Database Info

Real HDMI: Finally able to Control your HDMI!!

*Credit to gman!!! for his work enabling more control over the X's HDMI port.
"Real HDMI" is now on the android marketplace for $1.99
NO ROOT REQUIRED, WORKS ON 2.1 AND LEAKED 2.2
Finally get control of your HDMI port on your Droid X. This is rev 1.0.3 of the app and will be continuing development down the road.
What is Does:
When HDMI is enabled it sends the output that would normally going to your phone to the HDMI output port. It unfortunatly doesn't allow mirroing of the display. But does let you watch content on your big screen. Ability of content to display properly depends on the ability of the app you are using to scale to large size of TV screen. If uses absolute coordinates for its layout it might not scale properly.
Am going to be putting together a list of what apps work and don't as I get reports from folks.
Quick Help
- Enabling HDMI Output
Hook up your cable to the phone. When connected the “DETECT” button should change to an “ON” button and “HDMI Detected” status should turn to “Yes”.
If it does not, click on the DETECT button and check your cable and TV Settings.
Once the green button displays “ON” you can click the green button to turn the HDMI output on.
Alternatively you can go to the notification bar, and when it says HDMI = OFF, you can click on the notification icon to turn HDMI ON.
- Disabling HDMI (returning to seeing content on phone)
There are 4 ways to disable HDMI output.
#1 When Real HDMI application has focus, you can change orientation of the device.
#2 You can unplug the HDMI Cable
#3 When Real HDMI application in on the screen on your TV, click appropriate location for red OFF button on the screen.
#4 With HDMI on, go to notification bar and click on the notification
- Using Dock Modes
The Application provides the ability to simulate the doc modes for your phone. Selecting the Car Dock will enable the Car Dock Home screen.
Selecting the Media Dock will enable the Media Dock Home Screen.
Clicking Dock Off will restore phone to non-docked status
- Application Problems
Some applications will have problem displaying video to HDMI as they are build with assumptions about screen sizes. They are using fixed layouts and not proper auto sizing layouts as per Android developers guides. Only way to fix those issues is to have the app developer of the application fix their application.
Enabling or Disabling HDMI out while a video is playing can have strange results as the rendering surface size ends up changing mid video. Stop and Start the application and it should be fine.
EDIT: things to look forward to as this is early in development!
- Independent control of audio out (mute, hdmi audio only with no video, etc)
- better HDMI on/offcontrol. Things like shake for on, shake phone for off. Timed enable of HDMI. HDMI on/off based on proximity sensor(I like this one the best so far)
- "snapshots" - idea being to perodically take a snapshot of HDMI out frame buffer and output to the phones screen. to at least give you some better input interface
- the whole "live dual view" thing
- screen orientation issues (getting home screen to be horizontal)

So does this mean blockbuster app might actually be worth a s#*$. Too bad they are filing bankruptcy...wait on netflix app
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

yeah! haha, too bad! goo netflix!
ohh! and emulators work awesome!

I've BEEN PUTTING OFF PURCHASING A CORD FOR THAT REASON. Might get one now....thanks for the work!!!!!!
1 N 5 PEOPLE R MENTALLY UNSTABLE. IF YOUR FOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS SEEM NORMAL....THEN ITS YOU.

AWESOME!! Been waiting for something like this!

Blockbuster app is currently a no go as they did somethings in the app to make sure it won't work with HDMI on. Am still looking into it. My app doesn't support "Dual View" or "Multi-view" or whatever folks choose to call it. This is basically a limitation in the omap3 chip as it only has one LCD controller in it and can either control the HDMI output or the LCD but not both.
App only works on Droid X as its a specific solution to controlling the hardware/gpu on the droid x. And am doing my best to get around the limitations in the hardware such as the inability of the gfx overlay to do surface scaling.
My goal was to get out an app that worked for everyone without having to root their phone. Now that I have done that am working on features specific to users with root.
For time being my semi-official support thread is over on droidxforums.com under the app section. Over the weekend hope to get a website setup where I can better posts faqs, pictures, tutorials etc.

