Database Info

Surprised no hoopla about Viewsonic working on other Android OS versions for Gtablet

The marketing VP of Viewsonic posts on this board and basically confirms that they are working on new Android versions for the G:
"Adobe and Google do not support Tegra II with Froyo"
"We are working on other OS versions, hint hint" The VP wrote the "hint hint", not me.
I know Roebeet has been busy with a big work project, but surprised the post did not ignite discussion. Does EVERYBODY have a big project with a short deadline?
added:
I think 2.3 is coming soon, due to the support issues. JMO.

Hmmm
rushless said:
"Adobe and Google do not support Tegra II with Froyo"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Support from adobe and google will happen for the Tegra II(TABLETS) when the new OS hits. IMO it will be when Honeycomb hits not gingerbread, but who knows....

rushless said:
The marketing VP of Viewsonic posts on this board and basically confirms that they are working on new Android versions for the G:
"Adobe and Google do not support Tegra II with Froyo"
"We are working on other OS versions, hint hint" The VP wrote the "hint hint", not me.
I know Roebeet has been busy with a big work project, but surprised the post did not ignite discussion. Does EVERYBODY have a big project with a short deadline?
added:
I think 2.3 is coming soon, due to the support issues. JMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could mean so much, I was actually trying NOT to think about or discuss it.
It could mean:
They're working on a port of the ZPad UI for the G Tablet. We know the G Tablet and ZPad are identical internally (and even externally, lol), so it wouldn't be far fetched to think VS has licensed (or whatever) the Zpad software from Malata and has it in their hands, working with it more directly - or maybe hired programmers to work on it on an official basis.
I no longer think of TnT as horrible, but I still think the dashboard section is unnecessarily bloated and way too static and rigid for an android homescreen environment. Feels more like a picture frame UI or a bedside device UI than part of an Android device and the 2.2 dock sort of takes care of those needs. XDA devs have done an exemplary and extremely commendable job with the ROM but after everything, people still have trouble with it from what I've read, so perhaps an official port by VS would work out for all the non-techies and typical users. Not to mention, you'd be able to get official OTAs as required/needed.
Security or not, I prefer the official OTAs than having to reflash the device through clockwork....the main reason I have remained on stock despite accolades given to TnT 4.1
They're working on/with 2.3 for the G Tablet. God, that'd be nice.
They're giving us something more standard/generic/closer to vanilla 2.2/2.3 and removing TnT completely. We know for the most part, that Froyo in it's more pure form, isn't tasty on the G Tablet MOSTLY because the hardware keys aren't backlit. I've always thought of TnT to be thoughtful because everything you can do from the hardware button(s) you can do from the toolbar. If they removed TnT and just wrote a new toolbar in, this would give us a more standard experience - paired with a newer kernel and newer tegra drivers, we'd have a more or less 2.2/2.3 with benefits experience.
So yeah, I don't like having low expectations but they keep me from hoping too hard/high and that way I won't be TOO disappointed if it really means a different version of the very same TnT with a few 'bug fixes', aka TnT 3452/3453.

Gingerbread is here....cm7 beta is available
http://vegantab.gojimi.com/download/update-cm-7.0.0-Beta1-Harmony-signed.zip

thebadfrog said:
Gingerbread is here....cm7 beta is available
http://vegantab.gojimi.com/download/update-cm-7.0.0-Beta1-Harmony-signed.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but at the cost of correct sdcard & sdcard2 mapping for the Gtablet? I loved CM roms on my G1, but hardware is too splintered now to cover all the hardware bases.
Not mention other hardware issues that CM is too general to make work correctly.

CM7 is using the correct Gingerbread mapping of sdcards.

Viewsonic release
What I was getting at was the fact that Viewsonic has yet to release an OFFICIAL gingerbread release. I still think that Adobe and Google will not give support to our tablets until they have an OS designed for them.
I know we have hacked ROMs that are based on Gingerbread, but I want to see VS take the next logical step and get us a real OEM OS..

