So, I have been saving up to buy a GTab, but now that I am close to having the money, I find myself hesitating. I love Android, I have an EVO, and really want an Android tab. I really like modding my phones and computers, though I am not skilled enough to accomplish most of it myself without the guides by the awsome devs on this site lol, which is most of the reason why I want the GTab.
My concern is if Honeycomb will ever make it to this tab? I have a lot of faith in the GTab devs. But I wonder how possible it will be if viewsonic never releases a base to build and improve?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I am pretty sure that honeycomb will come to this devices from the devs on this site. The only thing I see holding that back is if there is some hardware limitations, but I could not see that because the hardware on the gtab is very good
The gtab is a good buy because it runs the arm A9, and tegra 2...these also are what Google is building 3.0. Off of...meaning our hardware is about the same as the rest of the tablets launching q1,2 this year. Yes some will come with better displays, higher clock speeds (barely, might see some 1.2 and 1.4ghz, but all using the A9 reference) ,and more ram...but again these things really set up the gtab to be a great device...and at 400, its cheap compaired to the older galaxy tab....so I picked up one...and I will tell u this thing is fast with the new firmware he chefs have graced us with...soon enough this thing is going to be what to have...
Hoped I helped...
What about porting the Eden UI from the Notion Ink Adam? Think that's possible?
the notion ink has yet to materialize in the hands of reviewers, or retail stores. I think a stock android build is better than anything they can come up with regardless (personal opinion)
Also, Honeycomb is 2.4, not 3.0
Thanks for the correction.....brain fart......
Alpha06 said:
the notion ink has yet to materialize in the hands of reviewers, or retail stores. I think a stock android build is better than anything they can come up with regardless (personal opinion)
Also, Honeycomb is 2.4, not 3.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has google released the build number for honeycomb? I haven't seen an official number yet. With such a huge upgrade and finally a build that has tablets in mind, a 3.0 version number seems very likely.
MisterKrispy said:
Has google released the build number for honeycomb? I haven't seen an official number yet. With such a huge upgrade and finally a build that has tablets in mind, a 3.0 version number seems very likely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it really matter what the build number is as long as it works
thebadfrog said:
Does it really matter what the build number is as long as it works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually yes, it does matter. A 2.4 build number would indicate a minor revision like we've seen in all the 2.x builds. A 3.0 build indicates a major revision as evidenced by the video of 3.0 released today at CES.
Honeycomb is 3.0.......
Alpha06 said:
the notion ink has yet to materialize in the hands of reviewers, or retail stores. I think a stock android build is better than anything they can come up with regardless (personal opinion)
Also, Honeycomb is 2.4, not 3.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agree, not impressed by the Uden UI at all. Honeycomb UI is soooo cool.. check out the honeycomb videos on youtube (created by Tmobile).
I always prefer stock android over crazy themed stuff. Usually overkill most times. VEGAn is my Roman of choice at the moment because its as stock as it gets next to cyanogenmod, but I couldn't stand CM on the gtab. I love it on my Droid though.. that being said.. I'm salivating over Honeycomb right now. Here is a YouTube link to the CES video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiG7AgyCS6U
I hope that it can be made to run on our tabs... Not sure VS will do the work considering the work they put into TnT recently.
GTablet has the same specs at most of the new Android 3 tablets being announced at CES. The only spec maybe lacking is the G Tablet's resolution, as many of the new 10.1s are going with 1280. However, I don't see Google be so short sighted to mark 1280 as some magical requirement. Tablets are coming in all shapes and sizes and the o/s needs to be scaleable or they will run into the same fragmentation issues they have now.
I was so close to pulling the trigger on a NI. I am glad I didn't. Hardware wise it still looks great but that Edan overlay is just too much. I know these tablet/phone manufacturers are all trying to tweak themselves into a market advantage because most users run whatever 'stock' is handed to them for the life of a device but it's becoming an issue. Like buying a PC loaded with bloatware only you cannot cleean it up in most cases. No add/remove programs or even a simple way to reload the stock o/s.
