So long to the gTablet

Posted on December 23, 2011 by dt3mp3st

Since the gTab got cracked over the summer, I have not used it much. Since the breakage, I have been scouring the web for clues on where to get the parts to repair it. Well, I have given up.

It was nice while it lasted. Maybe someone will pick it up on Ebay for parts, if not just for the accessoiries. We’ll see…

So what’s next? How about this:

ASUS Transformer Prime TF201-C1-GR 10.1-Inch 64GB Tablet (Amethyst Gray)

Android 3.2 Honeycomb Operating System
NVIDIA Tegra 3 Mobile Processor (Quad Core)
10.1-inch WXGA Super IPS+ Capacitive Multi Touch Display
64GB eMMC Flash; 1GB DDR2 Memory
Eee Pad Transformer Docking Keyboard

Expected delivery date Jan 31 2012

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4G Gingerbread goodness…

Posted on July 16, 2011 by dt3mp3st

Goodbye to the MotoDroid, hello to the Thunderbolt…

The Thunderbolt is a hefty phone, and quite a bit larger than the Motorola Droid. The phone came loaded with tons of bloatware and the Sense UI took a little getting used to. But overall, I am pretty pleased with it. Unlike the other complainers, I did my research and knew to expect poor battery life. With this phone, I can blow through a full charge by lunch, unlike the Droid that I could hammer on all day long.

Rooting the phone was quite a chore, but worth it. With this phone you have to unlock the bootloader before you can root it. Finding a ROM was difficult, as there are many to choose from. I started with Thunderstick, and have settled on das BAMF. Both are equally functional ROMs. Thunderstick will flash right from ROM manager, a must have when you own a Thunderbolt. das BAMF was listed in ROM manager, but was not accessible, I had to download to the sdcard and use ROM manager to install it. I was expecting less bloatware on das BAMF, but I guess I chose the wrong flavor by installing the Gingerbread das BAMF remix.

The 4g speeds are amazing compared to what I was used to. My typical downloads take 1/2 to 1/4 of the time they used to on 3g. At home, the phone drops down to 3g, not surprised I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get a tower upgrade out here soon. Compared to the Droid which gets 1 bar of 3g service at home, the Thunderbolt gets 3, which is not too shabby.

Well, I have another movie que’d up on Netflix, more later…

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gTablet Update..

Posted on July 16, 2011 by dt3mp3st

Haven’t posted here in a while, well that might be because the gTab had a little accident, and now has a cracked glass and LCD. It still works, and working really well on the Bottle of Smoke HoneyComp ROM.

I have scoured the net, and called many parts houses for replacement parts, but I’m afraid there are none to be found. It looks like I’ll be saving up to replace it with a new one.

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gTablet and Gingerbread ROMs

Posted on March 16, 2011 by dt3mp3st

From the limited amount of information that I have been able to go through during the past week or so, I have found that there are limiting factors when taking a ViewSonic gTablet to any of the Gingerbread ROMs. As now now, I have tried all the flavors of Gingerbread, including the Cyanogenmod 7.0 Beta. In each ROM, several of my favorite apps fail to start or force-close. In particular, Tab Master, and Star Chart. I backed off to a Froyo release of VEGAn Tab 5.1 with the 5.11 supplemental.

Little annoyances such as Market glitches, MP3 player playback issue, and media hardware intense apps like Tab Master are all working fine now. Don’t get me wrong, I loved all of the Gingerbread ROMs, especially the VEGAn experimental.

With Honeycomb sources do to drop any day now, it’s now in nVidia’s court to release the Honeycomb drivers. I’m not holding my breath for any ViewSonic release soon.

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VEGAn-7.0-Experimental ROM (Gingerbread)

Posted on March 12, 2011 by dt3mp3st

I have been running the VEGAn Experimental mod for a little while now. While there are still some quirks, overall this ROM is quite functional. Still, I would not recommend the novice try to install this, as with each update I have had to re-partition the SD-CARD. Thankfully, I have an external SD-CARD and can move my Titanium Backups off of the device for storage.

The Market has been doing strange things on this ROM, it appears I have the full market, but none of my downloaded apps show up in My Apps. And when I download apps, I get a error message if I try to select the application in the Market.

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Bricked the G-Tablet tonight..

Posted on December 29, 2010 by dt3mp3st

I intalled a new custom kernel to enable CIFS/NTFS support, and bricked the G-Tablet tonight. After four hours on XDA-Developer and 30 more minutes of downloading nvflash and a good ROM, I managed to resurrect it.

