CS support and updates - G Tablet General

I talked to CS again tonight because I really don't want to fool with flashing the ROM and my time is still completely borked after installing update. The update did help with general stability (although I use Laucher pro and not TapNtap) and flash works well once you side load the version reccomended here.
My concern now is I was told by CS tonight that the next update will be out by Dec 19th, or maybe earlier, yeah and I still believe in the tooth fairy.
After several conversations with at least 3 different reps I now realize they don't expect anything significant or timely from the updates and I seriously doubt this situation will improve over time.
As allready mentioned here the software is being handled by a third party company and it sounds like no one in CS has direct access to that group because they have no details about the future updates except for the vaugue date and megabucks chance of an earlier release.
CS has no idea if the accelerometer issue or nvidia driver issue will be addresed in the next patch. I would love to see the contract between viewsonic and the software vender.
I want to thank everyone on this site for all thier efforts in improving performance and function of this unit.
Unfortunately I am going to return mine and wait until early next year for a non apple tablet.
wyngnut

Related

gps fix by end of sept and froyo in few days to months

Just got off the phone with samsung. Tech support said gps fix for sure by end of sept. And froyo as soon as a few days to no more than few months. Also the update will come straight from them no att involved. Sept. 21
Fro-noes!!
Froyo update. As soon as a few days to no later then a few months. Thats like me saying, Yeah........Ill get back to you Mr. President. Within a few days, but no later then 4 years when your run is over with. Garenteed!
Every time someone calls Samsung or walks into an AT&T store and asks about fixes and updates, we get a slightly different answer. A dozen calls will yield a dozen different answers. The reality is that none of the people you can get to through the normal channels will know diddly squat about the actual release schedules. If we're lucky, the better than average rep/support tech will hear something about it a few days before it happens at best.
To get the real schedule, we need inside information. We need a Deep Throat! Someone on the test team at AT&T and someone on the dev/QA team at Samsung.
ianwood said:
To get the real schedule, we need inside information. We need a Deep Throat! Someone on the test team at AT&T and someone on the dev/QA team at Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What if the dev/QA team at Samsung/ATT doesn't even have a schedule yet? This may sounds crazy but it is possible.
Remember that Galaxy S UK announced their Froyo update schedule 3 months ago. US division, on the other hand, still hasn't announced anything. Is it reasonable to assume the wait for Froyo update will be at least another 3 months?
ayoung614 said:
Just got off the phone with samsung. Tech support said gps fix for sure by end of sept. And froyo as soon as a few days to no more than few months. Also the update will come straight from them no att involved. Sept. 21
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been checking the Samsung site nearly daily for a week or so because their tech support also told me it would be available on their support site. However the last few days my bookmarked page is 404 and drilling down through the web site comes up dry also on downloadable Captivates stuff.
mwxiao said:
What if the dev/QA team at Samsung/ATT doesn't even have a schedule yet? This may sounds crazy but it is possible.
Remember that Galaxy S UK announced their Froyo update schedule 3 months ago. US division, on the other hand, still hasn't announced anything. Is it reasonable to assume the wait for Froyo update will be at least another 3 months?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In all likelihood, it is part of their deal with AT&T to supply certain updates within certain time frames -- standard practice. It will also need to be factored into Sammy's development schedule as it sounds like their devs are going to be quite busy with different Galaxy S updates. There's probably only a couple dozen people who actually know first-hand what those dates are.
Few months...sounds like next year to me. Hopefully not, I really want Froyo on it.
whats the huge advantage of having 2.2? really whats so big about it
How many times are we going to have this same thread with the same responses and questions???
Ill believe a GPS fix when we have it, not a second before
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
AsSiMiLaTeD_77 said:
How many times are we going to have this same thread with the same responses and questions???
Ill believe a GPS fix when we have it, not a second before
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG I'm currently downloading something from the update menu in the phone.
Update: OMG It just finished the download and is 50% through the update.
Update: OMG it went to 100% and said "update is failed." Is this because I'm rooted?
Update: Unrooted to try again and it don't let me re-update. The "check once/24hrs" deal is bull**** yO` Screw you ATT

Call up CS and ask for an offline firmware update, please

The more of us who call them, the better. I just got off the phone and made my voice heard. (866) 501-6405 and they are open today (Saturday).
Issues with an OTA update, imo:
- You can't get an OTA update if your device is doing a FC in the acore process (and this has happened to me, as it has with others here)
- You can't get an OTA update if your WiFi is borked. Again, a common issue.
