[NTLK] Einstein with Android Studio

[NewtonTalk]

>> OK, 4.1.2 Jelly-Bean isn't all that current, and not being able to use
Google's
>> app store due to its being a Chinese model makes things kind of clumsy on
occasion,
>> but for what I'm doing with this beast it's both safe and sufficient. And
it is
>> definitely enough to develop and test Einstein :-)

> No way to put a custom OS on it?

I've spent hours on trying to find one single page in the Internet that
claims someone was able to do this with a Chinese Samsung Note 1 and also
provides step by step instructions. So far in vain.

This phone is old, and it is doing a lot of things that phones should not do
(for example discharging the battery a little more than what is needed to
start a charge cycle when you plug the AC adapter in), but I have figured
out ways to circumvent these problems or fix them when they occur.

The one thing that remains annoying is that the Google app store app does
not run. I once debugged this app's startup phase and found that, for no
reason I can imagine, it tries to load the Google Location Services on
startup, which can't be installed on this phone unless it is rooted, it is
your lucky day, it does not rain and you have bowed deeply in the general
direction of Mountain View at least 50 times first. If it can't load them,
it simply closes without doing its user the courtesy to provide an error
message that might give him an idea about what's wrong.

I haven't a clue why a web page that is selling apps would need a location
service, but that's the way it is. So I am left with either asking vendors
for an apk file (which more often than not they will not sell you), trying
shady web sites that claim they will load the apk file for you if you
provide them with the link to the app in Google's app store, or asking the
vendors to put their app in the Samsung app store, which no one I asked has
ever done.

But the hardware is terrific. I can put in a SD card, the display is
brilliant, replacing the battery takes about 45 seconds and requires no
tools, it has an FM radio, and... and... and. So for now I will keep using
this phone. Maybe there's a bit of a masochist in me :-)

Of course... if someone out there is interested in trading an Android phone
with a working Google app store app for something that has the name Newton
in it... why not drop me a line...

:-)

Frank

-- Newton software and hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de