What would a great entry level tablet PC that retailed for around $300 look like? It would probably have the ability to surf the web. It would be able to, at the very least, edit Office docs using software like QuickOffice or OpenOffice. It would have apps like an iPad. Well, there is a device like this. It's Barnes and Noble's Nook Color. Surprised? You shouldn't be.
The XDA company, a hacking collective, held a press conference two days ago to prove that they had rooted the Nook. They said that they had successfully injected altered code, and offered proof by showing screenshots of a Nook that ran the Angry Birds apps and had had a custom skin installed.
Since the instructions are at in the beta phase as of now, and haven't been released as a fully formed jailbreak software package, not many users online claim to have duplicated XDA's success. (If you are interested, XDA is hosting the instructions on their wiki). The instructions are very technical and geeky at this point, which is making people wary. This is most likely due to the fact that mistakes in the hacking process could render the device bricked, without a good method for recovery as yet.
If recent history with the iPhone and Windows Mobile 7 are any indication, though, the instructions should be cleaned up soon, with possibly even a jailbreak application being offered for sale in the near future. In general, this is the path that unlock options for other devices have taken, and there's no reason to think that the Nook should be an exception.
What are the ramifications for Barnes and Noble?
Depending on how Barnes and Noble reacts, this could actually be very good for them. If the retailer casts a blind eye to the rooting community (not endorsing the process but not actively preventing it - along the lines Microsoft is taking with Windows Phone 7), it could end up selling more Nooks. After all, if the device can be turned into a capable Android tablet (which technically it already is) easily, the $250 price tag certainly beats out some of the competition.
In the event that Barnes and Noble does decide to go against their own best interest and fight the practice of jailbreaking the Nook, they could still learn a thing or three. They could make future Nooks much better offerings by watching why people are trying to unlock them. They would pay careful attention to what features hackers were installing on jailbroken Nooks, and then implement those features on new release of the Nook. This could, in the end, give the average user less reason to crack the Nook at all, although geeks would probably still do it just for the thrill.
The XDA company, a hacking collective, held a press conference two days ago to prove that they had rooted the Nook. They said that they had successfully injected altered code, and offered proof by showing screenshots of a Nook that ran the Angry Birds apps and had had a custom skin installed.
Since the instructions are at in the beta phase as of now, and haven't been released as a fully formed jailbreak software package, not many users online claim to have duplicated XDA's success. (If you are interested, XDA is hosting the instructions on their wiki). The instructions are very technical and geeky at this point, which is making people wary. This is most likely due to the fact that mistakes in the hacking process could render the device bricked, without a good method for recovery as yet.
If recent history with the iPhone and Windows Mobile 7 are any indication, though, the instructions should be cleaned up soon, with possibly even a jailbreak application being offered for sale in the near future. In general, this is the path that unlock options for other devices have taken, and there's no reason to think that the Nook should be an exception.
What are the ramifications for Barnes and Noble?
Depending on how Barnes and Noble reacts, this could actually be very good for them. If the retailer casts a blind eye to the rooting community (not endorsing the process but not actively preventing it - along the lines Microsoft is taking with Windows Phone 7), it could end up selling more Nooks. After all, if the device can be turned into a capable Android tablet (which technically it already is) easily, the $250 price tag certainly beats out some of the competition.
In the event that Barnes and Noble does decide to go against their own best interest and fight the practice of jailbreaking the Nook, they could still learn a thing or three. They could make future Nooks much better offerings by watching why people are trying to unlock them. They would pay careful attention to what features hackers were installing on jailbroken Nooks, and then implement those features on new release of the Nook. This could, in the end, give the average user less reason to crack the Nook at all, although geeks would probably still do it just for the thrill.
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