Nook App Mods, Part 3

Alex Harbuzenko · · android, nook, smali

The original The Daily tool from B&N doesn’t get much use outside the US, on account of the feeds it shows being pretty much useless elsewhere. This project is about modifying The Daily so it can read any RSS feed.
The advantage of this kind of mod over alternative readers (Trook) and web-based aggregators is that you get access to the feeds you actually want in literally two clicks. The app lets you specify any feeds directly in the config file, without needing conversion scripts like in earlier versions.

Setup

The feed list uses a local file, “my documents/feeds.xml”. The file format matches the one B&N uses for its own feeds:

<response>
  <feeds>
    <feed>
      <name>The-eBook forum</name>
      <url>http://www.the-ebook.org/forum/rss.php?f=44</url>
    </feed>
    <feed>
      <name>NookDevs Twitter Feed</name>       <url>http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/94948125.rss</url>
    </feed>
  </feeds>
</response>

Issues and shortcomings

  • support for links and HTML formatting is very limited and there’s little chance of improving it

  • all feeds get loaded in full when the app starts, which takes some time and data

  • feeds like bash.org.ru/rss take an indecently long time to load and format

  • if WiFi was off when the app started, there’s a chance the feeds simply won’t load until the app is restarted

Download links:
http://runserver.net/nook/TheDaily.apk
sample feeds.xml config:
http://runserver.net/nook/feeds.xml
smali source code:
http://runserver.net/nook/Daily.smali.7z

Installation

To install, copy the APK file into the /system/app folder, overwriting the existing The Daily:

adb push TheDaily.apk /system/app

You’ll also need to place the feeds.xml file in the my documents folder on the built-in card

Originally published 2010-09-16.