Barnes & Noble giving away Nook e-readers with tablet purchase

By Mike Flacy Published April 1, 2013

barnes noble nook hd review side bottom port — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Announced within a press release on the Barnes & Noble site, the book retailer plans give away the Nook Simple Touch e-reader with the purchase of a 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet starting on Sunday, March 24 and running through the end of the month. Customers can choose either model of the Nook HD+ tablet, the 16GB model priced at $269 or the 32GB model priced at $299. Priced at retail stores for $79, the standard Nook Simple Touch e-reader offers a 6-inch touchscreen and provides a battery life that can last up to two months on a single charge.

Ideally, the combination of the two devices gives a Nook owner the ability to read books and articles outside in direct sunlight rather than strain with glare on the tablet screen. The Nook HD+ tablet sports a high resolution, 1920 by 1280 display with 256 pixels per inch, easily allowing owners to watch 1080p resolution movies and television shows on the tablet.

Recommended Videos

Powered by a 1.5 GHz processor, the battery life offers users nine hours of video or ten hours of reading time. In addition to the 16GB or 32GB storage capacity, users can also add an additional 32GB of storage by adding a MicroSD card to the device. Comparatively, Amazon’s 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD sells for $299 and the Google Nexus 10 is priced at $399.

While the promotion is ideal for anyone in the market for a tablet, it’s possible that Barnes & Noble has excess inventory of the Nook Simple Touch e-reader and simply needs to bundle the device in order to move units out the door. According to research published by IHS iSuppli, e-reader shipments are projected to fall by two-thirds over the next three years. Last year, Barnes & Noble ran a promotion that offered a free Simple Touch or Nook Color in exchange for signing up for a New York Times monthly subscription at $20 per month for an entire year.

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Mobile

How OnePlus made the OnePlus 13 one of the year’s most interesting smartphones

Rear shell of the OnePlus 13 against a yellow background.

Last week, OnePlus unveiled its latest flagship phone. There’s a lot to get excited about this time around. The OnePlus 13 is not your usual year-over-year upgrade that is merely doing its refresh due diligence. It’s the biggest signal for the shift across the entire smartphone segment this year.

Once again, the design is familiar, but there are enough changes to distinguish the OnePlus 13 from any other phone that the company has made so far. I was lucky to get my hands on the blue trim, which is likely going to drive the most demand.

Mobile

The OnePlus Watch 3 might get this crucial feature before the Apple Watch

Someone wearing the OnePlus Watch 2.

Despite launching the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R last week, OnePlus and parent company Oppo are already gearing up for another release in February. At this event, OnePlus could launch the OnePlus Open 2 and the OnePlus Watch 3. While unofficial leaks about these devices are ramapnt, a recent official teaser indicates the OnePlus Watch 3 might also get blood pressure monitoring.

The teaser comes from Zhou Yibao, a product manager at OnePlus' parent company, Oppo. In a post on Chinese social media site Weibo, Yibao shared a look at the upcoming Oppo Watch X2, which is highly likely to be rebranded as the OnePlus Watch 3. While the post explicitly mentions that the Watch X2 will detect unusual fluctuations in blood pressure, an image attached to the post shows blood pressure trends over a fortnight, with a duration that indicates the risk of hypertension.

Mobile

New video teases the Samsung Galaxy S25’s big AI upgrades

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra's screen.

Samsung has hinted at an AI-powered phone for ages now, and we always expected the Galaxy S25 series to focus largely on Galaxy AI. It turns out there may be a lot more to this than expected: a new video from Samsung teases a "true AI companion" and displays the AI performing tasks well outside the scope of Bixby.

In the video, a woman tells the AI, "Hey, I'm off to my next meeting, but I need to find an Italian restaurant. Outdoor seating, pet friendly, of course. Can you send that to Luca? Oh, and can you put that in my calendar?" That's a complex series of requests, spoken with a natural, meandering cadence, and the AI appears to take it all in without missing a beat. Her request for a restaurant also implies the AI knows her preferences well enough to suggest a location she would like.