colorful

Developer offers $5K prize for bootable Nook Tablet card

Do you have mad Android hacking skills? Put them to good use and you might just earn $5,000--or more.

N2A Cards LLC, best known for transforming Barnes & Noble Nook Color e-readers into full-blown Android tablets, has thrown down the gauntlet to the development community: first person to create a bootable Android microSD card for the Nook Tablet (the Color's successor) gets $2,500.

And if you do it before midnight on January 22, you get a $2,500 bonus.

Here's a summary of what the contest entails:

N2A Cards LLC will offer a $2,500 reward … Read more

Could LG's new 55-inch OLED be the best TV ever?

LG is expected to release the "world's largest" 55-inch OLED TV in 2012 that features four colors instead of the three-color RGB standard and promises better off-axis viewing than competitors.

Where Sharp added a yellow pixel to its Quattron technology, LG has added a white pixel to its OLED (organic light emitting diode) panel for a "brighter picture".

In terms of image quality, Sharp offers some stiff competition to the OLED, with its Elite Pro receiving a deeply impressive 9.5 rating from David Katzmaier last month

Traditionally, OLED offers higher contrast than both LCD … Read more

Nook Color gets major software update, adds Netflix streaming

Call it an early holiday gift or just making good on a promise, but Barnes & Noble has just released an expected software update for Nook Color owners that adds many of the features now found in the company's step-up model, the $249 Nook Tablet.

What does the update, which Barnes & Noble is calling the "largest ever for the device," add?

Well, beyond some "ongoing performance improvements," here are the highlights:

Access to popular movies and TV shows streamed through Netflix. New Flixster app (allows you to access digital movies and TV shows on … Read more

What's the best Nook Tablet case?

The other day I did a best cases and covers roundup for the Kindle Fire and a few readers asked for some equal blog time for the Nook Tablet and suggested I make some case recommendations.

Well, Barnes & Noble makes a lot of nice cases for the Nook Tablet and Nook Color (the devices are the same size, though the Tablet is a bit lighter), but like with the Fire, I'm only interested in cases that convert into a stand. After all, the Nook Tablet is a "media" tablet, and Netflix looks really good on it, so why shouldn't you be able to prop it up properly? … Read more

How to turn any picture into a coloring page

Coloring books are a great way to keep a child's attention and occupy their time.

They also provide a creative outlet for a child's inner Picasso that is several times more preferable than your walls or new furniture. However, you can even make these for yourself. After all, coloring can be a way to relieve stress and meditate, so why not have fun coloring some beautiful scenery or a favorite character from your childhood?

Follow these steps to learn how to turn any photo (be it of you, a place you visited on vacation, or even just something … Read more

Hands-on with Color's live, silent video 'Visits'

Facebook not intrusive enough in your life, Bucky? Can't stand the fact that you can only see what your friends are doing after they've already done it?

Then you'll need Color for Facebook, the new app from the company that made the poorly-received previous version of Color. A preview of the app is circulating now and I tried it out. The app will open up to the public later this year.

Color for Facebook is an alternative mobile client app (iPhone and Android) for the social network. It focuses on photo and video sharing, and it's … Read more

Kindle Fire has already been hacked

If there's one thing you can say about the Android developer and hacker community, it's that it moves incredibly fast.

Each time a new smartphone or tablet finds its way into the market, the modders and hackers get to work, trying to root the device. And now, just days two days after its release, the Amazon Kindle Fire has become the latest target.

Gaining root-level access gives users the ability not only to install applications from additional sources, but also it allows for the removal of the standard software. Potentially that means that developers and tech-savvy enthusiasts could … Read more

Nook Tablet hands-on: Can it fight the Fire?

Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire?

That's the question that's already bedeviling consumers and gadget aficionados alike.

In a matter of weeks, it seems, the tablet market has been compressed to just a handful of choices. The iPad 2 still rules the high end ($500 and above), but the "e-reader as tablet" option now looms large in the sub-$250 range, with the $199 Kindle Fire going mano a mano with the $249 Nook Tablet.

The Kindle Fire has just started shipping, and the Nook Tablet will follow as soon as tomorrow (a few days earlier than originally expected).

Last year, Barnes & Noble released the Nook Color at the same $249 price. Back then, a 7-inch color e-reader that could run apps as well as read color books and magazines, and even play movies and music, was a revelation. The Android tablet could even be rooted--to many, it became known as the not-so-secret most-affordable Android tablet around with the best design (other similarly priced and more-generic Android tablets are, by comparison, terrible).

With the Fire on the horizon, Barnes & Noble knew it had to up the ante.… Read more

B&N's new Nook Tablet

Hard drive shortages and weak sales slow down the PC market, HTC announces phones that will get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update, and Barnes & Noble takes on the Kindle with a new lineup, including the Nook Tablet and Nook Simple Touch.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Barnes & Noble introduces Nook Tablet (live blog)

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component at the end of this post. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET reporters. Or you can read the edited transcription below. And to get the key points from today's announcement, in which Barnes & Noble introduced the $249 Nook Tablet and reduced the prices for its Nook Color and Simple Touch, you can check out a summary story here. Click here for a hands-on review of the new tablet.

This morning, Barnes & Noble is holding a press conference to unveil next-generation Nook products. We'll be there starting at 9:45 a.m. ET, live-blogging the whole event.

How much less expensive will the touch-based Nook get? Will the new Nook Color be significantly different from the existing one? And, will Barnes & Noble be able to offer the right types of content and value to compete with Amazon's intimidating cloud offerings in books, music, TV, and movies? Will it all unfold like recent rumors suggest, or will there be surprises?

Bookmark this link, and follow the live blog below.