Nook Color?

[Alpha_Geek]

I am interested in getting a nook color, I do a fair bit of reading, alot of magazines and books as well. I do have a few questions that I haven't been able to find the answers to:

1. Can I read .pdf files on the nook, I have a few game manuals that I have scanned because of the conditions of the physical books I own and I was wondering if I could transfer them to the nook and read them from there?

2. Will the nook support anything higher than the 32gb micro sd card?

3. Did the new android firmware update allow the viewing of youtube videos?

Thank you in advance for all the help you guys could give me, I'd like to know this stuff before I go out and buy one and find out the answers the hard way.

 

[dougp]

1) You can read PDF files, I use this form my camera's manual.

2) Not sure, it is microSDHC though.

3) You can already view youtube videos before the 2.2 update.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Is there such thing as a Micro SD card bigger than 32GB?

 

[Alpha_Geek]

But what if the .pdf doesn't have an authenticator, or it isn't a legit copy of the book? Like I play Warhammer 40k and I sat down a week ago and scanned all 67 pages of my Space Marine codex and turned it into a .pdf because I want to be able to read through it without destroying my physical copy any more than it already is (and its beat up, pages are falling out and i am missing 2 pages from it)... will i be able to transfer this onto the nook and read it from there?

Is the browser fully capable of browsing all aspects of the net like forums, pages and all youtube stuff? What about pandora, can I use pandora on the nook?

 

[poofyhairguy]

The default Nook Color OS seemed to display the few PDFs I have- none legitmate. If you want me to test your PDF I keep the stock OS around on my dual boot partition. Just PM me.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

The default Nook Color OS seemed to display the few PDFs I have- none legitmate. If you want me to test your PDF I keep the stock OS around on my dual boot partition. Just PM me.

Dual booting partition? Explain. I am interested in the sound of that. Also I am looking to be able to play some basic games, non graphically intensive ones, like card games, chess and maybe some puzzle games. As well as browse the net with this thing, would I be better off buying a tablet like an Archos or just getting a Nook and hacking it to be a full formed tablet?

 

[poofyhairguy]

One of the best things about the Nook Color is that it has an AWESOME team of third party developers. Thanks to this team, the Nook Color has a Gingerbread ROM that is far far beyond what the stock OS of Froyo provides.

On my CM7 (Gingerbread) main partition I have my Nook Color overclocked to 1.3GHz, I have working bluetooth, I have full market access, and I have access to tons of usability modifications made to Gingerbread just for the Nook Color. As a side note- with full market access there is a guarantee that SOME app can display your PDF how you want.

With that said, there are some features of the stock ROM that can't be had elsewhere- such as "read to my kids" books, and magazine support. So dual booting allows someone to have both a functional tablet OS, and a great ereader OS on the same device.

I will admit I use nothing in the stock OS. I keep it around as part of my hardware demonstation- the last step after I blow their minds with CM7 is to boot back into stock and say "And now we are back to an ereader!" Clapping usually follows.

For more info, look at the sticky at the top of this forum. I update it constantly with all Nook Color news.

 

[Kanalua]

I have been nothing but please with my NC purcahse. Running CM7 and it is a great little tablet.
Rooting and installing CM7 is a breeze, and gives the full Android (gingerbread) experience (youtube, video playback, etc)...pdf work just fine. Really, unless you have a specific need for an e-ink device, or need a camera (for skype, etc), then the NC is a no brainer.

 

[BeauJangles]

Funny this thread should be here, I was about to post a similar question.

The Nook seems like the best bang for the buck tablet out there. I was originally considering a Kindle, but I think that I'd really enjoy being able to use the Nook Color as a fully-functional tablet. I could probably get away with using a tablet for 80% of my computing activities and I have no problem reading books off my android phone (except that I want a bigger screen!).

Is the Nook Color going to remain the best bang for the buck option or are there are other devices on the way that will supplant it? Does the Nook Color (rooted, of course) suffer from serious lag? I made the mistake of getting a Samsung Transform and, even rooted, the thing is laggy and annoying to use. I don't want that in a tablet.

Thanks, sorry for the piggy-back

 

[poofyhairguy]

Is the Nook Color going to remain the best bang for the buck option or are there are other devices on the way that will supplant it?

That is hard to say. One could might believe that something like a Transformer provides more value, as would a $300ish Galaxy Tab off ebay if someone needed an internal GPS (as opposed to a bluetooth one), cameras, and use of bluetooth headsets.

