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Review of update packs (AKU) for Windows Mobile 5.0
Updating and enhancing of any operating system are the things that seemingly will never stop. Groundbreaking changes get introduced in case a company is about to shift up the version of its OS, like it happened to Windows Mobile 2003 upgraded to Windows Mobile 5.0. However, when various fixes are many, but at the same time they cannot constitute a new version, already existing operating system obtains a suffix, indicating its advanced capabilities – for instance Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. Minor tweaks tend to pop up frequently and aim mostly at patching up actual version of operating system.
In Windows Mobile’s case such updates go by the name of Adaptation Kit or Adaptation Kit Update (or simply AKU abbreviation, which we will use throughout this review) – they usually patch up existing bugs and enable several new features. Each newly released AKU pack retains fixes found in previous versions of AKU, so in order to emphasize the most crucial fixes carried by AKU, the company sometimes turns to Feature Pack (FP) term, adopted from S60 platform. Significance-wise, Nokia S60’s FP and Windows Mobile’s AKU are on a par with each other, thus FP term applied to Windows Mobile has more of a marketing move rather than actual necessity in it.
Before the release (expounding this in Microsoft’s own terms - release to manufacturing or RTM), each AKU undergoes stages of alpha- and beta-testing within Microsoft and manufacturers (OEM/ODM). Once the partners have received the final (RTM) version of an update pack, it takes them at least 120 days to embed it in new devices, and it can’t be helped, for Microsoft needs these 4 months to fix critical errors and tackle missing functions. Just remember how long Windows Mobile 5.0 was getting to the first widely available device.
In this article we will review all released to date AKU versions for Windows Mobile 5.0 in order of appearance. On the whole, majority of changes incorporated into each pack are related both to WM for PPC and WM for Smartphone – in these cases we won’t make any comments, however should an update be specific for either WM for PPC or WM for Smartphone only, you will see a special note standing next to it.
Review of Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC
Review of Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone
Our readers had the chance to look into the brand-new Windows Mobile 5.0 with the help of the world’s first review published on our page and today you are going to learn more about AKU 3.0 at first hand as well. But as we’ve promised a few lines above, the review starts with the very fist AKU versions.
How to find out which version is installed on your smartphone/communicator? Very simple – all you have to do is call up About window (Start/Settings/System), the last three digits (look like x.x.x) indicate AKU edition used on your device. However in this review only the two first ones will matter.
Adaptation Kit Update 0.1 и 0.2
Being a part of the very first updates wave, these packs focus on patching up errors of the original WM 5.0 (for example impossibility to make an emergency call when the device is locked). In their turn, manufacturers have acquired insignificant (from the point of view of end-users) possibilities, such as editable Help files (Pocket PC), control over default wallpapers transparency (Pocket PC), and ability to switch off auto words completion. As you see, alterations are so minor, that end-users could hardly notice that there were any at all.
Adaptation Kit Update 1.0
This update pack shows off loads of new features and patchworks, especially on the imaging front – owing to the developed features the corresponding application’s functionality has been greatly extended. Nevertheless manufacturers of gadgets which actually hit the shelves of retail stores give more preference to own interfaces and thus all Microsoft’s efforts have ended up being overlooked.
One of the most notable additions for WM for Smartphone platforms lies in landscape screen mode support (which was quite predictable, since back then announcement of Moto Q was not too far-out). Another update for smartphones is the possibility to manage these devices without a SIM card – before a plugged in SIM was a must in order to start up a phone. There are also some other steps taken towards unification of Pocket PC and Smartphone platforms.
Messaging part has gotten tuned a bit as well – checking for incoming mail at defined intervals can be assigned to all mailboxes set up in Outlook Mobile. Before, users were at liberty to make only one mailbox retrieve mail on schedule – all other accounts were to be managed manually. On top of that, the developers have added sorting by message type (for instance, in order to move apart SMS and MMS), however that tweak proves to be completely useless, when a manufacturer applies special folders for SMS and MMS.
One more extra feature for smartphones makes it possible to dial, save in the phonebook or send a SMS to a telephone number received in a message’s body and all that without leaving “View mode”. Surely, it is a really handy function.
Smartphones’ call logs have gotten amplified with the capability to send a short message or MMS to any record found on these lists. Nevertheless it is only the way everything was meant to be, in reality MMS gets replaced with E-mail, even for telephone numbers missing in the phonebook.
Pocket PC platform has been provided with FDN (fixed dialing numbers) feature, requiring PIN2 code – it allows limiting telephone numbers which users can call and send messages to. This function had been available on ordinary phones back then, but for some reasons it made it to Windows Mobile powered communicators a bit later.
