Database Info

I emailed Samsung about a few things, here is the response

Thought I'd share this with you guys. I recommend sending out a similar email so that they know that there are serious concerns about the phone. I did it online at the Contact Us page on the Samsung website.
Here's what I wrote:
Hello,
I recently purchased a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I am quite pleased with the device. However, there are a few things that irritate me about it that I was hoping you could comment on:
1.) There is a serious lag issue. Do a quick google search and you'll find that this is a universal problem with the phone.
2.) The GPS does not work. Also a universal issue.
3.) No 2.2 Froyo.
4.) No last.fm scrobbling support for the default music player (which I love by the way!)
5.) Drivers for Windows 7 x64 do not work well. After a lot of trial and error, I finally got it. Again, a universal issue.
A lot of people complain about the TouchWiz UI, but I personally enjoy it, as long as the lag issue is taken care of. Also I'm pleased with the phone call quality, and almost all other aspects of the phone.
I appreciate your time, and hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you,
[thecoolestcow]
Here is the response:
Dear [thecoolestcow],
Thank you for your inquiry.
Regarding the GPS on the phone, Samsung Mobile is aware that under certain conditions, the GPS on our U.S. Galaxy S devices may not be meeting performance expectations. We are diligently evaluating the situation and will provide an update as soon as possible.
We advise you to use assisted GPS powered by your service provider.
We still don't have any update regarding the release of the Android 2.2 for the Captivate and the drivers that will be compatible with Windows 7 64bit.
We will forward your report of this behavior along to the appropriate parties for additional review and consideration.
We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Should you desire additional assistance resolving this, we invite you to call Samsung Customer Support by phone at our toll free number 1-888-987-4357 between the hours 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Central Standard Time.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Sincerely,
Technical Support

thecoolestcow said:
Thought I'd share this with you guys. I recommend sending out a similar email so that they know that there are serious concerns about the phone. I did it online at the Contact Us page on the Samsung website.
Here's what I wrote:
Hello,
I recently purchased a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I am quite pleased with the device. However, there are a few things that irritate me about it that I was hoping you could comment on:
1.) There is a serious lag issue. Do a quick google search and you'll find that this is a universal problem with the phone.
2.) The GPS does not work. Also a universal issue.
3.) No 2.2 Froyo.
4.) No last.fm scrobbling support for the default music player (which I love by the way!)
5.) Drivers for Windows 7 x64 do not work well. After a lot of trial and error, I finally got it. Again, a universal issue.
A lot of people complain about the TouchWiz UI, but I personally enjoy it, as long as the lag issue is taken care of. Also I'm pleased with the phone call quality, and almost all other aspects of the phone.
I appreciate your time, and hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you,
[thecoolestcow]
Here is the response:
Dear [thecoolestcow],
Thank you for your inquiry.
Regarding the GPS on the phone, Samsung Mobile is aware that under certain conditions, the GPS on our U.S. Galaxy S devices may not be meeting performance expectations. We are diligently evaluating the situation and will provide an update as soon as possible.
We advise you to use assisted GPS powered by your service provider.
We still don't have any update regarding the release of the Android 2.2 for the Captivate and the drivers that will be compatible with Windows 7 64bit.
We will forward your report of this behavior along to the appropriate parties for additional review and consideration.
We are unable to speculate when/if this software revision might be available due to the fact that this might lead to inaccurate information and confusion.
Should this become available, it will be posted on our website in the Samsung Download Center.
Please feel free to check back with us periodically for updates.
Should you desire additional assistance resolving this, we invite you to call Samsung Customer Support by phone at our toll free number 1-888-987-4357 between the hours 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Central Standard Time.
Thank you for choosing Samsung.
Sincerely,
Technical Support
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Click to collapse
man I just dont see this lag yall are talking about... Had the phone since day 1, no lag fix and its fast as my n1 on 2.2. about.. Wierd...
Also GPS does work, just not reliably all the time, some works fine, others not, others sometimes.. So saying it dont work is exadurating. I just dont want people that dont have one think that the GPS dont work. It does and I use it everyday without issue. No fixes or anything, mine and some others works...
2.2 froyo will be here soon. Hold your horses on and it will be here next month I will bet...

I didn't see the lag either for a while, but I see it in most of the Samsung native apps, like Messaging and the screen unlock.
GPS also used to work amazingly. It just stopped completely now for me.
It's good though that they acknowledged in the email that they were going to release a fix for it.

thecoolestcow said:
I didn't see the lag either for a while, but I see it in most of the Samsung native apps, like Messaging and the screen unlock.
GPS also used to work amazingly. It just stopped completely now for me.
It's good though that they acknowledged in the email that they were going to release a fix for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, Well Im certain it will be fixed. The samsung epic 4g is rumored to have a working GPS (more testing needs done for me to believe it for sure) and if we have the same hardware gps wise as the Epic 4g we should definatly see a fix...

Nice, Engadget confirms.
engadget.com/2010/08/18/samsung-says-gps-is-tested-and-validated-on-epic-4g-our-testi/

There is most certainly lag. Like you guys, it wasn't a big deal until I saw the lag fix.
Long story short, I've been running the lag fix about a week, then borked my phone with another tweak and had to revert back to stock. HOLY COW was that thing slow... I never really knew any different until I had seen greener pastures
I will say I don't think the DEFAULT lag is worse than any other phone on the market. But it is capable of much, much faster.

Also you forgot to include the complaint that MMS doesn't work on EDGE, only 3G.

