Remember that time when I said I was going to blog more often and be diligent and successful and all that? Well, it’s only been a little more than a month, but I haven’t exactly done that just yet. Before you start “tsk tsk”-ing, though, let me first tell you the very good reason I have for not blogging.
…Okay, well there really isn’t one. But the point is, even though I’ve been really busy with silly things like class and homework, I’ve thought a lot about what I’m going to blog next about (other than in this post, of course), and you can expect a [very fascinating, ruminative] book review! I might also be doing an informational post about my new hamster at some point, just to bore everyone to tears. (Just kidding — there will be pictures!) I also hope to experiment with the visual aspect of the site as well, but no spoilers on that as of yet since I’m not sure about anything at this point.
So all in all, I’ll be trying my hand at some new things in the next few weeks, so keep checking in! Any and all feedback you have on my experiments is welcome as well. (Don’t worry, I’m a friendly mad scientist.)
-Andrea
PS: You’re not fooling anyone. “Stayin Alive” is now stuck in your head.
Confession: we’re an Apple house.
We know that Apple, as a company, is not infallible. But they do so many things right that it’s difficult not to appreciate their awesomeness. (Yes, I said the ‘A’ word…sigh)
We have an iPad, 1st generation, and it’s quite an amazing device. We also have Macs, iPod Touches, and a couple of iPhones. Yes, we’re hooked!
But the scarcity of the iPad 2 led me to seriously consider alternatives. What’s that you say? There are none? Well, to some degree that is true. Apple has seriously outperformed and underpriced everyone in the tablet arena. If you’ve ever used an iPad, you’ll almost certainly agree.
We’ve used Android phones for the past year (alongside the iPhone), and while they’re very nice overall, they lack the polish of the “Jesus Phone”, as some wags call the iPhone. There is a reason it’s king of the hill.
But back to that iPad 2 supply shortage. With the crises in Japan – and by the way, our hearts really go out to the Japanese populace – that shortage may exist for some time. Time to consider an alternative? For me it was, at least for the short (and possibly longer) term.
The current crop of Android tablets doesn’t exactly inspire in terms of price/performance. The Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy, and others seem expensive and inelegant. Somewhere along the line, though, I’d read that the quiet little Nook Color, a device crafted by bookseller Barnes & Noble, ran Android as its underlying Operating System (OS). Hmm…could its capabilities be extended to do a bit more than advertised? Could it be coaxed into being a useful tablet?
The short answer is thankfully “YES!” Our family also owns a couple of Kindles, and while they are very nice devices for reading, I’ve concluded that no more dedicated devices must enter our premises. No, I don’t load my readers with music, and yes, you can (in quite awkward fashion) surf the web on a Kindle. But when I buy a device, I expect it to be mine. You can jailbreak an iOS device and you can “root” a Nook Color, but what can you do to expand the capabilities of a Kindle?
Anyway, back to the Nook Color (NC). If B&N had crippled the NC so that I couldn’t fully use what I paid good money to use, I wouldn’t have bought it. Hats off to Barnes & Noble for their philosophy, at least thus far: they’ve tailored the device to do one thing exceedingly well: download and display eBooks from B&N. BUT – and here’s the key distinction between B&N and Amazon – they don’t aggressively limit the capabilities of the tablet you buy from them. It’s fairly easy to “root” (so-called because you’re gaining “root”, or super-user privileges over the device) and gain the best of both worlds: a great eReader, and a great Android-based tablet device.
It’s easy to find the resources to root your NC; just head to your favorite search engine and type “Nook Color rooted” and start visiting the linked sites. Of particular interest is the nookdevs site, where they cover almost every topic you could imagine related to this. Kudos for their hard work; kudos also to the folks who created the auto-rooting software; it’s sweet.
This article really isn’t focused upon the “how”, although there are two things I feel compelled to mention: first, you need a Micro SD card to root your NC, and it must be 128M or larger. Second, when it reboots after being rooted, it prompts you for your GMail account/password. Entering your existing one doesn’t work, so you must SKIP THIS STEP. The instructions are a bit fuzzy on that at this point (hope they’re revised soon to eliminate confusion!), but once you’re past that, you can connect the dots by hitting YouTube and GMail from the Extras screen. Life is good.
Now that we’re rooted, here are some observations, in no particular order.
Amazon is missing the boat; B&N=genius
As a huge Amazon fan (go Jeff!), I’m afraid they’re falling down on this one. B&N’s ability to deliver a great eReader that isn’t (really) crippled is so impressive that I find myself browsing their bookstore and buying books there. As someone who has always bought from Amazon – and yes, I have the Kindle app on my NC so I can continue to read those Kindle books I’ve already purchased, and yes, it works very well, thank you – any company that can deliver such a compelling device for such a reasonable price has earned my business. The rooted Nook Color has definitely changed my purchasing habits.
(Side note: B&N software developers, PLEASE add a “night mode” capability (white text on black background). The Kindle app has it and so does Kobo. Please?)
Availability is key
I want an iPad 2, and I hope to still get one…someday. But I walked into my local B&N last Wednesday and walked out minutes later with a beautiful Nook Color. Charging took a couple of hours, and rooting it took perhaps 30 minutes the next evening. Moments later, I was downloading apps from the Android Market. Meanwhile, iPad 2 delivery estimates are 4-5 weeks, at last check. Why wait?
