Is the yoga book worth buying in 2020 - Lenovo Yoga Book Questions & Answers

Is the yoga book worth buying in 2020 - Lenovo Yoga Book Questions & Answers

Hello there
I have been searching around to buy a tablet mostly for home use,my wife is going to be using it most of the times for some googling,emails ,pdf etc. I found a really good deal in a refurbished android version yoga book but I'm not that sure if it's worth nowadays since as I have read it only updated to android 7. Is she going to have issues with some apps like Facebook,insta, netflix?
Thank you in advance

I have this unit for 3 years now and it’s still working.
From the beginning it had problems, for example it shuts down and reboot from time to time, when you want to cast something it freezes and some apps don’t work anymore. For googling and emails I don’t have any problem.
Would I recommend a Lenovo unit? I won’t, because they never given updates or solved the software problems.
I have a yoga book and my co-worker’s have an Android pro tablet from Lenovo and they also never received a update. The hardware is good but you never get an update even not a security update. I hope it help with your decision.
Greetings

Tennistas79 said:
Is she going to have issues with some apps like Facebook,insta, netflix?
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Those, probably not, but I can't get modern casual games like merge dragons to run on the stupid thing. So if she plays that kind of game, it might not be the way to go.

As i am enthusiast on modding stuff, i like my hardware open to custom stuff. While the lenovo is not closed (you can unlock the bootloader) we had a dead scene. So i would not recommend this piece of hardware. In XDA your better strategy is to search on for devices that the community is alive AKA: popular devices and brands, like Samsung or Sony. Cause even if the moto maxx was spec wise MUCH better than the Xperia Z3 on paper, we had a different story here, the xperia comunity was skyrocketing and doing great where the moto maxx was a zombie device at its best.
TL : DR If you don't need to debloat it or do anything special to it its kinda of a solid device .

Related

no love for lenovo?

lenovo is a great company and their tablets have competitive specs. why do their tablets have such little dev support compared to the other major android tablets?
I ask because the lenovo tablets coming out this year look very nice, but I hesitate to buy a tablet that won't have good dev support.

I'm on the same boat man. I got the tablet as a christmas wish from my gf... now I found out from timmyDean and other sources that the K1 will not have its bootloader unlocked. Not sure if there will be a way to hack it anytime soon.
I'm going to see if I can sell this thing to buy a transformer prime. Ill be calling lenovo to express my concerns as well. I have a laptop from them with high DPC Latency. Sent it in and came back with same problem and a wiped system with an extra partition.
No more lenovo for me.
If someone somehow manages to hack this thing, then I guess I'll keep it. For now I'm planning its resale value to pick up a different brand.

theoilman said:
lenovo is a great company and their tablets have competitive specs. why do their tablets have such little dev support compared to the other major android tablets?
I ask because the lenovo tablets coming out this year look very nice, but I hesitate to buy a tablet that won't have good dev support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can give you my opinion. We develop software for commercial clients and government and we write drivers for these devices. Unfortunately, most of our business clients want an application that cannot be removed by employees and has all the social networking stuff removed. My NDA does not allow me to say exactly what. But, let me give you an example: Lets say a hospital was looking for a hand held device for reading and signing medical records with an interface to medical equipment. Or traveling salesmen, a delivery driver having someone sign for a package. An application you load on your teenagers device to determine how fast they are moving, etc. Anyway, the list goes on and this is just the business side of it. But you get the picture.
Now, I have a real business need to root every tablet on the market therefore I can tell whomever buys our application that they can buy any tablet they want. Some applications only require root so we can install it so it cannot be removed and we delete the stuff the company doesn't want employees using (like Netflx, Facebook, etc). Or, if the software needs to interface with a particular piece of hardware, we flash a new ROM with custom hardware drivers in the kernel to interface with a particular piece of medical equipment.
So, myself along with other programmers working the business side of it stay away from Lenovo because from the start they lock the bootloader making it difficult to develop for. So we tell ever business to stay away from them.
Then you have individuals like myself that program on their own and I want to tweak something myself. So, when I look around for a tablet to develop on, I look for one that makes it easy to flash(or root). For example, currently my favorite is Motorola Xoom (not the FE) because you can simply unlock it.
So, everyone I know writing business applications stays away from Lenovo or anyone looking to develop a custom ROM as well. Lenovo did come in and meet with management, last year, and what they wanted to sell us was a custom solution. So, they were more than happy to work with us to build a solution. But, we cannot sell something and then tell the buyer that they have to buy a special tablet from Lenovo.
story:
So, what started all this for us, was we were working on a big sale to a Fortune 500 Insurance company and they wanted to use Lenovo. Their IT person loved them. Management in a haste, bought me a K1 to load and play with (mostly because it was cheaper than the TPT or ignorance I guess). So, when I got it, I loved it. And at first it was unlocked. Then the real horror started.
I told management how great the K1 was and within days we had the K1 loaded with the insurance application. They came in, we sold them, I got a bonus and life was good. Then we took an OTA, and the Insurance company started ordering K1's and TPT and to our surprise NOTHING WORKED because Lenovo went to a locked bootloader (Note: The org K1 had root(#) access by default when you connect to it via adb shell and we had not tested it on the TPT).
As you can imagine all hell broke loose. That's when we discovered Lenovo's position on things. During the meeting, I asked them why they locked it. They replied, because they are offering a consumer solution with the K1. It is not just hardware but software (in other words they want to make money off all the bloatware they load) and that the TPT was their business solution. If we partnered with them, we could do what we wanted on a secure platform (then they went on and on about how we really need their solution because you cannot root it, it's secure, blah blah blah).
Anyway, I had to fly out (along with the suits) to the insurance company. I personally meet with their CIO and convinced her that 'Lenovo' could NOT be trusted and if she insisted on using the TPT that we would now have our hands tied to Lenovo. I showed her several other tablets that were just as good and cheaper. She put a pencil to it and realized that she could be the hero here saving the company money. So, she kissed Lenovo good buy and went with another tablet.
Anyway, my story, take with it what you want.
TD
---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 PM ----------
Let me further add something. A Kindle Fire is a great little tablet, but it is designed specifically to access Amazon. It is an extension of Amazon's business. There are others too. But, the Kindle is the most known.
So, these are NOT really tablets being designed to run everything. They are designed to sell services. For example, the Kindle Fire is to sell and expand Amazon services.
The Lenovo products are the same thing. They are designed to expand Lenovo's services. They want you coming to their Marketplace, using their services. In other words, they want to make money not only off selling the hardware, they want to make money off the software and services.
You can read some articles on the net about company's saying there's no money in hardware sales. This is why HP stopped making tablets and wants to become a software solution provider. This is what Lenovo is trying to do. If they sell you a tablet and make $10 profit it's not the same as $10 plus another $30 for applications you use.
That's what's going on here. It's not that they are evil not wanting you to brick your device, void your warranty, and then you want them to fix it. They are going after the services and they believe that's where the money is. Locking the boatloader is just their attempt to keep you locked into their services.
History lesson: If you believe you should learn from history then if you go back to the late 70's and early 80's, you will see the same thing. If you had bought brand xyz then you had to only buy xyz's printer, if you wanted to print. I remember buying floppy disks just to find out that they weren't compatible. Can you imagine that happening today? You buy a blank thumb drive and discover it doesn't work on your Lenovo, it only works on HP.
What changed all this was MS. So, if you're a believer in history repeating itself then Windows 8 will revolutionize the tablet and phone market. Google has realized the threat and is why they are pushing ICS and trying to stop the fragmentation. However, this does not stop Lenovo locking the bootloader and forcing you to go to their Marketplace. However, under Windows 8 this is going to be harder to do.
TD

I've got a TPT, got it for free from Lenovo, but it doesn't force you to go to Lenovo's market, essentially you can uninstall it and just use the regular market.
That being said, even with the optional external keyboard (that rocks), I mainly use my Samsung Galaxy from work, since I have it rooted and can do what I want with it.
And really not being able to root the TPT is why I'm glad I didn't actually buy it. I definitely wouldn't buy a tablet that I can't root.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

well locked bootloader is a deal breaker. too bad lenovo, you won't get my business. it's a shame, they looked great.

I have the TPT since September now. I have HTC's Sensation as my phone. I have root and a custom rom on my Sensation. So I do know the advantages.
I don't really miss root on my Tablet. Most apps don't need root. One thing that requires root I miss though. Titanium Backup or some other backup-solution. I just don't get why Lenovo does not provide one. Besides Adblock and Titanium Backup I can't think of any other program that requires root, that would provide any real advantage in using my tablet.
It is actualy quite good not too have root and custom ROM's. I'm a kid at heart and I put on new ROMs on my phone like I put on new clothes...
PS: You can lock down the tablet for users with the Mobility Manager. Just google for it.

