Renate’s Ultimate Hacked Nook Touch. I haven’t been keeping up with news at XDA Developers forum so I missed the lead up to what follows, the ultimate hacking of a Nook Touch.
XDA Developers forum Member Renate has hacked the hell out of her Nook Touch, making it do things I never thought possible, like: • 24-bit audio recording • playing MP3 audio • Skype chats • using a GPS puck And that’s just for starters! Her hacks are all over XDA and in this post I will attempt to order them in a way people can understand and easily find them. Stock Reader page turn refresh rate Some people might want to change how often a page turn in the stock Reader app does a full refresh.
In the very long thread [WIP] USB Host support (working), she has several things happening, and I’m highlighting the posts that mention these: How to make your own USB OnTheGo cable out of existing stuff you probably already have, as well as how to make a powered USB hub (here is the schematic): And its companion post. And it has an Amazon listing. Chatting on Skype. How to root the NOOK Tablet, install the Android Market. Less than a week after the Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet started shipping, hackers have discovered a way to root the tablet and install the official Google Android Market.
There are still a few hoops to jump through, since Barnes & Noble doesn’t make it easy to “enable USB debugging” so that you can push commands to the tablet from a computer. But xda-developers forum member Indirect has put together a Windows utility that lets you root the tablet and install the Android Market with just a few clicks. Update: This tutorial assumes you’re running NOOK Tablet OS 1.4.0. Version 1.4.1 removes the ability to sideload apps. If you’re running NOOK Tablet OS 1.4.1, you can roll back to version 1.4 by performing a factory reset and then you can block over-the-air updates in order to keep root access as well as the ability to sideload apps. Update 2: It’s now possible to update from OS 1.4.0 to 1.4.1 while rooting the tablet. Here’s how to get started. Things get much simpler from here on out. How to sideload apps on the NOOK Tablet (Amazon Appstore, GO Launcher EX) The Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet ships with a couple of great apps pre-loaded including Pandora, Netflix, a decent email app, and an excellent eBook reader.
There’s also an app section of the B&N Shop where you can browse for additional apps for the tablet — but the selection is pretty limited. Fortunately it’s pretty easy to install third party apps on the NOOK Tablet. You don’t even need to root the tablet or install any custom firmware to do it. You might need a microSD card though. Update 11/20/2011: If you want to… you can also now root the tablet and install the Android Market too. Update 12/23/2011: This guide works with NOOK Tablet software version 1.4.
Update 12/24/2011: You can also now sideload apps on a NOOK Tablet running OS version 1.4.1… assuming you enabled support for sideloading before upgrading. Update 12/29/2011: Tools are also now available to root the NOOK Tablet while upgrading from OS 1.4.0 to 1.4.1. Enable unknown sources Time to get downloading I download GoOher APK.