TexUs said:
There is most certainly lag. Like you guys, it wasn't a big deal until I saw the lag fix.
Long story short, I've been running the lag fix about a week, then borked my phone with another tweak and had to revert back to stock. HOLY COW was that thing slow... I never really knew any different until I had seen greener pastures
I will say I don't think the DEFAULT lag is worse than any other phone on the market. But it is capable of much, much faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which lag fix did you use? I saw several. I haven't rooted my device yet because I'm a little girl. I'm trying to gather as much info as possible first.

thecoolestcow said:
Which lag fix did you use? I saw several. I haven't rooted my device yet because I'm a little girl. I'm trying to gather as much info as possible first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I did all my tweaks manually the first time. However when I borked and started over I used this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=751934
That will do all necessary tweaks at once. Just download the update.zip file to the root of your INTERNAL card, reboot into recovery mode (ask if you don't know how... easiest way is to use ADB), and select "reinstall packages" and you're done.
Just check the post I linked to, but it'll remove all the ATT crapware, remove the loud startup sounds, install root, block ads, etc.
After it's ran you then can go into the app it adds and run the lag fix... After you run that script it needs a reboot... And then you've got a lag fixed phone that runs twice as fast. ROM Manager, for instance, takes like a whole freaking minute it seems to open un-lag-fixed. Lag-fixed it takes several seconds max.

TexUs said:
Well I did all my tweaks manually the first time. However when I borked and started over I used this: forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=751934
That will do all necessary tweaks at once. Just download the update.zip file to the root of your INTERNAL card, reboot into recovery mode (ask if you don't know how... easiest way is to use ADB), and select "reinstall packages" and you're done.
Just check the post I linked to, but it'll remove all the ATT crapware, remove the loud startup sounds, install root, block ads, etc.
After it's ran you then can go into the app it adds and run the lag fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Holy crap, how did I miss that one? Excellent, thank you. I will likely be doing that in the near future!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

thecoolestcow said:
Holy crap, how did I miss that one? Excellent, thank you. I will likely be doing that in the near future!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
NP.
I'm happy with 2.1 right now... I mean the Captivate at 2.1 runs faster than anything else on the market, including the N1 2.2......
So I can live with 2.1 until Samsung releases 2.2
Once you see how much faster it is with the lag fix, you'll start to wonder how much faster 2.2 will be. The Captivate will be untouchable.

There is definitely significant lag on the stock firmware - most notably for me with the marketplace but s also for some other apps when they are loading data. I haven't applied any fixes yet as I'm waiting for a decent firmware update before I do too much with my phone.
JH2/3 are looking like good bets, but I would suspect that an official firmware is right around the corner given the few changes between JH2 and JH3.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Why wait? It takes 5 minutes to vastly improve the usability of your phone.

And worst comes to worst, you use the Odin3 one-click to restore it to stock. Seems pretty awesome. I'll probably be "super-rooting" tonight!

Also to note you should only be doing that super-rooting from stock to start with... It's the most reliable method anyway. You can try it from what you've got but- if there's issues you just need to do it from stock.

Hm. And there's no way to back up my apps/data right?

thecoolestcow said:
Hm. And there's no way to back up my apps/data right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, download ROM Manager but you need to be rooted first I think... So you can root your phone only (same process but it just does rooting: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=725555), download/install ROM Manager (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734163). Then when you reboot into the ROM Manager recovery screen there's nandroid backup utility that'll back up everything.
If you like selective backups of stuff you can also use Titanium Backup (also requires root).

smashpunks said:
man I just dont see this lag yall are talking about... Had the phone since day 1, no lag fix and its fast as my n1 on 2.2. about.. Wierd...
Also GPS does work, just not reliably all the time, some works fine, others not, others sometimes.. So saying it dont work is exadurating. I just dont want people that dont have one think that the GPS dont work. It does and I use it everyday without issue. No fixes or anything, mine and some others works...
2.2 froyo will be here soon. Hold your horses on and it will be here next month I will bet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.

derek4484 said:
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're about a month after release and have Vanilla Android 2.1 ROMs, so chill out. Have some patience, I'm sure we'll see them for 2.2 as well.

derek4484 said:
GPS does NOT work. It barely functions, so it does not work. Anybody that says it does is just trying fool themselves into thinking they didnt make a mistake. GPS absolutely does not work. Its been documented by numerous sources and tens of thousands (or more) vibrant and captivate users here in the US. For Christ's sake, even Samsung has admitted that it doesnt work. They've used incorrect drivers from Broadcom, so it can't possibly work.
Samsung may release Froyo to the carriers toward the end of next month, but it'll be quite a while before AT&T releases it to us. They have to go through and add all their crapware and remove any functionality that's in the stock rom that they can charge money for (this really pisses me off I REALLY, want that wifi hotspot functionality!!!) and they have to cripple the kernel and radio so there'll be no HSUPA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine works and so do others in those thousands of people threads. If you would like I can copy n paste them for ya...
Its directed me to many places perfectly so it works, its just unreliable and not the best, hence needs to be optimized ...
now post a link where samsung admitted using incorrect drivers? I've never saw that...

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

The more of us who call them, the better. I just got off the phone and made my voice heard. (866) 501-6405 and they are open today (Saturday).
Issues with an OTA update, imo:
- You can't get an OTA update if your device is doing a FC in the acore process (and this has happened to me, as it has with others here)
- You can't get an OTA update if your WiFi is borked. Again, a common issue.
- It needs to be released TODAY, not on Monday. People are starting to shop this weekend for pre-BF sales!
They need to supply a downloadable update.zip with instructions on how to use -- we know this is possible as we already have them, although I haven't figured out how to wipe data yet. I suspect there's a way, we just need to figure out the syntax.
CS is great but unfortunately they have no control over this. But, as device owners, we can make our voices heard and if enough of us call maybe their management will reconsider this BAD decision that they are making. I even offered to deploy a recovery image for them, if they could supply me the UAT firmware and the syntax to wipe /data.
I want them to succeed. We all want them to succeed. I hope they reconsider this course of action.

