Well it's been 2 days and I have yet to be informed of any AP updates in the market (that's with 53 apps. installed).
Are you all getting update notifications in the market?
yes, i've gotten several. most have not had a lot to do with honeycomb, though a couple early on did. mostly i think developers are working on updates for tablets now that the sdk is out.
I got my first update notification today.
All is well in Xoomland.
How?
How do you sign up for updates like that?
We should start a thread that lists Xoom native apps, I would myself, but I don't have enough knowledge of the Market. This is my first Tablet, and I use an iPhone for my cell.
I don't know many good apps, so I've been cautious on the one's I've been downloading.
But one thing that does get me is Google Sky Maps, its apparently been designed for a tablet. but i suppose not the xoom?
It works fine, just the initial loading screen looks choppy.
When you go into the market/My Apps, it should let you know if one of your installed apps has an update available (unless you have checked the box to allow automatic updating. I don't as I like to see what has been changed with the update).
Thx
I have a rooted NST. Sometimes, when I search for an app that I know exists, it does not show up in the market. It also says the app is incompatible with my nook. I remember seeing a post somewhere here to a chrome addon that allows you to download the .apk directly from the market (piracy.. I know, but this is for a good cause) but I can't find it. Sorry if this does not make any sense, normally I am good at grammar, but.. yeah.
Thanks!
Why does everyone else get helped, and not me?
Sheesh, dude. Give us some time. 8 hours is NOT a long time when you're waiting on a world-wide community that works on a different clock than you do!
There are a couple of things (at least) that can cause an app not to show in market. To know exactly what's up, you'd have to tell us which apps.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the NST is running Android 2.1 'eclair'. A LOT of apps -- many of my favorites -- have been written for Android 2.2. 'froyo' or above. These probably will not work, no matter what you try.
Other apps care about the device type. Some are hardcoded to only work on specific devices. You can sometimes get these to work by spoofing your device to appear as another. Other times, you can download the .apk on another device, then transfer it to your NST. There's no guarantee these will work, however.
Depending on how you configured your device, you may simply have to clear market data and cache to restore full visibility (subject to the above constraints).
List a couple of specific apps and we might be able to give you a better answer.
bobstro said:
Sheesh, dude. Give us some time. 8 hours is NOT a long time when you're waiting on a world-wide community that works on a different clock than you do!
There are a couple of things (at least) that can cause an app not to show in market. To know exactly what's up, you'd have to tell us which apps.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the NST is running Android 2.1 'eclair'. A LOT of apps -- many of my favorites -- have been written for Android 2.2. 'froyo' or above. These probably will not work, no matter what you try.
Other apps care about the device type. Some are hardcoded to only work on specific devices. You can sometimes get these to work by spoofing your device to appear as another. Other times, you can download the .apk on another device, then transfer it to your NST. There's no guarantee these will work, however.
Depending on how you configured your device, you may simply have to clear market data and cache to restore full visibility (subject to the above constraints).
List a couple of specific apps and we might be able to give you a better answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the guy IRL, and apps I can get on my Nook don't show up in his market, whether it's the app or market.android.com. I have no idea what's going on.
Which is why all I need is the link to that chrome addon that allows you to download the .apk from the market.
List of apps:
Root uninstaller (the free one)
XDA Developers (both of them)
Don't be so lazy, did you ever heard about google?
It took me 8 sec to find it.
http://codekiem.com/2012/02/24/apk-downloader/
Sorry, I looked and could not find it.
Hi,
is it possible to have more than one google account on one Nexus7 device?
(this thread should be at Nexus7 Q&A)
Moved to Nexus 7 Q&A.
EDIT: Never mind, I was wrong, you get the option of choosing which account to use as the person below me has said.
I have a second Google account on my Desire Hd.
Its not much of an issue, when you are using google apps eg. YouTube, G+, Gmail you get a choice of which account you want to use and you can logout and choose the other whenever you want.
Syncing is not a problem either, whichever account you pick when you make changes they will be saved to only that account.
My YouTube widget changes depending on which account i am using when i exit the YouTube app.
Hope this helps
Sent from my Desire HD using xda app-developers app
I use multiple Google accts on my phone (ICS/CM9). Sync'ing, etc works just fine. Whenever it gets to a point where you have to choose the account you want something under, it prompts you. The issue/solution for me for Facebook (for my wife & I) will likely be Friendcaster (which allows multiple accts).
