How to turn a Nook tablet into an Android tablet

Posted by Unknown Rabu, 29 Februari 2012 0 komentar

Turn a $99 Nook into a Fully Fledged Android Tablet in Four Easy Steps

The Nook Simple Touch is great for reading ebooks. It's got plenty of storage, it's small enough to carry anywhere, can be used with one hand, can hold tons of books, its e-ink display is crisp and easy to read, and most importantly, it runs a skinned and customized version of Android behind Barnes and Noble's interface. I got my hands on one a couple of weeks ago from a friend, and with about a half-hour, some basic tools, and a little patience, I turned my new Nook into a solid starter Android tablet with complete access to the Android Market, Google apps, your email, and the web. Here's how.
Rooting the Nook Simple Touch is surprisingly easy, and the results are more than worth it. As with all projects of this nature, a bricked device is one possible outcome, and you'll definitely void your warranty. it worked like a charm for me though (as you can see in the video above), and just like rooting an Android phone, it's well worth the risk—especially considering how deceptively easy it is.


Turn a $99 Nook into a Fully Fledged Android Tablet in Four Easy Steps

What You'll Need

Here's a list of the things you'll need to root your Nook and get access to the Android Market, Amazon Appstore, and start tweaking and customizing your device:
  • One Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch, available for $99 retail, cheaper if you're buying used (I got mine for a sweet $20, Thanks Fraize!) The Nook must be registered to a Barnes and Noble account.
  • A 128MB (preferably larger) microSD card. This 16GB microSD card is available at Amazon for $7, but one you may have swapped out of a smartphone or camera will work.
  • An external microSD card reader or microSD to SD card adapter for your computer's built-in reader. I used one similar to this $7 model at Amazon that I picked up at an electronics store.
  • A Google account, preferably the one you used for your Barnes and Noble account, and preferably one with YouTube linked to it (more on this later.) Having one will speed up the process of authenticating to the Android Market and getting your Nook added to your Google account.
  • Nooter, a utility for rooting and enabling market access on your Nook Simple Touch, and a method to write disk images to your microSD card, like win32DiskImager for Windows. Mac and Linux users can use the terminal.
  • About a half-hour or so, and some reading comprehension.
Once you have your tools assembled, you're ready to get started.

Step One: Root the Nook Simple Touch

There are several tools available to root the Nook, but I used a handy utility called TouchNooter, and followed an excellent guide over at the XDA-developers forum. Part of the reason I picked TouchNooter is because it doesn't just root your device, but it also installs some helpful utilities you'll need once you're up and running. Plus, unlike some of the other tools available, TouchNooter works with all versions of the Nook firmware.
You'll also need a utility to write disk images to your SD card. I used my Windows machine to do this, so I downloaded win32DiskImager. The following steps assume you're using Windows, but we'll get to Mac and Linux in a moment.
  1. Plug in your microSD card to your card reader, and confirm it's mounted to your computer. We're going to wipe it, so back up any files from it you may want now!
  2. If you haven't already, extract the Nooter disk image from the archive, and put it somewhere you can find it. The desktop works.

