I'm on the edge of pulling the trigger for a NC. Since the NC was never intended to be a full fledge tablet I'm sure there are some annoyances from you rooted users. Once you get everything setup what are the cons? I have a rooted Samsung Vibrant running ClockWork on Team Whiskey, Nero ROM. What I'm reading I don't think I will go to Froyo since it is definitely usable but I get annoyed by such things like having to turn on/off screen to fix screen lag. I will most likely just keep it rooted from stock. The reason I'm interested in it is:
Lightweight, small form factor
Great resolution
Of course price.
I have two gripes:
1. No physical back button
2. Adhoc wifi requires turning on/off wifi
Both of these are hardware issues and not related to rooting.
I don't use the in-store feature so not having that doesn't bother me.
Do it, you can always unroot.
Magically transmitted across the interwebs by my kickass NookColor!
Just want to clarify, don't have a NC yet. Don't want to buy it as an ereader.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
lucifurious said:
I have two gripes:
1. No physical back button
2. Adhoc wifi requires turning on/off wifi
Both of these are hardware issues and not related to rooting.
I don't use the in-store feature so not having that doesn't bother me.
Do it, you can always unroot.
Magically transmitted across the interwebs by my kickass NookColor!
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Click to collapse
I don't know that the lack of physical back button bothers me, it has a built in gesture for back (swipe to the left on the menu bar) so it's not really a limitation, more a preference thing. The only real downside I've seen is lack of in-store features. There are some issues with the root, mainly some market issues where for some reason all of the programs don't show up. I used the NC for a couple of weeks in stock form and then decided to root, definitely worth it just for the sake of getting a browser with multi-touch enabled. However, I read a lot so that factors into how much I like it.
If you're just using it as an android tablet, it's really good. No GPS, no cameras, no 3g connection, but other than that it's fast with the best screen I've seen on a tablet and is just the right size. My phone has a 5mpx camera, 720p video and GPS and I have it on me all the time, so no need for any of that in a tablet. It also acts as a hotspot, so no need for 3g on the tablet. It's a perfect compliment to a decent smartphone.
If you love to tinker there's no cons. (and if you want a back button, Autonooter comes with Soft Keys that'll put one on the screen for you)
Despite the time it took to learn how to do it, and what to do with it afterwards, I got what I paid for and more. I love to learn and troubleshoot, so rooting this device has been a real treat.
At the moment I have a fully functional tablet that I use quite often around the house and at work. It's a convenient browser (I use Opera Mobile which has pinch zoom and slightly better page rendering than the build in browser), a quick source of the news thanks to a program included in the Autonooter kit, and a useful quick-note taking device.
I'll admit, my primary use for it is browsing, but when you root this thing, you can use any browser you want. I use Opera, but Skyfire and Dolphin HD are also good.
In addition to that, it makes a great portable movie player. The built in player supports MP4 and one other format, but if you root it, you can download Rock Player and play most commonly used video formats.
It's Youtube performance is excellent too, and there's quite a few Youtube video downloaders available in case you want to save your favorites to the SDCard.
Speaking of that, you will want to buy an SDCard. It doesn't come with one, and you might want more than the 5GB free of space you get out of the box.
All in all, it's pretty much a computer, and once you learn how to do everything to liberate it from it's shackles, there's no limit to what you can do with it.
As a tablet, it is awesome, and only getting more so. Lets be real - its GPU is the same as the Droid X, and is not the most perful on the market. Tegra 2 (and one or two others) will soundly beat it, but at a price. Cheaper T2 platforms tend (so far) to have horrible screens, poor battery life, and are large. Other devices like the Tab, just are way over priced.
I think the nook has struck an excellent ballance. It has an excellent CPU, a capable GPU, plenty of ram, and one of the best looking screens out there. I love its form factor (the bezel is one of few NON ugly ones out there), handling, and capabilities, and the price is excellent ($250).
It is also really getting a community behind it, and i think we will see in the near future, many more custom ROMS which speed things up, add features (bluetooth), and generally improve user experience. Right now is an exciting time to be a nook owner..
