Technology : It's Nook vs. Kindle: Round II

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Barnes & Noble's Nook tablet device will cost $  249 and go on sale November 16.

Barnes & Noble's Nook tablet device will cost $ 249 and go on sale November 16.



STORY HIGHLIGHTS



  • Barnes & Noble launches the Nook Tablet to compete with Kindle Fire

  • Both tablets are cheaper than iPads and feature color screens

  • They tie in with Amazon and Barnes & Noble content libraries

  • Amazon's Kindle fire is $ 50 cheaper than the Nook Tablet





(CNN) -- The rivalry is so intense that Barnes & Noble actually spoke its competitor's name:


"Kindle Fire is deficient for a media tablet," Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said as he unveiled his company's Nook Tablet on Monday. "Content will render better on Nook than on Kindle Fire."


That jab essentially re-opened the fight between Barnes & Noble and Amazon over customers looking for digital-book-reading devices. Round I in this donnybrook was between the Nook and Kindle e-readers.


Next week, however, both companies will put their next-generation tablets on the market, setting up a new battle for holiday shoppers looking for gadgets that are good for reading books, watching videos and browsing the Internet.


Here's a quick comparison of the devices, which are called the Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire. (The gist, in case you're in a hurry, is that they're pretty darn similar; the Kindle costs $ 50 less, while the Nook has twice the storage space and a longer advertised battery life).


Price


Nook Tablet: $ 249


Kindle Fire: $ 199


Sale date


Nook Tablet: November 17


Kindle Fire: November 15


Screens


Both: 7-inch touch-sensitive screen with color display


Purpose


Both: Reading books, watching videos and browsing the Web. Both of these devices are more focused on the book-reading experience than the Apple iPad, which dominates the tablet field.


Operating system


Both: Customized versions of Google Android


Apps


You'd think these Android-based tablets would give owners access to the popular Google Android Market, which houses more than 250,000 apps. But no. Barnes & Noble and Amazon require users to purchase apps through online stores that they've created.


Nook Tablet: "Thousands of must-have apps," the company says, including Angry Birds, Scrabble, Bejeweled and Epicurious.


Kindle Fire: "All the most popular apps and games," including Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies.


Storage space


Nook Tablet: 16 GB


Kindle Fire: 8 GB


Memory


Nook Tablet: 1GB of RAM


Kindle Fire: 512 MB of RAM, according to Computerworld


Weight:


Nook Tablet: 14.1 ounces


Kindle Fire: 14.6 ounces


Battery life:


Nook Tablet: 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video


Kindle Fire: 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video with Wi-Fi turned off


Books:


Nook Tablet: More than 2.5 million titles


Kindle Fire: More than 1 million current titles and 2 million out-of-copyright



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