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Hello everyone,
I was wondering if there is a way to upgrade certain parts of the phone, i.e. processor, camera, audio card, etc. I view my phone alot like a pc, and i built my own pc...so i thought to myself. Is there a way to build an android phone? or maybe upgrade existing parts? I think it would be awesome if we were able to pick and choose what we want in our phones! Personally id like a faster processor, and more internal memory. But i feel it'd be beneficial to all people who only use their phones to do certain things and may not want other "Stock" accesories. Maybe not, Let me know what you think/know about this! Id be interested in building my own android device!
Thanks!
Pascal Borner
Sorry but this would be really unrealistic. The battery is one thing, but phones are so compact and dense that parts aren't really made to take out and put in. I know what you mean, I build computers for a living.
But the parts in phones aren't socketed or use slots, so even just to start would require major unsoldering. I briefly tried to find out how many pins the ARM v6 processor of the Eris has. I'm sure it's a lot, perhaps not as many as the 940-pin AMD AM3 or the 1366-pin Intel Core i7, but it's probably in the hundreds.
And then we're dealing with compatibilities. In desktop processors, they keep the same pin architecture for at least a couple years (but you can find the same architecture for at least five). But they probably don't worry about that with phone processors since they're even more dense than laptops so each and every phone has to be made from scratch, so, for instance, the ARM v7 probably wouldn't fit where an ARM v6 was. There's also the software compatibility. I don't know if they make ARM v6's of different processor frequencies, but I doubt it. Even if they did, you'd still have to deal with the many, many pins.
It's doubtful that they have unused spots for RAM in these phones, and it's doubtful you could just remove the existing RAM and replace it with larger without having problems, but even if so, you're still dealing with all of the pins, procuring compatible RAM of a larger logical size...
You get the idea. I guess I'm just a big ray of sunshine!
The FCC probably would object to roll-your-own cell phones, too...
Thanks for your helpful info. I guess that makes sense. I saw a website (from a European country) that you can order a phone and pick parts from them, I.e. size of internal/external drive, different MP for the camera, flash/no flash(camera) , etc. I forget the company but if you like ill post a link to it when I find it. Once again, thanks for the explaination!
Sent from my Vanilla FroShedYo using XDA App
Sure, no problem. Back a while (maybe years now) there was a similar offering by some company for laptops where you could upgrade parts of it at a later time because it was more modular than most laptops at the time. You could almost always upgrade CPUs on laptops as long as they were socketed, and you still can now, it just requires downloading a service manual to find out what the best order of disassembly is in order to do so, so it's not for the everyday user.
But only laptops with discrete video cards have the possibility to upgrade them, although I have no experience with these kind of laptops so I don't know how easy that is.
but...
So i was checking out stuff on replacing screen etc on an samsung s3, and i also found a section where it shows how to replace camera and motherboard, this is to replace with the exact same one obviously. But i was wondering if maybe you could find a similar camera from a different phone that may fit? I know i cant really answer the question...sorry but just adding input. And another question came to mind with regard to the upgrading of hard ware, is if it were possible lets say to upgrade the camera to a better megapixel, would there be a conflict with the os etc, ie in the coding for the phone is it configured to only be able to process and capture a picture of megapixel of the stock camera. not sure if that makes any sense
this is the link with the replacements http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III
Hey guys
I've been looking a LOT around amazon and such for a tablet under $100. Why under $100? I need it to be under that price because there's a very high "luxury" tax applied in my country to products over $100, and it's an extra money I would rather not give to the govt because it's plain ridiculous already. Also, I'm planning on getting two of them, and I can't afford more than $150-200 on them. Why? this stupid country only gives you a "coupon" of $400 to spend online -YEARLY-, and I don't want to use it all on just two tablets, or be left with less than $200-250 to spend on other stuff I also need.
