On 02/25/2012 08:42 PM, Ed Nisley wrote:
I'm looking for a tablet-like slab for use as a datasheet / instruction
manual display, limited-use USB-serial terminal, and not much else. The
screen needs lots of dots to make it work for datasheets and I'm not
greatly interested in lugging it around in my pants pocket.
Do any of you Android whizzes have an opinion on this thing:
http://www.ecrater.com/p/13480168/ainol-novo-7-elf-a10-android-40
Available for even more on eBay!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ainol-Novo-7-Elf-Android-4-0-Capacitive-Tablet-PC-Novo7-Elf-/270921700700?pt=US_Tablets&hash=item3f1431155c
It looks to have mostly the right hardware (verily, a 1024x600 LCD), but
comes with a full-frontal Mandarin UI, Chinese instructions, no Android
Market hookup, and a nearly complete lack of support. I assume one could
switch the UI to English with, at worst, a bit of blind tapping, but
what happens after that is up for grabs.
The sellers seem remarkably up front about some issues: "Elf has a
Bluetooth Share app, but we have not confirmed it has bluetooth."
Admittedly, it's not much less expensive than subsidized eReaders (with
smaller screens) from various sources, but it has the compelling
advantage of being a vanilla Android box with unlocked everything (apart
from, perhaps, the hardware drivers).
Given its pedigree, I'd want to pressure-wash the OS& apps before
typing in my first password. I'm not really up for a major software
project, though, and can barely pronounce "Android" with a straight
face.
Suggestions? Brickbats?
Thanks ...
That screen is probably the same panel as is in the Nook Tablet, which
is pretty hackable to get it back to generic Android (or, if it's just
datasheets, should work out of the box). If I was putting down my own
money, I'd spend a little more and go that direction.
I've only see tears and pain come from random chinese vendors here. The
thing to remember is that the silicon manufacturers are typically
delivering the android build to the device manufacturers, often without
source code for many of their devices. So you can't assume that you can
just wipe it down to something generic, because there may be no open
drivers to do that with.
-Sean
--
Sean Dague Learn about the Universe with the
sean at dague dot net Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association
http://dague.net http://midhudsonastro.org
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