Related
I think so and I will tell you why. I have been following this phone since it was announced long ago. I to have been a proud HTC device owner but these days I am not so proud anymore.
I am a Windows Mobile fan. Currently I am using my old trusty or not so trusty these days HTC Kaiser/TYTN2. I became a big fan of the tilt feature. I am a tmobile user so back when the Kaiser was released not having 3g bands was not an issue because tmobile did not have 3g. I bought the Euro version and paid top dollar.
Since then its been hacked and modded to reduce glitches and increase speed but lets face it. The keyboard is worn and almost all keys require a super hard press due to wear and tear. Also the screen is tiny by todays standards. I didnt buy the Euro version of the TP2 because I live in the US and 3g is now an issue. So I waited for the tmobile release now confirmed for aug 12th. Right around the corner!
Those of you who didn't wait seem to be reporting endless bugs and glitches not to mention hardware problems. It is driving me nuts to the point that I am shying away from the TP2 hype. I have been following all the TP2 threads here and its bads news after bad news. Very different from when you all 1st got it.
Please someone speak some positive stuff otherwise I may end up holding onto my Kaiser for another year. Final rant.....the specs could be better. Damn Iphoney has an 800mhz processor and HTC just holds back!
I absolutely love it. I have not one problem with it, except for the battery door. I had to modify it a little but know its fine. Out of the 4 HTC phones I have owned, I think this is the best by far. Good luck with your findings.
Although I won't argue with you, the touch pro2 is a great phone for what it's intended for which is business users. It is lacking a bit hardware wise for multimedia and gaming, since it pretty much has the same processor and memory as its predecessor. It is for this reason that I am still trying to decide between the TP2 and samsung omnia II since it has the faster processor and beautiful AMOLED screen. So if you are shying away from the TP2 I would recommend the omnia II or the omnia pro (has hardware keyboard). Even though it annoyingly lacks a built in stylus (but thats just me).
The Great Malaki said:
The keyboard is worn and almost all keys require a super hard press due to wear and tear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its probably not wear and tear. Its the same thing that happens with TV remotes. Over time, the oils from your fingers seep through the buttons and interfere with the contacts. If you were to take the keyboard appart and wipe down the contacts, no garauntee, but I bet it would work like new.
i think most of the problems people have (including myself) on their TP2 is 3rd party softwares imcompatable to the new UI on TP2. hope HTC will offer an update for TP2 sooner than September.
if you turn away from it for Samsung OmniaHD, make sure buy it from a local Samsung stores or from your mobile operator. i've been in a deep problem trying to get my Omnia i900 fixed. i bought my i900 from an idiot ebay seller named Cutrategoods70. when my i900 bricked from a firmware update, i tried to contact that idiot, never get a reply. i emailed SS service center in UK (coz SS US & Canada never heard of this model), thay told me to send to them. 5 weeks later they sent it back & said they not support "foreign unit". emailed SS Singapore & Malaysia, they said the same thing. Becareful when you buy a Samsung on ebay or internet stores
good luck for you finding the right device
I think is totally normal to see so many posts about defects / bugs. Usually, peoples who post threads here need help with something. If everyone posted a thread about "Everything's fine with my TP2" when their TP2 is working flawlessly ... well... it would be pretty useless to do that.
Think about it : it's normal to find broken cars in a car dealer's garage. It doesn't mean the car model is crap.
I second that. You will normally see threads asking how to improve things or how to fix things.
Most of the posts here are when people need something, find something that they think could help others, and that's about it. The closest thing you can find to general chat would be the speculation on future support or release dates.
In forums for my last phone you saw threads on how to fix things, and for new software made for it (as a closed platform it had to be hacked and forums where the few places you could get software for the OS, unlike Winmo).
If you'll notice many of the threads are duplicates, and some of the complaints are somewhat invalid as the phone was never designed to do X thing (a prime example are the complaints that the Euro version doesn't support North American 3G bands.
Every phone will have defects and problems unless it's a very well built dumb phone. The question is, just how many people are having said problems, and out of how many satisfied customers without those problems?
Like vakbrain said, you're not going to find a new thread singing the praises of the phone from every person who is happy with it. It'd be extremely tedious, boring, and space consuming.
I love my TP2. I bought it SIM-free so it was quite an investment of cash, but I think it was worth every penny. It has the odd glitch here and there, but then so does any piece of complex modern equipment. I'd fully recommend it without any hesitation at all.
I think my TP2 is great! Ive alerady installed some handy apps to it. Havent had any issues with the device itself really, more like things relating to it. Finding a Good belt clip case for it seems to be a challenge, and Finnic isnt finished yet, so it runs like crap. I would have liked to have a 3.5mm jack on it, but im dealing with the adapter. I do wish TouchFlo had its own Slide to Unlock on it, but meh. i have s2u2 for the moment.
Lyian said:
I think my TP2 is great! Ive alerady installed some handy apps to it. Havent had any issues with the device itself really, more like things relating to it. Finding a Good belt clip case for it seems to be a challenge, and Finnic isnt finished yet, so it runs like crap. I would have liked to have a 3.5mm jack on it, but im dealing with the adapter. I do wish TouchFlo had its own Slide to Unlock on it, but meh. i have s2u2 for the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi Lyian, could you please tell me does s2u2 work ok on yours?
i installed the WQVGA v2.04, it doesn't look right to me since everything so small & sticking together. VGA version look normal on my screen. other thing is when i set On Battery Power>Blank Screen on Talk, it works once, try the 2nd time the screen off then back on again. any idea to config it right?
thanks
I am using S2U2 on mine and it works fine. I am using the VGA version and it's flawless.
