Source
r/AMA•
Commander_Q

I am loving the rooted Nook Color as a $250 Android Tablet. AmA

I know this is a little weird as an AmA topic but I had a really hard time finding good user reviews/experiences before I took the plunge. Hoping this might help answer some questions for others. I will be checking in off and on.

For starters, the only place beginners should be going to for how-to info is here:

http://nookdevs.com/NookColor_Rooting

Rooting is fairly easy for moderately competent instruction-followers if you read the whole page through first and then follow all steps exactly.

A quick overview of my experience so far:

  • The rooted nook works great a both an e-reader and a lightweight browsing/computing device. If I lost the nook and someone gave me an iPad or a Galaxy Tab, I'd sell the tablet and buy another nook, and root it.

  • Rooted color nook is the best e-reader you can get IMO.

  • Screen is readable in bright sunlight if I adjust the brightness, but e-ink would be better for regular outdoor reading.

  • both Angry birds and Youtube videos play perfectly and look great (Youtube app setup can be a little finicky, just follow the instructions linked above).

  • I would like more navigation buttons, but softkeys work fine. Softkey setup is detailed in the instructions linked above.

  • A webcam and audio input are the biggest features that you might miss compared to a full-blown tablet IMO.

  • Battery life is fine if you charge it every night. An e-ink reader would be better as a dedicated book reader for battery life and sunlight, but would not have the web or tablet functionality. Plus, the rooted nook allows pretty much every DRM scheme (including none), and pretty much every e-reader store or app. (plus color, video, and interactive features that e-ink readers lack)

  • the size, battery life, and functionality as an e-reader is better than a full-size tablet (for reading).

  • A netbook would be better for anything typing-intensive. Touch-screen typing is adequate, but it's still typing on a touch-screen.

  • The touch-screen is awesome, very sharp and very responsive.

  • The nook browser sucks, but the rooted nook can run dolphin, an excellent tabbed browser with very good gesture-based navigation. Reddit and youtube apps, etc work very well.

  • Performance is outstanding. The color nook is a genuinely capable tablet that has been hobbled by Barnes and Noble to drive book sales. Rooting it reveals very responsive multi-tasking. I'm routinely running multiple books from Kindle, Nook, and Google Books, along with reddit and gmail apps, multiple browser tabs open, games, and there is instant switching with no lagginess. This is not some gimped, clunky, pseudo-tablet that is painful to operate. It works great for the stuff I'm doing with it.

  • If you buy it from B+N, there is a 14-day return period, and rooting can be completely undone with a hard reset.

I'll be checking in off and on. Ask away.

Posted Mar 24, 2011, 11:02 PM UTC

2258
ghett0yeti•

Don't want to ask, just want to get behind you on this. My friend recently did this. It's an Android tablet for half the price and if you have a Nook Color there's no reason not to. It took him all of about 15 minutes to do. It is quite possibly the most awesome thing I have I have ever seen. Though I ain't never been to London. And I ain't never seen France. And I ain't never seen no queen in her damned undies as a feller says.

10
Commander_QOP•

I would recommend a visit to Cape Town South Africa, and then to the Grand Canyon, and then the rooted Color Nook will only be the third most awesome thing you will have ever seen.

5
ghett0yeti•

Well, I do live in Arizona, so you can scratch that huge hole in the ground off of that list. But South Africa might be nice, as long as it isn't a huge, gaping hole in the ground.

2
ICountStars•

My parents drove my grandmother to the Grand Canyon and she was also thoroughly unimpressed by the "huge hole in the ground..."

In unrelated news to large, gaping holes, my grandmother also had 14 children...

5
lyam23•

ew.

1
thepodgod•

Obviously, you are not a golfer.

2
lyam23•

Some great apps for the nook:

These aren't all designed specifically for Honeycomb/Tablets, but I find these essential on my NC. Most look great on a tablet as well.