Here's the problem, they don't care about how many people call and beg for an update. Its all a marketing ploy.

cfultz said:
Here's the problem, they don't care about how many people call and beg for an update. Its all a marketing ploy.
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I think it might make an impact if enough people call. It depends on the company, of course - but I work in a field where priorities are set by the number of user tickets. The more tickets, the more weight on the priority. It's possible that VS is the same.
Their OTA decision is a terrible one and they are shooting themselves in the foot. I basically told them that they can expect a massive amount of returns because the OF is so bad and unfixable without a manual firmware update which they have yet to offer.

Those problems are more than likely what is fueling their decision to not release an update just yet. They may not have enough people complaining. I completely agree with you and if I had one I'd call myself. The thing is, like you said, it' up to the company. Hope things work out.

roebeet said:
The more of us who call them, the better. I just got off the phone and made my voice heard. (866) 501-6405 and they are open today (Saturday).
Issues with an OTA update, imo:
- You can't get an OTA update if your device is doing a FC in the acore process (and this has happened to me, as it has with others here)
- You can't get an OTA update if your WiFi is borked. Again, a common issue.
- It needs to be released TODAY, not on Monday. People are starting to shop this weekend for pre-BF sales!
They need to supply a downloadable update.zip with instructions on how to use -- we know this is possible as we already have them, although I haven't figured out how to wipe data yet. I suspect there's a way, we just need to figure out the syntax.
CS is great but unfortunately they have no control over this. But, as device owners, we can make our voices heard and if enough of us call maybe their management will reconsider this BAD decision that they are making. I even offered to deploy a recovery image for them, if they could supply me the UAT firmware and the syntax to wipe /data.
I want them to succeed. We all want them to succeed. I hope they reconsider this course of action.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Too bad we don't have access to an email address or webform. I think more people would be incined to submit something that way as opposed to calling for fear of being stuck on hold or something. I've made my share of calls to them though. +1 on their success!

I call them and was told the same thing. The official update will be out on 11-22. I ask them about the market and was told it will be the PocketGear market and that they will have the same apps as the android market. I doubt that because I did a few searches and could not find some apps. I guess we'll see.

mmracing said:
I call them and was told the same thing. The official update will be out on 11-22. I ask them about the market and was told it will be the PocketGear market and that they will have the same apps as the android market. I doubt that because I did a few searches and could not find some apps. I guess we'll see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pocketgear is a fraction of the real market, but they are probably clueless about this and were sincere in telling you that.
I see no reason why they can not release it now. Seems an arbitrary point now and less runway to help. Their CS have been using XDA as an info resource. Why stop now?

I offered to do UAT, but so far they have not taken me up on the offer.
(UAT = user acceptance testing. It's the point in the production release process where you roll it out to a small number of people to confirm that it's functioning as expected and then it's signed off to release to production).

roebeet said:
I offered to do UAT, but so far they have not taken me up on the offer.
(UAT = user acceptance testing. It's the point in the production release process where you roll it out to a small number of people to confirm that it's functioning as expected and then it's signed off to release to production).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I spoke with a very nice and attentive CS person. I stated they will need to provide a link to the rom package, so people can download with their computer if need be. I hope they appreciate how big this is. Even phone carriers provide rom links for connectivity reasons.
One biggy I got was Flash is NOT in this update, so we are best to avoid the update and wait until a version is modded and confirmed to work with both Flash and the proper market. Pocketgear is weak. Fixes include mapping corrections and wifi.

roebeet said:
I offered to do UAT, but so far they have not taken me up on the offer.
(UAT = user acceptance testing. It's the point in the production release process where you roll it out to a small number of people to confirm that it's functioning as expected and then it's signed off to release to production).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The manufacturers of the ZT-180 were in direct contact with at least one XDA-Forum moder. Because of that, subsequent firmware releases were vast improvements over the poor initial release.
ViewSonic could learn from this, and I hope they do.

roebeet said:
The more of us who call them, the better. I just got off the phone and made my voice heard. (866) 501-6405 and they are open today (Saturday).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man, I was going to call them today. But I got called in to work on a watermain break. After that I watched my Wisconsin Badgers beat up on Michigan. I'll try to call Monday.
With the money I made working the main break, I could buy another tablet!

CS complaint
I just saw this message now. Its late Sat Night so I can't get through now I am not sure if they r open tom but I will try and call. If I can't get through I will call first thing Monday.
After doing a soft reboot my system seems very glitchy now none of the video on flash runs smooth where this am it was flawless. Even small low res stuff stutters and my system seems to catch and get stuck constantly.
I will give them a little time to work the bugs out but if I don't see reasonable attemps at software improvements next week I will return it and probably just settle for an Ipad.
Wyngnut

Wyngnut said:
I just saw this message now. Its late Sat Night so I can't get through now I am not sure if they r open tom but I will try and call. If I can't get through I will call first thing Monday.
After doing a soft reboot my system seems very glitchy now none of the video on flash runs smooth where this am it was flawless. Even small low res stuff stutters and my system seems to catch and get stuck constantly.
I will give them a little time to work the bugs out but if I don't see reasonable attemps at software improvements next week I will return it and probably just settle for an Ipad.
Wyngnut
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll have to wait until Monday.
In all fairness, while the ergonomics of this device leaves something to be desired, this will be their second update in less than a month. While I disagree with some of their choices to date, I'm trying to be optimistic that this is a good sign of things to come.

