Pandigital Novel -- not that great, is it?

[tipstir]

I own one already from Bed Bath and Beyond White PDN V1 and just got one at Kohl's two days ago for $84.99 after some crazy 2 day sale with $100 off instant and 35% off coupon from them plus $15 rebate too. Anyway as you know this can be Rooted into Tablet / Hybrid. Best that way to go, unless you're okay with the stock OEM ROM which isn't bad, but if you wanted to do more with the device. Audio is fine but some PCB v1 is an issue with video shuttering because of the battery management with the CPU.

[nklein]

Originally Posted by gastan

The Novel can read almost any format once it is hacked. I say 'almost' only because if I said "every" or "any" I'm sure someone would point out some obscure format that there is no android app for. You should read this thread from the slatedroid site:
http://www.slatedroid.com/pandigital...verything.html

You have a lot of questions about the Novel. The PDN wiki at slatedroid is a must read if you are thinking of getting one.
http://www.slatedroid.com/wiki/index...ndigital_Novel

I love my WPDN and have none of the complaints others have posted here. If you decide to get one I would definitely recommend the W(hite) P(an) D(igital) N(ovel).

I know theres great info over there (slatedroid) but I've already received nasty replies to questions that should have been easy to answer.
" can u hack it with a intel mac"?? ....

can u??
please don't answer "buy another computer"

[gastan]

Originally Posted by daviddwilson

No 'normal' user should have to upgrade firmware on a newly purchased product in order to get it to work properly !!!!

You don't have to do anything to the PDN. It works fine as an eReader out of the box. But with just a little bit of time and effort it can do oh, so much more.

[lotrfan]

Originally Posted by nklein

I know theres great info over there (slatedroid) but I've already received nasty replies to questions that should have been easy to answer.
" can u hack it with a intel mac"?? ....

can u??
please don't answer "buy another computer"

Not sure if you can do it with apple but I would think the necessary usb drivers for this particular hack are only compatible with windows. However you should be able to install one of the pre-hacked firmwares that are in the site as long as they can be installed from the sd card (not sure as I haven't tried it myself or read enough). Basically just save the firmware on the sd card and follow the instructions on how to install the firmware from the sd card (Pandigital site and or manual). Once hacked you can install apps from several sites other than market directly to the Novel. For market I think you are out of luck but I may be wrong.

I will look in the site and try to confirm that you can just install them from the sd card.

[tipstir]

Originally Posted by nklein

I know theres great info over there (slatedroid) but I've already received nasty replies to questions that should have been easy to answer.
" can u hack it with a intel mac"?? ....

can u??
please don't answer "buy another computer"

Did you report this? Rules on that forum don't allow such behavior.

[roebeet]

Originally Posted by lotrfan

Please note that though the Black unit came out after the white unit the software at least is inferior to the white version. Also it is harder to hack and even then many apps don't work on it due to the inferior software. This according to slatedroid.

I can confirm that. I had the black device for a week - it has only 128MB of RAM and is running Android 1.5. Pluses were that it was smaller and lighter, with better Wifi than the white. But in almost all other respects it was inferior.

Originally Posted by tipstir

I own one already from Bed Bath and Beyond White PDN V1 and just got one at Kohl's two days ago for $84.99 after some crazy 2 day sale with $100 off instant and 35% off coupon from them plus $15 rebate too. Anyway as you know this can be Rooted into Tablet / Hybrid. Best that way to go, unless you're okay with the stock OEM ROM which isn't bad, but if you wanted to do more with the device. Audio is fine but some PCB v1 is an issue with video shuttering because of the battery management with the CPU.

The audio on the PDN v1 / v2's and also the Cruz Reader is actually quite bad. It's a pet peeve of mine (I also frequent headfi.org) and the fuzzy playback on headphones just drives me nuts. If you need a clean audio output on your tablet device, this is not the device to buy. I also had issues with the Libre and Nook's audio in terms of lag and pitch, but at least the output was clean.

Originally Posted by nklein

I know theres great info over there (slatedroid) but I've already received nasty replies to questions that should have been easy to answer.
" can u hack it with a intel mac"?? ....

can u??
please don't answer "buy another computer"

Was this the thread I also responding to? (I can't check it right now, since it's down). If so, I think the issue is that the members are sticklers for users reading the wiki first. I'm trying to remember if you were the person who's not very technical?

[tipstir]

Yes in my comparison video of the ePad vs PDNTHw you could hear that the ePad had better output if piped though surround system or not though one PDNTH more tiny like old AM radio playing music. These can't compare to Sansa media player. I guess the thinking is how much time and money should be spend into these devices. People need a good HIS panel to read from then the PDNTH is the way to go but the ePad sent to me from China panel is very vivid. Sound is great, video is bad, youtube is okay it, where as the PDNTH is better. They're not perfect.