  1. Turn a $99 Nook into a Fully Fledged Android Tablet in Four Easy Steps 
  2.  
  3. Extract all of the files from the win32DiskImager archive and drop them in the same place. Double-click Win32DiskImager.exe to run the program. As long as all of the other files in the archive are in the same place, it should open without issue. You may get an error message about a device being in use—acknowledge it and move on.
  4. Point the "Device" drop-down menu at the drive letter assigned to your microSD card.
  5. Click the folder icon and select the TouchNooter image file to write to the SD card
  6. Take a deep breath and click "Write." This will wipe your sdCard and write the TouchNooter disk image to it.
  7. When it's finished, dismount the microSD card, remove it from the reader, and grab your nook.
That's the hard part, actually. Mac and Linux users can write the disk image to their microSD cards at the terminal using the "dd" command to write the image. Even though they use a different rooting utility for the job, the instructions at NookDevs.com to root the Simple Touch explain the terminal commands clearly—just be careful you're writing to your microSD card and not an attached hard drive on your system.
It's important to use some kind of external SD card reader for this task. Trying to write to the microSD card while it's in your Nook and attached via USB, or some other device connected to your computer with an SD slot in it (a camera, a smartphone, or some other device) will cause problems, and most people who complained about bricked Nooks pointed to this as the reason it happened. Let's continue.
  1. Power down your Nook.
  2. Open the microSD hatch on the side, and remove the card inside. Set this off to the side, you'll need it again in a moment.
  3. Install the microSD card with the TouchNooter image on it, close the hatch, and turn on your Nook.
  4. You'll see a TouchNooter splash screen. TouchNooter is working its magic behind the scenes, and it'll advise you to wait until the screen flashes dark before doing anything else. Be patient.
  5. When the screen flashes dark, your Nook is rooted! TouchNooter has turned the device off for you. Open the hatch and remove the TouchNooter microSD card. Install the microSD card that you set to the side.
  6. Power on your Nook. The first thing you'll be presented with is whether you want to go to the Nook launcher or ADW Launcher, which TouchNooter took the liberty of installing for you.
That's all there is to it. If you've followed along up to this point, you now have a fully rooted Nook Simple Touch. Still, there are a few things left to do to set up your device before you can make the most of it.

Turn a $99 Nook into a Fully Fledged Android Tablet in Four Easy Steps

Step Two: Configure Your Newly Rooted Nook

As soon as you turn the device on, you may be prompted to log in to your Google Account. If you are, skip it—we're not ready for that yet. The first thing you want to do is connect to a Wi-Fi network, if your device wasn't connected to one before you rooted it. Mine was, so it remembered my wireless settings after I turned it back on.
By default, the "n" hardware button at the bottom of your nook will bring up the Nook system menu—the one Barnes and Noble installed. The NookTouchTools app (which TouchNooter also installed for you) lets you change this, and you can set the button to be your "home" button if you like. I actually prefer it set to the Nook system menu—it means I can quickly get back to my book or the Nook software whenever I choose, effectively giving me a one-button switch out of "tablet mode" and back into "Nook mode." The status bar at the top of the Nook is the same as it was before—you can still tap the book icon to go back to the page in the book you were reading last. The "back" and "menu" buttons in the status bar will work anywhere, including the home screen and app drawer.
NookTouchTools also allows you to configure the hardware buttons on the left and ride sides of the Nook to do whatever you like. At the very least, familiarize yourself with the defaults. You also get a transparent Button Savior menu that sits on top of any running apps that will quickly take you back to the home screen or bring up the menu in any app. Once you have the controls down (or configured to your tastes,) it's time to finish the setup.
  1. Open Gmail (already installed) or Youtube (already installed) and log in to your Google account. If you use YouTube, your phone will sync your Gmail without you having to log in to the app, and will add your Nook to your Market account. If you have any new messages, they'll be available from the notifications button in the status menu at the top of the screen.
  2. Open the NookColor Tools app (already installed) to enable non-Market installs.
  3. Go ahead and try to access the Android Market. It will likely fail right away, but wait about a day and the Market will let you in. Honestly, I'm not certain why there's the one-day lag, but the developer behind TouchNooter notes that future updates will fix this.
  4. You don't need the Android Market anyway—you have the Amazon Appstore! Open it and download any apps you want right out of the gate. I started with Dropbox so I could side-load APKs that I wanted to install, like the Kindle app. More on this later.
At this point, your Nook is connected to your Google account, will fetch your email for you and let you browse the web (Opera Mini is pre-installed, but feel free to install any browser you like)like any other Android device. Of course, you can still read your Nook books on it. If you've waited a day, you'll see your Nook in your list of Android devices in the Android Market, and you can push apps to it. Congratulations—your Nook is rooted and pulling double-duty as a tablet and an ereader!

