Database Develop

Nook Color impressions

ADB will not connect via USB.
No ports open on the device, so no connecting ADB over IP (I have seen this work on the Maylong M-150 (Walgreens) tablet.)
Browser sends HTTP User-Agent:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_5_7;en-us) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17
I have tested the factory reset button combination, it is valid. Hold Volume+ and Nook and Power, while the device is turned off.
WiFi options are rudimentary. There is no support for proxy in network settings, additionally, after receiving an IP address from DHCP, the device appears to connect to a website to verify connectivity. If you have a captive portal network setup (where HTTP outgoing requests are redirected to a login page), then the verification process will just hang. You will be unable to go anywhere using the included browser. After several minutes, the verification process will fail, and then you may be able to connect to the captive portal using the web browser. This is discussed on page 56 of the Nook Color user guide.
Would it be helpful to anyone to include the open source libraries that the device includes (under Legal Notices). I don't know if it is helpful to know what libraries are included (or omitted) compared to a conventional Android device?

Additionally, some notes on the MicroUSB connector. It is proprietary.
* It will sync, but not charge, when connected to my PC desktop's USB (wattage unknown.)
* An ordinary MicroUSB will sync, but not charge, when connected to PC.
* I left the included 120VAC-to-USB transformer at the office, so I do not know the listed wattage.
* The nook cable will charge the device when connected to my Moto Droid1 120VAC-to-USB.
* An ordinary MicroUSB will not charge the device when connect to the Moto Droid1 120VAC-to-USB transformer.
* Finally, the Nook cable will not fit in my Moto Droid1. Therefore it will not charge or sync. Careful examination of the Nook cable shows that the metal trapezoid connector is slightly longer, and appears to have additional pins. 12, in addition to the 5 conventional pins. I cannot tell by observation whether the receptacle within the nook makes contact with these pins.

phiz said:
Additionally, some notes on the MicroUSB connector. It is proprietary.
* It will sync, but not charge, when connected to my PC desktop's USB (wattage unknown.)
* An ordinary MicroUSB will sync, but not charge, when connected to PC.
* I left the included 120VAC-to-USB transformer at the office, so I do not know the listed wattage.
* The nook cable will charge the device when connected to my Moto Droid1 120VAC-to-USB.
* An ordinary MicroUSB will not charge the device when connect to the Moto Droid1 120VAC-to-USB transformer.
* Finally, the Nook cable will not fit in my Moto Droid1. Therefore it will not charge or sync. Careful examination of the Nook cable shows that the metal trapezoid connector is slightly longer, and appears to have additional pins. 12, in addition to the 5 conventional pins. I cannot tell by observation whether the receptacle within the nook makes contact with these pins.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
* Mine is charging off my Dell monitor using the Nook USB cable.
* Charger is 5V - 1.9A.

I've read everywhere that the USB cable can't charge over the PC. It even says it in the manual, but it charges just fine connected to my computer. It takes forever though and the light never turns solid green. But the battery percentage still increases to 100%.
Motherboard is a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P if anyone's curious.

The micro usb has two extra pins so that it will quickcharge using the ac adapter. If connected to a computer and the screen is on it does not pull enough to charge the device but with screen off it will. One of the techs said that on the b&n forums.

So as far as rooting this thing, it seems apparent that there are three attack vectors.
* If device checks MicroSD on bootup for updates.
* Userland exploit, loading a file, going to a URL, Wifi Protocol stuff etc. Perhaps in the PDF libraries? (Note, because of sand-boxing this may not lead directly to full root, but it may allowing running of other software that would be useful for reconnaissance on the device.)
* Wait for Nook SDK to come out, and use the increased access to the device to compromise it.
The device is frustrating to use as is. Not because of any major design flaws, but because of the untapped potential. Like, I would love to have DropBox to ease file management. And the browser is left wanting (it reports as Mac OSX, and does not render some pages well (Google reader is wholly unusable.)
I'm considering returning it. It has so much potential, but I'm expecting the quality of the Chinese knockoff android tablets to continue to improve.

charges perfectly fine off my 10 watt panasonic wall adapter with an oem micro usb. says it's not charging but it went from 93 to 100 in ~10 minutes while i was using it.
there was a good bit of stutter when registering my device. i had to tap multiple times to switch b/t numbers and letter input. sometimes i had to tap the character multiple times for it to register.
i agree though, this is the sweetest tablet next to the galaxy tab and iphone hardware wise. too bad it's locked down right now.
just like all the cheap-o android tabs, this one does have soft back and menu buttons. if you click the book icon at the bottom the back and menu buttons are there. the home, volumes, and power buttons are the only physical buttons. no search button, but i rarely use in on any of my other android devices.
video playback is horrid! all my mp4 will play but choppy. even streaming was crappy. i tried youtube mobile with no videos being able to be played. madthumbs (nsfw!) worked but so stuttery it made it unfappable.
NM reboot fixed everything. my ripped videos and stuff downloaded with videodownload helper play fine now. able to watch some kung fu treachery on the beautiful screen.

the little book icon (read it now) at the bottom doesn't seem to bring up the menu and back buttons anymore. now it just takes me to the last read book on the homepage. i'd rather have the back and menu buttons back.

