Database Info

Submitting Patches to the Repo / Forking

Hi all!
I'm an android developer, and I regularly read the official android-dev and android-porting lists, but on all the fan blogs and from lurking here, it seems that all the good development is coming from XDA-dev!
So why don't you guys do some patch submission? Features like auto-rotating browser and the transition animations should really, really be in the main source, but the official Android team have their thumbs up their asses in regards to UI/polished stuff.. (I bet they're too busy working on the lower level cellular stuff and the ARM-generating stuff like in the *flinger libraries).
So you guys should make some patch submissions over at (http://source.android.com/submit-patches)!
That way, the next RC will have all of these lovely features you guys have implemented.
((Or, alternately (but more ambitiously), fork the entire codebase. Strip out the DRM and add a framework for native code execution. Perhaps that's a pipe dream, though..))
Thoughts?

I think forking the Android source would be a very nice touch, if Google doesn't pull it together. We could still add on to stuff from the official code, but add on all the special stuff that Google refuses to (they've said they won't add the ability to change CPU speed, etc).

Oh, absolutely, there would be numerous advantages to having a fork. It should definitely be discussed! I'm afraid that Google may be trying to exert too much control on their platform in ways that we don't always want, so there is nothing legally to stop us from forking and maintain a more badass tree. GitHub could provide the hosting.
Of course, it might be a waste of effort. If you submit the badass patches, then the good features here go out into all the phones in the next versions. Work on the fork, and only the selected users who are able to flash their own phones can use it, unless some Chinese companies start using it or something like that.
Names?
XanDroid? I'd rather like to see Mandroid with in a slick black theme..

Well to me it seems like the only people doing cool things right now with android have rooted devices
So why cant you ***** a little on google lists to make them actually do some work. The Roadmap @ http://source.android.com/roadmap is a joke. Either they give us root or they start working imo. =)

Seanambers said:
Well to me it seems like the only people doing cool things right now with android have rooted devices
So why cant you ***** a little on google lists to make them actually do some work. The Roadmap @ http://source.android.com/roadmap is a joke. Either they give us root or they start working imo. =)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you think that the release of the new unlocked Dev phones will change things?

Yeah it'll most probably shake things up a bit, however what about all those that already have a g1?
I for sure isnt buying a new phone to get root.

But even so, we're still talking about modifications to the OS and the packaged applications, which would be released in the next RC version, so even non-root users would get the features in the next update, along with anyone running Android on something besides a G1.

my .02
Id say submit some of the things found here and see what goog does with it, if they openly add these things that need root at this point and let xda dev participate in the OS with such submitions...then cool thats how open source works best, when anybody can add to the project, a phone OS utopia
If they ignore it then, a fork is the way to go but give google a chance to do the right thing first before, just leaving them in the xdadevs dust with a custom distro...

bhang said:
Id say submit some of the things found here and see what goog does with it, if they openly add these things that need root at this point and let xda dev participate in the OS with such submitions...then cool thats how open source works best, when anybody can add to the project, a phone OS utopia
If they ignore it then, a fork is the way to go but give google a chance to do the right thing first before, just leaving them in the xdadevs dust with a custom distro...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google has refused to add multiple features. They feel that they aren't necessary, or that your average consumer wouldn't want it (main thing I can think of atm is CPU speed).
If they don't add the features we request, simply because *they* don't like them, then a fork would get us exactly what we want/need. After we fork it, and the number of users using stock Android plummet, maybe they will listen .

I see a problem with forking... who says what is allowed and not allowed? That is the main problem. Now if you wanted to just add an app that would be one thing but there is not going to be an easy way to do this.

Gary13579 said:
Google has refused to add multiple features. They feel that they aren't necessary, or that your average consumer wouldn't want it (main thing I can think of atm is CPU speed).
If they don't add the features we request, simply because *they* don't like them, then a fork would get us exactly what we want/need. After we fork it, and the number of users using stock Android plummet, maybe they will listen .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Given the number of G1s with modified fw installed compared to the total number of sold units, I somehow doubt the number of users is going to plummet.
IMHO it would be a needless fork unless some new or considerably modified features were planned. Better to just patch the functionality into the official builds, if at all possible.

I'm not convinced by that logic. There would be an important difference between a fork and patched versions of the firmware, as a fork would have a totally different design philosophy. Whereas Android is focused on speed (or whatever the hell they're concentrating on..but to be honest, I think they're dicking about over there), Mandroid could have more focus on polished features and low-level access. ((And! No DRM, and I'd like to see some more security features..ZRTP?))
Either way, I think it's really important for the success of the open future of phones that the open source community take and give back. There's no need for the back-and-forth like with, say, PSP-cracking as we have the source code and we are allowed to do whatever we like with it. If we just keep patching what they give us and keeping the modifications closed, then we aren't really in control.
As for project management, I'm absolutely sure there are people who are capable of maintaining an active open-source project such as this, as long as there is a well-thought out design philosophy. I'd love to be involved, if enough people are willing to give it a shot. But, first, it'd be easier just to submit patches.

Miserlou! said:
PSP-cracking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PSP cracking is insanely different. If you were in that scene, does my name look familiar ? Was net admin at toc2rta/malloc, admin of psp-hacks.com, worked with a lot of people on a lot of stuff that I barely remember as it was years ago .
But for the PSP, we were working with a system we knew nothing about. So yes, Android would be a lot simpler to work with. But if Google doesn't listen to us, it's not like it would really matter.

neoobs said:
I see a problem with forking... who says what is allowed and not allowed? That is the main problem. Now if you wanted to just add an app that would be one thing but there is not going to be an easy way to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android is licensed by both the Apache Software License (do whatever you want with it) and the General Public License (do whatever you want with it as long as you make the source code available for others). We are certainly allowed to do this, but the problem lies with the G1 owners running the official RC30. They wont have the rights required to flash the image which leaves them out of the party.

2 words
The community(did I spell that right?)
Bhang

Datruesurfer said:
Android is licensed by both the Apache Software License (do whatever you want with it) and the General Public License (do whatever you want with it as long as you make the source code available for others). We are certainly allowed to do this, but the problem lies with the G1 owners running the official RC30. They wont have the rights required to flash the image which leaves them out of the party.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant who is going to the be decision maker of what features will be added... The Community as a whole? What about some that want it but only 25% of the community wants it?

neoobs said:
I meant who is going to the be decision maker of what features will be added... The Community as a whole? What about some that want it but only 25% of the community wants it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what project leads are for. And hypothetically when enough people are dissatisfied with the xda-dev fork they will go and create their own fork. Except I don't think there is any real argument yet to go and create an xda-dev fork in the first place. Forking an operating system meaningfully is not a weekend project for a single person.

I have said it before, let's give them a bit more of a chance, a fork isn't something a guy can do in a weekend.
So let's see what happens in RC3X, the next release will give folks a bbetter idea of where their heads are at. If enough of the community is unhappy there will be a fork
Bhang

Needed: Your Questions for HTC

Hello fellow XDA-ers!
We have a very interesting opportunity here, and we'll need everybody's input on this one:
At our request, HTC America is going to respond directly, interview/Q&A-style, to a set of questions submitted by XDA. The responses are then going to be posted in an Article on the front page of the site will all the other news.
Now, since this is intended to be in the interest of as many members as possible, we want to open the floor to suggestions from anybody and everybody here, for what questions you would love to see answered by HTC!
We'll be accepting ideas and suggestions in the form of replies to this thread, up through 24:00GMT this coming Friday night. Then, the admins and writing staff will go over all of the submissions, and choose the 20 that we think will generate responses and insights most interesting to our members.
We're not so concerned with how you word the questions, it's the idea that matters...just let us know what's on your mind, and we'll take care of getting them "all pretty"
One thing that we'll request is that this thread is used for posts with either direct ideas for questions or follow-up suggestions to questions already posted. For those of us who have a strong opinion about HTC in general (one way or the other), just try to put it in the form of an inquiry...otherwise it'll be better to open a separate thread to discuss those things. Questions about this process are welcome too, or feel free to PM me if you prefer.
I think we have an awesome opportunity here to get some very interesting perspectives on how the company that's behind the reason we're all here operates, particularly in relation to its most passionate customers!!
Now, to get everybody started, I'll submit this first question, courtesy of memeber snarksneeze:
"There are several Linux-based open source ARM operating systems out there, what makes Android so special from an OEM's perspective, that almost every cell-phone manufacturer is jumping at the chance to use it?"
So get to it!! We're looking forward to a lot of creative responses...that's why we wanted to solicit the entire community at XDA for ideas on this, instead of just letting "management" come up with them I know there's as many unique customer perspectives out there as there are members...so let us know what's on your mind, and we'll get answers for as many of them as we can!! There's a good chance this could open the door for similar opportunities with HTC in the future as well, but we want to make the most of this opportunity while we've got it! We're counting on everyone to help make this as awesome as it can be!
NOTE: While these answers will be coming from HTC America, I think it's fine to ask questions with a global scale, just maybe not any directly relating to other specific markets
Ready....set.....GO!!

