I received a Nook HD tablet for Christmas, to replace a P.O.S ARCHOS tablet that died after 2.5 years with a non-replaceable battery. Love the Nook! Backlit display readable even in bright sunlight. Excellent build quality.
However, never one to leave well enough alone, and not being much of a geek, I downloaded an Android image from these people:
www.n2acards.com/
for 20 bucks and burned it to an SD card I had laying around. Voila! Boot into Android and have an Android tablet -- boot into Nook and your Nook is back, without doing anything messy to the Nook that might void the warranty. Not entirely painless, but support @ N2A is very good. Just thought I'd share my good experience.
SS
Sarge,
I have been looking for a reasonably priced Android tablet that is sunlight readable to use as a back-up chartplotter for my boat. How good is the Nook at being able to read outdoors? Is it color? Do you think it would work for this?
Thanks,
Dale
Dale,
My only test of daylight-readability was in Nook reader mode, holding the Nook HD in a very rare NY winter sunbeam shining through our parlor window. For that I could read the print very well.
If I get a chance today, I'll boot into android mode, check it out and get back to you.
Yes, it's color and the display is very, very sharp.
SS
Edit: Booted to Android, looked up a couple of charts from NOAA w/ the browser. Not great in bright sunlight on snow, but readable if shaded from the sun.
Sarge,
Thanks, that's the info I was looking for. I'm looking for an Android tablet that is truly sunlight readable so I don't have to shade it. There's a lot of water reflection glare even when you take it up under the bimini, so I'll keep looking. I took the iPad out one day, and for charts in the sunshine, it was pretty much useless. I think there are some ruggedized tablets out there that claim to be sunlight readable, but they cost more than my Accounting Department will let me spend. Thanks for your help.
I can't believe something like that isn't possible. I do know that the original Kindle black-&-white "e-ink" was awesome in the sunlight. I would hope someone has picked up on that paper-background technology. I don't know what it is called. they now have a "paperwhite" background, but I haven't seen it. (It makes it readable in the dark.)
I have a regular android tablet, and I hate it outside. The built-in GPS is worthless when you can't see anything. Good luck and let us know if you find anything. I think a good outdoor-readable android would go crazy in sales.