- It needs to be released TODAY, not on Monday. People are starting to shop this weekend for pre-BF sales!
They need to supply a downloadable update.zip with instructions on how to use -- we know this is possible as we already have them, although I haven't figured out how to wipe data yet. I suspect there's a way, we just need to figure out the syntax.
CS is great but unfortunately they have no control over this. But, as device owners, we can make our voices heard and if enough of us call maybe their management will reconsider this BAD decision that they are making. I even offered to deploy a recovery image for them, if they could supply me the UAT firmware and the syntax to wipe /data.
I want them to succeed. We all want them to succeed. I hope they reconsider this course of action.
Here's the problem, they don't care about how many people call and beg for an update. Its all a marketing ploy.
cfultz said:
Here's the problem, they don't care about how many people call and beg for an update. Its all a marketing ploy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it might make an impact if enough people call. It depends on the company, of course - but I work in a field where priorities are set by the number of user tickets. The more tickets, the more weight on the priority. It's possible that VS is the same.
Their OTA decision is a terrible one and they are shooting themselves in the foot. I basically told them that they can expect a massive amount of returns because the OF is so bad and unfixable without a manual firmware update which they have yet to offer.
Those problems are more than likely what is fueling their decision to not release an update just yet. They may not have enough people complaining. I completely agree with you and if I had one I'd call myself. The thing is, like you said, it' up to the company. Hope things work out.
roebeet said:
The more of us who call them, the better. I just got off the phone and made my voice heard. (866) 501-6405 and they are open today (Saturday).
Issues with an OTA update, imo:
- You can't get an OTA update if your device is doing a FC in the acore process (and this has happened to me, as it has with others here)
- You can't get an OTA update if your WiFi is borked. Again, a common issue.
- It needs to be released TODAY, not on Monday. People are starting to shop this weekend for pre-BF sales!
They need to supply a downloadable update.zip with instructions on how to use -- we know this is possible as we already have them, although I haven't figured out how to wipe data yet. I suspect there's a way, we just need to figure out the syntax.
CS is great but unfortunately they have no control over this. But, as device owners, we can make our voices heard and if enough of us call maybe their management will reconsider this BAD decision that they are making. I even offered to deploy a recovery image for them, if they could supply me the UAT firmware and the syntax to wipe /data.
I want them to succeed. We all want them to succeed. I hope they reconsider this course of action.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Too bad we don't have access to an email address or webform. I think more people would be incined to submit something that way as opposed to calling for fear of being stuck on hold or something. I've made my share of calls to them though. +1 on their success!
I call them and was told the same thing. The official update will be out on 11-22. I ask them about the market and was told it will be the PocketGear market and that they will have the same apps as the android market. I doubt that because I did a few searches and could not find some apps. I guess we'll see.
mmracing said:
I call them and was told the same thing. The official update will be out on 11-22. I ask them about the market and was told it will be the PocketGear market and that they will have the same apps as the android market. I doubt that because I did a few searches and could not find some apps. I guess we'll see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pocketgear is a fraction of the real market, but they are probably clueless about this and were sincere in telling you that.
I see no reason why they can not release it now. Seems an arbitrary point now and less runway to help. Their CS have been using XDA as an info resource. Why stop now?
I offered to do UAT, but so far they have not taken me up on the offer.
(UAT = user acceptance testing. It's the point in the production release process where you roll it out to a small number of people to confirm that it's functioning as expected and then it's signed off to release to production).
roebeet said:
I offered to do UAT, but so far they have not taken me up on the offer.
(UAT = user acceptance testing. It's the point in the production release process where you roll it out to a small number of people to confirm that it's functioning as expected and then it's signed off to release to production).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I spoke with a very nice and attentive CS person. I stated they will need to provide a link to the rom package, so people can download with their computer if need be. I hope they appreciate how big this is. Even phone carriers provide rom links for connectivity reasons.
One biggy I got was Flash is NOT in this update, so we are best to avoid the update and wait until a version is modded and confirmed to work with both Flash and the proper market. Pocketgear is weak. Fixes include mapping corrections and wifi.
roebeet said:
I offered to do UAT, but so far they have not taken me up on the offer.
(UAT = user acceptance testing. It's the point in the production release process where you roll it out to a small number of people to confirm that it's functioning as expected and then it's signed off to release to production).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The manufacturers of the ZT-180 were in direct contact with at least one XDA-Forum moder. Because of that, subsequent firmware releases were vast improvements over the poor initial release.