It looks like there is no hardware requirement for honeycomb after all.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/honeycomb-will-not-require-dual-core-cpu-as-minimum-hardware-spe/
I guess that it is a good news for the owners of those archos and Galaxy tab.
tyy10002 said:
It looks like there is no hardware requirement for honeycomb after all.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/honeycomb-will-not-require-dual-core-cpu-as-minimum-hardware-spe/
I guess that it is a good news for the owners of those archos and Galaxy tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's re-assuring. I'm guessing that with new Android iterations, we'll hit memory limit problems before CPU or display limitations (unless they (shudder) hard-coded minimum resolution).
JMHO...
Jim
lukkystrike said:
The gtab is a good buy because it runs the arm A9, and tegra 2...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quadrant Standard shows CPU as ARM7. Which is right?
tyy10002 said:
It looks like there is no hardware requirement for honeycomb after all.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/honeycomb-will-not-require-dual-core-cpu-as-minimum-hardware-spe/
I guess that it is a good news for the owners of those archos and Galaxy tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All that says is processing power, butwhat about the rumbles that you need 1200x768) or higher resolution.
Newanzer said:
Quadrant Standard shows CPU as ARM7. Which is right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically, both are true...
Tegra2 is based on an ARM Cortex-A9 which runs the ARM7 instruction set...
It's a confusing naming scheme....ARM11 are old and slower...so higher number does not mean better performance...
Asus announced a 7" android 3.0 tablet with 1024x600 resolution.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/asus-eee-pad-memo-tablet-takes-a-pen-out-of-the-couriers-book/
theclassicalgod said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiG7AgyCS6U
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW!!!
I can not WAIT For that!!
This beats the PANTS off the 1.X to 2.X update!
Related
* Android 3.0 Gingerbread will be released in mid- October (around 15 -16th), 2010. First handsets shipping in November/December – for the Holiday Season.
* Minimum hardware requirements for Android 3.0 devices are: 1GHZ CPU, 512MB or RAM, displays from 3.5" and higher. We all of course heard that Android handsets with 2GHz CPU's are coming.
* New 1280×760 resolution available for the devices with displays of 4" and higher
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
* Android's split into 2 branches becomes official. 3.0 for top of the line/high end devices. Cheap, low-end mass market handsets will keep Android 2.1/2.2
Hmm.. Seems like all the phones that are getting Android 2.2 now, will also get 3.0. Even if not officially, some XDA ROMs will make it possible.
I'm quite interested in all of this.
Bouncer5 said:
*
* Completely revamped user interface. If you want to get a feeling of what Android 3.0 Gingerbread UX is like, check out the Gallery App on Nexus One. The same overall feel, light animated transitions,etc. Natively, through all the UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm intrigued
I was already aware of the plans to scrape the manufacturers UI's will make for faster upgrading for the latest OS Version
hmm I am still on the verge for a decision. Should I get a nexus one right now or wait another 2-3 months until the new handsets are released. I just can't decide
Bouncer5 said:
I was already aware of the plans to scrape the manufacturers UI's will make for faster upgrading for the latest OS Version
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This actually really seems a bit of a bad idea to me. As this is what makes each manufactures phone unique. Else its just gonna be a hardware race. Might as well make it like the iPhone OS then.
Hanafubuki said:
hmm I am still on the verge for a decision. Should I get a nexus one right now or wait another 2-3 months until the new handsets are released. I just can't decide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At the rate of development in the mobile market, Id wait until the newer hardware is out, I.E 2GHz or Dual processors, Depending on how long that takes of course, And nobody wants to wait on getting a phone encase newer tech comes out the following week, It is rather disappointing when that happens.
kekkle said:
This actually really seems a bit of a bad idea to me. As this is what makes each manufactures phone unique. Else its just gonna be a hardware race. Might as well make it like the iPhone OS then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got my HTC Desire for the hardware specs and not the UI which it was bundled with, It's nice but if I could have had the desire with the stock android I would have bought it like that!
I agree that this is a really bad time to buy a handset. 1Ghz (though in a 45 nm architecture) has been here for a relatively long time and it's obvious the newer processors are coming. Same for 800x480 (or 854x480).
More importantly, 3.0 means not being left in the dark as to whether or not your phone is ever going to get a firmware update.
Pickx said:
I agree that this is a really bad time to buy a handset. 1Ghz (though in a 45 nm architecture) has been here for a relatively long time and it's obvious the newer processors are coming. Same for 800x480 (or 854x480).
