Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Thanks. Will try this out. Still a bit torn between flashing and just finding a way to fix the faulty battery metre. Mainly because I have invested so much time in Drag Racing and upgraded all my favourite cars to the maximum and I doubt a back up and restore would maintain my stats and upgrades.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Also, dude! What happened to your car?

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Why wouldn't it? As long as you Titanium Backed up all your apps and data, you should be able to restore the app and restore the data (and the SD card should hold whatever extra data the app might use on an SD, if it even uses any at all, between re-imaging). But, ultimately, this is your gamble so I don't blame you for being paranoid and you should do it only when you feel okay with it. I'm the same way and it took me this long to gather up the courage to re-image my tablet despite all the recklessness on my Droid now that I'm VERY comfortable ruining it and building it right back up again repeatedly. :)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Graduated, got a job, moved out. Gave it to mum. That's what I'll be driving next week when they've sorted the paperwork out.

I'm going to be relying on that car for 4 years until graduate MBBS. If I can win the defence force scholarship, I should be able to buy a decent sporty car at the end of the 4 years, something like a low-model/used Porsche is what I had in mind but probably will end up with a Ford Focus XR5 Turbo (compact outside, spacious inside, lots of thrill under the hood).

edit: Australia. Here cars are Right-Hand-Side steering and drive on the LHS of the road like in Japan/UK/Asia.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

No no... I mean.. somebody put the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car! ;) (Where are you?) heheh Also, I dig (love, really) tiny cars that are well done. I never liked the focus for YEARS but I have to admit that these latest model of the Focus are pretty nice. Here's hoping the best to you, then! :)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Hey guys I'm considering getting an HTC Flyer after seeing the universally favorable reviews and the pen support looks nice. I'm curious because the Amazon version is slightly more expensive, I'm curious does the one sold at Amazon include the magic pen, because it seems as if only Best Buy is selling the flyer without the pen.
http://www.amazon.com/HTC-Flyer-Andr...9147628&sr=1-2

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

It's in the description so I'd assume it does come with it. It does not mention it as sold separately, which by law they must tell you. so it's safe to assume that it does.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Thanks that really helps me with my decision.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Somebody at XDA-devs found out the HTC Flyer can use a regular Fujistu Stylus being as Fujistu Tablet PC's have the same N-Trig tech and the same aaaa battery operated stylus. So rather than spending 80 dollars spend 25 dollars.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1122541

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

I really feel like Google dropped the ball with Honeycomb.
Not only was it unpolished, late, and lacked some features (portrait mode/support 7" size) ... the official hardware was mediocre (the XOOM).
And I they missed a nice opportunity when they left out A-Digitizer support from the official product/SDK.

BTW I'm still hunting for the best (cost wise) tablet that's 7" size but preferably 8.9".

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

My S2 does it out of the box as well. In addition it has something called action mode. Which basically tracks the moving object in the frame and takes a series of pictures which it then knits together to make a panorama of the "action". Once I figured out what the hell it was I got some really amazing (and kinda freaky) pics with it.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

The HTC Flyer seems really nice the ui and physical design are really nice, the pen feature seems very well implemented, and the 7 inch form factor seems ideal.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

I recently played with one. I agree about the 7-inch form factor and the pen feature (though it might be a fad the way they've implemented it? Maybe?) I'm kind of "meh" on the physical design (it looks a little on the cheap side for physical appearances) and the interface felt a little lacking to me. It felt like a consolation prize for not getting Honeycomb--but that's not to say it was bad. I'm just not sure I liked it better than, say, LauncherPro on my Galaxy Tab.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Dan, I'm going to root my tab because I'm just sure it shouldn't run this sluggish. Sometimes it can struggle with Angry Birds which can't be right!

The point is, and apologies because you have probably mentioned it before, What did you use to root it and what did you put on after?

If this doesn't work I may be forced to get rid because my Sensation has shown me how a phone can run. (Oh so sweet)

But I do like my seven inches.;)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

P.S. Sweet hotdog slush! Where's the Capt'n buggered off to?:eek:

Fare thee well, Capt'n.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

I hightly recommend rooting anyway. :) I used z4root, myself. Easy peasy! One-tap rooty! I only just restored back to stock--I don't trust any of the ROMs out there yet, since they're all in alpha (or even worse) state right now. Although, for your sluggishness, have you looked into what's causing it? Eliminating the root cause might be better than flashing a new ROM.

Slow downs often happen when there's apps competing for memory at the same time in a multitasking OS like Android, and memory management isn't always optimal by default. You can manually free up unused memory by holding down the HOME key, tapping on the task manager, go to the RAM manager tab, select level 1 and 2 and tap 'clear memory'. Not a GREAT solution, but just something to try out to help narrow down the cause.

