I have been using the EdenX Rom continuously at this point and have tested many apps while using it, most with success, although not always perfectly. Also I have noticed a lot of apps do not launch well, I have to start them several times before anything happens, and apps that require internet access will not load at all, they flash on the screen very fast, maybe 300-600 milliseconds and then right back to the app launcher (learned this the hard way). Well, on with the list! It is a bit longer than the previous one, so I may not get this posted for a few days, then I will work on the Android apps page and try to get all of these apps listed there with download links to the Google Market and the Amazon market.

  • Akinator
    • This app is absolutely awesome, it can tell you who you are thinking of in an average of 20 questions. While there is room for improvement, as it frequently asks the same or similar question over again, and even goes so far to ask the opposite of a question you already answered in the affirmative. It did guessed me, my dog, characters from books I read when I was a kid (not the main character either), Felix the Cat (the first “person” ever on TV), Blu the bird from the new Angry Birds game: Rio, Cindy Brady, even The Great Pumpkin from Charlie Brown! and several others I tried, some times it had to guess more than once and some times I gave it wrong answers, but it always got them. There is even an option to edit the character’s name if not quite right, and add a picture if there is not one. the background image stretches to fit the screen, and the objects on screen are set to “top right” “top left” and “bottom” so it looks a bit funny, but works great (was a bit slow loading questions, but I think it is a problem I have been having with my wifi lately and not the app). It does play upside down in portrait
  • AndExplorer
    • my favorite file explorer for Android, although it does not show the sdcard2 and usb drive unless you go into the sdcard and then go up a level (I think the start screen is just bookmarks, you should be able to add them to that list, I just have not tried. No visible issues with formatting for the screen.
  • Anytime Pool
    • installed fine, will not load at all, pops up on the screen for about 800 milliseconds then goes away.
  • Bank of America App
    • installed in EdenX, so there is hope, but will not launch, I got the accept and decline option with a properly displayed user license, but after I clicked accept it went away and I could not get it to relaunch at all.
  • Armored Defense II
    • Looks good, plays great, just a bit skewed on the graphics and a touch low on the resolution for the graphics, but completely playable, one of the better tower defense games out there. Just make sure you are online when you first run it, it has to phone home and activate.
  • Backbreaker
    • no good here, it installed, it launched, some of the graphics did not load at all, it was completely unplayable, you could only see the outline of the player, and I had no idea where the opponents were. Had a good time playing this on my Evo it’s fun, easy to play, and something you can do with only a couple of minutes of spare time.
  • Baseball Superstars 2011
    • Plays great, absolutely no issues; however I haven’t played 2010, I had a great time playing the 2009 version, but I do not understand the changes they made in the 2011 edition, I cannot bat any longer, they changed the batting system and I cannot figure out to control the swing
  • Castle Crusade
    • will not launch, this is a shame, as I loved playing it on my HTC Evo
  • Castle Warriors
    • Fantastic Game, I played it straight through the campaign without getting up from my seat once. I just wish there was some elements of RPG in it, something that got better or at least carried over between levels. The lack of such greatly reduces replay value, maybe needs some upgraded graphics a touch, but it works without it
  • Dungeon Hunter HD
    • Another great Android game, and a special HD version, although it could use some increased polygons. But looks pretty darn good, no lag but I do have three issues, the character’s “light source” is not working very well me thinks, as it looks crappy and barely lights up the area the player character stands in. The second issue was the controls, it appears you have an 8 way virtual control stick; although I can almost never get the diagonals to work, am often stuck walking into walls while pushing the opposite way on the controller. And finally, the auto targeting is a bit funny, you can be surrounded by 4-6 enemies and your guy tries to go running off to attack another enemy that isn’t even on the screen yet, completely ignoring the other enemies.
  • Dungeon Defenders HD
