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Hey guys!
I just ordered the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (P5100) 10.1" today via Flipkart (Indian Online Mega-Store) and it is expected to arrive in a few days. I'm really excited that it's going to be my first tablet, but mostly because it'll be the first Android device I own. I've been living with my Nokia N8-00 (Symbian Belle) for about 2 years now and I finally have a replacement.
Along with the excitement, I had a lot of questions about the device. I'll just list them below, so it'll be easier for you guys to answer them
1. Have I made the right choice?
The first thing I thought to myself after I pressed the 'Buy Now' button. I bought it mostly for watching movies and the TV shows that I regularly download from the internet. Some rigorous browsing, downloading of music, and mostly showing off my photos to other people (I'm a photographer and having a portfolio on-hand is a good idea). I haven't demoed the device before, but my friends have all said theirs works wonderfully (granted, they own the 7" version).
2. What is rooting? Do I need to root my device?
My friends keep talking about this rooting thing. I'm a new android user, so I lack the basic knowledge of these terminologies. Will I need to root my tablet? Is it safe to do so? What will I benefit from this procedure?
3. What are the best apps I can download?
I want to know what are the best apps I can install on my device for my particular needs (mentioned above). I also wanted to know how I can customize my device to the fullest extent. When I had an iPod Touch, I jailbroke it and installed WinterBoard to use custom themes and icons of my own choice. What is the procedure to replicate the same on an Android device?
4. Is Android App Development easy?
What language is it generally coded in? I have a basic understanding of HTML/CSS & PHP, a firm grasp on C# and .NET (from Windows 8 Development). I'd like to try my luck in the Android App genre, how many have tried the same and do you feel it is easy for a beginner/intermediate?
I'd really love it if you guys could help me out starting with this new journey of Android! Thank you all!
Amruth Pillai said:
Hey guys!
I just ordered the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (P5100) 10.1" today via Flipkart (Indian Online Mega-Store) and it is expected to arrive in a few days. I'm really excited that it's going to be my first tablet, but mostly because it'll be the first Android device I own. I've been living with my Nokia N8-00 (Symbian Belle) for about 2 years now and I finally have a replacement.
Along with the excitement, I had a lot of questions about the device. I'll just list them below, so it'll be easier for you guys to answer them
1. Have I made the right choice?
The first thing I thought to myself after I pressed the 'Buy Now' button. I bought it mostly for watching movies and the TV shows that I regularly download from the internet. Some rigorous browsing, downloading of music, and mostly showing off my photos to other people (I'm a photographer and having a portfolio on-hand is a good idea). I haven't demoed the device before, but my friends have all said theirs works wonderfully (granted, they own the 7" version).
2. What is rooting? Do I need to root my device?
My friends keep talking about this rooting thing. I'm a new android user, so I lack the basic knowledge of these terminologies. Will I need to root my tablet? Is it safe to do so? What will I benefit from this procedure?
3. What are the best apps I can download?
I want to know what are the best apps I can install on my device for my particular needs (mentioned above). I also wanted to know how I can customize my device to the fullest extent. When I had an iPod Touch, I jailbroke it and installed WinterBoard to use custom themes and icons of my own choice. What is the procedure to replicate the same on an Android device?
4. Is Android App Development easy?
What language is it generally coded in? I have a basic understanding of HTML/CSS & PHP, a firm grasp on C# and .NET (from Windows 8 Development). I'd like to try my luck in the Android App genre, how many have tried the same and do you feel it is easy for a beginner/intermediate?
I'd really love it if you guys could help me out starting with this new journey of Android! Thank you all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well you're in the wrong forum. This is the original galaxy tab forum. Might want to post here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1596
Our tablet here is laggy and slow, so you're not going to get proper opinions
1. It really depends on if you have a desktop computer or a laptop as well. If you don't? Sure, it's good for browsing and some other things. But I find watching video on it to be awful, the screen is just too tiny in comparison to an actual monitor, nevermind a TV screen.
2. Rooting allows you to access commands and run apps that you normally wouldn't be able to do. Most of the time, on this forum anyway, it also involves flashing another rom like Cyanogenmod to get even more functionality and remove some of the bloat and crapware that comes with the tablet (like touchwiz).
3. I use Firefox, Apollo and Android's built in gallery. The Android Market also has top paid and free app listings
4. Apps are written in Java and aren't too complicated if you have knowledge of the language and device.
I'm using a nexus 7 (2012) at the moment and am looking for an upgrade.
