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Hello folks,
My father-in-law showed up to visit with an Acer A501 in hand. He was challenged in getting it to work according to his needs, so I offered to take a look...
His "needs":
Google Voice via WiFi for "telephone" operations
Skype video conferencing (with front-facing cam)
Light Email usage
Netflix / Pandora
I was baffled that:
Google Voice (and various other things I expected to see) were missing from Market
Skype installed, but without video support from either cam
Netflix didn't show up in the Market either...
Bluetooth paired to a Plantronics Voyager Pro headset, but wouldn't see the Headset or Handsfree profiles offered by the device... WTF?
...the internal mic seemed nearly-worthless at first use
BTW, shortly after connecting it to WiFi, the Acer proposed downloading an update (v4.0.something - about ~370MB). The WiFi kept dropping and I had to set it to never disconnect to the update.
Unfortunately, the update didn't address any of the issues above. I suspect these are by brain-dead-design, rather than any inherent limitations of the hardware or of Honeycomb, but finding out what's up with this is why I'm posting here... I did search a bit and browse this Acer forum, but I confess to running out of time and I apologize for missing the answers if they're up here.
So, what's up with all this? Will I be able to work-around these things with a custom ROM sans Acer-or-Google-imposed limitations?
Thanks!
bmeek said:
Google Voice (and various other things I expected to see) were missing from Market
Skype installed, but without video support from either cam
Netflix didn't show up in the Market either...
Bluetooth paired to a Plantronics Voyager Pro headset, but wouldn't see the Headset or Handsfree profiles offered by the device... WTF?
...the internal mic seemed nearly-worthless at first use
--SNIP--
So, what's up with all this? Will I be able to work-around these things with a custom ROM sans Acer-or-Google-imposed limitations?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These limitations aren't either Google's nor Acer's design. It's Skype who has decided not to support video, it's part of this marketing campaign in the US where only a select carriers' phones will get videocalling in Skype. Similarly, Netflix is doing exactly the same thing, that's why it's only designed to work on a selected set of devices.
Apparently Netflix can be made to work on A500 though, haven't seen anyone being successful with regards to Skype.
Well
No Skype support for video calls. This is due to Skype, not Acer.
Netflix has not added support for the a500 yet - but we have a work around that enables it and allows you to watch video - you will need to root your Iconia first, however.
Netflix patch for Iconica : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1116393&page=5
root for Iconia (assuming your ota update gave you 3.1): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138228
Pandora should work just fine with no Modding.
Hope that helps.
entropy.of.avarice said:
No Skype support for video calls. This is due to Skype, not Acer.
Netflix has not added support for the a500 yet - but we have a work around that enables it and allows you to watch video - you will need to root your Iconia first, however.
Netflix patch for Iconica : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1116393&page=5
root for Iconia (assuming your ota update gave you 3.1): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138228
Pandora should work just fine with no Modding.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answers. I gathered that about Skype - lack of video being their choice and treating the tab like a simple smart phone...
My suspicions of "by-design limitations" were bolstered by the elusiveness of Google Voice (I did find the posts about getting that working , and the annoying fact that with default browser settings the tablet is seen as a mobile phone and gets limited page views... Why GV doesn't show in the Market, after all this time (I saw some rather old posts about this and other Honeycomb tabs), still has me wondering.
Thanks again.
bmeek said:
Thanks for the answers. I gathered that about Skype - lack of video being their choice and treating the tab like a simple smart phone...
My suspicions of "by-design limitations" were bolstered by the elusiveness of Google Voice (I did find the posts about getting that working , and the annoying fact that with default browser settings the tablet is seen as a mobile phone and gets limited page views... Why GV doesn't show in the Market, after all this time (I saw some rather old posts about this and other Honeycomb tabs), still has me wondering.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your browser, click the icon in the top right corner, select "settings" then "advanced" and you can change the view mode from mobile to desktop. Also most mobile sites will have a link to switch the session from mobile to full.
Welcome! Glad to help always.
acer a501 update
just like to let everyone know that acer a501 ics update is now ready for download
downloaded it myself here in australia 15 mins ago. fast and stable and looks great
This thread is an effort to try and quell some of the bickering on the forums -- like e.g. the claim that no one ever does anything useful here -- and to offer a common place to start for people who are new to the A500/A501 so that people wouldn't keep asking the same things over and over here. If you have something you think would be beneficial to add in this please leave a comment, all kinds of regularly-asked questions and answers, hints, tips and so on are welcome, though I do not promise to add everything in this first post.
