Related
Has anyone been successful in booting into APX/NVFlash mode on this? I have one ordered and already have a little buyers remorse.. blobs and all that junk, its rather pathetic. No OC kernel either, eh? Coming from a 1.7ghz gtab, this might be unusable! Well, we'll see. Are there any custom branches of the asus source? Maybe we can get a few things working like gpu/cpu oc to t25 standards.
Currently nvflash is locked. Overclocked kernals are coming i've heard. Alot of the problems with really custom stuff is the lack of source code.
Woops lost my intended post.. was something to the tune of how nvflash has saved many gtabs from being bricked.. seriously, its a great tool. I'm sure its a Google thing, maybe one of their Honeycomb decrees. Probably thinking of how nvflash and Windows 8 would come into play..
Google is really getting on my nerves... they're starting to get the "we know better than you, so here" attitude that Apple has. Catch the diss on Microsoft, regarding their 'torture' of users by letting them manage things? Ugh. Google can't play the bash ms card, its ****ing old. Can't believe I bought another tegra tab.. who wants?
Blades said:
Woops lost my intended post.. was something to the tune of how nvflash has saved many gtabs from being bricked.. seriously, its a great tool. I'm sure its a Google thing, maybe one of their Honeycomb decrees. Probably thinking of how nvflash and Windows 8 would come into play..
Google is really getting on my nerves... they're starting to get the "we know better than you, so here" attitude that Apple has. Catch the diss on Microsoft, regarding their 'torture' of users by letting them manage things? Ugh. Google can't play the bash ms card, its ****ing old. Can't believe I bought another tegra tab.. who wants?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think its the company that makes the device that is blocking nvflash not google.
Blades said:
Woops lost my intended post.. was something to the tune of how nvflash has saved many gtabs from being bricked.. seriously, its a great tool. I'm sure its a Google thing, maybe one of their Honeycomb decrees. Probably thinking of how nvflash and Windows 8 would come into play..
Google is really getting on my nerves... they're starting to get the "we know better than you, so here" attitude that Apple has. Catch the diss on Microsoft, regarding their 'torture' of users by letting them manage things? Ugh. Google can't play the bash ms card, its ****ing old. Can't believe I bought another tegra tab.. who wants?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your rant finished? Maybe you should have read up a little before purchasing this wonderful tablet. So you dont want a tegra tab huh? Whats left to choose from? Ipad? GL
husker91 said:
Is your rant finished? Maybe you should have read up a little before purchasing this wonderful tablet. So you dont want a tegra tab huh? Whats left to choose from? Ipad? GL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I said I can't believe I bought another Tehran tab. Key word is another. Nvidia is starting to pull their antics with gb video decoding drivers for the harmony board. By antics, I mean what they've (and ATI) been doing with their linux video drivers - not supporting older hardware and not releasing source so consumers can create their own drivers for 'older' hardware - ie harmony based devices.
I might only have a use for an ipad as a dog toy/frisbee - I have a pitbull and a Dogo Argentino, itd be funny.
I was done with my rant.. but I suppose you prolonged it.
BTW: I did read up. I found no info on the issue of NVFlash. Have a Xoom, Gtab, and now one of these wonderful tablets. So far, the gtab is the most fun. Can the Asus get 4700 in quadrant? Do you see it ever being that fast? You're right about lack of alternatives, I suppose there is the Hardkernel odroids for someone like me, new device has a modular cpu board.
I'll be sure to at least try to get nvflash working. Does anyone have a bootloader they could post up? Usually viewing in a hex editor can give you a clue as to what the boot scenarios could be.
There's a thread over in development where several people tried to get nvflash going. Their opinions in the end were nvflash is locked and you need some sort of signed key to use it. Any nvflash commands tried, failed.
It may be possible that in the future asus may provide the key, but from their response to the people who bricked via the ota update (just having them rma the device), it doesn't seem like it.
You probably need a dev bootloader. This is based on the Ventana board, right? Another reason could be that the nvflash tool doesn't support ext* fs, but I doubt that. If Asus releases a tegra2 linux netbook, based on the same Ventana board, things could get better. Thanks for the heads up. I'll check out the development section
I know quadrant is pretty cool benchmarking tool but you might want to give this a try too. Grab a friend, load the same movie up on the Gtab and the Transformer, place both the devices three feet in front of you flat on a table and ask your friend which one is better.