The things that annoy me about the nexus are the speed (very slow/laggy at times), and the screen size, which i feel is juts a little bit low.
i've been looking at the LG G Pad and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, which seems like a very nice unit.
however, i have a lot of purchases in the Play store and i really like cyanogen/aokp etc..
so my question is, what do you think the chances are that in a month or 2 there will be a handful of stable custom ROMs for the HDX that will let me essentially run vanilla android on it without having to sacrifice disk space to having the stock OS installed 'as well'.
any one care to venture a guess? also, are there any other weirdnesses (besides the Fire OS) to the kindle that i might want to consider over the GPE LG G Pad?
henrypootel said:
I'm using a nexus 7 (2012) at the moment and am looking for an upgrade.
The things that annoy me about the nexus are the speed (very slow/laggy at times), and the screen size, which i feel is juts a little bit low.
i've been looking at the LG G Pad and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, which seems like a very nice unit.
however, i have a lot of purchases in the Play store and i really like cyanogen/aokp etc..
so my question is, what do you think the chances are that in a month or 2 there will be a handful of stable custom ROMs for the HDX that will let me essentially run vanilla android on it without having to sacrifice disk space to having the stock OS installed 'as well'.
any one care to venture a guess? also, are there any other weirdnesses (besides the Fire OS) to the kindle that i might want to consider over the GPE LG G Pad?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I believed that it is only a matter of time (at most 2 months, but don't hold me on this) we already have a semi stable Asop ROM, and multiple people have commented in that thread talking about releasing their ROMs in the rear furture. I am using the gapps update 1 ROM and it is practically stock, even with stock settings, keyboard, launcher ect. The only thing in don't like is kindle navbar, and status bar. But people are already talking about bringing this to the stock rom, also there is a xposed framework module for our device which will bring a lot of options In the future (Google exposed framework and what is for more info on that). So yes I would recomend this device also, if you care about amazon services there is a flashable zip that allows you to have google apps(gapps) and amazon services(I have not tested this, but I'm sure it works)
It also seems that the 7 inch has some more development at the moment but I think the 8.9 will have more in the future
Hope this helps, like if it did!
Thanks! that's very helpful.
I just found out one thing that makes me lean much more over to the G Pad side of the decision - it has an SD card slot! That trumps the snapdragon 800 for me...
henrypootel said:
Thanks! that's very helpful.
I just found out one thing that makes me lean much more over to the G Pad side of the decision - it has an SD card slot! That trumps the snapdragon 800 for me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want to still have storage
get the the kindle for its price and then go to hypershop.com and spend $100 and get a iusbport it allows you to use any storage (thumb drives hard drive sdcards old ipods ect.) as a usb storage that you can access by wifi
then you are not stuck with sd only u will have more options
I myself use them with the thor os as a secondary operating system and besides the system settings being kindle I don't notice a difference I can access all my google play with out any problems
p.s the iusbport can be accessed with just about any device via the web
I use es file explorer with it set as a ftp server on all my androids and Iusbport has a app on apple for theres that I use
best video players ive found for them bsplayer (android) goodplayer (ipad) moliplay (both) based on video formate experences my vary but other apps tend to pick up the format slack
henrypootel said:
I'm using a nexus 7 (2012) at the moment and am looking for an upgrade.
The things that annoy me about the nexus are the speed (very slow/laggy at times), and the screen size, which i feel is juts a little bit low.
i've been looking at the LG G Pad and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, which seems like a very nice unit.
however, i have a lot of purchases in the Play store and i really like cyanogen/aokp etc..
so my question is, what do you think the chances are that in a month or 2 there will be a handful of stable custom ROMs for the HDX that will let me essentially run vanilla android on it without having to sacrifice disk space to having the stock OS installed 'as well'.
any one care to venture a guess? also, are there any other weirdnesses (besides the Fire OS) to the kindle that i might want to consider over the GPE LG G Pad?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go with the GPad, A stable rom may come, but kernels won't be for some time. Actually, I would wait to see what March & the MWC brings. The HDX is nice & does everything I want, but the Nexus 7 (2013) is my mod/dev toy. A few custom roms may even come, but development in a device like the HDX, which is based on an inferior fork of Android, will never garner as much community support as a developer device, regardless of how wonderful the hardware may be. So, the HDX a a choice of 2 to a half dozen, the GPad & the choice of maybe a dozen or two, or the Nexus 7 (2013) & hundreds of choices. Personally, I considered adding the GPad, but I really am impressed with the SD800/Adreno 330 & have also played with a SD805/Adreno 420 dev board & it is the beast. So, I am waiting to seee what March/April brings before deciding what toy to add to the collection. If you must have something NOW, well the 7" HDX is cheap, but the newest Nexus 7 has a ton more possibilities for little more, especially if you watch for deals or turn to Swappa.
Thanks for all the help eveyone!
I've gone with the gpad and, after using it for a few hours now, i love it! seems so much faster than my Note2, and blows the old nexus 7 out of the water!