If you don't need all that stuff, and you want an unbrickable and constantly improving 7 inch tablet the Nook Color rocks.

Does the Nook Color (rooted, of course) suffer from serious lag? I made the mistake of getting a Samsung Transform and, even rooted, the thing is laggy and annoying to use. I don't want that in a tablet.

The only ROM that I outright consider to be laggy is the Honeycomb ROM, and that is because Honeycomb is highly optimized for Tegra and there is no available source code.

The new Nook Color stock OS (Froyo) is fairly responsive (the browser kinda sucks till you make Flash play on demand), and so a rooted stock feels the same way. The CM7 ROM overclocked at 1.3GHz using GPU enabled programs (Opera Mobile, Launcher Pro) absolutely screams. I benchmark in Quadrant higher than my friend's Xoom (even though that might just be a deficiency of Quadrant).

 

[sjwaste]

I am interested in getting a nook color, I do a fair bit of reading, alot of magazines and books as well. I do have a few questions that I haven't been able to find the answers to:

1. Can I read .pdf files on the nook, I have a few game manuals that I have scanned because of the conditions of the physical books I own and I was wondering if I could transfer them to the nook and read them from there?

2. Will the nook support anything higher than the 32gb micro sd card?

3. Did the new android firmware update allow the viewing of youtube videos?

Thank you in advance for all the help you guys could give me, I'd like to know this stuff before I go out and buy one and find out the answers the hard way.

1. Yes, I read PDF's on mine. It's rooted and running CM7, so I use the Adobe PDF reader app from the market. But in stock form, it reads PDF as well. I used Calibre to convert my bar study materials to PDF and load them there.

2. I don't think such a thing exists, but I expect it'll work with any SDHC. The current SDHC spec is limited to 32GB, though, even though it can theoretically address 2TB. So this may be an issue, but there aren't really any larger cards to test with yet, right?

3. Youtube has always worked, AFAIK.

4. I'll just add an extra point here. If you're kind of a techy, you can easily root the device and load Cyanogen, which is very stable at this point. You'll have Android 2.3 running and can load most market apps. For instance, I use the Slingplayer app on it for live TV. Battery life isn't AS good as stock with this setup, but it still lasts me a couple of days with moderate use. Oh, Bluetooth also works this way.

For $250, there's nothing on the market that even comes close.

 

[gorcorps]

Funny this thread should be here, I was about to post a similar question.

The Nook seems like the best bang for the buck tablet out there. I was originally considering a Kindle, but I think that I'd really enjoy being able to use the Nook Color as a fully-functional tablet. I could probably get away with using a tablet for 80% of my computing activities and I have no problem reading books off my android phone (except that I want a bigger screen!).

Is the Nook Color going to remain the best bang for the buck option or are there are other devices on the way that will supplant it? Does the Nook Color (rooted, of course) suffer from serious lag? I made the mistake of getting a Samsung Transform and, even rooted, the thing is laggy and annoying to use. I don't want that in a tablet.

Thanks, sorry for the piggy-back

I have nothing more than the stock firmware rooted (no custom rom), and I feel it's fairly laggy. Without an overclock and memory manager it's quite sluggish. However it's not unusable and I'm still glad I bought it. Browsing the web is still useful, and plenty of apps work. I use it as an ereader a lot too which is why I just stuck with the stock firmware. Other roms will probably act and feel differently because they were built for different things.

There's nothing better for the money. If you're coming from an iOS device it'll feel a little slow, but it's really not that bad. And TBH once in the app I feel no lag, it's just the navigation that's a little slow for me. I still attribute this more to the Nook firmware itself though and not the hardware. Other roms have been ironed out and built specifically to make the Nook feel like the tablet it's capable of.

 

[sjwaste]

I have nothing more than the stock firmware rooted (no custom rom), and I feel it's fairly laggy. Without an overclock and memory manager it's quite sluggish. However it's not unusable and I'm still glad I bought it. Browsing the web is still useful, and plenty of apps work. I use it as an ereader a lot too which is why I just stuck with the stock firmware. Other roms will probably act and feel differently because they were built for different things.

There's nothing better for the money. If you're coming from an iOS device it'll feel a little slow, but it's really not that bad. And TBH once in the app I feel no lag, it's just the navigation that's a little slow for me. I still attribute this more to the Nook firmware itself though and not the hardware. Other roms have been ironed out and built specifically to make the Nook feel like the tablet it's capable of.

You should give CM7 a shot, or at least Dalingrin's overclock kernel. I'm running CM7 @ 1.3 GHz (peak, ondemand governor), and it's very smooth. Add in Opera Mobile for its GPU acceleration and it's a very nice experience.

