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Nook Simple Touch e-readers reportedly adding web browser and email client next week

Nook Simple Touch e-readers reportedly adding web browser and email client next week

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Nook Simple Touch (White) Stock
Nook Simple Touch (White) Stock

Barnes & Noble’s E Ink e-readers are getting an update next month that will add a web browser and email client, reports TechCrunch. Citing an unnamed source, it writes that the Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with GlowLight will start receiving the updates on June 1st.

The Nook Simple Touch shipped with a limited, hidden web browser when it was first released in 2011, but Barnes & Noble removed the function in a software update a few months later. The ability to check news headlines and do some light email work should give the $79 Nook platform some extra value, although slow-refreshing E Ink doesn’t really provide the best browsing experience. The low-priced Nooks aren’t the only ones to be getting extra attention from home base — earlier this month, the company’s Nook HD and HD+ Android tablets got access to apps in the Google Play store.