The charging connector has too many pins for just charge control. I counted 12 extra pins over the 5 standard USB, but it's tiny enough that I could've skipped one. I'm sure that two are used for controlling the LED in the connector shell, one is probably used as a cable identifier, leaving 9 unknowns.
My guesses:
-OMAP boot mode (MMC boot, select pins (1-2)
-serial (2)
-JTAG (4 or 5)
-audio (2-3)
I thought that extra current capacity could account for all the rest, but why spend on what I'm guessing is not a cheap connector just to bus all those tiny pins together?
Anyway, I tried to buy a second charge/sync cable to dissect today but my local store only had cases and screen protectors in stock. The connector has all pins populated so I'm hoping I can break them out and start probing for a bootloader on serial. Hopefully iFixit will get a teardown done soon and we can get a good look at the parts.

seem like there's bug in that read it now button.
to get the menu and back buttons back you need to open a pdf on you sd card. then for some reason you get you back and menu buttons when you hit the read it now.
this is helpful in that with the menu button you can now have a forward button for web browsing, refresh and you can go back without scrolling all the way to the top.

pokey9000 said:
The charging connector has too many pins for just charge control. I counted 12 extra pins over the 5 standard USB, but it's tiny enough that I could've skipped one. I'm sure that two are used for controlling the LED in the connector shell, one is probably used as a cable identifier, leaving 9 unknowns.
Anyway, I tried to buy a second charge/sync cable to dissect today but my local store only had cases and screen protectors in stock. The connector has all pins populated so I'm hoping I can break them out and start probing for a bootloader on serial. Hopefully iFixit will get a teardown done soon and we can get a good look at the parts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want them to look into the additional pin issues. See this: meta ifixit com/View/1108/Nook+Color+Teardown+Request
You know, while they're in there.

madsquabbles said:
video playback is horrid! all my mp4 will play but choppy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problems with MP4/M4V playback here. I used the newest handbrake and selected the iPod touch preset to start with.
What I changed:
Picture Tab:
- Width -> 848
- Anamorphic -> Loose
Video Tab
- Framerate -> 23.976
- Constant Quality -> 59.31%
Audio Tab
- Mixdown -> Stereo (Maybe Pro Logic II will work?)
Chapters Tab
- Unchecked "Create Chapter Markers"
My source video was a 1080p MKV with AC3 audio. It looks gorgeous even though it's actually sized smaller than the full res of the screen (NookColor won't play MP4/M4V wider than 854).
I'm playing this off a Class 2 SD card and I didn't notice any choppiness.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but do you guys think that it might be better to go with an archos 70 instead of the nook color since it seems like its roughly the same price and perhaps easier for people to work on? looks like they're similarly priced.

milkham said:
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but do you guys think that it might be better to go with an archos 70 instead of the nook color since it seems like its roughly the same price and perhaps easier for people to work on? looks like they're similarly priced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe the archos 70 has a lower resolution screen and the viewing angle is not as good.

rubyw59 said:
I believe the archos 70 has a lower resolution screen and the viewing angle is not as good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I've read as well and I think it applies to the g-tablet. I've read on the forums here folks that have had or looked at both the NC and the archos and gtablet and they say the NC has a much better display. The who IPS thing, same as iPad and the newest iPhone 4.

Infinitely better screen...not even comparable. Text on the Gtablet looks blocky and absolute crap. I haven't seen a screen that bad in years. Maybe it's because I have professional IPS monitors at home. The nook color screen is simply stunning and easy on the eyes at any angle on the lowest brightness setting. It will burn out your retinas at the highest.

Great Product!
I've been on a quest for an Android Tablet before Christmas. I bought and returned the Viewsonic G-Tablet. Horrendous viewing angles, heavy to hold (weighs 1.55 lbs) and cost $379-$399. I returned my Archos 70, which cost me $301.99 with shipping. I think I finally found my tablet, the Nook Color. Once it got rooted, it was a no brainer. GORGEOUS SCREEN, 512 MB RAM, easy to carry, great customer support from Barnes and Noble (I purchased the 2 year additional warranty $54) and pretty good Out of the Box (OTM) software. I know more better Android tablets will be coming out next year, but for $250, you can't go wrong with a quality product like the Nook Color and the customer support service of B&N. Great product =)

bruce, thank you for this update. i have really been looking at all the tablets, I know the holy grail is honeycomb, but i don't think that is reality until next summer and I don't want to wait. I have been looking at all these inexpensive tablets from china, there is one I saw on androidforums with gps that sounded good, but the nook so far seems good.
After you root, does this still work as an e reader? Also, how hard is this to root for someone technical, but has never rooted a device (i used to work on unix computers 20 years ago)? Is there easy step by step instructions? Thanks again.

I haven't exhaustively compared the other options on the market right now, but my intuition is that the NC is the best on the market as far as price-point and build-quality, but there is no market access and limited app support.
By the time development really gets going on a NC rom, i predict that we will have competitive alternatives, either from brand name manufacturers (Asus), or no-name Chinese manufacturers (right now the Chinese tablets are held back by their resistive touchscreens.) And these alternatives will presumably have dedicated android buttons, which the NC does not.
If you need a tablet right now, and are a tinkerer, then the NC is the way to go. If you want a more full-featured and robust solution, we are going to see compelling alternatives in the 6-10 month time frame, I predict.

I don't think it will take 6-10 months for custom ROMs and Market access.

New Sony Ericsson MN800 LiveView Bluetooth Remote Control - $19.99

http://goo.gl/oE620
Maybe someone would be interested. I remember people talking about it in the S3 forums. Don't know if it was good or not. What do you think?
$19.99!