There is no better value on the market. I find myself bringing it to work every day, since it's a great reader for the metro ride, and good for miscellaneous tasks during the day. So B&N has even gotten me to spend more than I thought I would on books.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I have nothing more than the stock firmware rooted (no custom rom), and I feel it's fairly laggy. Without an overclock and memory manager it's quite sluggish.

The original ROM was terrible. The new Froyo ROM is a little better. In the end though, overclocking is easy. Every Nook should run at 1GHz, as its been discovered its the exact same CPU as in the Droid X, clocked down for battery use.

Here is a overclock kernel for the newest Froyo stock ROM:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1064095

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Seeing as it can be unlocked to be a full fledged tablet are there any writing programs like word that are made for it? I have been doing a bit of writing lately and I would like to be able to write on the go.

 

[pm]

I haven't tried it myself, but Google Docs for Android would seem like the clear winner fora writing program for Android.

By the way, as moderator I've been trying to reconcile this thread with the sticky at the top... I'm not sure if I should lock this and say "take it to the sticky", or try merging the threads (I hate merging... I'm never happy with the results since they go in chronologically and that results in a bunch of random discussions...) or just leave it alone and we can have two threads. As long as we are talking what you can do with a Nook Color, it seems fine to keep them separate, but if it becomes how to hack a Nook Color then we should move that discussion to the sticky... that's what it's there for.

 

[Glitchny]

I haven't tried it myself, but Google Docs for Android would seem like the clear winner fora writing program for Android.

I don't know if it can be sideloaded, but last time I tried to install GDocs on my NC from the market it said the device wasn't compatible for some reason. Could be because they added OCR and it requires a camera, dunno the specifics.

 

[pm]

I don't know if it can be sideloaded, but last time I tried to install GDocs on my NC from the market it said the device wasn't compatible for some reason. Could be because they added OCR and it requires a camera, dunno the specifics.

I bought a Nook Color two nights ago - which I intend to be my first Android device - and I've been messing with it but I haven't tried changing the software on it. One of the programs that I really want to try is Google Docs though so I'll give it a try soon.

 

[sjwaste]

I haven't tried it myself, but Google Docs for Android would seem like the clear winner fora writing program for Android.

By the way, as moderator I've been trying to reconcile this thread with the sticky at the top... I'm not sure if I should lock this and say "take it to the sticky", or try merging the threads (I hate merging... I'm never happy with the results since they go in chronologically and that results in a bunch of random discussions...) or just leave it alone and we can have two threads. As long as we are talking what you can do with a Nook Color, it seems fine to keep them separate, but if it becomes how to hack a Nook Color then we should move that discussion to the sticky... that's what it's there for.

Just my two cents, not adjusted for inflation. I would suggest keeping this thread separate. This is a good resource for people considering buying a Nook, which is pretty distinct from how to root it (honestly, that thread should be one post with a link to Nookdevs and XDA). I haven't even looked at the rooting thread in weeks. This thread is a distinctly different topic, I'd think.

It's not like threads are scrolling off the first page here in less than a few hours

 

[sjwaste]

I bought a Nook Color two nights ago - which I intend to be my first Android device - and I've been messing with it but I haven't tried changing the software on it. One of the programs that I really want to try is Google Docs though so I'll give it a try soon.

Yeah, now that you mention it, I don't see it in the market with my NC (and it's rooted, running CM7). I am going to try pushing the APK from my Evo to the NC and see if it will install and run.

The "import from camera" option might be the reason, as someone mentioned.

 

[pm]

I saw in the Wall Street Journal that B&N has filed an SEC filing saying that they are releasing a new Nook later this month.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barnes-noble-to-unveil-new-e-reader-on-may-24-2011-05-04

There are some theories that it's a cheaper Nook (CNet, PCWorld) and others think it's a more powerful Nook Color (Dow Jones, WSJ).

Just my two cents, not adjusted for inflation. I would suggest keeping this thread separate. This is a good resource for people considering buying a Nook, which is pretty distinct from how to root it (honestly, that thread should be one post with a link to Nookdevs and XDA). I haven't even looked at the rooting thread in weeks. This thread is a distinctly different topic, I'd think.

Yeah, I agree. That was my rambling conclusion as well.