I was thinking more about choosing an user after waking-up the tablet. Just like windows has. One for me, other for my wife.
The perfect solution would be face to unlock, but I don't think it would be avaliable soon.
Tablets feel like windows 98 all over again. I guess this is because of their phone roots (the thought being one user owns a phone). But with tablets, many want to share.
As your example of you and your wife. Or even security. I'm at my bro's and my nephew wants to play with my tablet, and he's pretty responsible, but he could actually start reading/deleting my email, uninstall apps, buy apps via google market. Btw, I expressly choose never to save anything to google wallet, I've only made a few purchases and have been careful of this, but last thing I bought, my credit card info was all ready to go. Sigh.
But yes not only would I like multi-users I would like to make others have limited functionality, as in they can't install/uninstall apps etc. Even a simple thing like letting my nephew play a game I was in the middle of playing, well he cleared all the stages so I have to remember which stage I was on each time I launch it, or clear them all and start over.
But I suspect it'll be this way for a long time.
gieja said:
I was thinking more about choosing an user after waking-up the tablet. Just like windows has. One for me, other for my wife.
The perfect solution would be face to unlock, but I don't think it would be avaliable soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SwitchMe sounds like what you may be looking for?
N.B. I haven't used it.
Thanks Salty Wagyu for the link. I'm gonna try it as soon as i get me N7. It might be what I'm looking for.
Salty Wagyu said:
SwitchMe sounds like what you may be looking for?.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow... I wasn't aware of that app, either. This is from one of the reviews, though:
Log out does not really work like Windows where you log out and then select another user but rather you have to go into the App and say SWITCH user. Once you do SWITCH user, you actually have to wait for the device to reboot into the other user so it is not running multiple instances
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd think that if the dev on this app could get help from or work with the devs on the popular launchers, better integration would ensue... Like the review said, though... great start...
I've actually installed this app and ran it. You do have to reboot whenever you "switch" which for me isn't a big deal. I haven't had a chance to mess with it too much yet but it looks like the closest option to running multiple accts. From what I can tell you can add a pic for each profile and u can choose which acct to load which is nice, but the lite version only allows 2 profiles, you have to buy a key for more.
1 caution though, it may mess things up a bit with the play store. I tried buying a key after switching back to my profile, and I got an error saying my order could not be processed try again. I'm going to give it some time & try again in a few hours & see what happens.
Using it now too. Seems pretty cool. Seeing as EVERYONE loves wanting to see your phone. LoL!! There is an experimental switch feature that swtiches without rebooting, but I'm not too sure that's working just yet. LoL!!
I'll give this a try too. It may seem worth it.
And a question for the OP. Is that your comment I seen in the store? About the wife and kids? LoL!! =.P
I noticed that switching to a different profile doesn't retain apps between users. Say for instance on the admin profile (mine), I have Plex purchased and installed. On the newly created profile with a different account, it doesn't show up in the apps page (which makes sense because it's a different account). This could become a problem for those with the 8gb model (like myself) where you might have duplicate apps installed based on the user(s) which would take up more space. I think for the sake of saving space, it may be wise for me to install only maintenance/tool type apps on the admin profile for tablet management, then, anything else (games, productivity etc) can be tied to the newly created profile so that I'm not duplicating installed apps.
Can anyone that has done this estimate how much space an extra profile consumes? My 8 GB nexus 7 stock out of the box has ~5.75 GB available. Will adding a second profile consume another ~2 GB plus any additional apps, data, etc? I'm hoping that some of that 2 GB is due to medium format, and other reserved space...
Hi, a new guy here!
I recently became a happy owner of 32Gb wi-fi only N7. I’m familiar with software dev (windows developer for 20 years with some work on unix) and customization/modding/flashing process (mostly for satellite receivers). However this is my first tablet and my first Android device so I could use some help
I successfully unlocked, rooted and installed custom recovery on my N7. I would like to get to a bare bones state of the N7 and then slowly add new features/programs to it when it becomes necessary for me. So I would like to remove all non essential parts that were preinstalled on my N7.
I was under impression that I could uninstall programs using N7 UI after device gets rooted. However it seems that for majority of the apps I still only have an option to disable.
