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Archos 101/70

i was just wondering if anyone has or is getting a gen8 archos tablet and if so are there any developers working on it?

Crimton said:
i was just wondering if anyone has or is getting a gen8 archos tablet and if so are there any developers working on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the Archos 101 but I am not a developer

petter11 said:
I have the Archos 101 but I am not a developer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so how are you liking it? have you already put the market on? any noticable bugs or quirks worth mentioning? thanks

it took me 1 day to absolutely go from "hmm, not sure this is what i wanted" to "holy ****, this is the best tablet yet".
it's a thing of beauty if you are willing to dig in with the gapps kit and getting all the apps that i love on my Desire onto the tablet.
it's fantastic. any specific questions you'd like answered, let me know.

Can you please give more details about it?
What about the screen? Does it look OK with market apps, cause it has bigger screen resolution. Does it look nice or blurry? I 've seen Archow with win7 and it's terrible.
Speed? Updates? Any good resources for roms (other than XDA)?
Sorry for botherning but I 'm interested to get one. Santa Claus promished it to me (LOL).

I'd be interested in what you have to say about it - particularly battery life.
Looking @ getting the Archos 70 for the wife, and the 101 for myself.

Sorry archos I went ahead and got a g tablet. It's not perfect but with a little work its a good tablet and cm6.1 is already in beta for it.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

i made a video of my 101 hooked up to my TV, have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYAyQQk2C78&hd=1
the device is great. speed is great, the design is great. for some examples, movies look fantastic, Angry Birds looks incredible. it does have a little lag once in a blue moon, but usually because i'm pushing it too hard.
we're still waiting on 2.2, but other than not having flash websites (who cares?), you wouldn't know it. when we get 2.2, this is gonna scream.
the battery life is the best i've experienced in a device lately. i can go at least 2 days with normal use. apparantly, it's been tested by some dude on Star Wars 2. it played 3 times over before the battery died.
i rarely plug it in.

was wondering how is the screen quality? view angles? both in landscape or protrait? have the folio 100 for a few more days, 760g feels a bit on the heavy side after some hours of use. build quality? color gamut and sharpness on the screen?
how does the 101 do in this matter?

i looked at the Folio just before i bought the 10". i found the screens on both to be identical. what moved me over to the Archos was the fact that the Folio out of the box was force crashing left and right. the salesguy and i both laughed and i walked away.
otherwise, the screen quality is very good. is it quite as good as the iPad? no. but, i have not had any headaches trying to read and watch on it.

anotherdroid said:
i looked at the Folio just before i bought the 10". i found the screens on both to be identical. what moved me over to the Archos was the fact that the Folio out of the box was force crashing left and right. the salesguy and i both laughed and i walked away.
otherwise, the screen quality is very good. is it quite as good as the iPad? no. but, i have not had any headaches trying to read and watch on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
never expected it to be like the ipad, but if u say that it is identical as the folio, then the quality is not what i would prefer but still good enough for me.

can you try the skyfire browser on it? How is the video streaming?