I had to return my GTab when my girlfriend commented that having a tablet that can't actually be seen unless held at the right angle directly in front of you is rather useless.
The Transformer is a brand new tablet with an active, if somewhat still empty handed, community behind it. Out of the box though, using the default software, it's an entirely useable system that does exactly what I want it too (in my case quickly display photos, web browsing, youtubing and web surfing). I suspect three months from now it'll have some solid development work behind it since all of the alternatives have managed to overlook the importance of price point as well as innovation in their scheduled releases.
i just downloaded nvflash and just got my root was easy as pie rooted in literally in five minutes would have been 2 minutes but my computer is a bit slow let me know if you would like some links i got it to work
Has anyone tried porting the Android 3.1 system.img from the SDK to the A500 yet?
I want to say it was sp3dev that tried flashing the xoom 3.1 images and ended up bricking his tablet, so note sure if anyone has tried it again.
I'm thinking of having a gom but I only just got this tablet today. Is there a recovery ROM image that I can use to reflash the tablet in case of brickage?
dr1337 said:
I'm thinking of having a gom but I only just got this tablet today. Is there a recovery ROM image that I can use to reflash the tablet in case of brickage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No recovery yet as the bootloader is still locked.
Acer will issue an official update in the next couple of weeks, so why risk it? There's no rush.
Bragging rights......jk
I actually would like a clean system.img without the Acer bloatware too.
You can use this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14076075&postcount=2
to fully restore to stock US.
I recommend that 'how to' for recovering the tablet be placed in the HOW TO thread, and that thread be stickied.
dhruvmp said:
I want to say it was sp3dev that tried flashing the xoom 3.1 images and ended up bricking his tablet, so note sure if anyone has tried it again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:facepalm:
Me? No, it was not me. Meh, i don't care for ****roid and the only thing i want to flash is a proper distro like ubuntu or fedora.
Would be interesting to see what the logcat dump produced to try and work out the incompatibilities.
FloatingFatMan said:
No recovery yet as the bootloader is still locked.
Acer will issue an official update in the next couple of weeks, so why risk it? There's no rush.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on that...if acer sticks to a June time frame of getting 3.1 to us then it would be a better deal...thats just around the corner and there will be less bugs getting an update (at least i hope so) from the maufacturer then trying to port it from a different device. compared to the g-tab that i had...this thing runs pretty dam good with stock rooted Rom and bloatwate removed...once we get official 3.1 update with mouse and additional peripheral support...then thats gonna make that much sweeter.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
One thing to think before
Same for me once I removed those crap apps from Acer.I guess Acer will never learn about putting their own apps to blingbling the whole tablet. I don't need slow beautiful tablet I need an overboosted one They build slow PCs, they build slow laptops, slow tablets and I guess slow mobiles phones too and once you make a clean instal on it, oooohhhhh wonder its works like a rocket ------->>>>>>>>>
I guess it s marketing ... selling slow things so that people buy a new one earlier.
And then the other trouble that I m expecting to come......
I m not sure about it but in some threads they telling that if some apps are missing on
our tablet update won't work.
Ok, we know how to revert back to original Acer tablet and do the update to remove again those crap apps again wth....????
Atleast it s not nessecary to hack Acer laptop and PC to instal windows again.
What we need is bootloader from Acer or from a Dev if Acer won't, updates are secondary.
I don t trust them since they could make updates to prevent installing custom roms like
Apple with their never ending we need to block jailbreaking attempts
So be careful about those updates........
3.1 original
I would wait for 3.1, the problems of getting it from another tab would not be worth it.
It should be here hopefully this week sometime!!!