I look at it like this: if I like the NC so well I decide against buying an iPad 2, I’ve saved serious money. A more likely scenario, though, is I’ll get an iPad 2 at some point and pass down the NC to a family member eager to get it…all the while, buying B&N eBooks and sharing them among devices. It’s a great strategy on B&N’s part, and I’m happy that it works out as well for us as it does for them. :-)
Android vs. iOS
Android is good, but it (and the Android Market) feels like a rowdy kid running a mall kiosk compared to iOS and a typical Apple Store. Apple has polish, Apple has selection, Apple has the best of everything. Android is very, very good…but it’s not quite “there”. I like it, and the tinkerer in me does appreciate the ability to play…but the experiences are very different. If you like the smooth experience of the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, you may find using Android similar, but a bit jarring.
It’s small, but heavy (and other observations)
The Nook Color is a small device, about the size of a large paperback. I bought a silicone wrap-around cover (very nice!) and a neoprene sleeve for it, which seem the best of both worlds to me: I can protect it while reading without worrying about a book flap, yet protect the screen better when not in use. The one downside is that this little dude is heavy for its size. The heft is nice in many situations, but reading in bed when falling asleep can really get your attention when it drops on your face. Or so I’ve heard. ;-)
Conclusions, disclaimers
My advice is to visit a B&N and give the Nook Color a try. Check out the sample books on it, visit the Extras section and surf the web a bit, and realize that this is just the beginning of the device’s capabilities. If you don’t mind a bit of risk (rooting the NC almost certainly voids the warranty), are somewhat tech-savvy, and can follow directions carefully, this $250 device that is available now puts a lot of power in your hands.
Please realize that any good or bad results you may obtain by rooting your Nook Color are yours and yours alone. Please also realize that any company that allows you the choice to take that risk – or not – deserves your business. Thank you B&N!
All the best to you in your technical (and reading!) endeavors,
Mark
A German, looking for directions in Paris, pulls up to a bus stop where two Americans are waiting.
“Entschuldigung, sprechen Sie Deutsch?” he asks. The two Americans just stare at him.
“Parlez-vous français?” he says.
The two continue to stare, so the German tries again “Parlate italiano?”
No response. “¿Hablan ustedes español?” Still nothing. Frustrated, the German guy drives off.
The first American says, “You know, we should learn a foreign language.”
“Why?” asks the other. “He knew four languages, and it didn’t do him any good.”
Remember me? It’s been almost a year since I’ve blogged last, and honestly during that time I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to start blogging again. But as I’ve been writing lately — and struggling to put myself on a habitual writing schedule – I’ve realized how helpful (not to mention fun) it would be to try it again. Let me explain my dilemma a bit: for writers (as well as aspiring writers), taking at least a little bit of time each day devoted to doing any kind of writing is the best way — and perhaps the only way — to get better. Even if you want to be a published novelist like me, blogging about something on your mind or even writing in your diary helps you expand your creativity and think of new ways to say what you’re thinking. So even though it doesn’t get you any closer to completing your 200 pages of science fiction glory, it improves your skills so that when you have time to write more of those 200 pages, the words you’re putting down are loads better than what you would have written after picking it back up fresh out of finals week.
Really, that makes writing the same as anything else. If you play an instrument, you know that taking a few days off means the next time you pick it up, it’s probably going to feel a bit awkward for at least the first few minutes of playing, and your repertoire isn’t going to sound as polished as where you left it. If you exercise daily, you know that after taking a few days off, you might have to ease your muscles back into your workout routine. Even if you stop reading a book for a few days, you might have to flip back a few pages to remember where you left off. Everything you do in life requires consistency and freshness before any true improvement can enter the picture. So that, in a nutshell, is why blogging (and even Twitter) can be one of a writer’s most valuable hobbies.
So why did I quit? I’m not really sure what the answer to that is. Maybe it was because I got busy, maybe it was because I got burnt out. But I think a huge part of my problem was that I was too much of a perfectionist. (I won’t go into this now because I’m bound to write a blog entirely devoted to perfectionism in the future. It’s been on my mind a lot lately.) Like most of the material I write, each blog took me a long time to compose, not because I didn’t have ideas or didn’t know how to say them, but rather because I doubted myself as I was writing. There probably wasn’t a sentence that escaped a scathing edit, whether it was during its composition or after. So in all honesty, blogging was exhausting. I couldn’t stand to publish something until it was perfect, and, as all writers know, being 100% happy with a piece of writing is wholly impossible. (Depressing? Maybe. True? Absolutely.)
Though that statement is true, I’m still just as committed to my future goals as I ever was. Why? Because writing makes me happy. It’s really as simple as that. I love it, even if it means there are bad days when I suffer from writer’s block and look fondly on paper-pushing or cleaning cars. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that mistakes are just a product of being human. The occasional typo isn’t going to gain me a hate club; no little grammar fairy’s light will go out. And as cliché as it sounds, life goes on. Why let myself get stressed when I could put all that energy toward improving my skills, instead of doubting them?
So here I am, blogging again, and this time I plan on being more regular about it. There will be plenty of times when life takes over, and papers and exams and projects for my classes will have to come first. (After all, at this point in my life, they are the things with deadlines.) However, I don’t plan on taking another year-long hiatus to rediscover how important (and fun!) blogging can be.
Stay on your toes! I’ll be back… 
-Andrea