ViewSonic could learn from this, and I hope they do.
roebeet said:
The more of us who call them, the better. I just got off the phone and made my voice heard. (866) 501-6405 and they are open today (Saturday).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, I was going to call them today. But I got called in to work on a watermain break. After that I watched my Wisconsin Badgers beat up on Michigan. I'll try to call Monday.
With the money I made working the main break, I could buy another tablet!
CS complaint
I just saw this message now. Its late Sat Night so I can't get through now I am not sure if they r open tom but I will try and call. If I can't get through I will call first thing Monday.
After doing a soft reboot my system seems very glitchy now none of the video on flash runs smooth where this am it was flawless. Even small low res stuff stutters and my system seems to catch and get stuck constantly.
I will give them a little time to work the bugs out but if I don't see reasonable attemps at software improvements next week I will return it and probably just settle for an Ipad.
Wyngnut
Wyngnut said:
I just saw this message now. Its late Sat Night so I can't get through now I am not sure if they r open tom but I will try and call. If I can't get through I will call first thing Monday.
After doing a soft reboot my system seems very glitchy now none of the video on flash runs smooth where this am it was flawless. Even small low res stuff stutters and my system seems to catch and get stuck constantly.
I will give them a little time to work the bugs out but if I don't see reasonable attemps at software improvements next week I will return it and probably just settle for an Ipad.
Wyngnut
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll have to wait until Monday.
In all fairness, while the ergonomics of this device leaves something to be desired, this will be their second update in less than a month. While I disagree with some of their choices to date, I'm trying to be optimistic that this is a good sign of things to come.

Can We See If It's Dying Before Scheduling the Funeral?

I have been reading the same information as the rest of you about the VS G-Tablet, Staples and now Sears.
And I wonder how everyone is coming up with such wild suppostions based on almost NO really factual information.
Staples recall of inventory is a fact. I noticed that they are returning stock to VS because of some kind of flaw. We don't know what it is. We don't know if it is terminal or fixable. We don't know anything about remedies.
But whatever it is, it's not serious enough for them to start calling or notifying customers to return units and get their money back?!? If it really is a fatal hardware flaw, surely they will not get by without taking care of customers who already have purchased tablets.
Seems to me we need more info about why Staples did what they did and what is wrong before anything realistic can be determined.
Also, someone reported Sears is following Staples' path. Not trying to flame the poster, but we have (1) a report of no stock in that area (No Big Deal -- we never had any here!! ); and (2) we have an employee (not likely management at the level that would cover Sears corporate operations) saying they've had a lot of returns and don't know when they'll get any (again, nothing new there). Certainly not a stock recall like Staples.
I was in one of the area Sears stores here today and the little cardboard display they put up when they don't have VS G-Tablets in stock was still there. In fact, it had been updated to show the $379.00 price available today.
My point is that until we find out what the problem is that Staples is using as a reason for their action -- we really are just wasting our time speculating. And I certainly think the news media and the A**** fanboys are just spewing the garbage I would expect of them.
Am I the only person around who has noticed that a pile of us -- ranging from devs and hardware experts, down to just every day good old folks -- have been using, programming and flogging the G-Tablet for what (five-six weeks now?) and not one of us has raised a report of a fatal flaw????????????????
Sure. Grant that VS and whoever didn't do an adequate job of development and rushed the G-Tab to market. Grant that the software is not what we think is needed nor what we want. I can see that if it worked faster and better, it might be okay for some basic users.
Those of us who want more seem to be doing all right.
And one by one we have been fixing things.
Speaking for myself, I am not writing off the G-Tablet yet. I have two -- one from Sears and one from Office Depot. I could run down and return both right now.
But I'm not. I'm going to use the stuff that is available to me now to make both work like I want. Whatever else someone may say, it will do what I want it to do with the resources we already have on hand. And unless everyone else gives up, I see no reason we can't go right on and stay ahead of all the folks who are not smart enough to see the potential and go after it.
I am the minister -- so please don't start on plans for the funeral until the patient is pronounced dead for real. I don't see anything remotely close to that yet!
Rev
P. S. -- Sorry this rant got so long, but I just felt someone had to put some balance into what is being said about all of this. And I intended no flames for anyone who may disagree with my point of view. I am a minister and I am redemptive -- it's my job to try to "save" things!!
100% agreed...
As long as they release the kernel source, I don't really care whether Viewsonic recalls all their G Tablets or not. Because I am 100% certain there will be lots of other Tegra 2 tablets which will ship with updated firmware, which will give us a base image for Gingerbread and for Honeycomb down the road. As long as there's somebody willing to compile kernels and glue a kernel into the ROM images from very similar devices, well, we'll be just fine here and the G Tablet will continue to provide us with plenty of useful life over the next few years.
