B&N Nook Successfully Opened 275
garg0yle writes "A team has managed to open the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader, gaining full access to the operating system. From the article: 'The Nook is now a computer running a full Android operating system, with a built-in, free cellular connection to the internet. It also has a battery that lasts days, not hours.' They are documenting their progress on the Nook Devs wiki."
Re:Free internet? (Score:3, Informative)
The internet is paid for by the book purchases, with the carrier receiving a percentage of that. Any margin on the device goes to BN/Amazon.
Re:And so it begins (Score:1, Informative)
Some information about mobile networks: Mobile devices have several ID-codes. Some of them are "easily" changed by a software manipulation, for example the IMEI. However, those aren't the ones which matter. The contract is tied to a SIM (subscriber identity module), which is a system on a chip with built-in cryptographic functions and credentials. Think of it as a private key which can be used to authenticate the SIM but can only be read by destroying the SIM. The SIM is as close to unhackable as it gets. All AT&T needs to do is put all devices with Nook-SIMs on a VPN that only connects to B&N servers. This is the same principle that is used by pay as you go data cards which only allow access to a payment interface when the balance is zero. Free internet access through hacked Nooks will not last, guaranteed.
Re:MicroSD card? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Coral Cache link. (Score:5, Informative)
Too late. The wiki is dead.
Here's the text from the "Rooting" page:
======
Looking to root your nook? You have come to the right place!
nookDevs.com is not liable if you screw up during the root process. kthxbai
This will probably void your warranty, nookDevs.com is not liable for that either.
[edit] Requirements
microSD(HC) card adapter
Small screwdriver
45 minutes
Fingernails or a sharp knife
A linux/unix based computer
Android SDK
[edit] Instructions
Turn off nook
Take off the back cover of the nook
Remove the battery
Remove the user microSD card if there is one
Unscrew all screws. Dont lose them. There is a hole in the bottom left with white in it. That is also a screw. Unscrew that.
There are a bunch of tabs around the sides of the nook that release the white bezel. Once released you will need to unseal the glue
Congrats you are 25 percent there!
There are two black tabs on the sides of the nook where the page turn buttons are. Push those back to unlock them
You should be at the board now. Find the OS microSD card
Remove it
Place the microSD card in a adapter, then into a computer /dev/sdb1 /media/disk replacing values as needed) ./adb connect IP_OF_NOOK:5555 ./adb shell /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip.bak
Mount it as ext3 read-write (sudo mount
Open the file init.rc as sudo (sudo nano init.rc)
Find the line that starts talking about adbd
Replace the first occurance of the word disabled with enabled
50 percent done!
Eject SD card
Put SD card back into nook
close nook up
restart
Now, on a computer again, download the Android dev toolkit (google it)
Open a terminal
cd to the android folder
cd tools
If you want to disable updates from B&N run: mv
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE ROOTED YOUR nook. Have fun, be safe, dont forget to bring a towel
[edit] Notes
More pictures for tutorial to come later
Make sure to put the SIM card back in correctly if you remove it. Blue and white site up with the notch in the battery compartment opening end, on the right hand side. Refer to included pic. (discovered nook 3G not working when I got to work. Paperclips make terrible screwdrivers)
Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a versatile tool lets you manage the state of an emulator instance or Android-powered device.
Full documentation and list of commands available in adb can be found here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html#commandsummary [android.com]
Re:DMCA notice coming (Score:2, Informative)
Re:DMCA notice coming (Score:5, Informative)
Umm, no. Certainly morally it is, but not legally.
If you leave your car running, the blame for the theft can be placed on you, and in some states you can actually be held partly liable if the thief does something wrong with the vehicle. Especially if the person who stole your car is underage.
Some decades ago, at my father's business, my mother stopped by to drop something off. Since she was parked next to the rear entrance to the store (which was in a mall), she hopped out of her car with the keys in it and the car running. It was winter, and the car had a habit of not starting well if it was already warmed up. Apparently a couple of kids were hanging out in the area, because the car was stolen in the 30 seconds it took her to drop off the paperwork and come back outside.
The police eventually caught the kids who did it once they wrecked the car. The kids were 17 and 16, and one of them was a repeat offender (petty theft, etc) whose name appeared in the police blotter regularly. But since the keys were in the car, the car was considered an "attractive nuisance" and the kids could not be held liable to stealing it. Quite the contrary, the presence of the keys was legally considered to be a compulsion for someone to steal it, and my mother was therefore liable for the theft AND everything they did in the car, including any injuries to themselves or others.
Fortunately for us, when the kids totalled her car neither of them was seriously hurt, and the property damage they did was minimal. We had to buy a new car, and pay for the property damage the wreck caused, and pay the medical bills for the kids to get checked out at the hospital. It set us back about $15,000 or so, since insurance wouldn't pay a penny of it of course, but it was an interesting and eye-opening lesson in liability.
Fortunately, the police officer decided not to press charges for reckless endangerment of a child, or my mother could have ended up in real trouble for having her car stolen.
Days of battery life? (Score:2, Informative)
You do realize that they "days" of battery life are due to the fact that it is designed to read books?
The battery life on ereaders really should be rated in "page turns". This gets about 2000 page turns on a single charge.
Using that color screen all the time or actively using the internet will suck down that battery so fast your head will spin!!!
The battery on this device is going to suck if you are using it to IM your friends or regularly browse the web. The battery on these devices is actually significantly SMALLER than a netbook battery. These devices have a cheap and small cell phone battery.
The real advantage is the internet....but it isn't that big of a deal. The kindle already has a web-browser.
Plus, as many have explained...they will just block non-B&N usage if it is abused.