Yesterday, the consumer preview of Windows 8 hit the streets. I haven’t downloaded it. I’m mildly curious, but have a number of things higher on my priority list. Being a late adopter of Windows versions serves me well more often than not anyway.
I found something else yesterday that I find a lot more interesting: An e-ink Android tablet. Humor me.
As it turns out, the $99 Nook Simple Touch runs Android 2.1. So like the Nook Color, it can be turned into a cheap Android tablet.
As an Android tablet, you can still read books using various e-reader apps. But you can also do other things with it, like run a web browser and read e-mail. If e-ink is easier on the eyes than an LCD, then reading text-heavy web pages and e-mail will be nice on e-ink too. You’ll just lose the color, which, when it comes to e-mail, is usually a blessing anyway. (It’s been a decade since someone sent me a message in blue text with a purple background, but that isn’t long enough.)
The 800 MHz CPU, half the memory of a Nook Color, and e-ink screen will make for a lousy Angry Birds experience, but for text-heavy tasks, it sounds like something worth a look. It’ll probably be summer before I get that chance–I haven’t touched my modded Nook Color in months either–but I think I’m interested. Especially if I spot a deal on a refurb.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.