Extend GNex life by turning it to multimedia centre - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

My good old GNex comes is due to retire as I've just upgraded. However I thought I could extend it's life by turning it into media centre/Smart TV dongle.
I am thinking about plugging it permanently in my old-school pre-Smart TV plasma. There are 2 things I'd like to be able to do:
1) Have wireless control (either by PC or another Android device)
2) Be able to stream from my PC
Has anyone done something similar? Could you recommend any good software to do it?

[/COLOR]
rokfor2000 said:
My good old GNex comes is due to retire as I've just upgraded. However I thought I could extend it's life by turning it into media centre/Smart TV dongle.
I am thinking about plugging it permanently in my old-school pre-Smart TV plasma. There are 2 things I'd like to be able to do:
1) Have wireless control (either by PC or another Android device)
2) Be able to stream from my PC
Has anyone done something similar? Could you recommend any good software to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it have HDMI? If so:
1 - MHL Cable, Bluetooth Mouse & Keyboard, Wireless Joystick
2 - Plex For Android
3 - Android Game Emulators (GBA = Gameboid / NDS = DrAstik emulator / Sega genesis / PSX / Etc...)
4 - A really good charger for the MHL so the device doesn't run out of juice quickly enough.
5 - Also This app to turn off the screen cause you won't need it when you're on HDMI (HUGE Battery impact)
5 - Store all games on the phone, Use plex to manage media, Use a custom launcher to arrange stuff and lock the desktop.
6 - Maybe install some office apps or something?
7 - Voila, Now you have a Media/Gaming/Browsing/Productivity Center, For Cheap!
For more details check out : Lifehacker

Gonna give it a go. Thanks.
Is there any way of controlling it from another device. There is usually another phone and a laptop laying around my living room so getting another keyboard seems a bit redundant.

rokfor2000 said:
Gonna give it a go. Thanks.
Is there any way of controlling it from another device. There is usually another phone and a laptop laying around my living room so getting another keyboard seems a bit redundant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use TeamViewer (it'll drain much battery though) , Screenoff lite has a remote control option with the paid version.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I'm interested to hear your results as I will be retiring my gnex soon as well.

merid14 said:
I'm interested to hear your results as I will be retiring my gnex soon as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll let you know, there is slight delay as I dropped it and the screen cracked but it was still insured so I'm waiting for it to come back.

Related

[Q] Problem with picking up iControlpad on Bluez IME

Hi, I am using an HTC Droid Incredible with the Skyraider 4.0 Rom with HTC Sense. I know that HTC and Samsung Galaxy S devices are known for their notorious yet annoying, inconvenient, evil, ****ty bluetooth in their stock roms. The main reason why I'm keeping a Sense rom is because of the tv out cable (yay Netflix on the big screen!). I was on CM7 before, which I loved, except for the occasional reboot and the inability to use my tv out cable. I think since I can tether my phone to my laptop and I can get an HDMI cable, it probably won't be a big a deal, but its still nice to have to be able to see your phone scree on the tv screen, especially for gaming. But I'm more impressed with playing these games on the go with both my phone and my gamepad, which so far I had to take apart to get the D-pad working. I still have to get one more button working Not happy that they were careless since I forked over close to 100 dollars, which included shipping.
But onto the point. I tried upgrading my firmware on the unit, but it didn't show the part where it showed to put in the "1234" pin, but did everything else and it looked like it said it was updated. Even before then I was connected to Bluez IME before updating the firmware (supposedly). I was able to type out with the buttons, excluding the few that weren't working and I even configured it with the key mapping in SNesoid, but for God forsaken reason, it didn't do anything when I pushed the buttons. This is really weird and its making me mad I was looking forward to a better experience than this and it's frustrating. I just want to know if there's any solution at all, anything before flashing the CM7 backup again. If there's anyone out there with a problem like this with this phone or similar, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
By the way, I did post on the Pandora forums, but no one responded, not even Craigix or any of the other moderators so this is my only hope right now.
I'm having a similar problem with my SGT(p1010). BlueZ will say connecting in the notifications tray, and then the icp will time out and I get Error: failed to connect to socket. Any ideas anyone?
I believe in the booklet with the iControlPad says the way to do it is to hold Y down and then press and hold start along with Y. Make sure you updated the firmware too before you do anything. I'm loving my iControlPad. I don't have to sacrifice Sense and I can do all my old school gaming on my TV screen thanks to the TV out cable
Sent from my ADR6300 using xda premium

[Q] Remote control (VNC or other) for the Z1 Compact?