If you're going to be rooted, be sure to check out V6 SuperCharger--it might help speed things right up by providing better automated memory management settings for the OS.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

I rooted my Transformer and installed ROM PRIME! 1.5 yesterday.

This thing is smooth!!! And it's not even overclocked... yet :D

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Well design is a matter of personal taste and preference, but personally I thinks its gorgeous. Unlike the Galaxy tab the HTC Flyer isn't made of cheap plastic it made of very durable aluminium and it gives the device a professional feeling rather than feeling like a cheap toy like the Galaxy Tab and Archos tablets do with their thin plastic design, sure the aluminum ads a good deal of heft and weight but the heft and weight gives the device a feeling of quality. The interface is nice and unlike the Galaxy Tab it doesn't look so cartoonish and it isn't laggy at all and if you want LauncherPro just install it. The average user will appreciate the HTC Flyer more because it's firmware isn't as buggy as that Samsung's is. Also about Honeycomb, I tried several Honeycomb tablets at Staples and they all crashed on me and the HTC Flyer when I tried it out didn't crash on me once. HTC quotes the battery life of the HTC flyer s 6 hours when it actually get 8-10 hours of battery life which is excellent for any kind of mobile device. I'm not going to get the HTC flyer quite yet but I will save up for it and by the time I'm done saving for it, the device will be much cheaper and there will be other interesting devices like the Sony S2.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

I am running Qole's easy debian image on the galaxy tab. Work in progress on the mount - chroot - umount scripts; just taking bits of code from other people who did the same.
The vnc client I'm using to provide X is particularly good and has easy on-screen choice of mouse left/right keys, kbd, panning and zooming and is free for 1 remote connection: http://market.android.com/details?id...ocketcloudfree
Heartily adviced. I wish the open source client were so easy to operate.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

This sounds remarkable! While Debian has been installed on the Galaxy Tab before, has there been work on compiling programs like open office, or wxmaxima to run on the GT for example? Just like one would obtain from debian repositories for arm to run on n900. It would be interesting to compare performance. Actaully there is a GT with Dual Core Tegra 2 processor and Arm Cortex 8 (same as n9?). Is yours the latter?

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

I don't know of native ports of such biggies, but I can witness that openoffice works like on the n900 - you wait some dozens of seconds until it gets completely started, then is usable.
I'm using a first-generation, 7" tab BTW, and debian speed is comfortable.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Hate. :p

I prefer the "cheap" plastic feel as long as it is durable in practice and well built. So far, I've dropped my Galaxy Tab a LOT LOT more than I'd normally like to admit and most people don't even realize it until I point out the barely noticeable nicks on the rounded edges of the device from all the drops. So far, so good! I'd rather have something VERY lightweight with malleable durability than something heavy and more likely to transfer the shock to internal components. But, as you pointed out, that's my preference.. and I'm THANKFUL for the Android ecosystem where we can each get what we want instead of the one-device-a-year (or worse) that I've had to endure with Maemo so far. (Can you feel the disappointment over wasted opportunity?) On the cartoonishly large icons/fonts--I agree. Although, I've fixed that by adjusting the ro.sf.lcd_density property in my /system/build.prop file to 180 (which makes it REALLY attractive and useful). I'm not sure why Samsung preferred to goof it all up at 240. Stupid, but thankfully easy to fix on ANY Android device. For that matter, LauncherPro has always worked on my Galaxy Tab--even in default firmware, even before rooting. I'm not sure where LauncherPro is an argument point for or against either device. Buggy--I'll give it to you there, though, at least on Android 2.2. It's incredible that Samsung isn't updating the firmware on their devices more often. Motorola is ALWAYS updating/fixing their devices, to their credit. I always liked it when I got updates that made things better/faster/more reliable on my Android and they're STILL doing as much on the Xoom (even though I'm not a fan of the Xoom hardware).

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Heh...

TAG Heuer Releases The Worlds Most Unneeded Piece Of Android Technology
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/28...id-technology/

http://www.droid-life.com/wp-content...or-590x600.jpg
God! Can you possibly make your phone look any more ghetto pimp than this style? It looks like all of the worst, ugliest urban ghetto SUV's I've ever seen. >.<

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Thanks Dan.

The RAM manager has become my second home of late.

I suppose because I have become used to my Sensation that the tab will seem a little slow. My main problem is that if you try to make a few quick presses on icons or the web it doesn't like it and spits you out to the home screen. Perhaps a little more patience is the key?

I also had an update last week, which I think was an old one, but it would be nice to go to gingerbread although that still seems a while off yet!