It is a shame that blockbuster is set on self destruction. I remember going there as a kid...
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

[Moved reply to another thread]

How come this isn't in the android market? I searched for "HDMI" and "Real HDMI" and nothing comes up.

xoxidine said:
How come this isn't in the android market? I searched for "HDMI" and "Real HDMI" and nothing comes up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The authors web site explains why
http://www.gmanapps.com

[Q] Car Panel (Car mode) and shortcuts for it

As for me, the best car app for today is Car Home Ultra. It is customizable a lot and it shows more usable information on main screen.
But at the same time, I face the problem of finding "right" shortcuts.
For example, if I'm using shortcut for Phone, it always works in portrait mode. I can't get it in landscape
Does anyone knows how to get shortcuts for Phone (or Dialer) which are used in original HTC Car panel? Phone app in Car panel does rotate (Favorites, Recent Calls, Dialer)!!! see pics.

spoks said:
As for me, the best car app for today is Car Home Ultra. It is customizable a lot and it shows more usable information on main screen.
But at the same time, I face the problem of finding "right" shortcuts.
For example, if I'm using shortcut for Phone, it always works in portrait mode. I can't get it in landscape
Does anyone knows how to get shortcuts for Phone (or Dialer) which are used in original HTC Car panel? Phone app in Car panel does rotate (Favorites, Recent Calls, Dialer)!!! see pics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would need a Desire Z dialer apk that has the ability to rotate. Problem is.. the Desire is the wrong resolution. You might want to search around a bit and see if anybody ported a rotating dialer to the Sensation...

I am not sure dialer from other phones are needed, because, as you can see on pictures, Sensation has already rotating dialer, at least from it's original Car panel.
I want to find shortcuts to these apps.
Ok. Perhaps right question is - how to get Phone mode (dialer) to landscape view?

Thanks to "topcattroy" from other forum for workaround on Car Home ultra.
>>>
" ... Inside this app's options it has a check box to turn on car home
which came with the phone. It acts like you put it into a car dock from verizon.
And guess what the dialer is now landscape. So when you use this app
when your driving you can put a shortcuts on the app to call or open the phone.
It is in LANDSCAPE. It took me since the phone came out till today to find this
to work. Hope this helps anybody with a thunderbolt. and i bet other androids too."

I am thinking about the same question after tried out several car home dock applications myself. How to get the dailing panel landscape? If you observe carefully most roms do not go to landscape mode of the sense home or dialer if you put your phone on the side. It seems the landscape mode of sense home is supported deep in the framework in the Gingerbread. Most devs, perhaps the htc soft-engineers too make the landscape mode off in the normal situation in order to prevent any complications. Only the devs can figure out how to trigure the landscape mode. Hope an expert finally can focus on thier eyes on this issue and make a application shortcut.

At the same time, native CarPanel allows dial mode go to landscape mode. Even 3rd part dialers works in landscape (but I like sense ).
Also for Windows phones there were quite easy to make "white list" in registry for apps to allow them to rotate.
I am not sure, but perhaps I have to ask this question in devs discussions.

I eventually got the dialer into landscape mode after a few tries. I am using a rooted leedroid ROM but its should be pretty much the same for standard ROM.
I had to remove all of the HTC Locations apps and widgets, as these are all system apps I used Android Optimizer for doing this. This also allowed me use the Google Car Home app which is installed but not accessible with HTC Locations installed.
To put the phone into Car Mode I use the Tasker app to set the Display Car Mode on but the Car Home Ultra app also has an option to do this.
With this done I can use the standard dialer in landscape and as I prefer to use Google Navigation app anyway then I dont have the HTC Locations installed at all and havent tried reinstalling in case it tries to take over again.
... and yes as a wee word of advise, backup everything before you start and then backup each item before you hit the remove button!

[Q] HDMI output but stay in portrait?

