Hi all,
Am a newbie to Android tablets/devices both in terms of hardware and software. So if my post is posted in the wrong thread or reposted pls pardon me. I just want to understand a few basics.
As you all may know, now the market is being flooded by those Chinese made Android tablets. And many of them looks good (at least on paper) and at a very good price. But the problem is most of the time when come to chinese goods, they don't usually do what they claims (if you know what i mean). and the best part most of the salesperson don't know anything about the products they are selling especially when comes to tech gadgets like the Android tablets.
So here i am seeking help from you gurus and hoping i can start my Android journey on the right step. Below are a few questions. Hope I can get answers (links to somewhere where i can read up or anything).
1. What are the conditions (CPU make, firmware, etc) to fulfill if i wan to upgrade/root/hack the original Android OS? Cos most of the chinese made tablets are running on Android 1.5. Hoping to be able to upgrade the OS whenever a newer one comes out. Like the latest 2.1 And be able to download new apps from the apps market.
2. Which CPU chip is better and what are the common CPU chips in the market now? I know there are the Rockchips, VIA, Telechips.
3. Can we tell what are the hardware (CPU make etc) and software (OS/firmware version, etc) that are being used in the device from the system setting or something?
4. I read somewhere that not all CPU chips can be upgraded to the latest OS. i.e. that any upgrade is determined by the CPU chip. Is it true?
5. As for custom ROM, is it also device dependable? Like is there a generic ROM for all devices?
For now these are the questions which are bugging me. Hope the gurus here can enlighten this Android newbie.
Sorry for the long winded post and thanks for any help.
Hmmm. Just check that it is upgradable to froyo and it has more than 500mhz cpu
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
if you are looking for a tablet just get an ipad. the android tablets i see floating around are just 1.5 or 1.6. even if you get a tablet that can do 2.2 (froyo)... i dont see how that can be any better than an ipad.
i just feel that 2.2 isnt meant to be in tablet form. if you can wait... wait for 3.0 before you decide. the main deterrent here is the maximum resolution for android (854 x 480 or something), and that the apps were made with phones in mind.
im very happy with my nexus one... i just cant imagine having a tablet running android as of the moment unless its very very cheap ($200 or so).
i for one will get an ipad next month. my nexus one with wifi tether + the basic wifi ipad will be gadget heaven. looking to get an ipad primarily for reading magazines (zinio) and comic books. android does not have zinio yet. the android comic viewer (ACV) i use on my nexus is ok... but not great. then theres the games. games on android are still so so with less variety and choices.
as a phone the android is great! better than the iphone (yes im an apple user through and through) even. but as a tablet... not quite yet.
Hp is going to release a tablet so is samsung with 2.2
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Hopefully start seeing some of these 2.2 tablets in the 3rd Quarter...
Hey,
Why is there no android version for the N8?
Could anyone create it? There is enough animo for it.
If i read some forums I see that some people want it. Why not?
Also it has the best mobile camera in the world.
If someone can run android on it it would be the best device ever. (I think)
I could find an answer on this forum. But I think this is already changed.
(That there isn't enough animo for it. But there is!)
I'm also a newb in this world. But I like android and the compatibility that the most devices already have with it.
Kevin
I dont know if its that simple. I dont rly know if the android suitable for N8, anyway would be nice to have it (even though that i have HD2, which i think that is much better than N8.) If its possible, my friends will have android too! xD
indeed!
I think an android developer must buy an n8.. that he can see it's a wonderfull device.
And then create android for it.
Not all phones are like hd2, where you can have different os
Sent from HTC HD2 with Android
Not all people wants a HD2
you are not alone my friend!
I too wish the N8 had Android.
