[Q] Best Reasons to Nooter?

[Tom2112]

Hello Folks!

I just picked up a Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight. It's a sweet little device. But I'm addicted to rooting and loading custom ROMs on all of my tablets. So I'm tempted to do that to my Nook Simple Touch. However, doing that to an e-ink device is fundamentally different than on all of my other LCD-screen tablets because most apps/interfaces aren't geared toward an e-ink display.

So... I'd like to ask a couple questions:

• What drove you to change your Nook Simple Touch from stock to custom ROM?
• What functions do you love best about having it custom?
• Do you miss anything about having it stock?
• What do you like least about having it custom?

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[straygecko]

[*]What drove you to change your Nook Simple Touch from stock to custom ROM?
[*]What functions do you love best about having it custom?

Being able to checkout library books right on the NST - no more PC download, plug the NST into the PC and copy the book to the NST.

[*]Do you miss anything about having it stock?
[*]What do you like least about having it custom?

Nope, nothing.

 

[cowbutt]

Being able to checkout library books right on the NST - no more PC download, plug the NST into the PC and copy the book to the NST.

Does your library supply DRM free ebooks, or have you found something that works with Adobe Digital Editions DRM?

---------- Post added at 04:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:01 PM ----------

• What drove you to change your Nook Simple Touch from stock to custom ROM?

• 
  
  Other ebook ecosystems; Google Books, Kindle, Kobo.
  
  

  [*]What functions do you love best about having it custom?

  Aardict (complete offline Wikipedia)
  
  

  [*]Do you miss anything about having it stock?

  Foolproof official firmware updates. Having to remember to leave default home and library app unset unless I want to remap hardware buttons to start ReLaunch.
  
  

  [*]What do you like least about having it custom?

  Less tidy than stock.
  
  FYI, I used NookManager.

 

[straygecko]

Does your library supply DRM free ebooks, or have you found something that works with Adobe Digital Editions DRM?

They are DRM books. There are a couple of readers you can install that do ADE DRM. I used Aldiko for a while until someone pointed out a working version of Overdrive Media Console. See this thread. I believe Mantano also does ADE DRM. Search the forum for a working version.

 

[cowbutt]

They are DRM books. There are a couple of readers you can install that do ADE DRM. I used Aldiko for a while until someone pointed out a working version of Overdrive Media Console. See this thread. I believe Mantano also does ADE DRM. Search the forum for a working version.

Ah, sorry, I didn't make myself clear; even the stock Nook reader does ADE DRM, once authorised by the Windows ADE application (Aldiko can authorise itself, if a valid Adobe ID is supplied to it and it has Internet connectivity). My library supplies .acsm files which contain a link to the actual epub, which then needs to be authorised by the Windows ADE application before it can be copied to the Nook and read. So without something on Android to parse .acsm files and authorise the epubs, I can't download directly on my Nook. If you've got a solution to that, I'd be very interested in hearing it!

 

[straygecko]

Ah, sorry, I didn't make myself clear; even the stock Nook reader does ADE DRM, once authorised by the Windows ADE application (Aldiko can authorise itself, if a valid Adobe ID is supplied to it and it has Internet connectivity). My library supplies .acsm files which contain a link to the actual epub, which then needs to be authorised by the Windows ADE application before it can be copied to the Nook and read. So without something on Android to parse .acsm files and authorise the epubs, I can't download directly on my Nook. If you've got a solution to that, I'd be very interested in hearing it!

Yup, as I said no more PC download and copy to the NST. Both OMC & Aldiko launch the browser from within the app and allow you to browse the library, checkout books and download them directly on the NST. They take care of parsing the acsm file, getting authorization and downloading the actual epub file. It still baffles me why we have to root to get this feature as this has been available on Android phones for years. It makes no sense for dedicated reading devices not to have the feature. Its probably marketing morons at B&N that don't want you to have an easy way to read books for free so you'll buy from them.

 

[cowbutt]

Yup, as I said no more PC download and copy to the NST. Both OMC & Aldiko launch the browser from within the app and allow you to browse the library, checkout books and download them directly on the NST. They take care of parsing the acsm file, getting authorization and downloading the actual epub file. It still baffles me why we have to root to get this feature as this has been available on Android phones for years. It makes no sense for dedicated reading devices not to have the feature. Its probably marketing morons at B&N that don't want you to have an easy way to read books for free so you'll buy from them.

Aha, yes, I see now I've tried it in Alidko! My library isn't on Overdrive, but adding it as a catalog to Aldiko works. The only snag appears to be that the browser doesn't handle deeply-nested web sites terribly well, and begins ignoring clicks on links after a few levels. But it'd do in a pinch. Thanks!

