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Just as was rumored over the weekend, Barnes & Noble has introduced an 8GB version of their Nook Tablet. Along with the halved amount of internal storage, we’re also getting less RAM at 512MB. All of this was done to bring the tablet down to just $200, a great price point if the want to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire.

And as for that storage, you won’t have to worry much about it considering you can expand that with a microSD card slot. The original Nook Color has been reduced to $170 if you want to save an extra $30 on an Android-based e-reader. Other than all of that, it’s the same Nook Tablet that’s been available for quite some time. Grab it here if you’re interested and read on for full press details.

Barnes & Noble Introduces NOOK Tablet™ - 8GB For Incredibly Low Price of $199

New Addition to Hot-Selling, Highly Rated NOOK Tablet Line Offers Fastest, Lightest, Most Powerful Tablet with the Best in Reading and Entertainment,
Now in 8GB, at an Amazing Value

Award-Winning NOOK Color™ Now Offered at its Lowest Price Ever - $169

New York, New York - February 21, 2012 - Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today expanded its portfolio of bestselling NOOK® devices with the introduction of NOOK Tablet - with 8GB of memory, a tremendous value for the company’s fastest and lightest tablet at just $199. NOOK Tablet - 8GB version offers reading and mobile entertainment enthusiasts another great option in the NOOK family of devices. In addition, the company’s highly popular NOOK Color just became an even greater value at $169.

“For any customer who likes to read digitally, watch movies or TV shows, browse the web, or help their kids read and learn through interactive books and apps, our new $199 NOOK Tablet with 8GB is the best product value on the market,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Office of Barnes & Noble. “NOOK Tablet is the highest-rated wireless media tablet in the 7-inch class, ultra-portable at under a pound, offers our exclusive VividView™ screen technology, and since its introduction this holiday has received rave reviews from customers about all its great features. We’re pleased to now offer customers the ability to experience NOOK Tablet’s unmatched content experience for only $199.”

The newest member of the NOOK Tablet family offers the great features of top-selling NOOK Tablet - 16GB, but with 8GB of on-board memory, 512MB of RAM and a lower cost of just $199. NOOK Tablet - 8GB version includes all of these great features also available on NOOK Tablet - 16GB ($249):

A highly tuned 1GHz dual-core processor for streaming video and lightning-fast Web browsing so customers can surf their favorite sites, and built-in email to stay easily connected with friends and family
Breakthrough battery life, with 11.5 hours of reading time or nine hours of video viewing
With on-board storage plus convenient microSD memory expansion, customers have ample space for their reading and entertainment content, regardless of Wi-Fi availability
The world’s most advanced VividView display for viewing content, with 16 million colors and a resolution purity that’s simply gorgeous
Popular movies, TV shows and music from top services including Netflix, Hulu Plus™, Flixster, Pandora®, Rhapsody®, Grooveshark, MOG and many more.
Thousands of top-rated, high-quality NOOK Apps, all optimized for NOOK Tablet’s ultra-responsive 7-inch color touchscreen, in categories including Games, Kids, Travel, Education, Lifestyle & Interest, News & Weather, Social, Productivity and others. Favorites including Cut the Rope, Disney Publishing’s It’s a Small World and more are coming soon to the robust NOOK Apps catalog.
Barnes & Noble’s award-winning reading experience, featuring more than 2.5 million digital books, periodicals, children’s books and more, including:
NOOK Newsstand™: An expansive collection of more than 450 digital periodical titles, which includes the largest digital collection of top 100 magazines available for subscription and single copy purchase. Colorful interactive magazines offer Barnes & Noble’s ArticleView™, animated page turns and smooth pinch, zoom and panning. Many special edition NOOK Magazines™ feature videos, quizzes, image galleries and more.
NOOK Kids™: More than 1,400 interactive children’s picture books, some featuring animation and engaging activities, and more than 12,000 chapter books. With Read and Record™, customers can use NOOK Tablet’s built-in microphone to record and save their reading of any NOOK Kids picture books so children can listen to their favorite storytellers anytime.
NOOK Comics and graphic novels: A vast collection of full-color comics, graphic novels and kids’ comics in high resolution and the largest digital collection of Marvel’s graphic novels available through a third party, as well as other titles from leading publishers including Archie, IDW and Dynamite. Through a partnership with VIZ Media, LLC, the largest publisher of anime and manga in North America, NOOK customers can access more than 30 series, featuring nearly 430 volumes.
Books and more: Continuously expanded NOOK Store™ with the vast majority of books available for $9.99 or less. Barnes & Noble’s digital book collection includes PagePerfect™ NOOK Books™ featuring cookbooks, craft and art books rendered with rich precision to retain all the beauty of their stunning print versions, and enhanced reading with PDF thumbnail page views, and image pinch, zoom and pan in books and PDFs.
Discover and socialize: Learn what to read next from Barnes & Noble’s knowledgeable booksellers with personalized recommendations, or connect through NOOK Friends™ to share thoughts, lend books through the exclusive LendMe® technology and more via email and sites like Facebook.
Continuous reading: Read what you love, anywhere you like™ on NOOK devices and with FREE NOOK Reading Apps. Sync your library, last page read, bookmarks, etc. across all of your devices through NOOK Cloud.
Sleek and thin with a soft touch back design, and lightweight at under a pound (14.1 oz.), making it easy to carry in a handbag, briefcase, backpack or suit jacket pocket for reading and entertainment on-the-go.

