Is your nook rooted

[PhillyGirl]

I play with my Mom's pandigital every time she visits which happened to be this past weekend. She loves it and I've been playing with it...putting music, movies and apps on it. I've been wanting a reader since last year, but the pandigital doesn't work for the features I want. Well after dropping her off I stopped by the store and picked it up. I've been reading about rooting since last year, but I was still scared when I rooted it....about an hour after I got it using. The push was when my videos played choppy on the stock interface. They play flawless after rooting. At some point I'll start reading all the free ebooks I've collected on b and n. May even venture over to amazon since I downloaded the kindle app...just because I could.

[love2read1357]

I'm sure you will all think I'm nuts but I did root mine and added a bunch of apps. But I wasn't thrilled with the final result so I sort of unrooted it. It still has a few of the rooted apps left but the rest is set back to normal. I'm waiting for the BN update to come out and will decide if I want to reroot or not.

I couldn't figure out how to stop the starting process 8 times in a row to set it back to normal. I could only get to 3 and it would just continue on with the start up.

I can do read for an hour in a BN store though. But I can't set any of the social functions and add facebook, twitter or even get the gmail app to work now.

But I'm loving reading on it so I'll wait a little while and see what happens with the update.

[MsCG1]

Rooted.

I'm almost scared that one day I'm going to wake up and find out that a BN update has pushed through. I have 2.2 on my phone so I'm completely aware of what it can do, and I don't care. It can't beat root.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by PhillyGirl

I play with my Mom's pandigital every time she visits which happened to be this past weekend. She loves it and I've been playing with it...putting music, movies and apps on it. I've been wanting a reader since last year, but the pandigital doesn't work for the features I want. Well after dropping her off I stopped by the store and picked it up. I've been reading about rooting since last year, but I was still scared when I rooted it....about an hour after I got it using. The push was when my videos played choppy on the stock interface. They play flawless after rooting. At some point I'll start reading all the free ebooks I've collected on b and n. May even venture over to amazon since I downloaded the kindle app...just because I could.

IF she has the white PDN, there are several custom firmwares available @ slatedroid. They're $60 @ Kohls ATM apparently(I guess that they usually keep them at the service desk too...), but the nearby one here was out, but I decided to just buy another from Bed Bath & Beyond with a 20% off coupon, $5 off, plus $30 mailin rebate just to use it as a beater in cases where I might like a tablet with me but also where it might get broken... (WPDN isn't very good for videos either as a) the hardware just isn't up to really high quality video, and b) there are actually two different hardware versions of the white one v1 (or K) and v2 (or B). v1 has video stutter every 5s in video playback with fw newer than the 07/24 Pandigital fw(or custom based on newer).)

Black PDN has fewer custom firmware options, but there are a couple IIRC, still not as good a choice as it ships w/ only 128MB RAM (256MB in white) and is running Android 1.6(v. 2.0 in the white).

Yeah, the NC is pretty close to being unbrickable, esp since it prefers to boot from the uSD card, although it's not quite as good as being able to just use nvflash and redo the whole thing...

[Lastblade]

I voted no... but I turned to the dark side last night. Rooting the NC was amazingly easy, but I have no idea how to do a lot of the things (changing home screens, etc) and after 2 hours, I still cannot side-install apps because my computer won't recognize the NC as NC, only as a data drive.... grrrr. Still, I can go to Marketplace and download apps!

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Lastblade

I voted no... but I turned to the dark side last night. Rooting the NC was amazingly easy, but I have no idea how to do a lot of the things (changing home screens, etc) and after 2 hours, I still cannot side-install apps because my computer won't recognize the NC as NC, only as a data drive.... grrrr. Still, I can go to Marketplace and download apps!

You can setup a DropBox account, download the DropBox app, and access the .apk files you want to install that way.

[slayda]

Or you can DL AppInstaller from the market (free DL) & use it on your rooted NC to install the sideloaded .APKs. I've used both & it's about 6 to one and a half dozen to the other.

[Lastblade]

Originally Posted by SCION

You can setup a DropBox account, download the DropBox app, and access the .apk files you want to install that way.

I got the Dropbox app, but didn't think to do it this way. AWESOME idea, you are the best.

[eddiek]

Sorry, I'm a newbie. Had a Kindle for about 1 1/2 years and recently switched to a Nook Color after my Kindle died. What does it mean to have a nook rooted?

Originally Posted by =X=

Here is a bit of Irony. While I know more people that have Kindles than any other reading device. Most of the time I run into people they either have the SONY or some other device.

Today I ran into a person with the nook Color. We had a little chat, but one thing I noticed was mine was rooted hers was not.

So here is a Question to the MR group. Do you have a rooted nook?