When alarm clock is turned on, Today screen displays a corresponding bell-looking icon near time and date.
Pocket PC are now empowered with a full-fledged SIM contacts support, which are shown in the end of general contacts list and can be moved to the main phonebook.
Function keys lock has been added to Pocket PC software shell too.
And the last, but not the least addition to the interface – should you reach the end of a list (contacts, messages stored in Inbox) after scrolling through the last item, you will be redirected to the list’s beginning, whereas before the only option was to scroll it all the way back. Next update packs enables manufacturers to turn this off.
Adaptation Kit Update 1.1
This update pack targets mostly at increasing performance of wireless connectivity.
Nominally, from this update onwards, AD2DP Bluetooth profile, transferring stereo-sound to a special Bluetooth headset without using wires, is officially supported, however in practice support for A2DP profile was disabled by default (it was rather a daring experiment and mediocre quality just proves this theory) – many manufacturers haven’t included it into new devices. Another boost of Bluetooth is capability to synchronize contacts with Bluetooth-powered car kit.
Wi-Fi connectivity has undergone a lot of minor changes – for example now user is shown the access point he is currently using, whether it is secure or not. Once a device tracks a new Wi-Fi access point, the pop-up notification displays its safety status – protected networks are market with a lock-looking icon in the general list; but in case you think it is too much of information, you can turn prompt windows off. Further more, the developers have taken care of numerous bugs regarding Wi-Fi performance.
This update pack also delivers official hard drives support (the Korean manufacturer had to make it work without this feature on its Samsung i300). Another fetching addition – fast screen rotation for Pocket PC only.
Adaptation Kit Update 2.0
This AKU comes included with the infamous Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) – since the magnitude of this software kit has grown important for Microsoft’s target audience, the company had nothing to do but embed it in AKU 2.0.
The next point of interest concerns the audience this update aims at – before the release one of alternative titles used inside the company was Enterprise Feature Pack. As the name implies, enterprise users are the ones who should squeeze most out of this AKU.
The major innovation provided in this update pack is support for Always Up to Date version 2 or briefly AUTDv2 (the very first version involved SMS messages as notifications coming from the server), which is more widely known as Microsoft Direct Push Technology. To put it simply, this function works in the following way: if a mobile device has established a permanent connection to a server (MS Exchange 2003 SP2 is required), then as soon as new data gets to the server (new letter, contact, or alteration in schedule), it will be immediately sent to the mobile device without burdening users with checking out for updates manually. In a nutshell, owing to this feature you will be able to keep yourself updated on all recent happenings. It might sound strange, but a smartphone/communicator at permanent GPRS/EDGE connection lasts not for several hours, but several days instead – overall lifetime depends on concrete model. But in the end it still makes an impressive total, especially with Direct Push being switched on (for example from 9 AM till 6 PM).
Naturally the application has been attuned to mobile devices, as data there is beamed over cellular networks. For more speedy transfers the tool applies GZIP compression, for less synchronization time – special «connection caching» utility. Support for Secure MIME (SMIME) is also included, so that users are now capable of reading signed and cipher messages. Further more, enterprise users can conduct search for contacts and addresses in a corporate contact book (Global Address Book Lookup, GAL).
Remote device security management allows MS Exchange administrators to set password requirements, block a device, and wipe important data that might harm the company’s business without having the corresponding device at hand.
Short note. Whether to enable Direct Push via Wi-Fi or not – it’s up to manufacturer to decide.
Basically, MSFP is an extensive subject to discuss, but it’s not the main goal of this very review after all. Those of you, who would like to find out more about this system, may look up in vast variety of articles published on the net:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/business/5/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/business/strategy
/mobiledeviceplatforms.msp
http://www.gartner.com/resources/129000/129022/security_in_win.pdf# search=%22gartner%20MSFP%20%22
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/features/mobility/default.mspx
Nonetheless, «Enterprise Feature Pack» definition cannot give you an idea of all improvements that AKU 2.0 brings inside – there are still many interesting aspects to tell about.
Many of you will be greatly surprised, but Internet Explorer Mobile found in AKU 2.0 has been significantly re-worked. Even though the main part of the update offers various types of patchwork, there are some new functions as well, like accelerated scrolling and Fast Back feature, support for compiled WML, WMLScript over HTTP and enhanced DOM standard.
Smartphones have obtained frames support; keys “2” and “8” now serve for Page Up/Down purposes.
The update pack also carries Wireless Manager application for handling wireless connections – with its help you can quickly turn on/off Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Flight mode, in other words it’s a multifunctional switch, where users may also access Wi-Fi/Bluetooth settings outright.