We are looking for a custom ROM on either Alcatel pixi 4 7" tablet or Archos Kodak 7" to enable us to lockdown the tablet or restrict the OS so that only certain apps and settings are available to the end user. As the tablets we use are budget and not widely used, not sure if there is anything out their that fits the bill. Would be keen if any android developers out there are interested, to have a chat if they feel they might be able to help.
AlSwipii said:
We are looking for a custom ROM on either Alcatel pixi 4 7" tablet or Archos Kodak 7" to enable us to lockdown the tablet or restrict the OS so that only certain apps and settings are available to the end user. As the tablets we use are budget and not widely used, not sure if there is anything out their that fits the bill. Would be keen if any android developers out there are interested, to have a chat if they feel they might be able to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you been able to get any rooted/rootable ROM to run on one? I used Cyanogen and Lineage when it came about to do relatively the same using a ROM that was not particularly designed to, just capable. What I did in their case was to install the base OS without GAPS (No play store) side loaded all that was relevant, and then locked the devices communications down with AFWall+ or DroidWall. Once you have that done it is not bullet proof, but it is unintentional tamper proof.
NoMailM9 said:
Have you been able to get any rooted/rootable ROM to run on one? I used Cyanogen and Lineage when it came about to do relatively the same using a ROM that was not particularly designed to, just capable. What I did in their case was to install the base OS without GAPS (No play store) side loaded all that was relevant, and then locked the devices communications down with AFWall+ or DroidWall. Once you have that done it is not bullet proof, but it is unintentional tamper proof.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for replying. This whole process is relatively new to us and we haven't yet explored the options described to me(nor do we know how or some of the terminology you have used) Would you be interested in getting on a short call to discuss further?
Saw youtube commercial that Huawei's OS will come out on the Mate 30, but if given the option, would you update the Mate 10 to it?
I'm not sure I would anymore. Before, when I was on windows mobile/palm/blackberry os, I liked those OS more than Android. I used them until I couldn't as well, but over time the lack of access to google services and having to find alternatives made using the phone less and less enjoyable. So even if the "hype" over Huawei's OS being "better", I'm not sure I want to switch and put up with the struggle I did with the previous OSes that ended up failing.
I get that in China, this isn't an issue because Google services were never really available to them, but it has for the rest of the world. So would people on XDA switch even if they had to sideload and manually update all their apps each time?
I've had the same experience in the past with windows phones so don't think I'll go down the same road again. Think I'll carry on with android on my Mate 10Pro and see how things develop. I'll probably look to change away from Huawei when I upgrade, which is a shame because I've really liked the camera & battery life.
Sent from my BLA-L09 using Tapatalk
No, without Google services Huawei would be a dead issue for me, and it's debatable wether Huawei would have access to AOSP either, as some of the core system are still the IP of Google and without them there would be no apps. Having to side load apps (if they would even work) would mean no updates unless you wanted to manually download and install everything when you wanted to update things (no thanks). Unless this stuff gets settled Huawei is without a license to use ARM core designs in their chipsets, no Bluetooth (US company), no Wi-Fi (also a US company), no Microsoft for their laptops, in effect Huawei will have no market for anything outside of China.
Wish I knew how to add a poll but this section of xda doesn't get much traffic now anyhow.
Saw oppo had a 5x zoom like the p 30 pro? Might be using it next but what difference is it? One Chinese company to another Chinese company?
For me, it depends on the OS and the apps it supports. I too came from Symbian, Meego, Windows and BB before using Android and iOS.
With the duopoly these 2 systems have, it's hard for a new OS to get developers to build apps and users won't come in without the apps. A vicious circle that's hard to break. A new OS can break in only when a group of popular companies come together to build and support the platform.
The only Google apps I use are Maps and YouTube. There are alternatives for both and so, it's not a deal-breaker for me.
Sent from my BLA-A09 using Tapatalk
I have an 8" Samsung Tab S (SM-T707A) AT&T version. Running Android 6.0.1. I bought it for some light reading and playing Pokemon Go with location shifting! After jumping through hoops I was able to get it all working. But there are a couple of issues with it:
1. it randomly reboots.
2. battery drains very fast
Mind you I have it set to specific version of Google Play services because of the game hack requirements. Ideally I would like to root it, wipe it, and install a custom ROM like I have done for many Android devices. That usually gives me the best experience possible. But since that is not doable - I have looked through these boards - I am looking to sell this one and get another one.
It can be a small tablet or large phone with high-res screen. A good Android experience with no bloat etc. A stylus would be great because then I might be able to do some photo processing on it too. I would probably spend 100-150 in the used market.
Thanks for your time in advance.