From what I can see from an earlier thread about a poster mentioning using the fact that several of the abilities the gtablet has on the cover do not work out of the box to return the tablet without having to pay the restocking fee. I believe that Sears and Staples are sending the units back to viewsonic and demanding that the touted abilities actually do in fact work before they get them back. (this can only help the tablet unless Viewsonic decides to give up.)
I really hope it stays around, Bought one for the wife, now I want one. (I got a nook color that behaves even worse out of the box. but I figure i'll root/rom it until it does work as the smaller size is definitely more portable.)
Even if Viewsonic were to give up I don't see our tablet caring much. The Zpad firmware works pretty well, the VegaN that I am running now is working very well, and TnTLite works pretty well.
I feel for the customers that bought this and are not techies. I recall the first time I turned mine on it was a barrage of force closes. Everything you touched would force close. It took a factory reset from the settings menu to make it stop. Flash was non-existent, clock had amnesia on wakeup, wifi lost it's mind.... If I was a regular customer I would have been PO'ed... Not known what to do, and it would have gone back with a "I will NEVER buy another Viewsonic product ever" mentality.
If all the above had not occurred out of the box this tablet may have been kept by more people. I'm sure lots of folks would have been plenty happy if it just worked. Most would not have known the real potential that was being strangled by the software overlay, and most would not care.
I think the biggest issue has to do with how things are sold in this country nowadays. Back when America made things, they had control of them. They touched them, tested them, and had a lot of pride in making sure they sold a good product. Viewsonic gained it's reputation by selling one of the best products.
This tablet is not made by Viewsonic. I don't really know how much Viewsonic had to do with it besides just signing on to have there name on the device in hopes of name recognition boosting sales. It reminds me of how companies sign athletes to endorse crappy products in hopes people will buy it because of the name. That is going to bite a lot of companies in the behind. Unless my perception of how American companies desire to do business is completely wrong then this path needs to stop.
Everything seems to need to be done as fast as possible, and with profit being the main goal. Who cares if it is the best.. Who cares if it could be better.. Just get it out there and make money.. Support? Why should we support our product? Why should we put a restore image online? Why should we update our website with info that might help folks understand what is being done about the issues?
This same stuff is happening with lots of companies. Sylvania is another example of the outsourced spin off type of product, there are many others.
I think we deserve better, and if a company has to have there rear end handed to them to figure out that quality, and customer satisfaction still counts then so be it....
If and I mean if VS decided to bail on the gtablet I would think they open the source code to the community. This is a great device.
At this point it doesn't matter, even if viewsonic abandons it.
It's a reference tegra 2 device for current app developers in the states (at least that's how I see it), we have badass roms for it, the advent vega is getting 2.3 which is easily ported...so it's all good.
No mystery
Nice posts. But there is no mystery that VS is getting these back. It's about their profit from sales of a marketable product. Whether this tablet goes the wayof the Edsel is immaterial to us afficianados but its still been a good ride. I think other tabs may sink us but so what.
It's still fun.
Mojav
here's my take on it, and what they need to fix for Joe Consumer
I can readily guess why these are going back, and a Staples rep I talked to actually mentioned that same thing. The stock firmware is bad.
But I don't mean just the Tap N' Tap UI, I mean the boot loops and FC's that occur. We've all seen them, even on TnT Lite. There is some instability that I am convinced has to do with how these devices were imaged.
Here's the problem -- here in XDA, we have clockworkmod and a great community to get us around those issues. But Joe Consumer has neither (unless they search on their own). And due to TnT's stupidity, they can't even download an offline update to at least attempt to fix the problems. Think about it...you're a user with a reboot loop, so you call Viewsonic for help. What can they do? There's no way to wipe the cache, wipe user data or even re-flash the device using the standard tools. It's insane.
What they need to do ASAP is deploy a firmware update that 1) can be run offline with a microSD card and 2) has a more enhanced recovery like clockworkmod to at least give the user the ability to wipe the user data or cache. And, if the user doesn't have a microSD card, they should send them a 1GB card, preinstalled with the recovery image, at no charge. I think it's an absolute requirement I hope VS are reading this and rip their TnT devs a new arse to fix this debacle before they give up on the device completely.
Still, worse case scenario is that we lose VS support but still have the zPad and Vega to look at, even it we don't have source. We have options, at least.