I love my Pro2!! no problems at all!!
One big difference
Hi all
Thought I'd add a comment.
The one big difference between my Touch Pro2 and every other HTC phone is that the TP2 works extremely well out of the box and while some people are annoyed with all the bundled software (i.e. M3D and it's incalculable extensions) I actually think that this makes is a better device and would rather have more of this than less.
The point is: It does everything I want it to almost out of the box. This has not been the case with any other HTC device I have owned/used.
Best wishes
andrew-in-woking
vakbrain said:
I think is totally normal to see so many posts about defects / bugs. Usually, peoples who post threads here need help with something. If everyone posted a thread about "Everything's fine with my TP2" when their TP2 is working flawlessly ... well... it would be pretty useless to do that.
Think about it : it's normal to find broken cars in a car dealer's garage. It doesn't mean the car model is crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I'm waiting for it to come out (couple weeks near me). Can't wait, watched plenty of unboxing videos and walkthroughs. *fist pump* Im ready lol.
sakshaug007 said:
Although I won't argue with you, the touch pro2 is a great phone for what it's intended for which is business users. It is lacking a bit hardware wise for multimedia and gaming, since it pretty much has the same processor and memory as its predecessor. It is for this reason that I am still trying to decide between the TP2 and samsung omnia II since it has the faster processor and beautiful AMOLED screen. So if you are shying away from the TP2 I would recommend the omnia II or the omnia pro (has hardware keyboard). Even though it annoyingly lacks a built in stylus (but thats just me).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't recommend the OMNIA II or PRO because they have only 137MB of RAM. That's hardly enough to run any software. I was really looking forward to the new OMNIA phones but it's a big disappointment with the lack of ram. I do admit other specs on the phone looks great but without the right amount of ram, the phone is very limited.
No Fail
Had my TP2 for just over a week now, so still getting used to it but I've had absolutely NO issues with it, so far it has surpassed my expectations. It seems fast, responsive and I like the functionality.
The guys who point out that people write in to forums with problems are absolutely correct. People don't just write in to say "I love it" most people here seem to be advanced users, happy to tweak and hack their phones to get that extra 10% out of them.
I'm a business user, I don't anticipate playing many games (that's what the DS/PSP etc. are for) and as a business user I think this phone rocks!
My anti-fail 2c!
No problems at all with mine. Very impressed, kicks my TP's ass in every department except LED flash.
Brilliant phone, top marks to TF3d too.
Well, I haven't gotten a TP2 yet - still waiting for AT&T to release theirs - in the meantime I'm living with my 2.5 year old Virgin Mobile USA prepaid phone, but ready to make the leap to a contract.
What I can say is that the phenomenon where everyone writes in to a forum (especially a big one like XDA) about their issues makes the problems seem much worse than they actually are. For every person posting here about a problem there are at least 2 more that have had NO problem and wouldn't even think of coming to an online forum to solve issues with their phone.
For example, I bought an Asus EeePC last fall, and went to the premier EeePC forum at the time to see what others were saying - it sounded depressing too! Everyone with issues. Then I realized that A) people wouldn't go to a forum to solve a problem if they didn't love the device and wanted to keep it, they'd just get rid of it if they didn't like it, and B) the people who come to forums are device tweakers who must have things just so (I'm one of them too) and thus are looking for feedback regarding their particular pet peeve or issue caused by the one program they just MUST use. People complained about cracks in the hardware, or messed up keyboards, or whatever, but I've thrown my EeePC 1000H in and out of airports plenty of months and it has yet to be less than 100% satisfying, other than the $150 drop in price over when I bought it 10 months ago!
So, what I'm saying is, this is a phenomenon unique to the interwebz and electronics junkies in general, so don't be discouraged by all the negatives around here, in the end we're all just questing to make an amazing device even closer to perfect.
andrew-in-woking said:
Hi all
Thought I'd add a comment.
The one big difference between my Touch Pro2 and every other HTC phone is that the TP2 works extremely well out of the box and while some people are annoyed with all the bundled software (i.e. M3D and it's incalculable extensions) I actually think that this makes is a better device and would rather have more of this than less.
The point is: It does everything I want it to almost out of the box. This has not been the case with any other HTC device I have owned/used.
Best wishes
andrew-in-woking
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must agree with Andrew. I own about 15 HTC phones, starting with the Wallaby, back in 2002. When I unboxed my TP2, I immediately thought 'what do I have to modify now?'. But it worked perfectly out of the box and i havent modified anything. I only installed my connection and Coreplayer... Simply good.
One flaw however is the resolution, which is incompatible with some of my software. But those titles are not vital for me.
So, now I am waiting for the next big hit... HTC SUPERSTAR...where are you??????
henh said:
hi Lyian, could you please tell me does s2u2 work ok on yours?
i installed the WQVGA v2.04, it doesn't look right to me since everything so small & sticking together. VGA version look normal on my screen. other thing is when i set On Battery Power>Blank Screen on Talk, it works once, try the 2nd time the screen off then back on again. any idea to config it right?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The WQVGA is the wrong version for the TP2, you want the VGA version (WQVGA is for smaller resolution phones like the Tilt)
I would say it does work 'ok' on mine. I do have an issue with it here and there that i wont go into here, but for the most part, it doest what i want it to, which is, to keep me from accidentally calling people lol.