Quick review of my Archos 70
I've had my Archos 70 for about a week now. One of the lucky ones. I'm really happy with it but there are a few quirks that I hope will be sorted out once 2.2 is released for it. Here's a few of my thoughts on it.
1. I like the screen. I've read people complain about the viewing angle but it's fine for me. I wish the resolution was a higher but that really only comes into play when using the web browser and viewing high resolution images.
2. There is definite issue with the soft buttons that needs to be fixed. I don't run into it all that often but it does make using alternate launchers/book readers a little annoying. Basically the soft buttons are unknown to some apps. It's not actually limiting the screen area like status bar is. usually full screen apps are the issue. The kindle app for instance chops off the bottom line of text which makes reading books hard. The Nook app on the other hand has no issues because you can set your own margins.
3. Swype works really well in portrate mode. The best way to "type" on one of these things. If I need to write a forum post or anything more than a few lines I'll pick up the archos. I can't stand the keyboard on my IPad so to me this is a HUGE benefit. The only downside is in landscape mode the soft buttons overlap the side a bit which makes hitting the period and back buttons a little hard
4. My android phone has a track ball and I wish this had one. About the only feature I miss from the ipad is the hold over a word for zoom in on a text field that allows you to place the cursor where you want it the track ball fixes that on the phone but not so much without it. My finger is not precise enough for cursor placement. The stock keyboard does have arrow keys but Swype does not. (I did figure out that if you hold down the power button an option comes up to modify the soft buttons to include arrow keys but it's really large.)
5. The bottom left corner gets pretty hot but it's not unbearable. That's the only part of the device that I noticed that. Plus when in portrate mode the side with the camera is a little heavier.
6. This thing is great for reading. The nook app works really well for me
7. It feels great in your hand. Just the right size and weight.
8. No compass. I wasn't expecting it though. Ipad does have one (since I've kinda compared the 2 in this already)
9. Google maps works great and wifi triangulation works well.
10. The screen does not get as dirty as fast as the ipad. I'm constantly cleaning the ipad as the fingerprints can really get in the way of viewing. I don't find that to be a problem with this device. The bezel does attract fingerprints but a microfiber cloth cleans that right up.
11. This thing needs froyo and root I've gotten way to used to having root and being able to control what the device does. Maybe over thanksgiving I'll have some time to look into it. Right now you must manage tasks on it and clear up memory or the thing will lag a bit. Some of the autokillers I've not found work for me. I guess if you've never seen 2.2 with a tweaked android internal memory manager they would be ok for you but not for me Luckily the task app it comes with is pretty good.
12. Even though it won't charge thru USB the included charger comes with the most common plug styles and allows you to swap them out. Really nice.
13. Battery life is pretty amazing but I think they toggle off wifi when the screen is off no matter what. I want to keep wifi on so I get email on it. Could be fixed with the firmware upgrade.
14. Video playback is nice and smooth and the audio player is pretty good as well. I did try some mkv files at 720p (not sure of the full specs of the media but could find out) and did get some slow down in the video in high motion areas. You could tell as the audio/video sync would go out then come back. I was also using the mini-hdmi->hdmi cable to put it on my tv when that happened. I've not tested any other videos yet. I don't have a lot of digital video hanging around these days.
15. I'd recommend getting a case. Kindle 2 or nook cases seem to work. A screen protector is also a good idea. I've been really careful with mine and i've still managed to somehow scratch the screen. I can only see it at specific angles in certain light so it doesn't detract from actual use but still you hate to have a scratch on a pretty screen
I'm very happy with the device. Once we get froyo I'll be even more ecstatic. I've not seen the need to grab my ipad once since I got it so that's sayin something.

http://twitter.com/#!/_mrbirdman_/status/5054131584634881 oh snap! and that coming from the guy who first rooted the droid x.

That hurts me. Sh...t.
How can I recall my letter to Santa... Anyone???

Just so you guys know, the A70 and A101 are available on the Archos.com store.
Only the 8GB version of each so far. They've been up for under an hour now, but I'm sure they've taken a ton of orders, so better get it quick if you want it.

Crimton said:
http://twitter.com/#!/_mrbirdman_/status/5054131584634881 oh snap! and that coming from the guy who first rooted the droid x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a deal-breaker for me! I was all set to order too. Archos, I hope you're reading this!
Next!
Billy

mmhh..
didnt they say that it will be almost imppossible to root the droid x too??
it will get rooted..just like the ps3 got "jailbroken" lol (i hate when people use the that term) but may be it will take years..lol

I've had one for a week too, definitely wanted a 7 incher since I prefer to have extra portatility. Everything is working great and Froyo update will only make things better.
Altough rooting etc is a nice thing to mess around with the device, I dont feel like it is a necessity for enjoying the device.
At the end Android devices pretty much let you do everything you want out of the box and it's not like I thought that AOSP roms were the best things on earth either (back to sense rom on Desire).
Once Froyo is here with Flash support and Froyo ap2sd, the device will have all I want and I wont change my mind wether a root shows up or not (we know it will eventually).

Leviuqse said:
mmhh..
didnt they say that it will be almost imppossible to root the droid x too??
it will get rooted..just like the ps3 got "jailbroken" lol (i hate when people use the that term) but may be it will take years..lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The X was rooted almost immediately (or even before launch?), but they haven't broken the bootloader encryption yet, so basically all that gained them at first was the ability to manipulate the filesystem outside of /data. Custom ROMs/kernels have been a bit of a chore. I haven't watched the progress too closely, but last I remember they've been able to get everything but kernels working, and even that may have progressed.