    • All I can say is Wow, this has to be the best tower defense game conceived. I have not really run into any major game play or graphical issues, although I cannot beat the 4th wave in the first mission, “Deep well” even though my character is now level 4. I’m trying to figure out if there is a way to quit levels early and keep all that was earned on the levels completed. It even has a tablet “mode” you can turn on in the options menu, although it started with it turned on by default after installing on my Adam *** update *** significantly past that level, learned the hard way you can use multiple characters to set the traps between waves; however you are still stuck with just one character during the level. Thankfully any character can repair another’s traps.
  • Finger Physics
    • mostly works, it is playable, although there are some big black squares on screen, and the game does not stretch to fit, so you can see exactly how the graphics were designed. not made for larger display, but if you really like the game, it will work. personally not one of my favorites. it is one of those that you play once or twice and get rid of.
  • Grave Defense
    • installs and runs well, graphics are below sub-par and even look bad on my HTC Evo, the play field pans and actually goes farther than the actual map. This is not good, as once you go past the edge of the playing field the graphics mess up. I’d recommend skipping this one until they do a graphical overhaul. The devs do a great job adding new content and keeping this game alive, but if they don’t improve the graphics then I don’t see this app lasting into the new era of high res devices.
  • HiFiCorder
    • Like many of the Android Apps I have tested on my Adam, this one launches, allows me to accept the license agreement, then loads the app and disappears, attempting to re-launch it gives you a few thousand milliseconds to glimpse the app and then it is gone again. For all of these apps, I really do not think it is the app itself that causes this; however it is the Eden user interface or the chosen launcher that is causing it. I think part of the problem is that there seems to be no way to “hold down the home button” to get your last 6 or 8 apps to appear on screen so you can go back to them, this is one of the most used features of Android for me and will be the reason I leave EdenX. I’ll try to remember to check some of these apps on another rom to see if they work better (many of these are not apps I regularly use and only installed to test them on my Adam)
  • Homerun Battle 3D
    • looks good and plays fine, if you can figure out how to use the sideways accelerometers. I could get it to move up and down, but not side to side.
    • PewPew2
      • installs and runs great, I don’t really understand this game and cannot complete even the second level, I guess it is just not for me, looks good and works fine on my Adam though.
      • Platinum Sudoku
        • also installs and runs fine, but is forced to a very small display in portrait mode. It looks to me to be about 320×480, game play is great though all functions worked.
        • Prince of Persia
          • only seems to work in landscape mode 480×320 and runs about 5x normal speed, pretty amusing to play, but completely worthless as you cannot get past the first level or so without falling in a hole.
          • Sound Hound
            • No issues here, it even figured out that I was attempting to sing I love rock and roll, in falsetto, quietly… not quiet enough, as I did get a couple of funny comments after I finished.
            • X Construct
              • playable although the graphics are poor and the screen is zoomed in really close without the ability to zoom out any, also although the menu will rotate between portrait and landscape mode for the level select, nothing can be done in the game after you start a level. Additionally, the start button to send the train across your bridge is sometimes located on top of the battery button that is used to minimize the task bar.
              • Zenonia 2
                • no issues here, all looks and seems to work good, actually had a pretty good time playing it on my Adam.
              • Solitaire megapack
                • I did not even realize this was installed! I accidentally ran it while trying to swipe through my app list to try and get to something else at the time. It runs great though and is fully loaded with what seems to be close to 100 variations on solitaire. Good stuff here, will definitely keep this for boredom. Also has the ability to upload your character save to their servers, so you can download it again after a Rom flash, or even to another device. The only issue is that the download wipes any saves you currently have on that device, and it deletes the save from the device when you upload the saves.

