Help Nook Color noob looking for help

[wraunch]

All, sorry for the lazy questions but I need some help. I just bought my daughter a NC for her birthday. I had a newborn son on the same day so I haven't had a chance to research all the various root vs sd options. I want to get her NC so that she can download apps from the Android marketplace, read books in .epub or .pdf, and be able to use the onboard 8GB of memory in addition to any sd memory. She is only 13 so I still need this all to be fairly user friendly. What links do I need to focus on, which route should i go as far as rooting vs not? If I do root which version of Android is running best on the NC now? Are there other sites or forums I need to be looking at as well. As you can imagine I am stretched thin on sleep and energy but I do want her to be able to enjoy her birthday present.

Thanks in advance guys and girls,
Chris

 

[stinger608]

Hi Chris,

I am pretty much a noob when it comes to tablets as well. A couple of things that I have found very useful is:

XDADevelopers forums. Barnes & Noble Nook Color - xda-developers

Awesome forum to find answers and ideas from.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me here, however I have found that having the best of both worlds with my recent Nook Color purchase has been pretty awesome. By "best of both worlds" I am referring to being able to dual boot both the stock Nook Color OS as well as the Android OS. Working a lot as well as working on getting my computer business up and going has forced me to purchase a pre-installed version of the Android OS. For this I grabbed a N2A card found on their main web site.

Turn your Nook Color into a full Android Tablet | N2A cards

Good luck and I am sure your daughter will enjoy the NC!

 

[colchiro]

Sdcards are slow, eventually fail, difficult to create/repair and fragile (easy to screw up). When they fail, everything else on your sdcard goes too (backups, data, etc).

Much, much easier to install CM7 directly on your NC directly (replacing stock rom). You'll end up with a full-fledged tablet, not a reader and will lose a few reader functions. You still have access to Market versions of all the various readers available (B&N, Kindle, etc).

Here's my guide to installing CM7: http://androidforums.com/nookcolor-all-things-root/352736-how-install-cm7-your-nook-color.html

Rooting would be next best. It's still the stock rom, but you can install other apps. Here's how to root newer NC's: http://androidforums.com/nookcolor-...rooted-b-n-1-4-1-got-android-market-work.html

 

[nj02vette]

Sdcards are slow, eventually fail, difficult to create/repair and fragile (easy to screw up). When they fail, everything else on your sdcard goes too (backups, data, etc).

Much, much easier to install CM7 directly on your NC directly (replacing stock rom). You'll end up with a full-fledged tablet, not a reader and will lose a few reader functions. You still have access to Market versions of all the various readers available (B&N, Kindle, etc).

Here's my guide to installing CM7: http://androidforums.com/nookcolor-all-things-root/352736-how-install-cm7-your-nook-color.html

Rooting would be next best. It's still the stock rom, but you can install other apps. Here's how to root newer NC's: http://androidforums.com/nookcolor-...rooted-b-n-1-4-1-got-android-market-work.html

Yeah,
What he said.

 

[bobstro]

All, sorry for the lazy questions but I need some help. I just bought my daughter a NC for her birthday. I had a newborn son on the same day so I haven't had a chance to research all the various root vs sd options.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you're the father. If not, get some rest!

I want to get her NC so that she can download apps from the Android marketplace, read books in .epub or .pdf, and be able to use the onboard 8GB of memory in addition to any sd memory.

You've got all the options available to meet that set of criteria:

1. You can root the stock firmware and keep the "B&N Experience".
2. You can load alternate firmware (e.g. CyanogenMod) onto internal (eMMC) memory, over-writing B&N firmware, but providing maximum flexibility.
3. You can build a bootable external (SD card) install of alternate firmware, keeping the B&N firmware (rooted or stock) as backup for a dual-boot configuration.

She is only 13 so I still need this all to be fairly user friendly. What links do I need to focus on, which route should i go as far as rooting vs not? If I do root which version of Android is running best on the NC now?

Normally, I'd only recommend rooting the stock B&N firmware if you have, or are interested in, B&N content (books, magazines or newspaper subscriptions). Otherwise, CyanogenMod is superior, and there's little reason not to put it on internal eMMC.

However, their B&N interface is a bit kid-friendly in that you can select what apps appear in it. It's not bullet-proof, but it might be a bit less overwhelming for her starting out since you can decide which apps appear on the home (B&N) screen. If she's technically adept, this won't stop her, mind you, but it might be a bit less maintenance intensive for you short-term, since you seem to have other distractions.

I'm not aware of a kid-friendly launcher alternative for CM. I know ADW EX will let you lock the desktop so she can't inadvertently break things.

The B&N reader software is decent. Aldiko on CM is pretty close in terms of basic functionality. Both will read epub and pdf. Angry Birds will run on both!