[Q] Getting Started with the Nook Color - Nook Color General

Hey, guys.
I'm rather new here, and I've only recently been sucked into the Android cult. So far, this means in the past few months I've amassed:
An Archos 5 Internet Tablet
A Samsung Captivate
A Motorola Atrix 4G
And I've got a B&N Nook Color on the way.
One thing I've noticed, is that most devices seem to have a "general modding information" type of thread, which is more or less geared towards noobs, giving them enough information to push them in the right direction when getting started with their device. I've noticed that no such thread really exists for the NC. The Captivate forum is very strong in this regard, as I'm sure the Atrix forum will be once it grows wings. So, among the things I'm wondering:
What ROMs are available for the Nook Color?
What are the pros and cons of each?
What capabilities are present and missing in the stock firmware?
What device-specific tools or utilities are available?
Any general caveats with this device?
Thanks for being excellent, guys.

I'd be happy to see something like this as well.
I'm not totally new to android. I stumbled through rooting my old Droid and my old HTC Magic, but I may as well be considered a noob as I've forgetten almost everything (sold those phones a while ago)

From what I've read, it's incredibly simple to try out various distros without making any changes to the device itself, so trials with each one should be a breeze. I guess the most important questions are:
What releases are available?
What release works best overall?
What release has the most active development community?
How does one go about installing to eMMC after booting from SD?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

While I'm still a novice and can't speak to all your questions, I feel like my general caveats are mostly in regard to screen sensitivity. It's not horrible, but I'm sure you've seen the complaints about the corners of the screen especially. I've tried a few fixes and none of them seem to work, but the general functionality of the thing is fantastic. I tried overclocking for the first time yesterday and minus a few weird issues, it's great. I wouldn't say it's totally necessary, but that little speed boost makes it a little more fun to use.
Essentially, it's a great device to tinker with and for learning the ropes in terms of Android stuff, I feel. I'm new to all of it and learning a lot.

junkrobot said:
While I'm still a novice and can't speak to all your questions, I feel like my general caveats are mostly in regard to screen sensitivity. It's not horrible, but I'm sure you've seen the complaints about the corners of the screen especially. I've tried a few fixes and none of them seem to work, but the general functionality of the thing is fantastic. I tried overclocking for the first time yesterday and minus a few weird issues, it's great. I wouldn't say it's totally necessary, but that little speed boost makes it a little more fun to use.
Essentially, it's a great device to tinker with and for learning the ropes in terms of Android stuff, I feel. I'm new to all of it and learning a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, sounds good. Thanks.
I hadn't heard about the screen corner issue at all, actually. Is that a ROM-specific problem, or could it be hardware-based? I would imagine a problem like that would be based on hardware.. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
I really don't have any intent to overclock the thing. Honestly, I don't really think it'll need it. Battery life is kind of a big deal to me. Besides, I've heard of SetCPU causing weirdness across various platforms, over- or underclocked.
Any thoughts on CM7 nightly builds for the NC?

I think the corner issue is something to do with the hardware as well since every calibration effort I've made has been sort of useless. I'm still tinkering with SetCPU at the moment and I've experienced a few oddities with overclocking such as random restarts, so I may be going back to stock kernel soon.
I haven't tried out the CM7 builds yet, but they are mighty tempting.

