Database Users

Thinking about getting a Nook Color, have some questions first.

As many of you have likely already seen, the Nook Color is available for 179.99 today only (factory refurbished) at http://1saleaday.com/
I've been looking into getting a tablet lately, mostly for play - things like games, reading, and netflix. It seems like the Nook is a great "bang for the buck", and the devs have done some amazing work on it. I have a few questions before I take the dive though...
1. Battery Life.
How is the battery life while watching Netflix? While watching a movie on the SD-Card (let's assume 720P encoding). I notice that the Nook is rated at 8-10 hours with WiFi off, does that mean Wifi kills the battery, or just shaves off an hour or two?
2. Speed.
I understand that the Nook wasn't supposed to be a full fledged tablet, but the Devs have gotten some great ROMs for it that make it so. How is the speed? I want to make sure I'd use the tab over my phone when I'm at home, but my phone is actually quite fast (Atrix 4G, rooted, unlocked, running Alien2 with the OC kernel). Videos of the Nook with CM7 making it look very smooth with everything which is a huge plus (MotoBlur sucks, all animations on my phone are clunky... waiting for CM7 which is in alpha right now).
3. Gaming
I use my phone for moderate gaming, but it kinda sucks. I think that this will be my main focus on the Nook. Using emulators on my Atrix is a lesson a patience... The touch screen times out after 30 seconds of a finger being on the screen, so in games where you have to hold buttons a while, the screen becomes non-responsive. Because my phone's screen is small, it also makes playing a lot of emulators difficult as the buttons are on the screen itself. How do emulators run on the Nook? It looks like games from the market run just fine, which is great.
4. Shared Google account
My google account is tied into my phone right now, if I use the same account on the Nook, will I be able to install all of the same apps / games off of the market automatically?
5. Text Messaging
The Nook is Wifi only, so I know that Gtalk will work. What about SMS style messaging? Is there an app (or native in a ROM) ability to send / recieve text messages from the Nook while its on? This would make it so that I don't have to switch between devices at home in order to play games / watch a movie / whatever and talk to my phones.
Lastly.. what do you use your Tablet for? I know that I will play with this thing non-stop for a while, since its a new "toy". But other than running "old school" console games for a while (and Heroes of Might and Magic), I'm not sure what else I'd use the Tablet for considering that I own a very high end PC for gaming / programming, a MacBook Pro which sits on the coffee table in the TV room, an XboX for netflix streaming to the TV, and my much loved Atrix. I know that the tablet will be awesome while I'm playing with it and flashing ROMs, but from the experience of others... is it a passing fad for fun, or do you get a ton of use out of your tablet? If so, what do you use it for?
Any comments / questions are greatly appreciated. I've been looking into this for a few days, but now I'm on a time limit to buy the Nook on sale today, or wait for the next sale of a tablet.
DK

1) Battery life is amazing with the newer releases of CM7. I'm running 7.1 RC and left the wifi on when I finished charging it. After 24 hours in sleep I was only down 5%. After an hour use to update apps, browse online, etc, I was only down a few more percent.
2) Speed is great and just seems to get better with releases. Most people clock theirs to 1200 or 1300 (stock is 800) and run it daily like that. There is a lot of room to adjust for what you need/want.
3) I don't do a whole lot of gaming, but running something like Pocket Legends isn't a problem. I know some people are able to get Honeycomb only games running without problems. I think some require Tegra 2, so it shows how well this little thing performs.
4) Yes google account is shared. You purchase an app for your account and you can download it to both devices. The new market is device aware, so you may be able to purcahse and download to your phone, but not the Nook (if, for example, the app requires GPS), but there are ways around this.
5) I know SMS can be done, but I've never done it. Can't help here.
I love this little thing. For the price I don't see how you can pass it up. I use it for a little of everything: media, web, email. Probably the most use for me is having a nice little device to carry around documentation for work when I need to reference it.
If you have the money, thought about getting a tablet, and can do without camera, cell connection, it is definitely a great device to have.

I already have a NC but I went ahead an ordered one for the wife. She is a little jealous of mine so I figured why not for the price.

I use google voice to sms (can't call though without network), if you don't have a google voice account already, you can set it up, and connect it to your own phone number.

[Q] Worth buying one of these?