Well hopefully then Viewsonic is SKIPPING Gingerbread because that is not a tablet supported OS just like Froyo.
We need Honeycomb to be the OS they are working on. Motorola is rumored to release the Xoom (Android 3.0 "Honeycomb") in late February.

Agreed
I agree, Honeycomb would be best... I don't think Motorola will get it all together and released by the end of February. I would love it if they did, then at least we could get a good source code!
Hopefully OfficialVS will come back and update us like he promised...

Gingerbread eh! Honeycomb would definitely be sweet. Now I'm in no way a techie, I am good at following instructions, with that said Notion Ink ships today would it be hard to port the eden UI over to the G-Tab? I'm curious what all the hype is about with it being that they both run the tegra chipset.

Honeycomb is pretty awesome!!

DJ_Steve is the man! Got that Honeycomb 3.1 running on my streak thanks to him and Hellzya! This really makes the device much sexier. The density issue is small for me since I don't have a problem reading small print, but it doesn't work for my dad at all.. luckily most web browsers support a zoom feature as that is the primary reason we have the tab. I have no questions... I'm a noob yes... but only to these boards. Not to rooting or anything like that. I love android... hell even jailbroke a few ipods. I'm just not a programmer or anything like that. If I were I wouldn't hesitate to offer help for all this beautiful android hacking.

keith.valdez said:
DJ_Steve is the man! Got that Honeycomb 3.1 running on my streak thanks to him and Hellzya! This really makes the device much sexier. The density issue is small for me since I don't have a problem reading small print, but it doesn't work for my dad at all.. luckily most web browsers support a zoom feature as that is the primary reason we have the tab. I have no questions... I'm a noob yes... but only to these boards. Not to rooting or anything like that. I love android... hell even jailbroke a few ipods. I'm just not a programmer or anything like that. If I were I wouldn't hesitate to offer help for all this beautiful android hacking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a HoneycomB theme running on my HD2 and love it. It's actually a Gingerbread/CM7 ROM and CM7 is pure excellence. Android and CM7 is heaven

MartyLK said:
I have a HoneycomB theme running on my HD2 and love it. It's actually a Gingerbread/CM7 ROM and CM7 is pure excellence. Android and CM7 is heaven
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have CM7 on my Optimus v. I LOVE THIS THING. It's made everything about this phone, especially the battery life, better. Rooting is fun. lol. GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK OOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUTTTTTTT!!!

HoneyComb is awesome!!!!

Yeah,honeycomb is awesome.Only problem is that Google decided to become [email protected]*ckers on the matter and don't release the damn source code so that it could be ported to phones.Yes,Ice Cream Sandwich will have Honeycomb's features and is near to be released,but is it the spirit of XDA to wait for official stuff?Nah,I don't think so.
Come on Google,Android is supposed to be open.I don't want to buy a tablet.Not yet at least,I don't like the Tegra 2(The Exynos on my Galaxy S II makes Tegra 2 devices look like cheap toys,that's why ).And when the Tegra 3 will be out,Ice Cream Sandwich will be out too.

tolis626 said:
Yeah,honeycomb is awesome.Only problem is that Google decided to become [email protected]*ckers on the matter and don't release the damn source code so that it could be ported to phones.Yes,Ice Cream Sandwich will have Honeycomb's features and is near to be released,but is it the spirit of XDA to wait for official stuff?Nah,I don't think so.
Come on Google,Android is supposed to be open.I don't want to buy a tablet.Not yet at least,I don't like the Tegra 2(The Exynos on my Galaxy S II makes Tegra 2 devices look like cheap toys,that's why ).And when the Tegra 3 will be out,Ice Cream Sandwich will be out too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why wait? Have some HC goodness with a GB-CM7 HC themed ROM.

I love the way youtube looks on HC. I just wish more apps worked on it. I many of my favorite apps crash on me in HC, but they aren't things I can't live without. Besides, whatever doesn't run there typically does on the phone so I still get my apps one way or another. One day we will have android installed in our brains and I will have to root myself.

