NOOK Color revisit

Rsadeika · 2011-05-13 13:24

I know that their are a few of you who have had there Nook Color for awhile now, how do you like it? Is it everything that you thought it would be? I am looking at possibly buying one, but I am waiting for a refurbished model for maybe around $200. I have a regular NOOK, so I have some eBooks that I have purchased, I am assume that the eBooks would work on the Color model? And what else can you do with Nook Color?

Thanks
Ray

WBA Consulting · 2011-05-13 16:23

I absolutely LOVE my Nook Color. I cannot praise it enough. I spent over 8 months hunting for an eReader and even though I passed over it the first time due to it's price, once I found out you could load Android 3 onto it, I took a second look. However, I have yet to load Android and I am still using the BN default OS (which was recently updated). Here's what I use mine for (in order of precedence):

1) PDF reader. Having a tablet that perfectly renders PDFs was my number 1 requirement. The Nook Color does not let me down. I have a ton of Parallax's PDFs on mine so now my bookbag is quite lighter (no PEKit book or Propeller Manual in there now). I also download PDFs from websites, etc while surfing and have been extremely pleased. The only shortfall here is that each time you open a PDF, it opens at page 1. I am using the default PDF viewer so maybe the one that you can download from the app store has this feature. The eBooks know your page always

2) eBooks. BN has a lot of really cool eBooks (called NookBooks) that have been designed specifically for the NookColor. I have Dr. Seuss' Lorax from Ocean Media and it will read each page to you or automatically read the entire book by turning the pages shortly after reading each page. Plus it zooms and pans the pages automatically to give you a slight animation feel to the story. When you touch the screen in the story, words fly out of what you touched (touch the thneed and the text "Thneed" flies across the screen and lands on the Thneed) I also have the NIV version of the bible and being able to highlight, add notes, or lookup things straight from Wikipedia or Google while reading is really helpful.

3) Web surfing: The browser renders pages really nicely and switching between landscape and portrait modes by rotating makes pretty much any page clear and user friendly. Since the browser acknowledges itself as a mobile browser, some sites (like youtube) lock you into their mobile version. The reason why that sucks for youtube is the mobile quality videos are geared for smartphone size screens, so they look crappy on this huge 7" screen. Other sites, like Wikipedia, give you the option to disable the mobile version even though your browser originally requests it. I love that, because the mobile version of Wikipedia is a joke in my opinion and the full site page looks nice on the NookColor.

4) Notes, calendar, to do list: I downloaded some apps to accomplish this from the latest update and that's why I haven't went to Android 3. With these three apps, my nook does everything I wanted it to.

5) Games: I have never been a fan of games on phones, etc, just because I would usually rather surf or read about something that my mind is brewing over, but with access to over 140 droid apps on the BN app store, I of course bought a couple cheap games. Angry Birds, Balloon popper, word search, and a drawing pad program help pass the time occasionally. (I made it through 14 levels of Angry Birds while I donated Plasma last week, LOL)

All in all, I cannot say how much I am happy with my Nook. It comes to work with me every day and my wife and daughter use it frequently at home.

Last, did I say how much I love my nook?

Ragtop · 2011-05-14 18:30

I didn't like the PDF reader. Maybe I was using it wrong. The pdf reader didn't allow for scalable wrap-around text like the nookbooks have, so I found a program calibre e-book manager that converted them to the nook format. GREAT PROGRAM!

I like the device now that I am getting use to it, but it is the first gesture device I have used and control seems really limited coming from a PC windows environment (where you have 10 different ways of doing the same thing). Also web page buttons can be rather hard to hit even with my small fingers. Seems to have a large default hit zone.

Battery life has been really good even with wifi always on. The screen is amazingly bright. One reviewer described it as a flashlight at full brightness. Haven't tried it in direct sunlight, but on the sunroom it was easily readable even on a low brightness setting.

markaeric · 2011-05-14 20:01

The way I see it, you get good hardware with nice overall build quality and form factor. Stock, you get decent web browsing and PDF reading capabilities as Andrew(WBA) mentioned, though my experience was prior to B&N's update, which brought the OS up to Android 2.2. If you keep it stock, you only get access to B&N's market, which is more or less a stripped Android marketplace. But if you "root" the device (which is simple and has been discussed in great detail on the intertubes), you gain full control of the OS, and therefore any software available for it. There are also a bunch of custom ROMs which can run either off the SD card, or flashed to internal memory. These ROM images vary not only from Android 2.2 to 3.0, but even Ubuntu! The biggest benefit you gain from rooting, or running a custom ROM in my opinion is that you can install a better web browser, and PDF viewer.

Initially, no one even knew it had bluetooth until someone uncovered that the RF chip was a wifi/bt combo device which opened it up to a ton of peripherals. Gaining connectivity to practical devices like keyboards and various wireless gizmos was a welcome bonus. So it ended up being a little more than I thought it was going to be. I'd certainly recommend it if you can get one for $200!