It has been reported that if your device was EVER rooted you wont have access to Google movies on market...even after factory reset/flashing stock rom...fyi this was on xoom. Not sure how much truth there is to this, but I'm not chancing it.
gmpdmd said:
It has been reported that if your device was EVER rooted you wont have access to Google movies on market...even after factory reset/flashing stock rom...fyi this was on xoom. Not sure how much truth there is to this, but I'm not chancing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Being fearful is the safer option... but you really should think this through clearly. How would they know if your tablet has EVER been rooted? Do they store the information on their servers? If so, what about when someone buys your tablet second hand? Are they denied from the movie market forever? Is the tablet forever "poisoned"?
The above scenario is the only way they could know as all traces of being rooted can easily be removed from the tablet itself... that is the nature of having root after all; total control.
Again, if you are fearful or uncertain, do not do anything to your tablet. Please do not spread your fear amongst others though because someone will soon be quoting you and claiming that "they" can tell if your tablet has ever been rooted. As you have already said, " It has been reported that...". Reported by whom? There is no answer. Did they verify the mechanism that testifies that the tablet has EVER been rooted? There is no answer.
It is fine to ask a question but as soon as you say, "it has been reported", then you are spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Bad newbie. No cookie for you.
strikethree said:
Being fearful is the safer option... but you really should think this through clearly. How would they know if your tablet has EVER been rooted? Do they store the information on their servers? If so, what about when someone buys your tablet second hand? Are they denied from the movie market forever? Is the tablet forever "poisoned"?
The above scenario is the only way they could know as all traces of being rooted can easily be removed from the tablet itself... that is the nature of having root after all; total control.
Again, if you are fearful or uncertain, do not do anything to your tablet. Please do not spread your fear amongst others though because someone will soon be quoting you and claiming that "they" can tell if your tablet has ever been rooted. As you have already said, " It has been reported that...". Reported by whom? There is no answer. Did they verify the mechanism that testifies that the tablet has EVER been rooted? There is no answer.
It is fine to ask a question but as soon as you say, "it has been reported", then you are spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Bad newbie. No cookie for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post is on Droid Life...what I consider a reputable source. I cant post links yet. Go to site and search for "xoom google movies" Its second post down. I'm no noob...rooted many phones and tabs...just new too posting here. Sorry I did not provide link initially
Since Google Movies is about the most expensive way of watching video currently available, I'm not at all concerned over their decision to block rooted devices.
I've wondered this before about cell phones and tablets. I figured it would be more of a carrier thing, wanting to keep everyone in check on device warranties. The capability is certainly there on a carrier based device to simply track the sw version (mods) and root status. I figured it would come up at some point when there was a compelling enough reason for someone to make decisions based on that info. Hopefully it will be limited to content providers, such as in this case. I don't know that there is a need for fear and panic, just more for us all to think about before rooting. I thought about this before rooting my first phone, but also decided that rooting was a better way to avoid bloatware, etc. Until they cut my service for rooting, I'll always seek a better experience on my phone or tablet. Apparently there has been no compelling business reason for them to do that as of yet. Movie licensing is understandable, I'm 100% behind copyright protections. Just one more consideration before rooting a tablet.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
lenovo is a great company and their tablets have competitive specs. why do their tablets have such little dev support compared to the other major android tablets?
I ask because the lenovo tablets coming out this year look very nice, but I hesitate to buy a tablet that won't have good dev support.
I'm on the same boat man. I got the tablet as a christmas wish from my gf... now I found out from timmyDean and other sources that the K1 will not have its bootloader unlocked. Not sure if there will be a way to hack it anytime soon.
I'm going to see if I can sell this thing to buy a transformer prime. Ill be calling lenovo to express my concerns as well. I have a laptop from them with high DPC Latency. Sent it in and came back with same problem and a wiped system with an extra partition.
No more lenovo for me.
If someone somehow manages to hack this thing, then I guess I'll keep it. For now I'm planning its resale value to pick up a different brand.
theoilman said:
lenovo is a great company and their tablets have competitive specs. why do their tablets have such little dev support compared to the other major android tablets?
I ask because the lenovo tablets coming out this year look very nice, but I hesitate to buy a tablet that won't have good dev support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can give you my opinion. We develop software for commercial clients and government and we write drivers for these devices. Unfortunately, most of our business clients want an application that cannot be removed by employees and has all the social networking stuff removed. My NDA does not allow me to say exactly what. But, let me give you an example: Lets say a hospital was looking for a hand held device for reading and signing medical records with an interface to medical equipment. Or traveling salesmen, a delivery driver having someone sign for a package. An application you load on your teenagers device to determine how fast they are moving, etc. Anyway, the list goes on and this is just the business side of it. But you get the picture.
