Nook Color, again, a review and a couple of warnings
max72
Posts: 1,155
After having seen a lot of happy nook color users I decided to get one.
I already have an Iriver Story, and while it is a great ebook reader it cannot even be considered as a pdf reader.
Being European I wasn't able to get a nook directly from B&N, so I went to overstock and got a refurbished unit.
The unit is perfect, and it appears brand new.
pdf reading is good, but I wanted to test ezpdf (2$)
Problems: B&N does not sell nookbooks or apps outside the US.
So I went to the alternative images. I tested Froyo, extremely slow, honeycomb, maybe too cutting edge, and I now have a the cyanogenmod running.
With the help of a micro Sd and little bit of patience it can be run an android distro, without modifying the factory nook. Simply unplugging the SD brings you back the original system.
At the moment I installed a couple of free apps from the market, including kindle. Robot bonanza looks pretty good on it..
I still have to find the best solution for the pdf files. My test files are the nuts and volts issues, which are heavy.
The screen is very good, and while for a plain text book I might prefer an e-ink display, the nook color is very crisp, and a much better optioin for anything else.
Bottom line:
You can play with other distro using an SD card and booting from there. If you live outside US you can get a Nook color, but you cannot purchase anything else from the market. You can still download the free book and the free apps.
Massimo
I already have an Iriver Story, and while it is a great ebook reader it cannot even be considered as a pdf reader.
Being European I wasn't able to get a nook directly from B&N, so I went to overstock and got a refurbished unit.
The unit is perfect, and it appears brand new.
pdf reading is good, but I wanted to test ezpdf (2$)
Problems: B&N does not sell nookbooks or apps outside the US.
So I went to the alternative images. I tested Froyo, extremely slow, honeycomb, maybe too cutting edge, and I now have a the cyanogenmod running.
With the help of a micro Sd and little bit of patience it can be run an android distro, without modifying the factory nook. Simply unplugging the SD brings you back the original system.
At the moment I installed a couple of free apps from the market, including kindle. Robot bonanza looks pretty good on it..
I still have to find the best solution for the pdf files. My test files are the nuts and volts issues, which are heavy.
The screen is very good, and while for a plain text book I might prefer an e-ink display, the nook color is very crisp, and a much better optioin for anything else.
Bottom line:
You can play with other distro using an SD card and booting from there. If you live outside US you can get a Nook color, but you cannot purchase anything else from the market. You can still download the free book and the free apps.
Massimo
Comments
It also appears to have difficulties with double-dot filenames (my_music..mp3) and some other quirks that no modern computing device should have difficulty with.
On why B&N doesn't sell Nook EPUB books outside the US, it has to do with antiquated book distribution deals. In territories outside North America, another publisher, or a subsidiary of the book's original publisher, purchases distribution rights. Part of that agreement includes protecting the rights by disallowing direct-to-market sales. B&N would love to sell you a book, but the publisher's won't allow it because it would break agreements they have with Old Skool subsidiary rights publishers.
As an author, I get a pittance on sales of books to foreign markets (for me it's foreign; for you it's your back yard). Seriously, I may see all but $200 for ALL books ever published in Italy, even if they sell 10,000 copies there. It's a scam that has long favored publishers and their backroom deals, and has materially harmed authors.
The latest edition of Robot Builder's Bonanza (fourth edition) was done with my old publisher, because I had to. For strategic reasons, I'm going back with them for one more book, but after that, it's self-publishing. The tools, gateways, and methods now make it very practical to self-publish books, while still reaching a worldwide audience. You can bet that I'll be allowing anyone anywhere to buy my e-books.
-- Gordon
the funny thing is I can read an Amazon.com book on a B&N device... but not
a B&N book.
Gordon: The internet and eBooks has certainly opened up the market where the user should get cheaper books and the author gets a decent return. About time!