The Nook Has Been Rooted.

[second exodous]

I thought I'd just put this up on the forum, the Barns&Nobel Nook has been rooted and that's one step to getting generic Linux running on it. Rooted just means that it is possible to get root access, or administrator access for all you windows people.

Cool thing is both the OS and the storage are micro SD and can be accessed when opened. This also means you can upgrade your Nook.

I might get one now, I don't like the idea of buying a e-reader that I don't actually own anything I buy on it and content can be deleted for whatever reason.

 

[DaveC]

Or you could just get something like this, it already runs linux and has a much bigger higher res. screen (and a big price).

http://www.irexreader.com/

 

[Parkydr]

This certainly makes it a more attractive device, but I don't really see the point of dedicated ebook readers, I'll stick with my GP2X.

 

[second exodous]

Or you could just get something like this, it already runs linux and has a much bigger higher res. screen (and a big price).

http://www.irexreader.com/

The article I lined above was about the Kindle and it runs Linux. It's not important that it runs Linux it's important that you have control over it and can put media on and take it off to back it up. Cutting off access to your files from the company that makes the reader helps also, that's how things get deleted, they do it.

This certainly makes it a more attractive device, but I don't really see the point of dedicated ebook readers, I'll stick with my GP2X.

My eyes burn up when reading from my DS and I've tried to read books on a computer screen.

I've wanted an e-reader for a long time, I just need to wait until they are more open and the rights of the purchasers of e-ink books are like that of books printed on dead trees have. Right now that means a hacked e-reader.

 

[klikklak]

I've got a iRex Iliad and while there are no free distros for it, it allows running your own apps. And I think there was some effort to open source it. If however you want completely Free, take a look at openinkpot which is (as far as I know) a distro that runs on BeBooks and some other hardware. And yes, an ebook reader is _brilliant_, I use it more than I use my Wiz. If you intend reading pdf's, consider an 8" screen, it's easily superior to a 6".

 

[second exodous]

I'm also waiting on a touch screen e-reader. I'm not that concerned with color like a few people are, but touch control is important to me. I found one that had good PDF support but I can't find it right now and it was expensive anyway. I've only used a Sony e-reader and I didn't like the navigation and I hear it's one of the best. I haven't made it to a B&N to try the nook but that's high on my todo list.

Problem with e-readers is there is no where to go and try them, they are pricey and reading is pretty much dead so stores don't carry them.

 

[klikklak]

I think B&N sells iRex's 800 model, should be a wacom touchpanel at 8" at a decent price. Color doesn't matter that much unless you're really looking forward to reading spiderman on it. If you want reviews and opinions on all this, check out mobileread.com. I lurk there sometimes, especially when trying to decide what to get.

EDIT: oh yeah, if you've got the dosh, buy the 10" dr1000s, should be the best there is for pdf's. 8" is readable, but not entirely comfortable.

 

[OrR]

http://txtr.com/ seems like the most attractive ebook reader to me and it should be out soonish. They get the philosophy right.

 

[second exodous]

I think B&N sells iRex's 800 model, should be a wacom touchpanel at 8" at a decent price. Color doesn't matter that much unless you're really looking forward to reading spiderman on it. If you want reviews and opinions on all this, check out mobileread.com. I lurk there sometimes, especially when trying to decide what to get.

EDIT: oh yeah, if you've got the dosh, buy the 10" dr1000s, should be the best there is for pdf's. 8" is readable, but not entirely comfortable.

Oh, the iRex was the one I was looking at a while ago. They changed their page it seems. If I go bigger than book size I would like a 14 inch viewable screen, that's the size of the While Wolf books. When I said PDF I just meant normal book, I want to build one of these and digitize all my books. I would also turn the books I buy from the cloud into PDFs with this, e-ink photographs well like print, I just don't trust any books in the cloud.

OrR I'm looking at the one you linked above. This market is growing pretty fast considering the cost of these.

 

[DaveC]

http://txtr.com/ seems like the most attractive ebook reader to me and it should be out soonish. They get the philosophy right.

Meh the screen is too small.

I wouldn't go for anything less than 8" or you will get headaches after awhile.

I know the DR1000 was pretty open, drag a document into a folder on the SD card and that is it. The price is a killer though. I guess that is because it has the biggest screen available.

 

[OrR]

I have been reading books on my 2,8 inch Openmoko phone so personally I don't care too much about screen size. (And I don't really need an ebook reader at all...) They do have a device with a larger screen planned for Q3 2010, though.

 

[nightwheel]

http://gizmodo.com/5427774/ravaging-the-nook-part-ii-we-have-apps

 

[Ravnos]

Maybe this will mean FBReader or something similar on the Nook. That's basically what I want from an e-reader, support for a ton of formats, not just PDF and whatever the book store's proprietary format is. That and colour, for magazines and comics, so I guess CBR support would be great too. Otherwise, I've happily read books on my N800, and I had no major complaints except for FBReader's lack of lit support, which could be worked around.

 

[Morpheus384]

http://txtr.com/ seems like the most attractive ebook reader to me and it should be out soonish. They get the philosophy right.

Meh the screen is too small.