Questions 2 & 3
To HTC:
2: Do you have plans to launch a hardware keyboard WM device in the mid term?, if so please give us a glimp on what we could expect.
3: Rumours speak about an HTC propietary operating system, what are the chances of this happening?

4: Are you planning on keeping Windows as your primary platform now that Windows Phone 7 is on its way or are you going to switch your focus to android now that it's the only platform that let's you keep your edge over your competitors in the form of the Sense UI?
5: How big a blow was it for you when you found out that Microsoft weren't going to allow customized user interfaces for WP7?
6: Are you planning on letting users choose which mobile operating system they want on future phones(assuming the hardware works under both)?

orb, Toss, thanks a bunch...those are all awesome questions! Much better then what I might come up with lol.
Keep 'em coming people!

Hows this:
7: What are your future plans regarding Qualcomm's new OS Brew, after releasing the HTC Smart?

PurpleLlamaLover: Question number 7 / Please sticky
sirphunkee said:
orb, Toss, thanks a bunch...those are all awesome questions! Much better then what I might come up with lol.
Keep 'em coming people!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great effort my friend!
And with the help of all you´ll have the necessary material for making not only one, a series of interviews!!
-----------
Please make it sticky.
PurpleLlamaLover said:
Hows this:
What are your future plans regarding Qualcomm's new OS Brew, after releasing the HTC Smart?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@all:Let´s not forget to include question number, which be of great help to OP

7. Is HTC ever going to release a device top spec in line with other manufacturers instead of constantly releasing new devices with little or no update in between, one example would be that htc are still releases devices with 5mp cameras!!
8. Is HTC ever going to provide a driver suitable for our devices to improve graphic performance

Maybe try to find out about the next gen processors (ie. dual core) , and when they will be available.
And also,... when will we get a top of the range android device with a hardware keyboard again. A true successor to the G1/Dream. I've never owned one but feel that it is what my Hero is missing.
Thanx guys.

... Also....
What do they think of the developers on here?.... Are they likely to provide more resources to make our dev's jobs a little easier?

Ok awesome, thanks guys...I did really want to get at least a question or two in about what we can look forward to in terms of hardware QWERTY phones of any type.
And yes, I also like the ideas of finding out exactly what their perspective on "us" is, as well as plans for improving specs on flagship models

Toss3 said:
4: Are you planning on keeping Windows as your primary platform now that Windows Phone 7 is on its way or are you going to switch your focus to android now that it's the only platform that let's you keep your edge over your competitors in the form of the Sense UI?
5: How big a blow was it for you when you found out that Microsoft weren't going to allow customized user interfaces for WP7?
6: Are you planning on letting users choose which mobile operating system they want on future phones(assuming the hardware works under both)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooooo, I would love to know the answer to those! Put me down as a 'seconder' for these questions.
I am trying to come up with an intelligent question, although a lot has been covered by the bright sparks above.
This is a great opportunity. Thank you to those involved.

Franwella said:
Ooooo, I would love to know the answer to those! Put me down as a 'seconder' for these questions.
I am trying to come up with an intelligent question, although a lot has been covered by the bright sparks above.
This is a great opportunity. Thank you to those involved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noted, and thanks for your support! You still have a couple of days, so don't stress yourself...we're anxious to hear whatever you come up with

The removal of the red earpiece on the Evo... was that HTC's choice or Sprint's choice? It was a small visual feature that I was looking forward to and was disappointed to see removed in the final market version.
Sticking with the Evo, why was the choice made to add extra buttons to the on-screen keyboard? From looking at screenshots, they seem like they would impede typing. What sort of UX testing was done to ensure negligible impact to the end user?
Not a question, but thank you for doing away with the proprietary headphone jack. That was something slightly short of a slap in the face of the user.
As a company that primarily handles hardware, where do you stand on the "mobile platform wars"? The iPhone OS, WP7, and Android all have such markedly different business models. What strengths and weaknesses do you see in each? What development and policy changes would you like to see from all the major players?
Android is an OS that develops rather quickly, and one criticism of the Sense UI is that it forces users to lag behind development until a Sense UI update is pushed. How are you going to deal with keeping users OSes up-to-date as you move forward?

-Will the HD Mini be coming to the American market?
-Is it true HTC is considering a take over of Palm?
-Is HTC looking to make its phones better gaming platforms?
perhaps not the most intellectual questions but eh

kaiserII101 said:
-Will the HD Mini be coming to the American market?
-Is it true HTC is considering a take over of Palm?
-Is HTC looking to make its phones better gaming platforms?
perhaps not the most intellectual questions but eh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can answer the 2nd one...HTC was indeed one of the 5 bidders for Palm, but HP finally put up more than everybody else and bought the company. Look for WebOS on printers (no joke!) and other HP hardware soon.
That gaming platform question is awesome! I'm dying to know that as well!

Psichi said:
The removal of the red earpiece on the Evo... was that HTC's choice or Sprint's choice? It was a small visual feature that I was looking forward to and was disappointed to see removed in the final market version.
Sticking with the Evo, why was the choice made to add extra buttons to the on-screen keyboard? From looking at screenshots, they seem like they would impede typing. What sort of UX testing was done to ensure negligible impact to the end user?
Not a question, but thank you for doing away with the proprietary headphone jack. That was something slightly short of a slap in the face of the user.
As a company that primarily handles hardware, where do you stand on the "mobile platform wars"? The iPhone OS, WP7, and Android all have such markedly different business models. What strengths and weaknesses do you see in each? What development and policy changes would you like to see from all the major players?
Android is an OS that develops rather quickly, and one criticism of the Sense UI is that it forces users to lag behind development until a Sense UI update is pushed. How are you going to deal with keeping users OSes up-to-date as you move forward?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you Psichi...I like them all but especially the one about the "mobile platform wars"

Will HTC in the future write better software and drivers to fully take advantage of the QualComm SoC they are using? For example, the Tytn II was criticized for not having a fully accelerated video/graphics driver (along with each successor after it). The current HTC HD2 and Nexus one have very powerful SoC's with hardware accelerated video codec decoding, will that eventually be taken advantage of by drivers and HTC video players?
Graphically, do you anticipate creating software or drivers that push the full potential of the graphics processing power of the current "Snapdragon" SoC?
(I like to keep my questions device centric).

Another thing I'm wondering about is whether or not they are planning on including an RSS reader into sense in the near future(one of the most important features that is still missing imho)?

My question:-
HTC, will you learn lessons from the continued delays to the new Hero Rom in that development speed needs to be increased and there needs to be better communication with customers/fans
Tapatalk on my Hero

kaiserII101 said:
-Will the HD Mini be coming to the American market?
-Is it true HTC is considering a take over of Palm?
-Is HTC looking to make its phones better gaming platforms?
perhaps not the most intellectual questions but eh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HP already took Palm over...