This may be a bit of a noob question, but I haven't found quite the answers I need when searching. It's also more of a general question than specific to the Z1C, but since that's the phone I have, I figured I'd post here.
Preface....I "killed" my Z1C two weeks ago by dropping it face down outdoors on rocky ground. Glass/LCD/capacitive touch are all shot. The phone still powers up and responds to ADB. The phone is rooted, but running the stock ROM and USB debugging is enabled.
I had since gotten everything off of the device via adb and just this week purchased the Z3C - amazing phone, btw - everything great from the Z1C and the few things I didn't like about the Z1C have been fixed (auto-rotate works, bigger screen).
So I'm left with the Z1C with a shot display and could probably sell it for 50 bucks on ebay, but I'm thinking that I'd like to put it to some better use given how good the hardware is.
I do a bit of car racing on tracks around here and normally use Harry's Lap Timer to log and video everything. I'm wondering if I could turn the Z1C into a dedicated track car logger and control it from another android device to start/stop logging and do whatever other things I need.
That brings me to...is VNC the right approach for something like this? Am I going to run into issues with not being able to respond to root requests (and whatever other prompts) on the screen? Are there better alternatives to VNC that work over bluetooth (so wifi can stay off)?
Thanks much everyone.
petik said:
Am I going to run into issues with not being able to respond to root requests (and whatever other prompts) on the screen? Are there better alternatives to VNC that work over bluetooth (so wifi can stay off)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe use USB.
There is TeamViewer but I don't know if it will work without WiFi.

Can you offer a run down on what I should do with my new 10.5?

