The Nook Simple Touch (also called the Nook Touch) is the second generation Nook

e-reader An e-reader, also called an e-book reader or e-book device, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals. Any device that can display text on a screen may act as an e-re ...

developed by Barnes & Noble. It features an 600x800

E Ink E Ink (electronic ink) is a brand of electronic paper (e-paper) display technology commercialized by the E Ink Corporation, which was co-founded in 1997 by MIT undergraduates JD Albert and Barrett Comiskey, MIT Media Lab professor Joseph Jacobson ...

screen with a

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...

that uses a network of infrared beams slightly above the screen surface. The device also has wireless connectivity via

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

802.11 IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) technical standards, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer c ...

b/g/n and a

micro USB The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of ...

port for charging and connecting to a computer. In April 2012, Barnes & Noble introduced a Simple Touch Reader with "GlowLight"

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

technology. On 30 October 2013, Barnes & Noble released the

Nook Glowlight The Barnes & Noble Nook (styled nook or NOOK) is a brand of e-readers developed by American book retailer Barnes & Noble, based on the Android platform. The original device was announced in the U.S. in October 2009, and was released the next ...

, which replaced the Simple Touch with Glowlight. The Simple Touch was still sold until late February 2014, when it was discontinued.

Reception

Since its release on 25 May 2011, the Nook Simple Touch has received generally positive reviews. The summary of a '' PC Magazine'' review observed: "Thanks to plenty of upgrades and a laser-sharp focus on the reading experience, the second-gen Barnes & Noble Nook Touch Reader is our new Editors' Choice for ebook readers." ''

Laptop Magazine A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

'' termed it "the best E Ink eReader on the market right now". An MSNBC critic favored the Nook Simple Touch over the Kindle Touch, citing the Nook's superior user interface and an "over two months" battery life versus the Kindle's "up to two months".

Engadget ''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editor ...

initially expressed confusion over the device's name and dubbed the device the "Nook Wi-Fi" in its review.

Use of additional Android applications

As an

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

device, the Nook Simple Touch can be modified to run Android applications (including those obtained via

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...

) through a process called rooting, which grants users

root access In computing, the superuser is a special user account used for system administration. Depending on the operating system (OS), the actual name of this account might be root, administrator, admin or supervisor. In some cases, the actual name of th ...

to the Nook Simple Touch's file system. Doing so voids the device's warranty in some jurisdictions, although it can often be restored to (non-rooted) factory defaults for warranty claims.

Other modifications

The Nook Simple Touch is somewhat limited due to the slow processor and the

E ink E Ink (electronic ink) is a brand of electronic paper (e-paper) display technology commercialized by the E Ink Corporation, which was co-founded in 1997 by MIT undergraduates JD Albert and Barrett Comiskey, MIT Media Lab professor Joseph Jacobson ...

screen. These issues have been overcome via a custom kernel, which overclocks the processor and enables multitouch. The slow refresh rate and flashing screen were overcome by an app called NoRefresh (or Fastmode), which increases refresh rate by reverting to 1-bit depth (black and white, no greyscale). Another limitation has been the lack of audio. The Nook Simple Touch has no external speakers or headphone ports. This has been overcome with more kernel modifications. Various custom

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s (or ROMs) have also been developed, such as the 1337 ROM. These ROMs are similar to the stock OS, but have been modified with several of the tweaks listed above.

References

External links

*
Barnes and Noble Nook Touch on xda-developers
{{Android other Barnes & Noble Android (operating system) devices Dedicated ebook devices Products introduced in 2011 Foxconn

Reception

Use of additional Android applications

Other modifications

See also

References

External links