Angry Birds are pretty much everywhere these days, even where they’re not supposed to be, like on this Barnes & Noble eReader.
“Nook” is the brand under which book retailer Barnes & Noble commercialize their very own e-reader. The most recent Nook model was released earlier this month. Whereas the model immediately before it (the “Nook Color”) featured a colored screen, this one has a black and white, 6″ e-ink touch display. It runs on Android OS just like the Nook Colordid, but it’s a much simpler gadget. It doesn’t double as an electronic tablet and it has no cool applications or built-in media players. The newest Nook, in a few words, has been stripped down to its essentials and it’s meant to be used solely as an e-reader.
Still, hackers seem to live by the where-there’s-a-will-there’s-a-way code of honor, so it wasn’t exactly shocking (though no doubt interesting) to see this video surface on YouTube only a few days after pre-ordered Nooks had started shipping.
The vid was uploaded by user JFreke, who managed to install Angry Birds on his brand new Nook after getting root access on it (a process comparable to jailbreaking a cell phone). It’s evident the game wasn’t made to be run in the conditions provided by the Nook, because it’s anything but smooth: it flashes a lot, scrolling is a bit of an odyssey and B&W e-ink doesn’t do the graphics many favors.
The hack is attractive anyway because the rooting scheme can be used to install other things that would likely function a lot better on this Nook, such as a web browser. JFreke himself admits that the real achievement was figuring out root access “so that the community can take? it from there.” (He offers a link to a tutorial on the vid description.) Even if the game isn’t playable, though, it also goes to show there’s no stopping the Angry Birds-mania.
If you like Nooks you might want to take a look at New B&N Nook Touch-enabled Android Reader: Kindle-Killer? and Barnes and Noble Nook For Android App Finally Updated.
