Rooters undo B&N's NookColor, install Kindle software.

[Kabob]

In my best StarCraft Protoss voice "Upgrade Complete!"

Courtesy of Phandroid:

I have to admit, the NookColor is going from “another eReader” to “full fledged tablet” at a rather astounding rate. The NookColor is now able to utilize the Kindle app available in the Android Market after you have completed the rooting process.

Wonderfully enough, that’s not all. This process also gives you access to GMail, YouTube and a few other Google apps that you NookColor users were shut out of at launch.

If you decide you’re ready to get this all going, nookdevs has the entire rooting process ready to go at your leisure. As always, you should only consider the rooting process if you are comfortable with using tools such as the command line and are willing to accept the risks of rooting; including, but not limited to: A real waste of time all the way up to bricked device.

I'm not very familiar with the NookColor (saw one in person for the first time yesterday) but apparently the root is very simple and with built-in resets as well as the ability to boot from an SD card the dangers of rooting are very small.

$250 for a full fleged Android 2.1 (soon to be 2.2 and probably 2.3) tablet with a decent screen and a solid processor? Sign me up!

 

[Slick5150]

I thought B&N said themselves they were more or less going up upgrade the Nook Color into a full Android tablet early next year (with access to the marketplace)??

 

[trmiv]

Awesome. So tempted to buy one of these.

 

[Kabob]

I thought B&N said themselves they were more or less going up upgrade the Nook Color into a full Android tablet early next year (with access to the marketplace)??

They are planning to upgrade to 2.2, but "full-fledged tablet" isn't in the works. They said they are going to add some functionality and allow access to their own marketplace but lock out the Android market along with the majority of the apps found there.

Link

 

[TheStu]

Very very impressive. What is the quality of the touchscreen?

 

[dfuze]

I'm very interested in one of these for the exact reason of turning it into a tablet too.

 

[Kabob]

Very very impressive. What is the quality of the touchscreen?

I played with a stock NookColor last night and couldn't really get a feel for the touch in that amount of time. It seemed laggy at first when flipping pages but I think that's how that particular app is intended (to make it feel more like a page flipping). Fiddling around with the menu and such it seemed pretty responsive but I'd have to play with it a little more to get a solid idea.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I've had the Kindle app for over a week on mine.

It's a perfect hack IMHO...

 

[finbarqs]

no cameras... fail

 

[Bateluer]

no cameras... fail

Thread crap... fail

 

[gorcorps]

Awesome news. I love when a 'meh' product is turned into an awesome product through a 3rd party hack.

 

[destrekor]

Awesome news. I love when a 'meh' product is turned into an awesome product through a 3rd party hack.

That's why I love the Android community.
So many devices are using Android these days, things that are only doing the most basic of visible OS operations.. and that gives a massive playground for the development community.

I hope Honeycomb comes soon, because I want to see what companies are doing with it, and mayhap the [seemingly more and more vaporware] Notion Ink Adam might become more real at that point. Hell, the promise of dual-tech screen is awesome imho, the fact it's also a full-fledged Android tablet even more so... but I'm doubting it's existence.

I see that as the perfect device, exactly what I'd want out of a tablet. Because of that, somewhere in the back of my mind, I've already accepted the fact that it will never see the light of day.

 

[gorcorps]

That's why I love the Android community.
So many devices are using Android these days, things that are only doing the most basic of visible OS operations.. and that gives a massive playground for the development community.

I hope Honeycomb comes soon, because I want to see what companies are doing with it, and mayhap the [seemingly more and more vaporware] Notion Ink Adam might become more real at that point. Hell, the promise of dual-tech screen is awesome imho, the fact it's also a full-fledged Android tablet even more so... but I'm doubting it's existence.

I see that as the perfect device, exactly what I'd want out of a tablet. Because of that, somewhere in the back of my mind, I've already accepted the fact that it will never see the light of day.

I definitely like what I'm seeing from the community. I wish some of the phone manufacturers or service providers would stop dicking with things though. Makes it tough to follow when everything is so fragmented and not everything is compatible. It seems like you need an entire sub community for each phone instead of one giant community for the OS in general.

At least that's what it seems like from an outsider... the only "android device" I own is a wifi Nook that hasn't been messed with

 

[Tristicus]

Yeah I really want one of these.

 

[Pliablemoose]

What you end up with is essentially a giant iPod Touch device that runs Android. No camera isn't that big a deal, I have dual cameras on my phone already and use Dropbox, Picasa etc...