It is a much better device than the HD2, screen size isn't everything.
coldest~~~ said:
Not all phones are like hd2, where you can have different os
Sent from HTC HD2 with Android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
anything is possible, it just takes time.
and in the HD2's favor, it had hardware that was common across different platforms.
plus a big userbase
Isnt the N8 nokia soft based on Debian? couldn't drivers be ported my friend has this device and yes the camera is amazing on it
I thougt it was only meego and maemo wich is debian based?
i was thinking to get a nokia n8 untill ive found out that nokia had very low quality development for that new symbian version, and that they moved torwards windows mobile... i never liked windows mobile and since they were not going for android i said whats the point, on paper the nokia n8 is amazing, but it has some problems aswell, for example the cpu is only 625mhz, while its arguably enough to run android, im not entirely sure it has all the instruction sets compatible with it, emulation is out of the question too, the android code would have to be natively changed to work for it, and then there had to be the matter of games, they also had to be coded properly for that specific gpu,cpu and sound chip, accelerometer and so on.
So thats why ppl dont usually port phones to android, its a mess to code and most of the drivers they have to code them from scratch.
TheWarKeeper said:
i was thinking to get a nokia n8 untill ive found out that nokia had very low quality development for that new symbian version, and that they moved torwards windows mobile... i never liked windows mobile and since they were not going for android i said whats the point, on paper the nokia n8 is amazing, but it has some problems aswell, for example the cpu is only 625mhz, while its arguably enough to run android, im not entirely sure it has all the instruction sets compatible with it, emulation is out of the question too, the android code would have to be natively changed to work for it, and then there had to be the matter of games, they also had to be coded properly for that specific gpu,cpu and sound chip, accelerometer and so on.
So thats why ppl dont usually port phones to android, its a mess to code and most of the drivers they have to code them from scratch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CPU is official build for 750mhz. So it can run faster.. Also i heard that the new version of android (3.0?) has hardware acceleration for the UI. So the GPU can be used for it.
cpu for android need nore juice and ram.
battery life will be hunger for more to join android.
nokia seem battery effective device.low power consumption
under18 said:
cpu for android need nore juice and ram.
battery life will be hunger for more to join android.
nokia seem battery effective device.low power consumption
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why?
The HTC ChaCha and Salsa has a 600 mhz processor... And still Android runs on it.
Indeed the ram is littlebit low 256 mb...
Chacha is 800Mhz, 512 of ram..
yeah i wish that someone would find a way to port android to n8 i recently got one and dont like symbian os, any way i'll keep on searching if no luck, guess i have to get an android phone
Edit: forgot to say i had a sony ericsson x8 which had 600 Mhz processor and 256mb ram and i was even able to run android 4.0 on it dunno why n8 would not run on this device
The question is why port android to N8? The N8 is a wonderful device as is. If you have an N8 you probably bought it for it's camera prowess. Bonus: you get a very long battery life (compared to droids). Now if you want to port android on it then it will become power hungry and will be full of glitches since it has poor dev support. Also, you wouldn't want a slow droid. 600mhz for a droid is quite slow, and as stated, the RAM is low. You're better off buying an affordable Galaxy Y. Believe me it's quite fast, if you can live with it's low res screen.
Cheers,
Cezar
kevinwalter said:
Hey,
Why is there no android version for the N8?
Could anyone create it? There is enough animo for it.
If i read some forums I see that some people want it. Why not?
Also it has the best mobile camera in the world.
If someone can run android on it it would be the best device ever. (I think)
I could find an answer on this forum. But I think this is already changed.
(That there isn't enough animo for it. But there is!)
I'm also a newb in this world. But I like android and the compatibility that the most devices already have with it.
Kevin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's not possible to port Android or any other OS to symbian phones because of locked bootloaders by Nokia
Nokia n9 is running meego OS which is with unlocked bootloaders and that's why this phone can have dual boot or just one OS like Android 4.x.x ICS
I want it too
I have an Nokia N8 too and i would love to run android on it.
So if there is any way to install android on it....
I also have nokia n8, it was really a great phone,hi quality build, superb. And I fine with symbian^3 but what bothering me was that the nokia apps store is getting useless. I need BBM and can't find any.