Using GTab for Business

I haven't read many posts that actually describe how people use their GTabs. I have the impression that most people are using them for entertainment. I need to use mine for business purposes, mostly because all of my colleagues are using iPads but I couldn't bring myself to join Appleland. I'm still wondering if I made the right decision.
Anyway, what I did to make this work for my day to day needs is the following:
1. Installed Clockwork Mod to reset the partition as people in this forum have written.
2. Flashed NVFlash which removed Clockwork Mod and put me back into stock mode. I assume (but don't know for sure) that it preserved the partition sizes.
3. I added the Stock Enhancement mod listed elsewhere in the forum.
4. I added the Market Fix which is listed here elsewhere too.
5. I added Documents to Go which costs a few bucks but seems to be the best product for creating, editing and viewing Microsoft documents, PowerPoints, etc. I also use this on my DroidX.
6. I added Touchdown by NitroDesk which costs a few bucks too but is what I'm using on my DroidX to keep my mail synced with my office Exchange server.
7. I added the Kindle application because I think it's the best for tablet, plus I use it on my DroidX too and it allows multiple devices to be configured to a single account, letting me share my books with myself on these 2 devices.
8. I put my DroidX in Hotspot mode when I need a wireless connection and none is available or what's available costs too much. The GTab connects to it without a hitch so it's almost like having built-in 3G.
9. I have a Freedom Universal Bluetooth keyboard that I got for my DroidX which also works fine with the GTab. To be redundant, I also have a silicone USB keyboard which works fine with both devices too.
10. I have the dock so I can situate the tablet more conveniently but I have to say I don't use it much as it doesn't have a charging capability and the leather case I got from iTSteve (www.electroniccrap.com) puts it in a similar position and looks professional.
This seems like a lot of changes when I list them but they really were pretty easy to put in place and they allow me to do everything others do with their iPads.
I have concluded that nobody will ever catch up with the iPad in terms of users as they had more than a full year headstart on all competitors and grossed something like $20 billion in sales. But my GTab can do all of the things the iPad can do and more and more quickly. People complain about the GTab's screen but it's been like anything else I have in that I just position it so I can use it properly and I'm all set. It doesn't seem to be a detriment.
If there are other business users reading the forum who have figured out other ways they can use their GTab as laptop and iPad replacement, I'd be happy to read their postings here.

There are several threads including mine that talk at length about using our gTabs in a professional setting in this forum. I have a monster Dell Covet laptop with maxed out specs that I use at the office. Trouble is the fact the laptop and power adapter weigh in at around 30 pounds and taking it on business trips was wearing me out. So I started to leave my laptop logged in at the office and access it remotely from my gTab using LogMeIn Ignition when on business trips. So far this has worked great for me.
One thing I forgot to add was that the company issued me an iPad and the only time I use it is when my wife and I take the kids out with us to eat. It has Netflix which our gTab does not (without paying for PlayOn) and my little boys LOVE Shaun the Sheep.

I have a very similar setup.... Almost exactly the same as the first post. I also use logmein. The only thing I don't see posted is that I use sticky notes.... A LOT.... To remind myself what I promised to my clients once I get back to my office.
I love the fact that I have mobile hotspot in my pocket and with an m1 case from electronic crap.com, my gtab looks like I'm carrying a nice leather journal. My clients are always a little surprised when I open it up and flip it on to take notes....
Best 360 bucks I've spent in quite a few years.

Nokia as a wireless hotspot
Citrix for RAS into client work sites
Notion Ink Quick Office and Mail'd (and keyboard) - thanks to Gojimi

+1 for similar setup. Except I use noteverything. It lets me type, sketch a note or make a voice note all from a clean looking 4X1 widget.
Also, if you haven't tried it, find the galaxy tab mail client apk in a thread in apps and themes. It's the best email client I have ever used because it is totally centered around juggling multiple email accounts.
I deal with a lot of PDF documents and am using adobe from the market to view them. It is the best app I have found for working with large files. It is just lacking the ability to make drawn notes on the PDF such as circling, highlighting, blackking out. If I could do my revision remarks and editing from my gtab... damn I really would not need to use my work computer again, no seriously, ever
Sent from my Chromatic Magic using XDA Premium App

What are the options for connecting to exchange? I don't think the galaxy or Adam apps support it. How does touchdowns tablet interface work?
Sent from my UPC300-2.2 using Tapatalk

MSU_Sparty said:
I haven't read many posts that actually describe how people use their GTabs. I have the impression that most people are using them for entertainment. I need to use mine for business purposes, mostly because all of my colleagues are using iPads but I couldn't bring myself to join Appleland. I'm still wondering if I made the right decision.
Anyway, what I did to make this work for my day to day needs is the following:
1. Installed Clockwork Mod to reset the partition as people in this forum have written.
2. Flashed NVFlash which removed Clockwork Mod and put me back into stock mode. I assume (but don't know for sure) that it preserved the partition sizes.
3. I added the Stock Enhancement mod listed elsewhere in the forum.
4. I added the Market Fix which is listed here elsewhere too.
5. I added Documents to Go which costs a few bucks but seems to be the best product for creating, editing and viewing Microsoft documents, PowerPoints, etc. I also use this on my DroidX.
6. I added Touchdown by NitroDesk which costs a few bucks too but is what I'm using on my DroidX to keep my mail synced with my office Exchange server.
7. I added the Kindle application because I think it's the best for tablet, plus I use it on my DroidX too and it allows multiple devices to be configured to a single account, letting me share my books with myself on these 2 devices.
8. I put my DroidX in Hotspot mode when I need a wireless connection and none is available or what's available costs too much. The GTab connects to it without a hitch so it's almost like having built-in 3G.
9. I have a Freedom Universal Bluetooth keyboard that I got for my DroidX which also works fine with the GTab. To be redundant, I also have a silicone USB keyboard which works fine with both devices too.
10. I have the dock so I can situate the tablet more conveniently but I have to say I don't use it much as it doesn't have a charging capability and the leather case I got from iTSteve (www.electroniccrap.com) puts it in a similar position and looks professional.
This seems like a lot of changes when I list them but they really were pretty easy to put in place and they allow me to do everything others do with their iPads.
I have concluded that nobody will ever catch up with the iPad in terms of users as they had more than a full year headstart on all competitors and grossed something like $20 billion in sales. But my GTab can do all of the things the iPad can do and more and more quickly. People complain about the GTab's screen but it's been like anything else I have in that I just position it so I can use it properly and I'm all set. It doesn't seem to be a detriment.
If there are other business users reading the forum who have figured out other ways they can use their GTab as laptop and iPad replacement, I'd be happy to read their postings here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was using mine as a business tool before I loaded firmware 5.0 aka brickware on to it. Now I have a flashlight that throws me the bird when I turn it on.
Avoid 5.0 brickware, I fell for the Viewsonic firmware line thinking it was a mere UI enhancement, driver and other hardware component tweak instead beta crapware. I've been computing along time and never had a piece of firmware brick a device.
Hopefully when the store I bought it from gets it back they aren't able to unbrick it. My c-panel info was in it for easy access along with other proprietary info. G Tab had turned out to be quite a good business tool. Notice I used pass tense. It's done because of firmware lol 5.0.

It is not fair you blame 5.0. No one forces you to update to this ROM, and there are a lot of warnings in the first post of the thread.
I understand you are frustrated but Devs are doing a great job and at the end allowing us to have a Gtab usefull for business
BR

First of all it said "firmware" not rom. I do know the difference and it said exactly "viewsonic firmware update." Before I touched it I read the entire post. I wasn't looking to change my rom, however, firmware is something different. It usually enhances the use-ability of the product. This is not my first rodeo.
Not frustrated--pissed. Let me know when you are beta testing on me. Don't wrap it in another blanket and expect me to feel cozy. Some of the post do say "experimental or bleeding edge." Everyone gets that.
Now I have to take the brick back to the store I got it from and get another. I was smart enough to get their extended warranty plan.

ecejdt said:
It is not fair you blame 5.0. No one forces you to update to this ROM, and there are a lot of warnings in the first post of the thread.
I understand you are frustrated but Devs are doing a great job and at the end allowing us to have a Gtab usefull for business
BR
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI not mad at the devs, I walked right into that door. On my new one I won't be. Whatever is on there is what I will be using. This was a learning experience. I emailed them about being a little clearer on what they are offering up. Some people here may not be able to eat the cost or go get another one under warranty.
I'm pissed because I had it nicely tweaked as a business tool. This was the last thing I would have expected as a result of a firmware update. Knowing it was a ROM I would have optioned out.

