The new $50 Barnes & Noble NOOK tablet wants to take out Amazon Fire

A few weeks ago, FCC filings leaked out the news that bookseller Barnes & Noble was planning to launch a new tablet to compete directly with Amazon's Fire lineup. Today, the company officially announced the new Barnes & Noble NOOK, a 7-inch device that is priced at just $49.99, the same cost as the 7-inch Amazon Fire.

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Several years ago, Barnes & Noble tried to compete directly with Amazon's tablets by designing their own NOOK devices. That plan pretty much crashed and burned and was a huge financial disaster for Barnes & Noble. Until today's announcement, the bookseller has been selling versions of Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablets with the NOOK branding, with no real hardware changes. Now the company has cut its ties with Samsung and it looks like it wants to go back into the fire again (no pun intended) and compete directly for buyers who want a cheap tablet for reading and other content consuming needs.

Unlike the Amazon Fire, which uses its own forked version of Android (Fire OS) and its own app store, the new Barnes & Noble NOOK runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and has full access to the apps in the Google Play Store. The resolution of the display is 1024×600, and it has 8GB of onboard storage, along with a microSD card slot that can support up to 128GB of additional storage. It also has a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front-facing camera, and the 3,000mAh battery is supposed to last up to 7 hours.  Barnes & Noble did not state the processor or the amount of RAM in the new NOOK tablet, but the previous FCC filing revealed that it has a quad-core MediaTek MT8163 chip inside.

The new Barnes & Noble NOOK tablet is available for pre-order now on the bookseller's website, and will officially go on sale in its brick-and-mortar bookstores on Black Friday, November 25. It will certainly be interesting to see if this tablet will attract budget conscious consumers looking for an alternative to the Fire OS-based Amazon device.

Pre-order at Barnes & Noble

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Reliance Jio will soon launch 4G VoLTE smartphone in India priced around just $15

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, a subsidiary of India's largest private sector conglomerate — Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), will soon launch 4G VoLTE phones with unlimited voice and video calling.

After disrupting the telecom market in the country with India's first 4G-only legacy-free, next-generation voice and broadband network with Jio, the company aims to win over customers from the large volume of rural and Tier III markets currently served by 2G/3G feature phones, and first time data users with these budget devices.

According to The Economic Times, the company is developing two feature phones priced at about ₹1000 ($15) and ₹1500 ($22) that are likely to be launched during January-March next year. Jio is working with domestic handset maker, LAVA International, and another Chinese OEM. The devices will function just like smartphones (powered by Spreadtrum processor) with data and calling capability — the only thing missing will be the touchscreen. Of course, these devices expectedly will have Jio suite of services bundled in.

Reliance has launched several Android smartphones under its LYF brand since last year. From budget to mid-range, the current range of LYF devices are priced between ₹2,999 and ₹19,999.

Transsion, the Chinese company that sells feature phones under the Itel brand, also plans to introduce 4G feature phones in India next month, and according to the company, the platform for this technology is being actively developed and tested in China already.

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Google Allo adds background themes and Smart Smiley feature

The recently launched Google Allo messaging app continues to add new features via updates from the Play Store. The latest version includes a new option that was hinted at a couple of weeks ago in a leak: background themes.

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Google Allo: Everything you need to know

September 21, 2016

Basically, Allo users now have the option to switch from a basic background for their text chats to a variety of different and colorful designs. While this is just a visual change, it certainly will help make chatting more interesting compared to a plain white background.

Google is also adding what the company calls the Smart Smiley button to Allo with this update. The company says that people use less than 3 percent of the emojis that are currently available for chats. The Smart Smiley button is designed to change that. Users can just press on the button while they are typing a message to a friend, and a list of relevant emoji and stickers will appear that can be placed inside the message. Those choices will change based on both the words and sentiment for each text message, and Smart Smiley can even offer suggestions for emojis before you start typing based on the current conversation.

Finally, Google Allo users can add official stickers based on the upcoming movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". The film, set in the universe of Harry Potter, debuts in movie theaters on Friday, Nov. 18. What do you think of the new background themes, the Smart Smiley button and the Fantastic Beasts stickers that have been added to Google Allo?

Get it at Google Play

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O2 will sell the OnePlus 3T exclusively in the UK starting at £417.99

 

O2 will sell the OnePlus 3T exclusively in the UK with the off-contract price starting at £417.99. O2 made the announcement today via a press release, stating that pre-orders would begin on November 17 with the street date set for November 28.

