has to bring out a tablet running Android. It is only a matter of time before the NC drops to under $200 and then people start buying the NC instead of Kindle. While rooting the NC is easy, if you check the downloads of the images, I would say less than 15% end up actively rooting. So that means no Kindle app on NC. 2. Apple now has to figure out alternate uses for the iPad since they are going to get disrupted on the browsing/email/ebook-reader category. I don't even know if they can bring out a 7" iPad (current investments in 10" and maybe even hardware optimized for 10"). Looks like they are trying to repurpose the iPad into a gaming device. In any case, they can't be happy with the rapid rise of NC. Strangely B&N is the only company which has a lower supply chain cost than Apple in the tablet market -- they own retail, they don't have to do any OS development, they don't have to put out the latest hardware. 1. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20048052-1.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20048052-1.html
- brianbreslin 16y ago
  Curious as to how you see B&N having lower supply chain cost than Apple? Apple is making 15M+ ipads, their unit costs on chips etc are going to be lower, B&N still has to source and develop the hardware for NC
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    The OP seems to be implying that B&N has to pay very little for OS development (Google picks up most of the tab). And in terms of HW, the NC isn't a cutting edge device, so they can get 2nd/3rd gen parts. And coupled with good volume, gives them a low supply chain cost. I don't know if its lower than Apple's, but it's probably lower than anyother Android vendors except probably Samsung.
  - npalli 16y ago
    Few things. kenjackson alluded to them 1. NC is using older generation parts (ex. their SoC is OMAP3621 which is at least two generations behind). This is off the shelf from Texas instruments who own the entire supply chain in design and foundry. Look at all the products using this technology -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_OMAP#OMAP3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_OMAP#OMAP3 -- now you are looking at pretty decent volume and per unit cost. 2. 6 million vs 15.4 is not very meaningful in per unit cost difference since both volumes are pretty huge. This is not accounting for the fact that other companies could be using this SoC. Also, Apple does custom design for thier own products so Samsung cannot sell off their chips to someone else. So Apple has to invest in design and all the associated costs in the development and obsolescense of the chips. Given the tight margins it is not surprising Apple buys gross manufacturing capacity below forecasts and let shortages occur.
yummyfajitas 16y ago
Just curious, anyone have experience using a rooted nook as a primary tablet?
- calebmpeterson 16y ago
  yes!! well worth the $250. it is super snappy, stable when rooted, has excellent battery life, and unlike the 10" iPad/Xoom fits comfortably in the back pocket. I bought mine weeks ago and havent regretted it for a second. And for the record I'm very much NOT an Android or iOS fanboi; as both a software dev and consumer i like various aspects of each ecosystem.
- muhfuhkuh 16y ago