Hello,
I am interested in keeping the android UI layout in portrait mode when it is connected to hdmi. Was wondering if this can be workedaround by a change to ini, boot or system file.
I currently have SGS2 and an Xperia S, I have HDMI working however the behavior is it shows in portrait for a second THEN the orientation switches to landscape, regardless of the phone's physical orientation. Seems like Android is programmed to go into this orientation when hdmi is connected, but it's not very useful to me...I'd rather it just stay in portrait , or better just follow the darn phone's physical orientation.
The phones should be capable of portrait output as it is shown like that for a second or two before the switch takes place, but how to keep it in portrait/disable it from going into landscape?
Hoping someone that has more programming skill than me-average Joe to find out where, how to do this.
Thanks in advance.
Eric

There's an app called rotation locker in this forum and I think on google play. Requires root though
Sent from my MT15i using xda premium

Tried that app, it didn't work.
The experience seems like some sort of status checking + switching of layout only when HDMI is connected.
I've observed this on stock Androids, if i'm using custom rom on my SGS2, this doesn't happen, so keeping the orientation in portrait CAN happen, just depends on the ROM, so it must be an action tied to HDMI connection being active.
Any more ideas?

You'r phone should have a place in the settings to keep it in portrait mode.
Try this: Settings>Display>Un-check "Auto-Rotate Screen"
Hope this helped

It is already unchecked, that's the first thing I checked naturally.
Anyone that has exp hacking or dived into system files with ideas?

My LG Optimus 3D did not have this problem. It did follow exact orientation of the phone. I see that your SGS2 is HDMI via MHL and an Xperia S is HDMI type-D same as mine.

I had tried the MHL adapter on a Galaxy Nexus and it was the same behavior as Xperia s, the device switched into landscape and can not be rotated the other way so the MHL vs Hdmi out is not the difference here. Good thinking tho.
Anyone else?....

Hacking an inexpensive dock to toggle Desktop or Car dock modes

*** Another update ***
The 4.2.2 firmware appears to be missing the desktop dock mode entirely. The phone does not go into landscape mode and no dock launches.
*** Another update ***
The 2.2.1 firmware appears to be missing the desktop dock mode entirely. The phone goes into landscape mode but no dock launches.
Nothing I can fix, sorry.
************************
*** IMPORTANT UPDATE ***
It has been brought to my attention that this may only work for the US version of the HOX, and not for the international (quad core) version.
See this post in the thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35485317&postcount=20
*********************************
So, after getting used to my Thunderbolt having a nice HTC dock that triggers Desktop mode, I was very disappointed to find nothing yet on the market for the AT&T One X. instead of returning the inexpensive dock, or messing around with software, I rolled up my sleeves and made it happen.
Originally I started making a breakout connection for the USB thinking I'd build a powered bluetooth speaker into the dock but then I realized I had too many projects going on. That's why the tiny breadboard is in the pictures - its part of the abandoned breakout. It's not needed at all, you could safely tape or heatshrink these 1/4 watt resistors for this application.
Also I realized after I started splicing that I needed to pare back more of the insulation, if I had to do it again I'd give myself more room to work with.
In my particular dock, the cable shield is not connected to port shield but it is used as the ground.
Pin 5 (ground) cable shield / black
Pin 4 (ID) Black wire
Pin 3 (Data +) Yellow
Pin 2 (Data -) White
Pin 1 (+5V DC) Red
The signal to go into dock mode is triggered with a resistor between pins 4 and 5.
10kOhm triggers auto dock mode
68kOhm triggers desk dock mode (also, a 47kOhm triggers desk dock mode)
Starting in Car Dock mode allows a toggle to Desk Dock with the switch, but the phone doesn't toggle back to the Car Dock from Desk Dock when switched back.
Not the point, at any rate - the only reason I did this was because I had the two-pole switch and both resistors handy.
The dock:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
The underbelly (pull off the rubber feet gently)..
If you don't pull off the feet, you won't get the hidden screws.
The top will come off easily. Now you can push the bottom out.
The bottom has a steel weight.
Gently pry the cable out of the base. It lifts out.
Now you can unscrew the other end.
This is how I tested the resistors. Be VERY careful if you do this - the pin can break the wire. For such a tiny wire you need to pierce the side of the insulation.
Proof of concept.
I actually only had a 68.1kOhm resistor handy, it works fine.
Tie the ends of the resistors together to the shield. Tie the center of the switch to the ID wire.
Shrink wrap, tape, or otherwise insulate the connections. TEST FIRST, then reassemble - install switch....
Put it all back together....
Fullsize pics here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ModemJunki/OneXDockHack#
See it in action! (not sure how to embed YouTube properly...)
http://youtu.be/tZ0Mom1wZq4

Looks awesome!! But shouldn't this be posted on Hardware Hacking forum?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

nitrous² said:
Looks awesome!! But shouldn't this be posted on Hardware Hacking forum?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
You're probably correct. I'm not a hardware hacker by habit, so I didn't know that forum existed.
Perhaps a mod will move the thread eventually.

