Well I haven’t yet tried it but heedna on xda-forums sent me a private message to let me know that Noontec has published v1.2.06 (alternative link on Minus) on their website.
I’ll probably try it in the next few days and revise this blog.
I created my own collection of firmware for the A9 on Minus as seen below… might be a little faster than UMAX or Noontec’s websites:
Well I’ve tried many Push to Talk apps for Android both over WiFi and 3G networks and tested them all with poor reception. I must have tried about 20 apps, and only one of them really held up to be any good.
LoudTalks Lite was released for Android on July 25th 2011 so its very new software. Just a few days ago they changed their name to Zello.
What makes it so good is its use of keep-alive and allowing the user to alter this preference. Keep-alive directly affects battery drain while Zello is operating and if the connection is retained when travelling through an area with total loss of 3G signal.
Further to this, Zello allows the user to tinker with buffering settings. Zello uses the open source Speex codecs. Zello also supports channels which can optionally be privatized with a password or moderated.
My testing by talking with my partner showed that Zello was most likely to get a message out in all scenarios with the least amount of delay.
All we need now is an iPhone version.
Well Cyanogenmod is certainly the most well known unofficial Android firmware and is compatible with many devices including my Samsung Galaxy Gio. Cyanogenmod has even been purported by some as being better than official firmwares shipped by manufacturers and carriers. For now Cyanogenmod is not officially supported on the Gio, but it seems that’s on its way.
I blogged about how I started using it some time ago. I’ve nutted out some problems I had and now feel I can blog about its installation so that everything works and the handset is stable.
ISSUES:
I continue to have some minor stability issues with S2E, however its very easy to fix. Because I now use Google to sync & store my calendar, contacts & notes, the real hard part of fixing the S2E issue is having to re-flash the phone. I did this just this morning so hopefully the problem doesn’t pop up again where I can’t install apps (the handset reboots during installation) or that apps begin to slowly disappear.
Another issue is that if I change the screen brightness, the LEDs behind the menu and back buttons will stay on and will not turn off until the handset is rebooted. This is known about, is considered a bug, and should hopefully be fixed in the next version.
And the final issue which I solved is Google Maps, Latitude & Navigation when installed from the Market crashes very soon after you load it. The solution is to not install the latest version from the Market but to install version 5.12 from the link I provided above. This version seems stable, the new 6.x versions are not stable on this firmware (they should be, its a firmware bug that should hopefully be fixed in the next version).
You will need:
This folder on Minus has everything you need:
To install:
I use Microsoft Office Outlook for my e-mail because it has other tools like a calendar, task list and address book. I do not use Microsoft Exchange but I do use Outlook on a number of computers which all run the same version of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Microsoft Office 2010 Premium.
I also have a Samsung Galaxy Gio running Android which is currently the Cyanogenmod firmware. The best method to use contacts by far on this device is “in the cloud” on Google Contacts. The calendar is the same with Google Calendar. And so are notes with Notes in Google Docs.
I previously have had lots of problems sync’ing to Android. I first used Samsung Kies which seemed alright except it had a tendency to duplicate contacts and calendar events continually so that my phone’s memory eventually filled up. Cyanogenmod won’t actually support Samsung Kies, mainly because the USB device function seems to be broken on the Samsung Galaxy Gio port and Cyanogenmod also lacks the Samsung Apps framework.
I found GO Contact Sync Mod after trying several other methods of sync’ing. When run on a PC which uses Outlook, it essentially sync’s your Outlook Calendar & Notes with Google.
Google also have put out Google Calendar Sync which will sync your Outlook to Google Calendar.
So with those two apps, you have a total sync solution that doesn’t fuck out if you run it on two PCs – and it uses the Internet connection so no direct connection between the phone and PC is needed, just the Internet on both devices.
Yesterday I began trying Cyanogenmod 7 for Samsung Galaxy Gio RC 3.0.
I was finding that SimpliGio+ had some weirdness where sometimes the mobile network, GPS or WiFi wouldn’t work. The only way to fix it was to restart the device. I also had some troubles with predictive text not working at all. I probably could have fixed these issues but it was a lot of fucking around and I really can’t be bothered.