Turn a $99 Nook into a Fully Fledged Android Tablet in Four Easy Steps

Step Three: Load Up the Ebooks

You can stop here if you like, but one of the biggest reasons I chose to root my Nook Touch is so I could read Nook books, Kindle books, Google books, and any other books I wanted to on an e-ink display. I also wanted light tablet features, like email, a little Twitter, maybe some Google+, and light web browsing. I got the latter immediately upon rooting, but let's talk about the former.
Now that you have access to the Market, you can install any ereader you prefer. We're partial to Aldiko, but many of you prefer Moon+, among others. Go ahead and install it.
The Amazon Kindle app for Android gave me some trouble. Unfortunately, even in the Amazon Appstore, the Nook didn't show as a compatible device for the Kindle app for Android. Market access wasn't enabled yet, so I couldn't try installing it through the Market. Thankfully, APKs for the Amazon Kindle app are available at Freeware Lovers. The most current version of the Kindle app, 3.3.1.1, didn't want to install, and I had to back up to version 3.0.1.70 to get a version that would install properly. I downloaded the APK and side-loaded it through my Dropbox. Once the Kindle app was installed, it worked like a charm. I could log in, access my books and documents I'd sent to my account, and most importantly, read those books on my e-ink display.
Others at the XDA-developers forum have noted similar problems with the Kindle app. Some say waiting for Market access will fix the problem, others took my approach. I was impatient, so if you have time to wait, you may try the market. If it doesn't work though, my method is surefire.

Step Four: Optimize Your E-Ink Display

The last tweak I made to my tablet was inspired by this post at the XDA-developers forum, where user marspeople built an app that drastically improves the response time of your e-ink display. You sacrifice the grayscale depth, and you may be eating battery life while the toggle is active (I didn't notice that much drain, but it was definitely faster than otherwise) but the ends do justify the means: your Nook's display will respond much faster than before.
Marspeople's packaged an APK that you can download in this thread. Once installed, launch it, and turn on fast refresh with a four-tap sequence that took me a while to get used to (four successive taps on the screen, in any app, starting in one place and then each tap down and to the right of the last tap.) Once you master it, you can toggle fast refresh on and off whenever you want it.
The video here shows a rooted Nook running games like Angry Birds—I wouldn't recommend that, the e-ink display just isn't good enough for full-motion gaming, but it is great for surfing the web, scrolling through your inbox, or flipping pages in your ebooks that much faster, if the response time is a bit too slow for you. It's definitely a hack, and it falls in the "highly experimental" category, but if you really want to power up your newly rooted Nook, give it a shot.

Turn a $99 Nook into a Fully Fledged Android Tablet in Four Easy Steps

Reap the Benefits

The Nook Simple Touch is a great ereader, and with a little time and energy, you can turn it into a pretty decent Android tablet. Keep its limitations in mind though—you're not going to turn the e-ink display into a color screen, you're not going to hack the thing to the point where you can play full-motion games on it, and you're not going to compose your next masterpiece on it.
You will, however, make a great ereader even better, and drastically increase the bang you get for your $99 bucks (or less, if you can find one used.) Instead of just a touch-sensitive ereader, you get a real, portable Android tablet with access to the Market, your email, your social networks, Google docs, multiple ebook stores and ereaders, Dropbox, any anything else you care to do with it. If an e-ink based ereader is up your alley, but you wish you could find one that can at least pull its weight for other tasks, and considering the Kindle Touch is the same price and nowhere near as useful once rooted, we'd say it's worth the money if you want the best of both worlds.
Have you rooted a Nook Simple Touch? Did you choose a different approach? Perhaps you've rooted a Kindle Fire or another tablet or ereader? Share your experiences in the comments below.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5889158/turn-a-99-nook-into-a-fully-fledged-android-tablet-in-four-easy-stepshttp://lifehacker.com/5889158/turn-a-99-nook-into-a-fully-fledged-android-tablet-in-four-easy-steps

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5 Areas of Consideration for Developing a BYOD Policy for Your School or District

Posted by Unknown Senin, 27 Februari 2012 0 komentar
While there is some debate about whether a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policy perpetuates inequities and the technology gap, school districts in times of tightening budgets and limited resources are looking for cost-effective ways to increase student access to technology. While BYOD should not be a substitution for adequately funding access to technology for all students, it is a means by which we do not have to ask students to unplug when their walk through our school building doors. But in providing this increased level of access, there are areas of consideration before opening the WiFi to student use, and here’s a short list of 5 considerations for implementing a BYOD policy for your school district.