SIM Toolkit. SIM-menu for operators, proposing a standard feature list – before manufacturers had to deal with third-party solutions.
Similarly to what we saw in the previous update pack for smartphones, Pocket PCs can now process a telephone numbers received in a message’s body, submit it to the phonebook as separate entries or send a message to them.
This update pack also includes a feature which doesn’t appeal to many experienced Pocket PC users – instead of clock in the top status bar, we now see battery level indicator. However it is changed in AKU 2.2, where users are at liberty to choose what they would like to see in the top right corner of display.
Smartphones have acquired a bundled file browser – previously they made use of a third-party application. According to its title, it performed all basic operations with files, but couldn’t offer something more.
Adaptation Kit Update 2.1
The only notable feature of this update is dynamic switching between screen modes (landscape and portrait).
Adaptation Kit Update 2.2
Compatibility with ActiveSync has been gotten better owing to the advent of ActiveSync Serial Switch utility. New ActiveSync 4.x has been initially set to use the RNDIS transport layer, but now you are granted the freedom to switch back to the old way (applied in Windows Mobile 2003 and earlier releases) in case you’re experiencing issues with pairing the device up with a PC. The developers have also managed to cut down time required for starting up Pocket PC by 15 seconds on average due to amplified caching algorithms. All other alterations are either beyond attention or target at patching up bugs.
Adaptation Kit Update 2.3
This AKU can boast only patches for existing errors – new functions and features don’t stand out too much, so we have almost noting to tell about the 2.3.
Adaptation Kit Update 2.5
And this is another “feature-less” update; at least it contains nothing deserving a special note. We can point out only SmartDial from the Today screen for QWERTY-equipped smartphones and the option enabling manufacturers to change dialing font color (Samsung’s influence?).
Adaptation Kit Update 2.6
The only more or less noteworthy change found in this AKU – zooming (up to 2x) for video clips played back in Windows Media Player.
Adaptation Kit Update 3.0
So, we have finally made it to the latest update pack available, also known under the name of Venti. It retains a number of really crucial patches and tweaks, which we are going to dwell on. In fact, finding out whether your device is running on AKU 3.0 or not is incredibly simple – at start up you will see “Windows Mobile Direct Push Technology” against green background, this is actually all another way of laying stress on MSFP’s presence. Moreover, About window now features a note regarding availability of Messaging and Security Feature Pack as well.
We’ll start reviewing this AKU with new specific functions and features. And .NET Compact Framework version two (instead of ver. 1; feature can be customized by a manufacturer) is the one at the frontlines.
One of the best things about AKU 3.0 is so-called Language Provisioning, enabling local manufacturers to add as many languages to a device as its onboard memory can store (at that every dictionary takes up from 6 to 12 Mb, depending on given language).
However the bad thing here is that language can be chosen only once, after that all other packages are deleted automatically, even hard reset won’t change the system’s mind. Thankfully, manufacturers can disable that and keep all language packs on the main storage permanently, so that users could switch languages after hard reset. All in all it’s a very important piece of work, even though hard reset is still a must for changing language.
Wireless connectivity has also received a major boost – an all-round new Internet Sharing utility replaces Modem Link, and allows accessing Internet via Pocket PC or smartphone with the help of USB/Bluetooth connection. On top of that settings are one-sided, which means that you will have to adjust only your mobile device, while your PC should only have support for Bluetooth network profile onboard, at that Windows Mobile-powered device doubles as a Bluetooth access point rather than a remote modem. In a nutshell, all you have got to do is establish connection to the access point without any additional settings being required (for example Access Point defining, which was inevitable on connection via Bluetooth DUN profile).
New Wi-Fi connection wizard for smartphones helps a lot in configuring new Wi-Fi networks.
One of the most crucial improvements is support for WPA2 – the most secure Wi-Fi standard for the time being. However the developers have seemingly decided to give Wi-Fi all their efforts and embedded Wi-Fi Multimedia, also called Wi-Fi Quality of Service (QoS), which allows access point to modify bandwidth limit for each application – a really credible tool when it comes to IP-telephony and streaming multimedia applications.
Bluetooth connectivity has gotten enhanced as well: from now on it supports FTP profile, better handles A2DP, whose quality gave rise to criticism lately.
A really credible feature has been embedded in Internet Explorer Mobile –AJAX support (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), enabling you to create dynamic pages on a mobile device; gmail.com is apparently the most widely-known AJAX-based service.