                well, it took me a week to get through all of these apps that I had not yet tested and to get this written up, but I’m done, so here it is! Next I’ll get to work on the app pages and get the links to the markets put up. then I’ll come back and add links in to this and my previous post.

So, I’ve been messing around with my Adam for a while now and have noticed some things, many people have already noticed these things; however I am new to tablets and all my Android devices are still stock non-rooted (can’t afford to replace them if I screw it up!), as a List, currently in my home are an HTC Evo, and HTC Evo Shift, a Samsung Moment, and my Notion Ink Adam.

Things I have noticed, some are specific to the Adam, I think…

  1. most apps are written for really tiny resolution screens! I cannot even imagine it! The Adam is not super high res to begin with! The two worst apps I have seen so far are Gem Miner and Fruit Ninja! Makes me wonder if people realize that there are cell phones with greater than 900×500 resolution! (see the Meizu M9 which has a 3.5″ 640×960 display) These apps seem to be written for 320×240 pixel displays
  2. I believe my Notion Ink Adam had a faulty OS install
    • When trying to switch to the Pixel Qi mode, it does switch, but also locks the screen and immediately goes to sleep… If I figure out that I am doing it wrong, you may see me demonstrating the correct way on YouTube in the near future, but right now the only way I know how is to quickly press and release the power button and the display goes B&W and then locks and then shuts off, in about 2.5 seconds. I tried getting the Pixel Qi switch app, but I couldn’t figure out how to use it before I nuked the stock Rom! I did take my Adam out in the sun and I was able to see it just the same (very sunny and direct on the screen) as when I was standing in side just seconds before (yes it was still in color when outside), so the auto-brightness must help a lot! Ok, I am a retard, apparently the PQi change button is a long press on the search button (go figure! I swear Rohan did it with a touch to the power switch in the videos), it works great, cannot believe I was standing in direct bright sunlight without using the PQi and could see the screen fine! I’ll have to test that again…
    • I was not able to utilize any widgets, or airplane mode
    • Eden Leaves would close themselves if I entered a full screen app and then exited that app by pressing the home key, all the leaves would close, after installing another app that could work as a home screen (Android Mate), anytime I pressed the home key and selected the Eden home screen, all Leaves would be closed.
    • I’ve installed the Clockwork Mod, quick, easy, painless. it was the first time I have messed with an Android device in any way other than installing apps! I made a backup of my installation and that was about it! About 36 hours later I nuked my data and cache off the device, then formatted my internal SD, as it still had stuff on it, and restored from the restore partition.
    • I then went to install EdenX, and when I went to shutdown I noticed I had an option to use airplane mode! maybe that would have helped with the cell standby eating >73% of my battery… who knows, didn’t stick around long enough to figure it out. I did try to initiate a change to the Pixel Qi display, but no dice (this was before I figured out how to do it right).
  3. well, Now I am waiting on EdenX to install, not looking good… I verified that Clockwork was gone, copied the EdenX files to the internal SD, and have been sitting staring at the little 3D’ish android guy for at least 10 minutes if not 25, I think it only took 3 – 5 minutes to restore stock… ok I’ve waited an hour, still the same. Pressing home took me back to the menu where it said failed to mount sd, ok, so I am a dumbass, I have only used the Clockwork mod when in recovery mode before, so I did not realize I needed to use the power button to start the process… well actually I forgot, I did read that part of the instructions. Again it took about 3.5 minutes and there was an image of a box with an arrow coming out of it. I’ll try and get a pick next time.
  4. The pretty white border around the Adam (shown also in red online, but not available) appears to be a sticker, thinner than electrical tape. Or it has a clear “sticker” over it, as there appears to be a bubble on the corners (maybe it is a shipping protection cover, but I am not willing to try and remove it!)
  5. Good news, my Adam camera does “lock” there is a definitive click when it reaches the full front or rear position and it takes a minor amount of effort to move it again.
  6. There is a “back” button on the right hand side of the device (in landscape mode), not really sure why, but I think it may come in handy once I get the thing setup the way I want it!
  7. The screen protector makes only a small difference in the glare, I don’t really think it is matte, not at all what was shown by Rohan on the notionink.wordpress.com blog. Oh and I recommend installing it sideways (landscape instead of portrait top down), as it will be easier to see if you are putting it on crooked! $10 to get another, just in case. ****update – Tactus has lowered their price to just $5 to get a replacement protector (although, since it is on Amazon.com shipping is $6.75)
  8. I am loving EdenX, although it kept somethings from the Stock Rom I was not crazy about (some of the preinstalled apps, the crappy notification bar…), it runs much better, more responsive to touch, faster, allows widgets, multiple home screens, a real app launcher, and is much closer to what I was expecting out of the Box. I was even able to install my previously purchased Android Apps from the Android market, yes EdenX provides the Android market. Not sure when I’ll get around to trying another Rom, but for now, I am happy with EdenX! Only change I need to make is to disable the Cell Standby, that sucker is eating up >73% of my battery…

Still working on some of this, but I’ve been spreading comments across the web about having some of these issues resolved, so I guess I better post it and then update the rest later!

my next problem with Titanium so far (I have not even written one line of code and I’ve already spent 4 weeks trying to get it working! well actually that is not true, I wrote a helloworld java app using the VI editor and compiled and ran it before I even installed Titanium, to test my java install…). While Titanium is running I am constantly getting the following display repeated over and over in my terminal window.


