Eric Franklin/CNET Life in the tablet category used to be simple. There were 7-inchers and …

Last year, Barnes & Noble ran a Black Friday sale on its Nook Simple Touch e-reader, chopping $20 off its list price of $99. This year it slices $40 off with a $59 in-store special — while supplies last, of course. Both Target and Sears are offering doorbuster deals on the Nook Simple Touch for $49 and $39.99, respectively, but …

Samsung should enjoy a profitable quarter if one analyst’s smartphone projections are on the money. The company is expected to ship 61.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, said UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois, as reported by the Yonhap News agency. That number would prove a 5 percent gain over the 58 million estimated shipments for the third quarter. And the …