Looks pretty cool especially for 20bux but seems kinda pointless like just another thing to carry around...but still cool if it was at a store id probably own it already haha

Someone needs to be the guinea pig and try this out. All the YouTube reviews are old and not done very well.
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

Based on reading Amazon reviews (constant disconnects), the fact this is 2+ year old technology supporting Android 2.x and up and old BT standard, and the fact I have been in contact with MetaWatch guys (and also keeping up with Pebble smart watch updates) who work on this exclusively and still waiting on resolution from Google to address problems with Android 4.x and remote media connection - I would suggest it's not worth it. Another problem, companies wouldn't even care to send you a review sample for their old product, so it's not even worth contacting them.... Just my humble opinion.

Works great on note 2. $18 free shipping on ebay now. Awesome! Imho
---------- Post added at 12:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:51 PM ----------
And it's micro usb so no extra charger needed. There's now open firmware, open app alternative, sony updated their app last week, lots of 3rd party apps (play store shows about a hundred). Wicked. At $18 the dev on this is going to explode!

Wow for $19 this is a great deal. Just pulled the trigger.
willfck4beer said:
Works great on note 2. $18 free
shipping on ebay now. Awesome! Imho
---------- Post added at 12:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:51 PM ----------
And it's micro usb so no extra charger needed. There's now open firmware, open app alternative, sony updated their app last week, lots of 3rd party apps (play store shows about a hundred). Wicked. At $18 the dev on this is going to explode!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

There's a plug in for this so that Torque can use it as a screen. Best app ever.

plemen said:
Wow for $19 this is a great deal. Just pulled the trigger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah...that's what I thought too when I purchased it last year for $30 from expansys .com
Return/Cancel it if you can. The device never worked properly when it was first released...the Sony App had issues with Android 2.x Gingerbread ,and still doesn't work correctly with any newer version of Android.
The device has to be connected via bluetooth to function. If you are not connected to BT, it will not even display the TIME!!!! Main issue is that the device fails to reliably connect to your phone. Some times it will connect...but most of the time not. There are work around instructions on XDA...but connection issues still exist. Another work around if to always keep the app active...but that drains your battery.
In the even you get it connected to your phone....the plugins for the device are very basic...notifies you that you have a call, a sms, or email. You can see the subject of the email and kinda scroll through ur sms. But the device is more of a hassle than help. Device battery is not great...probably last max 1.5 days if you don't press/use it at all.
Sony released the updated version of this device the "sony smartwatch" msrp 150, but only now for $80...but that still has intrinsic issues. They are just dumping this at low prices before Apple & Samsung announce their "smartwatch" devices
Edit: willfck4beer posted that their is an openDev alternative app. This didn't exist when I owned the device..which is what my review is based off of. Maybe it's time for me to dig it out of my closet

acuratlsfan said:
Yeah...that's what I thought too when I purchased it last year for $30 from expansys .com
Return/Cancel it if you can. The device never worked properly when it was first released...the Sony App had issues with Android 2.x Gingerbread ,and still doesn't work correctly with any newer version of Android.
The device has to be connected via bluetooth to function. If you are not connected to BT, it will not even display the TIME!!!! Main issue is that the device fails to reliably connect to your phone. Some times it will connect...but most of the time not. There are work around instructions on XDA...but connection issues still exist. Another work around if to always keep the app active...but that drains your battery.
In the even you get it connected to your phone....the plugins for the device are very basic...notifies you that you have a call, a sms, or email. You can see the subject of the email and kinda scroll through ur sms. But the device is more of a hassle than help. Device battery is not great...probably last max 1.5 days if you don't press/use it at all.
Sony released the updated version of this device the "sony smartwatch" msrp 150, but only now for $80...but that still has intrinsic issues. They are just dumping this at low prices before Apple & Samsung announce their "smartwatch" devices
Edit: willfck4beer posted that their is an openDev alternative app. This didn't exist when I owned the device..which is what my review is based off of. Maybe it's time for me to dig it out of my closet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my 2 cents:
-Latest firmware from Sony keeps watch functioning even if BT connection lost - so clock never flashes 0:00 as it used to.
Don't know why but Sony keeps this updated - just last week new app update.
-Latest firmware and Sony App seem to work great with Note 2, Evo 3d, Evo 4g across various flavors of Gingerbread, ICS, and Jellybean across HTC and Samsung - unrooted stock even... CM makes it incredibly solid connection.
Nonetheless, imho it is a very solid connection.
-3rd party apps are just constrained by imagination and devs. I'm seeing about 100 different plugin apps.
There seems to be a lot of app dev spawned by new sony smartwatch (while they are not compatible, I'm seeing a lot of apps that have been developed with minor modification and released on both devices simultaneously.)
-at $18 with free shipping, Dev is only going to continue - this thing runs a standard Chi-bios RT OS.
---------- Post added at 03:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:43 PM ----------
willfck4beer said:
my 2 cents:
-Latest firmware from Sony keeps watch functioning even if BT connection lost - so clock never flashes 0:00 as it used to.
Don't know why but Sony keeps this updated - just last week new app update.
-Latest firmware and Sony App seem to work great with Note 2, Evo 3d, Evo 4g across various flavors of Gingerbread, ICS, and Jellybean across HTC and Samsung - unrooted stock even... CM makes it incredibly solid connection.
Nonetheless, imho it is a very solid connection.
-3rd party apps are just constrained by imagination and devs. I'm seeing about 100 different plugin apps.
There seems to be a lot of app dev spawned by new sony smartwatch (while they are not compatible, I'm seeing a lot of apps that have been developed with minor modification and released on both devices simultaneously.)
-at $18 with free shipping, Dev is only going to continue - this thing runs a standard Chi-bios RT OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My favorite Apps right now:
Remote Camera (allows live view of camera --- and remote shutter release)
Espresso Watch 1 *** Sexy looking watch app
Espresso Watch 4 *** (Watch with brackground downloaded from imgur based on a keyword you specify e.g. "booty")
Fake call (perfect to get out of a conversation that is going on and on)
Confusion
Launcher (recreates your entire app drawer on liveview to selectively launch any app)
SmartChrome --- I set to "classic.slashdot.org"
POSVIEW -- shows your position on google maps
Liams map plugin -- shows position, but allows some better config options like nighttime, hackermode, ...
AH Watch - sexy watch faces
Contact Call
.txt reader liveview
SendSMS
Tell It
Live Watches
Answer-it
Timer
a007 spy app
Watch-Calendar
Light/liveview
Weatherview
Sun clock
Vibrate alarm