Customers can, as always, access their personal NOOK Library™ through the free, reliable and secure NOOK Cloud™ service, which also powers the seamless integration and synchronization between devices, as well as NOOK’s best-in-class shopping experience and social features.

Says Lynch, “NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color and NOOK Simple Touch™ represent the highest-quality portfolio of reading and entertainment products on the market at the best value. Whether it’s movies, music and apps on-the-go that you crave, or a simple, immersive reading experience, we offer great products and more choices than ever before with our product portfolio, starting at just $99.”

NOOK Color: Now $169
The highly acclaimed NOOK Color, offering access to top video and music services, popular apps, comics and more, is now available at a new low price of just $169, starting today. The first Reader’s Tablet, NOOK Color combines an award-winning reading experience with tablet essentials including apps, Web and email. NOOK Color customers can download Netflix to watch movies and TV shows, access a wide array of books, periodicals and comics, enjoy top music services and thousands of apps, browse the easy-to-use, social and streamlined NOOK Store.

Availability
NOOK Tablet - 8GB version is available for purchase today for $199 at www.nook.com and in Barnes & Noble stores, and will be available in leading retailers including Best Buy, Target and Walmart in the coming weeks. NOOK Color is now available in Barnes & Noble stores and www.nook.com for $169. Experience NOOK Tablet, NOOK Color and NOOK Simple Touch at www.nook.com or at the NOOK Digital Shops™, which feature the full portfolio of NOOK digital devices and FREE NOOK Reading Apps™, or displays in one of Barnes & Noble’s nearly 700 bookstores and other leading retailers. Barnes & Noble offers Always Free NOOK Support in all of its neighborhood bookstores, with more than 40,000 NOOKsellers across the country ready to assist customers with setting up their NOOK devices or choosing their next great read.

Yup it’s true. I can’t tell how you many furious comments I read back when Apple introduced their “all new” and “revolutionary” Notification Center feature in iOS, complete with a handy pull-down bar. Many Android fans screamed from the rooftops, “Why hasn’t Google applied for a patent on the notification bar!? Why don’t they even care!?” Well, they do and they did.

What you’re looking at above you is Google’s application for a patent on their notification bar system, filed back in January of 2009. Yeah, things move slow over at the USTPO. Application number 12/363,325 which is still pending is described as,

“A computer-implemented user notification method includes displaying, in a status area near a perimeter of a graphical interface, a notification of a recent alert event for a mobile device, receiving a user selection in the status area, and in response to the receipt of the user selection, displaying, in a central zone of the graphical interface, detail regarding a plurality of recent messaging events for the mobile device.”

Guess all we can do now is play the waiting game because, ohhhhh man, once/if this patent is granted, Apple is so — for lack of better word — screwed.

[Google Patents | Via Reddit]

Google has just announced a new update to come to YouTube for Google TV, in the coming days. We already know that some “big announcements” about Google TV are to come tomorrow, and this might very well be one of them. Let’s hope the coming announcements are much more exciting, though.

The new YouTube app will be available straight from the Android Market. New features include improved performance, with faster and smoother navigation. But they have also added a new feature called “Discover,” allowing you to browse YouTube channels by category.

Other extra features include the ability to see related/more videos from users and the addition of an info screen (from which you can execute a thumbs up, add it to your playlists or leave a comment).

We sure hope that this is not the only “big announcement” we have all been expecting. As it would not live up to all of this hype. For more details, check out Google TV’s blog, and let’s stay tuned to see when this update starts rolling out.

[Source: Google TV Blog]