Ever wish you could use a USB keyboard with your NOOK Simple Touch eBook reader? Yeah, I didn’t think so… but it’s still pretty cool that it’s possible. Hacker verygreen has figured out how to enable USB host support on Barnes & Noble’s eReader and he’s posted details on how to do it at the xda-developers forum.
Since the NOOK Touch is a low power device, it doesn’t actually generate enough electricity to work with more power-hungry peripherals such as a USB hard drive. But you can plug in a low-power peripheral like a keyboard and use it to navigate the menus on the Android-based eReader.
You may also be able to use some other USB devices as long as they have their own power sources.
The NOOK Simple Touch has a 6 inch, 600 x 800 pixel E Ink display and an infrared touchscreen. Now that it can also work with USB devices, you could sort of use the eReader as a tiny, low power Android-powered computer… although I’m not sure why you’d want to.
By the way, if verygreen’s voice sounds familiar, that’s because he’s the guy who produces most of the demo videos showing CyanogenMod Android progress on the HP TouchPad tablet.
via Engadget