1. Be aware of the technical requirements needed for providing BYOD in your school or district.  For example, make sure your hardware and software is prepared to handle things like the sudden increase of IP addresses with all the new devices logged on to your network. Also, how will the sudden increase in devices affect bandwidth? Taking stock of your network to see if BYOD is going to enhance access not degrade access is important.

2. Set up general guidelines for BYOD access.  These guidelines are important. They let students know that using their own devices is welcome, but instruction and educational use is the primary reason for that access. Here are some key things to consider when setting up these guidelines for a BYOD policy:
  • Clear statement in policy that use of a device during the school day is clearly at the discretion of teachers and staff. They are to put the devices away when asked to do so.
  • Clear instructions to students that using devices during the instructional day is in support of their educational activities. Personal access for personal reasons is secondary.
  • Make clear to students that their use of a device must not disrupt the learning of others.
  • Clear statement in policy that use of a device on the school WiFi might mean their device could be subject to search and/or seizure under certain circumstances.
  • Clear statement that use of a device under the school or district’s BYOD policy requires the student's adherence to the school or district’s acceptable use policy.
  • Clear statement regarding what kinds of resources students will have access to using their own devices under the BYOD policy.
3. Provide statements of clear consequences for student failure to follow the school or district’s acceptable use policy and BYOD guidelines. Consequences could be the loss of access for a period of time.

4. Clear description of the procedures students must follow in order to optain access under the BYOD policy. This tells students clearly what they need to do in order to obtain their access.

5. Clear disclaimers regarding what the school is responsible for and not responsible for. For example:
  • Access to the WiFi is for Internet access only. No access to other network resources is provided.
  • School district IT department is not responsible for the maintenance and repair to personal devices used under the BYOD policy.
  • The school district is not responsible to damaged, lost, or stolen devices used under the BYOD policy.
It is vital that schools and school  districts seeking to implement a BYOD solution make sure they maintain the integrity of the computer networks and provide some level of safety as specified under CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act). A BYOD properly and effectively implemented can create an environment where students can remain plugged in and engage in using their own devices as 21st century learning tools.

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Stardock Fences: Free or Inexpensive Way to Organize Your Computer’s Desktop

Posted by Unknown Sabtu, 25 Februari 2012 0 komentar
On occasion, I’ll walk into another school administrator’s office and while we sit and talk, I look at their computer monitor, and it looks like this:


Disorganized Desktop

Perhaps that is just a bit exaggerated, but it does have the same effect. There are any number of ways for Windows 7 users to organize desktops. Stardock offers a solution to Windows users in its product called Fences.

In the past I have purchased various Stardock products that work to make the Windows environment customizable. Fences is a product that allows Windows users to create areas on the desktop called “fences” to place desktop icons for programs and files. These fences are customizable, allowing users to give them their own titles.

fencesdesktop
Fences Desktop

My own desktop is customized with “fences” entitled 1)Programs Used Most, 2)Working Docs, 3) Important Docs (Forms), and 4)Docs to Read. Users can create their own fences to organize their own desktop icons.

Stardoc Fences is currently available a “Free Version” for personal use and a “Fences Pro” version is available for a small fee. The free version allows users to completely organize their desktop in fences. Fences Pro allows users to customize and automate desktop icon placement.

Stardock Fences is an easy, effective way for administrators and other educators to organize a desktop so that programs and most commonly used files are easily accessible. To download the Free Version of Stardock Fences or to see more information about Stardock Fences Pro, check out their website at http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/.