 

[randay]

already covered this in the "whats the best ereader" thread.

rooted my nook color: original nook reader, amazon kindle app, google books app, adobe reader, and every other app in the android market.

best $250 dollars i have spent in a long while.

also battery life has turned out to be spectacular.

i have run the 2.2 froyo image from an sd card and that works perfectly fine. remove the card and you are back to your old version.

the only con so far is that the cpu is slower than the latest greatest(though is it not a slug) and that there is a lack of physical back and menu buttons. there is a soft key app and it is also possible to remap the volume buttons.

 

[Kabob]

At least that's what it seems like from an outsider... the only "android device" I own is a wifi Nook that hasn't been messed with

Then mayhaps you should join in on the fun! :awe:

What you end up with is essentially a giant iPod Touch device that runs Android. No camera isn't that big a deal, I have dual cameras on my phone already and use Dropbox, Picasa etc...

Exactly. Even with a few of it's abilities limited a $250 tablet with that hardware is still a steal at half the price of the cheapest iPad or Galaxy Tab.

 

[Sheep]

Picked up a Nook Color on New Years Eve eve and hacked the thing. It was SHOCKINGLY easy to do so--I spent more time downloading a 120mb file than actually rooting it.

Many of the Android apps I normally use work wonderfully on it. I was curious to see how the large screen would affect apps like Dolphin and Kindle but those work perfectly from what I've seen so far. The only thing I'm anxiously awaiting is a way to change the system fonts...Typefresh doesn't seem to work.

I can't wait to see the community develop full-on custom ROMs for it. That would truly make this one of the most awesome pieces of hardware ever that won't destroy your wallet like the current generation of tablets (whether it's paying for a subsidized unit or a data plan).

 

[gorcorps]

Then mayhaps you should join in on the fun! :awe:

Oh believe me, from what I've seen I very much want to get a Nook Color. I'll probably get it within a few months as I'll be starting my career and have plenty of money. I barely have time to use my wifi Nook as it is though, so it'll be a struggle to justify it. The reason I'd want it is part reading, but also a bit of web browsing and probably video. Things will probably be even better by the time I can get one.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Picked up a Nook Color on New Years Eve eve and hacked the thing. It was SHOCKINGLY easy to do so--I spent more time downloading a 120mb file than actually rooting it.

Many of the Android apps I normally use work wonderfully on it. I was curious to see how the large screen would affect apps like Dolphin and Kindle but those work perfectly from what I've seen so far. The only thing I'm anxiously awaiting is a way to change the system fonts...Typefresh doesn't seem to work.

I can't wait to see the community develop full-on custom ROMs for it. That would truly make this one of the most awesome pieces of hardware ever that won't destroy your wallet like the current generation of tablets (whether it's paying for a subsidized unit or a data plan).

For me, watching Google maps/navigation figure out my location using A-GPS was a little creepy The color nook doesn't have a GPS chip, but it still figured out my location and navigation seems to work...

 

[Sheep]

For me, watching Google maps/navigation figure out my location using A-GPS was a little creepy The color nook doesn't have a GPS chip, but it still figured out my location and navigation seems to work...

You do know your smartphone can do the same thing if you turn off the GPS, right?
It can also use cell tower triangulation to get your approximate location.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get ADB working on Windows 7 64-bit to try a few additional tweaks. Something keeps going wrong with the ADB setup so my computer doesn't recognize my NC as anything other than an external HDD.

 

[Pliablemoose]

You do know your smartphone can do the same thing if you turn off the GPS, right?
It can also use cell tower triangulation to get your approximate location.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get ADB working on Windows 7 64-bit to try a few additional tweaks. Something keeps going wrong with the ADB setup so my computer doesn't recognize my NC as anything other than an external HDD.

That was a bitch, IIRC, I had to uninstall the driver and force windows to install the nook driver...

Took forever...

 

[Binky]

For me, watching Google maps/navigation figure out my location using A-GPS was a little creepy The color nook doesn't have a GPS chip, but it still figured out my location and navigation seems to work...

I was a bit shocked at the accuracy on this too. The Zillow app works fairly well on the NC (a bit slow) and it pegged my location within maybe 100 feet.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Woot, they just figured out the bluetooth radio works, just no software in the OS...

 

[vshah]

has anyone had success using the nook with a bluetooth gps receiver? if this works I might pick one up for use as a gps in my car. phone screen is too small, and my built in nav is getting outdated...