Is 4 hours battery life this true? Don't want to have to charge my watch everyday...

one80oneday said:
Is 4 hours battery life this true? Don't want to have to charge my watch everyday...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question about 4 hour battery life. Is this max batt life even when idling? I mean, even if you don't access any apps, you still keeping BT sync connection so battery is draining. I can imagine that running additional apps will put more strain on the battery. Since this gadget is a few years old, it will not have the highest capacity in terms of what has been available back then. My new Blue Buds X have 8hr battery built into a tiny earpiece by itself. I'm just thinking this Sony device was ahead of its time. If they can re-release it now with updated hardware and support for all the latest BT standards that would have been great!

one80oneday said:
Is 4 hours battery life this true? Don't want to have to charge my watch everyday...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this depends on your duty cycle/usage YMMV
Some data points:
If I engage a program like remote camera viewer - where the processor, bluetooth, and screen are kept on at full blast uninterrupted... it seems the battery will die after about an hour.
If I'm using the watch to browse emails, txts, facebook, that periodically arrive, then the watch may go for 2 days.
If I've left the watch at a friends house on... but disconnected ... It's still been fine after 4 days IIRC.
I think this thing is prime for tweaking, underclocking?, reduced duty cycle, tweaked BT interractions, reduced polling frequency, oled screen tweaks, creative solar projects, battery upgrades, and the like to increase it's life. I'm working on a flexible, thin film solar band that will trickle charge this ***** constantly and/or a tiny coin-cell module to charge on the go.
I really think for $18 this thing is AWESOME and has so much potential - especially at the hands of the XDA Dev community.
I think one promising aspect is the open firmware being dev'ed... if this thing runs a standard Chi-bios RT OS... we could tweak the **** out of it. imho.
---------- Post added at 02:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:06 PM ----------
vectron said:
Good question about 4 hour battery life. Is this max batt life even when idling? I mean, even if you don't access any apps, you still keeping BT sync connection so battery is draining. I can imagine that running additional apps will put more strain on the battery. Since this gadget is a few years old, it will not have the highest capacity in terms of what has been available back then. My new Blue Buds X have 8hr battery built into a tiny earpiece by itself. I'm just thinking this Sony device was ahead of its time. If they can re-release it now with updated hardware and support for all the latest BT standards that would have been great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally, I'll see two full days of usage before I have to charge.
"Power: Low usage, 1 week/ Typical usage, 3-4 days/ Heavy usage,1 full day"
But, as you said, this was released several years ago with old technology and the batterylife has been degrading while sitting in the factory, on the shelf, etc..
Perhaps we could simply extricate the old battery and replace with a new one? Perhaps one with a higher mah capacity?
There've been several tear downs and mods to the watch already and it seems relatively straight forward to open her up.
I've noticed that this thing has maintained a connection via bluetooth through a brick wall and spaced about 10 feet apart... as the power usage increases based on distance squared, perhaps the open firmware could allow the user to selectively set a more statistically representative transmit power/distance to go from wrist to phone through cotton vs. brick and 10ft. This might have tremendous power savings. imho. something as simple as "low power mode" vs. "high power mode."?
Sony advertises : "Bluetooth - up to 10m range" this seems like overkill for most use-cases.
As the screen is OLED, I believe that substantial savings can be had by programming an inverse color scheme to use primarily black and thus non-energized pixels.
Sony has released a new one - the smartwatch mn2 - but it's about $100 and doesn't have all that substantial of upgrades.
If you have cash to burn... the Motoactv seems a far superior investment at $150ish... in for a buck... in for a quarter?
But for me, I'm fascinated by what this guy (for less than twenty bucks) can already do and the potential it has once dev interest builds.

