Rooting a Nook

I am the happy owner of a Nook Simple Touch. I love how compact and portable it is. The battery lasts for weeks, and reading on the E-Ink screen is a joy. It is a wonderful product.

This post is about a way to make it just a bit better. The Nook operating system is Android 2.1, but it is completely locked down into the pre-installed apps. By rooting the device, you can open it up for customization.

There are several benefits to rooting the Nook:

1. You can install other apps using NTGAppsAttack. Lifehacker.com has a post which lists several useful apps.  
2. You can install a reader app that lets you view many different eBook formats. 
3. You can rotate the screen orientation. 
4. You can reassign what the different buttons do. 
5. You can make many other tweaks to customize the interface. 

The instructions I followed are posted on the Babbling Engineer blog. 

The method uses NookManager, a tool which makes it very easy. 

Following their instructions worked perfectly. I have very little to add about the process. I am very happy with my rooted Nook, and would recommend others to try it!