Google Play? Angry Birds?

[Perfectreign]

Just opened and charged my new 16GB Nook Tablet. Nice size! My 11-year-old son had purchased a Nook Color late last year, which we upgraded to Cyanogen 7.  I don't see a need to do that yet on this tablet.

HOWEVER - I go to the Nook store and they're asking $3.00 for Angry Birds. I already have AB on my Google Play (formerly Market) account.  

HOWEVER - there's no Google Play on the Nook.  What gives?

How do I get this?/

[roustabout]

There was (and is) no google play on the stock NC, either. 

You need to root your NT if you want to install other vendors' software, or you can run CM7 or CM9 off of internal memory or an SD card. 

[Perfectreign]

Thank you.

that is kind of shocking, considering I purchased this as a "tablet." seems the device - in spite of the reviews - is more of an e-reader than a true tablet.

I also noticed it only runs Gingerbread, not honeycomb (the tablet version) or Ice Cream Sandwich.

Okay, I guess I'll go on rooting and then install my apk files.

Sad

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

iPads don't have access to Google Play either. I suppose they're not tablets now too.

[Rebeljt]

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Perfectreign wrote:

Just opened and charged my new 16GB Nook Tablet. Nice size! My 11-year-old son had purchased a Nook Color late last year, which we upgraded to Cyanogen 7.  I don't see a need to do that yet on this tablet.

HOWEVER - I go to the Nook store and they're asking $3.00 for Angry Birds. I already have AB on my Google Play (formerly Market) account.  

HOWEVER - there's no Google Play on the Nook.  What gives?

How do I get this?/

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What you really wanted was a tablet. The Nook Tablet is only tablet in Name. If you want a tablet experience you'll have tor return and buy a real tablet, or you'll need to go the route of others in this forum and get a N2A card or go to the XDA Forums and make your own. Its easy to make your own and there are tutorials and videos. 

JT

Don't call it a Tablet!

[DeanGibson Distinguished Bibliophile]

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Rebeljt wrote:
The Nook Tablet is only tablet in Name. If you want a tablet experience ... 

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What he bought, was tablet hardware.  What he thought he was getting, was tablet software.  Easy to fix.  They don't call it "jail-breaking" for no reason.

And as far as the iPad being full tablet hardware, well there is no USB connection, which I personally view as important.  Note also that Apple bans (eg, removes) from their market one of the most valuable apps on my Android devices:  "Wifi Analyzer".

In turn, the Nook Color/Tablet doesn't have GPS, which I consider to be part of a full tablet as well.  Still, the lack of a USB connection would affect me much more than the lack of GPS.  And as far as no camera, well good riddance.

[Perfectreign]

@flyingtoastr - No, the Ipad is not an android tablet. It is an IOS device that is part of the closed Apple ecosystem. I wouldn't expect Google Play on it. That's the reason I purchased the nook.

I just had a chat session with "Joseph" who didn't even know what a launcher was. Sad.  I asked if I could put an alternate launcher - such as ADB - on the tablet. He asked if that was a browser.

Okay, I'll sit on this for a day and decide if the hardware is good enough to just go ahead an put something like Cyanogen on it.  If not, I may return it and get a less expensive tablet with GPS.

[Rebeljt]

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DeanGibson wrote:

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They don't call it "jail-breaking" for no reason.

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You don't Jailbreak a Nook. You Root it. Jailbreaking is for Apple. 

JT 

Don't call it a Tablet!

[Queens_Taino]

You may want to check the androidfornook.com.  It's the same as N2A and they offer a direct download for $10.  I just purchased the 16gb card for $30 and should be getting it today or tomorrow.  I plan on putting adding a review once I've had a chance to play with it. 

I almost purchased the n2a card, but decided on the AFN due to price and upgrade options.  Updates are free with this card, you won't have to buy a new one, when ice cream sandwich comes out. 

[PJLLB]

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Queens_Taino wrote:

You may want to check the androidfornook.com.  It's the same as N2A and they offer a direct download for $10.  I just purchased the 16gb card for $30 and should be getting it today or tomorrow.  I plan on putting adding a review once I've had a chance to play with it. 

I almost purchased the n2a card, but decided on the AFN due to price and upgrade options.  Updates are free with this card, you won't have to buy a new one, when ice cream sandwich comes out. 

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I think you made the correct choice.  I originally got the N2A card, then did a download of the AndroidForNook image and created my own for a second NT.  The video on the N2A card was terrible -- jerky and out of sync.  I tried to work with the N2A people but they had no solution.  I play identical video files on the AndroidForNook card flawlessly.  Also, the AFN image is smoother than the N2A.  So I backed up the N2A image (just in case), then re-imaged the SD card with an AndroidForNook image.   

[roustabout]

There's a fairly equivalent Samsung 7 inch device for $250 - less internal memory, 1 gig RAM, apparently not a Tegra processor but a Samsung dual core - that will be available on April 22.  

It may be an interesting device - I've been very impressed with the speed of the Samsung processors.  

As far as USB cables and ipads go, huh?  Did they drop that from the device?  The ipad 1 I gave my mom has a usb charging/syncing cable.  

Yes, it's not a standard USB cable, but it connects the device to a computer via USB.   