I would appreciate if people left bickering, flaming, trolling to some other thread. Also, you shouldn't ask plain questions in this thread as they will possibly be lost in the comments eventually, possibly without anyone even noticing your question.
Oh, and one more thing: I am not a bot so I cannot be updating this every 5 minutes. I will try and do a daily sweep, but we'll see how it goes.
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SECTION
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What is the A500?
The A500 is short for Acer Iconia Tab A500, a 10-inch Android tablet. It sports a dual-core Tegra2 CPU/GPU, 1GB RAM, one rear camera, one front camera, WIFI 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, microSDHC slot (not mentioned anywhere by Acer but you can actually use microSDXC cards, too!) and 1280x800 resolution screen. A500's key selling point is its full-size USB port that you can use to attach all kinds of regular USB devices without any adapter cables. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_Iconia_Tab_A500
What is the A501?
The A501 is exactly the same thing as A500 except there is a 3G module and SIM-card slot on the A501.
What about the A200?
The A200 is very similar to A500/A501, but uses different camera hardware, lacks the rear camera, and comes with less storage space. It also apparently has somewhat different partition layout (Someone confirm this?) than its bigger brothers and seemingly lacks accelerometer and ambient light sensor.
There is empty space inside the A500 where the 3G module would go, can I make A500 into A501?
Sorry, that's a no-go; there have been several people wondering about the same thing, but we simply do not have the diagrams and there's a lot of components missing. You'd just fry or short the motherboard trying to solder all the small, missing parts there unless you had soldering bot to aid you, and if you did have that you'd likely have much better things to do with your time anyways.
I see something called 'adb' mentioned here and there, what is it?
ADB is short for Android Debug Bridge, an application that is used for various kinds of low-level tasks on Android devices. If you have e.g. Acer's Acer Sync installed you'll already have adb.exe at C:\Program Files\Acer\Acer Sync\, or wherever you installed it. If you see directions telling you to write commands like "adb devices" on the command line but doing that doesn't work you could write the following first:
Code:
cd "Program Files\Acer\Acer Sync\"
and then try the commands you were told to do.
For more information see e.g. http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html
I see someone called 'Thor' mentioned here often and it always causes a fight, why?
'Thor', or rather 'Thor2002ro', is a developer who used to hang around on XDA before. After he stopped sharing whatever alterations he did to the Linux kernel source-code he got into trouble with XDA mods; not sharing the source-code modifications is a violation of the GPL license as Linux kernel itself is GPL licensed. Because of this links to his ROMs and website are prohibited here.
As for threads tending to turn into fights: well, there are people who feel very strongly about the GPL, there are people who simply do not care at all, and then there are people who do not even understand what it is all about. In such a situation things just tend to turn into fights, it's an unfortunate human trait.
More to come.
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HINTS AND TIPS
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To be filled out soon.
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FLASHING, ROMS AND ROOTING
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Can I install Linux on my tablet?
Yes, you can! It is however not for the faint of heart and can majorly screw up your system. Take a look at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1158260. Another solution would be to install Linux in a chroot environment, ie. have both Android and Linux running at the same time with Android the dominating OS. This is a lot safer approach, but it also bears with it several disadvantages: no H/W acceleration and poor performance. For example https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zpwebsites.ubuntuinstall is one such solution.
How can I root my tablet?
If you are on stock Honeycomb 3.01 or 3.1 then just follow the guide at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1138228. If you are on Honeycomb 3.2 (or newer) you can follow the directions at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1307539 to root or use the instructions
at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1276227 to go to an earlier version.
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I would appreciate it if you people requested sticky.
How to Apply ad-hoc network tether fix
To Be able to tether your Iconia To a ad-hoc network.Such as from a 3g/4g cell phone. On phone get app such as wifi tether,Barnacle tether or other similar app from the Android MARKET installed on your phone.Then Fallow the below instructions on your ROOTED Iconia Tablet
1. navigate to system/bin and copy wpa_supplicant
2. past this to your sd card as a backup
3. rename wpa_supplicant to wpa_supplicant.old
4. extract the file from the download and past it into the system/bin folder. (should be wpa_supplicant)
4. Long press on the file once copied
6. select Permissions and set to User: RWE, Group & Others:RE only
again a big big thank you to the original poster/fixer the original thread is
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1056188
WereCatf said:
If you are on Honeycomb 3.2 (or newer) this does not work anymore and you must revert back to earlier version first: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1276227
.[/I]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a V4 root version which doesnt require you to revert to an earlier version
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1307539
Instructions are inside the download
^ Good to know, will update that, too.