If we start looking into more advance options, might as well look into a more superior technology of Pebble or Metawatch smart watches?

vectron said:
If we start looking into more advance options, might as well look into a more superior technology of Pebble or Metawatch smart watches?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
imho none of those can touch the Motoactv... fullblown android, fullblown touchscreen...
But when you start talking advance technology... I believe we are talking $150 and up - about 10 times as much $$$ as the liveview.
When you factor in that liveview also has openwatch api support (in addition to all the native dev and reverse engineering efforts)... I think it's shortcomings are surmountable for $18.
I just got my flexible thin film solar watch band to deliver 59.6milliamps!!!! (on an overcast day) and it successfully charged my BT headset and seemed to accumulate charge in the liveview. If this is the case - we may be able to keep liveview running indefinitely while on your wrist with no need to take off and charge it!!!!
And the liveview can display boobies in full amoled color!!!
Im watch is $300!!!!!
Pebble is $150 and black and white only AND NOT REAL YET : "Preorder"????
both look bulky as hell!!! The Im does look awesome and love the gsm sim.
Liveview:
+standard micro usb port.... use phone charger.
+standard chibios RT OS
+full colour amoled display
+CHEAP
+Sony updates APP; has not deprecated... May30 2013 update with added feature;
+Sony updates firmware;
+Open liveview app reverse engineering effort active and functional
+Open firmware making progress
+CHEAP
+about 100 apps so far (including Solitaire or blackjack, Torque, remote camera control, remote music control, calculator, fake call ...)
+TINY
+imho XDA loves cheap/free. At this cost, we should send a couple to TeamWin or someone like Samsung did for CM7 and just let those fxuckers run wild with it.

link to solar watch band?

vectron said:
link to solar watch band?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I"m actually making the solar wrist band myself.
But this is the thin film I'm using:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Thin-Film-L...675?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8132e5db
I'm getting promising results but nowhere near 420mA advertised.
After the voltage converter(2V to 5Vusb) on an overcast day... I'm getting about 59.6mA
WHICH is cool because to keep the old girl topped off, she only seems to be sipping 45mA to keep screen on the whole time at full brightness!!!!!!!!!!!!
Current usage in different operating states:
Full battery; NOT CHARGING:
.9ma OFF (LED,charge determination circuit?)
28ma ON, Disconnected, screen off
30ma ON, connected, screen off
36ma ON, connected, screen DIM
45ma ON, connected, screen FULL BLAST
70ma ON, connected, screen FULL, Processor FULL, BT FULL*** running remote camera view on full color, full update freq...
EMPTY BATTERY:
73milliamps draw when liveview is OFF and charging at substantially EMPTY battery;
90ma Standby no connection and charging;
96ma ON with Screen ON and charging;
94ma ON, connected, screen OFF
96ma ON, connected, screen ON.

OK, pulled a trigger for $19.99. As I was looking at the ebay seller who has it in bulk - I see messages pop up every 30 seconds about someone is buying it. For the full use with all the cool apps, battery life is not acceptable as a smart watch. I think it will be just a neat gadget to play around with. I'm very interested in that remote camera thing, like one of our baby monitors I guess. I assume everything works when you have it plugged in on a charger, you can still use apps? BTW, this is going to be my first gadget/accessory I have paid money for in the last 5 months, you really got my interest high!!!

My favorite Apps right now:
Remote Camera (allows live view of camera --- and remote shutter release)
Espresso Watch 1 *** Sexy looking watch app
Espresso Watch 4 *** (Watch with brackground downloaded from imgur based on a keyword you specify e.g. "booty")
Fake call (perfect to get out of a conversation that is going on and on)
Confusion
Launcher (recreates your entire app drawer on liveview to selectively launch any app)
SmartChrome --- I set to "classic.slashdot.org"
POSVIEW -- shows your position on google maps
Liams map plugin -- shows position, but allows some better config options like nighttime, hackermode, ...
AH Watch - sexy watch faces
Contact Call
.txt reader liveview
SendSMS
Tell It
Live Watches
Answer-it
Timer
a007 spy app
Watch-Calendar
Light/liveview
Weatherview
Sun clock
Vibrate alarm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
link to the watch you are using for all this please?

willfck4beer said:
....
My favorite Apps right now:
Remote Camera (allows live view of camera --- and remote shutter release)
Espresso Watch 1 *** Sexy looking watch app
Espresso Watch 4 *** (Watch with brackground downloaded from imgur based on a keyword you specify e.g. "booty")
Fake call (perfect to get out of a conversation that is going on and on)
Confusion
Launcher (recreates your entire app drawer on liveview to selectively launch any app)
SmartChrome --- I set to "classic.slashdot.org"
POSVIEW -- shows your position on google maps
Liams map plugin -- shows position, but allows some better config options like nighttime, hackermode, ...
AH Watch - sexy watch faces
Contact Call
.txt reader liveview
SendSMS
Tell It
Live Watches
Answer-it
Timer
a007 spy app
Watch-Calendar
Light/liveview
Weatherview
Sun clock
Vibrate alarm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you search for all these apps? I tried on Google Play, but can't find a lot of it. Like Espresso watch?

Seriously?? Doesn't our phones have clocks on them? Aren't our phones capable of doing all of that? Just my 2 cents. Hey let me go buy a 4 door version of the car I already own