[Rebeljt]

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roustabout wrote:

There's a fairly equivalent Samsung 7 inch device for $250 - less internal memory, 1 gig RAM, apparently not a Tegra processor but a Samsung dual core - that will be available on April 22.  

It may be an interesting device - I've been very impressed with the speed of the Samsung processors.  

As far as USB cables and ipads go, huh?  Did they drop that from the device?  The ipad 1 I gave my mom has a usb charging/syncing cable.  

Yes, it's not a standard USB cable, but it connects the device to a computer via USB.   

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There is a review here: http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/11/2941105/samsung-galaxy-tab-2-7-0-review

JT 

Don't call it a Tablet!

[SarahNade]

About the AFN. Is or can B&N find a way to stop this from working? I would buy one right now but I don't want B&N to suddenly release a new update that stops it from working.

[PJLLB]

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SarahNade wrote:

About the AFN. Is or can B&N find a way to stop this from working? I would buy one right now but I don't want B&N to suddenly release a new update that stops it from working.

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According to posts on a variety of forums, including the hard-core "nerd" sites, it would take a change to the boot sequence to dis-allow the SD booting, and that is not feasible given the NTarchitecture.

[roustabout]

The hard-core nerd consensus seems to be that the current method for bypassing boot security is basically game over for this generation of hardware, short of a recall of physical units.  The system software update method doesn't have access to the very, very early steps in the boot process that made the NT hard to bypass booting on.  

[PJLLB]

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roustabout wrote:

The hard-core nerd consensus seems to be that the current method for bypassing boot security is basically game over for this generation of hardware, short of a recall of physical units.  The system software update method doesn't have access to the very, very early steps in the boot process that made the NT hard to bypass booting on.  

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Thanks for the "nerdly" amplification.  I thought I had read this point (about changing the boot security would require a change to the physical unit) but wasn't sure. 

[SarahNade]

Excellent! Thank you both! Took me a while to understand what you were saying but I understand now. Thanks!

[Perfectreign]

<quote>The hard-core geek consensus seems to be that the current method for bypassing boot security is basically game over for this generation of hardware, short of a recall of physical units. </quote>

@roustabout, I fixx0red your poast.   

FWIW, I decided to box up the unit and will be dropping it off tomorrow at my local B&N store.  I ordered the Galaxy Tab today for the same price. Less RAM, but that's not an issue if I can do what I want with the unit and am given a real tablet.  Sadly, this is not one.

[roustabout]

One thing to bear in mind - the Honeycomb and ICS tablets are not supported by Calibre, the e-book management tool a lot of us prefer. 

If you mostly want the full tablet experience, the Samsung 7 II is a good device, and the 7 plus may well be a better device at a similar price if you can find it (our local shops are sold out of the plus - faster CPU, better front camera, and a higher res screen than the generation II 7 has.) 

If a chunk of your use is for e-reading, there are some advantages to rooted Nook devices.  For me, ICS / HC are not selling points -- to manage my library on one, I'm needing to pop the SD card in and out (the card itself can be managed with Calibre, just not once it's in the device) and so far, from a usability point of view, my go-to device is my galaxy media player which is highly portable, followed by the NT.  I have an Asus Transformer and it's rather big and somewhat laggy.

The media player runs one of the Samsung CPUs and Gingerbread, and it is snappy. 

There may one day be apps that really require HC or ICS, but so far I'm not hearing about stuff I really want that can't run on the Gingerbread devices. 

[DeanGibson Distinguished Bibliophile]

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Rebeljt wrote:

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DeanGibson wrote:

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They don't call it "jail-breaking" for no reason.

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You don't Jailbreak a Nook. You Root it. Jailbreaking is for Apple. 

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I believe the original term came from Unix.  As an additional security measure, in Unix/Linux you can run a security-suspect program using the "chroot" command (or an internal system API call).  Here, "root" referred to the base of the file system, and by restricting the suspect application to only be able to access a portion of the file system (designated as the file system root by the "chroot" command), one could restrict the suspect application to a "jail".

Ideally, this meant that even if the suspect application obtained "root" user privileges ("root" in this case meaning the "root" system user), the application could still not access other portions of the file system.  Unfortunately, this was not the case, and an application running in a "chroot" jail that has "root" user privileges, can usually break out of the "jail".  Hence, finding a way for arbitrary applications to run as the "root" user became known as "jail-breaking".

However, many Linux system applications today that do not run as the "root" user, are run in a "chroot" environment, in order to provide an additional level of protection if the application is hacked via an online defect.

In the Android world, allowing an application to run as the "root" user, usually involves:

1. Typically, "rooting" the operating system.  That is, being able to perform commands as the "root" user.  There are lots of ways to accomplish this (most of them "sneaky").
2. Once "rooted", one typically installs the "su" (superuser program) and the "SuperUser" market application.  The "su" program must be installed with "run as root" file privileges.
3. Once an arbitrary application requests "root" user access, that request is intercepted and the "SuperUser" application pops up a small dialog box that asks the human user if he/she wishes the requesting application to have root user access.  If the human user allows access, further requests from that application are (depending upon "SuperUser" application settings) automatically granted.

However, I certainly sympathize with the feeling of Apple users that they run applications in a "jail", and if reserving the term "jailbreaking" to Apple users helps them "escape", I for one would not want to discourage them ...