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Turning Your E-Reader Into a Cheap Tablet
grahamsaa writes "NPR's Weekend Edition aired a story today on how rooting the Nook Color can turn it into a full fledged and relatively inexpensive Android tablet. The story claims that the process takes about half an hour, and only requires the purchase of a Nook and a microSD card, and points listeners to a YouTube tutorial on how to root the device. Could this signal a change in how mainstream users see devices like this? Could rooting Android devices like the Nook ever become mainstream?" We ran a story about this in December, and I haven't seen a flood of hacked readers anywhere so I doubt that tablet makers have anything to worry about.
For not suing everybody like Sony is.
turn it into a full fledged and relatively inexpensive Android tablet ... [t]here are occasional glitches. Sometimes things don't appear correctly on the screen in certain applications. If you're just using it to surf the Internet, use some apps, play angry birds, etc., it works very well
...
It's a little slower
Either the author's expectations of an Android tablet are low or they have created an 'acceptable' Android tablet. They even compare it to the Galaxy tab but like their Frankendroid better because it's lighter & thinner.
I'd put the process at closer to an hour. The big time sink is figuring out WTF is going on and what you want to do about it - there are no less than four major options, with a dozen smaller decisions to make, all wrapped up in a slightly hermetic nomenclature. It still ain't for the weak kneed and non-technical. HOWEVER, the nightly CyanogenMod 7 build is getting really close to maximum awesomeness - video playback doesn't work quite right, bluetooth doesn't work quite right, but both of them work. By late april it should be a clear winner, and that will make the decision much easier.
Overat Slatedroid.com, they've been turning the Pandigital Novel Reader into a full Android tablet for over a year now. During this past holiday season, discounts brought the price to around $70 - for this 7" color tablet.
Could this signal a change in how mainstream users see devices like this?
Its more likely to signal an upcoming change in Nook design and/or software.
Could rooting Android devices like the Nook ever become mainstream?"
Perhaps after the Linux desktop becomes mainstream.
You can also find books and websites about how to build your own car, but hardly anybody does that, statistically speaking. The fact that something CAN be done doesn't necessarily mean that most people want to do it. For a small minority, it's vaguely interesting that it's possible, but the majority just want a product that works. The actual percentage of people who actually turn a Nook into a cheap tablet would be astonishingly small, IMO.
I currently own a nook color that I rooted with Eclair (2.1). For me I wanted something in between a phone and a full laptop for when I am sitting around in waiting rooms. It serves this purpose perfectly. I would not give this tablet to anyone who tech illiterate though, as it is still rough around the corners. Given that the hack is only a few months old, I am extremely impressed with its current abilities, especially with its low price tag, and am eager to see how it continues to progress. Some of the cons are that it is not 3G, does not have a camera, and its sensors may be lacking or the hack making them available seems to be lacking. Though the hack does bring some entirely new functionality to the Nook. It was found that the WiFi chip also includes Bluetooth which is turned off in software. It is now available in some of the ROM's and now provides the ability for Bluetooth keyboards and SIP calling.
Overall, I could not be happier with a $200 tablet. It really does everything I need it to do and then some. It has decent battery life and retains all of the standard Nook functionality in addition to the features provided by rooting it. I consider it a great value when compared to the Galaxy tab as I find it difficult rationalizing the missing features are worth an additional $400. Moreover, so far it seems that B&N have been amenable to people rooting their Nook. As they should, since I buy books from B&N that I wouldn't have previously, and am encouraging others to buy their hardware and books because of their attitude towards the hacking community and the versatility of their hardware.
It really seems like one of those rare situations where everyone is winning. Fortunately, B&N doesn't seem to be in a hurry to shoot themselves in the foot with both barrels, a la, Sony, etc.
Rather than a nook, I thinking of buying one of the cheap Android tablets on ebay. VIA 8650 7" Google Android 2.2 etc. Vairous names such as epad-e2. They apparently play flash, youtube etc vidoes. And cost £130. Anyone brought/used/seen one ?
I still wish Microsoft would had released Courier [gizmodo.com]. It would be a perfect tablet, especially for reading ebooks.
I am confused. Why would the courier be perfect for reading an ebook?