Outlook Mobile has been modified as well – on first start up the system offers you to setup e-mail (POP3/IMAP or Exchange) step-by-step via a special wizard, whereas before it proposed only time and security settings. At that both manufacturers and operators can pre-define settings for most popular mail services and thus lighten the rest of work to do.
From now on it’s possible to navigate Pocket PC’s folders containing messages without drawing your stylus. Previously, inability to browse folders via menus was only of the greatest flaws of single-handed management of Windows Mobile 5.0-based devices.
Contacts can be now transferred via SMS (in vCard standard), and should you retrieve a short message containing a phonebook entry, you will be immediately offered to save it into your contacts.
Short messages can be saved on SIM-card. Messages stored on SIM-card are displayed in general list of messages.
You can now send messages via GPRS (SMS over GPRS), but for that you will have to make sure that your cellular operator offers support for this function.
Support for contacts stored on SIM-USIM card has been improved. From now on SIM card contacts are sorted by Name in general contacts list, instead of being placed into bottom of list as it used to be. In my opinion this is not so convenient, especially in case you have loads of contacts and they are partly backed up on SIM-card, in other words you will end up handling duplicated entries. It would have been better to make this feature optional.
We should also highlight fact that support for external displays has been added officially. As an experiment (function is still rather crude, but this will most likely be fixed in future) you can now assign MP3 ring tones to all events including SMS and reminders. Yet, it’s unknown whether this feature will be implemented into final release or not.
Conclusion
Throughout AKU’s history for Windows Mobile 5.0 we see how treatment of “infantile sicknesses” (it took years for Microsoft to realize that MP3 ring tones should be allowed for assignment to SMS and others) and correction of bugs have been initiated simultaneously with empowering the OS with new features, such as support for Microsoft Direct Push, WPA2, Language Provisioning and greatly improved Internet Explorer Mobile.
Nonetheless the most interesting part of the WM’s history is yet to come with the release of Microsoft Windows Mobile Crossbow (possible commercial title – Windows Mobile 5.0 Second Edition). One of the upcoming articles on Mobile-Review.com will be dedicated to this matter; our readers will be able to find out what WM Crossbow is all about several months ahead of its actual release.
Узнать все о коммуникаторах и смартфонах Qtek>>adv
Anton Kotov ([email protected])
Translated by Oleg Kononosov ([email protected])
Published - 07 September 2006
I just switched for a tiny (3" screen) and slow (Leo ROM with WM 6.5.x) Xperia X1 to a more powerful HD7. Nice OS indeed, but there are lots of things that I really miss:
1 on the old phone I used to flash new ROMs very often. I had some CABs in the SD that could be restored in seconds with a few clicks, so after flash all my apps were ready for use. If I'm not wrong, this is not feasible anymore since CAB installation is not available on WP7 and (correct me if I'm wrong) Zune software is always needed;
2 all audio and video files are immediately avalable to view since the phone stores them in its own way (i.e. cannot save them in a specific folder, and open them in the old File/Open way); what if I have some *strictly personal* audio or video file I want to keep secret ?
3 no GPS navigation software still available (I used iGO8 very very often) an nothing foreseen yet;
4 apps marketplace is ridiculous, but I hope that software houses will start converting theis apps very soon (I really miss SPB Wallet and Opera).
5 SD card...well we all know enough about that
Anyone aware of some kind of improvement for what above ?
Thanks
S
Came from an iPhone and then Nexus one. What i really really miss is the ability to buy apps from the marketplace since i live in an unsupported place and hence, a non-US credit card. iPhone had support for my country, while market enabler and google checkout solved that for android.
You can always use a UK/US Live account.
yes i have a US live account, but it still will not accept my credit card, a Mastercard. It says that it can't be authorized, and a lot of people also have that problem because their credit cards are non-US. My credit card is still active though, checked and doubled checked. Just used it to purchase a few items from ebay using paypal and also groceries yesterday.
Has anyone tried porting anything based on libnfc (libnfc.org), such as nfc-tools (code.google.com/p/nfc-tools), to Android?
I've heard of the odd person or two managing to cross-compile libnfc for Android and get it working with an external reader, but I'm more interested in getting nfcutils and mfoc to run on my Galaxy Nexus...
Hi,
I was looking for the same thing as you.
Indeed some people succeeded to compile libnfc on android (android 2.3 if I remember well) and they have published a little outdated tutorial.
The problem that is their porting use libusb and permits to use an external NFC reader connected via the phone USB link.
I think you are most interested in using the internal one.