 

[sjwaste]

I hope its not a more powerful NC, if only because I'm not ready to spend more money yet

As my own rambling aside, the NC is a great example of why open devices and rooting have their place. You basically have something that was a reader with a scaled back interface turned into a full fledged tablet by the community. It's not like rooting a phone, which allows you to install a new, but substantially similar rom, remove some apps, and install some others. This was an entirely game-changing experience with the NC. It is pretty much a different device once you install a community ROM.

Why do I mention this? It seems B&N "gets it" or at least doesn't care/turns a blind eye to what people do with the hardware that they own. The bootloader wasn't locked and there was very little in the way of security. Hell, the device by default boots from the SD card first, which enabled a lot of this - and making it really hard to brick the device since you could always boot from SD and flash back the stock images (easily found on XDA). I'm pretty sure that B&N was answering questions about the hardware and roadmap for XDA/Nookdevs' developers, too.

If my consumer behavior is at all indicative, this has to be a win for them. I've spent more on books since I've gotten this thing than I have in the previous 5 years combined. I find I always want to have something loaded up for the airport, metro ride into work, lunch time, etc.

So I guess if it's a more powerful NC, I'll pony up. Not sure how I'd feel if the form factor were larger, though.

 

[pm]

I hope its not a more powerful NC, if only because I'm not ready to spend more money yet

As my own rambling aside, the NC is a great example of why open devices and rooting have their place. You basically have something that was a reader with a scaled back interface turned into a full fledged tablet by the community. It's not like rooting a phone, which allows you to install a new, but substantially similar rom, remove some apps, and install some others. This was an entirely game-changing experience with the NC. It is pretty much a different device once you install a community ROM.

Why do I mention this? It seems B&N "gets it" or at least doesn't care/turns a blind eye to what people do with the hardware that they own. The bootloader wasn't locked and there was very little in the way of security. Hell, the device by default boots from the SD card first, which enabled a lot of this - and making it really hard to brick the device since you could always boot from SD and flash back the stock images (easily found on XDA). I'm pretty sure that B&N was answering questions about the hardware and roadmap for XDA/Nookdevs' developers, too.

If my consumer behavior is at all indicative, this has to be a win for them. I've spent more on books since I've gotten this thing than I have in the previous 5 years combined. I find I always want to have something loaded up for the airport, metro ride into work, lunch time, etc.

So I guess if it's a more powerful NC, I'll pony up. Not sure how I'd feel if the form factor were larger, though.

I really don't think that B&N used an unsigned bootloader and the ability to boot from SD with the idea that hackers would use it to install Android. Maybe some of the bottom-rung engineers might have thought of it, but I can't imagine anyone higher up in the company even considered the idea. It's like the fact that Apple and Infinieon didn't lock the JTAG port on their baseband processor on the first iPhone... they didn't do this to make it easy for hackers to hack the hardware, they did it because they didn't consider the possibility that an unlocked JTAG port could be used to unlock the phone.

I think the NC is cheap because B&N felt they needed a lower price point to increase sales to secure a large number of users so that they can better compete with Amazon in the ebook market. People booting Android onto their Nooks dilutes (or at least adds uncertainty) to this user base number, it adds some support issues ("I bricked my Nook. I want to exchange it for a working one"), and I can't see any upside for it for B&N at all. I mean what do they get out of it? They sold a device with almost no margins on it - they can't be making a lot of money on the sale - to a decent sized group of people who won't use it primarily to buy B&N ebooks. It might be that there aren't that many people sticking Android on NC's and so this whole thing is a small percentage... except that I personally see and hear a lot of people doing it. I wonder what the total percentage is.

You may think highly of the company because you think you got a good deal on an Android tablet and that may translate to you possibly doing more business with them, but I think a lot more people rooted their NC's and then installed the Kindle app.

I don't think B&N did this at all on purpose - I think they added features that they thought would give them a leg up on Amazon's Kindle, and happened to leave a bunch of security holes in the device because they are new to all of this and didn't think of it.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Seeing as it can be unlocked to be a full fledged tablet are there any writing programs like word that are made for it? I have been doing a bit of writing lately and I would like to be able to write on the go.

I use the Quickoffice HD from this thread:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=934916

I also use that calculator, keyboard and sniffer app almost daily. The calendar doesn't work.

 

[poofyhairguy]

As long as we are talking what you can do with a Nook Color, it seems fine to keep them separate, but if it becomes how to hack a Nook Color then we should move that discussion to the sticky... that's what it's there for.

I try to limit links and knowledge on actual hacks and ROMs to the sticky. In fact, that is basically what I feel the sticky is for now- to keep people up to date with Nook Color development.