Yes its time for a Vega poll
For those that want a definition of "mod" - I mean running anything other than stock, i.e. new rom, root or installing Gapps (Google Apps)
To give some background into why I have done this poll, I wondered how many people out there like me believed the vega was only a viable android tablet because we already knew it had root and can easily have GAPPS placed on it.
There must be some people who purchased one and then later discovered xda or modaco, or even some who will refuse to root (but the latter is unlikely).
What do you exactly mean by "To Mod" as in put custom rom on there or add on packs?
I got a taste for using custom ROMS from my old Samsung Omnia (made great by this site )
The fact that there was a custom ROM with market and flash access ready added a lot more weight to an already bargain purchase. I am so glad I didnt waste another £200 on the iPad
I would never buy a phone or tablet that was not supported by either xda or modaco. That's not to say I wouldn't put villainrom or cyanogenmod on my Vega should they become available, I use miui on my desire. The Vega wasn't on xda when I bought it but I'm really pleased it's on here now.
Like bakedecake, im the same. I wouldnt buy a device unless it was or was more than likely going to be supported by xda/modaco.
The only flaw with the vega is the screen...not the greatest. Apart from that top notch.
I see that at CES Windows said it will now support arm/nvidia tegra cpus in someform in the future...maybe win8. If we could get that on the vega at some point it would be one hell of a tablet for £250.
Hello everybody, I'm sageDieu and I am a very active user in the Samsung Mesmerize/Fascinate forums as well as the general Q&A, Apps and Games, Development etc threads here at xda.
I have been exploring options thinking about getting a tablet, and I have used a lot of them at Best Buy. I was just looking around and found that i had a bunch of rewards points on my credit card, just enough to get me the Acer A500. So the first thing i did was head over to xda to see what the development was looking like for this tablet, and from what i can tell it looks pretty active which is promising. The main thing I would want to do when i get a tablet is get it rooted, wiped and on a stock honeycomb rom with as much performance and as little proprietary software as possible.
My questions for you guys are:
1. Do you recommend getting the tab? It seems to be my best potential option, and the hardware specs look great.
2. What is the process of rooting, CWM, roms, etc. in a nutshell for this device? I am familiar with terminal, linux, adb, all that stuff for my phone and lots of other devices I've played with. I'm assuming for this just grab and run gingerbreak then adb CWM over? I've never owned a tab before.
3. After I get to that point (if I do, still not even sure about buying the thing) can you guys tell me what your favorite roms are? There seem to be a lot that have active stable development.... mostly 3.1 with different options but then there's the 3.2 xoom one and some other ones... it's a bit overwhelming coming from my phone where we have stock, a custom debloated rom and then CM7 and MIUI. Just some quick recommendations would be great for things like speed, battery life, performance, bloat, stability, etc..
Thank you so much to anybody that takes the time to help me out. If I do get this device I assure you I will be very active in the forums and do my best to keep it going.
sageDieu said:
1. Do you recommend getting the tab? It seems to be my best potential option, and the hardware specs look great.
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I don't have any experience with other tablets except seeing some being used. I have not used them myself. Thus I have a hard time giving anything concrete in the way of differences or opinions, but, well, I haven't had any issues with my Iconia and the hardware is just great; the battery lasts and lasts and lasts, the screen is pretty, the full-sized USB port is really daymn handy.. And I like the one thing Acer has made in their ROM: Dolby enhancements. It does make a difference
2. What is the process of rooting, CWM, roms, etc. in a nutshell for this device? I am familiar with terminal, linux, adb, all that stuff for my phone and lots of other devices I've played with. I'm assuming for this just grab and run gingerbreak then adb CWM over? I've never owned a tab before.
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1. Install Iconiaroot.apk and tap on "root", you're done.
2. Install Acer Recovery from Market, tap on Install, you're done.
And that's that, you've got CWM installed and the thing rooted. Not too hard
3. After I get to that point (if I do, still not even sure about buying the thing) can you guys tell me what your favorite roms are?
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I personally like the stock ROM the most, the others have this or that naggle..
i have been enjoying the minimal rom (albeit overclock would be nice). Going to be testing out lightspeed with thors kernel to see how well that one compares.
I looked at five different tabs; Samsung, xoom, HP webos tab, blackberry Playbook, and this one. The two downfals of the iconia are the screen and the processor. There are faster and better displays out there but the tablet had all theother features I wanted at a much cheaper price. A good competitor for this one was the Asus transformer, but I wanted better haptic feedback from using the keyboard.
1. I enjoy mine and would recommend it. That said, honestly you'd have to say exactly what you're looking to get out of the Tab so others can offer constructive recommendations.
2. You'll find rooting and installing CWM to easier and quicker just than just about any phone out there. Literally can do both inside of 2 minutes right on the Tab itself.