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Care to share? I've booted Ubuntu on my Vibrant, but it won't (or I can't get it to) work on my S7. I'd love to give easy debian a shot on either.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

i'm not familliar with android so i just want to ask something. is the current software (froyo/ gingerbread) and apps (esp. adobe flash) able to harnest the full potential of dual-core processors now?

i want to import a sharp 007sh but it's only a 2nd gen single core snapdragon. not the best design but it's so cool to be the only one with a clamshell plus a 16mp camera android phone in the pool of generic design android devices...

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

I don't think anything in android so far harnesses A9 processors, especially adobe flash. Your phone should run as fast as any dualcore Android device for nearly everything*.

In android devices the biggest ever bottleneck (I believe) is actually unoptimized software, but things are beginning to look differently with 2.3.4 and 3.1 so that may not hold true in the near future.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Well girls, after a long internal-mortal-kombat, I've made the plunge to Android.

No, I didn't go all-in with some mind-blowing dual-core monster, but picked up instead a more timid and maybe already EOL, HTC G2 on eBay, for $330.

Plan is to go prepaid with T-Mo, as I've been unshackled from the evil carrier grips for good part of 3 years already.

So, the menu du jour would then be:

1. manual rooting (I guess no 'z4root' for G2)
2. cyanogenmod
3. overclock ( I suppose this might not be as necessary as I've come to expect with my N900)
4. the usual suspects: file manager, terminal emulator, SSH, a few web browser alternatives...
5. Ubuntu / ? dualboot
...
Any additional mods I must-do-before-making-first-call?

I'm actually cautiously excited, though not so much for to the G2's aging hardware, other than its keyboard (take that N9), but mainly for the plethora of useful apps (no, I could care less about games and cool ***** to impress your iPhonista friendz) vibrant community (though I find "I-needz-some-appz" fairly often on xda forums, so not just a TMO phenomenon) and compatibility: seamless google integration - yes, I'm falling deeper and deeper in the rabbit hole with gmail, gtalk, gdocs, greader, gmaps etc.

Plus one single application I'll use every-freakin'-moment-of-the-day: a citrix-based app for a jurassic SABRE-software/system that our beloved airline refuses to upgrade (we still use matrix printers for flight releases :)). First mobile access was available only on WinMo 6.5, later on of course for iPhone, and finally Android. Jealously I watched my co-workers tap away with their devices as I was waiting for Iceweasel to load under Easy Debian, and then logging on through Iceweasel's Java capabilities (once again, thank you qole!). I have to say, based on my daily use of said system, a mobile device capable of accessing SABRE effortlessly is worth my $300 alone :)

Meanwhile I'll probably take the N900 and go dabble with MeeGo again, while eagerly awaiting the final N9 verdict: sink or swim.

So no, I ain't leaving this place any time soon :)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

It's a shame that the default image for the Galaxy Tab makes that RAM manager necessary. You certainly will enjoy V6 SuperCharger, I think! :)

Are you using the built-in browser? I don't have this problem with Dolphin, which is what I use instead of the built-in browser (which I dislike a lot!). If nothing else, I HIGHLY recommend either Dolphin or Opera. Opera is fast-as-lightning on the Galaxy Tab and works great!

Yeah--I keep checking, but I don't see the promised Gingerbread update (or even any more talk about it from Samsung). I'm very, very disappointed and angry at Samsung over that. I've been running Gingerbread on my ancient little Droid for MONTHS now--why is my tablet waiting??

Well, little lady... welcome to the Android Army! :) I hope we can help you get the most out of it, coming from Maemo like we did.

What are you complaining about? I'm still happily hacking/using my Motorola Droid--quickly nearly 2 years old in a few months--and it's working more than fast enough for everything except the most demanding video games. :)

Seems to be a good plan to me. You might throw in V6 Supercharger in there somewhere (maybe after CyanogenMod gets flashed on there).

Beyond that... ENJOY! :)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Welcome to the party frostbyte, I think you'll find it an enjoyable stay.

Finally updated my Samsung Vibrant to Gingerbread on Monday. I had been holding off as up to about two weeks ago, none of the gb roms had GPS working. The GPS is still finicky, but it works. Still waiting for Samsung to put out an upgrade. The current roms are all hacked up from other bits and pieces of other Galaxy S roms. Apparently the Galaxy S line doesn't have the same hardware across the board.

It should get better if Samsung ever releases (or leaks) and official version of gb for it.

I don't see many obvious differences between froyo and gingerbread, but haven't played with it too much. One nice thing is that Netflix now works, and works pretty well too boot.