The truth is that the format for a physical book is a compromise made to deal with the limitations of the physical world -- the ideal surface for reading is an infinitely large, flat, weightless, continuous page with infinite resolution and durability, which never bends under any circumstances. But obviously, books are made of lots of little teeny fragile wobbly pages that must be bound together in a particular order, and protected by a huge and clunkly binding.
The courier takes all the bad parts of physical books, and all the bad parts of ebooks, and combines them in one package.
In short, if you don't understand why a book is shaped like a book, you might think the Microsoft Courier is a good idea. Once you really look at a book and become aware of the the compromises made in the design of the physical objects, you'll realize that the courier is an awful idea.
Was Courier ever anything more than a video of "imagine how cool it would be if somebody made something like this"?
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
So let me ask you a question: Do you get paid to herd 100 or so shill accounts, AKA the HB Gary troll herder software, or do they pay you to set up accounts one at a time, ala the old slow way? How are the benefits? Do you get dental and vision? 401K? I'd really like to know as frankly I could do about 1000% better job than you shills without even trying, your so damned obvious it ain't even funny.
As for TFA, we and the posters must have different definitions of "cheap". Those $100 aPads are cheap, $250 for an E-reader? The hell with that. Hell at that price I can get a netbook, why would I wan t this thing rooted or not? hell the iPad I is selling now for $300, this thing is too high with a capital T.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
to back this thought up, consider how you use books that are spirally bound. When holding in hand and reading, you flip the page all the way around and look at a single sheet.
A single screen, in a portrait layout is just about right. 7"-10" seems to be the best range. ideally about 10-16oz, which is the #1 reason the iPad is not great for reading books, it is just too heavy. #2 being that the screen wears on the eyes after about an 1 hour of reading where eink is comfy for much longer. I have read for 8+ hours in a 16 hour timeframe on my sony reader on an airplane with no eink induced eyestrain whatsoever.
A pixel qi screen on an iPad along with some weight reductions might do the trick. the 'eink' mode should boost battery life nicely as well.
The Courier's form factor resembles more an ordinary laptop than a real slate - the laptop is a 'clamshell' design too. The idea of the slate is that you don't have to open and close it, and that you can hold it with one hand while standing. The Courier lacks the very features that differentiate the iPad from regular laptops. So people who would rather buy a Courier than an iPad, would probably also rather buy an ordinary laptop than the Courier anyway.
This has been on instructables for a really long time...
It depends on how many of the cool features are encumbered by patents.
> We ran a story about this in December, and I haven't seen a flood of hacked readers anywhere so I doubt that tablet makers have anything to worry about. Because, you know, Slashdot is easily as mainstream as NPR. Just sayin'.
It is also one of the best tablets. Currently, outside of the xoom, the only one in the wild that runs Honeycomb.
Most of the development takes place in slatedroid.com and xda-developers.com.
The sad state of Android tablets, is that community firmwares are light-years ahead of factory defaults.
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
No, I don't, unless I'm in a very cramped environment. Often, I will want to refer back to something on the previous page -- a table or diagram, for example.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
book reading and reference material are opposite ends of the spectrum of book use. Thats why I specifically said 'when holding in hand and reading', not while doing research or assignments etc.
I had been thinking about getting an iPad for a long time. Eventually, decided to hold out for the iPad 2. But one day I was walking through Barnes and Noble, and took a good look at the Nook Color. After reading up on the rooting instructions, I bought the NC for $250, rooted it, and, after a month, my desire for the iPad is gone. I suppose that there will always be people like me who want an iPad but will actually be just as happy with something else. (And the 50% discount from the iPad helps too.) I should also reiterate the fact that there are three flavors of the Nook Color, but not all will suffice as a tablet:
STOCK: Right now, the stock NC has a browser and could serve as a basic tablet for someone. But B&N is soon going to be updating the NC with Froyo and the app market, which will make it much more like a tablet.
ROOTED STOCK: This is the best option as of today. Rooting took me only about 20 minutes, and the process is non-technical/noob friendly. Rooting will get you the market, google apps, push gmail, a new launcher (which will make it look like a true tablet), and softkeys (to replace the missing navigation keys that are on all android phones).