I am using VEGAn 5.1.1 and it has the android exchange sync built in unlike the stock rom. I was using Docs to go but switched to Quick office due to the dropbox access and Docs to go does not use my headers in my bid forms correctly and Quick office does. I use Synctoy to sync my docs to Dropbox so I can get them on my Evo or my Gtab.

opnsrcaddict said:
What are the options for connecting to exchange? I don't think the galaxy or Adam apps support it. How does touchdowns tablet interface work?
Sent from my UPC300-2.2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TouchDown offers either automatic push or manually initiated synchronization between your device (GTab, Phone, etc.) and the Exchange server. It uses whatever connection you have--WiFi or 3G or other. Obviously on the GTab, it's WiFi.
You have all of the typical options available to treat what happens on your GTab as independent from the desktop, superior, subordinate or totally synced. There are tons of options for notifications and display settings too.
There are 2 specific reasons I got Touchdown. It supports pinch and spread to change the size of email text and you can mark appointments as private. Neither of those options exist on the standard mail client--which I think is a pretty stupid omission. Whether it's really worth spending money on, I don't know but it's worked for me.
If you visit the Nitrodesk web site, you can read more details about the product. They let you try it out for 30 days for free with all functions turned on. After that, you have to delete or purchase the unlock key.
Good luck.

edirector said:
FYI not mad at the devs, I walked right into that door. On my new one I won't be. Whatever is on there is what I will be using. This was a learning experience. I emailed them about being a little clearer on what they are offering up. Some people here may not be able to eat the cost or go get another one under warranty.
I'm pissed because I had it nicely tweaked as a business tool. This was the last thing I would have expected as a result of a firmware update. Knowing it was a ROM I would have optioned out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aren't you the same guy who basically threatened this website for being 'Rude'. that you would post about your experience here on your 'High traffic website' and complain to viewsonic??
Quite frankly, you should learn to take a little more time and *READ*. You should *START* with the title of the thread ... you know... where is says '[STICKY][ROM]...'
/Rant
Then you can move on to the fact that this is an enthusiasts and development site. Not VS customer service. nor is it the official repository for any VS software. if you can't be bothered to read all of the instructions and warnings of toying with these devices, then don't blame anyone but yourself.
I would venture to say that nearly everyone on this board had bricked or screwed up their device in one way or another. We did so knowing of the possibilities, and in nearly all cases, we read up enough on the process to fix it.
/Rant

Wow... talk about a thread hijacking.
Now back to the OP's post. I could link up my corporate Exchange account with the default mail client in VEGAn b5.1.1 but in the end I decided not to on the gTab as this allows the corporate admins to access your gTab remotely "for security purposes". I did set the corp Exchange account on my Droid X though. And even though the company issued me an iPhone 4 (along with the seldom used iPad) I can't deal with that small screen on the iPhone after I've been using my Droid X with it's much bigger screen.
As for Steve at electroniccrap.com, he has been a great source of gTab accessories and I plan on buying one of the new "clip" style folio cases when they arrive. Even though it's white it seems like a really elegant case on par with cases for iPads.

edirector said:
FYI not mad at the devs, I walked right into that door. On my new one I won't be. Whatever is on there is what I will be using. This was a learning experience. I emailed them about being a little clearer on what they are offering up. Some people here may not be able to eat the cost or go get another one under warranty.
I'm pissed because I had it nicely tweaked as a business tool. This was the last thing I would have expected as a result of a firmware update. Knowing it was a ROM I would have optioned out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to hijack further, but by "them" he meant me. So I will respond here, since I hadn't seen this thread until just now.
I think my post is VERY clear. I do use firmware and ROM interchangeably, that's true. Firmware is probably the better name, but the bottom line here is that this is not an official Viewsonic update, it's a altered firmware where you are taking the risk and there is no guarantees that something might not go terribly wrong. I state this clearly in my TNT Lite post, so in all honesty I don't know what else you would have liked me to do other than just pull TNT Lite completely.
I'm sorry to hear that your device is bricked and you cannot get it fixed. But if you've been reading the posts from the last several days I've probably spent more time on supporting TNT Lite than supporting my day job. So when I hear comments that I'm not making my TNT Lite post clear enough, I just have to scratch my head. There are a lot of very smart users on the board and they have been able to help ME out when my own knowledge is lacking, such as with Windows 7 nvflash instructions. My first post is long, but it's long for a reason and when I wrote "If you have any doubts, please consider holding off instead of just throwing caution to the wind" and "Use At Your Own Risk", I don't know how much clearer you want it than that.
It seems like your beef is that calling this a ROM makes this more risky than calling it firmware, in your eyes. I couldn't disagree more. If we want to nitpick on wording, firmware usually resides in a ROM and altering it is ALWAYS a risk (even from a supported vendor). They usually make you agree to that nice big EULA before you proceed, for example. ROM is more hardware based but I've used it interchangeably given how it's worded here in XDA. TNT Lite really doesn't replace the ROM, it is a firmware change - bootloader, kernel, system etc. But again, that doesn't mean it's not risky.
I'm a sysadmin - I update firmware all the time on servers. Don't tell me it's not risky because HP would disagree with you - they have redundant firmware built into their servers because sometimes things go wrong. If you don't want to take on any risk, please do not use my alternate firmware when you get that GTAB replacement - you might want to just stick with stock.

roebeet said:
Not to hijack further, but by "them" he meant me. So I will respond here, since I hadn't seen this thread until just now.
I think my post is VERY clear. I do use firmware and ROM interchangeably, that's true. Firmware is probably the better name, but the bottom line here is that this is not an official Viewsonic update, it's a altered firmware where you are taking the risk and there is no guarantees that something might not go terribly wrong. I state this clearly in my TNT Lite post, so in all honesty I don't know what else you would have liked me to do other than just pull TNT Lite completely.
I'm sorry to hear that your device is bricked and you cannot get it fixed. But if you've been reading the posts from the last several days I've probably spent more time on supporting TNT Lite than supporting my day job. So when I hear comments that I'm not making my TNT Lite post clear enough, I just have to scratch my head. There are a lot of very smart users on the board and they have been able to help ME out when my own knowledge is lacking, such as with Windows 7 nvflash instructions. My first post is long, but it's long for a reason and when I wrote "If you have any doubts, please consider holding off instead of just throwing caution to the wind" and "Use At Your Own Risk", I don't know how much clearer you want it than that.
It seems like your beef is that calling this a ROM makes this more risky than calling it firmware, in your eyes. I couldn't disagree more. If we want to nitpick on wording, firmware usually resides in a ROM and altering it is ALWAYS a risk (even from a supported vendor). They usually make you agree to that nice big EULA before you proceed, for example. ROM is more hardware based but I've used it interchangeably given how it's worded here in XDA. TNT Lite really doesn't replace the ROM, it is a firmware change - bootloader, kernel, system etc. But again, that doesn't mean it's not risky.
I'm a sysadmin - I update firmware all the time on servers. Don't tell me it's not risky because HP would disagree with you - they have redundant firmware built into their servers because sometimes things go wrong. If you don't want to take on any risk, please do not use my alternate firmware when you get that GTAB replacement - you might want to just stick with stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently you did not read my post. Had no issue with you the developers, just the clarity of the post. I was on here one day when an official Viewsonic post was posted here. It stated such. Only found out about this site from their support site. Don't have an android phone but a smart phone and I belong to that community forum. However, I sourced it out, there is no manufacturer link nor a manufacturer posting comments to that forum.
In addition, they were giving out tips and tweaks, jail breaks and everything else but I bought my phone jailbroken. That being said, thanks on the clarity of what you do. Most of the time it is clear cut in the heading. I didn't have a custom rom because I didn't want one but there were still some other good reading and tips. By the way, nice forum. My cell forum takes a slightly different approach. Everything is seriously laid out in no uncertain terms. The best clear cut approach I have ever seen for a forum.
The problem if there was one, is with VS giving this link. I've read a few posts were the ambiguity was apparent. We are being lead to believe there is some interconnectivity. Despite the fact they are driving up your site traffic they should be paying you at least a stipend for all your work in progressing their product. You spend more time "babysitting and coddling" their customers then they do. I agree there is always some risk with change of any kind. I was thinking drivers and use-ability change not ROM. Thanks for your post.