3. As far as roms go there are options. That said, since HC source code will probably never see the light of day the talented devs on here are pretty limited on what they can do. The good news is most stock roms are fairly bloat free in comparison to phone roms. I believe the Galaxy rom has the most customization you'll find. So.. check some rom threads on here and experiment. A few kernels are available too.
Hope that helps
By your numbers:
1. I think it's the best tablet out there for the money, and definitely in the running for best tablet period. There are faster, lighter tablets available, but there is nothing out there that completely matches the feature set of the A500. Depending on what you want from a tablet, you might end up like me with it being your "only" option.
2. Best way to describe the A500 rooting process: SCARY EASY. I can't believe how easy it was after what I had to go through to root my HTC Evo 4G phone. Everything on the A500 is like one-click. The IconiaRoot app roots it in one step, the Acer Recovery Installer installs ClockWork Mod in basically one click, and then you're able to flash away on whatever ROMs you want.
3. I'm no use here. I like the stock Honeycomb v3.1! You actually might, too. There's a lot less bloatware on tablets compared to phones, and even stock it's pretty smooth/fast. I definitely felt the need to hack up my HTC Evo phone, but my A500 is only rooted and tweaked a little.
Good luck with your decision!
Thanks for the feedback. In response to "what I want in a tablet," it would mainly be a media device, games, music, movies etc. and I might use it for development in the future.
Sadly, my Xbox broke and I have decided to use my points for a new one since it gets a lot more use than I think this would. I really appreciate the answers, and I will keep you guys in mind when I save up the cash to buy a tablet. Thanks
Sent from my MIUI SCH-i500
Fascinate bros!
sageDieu said:
Thanks for the feedback. In response to "what I want in a tablet," it would mainly be a media device, games, music, movies etc. and I might use it for development in the future.
Sadly, my Xbox broke and I have decided to use my points for a new one since it gets a lot more use than I think this would. I really appreciate the answers, and I will keep you guys in mind when I save up the cash to buy a tablet. Thanks
Sent from my MIUI SCH-i500
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lol nothing worth playing on Xbox until MW3 comes out in Nov. COD Black Ops blows chunks, MW2 was the last good one of the series. Wait until November for your Xbox, and get your Iconia now!! lol
kjy2010 said:
lol nothing worth playing on Xbox until MW3 comes out in Nov. COD Black Ops blows chunks, MW2 was the last good one of the series. Wait until November for your Xbox, and get your Iconia now!! lol
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Pfft, PS3 > Xbox anyways
WereCatf said:
Pfft, PS3 > Xbox anyways
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+1
On topic: Hello, I hope to be a new member of the Iconia Community shortly. I was going to make one of these topics, but thanks to the OP, I didn't have to =p.
I've read the reviews by those big name reviewers on the Iconia, Galaxy Tab, Thrive, Playbook, iPad (eww), Transformer, etc.. but they'll never compare to actual users of the product in the real world. With that being said I have one more question to add:
What are the specific issues/concerns that have come up with the Iconia? I've read there are sleep issues with the unit? I haven't had the chance to read through the changelogs of the various roms for the Iconia yet, but have they fixed any of the stock issues?
Thanks in advance and hope to hang around here for some time to come =)
Athrun88 said:
What are the specific issues/concerns that have come up with the Iconia? I've read there are sleep issues with the unit? I haven't had the chance to read through the changelogs of the various roms for the Iconia yet, but have they fixed any of the stock issues?
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Quite many people seem to have issues with WIFI not getting IP address, but apparently the fix is easy enough. I don't know if newer firmwares have fixed the issue.
Personally I have not had a single issue with the tablet at all so again I cannot comment much more than that.
i run stock rooted and have only 1 small issue.....occasionally I will install from the market and the apk will download but never move past "installing" i have to leave the market and come in again and redownload the apk etc.
Also if you are looking at purchasing, and have a cosco around do it there. 32gig version with case (a crappy one) and hdmi cable for $429 is very hard to beat. Also with the cosco you get 90 day return and 2 years warranty. (3 if you use amex to buy)
Aaron Camp said:
Also if you are looking at purchasing, and have a cosco around do it there. 32gig version with case (a crappy one) and hdmi cable for $429 is very hard to beat. Also with the cosco you get 90 day return and 2 years warranty. (3 if you use amex to buy)
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There are afew private sellers that are selling the unit. I really don't care about warranty because i'll be rooting, and with my past history with devices and electronics, i've never claimed warranty anyways. I will, however, look into that, there's a costco near my work! Looking at a seller with a 16GB model at $350 Canadian unopened box. Seems like a good deal.
Hey everyone,
I'm trying to find the best ROM for the Vega to suit my needs... I'm new to tablets so please forgive my ignorance!
My priorities are:
Speed - The ROM I use must be as zippy as possible of the Vega's hardware.