So, I just found out my girl got me a Tab S 10.5 for Valentine's Day (best girlfriend EVER!).
She got me the SM-T800NTSEXAR, which is the 32GB version from Best Buy. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-galaxy-tab-s-10-5-32gb-titanium-bronze/7093009.p
I am coming from an iPad, which I use to watch movies on, use Alien Blue to read Reddit, play light games on, and read comics and books. I plan to retire this iPad, and use suitable Android apps to replicate my use.
I also have a Note 4. for my everyday phone I will use DataSync to replicate my saved games that Google doesn't mirror automatically (I play mostly Arc: Redux, Sky Force, Zombie Gunship, and Galaxy On Fire 2 HD), MightySMS Tablet (to send SMS from my tablet to my phone), SideSync to actually view my phone screen, Google Books to read ebooks (I wish they allowed folders in that app), and MX Player to view my 1080p MKVs. Oh, and I am using Nova Prime as my launcher and Google Chrome Remote Desktop to RDP into my home server.
I purchased a 128GB microSD to save all the movies and comic (CBR) to (I still have to figure out which comic viewer to use, that allows you to read comics easily off external SD).
Lastly, I have to figure out what is the best method to wirelessly tether from my T-Mobile Note 4 (rooted and ROM'd) using my unlimited data plan, and not my tether plan.
What my question for you fine folk, is which ROM would you guys recommend to use off the bat for this model Tab S? I want to keep it TouchWiz so I don't lose any features like multiwindow, so no Cyangenmod.
Also, any apps or other suggestions you may have?
The rom I would recommend is Iron rom. It has all the touchwiz features and all that. Its smooth and way better than stock. It can also help with battery life (if you tweak the kernel).
Some apps I would suggest is titanium backup for backing up app data on your internal storage or sd card. Another app I would use is greenify. It can hibernate apps that open for no reason which can also save battery. Other than that, I dont know any other apps.
Enjoy your tablet!
Sidesync is a great addition for Samsung devices. I also have the Tab s 10.5 and Note 4 and use both all the time. Its nice to use the tablet to send and receive text messages when away from the phone, like in the kitchen, cooking.... I can only recommend the stock roms, and the newest one from Sam Mobile (T800 - firmwares) which is from Hong Kong (Most are multilingual) and its been the best one so far. I can idle this tablet for days or perhaps weeks and not lose crazy battery. Of course you'll need root (please, with the Knox warranty hardware repair fable...) since Samsung likes to improve the user experience by having dozens and dozens of applications running leading to the lag some mention.
Mine usually has like 5-6 apps running making the tablet insane with no lag and a beautiful screen. I'm using this thing like mission control! Its a remote, I have a Plex server so I can view and stream movies to my various devices around the house (Chromecasts, WD Lives, Samsung TVs), playing music and games, surfing the web, and an excellent book reader (check out Moon Reader Pro)... Oh also my shopping lists (Out of Milk) synced across devices when out in the field. Its a great tablet if you know what your doing with it, and take the time to tweak it a little. And Lollipop is coming soon......
Itchiee said:
Sidesync is a great addition for Samsung devices. I also have the Tab s 10.5 and Note 4 and use both all the time. Its nice to use the tablet to send and receive text messages when away from the phone, like in the kitchen, cooking.... I can only recommend the stock roms, and the newest one from Sam Mobile (T800 - firmwares) which is from Hong Kong (Most are multilingual) and its been the best one so far. I can idle this tablet for days or perhaps weeks and not lose crazy battery. Of course you'll need root (please, with the Knox warranty hardware repair fable...) since Samsung likes to improve the user experience by having dozens and dozens of applications running leading to the lag some mention.
Mine usually has like 5-6 apps running making the tablet insane with no lag and a beautiful screen. I'm using this thing like mission control! Its a remote, I have a Plex server so I can view and stream movies to my various devices around the house (Chromecasts, WD Lives, Samsung TVs), playing music and games, surfing the web, and an excellent book reader (check out Moon Reader Pro)... Oh also my shopping lists (Out of Milk) synced across devices when out in the field. Its a great tablet if you know what your doing with it, and take the time to tweak it a little. And Lollipop is coming soon......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice. I have a Plex server as well (I have 84TB in my server at my place), but will also copy movies to the external SD so I don't kill the battery.
How bad is the battery drain using SideSync? For the phone and the tablet?
Are you using the Note 4 as a wireless tether for LTE data when you are out? If yes, how bad is the battery drain? What software are you using for that tether?
Does Moon Reader Pro put books that are in a collection in 1 folder? Say I have a bunch of Tom Clancy books, can I put them in order in a folder? (this is one of the things Google Books doesnt allow you to do)
Thanks again.
Moon reader has a file manager so you can put them anywhere. I don't usually carry my tablet around outside, but I can tether from my Note 4 to the tablet if needed (Galaxy Tools v3.0.4). Sidesync creates a WiFi direct network between your phone and tablet so it can drain, but the phone takes a bigger hit then the tablet.
Also you'll never find a better case then the Samsung Tab S Book Cover (You can find a deal on them from time to time)... I've had many tablets with various cases and none were even close... Its nicely textured, closes completely, has 3 different angles, and access to all ports and buttons, without much additional weight.
Itchiee said:
Moon reader has a file manager so you can put them anywhere. I don't usually carry my tablet around outside, but I can tether from my Note 4 to the tablet if needed (Galaxy Tools v3.0.4). Sidesync creates a WiFi direct network between your phone and tablet so it can drain, but the phone takes a bigger hit then the tablet.
Also you'll never find a better case then the Samsung Tab S Book Cover (You can find a deal on them from time to time)... I've had many tablets with various cases and none were even close... Its nicely textured, closes completely, has 3 different angles, and access to all ports and buttons, without much additional weight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you link Galaxy Tools? I am finding too many other apps on Google with the same name
Its in our own forum!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/not.../app-one-click-hotspot-enabler-menus-t2816159
Although it might be limited to Sprint devices, the creator proclaims "IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER CARRIER PLEASE MSG ME TO ADD SUPPORT!"
So there's that then....
Itchiee said:
Its in our own forum!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/not.../app-one-click-hotspot-enabler-menus-t2816159
Although it might be limited to Sprint devices, the creator proclaims "IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER CARRIER PLEASE MSG ME TO ADD SUPPORT!"
So there's that then....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is for Sprint only. But thanks.
Wrong thread
EvanWasHere said:
I am coming from an iPad, which I use to watch movies on, use Alien Blue to read Reddit, play light games on, and read comics and books. I plan to retire this iPad, and use suitable Android apps to replicate my use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give Reddit News a try. It is about the best Reddit app for tablets.
Earth&Moon Pro is a cool 3D live wallpaper. I usually get a "wow" when people see it.