Monetary reasons explained and set aside, I'm getting the tablet for my mom, who only needs to browse the web, get on facebook, get & reply to emails, maybe some chatting and whatnot. She doesn't need much and I'm sure a simple Zeepad or something similar would do, but I'm a power user who mods almost every device that comes across his hands, so I'm using this chance to get a tablet too -if- I like the one I'm buying to my mom.
My mom's needs are... well, the basics. Maybe playing a video or two and nothing else. Me, on the other hand, want to upgrade it to the highest android version available for it (whether it be GB or ICS, or even Froyo since some come with Eclair (Eww)) and give it lots of possible uses. These include using it as a VNC viewer, remote keyboard/mouse, some development (if I get a keyboard+case for it), some gaming (ok, maybe not THD or anything but if it runs Angry Birds I'm happy XD) etcetera.
So, to resume, I'm looking for something including these specs, if possible:
3G (optional but it would be a big plus)
WiFi (must, or if not, then 3G)
600-800Mhz CPU (ARM? Adreno? Cortex? wtf?!)
A decent GPU (PowerVR? (like my Defy)?, what's a good GPU in android devices anyways?)
No stylus-exclusive (avoid if possible)
No resistive screen (I've heard they suck, and I don't want to push a screen like if it were a button (Blackberry Storm anyone? Eww xD) and be forced to use a stylus. If I can use my fingers on a resistive screen and it feels like a capacitive one, then that's okay with me )
USB host (to be able to plug in USB drives, keyboards, mices, etc)
Ethernet port optional but cool if it has one.
Tethering ability (though I think this is more OS-dependant than anything else)
Full Android Market (stupid chinese tablets)
SD card reader
Medium-small size. My whole Nook Simple Touch has the right size for the screen size I'd like (I think that's 7-9 inches?), I don't want to carry a tablet of the size of a notebook. Something that can fit a big pocket in a jacket or a pant would be cool, like the NST . This is optional but not required.
Battery life to stand a lot. Hey, my phone lasts only a day even without WiFi turned on which sucks. I've heard their batteries are like 6 or more hours, which seems okay... I'm not really sure what is "good" in this aspect.
Camera would be cool.
Phone (or at least SMS) functions would be cool, too.
And last but not least, able to be upgraded, or at least with a good hacker community stabilished. I want to be able to upgrade the tablet to other android versions (I don't mind if they're experimental) or at least compile a version for it. With this, I'm saying I don't want to be using google translate to find info on how to install another ROM in my tablet because everything comes from chinese forums and the tablet uses a random, non-standard OMFG-9372 processor nobody knows -anything- about and have to use dodgy apps or hacks to modify it, mmkay? okay.
Now, I've done my homework and these are the items I've came up with, however I'm still looking for more devices:
EEpad MID: http://www.amazon.com/Android-Table...C2/ref=sr_1_99?ie=UTF8&qid=1334592070&sr=8-99
Elsse: http://www.amazon.com/Elsse-Interne.../ref=sr_1_125?ie=UTF8&qid=1334592099&sr=8-125
Pandigital: http://www.amazon.com/Pandigital-An...H0/ref=sr_1_60?ie=UTF8&qid=1334591812&sr=8-60
Zeepad: http://www.amazon.com/Zeepad-Tablet...7Q/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1334591744&sr=8-25
Skytex: http://www.amazon.com/Skytex-Primer...E0/ref=sr_1_50?ie=UTF8&qid=1334591812&sr=8-50
Zeepad (2): http://www.amazon.com/Zeepad-Androi...1_fkmr1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1334592627&sr=8-3-fkmr1
Coby Kyros: http://www.amazon.com/Coby-MID7015-.../ref=sr_1_121?ie=UTF8&qid=1334593041&sr=8-121
"Random" brands:
http://www.amazon.com/Boxchip-Corte...0K/ref=sr_1_82?ie=UTF8&qid=1334592041&sr=8-82
http://www.amazon.com/Tablet-Intern...5Q/ref=sr_1_91?ie=UTF8&qid=1334592986&sr=8-91
Now, my thoughts:
EEpad MID: Looks good, but it has no reviews, so that detracts me from buying it. I can't find much info on the web on modifying it though.
