From The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2011:

Move Over, Apple! My Tablet Cost $200

"A lot of people are likely to stand in line to pay $500 or more for Apple's iPad 2 when it goes on sale Friday.

I didn't want to spend $500 for a tablet computer. I didn't even want to spend $400.

So instead I went online and bought a brand-new tablet for a bit less.

The cost? Less than $200 ... and about 20 minutes of my time.

No kidding.

...

I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook Color tablet (for $190 plus tax from a temporary online promotion, down from the usual $250). And then I downloaded a very simple, perfectly legal software fix from the Internet that turned it into a fully functioning tablet running on Google's Android platform. The fix, known as a "rooting," unlocks Barnes & Noble's proprietary overlay. The instructions came via Ars Technica, a reputable site devoted to technology, and were pretty easy to follow."

Balance of article is here, but may require subscription.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=860

My favorite website for Android-related stuff. Link above takes you directly to the Nook forum.

You can access all of the WSJ's content for free using the RefControl extension for Firefox:

http://www.google.com/search?q=refcontrol+wsj

I rooted my Nook Color as well - but there are some limitations. Froyo and other versions were designed for devices with buttons - and the Nook only has power, volume and "N", so you have to use a silly on-screen softkey solution. In Honeycomb that problem doesn't exist.

The Nook Color is selling so well as a regular Android tablet, I'm amazed nobody has built an actual useful tablet to compete with it. The Xoom will retail for around $600, and while its specs do justify it, there is clearly a market for a low cost full feature Android tablet (that isn't an Archos).

Rooted my Pandigital Novel Tablet
Great device considering I only spent 79 bucks for it(after rebate)
works good as an actual reader too

I've rooted my NC. Looking for good apps for travel in the UK and France. For example, London and Paris metro apps...... Thanks.

Wow, it took the WSJ about a month to report this very old story.

As a business person, I feel bad for B&N. They are probably selling this tablet at a loss (or very small margin), so that you buy books from their store. If people are buying the tablet but no books, B&N is getting ripped off.

It may be old news in the tech scene, but this is pretty new stuff to the mainstream media. Papers like the WSJ don't normally report on hacking devices like the NC.

That's a harsh way of looking at it. Buying books is not a condition of the purchase of a Nook Color. I know a few people who bought the Nook Color to access the ebook collection of our local library. I hardly consider them "ripping off" B&N.

There are still plenty of old people that are clueless. My mother is a public school librarian and she recently went to a librarians meeting about the nook color presented by another school's librarian who bought a bunch of them. I asked her if they talked about rooting it and she had no clue what I was talking about. I asked her if they talked about the e-ink nook and she had no clue what I was talking about either. I don't know if it is kosher with the school districts to root, but the issue should be discussed.

Personally I think it is a waste of tax dollars since they barely know how to operate these things let alone use them as instructional tools. At least it is not as bad as the librarian who bought a large number of iPads and then sent out a message on their email list "Purchased x# of iPads.....now what?"