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B&N Nook Successfully Opened
garg0yle writes "A team has managed to open the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader, gaining full access to the operating system. From the article: 'The Nook is now a computer running a full Android operating system, with a built-in, free cellular connection to the internet. It also has a battery that lasts days, not hours.' They are documenting their progress on the Nook Devs wiki."
Its great to see the Nook being opened up to allow unsupported apps, but I wonder about the impact of free 3G will be if this hack is widely used. Will this lead to the Nook2 featuring even more DRM, or perhaps no 3G at all? I sure hope not, but considering that BN will likely take a lot of heat from the service provider I wouldn't be surprised to see abuse of the network leading to a more locked down future device.
What does the FCC care? It's still compliant, even if it's hacked.
I daresay the wireless carrier will be a bit ticked though, but they should have seen it coming. If the data connection this thing uses isn't firewalled to only talk to the B&N servers it's their own fault.
Add another device to your overladen 3G network!
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
Welcome to the Arms Race, Android and Nook. Enjoy your stay.
Now I have to get one of these, mod it, install the teathering package that I have on my G1 and I'm set... Read books AND provide random WiFi Hotspot...
Who's going to make the Android App that will allow me to use this thing to track my D&D 3.5/4.x character? ;)
I used to date a girl who called her pussy a "nook." I succesfully opened it many times :)
If you do this, your Nook will be openly accessible to anyone who port-scanned your Nook and found that port 5555 is open.
I once had a signature.
We've been down this road before.
Don't do that. Pushing the connection to carry things it wasn't meant to is pretty much theft of service, and it will get pushback from rightfully upset providers, and maybe more from policymakers who see hackers who can't behave themselves.
Do what you'd like with the devices and/or media that you've purchased, but recognize that there's a line of fairness and don't cross it.
Tweet, tweet.
If those 3G connections are not VPNed exclusively to B&Ns servers that is criminally stupid. If they are, then there is no big deal here, they just showed how you can get full access to a device you purchased. The way it should be.
alias possession='chmod 666 satan && ls
Or they'll just block them entirely, void the warranty (because it was messed with...) and have Barnes and Noble file 'Network Access Restoration' under 'Warranty Service'.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Because, in the case of the Kindle and Nook, the cost of the wireless connection is subsidized by book sales. There will be no additional purchases to subsidize Netbook access so what purpose would it serve a manufacturer to have it bundled in?
They used an open source operating system and stuck in on a removable (albeit internal) MicroSD card?? It's almost as though they wanted it to be hacked. And then they just implemented it with a SIM card (which makes me think the AT&T network abstracts it as a standard cell phone). I wonder what happens if you stick that SIM card in a cellphone (probably doesn't work or else it would've been in the article). Still... I think we all know this won't last for long
Someone say Nook Opened
This space for rent, inquire within.
This begs
raises
the question of why we don't already have netbooks this awesome, with free internet
Subsidized by book sales, as OldeTimeGeek pointed out.
and days of battery life.
Netbooks can view YouTube. Readers with electronic paper displays can't.
This begs the question of why we don't already have netbooks this awesome, with free internet and days of battery life.
Future value of money, basically. Anything that can be subsidized and supported by a subscription model will be of superior quality whenever the interest rate on lending is >0%. Razors and blades. This is the essence of human capital. Why invest in production or technological improvement when you can invest in locking-in future consumers?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. See the problem is cellular Internet costs money. Even if you don't think corporations should be allowed to make a profit, it is still going to cost money. You have to have a large network of radio towers to broadcast the signal, those have to be wired back in to a robust network to route the data, which has to be connected to the Internet at large. Of course all that doesn't maintain itself once built, things break, people need to fix it and look after it.
That all costs money, as such, access is going to have to cost money.
So, why is access "free" on things like the Kindle and Nook? Well it isn't. What happens is that Amazon or Barnes and Noble pick up the cost. There are two reasons they can do this:
1) Usage is low. Since access is used only for searching for, or downloading, new books as well as a smattering of other things like news, it isn't all that much. That means they aren't having to pay out a whole lot per device.
2) A large part of the usage has a profit associated with it, namely buying books. Thus each time you use the wireless to get a book, they make some money.
This leads to a situation where it is feasible to offer it to customers at no charge.
However, if you start using it as general purpose Internet, to browse whatever you want, to download files, to play games, that breaks down. Suddenly cost goes up a whole lot, and less (or perhaps none) of the activity generates any money. As such it can't be sustained. They have to restrict it, shut it down, or charge.
Things in life aren't free. If you think everyone should just give everything away, well that shows a real lack of understanding of how the world works (and a good indication you've never had to provide for yourself).
"We lose money on each unit sold, but we make it up through volume!"
This is why we can't have nice things.
This is a sig. It is like every other sig in the world, except that it is mine, and it is different.