So far Cyanogenmod seems to be working great and has a good set of features. For a start it is the most used unofficial firmware, and like the DD-WRT unofficial firmware for wireless routers, it supports hundreds of devices and provides a common feature set and user interface between all those devices. Cyanogenmod has even received praise for being better than factory supplied Android firmware. At present the Samsung Galaxy Gio port is not officially supported by Cyanogenmod, but I’m guessing the low price point of the Samsung Galaxy product lines will probably change that.
I didn’t have to install sipdroid as it has native VoIP. I also setup s2e with a 300MB EXT4 partition on the MicroSD card – and now magically my phone has statics of internal memory so I can install really big apps like Angry Birds. It also has OpenVPN bundled so I’ll have to play with that later.
I’ll have to blog more about Cyanogenmod after I tinker with it. I’m still yet to reflash my partners handset with it.
After posting on xda-forums the other day I was pointed to this page. Umax is Noontec’s distributor in the Czech Republic and have published a couple firmwares that Noontec haven’t. They are:
I’m yet to try the 1.2.04 myself, but I will soon and naturally I’ll blog about it.
I have made some small steps in rooting the Noontec… in that realizing root is available by default through the adb shell when connected via USB to a PC.
I also realized that the /system partition on the Noontec firmware is cramfs, and therefore read only, and therefore I cannot modify it even with Super User installed. This seems like an absolutely stupid move by Noontec considering the device’s tech specs mention it has 2GB of NAND memory (so its capable of being in a writeable format) and the advantages of root on Android include things like playback of videos over CIFS network shares (which would be a target market for a “Smart TV Box”).
It seems like I’ll have to work on my own firmware image. I’m just a little fearful of this considering the Noontec also lacks a /recovery partition which makes the recovery menus non-existent.
I’m writing up a review for my Noontec A9 Smart TV Box since none seem to exist. The trouble is I’ve never owned a Smart TV Box other than a modded XBox running XBox Media Center or a PC running Windows XP connected to the TV, so I have no real comparison.
Out of the box the Noontec doesn’t have a lot. It has a tiny 11 button remote and a power supply.
The Noontec A9 is really easy to plug in and get up and running, especially with a HDMI connection (obviously you’ll need to buy the HDMI cable as extra). Simply plug in an Ethernet cable (optional, WiFi could also be used), your TV, the power supply, and you’re up and running.
At very first you need to confirm your Internet is connected. If you didn’t connect an Ethernet cable you should set up WiFi under Settings. Load up the Browser on the home screen to ensure your Internet is up.
A USB keyboard and mouse goes really well with the A9. I plugged in some generic PC versions and they work great. However on Android there are some minor differences to the keymap that you’ll need to know. The very first one is right click won’t bring up a menu, it has the same action as the “Back” button.
USB Keyboard Keymap
| Keyboard Key | Android |
| Home | Home |
| Esc | Back |
| F1 | Menu |
| F4 | Volume Down |
| F5 | Volume Up |
| Power | Power |
Another thing I needed to do before I did anything at all… Out of the box the default firmware wasn’t so crash hot, and at the time of writing v1.1.06 OC03 11-11-29 is the latest firmware available from the Noontec download page. Installing the firmware is fairly easy but you’ll need an SD memory card. I tried using a USB flash drive but it would not install correctly. As Noontec instruct, you simply download their ZIP file and extract the recovery.img file to the root folder of your SD card. Then when inserted into your A9 which is already powered on, it pops up with a dialog to install the new firmware.
With the pre-installed firmware I couldn’t install ES File Explorer, the Android Market said it wasn’t compatible with my device. After performing the firmware update I could. This app is really useful to install as it allows you to play videos from Samba/CIFS/Windows File shares. So for a downloader like me, I just setup ES File Explorer to read some shares on my PC and I download videos on my PC and when they’re available I can play it on the TV with the Noontec remote.