CUSTOM ROM: This has the most promise, but it is not quite ready. Cyanogenmod has nightly builds of CM7 for the NC. As others said above, this will be awesome. I run CM7 on my phone, and I love it. Once it is fully ported to the NC, it will truly be a full-function tablet that can directly compete with the iPad. There are also some custom builds that you can install to a bootable microSD card that run both Froyo and Honeycomb.
This is assuming everything is set up. If you hand me a nookcolor out of the box, 5 minutes later I will hand you back an android tablet. One powers down the device, inserts the autonooter'd micro-sd card, plug the device into a power source, and it will automatically boot, go through the process of establishing ADB root access and place superuser (among other things like market, youtube, etc) into /system/app. It will then reboot after about 5 minutes once it's done its magic and voila.
Where people get hung up on is burning the autonooter image to the SD card, and its a bit harder to do on Windows since you need to download the free app 'WinImage' to do so, whereas on linux and Mac you simply do the dd command from the terminal.
So the actual rooting is extremely fast, its reading up on how to burn the image and then then subsequent steps to establish market access that can take some time. It's stupid simple and laid out very clearly on the nookcolor wiki, though, and the #nookcolor channel on freenode is available for troubleshooting.
I have talked with thousands of customers face to face and less than 1% have any idea of what rooting is, and for them the nookcolor is already more than enough tablet for them. Web browser, video playback, pandora, books, magazines, newspapers. But for the few who do mention it and I've vetted as savvy enough to get it, popping out my own NC with CM7, with live wallpapers, market access, all sorts of apps...thats a sale I'm certain to make.
Since such a small number of people, respectively, unlock the device, I do not believe B&N will revise the hardware to change the boot order (NC is hardwired to boot off SD, which is why all this is possible). The vast majority of people love the NC just how it is, locked down yet very functional and rave to their friends about it. Couple that with how the dev community is keeping the NC in the press constantly (ie. getting the Cyanogen blessing, bluetooth enabled, overclocked, each of these has gotten it into the blogs), it's a win-win. The only real drawback for B&N would be if people chose to install the Kindle app and not the Nook app. However, after talking with many rooted users, they all seem to understand that they should reward B&N with their business for digital content whenever possible. The last thing anyone wants is for them to regret putting the most open, hackable android device ever out on the market.
These posts come from one of those "no-reply" email accounts. Don't seriously expect a response. Unless you're talking to a personal friend, you'll never know if the person on the other end is human.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
The Nook Color will always boot from the microSD card first, so you just need to insert a boot ROM image burned onto a card and it'll just work from that. There's nothing else that needs to be done. This is the easiest route and takes no longer than 10 minutes (most of that time probably waiting for the ISO download and imaging it to the SD card.)
Courier was never a real product. It was never a prototype. It never made it to the demo stage. If you look at any of the "demos" you'd see that all the screens and animations were simulated. It's sorta like saying you wish that Dr. Emmett Brown actually made a time-traveling DeLorean.
Even if somehow had made Courier, it would have made a terrible reader. Judging by the sheer horsepower required for the Courier, it probably would not have been battery efficient. Also MS would have probably picked OLED or backlit color LCD as the screen which is not great in direct light. The eReaders work great because text is much easier on the eyes; however, they are not great at multi-media situations. Also eReaders have great battery life. Lastly, two screens = more weight.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Thought the headline said "Turning your E-Reader into a Cheap Toilet" at first. LOLed.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Rooting Android devices (Nook or otherwise) will never become truly mainstream. The more it's mentioned in the news though, the more this will become mainstream in the iPhone-unlocking sense of the word. The average user knows that it's possible and has a friend, or a friend-of-a-friend that can root it for them, but has neither the inclination or knowledge to root it themselves. The ultimate effect is the same though.
"We ran a story about this in December, and I haven't seen a flood of hacked readers anywhere so I doubt that tablet makers have anything to worry about." Slashdot readers are much more likely to either already have a tablet, already dismissed the need for one, or already hacked the one they have. I'm not saying that NPR is going to cause B&N to run out of stock, but they did just expose the idea to a new segment of people, who might just be interested enough to try. It also represents the idea of rooting a device starting to drift out of nerd circles, which is interesting and probably a good thing.
I already have the perfect format for reading a book - it's called a "book". I just picked up the entire collected works of several authors last night - grand total? $30 (including tax). You'll be lucky to get three ebooks for that price, yet I got 47 (just counted).
