Ask Slashdot: How to Pimp My Android Tablet?

New submitter capsfan100 writes "At Christmas I got an $89 Android tablet by MID. The 7" tablet has sufficient RAM, etc. The battery, however, was rather pathetic out of the box. It's already fading, so we know where this is headed — decent tablet, but it constantly needs the plug. How would you take this 'old' tablet and turn it into a rockin' stereo component? Is there a ROM build out there titled Pimp My Tablet Into An MP3 Player? The current music app can look up lyrics on-line. I'd like to keep that feature. Any ideas on a good app for syncing music videos with my *ahem* random music collection? Any fun, off-beat party apps this middle-aged suburban dad hasn't heard of? Since the Android security nightmare is so well documented, I'd rather not use services that require passwords. I also need top-notch security and monitoring software so I can see what my kids and their friends are doing with it next year when I'm not home while keeping them anonymous and safe on-line. As for my living room stereo system, how best to mount a sleek MP3 tablet? I was thinking velcro, but it would ruin the feel. Maybe a wall-mount arm like my HDTV has? We want to be able to unplug it and move around the room, so I'll need to upgrade the speakers to wireless. Any thoughts there? I'm not afraid of the command line — indeed, I insist on one — but no Gentoo-type projects, thank you. Just a good sleek and secure ROM for optimal tunage with all the top apps the kids are using today."

Comments

Don't forget ..

[OzPeter]

Don't forget to ask for a Pony as well!

Re:Don't forget ..

[stephanruby]

The Android-derived tablet he got is horrible! The battery is the least of its problems.

As a rule of thumb, if someone offers you a tablet for Christmas with resistive touch, you shouldn't even open the box and you should try to return it for a full/partial refund as soon as possible. As to the security issues, the article he pointed to talks about apps being "security risks" or "malware" for requesting GPS permissions when they shouldn't (which is really FUD). In any case, since his tablet doesn't have a GPS chip in it, that issue doesn't apply to him.

Also since he doesn't have access to the official Android Market/Google Play, he should just look on the XDA forums, root his device, install Cyanogen on it, and go through the Cyanogen repo for apps. And he should refrain from installing apps from other locations.

His tablet will still be horrible after that, but it should be more bearable. And frankly, I don't think he should be spending any more money on this tablet to try to customize it, spending money on it will just be throwing good money after bad. Even if he resolves the battery issue and the app store issue, and makes a kick ass stereo out of it, the tablet will still need to be rebooted every hour or so.

Next time, he or the person who gave him this tablet should just spend twice the money initially, and just buy an Asus Nexus 7. That one is really good. And he won't even need to root it to do all the things he wants to do with it.

Re:Don't forget ..

[aardvarkjoe]

The Android-derived tablet he got is horrible! The battery is the least of its problems.

I think it's pretty obvious that timothy got trolled. The "top-notch security and monitoring" line should have been a giveaway.

Re:Don't forget ..

[dutchwhizzman]

A music purist doesn't regard your $60 music system as a good alternative. The "power of the magnets" has nothing to do with how good you think it sounds, that's all to do with the DSP inside that will artificially boost the sound by adding a third harmonic component and widening the depth of field by adding negative difference to opposite channels. In fact, if you were to add those "huge expensive speakers from 20 years ago" to that system to replace those awful little cube thingies and you would use proper speaker cable (fine OFC copper) of a little bit more thickness, your $60 system would sound a lot better. The amp in your $60 system is a cheap class D thingy that will horribly deform the sound once you turn it up to volumes that would potentially have neighbor-pissing-off capabilities. The wire adaptor you are using will induce hum if it's anything over 2 or 3 feet long. The analogue bit of your tablet will be positively horrible since it also uses a class D amplifier and your audio resolution will be comparable to about 10 bits on a proper DA converter.

Any audio purist would not get "wireless speakers" since it will take dedicated wifi channels to guarantee phase correct transmission and even then it will be prohibitively hard and expensive to get stuff running. Setting up a proper system when you have moved around your speakers will take at least 15 minutes with an entry level audyssey fully automated configuration so moving around speakers is a no-no. Actually, if you have set up your system properly, you won't need to move the speakers around, since the entire listening area will already have a rather good sound quality. Most audio purists-on-a-budget would probably get something like an entry level receiver that has audyssey DSP functions and HDMI, second hand "huge expensive speakers from 20 years ago" and a raspberry pi to play their MP3s. The raspi will send the music to the receivers 24bit DA converters via HDMI and the cheap tablet that started all this can be used as a remote for the raspi. This all will set you back over $60, but less than $1000 and you'd probably amaze yourself, your visitors and your neighbor with the sound quality.