Sprdtyf350 said:
Even if Viewsonic were to give up I don't see our tablet caring much. The Zpad firmware works pretty well, the VegaN that I am running now is working very well, and TnTLite works pretty well.
I feel for the customers that bought this and are not techies. I recall the first time I turned mine on it was a barrage of force closes. Everything you touched would force close. It took a factory reset from the settings menu to make it stop. Flash was non-existent, clock had amnesia on wakeup, wifi lost it's mind.... If I was a regular customer I would have been PO'ed... Not known what to do, and it would have gone back with a "I will NEVER buy another Viewsonic product ever" mentality.
If all the above had not occurred out of the box this tablet may have been kept by more people. I'm sure lots of folks would have been plenty happy if it just worked. Most would not have known the real potential that was being strangled by the software overlay, and most would not care.
I think the biggest issue has to do with how things are sold in this country nowadays. Back
when America made things, they had control of them. They touched them, tested them, and had a lot of pride in making sure they sold a good product. Viewsonic gained it's reputation by selling one of the best products.
This tablet is not made by Viewsonic. I don't really know how much Viewsonic had to do with it besides just signing on to have there name on the device in hopes of name recognition boosting sales. It reminds me of how companies sign athletes to endorse crappy products in hopes people will buy it because of the name. That is going to bite a lot of companies in the behind. Unless my perception of how American companies desire to do business is completely wrong then this path needs to stop.
Everything seems to need to be done as fast as possible, and with profit being the main goal.
Who cares if it is the best.. Who cares if it could be better.. Just get it out there and make money.. Support? Why should we support our product? Why should we put a restore image online? Why should we update our website with info that might help folks understand what is being done about the issues?
This same stuff is happening with lots of companies. Sylvania is another example of the outsourced spin off type of product, there are many others.
I think we deserve better, and if a company has to have there rear end handed to them to figure out that quality, and customer satisfaction still counts then so be it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got my g tab and am having all the issues u described out of the box. Internet crashes,WiFi dropping, force closes and all, did u just do the restart and it fixed everything? If so how do I do that and if u did more, what else do I have to do? I love my tablet and think it so much better than my friends ipad, but the issiues do bother me.....but I'll never return it, just want to fix it
Thx in advance
juda222000 said:
I just got my g tab and am having all the issues u described out of the box. Internet crashes,WiFi dropping, force closes and all, did u just do the restart and it fixed everything? If so how do I do that and if u did more, what else do I have to do? I love my tablet and think it so much better than my friends ipad, but the issiues do bother me.....but I'll never return it, just want to fix it
Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I got my very first device (before TnT Lite existed), it was terrible. Lots of FC's, and at least twice it rebooted on me for no reason and wiped my user data. As I recall, doing a manual data wipe helped but it was never really fully stable until I wiped it with nvflash (the bekit image).
Since then, they only time I've ever seen major instability is either when testing mods, which is understandable, or going back to stock.
roebeet said:
When I got my very first device (before TnT Lite existed), it was terrible. Lots of FC's, and at least twice it rebooted on me for no reason and wiped my user data. As I recall, doing a manual data wipe helped but it was never really fully stable until I wiped it with nvflash (the bekit image).
Since then, they only time I've ever seen major instability is either when testing mods, which is understandable, or going back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apologies,is that an app I can download out of the market? sorry still a newb... and what mod do u use that makes it run so well now? Is that what nvflash is?
juda222000 said:
I just got my g tab and am having all the issues u described out of the box. Internet crashes,WiFi dropping, force closes and all, did u just do the restart and it fixed everything? If so how do I do that and if u did more, what else do I have to do? I love my tablet and think it so much better than my friends ipad, but the issiues do bother me.....but I'll never return it, just want to fix it
Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well.... We have to go back in history. (Only about 6 weeks ago)
The force closes "Might" go away if you can get into settings and find the factory reset selection. It may be under the privacy tab. I can't tell you for sure because I am not running TnT right now.
The wifi issue was a problem when the device woke up and there was a patch made by a smart guy named Bekit.
The time issue was something where the time zone would not stick. It would always reset itself back to GMT if I recall.
There were patches for all of them back then, and I had them all installed at one point. None are needed anymore.