[Q] IceCream Sandwich and Xoom

I'm just curious but since ICS is coming, what does that mean for us? All I've heard is another UI overhaul for phones to give them more honeycomb, but what do we get? If Hardware Acceleration is in then I would be happy, but there doesn't seem to be anything in it for us tablet users.
Unless I'm missing something.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393797,00.asp#fbid=eHhpmAndRdICant really say kinda early..heres something I found but still unsure

I hope it means an update and AOSP!!

Not sure what the link was for...... Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Sorry. But I'm just not sure if I would be excited about ics on my Xoom.

Imma say that it will be on the original Xoom's without a doubt. I read in an article that ICS will be able to run on older devices, thus it's almost a guarantee the Xoom will see it officially. Annnnd for some reason it does not... have no fear, as the devs will be here to solve that problem! The OG Droid was left out of the update loop awhile back because newer models replaced it, but we still have the most current updates on it thanks to the brilliant devs. Just gotta have some faith in your XDA community, and they will figure something out.

But again, I think the OP wants to know (...like I also do) what's the big improvement gonna be?
As I stated on another recent post, the big deal for me as I see it is that (presumably) the SC for HC will be released and then the ROM goodness will follow. But if it's anything like what happened with Froyo, etc, the Honeycomb custom ROMs will kick the stock Icecream Sandwichs' ass.
-No?

Psychokitty said:
But again, I think the OP wants to know (...like I also do) what's the big improvement gonna be?
As I stated on another recent post, the big deal for me as I see it is that (presumably) the SC for HC will be released and then the ROM goodness will follow. But if it's anything like what happened with Froyo, etc, the Honeycomb custom ROMs will kick the stock Icecream Sandwichs' ass.
-No?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for being the only reply actually related to my post, but Google had stated a long time ago that the SC for hc will never be released as the SC for ics will be released instead. But since phones will get more hc goodness, what do we get?(which is the main question in the topic)

I think at this point, it's a wait-and-see kind of thing.
But I think finally having the source code is the biggest news here. I think it will be the dawning of a golden age for the XOOM, so to speak.
Also, one advantage to the phone side getting lumped in to the same OS is that we will see a boost in apps that are tablet optimized since the devs will be able to work all of it into one .apk instead of focusing on two separate projects.
These are the two things I'm personally looking forward to the most as far as the tablet side goes.
Of course, it would be nice to be surprised, too.

kenfly said:
Thanks for being the only reply actually related to my post, but Google had stated a long time ago that the SC for hc will never be released as the SC for ics will be released instead. But since phones will get more hc goodness, what do we get?(which is the main question in the topic)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I think, since ICS will be open source, we will get additional development for the Xoom, beyond the wonderful feature additions and enhancements we have gotten with the limited HC.
Don't you think so?

From my understanding, Ice Cream Sandwich is an over haul for phones to bring out an honeycomb interface while allowing for tablet support as well and it will be more controlled by the king them self, Google.
What this means? All android devices will now be updated at the same time as it'll be more tightly integrated which means developers will need to start just making widgets for there own devices instead of a completely different interfaces like they do today. In a way, it'll be exactly what Honeycomb tablets are today (if you look at all the honeycomb tablets that's out, the interface is the same, only differences is that others will have widgets and/or wallpapers designed just for there tablets (i.e., samsung has the touchwiz) but can be upgraded all the same).
This is supposed to be more more uniform support and faster updates.
Will this go into effect right away? Probably not since the manufacturers will still need to make to update go through but we should also expect to see faster updates as well (there's still a lot of users out there still waiting on Gingerbread releases for there devices so with this making it more uniformed should allow for faster releases).
This is only from what I've heard, though.

This is from a PC World article this morning:
Although Google has kept its cards close to its vest about ICS, a number of things have been reported about it.
Widgets will be richer and resizable, as they are in the tablet version of Android.
More multitasking will be added to the system and the OS will be open source.
The system will be tailored to take advantage of devices that use the Texas Instrument's OMAP chip.
As with any Android upgrade, what Android devices will be eligible for the new system will remain with the manufacturers, but two good bets for the upgraded OS are the Samsung Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom.
---

I think it is important to understand one thing about ICS. It is intended to reunify the OS on all device types (like iOS). What this means for tablet (and conversely smartphone) users is that app development will improve and we will get better apps. These apps will make it easier to share functions between your tablet and your smartphone.
We would have found out more next Tuesday, but the announcements for ICS have been postponed. The postponement was for a good reason though. We still don't know what the reschedule date will be, other than sometime this month.