[RESEARCH] External touch screen instead of AA head unit

Seeing videos of people integrating Raspberry Pis into their cars with OpenAuto got me interested in Android Auto. There is one thing I don't like about it, however: you're just adding another device to pass on audio/video/touch to an external display, from the phone. Why not cut out the middle man?
Back in the good old days of my Xperia S, phones had a dedicated micro-HDMI output. Delicous 60fps 720p (and even 1080p, with the UI drawn at 720p, but for instance video playback in full 1080p), and a free charging/OTG port. However, nowadays, we're stuck with MHL, and unless you have a Samsung phone, which has a proprietary connector, you can't use MHL and OTG at the same time, nor does MHL properly support touch functionality (only in theory), so we need the OTG.
DisplayLink to the rescue. We're going to sacrifice a lot of display smoothness/responsiveness here unless you have a modern phone with a USB 3.0 Type-C port (so you can use a newer high performance DisplayLink adapter), but we can use an OTG hub to get both HID touch functionality and HDMI through the DisplayLink adapter at the same time. More on this later. Also, I originally bought a $6 USB to HDMI adapter off eBay thinking it would be DisplayLink (or a compatible off-brand clone), but it turns out to be the really dodgy Fresco Logic FL2000, which is so cheap because it does none of the clever things that DisplayLink adapters do, and instead just spits out full resolution frames as fast as it can, which is completely incompatible with USB 2.0 or low power devices like phones. I found an affordable HP DisplayLink DVI adapter second hand from a Chinese seller that works.
On to the next hurdle: charging while using OTG. This is an interesting one, as it's not something I really gave a lot of thought initially. I mean surely just using a powered hub and giving the phone 5V over its micro-USB port would work, right? Well, it's a bit more complex than that, but Sony used to have an OTG dock that could charge, so I'm confident once I get the right OTG hub, it will work fine on my Z5. The one I got off eBay wouldn't do anything but charge, and when I opened it up, I saw it doesn't even use the 5th OTG pin, which would explain why it didn't work. I soldered a regular Type-A plug onto it and used my Sony OTG adapter to test, and I can get either charging or OTG, so something a bit less hacky is required. I ordered the Acasis H027, so when it arrives, we'll see if that works.
Touch: I haven't tested it yet. I have an HDMI touch screen in storage at my brother's house, so next time I visit I'll see if I can get touches to register on the phone. Based on my Googling most people on the internet seem to have gotten this to work fine, although there is no touch calibration on Android as far as I'm aware, like there is on Windows.
Portrait mode: this is my personal pet project and what I've been struggling with the most so far. It would be by far the easiest to just use a touch screen in landscape mode, but hear me out. Because HDMI (touch) monitors are cheap anyway, and in the 7 inch to 24 inch size range, bigger usually means cheaper, I want Tesla-style portrait mode. In portrait mode we can fit more screen estate in the centre console of the car than in landscape mode, and a bigger screen = bigger text = quicker glancing = safer driving. And it also happens to look extremely cool. If you have a big car you can probably fit a 20 or 24 inch screen, but I think I'm going for 13 inch. However. Using the DisplayLink Presenter app or the DisplayLink Desktop demo app which as far as I can tell does exactly the same things, I cannot for the life of me get native portrait mode to work. Android insists on pillarboxing portrait mode, and no amount of forcing rotation, setting build.props like ro.sf.hwrotation or persist.demo.hdmirotation works to change its mind. More worryingly, it seems that for the HDMI rotation prop to work, you need to also set persist.demo.singledisplay, which prevents apps from accessing secondary displays, which means DisplayLink Presenter, which itself is an app, cannot mirror the screen output any more and you get a sad single stripe of garbage pixels on an otherwise completely black screen. I probably need help here from an XDA developer, to hack the DisplayLink app, or to develop an Xposed module that causes all apps to draw themselves in portrait mode while the system is actually in landscape mode, or something along those lines. I've tried most things in my power that I could think of, and since my phone is unlocked, rooted, magisk'd and xposed, that is actually quite a lot, but nothing helped. So, uh, help?
Lastly there is DPI, which is one of the easier hurdles that I did solve. Android Auto (in phone mode, so not connected to any head unit) has a ridiculously huge UI on my phone's native dpi, and while I understand the reasons for it, with a larger external touch screen attached it just becomes unreasonably huge. With Tasker set to run "wm density 240" the entire Android UI becomes a lot more suited to a large screen, and even though Android Auto is still pretty huge compared to other apps, it's what I would consider reasonable.
More to come!

So, quick update:
While the screen portrait mode issues were "simple" to fix (although root was definitely required), the touch orientation issues as well as charging-during-OTG require kernel modifications to be fixed. I managed to compile a modified kernel with charging-during-OTG support thanks to @nlra 's work on that front, but I couldn't get the new image to boot.
A few things happened in the mean time:
- I discovered scrcpy
- I got an Xperia XZ3 (which I haven't rooted yet)
Scrcpy seems to be basically what Android Auto does, but for the whole Android desktop instead of only one app. I kind of don't like it because it involves adding a computer in between the display and the phone again (probably a Raspberry Pi), but the advantages are so huge it's basically the only realistic option right now.
Scrcpy:
- Basically always runs at 60fps, even on USB 2.0
- Handles portrait/landscape gracefully
- Integrates display, touch, (audio in a future version), and charging in a single connection
- Doesn't require root (although automatically setting the Android resolution to 1920x1080 and keeping the display on at 0% brightness are things that can probably only be accomplished with Tasker, which requires root)
So basically this simplifies and moves the project further immensely, however there are still some blocking issues right now. Touch screens only work on Windows because in addition to generating touch events, Windows also generates fallback mouse click events for touches, something that Linux doesn't do, and because there is no formal touch screen support in scrcpy, multi-touch doesn't work at all. Audio support also seems to be in an experimental state currently, and is not enabled for regular builds.
I hope ROM1V will eventually implement touch screen support (it's been in his GitHub issue tracker since March) as I have enough work to do as it is. I will focus on the hardware part (Raspi, cabling, VESA mount etc.) first and if by that time touch support is still missing I'll take a crack at it myself. Thankfully scrcpy is built on SDL which I'm fairly familiar with, although I've never worked with the touch input API before.