Awesome post by jimmyDean.
I have a Thinkpad and that post explains alot of how Lenovo is thinking. Its a shame since the Thinkpad can be one great device with its digitizer and stylus if it wasn't so locked down. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and accept that they won't change their position.
It will be the last Lenovo I will own though that's for sure.
TS

Very good read read. Disheartening, to say the least. I really like my TPT, but my next tablet will be either a transformer prime or the next nice sized tablet to offer an integrated pen solution with Tegra3. I wont swear off Thinkpad notebooks though, my x220 is a BEAST, and I have been using Thinkpads since my parents got me an IBM T61 in college.
But yeah, tablets from Lenovo is out of the question. Its a shame though, I don't think they've realized they've doomed their fate in the consumer tablet market. Sony realized this and righted the ship in 2011 line of devices. One can only hope that Lenovo smells the coffee and wakes up.

I hate to be the dissenter but all of these companies are out to make money and while Lenovo's model (and amazon's, barnes and noble's, apple's, etc, PS3/Xbox/Wii's, etc.) is a bit duplicitous but it isn't out of the norm. I'd love to have a transformer or a xoom with an unlocked bootloader but I've never seen those anywhere near the $250 I picked up the K1 for. I'm not saying I'm going to support that business model but I will use it to my own advantage (ie, pick up the device on the cheap and find a way to do what I want while paying as little as possible). Lenovo will likely have to shift out of this model because there's no reason to use their market instead of the android one and they have nowhere near the sort of exclusive content that the others using this model have.
The Nook Color was a shining exception, both cheap and completely unprotected but B&N corrected that mistake in the Nook Tablet that replaced it.
In the end, we have to decide if we're willing to pay more to leave the walled garden. Given how US consumers have condemned themselves to it in the console gaming and cellular phone markets (both in choosing the iphone and in long contracts for free phones), it's not that clear that they won't choose to give up control in order to pay less upfront.

Wow thanks timmyDean, that clarified a lot of things... I'm going to need a tablet with a decent stylus soon, and I've been looking at TPT for some time now... but root is also very important to me, already because I don't trust Lenovo to bring OTA ICS update for it... I think I'll tough it out with my old tablet PC until something better comes along. HTC flyer is just too small (and with old android).
Anyway, I've been hearing some rumors that Samsung might come up with a stylus solution (S-Pen) in the next Galaxy Tab, perhaps in the MWC 2012 in at the end of february. It's the same tech as in the new Galaxy Note. Hopefully it's also a 12" tablet! It's interesting to note that Sammy's allied with Wacom, while TPT and Flyer use n-trig.

IfIf you ask me. this is the best Android tablet on the market. I took chance and sold my galaxy tab 10.1 and have had nothing but positiv things to say. Love the stylus and once you pick up the MyScript app, this is just perfect! All other tablets feel like toys compared to thrsp

siggehandf said:
IfIf you ask me. this is the best Android tablet on the market. I took chance and sold my galaxy tab 10.1 and have had nothing but positiv things to say. Love the stylus and once you pick up the MyScript app, this is just perfect! All other tablets feel like toys compared to thrsp
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Click to collapse
I didn't get the thinkpad tablet, but the ideapad K1. For the price I got it at, US$400 for 3G version, it was a good US$150 cheaper than the nearest similarly speced 3G android. For the price, no complaints!
Next up, unlocked bootloader please!

I'm working in Marketing and was looking into tablet devices for eDetailing for our company. I personally compared every Android device that was available in our country: Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia A500, ASUS Transformer, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and also Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet. I was very eager to get my hands on the Thinkpad Tablet, as connectivity (USB host etc) and the digitizer seemed like a huge advantage. But soon, I was very disappointed; in comparison to the other tablets, there are some MAJOR shortcomings:
- software: the firmware is buggy and seems unfinished
- performance: the TPT clearly reacts slower to input than other tablets; this seems to be confirmed in benchmarks
- locked bootkloader: that was the death blow! I don't blame Lenovo that the Citrix Receiver won't accept "untrusted" certificates. However, installing missing certificates is just one of the many things I expect from a decent device; there's plenty of other good reasons you need root access and it was a "must have"
As Lenovo has only delivered minor firmware updates that don't really address the issues mentioned above, I have abandoned the device completely.

Root has just been received and we are just verifying it over in the ThinkpadTablet forums. There should be a instructions for it soon enough. Hang tight.
btw the bounty is now up to $800
TS

With root on the way....
Bootloader also unlocked?
---------- Post added at 07:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------
When Root is enabeled i try to write a script to remove all the bloatware stuff

Can someone clarify on the bootloader/nvflash issue?
Is the bootloader locked or not, and if not, can we now put custom ROMs on it or not?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1231771
From this we can see that ThinkPad Tablet's bootloader ISN'T locked.

Nice. So who will be first to build an ICS ROM?

I'm going to try

My letter to Gameloft. After the new Modern Combat 3 update.

Dear Gameloft.
What have you done to this game... New update made that game even worse, many players are dissatisfied, you have lost many stars in their reviews, they comply for the same things and it keeps piling up in Google Play...
I have three problems to describe.
First of all this update totally breaks Xperia PLAY controls - touchpad acting like a real thumbstick like on PS3 or XBOX 360 controller? Very VERY bad idea, we are barely able to aim, especially in multiplayer mode. We have TOUCHpad not thumbstick,
Second problem is you made the game slower. It started to lose FPS in many places, the whole gameplay is not fluent. The previous version was so beautifully looking and so fluent... Besides, changing graphics in main menu was a total nonsense. Why add bloom, HDR, blur? It runs so slow sometimes I must push the button twice to select some options.
The third problem is your multiplayer mode. It's slow, laggy, glitchy and easy to hack with tools that instantly sets the level to 50 and also there are many hackers with autoaim, god mode... They lasted for the whole match making their team a sure winner. Many players were quitting the matches because what is the fun with being killed more than 30 times by the same person and being unable to kill him?
So my (and many other users of Xperia PLAY phones and also many older phones users) is:
- revert for the previous controls OR at least make the right touchpad aiming "swipe to aim". For example Shadowgun guys made it better - their game had the same controls in the first version of the game - right touchpad acted like real thumbstick. Many people said this game had the worst aiming EVER. After the update they improved the controls, aiming is WAY BETTER.
- make the graphics FASTER, not BETTER. We don't need super ubercharged textures, awesome and jawdropping special effects (EVEN.IN.THE.MAIN.MENU...). We just need a nice shooter game which delivers us awesome experience and fun from playing such advanced and great game on our phones.
- finally improve the multiplayer mode. Make it faster, better, safer and more balanced.
I know the "iUsers" have better support on many games released by your company mainly because of frequent updates. Many people think you just sometimes forget about Android users. We want to play and have full experience and fun too!
Yours faithfully,
Roman Lepszy
Bydgoszcz, Poland
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Click to collapse
What do you think? They surely support Apple devices much better than Android ones, this must end...
Sent from my beautiful Xperia PLAY using xda premium

I think they still don't understand, and will not. Gameloft is iOS lovers, Android is on 2nd place, always -.-.
PS: Polak potrafi, Romanie .

But i think the swipe to aim on the older version was much worse than the actual version. Thumbsticks work not bad if you get used to it and you cam turn arround much quicker wich is importend in multiplayer...
Sent from my R800i using XDA

Yeah I also think the controls are slightly better now, but still not perfect.
As long as Gameloft still have paying customers they won't give a **** whether they're happy or not

I agree.
I dont understand how you could make LEFT thumbstick works as a 8-way controller like arrow keys while on-screen controls work perfectly
RIGHT touchpad is slugish and has some weird latency while on-screen, again, works perfectly.
MC3, first game that forces me to use touchscreeb instead of dedicated controls...

Don't every buy a Gameloft game again. That's the only language they understand. Seriously, people, big companies are not there to serve you, they want you to serve them instead. They're deaf to you.

This is Gameloft. Myself and others notified them of a problem with Shadow Guardian that basically makes it impossible to complete the game probably 6 months ago. They have still not fixed it.
That said regarding MC3, I thought the controls improved with the update.....

Hm. I updated but haven't played the new update yet, so I'll have to check it out first.