More importantly, 3.0 means not being left in the dark as to whether or not your phone is ever going to get a firmware update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You say 1GHz has been out for a really long time, But the desire was the first handset, atleast over here to get it with that being out in February, but actually finding somewhere selling it was difficult until the carriers had a hold of them really
kekkle said:
This actually really seems a bit of a bad idea to me. As this is what makes each manufactures phone unique. Else its just gonna be a hardware race. Might as well make it like the iPhone OS then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm tired of Sense UI being uninstallable, monolithic and only available on HTC phones. If they want to do that ****, it should be modular, portable, and optional.
Bouncer5 said:
You say 1GHz has been out for a really long time, But the desire was the first handset, atleast over here to get it with that being out in February, but actually finding somewhere selling it was difficult until the carriers had a hold of them really
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
htc HD2 had a Snapdragon back in November.
Bouncer5 said:
At the rate of development in the mobile market, Id wait until the newer hardware is out, I.E 2GHz or Dual processors,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if i'd want a 2ghz device until the battery tech gets better. As it is, I have to carry an extra battery around with my n1. So I could imagine what a 2ghz device with a 1400mah or 1600mah battery would look like...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
The marketing VP of Viewsonic posts on this board and basically confirms that they are working on new Android versions for the G:
"Adobe and Google do not support Tegra II with Froyo"
"We are working on other OS versions, hint hint" The VP wrote the "hint hint", not me.
I know Roebeet has been busy with a big work project, but surprised the post did not ignite discussion. Does EVERYBODY have a big project with a short deadline?
added:
I think 2.3 is coming soon, due to the support issues. JMO.
Hmmm
rushless said:
"Adobe and Google do not support Tegra II with Froyo"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Support from adobe and google will happen for the Tegra II(TABLETS) when the new OS hits. IMO it will be when Honeycomb hits not gingerbread, but who knows....
rushless said:
The marketing VP of Viewsonic posts on this board and basically confirms that they are working on new Android versions for the G:
"Adobe and Google do not support Tegra II with Froyo"
"We are working on other OS versions, hint hint" The VP wrote the "hint hint", not me.
I know Roebeet has been busy with a big work project, but surprised the post did not ignite discussion. Does EVERYBODY have a big project with a short deadline?
added:
I think 2.3 is coming soon, due to the support issues. JMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could mean so much, I was actually trying NOT to think about or discuss it.
It could mean:
They're working on a port of the ZPad UI for the G Tablet. We know the G Tablet and ZPad are identical internally (and even externally, lol), so it wouldn't be far fetched to think VS has licensed (or whatever) the Zpad software from Malata and has it in their hands, working with it more directly - or maybe hired programmers to work on it on an official basis.
I no longer think of TnT as horrible, but I still think the dashboard section is unnecessarily bloated and way too static and rigid for an android homescreen environment. Feels more like a picture frame UI or a bedside device UI than part of an Android device and the 2.2 dock sort of takes care of those needs. XDA devs have done an exemplary and extremely commendable job with the ROM but after everything, people still have trouble with it from what I've read, so perhaps an official port by VS would work out for all the non-techies and typical users. Not to mention, you'd be able to get official OTAs as required/needed.
Security or not, I prefer the official OTAs than having to reflash the device through clockwork....the main reason I have remained on stock despite accolades given to TnT 4.1
They're working on/with 2.3 for the G Tablet. God, that'd be nice.
They're giving us something more standard/generic/closer to vanilla 2.2/2.3 and removing TnT completely. We know for the most part, that Froyo in it's more pure form, isn't tasty on the G Tablet MOSTLY because the hardware keys aren't backlit. I've always thought of TnT to be thoughtful because everything you can do from the hardware button(s) you can do from the toolbar. If they removed TnT and just wrote a new toolbar in, this would give us a more standard experience - paired with a newer kernel and newer tegra drivers, we'd have a more or less 2.2/2.3 with benefits experience.
So yeah, I don't like having low expectations but they keep me from hoping too hard/high and that way I won't be TOO disappointed if it really means a different version of the very same TnT with a few 'bug fixes', aka TnT 3452/3453.