I shelled into N7 and looked around. It seems that all (majority?) of the apps are in /system/apps folder. Can I simply remove the apps and their files from that folder? Does this folder only contain user apps or does it also have system apps that are essential for N7 to function? Is there a chance to brick it by removing something (everything?) from that folder?
I searched on a forum for a list of apps that are safe to remove. I thought it would exist since it seems to be something many of us would be interested in doing. I didn’t find the list. If there is such a thing and someone could direct me there, it would be great!
Given that I can remove apps by deleting them from that folder safely, I still have a question what each app does and how important it is. Is safe to assume that any app that has a wheel with a drive belt on it as an icon in apps screen on N7 is system app and has to stay?
I have two keyboard app installed – one is Android keyboard and one is ASUS keyboard. Judging by the name 2 of these are essential since Android is the OS and ASUS is the manufacturer. But do I really need two of them?
If there is a resource/thread that discussed something similar, please let know. I look forward to learn from anyone on this forum!
_Diver said:
Hi, a new guy here!
I recently became a happy owner of 32Gb wi-fi only N7. I’m familiar with software dev (windows developer for 20 years with some work on unix) and customization/modding/flashing process (mostly for satellite receivers). However this is my first tablet and my first Android device so I could use some help
I successfully unlocked, rooted and installed custom recovery on my N7. I would like to get to a bare bones state of the N7 and then slowly add new features/programs to it when it becomes necessary for me. So I would like to remove all non essential parts that were preinstalled on my N7.
I was under impression that I could uninstall programs using N7 UI after device gets rooted. However it seems that for majority of the apps I still only have an option to disable.
I shelled into N7 and looked around. It seems that all (majority?) of the apps are in /system/apps folder. Can I simply remove the apps and their files from that folder? Does this folder only contain user apps or does it also have system apps that are essential for N7 to function? Is there a chance to brick it by removing something (everything?) from that folder?
I searched on a forum for a list of apps that are safe to remove. I thought it would exist since it seems to be something many of us would be interested in doing. I didn’t find the list. If there is such a thing and someone could direct me there, it would be great!
Given that I can remove apps by deleting them from that folder safely, I still have a question what each app does and how important it is. Is safe to assume that any app that has a wheel with a drive belt on it as an icon in apps screen on N7 is system app and has to stay?
I have two keyboard app installed – one is Android keyboard and one is ASUS keyboard. Judging by the name 2 of these are essential since Android is the OS and ASUS is the manufacturer. But do I really need two of them?
If there is a resource/thread that discussed something similar, please let know. I look forward to learn from anyone on this forum!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have the energy right now to address every app one at a time, but I'll nudge you in the right direction. That should help you start tinkering.
The Nexus 7 is very popular in this community because it's intentionally more open, and less bloated, than much of the competition.
That being said, sure there are apps you could uninstall if you decide to. Some of the custom ROM's will have probably already have done this for you, but may create little unexpected quirks here and there.
The first thing you'll want to do is backing everything up thoroughly. I would use Titanium Pro (you'll see it referred to as Tibu a lot), to backup all apps and settings. Then I would use the Google Nexus 7 toolkit (found in the forums here) to do a backup, as well as make a nandroid backup.
Ok, so you're ready to tinker. Well, if you bought Titanium Pro from the app store, you've already got all you really need. First, use titanium to freeze an app you don't feel you need, and don't think is required. Re-boot, go about your daily routine, and see if all is ok. Continue on in this manner. Once you've frozen everything you're interested in, and made sure all is well, you can probably go ahead and uninstall them through Tibu. Freezing them should generally make them not start up anyways, so unless the tiny amount of space they take up is a concern, that's really all you generally need to do *.
* Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
bladebarrier,
Thanks for your response. I understand the approach you suggested – disabling apps one at a time and then when they all disabled and device is working to my liking for a while I could uninstall them.
However, I’m somewhat frustrated with a sheer number of apps that I have out of the box and I can’t find a good description of what they do. For example:
Mobile Network Configuration
Google Partner Setup
Google Services Framework
Searching online doesn’t yield definitive answers if it’s something I need or will N7 work without them. I have google play store and google play services installed – does store app require services? Reading a bit about it doesn’t make it seem so, but I’m not 100% sure. So I was wondering if there is a list of apps that are required for N7 well being and that cannot be removed no matter what.