My suggestion to you, if you actually want to keep the tablet is to read the instructions in the post below and flash a new rom. TnTLite is based on your stock firmware. It just has the bad parts removed, and good stuff put in. All of the major issues should hopefully go away. As Roebeet just told you Nvflash could be in your future to do a clean wipe but I hope not. The stock out of the box firmware is really bad. It is unfortunate because the hardware is really good.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842004
juda222000 said:
Apologies,is that an app I can download out of the market? sorry still a newb... and what mod do u use that makes it run so well now? Is that what nvflash is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, nvflash is fairly advanced stuff so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are fairly technical or if its the last resort. You need APX drivers setup on your PC as well as the nvflash image.
Try a user data wipe, as a first step. In stock, it's under Settings and Security, I believe. If that doesn't help, I'd recommend clockworkmod recovery next and try to do a clear cache, user data wipe and a SD partition fix, in that order (do the next if the previous one doesn't fix it). I'd do nvflash last.
I personally love nvflash, but like I mentioned you need to be somewhat technical to use it.
See the FAQ area under my sig for some pointers and links, to start you off with.
roebeet said:
No, nvflash is fairly advanced stuff so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are fairly technical or if its the last resort. You need APX drivers setup on your PC as well as the nvflash image.
Try a user data wipe, as a first step. In stock, it's under Settings and Security, I believe. If that doesn't help, I'd recommend clockworkmod recovery next and try to do a clear cache, user data wipe and a SD partition fix, in that order (do the next if the previous one doesn't fix it). I'd do nvflash last.
I personally love nvflash, but like I mentioned you need to be somewhat technical to use it.
See the FAQ area under my sig for some pointers and links, to start you off with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NVflash is the bomb... Finding the full sdk anymore... that sucks
juda222000,
Hang in there. I have been working on my second G-Tab and when I started it up, it worked worse than the first one did!!!
But it seems to me like if you just keep using common sense and rebooting to give it time to sort things out, and then using the info in these forums to get it together -- all will turn out well and you will have a really great tablet.
Just be patient and don't get ahead of yourself and cause yourself grief like I have done a couple of times!! Best wishes....
Rev
I personally suspect that the fatal flaw is no high price contract with a network provider.
As was stated.....if there really was a fatal hardware flaw we would almost definately know about it on this forum. The stock UI was poor but still not fatal. I would tend to agree that we need far more info before jumping to a conclusion about the life expectancy of this most excellent device (after a few mods).

The Big List of G2X Questions and Answers

To summarize the most commonly asked questions and give rational answers rather than conspiracy theories, I've compiled a list of questions and answers below. These are based off of reading the LG Forum, the T-Mobile forum, their PR twitter feeds and XDA, as well as a little brain work.
What are the known flaws of the G2X?
Below are some commonly encountered issues:
* Rebooting - Random rebooting that is sometimes associated with charging the phone, but can happen at any time. This varies greatly from phone-to-phone and for some it's an infrequent occurrence while others seem to encounter the issue multiple times a day.
* Slow GPS lock - It can take between 30 seconds - 8 minutes for the phone to get your location using GPS satellites. There is no definitive fix, though various workarounds and solutions have helped some users.
* LCD screen bleed - This is a hardware issue where the screen has lighter areas near the corners. This is a fairly common problem among LCDs in general (not just the G2X), though some phones have it worse than others.
* WiFi/Data issues - Sometimes 4G/3G/EDGE will kick in even when WiFi is enabled, resulting in both icons being in the top notification bar, even though the phone is using your mobile data and not the WiFi. This usually resolves itself over time, though rebooting can help.
* Poor battery life - Some users complain that the battery life is exceptionally short. While this has never been my experience personally, others recommend JuiceDefender to help manage battery life.
When is the Gingerbread update coming out?
The short answer is 'nobody knows.' Various estimates have been given out officially (originally T-Mobile said in May, then 'by summer', LG forum mods said to bank on it by the end of June, etc.) but all of these deadlines have been missed. Whether or not they were ever deadlines or PR people running their mouths without knowing the truth, we don't know.
That being said, here's what we do know: the update is obviously in development as we had a very early leak that's full of bugs, so don't waste your time flashing it. At the 2011 E3 convention, G2Xs were seen running a dev version of Gingerbread. LG Forum moderators do have a recent test build that they're running on their phones. Tmonews.com reported that T-Mobile has been prepping for rolling out a test version to employees, allowing them to test for bugs. So, we know that it exists and we know that they're still in their testing phase.
That still doesn't give us a definitive time period, but it seems likely that they're rather far along in their testing phase if lower level T-Mobile employees are going to be able to test the update. It also means a leak will probably happen.