If you are not planning on reading you MUST buy a memory card. Many android apps are hard coded to look in /sdcard for things and can't read or write to the internal memory on the nook. Google earth is one example. This could probably be fixed by a developer in a custom rom.
Divine_Madcat said:
It is also really getting a community behind it, and i think we will see in the near future, many more custom ROMS which speed things up, add features (bluetooth), and generally improve user experience. Right now is an exciting time to be a nook owner..
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That was one of my main reasons for choosing it over the Archos 70. I think the fact that the NC provides such great bang for the buck and is available at retail outlets across the USA gives it the potential to have a much larger following than something like the A70.
Adding bluetooth functionality will complete this thing.
The only con I've really felt was no mic :/ there slapped in crappy 10 dollar mp3s but not a eReader for memos/notes (tho its not useful) I could see voice search for books valuable.
Obviously want it for Voip not memos, Bt will be a fix but still.
sent from a Nook Color using xda-app
Ditto to above. The lack of a Back button can be worked around, and really only comes into play while in certain apps that don't show the standard Nook status bar at the bottom. So you can't swipe. Using SoftKeys, and setup the right way, (see forum for more info on that), then you can change the Nook button to launch SoftKeys, which gives you the Back button, and also, as a bonus, a Task Switcher pops up at the same time.
The only drawback I see is that in order to have decent sized icons and text, you need to change the density of the screen. This is fine for everything except the built in Nook apps, like the Store and what-not. The reader itself is fine. It just cuts off some of the text, but it's still usable. Personally, I just use the Kindle app, anyway, and don't ever launch the Nook apps, so it's a non-issue for me.
EDIT: I also dearly want Bluetooth to work, so I can use my GPS and BT headphones. But at least there's a BT radio in the thing. Just need to get one of the wizards to get it working. Last I heard, it was working, but only to two feet. Give me 3 feet and I'll be happy. The lack of Flash is a real bummer, of course, but also to be fixed in an upcoming 2.2 release from B&N, or you could go and install 2.2 right now and boot from sd card. Apparently, it's working pretty well. And, the lack of a mic is a small bummer, but I'm also hoping a wizard will write a USB driver that will work with a webcam/mic. All do-able stuff. Just a little time needed.
As a tablet its great. It has shortcomings like others have said but you have to take into consideration that this hardware with an IPS screen for $250 is an absolute steal even considering those shortcomings.
I am a long-time Kindle user who recently got into the world of Android with my first smartphone purchase (HTC Aria). I have really fallen in love with Android, in large part due to the excellent community here at XDA. I had started looking for an Android Tablet and stumbled across all of the info about the Nook, after a week or two of research, I decided to just go for it. I figured if I bought it at Walmart, I would have at least 30 days to decide if I wanted to keep it... and even if I bricked it somehow, I don't think Walmart customer service would know the difference and would still refund my purchase. Well, I bought the Nook Wednesday morning, rooted immediately and ended up selling my Kindle Thursday night to a co-worker. This is the real deal and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for an e-reader and tablet device, as long as they enjoy modifying it.
P.S. I haven't figured out why everyone feels the need to change the LCD density settings... everything looks great stock to my eye.
lucifurious said:
2. Adhoc wifi requires turning on/off wifi
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Click to collapse
Just curious, what are you using ad-hoc wireless for? I use my android phone as a wireless hot-spot to provide internet to my Nook all night at work, that works fine, but I'm guessing that's not really ad-hoc or what you were referring to anyway.
I dont care for bluetooth, gps, or webcam. It doesnt bother me that flash doesnt work. I have flash on my phone and frankly, flash just makes webite load longer and most flash is just ads. It was an ok device preroot, now its a cheap capable tablet. I use it more than my pc. The only major gripe i have is that the edges of the screen seems to not register as well as the middle. But its not a dealbreaker.
Thanks guys. Just got one and its great! I was a bit skeptical at first after seeing before the root. Good info!