The controls are annoying me. The buttons are direct to the other button so that you press sometimes the wrong button
Gesendet von meinem HTC Desire S mit Tapatalk

Gameloft isn't competent about handling issues on iOS either.
They make the cheapest product they can make to impress the casual gamer's eye, then do whatever they must to get the most money for it without caring how "good" the product actually is.
ShadowGun released with Xperia PLAY controls FAR worse than SC:Conviction or anything Gameloft ever did... took one dedicated update, and boom!... Shadowgun's controls are on Dead Space's level.
Gameloft's a very big company... bigger than Madfinger. They can be that competent, they just choose to rush products instead. Eternal Legacy was released without the native ability to walk in a straight line on the touch-pad. They've been aware of this for nearly a year now... and done nothing about it.

This is one of the many reasons I love iOS and Apple and Gameloft
Sent from my R800x using XDA

Modern combat 3
romcio47 said:
What do you think? They surely support Apple devices much better than Android ones, this must end...
Sent from my beautiful Xperia PLAY using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey, i have problem with updating the MC3 to 1.1.1 when it is installed and the download has finished it wont start the game it just keep restarting itself.. any help here ? are u running the version 1.1.1 or what , and i hate gameloft because i tryed to follow their instucktions but it didnt help at all i just lost my rank and they give me this link to download MC3 v1.0.0 :/

This is what I've recieved.
Hello,
Thank you for your letter. Sorry to hear about your problems.
I have forwarded your information to an appropriate department. They are going to investigate your issues. Please rest assured, we will do our best in order to resolve your issues as soon as possible, but it may take some time.
Sorry for the inconveniences and thank you for your patience.
Best regards,
-------------------------------
Natalia Kustovskaya
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Click to collapse

That's the PR-ese translation for "Cool story, bro".

Yea, I think the same...

romcio47 said:
This is what I've recieved.
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Click to collapse
I got the same kind of reply about Shadow Guardian.... 4 months ago... they still haven't fixed it.

I was thinking of getting MC3 through the gameloft store (which supports paypal, unlike the android store -.-), but after reading this I think i should just wait for a better update.

Verizon Xperia Play R800x
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum. I have a few issues and hope to resolve them. I'm a wholesaler of electronic gadgets and other merchandise. I have a bunch approx. 50 Verizon R800x in great working condition, but I have a few questions. I have conflicting report everywhere and trying to get to the bottom of it and figured developers and guys who know about this stuff would be the best to turn to
1. Is there a way to unlock the phones? Apparently the SIM card slot does exist but it's blocked off by a plastic blocker. I've been told it might be as easy as ripping the plastic blocker out, putting in a foreign sim and unlocking it using a PIN? However, from other forums I read that that's not possible.
2. Is there a place on this forum to sell merchandise or am I allowed to advertise the sale of these phones?
Thanks,

m3gtrfan said:
Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum. I have a few issues and hope to resolve them. I'm a wholesaler of electronic gadgets and other merchandise. I have a bunch approx. 50 Verizon R800x in great working condition, but I have a few questions. I have conflicting report everywhere and trying to get to the bottom of it and figured developers and guys who know about this stuff would be the best to turn to
1. Is there a way to unlock the phones? Apparently the SIM card slot does exist but it's blocked off by a plastic blocker. I've been told it might be as easy as ripping the plastic blocker out, putting in a foreign sim and unlocking it using a PIN? However, from other forums I read that that's not possible.
2. Is there a place on this forum to sell merchandise or am I allowed to advertise the sale of these phones?
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure the R800x can't physically load foreign SIM cards, since it's CDMA (which doesn't use SIM cards). The hardware is just left over because they didn't want to spend a lot of money changing the specs, but it's not useable

The Marketplace didn't allow professional sellers the last time I checked.

Thinking about getting TPT. Few basic questions.

Hey all,
I'm sick of waiting around for the Samsung Note 10.1" and I really want a device with great stylus support. I have owned ThinkPads in the past (when they were IBM) and from the reviews it seems like most peoples problems with this device were software, not hardware related. I've owned 3 other android devices, always rooted and loaded custom ROMs on them but I am seeing a lot less development activity and choice here. So some questions:
1) I will probably order from Amazon, 32GB w/ stylus. Not sure if it will come with ICS aka 4.0.3 aka OTA3 (I think?). If it does there is currently no way to root it correct?
2) I see there are a few rooting methods, packages, apps, etc. I am getting really confused about which ones are for which device & image (K1, TPT, ROW, JP, etc). Is there a "go to" guide for this specific device?
3) Are there any AOSP ROMs available? If not, how much junk/bloat comes with Lenovo's images?
4) I am looking to use this for business, mostly note taking and diagramming. The stylus input is the *biggest* factor for me and I want it to be smoooooooth. Am I making the right purchase?
I have experience rooting and loading custom roms via CWR on the Nexus One and SGS2-Tmo. I'm just trying to do my homework and see if this device is going to meet my needs before dropping a few hundred on it.
Thanks

I think from what you've read on the forum YOU know you are making the wrong purchase but you're sick of waiting. Then Of course by all means pls get a tpt. That impatience of yours will be tested when you have to send the tablet for a few weeks to repair the broken usb/power button/volume button. The pen is NOT smooth-it develops a mind of its own after writing for a few mins. I'm also sorry to say that development on this tablet is DEAD. There were gallant efforts by koshu and Co but lenovo has proved that they are against development of any kind. Even updates from lenovo are a pain in the backside especially if u somehow had root or Cwm recovery. It's very difficult to learn from other people's mistakes until you make yours then you'd wish you been patient and saved a few hundred dollars

darkhandsome18 said:
I think from what you've read on the forum YOU know you are making the wrong purchase but you're sick of waiting. Then Of course by all means pls get a tpt. That impatience of yours will be tested when you have to send the tablet for a few weeks to repair the broken usb/power button/volume button. The pen is NOT smooth-it develops a mind of its own after writing for a few mins. I'm also sorry to say that development on this tablet is DEAD. There were gallant efforts by koshu and Co but lenovo has proved that they are against development of any kind. Even updates from lenovo are a pain in the backside especially if u somehow had root or Cwm recovery. It's very difficult to learn from other people's mistakes until you make yours then you'd wish you been patient and saved a few hundred dollars
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I was basing my impressions of the pen from this video: http://youtu.be/prqFXRFHbPE It looks like it has some quirks but for the most part these are software issues. I know I am running a risk buying something that is already out-dated, but I feel like the device still has potential with the right software and a price tag under $400.
I appreciate both of your replies but I guess I am no closer to figuring this out and should put off my purchase for another few months to see what else is in the pipeline. I wish there was more video and coverage of the stylus input on the new windows tablets.
I have been waiting *years* for the right tablet with pen input to come along. I do not understand how people deny that a market exists for these devices. I'm not even in school anymore (been hoping for this type of device since my first year of university) but if I was, as a science major the ability to draw and sketch ideas and diagrams, not to mention annotate PDFs/reading material, and have digital copies of my textbooks... it just all seems so obvious. As a web developer I am still constantly sketching out ideas and concepts and *cannot* take notes with a keyboard. I am a visual and tactile learner and the subtle underlines and annotations of my notes make all the difference.
Ok sorry for venting. Thanks for the replies.

ac251404 said:
Hey all,
I'm sick of waiting around for the Samsung Note 10.1" and I really want a device with great stylus support. I have owned ThinkPads in the past (when they were IBM) and from the reviews it seems like most peoples problems with this device were software, not hardware related. I've owned 3 other android devices, always rooted and loaded custom ROMs on them but I am seeing a lot less development activity and choice here. So some questions:
1) I will probably order from Amazon, 32GB w/ stylus. Not sure if it will come with ICS aka 4.0.3 aka OTA3 (I think?). If it does there is currently no way to root it correct?
2) I see there are a few rooting methods, packages, apps, etc. I am getting really confused about which ones are for which device & image (K1, TPT, ROW, JP, etc). Is there a "go to" guide for this specific device?
3) Are there any AOSP ROMs available? If not, how much junk/bloat comes with Lenovo's images?
4) I am looking to use this for business, mostly note taking and diagramming. The stylus input is the *biggest* factor for me and I want it to be smoooooooth. Am I making the right purchase?
I have experience rooting and loading custom roms via CWR on the Nexus One and SGS2-Tmo. I'm just trying to do my homework and see if this device is going to meet my needs before dropping a few hundred on it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the TPT forums!
First of all, this tablet has a very low dev support hence you might have to wait for a long time to be able to root your device and load custom roms. As for now, there is a user who has compiled AOSP jelly bean on his TPT which is partially working. So my point is that things are happening in the dev center but at a very slow pace.
If you are buying this tablet to make diagrams and sketches then I would highly recommend it. The plus points of the TPT is that the hardware is really solid. I unfortunately dropped it a couple of times (well my friends dropped it) from a considerable height and there are no scratches or dents and the tablet works just great hence its pretty well built. Having a full sized USB is a great deal maker for me, being a university student, helps me rally data to old systems real quick.
As far as pen capabilities are concerned, there are quite a few apps that will make great use of it. Like the apps named quill,lecture notes etc will definitely be great for the device. I personally take notes on quill and i must say that the tablet lives upto my expectations. I have virtually replaced pen and paper with it. After the ICS update, the device is pretty snappy and the general UI experience has improved great folds from the honeycomb times.
I never rooted my tablet and never felt the need of doing so, cause like I said, after the ICS update the device is much faster thanks to custom launchers and disabling certain vendor apps. The main reason why i bought this tablet was to take notes and it has surpassed my expectations.
So if sketching is the main use instead of multimedia experience, then go for it. It is a practical device.
Hope that helped, let me know if i can assist you any further.
Cheers
Vito