T-Mobile/LG has to be very careful in releasing the update, because if it doesn't fix all of the major issues on most of the phones, almost everyone that can will swap the phone for a different one, causing both T-Mobile and LG to lose large amounts of money.
Based on the information that's available regarding where they are in testing, it's likely we will see the update within the next month or so, though there are no guarantees.
Will the Gingerbread update fix my problems with this phone?
Again, nobody knows. LCD bleed is a hardware issue and that will certainly not be remedied with a software update. From the few snippets of info we have received about the current update, LG knows about the issues listed above and are aiming to fix them with the software update. But, again, if it's in testing it's still a work-in-progress, so there's no telling what the final version will fix.
Why isn't the G2X available for sale on the T-Mobile website?
LG manufactures the phones and then T-Mobile places an order for a set amount. T-Mobile placed an order to LG for the amount of G2Xs they estimated would last them through the next few months; however, people began swapping their phones 3-4 times, which means they blew through their entire inventory in half the time they thought they would, leading to a shortage.
T-Mobile realizes that if they were to place an order for additional phones, they would continue to run into the same problem: people would complain about LCD bleed, software bugs, etc. and continue to swap their phones, causing them to have to order 4x the amount of phones they should actually need and the customer's problems still might not be fixed.
T-Mobile then told LG "we're not ordering anymore G2Xs until you fix the LCD and update the software and we're not releasing any software updates until we're 100% sure that the bugs are worked out." This is why we've heard that LG is switching their LCD manufacturer and also why the giant delay in the GB update—if they screw up this update, there are going to be a LOT of angry customers wanting their money back or swapping to another phone entirely (which we've already seen happening, but if the update doesn't fix people's issues, you can bet almost everyone is going to demand T-Mobile swaps their phone with another model and it will cause a PR nightmare.)
T-Mobile is likely losing a good amount of money on this whole debacle and wants to ensure they minimize the amount of replacements before they put the G2X back up for sale. In the meantime, the stores are able to sell through their remaining stock.
Are you sure it's not being recalled?
If the G2X were being recalled due to hardware flaws, it's very unlikely stores would continue selling through their stock. It's likely that the online stock ran out and T-Mobile refused to order more for the reasons listed above and the price was raised slightly so T-Mobile could recoup the cost of all of the phone swapping.
A T-Mobile Customer Service Representative told me…
These people often know very little and read off of scripts. When they do give you 'inside information', it is almost always baseless speculation. Most of the misinformation about release dates and issues/recalls are due to CSRs giving bad information based on a misunderstanding of the situation.
Should I switch to the Sensation?
If you'd like, but there's no need to post a thread telling everyone you're doing it. By this time, there are plenty of reviews of both phones and there's nothing you can add to the discussion that isn't written somewhere else.
Which custom ROM should I flash?
This is a personal preference, though I would suggest starting with CyanogenMod 7 and Faux123's AOSP Gingerbread ROMs, since they seem to be the most actively developed and supported.
Wow, I'm pretty sure a lot of people will appreciate the fact the you took the time to write this.
Thank you for this, will help stop alot of other repetitive threads
Sent From My Stock G2x
Need to add the
phone goes "dead", heats up, and requires battery pull to reboot
issue.
Curious.. if they are switching LCD manufacturer, should we opt to swap out phones out once they are selling again?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
unique77 said:
Curious.. if they are switching LCD manufacturer, should we opt to swap out phones out once they are selling again?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind TMO will most likely still have a large backup of the exisiting G2X's (It's how they are doing swaps now), so there would be no guarantee as to which G2X you would get....

TnT Build 1.2-4950 - UAT version, perhaps?

Given the recent Facebook rants (including my own), I took out my script for the first time in a month to scan their site. And I found this:
http://tapntap.http.internapcdn.net/tapntap/viewsonic/update-smb_a1002-4950-user.zip
This is not from a Hannspad script, this is a GTab script. ZIP is dated July 7th, and the internals are dated June 6th (I hadn't scanned this since ~June 22nd being that I had given up on them, tbh). It's a Froyo build.
I have not tested this yet, so the usual disclaimers of use at your own risk. But at least this shows that some work is actually being done, on their end. I'm pretty busy this week at work but I want to at least take a peek to see what's changed, if anything.
EDIT: High-def video is still broken (my MP4 test file, that works in 3588 but not 4349, does not work here either. That's my "litmus test" for high-def playback).
so this was found on a Viewsonic source? Then why is it, that when I asked VS tech support (a week ago) if they were working on a stock firmware, I got the runaround, redirected to US Merchants phone number, and received the response:
"I have no information regarding the Gtablet in my resources"
If they had ANYTHING in development, they could have just told me, right? I mean, I own one of these things, and in fact, the response I did receive just pissed me off...