Now, I have a real business need to root every tablet on the market therefore I can tell whomever buys our application that they can buy any tablet they want. Some applications only require root so we can install it so it cannot be removed and we delete the stuff the company doesn't want employees using (like Netflx, Facebook, etc). Or, if the software needs to interface with a particular piece of hardware, we flash a new ROM with custom hardware drivers in the kernel to interface with a particular piece of medical equipment.
So, myself along with other programmers working the business side of it stay away from Lenovo because from the start they lock the bootloader making it difficult to develop for. So we tell ever business to stay away from them.
Then you have individuals like myself that program on their own and I want to tweak something myself. So, when I look around for a tablet to develop on, I look for one that makes it easy to flash(or root). For example, currently my favorite is Motorola Xoom (not the FE) because you can simply unlock it.
So, everyone I know writing business applications stays away from Lenovo or anyone looking to develop a custom ROM as well. Lenovo did come in and meet with management, last year, and what they wanted to sell us was a custom solution. So, they were more than happy to work with us to build a solution. But, we cannot sell something and then tell the buyer that they have to buy a special tablet from Lenovo.
story:
So, what started all this for us, was we were working on a big sale to a Fortune 500 Insurance company and they wanted to use Lenovo. Their IT person loved them. Management in a haste, bought me a K1 to load and play with (mostly because it was cheaper than the TPT or ignorance I guess). So, when I got it, I loved it. And at first it was unlocked. Then the real horror started.
I told management how great the K1 was and within days we had the K1 loaded with the insurance application. They came in, we sold them, I got a bonus and life was good. Then we took an OTA, and the Insurance company started ordering K1's and TPT and to our surprise NOTHING WORKED because Lenovo went to a locked bootloader (Note: The org K1 had root(#) access by default when you connect to it via adb shell and we had not tested it on the TPT).
As you can imagine all hell broke loose. That's when we discovered Lenovo's position on things. During the meeting, I asked them why they locked it. They replied, because they are offering a consumer solution with the K1. It is not just hardware but software (in other words they want to make money off all the bloatware they load) and that the TPT was their business solution. If we partnered with them, we could do what we wanted on a secure platform (then they went on and on about how we really need their solution because you cannot root it, it's secure, blah blah blah).
Anyway, I had to fly out (along with the suits) to the insurance company. I personally meet with their CIO and convinced her that 'Lenovo' could NOT be trusted and if she insisted on using the TPT that we would now have our hands tied to Lenovo. I showed her several other tablets that were just as good and cheaper. She put a pencil to it and realized that she could be the hero here saving the company money. So, she kissed Lenovo good buy and went with another tablet.
Anyway, my story, take with it what you want.
TD
---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 PM ----------
Let me further add something. A Kindle Fire is a great little tablet, but it is designed specifically to access Amazon. It is an extension of Amazon's business. There are others too. But, the Kindle is the most known.
So, these are NOT really tablets being designed to run everything. They are designed to sell services. For example, the Kindle Fire is to sell and expand Amazon services.
The Lenovo products are the same thing. They are designed to expand Lenovo's services. They want you coming to their Marketplace, using their services. In other words, they want to make money not only off selling the hardware, they want to make money off the software and services.
You can read some articles on the net about company's saying there's no money in hardware sales. This is why HP stopped making tablets and wants to become a software solution provider. This is what Lenovo is trying to do. If they sell you a tablet and make $10 profit it's not the same as $10 plus another $30 for applications you use.
That's what's going on here. It's not that they are evil not wanting you to brick your device, void your warranty, and then you want them to fix it. They are going after the services and they believe that's where the money is. Locking the boatloader is just their attempt to keep you locked into their services.
History lesson: If you believe you should learn from history then if you go back to the late 70's and early 80's, you will see the same thing. If you had bought brand xyz then you had to only buy xyz's printer, if you wanted to print. I remember buying floppy disks just to find out that they weren't compatible. Can you imagine that happening today? You buy a blank thumb drive and discover it doesn't work on your Lenovo, it only works on HP.
