Onyx Does What The Nook Should’ve Been

The Boox eReader was surprisingly popular in some European countries — likely because it was the only eReader available for sale.

Nevertheless, Onyx must have been encouraged to further develop their products because Charbax has the scoop on two new products: an eInk phone and a new Boox eReader that’s essentially an eInk Android tablet!

That’s a move Nook Media should have made when it introduced the original Nook Touch. Having seen how eagerly people were rooting the original Nook and the NookColor, Nook Media should have capitalized on that and gone vanilla Android, with Nook as an app.

But it didn’t work out that way. And here we are today.

After the break, check out the exciting video.

How The Windows RT Nook Will Happen And Its Price

The rumor out of China this morning is that at Computex 2013 Asus will introduce a stylus-enabled seven-inch Windows 8 tablet for US$300. Right now, we don’t know if that’s full Windows 8 or just Windows RT. Since only the Surface Pro has a stylus, it’s likely full Windows 8. So US$300 would be quite a stunning price.

That got me to thinking what the price of a Windows RT-based Nook tablet must be to succeed.

And I think it’ll have to be US$149.99 to succeed.

Could that price point be met?

Nook Touch Jumps In Deadpool With $20 Fire Sale

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This is not a joke.

Staples stopped carrying the Nook series a while ago, so don’t look for it there. This is a Radio Shack special, just as the HP TouchPad fire sale was mostly a Best Buy special.

All of you eInk addicts had better go grab it.

Let me remind all of you that it can be turned into a passable Android tablet — and that includes using the Kindle app. It can also be an early 1980s Macintosh too. Click here to see all of my posts about Nook Touch rooting with embedded YouTube videos by people who have done it.

At one time, I would have jumped at this. But going through the trouble of rooting just isn’t worth it to me any longer. So the rest of you go have that fun.

I’ll just sit here playing “Taps” for the Nook.

Nookia

If Microsoft goes all-in by purchasing Nook Media, why not go all-in and purchase Nokia too?

Nokia could get that 7.2-inch Windows RT Nook Tablet out for year’s end.

It’d be stylish too.

And have a great camera.

A Nookia tablet.

(And for the doubters who disbelieve a Windows RT Nook will be here later this year. Do you really think Nook Media can afford to miss the holiday sales? And do you really think they can fob another Android tablet off on people now? The answer to both questions is No.)

And So The Next Nook Will Be Windows RT

Wherein others confirm what I already told you:

March 22: The Sad Slow Ending Of The Nook
March 29: All Nook Tablets Are Now Orphan Devices
April 13: Rumor: Microsoft To Do 7.2-Inch 4:3 Tablet

What I didn’t expect was that Microsoft would be stupid enough to go All-In with Nook Media. But Microsoft has not been the most rational corporation recently, what with Windows 8 tanking PC sales and the Surface going nowhere. Ballmer probably figures it’s easier and faster to buy an existing firm than to negotiate from scratch all those licenses Nook Media has.

Microsoft Mulling Nook Media LLC Purchase For $1 Billion

The documents also reveal that Nook Media plans to discontinue its Android-based tablet business by the end of its 2014 fiscal year as it transitions to a model where Nook content is distributed through apps on “third-party partner” devices. Speculation about the plan to discontinue the Nook surfaced in February. The documents we have are not clear on whether the third-party tablets would be Microsoft’s own Windows 8 devices, tablets made by others (including competing platforms) or both. Third-party tablets, according to the document, are due to get introduced in 2014.

Nook e-readers, meanwhile, do not appear to fall into the discontinuation pile immediately. Rather, they’re projected to have their own gradual, natural decline — following the general trend of consumers moving to tablets as all-purpose devices.

Techcrunch can rely on leaked docs all it wants. I’m telling you there will be a new Nook tablet this year and it will run Windows RT.

Google Books PDF Death Match 1: Nook HD+

It’s time to get real.

Previously I’ve used Success: A Novel (catch up here) as my Google Books test PDF. Most mainstream devices can now do that. So it’s time to up the ante to the full Monty of what I need a device to do.

I’ve already tried this twice:

Samsung Galaxy S III Test
Second Samsung Galaxy S III Test

I wanted to use the same PDF but problems erupted. I had to use a different issue of The American Magazine. The one in those first two tests was 203MBs. The one in these tests is a whopping 290MBs. How’s that for going nuclear?

If you want to play at home:
Google Books: The American Magazine, Volume 89
Google Docs: American Magazine (for those outside the U.S.)

I will repeat this introduction on all four posts in this series since I doubt people will read all of them.

Now onto the Nook HD+.

Barnes & Noble’s Shocking Nook Tablet Sale

Just yesterday, I said that Barnes & Noble had to cut the price of the Nook HD+ to US$199.

Today, this:

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Whoa! It doesn’t matter that this is a sale. They went down to US$179!

That’s just US$10 more than the dual-core Archos 80 Titanium.

I am shocked, stunned, and in awe.

Barnes & Noble Takes First Step To Phasing Out Nook Tablets

January 3, 2013, William Lynch of Barnes & Noble/Nook Media:

We are examining the root cause of the December shortfall in sales, and will adjust our strategies accordingly going forward.

February 28, 2013: Brave Talk From Nook Media’s William Lynch

As the market goes to more multi-function tablets, we have to look at how we offer functionality differently and that’s what we’re focused on now.

May 3, 2013: Google Play comes to Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD and HD+, we go hands-on (video)

So Lynch has delivered. It’s probably too little too late.

Clearly they’re trying to do the right thing by letting in the Play Store. This assures customers that they won’t be left with a useless piece of hardware when they finally pull the plug on their own Nook App Store — which they will do.

Does this move help Barnes & Noble sell more Nooks now? Maybe.

Nook HD+ Has A Secret Menu

His screen is covered with strategically-placed bits of paper to conceal private info. Still, it’s easy to see how to get to the Secret Menu and the information it contains.

Rumor: Microsoft To Do 7.2-Inch 4:3 Tablet

Chinese site iFanr is reporting:

Google English: Exclusive news: Microsoft 7.2-inch flat-screen ratio suspected 4:3

Today, insider sources revealed to Love Fan children, Microsoft will launch a 7.2-inch tablet, the resolution is 1600 × 1200, a single glass full lamination technology. The effective area of ​​the tablet (active area) and the proportion of the visible area (view area) are 4:3. As to whether the system is using Windows 8 is unknown.

That’s more like it.

I suspect this is due to Microsoft’s $300M investment in Nook Media.

A 4:3 tablet is more suitable to reading books and magazines, as I earlier pointed out.