  I do, and while you have to assume every statement I make has a silent "for the price" catted to the end, I am really at awe with it and now use it much more than my iPad 1. The smaller form factor really shines for reading ebooks, email, and cool feed readers like pulse. It's super responsive for all 2D tasks (reading, movies, games like Angry Birds) and you can hold it in one hand for extended periods unlike the iPad, which gets a little fatiguing after a half-hour or so. The eMail and gmail apps are great, Dolphin Browser HD and Firefox are good alternatives to the standard browser in Gingerbread, and it Tweets well enough. Youtube app plays well. Flash mobile is... well, it's flash on a mobile device (warts and all). Load all fantastic flash ads on demand! The processor is sporty (not fast), that is unless/until you root it and overclock it. I've got CPU governor set to "performance" and have it set at 600 MHz minimum and 1.1 GHz max. That said, Angry Birds ad-free plays silky smooth; with ads, it's a slog, but that's with almost any android device I've seen aside from my dual-core, nVidia-powered Atrix 4G phone. The overclocking produces no more heat or detrimental effects that I can perceive, so I believe they underpower the CPU by default. The Omap SoC has a decent graphics card that can play, for example, Backbreaker Football in 3D without any jitter and few (if any) dropped frames at all. It runs quadrant (synthetic benchmark) at an overall score of 2100+ and a 26.4 fps on neocore. It's a daily driver for me. The screen is great, it's super portable yet more substantial than a smartphone (especially for reading/surfing), and I've been actually reading more now than ever (split between nook's app and the kindle app).
hugh3 16y ago
So let me get this straight -- I assume the Nook Color has a backlit LCD display instead of e-paper? Does this mean that manufacturers are giving up on e-paper already (after years of telling us it was so much easier to read than a backlit screen)? I must say that I've spent a lot of time staring at my old-school Nook by now and I'm not really convinced that it's any easier to read than an iPad screen.
- derekp7 16y ago
  It depends on what the lighting conditions are. I couldn't read my Nook e-ink display with a 60-watt light bulb (text wasn't dark enough / background too silver). Apparently the newer e-ink display on the latest Kindle is better. But on the flip side I have a hard time with the Nook Color outside in the sunlight -- for that the e-ink works better. Also, the e-ink is good for a few weeks, instead of 8 hours.
  - enjo 16y ago
    I wonder how those hybrid screens (like the Pixel QI screen) work? Until someone cracks the nut of building a color screen with the same fidelity as e-ink, that hybrid approach seems like a really good idea.
gordonbowman 16y ago
this is great to see. pandora while you read anyone?
rst 16y ago
Developer program docs, such as they are, here: https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/ https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/ That gets you access to the SDK. Access to the store is a messier deal. I've found brief summary docs, and a pointer to the application, in two places: http://nookdeveloper.zendesk.com/entries/20009311-qualify-as-a-nook-app-developer http://nookdeveloper.zendesk.com/entries/20009311-qualify-as... https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/nook-app-dev.html https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/nook-app-dev.html Requirements for being a developer include at least a U.S. bank account and Tax ID#; the questionnaire also wants you to say why you're serious, and what other platforms you've already shipped on. (Having an app and wanting to sell it doesn't prove that you're serious enough?) Royalty terms are given in the press release at 70% of the sale price, but I'm still looking for the page that explains whether that's after discounts (and if so, by how much), and explains the other terms and conditions.
allwein 16y ago
I just took a look at the FAQ for Nook Color, and I have to admit I'm a little disappointed at the battery characteristics: Only 8 hours to a charge. Takes 3-4 hours to recharge. No USB Charging.

