14 DAY TRIAL // The CyonagenMod team has been working very eagerly on custom builds of the Android operating system from Google, one of which is intended for the Nook Tablet.
There is more than one CyanogenMod software project in development, but the one getting attention this time is the CyanogenMod 7.
Aimed at the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, it is a modified version of the Android 2.3 operating system.
The mod offers several benefits that B&N does not permit by default, for various reasons.
One of the advantages of installing the mod is that owners will have full access to the Google Android Market app store.
Another is that the built-in microphone of the slate will be possible to use for voice input.
Furthermore, the mod makes it possible to use any third-party keyboard applications.
Finally, what is probably the greatest benefit is that owners of the Nook Tablet will no longer have to pull their hairs out at not having enough storage space.
B&N has a rather strange policy in regards to the tablet: only 1 GB of built-in storage is available for user content, while the remaining 15 GB are reserved exclusively for the OS, e-books and whatever apps are normally allowed.
The CyanogenMod 7 frees up 12GB of disk space, which is an immense leap by any standards, enough so that an SD card slot may not even be necessary anymore.
Then again, buyers of the Nook Tablet may want to get a card anyway. While it is easier to just erase the existing OS and install the mod, this procedure voids the warranty and prevents the recovery of the original software.
Making the bootable SD card may be harder, but it keeps the warranty and OS, just in case. People who know their way around this sort of software hacks only need to go to the xda-developers forum thread to read the instructions. If the download links are gone, they should be back eventually.