Gingerbread is here....cm7 beta is available
http://vegantab.gojimi.com/download/update-cm-7.0.0-Beta1-Harmony-signed.zip
thebadfrog said:
Gingerbread is here....cm7 beta is available
http://vegantab.gojimi.com/download/update-cm-7.0.0-Beta1-Harmony-signed.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but at the cost of correct sdcard & sdcard2 mapping for the Gtablet? I loved CM roms on my G1, but hardware is too splintered now to cover all the hardware bases.
Not mention other hardware issues that CM is too general to make work correctly.
CM7 is using the correct Gingerbread mapping of sdcards.
Viewsonic release
What I was getting at was the fact that Viewsonic has yet to release an OFFICIAL gingerbread release. I still think that Adobe and Google will not give support to our tablets until they have an OS designed for them.
I know we have hacked ROMs that are based on Gingerbread, but I want to see VS take the next logical step and get us a real OEM OS..
Well hopefully then Viewsonic is SKIPPING Gingerbread because that is not a tablet supported OS just like Froyo.
We need Honeycomb to be the OS they are working on. Motorola is rumored to release the Xoom (Android 3.0 "Honeycomb") in late February.
Agreed
I agree, Honeycomb would be best... I don't think Motorola will get it all together and released by the end of February. I would love it if they did, then at least we could get a good source code!
Hopefully OfficialVS will come back and update us like he promised...
Gingerbread eh! Honeycomb would definitely be sweet. Now I'm in no way a techie, I am good at following instructions, with that said Notion Ink ships today would it be hard to port the eden UI over to the G-Tab? I'm curious what all the hype is about with it being that they both run the tegra chipset.
This is pretty awesome, XDA never ceases to amaze me! I'm sure it's running pretty slow though right now. Can't wait to have it running on the Gtab
http://phandroid.com/2011/01/28/someone-got-honeycomb-running-on-the-nookcolor/
Here's the article that jwischka was talking about below from Engadget. I was thinking that Honeycomb would support both tablets and smartphones and different screen resolutions since in the video where Andy Rubin showed off the Motorola Tablet, he let it slip that Honeycomb "sort of is and sort of isn't" for phones.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/28/android-3-0-honeycomb-emulator-has-traces-of-smartphone-support/
Very nice.
Also some indication today that there will be smartphone support, albeit with a reduced featureset. Hopefully this does not mean our screen resolution will exclude us from tablet Honeycomb.
Can't post the link to engadget because I'm new... but the article is worth the quick read.
Hah i just took my nook color back today and ordered a gtab I need a 10" screen though. But i had mine running at 1.1ghz very stable adn VERY snappy.
We don't even have proper hardware acceleration for Gingerbread yet and we're talking about Honeycomb SDK ports - ugh. Come on NVidia, snap to with the drivers!
I'm going to assume nvidia must have some compatible drivers for the tegra 2 for honeycomb already or else the xoom us going to be hobbled out of the box when it comes out
Can't wait for honeycomb!
Honeycomb will be officially unveiled on February 2 -
http://gizmodo.com/5746288/google-w...id-30++also-known-as-honeycomb++on-february-2
Any bets on how late in Feb we see a G-Tablet port? More to the point, hopefully that will mean an influx of apps that now can take advantage of the full Tegra - a good video player would be high on my list, though a good photo editor would be a close second.
Has anyone ported the keyboard yet?? I wanna try that out so bad lol
Sent from my GTablet-TnT-Lite using Tapatalk
EwanG said:
Honeycomb will be officially unveiled on February 2 -
http://gizmodo.com/5746288/google-w...id-30++also-known-as-honeycomb++on-february-2
Any bets on how late in Feb we see a G-Tablet port? More to the point, hopefully that will mean an influx of apps that now can take advantage of the full Tegra - a good video player would be high on my list, though a good photo editor would be a close second.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have a semi-solid gingerbread rom less than 2 months after its release. I would imagine it will be a bit quicker, given the similarities between the internal hardware between the G tab and the various new Terga processor tablets that are coming out, but who knows.
I suspect in the end it will come down to how much effort the devs want to put into making things work for the G tab. With 2 groups of people working on their own roms (Vegan and Cyanogen), I am not sure they'll drop what they're doing to work on a stock honeycomb release.
Hope I'm wrong though.
I would imagine that Roebeet with his TNT lite Roms will have a working Honeycomb as soon as VS team releases their bloatware version.
