Barnes & Noble, whose Nook e-reader once seemed to be the company's best shot at survival, said today that it will break Nook into a separate public company. The move comes after disappointing Nook sales, especially compared to Amazon's Kindle. [The New York Times]

Remember how Barnes and Noble said it was going to give up on its Nook tablets? Well they are back! As branded Samsung Galaxy Tabs. Samsung and B&N just signed an agreement to bring the Nook software and name to a flavor of the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 4. Hooray? Read more

Business Insider reports that Barnes and Noble has laid off its Nook hardware engineering team in a drastic effort to return the product and the company to some semblance of a competitive position in the ereader/tablet market. B&N confirmed layoffs but declined to comment on their nature.

Two months after announcing that it would cut back, Barnes and Noble now says that it will continue to manufacture the entire line of Nook devices. You can also expect a new Nook for the holidays. [CNET] Read more

On the run up to Father's Day, you can snag a Nook HD for $130 or a Nook HD+ for $150. Not too shabby, especially now they place nice with Google.

A leaked memo suggests that Nook Simple Touch e-readers will be getting a software update next week that equips them with a web browser and email client.

Barnes & Noble just made Nook Video partnerships with a whole slew of major studios. At least it's going down fighting. Read more

The Nook app is now available for Windows 8 users. Anyone interested should probably download it now—clock's ticking.