For example, Black Viper has an excellent example of what I’m looking for but for windows nt services: (can't post a link)
This page explain what each service is, what it does and if it’s safe to disable it depending on configuration you’re seeking – minimal set, typical, out of box of experimental. I would love to find something like that for N7 system apps
I installed CWM recovery when I rooted and as far as I can understand I does NAND backups. I plan on moving the backup file from the device to my desktop and keeping it there for safety reason.
The Tibu process that you described, as far as I understand (and I might be wrong here) is basically equivalent of disabling the apps using native N7 setting app, rebooting, using it for a while and then removing .apk and .odex (or simply app_name.*) files from system/apps folder. Tibu just makes it easier. Did I get that right?
And it’s still removing one app/widget at the time. I’d like to clean it out completely first and start from that point. So Tibu will probably not help me there. So my main Q is still out there – can I brick it by removing everything from system/app? Are there only user apps there or essential system apps as well? With CWM back up file on hand will I be able to recover if my experiment goes bad?
> * Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
One of the reasons I want to have them removed is to clean up the list of apps I have on N7. Right now I have 5 pages of apps and I have little idea what they do and if I need them – I had Korean keyboard installed for example.
As I mentioned I’m a newb in this area, so maybe my approach is a bit dumb, so please be patient with me
_Diver said:
bladebarrier,
Thanks for your response. I understand the approach you suggested – disabling apps one at a time and then when they all disabled and device is working to my liking for a while I could uninstall them.
However, I’m somewhat frustrated with a sheer number of apps that I have out of the box and I can’t find a good description of what they do. For example:
Mobile Network Configuration
Google Partner Setup
Google Services Framework
Searching online doesn’t yield definitive answers if it’s something I need or will N7 work without them. I have google play store and google play services installed – does store app require services? Reading a bit about it doesn’t make it seem so, but I’m not 100% sure. So I was wondering if there is a list of apps that are required for N7 well being and that cannot be removed no matter what.
For example, Black Viper has an excellent example of what I’m looking for but for windows nt services: (can't post a link)
This page explain what each service is, what it does and if it’s safe to disable it depending on configuration you’re seeking – minimal set, typical, out of box of experimental. I would love to find something like that for N7 system apps
I installed CWM recovery when I rooted and as far as I can understand I does NAND backups. I plan on moving the backup file from the device to my desktop and keeping it there for safety reason.
The Tibu process that you described, as far as I understand (and I might be wrong here) is basically equivalent of disabling the apps using native N7 setting app, rebooting, using it for a while and then removing .apk and .odex (or simply app_name.*) files from system/apps folder. Tibu just makes it easier. Did I get that right?
And it’s still removing one app/widget at the time. I’d like to clean it out completely first and start from that point. So Tibu will probably not help me there. So my main Q is still out there – can I brick it by removing everything from system/app? Are there only user apps there or essential system apps as well? With CWM back up file on hand will I be able to recover if my experiment goes bad?
> * Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
One of the reasons I want to have them removed is to clean up the list of apps I have on N7. Right now I have 5 pages of apps and I have little idea what they do and if I need them – I had Korean keyboard installed for example.
As I mentioned I’m a newb in this area, so maybe my approach is a bit dumb, so please be patient with me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removing Google framework services is a big no-no. To be honest, the easiest way to accomplish what you want is installing a custom ROM like CyanogenMod, especially since you've done all the prep work for such a thing.
Once you install any official CM build it is as close to app-less as you can get on a modular OS like this.
littleemp said:
Removing Google framework services is a big no-no. To be honest, the easiest way to accomplish what you want is installing a custom ROM like CyanogenMod, especially since you've done all the prep work for such a thing.
Once you install any official CM build it is as close to app-less as you can get on a modular OS like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's what i suspected! i thought that google framework would be something essential, but there is not much easily available information there to arrive at that conclusion
since i'm new to this, i thought i should stay away from any rom flashing until i get a bit more familiar with a device, terminology and stuff like that. i'm looking at the "[ROM] CyanogenMod 10.1 [OFFICIAL]" thread and i'm not sure about half of the terms - GAPPS, PSA, Nightlies i do know what ROM is, I do know what kernel is, virtual machine, etc. But it's applied to the platform that I have little experience with, so it makes me a little bit uneasy
_Diver said:
bladebarrier,
Thanks for your response. I understand the approach you suggested – disabling apps one at a time and then when they all disabled and device is working to my liking for a while I could uninstall them.