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Where are instructions for rooting the Kobo or Aluratek ereaders?
--
make install -not war
Barnes and Noble aren't suing, but predictably Microsoft is. They don't like Nook+Android for some reason. PJ over at Groklaw thinks it's "SCO II" Ref: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110321172008657
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
"Could this signal a change in how mainstream users see devices like this? Could rooting Android devices like the Nook ever become mainstream?"
No, it can't signal *anything* with regards to being mainstream. Geeks will do this, perhaps many thousands, but it's completely impossible for something like this to become mainstream. You guys know how you are always complaining about "idiots" who can't run their computer, and how you often install Firefox on their computers, give it a blue 'e' icon and name it "Internet"?
Well, guess what: that's the mainstream.
These people aren't actually stupid, they just aren't geeks. They are nowhere near as motivated as you are. Why would someone go through the hassle of rooting a Nook Color when for twice the price they can buy an iPad that actually works properly as sold, and provides them with a significantly superior user experience?
I have had no interest in tablets in general, largely since a 10" device borders on laptop territory as does the $500 USD and up price.
However, for half the money, a 7" Nook Color seemed the ideal size for an ultra-portable device, and while I have no NEED for a tablet (have an excellent netbook running linux) I was given one for Christmas.
Within 24 hours of receiving the gift it was rooted and doing far more than the stock software was capable of.
The Android Development community has turned me from an "anti-tablet" person to a fan.
My Nook Color is now used as my car navigation device (7" screen is much better than my phone!) thanks to tethering of wifi and gps.
A bluetooth keyboard means it has replaced my netbook for longer, comfortable sessions when away from home- great since the NC didn't have Bluetooth enabled originally!
Since the NC runs at 1.1Ghz now (Thanks again to the community!) it really loses nothing on the speed or power fronts when compared to current devices.
The lack of 3g (or better) means nothing- how many of us are without our cell phones when away from home? Wireless tether gets data connectivity WITHOUT yet another contract.
A rom'd Nook Color is unquestionably (to me) the best available tablet right now, even WITH the few problems remaining:
Froyo runs well but is limited.
Honeycomb IS running but it is a pretty hacked and compromised version still thanks to the source not being released to the wild yet.
CM7 is for many the best option,and very actively worked on but still not actually released- yet works wonderfully even with the few glitches:
* Video drivers are causing problems resulting in less than perfect video playing (choppy, stuttering at times)
* Turning Bluetooth on often only works when done soon after a reboot. More than a few minutes and it may NOT come on.
* Some users report WiFi cycling problems
Those CM7 issues are being worked on as are customization options that will bring many Tablet-Friendly options to the mix:Bottom notification bar with "soft-buttons" that are ALWAYS on screen; and more.....
Which brings me to the point of the article: no, I really don't think rooting an NC and turning it into a tablet will become mainstream. I don't think it likely that rooted Nook Color Tablets will ever outnumber Ipads (or Mac-C-Pads, or whatever they call the new one....)
But I think there ARE a lot of Nook Colors being sold that would not have been if not for the developer community, and that a large number are modified...
Back in the day overclocking and water cooled computers were "fringe" activities too, and while they are still not mainstream, both are multi-million dollar industries today.
Linux computers, watercooled, photography
Now take them on a plane with you.
I got a few hundred ebooks for free from Project Gutenberg. Depending on your habits ebooks can be vastly cheaper.
Xavier Rabourdin for president 2012
Oh I didn't expect one (although I think its funny him or one of his buddies came along as an AC to insult me LOL) but I do think it is important to point out astroturfing wherever it shows its ugly head as i think it is a serious threat to freedom.
I mean it is bad enough you can get astroturf campaigns like the Tea Party, aka the Koch Brothers Express, but at least there they have to pay people to actually show up, pay press to report, etc so it leaves an easy to follow money trail, but online discussion is one of the few places where one can speak openly anymore thanks to all the government and corporate spying (which is why many want you to be tied to an online identity, so they can punish you when you don't toe the party line) but now even that is being threatened by obvious paid shills like the poster I was responding to.