Hey there, just a quick summary of what the different versions mean:
US,ROW,WE etc is the region of the device.
TPT is the thinkpad tablet
K1 is an entirely different Lenovo tablet, with no pen support. As far as I can tell, the two are not compatible (ROMs etc.) I'm pretty sure that K1 activity is routed here because there is no dedicated forum for it.
I hope to write a guide for the device shortly. There is not much development going on but that does not mean it is dead. Devs are working on various (very alpha) ports of CM9 and AOSP JB, and the official lenovo update is apparently very nice (including making the pen even better to use )
In terms of bloat, lenovo does add quite a few annoying apps, but luckily most can be uninstalled without root.
I bought a 32GB ROW (because I'm in canada). I have been using NVflash and am able to flash roms without the use of CWM, which could turn out to be our salvation. It looks like US tablets have NVflash disabled. I don't know if this means all ROW tablets are unlocked, but I haven't heard of anyone with an ROW tablet not having NVflash access. ( I also haven't looked very hard)
Stay tuned, I have a feeling there will some nice breakthroughs on this tablet eventually

ac251404 said:
1) I will probably order from Amazon, 32GB w/ stylus. Not sure if it will come with ICS aka 4.0.3 aka OTA3 (I think?). If it does there is currently no way to root it correct?
2) I see there are a few rooting methods, packages, apps, etc. I am getting really confused about which ones are for which device & image (K1, TPT, ROW, JP, etc). Is there a "go to" guide for this specific device?
3) Are there any AOSP ROMs available? If not, how much junk/bloat comes with Lenovo's images?
4) I am looking to use this for business, mostly note taking and diagramming. The stylus input is the *biggest* factor for me and I want it to be smoooooooth. Am I making the right purchase?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Probably you will get Honeycomb version. I do not believe there is anyone upgrading the stock. And probably no ICS loaded devices were made (seems like production stopped some time ago).
2) Hard to tell, as it is unclear which version Amazon is selling. But generally if you have some basic experience, you will make it.
3) There is no working aftermarket ROM. But after upgrade to ICS the situation is a lot better. Using alternative launcher ignoring the Lenovo SW can make the job.
4) I bought it for the same reason. More than HW you fight the SW looking for the best app to make your notes. The Lenovo SW is not usable. And every alternative I tried has some issues.
I clearly understand your dilemma. I doubt that waiting for Samy Note tablet will satisfy you, as this will be the first Samy experience with pen ... I expect a lot of problems, which Lenovo somehow solved till now with ICS release.
I was buying it as replacement for old Lenovo Windows tablet with pen. Especially in combination with OneNote it was great tool ... but it was old, heavy and broken by years of use.
After some time, I got used to this tablet, and I do not use notebook going to client. There TPT can make the job. For other more demanding work I have standard "big" PC.
Of course ... if you buy TPT you will have to accept some "features" like slow charging without full power off (and cold boot after charge), or sometimes frozen unlocking touch till you do not pull the pen of. I don't know how you, but I can live with these problems .
Generally. There is NO device with ANY operating system, which can satisfy needs of me and probably you. Having electronic alternative for paper and pen.
Anyway I'm more satisfied with current status than with lot of papers, where I usually I was not able to find the note I needed
If you need such device, go for TPT a use to live with it. Not perfect, but probably the best available.

Galaxy Note 10.1
Woohoo, the galaxy note 10.1 has been officially announced for release later this month. If you have waited this long, a couple of weeks shouldn't bee too much. As for me, I'm simply salivating at the specs - Quad core processor, wifi+3g versions, 7000mAh battery, 1200 x 800 display; weighing in at approx 600g (way lighter than the ipad). Oh and you can bet that samsung's pen will be far better than the horrific stylus on the thinkpad (just ask galaxy note users). Having had a galaxy s2/s3, I know that samsung products are extremely easy to root, mod update, etc; unlike the thinkpad where even updating is a pain. All in all, I'm elated that I can finally toss out this piece of garbage that lenovo put out. Infact, if someone offers me 100pounds for my thinkpad, I'll toss it to them with some change.
http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/ipad-and-tablets/samsung-galaxy-note-10-1-review-50007108/

how do you like it

Not very impressive resolution for the price.

I'm done with all Android phones and tablets not released from Google.

FYI: This is a venting post, written spur of the moment. Probably rambling from point to point without proofreading or organizing thoughts. Don't even know if it will make sense to anyone.
In my haste to, you know, have the newest version of Android running on my Transformer, I totally destroyed it and cannot get it to be recognized in any USB form on my computer. There are tons of great ROMs built by the awesome development community, but I'm just sick of having to try out multiple ROMs just to find one that works without issues. IMO, the fault is split between Google and the hardware manufacturers. Google should force manufacturers to ship phones and tablets with stock Android. It is Google's system and they should have the control to do that. The manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for not being able to release an update to the latest OS within a few weeks of the release, jellybean, and on a tablet that was only launched in the US in April 2011. Google should be ashamed for letting these manufacturers get away with running an outdated version on a device that is completely cabable of running the newest iteration. Had an official means of updating to Jellybean been available I would not have spent so much of my time rooting and testing ROMs to make sure I have a consistent user experience.
I look at Apple; the structure and consistency they have in regards to software updates. The first gen iPad received updates until iOS 5 for two years. Then you devices that are put out by Android manufacturers, new models are frequent and in the furry to try and saturate the market with tablets, they forget about the one that came out the day before. Too many screen sizes, different processors, causes developers to shy away. For example, there has yet to be a legitimate Spotify (which I use daily), twitter, Facebook tablet app. Even the official apps they do have for "tablets" are weak in the user interface compared to iPad apps.
I know the general public will probably never care that their phone/tablet doesn't receive the newest Android update, they call their phones "droids". That's because they don't know what they are missing since the manufacturers do not care about updating the firmware and they are running terrible skinned versions of the OS. I enjoy using my Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, but even that does not get updated from Google. Google needs to reassess how they distribute the OS and to who. Maybe it needs to be a little closed and vertical. It could help.

You have a very good point on it, I couldn't agree more with it.
But regarding the distribution of Android, I think that if the OS had to be the same on every phone/tablet, there wouldn't have a reason to exist so many different devices, it would be like Apple's iOS and its devices.
What makes the platform interesting is the fact that anyone can use it and alter some elements of it, a thing that you don't have in the strict control that Apple has on iOS.
Sent from my MB525 using xda app-developers app

I agree with you in certain points - as for update procedures in general.
I am still very annoyed by the update politics of the Transformer, since the officially offered upgrades caused so
many troubles for me, as random reboots and freezing ,......
On top of it, skilled people in this forum then manage to get nice kernels and ROMs done which are just
much better in performance and stability compared to stock, that you really do wonder who the heck ASUS is hiring
I found finally a stable combo for me based on ICS but failed so far for JB.
I am at the moment testing different JB EOS and kernel combos but experience still issues.
This can become indeed kind of boring....
Your view comparing the great support of Apple on the other hand I don't share completely. It is basically the same as for their Desktop/Laptops.
It is really so much easier to only support a handfulll of devices than thousands of different combinations. Sure, you have a point that
you benefit when you choose one of their devices. But bluntly I become afraid of the growing power of Apple, since I really embrace choice.
Their are always people who prefer a certain different device because it helps their needs ( look at all the different screen sizes for Android and
then check Apple), me I prefer e.g. HW keyboard for a mobile phone.
But then I prefer as well Linux and the choice to put together your preferred OS over a non-customizable MacOSX ...
BTW: I own as well Apple devices and this is not supposed to become a flame thread, please