On my galaxy SIII, the NFC device seems to use an I2C link (the device is /dev/pn544). So you will need to make a libnfc "driver" for your device wich link to the I2C. I you look into libnfc code, you have some code to mange serial links but it seems a little experimental.
Moreover, there is already a driver and a lib that manage your NFC device, so you'll probably have some conflicts by trying to add libnfc.
The built-in lib is libnfc-nxp wich also includes drivers, hardware abstraction and a upper level libraries (called "FRI") providing services to manage cryptography, NDEF messages and so on. This lib is completely different from the linux libnfc.
So if you want to get lib-utils working, you will probably need to compile them after developing a wrapper between libnfc functions using libnfc-nxp. (or something like this)
In my knowledge, nobody did the job yet.
I found some tries to recode mfoc utility in an android apk but nothing functional yet (and there is often no recent activity of these projects).
Sorry.
I found this:
https://github.com/ehabkost/nfc-tools (last activity two years ago)
It appears the Android API lacks some features to get the mfoc running.
It may be possible to overcome this modifying the libnfc-nxp source in the android repo....... who knows.
Porting [nfc-tools] libnfc to Android 4.4.2
Does anyone have news about this ?
I did some research though but instead of creating a new thread, I ended up here.
if anyone is still interested, I have compiled libnfc and nfc-list from last commit on git and works on my Nexus 5 5.0.1
You can find here github.com/etmatrix/libnfc and github.com/etmatrix/libusb01 for libusb
I attached an usb device SCL3711-NFC&RW and nfc-list show me a Mifare Classic and SRIX4K.
I need to improve external module libusb, libnfc look at /tmp/libusb-0.1.12 for linking.
etmatrix said:
if anyone is still interested, I have compiled libnfc and nfc-list from last commit on git and works on my Nexus 5 5.0.1
You can find here github.com/etmatrix/libnfc and github.com/etmatrix/libusb01 for libusb
I attached an usb device SCL3711-NFC&RW and nfc-list show me a Mifare Classic and SRIX4K.
I need to improve external module libusb, libnfc look at /tmp/libusb-0.1.12 for linking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey! I'm just trying to get into this issue, and I would really appreciate if you could help with some piece of advice
I've digged up all google, but all instructables are dated 2010-2012, I am sure that there should be some progress in this area! My goal is to flash libnfc to Android and make it use an internal nfs chip
Can you contact me? It would also be great to have a compiled file to install libnfc to my galaxy s3 and some explanation, because unfortunately I'm just a beginner in this, though a really ambitious
Thank you!
Bump.
Any news on this? I'd really like to be able to read my public transportation pass to see how much I have credit left (It is mifare classic 1k). There is no official app to read it either (nor unofficial for what I know).
You can try the app "västtrafikreader" or vasttrafikreader. You have to google it yourself.
Classik k1 efter carry heavy encryption wich makes is almost impossible to ream them. But in vasttrafikreader they got the keys for the swedish system and the cards can even be manipulated.
Its rather safe to say that you basicly cant carry out the hack w/o the proper keys.
There have been ports of mfoc and similar tools for Android in the past, but only for externally connected NFC-Readers, since the Android APIs don't allow the necessary access to the internally embedded NFC chips. The best app for working with Mifare Classic NFC chips is the "MTC - Mifare Classic Tool", which is available on the Play Store. It's open-source on GitHub and supports reading and writing to the chips if you add the keys to the dictionary file or if the sector you're trying to access uses one of the default keys. This app could totally be expanded with mfoc-like functionality, at least on rooted devices, but for now you have to run mfoc on the PC once to get the keys, add them to the dictionary and afterwards you're able to get full read/write access to all sectors of the specific chip from a supported Android handset (hardware-wise, depends on the NFC chip used).
hello, its been 4 yearsany news on an internally embedded NFC chips mfoc functionality ?
Several people have asked about this, so here is something that will allow you to view photos on a Nexus 7 without rooting your device. You will need:
An OTG USB Cable. Any should do.
A USB Flash Drive or Flash Reader/Card
Some pictures
Nexus Photo Viewer (link below)
http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.homeysoft.nexususb.viewer
How is this possible without root? I coded a USB Mass Storage Driver and FAT16/32 file system reader in Android (Java).
This is all just a teaser to get you to buy the Nexus Media Importer that is coming soon. The importer will support Photos, Videos and Music when it's complete. All of you feeling the space crunch on those 8GB models will soon have some options. Eventually, I should have something that will allow you to stream from Flash without importing the media, but this is a start.
Update: The Media Importer and Streamer (V2.0.2) has been voluntarily temporarily taken off the market for the moment.