*** Unable to locate valid config! Falling back to auto-detection...
*** Unable to locate PAC! Falling back to direct...

Now, I have no idea what any of that means, and before some idiot says “did you follow the directions on the Appcelerator website on preparing for java programming?” I want to tell you exactly what I think of the “directions” and where you can stick them! After following those wonderful directions, I wouldn’t trust the developers at Appcelerator to give me directions on how to use a drinking glass! And I think I’ll leave it at that, because there are kids out there somewhere on the net that might stumble across this post one day…

**** update – I’ve figured this one out, after viewing over 80 web pages with not much more than people complaining about this issue. A PAC is an internet proxy access auto-configuration file! For some idiotic reason Titanium seems to think that every use is connecting to the internet via a proxy server (I think Internet Explorer 5 and 6 were configured this way too!). I have checked my network settings and by default Ubuntu sets up to connect directly to the internet, so no PAC was ever created. there is a big thread on the support forum for this issue, running on Mac OS X 10.4. Just scroll down about 80% of the way (or search for this term “dropbox” it only shows up twice and both times are on the same comment), and you will see they custom made an SDK that disables the network proxy check, no idea if this will work on Ubuntu. Maybe I’ll test it tomorrow, it is only 2 months old… alternately, I am researching creating a “default PAC file” that will resolve this issue! give me another day or two and I should have it added on here.

The best info on this issue so far, if you feel like a good read, else, you can copy the info below or go see where I found it.

sudo vi /etc/proxy.pac
i – starts edit mode in insert
copy and paste the following, this code basically tells your computer “there is no spoon” and get over it!


function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {

// If URL has no dots in host name, send traffic direct.
if (isPlainHostName(host))
return "DIRECT";

// If specific URL needs to bypass proxy, send traffic direct.
if (shExpMatch(url,"*domain.com*") ||
shExpMatch(url,"*vpn.domain.com*"))
return "DIRECT";

// If IP address is internal or hostname resolves to internal IP, send direct.

var resolved_ip = dnsResolve(host);

if (isInNet(resolved_ip, "10.0.0.0", "255.0.0.0") ||
isInNet(resolved_ip, "172.16.0.0", "255.240.0.0") ||
isInNet(resolved_ip, "192.168.0.0", "255.255.0.0") ||
isInNet(resolved_ip, "127.0.0.0", "255.255.255.0"))
return "DIRECT";

// If not on a internal/LAN IP address, send traffic direct.
if (!isInNet(myIpAddress(), "10.10.1.0", "255.255.255.0"))
return "DIRECT";

// All other traffic uses below proxies, in fail-over order.
return "PROXY 192.168.1.1:8080; DIRECT";

}

Now, you may want to change the IP on that last line to match your router (it will make things go faster…) as it will check that IP for a Proxy and if nothing is found it will connect directly. Now I need to figure out how to tell Titanium to use that file…


And on to the next issue I am having, during startup of Titanium I am receiving a number of errors, I’ll list a few word for word incase someone is googling the error message…


** (Titanium Developer:5705): WARNING : Error loading plugin: /usr/lib/enchant/libenchant_myspell.so: undefined symbol: enchant_get_dirs_from_param

** (Titanium Developer:5705): WARNING : Error loading plugin: /usr/lib/enchant/libenchant_ispell.so: undefined symbol: enchant_fopen

and it repeats that 8 times (at least it was 8 times when I checked it just now).

