Barnes & Noble Nook Glowlight Plus

Entered: in emacs on GPD Pocket X7 | Date: 20220815 | Soundtrack: Youtube vids in the background

Lust

I have been lusting after eink tablets for note-taking for a while now. The remarkable, boox, et al are pretty sexy devices. I just cannot make myself unass the pesos for a purchase I may not end up using.

Compromise

I was watching a video about one of these devices the other day and day dreaming when it hit me: I have a Nook Glowlight Plus sitting in a rubbermade box under my bed. Is it hackable?

Yes.

It is a locked down Android 4.4.2 tablet with an eink display. XDA Forums has a nice walk thru procedure and script to root this device via ADB from Linux/Mac/Windows. I followed this with the Nook plugged into my GPD Pocket X7 running Manjaro. Quick and easy. Next I acquired an Android 4.4.2 compatible launcher, gallery, and file manager. I experimented with disabling the nook app, but that seems to also disable power related functionality so I have left it enabled. I did install the Kindle app and downloaded the books I am currently wanting. I also installed Librera and it can open kindle books that do not have DRM (oddly this included everything I downloaded). I like the look and feel of Librera better than the kindle app, and I never bought a ton of books via the B&N store.

I did find and install an APK for hadwriting notes, but the hardware is miserably slow and while still on the edge of usable, I think I'll just use this device as my book reader. Of course, I will be looking for what else I can use an Android 4.4.2 tablet with a slow display for...