Nook Color - Good Tablet for a 7 Year Old?

[bbalak]

I have a 7 year old daughter who is a voracious reader. She also happens to be an Angry Birds addict. She has been asking for an iPod Touch, or an iPad since I am constantly telling her she can't use my phone to play games. I think $600 is obviously a lot of money for just playing games and watching videos, so the Xoom or iPad is out. The 8GB iPod Touch is in the price range I'm willing to spend, but I don't like the fact that she can pretty much only use it for games, and there is a camera on it. I think the Nook Color may be the solution I'm looking for, since I currently have enough AMEX reward points to get one for her. Does the Nook Color play video files in the stock configuration, or does it need to be rooted to do this? I really like the children's book features that B&N offer, and it looks like this device will grow with her reading interests. Does anyone know if the B&N Nook app offers the illustrated children's books on other tablets, such as my Xoom? Does the Nook Color have full access to the Android Market, or just some apps?

Thanks!

 

[melt2sk8]

Hi bbalak -

You don't have to "root" to get Android apps. You can run Android off of an SD card (I'm using an 8G card I got at Walmart) then power down Nookie, remove the card and when you turn Nookie back on, it will be the "stock" B&N reader. Sort of like having your cake and eating it, too.

Link for the voracious reader in us all (free ebooks!) Project Gutenberg - free ebooks online download for iPad, Kindle, Nook, Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, Sony Reader

 

[mrdunn]

I have 9 Grandchildren ages 3 to 17, and the ones in the 3 to 10 group love my nook Color. I run CM7 off of a SD card with a dual boot, so it can boot into the regular nook or the CM7 which gives you Android market, it is easy to use, and has 3 versions of free Angry Birds to a certain level. One of their favorite games, other than Angry Birds, is The Elements, a game in which you chose various elements and see how they interact.

 

[bbalak]

Sounds like this is the perfect solution!

Thanks!

 

[danperde]

You don't need a dual boot option since you can get angry birds from barns'n nobles. It's in their app list. Also, the kids books (interactive ones) are running only on Nook stock, they don't work on the Nook app for other devices. I have a 7 year old girl, like you do, and the stock Nook is perfect for her. The stock software is very intuitive for her and you can find apps in the Nook store (limited selection for now and mostly paid, it's true). And it also plays videos (mp4). I use Handbrake on my PC to convert the dvd's in mp4 format and they work flawlessly on Nook.

 

[eric6052]

My 4 year old likes to play with my Nook Color and my iPod touch. The Nook is rooted and has the market so he likes to watch his shows on you tube and play emulators. There really is alot more to the iPod touch than games. It your child and your call but if I were picking one I would go with the iPod touch based on the the versatility factor and its smaller size.

 

[mrdunn]

You don't need a dual boot option...

Absolutely correct. But by having a dual boot CM7 and stock BN nook color, you can have much more. Many free games, including a number of different Angry Birds and my almost 7 year old grandchild's favorite, The Elements ( The Elements - Android app on AppBrain ) , a truly amazing educational game. It is so easy to have both (took me about 1/2 hour following the forums directions), and the microSD card is only about $25 at newegg, etc. Look at the forums on how to do it, I use a 16G adata 10 and it works perfectly; I don't see any speed difference between the card and stock. And to get the free book on Friday, you can easily boot into stock. Or if you don't want to dual boot, just remove the card and reboot into stock.