Looks Good on/Designed for a Tablet

  • Pulse Reader looks great on a tablet.
  • QuickOffice HD was designed for Notion Ink Adam and looks great.
  • Mail'd - notion ink adam IMAP email client. designed for a tablet. Very nice.
  • Thumb Keyboard is awesome!
  • Sketchbook Express is pretty cool
  • Thinking Space is a cool mindmapper app that looks great on tablets.
  • Google Earth
  • I've heard Repligo pdf reader is great on NC. Annotate pdfs.
  • Just Pictures - faster gallery, and access online picture hosting (flickr, facebook, etc..) via OAuth.
  • BBC Tablet Edition
  • Miren Browser - This has been the best browser I've used on the NC so far.
  • Opera Mini is my new go-to browser. Hardware acceleration FTW.
  • Movies (by Flixster) looks nice, but I find NetQ is more functional as a Netflix queue manager, if not as good looking.

eReader Software

Essentials for Nook Color

  • Settings Profile- Any app that turns Wifi off while the screen is off is essential if you are having random reboots.
  • Tasker - Total. Device. Automation. (can also accomplish the wifi trick)
  • XDA Forums
  • Import Contacts - import .vcf contact files from google contacts. May only be useful for Stock 1.1 (Eclair)
  • Button Savior - better than SoftKeys, IMO - Not really needed for Honeycomb or CM7
  • Spare Parts - Access additional features/stats on your device
  • System Panel Full - Best battery/process plotter utility I've come across.
  • Dropbox - duh
  • Root Explorer - Essential for tweaking system files.
10
Nulubez•

First, i put links and details here (http://isaac.inkrunway.com/?p=92).

First, auto-nooter is how you get the basic email apps, youtube and market. Out of the box, the Nook Color runs Android 2.1 (eclair). I've so far tried Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3) and Honeycomb (3.0). Of them, Froyo is the most complete and gingerbread is geared for tablet (no need for softkeys). If you want Gingerbread, start looking for Cyanomod 7 (CM7) which is the group actively developing it. With all of them, you can overclock the nook from 800Mhz to 1.1Ghz using instructions (a custom uImage). You'll want to download an app like SetCPU from the market place to set the clock higher.

Oddly, the Nook app from the Android Marketplace is better than the stock nook software (like page curl turning). Some other awesome apps are aDownloader (for torrenting) and yxplayer to play downloaded videos.

The things you won't be able to make this awesome little unit do are: sound recording (no mic), photo/video apps (no camera) and I'de say no GPS but i saw an App in marketplace today for pairing with your android phone and using its GPS. (and rumor has it you can enable bluetooth, but i havent succeeded).

If at any point along they way to turf up your nook (i did at least once), let it reboot 7 times in a row and it restores itself.
Not to bogart the thread (props to Q for starting it), but AMA regarding the mods.

6
corpus_callosum•

There's also an FM tuner in the wifi chip that they're working on enabling.

1
nicko68•

Technically it's 8 times. I know, I had to do it a couple of times due to my own stupidity. :)

1
YosserHughes•

I've had mine for about four months and rooted it the second day I had it.

Do you use Calibre to manage your collection, you didn't mention that it is also an MP3 player, I put a 32 gb card in and dumped a ton of music on it.

here's a great resource from another Redditor.

4
Commander_QOP•

There is a ton of stuff I have not done that it can do.

Plugged into a good speaker system, it would make a killer touch-screen media player at $250. There's a video of a guy using it as a car-stereo front-end.

But for that matter, so would any competent tablet. I think the larger point is people should realize that the color nook already is an Android tablet, with a processor comparable to a Droid or an iPad 1, it's just been locked by B+N to only run their application.

Unlocking it reveals a great tablet that is also the best overall e-reader on the market. I frankly think its size and battery life are preferable to the bigger tablets, regardless of price. And I personally prefer the removable SD storage and open platform to iPad, although there are some iPad apps I wish were on Android.

If the rooted color nook were an actual product, then I think it would rate near the top of tablet shootouts, and would win hands-down where e-reading and portability were major concerns.

2
YosserHughes•

I have to wonder why B&N don't unlock it.

3
Taedirk•

The same reason everyone else tries to lock down technology. You make more money if it's easier for people to buy from your market than from anyone else's.