At the end of the day its down to us as individuals what we buy.
The reviews are not always impartial but certainly a good starting point, but i find researching any product i buy before hand a must now a days.
Great example was when i had bought my gtab - if i had read about it properly i would have know Samsung are one of the worst for updates.....but then again none of the manufacturers promise any future upgrades - maybe again we are just expecting something that we were never told we were going to get??
Never had an issue with my TF but i agree you should not have to rely on a developers site to get "improved" versions of the software - but if i had an Ipad i would have no doubt jailbroken it to improve my ipad experience aswel, just like ive done in the past with ipod touches etc. Would i get another TF - yes - im looking to get the Infinity as i still feel that the Asus TF fits my needs and is still one of the best supported tablets out there.
So the moral of the story is nothings perfect, the infos out there......we just need to be a little more astute as individuals and put the time into looking at the pros and cons before we buy. We spend the money and make the choice - not Google, Asus or Apple.:good:

ultmontra08 said:
I totally destroyed it and cannot get it to be recognized in any USB form on my computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's more or less impossible unless you managed to corrupt the first few EMMC blocks that contain the apx mode code. Which you have to know what you're doing to wipe.
Boot into apx mode, install the naked apx driver, then use Easyflasher to flash back to stock

ultmontra08 said:
In my haste to, you know, have the newest version of Android running on my Transformer, I totally destroyed it and cannot get it to be recognized in any USB form on my computer. There are tons of great ROMs built by the awesome development community, but I'm just sick of having to try out multiple ROMs just to find one that works without issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ultmontra08 said:
I would not have spent so much of my time rooting and testing ROMs to make sure I have a consistent user experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ultmontra08 said:
I know the general public will probably never care that their phone/tablet doesn't receive the newest Android update, they call their phones "droids". That's because they don't know what they are missing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to update Android unless it's a big jump like going from Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich going to all that trouble to Root, Install a custom Recovery, Install a custom ROM for a minor update like Jelly Bean is silly what could you possibly need from Jelly Bean that Ice Cream Sandwich can't already do I bet the only reason is "It's the latest" and Asus are officially going to release Jelly Bean for the Transformer.
ultmontra08 said:
There are tons of great ROMs built by the awesome development community, but I'm just sick of having to try out multiple ROMs just to find one that works without issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately if you want to use something other then the stock ROM it's a process of trial and error I tried Android Revolution HD ROM for example (popular ROM) and had problems with my Transformer not responding in sleep mode and random reboots I found that Cyanogenmod was stable for my device every device is different so the trial and error process is unavoidable.
ultmontra08 said:
IMO, the fault is split between Google and the hardware manufacturers. Google should force manufacturers to ship phones and tablets with stock Android. It is Google's system and they should have the control to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ultmontra08 said:
I enjoy using my Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, but even that does not get updated from Google. Google needs to reassess how they distribute the OS and to who. Maybe it needs to be a little closed and vertical. It could help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Android is licensed as an open source operating system so Google doesn't have any power to tell manufactures they can't make their own version of Android to sell with their hardware or when you receive updates that's all the manufacturer.
ultmontra08 said:
since the manufacturers do not care about updating the firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Asus have actually been great with Android updates for the Transformer just a bit slow.
ultmontra08 said:
The manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for not being able to release an update to the latest OS within a few weeks of the release, jellybean, and on a tablet that was only launched in the US in April 2011.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't understand that it takes time to develop and test a new operating system on a device the process isn't as simple as you think it is you wouldn't want to suddenly get an update from Asus and then be complaining that it's unstable would you?.
ultmontra08 said:
there has yet to be a legitimate twitter, Facebook tablet app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are using a Tablet the screen is wide enough to be able to acceptably use a web browser for these tasks so you don't really need a specific App developed, it's really only necessary for Mobile due to small screens.
ultmontra08 said:
I look at Apple; the structure and consistency they have in regards to software updates. The first gen iPad received updates until iOS 5 for two years. Then you devices that are put out by Android manufacturers, new models are frequent and in the furry to try and saturate the market with tablets, they forget about the one that came out the day before. Too many screen sizes, different processors, causes developers to shy away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you prefer Apple feel free to switch but while having a range of hardware options does have it's down falls it gives you and developers more freedom and choice where as Apple will always have a small limited choice range.

Just get a Windows Phone or Windows 8 tablet. I am too, one of those who are totally sick about Android.
You know, I bought Asus Transformer TF101 right on launch and YOU HAVE NO idea how excited I am. But things started to change after using it for a day, lags, crashes, limited apps.
I've been waiting and waiting for months before ICS came, but a lot of issues are still left unresolved. Asus firmware is very prone to crashes.
I've been flashing ROM after ROM and wasted so many days on this... No way I will ever get an Android again.

LastBattle said:
Just get a Windows Phone ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Talk about limited apps...

Eh, the way I look at it, ill have this tablet forever and by the time its so scratched and old I can give it to my kids and I can get the latest and greatest NEXUS having learned my lesson buying non NEXUS.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda app-developers app

im on jb rom from team EOS, this is the only jb rom i use until now. using nova launcher makes it almost perfect buttery smooth (perfect without Widgets on the screen) .
it's easy to find good rom without having to try all of them. just read people's comment. go to last page and see how many complaints user's has.

Using the EOS build 74 with KAT 1.4 and nothing else yields a Transformer that works perfectly for me minus the GPS. I know that people with the dock have a different set of issues but honest, my TF with EOS and KAT runs better than any stock ROM. The difference is amazing. Web browsing is very very fast, I can play all my 720P videos via SMB streaming with BSplayer.
So after more than a year my TF works as I expected it to out of the box.

ultmontra08 said:
I totally destroyed it and cannot get it to be recognized in any USB form on my computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Wheelie?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1676845

Android Revolution HD and be done with it. Why the need for the latest and greatest when you can use what works? I used to be an HTC fanboy, until I got the mytouch 4g slide. I hated that phone so much. I love Sense, but just the phone was.... eh. I'm very happy with my Galaxy S3. I feel like I should have opted for the Nexus, but I'm happy with my purchase.
I still have a G1 sitting on my dresser with a charged battery just in case I feel like rockin it oldschool. I'm an OG Android user. Been using android ever since the release of the G1. I do love vanilla android, but what Samsung did with TouchWiz is just short of amazing. I used to run MIUI on my HTC Vision, I ran it for a few hours on my S3, and had to go back to TouchWiz!!
And what was posted earlier, why are you using apps on a tablet when the browser works perfectly for all those websites? Apps are more of a phone thing, screen sizes sub-5"

The update from Honeycomb to ICS was a huge one and we got it, it was not bug free but good enough to get developers working. JB is not that big update unless you need Google Now.