Related

Initial Impressions

I've had the phone for over 24 hours now, well two devices as the first one was faulty, so trust me this isn't biased lol. But, I can tell you that Microsoft has definitely gone in the right direction with this OS. Even though I was a tremendous Windows Mobile fan boy, it just didn't feel efficient or enjoyable towards the end. We needed UI enhancements and the amazing work of some talented chefs in order to have the urge to use our phones daily. Applications ran slowly, phones were constantly freezing, and the general public just didn't want that occurring on a $500 device. And though this is one of my gripes about Windows Phone, the ability to access your storage through a file explorer was truly a headache when it came to a general user. Though, with that being said, I do hope they add some "documents" interface to Zune and allow us to place our files on an accessible location...
But this operating system has the ability to be flawless. Microsoft's iron fist allows for the experience to be enjoyable. I don't need to worry about the newest version of Sense not running on my device and I definitely don't need to worry about a 1ghz processor struggling due to horrible code. I do miss my ability to access EVERYTHING, and I mean everything...I've been on this forum since my Dash, so I consider myself an addict at this point. But, this is by far the fastest Windows device I have ever come across, hands down, and it's a breath of fresh air.
My biggest problem with our community, myself included, is that we often forget that this is version 1.0 of the OS...think about that people, 1.0...and yet we have a decent app store, with an amazing OS, feature incomplete though. The features will come, but I rather have the OS now, missing features, than have to wait for it...I can tell you that this will definitely be a game changer. I have little doubt that microsoft will listen to our requests and implement the majority of what we're asking...with the exception of the obvious, such as root access and the ability to completely screw up your phone, like some of you are so hell bent on doing while accessing everything.
The random hiccups of black screens while switching back from programs, and other minor problems I've encountered I'm sure will be ironed out, but we need to make sure these don't cloud our judgment. Whether you become a fan or not, I wish most of you would just realize that Windows Phone on the HD7 is probably the best thing we could have hoped for, and I'm looking forward to the future of this phone and operating system. This device also feels amazing...not sure where the build quality questions came from, I don't even have the pink camera issue...it's a much better feel in my hand than my HD2. I thought of putting this in the WP7 general, but since my thoughts are based on my device, thought I'd keep it here...
I agree 100%. The phone is not all-the-way complete yet, but I can honestly say I am very impressed. If the few tweaks are made here and there (e.g. visual voicemail, extended settings, file system, sideload apps, etc.) we could have the best OS of them all.
I cannot understate the elegance and beauty of this device and OS. It is sooo smooth - this is what the mobile experience should be. Some complain about no Multitasking, but I am not one of them. In fact I think it kills battery and can cause major problems. Plus it's mobile phone! How many tasks do I need to do at once? One!
Anyway, I'm loving it so far - even though I'd like to make some simple changes like searching the marketplace for apps only and leaving music out of the results.
BTW- the Market is coming along nicely. Pretty good selection to far.
It's simple and beautiful. Or simply-beautiful
I agree. I love my EVO, not a fan of my DROID X and can't stand the lag of the Samsung Fascinate.
I picked up the HD7 recently while waiting for the Dell Venue Pro to release. I cannot stress how smooth the OS really is. I have tweaked and tuned and spent countless hours on ROM loads with my EVO all the find out they are very good but are always in need of tuning. Perhaps some of that is due to my constant reading of these forums and seeing updates
I know some have said no Unified Messaging. I rarely use it just like cut and paste.
I wish they would have persistent notication icons on the top bar. That would be nice. I received an update on the Marketplace and didn't realize it was there until I scrolled down. The updates are nice though.
I can say that I am very happy with some of the well known APPS. They seem to be better looking than IPHONES or ANDROIDS. Shazam is nice with the Zune button/integration feature. Huffington Post needs to fix the text but it is very nice. AP News etc. The APPS seems to be more robust when they follow the Metro UI theme.
Need a bigger battery for the HD7. It is not bad but could be much better with a 1500mAH or 1700mAH. I am checking my sources for them now.
It is worth the look people who are on the fence.
I agree I have used every OS out there and this one has the most potential I think. I also picked up the Hd7 Waiting on the Venue Pro but will keep both cause the HD7 Is a fantastic device.
I am 100% with the op, this is version 1.0 and it is a very good start, the os is buttery smooth and intuitive to use, MS have got this one right!

