My Nook Color...I love this thing!
HollyMinkowski
Posts: 1,398
I had just received my new Nook when I had to leave it
behind for a few months. I never really got to play with it
other than loading the Cyanogen Mod 7 Android OS onto
an 8gb micro sd and getting it to boot from that.
For having been so reasonably priced I must say I'm really
impressed with this thing. It plays videos really well and the
reading experience is superb with pro quality ebooks. I can
even read the crappy scanned copies of reports and books
that we have around here and they look just fine.
I put a cool animated desktop image on the Nook that looks
like a roiling thunderstorm :-)
To transfer data to it I just use bluetooth and store onto the
micro sd.
I need to learn a bit of Android programming now.
I just finished up watching all the episodes of "Breaking Bad"
that I missed and with headphones on and holding it close
it was a better experience than watching on the big laptop
screen ever was.
If you need a cheap tablet I can recommend this. I did see on
Hack a Day that HP dumped a bunch of their tablets for like 100 USD
each. But they are not Android, the same guys that put Android on the
Nook are working on that however.
Here are some images...they are not the best quality as I should have
used a tripod. The 2 scanned PDF document pics somehow have swirly lines
in these images but the image on the Nook screen is crystal clear.
One thing I do need is one of those stick on screen things because the screen
is so reflective, I'm sick of looking at my face staring back at me..LoL
This is the animated thunderstorm desktop
Here is a BBC documentary about old computers.
Breaking bad.
Nuts And Volts
A commercial ebook...very sharp and readable. The graphs, formulas and images are perfect.
Even poorly scanned documents have readable text (looks better than this image shows)
Even scanned formulas and graphs are fine.
behind for a few months. I never really got to play with it
other than loading the Cyanogen Mod 7 Android OS onto
an 8gb micro sd and getting it to boot from that.
For having been so reasonably priced I must say I'm really
impressed with this thing. It plays videos really well and the
reading experience is superb with pro quality ebooks. I can
even read the crappy scanned copies of reports and books
that we have around here and they look just fine.
I put a cool animated desktop image on the Nook that looks
like a roiling thunderstorm :-)
To transfer data to it I just use bluetooth and store onto the
micro sd.
I need to learn a bit of Android programming now.
I just finished up watching all the episodes of "Breaking Bad"
that I missed and with headphones on and holding it close
it was a better experience than watching on the big laptop
screen ever was.
If you need a cheap tablet I can recommend this. I did see on
Hack a Day that HP dumped a bunch of their tablets for like 100 USD
each. But they are not Android, the same guys that put Android on the
Nook are working on that however.
Here are some images...they are not the best quality as I should have
used a tripod. The 2 scanned PDF document pics somehow have swirly lines
in these images but the image on the Nook screen is crystal clear.
One thing I do need is one of those stick on screen things because the screen
is so reflective, I'm sick of looking at my face staring back at me..LoL
This is the animated thunderstorm desktop
Here is a BBC documentary about old computers.
Breaking bad.
Nuts And Volts
A commercial ebook...very sharp and readable. The graphs, formulas and images are perfect.
Even poorly scanned documents have readable text (looks better than this image shows)
Even scanned formulas and graphs are fine.
Comments
with Cyanogen Mod?
https://market.android.com/developer?pub=The+Tor+Project
https://www.torproject.org/docs/android.html.en
It is really slow on my Nook, I mean slower than Tor normally
already is anyway. And there are some side effects. I'd really like to get
Tor running as I need some encryption between the Nook and the
wifi access points I can use.
Oh, I made a new Avatar...not sure if I want to change but this is
cute.
In my case from time to time it slows down even doing very simple tasks. I tried also the hother solutions (honeycomb and Froyo) but cyanogen at the moment is the best.
What do you use as pdf reader? I tested different solutions but I haven't found yet one completely suiting me..
Massimo
I considered "rooting" it or even loading a alternative Android OS but didn't really see the need (maybe later).
The web browser is pretty crude and the PDF reader could be better but I expect there will be upgrades or alternatives (besides rooting).
@Holly - What is the class of your microSD card? I think that can make a big difference when you boot from it...
If you wan to revert to default system simply switch off, unplug the SD, and start again.
Massimo
-phar
From everything I've read, booting from the microSD card IS rooting...
http://www.techweb.com/news/231002060/how-to-root-your-nook-color.html
It is technically rooting, but it's temporary until the next boot outside the microSD card. That makes it a little nicer for experimentation.
Holly, you might encounter an issue I found, and if so, this might save you some time. If you put MP3s on your Nook make sure their filenames don't contain '#' or other special characters. iTunes and some other MP3 converters will let you include non alphanumeric characters in the filename, and if present, the song won't play.
-- Gordon
Mine is a Lexar class 4 16GB which one person stated caused him all sorts of problems but when he replaced it with a SanDisk, the problems went away.
I have even seen class 10 cards for sale.
class
2 Transfer speed is a minimum of 2MB/sec.
4 Transfer speed is a minimum of 4MB/sec.
6 Transfer speed is a minimum of 6MB/sec.
10 Transfer speed is a minimum of 10MB/sec.
http://www.memorycardzoo.com/blog/5/What-is-Class-Speed-Rating/
https://www.sdcard.org/developers/tech/speed_class
I found the same info on the forums, also nook specific. Higher class cards performing worse than others tagged as lower class.
This could cause problems indeed.
About rooting:
I agree that you formally gain root access even if booting from an SD card, but you are not making any modification on the stock firmware. Is like running a live linux distro from CD or USB on your PC. Nothing permanent happens.
There are options to root the stock firmware, but in this case coming back is difficult or impossible.
Can it run a telnet session? I guess this would be under android only.
Have you tried blue tooth keyboard?
I was going to use the Standford AI class textbook as my excuse to get this, but I'm still on the fence. Did you try any textbook yet?
I just use the one by Adobe I got in the marketplace for free.
@Ron Czapala
I have SanDisk sd cards. Oddly enough the speed class is unimportant for
OS use. It is the speed that you can write small random files to the card that
is important. You can have a class 2 that has fast random write and it works
perfectly or a class 10 that does not and everything falls apart and all the apps
go forced close all the time. My cards are class 4. I have some different brand
cards and they mostly give me a lot of force close problems.
Use this search string on google and you should pick up all kinds of info about
the random write speed issue and how many find sandisk to be pretty good for
this. --> force close sandisk random nook
@Pharseid380
I love Breaking Bad and Mad Men. I also liked Rubicon but AMC cancelled it.
And now there are only 10 more episode of Breaking Bad and that's the end of it
as well. All I will have is The Big Bang Theory after that.... and all the wonderful
BBC documentaries.
@GordonMcComb
I will watch out for the MP3 name bug...thanks
@prof_braino
I have not tried a blue tooth kbrd yet.
Not yet sure about battery life. It would I suppose depend a lot on
how hard you were running the ARM uC. Watching video with the
Wifi and blue tooth both running and the brightness way up would
probably be a good test. I found out that you can use the Nook
normally while it charges, at least when rooted with cyanogen. I do
have concerns about how rugged the mini USB connection is because
you invariably manage to press on the cable while using it plugged in.
I have tried many books and I like how clear and readable they are.
I just wish I had a way to use a highlighter like I always do going through
real books. I use a 3 color system....yellow for stuff I need to ponder again
later for better understanding, blue for stuff I understand but still need to
be able to locate again quickly and green to mark over the yellow when I
finally understand the material fully.
-phar
And I'm getting bored to tears with all the crime scene
investigation shows.
I'm with ya sister!