O2 is also offering the handset on a range of tariffs. The 64 GB version can be picked up for £31 per month with 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 500 MB of data or £42 per month with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 5 GB of data. Both deals come with a £9.99 upfront fee.

Tariffs for the 128 GB version, on the other hand, include £33 per month for 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 500 MB of data, and £44 per month for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and 5 GB of data. Neither of the 128 GB deals include an up-front payment.

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The 128 GB version will be available for a one-off payment of £456 (the 64 GB version will be available for the £417.99 price mentioned earlier). OnePlus will sell the 64 GB and 128 GB version from its online store for £399 and £439 respectively when they launch on November 28.

O2 also mentioned that fans would be able to get their hands on a OnePlus 3T early at a pop-up event at its 134 Oxford Street store in London, which starts at 3:02pm on November 24.

The OnePlus 3T is an upgraded version of the OnePlus 3, which packs a more powerful processor and a better camera into the same OnePlus 3 body. Learn what else is new in the OnePlus 3T at the link.

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Get a year of Amazon Prime for $79 – but you’ve only got one day to do it

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To celebrate the imminent premiere of the Amazon-exclusive series, The Grand Tour, featuring the former cast of Top Gear, Amazon is offering a one-day-only 20% discount on the cost of a new annual membership to Amazon Prime. "Starting Friday, November 18 at 12:00am ET and concluding at 11:59pm PT, Amazon Prime will be available for just $79," Amazon announced in a press release.

The Grand Tour will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Friday November 18 with weekly new episodes for 12 weeks. Owners of Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo and Dot will also be granted a new The Grand Tour voice command skill. U.S.-based users that take advantage of the skill between November 19 and December 22 will be entered in a weekly random drawing for a chance to win a $25 gift card from Amazon.com:

In The Grand Tour skill, featuring the voices of hosts Clarkson, Hammond and May, customers will receive a new clue every Thursday about what to watch for in the upcoming episode of the series, and new trivia will be released each Saturday. Fans who are truly "on the tour" and answer all three questions right will unlock exclusive video content.

This is obviously great timing for anyone planning to take advantage of Amazon's Black Friday deals. Of course, if you continue your subscription to Amazon Prime beyond 12 months, you'll revert back to the usual $99/year fee though. Hit the source link below if you want to take a closer look at the various benefits of an Amazon Prime subscription.

Have you tried Amazon Prime? Will you be signing up this Friday?

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ZTE Grand X 4 lands on Cricket Wireless for only $130

Looking for a good phone and your budget doesn't help you get one of the big brand handsets? ZTE promises a great experience with the Grand X 4, which has just launched on Cricket Wireless for a mere $130.

No longer does spending little money on a smartphone mean you must also sacrifice much quality and performance. The ZTE Grand X 4 will work perfectly for many of you. Its specs include a 5.5-inch 720p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, microSD support, a 13 MP rear camera, a 5 MP selfie shooter and a 3,140 mAh battery.

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October 15, 2016

It even has a fingerprint sensor on the back, so you are not missing on all the cool features you thought were only in high-end gadgets. Add the fact that you also get Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and this phone is looking quite enticing.

The ZTE Grand X3 was a great option when it launched earlier this year (check out our hands-on coverage), and the ZTE Grand X 4 is only improving upon the experience.

Interested customers can now head over to Cricket's website and sign up for the ZTE Grand X 4.

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Critical Ops achieves 300,000 daily active users and almost 10 million downloads

Team-based shooter Critical Ops has achieved 300,000 daily active users and almost 10 million downloads, despite that it's still in beta. The mobile title, which soft-launched in the Play Store back on October 15, was created by Finnish developer Critical Force, who believes the title could form a significant part of the growing eSports market.

"Critical Ops has grown into one of the most promising mobile eSports titles. Every second there are 20,000 gamers playing the game," said Critical Force founder Veli-Pekka Piirainen, in a press release.

"Mobile devices have a massive global distribution, meaning large numbers of players and wider audiences for tournaments," Piirainen said, adding "I strongly believe that with Critical Ops we have a great chance of making a big impact on the whole eSports market."

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Critical Ops, Android's answer to Counter Strike, is now in open beta

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Critical Force secured 4 million euros in funding from South Korean publish NHN Entertainment back in September and has already arranged a number of Critical Ops tournaments, including a recent North American competition for a cash prize. The eSports industry itself is expected to be worth one billion dollars by 2019.

Critical Ops is available now for free in the Play Store. Have you played it yet? Tell us what you think of it in the comments.

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