I just received a new tablet

Hellot there i just received a new tablet for christmas abd i wanted to learn some new things.
First oglf all i have to admit it that i am new to this android scene. I am a fan of apple but wheb it comes to tablets i guess abdroid has an advantage. whatever this is not the purpose of my message.
What i wabted to know is this: I received an Le Pan tc 970 but i saw they got the new Le Pan 2ut with the honeycomb support . My question is: is it worth rerurning this current tablet to buy the new one just because it has a new firmware on it? Or the hobeycomb isnt that much of a deal abd I should keep this one? Any advantages to buy the ther one in comparasion to this ine except it is new? Does it have much more feature than 2.2?
If not I know abdroid is the world of customizations... but i dont seem to get it. Do i need to root my system in order to makee tose customizatiobs available? I didnt ser that much themes for this tablet... also it doesbt even have its own section... Is it because the tablet isnt that popular?
Finally could i have some few threads to get me started? I kniw pretty much abiut apple... but Andriid is completly new to me!
Thanks! And sorry for all of the mistakes... The keyboard makes my mind go nuts... it is too big!

Honeycomb (Android 3.0) is newer version than froyo (2.2).
If you can get one with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) then it is worth returning it
and get a new one.
Most of the tablets are running Froyo or Gingerbread (Android 2.3) .
Honeycomb is closed source, google has not released its software to public.
All other versions as of now are open source AOSP (Android Open Source Platform)
ask them whether it can be upgraded to ICS (4.0)

Well honeycomb is kinda better for tablets since it has a tablet ui but now since they released ics you should check if your tablet is getting the ics update which has a bunch of new features and if it doesn't i think you should get one with the new os.

Right! Look for ics update. It is much better

I don'T think there are many tables with ICS...? Am I wrong? And what about a starter guide?

Is ICS going to be worth it?

I know that many are excited about the 'sweetness' of ICS that's suppose to drop this month. I did have a TF Prime for 2 weeks (returned it due to issues). I miss the shiny svelte tab for sure, but it had way too many issues to deal with. No thx on being a BETA tester for ASUS unless they decide to send me a tablet for free.
Anyway it seems we've been hearing/talking about ICS for ages now (in fact it's only been 9 months or so I'd guess). When details where finally released on it, I admit I was somewhat disappointed.
Sure for people on Gingerbread, ICS is a huge step forward, but for all of us that have been using HC for up to nearly a year now, it didn't seem to offer that much.
Looking over wikipedia the only thing that I see that gets me excited is Hardware Acceleration of the UI, just about every other feature either exists in HC, is available in apps, or makes little difference to those of us using a TF101 (IMHO).
Now i will admit that once the Dev's create a stable ROM I'll drop that onto the device but I'm just not that excited for a new font. I do think that ICS being both a tablet and phone OS is good going forward for app development, and we should see those advantages play out over time in a more stable environment as well as more available apps, but as it stands currently I'm just not that excited for ICS.
I just looked at Platform stats;
Cupcake 0.6%
Donut 1.0%
Eclair 7.6%
Froyo 27.8%
Gingerbread 58.6%
Honeycomb 3.4%
Ice Cream Sandwich 1.0%
Talk about different user experiences ....WOW....I wish that Google could somehow shut down everything prior to Gingerbread, and force everyone up, with at least 37% of devices using these long outdated OS versions, it's no wonder that we constantly hear the 'fragmented' comment about Android.