What changed all this was MS. So, if you're a believer in history repeating itself then Windows 8 will revolutionize the tablet and phone market. Google has realized the threat and is why they are pushing ICS and trying to stop the fragmentation. However, this does not stop Lenovo locking the bootloader and forcing you to go to their Marketplace. However, under Windows 8 this is going to be harder to do.
TD
I've got a TPT, got it for free from Lenovo, but it doesn't force you to go to Lenovo's market, essentially you can uninstall it and just use the regular market.
That being said, even with the optional external keyboard (that rocks), I mainly use my Samsung Galaxy from work, since I have it rooted and can do what I want with it.
And really not being able to root the TPT is why I'm glad I didn't actually buy it. I definitely wouldn't buy a tablet that I can't root.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium
well locked bootloader is a deal breaker. too bad lenovo, you won't get my business. it's a shame, they looked great.
I have the TPT since September now. I have HTC's Sensation as my phone. I have root and a custom rom on my Sensation. So I do know the advantages.
I don't really miss root on my Tablet. Most apps don't need root. One thing that requires root I miss though. Titanium Backup or some other backup-solution. I just don't get why Lenovo does not provide one. Besides Adblock and Titanium Backup I can't think of any other program that requires root, that would provide any real advantage in using my tablet.
It is actualy quite good not too have root and custom ROM's. I'm a kid at heart and I put on new ROMs on my phone like I put on new clothes...
PS: You can lock down the tablet for users with the Mobility Manager. Just google for it.
Awesome post by jimmyDean.
I have a Thinkpad and that post explains alot of how Lenovo is thinking. Its a shame since the Thinkpad can be one great device with its digitizer and stylus if it wasn't so locked down. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and accept that they won't change their position.
It will be the last Lenovo I will own though that's for sure.
TS
Very good read read. Disheartening, to say the least. I really like my TPT, but my next tablet will be either a transformer prime or the next nice sized tablet to offer an integrated pen solution with Tegra3. I wont swear off Thinkpad notebooks though, my x220 is a BEAST, and I have been using Thinkpads since my parents got me an IBM T61 in college.
But yeah, tablets from Lenovo is out of the question. Its a shame though, I don't think they've realized they've doomed their fate in the consumer tablet market. Sony realized this and righted the ship in 2011 line of devices. One can only hope that Lenovo smells the coffee and wakes up.
I hate to be the dissenter but all of these companies are out to make money and while Lenovo's model (and amazon's, barnes and noble's, apple's, etc, PS3/Xbox/Wii's, etc.) is a bit duplicitous but it isn't out of the norm. I'd love to have a transformer or a xoom with an unlocked bootloader but I've never seen those anywhere near the $250 I picked up the K1 for. I'm not saying I'm going to support that business model but I will use it to my own advantage (ie, pick up the device on the cheap and find a way to do what I want while paying as little as possible). Lenovo will likely have to shift out of this model because there's no reason to use their market instead of the android one and they have nowhere near the sort of exclusive content that the others using this model have.
The Nook Color was a shining exception, both cheap and completely unprotected but B&N corrected that mistake in the Nook Tablet that replaced it.
In the end, we have to decide if we're willing to pay more to leave the walled garden. Given how US consumers have condemned themselves to it in the console gaming and cellular phone markets (both in choosing the iphone and in long contracts for free phones), it's not that clear that they won't choose to give up control in order to pay less upfront.
Wow thanks timmyDean, that clarified a lot of things... I'm going to need a tablet with a decent stylus soon, and I've been looking at TPT for some time now... but root is also very important to me, already because I don't trust Lenovo to bring OTA ICS update for it... I think I'll tough it out with my old tablet PC until something better comes along. HTC flyer is just too small (and with old android).
Anyway, I've been hearing some rumors that Samsung might come up with a stylus solution (S-Pen) in the next Galaxy Tab, perhaps in the MWC 2012 in at the end of february. It's the same tech as in the new Galaxy Note. Hopefully it's also a 12" tablet! It's interesting to note that Sammy's allied with Wacom, while TPT and Flyer use n-trig.