OP needs to stop worrying, TP2 is a fantastic device and also get off the apple hype bs, iPhone doesn't have an 800mhz processor lol, more like around 600 for the 3GS, even less for the 3G.
Hey I got one of these to do some hacking on - well, I got several of them, because taking one apart is very much a one-way trip.
As posted elsewhere, it's made of:
A 128x32 white OLED ( cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/UG-2832HSWEG02.pdf )
NRF51822 BLE chip (16K ram version)
Atmel ATmega16U2 (I assume to read the accelerometer at low power, but it also has USB - which appears to not be connected to the USB port unfortunately)
An accelerometer (STM C3H)
Azoteq IQS263 touch sensor (senses swipes and taps)
24C256 EEPROM connected to the Atmel
75mAh Lipo
..and some other stuff like a Lipo charger, vibration motor etc.
Typical cost is $15-$20 on ebay etc.
The cap-touch screen is quite good - detects swipes and taps reliably.
It's very well sealed - completely closed plastic molding. It looks to be fully waterproof to me.
Well... waterproof until I took a hacksaw to it. There's no way to disassemble it other than to (carefully) hacksaw/dremel the case open. Mine is still working fine, albeit in pieces..
I didn't see many photos of the guts online (just a couple) so or anyone else planning to hack on firmware for it, I found very convenient SWD and UART testpoints (under the OLED)...
Was figuring I might be able to find the time to do some alt firmware for it, because I quite like that Nordic chip, and it's a pretty decent waterproof BLE wrist-display with reasonable battery life (~7days people have said) and touch-sensor at a very attractive price.
I'll let you know what else I figure out about the hardware but first some teardown pics;
FULL PICS:
(oh man **** this forum not letting me post URLs... ok whatever, you figure this out..)
imgur.com/a/qTrSN
Samples images attached...
NOTE that test test points "RESET" and "CLK" are regular Cortex M0 SWDIO and SWDCLK, so just bust out the ST-Link/J-Link and have at it. Nice to have UART TX+RX too. Very civilized.
If I have time to get further into it I'll post more hw details on here.
Cheers,
DrTune
Yep J-Link works fine
Nice, works fine connected to a J-Link, can program it with NRFgo Studio, debug with Keil uVision, etc. Cake.
Ok when I have a sec I'll do some custom firmware for this thing, personally I'm going to use it as a user interface for a GPS+radio project for Burning Man - the I5+ should be perfect for the Playa as it's completely sealed, has vibration, decent battery life, nice OLED.
I really like this bracelet as a programmable toy - nice CPU, great price. I doubt I'll ever get around to programming the Atmel in there or using the accelerometer (it's not what I'm after) but as a two-way messaging device it should fit the bill nicely.
Well done my friend! Can't wait to see what you will come out with! Cheers
Do something perfect ? thank you
Sent from my E2333 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Hm just thinking about it there's quite a lot of fun little things you can do with a cheap watch w/touch sensor that vibrates that are a bit awkward to do with a phone... bear in mind I'm super busy (I do this kinda thing for a living) and the BLE range is probably pretty poor, but...
a) Finder for those absurdly cheap ($3 or so) "finder" keyfobs, just display RSSI (signal strength) and it'd be somewhat useful; at least to give you a "warmer/colder" feedback on your distance to the tag.
b) Vibrate when your friend comes into range (or any BLE device that's advertising) and let you send simple emoticon messages (again the range won't be great, but enough for when you're in a bar or whatever), kinda like a really basic emoticon walkie-talkie. This would suck down quite a lot of battery (b/c of scanning for advertising packets) but it's a thought
c) some sort of basic morse-code style tapping messager
d) unlock your front door (use any old BLE device, e.g. a $4 CC2541 BLE-to-serial dongle hooked up to a FET or a relay)
e) assuming I can sort out reading the accelerometer, you've got basically a button/slider (the touchscreen) plus a very rough motion sensor; maybe make it a GATT HCI device like a mouse or keyboard (not sure what the OS support is like for those but it's doable)
f) You could certainly interface it to a Banana Pi (with a CSR BLE dongle) or a C.H.I.P. (which has built-in BLE)...
g) then there's all the stuff you can do with modern android/iOS phones and BLE; caller ID etc etc - much of this is covered by the current IWOWN firmware... Haven't look at it a huge amount but there's sure to be some fun stuff not yet done by the stock fw...
h) Depending what OSes have HID-over-GATT keyboard support, you could tap your watch to enter passwords (fairly insecurely, but hey it's a fun hack)..
i) Trivial to make the thing act as an Apple iBeacon (or any vendor beacon really, it's just a custom advertising packet) - and that would have excellent battery life. You could make it a beacon detector also but the battery life would suck horribly (I guess you could tap the watch to scan and it could buzz when it found an iBeacon and display some txt from it )
j) BLE scanner, probably most useful to have it scan for specific GATT profiles or ad packets or MAC address ranges or whatever; same battery life caveat applies but there might be a fun application.