I'm not sure what kind of ground breaking innovative features you were expecting in ICS. Although I agree that some of these features are available with third party apps, I believe your average everyday user will benefit from having them built in rather than needing to search through the market once they hear of some feature they would enjoy. You have to remember that we are almost surely the minority of overall Android users here on XDA compared to the general public, as we are more comfortable tinkering with our devices than others. And anything that can bring Android tablets closer to on par with the iPad, currently at the top of the tablet world, is a benefit to the Android platform and is "worth it."
As far as the fragmentation goes, I don't think the different OS versions you mentioned are what most people refer to as the "fragmentation" of Android. Rather, it is the manufacturers skin (HTC's Sense, Motorola MotoBlur, etc.) of each platform, which can be confusing to common users when switching between them. However, this is part of the beauty of Android; users can pick which skin suits them best, or as power users such as those of us on XDA can do, change the Android software if we like the hardware of the device but don't care for the software. Granted, more to your point, most iPhone users are probably on IOS 4 or above compared to those on Gingerbread or above, although I can't verify this fact with a quick Google search.
IMHO, I'm more excited to see CyanogenMod 9 on the TF101 than ICS in general. I've been a loyal user of Android Revolution HD, but I'm looking forward to see what the CM team has to offer in regards to the options/customizations available seen in every other CM ROM (AR is based on stock TF101 ROM, with plenty of enhancements of course).

If you would have tried out paulburton's ICS port you would see the truly immense differences that it brings. Honeycomb was not a finished product on is release and was only pushed out to compete with the iPad so there were a lot of things wrong with it. Now with ICS we will have a smother experience along with greater uniformity. The promise of CM9 is just the icing on the cake

Yeah I'm looking forward to CM9 on the TF101 as well...I did try out an Ipad2 after i returned my Prime. I didn't find much that i could criticize about the device ( other then price)....the thing was solid and just worked (which is more then i can say about the Prime)....I'm looking forward to the MeMo hopefully by then ICS will have been patched up to a level that makes it robust. The padphone as well looks good (and being able to use this dock is sweet)...but i do wonder if it will even make its way to NA
As for expectations for ICS....I don't know maybe I thought we'd see something revolutionary....like User profiles....more support for external devices like DVD drives... native printer support

surroundedbytrees said:
Yeah I'm looking forward to CM9 on the TF101 as well...I did try out an Ipad2 after i returned my Prime. I didn't find much that i could criticize about the device ( other then price)....the thing was solid and just worked (which is more then i can say about the Prime)....I'm looking forward to the MeMo hopefully by then ICS will have been patched up to a level that makes it robust. The padphone as well looks good (and being able to use this dock is sweet)...but i do wonder if it will even make its way to NA
As for expectations for ICS....I don't know maybe I thought we'd see something revolutionary....like User profiles....more support for external devices like DVD drives... native printer support
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol its a mobile OS not linux..

blickmanic said:
lol its a mobile OS not linux..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its virtual machine on top of linux so most of what he is saying could be done but would obviously be cm based or aosp done by our devs
User profiles are available already theres a root app that creates partitions for each profile or user
Printer support i know through bluetoth theres a couple apps for it but nothing native or other than wifi/bluetooth
Im just saying its good to dream and in this guys case both the things he mentioned are do-able
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

I wouldn't mind being able to print web pages and graphics from the tf on my wifi printer.

luna_c666 said:
I wouldn't mind being able to print web pages and graphics from the tf on my wifi printer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look in the market. There are printing apps from canon for example.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

I've tried the HoneyComb on a variety of Android tablets (transformer, Toshiba thrive, galaxy tab 10.1, acer, and some others), and it seems laggy: scrolling the home screen left and right lags when doing it fast. is ICS better and faster on the original transformer (for those who tried the ports)?
I'm planning on getting an EEE Transformer (not Prime) soon, before they get out of the market. Already it got sold out in 2 local shops who put them on promotion, preparing for the prime. I might find the base 16GB Wifi only for around €350.

towlie288 said:
Have a look in the market. There are printing apps from canon for example.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All android printing apps are printer dependent. Android has no printing layer. I think this is ridiculous. Android has much more potential for being a desktop replacement than iOS (I use it for 90% of the tasks I use my MacBook Pro for) but there is no printing layer.
Cheers!
-M
Xda member since 2007

