Amazon is going for Apples throat with it’s soon to be released Kindle Fire, and it seems B&N wants a piece of the action. In almost immediate reaction to Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble have announced a new tablet like E-reader called, quite creatively, the Nook Tablet (I know, it must have taken them hours to think of that name). jokes aside, it’s an impressive package with a 7 inch 1080p display, 11.5 hours of battery life, 16GB of built-in memory, which can expand with an SD card. It also will offer, out of the box, Netflix and Hulu Plus support, giving it a step ahead of Amazon’s Kindle. It has a better display, more RAM, more on-board memory, slightly lighter and it has free support with any Nook station in any Barnes and Noble. At just $250, $50 more than the Amazon Kindle Fire, it’s an enticing package which will also have Android OS support.
When the first iPad came out I was already an anti-tablet fan. I found them over priced, under powered and just an over sized smart phone that doesn’t make calls. I suppose that is more true for the iPad as it’s design is almost identical to their phones… But it isn’t true anymore. I have been eyeing up the Kindle Fire, patiently awaiting its release so I can jailbreak it and have a very cheap, light android tablet. Engadget released an article today that actually surprised me. Not because it is so obvious, but because I completely forgot about netbooks. It seems more tablets have been shipped than netbooks, which means probably one thing, netbooks are on their way out.
In response to a deal struck between Amazon and DC, making select DC titles exclusively available on the Kindle, B&N has pulled some of their books from their shelves. B&N has a promise to its customers that if a book is available on their shelves, it is also available on their E-reader. Since DC struck the exclusive deal Barnes and Noble have begun pulling their books to keep their promise. ”To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms and not have the e-book available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime.” says J’onn J’onzz, an exec of Barnes and Noble via Engadget. Is this a misstep on DC or Barnes and Nobles part?
So it seems some department stores are already hanging up their Christmas decorations, and you know what that means! That’s right, new gadgets being announced and released rapid fire for the next couple months. We here at TheBlueDot.net are passionate about all things electronic, so we wanted to show off the few new goodies we are keeping our eyes on.
Kindle Fire
The iPad has been dominating the tablet market even though there are dozens of other cheaper tablets to choose from. The problem was there wasn’t a big marketable name slapped on to the other tablets to compete with such a powerful brand. This is where Amazon and the Kindle Fire comes in. Touting the Android OS, the Kindle Fire (priced at a comfortable $199) may actually shake things up a bit in the tablet world. It has the Kindle brand behind it, and the price point is two fifths the price of the iPad. Why spend $500 on a tablet you may or may not use when you can get one for $200 that may do the exact same thing. It only boasts 8GB of storage, but with the ability to sync your data online it may not matter. We here at TheBlueDot can’t wait to get our hands on it and give it a whirl.
iPhone 5
Of course Apple has something around the corner, they always do. Apple has yet to announce the iPhone 5, or even release many details on their new phone. But everyone has been making guesses on what it may have, and what it probably will have. A better camera, better screen, Near Communication Technology and much much more. We don’t have much information on this up coming phone, like everyone else. But we will be keeping a close eye on the official announcement. Before the announcement, and after, you cantrade in your old iPhones to TheBlueDot to help with your new iPhone purchase.
Microsoft updates
though these are separate things, they are both much needed updates. The Kinect has been a hot buy for the XBox 360, even though it lacks a library. The biggest fault though is in it’s lack of interface with the 360 dashboard. The Kinect Dashboard is incredibly limited, leaving almost no reason to wave at your device and use it over a controller. But that may soon change within the next few months. Massive updates to the software will add more menu options and , hopefully, better video control.
The other update coming out of Microsoft is Mango for the Windows phones. That’s right, there is another smart phone OS choice out there, just not one that has made any waves, until now. The Mango update has an alleged 500 feature additions, which is just too many to list here. The biggest change is to it’s better social media integration, which is a must have in the smart phone world. Reviews are already starting to spill out, so give them a look and consider the Windows OS phones when looking for a new phone.
Ice Cream Sandwich
No, not the dessert, the OS update for Android. Well, not all Androids. All Androids released this past year (and a few beyond) will be getting the much anticipated update by Google. Ice Cream Sandwich hasn’t been released yet, but leaks have made their way to the general public. Most f the updates seem to be superficial, but there are a few menu updates and multitasking updates that many will be happy to see. We’ll wait for a bit more information, but so far none of the Google updates have let us down.
We’ll try to keep you all updated as more and more news trickles out on all these devices and updates.