[Q] Simple answers for prospective buyers

So I am considering buying the Nook Color for use with an Android ROM ideally honeycomb and Instead of having to sort through tons of threads I think a single one would be nice for those also thinking about jumping in.
Most of these will be in reference to android phones and relating the experience since that's all I have to go off.
I have a SGS Captivate
Battery life compared to phone?
Usability? Speed, what is working what isn't? Does it feel like a step back when coming from a high end smart phone?
Video? Sound? etc
I know these questions have been answered somewhere, but having a single thread dedicated to answering questions for users looking to jump in with the Nook Color hacking would be nice, IMHO.
Thanks for all the help.
Bump
Anyone who has done this how is it related to your android phone if you have one. I'm really interested in this but if it will feel like a step back from the phones i don't know if it's worth it?
I have a Droid X and the nook running CM7.
Right now the nook is very comparable to the X. With the beta rom it is still a little chopy but web browsing is so much better on the bigger and higher resolution screen. I don't boot up my computer as much for casual web browsing as much as I use to. It is nice being able to browse anywhere in my house(I'm writing this while cooking dinner) , or while watching TV.
Apps are still hit or miss on CM7 right now (Pandora doesn't work) and I'm not much of a gamer so I'll leave that to others.
Thanks so much I'm pretty excited to try this out. Hopefully it is as good as I think it can be. I know it won't be a xoom. But it should be sweet.
I have an HTC Incredible which should be similarly performing to the Captivate.
The DINC has the worst battery life of any Android phone I've seen so that's not maybe the best comparison, but I use my nook several hours a day and manage several days between charges. I think battery life is impressive.
Out of the box, the speed is noticeably slower, but not that bad. Running an OC'd 1100mhz kernel I get a much higher quadrant score (around 1150) than my stock DINC. The NC's improvement is significant.
I haven't installed a different ROM since I'm waiting for a daily driver stable honeycomb. That beings said, I have absolutely zeros problems using my NC daily as a tablet. I find it much easier than the smaller screen on my phone. Nor have I encountered anything I wanted to do that didn't work almost perfectly.
Video is a bit more pixelated than I'd like but I haven't spent a lot of time looking into it. Sound is pretty good, and the built in speaker is better than expected. I have heard of issues with the headphone jack.
All in all it's a great investment of $250. You could get a more fully featured tablet for the price of three NC's. I don't think the additional features are worth the cost difference, especially when you add in the amazing work done by the xda Devs.
jlt220 said:
So I am considering buying the Nook Color for use with an Android ROM ideally honeycomb...
Most of these will be in reference to android phones and relating the experience since that's all I have to go off.
I have a SGS Captivate.
Battery life compared to phone? Usability? Speed, what is working what isn't? Does it feel like a step back when coming from a high end smart phone? Video? Sound? etc
Thanks for all the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from a NookColor using the xda app
DeadStiff said:
I don't boot up my computer as much for casual web browsing as much as I use to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from a NookColor using the xda app
I used to spend a couple of hours every evening sitting at my desktop PC browsing the net and reading forums. In the couple of weeks since getting and rooting the NC, I think I've fired up my PC four times. Now I do my nightly surfing from the couch next to my wife while she watches TV and she feels much less neglected. ;-)
Ars Technica wrote a nice feature article today that should answer all your questions.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/guides/2011/02/howto-root-a-nook-color-to-transform-it-into-an-android-tablet.ars
Thanks for the responses this is helpful
I'm planing on using this as an ebook reader some just because the screen size would be nicer than my phone, but also like you said web, stuff like that. Keep the personal experiences coming they are very helpful for us who are hesitant to join in.
The nook is not perfect but its impossible to beat for the price. As other have said I fire up my computer far less than before. I have an evo and I would say that the NC feels as snappy and maybe even snappier. The thing I can tell you is that I was a for sure for the Xoom but the NC and all of its hacks help me to make the decision that I can wait. 100% happy with the Nook and I think most anyone else would be also.
jlt220 said:
So I am considering buying the Nook Color for use with an Android ROM ideally honeycomb and Instead of having to sort through tons of threads I think a single one would be nice for those also thinking about jumping in.
Most of these will be in reference to android phones and relating the experience since that's all I have to go off.
I have a SGS Captivate
Battery life compared to phone?
Usability? Speed, what is working what isn't? Does it feel like a step back when coming from a high end smart phone?
Video? Sound? etc
I know these questions have been answered somewhere, but having a single thread dedicated to answering questions for users looking to jump in with the Nook Color hacking would be nice, IMHO.
Thanks for all the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have a captivate since release day (and got the pleasure of gettint a new one in December due to random shutdowns) and I can say the battery life on the nook is way better than any sgs rom even the stock eclair. I also don't browse on my phone anywhere near as much as I used to. The nook color doesn't have the most features, the fastest cpu, or even the best screen but for the price it blows everything else away hands down. Honestly its one of the few "toys" I've gotten in a while that I haven't had an ounce of buyers remorse with
Sent from my Nook Color.
I love my honeycomb. Its really fast and it has only minor issues. Mine is 100% reliable and i use it everyday and i only use my laptop for downloading roms and/or flashing sd cards. I have a rooted rom'd and oc'd droid 1 at 1300mhz and while i love my droid, i hardly use it anymore.
I really recommend it and emmc honeycomb is awesome. The lack of gps is the biggest thing for me, but o well... my rooted droid has one so its fine for me.
Sent from one of those missing Droids

[Q] Can the Captivate be functional for non-hobbyists?