For the whiny little snots who don't think the TF101/HC is fast enough or must always have the latest versions, ICS ought to be worth it. Everything else is just evolution like Froyo -> Gingerbread. Worth it but not a game killer as long as stuff works. I prefer ICS to HC the same as I prefer GB to Froyo.
On the Prime I really noticed the speed difference in ICS, but was already 250% satisified with the TF101 speed under HC (which isn't all that different from the Prime on HC IMHO).
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

im an update junkie first and foremost but i am eager for ics for other reasons as well. CM9 is awesome. But a stable release allows custom roms to pick out the latest working code. Even a semi stock but optimized rom with custom oc kernel is great.

Spidey01 said:
but was already 250% satisified with the TF101 speed under HC (which isn't all that different from the Prime on HC IMHO).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing that you must have notice was the browser speed. It lags terribly on HC during loading of the page, but from what I read it also lags on ICS sometimes, so I don't know if the update will be worth it.

towlie288 said:
Have a look in the market. There are printing apps from canon for example.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm..thanks! I never even thought to look in the market, i have a canon pixma mp495, which is listed under compatible printers with the app Canon EPP, so maybe it will work
I'll let you guys know if it is worth it. (replacing more and more functions of my laptop daily this transformer is)
Edit;
Wow. Just what i was looking for scan and print! Nice..

Brother Printer App available too
luna_c666 said:
Hmmm..thanks! I never even thought to look in the market, i have a canon pixma mp495, which is listed under compatible printers with the app Canon EPP, so maybe it will work
I'll let you guys know if it is worth it. (replacing more and more functions of my laptop daily this transformer is)
Edit;
Wow. Just what i was looking for scan and print! Nice..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a brother wifi printer and there is a nice app for it. It has been updated several times since I first downloaded it. I have it on my tf and my captivate. It has helped me greatly.
For example, yesterday I picked up my daughter after work and went home. She fell asleep about 15 minutes before we got home. And, we were planning on going to dinner because we had a coupon. So, I pulled in the driveway, left the car running, let my cappy connect to my wifi and printed the coupon from my phone. My wife grabbed it and joined us in the car while my daughter continued to sleep peacefully.
I never thought a smart phone could help my daughter get a better nap until yesterday.

Magnesus said:
The only thing that you must have notice was the browser speed. It lags terribly on HC during loading of the page, but from what I read it also lags on ICS sometimes, so I don't know if the update will be worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Opera Mobile has been my daily browser on each, so I can't say that I noticed much. Page loading in the stock still tends to be slow. What is different on the Prime, is how much faster/smoother the ICS UI is compared to HC on the Prime. I'm almost tempted to hit the force GPU rendering option in Settings -> Developer Options, just to see how wide spread it can be.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

surroundedbytrees said:
I just looked at Platform stats;
Cupcake 0.6%
Donut 1.0%
Eclair 7.6%
Froyo 27.8%
Gingerbread 58.6%
Honeycomb 3.4%
Ice Cream Sandwich 1.0%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should see Apple's OS fragmentation, it's MUCH worse than that. Steve Jobs was a liar when we told the world of Android fragmentation.

Fragmentation plagues any device with frequent OS changes..I'm still on Windows XP on one PC, windows Vista on two of them, and Win7 on another PC..also, my wife has gingerbread on her phone, I have honeycomb on my tab, and ICS on my (identical model to my wife's) phone. Eh..any technology that becomes so quickly updated and made obsolete so easily will create such fragmentation..people can't always afford to upgrade just because their device is replaced with a new model, some people just don't like change even when OS updates are available. This is also exacerbated when the old OS will not run on older devices thus updates are not possible for many people who would like to have them. Perhaps ICS will run for a while until Jelly Bean comes out and allow old froyo and GB devices to leave the market and consumers retire them, and more devices will be consolidated on Android 4.x- will certainly make developing cross-platform apps easier to achieve.
Of course, now that I have ICS, I can't wait to see what JB is going to add to my device..

Yes it will. Because of this: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.android.chrome - I want ICS NOW!