The NOOKcolor is a 7 inch eBook Reader that ships with a highly customized version of Google Android 2.1 preloaded. Out of the box, it only runs a handful of apps including Barnes & Noble’s eBook software and a web browser. But we’ve seen hackers working their hardest to turn this $250 device into a fully functional Android tablet over the past few weeks, and now it looks like someone has figured out one of the most important pieces of the puzzle: how to get the Android Market and other Google Apps to run on the NOOKcolor.
In order to install the Android Market at this point, you need to gain root access to the device and then follow a pretty rigid set of steps to copy files from your computer to the device using the software developer kit. The bad news is it’s reportedly pretty difficult to get everything working right. The good news is that it’s pretty hard to screw up so badly that your NOOKcolor is left in an unbootable state. The worst thing that will probably happen is that you wind up at a point where you have to restore the device to factory default settings and start over from scratch.
You can find the step by step instructions for installing Google apps including Gmail, YouTube, and the Android Market at Nook Devs.
via Droid Gamers