I don't want to make trouble, but I'm hoping there can be a dialog as to the viability of the Captivate as a long-term, stable cell phone.
Like probably everyone here, I found the ROM AT&T supplied for the Captivate to be practically (if not criminally) unusable even if I didn't care about my rights to do what I want with it (but I do). Thus I decided that I needed to flash it with something better.
Obviously, there are a lot of Captivate owners who work very hard (and presumably, enjoy) modifying and tweaking the Android system for their phone - and that's great - but I'm not one of them. I appreciate that people like to change the look of their <object> and that the latest-and-greatest functionality is an ever-moving target, but paramount to me for everything in my life is minimal maintenance.
I don't really care about flashy eye-candy and holiday color schemes if it is moderately consistent. I am not looking to squeeze the last 2% (or even 10%) of possible speed out of my phone, but I do want it to respond to my input within a few tenths of a second (faster w/ typing) unlike the stock ROM. I have to use a lock-code, so I don't give a fig about the number of lock screens. If I could flash my phone and never have a need (note: not desire) to do it again, that would be fantastic. If I have to re-flash it once every 6 months and don't need to (re)read long (long!) meandering threads with cryptic and often conflicting and (possibly - how to tell?) outdated information, I could live with that.
Basically, it seems like I have to choose between a fixed, official ROM that sucks, or a sea of ever-changing ROMs with stability problems and a lot of focus on look-and-feel.
I'm not here crying about not having the perfect phone experience, rather I'm interested in the opinion of you here, "in the know", as to whether there exists a Captivate ROM that is stable in both the short-term (little to no crashes or unplanned reboots) and in the long term (will function similarly for months when not tweaked beyond what say, TiBu or AdAway would do).
This is something I've been wondering for months now (as my Serendipidy ROM grew ever-more unstable), but it has come to a head now because my wife is insisting that I encounter so many problems with my Cappy (currently experiencing various problems with Serenity) that I need to get a new phone (and it should be an iPhone like hers). I am as jealous at her stability, battery life and lack of problems as I am loathe to sell my soul to live in the walled garden with the iDevil.
If the world of smart phones is really a choice among the walled garden, the astro-turfed basement and the slopes of a volcano in the jungle, then I will have to accept that and choose my fate. If the problem is Samsung/AT&T and Android is simply ambrosia on some other device/carrier (as my colleague claims), then I would love to know that too.
Sorry for the dissertation and thanks for the thoughts.
teknowledgist said:
I don't want to make trouble, but I'm hoping there can be a dialog as to the viability of the Captivate as a long-term, stable cell phone.
Like probably everyone here, I found the ROM AT&T supplied for the Captivate to be practically (if not criminally) unusable even if I didn't care about my rights to do what I want with it (but I do). Thus I decided that I needed to flash it with something better.
Obviously, there are a lot of Captivate owners who work very hard (and presumably, enjoy) modifying and tweaking the Android system for their phone - and that's great - but I'm not one of them. I appreciate that people like to change the look of their <object> and that the latest-and-greatest functionality is an ever-moving target, but paramount to me for everything in my life is minimal maintenance.
I don't really care about flashy eye-candy and holiday color schemes if it is moderately consistent. I am not looking to squeeze the last 2% (or even 10%) of possible speed out of my phone, but I do want it to respond to my input within a few tenths of a second (faster w/ typing) unlike the stock ROM. I have to use a lock-code, so I don't give a fig about the number of lock screens. If I could flash my phone and never have a need (note: not desire) to do it again, that would be fantastic. If I have to re-flash it once every 6 months and don't need to (re)read long (long!) meandering threads with cryptic and often conflicting and (possibly - how to tell?) outdated information, I could live with that.
Basically, it seems like I have to choose between a fixed, official ROM that sucks, or a sea of ever-changing ROMs with stability problems and a lot of focus on look-and-feel.
I'm not here crying about not having the perfect phone experience, rather I'm interested in the opinion of you here, "in the know", as to whether there exists a Captivate ROM that is stable in both the short-term (little to no crashes or unplanned reboots) and in the long term (will function similarly for months when not tweaked beyond what say, TiBu or AdAway would do).
This is something I've been wondering for months now (as my Serendipidy ROM grew ever-more unstable), but it has come to a head now because my wife is insisting that I encounter so many problems with my Cappy (currently experiencing various problems with Serenity) that I need to get a new phone (and it should be an iPhone like hers). I am as jealous at her stability, battery life and lack of problems as I am loathe to sell my soul to live in the walled garden with the iDevil.
If the world of smart phones is really a choice among the walled garden, the astro-turfed basement and the slopes of a volcano in the jungle, then I will have to accept that and choose my fate. If the problem is Samsung/AT&T and Android is simply ambrosia on some other device/carrier (as my colleague claims), then I would love to know that too.
Sorry for the dissertation and thanks for the thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
......so get an iPhone then........
Currently Fusionized
I bought my wife a 4gs on launch day, and its smooth but not without a few faults. The amount of repeat info here can turn into a maze of discouragement, but I think just a little more effort might yield the results you want. I'm currently running mosaic 8 with the latest semiphore kernel and its very stable to say the least.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
KK4 seems to be the final update and source code is out so things are about to get real good. There are 5-6 real nice stable roms out right now. Take the time to find one you like and stick with it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using xda premium
Wdustin1 said:
......so get an iPhone then........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, your view is that the Captivate and/or Android phones are best used by people who have both the skills and time to regularly - if not constantly - rebuild and tweak hidden and background settings always at some risk of bricking their several-hundred dollar device, and you see the iPhone as the proper choice for people who simply want something that works for their day-to-day use?