I am hoping that this is the OTA update that VS hinted at earlier this month.
Frrrrrrunkis said:
I would imagine that Roebeet with his TNT lite Roms will have a working Honeycomb as soon as VS team releases their bloatware version.
I am hoping that this is the OTA update that VS hinted at earlier this month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh let's hope we have something much faster than waiting for VS.
For an unbias view and ease of applying apps and roms and ease of having apps work properly, which would be best to get? NookColor or a GTab
the screen difference isnt that much of a main concern really
jerichoholic said:
For an unbias view and ease of applying apps and roms and ease of having apps work properly, which would be best to get? NookColor or a GTab
the screen difference isnt that much of a main concern really
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the g-tab has the better hardware (not certain tho). That would be more important i would think.
Sent from my GTablet-TnT-Lite using Tapatalk
jerichoholic said:
For an unbias view and ease of applying apps and roms and ease of having apps work properly, which would be best to get? NookColor or a GTab
the screen difference isnt that much of a main concern really
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the screen isn't an issue, the only answer is the GTab. The hardware specs are better, and nothing about it is locked - you can have a custom rom on the device in less than 5 minutes. It takes longer to download the roms from the internet than it does to put them on the device. This isn't something that's common among devices - often hardware manufacturers lock the bootloader down and make it tricky for users to install custom software - the original root procedure on the EVO required using adb and was far from straightforward, if you weren't technically inclined. By contrast, installation for the GTab involves unzipping a file onto the internal memory and rebooting (slightly more complicated than that, but not much).
I don't know the process on the Nook, but I can't imagine it's simpler than the GTab. The Nook is a proprietary book reader, and B&N is selling them so that you'll buy books and read them - not so you'll hack it into a tablet. They've probably put quite a bit more thought (and if they haven't yet, they're almost certainly about to) into locking the device down.
The main issue with the GTab is the screen. Other than that, it's honestly a very nice piece of hardware, and one that you can be happy with.
Engadget now has a video of it running on the Nookcolor with hardware acceleration. It's so smooth, but there's like no apps i guess since it was built from the SDK preview.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/30/android-honeycomb-port-for-nook-color-gets-graphics-acceleration/
Not only that but if you follow the link to the source you see this...
graphics acceleration more or less working. The SGX driver seems too old for some buffer request of android 3.0, so right now the statusbar is invisible but still functional. Not sure if I can fix that or have to wait for the AOSP release.
What is not working... pretty much everything else, no accelerometer, no wlan, no sound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
undyingsum said:
Engadget now has a video of it running on the Nookcolor with hardware acceleration. It's so smooth, but there's like no apps i guess since it was built from the SDK preview.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/30/android-honeycomb-port-for-nook-color-gets-graphics-acceleration/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got sick of youtubing honeycomb videos and decided to try out the desire hd honeycomb sdk port - guess what? It workes on inspire too. At least it works as well as it does on desire
I found a working link to the rom http://www.r2doesinc.bitsurge.net/OMHC-port-desirehd.zip
Here is the desire hd thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=958391
Be sure to have your copy of android revolution / cm7 / whatever on your sd card for reverting to it when you're done. (volume rocker down and power to get back to recovery) This rom has no data access. But it's a neat way to check out the ui for now. It runs surprisingly fast considering it's origins.
I just wanted to stick this where more inspire users might see it and confirm that it works, I am not the developer.
I'm still really confused why people want to run a tablet fork of Android on their phones.
helushune said:
I'm still really confused why people want to run a tablet fork of Android on their phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not? That is the true question.
helushune said:
I'm still really confused why people want to run a tablet fork of Android on their phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try it out the interface is wonderful maybe then you'll see
randomblame said:
Try it out the interface is wonderful maybe then you'll see
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still, doesn't make any sense to me. Especially when they've made it fairly clear 3.x is for tablets, 2.x is for phones. A bigger number in front doesn't always mean it's better. Not trying to start a flame war, just trying to understand.
It's highly buggy. Have tried this on a few phones.
Maybe google will come out with a phone version and simply name it something else.
Honeycomb was written specifically for tablets. Not a lot of that is easily ported to any phone.
Read xoom forums. Even it has its issues.