Elsse: Seems like an asian tablet with no official Android Market, but eh, what do you guys say?
Pandigital: Looks like it sucks .
Zeepad: There isn't much info about it
Skytex: Looks cheap-o and low-quality :/
Zeepad (2): Seems to have good features and such.
Coby Kyros: Now, this, coming from Coby it makes me think of a cheap device like the MP3 players they make, but surprisingly, it has more reviews than the rest of the tablets and it's under $100. Also, it seems to be more powerful than the rest of the ones I've looked at (in the links here), and the reviews seem to be good. It makes me think if it's possible to upgrade it to 2.2 or 2.3, it would be really cool if it would.
---
Sorry for the long read!... in case you want a resume, I'm just looking for two tablets: A simple one for my mom to browse the web, emails, play some games, chat and etc, and another one (or the same one if possible) for a power-user who would modify/upgrade it and use it as an IT work tool (VNC viewer, dev. tool, document editing, pdf reading, flash, some gaming, etc).
Any thoughts you guys have in relation to an android tablet to get? what's something "good" and something "bad"? I'd like to see opinions, reviews or suggestions on other tablets to look for or what other keywords should I look for in Amazon?
Thanks in advance!
- DARKGuy
Bump?
Coby Kyros is listed as "resistive" on Amazon, i'm not sure you've noticed that. I think you should check the Ainol (or any allwinner based device). They have somewhat limited community and support but it should be good for performance and gaming. Or bump the price range to 150 and look at Cortex A9 devices with reputable brands..
I agree with NightWatch71 about the tablet but not the price. I found it at around $75 in some places, but that was a long time ago so I forgot. Try looking around on Google Shopping.
Prices on Amazon change so often it's almost impossible to keep up and new manufacturers are releasing tablets a dime a dozen
This list is kept up to date tabletninja.com/finding-the-best-tablets-under-100/
A lot of the same options listed with a few new options from some newbies
I need a laptop to program on at school (Java this year, C++ next)
For a while I thought I HAD to get a laptop, and I was thinking a used Mac Book pro 13", around $900 or so.
I recently found AIDE (Android IDE) which allows for Java, C, C++ (and a few other languages I believe...) and also Eclipse project integration.
Does anyone use AIDE on an N10, or in general at all? Would this be a good or adequate move for me to make? Is AIDE able to compare with an IDE like Eclipse, or any others you can think of? (we use Eclipse in the class I'm taking now. Submissions are done on school Linux computers with Eclipse).
I would be buying a keyboard dock to use with the N10
Here's my current pro/con list
N10 Pros:
$400 cheaper at least
It's all I need in a computing device; internet, media, programming
Super portable
Android + Android Market
Matches my Nexus 4 :3
N10 Cons:
Um...perhaps might not be a pleasant programming experience? Whole point of this thread lol
_________
Laptop Pros:
Portable
Will do what I need it to, and more if something comes up in the future
I definitely know I can program on it, and is fully compatible with classes I take.
Apple product: it will work, and it will work nicely.
Laptop Cons:
More expensive than N10
Not quite as portable (larger than 10")
It would probably be an Apple product (cloud 'ecosystem' disjoint)
To be quite honest, money is the biggest factor here.
But on a final note, I'm mostly looking for personal experiences from you guys. What have you done with AIDE, what's your experience, what do you like/dislike.
I'll appreciate suggestions on what to buy, but it's almost meaningless without reasons to back it up.
I don't think a tablet can ever fully replace a laptop, especially for programming. Decent keyboard would be a major reason.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Yeah, you don't want to be programming on a tablet without a dedicated keyboard, those typos will be nasty. I doubt you could compile in a reasonable amount of time either.
Sent from my A100 using xda app-developers app
Ydoow said:
I need a laptop to program on at school (Java this year, C++ next)
For a while I thought I HAD to get a laptop, and I was thinking a used Mac Book pro 13", around $900 or so.
