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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.
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.
From someone that has done this and used a Galaxy tab for a short time... It's not the same, not even close. the Nook Color is slow as molasses compared to the Galaxy tab or even a 1st gen ipad.
It's a great hack for the poor, but useability is very low due to the limited ram and really slow processor.
IF all you want to do is run the facebook app and the twitter app along with your ebooks, it's great. If you think you will use it as a full-on tablet.... well get used to S-L-O-W.....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I purchased my NookColor just after launch and preceded to root it.
I use it for reading books, PDF's, Church Applications (a nice Scripture program), taking notes, calendaring, news apps, irc and some games.
It experiences glitches less than my Android phone but others experience may be diffeerent.
HTC EVO 4G LTE w/ CM 10.2 | NookColor w/ CM 10.2 | Samsung Epic 4G w/ CM 10.1
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.
The Nook Color has the same amount of ram as the Galaxy Tab. I don't know what you are talking about there.
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/nook-color-technical/3483-nookcolor-full-specifications.html
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_p1000_galaxy_tab-3370.php
In addition rooting allows overclocking the Nook Color which greatly increases the speed.
HTC EVO 4G LTE w/ CM 10.2 | NookColor w/ CM 10.2 | Samsung Epic 4G w/ CM 10.1
Actually resistive touch screens work fine with a finger, no stylus necessary. Case in point a Palm Treo, which was designed to be dialed with a finger tip. The stylus gives much finer control so apps were written to leverage that, but that wasn't a requirement and any number of Palm apps were 'finger friendly. For a more recent example, the HTC Sense UI is entirely finger oriented and runs perfectly on WinMo devices like a Touch Pro 2.
But it doesn't have a really slow processor. It's UC'd to 800MHz, you can easily OC it to 1.1 GHz.
The one useful thing about root-ing it, other than giggles, might be underclocking it even more to improve the battery life.
Uh it has the same memory as a galaxy tab and can be overclocked to 1ghz. While the arm core may not be as fast as a galaxy, it can't be nearly as slow as my ancient G1 at 600mhz, which is happily running froyo at the moment and has the least amount of RAM of any android device. (192MB) If 512mb in android isn't enough for you maybe you need to lay off all the widgets and background apps stealing CPU cycles. I would imagine that a lean Nook running froyo would be more than just usable.
The galaxy tab is nice, but also over twice the price of a nook. For some speed isn't everything. I mean what are we really talking about here? Another 2-5 seconds to load a web page? Another 2-3 seconds to load an app? Does everything have to be immediate? I don't see the appeal of the tab either. The honeycomb based tablets are the next generation. It will be interesting when that level of hardware starts hitting close to the price of a nook now.
zosxavius photography
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.
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.)
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
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.
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.
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