For the charging you need hub with usb-c PowerDelivery passthrough and HDMI. I am testing ones with less power consumption right now. I am not sure why you weren't able to use it.
I think people would be better of using following app for changing resolution, etc. using SecondScreen (I think root is required to run HDMI in portait mode, because it is grayed out for me).
I am doing the same project, but I keep the screen 1600x1200 horizontally and use apps in split view mode. I don't want root. I was thinking of using SamsungDEX for it, but the menus are too small.
The good thing is though, that on Samsung it is possible to create two-apps split screen pair (e.g. google map + music) as a launcher shortcut (using Good Lock (MultiStar plugin) from Galaxy Store). Unfortunately, I don't think it is possible to automate launching two apps in split screen automatically, nor create a split-pair shortcut on other launchers.
It would be good to have some multiwindow manager since I also wanted my BMW-tuning/logging gauges app to run in a floating window on top or minimized to a floating icon. It is possible naturally but it is a lot of manual clicking :/
One more thing that I don't think will be possible, is to completely turn off the phone screen. With the screen on, Note8 doesn't do fast charging. Can the screen be off with scrcpy somehow, I don't think?

So this dead?

Note 9 dex 1440p WQHD Grayed or not available?

I have a dell WQHD monitor bought to use, specifically with the note 9, but after I plugged the note 9 I found that I do not get the option for the WQHD, it is grayed out? is anyone able to get it to work? please help!

iyas87 said:
I have a dell WQHD monitor bought to use, specifically with the note 9, but after I plugged the note 9 I found that I do not get the option for the WQHD, it is grayed out? is anyone able to get it to work? please help!
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Your monitor cannot handle the resolution.
Sent from my Blackberry Bold

Brava27 said:
Your monitor cannot handle the resolution.
Sent from my Blackberry Bold
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the monitor resolution is 2560x1440, it handles the resolution. I am using the laptop on it with this resolution. The dex show the option for 2560x1440 but it is grayed out?

Same here, even though the monitor and cable is 4k/60Hz capable. Supposedly the Samsung dock and pad work in WQHD, so that would mean they are using a chip ID verification to make sure the 3rd party gear doesn't give full resolution. Just guessing though.

Same problem here... All cables used that came in the box, using a Sony Bravia XE90E.
That panel is well capable of all funky resolutions, certainly 1440p as well.
Mirroring works fine, but what good is mirroring worth really. Nobody bought a DEX Pad to just mirror.

I wondered this too few days ago when I first time tested it with a cheap adapter from Amazon. I also read somewhere that the highest resolution is only available with those "pad" device(s). Not a biggie for me, since the 2560x1440 doesn't scale nicely to a 4K monitor, but the lower FullHD resolution does. It is not like I'd be doing my main work with the phone anyway, but it is a "nice to have" in some random situation where I didn't drag my heavyweight laptop with me.
Would be nice if the resolution selection would give a clear text explaining why that choice is disabled, though.

I read somewhere that only the original samsung pad with the fan allows resolutions over full hd because going overheats the phone too much and damages it, I do not know if it's true or not though.

Well I'm using the official DEX Pad and still no luck. Go figure ?
Sent from my Samsung SM-N960F using XDA Labs

Glassed Silver said:
Well I'm using the official DEX Pad and still no luck. Go figure ?
Sent from my Samsung SM-N960F using XDA Labs
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This dex pad ?
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1ktcwIG3gL._SL1500_.jpg

babak said:
This dex pad ?
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1ktcwIG3gL._SL1500_.jpg
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Yes, that one. There is just one DEX Pad afaik and I don't mean the DEX Station.

The latest update (about 1.5gb) got it working, at least via the dex pad.
I've got 3440 X 1440 matching my display

jesadac said:
The latest update (about 1.5gb) got it working, at least via the dex pad.
I've got 3440 X 1440 matching my display
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@jesadac Are you able to test with a regular cable, and see if the resolution support drops to FHD ? My cables work fine on a MacBook Pro for WQHD, but when connected to my Note 9 with latest version, won't go higher than FHD, even if everything supports it. I am trying to confirm that Samsung locked the higher resolution to their products.

They seem to have at least tried some partial locking, or it may be a technical reason (e.g. ability to drive higher bitrates in specific situations), or whatnot.
I managed to get the highest resolution with one 3rd party USB-C hub, but it allowed DEX mode only when that hub got external power (and thus also charged the phone). Another hub (claimed to support 4K) didn't give highest resolution even when it was also getting external power, so it is obviously a bit hit/miss..
EDIT: The better working hub shows mirrored screen without external power, at that 2560x1440 resolution. There are some random temporary screen artifacts with that hub, though, at least for a while after DEX gets turned on, and sometimes phone-hub-monitor protocols don't quite get it right, showing some really low resolution DEX view with a popup saying something about that too low resolution

6thtry said:
They seem to have at least tried some partial locking, or it may be a technical reason (e.g. ability to drive higher bitrates in specific situations), or whatnot.
I managed to get the highest resolution with one 3rd party USB-C hub, but it allowed DEX mode only when that hub got external power (and thus also charged the phone). Another hub (claimed to support 4K) didn't give highest resolution even when it was also getting external power, so it is obviously a bit hit/miss..
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Ah.... that's very good info. If a 3rd party can, then it's likely a capability support issue. I don't see why on earth a different device could display a higher res than the Note 9, when all is the same, except the source.
I'm ok in FHD on the monitor. While not as sharp, its workable. But on a 70" 4K TV, its so pixelated, it's not funny. I would pretty much like the higher resolution to make the movie playback and picture browsing a nicer experience when the out laws are in town.

