10-16-2013, 01:19 PM | #46 | |
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But even if I didn't want that change, I would definitely have to go with a different launcher - the stock Nook look seems geared toward 4 year olds with its kitschy icons. Karen |
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10-16-2013, 02:57 PM | #47 |
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10-16-2013, 04:08 PM | #48 | |
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10-16-2013, 04:57 PM | #49 | ||
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The stock B&N GUI is highly customizable. I put on my own wallpaper, and you can make the big horsey carousel on the home page totally disappear, which is what I did. What "kitschy" icons are you talking about? The nav buttons on my device are white (dropout) which look pretty classy, IMO. As far as the other icons, I have customized all of mine which show up on the screens and aren't in folders by using Play apps. All my folder icons also have customized images. The only thing I can't change that I don't care for is the "Your Nook Today" button on the main home page, but it doesn't really bother me all that much either. If it did, I'd use an alternate launcher. Believe me, I'm really picky about GUIs. That's why I would hesitate to ever buy another iOS device again. Main problem with iOS products is you can't easily customize anything -- except for the wallpaper -- without jailbreaking. And I just hate the look of iOS7. Talk about a GUI geared towards kiddies!! Those flat sherbet-colored icons would make me feel ill every time I looked at them. (Sorry if there are any big Apple fans here, but that is how I truly feel.) If I had iOS7 I would feel the need to jailbreak it to get another GUI. But I find the stock HD/HD+ GUI so customizable that I didn't even put an alternate launcher on it, let alone another ROM. So, from a functional standpoint, there is very little that pure android can do that the stock HD/HD+ can't do either natively or with a widget or Play store add-on. From a GUI perspective, the same thing goes with a few exceptions such as the "Nook Today" button I mentioned. And it's not worth it to me to address those exceptions with a new ROM, because then I'd lose some of the things I like about the native B&N firmware -- such as the catalogs, scrapbooks, native reader (which I like for PDFs) and book recommendations. Yes, I actually like the way B&N suggests similar books to me based on what's already in my library. So the tradeoffs aren't big enough for me to put on a new ROM. --Pat |
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10-16-2013, 05:02 PM | #50 |
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Rooting doesn't change the GUI or the main functionality of the stock OS. All it does is give the user (and some third-party apps) increased access to system files that they ordinarily wouldn't have.
I have kept the stock B&N firmware on my HD, but I have rooted it. I have also flashed a mod which allows sideloading. There is a big misconception about what "rooting" really is, and many people incorrectly use the term when they are really talking about installing a new ROM. --Pat |
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10-16-2013, 05:28 PM | #51 | |
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What I meant is I would have rooted just to be able to install another launcher, had BN not opened up access to Google Play store or allowed use of another launcher. Even with the Nova launcher which I am using, I found the inconsistency of navigation of the stock ROM very annoying, e.g., the soft back button is not always present ... Last edited by livramax; 10-16-2013 at 05:30 PM. |
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10-16-2013, 06:00 PM | #52 | |
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On my android screen for settings I have tabs for Wireless & Networks Interface, including launcher, lockscreen, themes, and system, all of which have numerous options within them Device, with buttons for sound, display, storage, apps and battery, again each has multiple things within each button Personal - Profiles (Night, home, silent, work), Location access, security, language & input, backup & reset Accounts - System - date/time, accessibility,developer options, performance (can change clock speed, customize memory usage, etc), about tablet On the HD+ native I have Wireless & bluetooth General (screen, battery save mode, language, keyboard, etc) apps - accounts backup settings storage management which only tells me how much total is used, not by what and not really "managing" it (also, can't tell apps to move to sd or vice versa, whereas I can do that on android) location services device information IOW, a lot of these settings are not really changeable items, just telling you what's what, compared to android. Now, maybe most people are fine with that and that is great. I just like a little more flexibility. As for the recent drawer, when I tap that, all I get is the whole list of apps on my tablet, not only things I've just opened. With Android I can open 3-4 things and switch back and forth between them without closing out or backing out of the one I'm in. I am not sure what happens in the Nook mode - if you open, say Netflix and then use the drawer to access something else, is Netflix still running in the background or does it close? can't say I"ve tried it but I've just gotten used to the android way. As for the kitschy icons I'm referring to the default green parrot and green apple that showed up on mine. I know they can be changed; I did it on my HD before I got the android card, but why do they even use such cheesy things to begin with unless they are aiming at kids? Or why not include some nice themes that are easily changeable? I've read on the regular B&N forums sometimes and find a lot of people have no idea how to customize their wallpaper or icons. And Nook doesn't make it easy to find IMO. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great product on its own and improved greatly with Google play but I still want a bit more. I also like using Amazon's android app market, which you can't on the stock Nook AFAIK. I have no idea how to get rid of the carousel; that would have been a big plus to me originally. I can't stand it on any of the readers. I prefer shelves or collections by tags (I began with a Sony e-reader which allowed collections from my Calibre tags and love that) I haven't used the native Nook reader much b/c I buy very little from B&N (buy very little anyway but more from Kobo or Amazon usually) and use Aldiko for epubs, or Overdrive for library books. If I had not tried and gotten used to regular android on my HD already, I'd probably be fine with just using a better launcher and customizing the Nook more to my liking. It's just what I'm used to now. And I highly agree with you on iOS - can't stand trying to adjust any settings on my kids' iPods - it is so tightly controlled. Karen |
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10-16-2013, 07:06 PM | #53 | |||||||
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What exactly do you do with your HD and the custom ROM that you can't do with with HD+? You do know that the stock HD/HD+ is running ICS 4.0.4 under the covers, don't you? So most of what you can do with a custom ROM, you can do with the stock OS, either natively or with a Play Store add-on. Quote:
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The native Nook reader I only use for PDFs, because I like its thumbnail navigation which I haven't found an equivalent to yet in any other PDF reader. If it weren't for the B&N content, which I use, then I'd have no hesitation going to an alternate launcher or another ROM. But I don't want to lose that content, and don't like dual boot setups. So rooted stock with certain mods is the ideal solution for me. --Pat |
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10-16-2013, 07:44 PM | #54 |
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I use Repligo pro for pdfs, which I like. I haven't tried the native Nook reader for pdfs so I don't know how much different it is.