[nklein]

Originally Posted by lotrfan

Not sure if you can do it with apple but I would think the necessary usb drivers for this particular hack are only compatible with windows. However you should be able to install one of the pre-hacked firmwares that are in the site as long as they can be installed from the sd card (not sure as I haven't tried it myself or read enough). Basically just save the firmware on the sd card and follow the instructions on how to install the firmware from the sd card (Pandigital site and or manual). Once hacked you can install apps from several sites other than market directly to the Novel. For market I think you are out of luck but I may be wrong.

I will look in the site and try to confirm that you can just install them from the sd card.

thanks doing it from sd card sounds great

now which hacked firmware can I load from the sd card "Once hacked you can install apps from several sites other than market directly to the Novel"???

I downloaded
premodded-pre-configured-7_24-firmware-nchntr_experience_v1.html
so can I just save it to sd card?

also if I want to download apps like ereader do I just download the ereader_android_1-1.0.39.apk and save that to the sd card?

did I miss the post/thread on doing all this from sd card?

[nklein]

did I figure it out or am I still way off ^above^ ?

[tipstir]

Yeah, but if you use the Cruz ROM then it's a difference experience.

[lotrfan]

Originally Posted by nklein

thanks doing it from sd card sounds great

now which hacked firmware can I load from the sd card "Once hacked you can install apps from several sites other than market directly to the Novel"???

I downloaded
premodded-pre-configured-7_24-firmware-nchntr_experience_v1.html
so can I just save it to sd card?

also if I want to download apps like ereader do I just download the ereader_android_1-1.0.39.apk and save that to the sd card?

did I miss the post/thread on doing all this from sd card?

Well Assuming you can do it with the hacked firmware it is as easy as to load it to the sd card and press for 5 sec the power button and the up vol button at the same time then release. The unit will boot and read the new firmware. BTW leave it in zip mode. If it fails just restart normally and you should be fine. Worse case load a the official firmware in the same manner and it will fix anything that goes wrong. Haven';t heard of anyone actually bricking the device. The worst I have heard is that if everything fails unplug the battery (read the instructions on how to take cover off) wait a few sec and install again and it should take care of the issues.

Regarding the apps there are plenty of sites to download from (check list at slatedroid). I am not familiar with that app but you can install it directly from the site trough the Novel (I believe there is one permission that need to be activated to allow this) or like you said copy it to the sd card on install it. I think you need an file explorer for this but I am almost sure one will be included with the hack. Hope this helps and good luck.

[nklein]

thanks!!!

[lotrfan]

Originally Posted by nklein

thanks!!!

No problem. BTW upon checking the Pandigital Novel wiki at slatedroid it says the following for flashing the firmware:

"Method 1: SD Card [Use this method when installing one of the community modified UN-official FW versions.]

1. Power down Pandigital Novel.
2. Download firmware file in .ZIP format.
3. Copy to external SD Card - do NOT unzip the file. (Note some Altered Firmware is distributed as a "Zip within a Zip" file to retain naming conventions recognized by the device. It should end with "6410POP.zip")
4. Insert SD card containing the firmware update file.
5. Press POWER and VOL+ simultaneously and hold for 5 seconds.
6. Update process begins automatically. There is a progress indicator. Novel will reboot automatically when update is complete. "

So it can be done this way.

[nklein]

thanks again!

[montealan]

I bought the white Pandigital which has a Samsung microprocessor supposedly running at 800 mhz. I got it yesterday at Kohl's for $119 with discounts and received a $20 certificate for use next month. I figured, based on others comments, I would be returning it in a day or so because a few weeks ago I bought the Sharper Image Literati, at Kohls, and returned it within a week. I wrote a review of it on the this forum. It was pretty bad.

Anyway I was pleasantly surprised that the Novel worked OK out of the box, but I flashed the firmware so that, among other changes, I could run the Android Market app. I put Launcher Pro on as the user interface, Aldiko for epubs, Repligo for PDFs, and loaded a bunch of other Android software on so now it almost matches what I have on my Samsung Epic phone.

I've been buying my ebooks recently from Kobo, since they always have discount offers, so I downloaded their Android app, and as soon as I signed in it started to download my previously purchased books (and my wishlisted ones too). I pretty much have a $100 Android tablet!

To be truthful I was looking at the new Samsung Galaxy tablet and now I really don't need it (not that I ever did!)....at least for now.