My daughter’s favorite possession is now her Nook Color tablet.
She had initially wanted a Nintendo 3DS, and had shown enviable discipline in saving enough money to purchase one outright. But, after checking out her mom’s Nook Color and weighing the additional costs of purchasing games in addition to the device itself, she started to waver.
First, it was the games.
We are fairly well invested in Android games. I had lived vicariously through Amazon’s Free Android App of the Day promotion and had amassed quite the flotilla of time-wasting apps: Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, Monopoly and Enchanted Forest — all free to her.
She could also browse the web, and since the NC serves as a wi-fi tablet, it allows us to control her internet usage. Toss in Netflix, free word processor software and calculator for homework and she had pretty much made up her mind. When she found out that a refurb could be had for significantly less than the 3DS, she was sold. She had one request of SuperGeek Dad: she wanted access to her Kindle eBooks, and her electronic Bible.
My proudest moment was seeing her use YouVersion on her tablet at church to keep up with Pastor Jon.
Our daughter enjoys these things because she has a rooted device. Rooting simply allows one to access administrative rights on one’s device and access the Amazon Appstore and Android Market. Things that are not natively available on a stock Nook Color.
Rooting is legal (like jailbreaking iOS devices) for now.
Arrest My Daughter?
Before the year is out, The US Patent Office will be deciding whether or not to extend the DMCA exemption to DVDs and mobile devices. Basically, in plain talk, this rule disallows companies from pursuing legal actions against individuals who use rooted or jailbroken devices, amongst other things.
If you are thinking this is an overly shameless, dramatic plea to save my baby girl from going to jail, you’d be right.
Inform yourself and ACT!
Sele Mitchell says
You make a well illustrated, excellent point. Once you purchase a device you should be able to install whatever software you wish as long as that software is obtained legally. Amazon nor B&N should have no right to limit what you can install.
The mfgs will claim that they lock it down for the users protection, but they should have an “advanced” mode built in so that I can do with it what I want. After all I paid for it. But it is all done for profit. Amazon wants you to buy their books and movies for the fire and the same with B&N. They just want to sell more stuff so they keep them locked down, a pretty good gig if you look at the number of kindle Fires that Amazon sold over Christmas.
Eric Nygren says
Do you know about http://www.n2acards.com/ ? I’ve got one for my NC and love it.