If you have a Barnes & Noble Nook, you may be surprised to find that your eReader can do a lot more than just display ebooks, which makes it a great alternative to those more expensive all-in-one tablets that do everything (seriously, everything). If you want to get more bang for your buck, here are a few ways you can hack your own Nook.
For some of these, you will need to have a rooted Nook.
PlayStation Gaming
It's no secret that Nooks come with an Android operating system, which makes it all the easier to hack, even if you're into gaming, not reading. By using Mini vMac for Android and a free PlayStation emulator, YouTube user ndncnbvcuyuys was able to play original PlayStation games on his rooted Nook Simple Touch with the NoRefresh app installed.
You can see it play a few different games in the video, and it actually looks pretty good.
You can also find more photos here.
Operating Systems
On a Nook Color, you can run Android Froyo,Android Honeycomb or even Ubuntu from your SD card. You can also buy bootable cards on eBay, if you'd rather not DIY one.
Dual-Booting
If you can't decide between your two favorite operating systems, you can dual-boot your Nook using this hack by xda-developers member japzone. It works with Mac, Linux, and Windows, and looks pretty simple as long as you're already running Froyo or Honeycomb. You can also do this with Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich on a Nook Color.
Android Market
Want more apps on your Nook? If you've already installed Android OS, a hack on NookDevs will show you how to add the Android Market. You'll need a Gmail account to set it up, and also be aware that if something goes wrong, you may have to re-root your Nook.
Changing the Animated Boot Screen
You can change your rooted Nook Color's boot screen animation to anything you want, or even make your own like Chuck6993 did in the video below.
Nook Turns Desktop Computer
xda-developers member Renate NST turned her nook into a desktop computer by hacking a tripod-style microphone stand.
You can read more about her other modifications here.
Higher Processing Speed
A review on Good E-Reader says that this hack on xda-developers not only increases the Nook Color's processing speed from 800MHz to 950MHz, but also adds battery life and fixes the pesky screen flickering bug that some users have had.
Nook Color Turns Android Tablet
You can hack a $250 Nook Color into a fully functioning Android Tablet and get all the benefits of a tablet that costs 2 or 3 times the price. You can also find detailed instructions for Windows and Linux on NookDevs.
You can also surf the web on a hidden browser on your Nook. What other hacks and mods have you tried with yours?
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