That's worse than what everyday users had to manage with DOS or in the early days of Linux or Windows 95. At least with those, your hardware wasn't (usually) at risk.
Is there no solution for those in the middle who want something that works day-to-day and allows them some freedom to make minor changes like block ads and install "unapproved" apps? Are they simply out of luck?
teknowledgist said:
I don't want to make trouble, but I'm hoping there can be a dialog as to the viability of the Captivate as a long-term, stable cell phone.
Like probably everyone here, I found the ROM AT&T supplied for the Captivate to be practically (if not criminally) unusable even if I didn't care about my rights to do what I want with it (but I do). Thus I decided that I needed to flash it with something better.
Obviously, there are a lot of Captivate owners who work very hard (and presumably, enjoy) modifying and tweaking the Android system for their phone - and that's great - but I'm not one of them. I appreciate that people like to change the look of their <object> and that the latest-and-greatest functionality is an ever-moving target, but paramount to me for everything in my life is minimal maintenance.
I don't really care about flashy eye-candy and holiday color schemes if it is moderately consistent. I am not looking to squeeze the last 2% (or even 10%) of possible speed out of my phone, but I do want it to respond to my input within a few tenths of a second (faster w/ typing) unlike the stock ROM. I have to use a lock-code, so I don't give a fig about the number of lock screens. If I could flash my phone and never have a need (note: not desire) to do it again, that would be fantastic. If I have to re-flash it once every 6 months and don't need to (re)read long (long!) meandering threads with cryptic and often conflicting and (possibly - how to tell?) outdated information, I could live with that.
Basically, it seems like I have to choose between a fixed, official ROM that sucks, or a sea of ever-changing ROMs with stability problems and a lot of focus on look-and-feel.
I'm not here crying about not having the perfect phone experience, rather I'm interested in the opinion of you here, "in the know", as to whether there exists a Captivate ROM that is stable in both the short-term (little to no crashes or unplanned reboots) and in the long term (will function similarly for months when not tweaked beyond what say, TiBu or AdAway would do).
This is something I've been wondering for months now (as my Serendipidy ROM grew ever-more unstable), but it has come to a head now because my wife is insisting that I encounter so many problems with my Cappy (currently experiencing various problems with Serenity) that I need to get a new phone (and it should be an iPhone like hers). I am as jealous at her stability, battery life and lack of problems as I am loathe to sell my soul to live in the walled garden with the iDevil.
If the world of smart phones is really a choice among the walled garden, the astro-turfed basement and the slopes of a volcano in the jungle, then I will have to accept that and choose my fate. If the problem is Samsung/AT&T and Android is simply ambrosia on some other device/carrier (as my colleague claims), then I would love to know that too.
Sorry for the dissertation and thanks for the thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cm7. Wipe data factory reset again after flashing, let it sit for 10 mins after first boot but before you sign in.
My vibrant was perfectly stable that way.
Sent from my Sensation using xda premium
MIUI, great fast ROM. All you have to do is flash the small update every week and everything stays the same. You don't loose data!
If you don't feel like doing the update every single week just skip a few here and there. Or got the latest Gingerbread leak(KK4) and use it. It is stable, has great battery life, and pretty fast, but still can't compare to MIUI/CM7 speeds!
I'm not sure what you mean by stock AT&T ROM being no good. I've used a Captivate that had the official AT&T stock 2.2 on it, and it was pretty darn good. I then loaded the "stock" AT&T gingerbread leak on it, and it was even better. Almost no lag at all, GPS worked great, and battery life was excellent. I think you're just complaining for the sake of complaining.
derek4484 said:
I'm not sure what you mean by stock AT&T ROM being no good. I've used a Captivate that had the official AT&T stock 2.2 on it, and it was pretty darn good. I then loaded the "stock" AT&T gingerbread leak on it, and it was even better. Almost no lag at all, GPS worked great, and battery life was excellent. I think you're just complaining for the sake of complaining.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried to use the stock 2.2. I really did. I was getting random shutdowns and reboots all the time and the lag, oh the lag! I can't tell you how many times I would hit an on-screen button and nothing would happen. I would hit it again a second or three later or try a different on screen-button, and still nothing. Thinking the app had crashed, I would hit home or back. Another second or two after that, everything I had done would process in a millisecond and I would be back at the home screen with no idea what I had done as the "extra" touches would register as some other command on the screens that followed and I didn't see.
Once I reflashed the first time, the lag went away and the shutdowns greatly diminished, but since then I have had various other problems. Things like:
- the phone telling me I had a cell signal when I didn't and because I don't make many outgoing calls or texts I just thought nobody wanted to talk to me. Meanwhile people were getting mad that I wasn't getting back to them.
- Apps "uninstalling" by themselves sometimes with a generic icon to replace them. Re-installing them sometimes worked and sometimes didn't (with the same app).
- Texts that come in 5 hours after they were sent and 2 hours after I emerged into a strong cell signal (I work in a sub-basement).
When I tried the KK4 stock, everything did seem to work well until I actually tried to use it as a phone. It said I had signal and I had data connection, but most calls would simply never dial, and while it would ring and I could see who was calling, I couldn't answer. This seems particularly bizarre to me as you would think the ROM/modem pair should work with all Captivates.
If you want stability, I'd recommend Firefly or Andromeda. They are both older and are Froyo builds, but ultra stable.
And I concur the out of the box Cappy 2.1 build was unusable...it's how I ended up here at xda! Unlike you however, I found that I do like tweaking my phone, and I've done some amount of that...not without peaks and valleys, but I currently really enjoy the Mosaic ROM with Semaphore JVZ kernel.
i897 running Mosaic 8.5
teknowledgist said:
So, your view is that the Captivate and/or Android phones are best used by people who have both the skills and time to regularly - if not constantly - rebuild and tweak hidden and background settings always at some risk of bricking their several-hundred dollar device, and you see the iPhone as the proper choice for people who simply want something that works for their day-to-day use?
