Nook Color Gets Android 2.2 Update

E-readers are the future of reading, there’s no doubt in that. The popularity of the Kindle and the decline in physical book sales has shown that. But standalone E-readers could die before they really make it mainstream, because the problem is full-blown tablets have E-reading capabilities and they are getting cheaper. What consumer will buy a tablet that can only read books when another tablet could reads books, browse the web, play apps and stream movies? Obviously what the likes of Kindle and Nook need to do is transform from humble E-readers into, dare I say it, iPad killers.

And it looks as though that’s exactly what Barnes & Noble are doing. The publishers have transformed their $250 Nook Color E-reader into probably the best value tablet on the market. Email, a Web browser and Flash video capability have all made their way onto the device. The Nook Color can be upgraded to software version 1.2 right now by downloading the firmware at nookcolor.com/update. This will bring the device up to Android 2.2 (Froyo.)

It’s a great start, but more need to be done. The main hurdle for Nook users now is the App market. Currently Nook colour is not a fully supported Android tablet, which means no Android App Market and no Amazon app store either. It won’t happen anytime soon and it may never happen (after all B&N have their own app store) but if the Nook color ever turns into a full-on Android tablet it could rank as one of the best tablets on the market, certainly in the Android running sector.

In the meantime, obviously we don’t suggest or condone this type of behaviour. But a quick Google search will show up ways to hack your Nook into a full on Angry Birds running Android tablet.