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

I have been reading the same information as the rest of you about the VS G-Tablet, Staples and now Sears.
And I wonder how everyone is coming up with such wild suppostions based on almost NO really factual information.
Staples recall of inventory is a fact. I noticed that they are returning stock to VS because of some kind of flaw. We don't know what it is. We don't know if it is terminal or fixable. We don't know anything about remedies.
But whatever it is, it's not serious enough for them to start calling or notifying customers to return units and get their money back?!? If it really is a fatal hardware flaw, surely they will not get by without taking care of customers who already have purchased tablets.
Seems to me we need more info about why Staples did what they did and what is wrong before anything realistic can be determined.
Also, someone reported Sears is following Staples' path. Not trying to flame the poster, but we have (1) a report of no stock in that area (No Big Deal -- we never had any here!! ); and (2) we have an employee (not likely management at the level that would cover Sears corporate operations) saying they've had a lot of returns and don't know when they'll get any (again, nothing new there). Certainly not a stock recall like Staples.
I was in one of the area Sears stores here today and the little cardboard display they put up when they don't have VS G-Tablets in stock was still there. In fact, it had been updated to show the $379.00 price available today.
My point is that until we find out what the problem is that Staples is using as a reason for their action -- we really are just wasting our time speculating. And I certainly think the news media and the A**** fanboys are just spewing the garbage I would expect of them.
Am I the only person around who has noticed that a pile of us -- ranging from devs and hardware experts, down to just every day good old folks -- have been using, programming and flogging the G-Tablet for what (five-six weeks now?) and not one of us has raised a report of a fatal flaw????????????????
Sure. Grant that VS and whoever didn't do an adequate job of development and rushed the G-Tab to market. Grant that the software is not what we think is needed nor what we want. I can see that if it worked faster and better, it might be okay for some basic users.
Those of us who want more seem to be doing all right.
And one by one we have been fixing things.
Speaking for myself, I am not writing off the G-Tablet yet. I have two -- one from Sears and one from Office Depot. I could run down and return both right now.
But I'm not. I'm going to use the stuff that is available to me now to make both work like I want. Whatever else someone may say, it will do what I want it to do with the resources we already have on hand. And unless everyone else gives up, I see no reason we can't go right on and stay ahead of all the folks who are not smart enough to see the potential and go after it.
I am the minister -- so please don't start on plans for the funeral until the patient is pronounced dead for real. I don't see anything remotely close to that yet!
Rev
P. S. -- Sorry this rant got so long, but I just felt someone had to put some balance into what is being said about all of this. And I intended no flames for anyone who may disagree with my point of view. I am a minister and I am redemptive -- it's my job to try to "save" things!!

100% agreed...

As long as they release the kernel source, I don't really care whether Viewsonic recalls all their G Tablets or not. Because I am 100% certain there will be lots of other Tegra 2 tablets which will ship with updated firmware, which will give us a base image for Gingerbread and for Honeycomb down the road. As long as there's somebody willing to compile kernels and glue a kernel into the ROM images from very similar devices, well, we'll be just fine here and the G Tablet will continue to provide us with plenty of useful life over the next few years.

From what I can see from an earlier thread about a poster mentioning using the fact that several of the abilities the gtablet has on the cover do not work out of the box to return the tablet without having to pay the restocking fee. I believe that Sears and Staples are sending the units back to viewsonic and demanding that the touted abilities actually do in fact work before they get them back. (this can only help the tablet unless Viewsonic decides to give up.)
I really hope it stays around, Bought one for the wife, now I want one. (I got a nook color that behaves even worse out of the box. but I figure i'll root/rom it until it does work as the smaller size is definitely more portable.)

Even if Viewsonic were to give up I don't see our tablet caring much. The Zpad firmware works pretty well, the VegaN that I am running now is working very well, and TnTLite works pretty well.
I feel for the customers that bought this and are not techies. I recall the first time I turned mine on it was a barrage of force closes. Everything you touched would force close. It took a factory reset from the settings menu to make it stop. Flash was non-existent, clock had amnesia on wakeup, wifi lost it's mind.... If I was a regular customer I would have been PO'ed... Not known what to do, and it would have gone back with a "I will NEVER buy another Viewsonic product ever" mentality.
If all the above had not occurred out of the box this tablet may have been kept by more people. I'm sure lots of folks would have been plenty happy if it just worked. Most would not have known the real potential that was being strangled by the software overlay, and most would not care.
I think the biggest issue has to do with how things are sold in this country nowadays. Back when America made things, they had control of them. They touched them, tested them, and had a lot of pride in making sure they sold a good product. Viewsonic gained it's reputation by selling one of the best products.
This tablet is not made by Viewsonic. I don't really know how much Viewsonic had to do with it besides just signing on to have there name on the device in hopes of name recognition boosting sales. It reminds me of how companies sign athletes to endorse crappy products in hopes people will buy it because of the name. That is going to bite a lot of companies in the behind. Unless my perception of how American companies desire to do business is completely wrong then this path needs to stop.
Everything seems to need to be done as fast as possible, and with profit being the main goal. Who cares if it is the best.. Who cares if it could be better.. Just get it out there and make money.. Support? Why should we support our product? Why should we put a restore image online? Why should we update our website with info that might help folks understand what is being done about the issues?
This same stuff is happening with lots of companies. Sylvania is another example of the outsourced spin off type of product, there are many others.
I think we deserve better, and if a company has to have there rear end handed to them to figure out that quality, and customer satisfaction still counts then so be it....

If and I mean if VS decided to bail on the gtablet I would think they open the source code to the community. This is a great device.

At this point it doesn't matter, even if viewsonic abandons it.
It's a reference tegra 2 device for current app developers in the states (at least that's how I see it), we have badass roms for it, the advent vega is getting 2.3 which is easily ported...so it's all good.

No mystery
Nice posts. But there is no mystery that VS is getting these back. It's about their profit from sales of a marketable product. Whether this tablet goes the wayof the Edsel is immaterial to us afficianados but its still been a good ride. I think other tabs may sink us but so what.
It's still fun.
Mojav

here's my take on it, and what they need to fix for Joe Consumer
I can readily guess why these are going back, and a Staples rep I talked to actually mentioned that same thing. The stock firmware is bad.
But I don't mean just the Tap N' Tap UI, I mean the boot loops and FC's that occur. We've all seen them, even on TnT Lite. There is some instability that I am convinced has to do with how these devices were imaged.
Here's the problem -- here in XDA, we have clockworkmod and a great community to get us around those issues. But Joe Consumer has neither (unless they search on their own). And due to TnT's stupidity, they can't even download an offline update to at least attempt to fix the problems. Think about it...you're a user with a reboot loop, so you call Viewsonic for help. What can they do? There's no way to wipe the cache, wipe user data or even re-flash the device using the standard tools. It's insane.
What they need to do ASAP is deploy a firmware update that 1) can be run offline with a microSD card and 2) has a more enhanced recovery like clockworkmod to at least give the user the ability to wipe the user data or cache. And, if the user doesn't have a microSD card, they should send them a 1GB card, preinstalled with the recovery image, at no charge. I think it's an absolute requirement I hope VS are reading this and rip their TnT devs a new arse to fix this debacle before they give up on the device completely.
Still, worse case scenario is that we lose VS support but still have the zPad and Vega to look at, even it we don't have source. We have options, at least.

