Wall Street Journal writer Brett Arends bought a $200 Nook Color, jailbroke it in 20 minutes and found himself with a functioning tablet computer.
Arends readily admits his workaround – though it worked perfectly – isn’t the same thing as having an iPad.
He does crunch the numbers and figures the $200 he saves now, if invested, will give him about an extra $1,000 by the time he retires.
The resulting pocket PC is about half the size of an iPad, weighs about 30% less than the current gen Apple device and runs on WiFi, but not 3G and has about eight hours of battery life.
After following the Android root found on Ars Tecnica, Arends soon found himself with a cheap computer that he could use to write emails, tweet and play Angry Birds.
Arends concludes that it is short-sighted of Barnes & Noble to market a locked-down device just to keep people from buying competing Amazon products – but do you think there’s a market for Nooks as more than e-readers?
Via WSJ
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
17 responses to “Can a Jailbroken $200 Nook Replace an iPad?”
“Arends concludes that it is short-sighted of Barnes & Noble to market a locked-down device just to keep people from buying competing Amazon products – but do you think there’s a market for Nooks as more than e-readers?”
I guess it depends on whether the cost of the Nook is subsidized by B&N with the expectation that you will buy X number of books from them. If large numbers of people begin buying the Nook with the intention of obtaining a cheap tablet but no interest to use it as an ebook reader (or, at the very least, get ebooks specifically from B&N), B&N’s endeavor with the Nook could become very unprofitable very quickly.
It doesn’t have to replace it…price wise they are not in the same category, however a rooted Nook Color is amazingly powerful: Just take a look at what is possible:
http://reviewhorizon.com/2011/…
For cheapskates, why not? A modded Kia could take the place of a Porsche Carrera to some degree. I guess if you can only afford bargain basement goods, you make do with whatever you can. A Nook Color was never designed to compete with an iPad in versatility because the Nook is just a cheaply made device with a weak processor that can barely handle video. If your demands are low, I’m sure a Nook Color will do but it was never meant to be more than a cheap and simple eReader device. Besides, how many consumers are going to root some crappy device that may or may not be useful to them. If it’s a gift or you find one in the trash, by all means try rooting it. But paying for it is risky since rooting it will void the warranty.
I really don’t want to buy an iPad for what I need it for (reading books, reading graphic novels and showing off artwork/pictures – the occasional video…).
I might look into this option :o
Will this guy ever, ever write something flattering about
apple……I’ll bet he still writes about Apple with a PC.
Here’s where everyone jumps down my throat for being truthful. A Mac is just another mass market PC that runs a different OS, albeit I will say aesthetically its a fancier looking version of the average PC, and is not the Porsche of the PC world. You want a desktop that’s a Porsche in the tech world you go out and build the thing yourself or find someone who can and in the process you save yourself some cash. There’s enough Hackintosh’s out there running Xion’s that run harder and faster and can do more then anything Apple can put on its shelves and do it at a cheaper price.
To a certain extent the same can be said with tablet computers. The components for an iPad isn’t cutting edge if truth be known its just a bunch of cheaply produced and assembled mass market components just like the Xoom, Galaxy Tab, and any other tablets that will eventually come down the pike. Give it time eventually the jailbreakers, hackintoshers, or whatever they want to call themselves will be working their knowledge and coming out with workarounds for cheaper priced products that can do anything a iPad can.
By the way do you always come across as arrogant and condescending when you post on blogs.
Who are you talking about? The author? It is a *she*, no?
your comment makes no sense. She asked a question. “CAN it replace” – not “iPad SUCKS jailbreak your Nook instead”.
Fanbois make us all look bad.
i played with the ipad for a while, and then did this to my nook color and love it! i hope b&n come out with a market of their own, or people wise up and make apps for the nook as well. wouldn’t ever buy an ipad after having done this for so much less $$$$!