nicholb said:
Give Reddit News a try. It is about the best Reddit app for tablets.
Earth&Moon Pro is a cool 3D live wallpaper. I usually get a "wow" when people see it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Reddit is fun, Reddit News, Reddit Now, Reddot Sync, Red Reader Beta, Bacon Reader, Flow, and Pro Reader for Reddit all on my phone. Still haven't picked a favorite yet... Need to get used to something different after spending thousands of (wasted) hours on Alien Blue on my iPad.
As for wallpapers, I have Tornado 3D on my Note 4.. I can't wait to see it on my tablet https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxelus.tornadolivewallpaper&hl=en
But I will try Earth&Moon as well as Reddit News. Thanks!
LOVING the tablet. So much faster than my iPad 4.. Screen is crisp... music sounds louder (due to the 2 side speakers).. and soo much lighter.
As of right now, I am using stock ROM and Reddit News for Reddit. My girl is spending the weekend, so no time to nerd out and root and get my tablet totally customized.
One issue though, is the soft keys. When viewing Reddit or on websites, we always use it portrait style.. Every time my girl uses it, she hits the soft keys with her finger. Because of this she has decided she does not like the tablet (which is great as this means she wont keep grabbing it out of my hands..lol).. but this is an issue.
I saw this for disabling the softkeys and using on screen keys http://forum.xda-developers.com/gal...-disable-softkeys-enable-navbar-root-t2803900 But I am hoping someone has figured on how to disable the keys when it is portrait and re-enable when it is landscape, which makes a lot more sense.
Wrong thread
Rooted and installed IronRom last night.. then used Titanium to restore apps and data from my phone to my tablet. It is working GREAT.
One thing I should mention, is that I thought the wifi in my apartment sucked because of my iPad low wireless speed. In my bedroom, I would only get 1MB-2MB of speed., so I installed a repeater, and only got 10MB-20MB using that. Now with this tablet, I consistently get 20MB speed WITHOUT using the repeater. My 1750AC wireless router just arrived today, and I can't wait to see the speed I get with that.
One more question.. I've had two "crashes" so far. Once when closing tabs on Samsung Web Browser and once when closing a game. The screen just hung for 1-2 minutes (with the game, the game play sound kept going). I tried hitting the menu key, the power key, etc but nothing happened. Finally after the 1-2 min, the screen and menu's would pop up really fast as they finally caught up to my button mashing. I was playing the game during a break and when an associate came by, i hit the home button to get out of the game, and the fact that the sound kept playing, and I couldnt kill it, was not great.. and I couldnt lower the sound volume either. Is there a control-alt-del similar button sequence on this tablet so I can kill anything running?
EvanWasHere said:
Rooted and installed IronRom last night.. then used Titanium to restore apps and data from my phone to my tablet. It is working GREAT.
One thing I should mention, is that I thought the wifi in my apartment sucked because of my iPad low wireless speed. In my bedroom, I would only get 1MB-2MB of speed., so I installed a repeater, and only got 10MB-20MB using that. Now with this tablet, I consistently get 20MB speed WITHOUT using the repeater. My 1750AC wireless router just arrived today, and I can't wait to see the speed I get with that.
One more question.. I've had two "crashes" so far. Once when closing tabs on Samsung Web Browser and once when closing a game. The screen just hung for 1-2 minutes (with the game, the game play sound kept going). I tried hitting the menu key, the power key, etc but nothing happened. Finally after the 1-2 min, the screen and menu's would pop up really fast as they finally caught up to my button mashing. I was playing the game during a break and when an associate came by, i hit the home button to get out of the game, and the fact that the sound kept playing, and I couldnt kill it, was not great.. and I couldnt lower the sound volume either. Is there a control-alt-del similar button sequence on this tablet so I can kill anything running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hold Power,home,volume up and down buttons at the same time for about 20 seconds. Then it should force a reboot and not run the game.
EvanWasHere said:
Rooted and installed IronRom last night.. then used Titanium to restore apps and data from my phone to my tablet. It is working GREAT.
One thing I should mention, is that I thought the wifi in my apartment sucked because of my iPad low wireless speed. In my bedroom, I would only get 1MB-2MB of speed., so I installed a repeater, and only got 10MB-20MB using that. Now with this tablet, I consistently get 20MB speed WITHOUT using the repeater. My 1750AC wireless router just arrived today, and I can't wait to see the speed I get with that.
One more question.. I've had two "crashes" so far. Once when closing tabs on Samsung Web Browser and once when closing a game. The screen just hung for 1-2 minutes (with the game, the game play sound kept going). I tried hitting the menu key, the power key, etc but nothing happened. Finally after the 1-2 min, the screen and menu's would pop up really fast as they finally caught up to my button mashing. I was playing the game during a break and when an associate came by, i hit the home button to get out of the game, and the fact that the sound kept playing, and I couldnt kill it, was not great.. and I couldnt lower the sound volume either. Is there a control-alt-del similar button sequence on this tablet so I can kill anything running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you do a clean flash or dirty flash?
Comic rack hands down best comic viewer and also get MxPlayerPro to replace the stock movie viewer. You can thank me later
uf21 said:
Did you do a clean flash or dirty flash?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a clean flash.
The tablet is running amazing. Only having 3 issues.
1.) The keyboard that came with Iron Rom from the Note Pro, when typing in emails, would not show suggested words, and auto suggest itself the wrong words constantly. I fixed this by installing Google keyboard.
2.) I set the tablet to use my AC wifi in my house. Using SpeedTest.net app, I successfully tested my speed to hit 150Mb/150Mb (the max of my Verizon FIOS speed). But for some reason (and of course when I was showing it off to a friend), when I tested it, the max speed I could achieve was 20/20. I disabled the 2.4Ghz and made sure the 5.8Ghz was the only one on, changed the channel, etc.. nothing worked. Only when I rebooted the tablet, did I have no issue. This has so far not repeated, but I am not continuously testing my network speed either.
3.) I've had another freeze up. Doing the vol up/down menu and power button reset the tablet. This is the third time this happened.. At first it gets really slow.. my animated wallpaper slows to a crawl or completely stops, and then the buttons stop working. I've installed a CPU task monitor app so I can see what is eating the CPU at that moment as well as a catlog app so I can log it. I have a LOT of apps installed (that I Titaniumed over from my Note 4), so this could be the fault of one of the apps and not the ROM or hardware of the Tab S.
Even with the 3 issues above, I consider this tablet 5 stars and think it is MUCH better than the iPad it replaced. I will try and make a video later of what I can do with it, especially against the iPad. The ONLY concern I have is if Samsung announces their new tablet on March 1st, so I am keeping the receipt in case of that.
Ccieslin said:
Comic rack hands down best comic viewer and also get MxPlayerPro to replace the stock movie viewer. You can thank me later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. Using both.. But thanks!
Wrong thread

