Tablet Trouble
As of today, the new Nook Tablet from Barnes and Noble and Amazon’s tablet the Kindle Fire are available in stores. Except, as far as this Nook user is concerned, there’s only one worth buying.
Both the Android tablets have longer battery life and flash video watching capability. The Nook Tablet comes installed with Netflix and Hulu. Yet, while the Nook Tablet has potentially more storage when you include the potential memory card (48GB), Amazon’s Fire offers much more in terms of design, service, and price.
The Fire’s new design is a complete overhaul from it’s previous model’s look, whereas, the Nook Tablet resembles much of its predecessor the Nook Color. Add that to the fact the Fire comes with Amazon’s already burgeoning app store, movie collection, digital library, and a cloud service allowing you to access your files anywhere, and the Nook’s developing app store begins to look negligible. In addition, the Fire ($199) is a good $50 cheaper than its rival.
However, what seems to be the consensus on the blogosphere is that neither of these Android tablets are anything we haven’t seen before. Actually, the point that makes the Android’s operating system so valuable to the user is the Android marketplace, which isn’t offered on either. Unless, that is, you want to attempt to hack your Kindle Fire, you’re stuck with what each provider offers.
What is interesting is the effect these two soon-to-be popular holiday gifts will have on the elite $500-and-up iPad 2. There is no doubt Apple will milk every penny out of the iPad possible, but take a look at some other Apple products fiscal history.
