Time to dump the NC...

[Grimm]

Originally Posted by dixieknits

The original poster's complaint was that of eyestrain from a backlit device. I also sit in front of a computer all day and have found the opposite to be true. The backlit screen of my NC is much easier on my eyes than the glare of a clip on light on my Kindle at night. If the poster has different experiences he should return and purchase what he is comfortable reading on. The general attitude of the post and the subect line seem to be rather derogatory and "sour grapes" in nature and not very relevant.

This 100%.

[ColdSun]

What is so hard about rooting a NC? You make it sound like rocket science.

1. Write the image for the rooting process to your SC with winImage or another program like it (many available)

2. Turn your Nook off.

3. Put the SD into your NC

4. Turn the NC on.

5. Wait for the rooting process to complete.

6. After a reboot of NC... profit.

Seriously, have you even looked into how easy it is now, Jack? The device is pretty much unbrickable as well. Last but not least, you can get a Froyo image and put that in the SD instead and it will boot to Froyo, leaving the original OS untouched.

The NC is not only the best LCD reader available, but it really is the best tablet for the price right now. They are selling tons of them and rightfully so, it is a very well designed piece of hardware.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

Overall, I prefer reading on the Nook vs the Nook color. I CAN read on the NC, and it's nice to not be looking around for my light at night.

I agree with this. Even though the NC is actually easier to read in most of the lighting conditions I find myself in, I just like the look of e-ink better. Also I miss the bezel buttons because because I often am holding it with my left hand.

It's nice having both, but if I could only have one it would be the NC, no contest. That extra $100 is worth it for the web browsing alone.

[ColdSun]

Wouldn't it be cool for owners of both Nook Classic and Nook Color for the devices to keep page location in synch? As long as they both have wireless, I think this could be a feature they could actually have. Imagine, reading outside with your classic and then later that night when you go to bed, pulling out your color and it seeks the page you left off on your classic.

[pl001]

Originally Posted by ColdSun

Wouldn't it be cool for owners of both Nook Classic and Nook Color for the devices to keep page location in synch? As long as they both have wireless, I think this could be a feature they could actually have. Imagine, reading outside with your classic and then later that night when you go to bed, pulling out your color and it seeks the page you left off on your classic.

They do have this feature, but I've found it's inconsistant. For instance they will usually (but not always) be synced the next day, but never within an hour or so. In my experience anyway.

Not sure what the update interval or process is, but it would be nice to know. I would guess the inconsistancy has to do with conserving battery life.

[ColdSun]

Maybe they could put a setting in both device's reader settings screen to push the page location to other Nook devices manually?

[boswd]

Originally Posted by ColdSun

Maybe they could put a setting in both device's reader settings screen to push the page location to other Nook devices manually?

actually there is, they both, and if you count your Droid or iPhone App there is a "sync" button. Works well on mine.

[ColdSun]

Awesome. Now I want a Nook Classic instead of my PRS505. The perfect combination of reading power.

To quickly answer why I think Android is a less than stellar OS--trying to be diplomatic--I simply refer anyone interested to the ongoing threads in the NC dev section. It seems it is not difficult to root, as Coldsun points out, though certainly not as easy as he makes it sound, but it is riddled with caveats once you do. And once you overcome all those caveats you still only have a cellular phone OS and apps mostly designed for uber-small cellular phone screens and limited support for ports, et cetera. Android simply isn't mature enough for me, was never designed for computers and tablets even though they are modifying it slowly to that end, and has been purposely hamstrung by Google to require either a cellular phone ID or kluge a work around.

If you read the dev section, it is quite painfully obvious that it requires near constant maintenance to get and keep a rooted NC running. What a joke. And who would buy a PC or Mac that didn't have ports and buttons. Not many--certainly not me. The NC has an adequate (though barely) ePub reader and PDF and Office docs viewers that save me the hassle of constantly updating a rooted NC. It works sufficiently well for me with the B&N stock GUI and apps. I simply see no need to root as that would not improve greatly, if at all, on my READING experience.

B&N repeatedly states the NC is a READER and not a tablet, and to treat it as an inexpensive tablet is a waste of my time. People like Coldsun enjoy tinkering. He truly liked the Pandigital picture frame that was pawned off as a reader. That is his perogative and I'm glad he enjoys such endeavors. I don't and I don't think Android is worth all the fuss, especially on a non-tablet READER with one button and ZERO input/output ports that can allow external device connection without rewriting of the firmware.

Bottomline is this. Android will have little to no appeal to me until such time that true tablets are released that support non-cellular types of apps, and until you can buy said tablets at a decent cost that IS NOT frigging tied to a darn cellular phone contract!!!!! Until such time socalled Android tablets are little more than huge cellular phones much like the iPad is little more than a huge iPhone. Yukk!!!!!!!!!

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by jswinden

If you read the dev section, it is quite painfully obvious that it requires near constant maintenance to get and keep a rooted NC running. What a joke. And who would buy a PC or Mac that didn't have ports and buttons. Not many--certainly not me.

Jack,

The problem is that NC was sold "as is". The Os, UI, etc, was optimized for the existing hardware. When rooting, you're going against nature in order to get a capability that simply you don't have from factory. I have no problems with folks who do that, but complaining is silly, because you are on your own. Blaming the Os for problems it is just unfair. On my opinion, it is easier (and give you more rights or reason to complain) if people buy or get a device with full Android Market since the very beginning, period. That's why I did not buy a NC. A Galaxy Tab does the same and more, out of the box with the only exception of B&N in-store capabilities and full Android market. You pay more, but you get more.