Sprdtyf350 said:
Even if Viewsonic were to give up I don't see our tablet caring much. The Zpad firmware works pretty well, the VegaN that I am running now is working very well, and TnTLite works pretty well.
I feel for the customers that bought this and are not techies. I recall the first time I turned mine on it was a barrage of force closes. Everything you touched would force close. It took a factory reset from the settings menu to make it stop. Flash was non-existent, clock had amnesia on wakeup, wifi lost it's mind.... If I was a regular customer I would have been PO'ed... Not known what to do, and it would have gone back with a "I will NEVER buy another Viewsonic product ever" mentality.
If all the above had not occurred out of the box this tablet may have been kept by more people. I'm sure lots of folks would have been plenty happy if it just worked. Most would not have known the real potential that was being strangled by the software overlay, and most would not care.
I think the biggest issue has to do with how things are sold in this country nowadays. Back
when America made things, they had control of them. They touched them, tested them, and had a lot of pride in making sure they sold a good product. Viewsonic gained it's reputation by selling one of the best products.
This tablet is not made by Viewsonic. I don't really know how much Viewsonic had to do with it besides just signing on to have there name on the device in hopes of name recognition boosting sales. It reminds me of how companies sign athletes to endorse crappy products in hopes people will buy it because of the name. That is going to bite a lot of companies in the behind. Unless my perception of how American companies desire to do business is completely wrong then this path needs to stop.
Everything seems to need to be done as fast as possible, and with profit being the main goal.
Who cares if it is the best.. Who cares if it could be better.. Just get it out there and make money.. Support? Why should we support our product? Why should we put a restore image online? Why should we update our website with info that might help folks understand what is being done about the issues?
This same stuff is happening with lots of companies. Sylvania is another example of the outsourced spin off type of product, there are many others.
I think we deserve better, and if a company has to have there rear end handed to them to figure out that quality, and customer satisfaction still counts then so be it....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just got my g tab and am having all the issues u described out of the box. Internet crashes,WiFi dropping, force closes and all, did u just do the restart and it fixed everything? If so how do I do that and if u did more, what else do I have to do? I love my tablet and think it so much better than my friends ipad, but the issiues do bother me.....but I'll never return it, just want to fix it
Thx in advance

juda222000 said:
I just got my g tab and am having all the issues u described out of the box. Internet crashes,WiFi dropping, force closes and all, did u just do the restart and it fixed everything? If so how do I do that and if u did more, what else do I have to do? I love my tablet and think it so much better than my friends ipad, but the issiues do bother me.....but I'll never return it, just want to fix it
Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I got my very first device (before TnT Lite existed), it was terrible. Lots of FC's, and at least twice it rebooted on me for no reason and wiped my user data. As I recall, doing a manual data wipe helped but it was never really fully stable until I wiped it with nvflash (the bekit image).
Since then, they only time I've ever seen major instability is either when testing mods, which is understandable, or going back to stock.

roebeet said:
When I got my very first device (before TnT Lite existed), it was terrible. Lots of FC's, and at least twice it rebooted on me for no reason and wiped my user data. As I recall, doing a manual data wipe helped but it was never really fully stable until I wiped it with nvflash (the bekit image).
Since then, they only time I've ever seen major instability is either when testing mods, which is understandable, or going back to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apologies,is that an app I can download out of the market? sorry still a newb... and what mod do u use that makes it run so well now? Is that what nvflash is?

juda222000 said:
I just got my g tab and am having all the issues u described out of the box. Internet crashes,WiFi dropping, force closes and all, did u just do the restart and it fixed everything? If so how do I do that and if u did more, what else do I have to do? I love my tablet and think it so much better than my friends ipad, but the issiues do bother me.....but I'll never return it, just want to fix it
Thx in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well.... We have to go back in history. (Only about 6 weeks ago)
The force closes "Might" go away if you can get into settings and find the factory reset selection. It may be under the privacy tab. I can't tell you for sure because I am not running TnT right now.
The wifi issue was a problem when the device woke up and there was a patch made by a smart guy named Bekit.
The time issue was something where the time zone would not stick. It would always reset itself back to GMT if I recall.
There were patches for all of them back then, and I had them all installed at one point. None are needed anymore.
My suggestion to you, if you actually want to keep the tablet is to read the instructions in the post below and flash a new rom. TnTLite is based on your stock firmware. It just has the bad parts removed, and good stuff put in. All of the major issues should hopefully go away. As Roebeet just told you Nvflash could be in your future to do a clean wipe but I hope not. The stock out of the box firmware is really bad. It is unfortunate because the hardware is really good.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842004

juda222000 said:
Apologies,is that an app I can download out of the market? sorry still a newb... and what mod do u use that makes it run so well now? Is that what nvflash is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, nvflash is fairly advanced stuff so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are fairly technical or if its the last resort. You need APX drivers setup on your PC as well as the nvflash image.
Try a user data wipe, as a first step. In stock, it's under Settings and Security, I believe. If that doesn't help, I'd recommend clockworkmod recovery next and try to do a clear cache, user data wipe and a SD partition fix, in that order (do the next if the previous one doesn't fix it). I'd do nvflash last.
I personally love nvflash, but like I mentioned you need to be somewhat technical to use it.
See the FAQ area under my sig for some pointers and links, to start you off with.