2
Commander_QOP•

Echoing widespread speculation:

At $250, when it was released, it was probably under-priced. It is as powerful as smartphones and tablets that were selling for $500+ with contracts, at the time. If it were simply an open-platform Android tablet, there would be a lot of buyers who would simply use it to read through the Kindle or Google Books app or whatever, and B+N would essentially just be subsidizing their competitors. So it was locked to get the book revenue from the kind of buyers who were willing to spend $250 on a reader.

Two points along these lines, for rooted users to think about:

  • B+N has, so far, been extremely cool (read passive and silent) about the widespread rooting of their device, as has not taken aggressive steps to lock it down ala Sony with rooted PS3, in spite of the fact that rooting references are now in every review and all over the front page of Google results for "Color Nook".

  • If you're going to buy e-books, and they are available in the nook store, buy them from B+N rather than on the Kindle app or some other thing. B+N's prices are no higher, and their approach to DRM is a lot more customer-friendly than Kindle or Apple. One advantage to rooting is that you can get e-books that are unavailable from the nook store, but try them first. B+N is offering the best deal in tablets by a long shot.

2
[deleted]•

That's been my strategy too. I'm a class a pirate like the rest, but I have a grown up job now, and don't mind paying for content to support writers or B&N, who gave me an A+ tablet for what is surely under cost.

3
YosserHughes•

Just as an aside; my NC died after two weeks, wouldn't turn on, nothing, Dead.

I sent it back to B&N, got a replacement next day air.

How's that for quick service.

3
Sisyphean•

see also: r/nookcolor.

Just wanted to throw that out there, but otherwise, I'm enjoying your AMA. I, too, enjoy my rooted NC. Cheers.

3
ICountStars•

Why couldn't you have posted this 3 days ago before I bought an iPad? sad face

3
Commander_QOP•

In all seriousness, doesn't the iPad have a return policy? Do it.

5
ICountStars•

Thanks for answering in detail in the other post. Yeah, I'm seriously seriously considering it. My only reservations are screen size (for textbook reading) and the microUSB port vs. an actual USB port. I'm not sure if it would give me any advantage with my current Clear set up (which is crap and I don't want to have to pay $$$ to change)... so yeah. I thought the NC didn't have bluetooth and... there are no microUSB to USB adapters that work with USB devices, right?

1
beardcaller•

the Nook Color does have bluetooth it is just locked in the stock ROM. To run a custom rom with bluetooth enabled, you do not even need to root it all you have to do is use Win32 or a similar program to burn a Rom image to the sd card and insert the micro sd card. The nook color is unique in that it boots first from the sd card then from emmc. Edit: Spelling

3
ICountStars•

Very, very good. Thank you, beardcaller!

1
Commander_QOP•

NC does have a bluetooth chip, but it is unused unless you awaken it with some techie fiddling.

Synching/linking are beyond my experience. There are forums...

The NC is an e-reader, and an excellent one. It can also be pretty easily rooted/unlocked to reveal the full functionality of the underlying Android OS. But beyond that starts to get pretty science-project-y, and I would encourage to look at netbooks if you need an actual portable computer. That said, Android is a pretty open platform, and chances are good that someone somewhere is doing whatever you have in mind...

2
ICountStars•

Ah, yes... I have a Dell Inspiron 700m from back in the day which is basically netbook-size, but falling apart hardware-wise. I'm too poor to worry about getting an actual netbook or anything, and what would be the fun in purchasing a product that works perfectly out of the box? I've been thoroughly unimpressed with all of the things I can't do with my mafia-tracked, Lord VolderJobs 'Pad.

Part of my qualm about using my Clear setup is that I just joined and got the device for free, and switching to another (possibly less wonderful device, as I've researched) is that I'd have to pay an upgrade fee and lease it every month, just increasing my bill.
Thanks for your input, and I'll get back to you with what I find out.

1
RobotBuddha•

Plus, from what I've read, the bluetooth on there is disabled for good reason. It seems pretty wonky at the moment for a whole lot of things.

1
HenkPoley•

All cellphones will move to Micro-USB in Europe and the United States, in the coming years (next year in EU). Jumping on he bandwagon now won't hurt you.

1
ICountStars•

I've googled and see that they do have adapters... but I wonder if they actually transmit information/have enough power to run an external device vs. just charging the microUSB-side device.