Sent using XDA Premium running MIUI version in OP
helushune said:
Still, doesn't make any sense to me. Especially when they've made it fairly clear 3.x is for tablets, 2.x is for phones. A bigger number in front doesn't always mean it's better. Not trying to start a flame war, just trying to understand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We do it to do it... to say we done it... to prove we can do it... plan simple and to the point
symonc said:
It's highly buggy. Have tried this on a few phones.
Maybe google will come out with a phone version and simply name it something else.
Honeycomb was written specifically for tablets. Not a lot of that is easily ported to any phone.
Read xoom forums. Even it has its issues.
Sent using XDA Premium running MIUI version in OP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ummm isn't 2.4 Honeycomb for phones? thought i seen that somewhere.and 3.0 is for tablets specifically
wade7919 said:
ummm isn't 2.4 Honeycomb for phones? thought i seen that somewhere.and 3.0 is for tablets specifically
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2.4 is Gingerbread.
With
Dual core support and hopefully some bug fixes.
Sent using XDA Premium running MIUI version in OP
im with the why not crowd.. but i would think problems would arrise from the fact that the tablet has higher pixel count and surface area. But ill prolly try this out before tomuch longer.. maybe someone will make a custom rom to runn better on the phones.. Overclock the cpu and it would help with processing what is supposed to run on 2 cores.. but then again you got the extra gpu cores that he nividia chipset uses.. Sooo.. but on tiger and newegg you can get a low priced nividia powered tablets for 300 to 349. not that much money if you can save up and skip the bar for a month.
sprhr0 said:
im with the why not crowd.. but i would think problems would arrise from the fact that the tablet has higher pixel count and surface area. But ill prolly try this out before tomuch longer.. maybe someone will make a custom rom to runn better on the phones.. Overclock the cpu and it would help with processing what is supposed to run on 2 cores.. but then again you got the extra gpu cores that he nividia chipset uses.. Sooo.. but on tiger and newegg you can get a low priced nividia powered tablets for 300 to 349. not that much money if you can save up and skip the bar for a month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, I'd just grab a ViewSonic G-Tablet and wait for a port. Woot's tempted me a few times now with dropping them down to $260.
helushune said:
Honestly, I'd just grab a ViewSonic G-Tablet and wait for a port. Woot's tempted me a few times now with dropping them down to $260.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I did.
Sent from my Vegan G Tablet
I'll give it a shot...THanks!!!
Ice Cream Sandwich (still not used to the new name) will be the honeycomb+gingerbread mash up for phones. But seriously this is XDA we can do anything. If we had source code there would be honeycomb phone roms popping up left and right with phone apps pulled from gingerbread. The size of the interface can be scaled for lower resolution phones. It can work. For those of us with wives that cant go out and spend money on a tablet without first spending more money on jewelry to bribe with - this rom is a neat way to peek at the latest hotness.
I know that many are excited about the 'sweetness' of ICS that's suppose to drop this month. I did have a TF Prime for 2 weeks (returned it due to issues). I miss the shiny svelte tab for sure, but it had way too many issues to deal with. No thx on being a BETA tester for ASUS unless they decide to send me a tablet for free.
Anyway it seems we've been hearing/talking about ICS for ages now (in fact it's only been 9 months or so I'd guess). When details where finally released on it, I admit I was somewhat disappointed.
Sure for people on Gingerbread, ICS is a huge step forward, but for all of us that have been using HC for up to nearly a year now, it didn't seem to offer that much.
Looking over wikipedia the only thing that I see that gets me excited is Hardware Acceleration of the UI, just about every other feature either exists in HC, is available in apps, or makes little difference to those of us using a TF101 (IMHO).
Now i will admit that once the Dev's create a stable ROM I'll drop that onto the device but I'm just not that excited for a new font. I do think that ICS being both a tablet and phone OS is good going forward for app development, and we should see those advantages play out over time in a more stable environment as well as more available apps, but as it stands currently I'm just not that excited for ICS.
I just looked at Platform stats;
Cupcake 0.6%
Donut 1.0%
Eclair 7.6%
Froyo 27.8%
Gingerbread 58.6%
Honeycomb 3.4%
Ice Cream Sandwich 1.0%
Talk about different user experiences ....WOW....I wish that Google could somehow shut down everything prior to Gingerbread, and force everyone up, with at least 37% of devices using these long outdated OS versions, it's no wonder that we constantly hear the 'fragmented' comment about Android.