Azpen Hybrx A1160 Remix OS 2.0 laptop discussions

Just wanted to start a thread to discuss this device. For those not familiar with it, it's a very inexpensive 11.6" laptop that runs RemixOS 2.0 from the factory. It does NOT have a touchscreen and the display is a low resolution (1366x768) TN panel display. The CPU is an Allwinner A64 Cortex A53 quad-core 64-bit processor.
The device I purchased (via their Kickstarter campaign) has 2gb RAM and 32gb storage - and it costs me $89.
Some interesting things I've found so far...
1. To disable the damn "click" sound every time you select something (via the touchpad or a mouse), download the QuickShortcutMaker application from the play store. Then expand the Settings items under the Activities section and find the "Other Sounds" activity. Once you click on the Other Sounds activity, click on "Try" on the right-hand side - this will open the "Other Sounds" dialog where you disable "Touch Sounds"! You can also disable some other sounds here. No idea why Remix doesn't allow access to these sound options. Explore the other Settings activities - there are some other cool things you can do. I also used this app to create "Shortcuts" to specific forums in Tapatalk (something that you do via widgets in standard Android). This QuickShortcutMaker app is pretty damn useful on this device!
2. I've found that I was able to connect my Apple USB->Ethernet adapter to this device and it works! However, it doesn't seem to work with ALL apps. For example, Tapatalk doesn't work with it for some reason - but so far, every other app has worked. You can also access ethernet settings via the QuickShortcutMaker app mentioned above.
3. Enable "Experimental Features" by clicking on the "Kernel Version" section of Settings->About. Once you do this, enable the "Use mouse wheel to simulate swipe gesture". This allows you to zoom in and out of things like web pages, images, etc. To do this, hold down CTRL+ALT while moving the mouse wheel. Apparently, the touchpad on this device does NOT provide pinch-to-zoom functionality, so without this setting, there is no way to zoom in and out in most apps! Kind of a big issue! Unless there is another way that I just don't know about. I know you can CTRL- and CTRL+ to zoom in and out in web pages, but that really just increases the size of the text - not really a true zoom in/out.
4. Gmail app. If you open the Gmail app as a window, you don't get the "split-screen" that you get if you open the app in full screen. But if you open in as a full-screen window and then "restore" it to a smaller window, the split-sceen function still works. I usually just leave Gmail minimized in order to keep the split-screen function active for Gmail.
5. Sometimes, the screen comes back on if you put the device into standby with the power button and then close the lid. I haven't been able to find the exact circumstances where the screen comes back on when closed, but it seems that when it does come on when it's closed, it stays on! Need to figure out why this occurs..
6. Bottom of device gets REALLY hot after any extended use. May be a long-term issue...
7. By default, wifi is set to turn off when in standby (unlike tablets) - unless the device is plugged in - then wifi will stay on. This can all be changed under Settings->Wifi->Advanced. I actually set mine to always turn wifi off when in standby since it seems that the device doesn't actually work while in standby anyway (again, unlike tablets). May help avoid wifi failure over the long-term.
8. I have run into websites (such as microcenter.com) where when you open a drop-down list, there is no way to "scroll" the list if it goes off the screen. To see what I mean, go to microcenter.com and try to set the store location - it opens a drop-down list that goes off the screen and there is no way to scroll down in the list! The "work-around" is to use the down arrow key, but it doesn't work very well (web page wants to update every time you press the down arrow)....
That's about it off the top of my head... It's a shame that this device cannot upgrade to RemixOS 3.0, like was stated in the kickstarted campaign (and later "retracted").
Anyone know how to root this thing?
It's an interesting device for the cost, but what I *really* want is a similar, large'ish device with a higher-quality, higher-resolution touchscreen that is removable from the keyboard - with at least 2gb of RAM (10" and 1gb of RAM isn't enough for RemixOS!) and runs RemixOS 3.0 - so far, I can't seem to find such a device...
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
I got the same model 2GB w/32GB storage. Do you or anyone know how to get it to charge and or power on. Mine only worked for 2 days, now nothing. I contacted Azpen over a week ago about it and still haven't heard from them. Please help.
Cerealius said:
I got the same model 2GB w/32GB storage. Do you or anyone know how to get it to charge and or power on. Mine only worked for 2 days, now nothing. I contacted Azpen over a week ago about it and still haven't heard from them. Please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just plugged mine in and it charged fine (blue LED next to charging port turns on when charging and turns off when fully charged).
To turn mine on, I just held down the power button on the keyboard for a while... You can also fully power it off that way as well (if it gets hung or something, which I have managed to do a few times now).
I've *really* put this thing through it's paces over the last few days. Overall, it's a decent device for the price. Personally, I'd rather spend a little more for one with a better, higher-res, removable touchscreen though.
I also have a HP Slatebook 10 x2 - and it's a great device, but stuck on Android 4. Otherwise, it has a MUCH nicer, removable touchscreen and even an extra battery in the keyboard (that charges the tablet when attached). Just wish it was a little bigger (13" or so) and was running Remix OS.
But, for $89, I can't complain, my A1160 actually runs pretty well for what it is...Luckily, I haven't had any issues with mine.