That's worse than what everyday users had to manage with DOS or in the early days of Linux or Windows 95. At least with those, your hardware wasn't (usually) at risk.
Is there no solution for those in the middle who want something that works day-to-day and allows them some freedom to make minor changes like block ads and install "unapproved" apps? Are they simply out of luck?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, it's shaping out that way. And it's only getting worse as time goes on and the fragments march in their separate directions. When there's 20 different fundamental ROMS (Sense, TouvhWiz, all the variations and so on), and 4000 different phones it becomes increasingly difficult to provide a consistent quality experience.
The worst part being I don't see a way out for Google or a light at the end of the tunnel for consumers short of starting over, which presents more problems than it solves.
Sent from my SGH-I897
Madtowndave said:
If you want stability, I'd recommend Firefly or Andromeda. They are both older and are Froyo builds, but ultra stable.
And I concur the out of the box Cappy 2.1 build was unusable...it's how I ended up here at xda! Unlike you however, I found that I do like tweaking my phone, and I've done some amount of that...not without peaks and valleys, but I currently really enjoy the Mosaic ROM with Semaphore JVZ kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestions.
Actually, I think tweaking can be fun sometimes, but between work, family, house, etc. I'm usually stumbling through on 5 hours of sleep a night as it is (good thing I don't drive to work!). I simply don't have time to tweak, and I definitely can't be without a phone for a day or two.
MikeyMike01 said:
Unfortunately, it's shaping out that way. And it's only getting worse as time goes on and the fragments march in their separate directions. When there's 20 different fundamental ROMS (Sense, TouvhWiz, all the variations and so on), and 4000 different phones it becomes increasingly difficult to provide a consistent quality experience.
The worst part being I don't see a way out for Google or a light at the end of the tunnel for consumers short of starting over, which presents more problems than it solves.
Sent from my SGH-I897
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the sense I was getting, but when I would express it to anyone I know in meat-space, they just rolled their eyes and called me crazy. I started this thread with the optimistic hope that I was simply missing something.
It's good to know at least that I'm not alone in my thinking.
Stevenrogers_420 said:
KK4 seems to be the final update and source code is out so things are about to get real good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is my hope.
I have had Cognition 5 on my phone since it was released. It has been the ultimate experience for me. Stable, GREAT battery life, awesome response, etc. It is the Plain Jane of ROMs and I won't use anything else.
at least not until a stable, working version of ICS is out. I've recently got my hands on a free captivate and have been using it as a testbed for ICS. Once I am satisfied, I will flash my everyday use Cappy to ICS and be done with flashing on this phone until I can upgrade this summer.
Im in your boat somewhat. I want all features of the device to work and I dont want reboots etc. Stability is critical.
For Froyo, Firefy 3.0 ROM gave up uptimes of 7-8 days without issue. I only rebooted once battery ran out.
GB ROMs Ive tried are all more unstable, but I have been on Illuminance 3.01 for over a week now and its running quite good. I reboot often though as I swap batteries, so I cant speak to up time but it goes over a day easily. Im using the ICS theme with it so it feels like I have a new device also.
Now that we have KK4 source I think we will see stability improve even more.
I see too many problems with the ICS builds so far but they are alpha afterall. Impressive progress from the devs working on it however!
Eventually my idea is to take the best of all the leaks and make a rock solid stable hybrid rom. Though most devs, including myself, try to cater to the masses. It seems what you are looking for isn't very popular. Most want more and better in their roms, i've tried both and still not overly successful at either. But it doesn't stop me from trying to create the best of both worlds. A solid stable rom with nice features, that doesn't deteriorate in performance over time. Hopefully a hybrid rom will solve a lot of issues we all face with the cappy.
The thing the iphone has going for it is the fact it is one manufacturer, apple. All the iphones are the same, same processor, same hardware, same specs, same, same, same. It makes it easy to have a tight knit development for the phone, so it is less prone to issues. But because of this tight, closed architecture, you don't have allot of choices as far as styles and hardware. Android and Windows, on the other hand, have multiple manufacturers and many choices of processors, hardware and styles to choose from. So it is much more difficult for Google and phone manufacturing developers to cater to all of the different phones and have each one run flawlessly. The same holds true for Linux and Windows with PC's. But I think the cappy has some of the best developers on XDA making great ROMs for it and these ROMs don't necessarily cater to hobbyists, they cater to captivate users in general.
Sometimes good things come to those who wait...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using xda premium
In my own opinion, I think one of the best ROM's out there, and quite frankly possibly the most stable I've run to date is Phoenix Unleashed. It's Froyo JS8, and was the last of the 2.2 ROM's Adam put out. It was a ROM I would absolutely go to IF I ever got tired of flashing ROM's(don't really see that happening) and wanted to just have a phone that worked and worked well.
I'm too busy now playing with ICS.......but that is a story for another day
kangi26 said:
In my own opinion, I think one of the best ROM's out there, and quite frankly possibly the most stable I've run to date is Phoenix Unleashed. It's Froyo JS8, and was the last of the 2.2 ROM's Adam put out. It was a ROM I would absolutely go to IF I ever got tired of flashing ROM's(don't really see that happening) and wanted to just have a phone that worked and worked well.
I'm too busy now playing with ICS.......but that is a story for another day
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I think there's something to that. Serendipity 6 was JS8 if I remember correctly.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
MikeyMike01 said:
I think there's something to that. Serendipity 6 was JS8 if I remember correctly.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
By the way, no offence Mikey, I'm not in any way trying to imply that your ROM's are inferior, I just spent a TON of time with the Phoenix ROM's so my opinion comes from that alone