*****solution found.

  1. cd /usr/lib
  2. sudo rm libenchant.so libenchant.so.1
  3. sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libenchant.so.1.6.0 /usr/lib/libenchant.so && sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libenchant.so.1.6.0 /usr/lib/libenchant.so.1
  4. cd /opt/titanium/runtime/linux/1.0.0/
  5. sudo rm libenchant.so.1 && sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libenchant.so.1.6.0 /opt/titanium/runtime/linux/1.0.0/libenchant.so.1

that should fix your libenchant errors.


then this follows right after the libenchant issue…


(Titanium Developer:5705): DEBUG: NP_Initialize (Titanium Developer:2861): DEBUG: NP_Initialize succeeded
(Titanium Developer:5705): DEBUG: NP_Initialize (Titanium Developer:2861): DEBUG: NP_Initialize succeeded
(Titanium Developer:5705): DEBUG: NP_Initialize (Titanium Developer:2861): DEBUG: NP_Initialize succeeded
(Titanium Developer:5705): DEBUG: NP_Initialize (Titanium Developer:2861): DEBUG: NP_Initialize succeeded
** Message: console message: app://com.appcelerator.titanium.developer/js/entourage-jquery-3.0.js @36: TypeError: Result of expression 'C.getElementsByTagName' [undefined] is not a function.

I found a bug posting (click the link to see it) about this, it appears that the number after “Titanium Developer” varies and I do not get the email password error mentioned on that site. This bug is listed as new (marked Jan 6th 2011) and has no comments attached at this time. So I added my own comments to the post.


I found a new error in the trace logs while my AVD was running,
[ERROR] /opt/android-sdk/tools/apkbuilder
[TRACE] THIS TOOL IS DEPRECATED. See –help for more information.

I think it means depreciated… The only way to resolve this one would be for Appcelerator to update their code.


I found another issue while hunting the history of my terminal editor:


[Titanium.Host] [Error] Could not load module (/opt/titanium/modules/linux/python/1.0.0/libpythonmodule.so): "Error loading module (/opt/titanium/modules/linux/python/1.0.0/libpythonmodule.so): libpython2.5.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

I did some digging, and this is most likely caused by a lack of Python2.5, I currently have python2.6. So I created a link from 2.6 to 2.5 so it could find it.

  • cd /usr/lib && sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libpython2.6.so.1.0 /usr/lib/libpython2.5.so.1.0

I have not seen that error since…

about 5 minutes ago I took the time to write up (yet another) comment post on ZdNet’s blog site, about this technology, formerly known as lightpeak. I just wanted to drop a copy on my site here, maybe expand upon it a bit, and link back to the blog post on ZdNet.

take a quick look at those two links above and you’ll get a good understanding of what this technology is.

I think that Thunderbolt will be best used to support Quad full high definition displays for home theater and AMD’s Eyefinity technology, other than that the only thing it will be useful for is if someone release a “docking station” that connects to a Thunderbolt port and has 10 or 20 other ports on it so you can connect all your devices into this “hub” and run one cable to your laptop or desktop or tablet or smartphone, providing all of the devices connectivity, multiple external drives, multiple monitors, the mouse and KB, data cables for smartphones, media players, camcorders, and digital cameras, your speaker system, and so on…

Every single device would plug into 1 hub that would run 1-3 bi-directional (as thunderbolt appears to be limited to 7 max devices per channel OR 2 display devices), dual channel cable back to your laptop/desktop computer, if they were smart they would have 2-8 output sets and a built in Android OS system with a 4″ LCD screen that allows you to configure each device and direct which output “set” (where set= the 1-3 thunderbolt cables running to each computer) each device would be connected to, while also acting like an ethernet switch providing LAN connectivity and access to a cable modem (connected via ethernet or USB).

That is what Thunderbolt should be used as. You buy a laptop or desktop computer and it has 2 places to plug cables in, the power cable and it’s Thunderbolt cable so you can hook it up to “the hub” forget about changing the billions of devices out there to use the “new” technology, just provide a hub that allows all connection types to plug in and connect.

I would guess the Android “hub” would sell for $50 – $150 separately or be included with your new system purchase. Then when you get home the hub could sit on or under your desk and you’d plug everything into it, then use the touch display to configure the connections. It’s possible the “hub” could be running on a 4 or 6 core Tegra 3 SoC with an 8GB or 16GB SSD drive in it that runs as a small server that acts as a firewall for your network, manages your DHCP, automates your backups to the external drive connected to it, stream your media to your TV. basically the ultimate HTCP while also acting as your peripheral device hub.

But we will probably never see anything like that. It is sad that such a device would be possible within the next 12-18 months, but it will never be made.

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