...there's a lot of simple projects basically, it's quite a nice toy in some limited ways.... well like I say I don't have time to implement a lot of this but if I can stick some code up on Github maybe people will take the ball and run with it...
drtune said:
Hm just thinking about it there's quite a lot of fun little things you can do with a cheap watch w/touch sensor that vibrates that are a bit awkward to do with a phone... bear in mind I'm super busy (I do this kinda thing for a living) and the BLE range is probably pretty poor, but...
a) Finder for those absurdly cheap ($3 or so) "finder" keyfobs, just display RSSI (signal strength) and it'd be somewhat useful; at least to give you a "warmer/colder" feedback on your distance to the tag.
b) Vibrate when your friend comes into range (or any BLE device that's advertising) and let you send simple emoticon messages (again the range won't be great, but enough for when you're in a bar or whatever), kinda like a really basic emoticon walkie-talkie. This would suck down quite a lot of battery (b/c of scanning for advertising packets) but it's a thought
c) some sort of basic morse-code style tapping messager
d) unlock your front door (use any old BLE device, e.g. a $4 CC2541 BLE-to-serial dongle hooked up to a FET or a relay)
e) assuming I can sort out reading the accelerometer, you've got basically a button/slider (the touchscreen) plus a very rough motion sensor; maybe make it a GATT HCI device like a mouse or keyboard (not sure what the OS support is like for those but it's doable)
f) You could certainly interface it to a Banana Pi (with a CSR BLE dongle) or a C.H.I.P. (which has built-in BLE)...
g) then there's all the stuff you can do with modern android/iOS phones and BLE; caller ID etc etc - much of this is covered by the current IWOWN firmware... Haven't look at it a huge amount but there's sure to be some fun stuff not yet done by the stock fw...
...there's a lot of simple projects basically, it's quite a nice toy in some limited ways.... well like I say I don't have time to implement a lot of this but if I can stick some code up on Github maybe people will take the ball and run with it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually i don't think that there will be anyone who doing after you so i ask you to do some of them. Another question the screen has to coler white and blue can we change it i really like white one
Sent from my E2333 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Errrr.. no the OLED is whatever color it is. It's a cheap monochrome OLED. The only way you could change it is to take the device apart and there's no way you can ever put it back together properly again (it's solid molded plastic)
Nice work.
if it's any help.
Softdevice and bootloader i5PLus.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/uc5ugaqrjcg58w3/i5plus_softdevice.hex
http://www.mediafire.com/download/z3oe2544uayec6h/bootloader.hex
thx but the Nordic publicly available stuff is fine. I pulled the firmware etc from mine and reflashed it already. There's nothing difficult or problematic, just a case of finding time to do new fw (and I'm super busy)
There was a distant feature in oldest firmware but they removed many asked to get it back can you do it in your firmware ☺
Sent from my E2333 using XDA-Developers mobile app
by "distant feature" do you mean distance, i.e. it tracked how far you have walked/run? I can see how that would be unreliable, there's just an accelerometer in there and you can't really figure out distance from that. Accelerometers just tell you which way is down (i.e. they measure gravity) plus the acceleration/deceleration as you move it around. So, they're ok for detecting walking, better for running, but not good for figuring out how far you've actually travelled, the best it could really do is just guess from the number of footsteps it detected, which is going to be pretty inaccurate.
In general I'm not planning to do anything with the accelerometer (I doubt I'll have time), I'm thinking about using the I5 for other things like radio messaging and as a phone peripheral.
I don't expect to produce anything that duplicates the current firmware in terms of function, I want to do completely different things. Once I've written some code I'm happy to put it on github (which will have basic stuff like driving the OLED, reading the touch sensor, using the BLE radio etc) and maybe someone else will build some firmware that works as a fitness tracker.
drtune said:
by "distant feature" do you mean distance, i.e. it tracked how far you have walked/run? I can see how that would be unreliable, there's just an accelerometer in there and you can't really figure out distance from that. Accelerometers just tell you which way is down (i.e. they measure gravity) plus the acceleration/deceleration as you move it around. So, they're ok for detecting walking, better for running, but not good for figuring out how far you've actually travelled, the best it could really do is just guess from the number of footsteps it detected, which is going to be pretty inaccurate.
In general I'm not planning to do anything with the accelerometer (I doubt I'll have time), I'm thinking about using the I5 for other things like radio messaging and as a phone peripheral.
I don't expect to produce anything that duplicates the current firmware in terms of function, I want to do completely different things. Once I've written some code I'm happy to put it on github (which will have basic stuff like driving the OLED, reading the touch sensor, using the BLE radio etc) and maybe someone else will build some firmware that works as a fitness tracker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really it doesn't need any adding or creating for it. Just like calorie and step measure it was measuring km. You just need to get it from old firm and add it to the new one ?
Sent from my E2333 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Right, and without even having seen it I can tell you it won't work very well at all, because (...see above info about accellerometers and distance tracking).
Like I said I'm not planning to support any of this stuff.
If you personally want to "just get it from old firm and add it to new one" go for it!
drtune said:
Right, and without even having seen it I can tell you it won't work very well at all, because (...see above info about accellerometers and distance tracking).
Like I said I'm not planning to support any of this stuff.
If you personally want to "just get it from old firm and add it to new one" go for it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well done bro thank u for your work i hope to see it soon
Sent from my E2333 using XDA-Developers mobile app
@drtune
The reason why we're "clinging" on you is because you seem to be the only one here who can really play with these things at a developer level. With the Chinese manufacturer not caring about the abroad markets (they did not release the v2.x firmware and the "full" v3 Android app outside of China), we're kinda stuck.
I, for one, do not regret spending $16 on this thing at all. v2.0.1.8 firmware - customly flashed thanks to @roninzgz's thread - brings everything I was hoping for (vertical display and the ability to keep the time synchronized even while turned off), albeit with the trade-off of a slightly less responsive touchscreen. For crying out loud, I have Fitbit sporting coworkers that are envious at what this bracelet can do for its price. Their only hope is that mine will eventually break or fry due to poor manufacturing quality.