Just a quick question, on what PINs did you connect the resistors? I couldn't see where through the pictures.
I wonder if this will work for the Desire S..
Edit.
Found the answer on the video. Thanks again.

Brilliant, congratulations.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I suppose it will work for the international One X too.
Did you have tested with other values of resistance or it needs to be 1000Ohm and 6812Ohm?

Skanob said:
Just a quick question, on what PINs did you connect the resistors? I couldn't see where through the pictures.
I wonder if this will work for the Desire S..
Edit.
Found the answer on the video. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for catching that. I added the description for which pins to bridge.
No idea about the Desire S, but it seems multiple HTC phones share common triggers.

xSilv85 said:
I suppose it will work for the international One X too.
Did you have tested with other values of resistance or it needs to be 1000Ohm and 6812Ohm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tested with some other values but only 10k, 47k, and 68.1k (really should be 68k) worked. I can't give more details about other values tested at the moment as I'm on holiday in the Caribbean and I live near Chicago in the USA
But I used the working values based on searches on the forums for other HTC devices.

ModemJunki said:
Thanks for catching that. I added the description for which pins to bridge.
No idea about the Desire S, but it seems multiple HTC phones share common triggers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man. I'm about to buy this and give it to the GF as she has the one with the One X and I have the Desire S (yeah, go figure ). And thinking about modifying the Dock like as you did to make it easy for her to just dock the phone, rather than docking then opening up the Dock Mode App from the phone.
Anyways, last few questions:
10kOhm triggers auto dock mode = That's the Car Mode App, right?
68kOhm triggers desk dock mode (also, a 47kOhm triggers desk dock mode) = And this is the Dock Mode App, right?
Have you tried syncing on PC while in Dock Mode?
Have you experienced any problem with the dock with the changes?
And also, have you tried connecting a MHL-HDMI and does it work? I heard/saw with an unmodified KiDiGi Charge & Sync Desktop Cradle, it works. You can check out what one member did here.
Thanks again man.

Skanob said:
Thanks man. I'm about to buy this and give it to the GF as she has the one with the One X and I have the Desire S (yeah, go figure ). And thinking about modifying the Dock like as you did to make it easy for her to just dock the phone, rather than docking then opening up the Dock Mode App from the phone.
Anyways, last few questions:
10kOhm triggers auto dock mode = That's the Car Mode App, right?
68kOhm triggers desk dock mode (also, a 47kOhm triggers desk dock mode) = And this is the Dock Mode App, right?
Have you tried syncing on PC while in Dock Mode?
Have you experienced any problem with the dock with the changes?
And also, have you tried connecting a MHL-HDMI and does it work? I heard/saw with an unmodified KiDiGi Charge & Sync Desktop Cradle, it works. You can check out what one member did here.
Thanks again man.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have an MHL to try. Also did not try sync before going on holiday. No problems but I did go on vacation two days after I made the mod.
You are correct about the modes.

I've achieved the same thing with a few cheap NFC tags.
Stick it on the back of the dock and configure an NFC action against it and it's done.
I wouldn't trust myself with all of that hardware hacking either!

r2b2 said:
I've achieved the same thing with a few cheap NFC tags.
Stick it on the back of the dock and configure an NFC action against it and it's done.
I wouldn't trust myself with all of that hardware hacking either!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mind to share?

r2b2 said:
I've achieved the same thing with a few cheap NFC tags.
Stick it on the back of the dock and configure an NFC action against it and it's done.
I wouldn't trust myself with all of that hardware hacking either!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please make a how-to post. I'd do another dock for the office with NFC.

