Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color is moving from eReader status to “almost a tablet”. After the many hacks that brought it Honeycomb, GPS, and Bluetooth, and the official update that brought email integration, Flash support, and apps to the device, the Nook Color is already in a strong position. However, the XDA team never tires. It has released the custom ROM CynaogenMod 7 that overrides Nook Color’s eReader overlay with Android 2.3.3 goodness.
XDA has also overclocked the Nook Color CPU to 1.1 GHz and a video shows it running fairly smoothly. Responsiveness of the device and Flash performance is pretty good too. The video presents the nightly build of Gingerbread. The current version will be much improved. If you want to root your Nook Color and give it some Gingerbread flavor, head over to XDA for the detailed instructions.
Nook Color works nicely as a tablet for $250 but it is limited by the number of buttons that are available on it for various Android functions. Nook Color has one button apart from the volume controls, making it hard to map multiple functions of Gingerbread to the device.
The video demonstrates the process of rooting the Nook Color and demos apps such as RockPlayer Lite playing videos. Google Maps works on Wi-Fi as the device does not support GPS natively. To use the device as an eReader you will need to download the free Nook app from B&N.
Nook Color is the best thing that’s happened to B&N and Android developers. The eReader’s hardware has potential … that’s been proven time and again.
[via GigaOm]
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I’m a little confused as to why you’d run Gingerbread when you can run Honeycomb? I’m running Honeycomb and it’s pretty smooth, especially now I’ve overclocked it to 1.1ghz!