Word of warning: second hand receivers with audyssey and hdmi often suffer from manufacturing defects like bad solder joints and dried out capacitors. Make sure yours isn't one of the many models effected and if so, make sure that you, as a 2nd hand buyer, will get free repairs from the manufacturer. If you buy new, make sure you live in a country that has proper laws about this so you're covered, or get some form of extended warranty/insurance.

Please don't...

[The Living Fractal]

Using your cheap DAC in that tablet to play music is practically a crime, or should be. It's going to sound terrible. There are some decent DACs out there for $99 that can run via Android with some customization. I realize this is more than the cost of your tablet... but seriously man, the sound is world's better.

Re:Please don't...

[turkeyfeathers]

I don't understand posters like you. Have you even tried Monster cables? I was skeptical about them at first, like you but when I hooked up a pair (making sure they were oriented in the right direction) I was blown away by how much better my collection of 128k MP3s sounded.

Re:Please don't...

[PopeRatzo]

(making sure they were oriented in the right direction)

That's right. I too thought Monster Cables were bogus until I arranged them along the earth's ley lines. Now, they totally rock!

The only problem is, the Monster cables and the ley lines have a multiplying effect on the amount of EMF radiation that they emit, which causes genetic mutations, so now I'm growing this silver-covered, foil-like substance around the crown of my head!

But I get kick-ass bass out of my mp3 files.

That's a seriously underpowered device

[tlambert]

It has 200M of RAM available to the system.

Expect that most of it's capability is going to be used in running the display. Here are the stats in case someone else needs to understand how limited it is:

http://www.osnews.com/story/24619/Review_MID_M80003W_Tablet_with_Android_2_2/

Re:That's a seriously underpowered device

[dukeblue219]

Wrong device I'm sure. There's an M9000 that was available for $89 this year (that one you linked is from 2011). The newer one has Android 4.0 and 512MB RAM (same as iPad 2, for comparison). No idea if it's any good, but definitely not the same as the M80003 you found.

Well, of course.

[TrekkieGod]

I'm confused why you're asking here. It basically sounds like you're saying: "I've got this whole project but research is a pain in the ass." You listed a bunch of things you want but showed no real effort into figuring it out yourself (saying that trying apps is scary is not research).

Also, why would you trust this group to tell you "safe" things more than any other bunch of random internet yahoos?

Why the hell ELSE would you post a question on slashdot?

I don't get people like you. The entire point about of asking a group of people who may be more informed about a subject than you are is to cut down on the amount of research needed by narrowing down the topic to a handful of options. What do you think ask slashdot should be used for?

Re:Well, of course.

[epyT-R]

yeah.. asking for help AFTER showing evidence of trying yourself is one thing. We aren't paid, so the pay off is in personal reward for helping someone who has shown interest and a desire to learn on his own. This article reads like a half assed forum post by someone who wants it fed through a needle and didn't bother reading "How to ask questions the smart way" by ESR. Lazy, lazy, lazy..especially in this era of easy to use search.

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

recycling

[SethJohnson]

Sounds like a trip to the electronics recycler. For all the time you're going to invest into getting some very limited use out of that device, you could just get a decent $300 tablet that will be suited for many uses. Since you're a dad, you know that your time is valuable. More valuable than making this thing marginally more useful so you can save $212.

Put some edutainment apps on their and hand it over to your kids. No need to ruggedize it.

pimping is for idiots

[hb253]

Pimp is such an idiotic term to use, I'm sick and tired of it.

But if you insist, I suggest a fur fedora, gaudy mink coat, glass platform shoes, and you must mount the tablet in a late 70's Cadillac with pink padded vinyl roof, V-shaped TV antenna on the trunk, bordello red upholstery, and fringe hung around the windshield.

Plus, you can only use it to listen to the Shaft soundtrack.

Replace the battery

[Zinho]

If the biggest problem you have with it is the battery life, then fix the problem - just replace the battery!

Since you're posting to Slashdot I'm going to assume you are willing to do some soldering if you have to.

Invest $15-25 and you can get 2x or 4x the battery life; that tablet only came with 2500 mAh if the other posters here guessed your model correctly.

Make sure the new cell will fit, then have at it!