Ron Czapala · 2011-05-21 19:35

I just bought a Nook Color today. It really is pretty impressive. I really did not want a tablet where I was forced to pay for service monthly. I wanted to be able to read PDFs without sitting in front of the computer and take them with me. Browsing the internet thru WiFi without having to boot up the computer is a plus.

Plus I can convert videos to MP4 and upload them to the nook along with jpgs, MS Offices docs, etc.

The image quality is fantastic!

Rsadeika · 2011-06-16 06:25

Well, I did it. I picked up a Nook Color from buy.com, refurbished price: $199.95. I have had for two days, and it does not look like it was heavily used by the previous owner. So far so good.

I am very pleased with the purchase so far. Does anybody have any recommendations as to how clean the screen, without doing any damage? Also, anybody come across any really cool Apps? What I was looking for is an appointment book, if I carry the Nook around, it should have some extra functionality.

Ray

wjsteele · 2011-06-16 06:57

You can clean the screen with a simple microfiber cloth. You don't want to use any detergents on it at all. If there is a particulary stubborn stain, simply wet a small patch of the microfiber cloth.

As for apps, since it is Android based, there are ways to install any app you want to because it has already been rooted. Be careful, as there is no protection mechanism for malware style apps on the Android devices - in other words... only install apps from quality app sources.

Bil

markaeric · 2011-06-16 07:22

Ray, unless you flash or root the device, you will only have access to the B&N store, so the app selection will be limited. Luckily, flashing a different image, or rooting the NC is a pretty simple affair. Just ask if you got any Qs.

Rsadeika · 2011-06-16 07:36

I am not ready to "flash" or "root" my device just yet. I want to keep it as a reader, with maybe some extra features, for the time being. I believe Bean was thinking about doing some app work for the Nook Color, but since he has not mentioned anything here, he must of given up.

Off to explore the Nook Color ...

Ray

markaeric · 2011-06-16 07:54

Neither rooting or flashing will cause it to lose any of the stock functionality. The CM7 flash gave my NC a very noticeable increase in overall speed and responsiveness. The only downside so far has been shorter battery life in stand-by mode, but I'm running an older build, and may have been resolved with a newer release. Either way, having the ability to install the DolphinHD web browser is certainly worth it.

HollyMinkowski · 2011-06-16 08:07

The Nook Color looks impressive.

Has anyone here tried it with ubuntu? I'm curious if it can run the
Tor Browser under Ubuntu. If it can it might be something I can
use to replace my netbook.
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

I wonder how well it plays xvid avi files?

Is it easy to brick the beast when rooting or is it always recoverable to the default state?

markaeric · 2011-06-16 09:11

I've been wanting to try the ubuntu port, but haven't gotten around to it. I know they have versions optimized for the small screen sizes found in netbooks, but I have to wonder how practical a touchscreen-only HID would be. Having a full-fledged Linux distro does sound very enticing, though.

From my understanding, the nook color is pretty immune to bricking, because the bootloader (which doesn't get overwritten during a flash) always checks the SD card first for an OS. So even if flash memory gets corrupted, it can still boot from the SD, and you can attempt to reflash the image. The other benefit of this arrangement is that you can actually run an OS rights off the SD card.

HollyMinkowski · 2011-06-16 17:55

I think maybe I will get one of these.

I have been wanting to have an ebook reader to see what my book
I'm working on actually looks like on one.

I wonder if I can use this to view books made for the kindle reader?

The kindle reader is nice but I really wanted color so I passed on it.

markaeric · 2011-06-16 21:35

If you root, or flash it, you can download the kindle app from android market.

It's a nice piece of hardware - I've never met anyone who regretted purchasing one.

Rsadeika · 2011-06-17 02:39

"If you root, or flash it..."
I think I could use some definitions, what is root and, flash?

Ray

HollyMinkowski · 2011-06-17 02:55

If you root it is it easy to return it to its original state?

If it needed to be returned under warranty they would probably
frown on a modded unit.

Is there a lot of freeware software available for a modded Nook?

Heater. · 2011-06-17 03:04

Rsadeika,

Like on most computer systems you have to be logged in to do anything. You know, user name and password at least. As a mere user you may be allowed in without them. In the Windows world you have to be logged in as "Administrator" to do any serious configuration or installation. In the Unix/Linux world you need to be logged in as the user "root" and have root privileges to do that kind of thing.

As these android machines are basically Linux boxes the same applies. If you do not have root privileges there are many things you cannot do. The machine tries to protect iteself from damage by it's owner. An appalling state of affairs.

So "rooting" is the method employed to get such root privileges. It might be easy, as in most Android devices, or hard like the iPhones.

As for "flash" that's just the term for overwriting the existing FLASH chips on the system with an alternative or modified operating system.

NOOK Color revisit

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