For now it is easy to spot, as they can't quit kissing ass or speaking corporate buzzword bingo, like in the above where an article on a completely different device gets a plug for a vaporware product designed to kill iPad sales that frankly a good 98% of the average folks would have never even heard of. So NOW is the time to nip that shit in the bud, NOW is the time to make sure their corporate master know their money is being wasted as it turns off those that might otherwise buy by "poisoning the well" and building bad will.
So we really need to point these clowns out, before we get drowned out by HB Gary shillbots. It is pretty easy to spot a real person VS a shill. Look at me for an example, everyone who takes a look at my history knows I like Windows desktops, Linux embedded and Web Servers. I'm more than happy to point out shitty attributes of any and all products I use, hell if they were to lock me in a room with the Windows development team I'd spend the day pointing out things I think are shit .
But shills, especially the HB Gary shillbomb type, can ruin the whole thing by burying the good under the shit and frankly I LIKE /. and I LIKE having discussions on geek items that you actually have to think and which go deep. These shillbombs are about as deep as a kiddy pool, they are just "You should use Brand X, now with SmileX!" and frankly sour the whole discussion. And sorry about the length, but for the past few weeks it has been pretty obvious MSFT has targeted /. with a shill team and frankly it stinks. I can guarantee that while I may still need to sell Windows there will be NO WinPhones and NO X360s going through this shop or allowed in my home. I won't support shilling.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Yeah, I just thought responding beyond something like, "shill account, please ignore" is kind of a waste. Makes me wish there was a "spam" mod to eliminate the need to respond at all. It's getting pretty deep in here.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
If the game was "impress the easily impressed" AC #1 lost. If the game was "deflate the douchebags" ...
I started looking at the nook color, but decided against it. Why bother with a device you have to jump though hoops to make a capable device, when there are decent full fledged android tablets out there for the same price? The Archos 70 is fairly popular, has similar specs, is slightly cheaper, and EVERYTHING WORKS, you don't have to wait for hacks to get peripherals working...
I give Archos credit for their 250gb hdd model, as even apple doesn't seem to have figured out multimedia is a killer app for the tablet, like the ipod before it...
I never did buy a 70... Can't seem to find a case with bluetooth keyboard that fits perfectly, and the fact it won't charge from microusb is a major annoyance. The slow cpu and lack of gps also discouraged me. Any happy or angry owners are welcome to chime in with their pov...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
It seems that these vendors of android systems get the point of linux and open software. You may as well buy something closed from Apple instead of a closed linux system.
There should be more systems following the lead of the Nokia N900 which you do not have to "jailbreak" because you have full access to start with.
I had lots of books, then my house flooded (Brisbane). Now I have lots of pulp.
However my eBooks are fine, even if I lost my Kindle I can access them online - plus I have them backed up independent of Amazon.
What's the battery life on your ebook reader? My books have infinite battery life (even better than a T-800 Terminator!)
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Kindle - round 4 weeks. Takes less than 30 minutes to charge.
Most of those embedded systems don't have a programatically (or automatically) controllable core voltage rail. In that case (given a constant voltage), the speed increase is linearly proportional to F, so you're better off just getting your stuff over and done with and then going into idle.
If the core voltage is configurable, then underclocking becomes significantly more useful as power consumed is proportional to V squared. Since decreasing the operational voltage generally also requires the clock rate to be reduced, the term underclocking generally assumes both conditions are being met to maximise the benefits.
While I agree with you shill/troll bots will be the new virus/malware/black all I see now is an obvious shill counter shilled[sic] then that post being shilled, no one is actually talking about the underlying tech. I think it is about time to set up honeypot threads and really watch how these beasts behave and poke them with sharp pointy sticks. On a side note WTF has happened at /. guys! This is becoming a load of garbage just bitching about who's buzz word is better than some other, did all the geeks and EE's die this past few years or did they just move on to other things? Seriously I've heard enough apologists for all three of the holy trinity (MS,Apple,Linux) to make this all a hilarious joke. I have dropped my bookmark and am moving on to ScienceDaily maybe come back in a few months to see if the boards are nailed to the windows.