GTablet annoyances

I was excited to get a G-Tablet in the recent Woot sale. Unfortunately, as I have noted in other threads, when I got it, it wouldn't run through the original NTP-WiFi configuration procedure out of the box.
I wiped it and installed VEGAn 5.1.1 and got on with the process of evaluating it.
Am I the only one with touch screen sensor issues? It requires massive fingertip hurting pressure to hit the 'L' key and many of the touch areas along the edge that is adjacent to the Home/Menu/Back buttons. Sometimes I need to press so hard to register a key press, I think that it will crack the LCD. It really impacts my happy factor with this device.
The Market fix isn't as complete as my Archos 70. I saw the thread on changing device type=olympus. I can't vi the /system/build.prop without getting / set to read/write. Too much of a hoop to jump through right now. If I could vi the file, no problem. Still, it is an annoyance.
Weight. I knew it was heavier, but wasn't prepared to the reality of dealing with the mass of this unit.
Screen view. Even with an iPad screen protector on, the color and view angles are annoying. It was unusable to me for reading and regular use before the screen protector went on. Now it is better, but still subpar compared to the A70.
I want to love the gTablet for its technical superiority and future upgrade path to 2.3 and potentially beyond. My Archos device will never be better than FroYo.
However, even though I know it is 'better' I just can't stand actually using it. I feel that the gTab needs to go to flEaBay, since Woot doesn't do refunds.
Anyone else feeling this way?

Touchscreen callibration app should fix your touch issues... I had the same problem and that solved it.

Yeah, I have the app and tried it. Not much real difference in my experience. :\
I just ran it again, and it is weird. Some areas of the screen work just fine (launcher pro dock when in desktop/finder mode for example). then, when on virtual keyboard, those same pixel areas don't sense well. Might be a keyboard issue, though it seems to be the same with BetterKeyboard and Android keyboard.
I don't know, I want to like this thing, but feel disappointed. Same way with the Samsung Captivate, which i returned after fighting with it for a month.

tenet420 said:
Touchscreen callibration app should fix your touch issues... I had the same problem and that solved it.
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Click to collapse
+1. Screen cal should help. Anyway, don't have that problem with TNTL 4.2.5.