roebeet said:
No, nvflash is fairly advanced stuff so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are fairly technical or if its the last resort. You need APX drivers setup on your PC as well as the nvflash image.
Try a user data wipe, as a first step. In stock, it's under Settings and Security, I believe. If that doesn't help, I'd recommend clockworkmod recovery next and try to do a clear cache, user data wipe and a SD partition fix, in that order (do the next if the previous one doesn't fix it). I'd do nvflash last.
I personally love nvflash, but like I mentioned you need to be somewhat technical to use it.
See the FAQ area under my sig for some pointers and links, to start you off with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NVflash is the bomb... Finding the full sdk anymore... that sucks

juda222000,
Hang in there. I have been working on my second G-Tab and when I started it up, it worked worse than the first one did!!!
But it seems to me like if you just keep using common sense and rebooting to give it time to sort things out, and then using the info in these forums to get it together -- all will turn out well and you will have a really great tablet.
Just be patient and don't get ahead of yourself and cause yourself grief like I have done a couple of times!! Best wishes....
Rev

I personally suspect that the fatal flaw is no high price contract with a network provider.
As was stated.....if there really was a fatal hardware flaw we would almost definately know about it on this forum. The stock UI was poor but still not fatal. I would tend to agree that we need far more info before jumping to a conclusion about the life expectancy of this most excellent device (after a few mods).

Latest stock version?

Howdy,
I am needing to call VS tech support since my tab has a nasty tendency to completely shutoff all the time. Since I have modded it, I wanted to make sure I have the latest stock rom handy in case support makes me doing anything. Does anyone know which version it is (their website is down for me atm).
Thanks!

Coldfirex said:
Howdy,
I am needing to call VS tech support since my tab has a nasty tendency to completely shutoff all the time. Since I have modded it, I wanted to make sure I have the latest stock rom handy in case support makes me doing anything. Does anyone know which version it is (their website is down for me atm).
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were to run the OTA update right now, you'd end up with 1.1 3588. That's the most recent stock version AVAILABLE FROM VIEWSONIC RIGHT NOW.
THe ACTUAL most recent stock version is 1.2 4349. It was released as an OTA over a month ago, but then pulled 24 hours later. Some people were able to get it and make it available for download from third party sources. SO...if you called tech support, it's conceivable that you have either of these versions as your stock firmware. 3588 is the last 1.1 based update that Viewsonic released, and 4349 is a 1.2 based version.
I would say that the majority of people running stock firmware that have never modded aanything are more than likely on 3588.

Thanks!
Im wondering if I can get around having to load 3588 on my tab for when I talk to them. Has anyone ever called for support while running a modded version (I supopse without admitting to it)?

I would suggest that you revert back to 3588 anyway and see if your issue is replicated on stock firmware. If I worked for US Merchants (the company that is handling G-Tablet tech support now) and you called me with this problem, and it was revealed that you are on a custom rom, I would wnatto make sure that it wasn't the rom itself that's causing the problem.
So, just to prevent further headaches and to get more accurate advice when calling them. I would suggest that you go back to a stock rom and stay there for a while. Depending on how often you get the issue you are describing, run stock until the problem would normally happen, and see if it does happen.
For instance, if it randomly turns itself off every 10-20 minutes, stay on stock for 2 hours and see if it still does it. If it turns off every 1-2 days, stay on it for a week and see if it still does it. It's not use calling tech support if you discover that it's the rom your using, and not the hardwarae itself.

Thanks.
I have had the issues across stock and tons of different roms for 6 months now.
I went ahead and loaded stock on it just in case though it really wasnt needed. They are going to RMA it for me, but I have to ship it off first.

[Q] Can someone with a stock Verizon build test Netflix? (audio sync issues)

So this is a bit of a cross-post from here where I asked the general M8 community.
There is at least some minor evidence that T-Mobile and/or Sprint M8's do not have this problem - but at least on the former it may be due to a custom ROM.
Basically Netflix audio sync is off. You will see lips move a good .25 seconds before sound comes out. That may not sound like much, but it is very noticeable - like watching a bad dubbed movie.
As the thread above shows, I have tried just about everything I can think of. I'm 100% sure it's not my network connection, Netflix account, or show - as everything works fine under the same controls on my wife's S5.
I'm sure there has to be a good chunk of people who use Netflix, and I find it hard to believe I'm not finding more reports about this problem.
thanks.

I just tried it on mine. Stock 4.4.3. Seems just fine. I tried several different movies and they all seem to play as they should.

I tried it on my wife's which is running sense and I didn't notice any sync issues either

robocuff said:
I just tried it on mine. Stock 4.4.3. Seems just fine. I tried several different movies and they all seem to play as they should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just doesn't make any sense. If mine doesn't work - and the Verizon one I tried didn't work, and the AT&T one I tried didn't work... ???
I'm thinking about swapping it out (again), but since every one I've actually had my hands on has this issue, why should I expect any to function?
Advice?

TraderJack said:
Just doesn't make any sense. If mine doesn't work - and the Verizon one I tried didn't work, and the AT&T one I tried didn't work... ???
I'm thinking about swapping it out (again), but since every one I've actually had my hands on has this issue, why should I expect any to function?
Advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not try flashing the vzw adsp and see what happens. You can easily flash back to what you had originally

dottat said:
Why not try flashing the vzw adsp and see what happens. You can easily flash back to what you had originally
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not S-Off on this phone yet and am not going to pay for sunshine until I'm 100% sure I am keeping this phone (don't want to pay if I need to return it). I usually prefer to run a stock (close to stock ROM)... although if I could I certainly would flash another to test. But, at this point I'm stock to only trying things on stock.

