Table of Contents

I wanted a low-effort epaper weather station, so I got a "Barnes and Noble GlowLight 4e" e-reader. It runs Android, and can have normal apps installed pretty easy.

Get a proper launcher and app store

Info is from here. Steps:

  1. ADB: Get ADB. You can download the portable version here.
  2. Debug mode: On Nook, hit upper right, "all settings", "about", then hit the logo ~10 times to get to the developer panel. Turn on "USB Debugging".
  3. Test ADB: Run "adb devices". The Nook may ask you to authorize. If successful, you should see "List of devices attached", "502…207 device"
  4. Install launcher: Get an APK for a normal Android launcher. I suggest Nova Launcher, and you can get the APK from APKPure. Then just run "adb install <your_apk>".
  5. Reboot: Choose the new launcher when prompted, and hit "always" to make it default. You can get to the old launcher as a regular app from the new one if needed.
  6. Install more: You can install various markets in the same way as the launcher so you can install apps without USB. This includes:
    • F-Droid: Open source stuff
    • APKPure: They also have a store
    • Amazon Appstore: Big catalog, paid stuff
    • NOT RECOMMENDED: Google Play store (apparently it's incredibly fiddly to get working)

FYI, since this is an epaper device, einkbro is a good browser choice. I installed via APKPure's app, since while they have the app as a plain file on their site, it's in a weird xapk format that adb can't eat, but their app can install it directly.

Disable screen timeout

The default settings program doesn't let you turn off the screen timeout, but just set the delay between 2 min and 60 min. Further, for some reason, the developer panel option to disable screen timeout when charging doesn't work.

Using adb over USB, we can get the "real" android settings screen to come up: run "adb shell am start -a android.settings.SETTINGS". (Info from here.)

From there, you can find the screen timeout and set it to "Never".

Alternatives for VERY old readers (e.g. BNRV510)

I got an older original "Nook GlowLight Plus eReader" (model BNRV510), and it struggles with Firefox and most anything.

You can adb install stuff as documented above, but the lanucher and browser referenced are too much. Instead:

Launcher: ReLauncherX from here. Mirror of APK here.

Browser: "Blitz Browser" (hacked up Lightning browser). Specific APK here. Mirror.