BoulderGeek said:
I was excited to get a G-Tablet in the recent Woot sale. Unfortunately, as I have noted in other threads, when I got it, it wouldn't run through the original NTP-WiFi configuration procedure out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everyone has been saying the stock rom isn't very well made since day one.
I wiped it and installed VEGAn 5.1.1 and got on with the process of evaluating it.
Am I the only one with touch screen sensor issues? It requires massive fingertip hurting pressure to hit the 'L' key and many of the touch areas along the edge that is adjacent to the Home/Menu/Back buttons. Sometimes I need to press so hard to register a key press, I think that it will crack the LCD. It really impacts my happy factor with this device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, touch screen calibration app should do the trick. Also, you can create a blank file name calibration.ini in the root of your sdcard2 and then reboot. Don't touch the screen while it reboots. This file will tell the device to recalibrate the touch.
The Market fix isn't as complete as my Archos 70. I saw the thread on changing device type=olympus. I can't vi the /system/build.prop without getting / set to read/write. Too much of a hoop to jump through right now. If I could vi the file, no problem. Still, it is an annoyance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To me, it's not much of a hoop. Took me all of 30 seconds to do this.
Weight. I knew it was heavier, but wasn't prepared to the reality of dealing with the mass of this unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm an engineer researcher at a material science lab. We build and crush to test our own toys. Sometimes, we have to carry (by hand) objects that are hundreds of pounds heavy. I guess the weight of the gtab isn't really bothering me that much. But again, it's only .3 lb heavier than the ipad, so if you have a problem with the gtab then I'm sure you'll have the same problem with the ipad.
Screen view. Even with an iPad screen protector on, the color and view angles are annoying. It was unusable to me for reading and regular use before the screen protector went on. Now it is better, but still subpar compared to the A70.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, not an issue for me. I'm a heavy reader, meaning I go through several books a week. Been using the gtab to read ebooks on my train ride commute.
I want to love the gTablet for its technical superiority and future upgrade path to 2.3 and potentially beyond. My Archos device will never be better than FroYo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't just want to love the gtab. I love my gtab.
But then again, you really have to consider my past I guess. I was born in a house with a dirt floor, grew up with a black and white small tv (14 inch or so, can't remember). And even then, the tv worked only sometimes.
It just seems to me that so many people (Americans) complain about things that, to me, are moot points. For $285, the gtab is a steal based on what it could do.
And to me, the gtab is more than just a toy. Before, I was carrying my laptop around, which weighs a ton (exaggeration here). Nowadays, I sometimes leave it in the office or at home and just carry the gtab around. I'm expecting my experience to be even better once the case with the usb keyboard arrives.
Yes, I'm one of those that has no problem jury rigging something to make my experience better.
However, even though I know it is 'better' I just can't stand actually using it. I feel that the gTab needs to go to flEaBay, since Woot doesn't do refunds.
Anyone else feeling this way?
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Click to collapse
Some people want their devices to work straight out of the box. And some people want their devices to just work powerfully and don't care about the luxuries.
I've recently converted 100% to electronic books. I've sold over half of my library collection on amazon. I often run into people who are absolutely against ebook reading. The #1 reason that most people seem to have against ebooks is that they want the smell and feel of paper while they read. That's their opinion, and it's ok. They are free to like or dislike whatever they want.
But to me, I read a book for its contents, not what it's written on. I don't care how a book feels or what it smells like. I love zombie novels, and I don't care if it's on paper or plastic.
I guess I have the same attitude with my gtab. This really is a powerful piece of device. It runs fast, the screen is uber sensitive (on my device at least). The battery life is up there with the ipad. Completely hackable (a must in my book). And it's incredibly lite weight. Again, I speak as someone who work hands on with his projects. Funny story, someone the other day made a face and asked me what happened to my hands. I looked down and for the first time I actually noticed all the scars and Calluses on my hands. Amazing how boy friend hasn't complained yet.
Anyway, the #1 reason why I like this device is because it's freakin' cheap. Even if I break it in a year, or if I decide to buy something else in a year, I wouldn't feel the pain in my stomach the way I'd feel if I had bought a xoom or ipad.
Anyway, to each his own I guess. And that's ok.
You should either get a xoom or ipad. I've borrowed them from friends and played with those. They are very nice and fits your needs quite well.
Edit.
And my elderly dad just told me he wanted one to surf the net while on the couch and have a 10 inch screen gps. Just bought one for him. Hopefully will arrive soon. Also already ordered a gps receiver and a car mount. My elderly dad's far sight vision is great. Better than mine. He could see things at a distance that I can't see even with my glasses on. But his near sight vision is beginning to slip. So, the gps I bought him a couple years back aren't that helpful nowadays. Hopefully, this 10 inch one will be better. I'm also hoping I could talk to him via video conferencing when he goes back to (insert a random country here). So, I better start showing him how to use a touch screen. It was hard enough to get him to understand and use the mouse...

I wouldn't mind a little tactile feedback or lighting for the 4 side touch buttons. They are hard to find in the dark. Some small protusions on the buttons themselves, or on the side of the case would also have been nice, like the bumps on a keyboard on the f and j keys.

Haha, the 4 buttons in the dark issue was bothering me, too. I guess I stopped noticing it once I have it memorized. Just last night, I was reading before I went to sleep and noticed that I could press with 99% precision the buttons. So, yeah, it's not a problem for me anymore.

1. I have had "edge" problems that went away when I put a different wall paper up. Try a non-live wallpaper.
2. The Olympus fix works. It just breaks the web site seeing your tablet. Get Root Explorer and it takes about 2 seconds to mount /system rw.
3) I guess the screen is a personal preference thing. I like mine better since I put a urethane screen protector on. Really keeps the fingerprints off of it for the most part and the angles don't bother me.
4) The unlit buttons are a pain in the dark. I put some clear paper reinforcement stickers over mine so they have a little feel in the dark. They are almost invisible from any distance away but you can feel them. These are the little sticky holes you put on loose leaf paper when the holes have torn out. Oh, the other think you can do is get button savior in the market. This gives you nice onscreen buttons (although you know VEGAn has home, menu and back buttons on the status bar). Now the other problem is I tend to hit the buttons when I am trying to grip the tablet. There is a non-free app called remapper (I think) that can turn them off (or repurpose them) but I have not tried it.