edirector said:
Apparently you did not read my post. Had no issue with you the developers, just the clarity of the post. I was on here one day when an official Viewsonic post was posted here. It stated such. Only found out about this site from their support site. Don't have an android phone but a smart phone and I belong to that community forum. However, I sourced it out, there is no manufacturer link nor a manufacturer posting comments to that forum.
In addition, they were giving out tips and tweaks, jail breaks and everything else but I bought my phone jailbroken. That being said, thanks on the clarity of what you do. Most of the time it is clear cut in the heading. I didn't have a custom rom because I didn't want one but there were still some other good reading and tips. By the way, nice forum. My cell forum takes a slightly different approach. Everything is seriously laid out in no uncertain terms. The best clear cut approach I have ever seen for a forum.
The problem if there was one, is with VS giving this link. I've read a few posts were the ambiguity was apparent. We are being lead to believe there is some interconnectivity. Despite the fact they are driving up your site traffic they should be paying you at least a stipend for all your work in progressing their product. You spend more time "babysitting and coddling" their customers then they do. I agree there is always some risk with change of any kind. I was thinking drivers and use-ability change not ROM. Thanks for your post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, in the space of a few posts, you managed to go after a developer on this site, the content of his posts and the site itself.
People like you amaze me and are indicative of the problems with society today. How about taking some responsibility for your own actions. You chose to do something. Too bad it didn't work out, but you have no one but yourself to blame.
To blame Roebeet is absurd. Frankly, to blame anyone but yourself is incredible. I have been on this site for quite a while through at least three phones. I have always known that flashing could brick my device. To say you didn't understand the consequences means you are either fooling yourself or you are plain stupid.

ptgptg said:
So, in the space of a few posts, you managed to go after a developer on this site, the content of his posts and the site itself.
People like you amaze me and are indicative of the problems with society today. How about taking some responsibility for your own actions. You chose to do something. Too bad it didn't work out, but you have no one but yourself to blame.
To blame Roebeet is absurd. Frankly, to blame anyone but yourself is incredible. I have been on this site for quite a while through at least three phones. I have always known that flashing could brick my device. To say you didn't understand the consequences means you are either fooling yourself or you are plain stupid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is what I post to Robeet your business? Stay in your lane. Stay in your lane. Read the other posts. Let's not be disingenuous here. We get that with "bleeding edge and experimental" being clearly outlined.
What part of Viewsonic didn't you get? Why even link from their site to this one? What happened to their own legitimate after purchase product support site?
You have a self esteem problem, it is evidenced by your posts. And, what does the manufacturer providing adequate after purchase support have to do with you? How is this site always the victim? Must be guilt you are adding into your responses. Get a grip.
What I am reading is product owners trying to better their products and find solutions.

MSU_Sparty said:
TouchDown offers either automatic push or manually initiated synchronization between your device (GTab, Phone, etc.) and the Exchange server. It uses whatever connection you have--WiFi or 3G or other. Obviously on the GTab, it's WiFi.
You have all of the typical options available to treat what happens on your GTab as independent from the desktop, superior, subordinate or totally synced. There are tons of options for notifications and display settings too.
There are 2 specific reasons I got Touchdown. It supports pinch and spread to change the size of email text and you can mark appointments as private. Neither of those options exist on the standard mail client--which I think is a pretty stupid omission. Whether it's really worth spending money on, I don't know but it's worked for me.
If you visit the Nitrodesk web site, you can read more details about the product. They let you try it out for 30 days for free with all functions turned on. After that, you have to delete or purchase the unlock key.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you get the beta, I don't think stable works with gtab
Sent from my GTablet-TnT-Lite using Tapatalk

Using any tablet for business is funny stuff.. Quit dragging ass and get back into the office.. for remote administration stuff.. my G2 kicks the **** out of the gtab.. because it has a keyboard.... which can be mapped correctly (unlike using a windows based usb kb on a gtab).

[PROJECT] Biophilia App of Björk to Android

Hi.
I have seen these apps from Björk but they don't seem to be for android. They are only for iPhone.
BUT I've read that the app could be ported from iOS to another operating systems because it was made to allow this. And Björk encouraged hackers to do that! That was said from Björk herself in an interview!
She told Drowned in Sound that the apps had been specifically designed so that they could be easily ported to other platforms -- like Symbian, BlackBerry and Android. "We really made sure when we wrote all the programs that they will transfer to other systems."
"I'm not supposed to say this, probably, but I'm trusting that the pirates out there won't tie their hands behind their back."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive...shttp://www.compositiontoday.com/blog/115.asp
I personally think that the art, sounds, videos, etc, could be extracted, but what ist with the software itself? How could it be ported if the source code is not available....
What do you think?
Can someone clarify if it would be possible?
Thanks!
Some videos of these apps. You can interact with the music and make your own versions playing or changing things in a very innovative concept.
http://youtu.be/FsxsGrnCGIk
http://youtu.be/kb3kLXVs9J0
http://youtu.be/0Rx-P2UsD5g

Still waiting!
Did anything ever come of this?

Hey anybody! Do sth about it! She preety much asked to do this, so lets do sth. I guess many people would want this app for android, and here? No reply? Please!

Nobody is interested...
I think this app is cracks for iphone, but it wasn't ported to android... It would be much more interesting.

Yeah, It would be interesting for milions of people who have android phones, and not Iphones. Android is bigger market than iphone so i just don't have a clue why nobody wants to port biophilia app on android.

[email protected] said:
Yeah, It would be interesting for milions of people who have android phones, and not Iphones. Android is bigger market than iphone so i just don't have a clue why nobody wants to port biophilia app on android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There no hackers who like this app, i would say.

humano said:
BUT I've read that the app could be ported from iOS to another operating systems because it was made to allow this. And Björk encouraged hackers to do that! That was said from Björk herself in an interview!
I personally think that the art, sounds, videos, etc, could be extracted, but what ist with the software itself? How could it be ported if the source code is not available....
What do you think?
Can someone clarify if it would be possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's generally not feasible.
Björk is a very interesting artist. I think her understanding of technology, and specifically software development, "hacking" and "pirating", is limited however.
Yes, the app may have been made potentially portable, but without source code that is more or less useless.
Porting an app between platforms is a much bigger task than "pirating". It's not a simple matter of pulling files from hidden directories, or even doing some limited reverse engineering and patching of an app to bypass license checks. It's MUCH more than the mere pirating of music and movie files.
I'm presuming the app was written to IOS with Objective C, and not some portable language where the source code is embedded in the ios apps.
Anything is possible, though. With enough time one could reproduce what the app does. That's probably easier than trying to reverse engineer it.
But I'd guess this is a substantial effort, likely requiring at least many months of work by a single person. But with all the paid work, and interesting free projects available to a person with the skills to port an ios app to Android without source code, why would anyone spend at least several months doing this ?
They could face the prospect of lawsuits from the rights holders, and might be unable to sell their work on official app markets. For what ? A wink from Björk, without even a physical pat on the back ? And perhaps a certain amount of gratitude from some users...
I hope she and others have learned something. If she/they want this to happen, they should at least release open source code freely, and make sure it's not difficult to port. Yeah, the video and audio recordings can remain "proprietary" but the app source code and design documents need to be released.
Or is much of the artistic expression integrated into the source code ? I haven't looked much but I guess these are not simple apps to play video and audio. These are apps that allow some form of interaction; perhaps the music changes with that.
If that's the case, the rights holders likely will want to hold onto their "intellectual/artistic property" and keep any source and design documents to themselves.
IMO, No amount of "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" from Björk will make a porting job easy.
And AFAIK there are no ios emulators for Android that might render this a simpler "pirating" effort.