With all that going for us, getting you aboard would be a bit too much luck. Thank you for all the research and here's to hoping that someone will pick up from what you will share. *raises beer*
Sure, thanks.
I do this stuff for a living (not actually fitness trackers, but embedded systems hardware/software) so I have all the equipment and experience to make this a fun little project ; on the minus side I have quite a backlog of paying work to finish so taking time off that (and my family) to do this feels like I'm playing hooky from school
Anyway, like I say I have a pet project for this wristband in mind - and it doesn't really involve it doing much of what the existing firmware does - but at least I'm mildly committed to it now (ordered another six I5+'s and have one gutted and wired up for debugging here).
For anyone wanting to play with building new firmware you'll basically just need a hacksawed-open I5+ and a $4 ST-Link programmer; it would be interminably boring trying to debug by downloading new code OTA each time you make a change. Obviously once one has something reasonably ready to test it's easy enough to package it so it can be downloaded by other people with the regular Nordic OTA tool.
I can imagine it'd be possible to have an error in the firmware that bricked a device, but you'd put some reasonable safeguards in there wherever possible - really it's just about doing your best to ensure a user can get it back into an OTA-programmable state again.
drtune said:
Sure, thanks.
I do this stuff for a living (not actually fitness trackers, but embedded systems hardware/software) so I have all the equipment and experience to make this a fun little project ; on the minus side I have quite a backlog of paying work to finish so taking time off that (and my family) to do this feels like I'm playing hooky from school
Anyway, like I say I have a pet project for this wristband in mind - and it doesn't really involve it doing much of what the existing firmware does - but at least I'm mildly committed to it now (ordered another six I5+'s and have one gutted and wired up for debugging here).
For anyone wanting to play with building new firmware you'll basically just need a hacksawed-open I5+ and a $4 ST-Link programmer; it would be interminably boring trying to debug by downloading new code OTA each time you make a change. Obviously once one has something reasonably ready to test it's easy enough to package it so it can be downloaded by other people with the regular Nordic OTA tool.
I can imagine it'd be possible to have an error in the firmware that bricked a device, but you'd put some reasonable safeguards in there wherever possible - really it's just about doing your best to ensure a user can get it back into an OTA-programmable state again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Drtune did you done anything ?
Sent from my E2333 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Not yet have a ton of work on right now and will be busy for a while on that - just very short of time right now.
Honestly don't expect anything useful to you as a consumer any time soon; when I get some code done (which will be for my project and not directly useful to an end-user) I'll post on here and github.
Hi,
Does anyone know if it's possible to customize this device and turn it into a ibeacon?
I'm looking for a wristband that is able to switch between On/Off which enable the device to broadcast iBeacon signal.
I'm looking for somebody who can help me with it, i'm willing to pay a small fee for his expertise
(I'd like to learn how to code a firmware of this device too)
Thanks
What am i trying to do?
I hope to develop a solution where i will like to enable Teens to have a SOS button on their wristband. It would then be able to code a android/iphone app that would listen for such signal, if the ibeacon signal is on their range, it will alert the mobile user that there's a surround person is facing danger.
Current wristband that i found would require user to pair it with a phone, i'm looking at broadcasting feature instead.
If any developer is able to do this for me, please PM me i'd pay a fee for your expertise.
Yes the I5 (or, even cheaper, a TW64 watch) can do simple iBeacon (or similar) advertising, it's not difficult..
However you are making two very common mistakes; scanning for BLE devices uses as lot of power so no mobile OSes will let you do it all the time (for good reason). Everyone overlooks this and it's a huge issue.
Secondly the range of BLE is very limited.
I am not interested in doing this for you (I don't work for small fees) but it's not a difficult task for someone who knows what they're doing.
Why are virtually all android head units 4.4.x? I was looking at several options for my Evo and up until recently 95% I found was 4.4.4 pretty much. Joying recently came out with a 5.1 2DIN unit which I may end up with. I am also looking for some sort of dual/piggy back system (need to retain full functionality of the stock unit) in my 2016 Jeep Cherokee and came across this guy : http://carperformance.se/?product=uconnect-8-4-android-system . I've emailed back and forth with the sweedish guy that does it, responses are obviously not the best translated but it also uses 4.4.4 and he said it will not be updated in the future. Considering this is 2-3 years old I'm confused why it's still so heavily used in new devices. Is there some benefit it offers, is there wider hardware compatibility, or what? I really like the carperformance product, price is high, but on par for that of a new phone. However, I can't see dishing out money for a 2-3 year old OS that will never be updated, and then in 1-2 years stop getting app updates because its no longer supported. I'd consider getting the unit and digging into it to see what can be done, but I have to imagine there's a reason/limitation that he can't update it so it may be a waste of money. If I could find a way to duplicate what he's done with the touch screen switching board I'm sure I could come up with an android box running a more recent OS, but that may be another thread.