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
Heh... It took all of about 10-15 minutes tops. I've been running Honeycomb on it for a bit now and I must say that while the build's got rough edges, it's good enough to allow me to properly target the games I want to make to the upcoming tablets as well as to phones.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Not the e-reader in this question. Sure they call the nook colour an e-reader but its really just a low powered tablet cause its running an ips screen (same as the ipad). You may as well call the ipad an e-reader as well. If you want a tablet the last thing you should be doing is trying to covert a nook. Just go and buy a view sonic gtab much more powerful; comes with full android; and not much more expensive. and if you want a colour e-reader the last thing you should do is get a nook colour (you don't want anything back lit), wait for qualcomm to bring out the proper colour e-reader. If you could get rid of the gap between the screens of the courier (so it could be one big screen) then it would make a great tablet, but i agree terrible for e-reading.
Rocket Surgeon.
This is Slashdot, after all.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
The truth is that the format for a physical book is a compromise made to deal with the limitations of the physical world -- the ideal surface for reading is an infinitely large, flat, weightless, continuous page with infinite resolution and durability, which never bends under any circumstances.
That is simply your misguided opinion; in actual fact it is very hard to read words when there is no page or line boundary, as adults read by scanning phrases or whole lines, rather than reading each individual word in a linear plod. .The structure of having pages makes it much easier and faster to read.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Personally I think the loonies have pushed the sane out of the tent, kinda like what we have seen with politics. I mean I used to be able to come here and being a Windows builder have a nice discussion on the pluses/minuses of Windows and other OSes (my personal plaything, I even have an old G3 i got just to play with OSX on PPC) and even when we disagreed the posts were always thoughtful and you really needed to think.
Now you can have an article about Windows or OSX or hell even OS/2 and the "FOSSies" as I call them come out of the woodwork to thump their GNUBibles and spout the most unbelievable horseshit that even true believers would have trouble with the stench. For a good laugh go to this site TM Repository and see how many of these cliches you have run into here because frankly you'll be surprised how much of the FOSSie speak is so cliche they have a TM. Sadly the FOSSie RDF has long surpassed the one Jobs built, and frankly the worst Windows fanboi on his worst day can't even touch these guys.
So I have to agree 110% the quality here is severely going down. I've started hanging out at OSNews and other tech sites just hoping to find wherever the old /. crowd went to, it is like watching MySpace die its slow death here now. Instead of interesting arguments like NTFS VS EXT3 or POWER VS ARM VS x86-64 we get "U Suxorz! Our (insert product) is awesome and u sux!". Hell I like a good deep discussion but things here are now about as deep as a kiddy wading pool.
So if you find a place with decent OS discussions, let me know okay? Between fixes at the shop frankly I'd like something better to do than play Solitaire. And I'd support your honeypot idea 110%, the shillbots are getting pretty thick around here and are like having commercials dumped in the middle of the comments section,. And you can't even ABP them out because fanbois will mod down anyone that doesn't follow groupthink so if you don't stick with -1 you end up missing the good but controversial posts, although sadly those like every other intelligent post have been fewer and fewer of late. Where did everybody go, and can I go there too?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
One of my coworkers brought in her daughter's Nook Color to root, the process couldn't of been more simple. The whole rooting process is pretty much imaging a SD card with the ISO they give you and rebooting the Nook. It's really that easy, but I imagine the imaging a SD card will leave people dumbfounded.
A rooted nook color makes a good e-reader with tablet functionality. Of course, there is no camera or 3G/4G. You do get wifi and angry birds though. I think that makes the $200 admission price quite attractive. Mine has 100,000 pdf books loaded on the SD card. You'll want to get a fast SD card if you're running the root from the card. Naturally, if you're a real man you'll root the device itself.
1) I didn't say anything about "reference material"; 2) Reading a reference book is still reading a book.
Now, if you want to argue that ebooks are great if all you do is "light reading", fine. But there are many forms of reading that are not light reading and are not the use of reference works. For example, some editions of Shakespeare's plays have notes on facing pages. Many technical books have code listing and explanations on facing pages. It is advantageous to not have to flip back and forth, to just move your eyes.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
There are plenty of other Android tablets around, but none of the ones priced under $500 approach the quality of the Nook Color, never mind equaling it.
I have been looking at the Archos devices for years and messed with a couple. Never bought one.
Linux computers, watercooled, photography
Similar specs - except the screen resolution - the Archos 70 is 800 × 480 whereas the Nook Color is 1024 x 600.
Sounds suspiciously like what we were all doing an eon ago, epods, 3com audrey etc. Device, card, root. woot.