Land o Lakes or i CAN believeitsnota kindle buttery smooth cm9 ics settings?

Any suggestions on the best setting to get my nookie running like buttery smooth?
Basically, please list your settings in the SYSTEM section of... SETTINGS screen.....
And any other setting you may deem pertinent to mention here.
Also list "checked " or "unchecked" for settings with ... checkboxes.
P.s .
Im running eyeballers opengl nightlies off emmc and v6 SUPAcharged! With a 16 gig sandisk SD.
Preemptive thanks for any response! I really 'Preciate any input n suggestions!
Buttery Smooth and an Alpha release shouldn't necessarily be expected.
At this point, it's necessary to realize that 2D acceleration is not fully complete and hardware acceleration for video is non-existant.
That said, it's pretty smooth for an Alpha. Wait several more months for "buttery smooth" to become more "likely" in terms of comparing to the competition.
Hopefully you didn't buy an NC just to try out ICS. Great ereader tab that can do much more, but it's way under powered for ICS. You might find that Gingerbread is the best environment with our memory limited device (only 512MB of RAM) and only a single core processor.
---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:04 PM ----------
jakelov said:
Im running eyeballers opengl nightlies off emmc and v6 SUPAcharged! With a 16 gig sandisk SD.
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Same here. As stated earlier this is the best the Alpha can perform at this time.
I switched over to ics,and I feel like it is smooth as can be. There are some features missing, but not that many. And development is brisk, which is an understatement.
Just got new touchscreen drivers, and it's great.
If you really want smoothness, us the non-OpenGL builds. I can't use the GL builds as a daily driver myself. Too gitchy w/o hardware acceleration. But that development continues as well. The 3.x kernel we'll probably need (unless the backporting stuff makes a big leap) has some real fine stuff happening. Want to see the sausage getting made?
3.x kernel development thread.
That thread is for the Nook Tablet, but has inspired the work now being done for the Kindle Fire, and will probably be where the Color's HW acceleration comes from as well.
If you're no help to the project (like me), use your thanks button and leave the thread open for the developers! I'm of the opinion that thread derailment is what drives the real devs to IRC and closes the process off from those who would like to watch. I am sure I am just as guilty as the next person, but try and find some development-related posts in any of the ICS threads on the entire Nook Color development board. It has turned into an endless Q&A about settings and boot animation, one that repeats itself almost every other day.
What was this thread about? . I should learn to take my own advice.
Settings, huh? Hmmmm...don't apply a bunch of tweaks unless you know what they do. You'll end up causing more hurt than help, most likely. The CM team spends it's time working to make the ROM as smooth as possible. Every augmentation above that tends to come with a cost, which might be worth it to you personally, but not for everyone. For instance, the wifi scan interval gets raised from 30 to 180 with the V6 (which I also use). This conserves a very small amount of battery, but makes it difficult to have a quick reconnect if you have shaky internet. I tend to suspect that the v6 is possibly behind the reconnection issues after sleep people have been reporting. But maybe not, I haven't looked into it too deeply. But the point remains. It was set to 30 as a default b/c it was considered to be the best for the end user.
Caveat emptor, you feel me?
mateorod said:
I switched over to ics,and I feel like it is smooth as can be. There are some features missing, but not that many. And development is brisk, which is an understatement.
Just got new touchscreen drivers, and it's great.
If you really want smoothness, us the non-OpenGL builds. I can't use the GL builds as a daily driver myself. Too gitchy w/o hardware acceleration. But that development continues as well. The 3.x kernel we'll probably need (unless the backporting stuff makes a big leap) has some real fine stuff happening. Want to see the sausage getting made?
3.x kernel development thread.
That thread is for the Nook Tablet, but has inspired the work now being done for the Kindle Fire, and will probably be where the Color's HW acceleration comes from as well.
If you're no help to the project (like me), use your thanks button and leave the thread open for the developers! I'm of the opinion that thread derailment is what drives the real devs to IRC and closes the process off from those who would like to watch. I am sure I am just as guilty as the next person, but try and find some development-related posts in any of the ICS threads on the entire Nook Color development board. It has turned into an endless Q&A about settings and boot animation, one that repeats itself almost every other day.
What was this thread about? . I should learn to take my own advice.
Settings, huh? Hmmmm...don't apply a bunch of tweaks unless you know what they do. You'll end up causing more hurt than help, most likely. The CM team spends it's time working to make the ROM as smooth as possible. Every augmentation above that tends to come with a cost, which might be worth it to you personally, but not for everyone. For instance, the wifi scan interval gets raised from 30 to 180 with the V6 (which I also use). This conserves a very small amount of battery, but makes it difficult to have a quick reconnect if you have shaky internet. I tend to suspect that the v6 is possibly behind the reconnection issues after sleep people have been reporting. But maybe not, I haven't looked into it too deeply. But the point remains. It was set to 30 as a default b/c it was considered to be the best for the end user.
Caveat emptor, you feel me?
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Hey thanks for the intuitive reply.... truth be told, I hadn't even considered installing any of the non gl builds til now. You've helped me to broaden my horizons instead of remaining stuck in a semi operational hardware acceleration haze! Kudos for the nudge.