I wouldn't go for anything less than 8" or you will get headaches after awhile.

I know the DR1000 was pretty open, drag a document into a folder on the SD card and that is it. The price is a killer though. I guess that is because it has the biggest screen available.

I agree with DaveC on this one. Since the textor is designed to be used in verticle mode(as this is how the controls are oriented) anything smaller than 8" would most likely lead to eye strain over time. If the Controls were placed on the bottom to be easily used either in portrait or landscape view it would be more functional for me.

The new craze for ebooks on the go and the exorbinant pricetag/drm issues has me a little puzzled. I've had a palm since the inception of the species and have used it predominately for reading ebooks for close to 10 years now. When they were simple monochrome displays (320x320)I praised them for their ability to be seen in daylight. The indiglo backlighting on my Handspring visor was awesome for reading in the dark back in the day. Content was freely available and downloadable on the net. And with easy software HTML websites/content could be converted on the go.

One of the first hacks I ever did was building a cf card reader and mounting it on my handspring visor with a whopping big 256mb CF card. At the time the largest expansion cards for any palm unit were 16 mb. Funny how time changes. That enabled me to carry hundreds of titles with me in my slacks pocket on the go, and felt like magic.

I still carry a Palm TX on me daily, and even while being 480x320 4.5 inches(and pretty useless for PDFs) when in landscape mode text is extreemly legible and easy on the eyes due to the orientation. The control pad being on the bottom of the unit allows it to be easily held in the left hand and allows moving pages forward/backward single handedly. I use a program I got several years ago (cant think of the name right now) to convert HTM,RTF,PDF,LIT,TXT to pdb, and its pretty painless.

A smallware 8$US program called ComiX converts my CBR/CBZs resizing the images for the size of the screen making 50 or so comic books take up about 30 mb space. Whole pages can be looked at by draging the image around the screen by the stylus like a microfiche reader in a library. This has made viewing CBR/CBZ files on my computer feel cumbersome in comparison.

Last year my fiance was spending about 40-60$US a week on used books on amazon.com ("But they were only 1.99US each" she said,-but then 3.99US shipping) And was saying she should spend 349.00$US to get a kindle to save money!?!. I told her she was nuts! That if it was me I would have invested that money in a second hand palm and just downloaded what I wanted from the net.

I picked her up a second hand T5 for 56.00$US, and downloaded a long list of her favorite authors /books she wanted/converted them and dropped them on it for her birthday. I havent heard a word about a kindle since.

Seriously though, Is the new Epaper so georgeous and amazing that people are happy to pony up hundreds of dollars for a chance to pay again for the books they already have or wish to read?

Until the tech gets cheaper, and the DRM issues are ironed out where buyers have the same rights as book owners, I' think I'll stay with what I have now. I've been pretty happy with it.

 

[nightwheel]

http://gizmodo.com/5428641/is-the-nook-officially-a-tablet

 

[second exodous]

Maybe this will mean FBReader or something similar on the Nook. That's basically what I want from an e-reader, support for a ton of formats, not just PDF and whatever the book store's proprietary format is. That and colour, for magazines and comics, so I guess CBR support would be great too. Otherwise, I've happily read books on my N800, and I had no major complaints except for FBReader's lack of lit support, which could be worked around.

I've tried to read books on LDCs before and my eyes just hurt after a while. I don't know what it is but I can use computer for hours on end and read articles on the net and my eyes don't get tired. I can try to read a book on a LCD and my eyes just burn after a few hours. Maybe it's because on the net my eyes are moving a lot and not always focusing on text? I just don't know. I just know that printed books my eyes don't get tired until I've read about 5 or 6 hours.

Portable devices wise I've only tired to read books on my NDS and my GP2X so maybe their screens just aren't as high enough resolution. I'll try to read a book on my Pandora when I get it and see how it goes.

 

[klikklak]

I've read with a nokia 770 tablet before and while it was ok, I shelled out the money for a sony PRS500 quite quickly just because I wanted a better experience. And E-Ink is a better experience in general, I think it's money spent quite well and after years of languishing next to a computer I've found that I enjoy reading again. The only problem with it, is that it's so fragile, I carried the sony everywhere and it got busted quite quickly. I've been a lot more careful with the Iliad because of this experience. Mind you, I'm definitely not careful with my gear, I even managed to bust the 770, despite it's metallic cover.

 

[Esn]

I've been reading ebooks on my frontlit GP32 for a few years now. My only regret is that I can't comfortably read PDF files on it (there's a program for it, but the text is blurry on it). That's one of the functions I'm looking forward to using the Pandora for.

Although I'm a bit worried that the Pandora's backlit screen will be harder on the eyes than the frontlit GP32 screen is.

I don't think I'd consider spending a few hundred dollars on just an ebook reader, especially a DRM-limited one.

 

[second exodous]

I don't think I'd consider spending a few hundred dollars on just an ebook reader, especially a DRM-limited one.

Yeah, I want a e-reader, I think it would be worth it, but DRM worries me just like I've said in my first post. This is why I was excited about the nook being rooted, it might get hacked soon to where you won't need to worry about DRM.