Seeing many complaints and questions have been posted reguarding the stock wallpaper/lockscreen problem I though I would help others with this problem. The following programs can be simply sideloaded/installed. They are tiny little programs that will do a whole lot to get rid of the frown Amazon has put on your face. And they don't require Root access!
Prerequisites :
NONE (That is Correct ! NO ROOT NEEDED ! This is Programatical)
Cost :
FREE (All)
Links :
1) Wallpaper Changer Kindle Fire - by DPAPPS (Google Play/Android Market)
or
2) My Kindle Wallpaper - by kindlecooltricks
Preferred Wallpaper Size :
1024x1024 (This will allow for best fit regardless of Portrait or Landscape or Auto)
Steps :
1- Buy a Kindle Fire
2- go to Settings -> Device -> then turn "ON" “Allow Installation of Applications“ (You probably allready have this done)
3- Install a Program above program
4- Copy Wallpapers to a common directory on your Kindle Fire
5- RUN the program and point it at (a) a specific wallpaper picture file or (b) at a directory from which it will randomly pick a picture each time the Kindle Fire is turned on.
6- Smile, Amazon's pictures are out of your life....
So for those using ADW, Go Launcher, etc, or just hate the default unlock screen pictures in the Kindle Launcher, you can now finally (programatically) set your wallpaper or let the program change it to any wallpapers you have uplaoded to your Kindle Fire.
IF you prefer to change your wallpapers with the click of a widget you might also want to try WallSwitch.
WallSwitch v.2.0.2 by Keith Bourgoin - Google Play/Android Market
or
WallSwitch v.2.0.2 by Keith Bourgoin - Android Comunity
Thank you to these people for haveing fixed the KF for all of us.
Enjoy
Wallpaper Collection #2
Wallpaper Collection #3
Wallpaper Collection #4
Wallpaper Collection #5
Wallpaper Collection #6
Wallpaper Collection #7
Wallpaper Collection #8
Couple Sci Fi Wallpapers my son wanted to see
Hey thanks a lot for this! The pics you added look awesome but I am having a problem. Everytime I try and select one of your pictures in the app, the picture is zoomed in too far and I don't see the whole thing.
Well, it looks like update 6.3 is causing some headaches for people when they try to specifically select one picture, but the option for "Wallpaper Folder" is still working fine....
Hurray, Amazon release 6.3.1 today and it fixed the problem with being able to select an individual wallpaper. So feel free to pick your favorite again....
Collection #9
Flames for the Fire
Collection #10
For all the wine lovers out there....
Collection #11
More Rocks
Wallpapers look good
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA
Collection #12
Misc NEW Wallpapers
Collection #13
NEW Wood
Collection #14
Nebula Backgrournds
Collection #15
Colored Smoke
Hey there folks,
Gen 2 7"
Android 4.0.4
STOCK
I'm referring to the photo editing page that comes up when you take a screen shot. I play this live multiplayer game so during the game we like to capture trash talkin', wins, good kills, etc. The issue is that this splash-page/confirmation page comes up when I take a SC, then hangs the device for a good 3s which means I end up dieing as well, sigh.
My 8.9" lte tab never did that, the 10.1" gal tab gen 1 didn't do that, so I'm wondering if this is an ICS thing or...?
If there's a way to disable that and simply have the image filed normally in its folder (like how it used to be) without the need for further immediate editing, please help!
Hi xda-developers,
I'm looking for a developer to customize TPT with ICS installed.
I need to:
1. Remove lenovo's original (with globe icon) gadget from front screen
2. Replace any Lenovo word from system (where user can see it) - this means that for example in Settings user sees model name MyOwnName instead of Lenovo ThinkPad, etc.
3. Remove any lenovo-related apps, like Lenovo app store.
Main idea of this activity is make depersonalisation of device. Do not ask why
I need to get some kind of script or detailed instructions how the achieve desired.
We assume that device is rooted.
I'm
ready to pay for this job, amount can be discussed personally.
Looking forward to work with someone,
Alex.
Forgot to mention, adding now:
4. Find any way to re-assign hardware buttons to do whatever application may require (four buttons of front and volume +- buttons). Just as example, Browser button may do tomething special in my app, like starting some activity.
5. Remove|replace Lenovo logo when booting
6. Remove|replace Lenovo logo when tabled first run out of box.
7. (kinda important) - all this modifications should stay working when user does 'factory reset'
Still looking for some cool guy,
Alex.
up
Hi Agrisnn
You should try this on the "Thinkpad Tablet Android Development" forum, but I think that you don't have sufficient posts on xda forum to be able to post on that forum.
Try contacting the author of [ROM][CM10] Thinkpad Tablet (v0.9), koshu.
Regards
Martin