>Barnes & Noble Nook

So I picked up a Nook Color about a week ago. A week later, and about 2347273498724 format c:'s later, I have a full fledged Android tablet that, considering the price (the Nook Color is currently $249ish), is just amazing.

Yes, the iPad is better. Yes, there are better Android tablets...for $800 (Xoom anyone)? But for $250 the nook is a great device *and* I got at least $250 worth out of the journey. Hacking away at it, flashing this and that nightly etc was a riot. I don't think I went to bed before 1 am any night for the last week+ as I played with all the options. The sheer volume of applications out there for the Android is staggering (literally sometimes) and getting it to do just want you want instead of what x company wants you to do with it is right there for the taking.

I ended up my journey, for now, with Gingerbread (CM7) installed on the internal flash. Froyo is a bit faster, and probably more stable, there are a couple rough edges, but I like where it is going. I am sure I will continue to flash the nightlies as they come out.

The wife, after playing with my device for awhile went out and bought one as well. I think I will be putting Froyo on it this weekend. When Honeycomb source comes out and it hits a decently stable spot, I'll be putting it on both of them. Honeycomb is so much more a tablet experience, where Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread feel more like using a phone with a bigger screen.

All in all, very happy with both purchases, highly recommend it for anyone that wants to play around with it. As for the disclaimer though, Android on the nook is not in the same place as it is on some other devices. It isn't something you can give to your grandma and let her run with it, it will probably need at least a bit of TLC now and then.

If you are interested in such things, I would pop over to the XDA forums and check it out.