A couple questions before I splurge, teh Nook's been looking really tempting at it's current price point. I'm talking about once it's rooted and presumably running something stable (CM7 most probably).
a) How's the browser? Is Flash reliable, and overall is it good enough to check some e-mails and open five or six tabs of desktop versions of sites?
b) Battery life? Any stats and comparisons?
c) How's video playback? Does RockPlayer or such work and does it play XviD/H.264 files at their own framerate? HD isn't required, but would be nice.
d) Any drawbacks I should know about?
e) Is having no soft/hard keys for Android functions a detriment to the usability?
Thanks for any help and suggestions guys. Looking to buy me one of these if feedback's good.

here are some answer:
a) browser will be the same that your nexus one. But i use Opera mobile wich is smooth, can open lot of tabs (yesterday i had 8), flash work.
b) battery life: it get better, just cut wifi when you know it will iddle (when you sleep or go to work). I don't shut if off and it stand about 3 or 4 day (using it for web, mail). Watching an 20 minutes show drop around 8-10% battery. (using mx player soft decode, hw decode don't work )
c) mx player is great (better ui than mobo, i just switch!) don't use hd file, last time i tried it doesnt work..
d) no stable honeycomb, so no app using fragment ui (gmail for honeycomb)
e) you can try tablet tweak on your cyanogen's nexus one. bottom status bar + button in status bar work like HC!
pro: i like the rugger back the nook, no shiny plastic with lot of fingerprint!

onclebob pretty much answered everything. I'm a fan of the Dolphin HD browser which also handles flash, multiple tabs, etc. There was a deep sleep issue a while back but it's been fixed. I can routinely get a week or more out of a full charge with minimal use. Of course, YMMV. With tablet tweaks, there's really not a problem with missing the dedicated hardware keys. It uses the honeycomb-style soft keys. The nook 'n' key can be used as home, etc. I honestly can't think of any unsuspected drawbacks -- performance is great (at least with overclocking which is built-in to the nightlies) -- speaking of which, if/when you get one, the CM7 nightlies are the way to go -- very stable on the NC. Bluetooth and usb host mode are available. I will say the speakers do not get very loud, so that could be a factor. The other things are "known"... ie. 7" screen (although a very good one), no 3g/4g, etc.
Plus, for what it's worth, the community here is pretty awesome, which hopefully says a lot.

D's ) The SD card is very hard to insert or eject
The whole thing creaks and pops; poorly fitting/fixed components
Blink the wrong way and the USB cable will shatter into fragments
Still awesome though

I'm selling my Nook Color if you're interested.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1240181

One plus two best rom for battery and least bugs

Hi I just recently rooted my device and installed twrp. I wanted to get the most out of my device but am unsure with which Roms or tweets to try out first. I would like something light that makes the phone feel fast to run normal use apps. I do use Bluetooth to listen podcasts and music most of the day. Towards the end of the day I watch YouTube usually when I am connected to the charger. I wanted an rom or tweet to help get me better battery life and better performance in light tasks.
I am not a heavy gamer or camera user. Music and video and texting are my main things
I also use the finger print reader so that is a must as well

Forme, definitely HydrogenOS

from hydrogen os im still missing some features. Even though cm13 official just got realeased and oos 3.0 official , i would either upgrade to one of those.

OTA Oreo 8.1 Lenovo tab 4 8 plus

Hi
I have just received the update notification that the Oreo 8.1 update is available to download,but when I click to download and install I just get the message....
Download failed,please try again.
My internet connection is fine,and I am not rooted...
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My model is TB-870F
Thanks.

Oh well.....I’m stuck with 7.1.1 then it seems lol

Lenovo have pulled the Ota for the time being as it bricked a fair few so they are fixing it etc.

