Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
That's to be expected, as the Nook software is obviously badly optimized (other brands with the same specs are faster). The problem is, I'm not a fan of most Android reading apps and I don't want to spend time on rooting (not a familiar process for me, I've never bothered to root my phones) or on getting the buttons to work properly in those apps (I've read they don't just work in 3rd party apps by default). So I'm not going to buy another Nook unless they considerably improve their software. But it's nice to know they've managed to up the speed, at least somewhat.
|
I can't blame you for your reluctance to buy another Nook, given where you are coming from. You can install third party apps (and a third party launcher, so you can find the apps) easily enough, without root. If you want those page turn buttons to work on those apps, then things get either challenging or frustrating, depending on your perspective. B&N codes the buttons in an unusual way. Because of this, third party apps, looking for the usual coding, can't find the buttons. You need to root the Glowlight 4 to change the coding. But, if you do that, the buttons no longer work in the Nook UI. You can set up (through a button mapper app) something where a button click is interpreted as a tap on a specific location of the display, making it a page turn button once again in the Nook UI.
Of course, once you've put in the time and effort to set up this system, the next Nook update usually removes root, so you have to re-root to restore your setup. You can block updates, but that's more time and effort. Then there's the dreaded storage partitioning issue. Getting Calibre set up. And so on.
I was willing to do all this as a way of learning more about how my device and Android work, and for the satisfaction of setting up my device as I wanted it to be. But looking at all this now, I wonder why I put in all that time and effort when I could have bought another device that would have given me the same thing with much less effort! Nevertheless, the learning was fun, even if aggravating at times.
After all that, I still like my Glowlight 4. I find that I prefer a larger display, which I have in my Boox Leaf 2 (7 inches), so I use my GL4 less these days.
Nevertheless... if the new, potentially larger Nook catches my interest, I might do the same thing with it!!! Incorrigible...