 

[dandwhelan]

Will using a Custom ROM improve the terrible battery life?
I am being abit vague, I bought the Nook Simple Touch and on the box it said 'Battery lasts 2 months with wifi off and 30 minutes reading per day'. I hardly ever read and I only bought this for my holiday and also got it for £29. I charged the NST up and ive noticed over a week the battery has completely diminished.
Wifi is off and ive done no reading. All the decide seems to do is change pictures on the screen saver all the time.

 

[Crispy3000]

Will using a Custom ROM improve the terrible battery life?
I am being abit vague, I bought the Nook Simple Touch and on the box it said 'Battery lasts 2 months with wifi off and 30 minutes reading per day'. I hardly ever read and I only bought this for my holiday and also got it for £29. I charged the NST up and ive noticed over a week the battery has completely diminished.
Wifi is off and ive done no reading. All the decide seems to do is change pictures on the screen saver all the time.

Short answer: Yes.

Slightly longer answer: You can keep stock rom but rooting and tweaking makes a big difference. Changing the kernel and setting the cpu frequency using setcpu so improves battery life alot. Stop things syncing improves battery life alot.
If you don't want barnes and noble stuff (if your using say cool reader) then even more so.

Remember don't switch NST fully off it actually chews more battery than you think in that mode.
Also don't force nst to go asleep by pressing power button just let it timeout into screensaver.

I think remember someone said somewhere with everything tweaked the unit dropped 1 or 2 percent per day when not used.

 

[Tom2112]

That's odd that your battery experience has been so poor. I just got my NSTG on Monday and I've been reading on it a lot, plus I have backed it up, installed a new ROM, wiped it, restored it, probably five times now just messing around. I keep going back to stock ROM.

Anyway, I charged it Monday and I've got 84% battery left. I know I've spent several hours reading and at least a couple hours reading with the glowlight on. So for me, that's pretty darn good battery life to have only used 16% in five days of heavy use. Sure that won't last me the 2 months that they're quoting but, I'm not using it 30 minutes a day, I'm using it much more.

 

[jumpingclear]

Wifi is off and ive done no reading. All the decide seems to do is change pictures on the screen saver all the time.

I have also just bought one so I can't claim any expertise, however, this sounds odd. I just let mine go to sleep and it always shows the same picture of trees. If yours is changing its picture then it must have something running to do so which will run the battery down.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge can say why yours is doing this?

 

[straygecko]

Aha, yes, I see now I've tried it in Alidko! My library isn't on Overdrive, but adding it as a catalog to Aldiko works. The only snag appears to be that the browser doesn't handle deeply-nested web sites terribly well, and begins ignoring clicks on links after a few levels. But it'd do in a pinch. Thanks!

Yeah, the stock browser sucks. Then again, pretty much every browser I've tried on the NST works poorly. I believe you can use another browser to download the ACSM file and then go into Aldiko and import it. Not as seamless but may make navigating your library site possible.

 

[dandwhelan]

Well I've been on holiday this week and I can say the battery life is terrible. I must of used it 2 or 3hours per day reading only 400 pages and after 6 days the battery went flat. Luckily I don't read all the time, I kinda envy kindle owners for the battery life

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

 

[straygecko]

Well I've been on holiday this week and I can say the battery life is terrible. I must of used it 2 or 3hours per day reading only 400 pages and after 6 days the battery went flat. Luckily I don't read all the time, I kinda envy kindle owners for the battery life

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Did you leave wifi on? I get MUCH better life than that with wifi off.

 

[dandwhelan]

Yup Wifi has definitely been off

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

 

[straygecko]

I've never had a battery drain problem so I can't give you any solutions. I see a good 3 or 4 weeks or more with the kind of usage you describe. You might want to read through this thread on possible battery drain solutions. Also, do a search on battery in this forum for some other threads.

 

[latuk]

I use my rooted NTS with XCSoar when I fly on glider.
It's very useful because contrast on the sunlight is awesome.

I use all fiches from custom rom:
FastScreen
UsbHost
UsbSound

 

[cowbutt]

Well I've been on holiday this week and I can say the battery life is terrible. I must of used it 2 or 3hours per day reading only 400 pages and after 6 days the battery went flat. Luckily I don't read all the time, I kinda envy kindle owners for the battery life

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Note that Barnes & Nobles' stated life of 2 months is only for half an hour of reading per day. So your 6 days is the equivalent of somewhere between 24 and 36 B&N days. More if you turn lots of pages.