Time to dump the NC...

[gtriever]

Boy, what a dilemma. I agree with Coldsun and Jack, Android was originally designed and released for phones. I also agree with GreenMonkey, that most apps work and look fine on the NC. Bottom line, I guess, is buy whatever works for you.

Side note to Belle2Be: All LCDs are not created equal. IPS screens (which the NOOKcolor has) have much better resolution than TN or TFT screens, which I believe the MacBooks have.

[ColdSun]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

I don't know. Every app I've tried on the Nook color, that wasn't a chintzy free game, works at full screen and seems to take advantage of the resolution pretty well.

Standard google apps like Gmail work great on the big screen.

Trillian, Pandora, Last.fm, Winamp beta, all work great on the big screen. Even the endgadget app works well (although on the big screen I find I prefer the real website in DolphinHD).

Even some chintzy free Disney puzzle apps I put my 3 yr old to doing on it work great on the NC.

I really don't find anything that doesn't work well on the big screen. Maybe if you scrape the Market for old apps. Everything I use on a regular basis scales to the NC resolution fine.

I mean, please, name me a few apps that only run at subpar cellphone rez. I haven't seen one, minus a few freeware game apps.

I think that was exactly the point I was trying to make. I used to think exactly like Jack about Android, and once I took the time to play with it more began to feel the opposite.

[slayda]

I admit that I too like to tinker. Probably not even in the same league as coldsun though. At this stage of tablet technology the rooted NC may appeal more to tinkers than readers. That said I have 4 Eink readers and do most of my reading on my NC. Each reader has advantages and disadvantages. Part of what I like about the NC is due to the hacking (even if I'm not talented enough to be a leader there I can at least follow). Eventually what is being hacked today will be standard tomorrow. {If you remember back to the early days of Microsoft, their OS was designed to run in 1 MB - note that Mega not Giga - but they evolved.} Android will evolve as the hardware evolves.

Part of what some people see as hard with rooting their NC is that there are many variables and this is confusing but it also allows versatility. Eventually (and it is pretty close already) the whole rooting process will become almost (if not entirely) a plug & play procedure. My hardest part was getting Softkeys setup properly. Well actually the hardest part was that my first NC had an internal problem but once B&N replaced it the rooting went easily but Softkeys was confusing. Thanks to a post from the XDA site, the confusion was solved. Now I'm as happy as a pig rooting under a hicory tree.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

...
I really don't find anything that doesn't work well on the big screen. Maybe if you scrape the Market for old apps. Everything I use on a regular basis scales to the NC resolution fine.

I mean, please, name me a few apps that only run at subpar cellphone rez. I haven't seen one, minus a few freeware game apps.

I agree. I was expecting it to be hard to find usable apps.

[Belle2Be]

Originally Posted by gtriever

Side note to Belle2Be: All LCDs are not created equal. IPS screens (which the NOOKcolor has) have much better resolution than TN or TFT screens, which I believe the MacBooks have.

Ah interesting! And the better resolution helps reduce eye strain?

[boswd]

Originally Posted by Belle2Be

Ah interesting! And the better resolution helps reduce eye strain?

in a way yes, the better the resolution the sharper the detail.
If starting out for the first time the best way to reduce eyestrain on all LCD ereaders is to lower the brightness settings and change the color of the background and ease your way into it.

for example when I first started on my Nook color I had the brightness at about 20% and I used the gray background and then used the 'night" background for low lighting and reading in the dark. I found this to be wonderful

I'm still shocked at how easily I made the transition from eink to LCD for long reading sessions. If you would have asked back in September I would have been in the anti LCD camp Pro eink all the way.

but not anymore.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Belle2Be, I was surprised at how easy it is to read on the NC. That was one of my concerns. For example my eyes hurt after a few minutes of just playing with the iPad at the store. The NC is quite impressive compared to similar devices. You might be surprised that it might be ok for you. I also turn the brightness low and adjust background color as boswd recommends.

gtriever, my MacBook Pro has a TN screen, and I don't think Apple is using IPS in their newest models either.

[jlmwrite]

Originally Posted by boswd

I'm still shocked at how easily I made the transition from eink to LCD for long reading sessions. If you would have asked back in September I would have been in the anti LCD camp Pro eink all the way.

Yep, exact same sentiment here. I was very pro-eink when I got my Kindle 3 late last year. I believe I have some older posts lambasting LCD screens on ereaders!

But I absolutely love my NC. Even if I didn't have the opportunity to root it, with all the fun of hacking a new toy, I still consider the NC superior to my Kindle 3 with the exception of the battery life (and to a lesser extent reading in direct, bright sunlight).

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by SCION

I agree. I was expecting it to be hard to find usable apps.

Yeah. I expected that it would be like when the ipad first came out - quite a few ridiculous looking tiny apps on a big screen.

I think Android's 'fragmentation' actually helped. Since Android was already running on so many different phone resolutions, the NC wasn't a problem.