Nook Color rooted, is it better as an eReader or Android tablet now?

November 30 2010 by admin in News |

Unsurprisingly, the Android 2.1 Nook Color has been rooted, less than two weeks after it hit the market.

We’re hardly surprised at this news (the root was accomplished by XDA) – it was inevitable. The root probably isn’t perfect and will get better/easier over time for sure, but that’s the not really the interesting part.  The real question now is about the Nook Color arises: is it an eReader or a tablet?

With the e-ink WiFi-only third generation Kindle being sold by Amazon for $139, and the tablet leader the iPad at $499 for the cheapest model, the $249 price tag of the Nook Color must be making a number of people pause when deciding on what to buy. With the device now rooted, it could become an even harder task to make this decision, as essentially you’re getting a quality-built touch device (according to nearly all reviews) at half the price of the iPad and $350 less than the also-Android Galaxy Tab (no including the data plan of course).

Of course, now that it’s rooted, it’ll only be a matter of time before Android 2.2 builds appear (it should have the hardware to handle it) making it all the more attractive. However, the Nook Color does have some drawbacks if you want to use it as a dedicated Android tablet (i.e. reading won’t be your primary use). The most glaring problem is a lack of a camera, which of course also afflicts the iPad.  Also, battery life is a bit of an issue, as it’s only about half as good as the iPad with WiFi running.

On the other hand, the thing is just $249, is light and is attractively built. So if you don’t yet own a Kindle (or perhaps you do, but don’t want to spend the money on an iPad) this could be a great compromise between the heavier Apple device and the black and white Kindle.

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Google Docs is rapidly getting better: now with drag and drop file uploads

November 24 2010 by admin in News |

Google has been making a major push with Google Docs recently, and it’s been pretty interesting to watch. We’ll list the recent improvements in a minute, but first, here’s the latest improvement: drag and drop file uploads.

Is this mind-blowing? No, but it should make uploading files that much easier, and – along with the recent addition of adding images to documents via drag and drop – it shows a direction that we really like seeing: easier integration with the desktop.

Google also announced “compact controls” today, which basically takes away the Google Docs header, displaying your email address, etc, at the top of the screen so that users of smaller screens have more screen real estate to work with.

As we said above, Google has been going all out on Docs over the last six months. Here are some of the most important new features:

Of course, Google is trying to cyphon away as many users from Microsoft Office as possible, and we could see an even greater adoption if Chrome OS becomes an enterprise hit (we’re pretty skeptical of Chrome OS right now though). That said, Docs is a very useful collaboration tool that we’re glad to see getting better, and fast.

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Video look: Make your Facebook pages better with Appbistro’s app store

You might not realize that I have two separate ways to interact with you on Facebook. The first is my Facebook Profile Page, which everyone on Facebook has. That’s at http://facebook.com/robertscoble. The problem is that I’m limited to 5,000 friends there and I’ve only been adding people I know.

The other way is to use a Facebook Public Page. Mine is at http://facebook.com/scobleizer. With these you can have unlimited numbers of contacts. These are the pages that brands and celebrities use to interact with fans and large audiences.

The problem is, it’s very easy to add widgets and new streams to your Profile page, but for brands and others who want to have a public Facebook page, it’s very difficult. Even getting YouTube videos onto those pages are more difficult than Profiles. Plus, apps that were made for Profiles often can’t be used on Public Pages.

Until now I was at a disadvantage when compared to brands that had large teams of Web developers who could spend the time getting things to work. What changed? Appbistro shipped.

What is Appbistro? It’s an app store with tons of apps designed for Facebook’s Public Pages.

I recently visited the team in its San Francisco office and here’s the video where we discover it together. You’ll see some of the most useful apps that you should add onto your Facebook Page. I’m looking through them today and have already added a YouTube app to my page.

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