wow i dont know where to start. i really dont want to turn this into an ios vs android flame war. but youre completly out of your mind. first of all you have to look at it from the carriers, hardware manf, and googles point of veiw.
now hardware manuf. , and carriers have it in their best interest to not release updates for all the previous gen devices from a year or two ago, even if they are capable of running the new versions. this way the new devices look more attractive to current and potential customers.
another thing is that you cant really compare the updates from iphone-iphone3g-iphone3gs-iphone4-iphone4s-iphone5-and probably in a couple months the iphone5s that wont do anything more exciting than the last model did. same thing with the ipads. before you know it you have a drawer full of iphones that look the same and dont really do anything different.
then you have android. approx 800,000 new android devices are activated every day. EVERY EFFIN DAY. now thats insane.
how many devices that didnt originally come with ios can now run ios better than they ran their org stock os? for example there are tons of devices that came stock with windows mobile/symbian/webos etc etc and they can now run many different versions of android.
my htc HD, my htc HD2, my hp touchpad, and those are just the ones ive owned. theres tons of others that were given new life because of android and the dev community.
another thing that doesnt make sense is how you can blame google, and the hardware manufacturers and the carriers for 3rd party apps that they have no involvement in. there are millions of developers making millions of apps for millions of devices. its not googles job to make sure they run perfectly on every device. thats the deveolpers fault if facebook app works better on one device than it does on another.
you see iphone and ipad apps dont really have that problem because all the devices are exactly the same. screen size/resolution doesnt change very much at all, and new features are a bore. "oh yay the new iphone can make face time calls over a cell connection and isnt limited to wifi anymore" so what they should have been able to do that years ago.
its also not googles or the hardware manuf. fault if you knowingly go against their waranty terms and screw up your device. thats the risk you knew was there. and its part of the learning process. things like unlocking bootloaders, building custom roms, modifying hardware, cross compiling drivers and kernels, overclocking, and overall getting he most out of your device, is not for kids.
yes the typical ios fanboy just wants to get his facebook updates and be able to locate the nearest starbucks, or genius bar, just by asking siri.
but the android dev comunity and the devices they work on are doing it right. why should you be told what you can and cant do with your device? why should you pay more for a device that only does less. why should you sleep on the sidewalk for 7 days to be first in line to get the new lame updated iphone that costs double and doesnt do double.
the hp touchpad is a great example of an awesome device that was on sale for 99-150 dollars from hp. it currently runs ICS like a champ, and will be getting JB roms that rock. i also have a tf101 asus that runs JB eos like WHOA! overclocked on both cores, awesome tegra2 chip. expandable memory, AND A NORMAL HEADPHONE PORT AND USB PORT. even a nice little hdmi port. its an old device already and it still blows he doors off any current gen ipad.
then theres the newer mk802 devices and hackberry A10 boards that will do anything a high end smartphone will do for 50 bucks and hooks right up to your tv. LETS see apple tv or roku do that.
bottom line is that you dont understand how this really works, and youre getting frustrated and giving up instead of learning and becoming better and the tech.
YOU EITHER MASTER TECHNOLOGY OR TECHNOLOGY WILL MASTER YOU!! thats all for now.
---------- Post added at 10:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 PM ----------
redrol said:
Using the EOS build 74 with KAT 1.4 and nothing else yields a Transformer that works perfectly for me minus the GPS. I know that people with the dock have a different set of issues but honest, my TF with EOS and KAT runs better than any stock ROM. The difference is amazing. Web browsing is very very fast, I can play all my 720P videos via SMB streaming with BSplayer.
So after more than a year my TF works as I expected it to out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i just updated with eos jb rom today and its so much faster than the stock asus ics rom. i was really surprise, because its still got a ways to go.
---------- Post added at 11:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:38 PM ----------
Then you devices that are put out by Android manufacturers, new models are frequent and in the furry to try and saturate the market with tablets, they forget about the one that came out the day before. Too many screen sizes, different processors, causes developers to shy away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just to clarify a couple of things. There's no such thing as Android Manufacturers. well i guess with the exception of googles devices that they release is as close as you could come to calling them and android manufacturer, but the rest are not Android manufacturers. and when you think about it the screen sizes are usually pretty consistent even across different hardware manuf. you had 2.8"/3.5"/3.8"/ 4.2's were common for a while. now youre seeing mini tablet/phones in the 4.7-5+ range. but there arent that many sizes to worry about development wise. same with tablets. 7"-8"-9.7"-10.1" etc etc. same with the cpu and gpu arcitecture. you got your arms, your tegras, your mali 400's, etc etc theres an android device for everyone for anything.
i also love how my buddies iphone 5 wont display netflix properly or pandora correctly on the new screen size/dimension. maybe the iphone5s ver. 2.1 will have fixed that. in a couple years.
I know the general public will probably never care that their phone/tablet doesn't receive the newest Android update, they call their phones "droids". That's because they don't know what they are missing since the manufacturers do not care about updating the firmware and they are running terrible skinned versions of the OS. I enjoy using my Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, but even that does not get updated from Google. Google needs to reassess how they distribute the OS and to who. Maybe it needs to be a little closed and vertical. It could help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the general public doesnt care that their phones arent getting the newest rom/kernel versions although alot of them do. android seems to realease new versions as the hardware advances. they grow with the advancing power and abilities of devices. you wouldnt really expect a first generation tmobile g1 to run the latest jellybean version would you? its almost as if the hardware cannot really come out faster than the os to support it. everytime you hear of a new android version theres a whole new generation of way better spec'd devices that shortly follow. sorta opposite of apple, they release devices that are barely on par with devices that were released over 6 months ago or longer. if carriers dont want o update devices in order to entice customers to upgrade then i understand that. theyre in business to make a profit. i really dont see how restricting and limiting android would help in any way at all. thats the great thing about android. its just linux with a few things on top. and that is the nail in the coffin right there. unlimited customization and hackability.

haxin said:
YOU EITHER MASTER TECHNOLOGY OR TECHNOLOGY WILL MASTER YOU!! thats all for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AMEN!

I'm done!

I have MOJO for several months now, when i initially bought it, i showed it to all my friends, and bragged about the potential of this product.
After all this months, its just sad, the lack of support or competence of the manufacters to actually stand by their product.
Beeing a developer and an android enthusiast, it's just sad to see how poorly this hole process has been developed.
The console itself has several issues, the play store, for me is a huge deal breaker. You can't have a main selling point of the product (the full access to play store and tegra zone) when most of the products there, altought i can see them, are not compatible either with the console itself, or worse, the gamepad isn't recognized. Titles like Portal 2 and Half Life 2, made precisely for MOJO's hardware, and i cant play it.
You can't also ask regular users to Root their device after every update. Either support the non rooted version, or it has to be rooted by default.
I could be a regular user who just wants to play some vice city on my TV, don't know or care how to root. This isn't a developer edition!!
The OS itself has several issues, from the basic ones ( I CANT RESTART OR SHUTDOWN THE CONSOLE w/ unplugging it), no resolution settings. I have several audio lag issues when the console is left on for days. So even for media, i can't have XBMC running 100% there.I do have a Samsung Beam (very slow 1.0 dual core) with buggy OS and i have hours and hours of projecting XBMC media without ANY issues.
The support is next to nothing. I've installed the latest update from MadCatz, i was so happy with more google play support etc.. Turns out when i didn't want to create a OUYA account, now i have OUYA Framework crashing every 5 minutes. Just perfect.
The other main selling point was the gamepad, a solid, well construct Controller, with amazing gaming tecnology from madcatz.
Well, beside the construction, there's nothing else good about the gamepad. I have a bunch of tablets and phones, i have a really hard time connecting and staying connected with my Android 4.4.2 devices. I'm constantly losing my Connection with the gamepad, and the REconnection is just painfull, i have to restart the gameopad a few times before i can get it to work again.
Also most of the games with gamepad support doesn't recognize the CTRLR.. WTF, MadCatz team, even the simple part of getting in touch with game developers, didn't do their homework.
Mad Catz could however, try to compensate somehow, and make a decent Gamepad Mapper. Nothing on this been release, has been months.
If this was a review of the product i would give it 2/10. And the 2 is for the choice of using Nvidia's tegra 4, and thats the only good thing about this.
The lack of support of XDA's developers, given the potential of the device shown by nvidia's shield portable, is insane.
I no longer brag about this with my friends, i'm just ashamed and deceived to have spent 250 bucks on this. I'm buying Nvidia's shield tablet and try to forget Madcatz and my 250$
Thanks MadCatz.

Wish I could have disagreed with at least one of the points you raised but I can't. 2 out of 10/that's quite generous mad cats well an truely ****ed this one up and don't appear to give a flying %uck. As you pointed out endless potential totally wasted. If anyone from madcatz ever reads these kinda posts get in touch with cyanogenmod or any of the renound teams who know what their doing and give them the contract to build the software rather than wherever cowboys currently produce ur shabby android builds cause their update supports abismal what ever u payed em its way to much

I completely agree with the OP, I purchased two Madcatz Mojos when the only other box was an Ouya. I was drooling over the potential of the Tegra 4 processor. The biggest issue with this box is its software, even though it was promised we still don’t have 4.4 and for such powerful chip it doesn’t support DTS or Dolby Digital bypass. Like most of you I got sick of waiting and have purchased an Amazon Fire TV instead, I sold one of my madcatz mojo for $160 on craigslist and used that money in addition with the money from selling my nexus 7 to purchase an nvidia shield tablet. Now that’s a company that did it right. I am going to selling my last Madcatz Mojo by the end of this month once I finish some testing with my 4k TV.

Well guys you beat me to it, I thought it was about time to join & post my feelings on the MOJO I purchased in December upon UK release but OP has written an almost identical post to what I drafted. Mad Catz could have done so much with the console which offered so much potential but lack of support has killed it before its even got started.
I feel it wouldn't be so bad if we were all kept in the loop on progress to bring us a new OS, further Play Store compatibility, gamepad mapping etc, but not a word!
I have tried to convince myself the £220 purchase was worth it, but its very hard to justify it when you look at the Shield & the Shield tablet, my Ouya is used everyday & the MOJO sits gathering dust without the power cord connected!
I beg the Mad Catz team to read these posts & at least come back to us with something, I know they do come on here so use your voice guys & throw us something.
At present I'm sure they are sat laughing that they have our money so why should they care? Well this forum ranks high on Google & must be hurting potential sales & I certainly won't buy or recommend another Mad Catz product & thats from a household which owns every major console released & has a competition PC gamer living it.
Thanks Mad Catz

I'll add my voice to the chorus, since it looks like this thread has the potential to become one of the longest ones in the Mad Catz forum.
I was new to Android but after having a great experience customizing a Nexus phone (thanks to the XDA community!) I fell for the hype and bought a M.O.J.O once root became available. Was ok with the limited number of games because Mad Catz said they were working with developers blah, blah, blah The games that work, are interesting and don't require key mapping are very few. I think I have 3 installed and don't remember the last time I played one.
It's still attached to the tv, for Netflix, but with a different input device. For those of you outside the US, after installing Set DNS and using some of its default settings I can access US Netflix so that's a plus. It's good for roms too.
This device had so much potential but the company looks like it doesn't have a clue. What's worse is that they flat out lied to customers about the Kit Kat update. From day one they said that "they were working on it, it was coming soon. it was with Google waiting for approval, etc. etc." and those were all total lies. I can't give any more of my money to a company that treats its customers like that. The sad part is that they could have easily found someone to outsource the Kit Kat work to right here on XDA, but even their employees joined this community after the product was launched.
I encourage others to add their thoughts to this thread.