lbarouf said:
I'm ok in FHD on the monitor. While not as sharp, its workable. But on a 70" 4K TV, its so pixelated, it's not funny. I would pretty much like the higher resolution to make the movie playback and picture browsing a nicer experience when the out laws are in town.
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I actually prefer the FullHD on a 4K monitor, because otherwise non-integer scaling makes some things worse, at least for text. OTOH, movies and photos are indeed likely better with higher resolution even with non-integer scaling. I did use it at highest resolution on a 4K monitor for a while using 1:1 mode on the monitor, so that there was no scaling (but lots of black margin). I'd naturally prefer 1:1 at 2560x1440 to my older 2560x1600 monitor (so just a little black on top and bottom), but seems that the older monitor does not support the full resolution through its HDMI inputs or something
EDIT: Oh, and at work I connected the phone directly to 4K monitor with the monitor's included USB-C-to-USB-C cable, with keyboard and mouse connected to the monitor's USB ports, and phone being charged by the monitor through that cable. Everything worked just fine, but I'm not 100% sure did it allow the highest resolution.. I think it did.

6thtry said:
I actually prefer the FullHD on a 4K monitor, because the non-integer scaling makes some things worse, at least for text. OTOH, movies and photos are indeed likely better with higher resolution even with non-integer scaling. I did use it at highest resolution on a 4K monitor for a while using 1:1 mode on the monitor, so that there was no scaling (but lots of black margin). I'd naturally prefer 1:1 at 2560x1440 to my older 2560x1600 monitor (so just a little black on top and bottom), but seems that the older monitor does not support the full resolution through its HDMI inputs or something
EDIT: Oh, and at work I connected the phone directly to 4K monitor with the monitor's included USB-C-to-USB-C cable, with keyboard and mouse connected to the monitor's USB ports, and phone being charged by the monitor through that cable. Everything worked just fine, but I'm not 100% sure did it allow the highest resolution.. I think it did.
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Ah... bliss. That is the example of why I love USB type C so much now. A bunch of thunderbolt 3 rated cables is all I need really now. Likely hitting the menu can confirm the resolution. I like the wide resolution as its native on my monitors and TV (16:9 aka WQHD). I just ordered a DeX pad. I will sell the old dock if that works fine at the higher resolution. It's not bad and compact. I found a good price on Amazon, so it's not too bad in the end I guess. Pair it with a portable keyboard trackpad and I may leave that in the living room.

I'm using a third party USB-C hub that allows Dex to work on Galaxy S9 with and without external power. The thing is that my S9 only works at FHD while using the same setup with a Galaxy S8 allows for 2560x1440. It's frustrating. Sadly I can not provide detailed info about the TV set and the S8. If anyone has any suggestion on how to set up my S9 to allow higher res it would be much appreciated.
Filip

@6thtry what 3rd party USB hub are you using?

RustyFlanMan said:
@6thtry what 3rd party USB hub are you using?
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Based on my Amazon order history, it was this:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07FRZCLGB/
Whether it is still the exact same hardware, who knows (sometimes these no-name things change technically without revealing it), but at least it is "Amazon's Choice" (pfft) and "Dispatched by Amazon", and seems to still get good ratings (and bad ones, too).
As it is such a no-name thing, it is totally up to random chance whether it can be found in other amazon sites or not. If no luck with direct name and model, then with some extra luck, one might find it by the exact same look (and possibly even exactly same photos) but with different brand.

6thtry said:
Based on my Amazon order history, it was this:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07FRZCLGB/
Whether it is still the exact same hardware, who knows (sometimes these no-name things change technically without revealing it), but at least it is "Amazon's Choice" (pfft) and "Dispatched by Amazon", and seems to still get good ratings (and bad ones, too).
As it is such a no-name thing, it is totally up to random chance whether it can be found in other amazon sites or not. If no luck with direct name and model, then with some extra luck, one might find it by the exact same look (and possibly even exactly same photos) but with different brand.
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@6thtry
Appreciate that. On Reddit/SamsungDex I'm trying to put together a list of non samsung hubs that give greater than 1080p resolution in dex mode.
If you remember, do you mind sharing what phone and monitor you were using with that hub and what resolution was selectable in dex mode?
Much appreciated.

Is the 2012 N7 worth reviving?

I just found my original N7 and thought about using for an entertainment hub. But it won't charge. I think the port may be shot.
It has been YEARS since I participated in the community, but I used to be very active.
I just have a simple question for those still using the N7, with Android 7 (some variant. I'm thinking of a seriously basic install like vanilla Lineage) installed, is the N7 up to handling the task of streaming apps, the Google Home app and some Google Assistant work?
I'd like some input before I buy a new battery and port and go through the work of the repair.
Thanks!

i left my n7 (v2) for a year and it developed an issue on the ribbon between the usbport and its destination, i can open the case and fiddle with it an it comes back to life for a few day. i found it easier to charge it with my wireless charger. but after playing with it for a while, it just was not really worth the effort, or maybe i just did not have the motivation to re partition and do everything else to get it going with the latest.
of the 14 devices i have only the nexus 7 died, even my galaxy s2 is still running.

I'm using mine as a viewer for my home security. It's mounted at my workstation and stays on 24/7. Streaming video in 720p60 is not an issue, no stuttering at least. Web browsing is OK, not quick of course but not terribly slow either. Mainly I use it for home automation and I would say that this device does a great job at that despite its age! I honestly don't use it much, but those are a few simple experiences.