Sent from my HP SlateBook 10 x2 PC using Tapatalk
Hello...
@jtrosky, thanks for starting this thread, i've already gotten something out of it... getting rid of that damn clicking every keypress.
It was also nice to find that quickshortcutmaker, thats really a cool app that seems to allow more access than I could find...
Everyone else, hello!
I am an PC user since 84' and an Apple iPad user since, well the day the ipad 2 came out and now I'm on the iPad now. The only reason I say any of this is because the reason I got this Azpen A1160 was to help learn a bit about android and linux. I would also like to figure out how to get to the root...
Knock on wood but I got this three days ago and have literally beaten the software out of it loading, looking, deleting, and I thought I had screwed it up several times but it just keeps on ticking. The back does get a little warm, I haven't actually measured it yet but I'm going to, but I dont think it's too bad. I've run six full charges on battery and worked on it plugged in. (which it doesn't seem to like)
I'm happy with it right now and I think its going be a fun ride. I bet this is going to be a fun place to be in the next couple of months...
Buddy
Oh - one more thing I found out - and this may be well known already for those more familiar with RemixOS. If you click and hold on the little icons on the bottom-right of the taskbar, you can move them around. So, for example, you can make it so the brightness, volume, bluetooth and wifi icons are always visible, even when that section is "collapsed"...
Also - I *love* having the key to disable the touchpad (the key next to the arrow keys). Since I usually use a bluetooth mouse, it's so nice being able to disable the trackpad so quickly and easily!
Oh - and the Prtscr button on the keyboard brings up the very cool screen capture tool, which let's you select what area of the screen to capture. Very handy tool!
Still not sure what the "Pausc" button does - I'm assuming it's actually a misprint and it's supposed to say "Pause". Gotta love cheap electronics that are made in China!
So far, this device is definitely working well for me. Although, I'm not so sure the screen is big enough to truly take advantage of the RemixOS windowing capabilities... But, it's still better than not having any windowing capabilities.
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
One more quick tip - there are apps out there that will let you boost the volume of the device. Right now, I'm using Music Volume EQ to boost the volume, but there are probably better apps out there for this purpose... Will explore more later and post an update if I find a better app.
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
Hello guys, thank you for creating this thread.
Did anyone have any issue by setting up a password for the lock screen?
I did, and it worked for a couple of times, then it started not to recognize the password (password was correct, no caps lock...). Of course it didn't work after reboot as well.
The only option was to remotely reset the device using the google's tool from another pc. Very annoying. Since then never tried to set another security system for the screen lock.
I'm also getting an a problem after turning off the screen: when I try to turn it on again, most of the time I get a blank screen. I have to try several times to get back to remix os.
Did anyone faced this issue as well?
Regards
sephitoor said:
Hello guys, thank you for creating this thread.
Did anyone have any issue by setting up a password for the lock screen?
I did, and it worked for a couple of times, then it started not to recognize the password (password was correct, no caps lock...). Of course it didn't work after reboot as well.
The only option was to remotely reset the device using the google's tool from another pc. Very annoying. Since then never tried to set another security system for the screen lock.
I'm also getting an a problem after turning off the screen: when I try to turn it on again, most of the time I get a blank screen. I have to try several times to get back to remix os.
Did anyone faced this issue as well?
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have not tried setting up the lock screen (I just leave mine unlocked). And no, I have not had any issues with a blank screen when turning the device back up. What's strange is that the device does not automatically turn on when opening the screen - at least not on my device - I have to press the power button.
Your issues are probably because of the poor quality control with these device. Somehow, I lucked out and got a "good one", but many people seem to be having build-quality issues with them...
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
Great posts and many thanks to the OP.
I got a US 2 pin power plug instead of a UK plug. Does anyone know of a similar products power lead that will fit our A1160?
Need help...
Hi,
First, thanks for creating this thread and posting your tips. Obviously there are not a lot of people using this device yet so it is great to find useful info on it.
Since there is no known root solution yet, I tried installing NetGuard as an adbllocking solution that does not require root. I have used it before without any issues. Unfortunately, on the Azpen, every time that I enable it, it blocks all internet access (it is obviously not supposed to do that). I even tried alternative apps like AdClear and got the exact same result. There is something strange going on with the Azpen. I would really appreciate it if anyone had any pointers as to how I could resolve this.
Thanks...
Welp! I had much higher hopes for this device and I haven't even received mine yet! Will this be rootable?
Thanks for creating this, used both your sound clicking tip and the pinch to zoom in. A bit annoying having your fingers in multiple place to zoom in, but what can you do? I'm a college student and have found that I can't access the net with this device due to it's mac address changing each time. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this or if mine is the only one. Just thought I would share that.