FBRkr1s said:
Well guys you beat me to it, I thought it was about time to join & post my feelings on the MOJO I purchased in December upon UK release but OP has written an almost identical post to what I drafted. Mad Catz could have done so much with the console which offered so much potential but lack of support has killed it before its even got started.
I feel it wouldn't be so bad if we were all kept in the loop on progress to bring us a new OS, further Play Store compatibility, gamepad mapping etc, but not a word!
I have tried to convince myself the £220 purchase was worth it, but its very hard to justify it when you look at the Shield & the Shield tablet, my Ouya is used everyday & the MOJO sits gathering dust without the power cord connected!
I beg the Mad Catz team to read these posts & at least come back to us with something, I know they do come on here so use your voice guys & throw us something.
At present I'm sure they are sat laughing that they have our money so why should they care? Well this forum ranks high on Google & must be hurting potential sales & I certainly won't buy or recommend another Mad Catz product & thats from a household which owns every major console released & has a competition PC gamer living it.
Thanks Mad Catz
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The reason they don't answer this kind of posts, and the reason you don't get any feedback on the work being done by Madcatz on MOJO, it's because you wont like those answers. The few units sold probably just made them stop working on this.
Again, as a developer, i think i'de get fired if i delivered such a final product or software. Just amateur.
Anyone thinking about buying this, just dont, anyone who already bought it just say Thank's madcatz and cry a tear for their hard work.

joaommsousa said:
The reason they don't answer this kind of posts, and the reason you don't get any feedback on the work being done by Madcatz on MOJO, it's because you wont like those answers. The few units sold probably just made them stop working on this.
Again, as a developer, i think i'de get fired if i delivered such a final product or software. Just amateur.
Anyone thinking about buying this, just dont, anyone who already bought it just say Thank's madcatz and cry a tear for their hard work.
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You beat me to it again OP, however I would like to hear from MC themselves & have just invited Alex Verrey from MadCatz to join this thread with the following:
Dear Mr. Verry,
I do hope I find you in good health & apologise for this unconventional communication regarding a MadCatz product.
I am a supporter of MadCatz products & purchased the M.O.J.O in late 2013, a product which you handled the P.R for to great effect.
However myself & others have become disillusioned with Madcatz by the serious omissions in support & features this product needs & as such would like to invite yourself or any other MadCatz employee to join the recent topic on the XDA Developers Forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/mad-catz-mojo/general/im-t2852370
I think if you find the time to read through the aforementioned thread I need say little more & thank you in advance for any assistance you may offer to myself & the M.O.J.O community.

I agree the software support side of the mojo is disappointing, that's not to say it's not there at all.
It's hasn't even been a month since the last update! ie 4K TV, better google play & BT support.
Yes, it's two steps forward, one step back (now root doesn't fix google play), but Madcatz is a hardware company and still new to android and SW.. so I guess its to be expected... hmm.. but a year on and it's still the same :/
And going by the reactions here, to their detriment.. SW does need more support then HW and a OS needs a bit more..
The kernel code suggests that they don't have a dedicated Android person internally, which I think is a really huge mistake!
Android can be a great computer appliance when finished 100% and never changed, in MOJO's case, knowing it wasn't going to be finished 100% from the start, more attention should have been made.
One extra internal salary/contract and all this could have been avoided and our forums would have been like the shield's.. definitely underestimated Android! and in hindsight maybe a learning opportunity for them?
Yip, It's frustrating, to still have the dongle on USB3, not to mention no kitkat.
But, the mojo is still one the better android TV box HW wise out there and still relevant... I'm optimistic kitkat will come, hopefully sooner then later.
I think the potential is still there and it's the center piece of their gamesmart range which is still increasing, the StrikeM only released last week.
So they're not going to abandon it and I think there's still more support/improvements coming for it!
I'm guessing it's a balancing act with limited resources and growing the company in a competitive industry, so we'll see where it goes :/
I don't expect a reply here from Alex, @Mad Catz Rich etc, but I know they do read this.

I have received a reply from Alex Verrey & although it does not address our needs as such I am most appreciative of having got a response & now await for other Mad Catz employees to jump on here, the email reads as follows:
Thanks for the email. No need to apologise for reaching out, it’s good to hear from you, and if any forum members are feeling let down by Mad Catz, we certainly want to hear about it.
We have several Mad Catz staff members who already actively participate on the forums. All of these guys are probably better positioned than I to provide the answers you are looking for. I know M.O.J.O. well, but the guys in question are the lead product managers and marketers of M.O.J.O. and will be able to go into great detail for you and any others looking for assistance.
Apologies if I sound patronising, but were you aware that we have recently launched a new and free Firmware update for M.O.J.O.? The new update introduces nearly full Google Play accessibility without the need to root. In addition, the update introduces 4K (UHD) output compatibility and brings the entire catalogue of OUYA games to M.O.J.O. We have also been working with our friends at OnLive to introduce perfect compatibility with their cloud based gaming network.
We continue to work with developers and publishers to ensure full compatibility for major titles as well. Sadly, it is true that not every Android title available today is fully compatible with M.O.J.O. and our C.T.R.L.R but we’re sure working on it!
I’ll leave it to the other guys to jump on the thread and assist where possible. In the meantime, thanks for reaching out, we sincerely do care to hear your feedback and will strive to communicate more regularly in the future.
Regards
ALEX VERREY

I might be being really dumb, but is this referring to the MO0205-TS Firmware. Because for me this update did increase the controller support granted, however I don't really care to much about that a ps3 and Xbox controller has worked fine for me since 2009 and the Wii classic controller before that on android devices. The ctrlr controller support is a bonus but could live with out at this point as the OS needs to be much higher on the priority's list.
It did the total opposite of increasing compatibility to my google play account, I had quite a large selection of games and apps before, but after updating basically all the games and apps I played/used where no longer compatible. And even on apps I don't use or want, when looking through the play store I never used to see incompatible that much now, now its plastered all over it.
My main main issues are :
1: It freezes and crashes a lot, which creates other issues.
2: one of these my micro SD must have been formatted at least 30 times now and I can't be arsed using it n e more board of transferring data to it. (A 32 or 64gb mmc this can be time consuming) seems to occurs when the mojo crashes or is unplugged from the wall on my mojo.
3: Has not happened any where near as much maybe only a hand full of times but I've had multiple hard drives wiped (luckily i have back ups of everything,) and again when were talking close to full 1tb drives its frustrating and time consuming to transfer the data back.
4: seems a kick in the balls that their are the nvidia only games such as half life and portal. Which are not available on the mojo which ticks all the boxes for compatibility.
5: NO RECOVERY MENU ACCESS: seriously we can't back up our systems In case something goes drasiticly wrong, which with android is a serious possibility.
6: The mojo went to market mid December 2013 and I could be wrong has had only 3 maybe 4 updates which have only addressed minor issues. And don't say itl shortly receive a kitkat 4.4 update before you release to market then 9 MONTHS later still not out, doesn't fill me with confidence at all.
I Don't get why dev teams like cyanogen, kindroid, crash, omni, jackyaway and countless other on XDA I am not going to list are able to produce nightly updates for multiple android builds across multiple devices and tablets, including multiple custom tweeks and optimisations.
I assume you have employed a professional development team. The teams I listed above will have provided its users with more updates in 3/5 days than your professional team has provided us in 9 months of suffering through a devise which by no way feels like the competed article that's the gripe and what's grinding your current owners patience out.
7: Compatibility issues talked about above
8: Because of the issues with the SD card and HDD formatting its impossible to fit all the games u wish to use on the console. With some games and apps now in the couple of gig region even if full compatibility is unlocked i could not set up the console exactly how I would like with a lot missing.
Alot of the issues listed above should have been addressed along time ago