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3 Favorite Evernote Extensions and Apps

Posted by Unknown 0 komentar
I have posted on Evernote several times. It is undoubtedly the most versatile application I use. It is the perfect note taking, resource collecting tool available to users. And, I would add that it is one of the few apps that is entirely worth the premium price. (I say that not as a paid advertiser, but as a highly pleased user.)

Here are my favorite Evernote extensions and apps.

Evernote Web Clipper
This extension allows users to save items found on the web with the click of a button. It is available for all major web browsers. Easily clip web items, choose which notebook to place them, and add tags to help with later access. It is a very easy to use web extension. For more information about Evernote Web Clipper check here.

evernotewebclipper
Evernote Web Clipper Extension

Evernote Clearly
Evernote Clearly is one of those extensions that makes reading the web easier. With just one click of the Clearly browser button, users can enjoy reading web pages distraction-free. There are user options available for how the article is viewed. Users can even save distraction-free copies of the articles into their Evernote account notebooks. For more information about Evernote Clearly check here.

evernoteclearly
Evernote Clearly for Distraction-Free Web Reading

Sticky Notes
There are sticky note programs everywhere on the web. Some have lots of features that make them quite functional. Evernote’s Stick Notes app allows users to create desktop sticky notes that are linked to their Evernote account. Users can post a reminder on a sticky note on the desktop, and it will automatically be synced to an Evernote notebook. It is just another way that Evernote helps users get things done. For more information about Evernote Sticky Notes, check Evernote Sticky Notes Here.

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Evernote Sticky Notes App Links to Evernote Account
Evernote’s versatility only improves as more and extensions and apps are created. It is the most versatile application in my school administrator arsenal.

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Free 'Music Visualizers' (Visualizations) for Samsung Galaxy Ace

Posted by Unknown Minggu, 19 Februari 2012 0 komentar
Don't know how many of us like to see visualizations moving along with our favorite music. But, I really like the stuff responding to the beats of music! It helps me focus on music better. Every thump, every major beat can be SEEN & felt better if a good visualizer is there. Android does have a few for your phones / tabs. A few are paid apps but I only talk about the FREE ones. Here are the 2 apps / visualizers that I myself use.















1. WIRE Visualizer : - Its fast & is very responsive. Has got excellent UI & many options for you to change the pattern & image. Effects are very good & is light on your device memory. Would like it more had it included option to add our own images! 












2. Visualisator 5000 : - Its very light, fast & customizable. Free version has 13 visual presets. Paid has 3 more :) It works with any sound that it can detect. So any sound coming off your favorite music player will make the visualizer respond to that. You can customize the texture to get optimum speed of the animation.  

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Download Premium Android Apps Free on GetJar.com

Posted by Unknown Minggu, 05 Februari 2012 0 komentar
Finally we have a platform where the paid apps are available free for download. Don't worry, this is 100% legal, our old Symbian platform named 'GetJar' now offers Android Apps too through their open platform!

GetJar is the world's largest free app store with over 2 billion downloads to date. The company distributes more than 350,000 mobile applications for Android and 395,000 developers have registered with GetJar to distribute their apps. In 2011, GetJar was named as one of the ‘Ones To Watch’ by GigaOM Europe.

Currently there are more than 40 premium apps listed in their website for free download. Recently GetJar listed one of the top selling iPhone game named 'Fragger' from MiniClips. There is another fact which needs to be mentioned here, this app is available only in GetJar, not in Google Android market nor in Amazon Marketplace!


Here are some of the premium apps which are available for free download from GetJar:

Trial Xtreme

Trial Xtreme is a motorcycle racing game with more than 100,000 downloads which costs $1.99 on Google Android Market. With 60 levels of breathtaking motorcycle adventures, it really is a great game.

NodeBeat

This is a visual music fun app to create your own music with your touch pad! Simply drag and drop music nodes and your music is ready. This costs $1.99 but you can download it free from GetJar.