HyugaSho said:
Thanks for creating this, used both your sound clicking tip and the pinch to zoom in. A bit annoying having your fingers in multiple place to zoom in, but what can you do? I'm a college student and have found that I can't access the net with this device due to it's mac address changing each time. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this or if mine is the only one. Just thought I would share that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is *really* interesting! Sure enough, if I disable and re-enable the wifi, the MAC address does change!! That makes absolutely no sense - I've never seen such a thing!
I'll look into that a little more - but without root, I doubt there is anything that can be done about it. So strange!
One possible option - set wifi to stay enabled all of the time - maybe that way the MAC will stay the same. You can set that in the wifi settings advanced options. I've found that you have to reboot after setting it to always stay active....
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
So far I have been impressed for the cost of this unit. I have a few concerns and wanted to see if anyone had input:
1. Since the length of the power chord is so short. Is it possible to use a USB to Barrel jack type of adapter to power this? That way you can attach to a portable power bank?
2. battery power, I find it to not last that long and I find it takes forever to charge. I thought that this would last 5-7 hours unplugged, nope. It was supposed to charge within in a hour, nope. Any ideas on this?
I use an external mouse and click on the trackpad disable button. I find it much easier to use the computer when typing.
I'm looking at Pinebook, a notebook having the same AllWinner processor (CortexA53).
It seems this notebook can run all OSs suppoted by Pine64, such as Android, some linux distro, Windows IOT and they are working on a Chroimum porting (try to have a look at the pin64 forum).
Do you think it would be possible to do the same with A1160 ?
Another solution could be PhoenixOs (as pointed out in some comment on Kickstarter).
There are already some devices with CortexA53 processor running PhoenixOS out of the box.
I honestly don't know what OS's can be ported over to this device yet. I have a feeling that it's never going to have a huge user base though, so I wouldn't expect much from the developers out there.
Now that Chromebooks can run Android apps, this device just isn't quite as interesting as it once was. Basically, you can now get an inexpensive, *high quality* Chromebook and still have most of the advantages of this device, plus the high quality and frequent updates part.
To be completely honest, I have very low expectations for this device in the long-term. With how hot it gets after any real usage, I expect the mainboard to fail in short order. We'll see. Although, so far, I've really been using it pretty heavily and it does seem to be holding up, but it's only been about a week....
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
Something else I recently noticed - and this may already be a well-known thing with RemixOS... If you close an app by clicking the back arrow on the top-left of the window, you continue to get notifications for that app. But if you close it by clicking the "X" in the top-right of the window, it seems to completely the kill the process and you no longer receive notifications (or if it's an app that stays around and puts a "permanent" notification in the notification tray, the "x" seems to completely stop the app as well and removes its notification item).
At least that's what seems to happen...
Also noticed that even if you setup wifi to stay active even with power off, the unit eventually goes into a "deep sleep" where you will no longer get new email notifications, etc. It even seems to turn wifi off after a while (even though it's set to stay on all of the time).
Lastly, if you have an external mouse connected, close the laptop lid and then move the mouse, it turns the screen back on - even while closed!
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
Hi All,
Saw this in the comments and thought I would chip in with my experience so far.
I got the 64GB version and so far it is the computer I have paid for.
The track pad as everyone said is very crappy, but I just use an external mouse instead so its not a big problem.
I seem to have a good unit and don't have any problems with the unit.
My only gripe is that the battery kinda sucks and after using it intensive for like 3-4 hrs, it will have almost no battery. I wish it came with my UK adapter instead of the US one, but its okay.
Furthermore, is there anyway to put widgets on it? or Use another launcher?
Has anyone tried to root it or tried to install another OS on top of it? I heard that PhoenixOs is possible?
MindlessManiacs said:
Hi All,
The track pad as everyone said is very crappy, but I just use an external mouse instead so its not a big problem.
Furthermore, is there anyway to put widgets on it? or Use another launcher?
Has anyone tried to root it or tried to install another OS on top of it? I heard that PhoenixOs is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For what it's worth, my trackpad actually works really well. I was surprised to read all of the complaints about it. I'm guessing that a lot of them are defective?
Regarding the widgets, no - there is no way to use Widgets in Remix OS 2.0 (not sure about 3.0), which is a huge limitation. Widgets are one of the things that make Android so powerful - and I miss them big time in Remix OS...
I too would like to know if there is a way to load PhoenixOS on this device. I thought I saw it mentioned somewhere that it would be possible (maybe one of the updates on Kickstarter?). I will see if I can email Azpen about this. RemixOS 2.0 is really good, but not quite "finished" in my opinion...
Sent from my A1160 using Tapatalk
Hi! Does somebody receive a blank white screen when laptop booting or waking up?
Every time when I push power button I get a blank white screen... How I can fix it?

