Thursday, November 3, 2011

DIY(ish) tablet

Tablet computers are all the rage these days.  The iPad is of course the media darling, there are a variety of Android tablets out there, and then there are of course oddities running Windows and Web OS.
When the iPad came out my response was "this is cool, but what the fuck will I do with it?".  It seemed a bit big to me.  Then 7 inch tablets started coming out.
Since those were the size of a book they suddenly seemed more interesting.
Not too long after that I learned that Cyanogen would run on the Nook Color.  This provided the delightful combination of full control of the operating system (I am a nerd, my computers need to be mine), a bunch of apps, a convenient size, and a very low price.
There is the issue of no 3g/4g.  I don't really feel that I need those particular features.  Wifi is pretty ubiquitous these days, and frankly if I'm someplace without it I probably am not interested in being online anyway.
I picked up a refurbished Nook on eBay.  I followed the directions on Cyanogen's site, and the install worked without a hitch. 
I can see it being a wonderful device for reading, listening to music, and watching videos.  However, it is NOT a good tool for doing much actual work, even writing a humble blog entry such as this one.  Virtual keyboards are universally terrible.  I can't imagine using one to write more than a few sentences, let alone some code.

2 comments:

  1. What version of Android does the nook come with? I'm having trouble rooting a new tablet with 2.3.3

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  2. It runs a customized (read that as dumbed-down) version of 2.2. Some devices are easier to root than others. My phone was a nightmare, but doing the Nook took about ten minutes.

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