One slight disadvantage for video playback with the A9 is there is no information on rooting, or installing the SuperUser application and the /system/xbin/su binary it requires. This means you cannot use CifsManager which would be the desired operation for playing media from Samba shares – since it would allow any application to play the media, and not limit you to media players that support Samba shares. It’d also allow you to run ClockSync which seems wise considering that “Automatic Network Time” is a feature of GSM networks that the A9 cannot support since it has no support for GSM networks or any mobile phone networks at all.
YouTube and any website which uses Adobe Flash Video (FLV) also works very well on the A9. YouTube obviously works best with the app pre-installed with Android, while some FLV streaming sites for pirated content don’t work so great as the overload of Flash based advertising can overload the browser making it quite slow. ABC iView doesn’t work so great since the screen layout of the A9 increases the size of the page, and essentially blows it up so its too big to be useable. I’d love it if either ABC or Noontec did something to fix this.
For an overall rating on the device, with ES File Explorer it does do the tasks I purchased it for – play video from the downloads folder on my PC and from websites which use Adobe Flash. The interface is a little clunky on the A9 and could be improved, however it is useable & functional. Compared to Apple TV, the A9 is cheaper and doesn’t have limitations of iTunes software or DRM. Given the clunky UI and the comparison to Apple TV, the price is probably very reasonable.
I’ve finally decided on a firmware for my Samsung Galaxy Gio GT-5660S. It is SimpliGio+ which sadly was the very first firmware I tried so I now have to revert back to my first firmware loading attempt.
I didn’t like GioPro because I found the ADW desktop would frequently crash.
I didn’t like Particle because WiFi didn’t work. I mean really, whats the point of buying a phone with WiFi just to disable it in software?
And I didn’t like the so called “Official Firmware” from XDA-Developers because it isn’t actually an official firmware because Samsung Kies cannot update it and the desktop frequently crashes causing application services (like sipdroid) to exit. Really annoying if you actually use VoIP like me.
SimpliGio+ is very easy to load. The best features of SimpliGio+ are the replaced boot screen animation & sound, Titanium Backup Pro included, SuperUser included, and normal components of Android (that aren’t always used) are installed optionally to save memory (you need to get this file and use Root Explorer to copy them across).
I was reading John Linton’s blog (owner of Exetel) about a week ago and one article peaked my interest (requires you’re either an Exetel customer or you pay $20 for membership). I don’t read John’s blog regulary but I’m a big fan of his blog as it provides some unique insight into the Australian telecommunications market.
John was talking about how the cost of delivering data to ADSL customers has changed partly due the continual fall of the cost of IP data and because of the increases in the amount of content delivered from the Akamai and Google cache’s in Sydney.
I found this interesting cause some time during the past year or two I noticed that Google traffic was progressively “switched on” to be served over Pipe Networks who have incredibly low cost peering solutions for Internet Service Providers, typically at a much lower cost than any other transit provider. At first only Google Search seemed to be served from Pipe, and later other sites like YouTube were added.
I remember a time in the distant past where over 90% of all Internet data in Australia had a source or destination that was offshore. In the days of dialup Internet I worked for a small rural ISP who decided that as the majority of their traffic was to/from the United States they would bypass the high costs of Telstra and other Australian carriers and get a satellite link from an American firm directly to Los Angeles.
In the past 10 years there have been improvements in the fibre optic links between the US and Australia and there are now numerous non-Telstra suppliers of international transit. Pipe Networks was the most recent entry to international transit with their fibre link to the US via Guam. These improvements are what John was talking about with the fall in cost for IP data.
How times have changed. Now in the days of broadband and heavy focuses on latency, using satellite or directly linking to America would be an absurd decision to make.
I believe that eventually, every large Internet firm will be placing servers close to the end user, so that international data is only a fraction of data used by end users. This would mean that international transit will become a realm for web sites and hosting firms, and will no longer be a primary focus for ISPs even in the Australian market which is very geographically isolated.
I noticed this ad today, strangely as a Google Ad on my Samsung Galaxy Gio.
Telstra are offering the iPhone 3GS for $429. Seems strange you’d even consider this offer when Apple sell them directly for just $20 more and theirs isn’t locked to the Telstra network.
Or, why you’d consider an iPhone 3GS over the $134.10 Samsung Galaxy Gio which is easily unlocked from the Optus network – is beyond me.
