Monday, July 18, 2011

adventures with the Nook Color

I just got a Nook Color, and it's awesome. I wanted something to 1) read recipes in the kitchen, 2) have some fun with, and 3) use for Caustic and/or other music production.

I rooted it.

More on that later, but I thought I'd add some points for other prospective cheap tablet people:

1) many apps act a little awkward on the tablet. Specifically "Go Launcher" is not really usable. "Frogger" and "SPC Music Sketchpad" look strange but are okay. The Cynaogen Mod7-provided ADW.Launcher works very well.

2) it feels faster than my Samsung Galaxy S, but laggier. That is, sometimes touches aren't recognized when I'd like. It's unpredictable, a minor annoyance.

3) from Amazon Appstore: Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile, Fieldrunners HD, and iCookbook.

When you get a tablet, run to download a bunch of sexy cool apps:

- Google Earth (and Maps)

- Substrate live wallpaper

- Chumby. This gives you access to a *lot* of silly or beautiful useful clocks. This is much better than the Android-ish stash of clocks.

Overall for consumption of media (Gmail, maps, music) the Nook Color is tremendous fun. The lack of a camera, microphone, and 3G make the device feel a lot "quieter" than a cell phone. The battery life is also a bit better. Picking up the small Galaxy S now feels like I'm using a small powerful Swiss army knife, whereas using the Nook makes me feel more relaxed and comfortable.

A lot of fun!