A Use for Surplus Technology

A little while ago Barnes and Noble realised that nobody was buying their ereaders and so they went on an aggressive price-cutting spree in an attempt to get people to buy them and then spend money in their ebook shop. Their basic model (Nook Simple Touch) was cut to £29 and as it had physical buttons and an SD slot I impulse-bought one after a rapid lunchtime run to John Lewis.

It's nice enough and all, but the physical buttons aren't really clicky enough for me. Better than nothing, of course, but really a bit of a let-down. As was the B&N shop itself, it's not particularly easy to find much, pretty ropey set of freebies on there and so I ended up not really using it as a book reader - possibly due to already owning two other ereaders. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Of course, that's not the whole story. NO WAY.

You see, it turns out that the Nook Simple Touch runs Android - the famous mobile operating system. One of the defining aspects of this operating system is its openness and ability to be customised fully. This is typically done via 'root' access which grants access to the deeper recesses of the file system and lets you do special stuff (including breaking it but I'm not going to do that).

So, it's runs Android and can be rooted. This required further investigation. Following this guide here:

http://www.babblingengineer.com/how-to/how-i-turned-my-nook-into-an-e-reader-monster/

I installed root access, a fresh launcher to bypass the Nook software and the Google Play Market to get at my Android apps. Basically the process is:

• Download a thing.
• Write an image of that thing onto a microSD card.
• Put card in Nook.
• Boot.
• Press the button which says 'Root'.

In a nutshell. That was all fine and snazzy and fully engaged me for a good chunk of evening but then I put it in my bag and did very little else with it. A couple of weeks later, an idea occurred to me:

WHAT ABOUT MAKING IT INTO A KITCHEN COMPUTER AND FRIDGE AND FREEZER AND OTHER SUPPLIES MONITOR

With wifi connectivity at home and certain Android apps ability to sync with each other I could have it next to the fridge with a list of general supplies which could be ticked off when we need to buy more. Then when we are in a shop we could consult our phones and see what we need to pick up. But then, even better,

WHAT ABOUT MOUNTING IT ON THE FRIDGE WITH MAGNETS

Even better indeed. So, after some reading it looks like 'rare earth' neodymium magnets are the way to go as they are extremely strong for their size. There's not all that many sources for these but the Magnet Expert sells on Amazon and I got these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0022BPXES/ref=pe_217191_31005151_M3T1_dp_1

They are 20x6x1.5mm magnets with a sticky backing. Just the thing for sticking a Nook on the fridge.

They arrived promptly and even had a safety leaflet inside. This also mentioned that you shouldn't let them go to snap together with force, snap and then return them claiming they were broken in the post which seems fair enough.

I first tried to cut a slit into the Nook cover to insert the magnets inside it but I was foiled by the inverse square law - they were too far from the from the surface to have enough pull. So I stuck a load around the outside of it:

You can see that the left edge has two. The inner one is to solve the problem of the crappy case not holding the Nook very well - it flops about. I stuck two magnets to the back of it as a brace and that inner-left magnet provides enough force to keep it more securely stuck. It's also extra force for on the fridge and it sticks very securely now.

That's as far as I've gotten for now. Stay tuned for more.