Re-purposing an N7 as a "smart display"

With the announcement of google assistant "smart displays" at CES I thought well I have my N7 that I find myself using less and less (reading ebooks, some content consumption and some social media) maybe I can use the nexus as a smart display?
Short of flashing a Android Things OS (which as far as I know isn't an option) how can I set it up to best suit my needs?
So wiped and flashed stock 6.0.1 haven't rooted shouldn't need to and going to try and install as little as possible as it's showing it's age perfwise.
I've enabled Google Assistant and granted it isn't using far field microphones it'll be next to my bed so I can't see it being a huge issue.
One of the annoyances is that assistant defaults to a portrait mode while I'd like it to remain in landscape any ideas?
I'll have it plugged to power in with either a lockscreen showing just the bare necessities or dimming the display to as low as possible. May want to keep it as an always on display what's the burn in situation on the screen?
Audio will either be a 3.5mm to an old speaker or default audio out to a chromecast audio.
Also looking for any nice widgets that could be useful for a smart display?
Or any other ideas or thoughts?
thx
Maybe instead of having it plugged in all the time, just use wireless charging. Yes, it is slower, but it would make it easy to grab from a night stand. I have thought the same thing as you when I heard about the "smart displays". I'm on Lineage OS 14 with Nova Launcher. It runs really well for being 5 years old.
I bought the official dock from Asus in Amazon (Warehouse return). I use Daydream as a screensaver. Only negative so far is that it responds in portrait mode when giving it voice commands. It picks up my voice better than I thought it would. I wish there was a way to have the assistant screen up all the time with a screensaver when idle. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it.
I'm setting-up HADashboard (a Dashboard interface for Home-Assisant) on a couple of Nexus 7 2013's through the house, with the wireless charging in the wall and a removable printed wall mount. I'm currently searching for the right apps / rom. I'm currently running stock with WallPanel running.
casefan7 said:
I'm setting-up HADashboard (a Dashboard interface for Home-Assisant) on a couple of Nexus 7 2013's through the house, with the wireless charging in the wall and a removable printed wall mount. I'm currently searching for the right apps / rom. I'm currently running stock with WallPanel running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HADashboard seems interesting. Can you expand on your WallPanel solution ? Perhaps a screenshot ?
I've been trying a few things to use as an always on home screen. I settled on using Android Auto as a nice clean interface. The issue I have is that the tablet is either rebooting after a short while or the app is crashing and is leaving the tablet on the home screen. I'm still using the latest stock image build from Google. It seems to be doing the same thing with most apps that I've used as either a Daydream screensaver or an always on app. Not sure if this is because of marshmallow or just that the tablet can't handle keeping an app running all day.
Now that there are real devices available, has anyone looked if it is possible to port or or use old tablet as smart display device like Jbl Link View etc?
Interested in this. Is there a way to convert a Nexus 7 (2013) to a Google Home View?
Ditto to finding this. Has anyone been able to perform a system dump?
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