Still waiting for a nice 7" to replace my S7.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Sorry, trying my best not to wrap myself around the spec-sheet arms race... Fortunately, to satisfy my hunger for more powaaa, G2's 512MB RAM ain't bad and an OC of 1.2-1.5MHz might just be my cup of tea :)

That's what my quick browse around the interwebz resulted as well: more under-the-hood "clean-up" on Gingerbread than anything else.

So this flashing the ROM thing, I can't just freely pick up let's say the latest 2.3 instead of my stock 2.2; modules will not be working, OS is not optified etc. sort of like our fine devels on the NITDroid side have been filing on their changelogs?

Or on one device the new ROM works perfectly, but due to hardware incompatibility it might not work on another (HTC vs Samsung vs Moto)?

Sorry for the noob questions, I've been under Nokia (Symbian and Maemo) for the last 7 years...



edit: I guess what I meant to say wrt flashing ROM is I'm probably better off waiting for a stable release/RC instead of my typical mode of action of diving in on the latest nightly or alpha...

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Thankfully, the Android side experiences very little "arms race" since the ARM's tend to be very efficient even at low MHz. (Har har) I think people are far more about what the hardware can support and DO than about how fast it can do it, most of the time, since the OS seems to run surprisingly well even on low MHz devices so long as you have enough RAM. RAM and memory management seems to be the only REAL problem and most of that is conditioned VERY well with the V6 Supercharger or with newer versions of Android (i.e. 2.3.4 is GREAT for battery, task and memory management).

Yup--most of the 2.x updates have almost entirely been under-the-hood, but MAN you can definitely notice and feel the difference from one version to the next, despite the visual/UI similarities.

Not entirely sure what you mean, but every device has to have firmware made for it individually. Just as you can't run Maemo 5 on an N8x0 device, and you can't use N8x0's OS2008 on an N900. You need to compile the firmware to handle each device. Additionally, Android (and the Dalvik virtual machine) run on MANY different processors--so you also have to target your ROM build for those different architectures altogether. Thankfully, once you get all the ROM stuff out of the way, the apps should generally run without regard for any of that because of the virtual machine running on that platform.

I'm very thankful to my past-self for not hanging on Nokia's numerous promises. :) You certainly COULD be forgiven and it's understandable--but, especially in this thread, you're among like-minded ex-Maemo (or still current-Maemo) users who can relate. Don't apologize. :)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Thanks that clarified it.

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

No problem at all! On that note, though, I took a quick look and you're VERY well supported for CyanogenMod ROM: http://www.cyanogenmod.com/devices/t-mobile-g2 There's stable release up to 7.0.3. :) Go forth and ROMify! :)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Also interesting comparisons of the HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Tab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0vTx8kA4xU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rypxz7J-OZw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zJ30...eature=related

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Don't be hating Dan. :D

Remember the only thing I had to complain about the Transformer?
Left speaker volume way lower than the Right.

Finally fixed it last night by just editing a few values on the srs_processing.cfg file :D

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

So. Much. Hate. I will get back at you by buying one of these whenever Best Buy gets them back in stock, you lousy cork sucker!! Grr! ;)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Yes, the thing is quite a work-in-progress, however I'm going to upload my image and scripts somewhere in the weekend if someone wants to experiment with my present setup.

I have to thoroughly go through Qole's scripts for Easy Debian, which are much more advanced than the stuff that's available for Android; I don't want to run as root like in all gnu-linux distros hacked onto Android devices, and I wish to find a way to run the mount & chrooting script, and the vnc client, all from the same command/icon.

In the meantime, I have upgraded my and wife's (and her brother's) Tab to Gingerbread by kies, and rooted them by flashing a tweaked kernel like described in http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/...3-gingerbread/. Neither Z4root nor SuperOneClick work with this firmware release.
This also adds Clockworkmod (which couldn't be installed with Rom Manager on European Tabs) and a bunch of configurable kernel tweaks which remind me of Swappolube :)

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/...showdown/all/1

Funny how Wired didn't even include IMHO the best tablet available now, the Asus Transformer.

I even ran the Sunspider benchmark just to make sure:

iPad2 = 2163.3 ms
Transformer Default Honeycomb 3.1 browser = 2142.3ms

Minimal difference I know, but it beat the winner of their so called showdown... :D

Did I mention it is also cheaper than all other tablets listed?

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

Hi
When will be WiFi and voice calls finished? I'm waiting until these features work before I install Nitdroid?

Re: The Epic Android Thread
 

You're looking for the Nitdroid thread (or others). This is the Android thread.

I'd suggest you read through those threads first before asking a question like this. You won't get any answers you like to your question.

Short answer is sometime, maybe never.