I am newbie here, and planning for new android phone.
One of my friend got X10 without Android from India for few bucks less, shopkeeper said he can come again anytime to load the OS (which will be chargeable-same amount he deducted while buying). He was using his phone very well without android, unfortunately lost his phone. I really don't know what OS it was there on phone (stock or other).
My question is
1. Is it possible to get a phone without android, and if yes then what will be the OS on that?
2. Is it possible to flash/load Android (suitable to that specific device) on such device by our self?
Thanks in advance.
I think your friend got one of the infamous counterfeit phones.
Perhaps it had the Chinese ripoff version of Android on it.
Im very sorry if this doesn't go here but since I couldn't find any forum related to custom-built phones I gave it a shot.
Ok the thing is I recieved a Custom-made android phablet a few months ago. It's a model made by a non-technological company in a political stunt to promote better education in Puerto Rico and to "modernize the classroom environment and how class is taught." And even though only public schools (I go to private) had these benefits I managed to get a hold of one and after months I decided to try it.
But the ugly truth is These "phablets" are just a somewhat mediocre 2011-12 technology with a custom android 4.3 slapped on top. The downside is that the Android version doesn't come with any of google's services and apps and because of it being custom-built No apps are compatible with it.
I managed to download the Google now and chrome apks but they don't run/aren't compatible.
After all that backstory What I mean to ask is:
-Is it possible to activate google apps and services from the phone without taking out it's original version? (After all it's running Jellybean)
If not:
-Is it possible to root the phone and flash another version of android that's a bit more "supportive" of apps?
Or do you simply have any other ideas as of how can I make it a normal android phablet? Im planning on giving it to my little brother after fixing it up.
Thank you in advance and again, I'm sorry if I posted this where it doesn't belong.
Hello everyone,
I was searching for Android One topics here and unfortunately found nothing ( probably because of the confusing name)
So can someone explain what's up with this Android One software overlay.
I read some info on wiki but still have some questions:
Is it like normal firmware that only comes with certain smartphones, or you can flash it yourself?
It's a near stock android but, which version is it based on,
does it come out every time new android version rolls out, or it just gets updated to the new one.
and lastly let's say I have android one phone, and after three years they stopped regular updates,
it's still android one compatible phone right, so I can update to the new version myself?
Thank you.
avoup said:
Hello everyone,
I was searching for Android One topics here and unfortunately found nothing ( probably because of the confusing name)
...
and lastly let's say I have android one phone, and after three years they stopped regular updates,
it's still android one compatible phone right, so I can update to the new version myself?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Android One are phones that run a lite weight version of Android for budget phones with small specs (under 2Go of RAM, entry level processor,...) called Android Go. It's supposed to give a fluid experience to phones with limited capacity. Each Android Go version (for each Android One device) is in consequences very specific to the device, in order to use efficiently all of what the different specs has to offer.
You can still build ROMs/TWRP for those devices, and use it as a normal device, but the experience will be much slower. So to answer your 3 questions:
1)It's firmware that only comes with certain phones, it's build to use perfectly the SoC and memory, so it's very specific (not generic like GSI)
2) Android One are phones, Android Go is the Android version. Your phone may or may not receive an update to the Next Android version, on that side it's the same as other phones. If it receives an update, you'll run (for example) Android 10 Go Version. So update exists for Android One phones, they won't stay for ever at the same Android version they had at the beginning.
3) when your phone won't be supported anymore, you won't be able to update your phone to another version of Android Go. You'll still be able to flash ROMs or stuff like that, but since Android Go builds are very specific to each devices, you can't flash them "cross devices".
PS: at the moment I've not heard of Android 10 Go Edition, it's still at Android 9 if I'm correct. But it will be updated, the goal of Android one is to support cheap and often not long lasting phone over time.
Read more here : https://www.android.com/versions/go-edition/