Barnes & Noble hosted a press conference today to release a $249 Nook Tablet device. The new tablet will be faster than the Kindle Fire. The tablet will be the same size as the Kindle Fire (and the old Nook Color), but it will have a high resolution display and 1GB of RAM, versus the 512MB of RAM in the Kindle Fire.

Follow this link for more details. The release will also come with new content partnerships including the ability to stream video from Hulu Plus and music from Rhapsody, MOG and Grooveshark. Barnes & Noble plans will begin preselling the tablets on today and the device will ship and hit stores next week, the same week that the Kindle Fire ships.

The company also lowered the price on the Nook Color, which previously cost $249, to $199. This competes directly with Amazon’s Kindle Fire device. Previously $139, the Nook Touch is now $99, which competes with the Kindle Touch’s ad supported version. The Nook, however, does not have ads.