I don't disagree about the gtablet being a good value.
it's just slightly worse at everything than my existing Archos 70 tablet. So, for more money and double the specs, I didn't really get any appreciable improvement. Perhaps that's what I should have stated.
If I had no Android tablet, I'd be completely happy with my my VEGAn Tab.
However, i can't justify two tablets, and surprisingly, i don't think the gtablet is going to be the keeper. I'm just surprised that is the case.
I just did a factory reset, and will take pictures tonight for flea bay.

On the screen sensitivity issue, the one-touch app didn't work for me, and I was considering returning my tab. But then I did the calibration.ini trick, and the difference is amazing.

dfin13 said:
On the screen sensitivity issue, the one-touch app didn't work for me, and I was considering returning my tab. But then I did the calibration.ini trick, and the difference is amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know. Thanks.

It may not keep you from selling it, but it sure will help the person who buys it from you

dfin13 said:
It may not keep you from selling it, but it sure will help the person who buys it from you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that guy is sitting in the cube adjacent to mine. He's been playing with it all day. Reinstalling the apps that i lost by resetting to factory.

you guys do realized that vegan roms have the same buttons on the notification bar.. for just this reason.. to take the place of the side buttons at night.

I was personally about to sell my gTablet about 48 hours ago. I was having tons of lock-ups, market issues and was pretty frustrated.
I decided to start all over and reflashed to stock - did a lot of research here and just about have it working perfect with vegan 5.1.1 now. No lockups with flash, olympus thing fixed my market issues - it is simply an awesome tablet. I have had an ipad for a year and really like this in comparison.
If you don't want to put in the effort to modify the build.prop to fix the market it might not be for you though. It was not hard in retrospect but without any context it takes a while to really get familiar with some of the the things you are doing. I ended up using ADB to edit it - using root explorer sounds much easier.
I personally enjoyed getting it all setup right at the end of the day and learned a lot. For the price this thing is a heck of a tablet.
Also wanted to thank everyone for the hard work figuring out these fixes and ROMs - very impressive community!

My take on this is that these fixes should take like 2 minutes to do. Very easy. The problem is that new users are intimidated by complicated instructions. Take the olympus fix for example. Took me less than 30 seconds to do. But because of the way people talk on here a new user would have to read thru 3 pages because nobody was willing to give a straight answer.

Granted, I'm verbose but I figure if you read the first part of the olympus thread and you knew what edit build.prop and change one line on it meant you wouldn't need or read the long detailed instructions.
There has to be a balance between talking to people who are Android fluent and helping ramp up new users, in my opinion.

goodintentions said:
But again, it's only .3 lb heavier than the ipad, so if you have a problem with the gtab then I'm sure you'll have the same problem with the ipad.
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Click to collapse
You mean .05 .lbs heavier than the iPad, right? Or were you referring to the iPad2, which is .22 .lbs lighter than the GTab?
I think it's important for people to realize that the GTab COULD weigh less and be thinner, as could the Xoom, but then where would the SD card slot and USB ports go? I think the edges would have slight bulges in them to accomodate the ports. I'm actually fine with the weight of the G-tab...If I noticed a difference of 100 grams, then I'd have to seriously consider working out harder.
As for the other annoyances from the OP...I guess some seem legitimate, but I haven't noticed touchscreen sensitivity issues, etc. Mine is fast and stable and works great. Aside from the screen viewing angles, I love the GTab.
One last thing to note...I just spent a week using my GTab on vacation, and also used my daughter's iPad quite a bit, too. I know this is totally subjective, but the iPad seems more like a toy than anything else. I liked the screen, but otherwise was not impressed overall. I burned several movies from DVD to my GTab and it worked flawlessly. After surfing, playing games and watching 2 movies, I had 50% battery life left. Not bad!