Functionality - So wifi, bluetooth, touchscreen, camera, etc. must all work as they should.
Compatibility - I'd like to be able to use as many apps as possible.
Aesthetics - I'd like it to be a modern and tasty GUI.
There are so so many ROMs out there, and for every ROM there's another 10 versions! Please help??
Thank you
I use Vegacomb 8.1 at the moment. It works great and has good functionality. However you should know all of these ROMs are made by people dedicating from their own time to develop and make our Vegas more enjoyable, so don't expect to be same as Asus transformer ROM with all the capabilities.
You can not expect everything works perfectly. For example on Vegacomb 8.1 the USB host is not working which means USB port can't be used for devices. Hopefully in the next update this will be available.
With any custom ROM it is important to follow the instruction percisely with lots of patience.
Have a read through the thread for this ROM and get familiar with common issues and greta advantages. Then feel free to try it. I am using mine for more than 1 week and it works perfectly
Good luck !
A couple of guys in my office got fires for Xmas, and they want to put a stock rom on them so they can use it like a normal tab and get the google market place.
Can someone point me to a tutorial for putting a new rom on a fire and a link to stock ICS or stock honeycomb for them?
Thanks.
derricks2 said:
A couple of guys in my office got fires for Xmas, and they want to put a stock rom on them so they can use it like a normal tab and get the google market place.
Can someone point me to a tutorial for putting a new rom on a fire and a link to stock ICS or stock honeycomb for them?
Thanks.
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There is no honeycomb port to the Fire (at least not yet anyway).
As for ICS, there is a port-in-progress that is in pre-alpha stage here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1411895
There is a stable (good for everyday use) port of CM7 (Gingerbread) here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1390773
As for how to flash ROMS, take a look at this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1399889
we are pretty much stuck with gingerbread right now as said above.
I'm using the CM7 that he linked to above. Downsides to this are that you loose the ability to use amazon prime videos and lending. Basicly, you loose the stock amazon app (which is integrated into the OS), so these are not available. You can however use the Amazon app from google apps, which allows you to read amazon books.
The ICS builds that are in progress still have to many issues for me to try them. Occasional issues with accessing SD card, no hardware video support and patchy sound.
Like what the above poster stated, your best bet at thee moment is cm7 if you are looking for a good, stable, daily os with marketplaces access. I personally am using the pre-alpha ICS build and am loving it despite the issues but it really is just for testing at this point.
Sent from my Amazon Kindle Fire using Tapatalk
Also the ICS builds do not support USB. So you would have to boot to TWRP to mount the SD card to load files from your PC to your Fire. Then boot back to the OS to use the device.
If they just want the google marketplace then you can root and install the market on the stock ROM. If you want a custom rom, your best bet right now is CM7. If you give it a month or two I'm sure there will be a decent ICS daily driver out.
It sort of depends on how far you need to go before they consider it a "normal tab." I use mine on the stock rom for stuff I would expect out of a normal tab.. watching video, reading, listening to music, some web browsing, every now and then some robo defense or the like, etc. It works fine like that for me.
No, this is not one of the usual 'What's the best ROM out there' threads.
I am looking for something specific and hoping all you people can be of help.
I have been using a MIUI NAND ROM for some time now and been very happy with it but am now looking for a change with all the new stuff I see out there.
However, one of the reasons I am using the MIUI ROM is that it was one of the few at the time that supported WiFi Hotspot. The Gingerbread ROMs at the time didn't work.
Do any of the newer ICS ROM's support Hotspot working? If so, which ones have people used. I would perhaps like a move back to a Sense ROM if there is one our there to recommend, but this isn't a prime requirement.
Before you all shout at me, I have looked through the current threads on ROM's, but the issue of working Hotspot is not one that crops up very often, hence this question.
Thanks for reading, and looking forward to all your recommendations
If you read carefully you'll find that in most cases its NATIVE Wi-Fi hotspot that doesn't work, whilst third party hotspot apps do. No I can't recommend one, never used it.
+1 really wanna push this thread....
I basically got stuck with 2 (/3)
NexusHD2-JellyBean-4.1.2-CM10 V1.1 tytung <--my old favourite, had this installed for 2 days (until I broke my "new" phone - but will work again this week)
PACman HD2 v1.1 [PA/AOKP/CM10] Xylo <--my new favourite, from what I read
(EvoHD2v10 ICS 4.0.4-full HWA "Fastest ICS ever" ) <--whats with good old ICS?
convince me. I want a stable running daily use OS. shouldnt have major bugs (like reboots/having to restart/phone etc.), like in tytungs ROM, I once answered a call and there was just a "brrrrrrrrrrrrrr" <--"phone" not responding do you want to close it, pretty bad
If its very customizable/technical (like xylo) - fine, I love to be able to engineer my own things (I dont care if minor bugs)
so what do you guys think? which one do you enjoy the most and why