Sent from my LogicPD Zoom2 using XDA App
911jason said:
Just curious, what are you using ad-hoc wireless for? I use my android phone as a wireless hot-spot to provide internet to my Nook all night at work, that works fine, but I'm guessing that's not really ad-hoc or what you were referring to anyway.
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Click to collapse
The issue with Ad-Hoc is that some devices can not connect to Ad-Hoc networks. They can only connect to Infrastructure mode WiFi networks.
So the problem presents itself when a rooted phone using a wireless tether app is only capable of sharing WiFi via a Ad-Hoc network (Motorola Droid). The Nook Color then can not see the Ad-Hoc network and is unable to connect.
So the Ad-Hoc WiFi fix allows the Nook Color to see and connect to Ad-Hoc networks as well as Infrastructure networks.
If you have a newer phone, like the Droid X, I believe those phones transmit WiFi via Infrastructure mode, so there is no problem connecting any device to it as all devices work with infrastructure mode.
I hope that all makes sense.
Yep, that explains it. I wasn't aware that older phones were using adhoc wifi. Is that a hardware limitation or a ROM limitation?
911jason said:
Yep, that explains it. I wasn't aware that older phones were using adhoc wifi. Is that a hardware limitation or a ROM limitation?
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Hardware and software limitation, actually.
Most phones don't have a wifi chip capable of creating a true infrastructure-mode access point, but that is gradually changing. One of the reasons I bought an HTC Incredible is that it can.
But you also need tethering software that can use that mode. Newer versions of Wifi Tether can, for example, but older ones can't.
I've accidently cut the ribbon cable of my Milestone. It is shown at 3:27 minutes in this youtube video www[.]youtube[.]com[/]watch?v=dE81IaQHEHc. It's not the one that connects with the screen. That would be easy enough to replace. I bought a cheap verizon Droid a855 (and they sent me a Droid 2, a955 i assume) for parts but it seems to work just fine. If i swap motherboards will the phone boot up? I'm asking because it seems there isnt a way to take that ribbon cable apart and replace it..
I would appreciate much any help!
PS: My milestone is dead for a couple of months while i was waited for the parts. If I don't fix it this time i will have to throw it away and buy a new phone. I REALLY don't want to do that. It's still a good phone for me to use.
http://mashable.com/2011/01/11/cdma-umts-att-verizon-networks/
Verizon utilizes CDMA for its 3G network, while AT&T uses UMTS.
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Milestone is UMTS too.
The phone itself might work - but you won't get any reception in europe
Eiertschik said:
Milestone is UMTS too.
The phone itself might work - but you won't get any reception in europe
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Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I know Droid uses CDMA. I thought the antenna though might be on the motherboard it self, therefor the phone could work. Anyway i proceeded just with the motherboard swap. Phone always shows the orange led, but does not boot from there. Do you have any idea if i can just replace the broken part using the droid's one? right now i have the two phones disassemled in front of me
edit: I followed the directions given in this link. I also tried renaming Droid file "sholes-keypad.kcm.bin" to "sholesp2a-keypad-euro_qwerty" before pasting in /system/usr/keychars. That's according to Kabaldan's post. Same procedure i did with the other file taken from a Droid 2 Rom "/system/usr/keylayout/sholes-keypad.kl". I renamed this to sholesp2a-keypad.kl. After doing those this is the result for what is working from the keyboard:
From 1st row: Everything except the first key ( it works as an extra ALT)
From 2nd row: Everything except the "ALT lock" key
From 3nd row: Everything..
From 4th row: alt is fine, voice key inputs "@" instead, search key is fine, "@" does nothing with nothing!, space is ok, "/" is ok, that what i believe is a back button does nothing with nothing!, directional keys where fine all along.
Since most of it now works as it should its not really a biggie.. but it would be awsume if i could make it work 100%. Is it fixable though or should i replace find a way to replace the original keyboard again? I find the droid 2 keyboard much more convinient
I hope now that i explained better i might get some further help. Thank you!
So, I bought a lapdock today at a local Verizon Wireless store because they are on sale for $50.
