Odd Lots
- The Nook Tablet is no longer rootable, thanks to a recent stealth update applied automatically when the device connects to the Internet. The big deal with the mod is that sideloaded apps can no longer be installed; all you get are what’s available from the B&N app store.
- Lose a few, win a few: Amazon no longer blocks rival ebook apps on its Kindle Fire almost-a-tablet.
- I always roll my eyes when people say things like <YEAR> will be the Year of the <WHATEVER>. However, I’m inclined to believe that Android may finally begin coming of age in 2012, and I’m hoping to score a 10″ ICS tablet once I find one with an external card slot and (ideally) USB charging.
- Xoom 2/Xyboard is off my list because it doesn’t have an external card slot. I also agree with the review (having a Verizon-issued Droid X2 now) that the Verizon app store is hideous.
- This may well be the smallest possible USB thumb drive. No, I don’t want one. I might inhale it.
- Joe Bryer, who sent me the coal samples I described yesterday, has posted some nice videos on YouTube about using coal for home heat.
- The chemical structure of coal (granting that it’s not a uniform material but a mix of many hydrocarbon compounds) looks something like this. (Thanks to Pete Albrecht for spotting this for me.)
- My very talented Taos Toolbox 2011 colleague Lisa Nohealani Morton had her name tattoed on her arm–in binary. I myself am no stranger to binary, but if you don’t believe me you can translate it using a binary-to-text translator.
- What if you’d been at my high school lunch table in the spring of 1970? This is what you would have seen. I boggle a little at my then-habit of drinking milk and lemonade at the same meal, but I’ve done (and worn) far weirder things in my life.
- Be careful what stuffed animals you pose with over at the photography studio, especially for your Christmas photo cards. Peace on Earth and all that…
- 42% of the 100% must think they’re part of the 1%. Or something. (Thanks to Michael Covington for the link.)
- Offered without comment: The continents can be rearranged to form a chicken.
Posted in: Odd Lots.
Tagged: ebooks · hardware · humor · science · tablets
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I still think the Nook Color (not the new tablet, which looks identical) is the best deal going. I’m running CyanogenMod 7 (I think this is Android 2-ish) on it, and it does great. It may be a little slow to load some things, but heck, we’re talking $199 and a little micro-sd card image writing goodness, and voila!
The one thing that B&N did to instill a lil regret was to NOT have the dictionary/Thesaurus touch-to-lookup capability in the android app, and I really miss that. BUT, I guess I’ll trade that for everything else I can do with it, until I get a “real” tablet, then I’ll probably restore it.
The Nook Color is most definitely still rootable. I have the CM7 distro on an SD card myself, and I plan to look into both (a) building a custom version of that distro, and (b) getting an ICS build going. Fortunately, I have the next week off. 🙂
But you can’t do that with the Nook Tablet, as it has a locked bootloader that requires cryptographic verification at each stage. Pity, B&N lost a sale that way, as otherwise I might have tried to see if the Nook Color hacks could be applied to the Tablet.
You may be interested to know that organic chemists refer to that molecular structure as 1,2-dimethylchickenwire.