damn, just realised I have the HDMI model xD
Can you tell me the wiring again?
It is in 2 pieces.. I guess black and white are ground and 5V to charge which. But the rest. How did you uncode them?
See pics
And the resistor values:
The manual does not correspond with pictures?
10kOhm vs 1kOhm?
6812 Ohm or 68 kOhm?
The type of resistor for at least 2,5W? Or is does the power not matter. I see on my dock 5V and 500 mA.
I am confused sorry for being noob

ModemJunki said:
Please make a how-to post. I'd do another dock for the office with NFC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's what I did:
* Buy a starter pack from RapidNFC (www.rapidnfc.com). These were the cheapest when I did this a while ago (I got "Starter Pack B")
* Download "NFC Task Launcher" from the Market (was £1.26 when I got it).
* Open the app and add an action to do what you want (in my case enable GPS, turn media volume down, launch Satnav program).
Once configured, select "Save & Write" and scan the NFC tag you want to use. If successful, when you put the phone near the tag it'll run the actions you selected.
If you can think of any other uses for the tags they can be programmed and put anywhere.
(I *think* this app doesn't actually write to the NFC tag, just records it's serial number. That means you can re-use the tags if you want by deleting the action and re-scannign the tag under another one)
Hope this helps.

Sorry for the delayed reply - I have been on holiday.
xSilv85 said:
damn, just realised I have the HDMI model xD
Can you tell me the wiring again?
It is in 2 pieces.. I guess black and white are ground and 5V to charge which. But the rest. How did you uncode them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yours is different. We should not guess at the color codes, this could lead to much sadness. But it is clear the hack has to be done at the end that plugs to the phone, it looks like the other end is only for power.
If you look at this pic: https://picasaweb.google.com/ModemJunki/OneXDockHack#5815365590917825778
You can see how I used a thin pin to pierce the SIDE of the wire (look at yellow wire too). The pin allowed me to trace the connections on the connector end to the wire with a multimeter set for continuity testing (beep!). It is VERY important not to try and pierce the center of the wire - they are so very thin that even a pin could break them.
Here is a picture of the dock (not on the phone) connector from the side you can see:
http://im.tech2.in.com/gallery/2012/jun/micro_usb_pinout_271738117322.jpg
xSilv85 said:
And the resistor values:
The manual does not correspond with pictures?
10kOhm vs 1kOhm?
6812 Ohm or 68 kOhm?
The type of resistor for at least 2,5W? Or is does the power not matter. I see on my dock 5V and 500 mA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In this picture you see the values: https://picasaweb.google.com/ModemJunki/OneXDockHack#5815365606807034258
10kOhm and 6812kOhm. I used a 6812kOhm because it was what I had available for free - and it's a high-precision resistor. Normal resistor is I think +/- 5%, so mine is well within tolerances.
A 1/4 watt (0.25W) resistor is fine, also you can use a 1/6 watt (0.16W) because this is only for signaling, and the charging current will not flow through this. So as you say, the wattage does not matter for this application.
xSilv85 said:
I am confused sorry for being noob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also am a noob, I don't know electronics theory and such, only enough to fix simple things like this.

r2b2 said:
Here's what I did:
* Buy a starter pack from RapidNFC (www.rapidnfc.com). These were the cheapest when I did this a while ago (I got "Starter Pack B")
* Download "NFC Task Launcher" from the Market (was £1.26 when I got it).
* Open the app and add an action to do what you want (in my case enable GPS, turn media volume down, launch Satnav program).
Once configured, select "Save & Write" and scan the NFC tag you want to use. If successful, when you put the phone near the tag it'll run the actions you selected.
If you can think of any other uses for the tags they can be programmed and put anywhere.
(I *think* this app doesn't actually write to the NFC tag, just records it's serial number. That means you can re-use the tags if you want by deleting the action and re-scannign the tag under another one)
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!

I assume this will most likely work on the One S as well since they use the same dock.