mikereidis said:
I think it's generally not feasible.
Björk is a very interesting artist. I think her understanding of technology, and specifically software development, "hacking" and "pirating", is limited however.
Yes, the app may have been made potentially portable, but without source code that is more or less useless.
Porting an app between platforms is a much bigger task than "pirating". It's not a simple matter of pulling files from hidden directories, or even doing some limited reverse engineering and patching of an app to bypass license checks. It's MUCH more than the mere pirating of music and movie files.
I'm presuming the app was written to IOS with Objective C, and not some portable language where the source code is embedded in the ios apps.
Anything is possible, though. With enough time one could reproduce what the app does. That's probably easier than trying to reverse engineer it.
But I'd guess this is a substantial effort, likely requiring at least many months of work by a single person. But with all the paid work, and interesting free projects available to a person with the skills to port an ios app to Android without source code, why would anyone spend at least several months doing this ?
They could face the prospect of lawsuits from the rights holders, and might be unable to sell their work on official app markets. For what ? A wink from Björk, without even a physical pat on the back ? And perhaps a certain amount of gratitude from some users...
I hope she and others have learned something. If she/they want this to happen, they should at least release open source code freely, and make sure it's not difficult to port. Yeah, the video and audio recordings can remain "proprietary" but the app source code and design documents need to be released.
Or is much of the artistic expression integrated into the source code ? I haven't looked much but I guess these are not simple apps to play video and audio. These are apps that allow some form of interaction; perhaps the music changes with that.
If that's the case, the rights holders likely will want to hold onto their "intellectual/artistic property" and keep any source and design documents to themselves.
IMO, No amount of "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" from Björk will make a porting job easy.
And AFAIK there are no ios emulators for Android that might render this a simpler "pirating" effort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Mike for the reply. I didn't see this.
Are you sure, that the source code is not included? Is not possible that there's a intermediate state of the the code, that could be built for Android? I always thought, that is something like that.
You are totally right. With the artwork we cannot build the app for android...
And I don't even have an iphone to see how the apps should look like in android.

humano said:
Are you sure, that the source code is not included? Is not possible that there's a intermediate state of the the code, that could be built for Android? I always thought, that is something like that.
You are totally right. With the artwork we cannot build the app for android...
And I don't even have an iphone to see how the apps should look like in android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure. Anyone who claims otherwise is challenged to "show me where the source is".
For Android there is an emulator for PCs that many apps can run on, and an app of this type could run.
I know almost nothing of ios development, but likely there is an ios emulator that can run on a Mac at least ? AFAIR, ios development requires a Mac.
Feel free to send Bjork, or the companies that represent her, email asking about this.
I've been a fan of some of her music, and even acting and I even find her cute... And that's why I responded here. I had an initial thought that this could be an interesting project, but I have no time for such an unpaid hobby project.
BTW, Just looked at the iTunes page and some others. Seems to be a $12.99 app. And says "The full Biophilia App Album is now a paid app for new users, old users maintain same in-app-purchase ability." Something tells me the legal fine print says you're screwed if you hack it, especially if you tried to make a few bucks or do it publicly with your real name.
Artists (with money), hollywood and recording industry types tend to have iPhones. They don't know tech per se, don't want to know tech, and they have the cash to spend. They want something that "just works" and that's what the iPhone does, for a price. And ios is where devs make REAL money. Comparatively speaking, Android sucks for making money.
I saw some comment that they didn't make an Android app "for legal reasons". Sounds like a different way to say "business reasons". I imagine her recording company sells her music on iTunes, but doesn't sell it on Google Play in that big ongoing power play between media companies and tech companies ?

mikereidis said:
I think it's generally not feasible.
Björk is a very interesting artist. I think her understanding of technology, and specifically software development, "hacking" and "pirating", is limited however.
Yes, the app may have been made potentially portable, but without source code that is more or less useless.
Porting an app between platforms is a much bigger task than "pirating". It's not a simple matter of pulling files from hidden directories, or even doing some limited reverse engineering and patching of an app to bypass license checks. It's MUCH more than the mere pirating of music and movie files.
I'm presuming the app was written to IOS with Objective C, and not some portable language where the source code is embedded in the ios apps.
Anything is possible, though. With enough time one could reproduce what the app does. That's probably easier than trying to reverse engineer it.
But I'd guess this is a substantial effort, likely requiring at least many months of work by a single person.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quoting my words from a year ago out of sheer vanity, LOL.
New news about her kick-starter project for Android and Windows ports of the IPad Biophilia being put "on hold". Among other sources: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/appsblog/2013/feb/08/bjork-cancels-biophilia-kickstarter
Summary of my opinion: I love her as an artist, but she doesn't understand technology. Ooooh, and I wish she would forget about Windows and just do Android.
IMO the IPad was targetted first because that's what all the at least reasonably well off artsy people used at that time, and could afford. Now she wants the app in the hand of those who can't afford IPads.
So why can't/haven't they just open sourced the code ? Original IOS devs still hold the rights ?
Bjork says:
"porting the app "proved unbelievably complicated""... LOL.
And the estimate seems to be 8 devs (staff?) for 5 months, for both Windows and Android. So maybe 20 developer months for each.
And that's a small project in the world I've come from, with 10-100 dev teams working for years. And she thinks that's "unbelievably complicated".
Now I don't know exactly the scope of the app is; I've never used it on Ipad, and I don't know if it uses some magic IOS stuff that's hard to port.
For all I know it could require the minimum of my quoted estimate of "...at least many months of work by a single person". Or it could be 10-20 man-years. I don't know.
My point continues to be that she doesn't have a grasp of technology. And that's fine, she's a wonderful artist IMO, and there's no shame in not having or not wanting tech knowledge.

mikereidis said:
Quoting my words from a year ago out of sheer vanity, LOL.
New news about her kick-starter project for Android and Windows ports of the IPad Biophilia being put "on hold". Among other sources: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/appsblog/2013/feb/08/bjork-cancels-biophilia-kickstarter
Summary of my opinion: I love her as an artist, but she doesn't understand technology. Ooooh, and I wish she would forget about Windows and just do Android.
IMO the IPad was targetted first because that's what all the at least reasonably well off artsy people used at that time, and could afford. Now she wants the app in the hand of those who can't afford IPads.
So why can't/haven't they just open sourced the code ? Original IOS devs still hold the rights ?
Bjork says:
"porting the app "proved unbelievably complicated""... LOL.
And the estimate seems to be 8 devs (staff?) for 5 months, for both Windows and Android. So maybe 20 developer months for each.
And that's a small project in the world I've come from, with 10-100 dev teams working for years. And she thinks that's "unbelievably complicated".
Now I don't know exactly the scope of the app is; I've never used it on Ipad, and I don't know if it uses some magic IOS stuff that's hard to port.
For all I know it could require the minimum of my quoted estimate of "...at least many months of work by a single person". Or it could be 10-20 man-years. I don't know.
My point continues to be that she doesn't have a grasp of technology. And that's fine, she's a wonderful artist IMO, and there's no shame in not having or not wanting tech knowledge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I love her but that's why I think too , she too thought that porting an app will need 5 guys working on it and two months oh bjork
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Chad_Petree said:
Yes I love her but that's why I think too , she too thought that porting an app will need 5 guys working on it and two months oh bjork
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Originally, she hoped that "hackers" would do it, somehow, without source code, and she was giving a "wink, wink" to that.
She seemed to think that porting an app to a different platform would be almost as easy as pirating music, movies or apps.
I'm too busy to get involved, but I would be happy if someone(s) would ask her to get the source code released, and the "community" may be able to look and see and offer opinions or ideas.
Perhaps a few fans have the tech abilities and free time to make something of this at little or no cost, as opposed to professional devs making a normal professional dev income.
There's a forum here: http://4um.bjork.com/viewforum.php?f=16&sid=c28e2e0870bdc695ce7da8da94849918
Anybody know if she communicates openly with her fans online ? Is there an easy way to ask her for source code and offer ideas ?
IMO, she needs to forget about a Windows port, at least for now. It should have been Android from the beginning, but that said, Android is still relatively sub-par when it comes to real-time music generation. IOS stomps Android in this area, though the latest JB changes are promising.

mikereidis said:
Originally, she hoped that "hackers" would do it, somehow, without source code, and she was giving a "wink, wink" to that.
She seemed to think that porting an app to a different platform would be almost as easy as pirating music, movies or apps.
I'm too busy to get involved, but I would be happy if someone(s) would ask her to get the source code released, and the "community" may be able to look and see and offer opinions or ideas.
Perhaps a few fans have the tech abilities and free time to make something of this at little or no cost, as opposed to professional devs making a normal professional dev income.
There's a forum here: http://4um.bjork.com/viewforum.php?f=16&sid=c28e2e0870bdc695ce7da8da94849918
Anybody know if she communicates openly with her fans online ? Is there an easy way to ask her for source code and offer ideas ?
IMO, she needs to forget about a Windows port, at least for now. It should have been Android from the beginning, but that said, Android is still relatively sub-par when it comes to real-time music generation. IOS stomps Android in this area, though the latest JB changes are promising.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will ask it in her forum. Perhaps she reads this proposal. It could work.