I got home, used it for about 3-4 hours, and cannot see myself ever using it for anything more than a charging station. You cannot run your own apps, except though a virtual 'mobile mode', where things run visually glitchy and the overall resolution is blurry since it is scaling it the image by a few pixels.
I am hoping that someone who uses this accessory can tell me that this has some other use other than browsing on Firefox. I am an IT professional, and multiple times during the week I have to go to client sites, and thought having this would be useful. If it just gives me Firefox (web browsing ability), then I can do that on one of the local computers
Thanks.
Also being in IT, I work a lot with terminal server environments via RDP. The sole reason I bought the lapdock was to access my company's and client's terminal servers from anywhere. I applied the webuntu mod to my device and installed rdesktop and tsclient. This gives me full access to administrate and maintain all of our servers from anywhere I happen to be.
opnsrcaddict;[URL="tel:27245580" said:
27245580[/URL]]Also being in IT, I work a lot with terminal server environments via RDP. The sole reason I bought the lapdock was to access my company's and client's terminal servers from anywhere. I applied the webuntu mod to my device and installed rdesktop and tsclient. This gives me full access to administrate and maintain all of our servers from anywhere I happen to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be better if you setup a custom port in the client's firewall then just change the RDP port on the TS in the registry to that port. At any rate, we use a professional monitoring agent that handles remote connectivity for support, among other things (hardware alerts, update monitoring, etc.)
Sidenote, I am finding this very hard to type on. The keys must be pressed down hard, especially the spacebar and there is no delete key. I am typing this post on the lapdock right now, and it has taken over 5 minutes. I could have posted it in the same time using the XDA app.
I use my lapdock for a larger screen on the netflix app. Also, the dock works as a mobile hdmi monitor, so my brother uses it to play on his xbox in whatever room he wants.
Wow I never knew you could plug another HDMI source into it, that's awesome. Anyway, I use mine just for surfing the web and watching Netflix, but hopefully the ICS webtop brings some cool new features.
fn-backspace is your delete key.
In its current state, the webdock is only marginally useful. The firefox browser is glitchy and slow, and it seems to lock up and reboot pretty often. For $50 though, it is nice to have a full keyboard (using it now).
I guess I would say I bought it on somewhat of a gamble after seeing some of the previews of webdock 3.0 when Moto pushes ICS out to the Bionic. If it's slow and buggy, then I'm out $50 and still have a marginally decent keyboard and display. But, if it's decent, then it'll be $50 well spent.
But I really can't believe they sold these for $300 when they first came out. If you paid even half of that, then I truly feel sorry for you. The user experience is just downright frustrating.
+1 on the previous posts. I bought it because of the sale, but never would have at even $90. I'm trying to set up webtop to fart around with Ubuntu, and using the dock as an easier twitter keyboard at conferences until I get another tablet. After that, I'll prolly give it to my kid, who was unfortunate enough to have me buy him a Bionic as well.
<rant>
Last effing Moto phone, ever!
</rant>
I have a spare phone that I was hoping to use as a dedicated Android Auto device but as I thought it through, I didn't feel there was really much to gain:
The phone doesn't have a SIM so I would have to enable the hotspot on my daily driver.
Since I'd want my daily driver to stay stopped up, I'd plug it in too.
Well if I'm doing all that anyway, I might was well just use the daily driver, right?
Is anyone else doing something similar with a spare phone?
Ironically, I went thru the same thing years ago with an older phone which was sitting around, no longer used because it was replaced with something newer and faster.
I have my workshop in the garage, and I found it useful to have the older phone unlocked and flashed with cyanogenmod to get the junk out of the system. Then I loaded up a 32GB microSD card full of music and audiobooks, so I can listen when I work on something on the radio in the garage. So it served as a mini-iPod like device, albeit a somewhat slow one. It worked out well, and then I later sold the phone on ebay.
Similar old, used phones I gave to young relatives - with extra bulky battery packs - so they could use them as small game machines. That worked okay.
There's some thoughts for you.