IfIf you ask me. this is the best Android tablet on the market. I took chance and sold my galaxy tab 10.1 and have had nothing but positiv things to say. Love the stylus and once you pick up the MyScript app, this is just perfect! All other tablets feel like toys compared to thrsp
siggehandf said:
IfIf you ask me. this is the best Android tablet on the market. I took chance and sold my galaxy tab 10.1 and have had nothing but positiv things to say. Love the stylus and once you pick up the MyScript app, this is just perfect! All other tablets feel like toys compared to thrsp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't get the thinkpad tablet, but the ideapad K1. For the price I got it at, US$400 for 3G version, it was a good US$150 cheaper than the nearest similarly speced 3G android. For the price, no complaints!
Next up, unlocked bootloader please!
I'm working in Marketing and was looking into tablet devices for eDetailing for our company. I personally compared every Android device that was available in our country: Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia A500, ASUS Transformer, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and also Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet. I was very eager to get my hands on the Thinkpad Tablet, as connectivity (USB host etc) and the digitizer seemed like a huge advantage. But soon, I was very disappointed; in comparison to the other tablets, there are some MAJOR shortcomings:
- software: the firmware is buggy and seems unfinished
- performance: the TPT clearly reacts slower to input than other tablets; this seems to be confirmed in benchmarks
- locked bootkloader: that was the death blow! I don't blame Lenovo that the Citrix Receiver won't accept "untrusted" certificates. However, installing missing certificates is just one of the many things I expect from a decent device; there's plenty of other good reasons you need root access and it was a "must have"
As Lenovo has only delivered minor firmware updates that don't really address the issues mentioned above, I have abandoned the device completely.
Root has just been received and we are just verifying it over in the ThinkpadTablet forums. There should be a instructions for it soon enough. Hang tight.
btw the bounty is now up to $800
TS
With root on the way....
Bootloader also unlocked?
---------- Post added at 07:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------
When Root is enabeled i try to write a script to remove all the bloatware stuff
theoilman said:
lenovo is a great company and their tablets have competitive specs. why do their tablets have such little dev support compared to the other major android tablets?
I ask because the lenovo tablets coming out this year look very nice, but I hesitate to buy a tablet that won't have good dev support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great company? Perhaps in the past. Lenovo support issued a statement, that the tablet does not have a locked bootloader. Once the device was rooted, writing recovery was as simple as having write access to the partition. The locking of nvflash was a **** move however (as the only external interface to the bootloader), and since they would not provide tools to provide the needed functionality, the bootloader was for all intents and purposes locked. Additionally, since IBM sold the thinkpad brand to lenovo, their support response and turnaround is nightmarish. The organization I work for purchased 10 thinkpad tablets for our desktop technicians to use in the field. 6 had the charging/data usb port break within 2 months. I purchased a thinkpad tablet prior to the organizations purchase for personal use, and within 30 days, my port stopped connecting via data. It took numerous phone calls and a few weeks to get lenovo to repair the device under warranty, and then an additional 27 days to actually get the tablet repaired and returned. The tablets for the organization endured similar rigmarole, with only a 2 week difference in repair turnaround. Reports all over the thinkpad and lenovo forums report similar stories. It seems only recently that lenovo has even decided to acknowledge the defective usb port as a manufacturers defect. I don't know what happened to the company, but the shady support statements combine with customer unfriendly technical support has ensured that both my organization and myself will not be doing future business with them.
---------- Post added at 02:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:23 AM ----------
siggehandf said:
IfIf you ask me. this is the best Android tablet on the market. I took chance and sold my galaxy tab 10.1 and have had nothing but positiv things to say. Love the stylus and once you pick up the MyScript app, this is just perfect! All other tablets feel like toys compared to thrsp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be true once custom firmwares start rolling out. As it stands, in the same class, the thinkpad is a hardcore underachiever compared to almost every other tegra 2 tablet on the market. The ntrig digitizer is also the reason I put up with the sluggish buggy behavior. Luckily with root, one can hope these problems can be fixed. However without kernel source, we may be limited to honeycomb in order to keep full hardware functionality. Thats also not to say that a poorly configured kernel or bad drivers aren't part of the reason for the periodic lag, touch issues, and general poor performance.
