Nook Tablet/Color Price Drop

Today Barnes and Noble announced a price drop for the Nook Color to $169, and a new Nook Tablet at $199.  There is still a Nook Tablet at $249, with double the internal storage (16 GB) of the new $199 model (8 GB).

I own a Nook Color, which I purchased back when it cost $249.  At $169, it is really one of the best tablets out there at a terrific price.  I've had my Nook Color for a couple of years and it does the job of a basic color tablet very well.  I've purchased a few books for it, as well as sideloaded quite a few free ebooks.  If you're a Science Fiction fan like I am, the Baen Free Library (www.baen.com/library) is a great way to start.  Of course Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org is a source for almost 40,000 free ebooks.

The nice thing about the Nook Color is that you're not limited to just reading books, but can surf the web and even get your Angry Birds fix for the day (or hourly as some of us require).  If you want to take a little break with a cup of Starbucks, a Barnes and Noble Cafe in the bookstores is a good way to spend some time.  The Nook Color attaches to the Wi-Fi hotspot, and you can even get an hour's worth of reading for many current books for free.

The other reason I like the Nook Color (versus the Tablet) is that it is still easily rooted, and with a little time and an SD card, you can have it dual boot, either to the stock B&N software, or a custom ROM.

Chrome for Android

Since my last post saying that I miss a 'grown up' browser on my tablet, Google has released Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4).  Recently the Chrome browser was made available for ICS, and I have to say I'm happier.  I use it on my Galaxy Nexus and I've very pleased, especially having access to my desktop bookmarks.

Now, if something can just happen to get ICS faster to my tablet(s) I'll be even happier.