The freenode IRC channel #tegratab has all the info you need to un-brick your tablet.

I think I’ll wait for the new ROM images mature before I try another new custom kernel. CIFS would be nice to have though,but for now I think I will just wait.

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Got the new G-Tablet today

Posted on December 27, 2010 by dt3mp3st

Picked up the new ViewSonic Tablet today. Wow, TapNTap really does suck! But I knew this going in. This unit is really easy to root, and mod. Within 30 minutes, I was up and running on the latest TNT-Lite firmware. This tablet is far superior to the Zenithink, and WiFi adhoc mod works out of the box with the TNT-Lite firmware.

One bad design flaw, the speaker are right where I hold the tablet in landscape mode, pretty annoying. Other than that, I have no real complaints so far.

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Zenithink ZT-180 ePad -Dies

Posted on December 27, 2010 by dt3mp3st

Since I have the new G-Tablet, I decided to hand over the old (well not so old) ePad to my elder son. I re flashed the devices, and set up a new Google account. Withing 5minutes of handing it over, the device went into the “white screen of death”. I was standing right there, it wasn’t dropped or mistreated in any way, it just DIED!

So after countless hours of searching for a fix, and re flashing the unit with firmwares 0827fw all the way to 1030fw, it still will not bring up the launcher. I have read several places where the video (flex) cable comes loose. Sadly, it is nice and snug here.

The unit was purchased on Amazon from Plexsupply using Amazon fulfillment. So before opening up the tablet, to see what is going on, I guess will see what the vendors can do for us.

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Zenithink ZT-180 ePad

Posted on November 29, 2010 by dt3mp3st

Just received my Zenithink pad today.  And after negotiating through the Chinese flashing tool (complete with Chinese text), I managed to get this thing at least usable. The tablet lacks many of the features one would expect, like being able to mount it from a PC to move media like music or video. You can transfer files easily through the USB stick, one of it’s only saving graces. I can not recommend this tablet for the “novice” user. If you don’t have the chops with the Android OS, and are uncomfortable modding, then this device it not for you.

It is a fun toy, the boys were are able to watch a movie in the car on our way to Thanksgiving dinner. The battery works as advertised. I am typically getting about 6 – 7 hours between charges, however watching videos cuts that down to about 4.

In short, you get what you pay for. For a < $200 Tablet (not including shipping) you get the following:

  • 1 Ghz single core proc.
  • 16:9 Video w/ multiple codecs (not bad)
  • Touch screen (not multi-touch)
  • Upgradeable (foreign flashing tool)
  • Wifi (adhoc connections require hack)
  • Ethernet adapter
  • Andoid Market (The real one, best with f/w upgrade)
  • Standard Google Apps
  • No CIFS/SMB
  • No VPN

And most of it works out of the box.

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Android Update

Posted on August 7, 2010 by dt3mp3st

Been rocking the G-Tablet now for over a month now, and I’m pretty happy with it. After trying several ROMS. I finally settled for a more traditional Android styled ROM, VEGAn. I just found the TnT interface clunky, and the Settings app lacking. If you have the need for connecting to a Wireless Network using WPA, you just can’t go that with the TnT, or TnT-Lite for that matter. Don’t get me wrong, I love the TnT-Lite ROM, but having a MotoDroid, I like having a common interface better.

Speaking of the MotoDroid, Bugless Beast has been absolutely flawless, thanks Pete. Getting ready to upgrade the other Droid in the house from rooted stock 2.2 to the latest Bugless Beast. If you are looking to do more with your Motorola Driod, I really recommend this mod. And if you like it, you need to throw a little money Pete’s way for building this ROM for us. I probably won’t be putting the hot (overclocked) kernel on the wife’s phone though.

Even with the hot kernel on my MotoDroid, after a little power management, (screen dimmed to lowest reset mail to check every hour, and throttling the CPU down to 250mHz, I was able to keep my phone up the entire 4 day weekend at Enchanted Rock, and only needed to use the battery booster once. And the booster was only able to bring the charge back up to 50%. Last year the Blackberry Pearl was dead by the morning of the first night after trying to reacquire lost signal all night long.

And finally, Got my refund on the ZT-180, and shipped it back to Amazon. I’m going to use the money on a new case for the G-Tablet. The word on the street right now is Office Depot will start selling actually accessories for the G-Tablet sometime this Quarter. You can expect toe find the Portfolio style flip back case and a Viewsonic branded docking station.

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