What could be better than listening to music as you read a book? How about listening to music as you surf the web on your nook?

Barnes and Noble’s nook already was capable of playing MP3’s in the background while you read a book, but recently a few nook device owners have hacked it to run the Pandora music application in the background. Pandora is an application that plays music over the Internet without the need to own or store the music locally, which would be required to play it the normal way on the nook ebook reader.

“It wasn’t that hard,” says Robbie Trencheny, a 18-year-old student who is also the team leader at nookDevs, a wiki and an online forum for Nook enthusiasts. “Once we had rooted the Nook (on Sunday), it was only a matter of time until we could put an app on it.”

The nook does not come with an Internet browser, but the nookDevs group has got a browser to run on the nook. This means the nook is capable of browsing the internet once hacked. The team also got an Android twitter client called Tweet, Google Reader and a Facebook application running on the Nook (probably one already developed to run on other Android mobile devices).

The move opens the door to running apps on the e-reader — something that Barnes & Noble does not support officially, but could lead to increased sales. This is a tactic many manufacturers have taken in the past and it has been successful for them to remain hands off, although some, like Apple, have had a heavy hand and so most of their innovation comes from within themselves.

“Rooting” the Nook involves hacking its system files to get full access to the device’s Android operating system. The Nook comes with access to 3G connectivity provided by AT&T that is ostensibly to used for downloading books wirelessly from the Barnes & Noble e-book store. Nook users aren’t charged for the 3G access.

How to Hack the Nook eBook Reader

But unlike jailbreaking Apple’s iPhone, rooting the Nook isn’t just about tinkering with the software. Instead, Nook customers have to adjust the hardware by taking a screwdriver to get to the device’s insides. Nook’s Android OS is on a microSD card that needs to be connected to a computer to change a file on it. Once that’s done, the power of Nook’s Android OS is available to its users.

To run Pandora, Trencheny first searched for the .apk file associated with the app. “It’s a file extension that Android uses and every app has it,” he says. Once that file is wirelessly downloaded onto the 3G-enabled Nook, users have to run a command in the terminal shell of the device. With a few more steps described on the nookDevs wiki, they can get Pandora installed on the Nook.

There are a few more steps to get it operational. The Nook’s touchscreen won’t cooperate with the Pandora app so users have to use a VNC remote control software to get past the app’s initial login screen. Once that’s done, Pandora works perfectly with the Nook touchscreen and can run in the background as you browse books, says Trencheny.

If all that sounds a little rough for someone who just likes to pick up an e-reader and read, then there’s a fix in the works, assures Trencheny. NookDevs is working on creating a software unlock so users won’t have to open up the Nook. They are also trying to open a marketplace just for Nook apps. This is one place where Barnes and Noble might want to intercede or at least beat them to the punch as iTunes marketplace has proven, apps are where the money is.

And while Pandora is the first to make it to the Nook, the procedure for adding other apps is the similar, says Trencheny. “We can run multiple apps if we want to,” he says. This is something even the iPhone can’t do and what gives mobile devices like the Nook who run the Android operating system an advantage. This is what makes the Droid phone even stand a chance against the iPhone.

NookDevs members haven’t heard any complaint, so far, from Barnes & Noble. “We have looked through the end user license agreement and, as far we can tell, there is nothing in there to get us into trouble,” says Trencheny. “We are not abusing the 3G or breaking the DRM rights on the books.” That is good news for technology enthusiasts everywhere.

Read the full story on Wired.