93 points by rkudeshi 16y ago

bane 16y ago

This is great news. It's now the cheapest tablet on the market (that doesn't have atrocious build quality).

dpritchett 16y ago
I played with a Nook Color and with an iPad 2 at Best Buy last weekend. The Nook felt like it was worth approximately half an iPad, which is about how it's priced. Granted, that's a great niche to be in. My reservations: it had a weak speaker, it felt a bit bendy, and it didn't seem to rotate the screen too often when I switched from horizontal to vertical orientation. I don't think its software was designed to rotate as often as iOS does. I can definitely see having one of these around the house to hack on but it's got flaws.
- eropple 16y ago
  That's basically my take on it - I bought it to play around with (and, of all things, run the Kindle app) and it's good for that and not really a ton more. The speaker's very weak, but mine doesn't feel bendy at all. It's very solid, considering the price.
- bane 16y ago
  I don't think its software was designed to rotate as often as iOS does. I've noticed this too, that iOS devices do the screen rotation thing with far more grace than Android devices.
  - ydant 16y ago
    I don't know how iOS handles it, but Android treats rotation... oddly. If you haven't specifically handled it, it basically kills your activity, loads the new rotated layout (which can be radically different from the other orientation's view), and then reloads your activity. Any initialization, etc, happens again (which is why, sometimes in some apps, you rotate and form fields are cleared). You can cache data and make rotates pretty seamless, but it still seems like a decent amount of overhead that wouldn't necessarily be there.
    - dpritchett 16y ago
      What I saw was even worse... Nook just doesn't even try to rotate most of the time. In iOS the default seems to be that any and every app will rotate in a meaningful way when I turn the device. Not so in my 5 minute demo of the Nook. It's not that it can't smoothly rotate the screen when it wants to, it's that it doesn't attempt to rotate the screen to match my position as often as iOS apps do.
      - allwein 16y ago
        >it doesn't attempt to rotate the screen to match my position as often as iOS apps do It was your particular phrasing of this issue that made me think that this may be a feature of the Nook, and not a bug. My biggest complaint about any iOS device used to be that when I was reading in bed, sometimes I would lie on my side, causing the screen to rotate when I didn't really want it to. Obviously, the screen-orientation lock functionality was a godsend for fixing this issue for me. It occurs to me that maybe, since the "primary" function of the Nook is reading, that it doesn't attempt screen rotation unless it really thinks that was your intent.
- muhfuhkuh 16y ago
  "My reservations: it had a weak speaker, it felt a bit bendy, and it didn't seem to rotate the screen too often when I switched from horizontal to vertical orientation." The speaker is positioned in the rear and it pushes sound away. I'm sure they did that for aesthetic (decluttered front bezel) and functional (no worrying about getting schmutz in the speaker grill) reasons. But, yeah, that causes distant, disembodied sound. I find my Nook Color solidly built for the price. The nice glass screen (I use an anti-glare screen protector to use it outside) is super-responsive almost to a fault. The plastic bezel is solid and finished well and doesn't seem to flex or pop when I hold it. The back plastic has a really grippy rubber coating that makes it nice to hold in one hand, as well. I think if they were to iterate, they should do away with the front plastic bezel and rock a total glass front, but I give it nice marks. I'd certainly consider paying up to 100 more for it and not be dissatisfied. About rotation, I think it's Apple's use of transitional animation that makes it feel like it's more responsive and, thus, more "accustomed" to it. The NC has the same accelerometer chip as the Xoom, so I think if you perceive any lag, it could be in the redrawing of the screen. That said, if you'd ever buy one, forgo all the installed software, root the device, and put a version of Cyanogenmod 7 (2.3 Gingerbread) on it. I use phiredrop 6. Stable as a table, full Android Market (and Amazon, btw), and youtube in fullscreen and flash in the browser.
  - skunkworks 16y ago
    Weird, I have had the opposite experience re: touch screen responsiveness. Difficulty turning pages, multiple "clicks" to get a button to work, etc. Being the owner of both an iPad and a rooted Nook Color, there's a pretty large quality gap between the two. That's not to say the NC is terrible -- the NC is actually a serious value buy -- but it's a testament to the competitive advantage that Apple has over everyone else in the tablet market.
    - nollidge 16y ago
      I have the same problems with touch responsiveness. It takes often takes multiple hits on the edge of the screen to get the page to turn.
  - 16y ago

narrator 16y ago

Congratulation to Barnes & Nobles. They are one of the few brick and mortar retailers that was able to embrace the Internet age instead of fighting or ignoring it. Their agility would make a great business school case study.

woodall 16y ago
Are we talking about the same store?[0] [0]http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=1y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c= http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=1y&l=on&z=...
- narrator 16y ago
  They finally started making money again last quarter: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=BKS http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=BKS They also managed to survive while Border's went broke: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=6m&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=BGP http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BKS&t=6m&l=on&z=... The stock is so beaten down because when Borders started to fall over it looked like book stores were all going to die one by one just like the brick and mortar music stores did.

cydonian_monk 16y ago

I'm not sure I like the whole "updates will be pushed to WiFi conncted Nooks" thing. However, given the way the NookColor recovers from failed boots (by restoring the system from a couple of ROM-"protected" zip files), there is at least a mechanism in place to do a remote full-system update in a sane way. Even with Froyo, I'm still looking to turn mine into a non-Android tablet. (Or perhaps a hybrid...?) Especially since it's so easy to run a system from the μSD card. $250 toy indeed. Yet so well-built for the price.

GiraffeNecktie 16y ago

Yet ANOTHER Android app store? Gimme a break. How many is it now? I've lost count.