humano said:
I will ask it in her forum. Perhaps she reads this proposal. It could work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I signed up on that forum and didn't get any confirmation email.
I was reading the main thread about this, and I think some of the posters understand a bit about s/w development. But some others are very misinformed about how development works.

mikereidis said:
I signed up on that forum and didn't get any confirmation email.
I was reading the main thread about this, and I think some of the posters understand a bit about s/w development. But some others are very misinformed about how development works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am registered in that forum too and it's what you say. They don't have any idea.... :laugh:
But there's good news, at least somebody told in the forum, that she told in an interview, that she will find a cheap way to port biophilia to android.
She would never release the code as open source... It would be crazy... We would have a BIOPHILIA+
It's what you told before. She doesn't really understand the power of doing it... :victory:

humano said:
She would never release the code as open source... It would be crazy...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, no open source basically, generally means it's "commercial property".
So this is a commercial venture she has.
That's fine, that's OK. It belongs to her (and/or whomever) and she can do what she wants with it. No different than other software devs / vendors, musicians, song, book or movie writers etc.
But she can't expect some "benevolent hackers" to come along and "port" an app like this for her for free; with or without source code.
And she has something going on with bringing music education to the poor or something like that. And that's why she wants an Android port it appears. The poor can't afford iDevices.
And that's fine too. But it seems like it's a jumble of commercial stuff and some form of self promoting philanthropy.
Anyway, I think she should forget about this years old project and make something completely new for Android. Why re-do what's already been done ? But I guess money comes in there too. It should be faster and cheaper to re-use the high level design and media components.

mikereidis said:
Well, no open source basically, generally means it's "commercial property".
So this is a commercial venture she has.
That's fine, that's OK. It belongs to her (and/or whomever) and she can do what she wants with it. No different than other software devs / vendors, musicians, song, book or movie writers etc.
But she can't expect some "benevolent hackers" to come along and "port" an app like this for her for free; with or without source code.
And she has something going on with bringing music education to the poor or something like that. And that's why she wants an Android port it appears. The poor can't afford iDevices.
And that's fine too. But it seems like it's a jumble of commercial stuff and some form of self promoting philanthropy.
Anyway, I think she should forget about this years old project and make something completely new for Android. Why re-do what's already been done ? But I guess money comes in there too. It should be faster and cheaper to re-use the high level design and media components.
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I fully agree. These apps are already a little obsolete for android.
And I have good news. She found a team of developers who is going to do the work for low price. We will have biophilia for android after the summer. Let's see how it is...

humano said:
I fully agree. These apps are already a little obsolete for android.
And I have good news. She found a team of developers who is going to do the work for low price. We will have biophilia for android after the summer. Let's see how it is...
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I hope it's not some "boiler room" s/w dev hack operation that promises more than it can deliver. I'm restraining myself from mentioning/identifying certain world areas where this is more common.
She's apparently coming to my town this summer; I've never seen her live; would be interesting.

mikereidis said:
I hope it's not some "boiler room" s/w dev hack operation that promises more than it can deliver. I'm restraining myself from mentioning/identifying certain world areas where this is more common.
She's apparently coming to my town this summer; I've never seen her live; would be interesting.
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Click to collapse
She said that in one interview. That's what the people in the 4um.bjork.com say. I think it's real.
I saw her live last sommer and was amazing.

Well Biophilia app is already for Android devices!
Check the playstore https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bjork.biophilia

annoying samsung...

I'm trying to get Samsung to release the source for their ar6000.ko ethernet kernel module as well as the source they used for wpa_supplicant (which contains extensions to wpa_supplicant.) To that end, I've sent them a few messages making those requests. Here was their reply (edited)
1. about 'ar6000.ko'
: source code of atheros chip set is not GPL.
We get BSD/GPL dual license from Atheros company.
We choose BSD license, so we do not have any obligation to publish source codeof it.
2. wpa_supplicant
Wpa_supplicant is also BSD/GPL dual license. (and we also choose BSD license)
________________________________________________________________
WPA Supplicant
==============
Copyright (c) 2003-2008, Jouni Malinen and contributors
All Rights Reserved.
This program is dual-licensed under both the GPL version 2 and BSD
license. Either license may be used at your option.
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Sadly, they seem to have failed to meet the conditions of the BSD licensing as well. I've sent them another message stating this:
Concerning the atheros AR6000 driver and the wpa_supplicant binary. In denying the making available source for both the ar6000 module and the wpa_supplicant binary, you state that you get both of these with dual GPL/BSD licensing and choose the BSD license. That is fine, however you failed to meet the terms of the BSD license. In particular, for both items, the BSD license states: " Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution." You have failed to state your licensing terms and this disclaimer in reference to the above stated items in either the printed documentation or the legal licensing screen embedded within the settings app on the device. As a matter of fact, you've failed to provide any licensing notice for GPL or BSD licensing for either item.
Regardless, I'm asking for these items in order to attempt to FIX BUGS that have been left in the device. It's been well documented in the forums for users of these devices that the wifi chipset drivers are causing crashes, freezes, "sleep of death" situations, etc. Samsung's support has been EXTREMELY unresponsive in attempting to resolve these issue, and I'd be willing to bet that reports of these issue aren't even getting through to your development teams.
Therefore, I once again ask that you release the source for the ar6000 module and wpa_supplicant binary that you have NOT followed the licensing terms of (regardless of which license you've chosen.) Oh, and there's no licensing string embedded in the ar6000.ko module either. modinfo ar6000.ko reveals nothing (for the ar6000.ko module on the GT-P6210 with KL1 firmware.)
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Honestly, I don't expect for Samsung to be responsive and/or helpful. I think the best that anyone can expect is that they release an updated firmware that includes the proper licensing information.
Gary

Check and mate Sir. I despise these OEMs. You GO gary. Whatever happened to opensource? What are they so afraid of?
Anything we can do to help, let us know. Even if it means just spamming their inbox.

It's not like I buy the tablet because it has such an epic driver....
I buy it for the hardware...
When your entire OS is practically open source... not open sourcing the drivers for the wireless chip seems like shooting yourself in the foot just because you can.

Thanks garyd9 for fighting the good fight.

When companies do stuff like this for critical things, it _really_ makes me want to spend my money elsewhere.
In regards to the SOD issue, I've noticed that quite a few honeycomb tablets have this issue or something similar to it. I've only personally seen it with Samsung branded ones (10.1 and 7.0+), but have heard similar issues with asus and and acer.
Perhaps its a honeycomb issue?
Gary

give em hell!

If you'd like to help, please click the link near the top of the OP to submit the article to the XDA portal. Perhaps if this issue is shown on the front page, and enough people notice, Samsung could be convinced to "choose" GPL over BSD.
Thank you
Gary