However, I’m somewhat frustrated with a sheer number of apps that I have out of the box and I can’t find a good description of what they do. For example:
Mobile Network Configuration
Google Partner Setup
Google Services Framework
Searching online doesn’t yield definitive answers if it’s something I need or will N7 work without them. I have google play store and google play services installed – does store app require services? Reading a bit about it doesn’t make it seem so, but I’m not 100% sure. So I was wondering if there is a list of apps that are required for N7 well being and that cannot be removed no matter what.
For example, Black Viper has an excellent example of what I’m looking for but for windows nt services: (can't post a link)
This page explain what each service is, what it does and if it’s safe to disable it depending on configuration you’re seeking – minimal set, typical, out of box of experimental. I would love to find something like that for N7 system apps
I installed CWM recovery when I rooted and as far as I can understand I does NAND backups. I plan on moving the backup file from the device to my desktop and keeping it there for safety reason.
The Tibu process that you described, as far as I understand (and I might be wrong here) is basically equivalent of disabling the apps using native N7 setting app, rebooting, using it for a while and then removing .apk and .odex (or simply app_name.*) files from system/apps folder. Tibu just makes it easier. Did I get that right?
And it’s still removing one app/widget at the time. I’d like to clean it out completely first and start from that point. So Tibu will probably not help me there. So my main Q is still out there – can I brick it by removing everything from system/app? Are there only user apps there or essential system apps as well? With CWM back up file on hand will I be able to recover if my experiment goes bad?
> * Ok, sometimes you have to fully uninstall things you don't want, but this should get you plenty to tinker with for now.
One of the reasons I want to have them removed is to clean up the list of apps I have on N7. Right now I have 5 pages of apps and I have little idea what they do and if I need them – I had Korean keyboard installed for example.
As I mentioned I’m a newb in this area, so maybe my approach is a bit dumb, so please be patient with me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tibu requires root access, in order to perform what we're discussing. I'm relatively new to JB, but I can't imagine any stock settings replicating its capabilities.
As far as a whole bunch of apps being in your list, that's sort of the way Android works. Think of it like "superfetch", or whatever that term was in Windows Vista. Basically, two things happen when you boot. Android looks at a list of apps that are designed to start on boot, and also apps that it expects you may want to run in the future. Both of these are designed to make the device run smoother overall, and it will kill apps if extra ram is required and they are not in use. Certain Android apps require themselves to run at all times. Some of these are apps like Tasker (if you're using tasker profiles), some of these are system apps that make the device function, some of these are apps that maintain widgets or background monitoring (weather apps, gmail, calendar).
Now, there are two ways to go about sorting what is bloat, and what is there because Android decided to load it. You can install an app called Autostarts, that will give an insight into apps that start up when certain criteria are met. You can also use it to stop those apps from queuing up at those trigger points. This is another root required app, and while I purchased it long ago, may have a free version as well. It's time consuming to use, and not perfect, which is why Tibu is better for flat out locking down unwanted apps.
Back to my initial thoughts though, you will see apps in your system list that you haven't touched since boot, because Android tries to anticipate your needs. People used to use "task killers" to close the apps, and came to realize that unless one is causing a real problem, it's just going to go back into the cached app list again anyways, thus reducing battery life when it has to load it over and over again. "Task killer" is a dirty word around XDA, unless you're using it to close an app that doesn't just go into the background like a good little app should.
Basically, you're going to start playing whack-a-mole if you want your list to remain as small as possible, at all times, and yet still actually use the device for anything interesting. You can reduce it, via various methods, and if this were a device from say "insert-name" brand, and was loaded with bloat apps, by all means you should clean those out. However, I think you'll find that while google does install things that aren't needed, or even used by everyone, it's mostly not a big issue.
Check out Better Battery Stats, in the XDA forums. It's an app that shows a pretty good picture of what is actually going on when you're not looking, and can provide data on how to improve your performance. It's probably a better way to start delving into what processes are actually being used, and which ones are just basically harmless. You'll also learn a good bit about how Android works from the Dev's explanations of many of the processes.