waj1234 said:
Lenovo have pulled the Ota for the time being as it bricked a fair few so they are fixing it etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would not be surprised if they paused the OTA rollout. This update caused a lot of mess when I upgraded my 8704X:
1) the notification area went crazy (netguard),
2) I lost application read/write access to my external sdcard (I only had read access to it through the built-in file manager) therefore I had to back up its content, reformat it then restore my files. I figured out it was likely due to a permission issue it would have been barely infeasible to solve without rooting,
3) the system application named after Mobile Services started to install apps I did not want,
4) had to clear both cache & data or reinstall a lot of applications which dysfunctioned after the update.
On the bright side, the update brought:
1) a smoother experience. The overall UI interactions seem less sluggish although not fast enough when compared with a SD835. Digressing: could we get a high-end 8-inch Android tablet any time soon?
2) application startup is fixed. Some of my applications (e.g. hangar, ampere) previously did not start at boot,
3) better integration with password managers thanks to Oreo,
4) native night mode (red light),
5) touchpal 2016 keyboard removal (I could previously only disable it).
Finally, my last concerns are:
1) my tablet still cannot act as a phone. The 8704X model may not be able to place a call or some tricky network conf blocks it or I got a defective model. 4G/LTE data works,
2) Oreo is probably the last upgrade and there is no alternative rom development running,
3) (minor concern) I cannot benefit from Netflix HD streaming despite I never rooted/flashed my system.
To conclude, I really feel depressed considering the Android tablet market.
1) I was never really happy after switching from my Sony Z3 Tablet Compact to Lenovo Tab4 8 Plus. Sure, the later is more powerful and has more storage capacity. But the screen is vastly inferior (blueish, ghost touch) and the development scene does not exist as of yet.
2) there are very few 8-inch tablets worth. The Huawei Mediapad M5 may tick few boxes (slightly faster cpu) but the WiFi/BT issues, limited storage options (32Gb max), average battery runtimes are not convincing.
3) the 10-inch offer may be more tempting if you are willing to accept this format, pay the price, and opt for Samsung proprietary interface (e.g Galaxy Tab S3/S4). You cannot obtain more than 4Gb RAM/64Gb storage though.
4) the Pixel Slate is barely a prototype, most users reporting Android compatibility issues. Intel-centric, indecent price, no 4G/LTE connectivity yet, no external sdcard means you must purchase the Core I7/16Gb RAM/256Gb model.
Apple/IOS jail not being an option, I will keep my tab4 for a few months.

I don't like or have a tablet. I prefer phones for everything. My moto z2 force is my favourite at the moment.
Got the tab 4 for the wife to watch zion on it. Sold a 2018 ipad 9.7 for it as she found it too big and heavy.

Oreo update (S001018) worked for me on TB-8704X, but dm-verity is making me nuts, since I cannot go make a backup of my data partition after boot because of forced encryption, which means I have to lose all my settings and apps whenever I want to restore to a previous state - factory reset - which for me is unacceptable. You cannot install Magisk before this happens, and what is rooting without the ability to back up even good for? So I am patiently waiting for someone to port LineageOS or another custom ROM that can liberate me from this mess. So sick and tired of the stock ROM and its limitations. Go to hell, mandatory boot sec-bullies!

Well.... I'm getting crazy with this crap. I can't access the SD card in the external apps (like Perfect Viewer). I tried to reformat it but problem is still not resolved.

If i knew the update should cause all these issues i wouldn't install it, too late now i guess.
Some issues i encountered:
*Es file explorer - disabled\being uninstalled after start up and my tablet is set for timed startup \ shutdown.
*Issues with built in alarm clock app, could snooze it with a shake and now it doesn't even shows the clock when you open the cover and turning it off is pretty frustrating if you want to turn it off quickly.
*BS player issues connecting to SMB home network pc and also, when skipping files it got stuck and needs to be restarted.
So if you read this before installing the update, I recommend to wait for a better fix.

Is your Nexus 10 responsive? Mine is almost unusable.

I had the latest OEM rom. I've installed the custom Lineage OS 18 rom listed here. The OEM ran 'better' but still not well, even after a full wipe. Really only want to use the tablet for Plex. With all apps disabled that can be disabled, the CPU stays maxed. Clicking something takes seconds for the OS to respond. Bluetooth regularly crashes. I tried installing the YouTube app since Plex was super-choppy, and it literally took 10+ minutes to install. Being that the tablet runs like a complete turd with fresh wipes/installs, I'm thinking there's some sort of hardware fault.
Before I give up on it, any suggestions? I literally only want it for watching Plex or YouTube, but it can't even handle that as-is.

Maybe it could be that the eMMC is gone for a toss and some error correction is in process that causing CPU Load to go 100%? Not really sure here.

I have the same issue. I would think old age makes emmc veeeeery slow. Same thing happened with my old Nexus 4. I am using the tablet as wall tablet with Home Assistant opened in a full screen browser and still is verry sluggish. What seems to make things a bit better is using memory trim software.

Any trim software you recommend?
I ended up just buying a Galaxy Tab S8+, but if I can get some life out of the Nexus 10 that would be great too...