I'm not sure what kind of ground breaking innovative features you were expecting in ICS. Although I agree that some of these features are available with third party apps, I believe your average everyday user will benefit from having them built in rather than needing to search through the market once they hear of some feature they would enjoy. You have to remember that we are almost surely the minority of overall Android users here on XDA compared to the general public, as we are more comfortable tinkering with our devices than others. And anything that can bring Android tablets closer to on par with the iPad, currently at the top of the tablet world, is a benefit to the Android platform and is "worth it."
As far as the fragmentation goes, I don't think the different OS versions you mentioned are what most people refer to as the "fragmentation" of Android. Rather, it is the manufacturers skin (HTC's Sense, Motorola MotoBlur, etc.) of each platform, which can be confusing to common users when switching between them. However, this is part of the beauty of Android; users can pick which skin suits them best, or as power users such as those of us on XDA can do, change the Android software if we like the hardware of the device but don't care for the software. Granted, more to your point, most iPhone users are probably on IOS 4 or above compared to those on Gingerbread or above, although I can't verify this fact with a quick Google search.
IMHO, I'm more excited to see CyanogenMod 9 on the TF101 than ICS in general. I've been a loyal user of Android Revolution HD, but I'm looking forward to see what the CM team has to offer in regards to the options/customizations available seen in every other CM ROM (AR is based on stock TF101 ROM, with plenty of enhancements of course).
If you would have tried out paulburton's ICS port you would see the truly immense differences that it brings. Honeycomb was not a finished product on is release and was only pushed out to compete with the iPad so there were a lot of things wrong with it. Now with ICS we will have a smother experience along with greater uniformity. The promise of CM9 is just the icing on the cake
Yeah I'm looking forward to CM9 on the TF101 as well...I did try out an Ipad2 after i returned my Prime. I didn't find much that i could criticize about the device ( other then price)....the thing was solid and just worked (which is more then i can say about the Prime)....I'm looking forward to the MeMo hopefully by then ICS will have been patched up to a level that makes it robust. The padphone as well looks good (and being able to use this dock is sweet)...but i do wonder if it will even make its way to NA
As for expectations for ICS....I don't know maybe I thought we'd see something revolutionary....like User profiles....more support for external devices like DVD drives... native printer support
surroundedbytrees said:
Yeah I'm looking forward to CM9 on the TF101 as well...I did try out an Ipad2 after i returned my Prime. I didn't find much that i could criticize about the device ( other then price)....the thing was solid and just worked (which is more then i can say about the Prime)....I'm looking forward to the MeMo hopefully by then ICS will have been patched up to a level that makes it robust. The padphone as well looks good (and being able to use this dock is sweet)...but i do wonder if it will even make its way to NA
As for expectations for ICS....I don't know maybe I thought we'd see something revolutionary....like User profiles....more support for external devices like DVD drives... native printer support
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lol its a mobile OS not linux..
blickmanic said:
lol its a mobile OS not linux..
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Its virtual machine on top of linux so most of what he is saying could be done but would obviously be cm based or aosp done by our devs
User profiles are available already theres a root app that creates partitions for each profile or user
Printer support i know through bluetoth theres a couple apps for it but nothing native or other than wifi/bluetooth
Im just saying its good to dream and in this guys case both the things he mentioned are do-able
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
I wouldn't mind being able to print web pages and graphics from the tf on my wifi printer.
luna_c666 said:
I wouldn't mind being able to print web pages and graphics from the tf on my wifi printer.
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Have a look in the market. There are printing apps from canon for example.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
I've tried the HoneyComb on a variety of Android tablets (transformer, Toshiba thrive, galaxy tab 10.1, acer, and some others), and it seems laggy: scrolling the home screen left and right lags when doing it fast. is ICS better and faster on the original transformer (for those who tried the ports)?
I'm planning on getting an EEE Transformer (not Prime) soon, before they get out of the market. Already it got sold out in 2 local shops who put them on promotion, preparing for the prime. I might find the base 16GB Wifi only for around €350.
towlie288 said:
Have a look in the market. There are printing apps from canon for example.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
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All android printing apps are printer dependent. Android has no printing layer. I think this is ridiculous. Android has much more potential for being a desktop replacement than iOS (I use it for 90% of the tasks I use my MacBook Pro for) but there is no printing layer.