I have the KiDiGi dock with a HDMI connection port too.
Before I attempt this mod, the first thing I was to clarify is the USB mode. Whenever I plug my phone into the dock, it starts charging, however the USB mode is not detected - so i cant sync or do file transfers, however if I pull out the USB lead from the back of the dock and plug it directly into the phone, the USB mode is detected straight away. So with this said I know the cable is fine, and the ports its connecting to are fine and my drivers are fine. It seems the dock must not be connecting the USB data pins or something?
Can someone clarify this?

ModemJunki said:
I was very disappointed to find nothing yet on the market for the AT&T One X.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a reason aftermarket desk docks do not support this, and only HTC's speaker dock does...
You might have mentioned that once you've done this, your dock is now essentially useless...
You cannot hear the phone ring, hear alarms go off, listen to music... any sound period. Desk mode also triggers audio-out and thus disables the phone speaker.
Thanks for the post, but there was already a thread that figured all of this out a long time ago.

My experiences with my mobile (Android) as PC replacement

Hello,
as I was looking for this kind of topic information for a long time and searched through many various topics that are by nature really sounding similar, I though I'd share my experiences on using my mobile as home PC replacement.
This thread is intended as a guide to those that want to do the same. As an idea to those that never considered it and as a collection of issues and workarounds found in the daily use.
Again: This thread does not cover anything like Android ON a Desktop Computer but using your mobile phone as a desktop computer.
In those regards, I'm using one or the other software that is what I found doing its job, but I'm very open to improvements and ideas.
Setup:
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (2,2GHz quadcore, 3GB RAM, SM-9005) and Android Kitkat (Slimkat custom rom) runs on it. USB is MHL compatible.
Other Hardware: Aten CS533 a physical keyboard->Bluetooth Adapter, such that you can use your desktop keyboard and mouse on your Mobile. Which is how I'm writing this text by the way.
If you already know everything or don't care for the rest, read the second and the third post.
Daily driver?
As some custom roms describe their status.... I'm using it as daily driver. I have to rethink many things - the UI being the biggest part. Automation helps to get the connection and screen rotation things off your head.
The phone is being charged while I'm connected to the screen as the Adapter wants to have a power supply.
A big change in UI is that the touch based OS is not working too well with the mouse wheel. In this thread I'm writing I cannot scroll up using the mouse wheel. I'll scroll up the page only. I have to press and hold the mouse (=touch) and pull the content to where I want it.
Deleting characters works as well, but here rather slow. It is better to use CTRL+Shift and cursor buttons to highlight words.
You may also forget about marking text with the mouse as you're used to.
You have to press (=touch) a word and then pull the text markers to whereever.
What works well is the CTRL+X, C and V.
Currently I'm logged into XDA and writing and correcting this text with my external keyboard in firefox.
Which brings me to the most important thing... APPS:
Also there are many differences.... I'm using firefox because it happily accepts keyboard commands - CTRL+T opens a new tab, CTRL+W closes it.
Firefox has one issue which I would bring to the developers... When opened, the shared screen is blank. You can see it on your phone, but not on the TV. Workaround: Switch apps to some other app in foreground, switch back to firefox.
Many apps are better than their web-counterparts. And actually faster. But they often cannot do exactly the same, be aware of that. They offer some features and make it easier to use, but some features you may have been used to, are not available. Example: in the ebay app I can't print out shipping documents.
Roughly mentioned - printing:
There are printing apps included in most OS, you can find them in the store. Mine works fine and I can print on my network printer (don't ask me about USB-printers, I doubt, they work well...).
From my office applications (those accept CTRL+P) I can directly print on my printer, once found. That takes some time, because I switch my printer completely off when not in use.
Chats:
work fine. I can switch, use the mouse to get to the statusbar and open the chat notification, switch back to XDA using ALT+TAB.
Emails:
I was using thunderbird and this one I really miss. I has an unmatched search function. It cans earch globally and it can additionally filter text. Very quick. I have one email account since 13 years. Some emails collected. Here I have troubles.
I want to be able to see all emails offline. This can be difficult as many mail applications don't really give you a choice how many emails to download. K9 and the related kaiten offer this. They can download all mails. However.... This makes the operation in that account slow. Searching doesn't work well and deleting mail leads to app crashes. I'm working with it, because I didn't find a good alternative. Not many people possibly care for that though.
So you see, there are upsides and downsides.
+ Upsides are certainly the purpose driven apps, you have plenty for any kind of purpose. Even you can change the OS layout (If you know linux this is possibly normal anyways )
+ You save money and energy
+ You always have your PC with you
+ One UI everywhere
+ Beter than anyone else you know how to connect your phone to a beamer and do a presentation
Downsides:
- It is a mobile PC. It is using its resources much more efficiently than its desktop alternative. Because it doesn't have many. I wouldn't dare doing video encoding here.
- Surfing is slower - sometimes it seems that is actually because of my phone. I've seen other phones with weaker configurations performing faster than mine. Dolphin seems to perform much faster than Firefox.
- Rethink your input
- Desktop Applications are not possible. If you have one specific type of application you'll have to find an alternative on Android or forget it. Games, Photobook applications, Thunderbird, Blurays, are all kind of difficult...
Additional notes:
There are some interesting projects like Andromium OS that want to change the UI appearance, like a launcher that resembles the desktop Windows/Linux with a start menu. At the current beta state, I personally like my old way better, but it is looking good.
Your choice to accept the downsides. I mostly do.
Sorry for this long and splitted post, but it seems like XDA has a maximum letter count when posting but the post warning doesn't tell you so.