For instance, I had a really cool keyboard back in the day, but it was 15-pin, not usb. I could never find an adapter that would make it work b/c of which direction power flowed.

1
LelanaSongwind•

I have a NookColour as well, though not rooted or anything. In your opinion, would it be advantageous for me to root my Nook even though I use it mainly as an ereader? I have been considering it but I'm undecided.

Also, how is your battery life? I know you mentioned you were fine If you charged it nightly but I get about a week and a half out of mine right now and I'd like to keep it that way.

Thanks :)

2
Commander_QOP•

Wow, great questions, and exactly the kind of stuff I was wondering before I started.

  • Battery life will be essentially the same if you use it the same way. If I spend all day watching videos, browsing multiple tabs with images and stuff, playing games, emailing, etc, then it's down to about 25~50% charge by the end of the day. If I read novels on it for two hours a day then it seems to hold charge indefinitely.

  • Rooting the nook will not lose or alter any of the books or functionality that you have now. (although obviously there is nobody to guarantee this). But if you turned on my nook, you would never even know it was rooted except that I have mapped the "n" button to launch the Android menu. It boots to the same nook homescreen, all my books are still there, and it "Nooks" just fine. Difference is, when I go into the "extras" menu (or access the android menu directly), I now have access to Android marketplace, apps, other e-readers, games, etc.

To clarify, "rooting" does not uninstall the Nook software, or anything like that. It just gives you access to the underlying OS. Think of it like this: you know those store kiosks where they are locked to a particular website or whatever? Well, this just gives you permission to open the windows start menu and do whatever else you might want to do on the computer.

The Nook already is an Android tablet, it's just one that B+N has "locked" to their own application, because they want to get their bookstore into the hands of people who can spend $250 on a reader. Rooting it just unlocks the tablet, so that you can use it as a B+N storefront, or so that you can use it for anything else that you might want to do on an Android tablet.

Of course, it will void your warranty, but if you do a hard-reset and return it to as-purchased condition, I'm not sure how anyone could enforce that.

edit: I should say that I am neither a tech expert nor a nook expert, so I am not responsible for inaccurate terminology.

3
LelanaSongwind•

Thanks for the answers! I may have to look more closely at doing it...

And I don't have a warranty anyway, I live in Canada :P.

2
earthbound_loveship•

i've been considering doing this for awhile now. only thing thats stopped me is that if i sit down to read, i dont want to be tempted/distracted by reddit, games, apps etc. i just want to read.

but i've also been hearing its in for a major update just next month which would include many of the things rooting would do. should i wait? and do you know if the the official update would 'unroot' it.

2
HenkPoley•

It is common for Android updates to require a wipe of the common storage. So any root access will be gone if you use the official flasher. Though usually some people will work out how to build a firmware that keeps the rooting when you flash it using their custom built flasher.

Elsewhere in this thread I've seen someone mention a custom firmware already exists that enables some Bluetooth features in the driver. A pre-rooted custom firmware would be a similar feat.

1
Commander_QOP•

As said in more detail above, you don't lose anything by rooting. Its still a nook, except you can also access the android menu. So no matter what features BN adds,being able to access the root OS will give more.

The only possible downside is loss of official support.

1
lyam23•

Something I've not seen mentioned yet is that you can run ROMs from the uSD card. And here's the kicker - without even rooting the device! This is truly unique even in the world of Android.

Just makes sure you use a class 6 uSD. I've heard class 10 can be wonky with some ROMs so caveat emptor.

2
2cats2hats•

What ver of Android is it?

1
Commander_QOP•

2.1, I think, which is the version that Nook runs. Others have gotten it run 2.2. or 3.0 with varying degrees of success and more technical hacking. The "rooting" is just unlocking access to the underlying OS, it's not over-writing the nook.

2
3ti3nn3•

Have you experienced any lag while watching a divx/xvid movie with a player like VPlayer?

1
Commander_QOP•

Not being sure what you were talking about, I just downloaded Vplayer for the marketplace and then launched it to try and view some demo videos... appears to be a player for a format mostly used by pirates(?)... no judgments here, but pirated anything is not a world I dabble in.

