After some excellent advice from @xaueious on another Forum, I took the plunge last night and purchased the NC from BestBuy, getting a free cover with the deal. (I got the Industriell Easel Cover, but the jury's still out on whether I'll keep it.) Played around with the NC a bit and got this far (observations preceded with **):

Looking forward to any and all replies from this Forum. I know I will learn a lot from you.
melrowgo
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Early adopter of Palm PDAs (Palm Pro through Palm Centro)
Converted to Android (Droid, Droid X)
Loved my Sony Reader until it died; just bought a Nook Color
- charged it fully and went through the Getting Started video
- ** screen clarity and color is much better than I expected. Very impressive
- connected successfully to our home network and registered with B&N
- ** surprised at how much slower web browsing is on NC than Droid X
- ** accessed GMail okay, but it looks like I'll have to get used to the NC window (different from both my laptop (Firefox) and my DroidX)
- ** realized how much I'm looking forward to using my DX apps on my NC!
- upgraded to latest version on B&N, now running 1.1.0
- read through the entire thread on rooting
- downloaded appropriate software for rooting from 1.1.0
- ** the micro USB tip didn't seem to connect properly to the NC; I had trouble getting it to go all the way in
- had to stop because I didn't have a microSD adapter
- read about adding a custom ROM, but I'm not understanding the purpose of this yet
- looked at info about flashing Nookie Froyo or Honeycomb to the NC. Not sure which is best to do
- ported my library of eBooks from my laptop to the NC and was able to open them
- ** still having problems with the USB tip "seating" or connection properly. Seems to be getting worse
- ** I like the way the easel cover lets me keep the NC sitting upright for reading or to refer to, but when I'm using the NC in landscape mode, the cover flap seems to move under my hands quite a bit
- ** the "flick" scrolling on the NC is much slower than my DX. Can this be modified?
- ** touch-typing on the NC keyboard was okay, tho it was a bit strange to be looking down on the screen while I was typing on it. Are there other virtual keyboards that one can run besides the stock one, perhaps similar to the one on the DX? Also, I know there are external keyboards that hook into the iPad, effectively making it into a laptop. Is it possible that something like that could be developed for the NC, either tethered or via Bluetooth? I actually have an old IR mini keyboard that I used with a Palm that would be perfect size-wise, but the NC doesn't have an IR
- tested another microUSB tip in the port to see if it was a problem with the port or the tip, and decided it's a little of both. My other tip goes into the port a little better than the NC tip but it's still stiff, and the NC tip is a little trickier to get into my DX. Maybe it's just the nature of the beast, so to speak, but I'm a little leery to go through the whole rooting process and then find out the USB is faulty...
- ** was surprised to find that the NC will only charge while plugged into a wall, not a computer. Any ideas why? Also noted that it won't charge using the microUSB I have for my DX. Its battery status changes from "discharging" to "not charging", so I know it recognizes that it's been plugged in to the wall, but it will not charge.
Looking forward to any and all replies from this Forum. I know I will learn a lot from you.
melrowgo
______________________________________________________
Early adopter of Palm PDAs (Palm Pro through Palm Centro)
Converted to Android (Droid, Droid X)
Loved my Sony Reader until it died; just bought a Nook Color