The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet might be getting all the attention from the tech blogs, what with the ongoing hacking efforts and all, but those tablets aren’t the only ones getting attention from hackers.
It’s not getting much attention, but the Vox was hacked some time ago.
There’s been an ongoing discussion over on XDA Forums where a few Vox owners have gotten together. They’ve been sharing tips about what they’ve tried and didn’t work with the Vox hacks.
I didn’t notice at the time, but about a month ago the Vox was successfully hacked and rooted. It’s now a full Android tablet with the Google apps it didn’t have before as well as Android Market. That’s a marked step up for the Vox, which shipped with GetJar, a much smaller app store.
The Vox shipped in late October, so it only took a few weeks before this hack was developed. That’s a lot longer than it took to root and install Android Market on the NT, but at least it’s in the same ballpark.
Unlike the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet, fiddling around with the Vox is not nearly as popular among hackers, and that means the process isn’t as easy. With the KF, all you have to do is run a single app, but with the Vox you still have to install apps individually and tweak settings by hand. It’s been at that point for over a month, and it’s not for the faint of heart. Plus I’m not sure that will change. The Vox clearly isn’t as popular as the KF or NT. The other 2 tablets have their own forums over at XDA Forums as well as hordes of eager hackers working on them. The Vox has just the one discussion thread.
I wonder if we could estimate the market success from the amount of hacking activity? I hope not. That would suggest that the Vox is in a distant third place to the other tablets. Given the year or more of development costs that Kobo sunk into the Vox, I’m not sure they’re making a lot of money off this tablet.
P.S. If anyone has hacked their Vox, please post some photos. I’d like to see what it looks like.
via XDA Forums
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You can’t even find a Vox in a store in the US. It is only available online unless you go to New York where it’s available at the Kobo Kiosk. So it is going to be hard to compete when you can walk into numerous stores and buy the Nook Tablet or Kindle Fire.
Good point. I hadn’t noticed until you mentioned it, but not even BB or Walmart have Kobo on display anymore. And BB even has a couple Pandigital tablets on display, but not Kobo.
I wonder if the retailers weren’t seeing the sales that they wanted from Kobo? Perhaps Pandigital outbid them for the display space?
You can root the Kobo Vox $200 tablet, run the Android Market - Liliputing // Dec 26, 2011 at 3:02 pm
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Root e Market Google anche su Kobo Vox - Netbook News // Dec 28, 2011 at 6:49 am
[...] su xda-developers. Qualcuno di voi possiede un Kobo Vox? Avete già provato queste modifiche?Via: the-digital-readerTags:Accesso root hack kobo Kobo Vox Tablet Tablet Android Follow @netbooknewsit Correlati 21 [...]
It is not necessary to “root” your Vox to get root access. Just use USB debugging via adb found in Android Developers SDK (http://developer.android.com/index.html). This is easiest from a *inux system as you can use the stock USB drivers. If on Windows, use VMware Player to host a Ubuntu desktop. Instructions for setting up the USB params can also be found on the XDA site.
Hi Terry is there a way you can help me get access to the android market on mine? you seem to know a simple way to do it I just don’t understand it considering I am not a developer..