the.root said:
Why are virtually all android head units 4.4.x? I was looking at several options for my Evo and up until recently 95% I found was 4.4.4 pretty much. Joying recently came out with a 5.1 2DIN unit which I may end up with. I am also looking for some sort of dual/piggy back system (need to retain full functionality of the stock unit) in my 2016 Jeep Cherokee and came across this guy : http://carperformance.se/?product=uconnect-8-4-android-system . I've emailed back and forth with the sweedish guy that does it, responses are obviously not the best translated but it also uses 4.4.4 and he said it will not be updated in the future. Considering this is 2-3 years old I'm confused why it's still so heavily used in new devices. Is there some benefit it offers, is there wider hardware compatibility, or what? I really like the carperformance product, price is high, but on par for that of a new phone. However, I can't see dishing out money for a 2-3 year old OS that will never be updated, and then in 1-2 years stop getting app updates because its no longer supported. I'd consider getting the unit and digging into it to see what can be done, but I have to imagine there's a reason/limitation that he can't update it so it may be a waste of money. If I could find a way to duplicate what he's done with the touch screen switching board I'm sure I could come up with an android box running a more recent OS, but that may be another thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you looked at this thread?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...ashnet-octa-core-lollipop-head-units-t3353188
Also here to s a touch controller.
http://www.customgadz.com/shop/mimics-lt-enhanced-touchscreen-controller-for-android/
adfurgerson said:
Have you looked at this thread?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...ashnet-octa-core-lollipop-head-units-t3353188
Also here to s a touch controller.
http://www.customgadz.com/shop/mimics-lt-enhanced-touchscreen-controller-for-android/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not seen that specific thread, looks like a decent HU, will consider it for my one car where I don't need the factory unit. I guess my question would be better stated "why up until recently is all HU's KK". Still 95%+ of them. They are just really slow to adapt and most of them won't get updates. I just don't really get how it's still a marketable item. Maybe all apps will keep supporting KK for another 5+ years, I don't know. I doubt it though.
I had briefly looked at the mimicsLT but as far as I can tell it doesn't actually switch between two devices, it just bridges an android box to a touchscreen and gives some input options. I like the mimicsX2 but it's been outdated for a while, they've been saying a new version is "coming soon" for a while. I'd prefer a dedicated android box (that's 5.x or 6.x) over a mirror but I'd probably be fine either way.
I was considering getting the CarPerformance one and seeing if I could somehow hook my own android box into it or upgrade his, I feel like it's just going to be too much work or just not possible at all, and too much money sunk into it.
Just don't get why the car world for android is still so small, and why it's stuck on KitKat (I doubt there's been any new phones with KitKat for 1-2 years now). I was hoping there was a good answer and it was somehow hardware compatibility related or something, but maybe not.
Thanks for the response!
Good evening everyone.
I am a new user, and have decided to purchase a Chinese headunit for my car.
Now ive been reading stuff about customer roms, malaysk, etc etc, and my head is spinning with it all. so I have a couple of questions if you kond people can assist I would be grateful.
- I am going to purchase either a Eonon GA7153 2gb running android 6.0 or a Xtrons pa97mtvpl 2gb running android 7.1 - my question is simply which is better, more reliable and likely to have longevity.
- second, are customer roms available for either of these two units, and if so in laymans terms what does it do? what are benefits? what are risks etc?
Like I said all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Hey mate, did you end up getting one? From going down this road and deciding against it, and reading lots of stuff, it seems a little hit and miss with these headsets. If you can get one with warranty etc that would be your best bet. Otherwise if you have the $$, get a good Kenwood, JVC or Sony one with Android Auto integration. Or better still, using a head unit and tablet, or just tablet and amp
I installed a Chinese car stereo/DVD/GPS in my Honda Civic in 2012, and was satisfied with the purchase. It was powered by WinCE, which is an operating system I do NOT recommend. The Android OS is supported, and there is a huge amount of 3rd party software. By comparison, Microsoft has largely terminated support for WinCE, and there are no 3rd party applications available.
My advice would be to purchase the latest version of Android available, and the most capable processor; that would be the largest number of cores, and the highest clock speed. Also get the largest available RAM and ROM configurations. The reason for getting the best hardware configuration available is to minimize start up lag, and improve responsiveness with the latest OS. With the best hardware, the Chinese units are very responsive. Even less capable hardware platforms respond well, but take longer to start up.
Be aware that many units have identical front panels, but are very different inside. One way of determining whether you're getting the same hardware is to look at the rear of the unit (if they show a photo). Different hardware will almost always have a different plug layout on the back. If the rear of the deck is identical, there's a good chance that the decks you're comparing have identical hardware.
Chinese head units often offer features that are not available on locally sold units. For example, my unit allowed me to stick any CD into the reader, and it would copy it at high speed into memory, where it would reside forever. This kind of feature is not available in most areas, due to copyright infringement laws.
Custom wiring harnesses are usually supplied with the unit, as are plastic shells and trim pieces that allow it to merge seamlessly into the dash and look like a factory install. When searching for your unit, include your automobile name (Focus, Alantra, Civic) in the search term. This will bring up units that will fit your vehicle. Because dash layouts change over time, search results will include terms like 'Focus 2002 2007' which tells you that the particular unit will fit all Ford Focus vehicles between the years specified. Don't put the specific year of your vehicle in as a search term; it will just muddle the results. My Civic was supplied with a huge plastic dash panel, several times the size of the unit. But it clipped seamlessly into place, and made the unit look like it came from the factory that way.
In general, Chinese auto head units offer excellent value; they perform as well or better than locally available units. My sister spent $1,500 for a top of the line Clarion, and was so disgusted with it she gave it away, after several angry verbal exchanges with the shop that sold it to her. I tried working with it as well, and found it to be so buggy as to be impossible to use. By comparison, the $300 I spent bought me an excellent, well performing unit.