---------- Post added at 08:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------
_Diver said:
that's what i suspected! i thought that google framework would be something essential, but there is not much easily available information there to arrive at that conclusion
since i'm new to this, i thought i should stay away from any rom flashing until i get a bit more familiar with a device, terminology and stuff like that. i'm looking at the "[ROM] CyanogenMod 10.1 [OFFICIAL]" thread and i'm not sure about half of the terms - GAPPS, PSA, Nightlies i do know what ROM is, I do know what kernel is, virtual machine, etc. But it's applied to the platform that I have little experience with, so it makes me a little bit uneasy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure whichever ROM you use, if you decide to, supports your HSPA+ model. There is a separate development section in the Nexus 7 forums, for those of us that have the HSPA+ version. We are the minority, as the Nexus 7 was initially released as a wifi only tablet.
bladebarrier said:
Tibu requires root access, in order to perform what we're discussing. I'm relatively new to JB, but I can't imagine any stock settings replicating its capabilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i do have SU privileges, so what i was talking about was disabling an app thru N7 setting screen and then when i deem the app ok to remove, going to adb shell and removing the actual file.
i just did this:
mount -o remount rw /system
rm iWnnIME_Kbd_White.apk
rm iWnnIME.apk
and it removed the japanese keyboard. however when i go back to app screen under settings, i still see it but now it has a grey icon with a SD symbols in the corner. so it appears it recognizes that the app is gone, but it's still referenced in the list. i pushed the files back using NRT and it all back to the way it was. so looks like my idea of cleaning the list by removing the apk might not fly.
and now I wonder how Tibu uninstalls the apps.
bladebarrier said:
People used to use "task killers" to close the apps, and came to realize that unless one is causing a real problem, it's just going to go back into the cached app list again anyways, thus reducing battery life when it has to load it over and over again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand the notion of apps being in the cache and being removed when more RAM is needed, however the purist in me just doesn't want the junk apps to be there in first place However there is a lot of validity to these of your words:
bladebarrier said:
Basically, you're going to start playing whack-a-mole if you want your list to remain as small as possible, at all times, and yet still actually use the device for anything interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My wife got Kindle Fire HD recently and she's been using it happily. While I was thinking why would anyone want a closed up system (well, more closed up system then Nexus), she's been using it and I've been frustrated with my N7 so i might just let it go and enjoy the japanese and korean keyboards anyway
bladebarrier said:
Make sure whichever ROM you use, if you decide to, supports your HSPA+ model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm wifi only
ngshniq every
i think i found what i was after: http wiki.cyanogenmod.org/wiki/barebones (url modified since i still can't post urls). this wiki page has the list of app with a short description and if it's safe to remove. it also has additional information that explains why i still saw the reference to the app in the list when apk file was deleted:
looks like i need to pay attention to 2 additional files:
/data/system/packages.xml
/data/system/packages.list
i bet I would find a reference to the apps in these and i would need to remove it in order to have the app disappear from the app list. i'll play around a bit more and report back
One thing, could you explain your reasoning behind wanting to delete everything but the essentials? Do you have a particular goal in mind or is it because of your windows background? Because if so, you should know that android operates very differently when compared to windows, and such, the requirements to keep your device working in tip top shape vary greatly.
In my opinion, with your current limited knowledge of each process/app inner workings, what you're trying to do surefire way to break something beyond repair and needing to use a factory image to get back to zero. A custom ROM will be much safer and yield the exact same results that you're looking for. (Eventually, once you understand what each thing does, then this manual approach could satisfy your needs)
Note: GApps are the basic Google apps to flash on top of the barebones system. Gmail, Play store, and the framework.
Nightlies are experimental builds compiled nightly by a bot with the latest CyanogenMod code available.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
My goal was to simplify my approach to N7 by removing anything that I don’t need now and slowly adding all necessary components as I get familiar with it. But it seems at this point that this approach is a bit more complicated as thought it would be.
So I think I would leave it alone for now and revisit this later
_Diver said:
My goal was to simplify my approach to N7 by removing anything that I don’t need now and slowly adding all necessary components as I get familiar with it. But it seems at this point that this approach is a bit more complicated as thought it would be.
So I think I would leave it alone for now and revisit this later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what you've done manually, you're clearly far ahead of a new user when it comes to understanding linux/unix.
