Using Aldiko on Kobo Vox, Nook Tablet, and Kindle Fire

The big ebook companies have now released tablet versions of their eReaders. Amazon has the Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble has the Nook Tablet, and Kobo has the Kobo Vox. They are all Android tablets and come with a lot of apps pre-installed. However, unlike normal Android tablets, they don’t have full access to the Android Market. Instead it seems that each company has come up with their own smaller app market, where you can choose from a specific selection of apps.

This is significant because it means that if you bought eBooks from other ebook stores that use Adobes DRM, you wouldn’t be able to open them in the correct app on your tablet (which is usually Aldiko). Aldiko and other ebook apps are, not surprisingly, left out of the pre-approved list of apps. However, it seems that people are already finding easy ways around this.

For one thing, I noticed that on the Aldiko website they will now email you a link to download their app if you sign up. You can see that at http://aldiko.com/download.html. I don’t know for sure, but I think you could use your tablet’s browser to go to the link they send you and download it directly to the tablet. If anyone has tried this, I’d be interested if you could leave a comment and let me know how this worked.

I also saw on the blog Good Reader that they posted a way to get Aldiko on your Kobo Vox. Check that post out at How To Copy eBooks With DRM To The Kobo Vox. Their method involves downloading the app from a link that they have on their website where they host the file. I’m not sure if this is condoned by Aldiko, but they probably don’t care.

On Google+ I found a post from Aldiko saying that you could download the app and sideload it onto your Kindle Fire. There is also this post from a user who says he did it successfully and it was easy.

And to round it out, The Digital Reader has a post saying that the Nook Tablet can run Aldiko in much the same way: by installing it through the browser.

The nice thing about this is that it doesn’t require anything like hacking, and should be easy enough to do even for someone who isn’t a big techno geek. If you are reading this and have installed Aldiko on any of these three devices, please leave a comment with your experience. I think that would be a great help to others who are interested in doing this.

BeBook Live Android Market Firmware Update

I was fortunate to be able to get a testdrive model of the new BeBook Live tablet. The BeBook Live is, overall, a good entry into the tablet market, and more affordable than most others. I will probably write a fuller review later, but for this post I just want to point out a very useful firmware update.

One of the problems with the standard firmware is that it does not include access to the official Android Market from Google. I noticed this right away when I first started using it.

There is now a firmware upgrade available for the BeBook Live that updates the operating system to include the Android Market. You can download it here:

BeBook Live Android Market Firmware Update

That download includes the following instructions, which are very simple –

To get the Android app market on your BeBook Live:

* Unzip the file.
* Put all files on a fat32 formatted micro SD card. Keep the folder structure.
* This means: there should be 1 folder in the root of the SD card, all other files should be in that folder. This folder should be named sdfuse.
* Reboot the BeBook Live.
* Installation will automatically start.

The folder structure on your SD card should look like the image to the left.

After you reboot the tablet, it will automatically update the firmware. This takes a few minutes so just let it complete. You’ll see four green bars appear, which is an indication that the update is working. After it’s finished you’ll have full access to the Android Market on your BeBook Live.

Once you’re done, delete the folder on the SD card. Otherwise it will attempt to update your firmware after every reboot.

Other Android tablets can require a lot of complicated work for this type of update, but this process was very easy. It will be simple even for someone who is not experienced with this type of update. The instructions above explain all that you have to do — basically just copying the downloaded files onto your SD card and then rebooting.

I am really pleased to have found this. It’s basically the firmware that you’d want on this device.