This is the second post, to show some details of the journey...
From the beginning:
Why?
I had a desktop PC, in fact a tablet PC, 18" and was satisfied with it. Linux ran on it quite fine. Over time I noticed that I normally use it for surfing. Not even for something useful. Most things I was using on the PC I found I was using in parallel on Android. For example, ebay, banking, sometimes the browser, funny additions like xkcd, dilbert, chats... List goes on...
Since I know my phone supports MHL, that is using an adapter to get video mirror from phone to TV over HDMI I was looking for a keyboard replacement. Also I heard before keyboards can be used on android.
Soooo I forced myself to actually to that. I sold my PC and while ebay was running I tried to get the needed hardware.
Doing:
In fact it was very easy to find the MHL adapter. I have already a cheap one with a long cable, but sometimes the screen turns blue. Normally that happens when the screen is on, and the device is idle. I thought of buying an original Samsung Adapter.
There is actually no difference, using the Samsung or the cheap one. It seems to be related to the Apps which are in foreground. Here, it is firefox, no issue with it. These days, I don't see that issue anymore. It seems that it is not related to the power supply. Anyways it worked.
A problem was that I want to use my expensive silent keyboard and not buy another bluetooth keyboard. As you may know that if you search for android hardware keyboard you'll find possibly a million ways to use your phone keyboard as input method on the PC (what the heck?). There are a few breadcrumbs leading you to something useful. Once I found a keyboard adapter that translates only my keyboard to Bluetooth, but since my mouse was futile then, I didn't want it. Same reason why I don't want to use OTG. And I'm already using the one USB port on the mobile for the screen mirroring.
Later that evening I found my current solution, working rather good, the Aten CS533. I small docking station like thing that can get two input devices to bluetooth which I can connect the mobile to.
Be careful when using it: My original Logilink mouse didn't work well with it. Scrollwheel moved the pointer up and down. Any mouse movement moved the pointer down, left and right. Sicne it didn't move up, that was, well pointless. I changed the mouse to some generic Dell mouse and this works fine.
Experiences:
SCREEN: Using some automation software normally keeps my phone working well; since the screen on the mobile is always displayed readable on the TV, meaning not upside down or so, the screen if in portrait, fills only the middle third of the TV. To use it properly my automation software says IF connected to the adapter THEN turn on screen rotation. The phone normally lying horizontally. Since this phones resolution matches the TVs, 1080p it looks pretty good.
Look and feel:
It is Android, a touch based OS, unlike Windows or Linux. So your touchscreen is not imitating a mouse, but your mouse is imitating touch input. My mouse buttons all work as touch. Clicking means touching. As far as I know there are no shortcuts here. To start an app you have to do the same actions with your mouse as you would with your finger on the screen. From the home screen open the app drawer by the button, possibly swipe to the app by clicking, holding the mouse button and moving the screen accordingly.
The keyboard is a different thing. I don't know about others, but here are some shortcuts.
The ESC button is my home button, the context menu button maps the phones menu button.
Surprisingly alt+tab work in Android as task switcher, even though I only have the last 8 apps in there and the behaviour is a bit different from the PC. Alt+tab to open the menu, another tab to switch to the second app. And there is some waiting time of possibly half a second.
The keyboard works fine; page up/down, end, pos1, del, backspace, enter work fine. CTRL, alt, Shift are normally mapped. You can use TAB to change input fields as well.
Missing so far is.... the "back" button. I have not found an equivalent of the back button on the keyboard. Since my phone isn't far away, I normally press the phones back button if I need it.
As you see, operating works, even though you have to get used to it. On the other side, it didn't take me too long...
for more details go on with the third post.