If you want to lock down parts of what google implements, purely to keep it minimalistic, I would agree with the above poster. Go for one of the popular ROM options that are available, like CM, and work your way backwards. The Nexus 7 only has as much bloat as you allow it to have via the settings. This is another reason why Better Battery Stats is an excellent way to make sure your device isn't draining battery, yet isn't locked down. The other day I noticed an app that kept fetching my position, even though the case was closed (magnetic sleep mode). It turned out I forgot to disable the tracking in google maps (why it was defaulted to ON, I have no idea). BBS showed me what was running during the sleep phase, and I fixed it when I woke up the next morning after wondering why my battery dropped.
The Kindle Fire is a great option, because it doesn't require any of this fussing about. My woman loves hers. LOVES IT. Personally, I like to tinker a bit, and I'm too invested in Android apps to not have access to the play store. The Nexus 7, is for people like what you find here. We like to tinker, and make everything custom. At the same time, you could spend all day trying to figure out why EntriesRefresh_wakelock is your highest partial wakelock count, at 60seconds per 7 hours, or you can find that you just went 7 hours and only used 6% of the battery, even though you've been connected to wifi, texting, emailing, and checking the weather and news, the whole time. Not bad, honestly.
The biggest investment you can do for your Nexus, is probably getting a case that magnetically puts it to rest when you close it. After that, learn about the settings that drain battery in the background. Then, get Tasker and play around that (it's like programming, without the need to learn the code). After that, go to a custom ROM, or dig out Tibu, and basically start customizing which apps you will use. If that doesn't pass the time long enough, you can literally make your own ROM and put together exactly what you want. Whether the performance will be that much better or not, and whether you'll spend most of your day trying to look for coding errors, is up to you. I don't have the patience to code, but you're a coder, so what is broccoli to me, may be bacon to you.
Ok, so I got an old Nook Simple Touch. In part because they can be had for such a cheap price on eBay these days and in part because they're among the few eInk based devices that run on Android and can actually be unlocked and more done with them than the manufacturers intended (I've used an old Kindle and man I hate how locked down and generally useless they are.) Actually, I was hoping I could do some neat stuff like setup daydream with weather info and a clock and all on it while the screen was "off" but I guess I forgot that this is a relatively new thing and it looks like it's based on a really really old Android version? Either way, I'm so used to CyanogenMod and its relatively near to AOSP nature that this thing is feeling horribly limiting and unpleasant to use for me.
Anyway, I've been searching around for various guides and such. I've found tools for rooting and putting the Google Market (yeesh, I forgot they used to call it "Market" ages ago.) It seems I needed to update the system to 1.1 for this (I had bootloops until I did, so clearly you have to have the right system version.) It seems there is a newer version or two beyond this though, but I didn't see root tools (I'm still hoping I can do more with this that might require root access to actually do.) Should I be updating beyond that? Namely, are there tools to actually root and all if I do?
Also, in the meantime, I'm running into troubles with the plain and simple fact that neither Google Market nor Amazon's app store installed by these tools work which may not be fixable. The thread on here says to add an account through Youtube first, then go to gmail and manually refresh over and over until it eventually crashes. After probably 15 minutes of this my hands were too tired to continue though. I just don't think it's supposed to take 15 minutes though. When I start the market it doesn't crash like that guide mentions either. Is there any other way to fix this? Is there any point? Obviously the market app is quite old, so perhaps it's simply never going to work? Is there some alternative way to find stuff that actually works on the NST? I thought to do F-Droid, but even it requires a newer SDK version apparently (I'm getting kind of curious what version of Android its base corresponds to. Does it predate 2.2? If so I may be in trouble since I don't think any of the stuff I was hoping I could put on there will go lower than 2.2.)
For this matter, is there a better way I can do stuff like loading apps? I was hoping to at least have a file manager to be able to use do stuff, but they didn't include one. I'll probably have to track down an apk. For now I'm having to actually use the network adb (I installed the version of the tools that was supposed to do adb over USB, but it doesn't even show up as an adb device at all for me to even so much as install a driver, so I guess it's not doing adb over USB as it should. The network method seems to work, though I'm not a big fan of leaving it wide open like that on principle really, yet remembering to manually change it on and off is a pain too.)
