Installing Android 3.0 on the Nook Color

I just got my Nook Color last night and am looking forward to running Honeycomb from the SD card. They had an entire area in the front of the store with multiple test stations and lots of display space devoted to various covers and other accessories. I opted for the dark polyurethane flip cover with magnetic clasp. Although I think $39.95 is pretty steep for a basic flip cover it does seem well made and well thought out. The cover also doubles as a portrait viewing stand with two positions. There were several sales staff on hand to answer any questions and share stories of how they use the Nook (and how wonderful it is). However, I was misinformed by the staff that the Nook comes with an 8 GB card SD card pre-installed. When I asked to see how to access the card on one of the test units he wasn't able to open the cover since the Nooks in the store are security tethered at the corner. I could have picked up a card at MicroCenter while I was there getting a card reader but figured I'd give it a try with the 8 GB card first before spending the cash for a 16GB card. Lesson learned: trust, but verify.

Other than that (and a stuck pixel that I'm hoping will sort itself out) the purchase experience was pleasant and I was still able to use the Nook's built in web browser to do some reading. It was fairly quick and responsive and despite the limitations seems worth the asking price as-is. Yet it offers the potential for so much more, and notably, without any restrictions. B&N seems perfectly content to sell you the unit for $249 and let you do whatever you want with it, hoping you'll buy a case and few books. Sounds like a fair deal to me and I'll probably buy a few books to throw them some business for being cool. Given Amazon's support for Android with their cloud player and app store I'm surprised that their hardware offerings don't support the platform. I think they're missing the boat on this one.

I'll pick up an SD card this afternoon and hopefully have a capable Android tablet at a bargain price. In the meantime, here's what I'm reading to get prepped:

Download Android 3.0 For Nook Color | TheTechJournal.com

Deeper-blue, the chap who’s been spending the past few days porting the Honeycomb SDK over to the Nook Color has today decided to release his latest work out to eager users and fellow coders. He’s enabled the accelerometer, touchscreen, buttons, graphics acceleration and wireless connectivity.But by the instalation of Android 3.0 Honeycomb the other things like sound remain on the to-do list.

Details: http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/tablet/download-android-3-0-for-nook-color.xhtml#ixzz1J3AKTrQ3

[HOW-TO] Download/Install Honeycomb to Nook Color (SD card)| Android Central

Here's how to get Honeycomb running on your Nook Color right now.

Credit to dev deeper-blue (Rafael Brune) whose thread can be found here: Android 3.0 Honeycomb Image - xda-developers

And some YouTube videos from TechnoBuffalo:
 

Nook Color: Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) Hands On Part1

Nook Color: Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) Hands On Part 2