Install CyanogenMod 10 or 10.1 on the 7 inch NOOK HD with an SD card

It’s been about a month since hacker verygreen released the first instructions for turning the 9 inch NOOK HD+ tablet into a full-fledged Android tablet by installing CyanogenMod 10. Now there’s also a way to install CyanogenMod 10 or 10.1 to bring the full Android 4.1 or Android 4.2 experience to the 7 inch NOOK HD.

Developer bokbokan has piggybacked on verygreen’s work to create a simple tool that will install CM10 or CM10.1 on Barnes & Noble’s $199 tablet.

At this point there are still a few features that aren’t working in CyanogenMod 10.1 including the microphone and MTP (mass transfer protocol) for transferring files between your device and a PC over a USB connection.

But if you’re not happy with Barnes & Noble’s custom version of Android, now it’s possible to turn the company’s inexpensive 7 inch tablet into a general-purpose device simply by downloading bokbokan’s files, writing them to an SD card, and inserting it into a NOOK tablet before booting it up.

As of early January, this is still a work in progress and it’s described as “alpha” software – which means you probably shouldn’t try any of this unless you’re OK with the possibility of breaking your device.

If you’re cool with that, hit up the xda-developers forum for more details.

If you’re looking for a slightly less ambitious way to make the NOOK HD or NOOK HD+ more useful, developer leapinlar has released software that lets you root either device and install the Google Play Store and other apps while continuing to use the official Barnes & Noble version of Android.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dil0_aSZnaw]

Posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2013, 3:00 pm by Brad Linder | 5 Comments

Rebecca Dudley

FYI—I was perusing your blog to see your reviews of the Nook and I have actually bought this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AUKDV2O/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And now my Nook is a little Android tablet I’m not nearly as computer geeky as I used to be, so the pre-made SD card was the way to go for me!
http://www.liliputing.com/ Brad Linder

Awesome. Yeah, the cards that come preloaded definitely make the process a bit more foolproof.

I really like the NOOK hardware, but I’ve never been that thrilled with the B&N software that comes on top. I think this sort of thing gives you the best of both worlds… for a lot less than the cost of a new tablet from most other companies.
Rebecca Dudley

Yeah, I looked into rooting it and saw folks talking about breaking the device. I even tought aboutrooting my Nook Color until I saw some post about how people’s processors were burning out during the root (Yikes!). I’m very happy with my little android device now—even though B&N sells apps they are all the “Nook” version and there are quite a few less (to make an understatement) and the ones that are available are pretty clunky functionally. I think B&N just needs to swallow it and open up the Android market to be competitive.
http://www.liliputing.com/ Brad Linder

Yeah, the NOOK app store has never been a strong selling point for those devices. It has a limited selection and many apps which are available for free for other Android devices are only available in paid versions in the NOOK store.

Kobo actually includes the Play Store on its eReader/tablets. But then again, nobody in the US has any idea who Kobo is… so it probably doesn’t matter much.
Rebecca Dudley

I downloaded the Kobo reader app Didn’t know they made tablets though. Yeah, I couldn’t believe the Nook store was charging for apps that are free in other markets. I have the Amazon app store on my Nook now and there is a greater selection, but I have to say it is not quite as exciting as I thought it would be. The Google Play store is much better. I have an iPhone, but the switch Android on my Nook is making me seriously consider getting a non-iPhone next. I still have my 3GS and I haven’t updated the OS because I’m pretty sure it will cause everything to begin working slow as molasses (although it seems to mostly have that problem anyways). Either that or it will explode. I think now that I can use my Nook to play songs from the Google Play store and the Amazon MP3 store I’ve decided I like them better than ITunes. I feel like such a tool, but I don’t really “get” how the cloud works—I mean I think you have to pay to actually pay your songs on another computer—which was a main reason I liked the idea of the cloud–so I could play songs at work. The Amazon cloud makes a lot more sense to me. And I think Google has something of that nature as well, although I haven’t looked into it that much. My iPhone kinda makes me feel like I did when I had a Mac in college and everything I could download was a windows app. My computer didn’t crash, but it really didn’t do anything else either.

Install CyanogenMod 10 or 10.1 on the 7 inch NOOK HD with an SD card

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