How about exFAT support for SDXC cards ? I'm using 64GB cards in my camera and I don't want to play with "wrong" formats and risk loosing my photos.So even if my camera would allow me to use FAT32 not sure if I don't get into problems.I don't care about write read only.I can not find any app , add in or even custom ROM with exFAT included.
This is the main concern.Second, if you add video playback don't forget AVCHD (preferably 2.0) support. And of course RAW formats would be nice. Anyway, a good start.
Issues....
I've tried a couple of different flash drives, both formatted to FAT32, and I can't get it to work for me. I'm on a stock Nexus 7--I was waiting for something like this before going through all the trouble (for a newbie) of rooting and unlocking.
Issues:
1) First, it simply, repeatedly told me my flash drives had no media.
2) I got it to see a couple of photos on one of my flash drives but, I couldn't open them or anything
3) It began to constantly fc itself--couldn't even open it anymore.
Uninstalled/re-installed a couple of times but, it's still a no-go here.
What flash drives is this working with?
Manufacturers/models? I want to say that most fl;ash drives are the same but, apparently they are not.
Excellent job. I really hope this comes to fruition because I'll be the first one in line to buy it!
adit9989 said:
How about exFAT support for SDXC cards ? I'm using 64GB cards in my camera and I don't want to play with "wrong" formats and risk loosing my photos.So even if my camera would allow me to use FAT32 not sure if I don't get into problems.I don't care about write read only.I can not find any app , add in or even custom ROM with exFAT included.
This is the main concern.Second, if you add video playback don't forget AVCHD (preferably 2.0) support. And of course RAW formats would be nice. Anyway, a good start.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After a lot of though, I think I'm going to roll the video and RAW functionality into Gallery Connect. It's pretty complex and Gallery Connect already has most of the components I need for RAW and video playback. As a bonus, you'll be able to stream it to another device.
exFAT is on the list, but it's not as well documented as FAT. It's also proprietary and MS isn't exactly giving out the spec.
androidgranny241 said:
I've tried a couple of different flash drives, both formatted to FAT32, and I can't get it to work for me. I'm on a stock Nexus 7--I was waiting for something like this before going through all the trouble (for a newbie) of rooting and unlocking.
Issues:
1) First, it simply, repeatedly told me my flash drives had no media.
2) I got it to see a couple of photos on one of my flash drives but, I couldn't open them or anything
3) It began to constantly fc itself--couldn't even open it anymore.
Uninstalled/re-installed a couple of times but, it's still a no-go here.
What flash drives is this working with?
Manufacturers/models? I want to say that most fl;ash drives are the same but, apparently they are not.
Excellent job. I really hope this comes to fruition because I'll be the first one in line to buy it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should work with any Flash drive that is formatted as FAT16 or FAT32. I'll try to provide better error handling for now supported file systems in the next release.
I can see the crashes in the dev. console and have identified at least one of the problems. Hopefully your drives will be fixed in the next release. Thanks for your patients.
dburckh said:
After a lot of though, I think I'm going to roll the video and RAW functionality into Gallery Connect. It's pretty complex and Gallery Connect already has most of the components I need for RAW and video playback. As a bonus, you'll be able to stream it to another device.
exFAT is on the list, but it's not as well documented as FAT. It's also proprietary and MS isn't exactly giving out the spec.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that there is an open source implementation for exFAT. Not sure how well it works, but if you just need read it may work:
http://code.google.com/p/exfat/
Keep up the good work.
adit9989 said:
I know that there is an open source implementation for exFAT. Not sure how well it works, but if you just need read it may work:
http://code.google.com/p/exfat/
Keep up the good work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's C, but I can use it as a reference. There is a Java version called fat32-lib, which I started using, but it was too buggy. We have to walk before we fly.
Version 0.9.1
I just posted a new version to the market. If you get No Media, try to search again. It may find it the second time.
I guess I assumed this would work with all drives. That isn't so. It should work with more drives now. It should work with drives formatted on Windows or Canon cameras.
Known issues:
Does not work with drives not using MBR partitioning. I'll try to figure this out.
Does not work well with really slow controllers.
Version 1.0 Is Live!
Did a ton of work in the last few days (nights) and I got it working really well. I also published the Nexus Media Importer, which will allow you to import to your device.
Here's the link (it may take some time to become live):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.homeysoft.nexususb.importer
Seems to work really well in its very beta state. I am excited to see where the app can go. Also below are some features I would love to see. (Decided to post here as well so you could reply if you wished.)
