Essential Apps for eBooks / eInk Reading Devices

There are many, many app lists out there for Andorid, but there are hardly any focussing on Android eink readers, such as the rooted Nooks. The following apps have been tested to work well on the Nook Simple Touch.
If you want to check if there's anything new here: aard dict, Cool Reader, Dropbox, Wifi Web Login, Simplistic Timer, Instafetch, NoRefreshToggle, Anki Droid, Dict.cc, gReader, Rotation Locker, RealCalc, K9, Kindle, Android VNC.

Aard Dictionary (Wikipedia offline reader)
An offline reader that doesn't only let you read dictionaries, but is the best offline Wikipedia reader for Android. The current full offline English version of Wikipedia is about 10.7 GB, other languages are significantly smaller, e.g. German 3.5 G. For this space you get a huge part of the knowledge of our modern society, anytime and anywhere without Internet. I found this very helpful sometimes when travelling, e.g. to read a thorough city description or - quite often - to still a sudden thirst for knowledge. And the great thing is that not only is eink supported, but the app generally responds, really, really snappy and is fast and well-written.

Cool Reader
Supporting the Nook's special page turn modes without flicker, it's arguably the best alternative to the built-in reader. And as it supports features such as exporting bookmarks and selections to a text file (much like the Kindle does out of the box), it's very nice for DRM-free epubs. It's extremely configurable. It also has TTS support, for other devices. The developer also responds nicely to support requests. You can donate by buying the donate apps.

Dropbox
Obviously, to easily move your files anywhere with Internet.

Hotspot web login
Logs you into free hotpots of McDonalds, etc. E.g. Free Zone Wifi, WeFi. Wifi Web Login can be adapted to work automatically with most websites.

Simplistic Timer
Specially developer for the Nook. Let's you read without fear while the lasagna is in the oven.

Android VNC
For anything you can't do on your eink device -- just do it on your computer and control it via your reader.

Opera Mini
A very fast, low-resource browser - perfect for your reader. Unfortunately I haven't found a browser without flashing page turns. The newer versions don't work on the Nook, though, so I recommend Opera Mobile instead.

Amazon Kindle
Sometimes books are a lot cheaper for the Kindle, or only available there. Or you have already bought them there. This is your help. It has flashing for every page turn, but thne youre still not worse off then with the original Kindle. ;)

InstaFetch for offline InstaPaper
I had a Kindle first and loved Instapaper.com. Then I found this app, which works quite well on the Nook.

K9 Mail
If you ever want to send an idea, of e.g. a quote from a book via CoolReader, directly to someone via email.

Rotation Locker
If you want to try out an app in landscape mode, as the readers usually don't have an internal orientation sensor.

gReader, Mirrored, etc.
For offline news reading according to your preferences.

RealCalc
The devices work extremely well as a fancy calculator. And with their price and flexibility, I'd rather buy an ebook than a calculator anytime.

NoRefreshToggleDisable the black flashes and switch into a fast display mode. If you've ever seen the video where people play Angry Birds on the Nook, this is how the did it. For multi-touch, you need more effort.

Anki Droid
A great efficient flash card learning software, with free syncing between computer and Android. And you can not only learn, but also create new cards on the Android app. Very nice.

Dict.cc Offline Dictionary
It has the largest dictionaries for e.g. German-English, German-Italian, etc. A version without ads is available. But if you're offline, there are no ads anyway. ;)

More Ideas can be found in this wiki for the Sony reader.

What's still missing?
  • A eink compatible browser - one that shows website content page by page using the page buttons and disabling the flashing. Maxthon Browser actually works rather well combined with the "black" theme. But it doesn't support the Nook's page buttons. Maybe that's possible via plugin though.
  • Games that really work well. Sudoku probably already does.

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