wd5gnr said:
Granted, I'm verbose but I figure if you read the first part of the olympus thread and you knew what edit build.prop and change one line on it meant you wouldn't need or read the long detailed instructions.
Sorry if that confused you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My first impression of the olympus thread was "what the hell?" sure I knew what you were talking about but for someone who's new to android and rooting something as simple as editing the build.prop could be the biggest stumbling block.
I know I have the reputation for hating newbies after my wooters thread. And thats fine. But people need to pay attention to their instructions to see if they make any sense to a newbie. Belive it or not i'm actually very friendly toward newbies. And believe me, the initial instructions in that thread make no sense to a newbie.
I am in the process of compiling everything into easy step by step instructions for the technical illiterates. Viewsonic gtab for dummies. I'll launch my website hopefully sometime next week.

lostpilot28 said:
You mean .05 .lbs heavier than the iPad, right? Or were you referring to the iPad2, which is .22 .lbs lighter than the GTab?
I think it's important for people to realize that the GTab COULD weigh less and be thinner, as could the Xoom, but then where would the SD card slot and USB ports go? I think the edges would have slight bulges in them to accomodate the ports. I'm actually fine with the weight of the G-tab...If I noticed a difference of 100 grams, then I'd have to seriously consider working out harder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's my experience that people will complain about anything/everything if something does not cost much.

[Q] Bluetooth Keyboard

Hello: I hate this phone. Actually the phone is decent, but I got so mad at it the other day i whipped it across my office. Luckily it was in an otter box and after bouncing off the wall it landed in the shipping and receiving department, i.e. a giant pile of bubble wrap and peanuts
My problem rests with the on screen keyboard. What a stupid idea, getting rid of functionality for elegant design. i didn't buy an iphone. I bought a tool. I'll take an ugly brick over a polished turd any day, just give me something that works... I send over 2000 txts and hundreds of emails from my phone every month. I know texting while driving is bad, but this on screen keyboard makes it even more dangerous, because i have to actually look at the phone, and i make so many mistakes it takes me forever to go back and correct everything. auto correct is a fail, always replaces the wrong words, and never corrects things that i would actually want corrected.
in short, i need a bluetooth keyboard. anyone have good experiences with a pocket sized BTKB and this phone? I see some decent ones on amazon for CHEAP, but nothing with steller android reviews. Can anyone recommend anything?
t.i.a.

killa cam said:
Hello: I hate this phone. Actually the phone is decent, but I got so mad at it the other day i whipped it across my office. Luckily it was in an otter box and after bouncing off the wall it landed in the shipping and receiving department, i.e. a giant pile of bubble wrap and peanuts
My problem rests with the on screen keyboard. What a stupid idea, getting rid of functionality for elegant design. i didn't buy an iphone. I bought a tool. I'll take an ugly brick over a polished turd any day, just give me something that works... I send over 2000 txts and hundreds of emails from my phone every month. I know texting while driving is bad, but this on screen keyboard makes it even more dangerous, because i have to actually look at the phone, and i make so many mistakes it takes me forever to go back and correct everything. auto correct is a fail, always replaces the wrong words, and never corrects things that i would actually want corrected.
in short, i need a bluetooth keyboard. anyone have good experiences with a pocket sized BTKB and this phone? I see some decent ones on amazon for CHEAP, but nothing with steller android reviews. Can anyone recommend anything?
t.i.a.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen anything great out myself but have you tried Go Keyboard?
I use it all of the time even while driving, you can just press the mic button and talk what you want to text and it puts it in for you, you have to be clear speaking about it but it works. Standard bluetooth keyboards work good though no matter which one you use considering your not going to be texting from the next room on a 4 inch screen, most people complain about range and how well it connects at 10 feet, I think your safe no matter what you pick.

