Tech Tuesday: My Nook Tablet

Ruth of Ruth's Genealogy wrote recently about turning her IPad 2 into a lean mean genealogy machine and reading her post encouraged me to review how I use my Nook Color.

I purchased a Nook Color over a year ago after losing my original Nook while traveling.  Since I enjoyed using the Nook so much for reading, I decided to move to the Nook Color as a replacement.  I had also heard about using a N2A card to turn the Nook Color into an android tablet.  I got the Nook Color the day after I lost my original Nook and then I went online and ordered a N2A card. It took about 3 days for the card to come.

I've had the converted Nook Color for about a year now and I love using it for everything away from home.  I take it with when I go to the genealogy room at the library and when I go to a Family Search Center for research. The N2A card is the gingerbread version of android (v 2.3.7) and allows me to install android apps at little or no cost.  I have Ancestry.com,  Families ( a mobile version of Legacy Family Tree) and My Heritage for genealogy.  I have also loaded the Kindle, BN, and Overdrive reader apps to I am never without a book.    I even downloaded the syllabus for the genealogy cruise I took last spring and was able to take notes and highlight the lectures.  For notes I use Evernote which syncs with my laptop and phone.  Using Dropbox and Google Docs lets me access all of my files and they are also synced automatically.  For printing I use the Google cloud app.  Supposedly with the google cloud app for printing I can print to my home printer from anywhere but I have yet to test that.  The only things missing from my tablet are a camera and a scanner but both of those are present on my android phone.  I have an entire traveling office that fits in my purse.  The extra bonus is that the Nook Color weighs less than a pound.

After a year I am not sorry I chose to go with a Nook Color and a N2A card to create my tablet.  Then the cost worked out to $300.00 now the same set-up would be less than $200.00.  The extra bonus is that if my nook color dies, I can just move theN2A card to a new nook color (currently $139.00)