Kindle on Nook Color?

Yes -  I know to those of you familiar with either of the popular eBook readers that title may not make sense.  If eBook isn’t in your vocabulary yet it may make even less sense but keep reading – it gets interesting.

A little background – the Kindle and the Nook are both eBook (electronic book, e-book, digital book) readers.  Pretty straightforward devices that will download books and allow you to read them.  The differences in these devices are subtle and depend on whether you prefer to order your literature from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and whether you prefer a color or black and white screen.  (There are advantages and disadvantages to all the options and depending on your particular preference one or the other will be a better fit for you.  Best advice – find a device that fits your needs that you will use.)

When Cara was looking for an eBook reader I did a little research and found that the Nook Color is running a version of the Android OS.  A little digging and I learned that the system could be “rooted” or unlocked to provide features that were possible but not available out of the box.  We took the risk and now have a hybrid Nook/Android Pad that can not only read eBooks but run several applications like Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, Gmail and even a couple of games.  Granted not all the applications available in the Android Market were intended for this environment but it does open up a lot of new possibilities – including the Kindle App for Android (running to the right).

So what does all of this mean exactly?  In a small way it opens up the Nook to be a more functional device.  It isn’t quite an Android Pad (which is out but should be flooding the market by summer) but it is pretty close and for the money it is a great buy.  The ability to read and share books on multiple platforms is huge.  Given the direction of eBooks I’d say this is a good technology to get familiar with – its here and as the competition for book sales heats up I think we’ll see more of these around at better prices.

“I think by the end of [2011] you’ll see [e-book readers] getting blown out in clearance for like 50 bucks,” tech writer Clive Thompson says. “When [an e-book reader] becomes almost as disposable as a pocket calculator, you’ll see the vast majority of people switching over.”

- NPR

So if you want to root/unlock your Nook I suggest this site as a good place to start.  It says that the process is reversible and while that is probably true it is very likely you are doing something that will completely negate your warranty.  As with most things on the internet you can consider it “reliable but not guaranteed.”  That being said it worked well for us – your mileage may vary.