I don't know how widely known this is or how many people have this on their radar, but there seems to be a very healthy market out there for "new" or "like-new", once-flagship smartphone models. And it's somehow being successfully filled by operations that, as far as I have been able to deduce, manage to collect used smartphones en-masse (from where? e-waste collectors/recyclers? buying them off of the original manufacturers -- perhaps as discards from their repair departments -- for $cheap$? unclear), they then take out any still-working internals/guts from the units they've collected, fabricate brand-new external casings (of the same material as the original product...so, glass, metals, plastics, etc.) that can almost pass for the genuine article even under close scrutiny, re-package the working electronics (mainboards, etc.) in those new casings, and then even go to the lengths to make counterfeit packaging for these re-manufactured phones that LOOKS like the original manufacturers' retail box for that model, shrink-wrap them, and then (usually) turn around and sell the phone as "new".
These guys are all over eBay and AliExpress (& similar outfits). I was quite stunned when I first ran into this, and realized what was going on. You mean there are enough people that will buy these, and at the prices that they're asking for them, for this to be profitable and worth doing at scale? Amazing.
It's hard to call the entire result "counterfeit" exactly, since there are enough original components in what gets shipped. Honestly, I'm not sure what to call them. But one of the problems is that, as amazing as the work of these refurbishers is, many (most) are being more than a bit deceptive when they go out of their way to re-create the original retail packaging and then list them as "brand new in box / old stock". That's a straight-up lie. (Also, many of them come packaged with very obviously 100% counterfeit accessories, like chargers and earbuds which are made to look like the original OEM accessories *externally*, but which absolutely are not original under-the-hood.)
They don't only deal in Sony phones, but Xperia models do seem to be a big seller for these guys, and I had a couple of Z5 Compact samples pass through my hands a couple of years ago...I got curious and wanted to see for myself what one would actually get if someone were to purchase one of these. My takeaway from this was that it's truly amazing how much attention they pay to certain details on one hand, while they simultaneously cut obvious corners on the other. The back glass wasn't original on either, but it was EASILY the best non-OEM Z5c back glass replica I've ever seen (99.9% of the ones you see listed on eBay -- even the ones that purport to be "original" -- are utter crap). The plastic shell/housing was IMMACULATE and with zero scratches/gouges/markings of any kind, as if they managed to sweet-talk Sony into letting them have the original injection molds...the texture was perfect, the color was 100% spot-on, etc. But the earbuds and charger included in the box were garbage (e.g., the charger was labeled as a genuine Sony QC2.0 model, but the label printing was all smudged up, it got SUPER hot, it felt much lighter and hollower than the genuine article, and I tested it and it NEVER went into Quickcharge mode...counterfeit all the way around), the printed literature that was included didn't look at ALL like what Sony includes in their boxes, the card stock they used for the box itself was thinner, and there are issues with the printing on the box (again: counterfeit).
Anyway, one of the things that struck me was that both of the phones still had their bootloader lock & original contents of the TA partition intact. It got me thinking: hmm, I wonder what the odds of that are?... Not everybody unlocks their bootloaders, of course, but amongst Android users, and perhaps especially among Xperia owners, I get the impression that it's not exactly uncommon. At the same time, preserving one's TA partition -- assuming it's even possible on your specific model -- is knowledge that's obscure enough and fiddly enough to execute on that most people who unlock their Xperia's bootloader probably don't even bother...and not only because of the relative difficulty, but also because they probably don't even realize it's a thing. I'd be shocked if most simply didn't Google "xperia bootloader unlock" and then click the link to the official Sony web page at the top of the results that walks them through how to do it. So if I were a betting man, I'd wager that of all Xperias out there with bootloaders that have been unlocked by their owners, easily the majority of them have permanently lost their DRM keys.
Could it be that these refurbishing shops have somehow found a way to regenerate the contents of the TA partition for the models they remanufacture? It seems hard to believe that they could do this without access to the original Sony root signing keys, but...?
For the longest time, when it came to Xperia flagship models sold by these guys, the Kitakami device family was pretty much where they seemed to have stalled out at, as far as what the newest models were that they were selling. But over the last couple of years, I've seen Tone, Yoshino, and even Tama devices of this caliber now flooding the market. I'm super tempted to pick up, say, an XZ1 Compact that's been refurbished in this way, just to see if it is as good as the Z5c samples I've seen were. But in addition to potentially just providing us with access to tons of cosmetically-flawless stock of XZ1c at somewhat-reasonable prices, I have to wonder if this also provides at least a glimmer of hope that it's *possible* to truly restore all of the software on these models to 100% from-the-factory state (complete with bootloader lock, recomputed DRM keys, etc.). I'd sure love to know where they're finding all of the phones they're rebuilding, what exactly (if anything) the software side of the rebuild process entails, and if they *do* have access to special knowledge or tools, how they acquired them...
If anyone out there has bought one of the reman'd XZ1 Compacts, I'd love to know what your experience has been like.
Here is an interesting Youtube video I found by one of these outfits (perhaps the main one even?), showing them going through a QC checklist on a Z3c post-refurbishment but before being packaged up. It's very interesting...the protective plastic with the incorrect "Xperia Z3 mini" text is very clearly not the same as the original (one of those areas where their attention to detail is less impressive...and interestingly, both of my Z5c samples had the *exact same diagram* on theirs and *also* said "Xperia Z5 mini"), but you can also see a reproduction phone barcode sticker that is laid out to look like what Sony would print and stick on the original retail box.
I think unlocked phones are *very* uncommon.
I've unlocked mine before DRM key backup solution was available. Not really missing those keys TBH.