-the ability to copy both ways from a memory card or just a mini file browser mode
-photo backup mode that remembers which photos from a card are already backed up so you can quickly backup new photos
-raw image support, I do not need thumbnails myself but the ability to copy raw formats or any file type would be great.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
I'm excited for this. I don't care to root my device (I have it set up like I like and don't want to wipe it to root it), but wanted a way to play movies off of a flash drive. Just waiting on the OTG cable to arrive.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
dburckh said:
Several people have asked about this, so here is something that will allow you to view photos on a Nexus 7 without rooting your device. You will need:
An OTG USB Cable. Any should do.
A USB Flash Drive or Flash Reader/Card
Some pictures
Nexus Photo Viewer (link below)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.homeysoft.nexususb.viewer
How is this possible without root? I coded a USB Mass Storage Driver and FAT16/32 file system reader in Android (Java).
This is all just a teaser to get you to buy the Nexus USB Importer that is coming soon. The importer will support Photos, Videos and Music when it's complete. All of you feeling the space crunch on those 8GB models will soon have some options. Eventually, I should have something that will allow you to stream from Flash without importing the media, but this is a start.
At the moment, the photos are rendered using the embedded thumbnail, so the quality will vary by camera. I'm working on rendering a proper image as well as displaying some metadata.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You get streaming video working without root and you will make some money. Hell, I can't wait to give you mine.
And.... I couldn't wait. Bought the Importer to support the dev. Good luck getting this to work!!
Nospin said:
And.... I couldn't wait. Bought the Importer to support the dev. Good luck getting this to work!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Grabbed it too. Really looking forward to this apps development. :good:
Version 1.1 is Live
Should be available on the market soon. What's new:
Better File System Support
Multi-select and multi-save
Tabbed viewing
Faster Display/Photo Renderering
Photo shows image resolution
The Future:
Some way to select recognize and select new items from the card/drive
Reading file dates. Easy, just haven't done it yet.
As much as I was resistant to it, I think I'm going to cave to the pressure and try to get streaming video to work. It will probably be an in-app upgrade. That seems the fairest thing to do to the people that have already supported me. Frankly, I'm pretty excited about it myself. It's just going to be a horse and BUGGY ride for a while.
Possibilities:
Writing to the card/drive. Definitely doable. Scares the be-jesus out of me. I'm really concerned that I'll completely hose the card. I'm thinking this might involve a preference that you have to enable and agree that you are acting at your own risk.
File Manager View
Richer support for media types beyond photos. MP3 ID3 tag reading, MP4 meta data parsing.
Freakin sweet. This is one of the only things that was keeping me from selling my TF101, I like putting pics from my DSLR and phone onto my tablet but the Nexus makes it a real PITA without an sd card slot. Now all I need is an SD card and micro sd adapter and the correct cable :highfive:
Great update. Tested importing photos and video from my cameras SD card. For my uses (photo backup) its starting to become useful. Still need to be able to "select all" or even better for my use would be if it automatically selected all files that have not yet been imported. Also being able to choose the import folders so I can keep videos with the photos from that day. I do realize that this is not being designed purely for photo/video backup but my hope is it will function well for it.
Also the connection and copy process has been very reliable and very fast for me. I plan to do some testing with some other card readers I have as well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added 13th August 2012 at 12:13 AM ---------- Previous post was 12th August 2012 at 11:48 PM ----------
Just tried a compact flash card from my DSLR and a different card reader. It sees the card fine but does not recognize .nef files as photos. I do not expect or think it needs to give previews for nef or cr2 (raw image) files but listing them so they can be copied would be great. Even if they were in a separate "all files" tab.
Keep up the good work and hopefully my input is somewhat useful
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Bought to support developer ! It's great.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
jeffreyklassen said:
Great update. Tested importing photos and video from my cameras SD card. For my uses (photo backup) its starting to become useful. Still need to be able to "select all" or even better for my use would be if it automatically selected all files that have not yet been imported. Also being able to choose the import folders so I can keep videos with the photos from that day. I do realize that this is not being designed purely for photo/video backup but my hope is it will function well for it.
Also the connection and copy process has been very reliable and very fast for me. I plan to do some testing with some other card readers I have as well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added 13th August 2012 at 12:13 AM ---------- Previous post was 12th August 2012 at 11:48 PM ----------
Just tried a compact flash card from my DSLR and a different card reader. It sees the card fine but does not recognize .nef files as photos. I do not expect or think it needs to give previews for nef or cr2 (raw image) files but listing them so they can be copied would be great. Even if they were in a separate "all files" tab.
