Any opinions on the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, if it will be worth the $250 when it comes out? It appears that it will be a full Android tablet, but hooked up to their proprietary app store. Also, how do the specs compare to the Pandigital Novel that came out a few months ago ($180 or so), or any of the other Android tablets?

What I'm looking for -- something a tablet with decent resolution, for use around the house / camping / etc. Doesn't have to be pocketable, as I've already got my Nokia tablets (n810 / n900). So far my main complaint on the n900 (for tablet uses) is that my eyes aren't as good as they used to be, so I might have to get reading glasses for long usage periods (web browsing, ebook reading, etc). So the 7" tablets seem to fit nicely between a netbook and phone form factors.

But it seems that the only tablets (besides the iPad) are all off-brand jobs, using the lowest-end components that they can get away with. I'm hoping that the Nook will be decent enough (able to play regular downloaded videos without re-encoding, good for ebooks without burning my eyes out, etc). BTW, I've had the older ePaper Nook, but the contrast ratio wasn't high enough for me (couldn't read comfortably without a 150-watt light bulb or direct sunlight). But from past experience my eyes will also get sore looking at a backlit screen (I've read through several novels on laptop screens).

Oh, the other thing I'm looking for in a tablet -- the ability to either hook up a USB keyboard, or at least a bluetooth keyboard. And of course the ability to upgrade the OS without waiting for the vendor to issue updates (i.e., I don't want any device that requires a signed kernel).

Nook Color is better for reading than iPad and better for everything else than Kindle. Nook Color is better for $249. The Nook Color will not run apps straight out of the Android Market, but that does not mean it cannot run them. In fact, they have done a lot of tests on apps from standard Android smartphones and they pretty much run on Nook Color, which has Android 2.1 under the hood. (The Nook native interface and apps are just standard Android application layers.) Barnes & Noble special Nook SDK runs on top of the standard Android one and gives developers access to exclusive extensions and APIs for the Nook and its interface. So porting Android apps is not difficult. B&N says it is more like optimising them for Nook than porting them. Nook Color screen is supposed to be better (less reflective) for reading than iPad thanks to new LG screen with anti-reflection coating. It allows to watch videos, listen to the music, view Office documents and PDF's. If you prefer e-Ink screen, the original Nook is still available from BN.

..And heres the icing on the cake for this device
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=899037

Full Tech specs:
PCB: Foxconn ML1 S 94V-0
CPU Processor: ARM Cortex A8-based Ti OMAP 3621 @ 800 MHz
GPU Processor: PowerVR SGX530 Graphics Rendering: Open GLES1.1/2.0 Hardware Scaling: 854x480 scaled to 1024x600 Video Formats: .3GP, .MP4, .3G2 ** Video Codecs: H.263, H.264, MPEG-4, ON2 VP7 ** Image Formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP **
RAM: 512MB Hynix H8MBX00U0MER-0EM MCM (Stacked Chips 2x256MB each die mDDR)
Internal Flash: 8GB Sandisk SDIN4C1-8g
Removable Flash: 32GB via microSDHC
Radio: Chip ID Ti wl1271 (kernel reports wl1273) Chip supports bluetooth transmit/recieve and fm radio functions through the same antenna, but is not enabled in software drivers. Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n Security: WEP/WPA/WPA2/802.1x Mode: Infrastructure
Display: 7" 1024x600 IPS Display w\VividView Cypress Semiconductor TTSP Gen 3 (TMA340) Touchscreen , kernel driver , reference LG Display LD070WS1 (SL)(02) LED Backlight Pixels per Inch: 169 Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Colors: 16 Million Viewing Angle: 178°
Audio: Ti TLV320DAC3100 Codec 3.5mm Headset Jack (TRS 3-Pole) - no mic input Single Rear Speaker PWM Headphone Amp Headphone Detection Mic Amp and ADC (Mic input not available) Audio Formats: .3GP, .3G2, .MP4, .AMR, .MP3, .MID, .XMF, .MXMF, .RTTL, .OTA, .IMY, .WAV, .OGG, .ACC ** Audio Codecs: ACC, ACC+, AMR, MP3, MIDI, LPCM **
Power Management: Texas Instruments TPS65921 PMIC Integrated Power Management IC with 3 DC/DC's, 4 LDO's, USB HS Transceiver
Battery: "Barnes & Noble" labeled 3.7V 4000mAh 14.8Wh Li-ion battery Battery Life: ~8 hours
Physical Specifications Dimensions: 8.1" (205mm) L x 5" (127mm) W x 0.48" (12.2mm) D Weight: ~15.8oz (~422g)
Micro-B USB 2.0 High-Speed
Accelerometer
Input Virtual QWERTY Keyboard On-Screen Soft-Keys ** 'n' Home button Power\Lock button Volume Up\Down buttons

i purchased a nookvolor for my wife.

it is an excelent reader and it will read pretty much any format with exception to the amazon books...for obvious reasons.

igt even is able to connect to our local library and check books that way.

i immediately cracked it and now it is not just a ingle touch reader, but a full multi-touch android tablet with a much better book reader then android standarly has on any of its tablets.

i,....and my wife, still believe the expeirence on our n900s are way more superior for trying to ge things done, but it is a great reader with access to the full android market once cracked.

The Viewsonic G-Tablet is worth looking at, the 10 inch version, Android 2.2. Abour $400.