HP staffers watch as one of them plays a 3-D video game at its Area 17 lab in San Jose (Photo: Jon Snyder)

Hidden somewhere in the 178 square miles that make up the City of San Jose, California, there’s a nondescript warehouse with black plastic taped over most of the windows.

If you manage to sneak a peek inside the front door, you won’t see much — a few odds and ends, props for a school play. But if you step inside on the right day, you might see an IndyCar driver. Or the Vice Premier of Taiwan. Or the cinematographer who’s developing 3D movie technology with director James Cameron.

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NEW YORK — A year after the release of the Nook Color, Barnes & Noble returns to a market suddenly crowded with “reader’s tablets,” including the red-hot Kindle Fire from its top competitor. B&N is firing right back at Amazon with a high-powered new multimedia Nook Tablet and competitive price cuts to the current Nook Color and Nook Simple Touch e-reader.

“Nook Tablet is our lightest fastest, media tablet,” said Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch. Lynch presented the $249, 7-inch Nook Tablet at a press event Monday morning. It will be available on Nov. 16, just in the nick of time for...