I recently found AIDE (Android IDE) which allows for Java, C, C++ (and a few other languages I believe...) and also Eclipse project integration.
Does anyone use AIDE on an N10, or in general at all? Would this be a good or adequate move for me to make? Is AIDE able to compare with an IDE like Eclipse, or any others you can think of? (we use Eclipse in the class I'm taking now. Submissions are done on school Linux computers with Eclipse).
I would be buying a keyboard dock to use with the N10
Here's my current pro/con list
N10 Pros:
$400 cheaper at least
It's all I need in a computing device; internet, media, programming
Super portable
Android + Android Market
Matches my Nexus 4 :3
N10 Cons:
Um...perhaps might not be a pleasant programming experience? Whole point of this thread lol
_________
Laptop Pros:
Portable
Will do what I need it to, and more if something comes up in the future
I definitely know I can program on it, and is fully compatible with classes I take.
Apple product: it will work, and it will work nicely.
Laptop Cons:
More expensive than N10
Not quite as portable (larger than 10")
It would probably be an Apple product (cloud 'ecosystem' disjoint)
To be quite honest, money is the biggest factor here.
But on a final note, I'm mostly looking for personal experiences from you guys. What have you done with AIDE, what's your experience, what do you like/dislike.
I'll appreciate suggestions on what to buy, but it's almost meaningless without reasons to back it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I often program on my Nexus 10 but always over SSH with a hardware keyboard. Its something that's nice to have as an auxiliary device but if you don't have at least a decent desktop then buy a laptop first.
It also depends on what you want to program. If you want to make a Linux or Windows desktop application then the Nexus 10 won't be ideal. When I'm doing application programming I usually work on a desktop or laptop.
I use N10 to access remote dev machines and code (VS2010) from there using a bluetooth keyboard/mouse. These are all Windows machines. I would never run an IDE locally on the device itself, for one I code .NET mainly, and two, compiling would probably hella slow.
I would say it depends on what you are programming. These days, I primarily do Android development. So AIDE + the N10 was my main choice. I bought a Logitech keyboard at a low price, and my tablet has become very productive.
I have also been trying to learn other programming though. I put a lot of time into C++, which the N10 also fairly suits. I chrooted Ubuntu on my N10 and I use the terminal (not VNC) to write and compile C++ applications. It can get a bit tedious, but it works for basic, console based applications. Also for Perl, Ruby, Python and PHP, I use sl4a. I can write my programs in DroidEdit and it lets you compile with sl4a.
I bought the N10 as sort of a development machine. I know that more complex applications, like a Windows program, will not be entirely possibly. However, if I am working on a piece of my application (for example, maybe some database access or other kinds of general I/O), I can easily just copy that source code over to my N10 and test it with a test class, then integrate it into my main application when I have access to a desktop or Internet for a remote connection.
Absolutely not. You really don't want to be programming on something that small and relatively slow, especially for two years of school. Get a decent laptop with a 15"+ screen as you're gonna need all the screen real estate you can get. A MacBook Pro would be a waste of money for your purposes.
wireroid said:
Absolutely not. You really don't want to be programming on something that small and relatively slow, especially for two years of school. Get a decent laptop with a 15"+ screen as you're gonna need all the screen real estate you can get. A MacBook Pro would be a waste of money for your purposes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could not agree more. And what is his obsession with Apple laptops? They're overpriced for what they are nice though they might look. Why don't people realize that there are so many better alternatives out there where you can get such a cheap laptop for 500 dollars and you can just slap a Linux distro on it. Heck I bought my wife a Sony Ultrabook for 600 dollars 13 inch screen 4 gb ram hybrid ssd drive/hdd and it's more powerful than a MacBook Air. Oh and it can dual boot with Ubuntu.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD
Hello XDA, I don't often venture out of the branded device forums so here goes nothing.