Did you get any useful /proc/last_kmsg dumps of SoDs? Enabling wifi may only be making a difference because of the wakeups.
That said - I am completely shocked that Broadcom's drivers are open source and the ar6000 driver isn't. I've lost a lot of respect for Atheros AND for Samsung over this. I can understand if it's BSD - but seriously, what trade secrets could Samsung have in a freaking Atheros driver, and for something like this, what possible business reason could they have for witholding source for that ONE module? It's freaking stupid.
I was hoping that they'd start becoming more developer-friendly as a result of hiring Cyanogen, but they're being asshats at this point. They donated a device to Codeworkx (or someone else on Teamhacksung) to get CM7 ported, but have not given him a shred of assistance with the porting effort. Basically, trying to get "Supported by CyanogenMod" credits without ANY significant effort.
As much as I hate Sony - SE seems to be doing the best of any manufacturer in terms of supporting people doing platform-level development.
Edits:
You know, this is proving to be a clear and recurring pattern. I have never seen XDA get anything useful out of SamsungJohn for example, all he does is come over, tease us with something, and never follow up.
Over in the Captivate forums - he came in and posted that source code was out, then left without any followup - by the time he made this announcement, people had already found the source and were working with it - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=997098
He then came and teased us with the Samsung Developer Program - guess what, it provides NOTHING for developers doing platform work - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1392847 - John also didn't come and respond to any of the feedback
Prior to that there was the Samsung Developers Conference tease - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1291758 - nothing useful came out of this for anyone doing platform work. In fact, John just dropped off the face of the earth, I'm assuming that not a single person from XDA actually was brought by Samsung to the event, otherwise there would've been a followup/debrief post. Anyway, the "big announcement" was just the Galaxy Nexus release announcement. Big deal - that's a dev phone because Google forces it to be one, it's more of a Google product than a Samsung one.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=954896 (and many similar posts) - He just crossposted to a ton of forums saying something awesome was coming. Something awesome never came. The linked thread from many of his posts doesn't even exist. Actually, most of his 67 posts are just crossposting this tease - NOTHING ever came out of it.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/samsung-shows-affection-to-cyanogenmod-gives-its-devs-a-free-ga/ - As a PR stunt, Samsung threw a Galaxy S II over the wall to one of the CM developers. Without a doubt, Dan Hillenbrand (codeworkx) and Atin Malvaya (atinm) have not received any support from Samsung since Sammy threw a device over to them. The GSII is likely to be codeworkx's last Samsung device, he has become so frustrated with Samsung (Check his posts in the CM9 thread for I9100). Compare this to Sony Ericsson's effort here - http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/wp/2011/09/28/sony-ericsson-supports-independent-developers/ - They have given FreeXperia MASSIVE amounts of support, and it shows - http://www.cyanogenmod.com/blog/sony-ericsson-xperia-support
imnuts07 asked for some help regarding Droid Charge kernel source issues - https://twitter.com/#!/SamsungJohn/status/152835654303236097 - All he responded with was "how can we help" - no further response, imnuts07 didn't get anywhere until jt1134 gave him some pointers. (It turned out to be more proprietary module vermagic bull****...)
After all this, it's clear that with regards to platform developers, Samsung's intent is to do the bare minimum to meet their legal obligations with the GPL and no more. Even source code which they COULD release and have no valid reason for withholding is withheld if they are able to (such as the ar6000 module source code). I thought that the Galaxy S II was a step forward towards devices with 100% open source kernels, however it is clear that the GSII was just a fluke. I'm getting sick and tired of dealing with module vermagic headaches. I've spent at this point a few hundred hours of my spare time working on improvements to various products of theirs(maintaining kernels for three different products - Samsung Infuse, AT&T Galaxy S II, and Galaxy Player 5.0), and their consistent message back has been "go away, screw you, stop bothering us".

There may be a small bit of hope - I've been contacted by someone at samsung (perhaps due to your rant combined with my constant pestering on their open source website.) It isn't much, but the first line of collaborating is communication. They seem more interested in fixing the bugs than sharing code, but I'll take what I can get.
Oh, and the last_ksmg memory was corrupted when the one person who had adb, my kernel and root installed was able to check it. (As you know, the file won't be generated if header area for the ram console can't be found or is in bad shape.)
We'll see what happens, but I'm not going to hold my breath with the lunar new year coming up.
Take care
Gary

so how many people do we need to sue??

chrisrotolo said:
so how many people do we need to sue??
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No lawsuits required. Although... that might explain the poor customer support from Samsung. Perhaps they've been afraid that Apple will sue them for patent infringement if they help a customer?
Not that I've ever had any GOOD support from Apple... mostly just clueless kids taking guesses. Even their so-called "geniuses" are mostly clueless.
In typing that, I realized that I'm probably one of the hardest people in the world to provide technical support to. When I have a question, it's only after I've exhausted the combined knowledge of myself and whatever google can provide... meaning the only good response from phone support would be "Would you like to cross-ship an exchange or wait for the repair?"

can we spook them with a (legal)letter they are in violation of the GPL/BSD agreement, and If it isnt provided in X amount of time, we will be forced to escalate?
I like to annoy people to (;

Speaking from personal experience ,when dealing (even on corporate high level) with Samsung there is nothing to gain but some weight due to stress.
They do care( up to a degree) about some customer relations and I've seen very nice, honest and helpful people there. But this is where it all ends.
The farther you go the worse it gets. Somehow they got this Apple attitude of profit and secrecy all over their structure. Apple calls themselves "innovators" to reason the secrecy, but Sammy are nowhere near. If I was to say they do act like copycat killers I risk getting called names- though they "adapt" almost everything, from design to business models. The Korean HQ has drawn quite strict regulations for the rest of the world.
We should remember that Samsung is a HUGE corporation. Android devices D&R is a tiny faction, ruled like in Middle Ages. They have the road map and they ever raise the stake every time. From my point of view, I sincerely understand those people for not jumping out with the source code. If you get paid 100k+, you don't help anyone but yourself. The decisions are not theirs. The people taking decisions don't give a rat's a55 about GNU or Linux, Minux or whatever. On top of that, there are some people that MIGHT have some influence in changing this policy ( the brown bearded, we call them) but those are the pride ridden SOBs.
You can read this from their mobile device history. They had to go into that, given the fact they build everything, from ships to home furniture. They got a share of the market because they were big and had some bright minds there. I know for a fact that, at the beginning, working @ cell phone dept was like sentenced to prison, only the undesirable but indispensable were sent there. Huh, those people left, some for Apple and some for others ( LG,Sony and Hyundai). Panasonic and Toshiba flops are some examples of how, in a degree, cultural burdens lead to a fail. HTC, a mobile phone company, depends on how much stir dev's can produce. On the other hand, Samsung can get a write-off for their mobile dept. without a blink. Bada is a perfect example. It was close to write off so they decided to make it open- see HP. They are too big to follow rules and beside being big, they hold the power few have- the power TO BEND rules, that is.
Getting any serious, development like help from Samsung is close to what ''Acts of God" are described in car insurance.

htc9420 said:
HTC, a mobile phone company, depends on how much stir dev's can produce.
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You are, obviously, an HTC fan or employee. Well, I have a samsung tablet, so I'm developing on a samsung tablet. At least the device was unlocked when I bought it and I didn't have to petition on facebook/twitter/etc just to be able to root it.
Unless you have something to contribute to solving a problem, please go elsewhere.

garyd9 said:
You are, obviously, an HTC fan or employee. Well, I have a samsung tablet, so I'm developing on a samsung tablet. At least the device was unlocked when I bought it and I didn't have to petition on facebook/twitter/etc just to be able to root it.
Unless you have something to contribute to solving a problem, please go elsewhere.
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I wouldn't be so quick to judge him...

I just got the impression that the point of the post was to promote HTC while bashing everyone else.
Perhaps I spoke (typed) too soon. If so, I apologize.

No, the HTC thing was just one line, and what I perceived as some general comments on why some manufacturers (Panasonic, Toshiba) seem to have kind of flopped in the market.
There was definitive Samsung-bashing - but he's just joining with us in frustration.
Check PMs gary.

garyd9 said:
I'm trying to get Samsung to release the source for their ar6000.ko ethernet kernel module as well as the source they used for wpa_supplicant (which contains extensions to wpa_supplicant.) To that end, I've sent them a few messages making those requests. Here was their reply (edited)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Gary,
I'm the developer for a CyanogenMod port for the Samsung phone (GT-I5500). Samsung have released their source for an older version of the AR6kSDK, which I have put on github here: https://github.com/psyke83/AR6kSDK.3.0. This source is quite old, and doesn't support combo scanning, but it's newer than the ath6kl source release contained in the 2.6.35 kernel.
Last night I scoured the internet trying to find some newer source, and came across a release by Sony for one of their e-book reader products. I have uploaded the source onto github which you can check here: https://github.com/psyke83/AR6kSDK.3.1
The above git's description links to the location of the original source tarball on Sony's server, but if you prefer, just clone the git and checkout the first commit, as it's the unmodified source.
I have made some changes already to get the module to initialize properly, but at present it's not even scanning properly. Perhaps it will work better for you without modifications, especially if your device is not AR6003_REV2 (which is the revision on my phone).

chrisrotolo said:
can we spook them with a (legal)letter they are in violation of the GPL/BSD agreement, and If it isnt provided in X amount of time, we will be forced to escalate?
I like to annoy people to (;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my friend mat has done this for me as he knows his stuff. it was a very powerful letter i must say haha. just waiting for a response

gary, thanks for all your efforts man! this is my first samsung android device, have they always been this bad in witholding source?