Can someone clarify on the bootloader/nvflash issue?
Is the bootloader locked or not, and if not, can we now put custom ROMs on it or not?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1231771
From this we can see that ThinkPad Tablet's bootloader ISN'T locked.
Nice. So who will be first to build an ICS ROM?
I'm going to try
I am just coming off 2+ weeks of frustration with the Transformer Prime. I was lucky enough to get mine from Amazon so I returned for a full refund. Despite all the frustration, I realized that an android tablet is a handy gadget that I really would like to own. I am beginning the process of researching for my next purchase and now that I have dealt with Asus, I have a better idea of what I need to figure out before I make a purchase. I am looking into Acer and toshiba.
Can anyone who's owned an Acer tablet answer the following:
I have read Acer is coming out with the A700. Anyone have any thoughts on it?
Do Acer products typically have good quality? Do they last?
How is Acer's RMA process? Do they require you to pay for shipping if the problem is due to manufacturer defect?
Is Acer customer service easy to work with?
How frequent does Acer provide firmware updates?
As with all companies, the quality of the support depends entirely on which country you're in, as well as local legal requirements. Some countries have far better consumer protection than others (UK vs US, for example).
Updates are kinda hit and miss, Acer tend to lag behind some other OEM's.
I generally find build quality to be fairly good, certainly had no complaints on my two tabs.
The above post is exactly true in all ways.. Acer support in the us is outsourced. and that STINKS.. COMPUTER COMPANIES CAN LEAR FEW THINGS BY TALKING TO OR FALLOWING HP Support.. i send them a email of my issue. they call me within a few hours with a answer. I Had a issue with this notebook im typing on. It was a problem with compatibility with a win 7 update to usb. CAMERA ISSUE. A Microsoft tech called me on behalf of hp.. two days later they issued a global wide fix. apparently i was the first to have the issue . I was treated like a person with tech experience not like a dumb customer..
I TO LOVE MY A500. THERE UPDATES When we do get them seem to not break things as with other devices. And less over all issues. With that said who knows when or why they send them.. there is no logic to there update system. I Just wish they would give us the choice to unlock this device or not..
sorry for being so long winded
I found my A501 to be a near-perfect piece of hardware... My main criteria were UMTS and USB HID support, fastboot (for easy recovery if bricked) was a secondary criterion. This tab has all of these (I don't know of any others that do). Also, the device's shell is fairly robust (I have it with me at university almost every day)... The main point of criticism about the HW would be the somewhat weak WiFi antenna (though there's a good remedy for that, search the forum).
About the software... Acer tend to take their time to get things right on the first update, which means that they are somewhat slow to release updates. Then again, I'd rather have something that actually works later than something that doesn't work now...
Customer support is fairly expensive via phone (haven't tried the other options), but friendly and competent here in Germany... Way better than some others I had to deal with.
Just wondering if there were any other developers willing to work on the A7 or (more preferably) the A7+. Dexter seems to have quit or lost interest his development permanently on either devices (I think he doesn't have a physical device to work with anymore, but I don't remember where I heard this). The last time he logged on to Tablet Roms was on "04-27-2012", and the last time he logged on to XDA was, well, today actually but he doesn't seem to have any interest in the eLocity forum section. He DID leave us with quite a lot of quality ROMs to work with, especially since the kernel was released for the + in March.
If there aren't any developers willing to work with the A7/A7+ because they don't have a physical device, I would willingly offer remote testing on my A7+ (AKA they give me the compiled ROM(s) or whatever and I try it out and give feedback). It just seems like such a shame to leave both devices with nothing better than a buggy (but still awesome) Honeycomb or a working stock 2.2. ICS seems like it would be doable, again especially since the kernel was released.
I will try to contact the user "chinabull" in the referred link as he seemed like he knew what he was doing when he said "It seems to have all the driver source code we need."
And I have also posted this over at TR.
EDIT- Turns out I can't send PM's to chinabull here, forgot about that. I'll find some other means of communication.