Other Apps:


Missile Defender-$0.99

Piano Man Standard-$1.99

My Zoo- $4.99

Lab of the Dead - $1

Magic Hour Camera - $1.99

Ultimate Checklist - $2.99

TekTrak Mobile Security - $4.99

The Moron Test - $0.99

Grow - $1.99

Rapid Toss - $1.99

Wifi File Explorer Pro - $0.99

What the Doodle - $3.28

Magic Defenders HD - $1.34

365 Board Games - $2.99

Chu Chu Rocket - $0.99

Gravity Guy - $1.05

Farm Frenzy - $3.26

Majesty Fantasy Kingdom - $2.99

Battle Boats 3D - $0.99

Yumsters - $2.31

Babel Rising - $1.99

Rocketron - $0.99

365 Bowling - $3.21

Bike Mania - $0.99

Crash Test Dummies 2 - $2.99

Top Truck - $0.99

Wiki Encyclopedia Pro - $0.99

Walkabout - $1.49

Clowning Around - $0.99

180 Ultra - $2.99

JAWS - $2.99

*Fling - $0.99

Prison Ball - $1

Doodle Farm - $2.90

Cyberlords Arcology - $1.39

Super Dynamite Fishing - $1.39

Beautiful Widgets - $2.99

Super Dynamite Fishing - $1.39

Solo - $3.86

Paper Camera - $1.85

TuneIn Radio Pro - $0.99

Radardroid Pro - $6.77

Krazy Kart Racing - $3.43

Samurai II: Vengeance - $2.99

Deer Hunter African Safari - $4.99

Smart Office plus - $4.99

Backbreaker - $2.99

Pollushot - $0.99

4 Player Reactor - $2.99

BEST TIC TAC TOE FULL - $4.99

Fluffy Birds Deluxe - $2.99

Galataxi - $1.49

Tattoo Tycoon - $1.49

Guerrilla Bob - $2.99

Days Left Widget Pro - $0.99

Townsmen 6 - $1.39

Ninjammin Beat-jitsu - $1

Castle Warriors - $2.99

Car Maintenance Reminder Pro - $1.99

Aporkalypse Pigs of Doom - $1.39

Droplets - $1.99

Super Snake HD - $1

Karoshi - $1

Fake Me Out Of Here - $1.99

Cross Fingers - $1.99

Office Rush - $0.99

Cross Fingers - $1.99

FMX IV – Freestyle Motocross - $6.93



*Frager - Exclusively on GetJar!


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10 Signs You Are a 21st Century E-reader Reader

Posted by Unknown Sabtu, 04 Februari 2012 0 komentar
The news is clear: the conversion to widespread use of e-readers and e-books continues apace. Textbook publishers and publishers of all types better have plans to offer e-book versions of their products or they will find their audiences limited.

Today, I personally discovered a phenomenon about this e-book transition while using a physical book. I actually caught myself trying to change the page in a book using the finger-slide method I use with my e-reader devices. That leads me to offer up this list of signs you are a converted E-reader Reader.

1) You try to turn the pages by sliding your fingers across the paper page or turn pages the way you would with your e-reader.
2) You try to highlight text by sliding your finger across the physical text in a book, and you actually wait for the pop-up selection box to appear that allows you to copy or highlight text.
3) You know you purchased a book, though you can't remember whether it was in e-book or physical form, but you look first in your e-reader device.
4) You do number 3, and you become disappointed to discover that it was a physical book which means you have to read it the old-fashioned way.
5) Someone suggests a book you need to read, and you become greatly disappointed when you go to the web site to order for you Kindle only to discover it isn't available as a e-text.
6) You buy a e-book version of titles you already have physical versions located on your bookshelves.
7) Months pass before you set foot in an actual bookstore.
8) When you do go to a bookstore, the purpose is to look for books to purchase for your e-reader.
9) You won't purchase a book until it is available as an e-book.
10) You fall asleep with your e-reader lying on your chest in the same place that once was occupied by your favorite, latest paperback novel.

The truth is I was like many out there, slow to adopt the e-reader. I had this fixation about the smell of pages, the touch of book paper between my fingers, and weight of a book on my chest when I would fall asleep. It hasn't taken long for me to get over all of that with all of the added functionality of an e-reader device.

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