I'm playing with Go KB right now, not bad... but it still isn't a keyboard. I'm thinking, maybe if i get a sliding kb designed for iphone, and hacking it to make it work with this phone...
http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Bluetooth-Sliding-Keyboard-Rubberized/dp/B0078KKTYC/ref=pd_cp_cps_1
if i get this, shave the edges down, and glue it to the back of my otterbox... BOOM keyboard
off topic but this is also a good deal...
http://slickguns.com/product/amd-65-762x39-side-folder-ak-variant-414-shipped

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[Q] Things that irritate about phones in general

Although the subject is rather troll like I hope I can do it in a non troll way.
There's a number of things that are really hacking me off about phones these days. I thought I'd have a major slam out to let off steam with the off-chance that someone might say "Ah but if you try X you can avoid that".
...some of the challenges in the mobile phone area these days...
1) Battery capacities aren't good enough as we all know. Getting through a single day is really the basics for me. Why not have hot swappable batteries? For me I expect to be able to go for 3-4 days. I don't know why... I just kind of expect that kind of efficiency.
2) Samsung Galaxy series... seems amazing but the batteries overheat, no?
3) So many people are ignorant of security to the point that most people are walking around with devices and apps that can just completely own you. Yeah there's sandboxing but it doesn't really work, it's been sidestepped. The iPhone just hides what's going on, rarely fixing the issues.
4) Licensing, all that stuff. Companies reinventing the wheel, fighting, all the rest. You can't buy a phone that does X and Y because company X won't license tech X to company Y
5) Trying to get everything perfect in one device... it's a bit of an ask but needed for portability. If things were separate we could have the better of most worlds, but that doesn't seem possible
6) Closed source. Just a bit irritating to see the inefficiency of it all in general. Bit of a hash moan but for those who can imagine better it seems like the dark ages in some areas still.
7) Closed source binary blobs. See Replicant on Samsung phones as the best we can do... the modem is arranged such messily and it's just not true a solution because of that. Kind of irritates me that there is no phone that can really guarantee it's not recording my phone numbers, conversations and credit cards because it's fully open source. Certainly an issue for companies. Companies in general are happy to rely on the word of Blackberry for thier integrity but for those of us who can imagine a solution that is secure by design it's not the best.
8) App whitelisting. Similar to the reactive rather than proactive security we tend to see as the trend in general. Manually checking all apps in the app store, trying to block and check them all.... doesn't seem the best. We've also had censorship. There are alternative stores, that's good.
9) Wakelocks. The Dalvik VM not managing or helping us track them down. Further, it's hard to tell if the app that you want to use is going to shaft your battery... once installed it's hard to tell if the app is ruining your battery too. It's messy.
10) IMEI security is a pain in the butt. It slows down the criminals but it also slows down everyone more so. In the case of Turkey it's another way to screw people with tax. Again, imperfect design.
11) As a man, if you have a phone at waist level that reduces your sperm count. Almost nobody notices or cares.
12) Just the usual society things... people looking at phones rather than each other. Can't really complain about that... the interface of looking at a screen is a bit basic. I've had speech recognition available to me... but I don't use it because there's always people around me and I'd rather be quiet... just one of those funny inventions
13) Screen don't work in bright sunlight still. We've got Motheye coming though which is great but we've had eink for ages and still no eink phone. Further, it can't be hacked onto an existing phone. Some of us aren't interested in games and movies and are focussed on getting stuff done. I feel Mirasol & PixelQi are being blocked or delayed as they try to slow things down until the point we've run out of ideas to make things better so only then does that tech get deployed.
14) Networks interfering with phones. I always go prepay because it's cheaper if you do the maths in many countries and also it allows for freer trade. Networks are always trying to get thier fingers into the mobile phone pies. Thank you Samsung for helping get against that, and also custom ROMs.
15) Apple are great but it's not clear what's going on behind the scenes.
16) eink displays would help battery life. A NookTouch can last for a month. How much would that help a phone on standby? Yet no eink display or anything like that.
17) Great to see the back of proprietary connectors but they still come back sometimes.
18) I hate the way things are made to break. Watch out for this. There's usually one thing on a phone that is designed to break. Sometimes it's a moveable part, like a ribbon cable in a slide phone. Sometimes its the USB connector. You can't buy port savers. When they fail you're screwed. Mitigate against this if you can. Try to figure out what the weak spot on your phone is.
19) Lock in software. I have an old backup phone... but I still have to keep the sync software... bit annoying. One day it probably won't work on Windows9 or whatever. People say throw it away but that's just it, throw away society. No, fix it, get it to work and be in control.
All of these things can be mitigated against. But you have to think about these things when you select your new phone.
If the commercialisation of the industry, cut throat tactics and so on aren't good enough as they are for me one thing you can do is buy a slightly older, but popular phone. In my case I never buy a new phone and instead go for something that I already know is popular with the hacking community. I know you guys can give me an insight into what I'm really looking for in life. As an example my last phone was a Galaxy S i9000. Way out of date in a sense. That's the way I find the best way to go. Go with something popular. That way you have some real support like a real man able to handle things yourself, not AppleCare and a 1 year limit. A philosophy for life. You can't have it all but with a bit of thought you can do a lot to get a bit closer to it all.