Like I said, if I hadn't gotten used to the full android already, what you describe would most likely be fine for me. Maybe I'll play with my HD+ before changing it and see how I like it. I'm currently using Jellybean on my HD. What about moving apps to the sd card? Someone on another forum with a Nook HD was trying to do that and couldn't find any way to do it. I recommended app2sd but she said it wouldn't work on her native HD. maybe with the sideloading thing? It's probably not as much of an issue with the 16 GB HD+ now but my HD is only 8 gb so pushing some of those lesser-used apps to the card is nice. |
10-16-2013, 09:01 PM | #55 | ||
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I tried Repligo and, while there is thumbnail navigation, the thumbs are so tiny as to be almost useless! They are like about 1/20th the size of the thumbs in the Nook native reader. And I couldn't find a way to make the thumbs larger. I bought the HD+primarily to read PDFs, so I wouldn't want to lose the big thumbnail navigation just to get a new ROM on the device. Quote:
The solution is by leapinlar at xda. He offers the mod in the same thread where I got my mods for rooting and sideloading, and it can be done for either stock ROM or devices with CM10.1/CM10.2. Look at the first post, item #4: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2062613 leapinlar is very good about answering questions and helping out if you get stuck on things. --Pat |
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10-16-2013, 09:26 PM | #56 | |
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I'd open the same PDF in the Kindle app and it worked fine. |
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10-16-2013, 10:11 PM | #57 | |
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I am not having any issues with page turning or blank pages reading PDFs in the native Nook reader. Maybe the problems existed just with the earlier stock ROMs? PDFs on both 2.1.0 and 2.1.1 have worked smoothly for me. --Pat |
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10-17-2013, 08:14 AM | #58 |
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I don't mind the stock home screen as much as I can see others do. My main complaint about it is that there is very little room to put widgets and app icons on it. And also there is no obvious way to change the number of home screens.
Both those complaints are easily fixed with an alternative launcher! I have however put an icon on obe of my home screen that takes me back to the stock home screen when I feel like using it. As for reading multipage PDFs (magazines) I have used EZ PDF and been very happy with it. I also use both Adobe and Office suite now and then for smaller PDFs. Last edited by Asawi; 10-17-2013 at 08:16 AM. |
10-17-2013, 09:11 AM | #59 |
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I don't use B&N's digital services. Therefore, any and all customizations of the Android system to make it interface better with B&N and give preference to B&N's own apps is useless cruft to me.
I ran both B&N's ROM and CM 10.2 on my HD+, both installed to the internal memory, and I get much better battery life, and a good bit faster system using CM 10.2. Besides the slight performance gains, I have the good feeling of knowing that my tablet is full Android and running a lean, stock ROM. |
10-17-2013, 03:28 PM | #60 |
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I played with my HD+ stock ROM last night and was at least able to get rid of the carousel and change the wallpaper and user profile icons. I did run into one problem, not sure how to get around it? I had orig. set up my primary profile as well as a single child profile called "John or Mary" for my kids to use, on my HD when i first got it last year. As soon as I had registered this new HD+ it installed those profiles (as well as every Nook app and book, magazine, etc I'd bought from B&N, without asking). So, on the HD+ I decided to make 2 child profiles, one for each of them. When I edited the child profile name, no keyboard comes up to type! When I long press I was able to cut part of the name out but still couldn't retype anything new. When I added a 3rd profile, the keyboard did come up to add the 3rd name.
I wonder if it's possible to have different profiles on different devices when they are registered to the same B&N account. I did check out the pdfs on the Nook and yes, the thumbnail navigation is much larger but I usually just use table of contents and then "go to page...." so it doesn't matter to me. I haven't had a chance to image the sd card for CM 10.1 yet so I'll keep playing with the Nook interface. Karen |
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