spiffworks 16y ago
Its three. Crows can count that much.
- GiraffeNecktie 16y ago
  When you need a count of app stores, don't ask a crow. Let's see there's ... Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Android Marketplace, GetJar, various device manufacturers (Lenovo, Motorola, General Mobile), and various phone companies around the world. http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/12/30/the-ongoing-mess-of-android%E2%80%99s-app-store-fragmentation/ http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/12/30/the-ongoing-mess-of-andr... There's probably at least a dozen, if not more.
  - runjake 16y ago
    So what's the problem? Android pundits normally champion Choice as one of Android's features, as opposed to the single store (without jailbreaking) available on iOS. This sounds like a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't".
  - Kylekramer 16y ago
    How many stores can you purchase Windows or Mac software from? That towers over the Android stores. Why should mobile be different?
    - GiraffeNecktie 16y ago
      Actually there's a massive difference. I'm not forced to buy software only from Dell just because I bought a Dell computer, or only from Verizon just because Verizon provides my Internet access. Or join the "HP Developer Program" and download the "HP SDK" just so I can sell my Windows app through the "HP App store" to someone using an HP laptop. If all the app stores were just stores competing on a level playing field it would be a good thing, but they're obviously not. Most of these are not real "stores", they are schemes for extorting money from users and developers by removing (not enhancing) their ability to choose.

jeffreyg 16y ago

You still need a rooted version to access the Android app store (and probably always will since they won't want people buying this to install other eReader apps). It's a shame they need a whole new app store mainly to prevent access to a handful of apps.

trotsky 16y ago
The nook lacks hardware features (a camera, at least) that google requires for a device to qualify for google branding and google apps including android market.
- windsurfer 16y ago
  I thought tablets had exceptions to those rules?
  - trotsky 16y ago
    The rules are based on the OS version. There are some differences for 3.0, but in this case 2.1/2.2 doesn't officially support tablets at all so there weren't any exceptions. Froyo did require a camera, and the four android buttons - I don't think the nook has those either.

crocowhile 16y ago

Too bad the original nook is still stuck to an obsolete version for that is the one with paper screen that may compete more with kindle ( i have one of those and I regret buying it btw)

ck2 16y ago

Nook has had froyo for some time, just not officially http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices/nook-color http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices/nook-color

npalli 16y ago

Early reports suggest almost 3 million NC's sold in four months[1]. That would mean a run rate of at least 6 million per year. That is astonishing for a brick and mortar retailer with no consumer electronics background. The very attractive price point (could drop under $200) and decent ergonimics (lightweight 7") would mean NC could end up taking a major chunk of the light browsing/reading/email/ebook-reader market. 1. Amazon now has to bring out a tablet running Android. It is only a matter of time before the NC drops to under $200 and then people start buying the NC instead of Kindle. While rooting the NC is easy, if you check the downloads of the images, I would say less than 15% end up actively rooting. So that means no Kindle app on NC. 2. Apple now has to figure out alternate uses for the iPad since they are going to get disrupted on the browsing/email/ebook-reader category. I don't even know if they can bring out a 7" iPad (current investments in 10" and maybe even hardware optimized for 10"). Looks like they are trying to repurpose the iPad into a gaming device. In any case, they can't be happy with the rapid rise of NC. Strangely B&N is the only company which has a lower supply chain cost than Apple in the tablet market -- they own retail, they don't have to do any OS development, they don't have to put out the latest hardware. 1. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20048052-1.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20048052-1.html

brianbreslin 16y ago
Curious as to how you see B&N having lower supply chain cost than Apple? Apple is making 15M+ ipads, their unit costs on chips etc are going to be lower, B&N still has to source and develop the hardware for NC
- kenjackson 16y ago
  The OP seems to be implying that B&N has to pay very little for OS development (Google picks up most of the tab). And in terms of HW, the NC isn't a cutting edge device, so they can get 2nd/3rd gen parts. And coupled with good volume, gives them a low supply chain cost. I don't know if its lower than Apple's, but it's probably lower than anyother Android vendors except probably Samsung.
- npalli 16y ago
  Few things. kenjackson alluded to them 1. NC is using older generation parts (ex. their SoC is OMAP3621 which is at least two generations behind). This is off the shelf from Texas instruments who own the entire supply chain in design and foundry. Look at all the products using this technology -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_OMAP#OMAP3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_OMAP#OMAP3 -- now you are looking at pretty decent volume and per unit cost. 2. 6 million vs 15.4 is not very meaningful in per unit cost difference since both volumes are pretty huge. This is not accounting for the fact that other companies could be using this SoC. Also, Apple does custom design for thier own products so Samsung cannot sell off their chips to someone else. So Apple has to invest in design and all the associated costs in the development and obsolescense of the chips. Given the tight margins it is not surprising Apple buys gross manufacturing capacity below forecasts and let shortages occur.

