NOOK Docking Station wants to hug your B&N Tablet

Barnes & Noble's NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet are set to take another step closer to the desktop this month, with the launch of a new third-party Docking Station for the 7-inch slates. ReaderDock's NOOK Docking Station charges the ereader-tablets as well as adding stereo speakers; the cradle can rotate for portrait or landscape use, handy for watching video clips or streaming from Netflix.

What you don't get is any peripheral support, unlike most tablet docking stations we've seen. It's common to get a USB port or two, at least, for hooking up a keyboard, though since neither of the NOOK models has native USB Host support that's probably not a great concern.

Still, given the popularity of the NOOK Color among Android device modders – one popular tweak being enabling USB Host – some extra flexibility in connections would have been appreciated. B&N appears to be locking down the NOOK Tablet at present, however, with a recent firmware update blocking sideloaded apps.

The N-Station is expected to go on sale later this month, though ReaderDock isn't saying exactly how much it will cost.

[via eBookanoid]