Good news for Nook Tablet owners. A lot of progress is being made on getting custom ROMs up and running on the Nook Tablet ever since devs cracked the Nook Tablet’s locked bootloader.

The devs at XDA have even managed to get CM7 to run on the Nook Tablet, although there are still a few key things that need to be fixed such as Wi-Fi and sleep mode.

Filed under: Nook | Tags: cm7, nook tablet | 11 Comments »

The people behind N2A cards for the Nook Color are offering a sizable reward to the first person who can crack the Nook Tablet’s locked bootloader and provide a bootable microSD card for Android 2.3 or Android 4.0.

N2A cards are a popular aftermarket mod for the Nook Color that turns it into a open Android tablet running CM7 (Android 2.3). All you do is place an N2A microSD in the Nook and everything runs from there, and you can choose to boot the Nook’s stock functionality as well, so it takes no technical work and the Nook Color isn’t changed in anyway so the warranty remains valid.

Filed under: Nook | Tags: nook tablet | 1 Comment »

Below is a step-by-step tutorial that includes a video walkthrough on how to root the Nook Tablet, install the Android Market, block OTA firmware updates, and other goodies—everything you need to turn it into a proper Android tablet not controlled by Barnes and Noble. Plus you can choose to keep the Nook’s regular features too, or remove them altogether, it’s your choice.

When Barnes and Noble first released the Nook Tablet, it came with a convenient loophole that allowed users to download and install apps from outside the Nook appstore, including Amazon’s appstore. But then B&N released a firmware update, version 1.4.1, right before Christmas that closed off this functionality and locked the Nook Tablet down from installing non-B&N apps.

Filed under: How To, Nook | Tags: nook tablet, root | 51 Comments »

Since Barnes and Noble decided to issue a firmware update for the Nook Tablet, version 1.4.1, that disables the ability to install non-B&N apps from 3rd party sources and kills root, here’s how to revert the Nook Tablet back to the original 1.4.0 firmware and block the firmware update from happening.

Unfortunately firmware updates install automatically without giving us an option, so you have to block updates from happening manually. If your Nook Tablet is still on 1.4.0, jump down to the second section for blocking OTA updates. If your Nook Tablet has already updated to 1.4.1 or some future version, here’s how to go back to the original user-friendly 1.4.0.

Filed under: How To, Nook | Tags: nook tablet | 37 Comments »

Barnes and Noble suck. They just issued an update for the Nook Tablet that effectively turns it from a full-blown Android tablet into a glorified color ereader with benefits.

The firmware update, version 1.4.1, closes the Nook Tablet off from installing Android apps from non-B&N sources. So now instead of having tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of apps available to load on the Nook, now users are stuck with only what B&N provides, about 2000 apps, some of which are 2-3 times what they sell for from other appstores.

Filed under: Nook | Tags: firmware update, nook tablet | 28 Comments »

Now is a good time for a Nook Tablet vs Nook Color comparison review since Barnes and Noble issued a firmware update for the Nook Color to add some new features earlier in the week.

Even before the new firmware it was pretty hard to tell the Nook Tablet and Nook Color apart, and now they are practically identical twins from a software standpoint. I bet the average person would have trouble pointing out many differences after 5 minutes of use on each.

Filed under: Nook, Reviews, Tablets | Tags: nook color, nook tablet | 16 Comments »

I’ve had the Nook Tablet for over two weeks now and there are a lot of things I like about it, but there’s one nagging detail that makes me uncomfortable to recommend it.

It was a mighty fine Easter egg when it turned out the Nook Tablet could install Android apps from outside the Barnes and Noble Nook appstore without rooting, but what if Barnes and Noble decide to close the loophole that allows this?

Filed under: Nook | Tags: nook tablet | 15 Comments »

HomeCatcher is a must-have app for the Nook Tablet if you are like me and want to install third-party apps, including alternative launchers, and need an easy way to access your installed apps and switch to a different homescreen.

With HomeCatcher you can set the Nook Tablet’s “n” button to redirect to a launcher homescreen by default instead of the B&N Nook homescreen, or you can leave it so that it prompts to go to either the launcher home or B&N Nook home each time the “n” button is double-pressed (single-press launches the quick menu as usual).

Filed under: How To, Nook | Tags: nook tablet | 7 Comments »

This Kindle Fire vs Nook Tablet comparison review outlines the similarities between the two most popular ereading tablets on the market, and details the advantages each one has over the other.

At the bottom of this post there is a video review comparing the Kindle Fire vs Nook Tablet side-by-side for a closer look. Trying to figure out which one to pick is not an easy task; I’m glad I don’t have to choose. Hopefully this post can help you decide.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, Nook, Reviews | Tags: kindle fire, nook tablet | 10 Comments »

The Nook Tablet was originally slated for release today, November 18th. It ended up arriving in stores a few days early—score!—so I canceled my pre-order and went down to my local Barnes and Noble store and picked one up.

Thanks to a loophole that allows the installation of third-party Android apps without a hack, the Nook Tablet turned out being a lot cooler than I expected it would be. I’m sure glad I don’t have to choose between it and the Kindle Fire .

Filed under: Nook, Reviews, Tablets | Tags: nook tablet | 8 Comments »