=X=

[=X=]

Originally Posted by eddiek

Sorry, I'm a newbie. Had a Kindle for about 1 1/2 years and recently switched to a Nook Color after my Kindle died. What does it mean to have a nook rooted?

Okay so we know your answer is "no"

No apologize it's perfectly fine not knowing what "rooting" is.

The term "rooting" is a UNIX term drived from the "root" user. A root user in UNIX is an Administrator who essentially has complete access to all resources and has the ability to modify a system--read completely bypasses all security.

Most Android devices disable the "root" user for security reasons and so the users of an Android device only have "user". The user can therefore only perform actions that the device manufacture chooses to impose on the "user"

By "rooting" an android device you are granting yourself Administrative "root" privilege and can pretty much bypass the security measure the manufacture imposes; e.g. install, modify the device however you wish.



=X=

PS Just to confuse you a little more. Android is built on top of Linux which is a type of UNIX. UNIX is an operating system like Windows, OSX, etc...

[PhillyGirl]

Originally Posted by cutterjohn42

IF she has the white PDN, there are several custom firmwares available @ slatedroid.

Black PDN has fewer custom firmware options, but there are a couple IIRC, still not as good a choice as it ships w/ only 128MB RAM (256MB in white) and is running Android 1.6(v. 2.0 in the white).

Yeah, the NC is pretty close to being unbrickable, esp since it prefers to boot from the uSD card, although it's not quite as good as being able to just use nvflash and redo the whole thing...

I didn't know that the white was running a newer os version. She has the black but with 4gig memory. She is happy as a clam with it and more so with the light games I put on it (solitaire, word search, backgammon, etc). I would like the video to play better, but with the os being v1.6 there may not be options. I haven't researched it much.

[JMyers]

I have an original nook and read all about rooting but have not done so. I am afraid that I will screw something up. I am also afraid of how it will work after rooting and if I will like it. I guess I might have to investigate but still not sure I would root it. My nook is going to be a year old next month BTW.

[allovertheglobe]

I'm pretty techy, but to be honest, I haven't missed anything on my non-rooted NC that would make it worth the trouble... if anything I'll rather spent time optimizing the content (books, videos, music) to be displayed at their best on the nook.

Maybe a halfway decent sketch app might tempt me, but I haven't looked into it yet.

[cutterjohn42]

Originally Posted by PhillyGirl

I didn't know that the white was running a newer os version. She has the black but with 4gig memory. She is happy as a clam with it and more so with the light games I put on it (solitaire, word search, backgammon, etc). I would like the video to play better, but with the os being v1.6 there may not be options. I haven't researched it much.

4GB is storage v. application/OS RAM. The white PDN (7" they've got a crapload of them now ALL called the Pandigital Novel...) has some builtin storage(don't recall the exact amount offhand) that is used for the base OS, but it also has an internal microSD slot that ships with a 1GB uSD card which can be replaced, but for stock and stock based firmware it's pointless as it's only used for Pandigital app usage while added applications will prefer to use the external SD card...

Best bet for video and Android 1.6 is probably an app called Rockplayer. There's a free version and you should be able to find it somewhere for download, but I'm not that familiar with the BPDN so I'd check the slatedroid forums for more info.

The BPDN is actually a bit lighter than the WPDN(thing's freaking heavy for 7"), and the stock firmware is supposed to be a bit faster so if it's primarily for use as a reader it's probably actually better, but if you're hacking, the white one is better.

Also note what I mentioned about Pandigital having a bunch of models now all called the "Novel" (they're VERY original in their naming scheme!) as there is the original Pandigital Novel 7" (white), followed by the Pandigital Novel 7" (black I presume that your mother has this one), a Pandigital Novel 9" (black IIRC that was sold on QVC or something I guess possibly at Bed Bath & Beyond too), a Pandigital Novel 6"(IIRC eInk reader), and then I read something about HSN or some other TV sales channel having, I think, the 9" in multiple colors or something... getting to be very confusing w/o having/using the actual model #s... What's even funnier is that their website(and support) don't seem to even acknowledge that some of these models exist, and until the other week was just handling the 7" models and differentiating them by having the user pick the color...

[EDIT]
Oops, I believe that I made a mistake the Android version of the Black 7" Novel is, apparently, 1.5 which means that it MIGHT have a Rockchip SoC which does dairly decent video playback. Also if you plan to monkey around with firmwares on the non-white ones pay close attention to the firmware first post and do NOT attempt to use one that is meant for the white Novel 7"...

er time to go back ontopic anyways...
[/EDIT]

[geekaren]

I voted yes (I've rooted my NookColor). It was very easy. I rooted in order to install the Kindle app so I can also access/read my Kindle eBooks.

Loving the nook... awesome to be able to check out library ebooks!