Keep up the good work and hopefully my input is somewhat useful
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can add .nef & .cr2 support (including thumbs), but they aren't supported by Android natively. You would need something like Gallery Connect to view them. Unfortunately, Gallery Connect won't be able to find them unless you type in the path to Pictures (for the moment). FYI: It's /scdard/Pictures
I plan on adding some sort of select all or select new.
I am not thrilled about the IAP plan either. It's the only way I can think of to provide what I consider premium functionality without buying another app. I didn't want to hit people twice. I guess the other option is an app that only does streaming, but I think that would be confusing.
Another option is just raise the price and provide import feature and streaming, but I'm not sure if there are some people that just want the import feature and don't care about streaming.
I posted this in the galaxy note 12.2 forums but since a lot of us use mice on the shield TV I thought it might help someone here.
Gaming Mice on Android
I'm not sure if anyone else uses a gaming mouse but I thought I would note that while I haven't found a way to configure a gaming mouse in android, you can still use any gaming mouse with onboard memory.
you just program it on your PC and then when you plug it into the android tablet (or any other android device) and all of your key pre-sets and lighting presets are there.
This is useful for people that remote into their work computers from home, or just want easy copy paste functionality or for the people that remote into their computers for gaming etc.
Personally I use a gaming mouse (Razer Naga Chroma) for work on a windows 7 workstation but I use my Galaxy note 12.2 exclusively at home with no access to windows.
The Razer Naga and Logitech G600 have a scroll wheel that tilts left and right and the function can be reprogrammed.
I reassign those to copy and paste and its way faster than using the keyboard and saves some wrist strain.
I also have shortcuts for our proprietary software programmed onto the side buttons and having access to that from home is a HUGE timesaver.
now when I work from home I can have everything at my fingertips instead of having to use the onscreen windows functions in teamviewer, or digging through menus in company software.
and a lot of the normal functions carry over to android pretty well (Copy paste is much smoother from the mouse etc.)
Anyways for anyone that this might help these are the ones I've tried so far:
Works:
Logitech G600 (Supports keyboard/mouse functions and simple hotkeys like alt + Shift + Tab but does not support complex macros to device memory)
Roccat Nyth (Supports everything including complex macros but does have a length limit)
Anything with onboard memory will likely also work to varying degrees.
Doesnt work beyond default buttons:
Anything with no onboard memory:
Any mouse designed to work with Razer Synapse 2.0
Lower end Logitech mice. (Some lower end models lack onboard memory)
mice can't touch action in android app&game
leasing said:
mice can't touch action in android app&game
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its true, with a mice, some apps work some apps dont, this is on full android, not sure what the situation is with stock
Android/shield does this neat thing it seems, where it makes every individual app create/declare mouse support, individually, instead of, i dont know, lets say, for an example, tie mouse support with the touch system in some fashion, on the OS level, you know, so that EVERY app works, without having to rely on every app with various degrees of dev support to include or update in the mouse support.........totally neat way of doing it
implementation fragmentation
Theres also the permission implementation im starting to notice now.........marshmellow it seems has implemented a rather NEAT storage persmission decleration requirement, whereas apps running on marshmellow have to declare storage permission in order to be granted storage permission.........good idea...(sporadic sarcasm off)...no, really, security effort :good:....(sporadic sarcasm on again), ......but, but, bad implementation, you've now declared older apps with no current dev support, that still fit a function, from working on the newest android version, and perhaps, then onwards..........if the app does not declare it seems, then it simply will not work, if it requires this particular storage access.........you've just isolated a good portion of older unsurported apps that still may serve a function
I dont see why they implemented this, mmmm... in this way(CANT.SENTENCE.PROPERLY), why make the requirement, for apps to declare this, when they should have attempted to secure it, and rightly so on this front, on the bleeming OS level.............all apps would have this storage permission in android settings somewhere, and you'd simply allow or deny, on the *OS level* (record, meet hammer), much :silly:
Anyways, continuation, where was i, ah yes
",on the *OS level*",..... without having to alienate older apps with no prospects for an update
Sorry for offtopic, suspiciously rantish, like behaviour :silly:
Edit: and silly,.....yep.....silly............. i always forget that one (insert scratch head emoji)
To Recap
OS LEVEL
Razer naga works
I was able to get my razer naga to work with the shield you just have to make some adjustments to it first. You have to plug it in to your pc, install synapse, open synapse, go into the performance tab, change the dpi to 800 and the polling rate to 125 hz. The settings are saved on the device itself so you can simply plug the mouse in to the shield now and it works. You might be able to play around with dpi settings to see what works but I'm fairly certain the main issue is the polling rate. I'm going to mess around one of their keyboards to make sure it works too.