Cheers!
-M
Xda member since 2007
For the whiny little snots who don't think the TF101/HC is fast enough or must always have the latest versions, ICS ought to be worth it. Everything else is just evolution like Froyo -> Gingerbread. Worth it but not a game killer as long as stuff works. I prefer ICS to HC the same as I prefer GB to Froyo.
On the Prime I really noticed the speed difference in ICS, but was already 250% satisified with the TF101 speed under HC (which isn't all that different from the Prime on HC IMHO).
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
im an update junkie first and foremost but i am eager for ics for other reasons as well. CM9 is awesome. But a stable release allows custom roms to pick out the latest working code. Even a semi stock but optimized rom with custom oc kernel is great.
Spidey01 said:
but was already 250% satisified with the TF101 speed under HC (which isn't all that different from the Prime on HC IMHO).
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The only thing that you must have notice was the browser speed. It lags terribly on HC during loading of the page, but from what I read it also lags on ICS sometimes, so I don't know if the update will be worth it.
towlie288 said:
Have a look in the market. There are printing apps from canon for example.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
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Hmmm..thanks! I never even thought to look in the market, i have a canon pixma mp495, which is listed under compatible printers with the app Canon EPP, so maybe it will work
I'll let you guys know if it is worth it. (replacing more and more functions of my laptop daily this transformer is)
Edit;
Wow. Just what i was looking for scan and print! Nice..
Brother Printer App available too
luna_c666 said:
Hmmm..thanks! I never even thought to look in the market, i have a canon pixma mp495, which is listed under compatible printers with the app Canon EPP, so maybe it will work
I'll let you guys know if it is worth it. (replacing more and more functions of my laptop daily this transformer is)
Edit;
Wow. Just what i was looking for scan and print! Nice..
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I have a brother wifi printer and there is a nice app for it. It has been updated several times since I first downloaded it. I have it on my tf and my captivate. It has helped me greatly.
For example, yesterday I picked up my daughter after work and went home. She fell asleep about 15 minutes before we got home. And, we were planning on going to dinner because we had a coupon. So, I pulled in the driveway, left the car running, let my cappy connect to my wifi and printed the coupon from my phone. My wife grabbed it and joined us in the car while my daughter continued to sleep peacefully.
I never thought a smart phone could help my daughter get a better nap until yesterday.
Magnesus said:
The only thing that you must have notice was the browser speed. It lags terribly on HC during loading of the page, but from what I read it also lags on ICS sometimes, so I don't know if the update will be worth it.
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Opera Mobile has been my daily browser on each, so I can't say that I noticed much. Page loading in the stock still tends to be slow. What is different on the Prime, is how much faster/smoother the ICS UI is compared to HC on the Prime. I'm almost tempted to hit the force GPU rendering option in Settings -> Developer Options, just to see how wide spread it can be.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
surroundedbytrees said:
I just looked at Platform stats;
Cupcake 0.6%
Donut 1.0%
Eclair 7.6%
Froyo 27.8%
Gingerbread 58.6%
Honeycomb 3.4%
Ice Cream Sandwich 1.0%
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You should see Apple's OS fragmentation, it's MUCH worse than that. Steve Jobs was a liar when we told the world of Android fragmentation.
Fragmentation plagues any device with frequent OS changes..I'm still on Windows XP on one PC, windows Vista on two of them, and Win7 on another PC..also, my wife has gingerbread on her phone, I have honeycomb on my tab, and ICS on my (identical model to my wife's) phone. Eh..any technology that becomes so quickly updated and made obsolete so easily will create such fragmentation..people can't always afford to upgrade just because their device is replaced with a new model, some people just don't like change even when OS updates are available. This is also exacerbated when the old OS will not run on older devices thus updates are not possible for many people who would like to have them. Perhaps ICS will run for a while until Jelly Bean comes out and allow old froyo and GB devices to leave the market and consumers retire them, and more devices will be consolidated on Android 4.x- will certainly make developing cross-platform apps easier to achieve.
Of course, now that I have ICS, I can't wait to see what JB is going to add to my device..
Yes it will. Because of this: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome - I want ICS NOW!