Can you link to a video you want me to try playing that does not include malware or viruses, etc? I'm happy to experiment for the benefit of an AmA.

2
3ti3nn3•

I've been using VPlayer to watch DVDrip of movies/tv-series on my N1 for a couple of months now. This video player is simply one of the best on the Android platform (imho) as it can play most files I've downloaded/encoded (mostly AVI files).

I like to think that VLC player (once released on Android) will take the lead, but in the meantime this is my video player of choice.

The original question should have been "Can you watch fullscreen dvd-rips (from .avi files) on your tablet without any noticeable lags or hiccups?".

Sorry if my original question wasn't clear enough! :)

1
ICountStars•

What about the USB port? Could you connect USB devices to it such as a keyboard or hopeshopeshopes a Clear Mobile USB?

1
Commander_QOP•

This gets a bit more complicated...

There are people using bluetooth keyboards, Wiimotes, and other such stuff with the Nook Color, supposedly quite easily, but I haven't tried it. There are similarly people using phones and GPS devices with the Nook via Wi-fi pretty easily.

My impression is that Android integration via Wifi and Bluetooth is pretty good, but that Android as a USB host starts to get iffy and hacky. Remember tablets are still basically running cell-phone operating systems. Check out http://www.reddit.com/r/nookcolor

2
ICountStars•

Thank you, and thank you for addressing all my concerns. I hate to be all omg reddit like I NEED TECH SUPPORT and I KNOW NOTHING but sometimes I just have to spew non-sense and think aloud to clarify my thoughts. ;-)

2
HenkPoley•

What about sunlight readability? (I know, I'll be off to the googles..)

1
Commander_QOP•

Not as good as e-ink, but readable at higher brightness settings. If you read primarily at the beach you'd be better with an e-ink reader.

2
bab5871•

Randy C? Is that you?

1
Commander_QOP•

No. Sorry.

1
CoffeeFTW•

I would buy one in a second but sadly they don't ship to Canada. :(

1
LelanaSongwind•

I know I'm a little late, but I bought mine off of eBay and it still comes with a one-year warranty from the shipper from what I understand. As long as you link your credit card information to a U.S. address (I used a B&N store nearish to where my dad's wife lives) you can buy books and I've never had a problem!

1
Nocut12•

Have you tried that experimental honeycomb build? I'd buy it if that were any good.

1
darjen•

Not sure if you are still interested, but I tried the honeycomb nook rom for a couple weeks after I got mine. It works pretty well, and I really like where Google is going with honeycomb, but it simply isn't quite ready for daily use. It won't be until after Google finally releases the honeycomb source code, and who knows when that will be.

having said that, I installed Cyanogenmod 7 RC and it works very well. So I don't even really miss honeycomb that much. It will definitely satisfy my needs until honeycomb source becomes official.

2
Nocut12•

Thanks for that reply! That does sound pretty sweet. I might need to consider a purchase.

1
Commander_QOP•

I have not, but others have got it working, with varying degrees of success. A couple of points that you can learn more about at the link in the OP and elsewhere:

  • Honeycomb is still a somewhat "beta" build. There is a unique challenge to Android, which is that the hardware platforms and requirements of various telecoms are not as unified as, say, PCs, and certainly not as unified as iPad/iPhone platform. Which is why even official android devices have often been slow to update the OS.

  • "Rooting", as described in the OP, is simply unlocking the existing Android 2.1 OS that already exists on the Nook. Over-writing the device with a whole new OS build is a very different beast, and considerably more "hacky" at this time, especially in light of the point above-- you can't just "install Android 3.0" the way you would upgrade Windows or some such. The OS itself has to be configured for the hardware in very non-plug-and-play ways. If Honeycomb matters a lot to you (and I'm not sure why it would), you should get or wait for a Honeycomb tablet. For that matter, trying to install any version of Android on any device is something that should be regarded as something of a science project.

  • If you want to experiment with Honeycomb or anything else from a science project POV, the nook is an ideal platform because, uniquely among Android devices, it supports booting from SD card. So you could load your OS build onto an SD card and run it on the Nook without over-writing (or even rooting) the stock build.

2