yummyfajitas 16y ago

Just curious, anyone have experience using a rooted nook as a primary tablet?

calebmpeterson 16y ago
yes!! well worth the $250. it is super snappy, stable when rooted, has excellent battery life, and unlike the 10" iPad/Xoom fits comfortably in the back pocket. I bought mine weeks ago and havent regretted it for a second. And for the record I'm very much NOT an Android or iOS fanboi; as both a software dev and consumer i like various aspects of each ecosystem.
muhfuhkuh 16y ago
I do, and while you have to assume every statement I make has a silent "for the price" catted to the end, I am really at awe with it and now use it much more than my iPad 1. The smaller form factor really shines for reading ebooks, email, and cool feed readers like pulse. It's super responsive for all 2D tasks (reading, movies, games like Angry Birds) and you can hold it in one hand for extended periods unlike the iPad, which gets a little fatiguing after a half-hour or so. The eMail and gmail apps are great, Dolphin Browser HD and Firefox are good alternatives to the standard browser in Gingerbread, and it Tweets well enough. Youtube app plays well. Flash mobile is... well, it's flash on a mobile device (warts and all). Load all fantastic flash ads on demand! The processor is sporty (not fast), that is unless/until you root it and overclock it. I've got CPU governor set to "performance" and have it set at 600 MHz minimum and 1.1 GHz max. That said, Angry Birds ad-free plays silky smooth; with ads, it's a slog, but that's with almost any android device I've seen aside from my dual-core, nVidia-powered Atrix 4G phone. The overclocking produces no more heat or detrimental effects that I can perceive, so I believe they underpower the CPU by default. The Omap SoC has a decent graphics card that can play, for example, Backbreaker Football in 3D without any jitter and few (if any) dropped frames at all. It runs quadrant (synthetic benchmark) at an overall score of 2100+ and a 26.4 fps on neocore. It's a daily driver for me. The screen is great, it's super portable yet more substantial than a smartphone (especially for reading/surfing), and I've been actually reading more now than ever (split between nook's app and the kindle app).

hugh3 16y ago

So let me get this straight -- I assume the Nook Color has a backlit LCD display instead of e-paper? Does this mean that manufacturers are giving up on e-paper already (after years of telling us it was so much easier to read than a backlit screen)? I must say that I've spent a lot of time staring at my old-school Nook by now and I'm not really convinced that it's any easier to read than an iPad screen.

derekp7 16y ago
It depends on what the lighting conditions are. I couldn't read my Nook e-ink display with a 60-watt light bulb (text wasn't dark enough / background too silver). Apparently the newer e-ink display on the latest Kindle is better. But on the flip side I have a hard time with the Nook Color outside in the sunlight -- for that the e-ink works better. Also, the e-ink is good for a few weeks, instead of 8 hours.
- enjo 16y ago
  I wonder how those hybrid screens (like the Pixel QI screen) work? Until someone cracks the nut of building a color screen with the same fidelity as e-ink, that hybrid approach seems like a really good idea.

gordonbowman 16y ago

this is great to see. pandora while you read anyone?

rst 16y ago

Developer program docs, such as they are, here: https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/ https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/ That gets you access to the SDK. Access to the store is a messier deal. I've found brief summary docs, and a pointer to the application, in two places: http://nookdeveloper.zendesk.com/entries/20009311-qualify-as-a-nook-app-developer http://nookdeveloper.zendesk.com/entries/20009311-qualify-as... https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/nook-app-dev.html https://nookdeveloper.barnesandnoble.com/nook-app-dev.html Requirements for being a developer include at least a U.S. bank account and Tax ID#; the questionnaire also wants you to say why you're serious, and what other platforms you've already shipped on. (Having an app and wanting to sell it doesn't prove that you're serious enough?) Royalty terms are given in the press release at 70% of the sale price, but I'm still looking for the page that explains whether that's after discounts (and if so, by how much), and explains the other terms and conditions.

allwein 16y ago

I just took a look at the FAQ for Nook Color, and I have to admit I'm a little disappointed at the battery characteristics: Only 8 hours to a charge. Takes 3-4 hours to recharge. No USB Charging.