Oh...and get back to your vacation, man, you deserve it...wuit worrying about us for a while...seriously, thanks for everything you do, you know I've always stood behind your work.
roebeet said:
EDIT: High-def video is still broken (my MP4 test file, that works in 3588 but not 4349, does not work here either. That's my "litmus test" for high-def playback).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What mp4 are you using? Is it 1080p? encoding details? Just curious...
Anyone know why HD playback broke in later builds? Is their 1.2 compatible kernel just incomplete?
It's not the kernel (I tried that a while back) - it's something in the framework that causes issues. I suspect it's fixable and I know that US Merchants is aware of the issue as I've called them several times about it. That's assuming they are informing the developers.....
I used an MP4 that I acquired many months back myself - it's a 1080p MP4 encoded AVC (main profile) with AAC file. This file works fine in stock 3588 and Brilliant Corners (the latter being 1.2 based), but not on builds 3991 / 4349, and now 4950.
TJEvans said:
so this was found on a Viewsonic source? Then why is it, that when I asked VS tech support (a week ago) if they were working on a stock firmware, I got the runaround, redirected to US Merchants phone number, and received the response:
"I have no information regarding the Gtablet in my resources"
If they had ANYTHING in development, they could have just told me, right? I mean, I own one of these things, and in fact, the response I did receive just pissed me off...
Oh...and get back to your vacation, man, you deserve it...wuit worrying about us for a while...seriously, thanks for everything you do, you know I've always stood behind your work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is right off the TapnTap site, and it's definitely a GTAB build. Since it's not being pushed down to devices right now, my guess is that it's a UAT build of some kind.
Back before April, I could call customer service and they would actually tell me if it was UAT or not, as well as an approximate on when GA (General Acceptance) release would arrive. But after customer service switched over, this new area doesn't seem to know anything at all. Basically they are useless.
As for my break -- work has filled that up right now. But a real vacation is coming soon, thank goodness! One week away from it all...
roebeet said:
It's not the kernel (I tried that a while back) - it's something in the framework that causes issues. I suspect it's fixable and I know that US Merchants is aware of the issue as I've called them several times about it. That's assuming they are informing the developers.....
I used an MP4 that I acquired many months back myself - it's a 1080p MP4 encoded AVC (main profile) with AAC file. This file works fine in stock 3588 and Brilliant Corners (the latter being 1.2 based), but not on builds 3991 / 4349, and now 4950.
This is right off the TapnTap site, and it's definitely a GTAB build. Since it's not being pushed down to devices right now, my guess is that it's a UAT build of some kind.
Back before April, I could call customer service and they would actually tell me if it was UAT or not, as well as an approximate on when GA (General Acceptance) release would arrive. But after customer service switched over, this new area doesn't seem to know anything at all. Basically they are useless.
As for my break -- work has filled that up right now. But a real vacation is coming soon, thank goodness! One week away from it all...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Roebeet, I'll sit back and wait until you have the time to let us know if it's worth updating. Enjoy your vacation!
From a comparison with 4349, the usual app and framework files have been touched. Also, libgps, one of the camera libs, libwebcore and gpio-keys.
Also, two new files added:
/bin/BTMacUpdate
/bin/ethdhcpd
The latter is likely dock related, and I see at least one dock setting in the "Settings" apk that I don't believe I've seen before. I know that the dock was something they were working on with 4349 so maybe they've improved on that.
Sleep is still broken, at least with limited testing (left it in sleep overnight, tried it this morning and I had to reboot it). But again it's limited testing. Not sure if I would integrate this with Mountain Laurel yet - I might wait until I return from vacation and, if there's no GA update by then, I might make a minor update there or possibly a mix of a new pershoot or Clem kernel to get it up to recent changes.
Now that is interesting; thanks for sharing the info.
I wasn't expecting anything new from Viewsonic at this point, so I'm pleasantly surprised someone is (or was) still working on the gTab.
Very nice find indeed.
Can't wait to see what it will bring to the table.
Bluetooth and Ethernet drivers for malata dock???
Not sure what that BT binary is, but the other things seem be better dock integration. And it's about time given that build 3588 is still their "latest", at least as per their OTA updater. That's assuming they release this ROM at some point.
is this a 1.2bl that can be flashed with the 1.2 cwm?
I retract my question because I found a more recent thread referencing a newer build.

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