Whoooosh, the sound of a Nook zooming over your head.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
Again, wrong. The fault lay with the thief. Things do not steal themselves. A running car at an intersection does not skip away merrily. The thief is the cause and catalyst... the fault lay with the thief. (Such is why we don't prosecute victims of crime.)
Too late. The wiki is dead.
Here's the text from the "Rooting" page:
======
Looking to root your nook? You have come to the right place!
nookDevs.com is not liable if you screw up during the root process. kthxbai
This will probably void your warranty, nookDevs.com is not liable for that either.
[edit] Requirements
microSD(HC) card adapter
Small screwdriver
45 minutes
Fingernails or a sharp knife
A linux/unix based computer
Android SDK
[edit] Instructions
Turn off nook
Take off the back cover of the nook
Remove the battery
Remove the user microSD card if there is one
Unscrew all screws. Dont lose them. There is a hole in the bottom left with white in it. That is also a screw. Unscrew that.
There are a bunch of tabs around the sides of the nook that release the white bezel. Once released you will need to unseal the glue
Congrats you are 25 percent there!
There are two black tabs on the sides of the nook where the page turn buttons are. Push those back to unlock them
You should be at the board now. Find the OS microSD card
Remove it
Place the microSD card in a adapter, then into a computer /dev/sdb1 /media/disk replacing values as needed) ./adb connect IP_OF_NOOK:5555 ./adb shell /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip.bak
Mount it as ext3 read-write (sudo mount
Open the file init.rc as sudo (sudo nano init.rc)
Find the line that starts talking about adbd
Replace the first occurance of the word disabled with enabled
50 percent done!
Eject SD card
Put SD card back into nook
close nook up
restart
Now, on a computer again, download the Android dev toolkit (google it)
Open a terminal
cd to the android folder
cd tools
If you want to disable updates from B&N run: mv
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE ROOTED YOUR nook. Have fun, be safe, dont forget to bring a towel
[edit] Notes
More pictures for tutorial to come later
Make sure to put the SIM card back in correctly if you remove it. Blue and white site up with the notch in the battery compartment opening end, on the right hand side. Refer to included pic. (discovered nook 3G not working when I got to work. Paperclips make terrible screwdrivers)
Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile tool lets you manage the state of an emulator instance or Android-powered device.
Full documentation and list of commands available in adb can be found here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html#commandsummary
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Unless you're the Feds.
I think both views are far too abstract and simplified to be of any practical use. Blame isn't a true/false value that can only be assigned to a single entity.
On one hand, it's somewhat witless to leave a car like that. On the other, stealing it is a despicable thing to do. Both the situation and action are necessary so the blame for the incident goes to both. Since the action is far worse than the situation, the blame is very heavily weighted towards the criminal.
Even that's too simplified. But you get the idea.
A Nook without a warranty, with an Android OS, and where the system is stored on a commodity memory card vs a ROM or proprietary storage method. A device that hasn't been TIVO'ed into only accepting signed system files, and which uses an OS with an active development community. For $300.
How worthless, how worthless indeed.
Free wireless means squat to me, I'm not a traveling man, I'm either at work or at home 90% of my life.
If you're dealing with the Nook and you power cycle without properly shutting down, you can expect a visit from Mr. Resetti... Those are never fun.
Bow-ties are cool.
Gotta disagree. The act would not happen on its own without the actor (the criminal). In every single crime, someone must act to make the crime happen.
You're confusing the concepts of "accident" where variables outside of control/observation come together to create an unfortunate circumstance.
No one accidentally steals a running car. No one accidentally hacks a Nook thus subjecting a company to many new costs. Those situations require people with intent to create them. Those people with intent are at fault for any ill-effects of their actions. Not the victims.
It is not your fault if you get shot in the leg and robbed while walking down a street. You shouldn't be *surprised* if it happens while you're wearing expensive clothing while walking in a war zone, but the fault lay with the person choosing to harm you.
Most definitely, they should see it coming. I'm not saying they shouldn't be surprised. Everything gets cracked. However, "fault" is a very particular word. Fault attributes "cause of harm". In such a case, the potential cause of harm is not the maker of the nook, but the people that find and implement exploits of their products.
This is why it's irrational for a child to be at blame for abuse. For example: A child in poor circumstance may reliably be beaten when he doesn't do his chores. If one day, he decides to refrain from doing his chores and gets beaten, where does the blame, or fault, lay? With the child-- the victim of the crime? Or with the person who beats the child?
The fault is the the person who beats the child. The child, understanding his circumstance, should not be surprised when he gets beaten, but it's the external actor, the "beater" who is at fault for causing harm to the child.
If variable names have been left int he jars, you may be able to dissamble so that you can start add your own classes.
I havent coded for the Android yet. But was under the impression it used a "custom" form of Java, mainly special multi-process JVM.
New York law.
Umm, no. Certainly morally it is, but not legally.