Hello All,
M.O.J.O. is a new and innovative product but for the most part the issues aren’t related to the hardware. C.T.R.L.R support in Android apps is new and it’s taken some time for developers to update their manifests to get device support for M.O.J.O. Anybody that’s using M.O.J.O. and doing regular firmware updates will attest that, while it’s not perfect, the universe of apps and games available today is pretty cool and getting better all the time. Of course, there are many other micro-consoles that are now available and may be simpler to use, but we’re not aware of one that has the depth of assortment and quality of games and apps that M.O.J.O. has today and we’re committed to continuing to expand the selection and improve the experience.
The evolving nature of the Android app universe means that compatibility has been a moving target but we are fully committed to universal app compatibility and developers want their apps on as many supporting devices as possible. We are continuously working with developers to implement Google’s directive to support game controllers in games (http://developer.android.com/training/game-controllers/controller-input.html ). Please let us know when you come across an app that has a problem and we'll get in touch with the developer. Please feel free to contact the developer directly as well.
The "not compatible" message is a result of the hardware support filtering in the Google Play Store and can be impacted by options selected by the developer when posting the app manifest to the store. Typically, it’s not because M.O.J.O. can’t run the app. For example, we recently had an issue with one game that was rendered incompatible for a few days due to an update that had removed M.O.J.O. from their “white list” of supported devices by mistake. Fortunately, that was a quick and easy fix. The latest firmware update for M.O.J.O. gets access to a lot more content than previous unrooted releases, although we still find some apps with options selected in their manifest that prevent them from being accessible even though it would play fine on M.O.J.O. otherwise. Again, as with controller support, let us and the developer know and we’ll chase it up for you. Positively, there’s little doubt that the vast majority of popular apps and games are now available.
In addition, we have a lot of content for gamers not widely supported on other devices. OUYA is now available on M.O.J.O. giving access to hundreds of games configured specifically for compatibility with our C.T.R.L.R. More and more games are being added as OUYA works through their library of now over 900 games. We've also partnered with OnLive and their game-streaming service giving access to their PlayPack library and CloudLift-enabled titles from your Steam account with over 250 PC games from triple-A publishers playable on M.O.J.O. and with our C.T.R.L.R. These apps are not supported on many other devices today.
For resolution settings, we offer 720p, 1080p, and 4K support, as mandated by Google for GMS-certified TV devices.
DTS pass-through is unfortunately not supported but M.O.J.O. has full support for Dolby Digital pass-through. Some of the issues people are facing are app issues. For example, pass-through functionality is broken in the Android version of XBMC but other media players such as MX Player support it just fine.

Mad Catz Nate said:
Hello All,
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Hey Nate, there running theme of the thread seems to be Android.. in particular kitkat and lack of a dev community for modding.
Personally, I'm not pushing for kitkat it will come when it comes... but any chance you can get someone that knows android to answer @shabbypenguin questions , repack problem? and ADB over USB/ETH0.
Running out of ideas and steam... help would be greatly appreciated.
From http://madcatz.com/mojo/en-ca/
Ready to Root
As any Android power-user knows, the best way to get the most out of your device is to root it. Root access opens up all sorts of options including adding custom keymapping capabilities and installing custom ROMs. Mad Catz provides a short step-by-step guide to rooting, and our tech support team is ready to help.
The best part – rooting won’t void your warranty.
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gwaldo said:
Running out of ideas and steam... help would be greatly appreciated.
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It would take 2 minutes to post a little update, even something like: "Sorry, I don't have that answer and the guy that does is out on holiday or on the road, blah, blah, blah" and you (we) don't get even that. I suppose that's an answer right there.
You're responsible for probably 25% of the user generated M.O.J.O. content that's on the Internet, and this is how they value your questions. :crying: Me, I'm just a customer.

P901 said:
It would take 2 minutes to post a little update, even something like: "Sorry, I don't have that answer and the guy that does is out on holiday or on the road, blah, blah, blah" and you (we) don't get even that. I suppose that's an answer right there.
You're responsible for probably 25% of the user generated M.O.J.O. content that's on the Internet, and this is how they value your questions. :crying: Me, I'm just a customer.
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I wouldn't say i'm 25%, i have a blog and a few videos...
Maybe the questions have to go through management's approval then to china and back... I don't know
Anyway, I got a few more ideas while waiting.

gwaldo said:
I wouldn't say i'm 25%, i have a blog and a few videos...
Maybe the questions have to go through management's approval then to china and back... I don't know
Anyway, I got a few more ideas while waiting.
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Gwaldo, I think you are the kindest guy on the internet, or at least in the top 10 :fingers-crossed:
p.s. have a look, your content accounts for about 30% of what is out there!

gwaldo said:
Maybe the questions have to go through management's approval then to china and back...
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They must have a lot of layers of management to go through...

joaommsousa said:
I have MOJO for several months now, when i initially bought it, i showed it to all my friends, and bragged about the potential of this product.
After all this months, its just sad, the lack of support or competence of the manufacters to actually stand by their product.
Beeing a developer and an android enthusiast, it's just sad to see how poorly this hole process has been developed.
The console itself has several issues, the play store, for me is a huge deal breaker. You can't have a main selling point of the product (the full access to play store and tegra zone) when most of the products there, altought i can see them, are not compatible either with the console itself, or worse, the gamepad isn't recognized. Titles like Portal 2 and Half Life 2, made precisely for MOJO's hardware, and i cant play it.
You can't also ask regular users to Root their device after every update. Either support the non rooted version, or it has to be rooted by default.
I could be a regular user who just wants to play some vice city on my TV, don't know or care how to root. This isn't a developer edition!!
The OS itself has several issues, from the basic ones ( I CANT RESTART OR SHUTDOWN THE CONSOLE w/ unplugging it), no resolution settings. I have several audio lag issues when the console is left on for days. So even for media, i can't have XBMC running 100% there.I do have a Samsung Beam (very slow 1.0 dual core) with buggy OS and i have hours and hours of projecting XBMC media without ANY issues.
The support is next to nothing. I've installed the latest update from MadCatz, i was so happy with more google play support etc.. Turns out when i didn't want to create a OUYA account, now i have OUYA Framework crashing every 5 minutes. Just perfect.
The other main selling point was the gamepad, a solid, well construct Controller, with amazing gaming tecnology from madcatz.
Well, beside the construction, there's nothing else good about the gamepad. I have a bunch of tablets and phones, i have a really hard time connecting and staying connected with my Android 4.4.2 devices. I'm constantly losing my Connection with the gamepad, and the REconnection is just painfull, i have to restart the gameopad a few times before i can get it to work again.
Also most of the games with gamepad support doesn't recognize the CTRLR.. WTF, MadCatz team, even the simple part of getting in touch with game developers, didn't do their homework.
Mad Catz could however, try to compensate somehow, and make a decent Gamepad Mapper. Nothing on this been release, has been months.
If this was a review of the product i would give it 2/10. And the 2 is for the choice of using Nvidia's tegra 4, and thats the only good thing about this.
The lack of support of XDA's developers, given the potential of the device shown by nvidia's shield portable, is insane.
I no longer brag about this with my friends, i'm just ashamed and deceived to have spent 250 bucks on this. I'm buying Nvidia's shield tablet and try to forget Madcatz and my 250$
Thanks MadCatz.
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I have Mojo for some months now and I'm very pleased with it.
Half-Life 2 and Portal works great on my device with some adjustments.
Yes, you can power the device off with a keyboard with shutdown button or install a widget that maps the powerbutton
and brings up the power menu. This is a proper shutdown, not like pulling the plug!

I honestly think right now the nexus player is a better deal. 10 gameloft games are being optimized for the system. Mad Catz must seriously hate their system because they don't update the product. Plus it's still $199 and the amount of problems you're having, makes no sense.

disorder78 said:
I honestly think right now the nexus player is a better deal. 10 gameloft games are being optimized for the system. Mad Catz must seriously hate their system because they don't update the product. Plus it's still $199 and the amount of problems you're having, makes no sense.
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Anyone who bought this crap and wants the real stuff ou is crazy enought to be considering buying it, i seriously recommend Nvidia's Shield Tablet. More expensive than nexus player, but gets the job well done on every end ( Entertainment, gaming, PC gaming, Console / Tablet mode )
Nvidia actually supports their products, just announced Lollipop for the tablet by the end of november.

kaiserclaw said:
I have Mojo for some months now and I'm very pleased with it.
Half-Life 2 and Portal works great on my device with some adjustments.
Yes, you can power the device off with a keyboard with shutdown button or install a widget that maps the powerbutton
and brings up the power menu. This is a proper shutdown, not like pulling the plug!
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Half-Life 2 and Portal wow!
Does it play well with the CTRLR?
I would buy both for my mojo if I knew how to get it working... could you please give us a clue how you got it work?

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