Input:
A word on input is required. Keyboard input. What? Again? Well... this is about the keyboard apps you're using. In my case I use swype and I like it most. I hate all software keyboards because their interpretation is weird and their grammar interpretation is often wrong, especially in german.
Swype however recognizes the external keyboard and displays an extra line on the bottom of the screen with the word suggestions I'm typing. Since I'm using a real keyboard I don't want corrections. Since I use the phone often without keyboard, I don't want to switch swype off completely either.
I have another issue which is that I'm typing korean from time to time and up to here I hadn't even thought about it. Swype can do that but still I didn't want to have that extra correction bar. Plus... no idea how to switch the input. The swype input switcher is missing since I'm only having the correction bar.
Quick idea was that I know a very small korean keyboard app so I could possibly switch from swype to the other, while connected to the CS533. Didn't work so well since I still have no way of switching other than the settings - but at least the correction bar is gone.
Here I found the app "External Keyboard Helper" which was written for exactly that. It seems like some people already did what I'm doing, so I wonder why you don't find so many descriptions. Anyways... that app allows you to write normally and change layouts using keyboard shortcuts. Here I'm using CTRL+Shift*space to change to korean layout: 안녕하새요 (Hello)
Anyways... that app allows you to write normally and change layouts using keyboard shortcuts.
I haven't completely looked through the app, but it seems you can get in some keymappings.
So I could map the "back" hard key from the phone to the otherwise useless Windowsbutton. My audio app is rewinding with a keyboard keypress and using shilt+alt+m I can start my mail app.
So now via automation I'm switching the input method to the external keyboard helper, when connected to the CS533 and back to swype when the connection is lost.
This was the last post. Hopefully it is useful for some that are trying to do exactly the same and get sick of those PC remote control apps...

:good::good::good::good:

And this works to. Partly a bit weird to connect.....
But:
From mobile via
OTG
To an sd/hdmi/usb adapter
Hdmi to tv, sd not tested and from
USB to another active usb hub:
The hub connects Gamepad, keyboard and mouse to the android. This is like a cable spider with one plug for the phone. A diving station.
Nice!

Best experience I had with the Dockingstation from Samsung EDD-D200.
Here the phone charges upwards while in use, I have 3 USB ports and Keyboard is recognized well.
HDMI only works at max [email protected], or [email protected] Using apps you can rotate the screen when docked.
Biggest difference is that I REALLY have a docking station. leave HDMI, USB plugged and then just connect the mobile. It should then directly work and the screen is shared to the TV. This is now much more comfortable.
Word of advices:
-for that docking station you'd better have a 5.3V power supply. 5.0V will not make USB or HDMI work.
-there is for the Note 3 another interesting docking station by Samsung, EE-MT800. It has an ethernetport and USB, flexbile connection cable. But the docking station only seems to work on a few tablets, which is a bit sad. It didn't work on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3, even though the MHL3 Adapter from Samsung works flawless ([email protected]).

I used a knife to alter the stand if that docking station so I can place my mobile with the protection cover in it. Works fine now.
Don't get the idea that there's a nice cable in the station which you could extend. It is an extension of the PCB and it is fixed.
I commissioned to Samsung why their docking station ee-mt800 is only compatible to a few tablets. And why you would want to connect a only stand type docking station to a horizontal TV of monitor, resulting in a vertical picture.... And 2/3 blank screen...