Indeed incredible that they just seem to recreate the outer casings. It involved making new injection molds and whatnot, although in China that's not that expensive nowadays I think. Especially since many Chinese companies make it their business to produce counterfeit products and probably can do it very efficiently.
As for DRM, I'd be surprised if more than 1% of consumers unlock their bootloader, so I guess it's not that surprising to get them locked from such sources.
Got myself a XZ1c (G8441) from eBay. It was listed as new. The phone itself looks good and seems like new.
It came with UCH20 charger (AC 0061-BR).
Included headphones are MH410c.
Charger and headphones work well, but they have really cheap feel to them. I'm pretty sure they are knockoffs.
Also the user manual is definitely not original Sony manual. Just some generic pictures and text.
I purchased a brand new XZ1c G8441 and everything about it was A1 till my carrier shut down the 2100mhz 3G band and the phone revealed it's true identity as a SO-02K and no longer would make or receive calls. The seller will not respond to my emails so I have no idea as to the history of the phone, but I would be none the wiser, (and totally happy) if the network had not changed. I have been caught with 2 other phones in the same scenario, where they were working and presented as global phone and they all stopped working on the same day.
Which carrier do you have? The conclusion that it's not a legit G8441 feels like an odd one.
Some carriers (I'm looking at you, AT&T) will only do VOLTE on certain phones - even though it supports it.
I've also had very spotty reception in different places, and I'm 99.9% sure I have a G8441. I 100% get LTE on some streets, and on others only 2G.
One of my understandings for a very clear distinction is the existence of NFC on the phone. The SO-02K doesn't have it, nor will it have the stylized N on the back panel. The G8441 will. Mine has it, and I've seen Android recognize it, even though it's not something I normally use. Does yours?
While I suppose it's possible someone took a SO-02K and put it in a G8441 case to resell, the chances of that (and profit, given the work) seem extremely small.
Which might suggest it's carrier issues instead of hardware ones - as does the fact that other phones had similar problems.
Hi, All the things you have questioned are valid questions. My suspicions that the phone is not legitimate was arrived at by multiple components of information. Firstly the fact that the XZ1c no longer works on the Optus network and my XZ1 G8341 still works suggests that the XZ1c does not have the 900mhz band. Secondly the XZ1c is identified as a SO-02K when connected to Sony Xperia companion. Thirdly in the service infounder software the phone identifies as "Docomo=LTECA-user" The XZ1c has the N on the rear cover although I have never been able to get it to work. There is a high likelihood of the XZ1c having a new case as all the phones I have purchased recently that stopped working on calls, all present as new, however, the firmware on the XZ1C is global firmware and the phone presents itself in nearly all ways as a G8441. I had 2 Xperia XZ3s that both had the same firmware, one stopped being able to make calls the other still works. I am 99% sure someone has worked out how to make these phone present as global phones until the hardware restrictions tell the truth.
tonsofquestions said:
While I suppose it's possible someone took a SO-02K and put it in a G8441 case to resell, the chances of that (and profit, given the work) seem extremely small.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There seems to be a massive amount of "refurbished phones" now on ebay and Aliexpress, that present in every way as new, so it would seem that putting old phones in new cases is the new market that many sellers are jumping on.
Ah, interesting. Yes, if it's presenting to some things as a DO-02K, then that seems possible. Now I'm tempted to check mine. Which is the "service infounder software"? My computer can't run the Xperia Companion.
It's possible the re-casing phones is a thing. I was just surprised people would do it for such an old phone, and that cases would even be findable still. But it's entirely possible I don't know what I'm talking about here.
You get to the service info menu by typing in *#*#7378423#*#* into the keypad on your phone, it will then come up with Service info and Service tests. Service info has a sub menu "software info", The XZ3s that I have where one works one does not, both show in service info the same model and firmware and software. but if I check the IMEI they are 2 different models PM-1150-BV and PM-1155-BV, The 1155 says that NFC is not available in the test whereas the XZ1c has the NFC as testable.
Ah, right. I recall that menu. I've always had trouble getting in to it on my XZ1c. I enter that code, but it rarely pops open, even though other ones like `*#*#4636#*#*` work just fine. I never understood why, and figured it was something with my ROM.
tonsofquestions said:
Ah, right. I recall that menu. I've always had trouble getting in to it on my XZ1c. I enter that code, but it rarely pops open, even though other ones like `*#*#4636#*#*` work just fine. I never understood why, and figured it was something with my ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works on my XZ1c, but it is not instant, and can take 10-15 seconds to appear. The XZ2C despite what some say about it, is a better phone in my opinion. the screen is better, more responsive and the phone is generally faster. I just purchased a couple of Samsung S10e phones as the 3G has taken a nose dive in performance for the phones I have that still work. Can take 20 seconds for a call to initiate after pressing send
I did a little more digging, and it's a ROM thing. My ROM doesn't even have the APK, and it won't install since it's missing some xperia library or other. I'm guessing you're stock, or something built on it. That explains why I haven't been able to open it for ages...
Just received from Ebay a new G8441 model from China (13 days to Spain).
It's a real G8441!! and have a 20 band confirmed with NetMonster and always have a LTE 4G.
I also checked Service info/Software info: GLOBAL-LTE4A-user. PM-1061-BV
I also did a factory reset, and it's still G8441.
My main phone is a XZ1 compact for 5 years, and i decided buy a new one, because eco in calls, and gps sometimes works sometimes not.
The new one is exactly the same phone. The only difference is the display, it's not the same, it's a little bit darker, but who cares.