Impressions of Barnes and Nobel Nook Tablet

I saw a co-worker carrying his Barnes and Noble Nook Color around a lot, so I asked him about it. He said that he was pleased with it. So when the Nook Tablet came out, I compared it with the Amazon Kindle Fire and decided that the Nook Tablet has a better package over all: more RAM (1GB vs. 512MB), more flash storage (16GB vs. 8GB), and the Nook has a microSD slot that the Fire does not. So when B&N offered me a $25 discount as a former Borders' customer, I got one for my daughter.

But now I am starting to have second thoughts. The Nook feels nice when used for reading books purchased from Barnes and Nobel, but that seems to be the only thing it is good for. Since we have not had time to watch videos on it yet, I can't really say much about that except that video streaming from the same providers, Hulu and Netflix, should not differ much from using the same apps on a similar Android tablet.

The main problem is that, the Nook limits user storage to 1GB out of the 16GB in total, which means in practical terms, one can not install much of anything on it. I did install the Amazon App Store on it via side-loading. Now it refuses to install Kindle for Android.

Looks like it's time to root the device -- I was going to wait until the device is out of warranty. I understand that B&N is competing with Amazon. But limiting what the device does for its customers is not the right way to do it.

Rooting Gone Bad + Road to Recovery (I Hope)

Received on 3/31 my ViewSonic gTablet from the Woot sale. Immediately started researching rooting it and modifying it. To tell the truth, being able to run things on a tablet the way I want it is half the whole reason I want Android.

So I found the XDA Developers forum, registered and started my research. Perhaps being a Linux user, or perhaps the fact that rooting and installing the ClockworkMod Recovery was easy and smooth, made me feel a bit too brave than I should have. Anyway, I ended up following this simple set of instructions rather than dig deeper on the forum. I installed VEGAn-7-03082011-Experimental, rather than VEGAn 6 stable version, since many have reported that the VEGAn 7 experimental releases are stable enough for daily use.

Well, the gtablet ended up in a state where it powers up, displays the ViewSonic 3-bird image, and stops there. That was last night.

But all is not lost. Far from it, since I can hold volume up and start the gTablet in to the ClockworkMod Recovery mode.

At this point, I think I still have an option to repartition the tablet's inner storage (also an SD card?) before nvflash it.

References

• Install ClockworkMod, a ROM, Flash Player, and the Market Fix
• nvflash FULL restore, using bekit's original image (Instructions)
• G-Tablet Full Restore your Gtablet using nvflash - refresh to factory
• [FIX] Full market (improved market fix) on G Tablet (YouTube video)
• [FAQ] Viewsonic G-Tablet ROMs Frequently Asked Questions (READ THIS FIRST)

[Edit] -- Problem solved! The install guide listed first in the references above really made it easy. I guess the problem I had was caused either by missing a step (although I am pretty sure I followed the instructions to the letter) somewhere, or by the fact that the VEGAn 7 build is not for my particular gTablet.

Anyway, I redid the mod using the stable release of VEGAn v5.1 beta release. My tablet is back. Now I need to get Android Market working so I can get my apps.

[Resolved]

诺基亚投向微软怀抱也许对大家都好

刚才在网上读了这篇《Counterpoint: Nokia choosing WP7 may be good for everyone》觉得应该同意一下。作者的观点是，现在安卓 (Android) 和 iPhone 已经形成智能手机的两大阵营，而黑莓 (Blackberry) 在很长时间里无所作为，坐视 Apple 和 Google 两家鲸吞市场份额。虽然市场对微软的“运气” (Win 7) 反应不咋地，但是市场上多一个竞争者对最终用户总是好事，况且微软还是一头八百磅的市场巨猿。

不过，我觉得微软的大对她在手机市场的腾挪并不是好事，微软的移动平台 Windows Mobile 在手机上已经时日不短，早期市场上微软似乎对其他任何平台都是威胁，Palm 的消亡尤历历在目。然而随着前面六个版本一次次的让人失望，Windows Mobile 到了今天纵使摇身一变成 Windows Phone 也还是不免有点“鸡肋”。比较 WP、iPhone、Android，对于 WP 的遭遇不难看出一点端倪：微软不管做什么软件，桌面情节都还是太重。当然，这也是微软的历史使然，她靠桌面操作系统、桌面系统上的应用软件起家、称霸，断然放弃这个霸主地位，从感情上、从生意人的市场分析角度，都是不可为的事。只是时事逼人，就算是诺基亚的加盟给 WP 打了一剂强心针，如果微软不彻底丢弃她的桌面情节，最终式微也不会太远。

虽然我一贯厌恶微软，智能手机市场里能多一些竞争对于用户还是好事。

Time for PoE Powered Tablet

I am a little surprised about not seeing more main stream US retail outlets pushing Android based tablets, although those devices are flooding online shops such as Amazon and eBay. My un-researched guess is that the Chinese manufacturers somehow managed to miss the holiday shopping season in this country in terms of negotiating with the buyers of the large retail chains.

This weekend's local news paper showed a couple of places selling these Androids, including Best Buy, K-Mart and Staples. I went to Best Buy and looked at a couple of them briefly. I liked what I saw. Best Buy showed one live Archos 7. The touch GUI seems a little less responsive than the iPod Touch. Otherwise, I can definitely see using it to read a book or watch a video.

Back to the point in the subject line of my post. I saw a few models on eBay with Ethernet in their specs. In my first ever blog post on Sina.com two years ago, I suggested that someone should come up with a PoE (Power-over-Ethernet) powered notebook or netbook PC. Some of the netbooks were getting close to the 30W an IEEE 802.3at port could supply back then. Today's crop of Android tablets can definitely be powered and probably charged at the same time by a PoE port.

So, here is my free creative idea to the tablet makers: Create one that takes AC power from a PoE switch port. I think a lot of the doctors in my hospital will like it.