Now, agree with the ports and Mac issue, I've always thought Apples are closed devices, but absent of keyboard, for some people, is more an advantage instead of a problem. No keyboard makes the device smaller and more portable and in some cases you can even type faster, like with swype.

With current firmware, no rooting and at this point (today) NC does not provide a good PDF experience. If someone buy a NC knowing that, I think he/she should accept it, instead of complain or just return the device.

I still see no reason why on original devices (not rooted) Android fails. I have not experience any crash or issue with my Galaxy Tab and is running lot of apps on it already. Really fast and responsive, even while running multiple apps.

[=X=]

@jswinden I don't think you giving a fair comparison. The nook is not a tablet device nor was it designed as a tablet. B&N removed many features in the OS when they tailored it and altered its behavior so it does not have a consistent Android feel. If you are going to talk about the Tablet market you need to look at tablets like the Galaxy Tab or the Dell Streak 5".

BTW "rooting" is not suppose to be easy companies put a lot of effort to make rooting, jailbreaking difficult, so with that in mind rooting an Andriod device is easy.

Also your complaint about no inputs/outputs and a phone OS also apply to the iPad yet many seem perfectly fine with those features, same complaints apply to WinMo. I'm wondering if your beef is more directed to tablets in general and not so much an OS.

[ColdSun]

There is one thing me and Jack agree on, and that is Android was designed for cell phones. Many of the older apps and games run in cell phone resolution. The counter to that is many cell phones run in a higher resolution now and most newer applications run just fine in a higher resolution. To take things even further, now that I have Honeycomb (Android 3.0) running for myself on my NC, it is clear that Google has taken MANY steps to make the OS more friendly, even geared towards, tablet devices. I was not sold on Android before I got my Nook, and I've used the iOS extensively, but Honeycomb puts iOS and iPad to shame.

Rooting the device is as easy as I said. What you do with it after is what can get hard for some folks. Installing a newer market for example. Getting ADB working is a real chore for many people, with some never getting it to work because of the HORRIBLE AWFUL driver support written for ADB and Windows OS. The single best way to get ADB working is using ADB Wireless. The only problem with that is you need ADB Wireless itself and the only place to get that is the market.

Finally, check out this blog on Engadget with screenshots of Honeycomb and the big Google event today. Some great information about what's going on at Google for the future and tablet devices. The big tablet at the show today was the Motorola Xoom.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/l...android-event/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/a...ts-grocery-iq/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/a...tore-hands-on/

Yes, Jack, I enjoy tinkering, I mean, I am a senior programmer at a top company that shall remain nameless, so I better enjoy tinkering... I'm not sure if that was some sort of jab at me because I liked the PDN and you think its crap, but I'm still fine with my original opinion of the device when it came out because it was one of the only decent quality LCD reading devices to be released at the time. Key being LCD which is a requirement for me. I really don't want to go over this again either. The PDN still has an active following, but development has slowed because the NC is so much better for hacking. Compared to the technology coming out now, the PDN is a joke, but the review I wrote was THEN. I haven't touched my PDN since November 17th. Seriously though, if you actually bothered to read some of my many reviews and posts you might realize that I'm a late joiner of the Android club. I felt exactly like you for exactly the same reasons and if you dig deeper in this site you will find statements by me saying nearly the same thing you said in this post.

I certainly changed my mind about a great deal of things, and I reserve the right to do so. I was one of the first people here to start reviewing tablets and saying they would be big - and was scorned by some because they didn't think it would happen. Many people said LCD readers had no chance and would never be popular. So take my opinion with a grain of salt if you like but my opinion is you should take a little better look at Android, especially 3.0, before you make claims about it that may not be true. Nothing written here was meant to be offensive and I enjoy chatting with you because even though you have a way of being very opinionated, I actually respect that about you. /salute

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by joedubya

Sad as it sounds, it'd definitely not working out for me as a reader. And it all comes down to the LCD display. I can't read more than 15-20 minutes without it getting to my eyes. I'm in IT so i'm in front of LCD's all day as well which prolly dosen't help.

I can understand that, and I use a kindle as my main reader. But I am getting a nook for lots of other reasons.

I plan to use the root as soon as I am familiar with the device, so trust it is as easy as people say.

[Belle2Be]

You're not alone Joe, I get terrible eyestrain, even if I followthe "rules" and keep a light on, dim the screen etc. It gets to the point where the entire screen bright white and I can't focus. ( This is on my macbook, btw, not a NC, so I'm assuming all LCD's are created equal). Its that reason that I've stayed with eink for a reader. Now someday I want to get a nookcolor for kids books

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by ColdSun

There is one thing me and Jack agree on, and that is Android was designed for cell phones. Many of the older apps and games run in cell phone resolution. The counter to that is many cell phones run in a higher resolution now and most newer applications run just fine in a higher resolution. To take things even further, now that I have Honeycomb (Android 3.0) running for myself on my NC, it is clear that Google has taken MANY steps to make the OS more friendly, even geared towards, tablet devices. I was not sold on Android before I got my Nook, and I've used the iOS extensively, but Honeycomb puts iOS and iPad to shame.

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.