TraderJack said:
Just doesn't make any sense. If mine doesn't work - and the Verizon one I tried didn't work, and the AT&T one I tried didn't work... ???
I'm thinking about swapping it out (again), but since every one I've actually had my hands on has this issue, why should I expect any to function?
Advice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what to tell you. It is odd that you see the same problem on multiple devices like that. I tried it again and watched for the slightest bit of out of sync and mine is spot on. I'm pretty fussy about this type of thing too. Used to have PMP. I'd rip my own movies to put on it and would run into sync issues like this once in a while. Drove me crazy. That's not much use to you but I'm just trying to get the point across that if mine was out of sync, I'd notice it.

robocuff said:
I don't know what to tell you. It is odd that you see the same problem on multiple devices like that. I tried it again and watched for the slightest bit of out of sync and mine is spot on. I'm pretty fussy about this type of thing too. Used to have PMP. I'd rip my own movies to put on it and would run into sync issues like this once in a while. Drove me crazy. That's not much use to you but I'm just trying to get the point across that if mine was out of sync, I'd notice it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do appreciate it...knowing that someone else is on Stock and cognizant of the issue, but not seeing it.
Curious how long have you had your M8 for and if it is the standard Gunmetal grey?
Also...are you rooted and/or Unlocked//S-Off? Have you ever flashed a custom ROM or been on stock?
Finally, are you running the latest Netflix from Play Store? (updated Sept 9th)

Or try installing an older Netflix.apk? That's what I'd try.

TraderJack said:
I do appreciate it...knowing that someone else is on Stock and cognizant of the issue, but not seeing it.
Curious how long have you had your M8 for and if it is the standard Gunmetal grey?
Also...are you rooted and/or Unlocked//S-Off? Have you ever flashed a custom ROM or been on stock?
Finally, are you running the latest Netflix from Play Store? (updated Sept 9th)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone is one of the earlier ones. Bought it 4 days after the launch date. And yes, it's gunmetal grey. It's rooted, unlocked, and S_Off. Has been since they released Firewater. Seems to me that was within the first 2 weeks after launch.
I've flashed quite a few custom roms in the past but it's been a while now. Stock Sense suits me just fine (first time I've ever said that about stock anything ) . I always ended up coming back to stock. I can make all the tweaks I want using things like xposed or a root file manager and stuff still all works
As for the version of Netflix I'm using, mine was a version or 2 behind but I just updated it to the newest this morning to see if there was any difference. I still don't see any sync issues.

calebcabob said:
Or try installing an older Netflix.apk? That's what I'd try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did backrev to two different 2.x versions and then finally an 1.8x version. They all had issues, although the 1.8 was much less noticeable. I may not have even noticed it on that one if I hadn't had the previous issues. Of course, 1.8x is over 2 years old and has some other buffering issues.
robocuff said:
My phone is one of the earlier ones. Bought it 4 days after the launch date. And yes, it's gunmetal grey. It's rooted, unlocked, and S_Off. Has been since they released Firewater. Seems to me that was within the first 2 weeks after launch.
I've flashed quite a few custom roms in the past but it's been a while now. Stock Sense suits me just fine (first time I've ever said that about stock anything ) . I always ended up coming back to stock. I can make all the tweaks I want using things like xposed or a root file manager and stuff still all works
As for the version of Netflix I'm using, mine was a version or 2 behind but I just updated it to the newest this morning to see if there was any difference. I still don't see any sync issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I think I'm going try to get another replacement - although I don't have high hopes based on the fact that the other ones I've had my hands on had the same issue.
One last thing...can you tell me one show/movie that you were watching that looked good to you (time stamp too)?
I can't believe I just had bad luck with the 3 I picked, especially since they looked fine on my wife's phone.

Well, just received my 3rd M8 from the retailer.
1st one I didn't test the Netflix issue on because I had a return issued quickly due to the screen not being flush and loosey buttons.
2nd one is what i have posted about here with the Netflix issues.
3rd one just arrived - screen also has quality issues, not being flush where it meets the grill (and no, it wasn't designed to be that way as my 2nd one is almost perfect and the other two vary the level the glass meets the grill in a variety of ways...inconsistency means that at least 2 of the 3 of them are wrong).
Anyway... I have the exact same issue with the audio sync on the new phone as well.
At this point, I have to believe that every M8 has this issue and those that don't see it either haven't tried or don't care enough to notice.
Perhaps this issue only happens with the Stock ROM, which is why many of you don't see it(?).
I have watched half a dozen shows/movies on Netflix and all of them have the issue. I would say 4 of them it is just blatant...easily a quarter second off or more. On the other ones, it is maybe barely noticeable...but still there.
Again, I have tried 2 M8s that were in my possession, one in the Verizon store, and one in the AT&T store (4 total).
I've contacted Netflix and they were mostly useless. They claim they escalated the issue to R&D, but could provide me no sort of ticket tracking or call back, which basically means nothing will ever be done.
I was surprised that HTC support took more interest than I thought, since I normally would blame this issue on the software vendor as they should be the ones responsible for coding to work with a particular OS. HTC escalated as well, but by the time someone gets back to me on it (7-10 days), my return period will be over. Even then, I doubt HTC will do anything about it as it appears to only be Netflix (not YouTube). OTOH, seeing as Netflix works fine on their competitor's phones (S5), maybe they will actually pursue it.
I appreciate that some people responded that they don't see the issue - but from my standpoint...you can understand how I can't see that it is possible that I have tried 4 phones (from 2 providers) that all have the issue. I have no explanation.
The only thing I haven't tried on these is to run something other than Stock, because I can't firewater S-OFF, and am not paying for Sunshine since it is tied to device and I have had to switch the device so many times.
Right after I did the tests today, Netflix appears to have gone down. When I get back from dinner tonight I will post a couple of samples that show the issue clearly and some others where it is more minute.