Android device for a light switch? Future SmartHomes?

MOD Edit: Please do not post links for fundraisers as they are against xda rules.
Found this yesterday and thought I'd share...
Supposedly its an android based lightswitch wifi enabled and programable (with smartphone). What do you think? Maybe some cool things could be done with IFTTT (if this then that) website. I was thinking a link to alert you via lights when security alarm is triggered...or even emails or anything really. I like the idea but not sure how practical it actually is. Anyways just thought someone smart could do some amazing things withit... and it could mean a smart home possibly.

Interesting
It seems like a very interesting thing...
This could be very handy for large houses I guess...

chuck_ said:
It seems like a very interesting thing...
This could be very handy for large houses I guess...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope that even if this one doesn't reach its goal that someone will come out with something else more apt to make the smart home a possibility. The dream home of mine would have something similar to this in every room. I could just talk to it and it would pull up a holographic image for me. Like future web surfing. Ahh but that is neither here nor there. At least with this campaign if the budget is not met I get my 75 dollars back with how they set it up. That is a plus. It is the first time that I have ever contributed to one of this things and I like to be the person who gets things first so if it does or doesnt work I will be okay.
As far as large houses I think that you may be closing off the posibility of something else. The video shows that you can link switchs so I could turn on the light in my hallway and bathroom at the same time... or whatever combination I so chose/preferred. Also with the way the base thing is setup it makes future addons so much easier... although I hope it is not something that is so easilly removable that a child could do it. I would love to be able to just pull out my existing switch/outlet without having to turn off the power and just plug in a newly designed whatever may come next product. That much seems to be a little undersold if you ask me.

spinn360 said:
I hope that even if this one doesn't reach its goal that someone will come out with something else more apt to make the smart home a possibility. The dream home of mine would have something similar to this in every room. I could just talk to it and it would pull up a holographic image for me. Like future web surfing. Ahh but that is neither here nor there. At least with this campaign if the budget is not met I get my 75 dollars back with how they set it up. That is a plus. It is the first time that I have ever contributed to one of this things and I like to be the person who gets things first so if it does or doesnt work I will be okay.
As far as large houses I think that you may be closing off the posibility of something else. The video shows that you can link switchs so I could turn on the light in my hallway and bathroom at the same time... or whatever combination I so chose/preferred. Also with the way the base thing is setup it makes future addons so much easier... although I hope it is not something that is so easilly removable that a child could do it. I would love to be able to just pull out my existing switch/outlet without having to turn off the power and just plug in a newly designed whatever may come next product. That much seems to be a little undersold if you ask me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can picture what you say, about the holographic stuff, but i guess there's a long way (or maybe not so long) to go.
Yeah, the features they say are amazing, and that about the upgrading would be very neat.
Sorry if my answers seem vague, but i'm really tired and I have a lot of work to do...

chuck_ said:
I can picture what you say, about the holographic stuff, but i guess there's a long way (or maybe not so long) to go.
Yeah, the features they say are amazing, and that about the upgrading would be very neat.
Sorry if my answers seem vague, but i'm really tired and I have a lot of work to do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its all good. Get your work done and get some rest. I am starting to shutdown for the night my self.

I was really hoping that people would see this as something. Maybe its just me, but I see some great potential for future innovations from this starting point. I guess there is a lot of other things going on right now that maybe attention is focused on instead though so I get it.
Does anyone else use IFTTT? I saw a xda video on Youtube where a man teaches how to use it with a belkin wifi plug in. For nearly this same thing I am talking about, but without an android device.
Here it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpT6QryQn2w
The potential for wireless devices is greatness. We should be looking forward to many many more of these I hope.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_spinn360.Android_Smart_Home_Device
Made a fake nLine model based of from assumptions from app inventor. Check it out on the play store if you want!