EDIT2- I'm crazy- the message got through; chinabull messaged back! And... he said that he already returned his A7+. So we've got no leads there.
If anyone knows some devs who haven't even heard of the A7/A7+ but might be willing to pick up where Dexter left off, please contact them or let me know so that I can contact them.
6Leinad6 said:
Just wondering if there were any other developers willing to work on the A7 or (more preferably) the A7+. Dexter seems to have quit or lost interest his development permanently on either devices (I think he doesn't have a physical device to work with anymore, but I don't remember where I heard this).
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I would be willing to pony up CDN $20 towards the purchase of one for a talented (and dedicated) dev to work with. Here in Canada they are available as refurbs for about $90 from places like factorydirect dot c a ..
Anyone else want to donate some dinero ?
Cheers
Sorry for the late(ish) reply, I was out of town.
I don't have any money to donate, sadly, as I just spent it on the A7+...
But, like I said in the OP, if you are willing to work from afar we could do that.
It's a shame it's dead. Prices are around $90 in the US too. With all the china pads out there getting 2nd tier dual core processors with 600 res screens for very little more, it's easy to see why this would go by the wayside. One plus would be built in bluetooth which no china pad has at anything close to this pricepoint, and it probably has a better battery than many of them as well.
We've got someone over at Tablet Roms who will be working on the A7+! He is just waiting on the tablet to arrive.
digidog_A7+ said:
I would be willing to pony up CDN $20 towards the purchase of one for a talented (and dedicated) dev to work with. Here in Canada they are available as refurbs for about $90 from places like factorydirect dot c a ..
Anyone else want to donate some dinero ?
Cheers
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Click to collapse
I'd donate if you're talking about developing for the (older) A7. I still use mine and it would be nice to see a fresh rom for it.
I'd be in if I didn't just pick up the ZTE Optik from Sprint. Can't beat free and can't beat running JB via CM10. That 800 res is quite nice.
I'd greatly appreciate someone picking up work on the A7+. I still haven't flashed the newer firmware with the blank screen from sleep fix because I was holding out hope for a new custom rom. I'd have to root and install the outdated gapps again... And I'm sure we don't have unreasonably high expectations. I'd just like a rom without those awful elocity apps, doesn't black screen when I wake it, with google play, and with functioning hardware, anything more is welcome but uneccessary.
Ok his name is jam4 over at TR - check the thread for updates http://www.tabletroms.com/forums/elocity-a7-general-discussion/5362-any-other-devs-a7-a7.html
@dibmem jam4 is developing on the +, sorry
@frankwg83 yes he is working on honeycomb at the moment, but it sounds like your problems would be easily fixed... it takes 5 minutes and a flashdrive to install the Play Store and a root explorer and a 1-click-root app to get rid of the bloatware
6Leinad6 said:
Ok his name is jam4 over at TR - check the thread for updates http://www.tabletroms.com/forums/elocity-a7-general-discussion/5362-any-other-devs-a7-a7.html
@dibmem jam4 is developing on the +, sorry
@frankwg83 yes he is working on honeycomb at the moment, but it sounds like your problems would be easily fixed... it takes 5 minutes and a flashdrive to install the Play Store and a root explorer and a 1-click-root app to get rid of the bloatware
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Think he would develop on the A7 if he had the hardware? I'm the type of person who'd buy one second hand just to donate it to a willing and capable dev.
dibmem said:
Think he would develop on the A7 if he had the hardware? I'm the type of person who'd buy one second hand just to donate it to a willing and capable dev.
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Click to collapse
Maybe, I don't know. You'd have to ask him yourself - http://www.tabletroms.com/forums/members/jam4.html
"I am about 2 weeks out from releasing a working Honeycomb build for the A7+. Let me know how many of you are interested, either by pm or an email to [email protected]"
Everyone go PM or Email him!
So...2 weeks out? How'd that go?
Btw, the A7+ is at 1saleaday again for $70 this time. I'm willing to buy one and ship it to a developer if that's a hurdle since I'm pretty sure there are enough people out there that would want a solid Honeycomb or even Gingerbread firmware. I don't have the time/obsession to figure out the coding myself.