New Girl - Season 3 - Episode 1 - Starting at 3:25 (after intro), the whole conversation between the two dudes. It is really clear when the white guy says at 3:35 "To become best friends" and at 4:37 when he says "I'm also a socket." Really the whole conversation it is evident, but these two lines it is exceptionally apparent.
3 Days to Kill (Movie) - 49:58 "I'm plugging in my phone, this stuff sucks." In reality, much of what I skimmed through in this movie looked pretty good...I think it is partly because of how the actors enunciate and move their lips (as opposed to the white guy in New Girl who really moves his lips when he speaks). But, here at 49:58 you can see it off.
Bones - Season 1 Episode 1 (Pilot) - 15:36 "Lennie Kravitz or Vanessa Williams"
There does seem to be a bit of inconsistency in how good or bad things are. Usually, I can see something off within the first 10 seconds of conversation, and sometimes I need to watch a couple of minutes. I'll admit that there are some points where it looks almost perfectly fine - enough that I might not have detected it were there not these more blatant areas.
Nonetheless, when I watch on my PC, or on my wife's S5 there are absolutely zero problems.
Netflix still seems to be flaky right now, so I'm not going to try to get more examples until I get some more feedback.

I have the same issue. I just installed the newest firmware and update and the poroblem is still there. I do have the HK audio installed, maybe I should disable it? It's only an issue with netflix though.
Ordered a chromecast, it better not persist the problem onto that!
Then again youtube has it's own problem, seems to be network throttling to me pauses every 10 seconds or so...Been like that for some time too.
BTW most M8's don't have perfectly flush screens, those seem to be the anomaly rather than the standard. Some are worse than others though. I honestly never really notice it though in use, just when I first purchased.

Justintoxicated said:
I have the same issue. I just installed the newest firmware and update and the poroblem is still there. I do have the HK audio installed, maybe I should disable it? It's only an issue with netflix though.
Ordered a chromecast, it better not persist the problem onto that!
Then again youtube has it's own problem, seems to be network throttling to me pauses every 10 seconds or so...Been like that for some time too.
BTW most M8's don't have perfectly flush screens, those seem to be the anomaly rather than the standard. Some are worse than others though. I honestly never really notice it though in use, just when I first purchased.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know that the issue is still there with HK (which means you upgraded the audio DSP, right?). I wanted to try that, but since I'm not S-Off I couldn't.
I have hardly used YouTube, so haven't seen a throttling issue...I just watched a few videos long enough to validate there were no sync issues.

No way this is carrier specific. I just installed 4.4.4 Pac man Rom on my nook HD+, then installed netflix. Audio is also out of sync, maybe not quite as bad as the M8 (which is faster) but it is still an issue. It does not look like it affects the chromecast though.
Looks like LG, Motorola Maxx and other phones are also having issues. Might be more or less related to 4.3 / 4.4 android devices.

Well it's not just 4.3/4.4 since my M8 was tested on 4.2.
The only other KitKat device that I tested on was a G5...and it was flawless there.
I suppose though if there are a lot of other devices having issues on KitKat then it definitely may be more of a Netflix problem.
Also, due to the extreme lack of response to my post, and others I have seen over the past year on various devices, most people claim not to see the issue.
I can only believe that (at least on the M8) these people either don't watch closely enough to see/care, or else they are almost impossibly watching only shows that it wouldn't be visible in (which based on my sampling would be pretty amazing).
I have an escalated case with HTC and they should be getting back to me shortly if they can recreate the problem.
At this point I'm just as frustrated that no one else is making this an issue as I am that it is one. If I can get HTC to at least admit that there is a sync issue, then I will at least feel exonerated and perhaps other people will begin admitting that they see issues on their devices as well. If this extends beyond the M8, then likely Netflix is the one that is going to need to be prodded by the public to get their act in gear.
I supposed i would be a nice test if someone had a device that could run something pre KitKat to see if the problem doesn't exist, and if it arises when upgraded to KitKat.

TraderJack said:
Well it's not just 4.3/4.4 since my M8 was tested on 4.2.
The only other KitKat device that I tested on was a G5...and it was flawless there.
I suppose though if there are a lot of other devices having issues on KitKat then it definitely may be more of a Netflix problem.
Also, due to the extreme lack of response to my post, and others I have seen over the past year on various devices, most people claim not to see the issue.
I can only believe that (at least on the M8) these people either don't watch closely enough to see/care, or else they are almost impossibly watching only shows that it wouldn't be visible in (which based on my sampling would be pretty amazing).
I have an escalated case with HTC and they should be getting back to me shortly if they can recreate the problem.
At this point I'm just as frustrated that no one else is making this an issue as I am that it is one. If I can get HTC to at least admit that there is a sync issue, then I will at least feel exonerated and perhaps other people will begin admitting that they see issues on their devices as well. If this extends beyond the M8, then likely Netflix is the one that is going to need to be prodded by the public to get their act in gear.
I supposed i would be a nice test if someone had a device that could run something pre KitKat to see if the problem doesn't exist, and if it arises when upgraded to KitKat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the lack of response indicates that few people watch Netflix on their PHONE??
Love the screen, but for watching movies I switch to tablet or smart TV....

berndblb said:
Maybe the lack of response indicates that few people watch Netflix on their PHONE??
Love the screen, but for watching movies I switch to tablet or smart TV....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fact that the phone isn't the optimal media for Netflix doesn't diminish the problem. Although, admittedly I'm sure it is a secondary or tertiary outlet for most...as it is for me, it is still supposed to work (i.e. it is listed as a compatible application). Additionally, it has worked on other phones/versions of android...so there is obviously some issue.
I Netflix doesn't want to support it on phones, because they think it is unimportant, then they should clearly indicate it is not compatible. Since many new phones are 4x+ more powerful than a $40 tabled that runs Android, there isn't a great reason why it shouldn't work fine.

October 15th update of Netflix hadn't made anything better.
HTC was supposed to follow up with me and it has been 3 weeks. I am reaching out to them today to see where they are with their testing.