If you leave your car running, the blame for the theft can be placed on you, and in some states you can actually be held partly liable if the thief does something wrong with the vehicle. Especially if the person who stole your car is underage.
Some decades ago, at my father's business, my mother stopped by to drop something off. Since she was parked next to the rear entrance to the store (which was in a mall), she hopped out of her car with the keys in it and the car running. It was winter, and the car had a habit of not starting well if it was already warmed up. Apparently a couple of kids were hanging out in the area, because the car was stolen in the 30 seconds it took her to drop off the paperwork and come back outside.
The police eventually caught the kids who did it once they wrecked the car. The kids were 17 and 16, and one of them was a repeat offender (petty theft, etc) whose name appeared in the police blotter regularly. But since the keys were in the car, the car was considered an "attractive nuisance" and the kids could not be held liable to stealing it. Quite the contrary, the presence of the keys was legally considered to be a compulsion for someone to steal it, and my mother was therefore liable for the theft AND everything they did in the car, including any injuries to themselves or others.
Fortunately for us, when the kids totalled her car neither of them was seriously hurt, and the property damage they did was minimal. We had to buy a new car, and pay for the property damage the wreck caused, and pay the medical bills for the kids to get checked out at the hospital. It set us back about $15,000 or so, since insurance wouldn't pay a penny of it of course, but it was an interesting and eye-opening lesson in liability.
Fortunately, the police officer decided not to press charges for reckless endangerment of a child, or my mother could have ended up in real trouble for having her car stolen.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
People are trying to sleep, jerk!
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
I'm not saying the thief doesn't bear fault. But giving someone an unnecessary opportunity does give a person some of the blame.
For example, if I setup a mail server, and don't take even the simplest precautions to secure it (so it is a wide open smtp relay), who is my boss going to blame when his mail keeps bouncing because we have been blacklisted as a spam bot? The guy(s) who actually exploited us? Or me for leaving the front door open to them in a way that would certainly lead to us sending spam?
Mod points: Guaranteed to remove your sense of humor.
Side effects may include gullibility and temporary retardation
You do realize that they "days" of battery life are due to the fact that it is designed to read books?
The battery life on ereaders really should be rated in "page turns". This gets about 2000 page turns on a single charge.
Using that color screen all the time or actively using the internet will suck down that battery so fast your head will spin!!!
The battery on this device is going to suck if you are using it to IM your friends or regularly browse the web. The battery on these devices is actually significantly SMALLER than a netbook battery. These devices have a cheap and small cell phone battery.
The real advantage is the internet....but it isn't that big of a deal. The kindle already has a web-browser.
Plus, as many have explained...they will just block non-B&N usage if it is abused.
If the money wasn't in the bank, the thief wouldn't have the opportunity to steal it
If she hadn't worn that short skirt, she would've made it home ok
I he hadn't have been a Tutsi, Jew, Muslim, Christian, it probably wouldn't have happened.
Nice relativism. I agree with your take on the car analogy, but I think your belief about blame breaks down the closer it gets to reality.
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
You've now brought another harm-causer into the mix. The criminal and the person who was hired to protect the company from the criminal. Again, the criminal would hold *fault* for the damage he causes because he would be the one choosing to cause damages. You, the person hired to protect the company, would be guilty of negligence of your duties in your position. The difference is that you would still be guilty of negligence with or without the criminal spammer. The two actions (or inactions) interact but are still separate. The spammer would not receive reduced fault because it was easier-than-expected to commit a crime.
Such is why we don't prosecute victims of crime
Except you do, in certain circumstances. Usually involving child pornography laws in some fashion. And possibly other cases involving bizarre twisted applications of anti-terror laws.
While nothing is impossible, I'd be really surprised if they actually managed to successfully prosecute your mom for an attractive nuisance this way. Normally that would apply to something like a swimming pool without a fence, or an abandoned truck in the middle of a field. Teenagers stealing a running car would normally be a really hard sell, since 17 is an age where you should clearly know that taking a car without permission is illegal.
I'm not doubting your story, but I suspect that the cop in that case may have brought that out as a way of not having to deal with the car-theft for some reason, and scaring your parents out of pressing charges against the kids themselves.
Of course I could be wrong, but something here doesn't seem quite right....
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
No. You do NOT get part of the blame. That's like saying "She shouldn't have been wearing that mini-skirt, it's no wonder she got raped."
Bullshit. Pure bullshit. I should be ABLE to leave my house unlocked, its MY fucking house, not yours, and you know that, and if you steal my shit it's all YOUR fault.
I should be ABLE to leave my car with the keys in it, its MY car, not yours, if you take it you're 100% responsible.
Yes, it may be predictable that if I leave my car with the keys in it some immoral asshole is likely to steal it... but the mere fact that it's predictable that you might be an asshole doesn't make me share the blame for you being an asshole.
This space available.