I have chronic nerve damage in both of my arms (primarily right arm which is my writing hand). I am going back to school this year and the pain seems to be getting worse. The most painful thing for my arm is without a doubt writing, and I am filing for a 504 plan to allow me to use some other method of typing besides writing.
So there's the back story, now here's my question.
I need a device (not necessarily android, but a tablet is one of the main contenders) that can give me a solid writing experience (keyboard or bust, a keyboard cover/accessory will suffice, but NO on screen typing), offer an all day battery life, is portable and easy to store, and can also double as a media device. I am sort of on a budget, but am already in the market for a tablet so I'm willing to spend some extra $ on this. 600$- maybe $800, preferably less obviously.
Note, I probably won't have internet access during school, so DRM is out of the question.
So here are the candidates.
Chromebook - don't know what the stance on DRM is for these nowadays, but I would love a Chromebook as they are cheap, have nice typing experiences, and have great battery life. Again, if anybody can pitch in on DRM for the Chromebook that would be great. All I need for school is a writing supplement so a word editing software will work fine. I'm also aware that you can install Ubuntu on a Chromebook and Ubuntu has the libro office.
Android tablet - I love android, and was very close to buying the new shield tablet a few weeks ago. I'm glad I didn't because that device doesn't have many solid accessories currently, but a device like the nexus 7 probably does. However, the writing programs on android are really lackluster and don't offer the precision of a real laptop
Surface tablet - this one is kind of a long shot, but if for some reason the school requires a windows os (which could be possibly) I would choose this over a standard laptop because it doubles as a tablet.
Cheap windows laptop - this one is self explanatory, a cheap run of the mill windows laptop would type fine, but would be dead useless to me outside of school and I already have a laptop (a Toshiba satellite that is massive and has a terrible battery life) for home. Also the tablet would probably be slow and have a terrible battery... and yeah, windows.
So there you go. Thank you for reading this, this is very important for me right now as starting school again has out me in a tremendous amount of pain from writing, and I would love to find a solid supplement that meats all of my goals.
Thanks,
William
Does anybody here have a keyboard accessory for an android tablet that they could recommend?
Bump :/
Hi,
I'm sorry I don't have any answer to your question, but since you're on the topic of typing and nerve damage, I thought I'll let you know about the Typematrix keyboards (http://www.typematrix.com/) that offer physical, ergonomic-layout keyboards such as Dvorak, Colemak and BÉPO, which are all designed to ease the pain (and up the speed) of typing. Learning to (touch-)type efficiently takes 4-8 weeks depending on the layout and the keyboards themselves aren't cheap (= in the $100-120 range), but if you value your health, I think it's worth it. Plus, the washable silicon skins are über soft and silent as well ! ^^
(I'm not affiliated with Typematrix in any way, but I give kudos when deserved )
wtoj34 said:
Hello XDA, I don't often venture out of the branded device forums so here goes nothing.
I have chronic nerve damage in both of my arms (primarily right arm which is my writing hand). I am going back to school this year and the pain seems to be getting worse. The most painful thing for my arm is without a doubt writing, and I am filing for a 504 plan to allow me to use some other method of typing besides writing.
So there's the back story, now here's my question.
I need a device (not necessarily android, but a tablet is one of the main contenders) that can give me a solid writing experience (keyboard or bust, a keyboard cover/accessory will suffice, but NO on screen typing), offer an all day battery life, is portable and easy to store, and can also double as a media device. I am sort of on a budget, but am already in the market for a tablet so I'm willing to spend some extra $ on this. 600$- maybe $800, preferably less obviously.
Note, I probably won't have internet access during school, so DRM is out of the question.
So here are the candidates.
Chromebook - don't know what the stance on DRM is for these nowadays, but I would love a Chromebook as they are cheap, have nice typing experiences, and have great battery life. Again, if anybody can pitch in on DRM for the Chromebook that would be great. All I need for school is a writing supplement so a word editing software will work fine. I'm also aware that you can install Ubuntu on a Chromebook and Ubuntu has the libro office.