How to get the most out of my Nook

Hey guys, been using cryogen on my nook for years now, and while I personally believe that it is much faster than stock, it always seems to eventually bog down, and run slow. While there might be an issue with apps or something else I'm doing wrong that keeps slowing down my nook that's not the MAIN purpose of this forum. I'm looking for the best build and settings to get the most out of my nook. Currently i'm running a recent nightly build with CM11, but was thinking about switching to snapshot for a more stable release. There are two things I want to know before doing this:
1. what is the fastest and most stable build available? I've heard in forums about a liquidsmooth build, slim builds, and obviously used nightlys but which is the best? Also CM10 or CM11 does it matter which?
2. What is the best settings for max performance? On nightly I can use the governor to up the CPU, and I know there's a ram setting, but what about the I/O scheduler? whats the optimal setting for this? Also whats the best map performance settings AND what is the best settings for performance/battery for when i'm not playing games but maybe just web browsing.
ONE FINAL NOTE:
There was a time where I enjoyed spending a week tweaking roms and trying to make experimental roms work but now I don't have time. SO what I'm looking for is a STABLE rom that doesn't need much tweaking and can simple be installed through CWM, and either the basic settings to max performance, or a third party program that will do it for me.
PS: these forums have been good to me these past years so I want to also shout out to everyone that contributes and say thank you.
Others may have differing opinions but I have tried all ROMs available and they all have their ups and downs. The nook hd + is a serviceable tablet and well worth what I paid for it but I have given up on the idea of finding a perfect configuration. My nook performs well enough at the moment to prevent my cheap nature from buying another tab.
That being said I am getting my son a nvidia shield tablet for Christmas so he will have to share
mcord11758 said:
Others may have differing opinions but I have tried all ROMs available and they all have their ups and downs. The nook hd + is a serviceable tablet and well worth what I paid for it but I have given up on the idea of finding a perfect configuration. My nook performs well enough at the moment to prevent my cheap nature from buying another tab.
That being said I am getting my son a nvidia shield tablet for Christmas so he will have to share
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I whole-heartedly agree with everything you said.
Except for the part about sharing your son's Christmas present. Good luck with that!
Better than nothing
Given that the first two reply were utterly useless I figured I would post what I have found so far. . . A rom called SlimKat is the fastest rom for the nook hd+ I personally have found. I was hoping that others would post USEFUL information to this forum reguarding other ROMS rather than just stating that the nook is limited (which everyone that owns one already knows hints why were are here in the first place). But if you too are looking for a fast rom try here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nook-hd/development/rom-dev-slimkat-4-4-4-build-8-1-t2894247/page6
I've yet to tweak it, so i'm not sure if there is a govenor on there or a way to improve how the RAM is used. And I still have no clue what an I/O scheduler does, but I didn't see one on this rom.
Useless, honest, whatever
Try mokee in original android development section. Nightlies are active, pretty stable , and it is interesting. Yes it is in Chinese at first but you can change language
I like slim kat but I get freezes when streaming videos for long periods.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2761812
mcord11758 said:
Useless, honest, whatever
Try mokee in original android development section. Nightlies are active, pretty stable , and it is interesting. Yes it is in Chinese at first but you can change language
I like slim kat but I get freezes when streaming videos for long periods.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2761812
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Click to collapse
That's probably fixed in the LiquidSmooth F2FS version (Pg. 5 of the LS thread), as it uses different PVR source. FWIW.
I actually find asking to be a moot point.
The roms will act differently according to your needs and uses. One rom may work well for someone and not well for another who's use of it constantly goes up against a bug or other problem. Or maybe you just won't like it.
Short story, just do a full recovery backup of what you currently use and then try the others. When you like one try it for a week. If you dislike it just restore the full backup of your choice - if you make full backups of each of them you can go back to any quite fast just the way you left it.
sandsofmyst said:
The roms will act differently according to your needs and uses.
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Click to collapse
And hardware (revisions). Take two identical tabs, install identical ROMs using identical methods, and get two different results. One crashes and reboots, the other never does. On a third the battery life suffers or the WifFi misbehaves.
sandsofmyst said:
Short story, just do a full recovery backup of what you currently use and then try the others. When you like one try it for a week. If you dislike it just restore the full backup of your choice - if you make full backups of each of them you can go back to any quite fast just the way you left it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And of course, be prepared to restart and repeat the entire process. Because sooner or later you're going to install something that will sour the milk. Or you just like doing it because it's just so much fun!
jb0756: I've tried them all. The variables are staggering. It's amazing these things work as well as they do.
mcord11758 said it best. The HD+ is ... "serviceable."
wellersl said:
Or you just like doing it because it's just so much fun!
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If its not up your alley then don't go there. There are things in the ocean and a breeze in the air.

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