NOOK Tablet: Out of the Box

Chapter 7. Apps, Music, and Video

Just as Barnes & Noble completely reworked the Android operating system from the ground up to provide their own customized user experience, they also made changes to what you can buy in the NOOK App Store by curating their own hand-picked subset of apps for inclusion. Like the critics of Apple’s App Store, many users have decried this decision as a draconian limitation, a way of locking down a previously open platform with their need for complete control. While the naysayers have a point, in practice, what users gain in the process (a more searchable interface that leads to much more intuitive discovery of apps you’d actually want) might be more than what is lost (an abundance of fart apps and buggy, untested clutter). In any case, from Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds, to Pandora and Quickoffice, you’ll find most of your favorite Android apps in the the NOOK App Store.

Note

But don’t expect to see a Kindle app anytime soon. Some rivalries just run a little too deep.

Regardless of whether you like it or not, with the NOOK Tablet, Barnes & Noble turned the model of what an Android tablet ought to be on its head, prioritizing consumption of the content it delivers over the promise of limitless choice. While the NOOK app is just another app on any other Android tablet, the NOOK Tablet makes its book reader a first-class citizen, right next to the entire collection of apps everything else. While you might buy a Galaxy Tab for the apps and be happy to ...