Android tablet - I love android, and was very close to buying the new shield tablet a few weeks ago. I'm glad I didn't because that device doesn't have many solid accessories currently, but a device like the nexus 7 probably does. However, the writing programs on android are really lackluster and don't offer the precision of a real laptop
Surface tablet - this one is kind of a long shot, but if for some reason the school requires a windows os (which could be possibly) I would choose this over a standard laptop because it doubles as a tablet.
Cheap windows laptop - this one is self explanatory, a cheap run of the mill windows laptop would type fine, but would be dead useless to me outside of school and I already have a laptop (a Toshiba satellite that is massive and has a terrible battery life) for home. Also the tablet would probably be slow and have a terrible battery... and yeah, windows.
So there you go. Thank you for reading this, this is very important for me right now as starting school again has out me in a tremendous amount of pain from writing, and I would love to find a solid supplement that meats all of my goals.
Thanks,
William
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Dude
i guess there is many options to choose since the market is huge
i would suggest something like this : 10.1 Inch Tablet Pc Intel Atom Baytrail-T Z3735D 1.33Ghz Quad Core DDR3 2GB SSD 32GB Dual Cameras Ultrabook Win8 it comes as a tablet that you can attach to a base (proper qwerty keyboard and stand) 32gb storeage about $400
or this : samsung XE500T1C windows 8 Quad-core is equipped with a keyboard Bluetooth/WIFI *same kind of a deal but 64gb storage and more slick and "known" device about $600
and if you feel that you might need more than that here : Intel Core I5 + 4G DDR3 + 128GB SSD+ Bluetooth+3G * this one is about $730
also since u have one m8 you can have look at the app i use for documents WPS Office: PPT, DOC, XLS, PDF
and here u have a solution in case you would like to get any other tablet SEARCH FOR TABLET CASES WITH KEYBOARD
all these links work but i mainly gave them as examples since you might be able to get them devices locally/cheaper
Specifically, I'm curious about the RAM since there isn't much info about the minimum requirements about ram.
A little background info:
I have bought myself a second hand laptop, a Thinkpad R61. I plan to use it as a portable workstation (sort of) since i can't carry my desktop anywhere I want, obviously.
The CPU is a Core2 duo t7700 2.4 GHz, and i plan to keep it. The hard drive is a 5400rpm 160gb hdd, which is going to be replaced with an ssd. The ram is difficult to decide, though. I have 2 gb ddr2 right now, and I can shove in 8 gb max but that's expensive. I'm planning to go for 2+2 kit, but i don't know if that's enough.
I don't care if the compilation will take a long time, i just need to know whether 4 gb total is enough.
Oh, and keep in mind that budget is tight. Thanks.
A T7700 is probably going to take a very long time. Even building a kernel on a Q9500 was over an hour in 2013.
Get the RAM if it's very cheap or free, but I'd honestly save the money and put away to buy a newer laptop.
In the long term you'll get a far better result.
You may honestly be better off looking at building on a remote machine. Several places (such as Amazon) will let you create a VM that you can connect to and run remotely. As long as you don't go crazy on that you may even be able to get that for free. If you can get that, far better to go that route and saving your hard earned cash for a new laptop.
garwynn said:
A T7700 is probably going to take a very long time. Even building a kernel on a Q9500 was over an hour in 2013.
Get the RAM if it's very cheap or free, but I'd honestly save the money and put away to buy a newer laptop.
In the long term you'll get a far better result.
You may honestly be better off looking at building on a remote machine. Several places (such as Amazon) will let you create a VM that you can connect to and run remotely. As long as you don't go crazy on that you may even be able to get that for free. If you can get that, far better to go that route and saving your hard earned cash for a new laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, using a cloud service is what I am thinking lately. I think I might benefit from the uni's agreement on Azure, if there is such thing.
The laptop is fine actually despite it's age, the classic thinkpad keyboard is great, the whole thing is usable with win8.1 x86.
Sent from my Sony Xperia Z1 using XDA Labs