I realize this is a really old device and probably it is very limited what I can really do with it, but I was hoping I could at least squeeze a bit of use out of it. In particular, I'm going to need a much better reading app even if I use it for its intended purpose only. When I looked it up I had thought it was a close enough to stock Android that I'd be able to load up most apps I guess and I didn't think it would be so hard to even get anything on it.
Whew!
OK, let's start with basics. You didn't say how you rooted it but if you're working from 1.1 you probably are not getting the best out of the device. 1.21 is the final stock version. If you can get your NST back to stock, I would recommend doing so. Considering what you seem to have done already probably the easiest way to go is to use the NookManager route. Go here. Follow the instructions. There is info there for adding a Gapps package after rooting. But first get yourself back to 1.21 stock. Once that's done you can either use the Search Market tool from the Gapps package, or find apps on your computer and have them show up on the NST via the PlayStore, or side-load apps from the SD card or via ADB (default on that is WiFi with NookManager--you can install the ADB Konnect app and it works fine). There are plenty of alternate readers that run on the NST. I happen to like the stock reader very much, but to each his/her own.
When all that's done, everything depends on what your expectations are and what you want from your NST. There are a variety of kernals out there as well as USB host/audio mods. Although the Android system is old and the display limits what you can do, there are many apps that run well on the device and I personally get a lot of use out of mine, even more now that I have audio. Check out what I've done (second post) and look at what others have done (in the same thread).
There's a lot of good info in this forum on modifications, apps that run well (and don't) and many tips and tricks.
I think I have most of what I need with that actually, yes. I didn't realize from the guides I initially found that you could root or install third party components with a > 1.1 system version. With that stuff I do have a semi-working Google Market now and can actually install a lot more stuff than I thought. I see also my favorite reader app not only works, but apparently knows I'm running it on a device with an eInk screen and defaults to having eInk adaptations turned on.
Is there any way it can do anything like what I had sort of envisioned before btw? Eg on the screen "off" mode have some sort of thing that shows weather or news or something that updates every so often? (Nevermind the clock thing, that's probably a bad idea. I was just wondering about dedicating it to being sort of something like a clock with it plugged in all the time. Now I think maybe I can stop using my tablet for reading and use this instead.)
Nazo said:
Is there any way it can do anything like what I had sort of envisioned before btw? Eg on the screen "off" mode have some sort of thing that shows weather or news or something that updates every so often? (Nevermind the clock thing, that's probably a bad idea. I was just wondering about dedicating it to being sort of something like a clock with it plugged in all the time. Now I think maybe I can stop using my tablet for reading and use this instead.)
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Sounds like you are having CM lockscreen widget withdrawal
Actually that seems like a job for Tasker. But it would be potentially messy. You'd need to:
1. Clear image in custom screensaver folder
2. Turn on wi-fi
3. Open weather/whatever app to update info
4. Take screenshot and save to custom screensaver folder
5. Close app
6. Turn off wi-fi
At that point when the Nook goes to sleep the info will be displayed on the lock screen. The question is whether Tasker can wake up the Nook and repeat this at desired intervals when you're not using it.
Also, have a look here for something along the same lines. Maybe you'll get an idea.
Ironically on my phone and tablet I keep it really simple. It's just that the eInk screen of the Nook can essentially be "always on" so to speak without draining the battery like mad (since it would only actually need to wake up every half hour or so for a frequent update schedule.)
But, all that said, it just doesn't sound like this is really worth all the effort. I guess I'm actually more used to newer versions of Android mostly rather than CyanogenMod specifically as they just have more power in what these things can do. With the Nook -- even unlocked and opened up -- it really sounds like the amount of time and effort required to even remotely approach such a thing is orders of magnitude higher. Well, that's fine. I had initially thought that I might maybe just use it as some sort of really neat "smart clock" type thing (at $35-ish on eBay you won't find many clocks that could come close to doing what an Android device could theoretically do) but in the end I don't think this is really all that realistic and definitely not worth the effort. On the other hand, now that I'm able to get more stuff actually running on it and open up its capabilities more I'm thinking I could maybe use this thing for something more akin to its original intended purpose: reading. From time to time I want my tablet to be able to do a bit more and I think this can do pretty well everything I care about beyond the basic reading stuff, so maybe I can stop carrying my tablet around all the time. (And for stuff like music I have a dedicated multimedia phone courtesy of eBay that's much better off really.)