What's your exposure to Android?

[novox77]

Just curious how much experience everyone has had with Android devices.

My first Android device was the HTC Evo 4G for Sprint, released in June 2010. Being a Premier member, I was eligible for annual upgrades, so every year, I got the successor to the Evo: the Evo 3D in 2011 and most recently, the Evo LTE. The three phone spanned from Eclaire (Android 2.1) to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0).

I have never owned an Android tablet. I bought my mom the iPad 1, and for my wife and toddler, we have the iPad 2. I maintain both of them and am very familiar with them. Mom's iPad is jailbroken.

I have never been quite satisfied with Android tablets until the Infinity. This is the first Android tablet that I'm seriously considering. I haven't committed to the purchase yet; I'd like to play with one in person before I do.

 

[lowki]

You will find ppl with a wealth of info. If you are looking to find inf o about obtaining root access, i suggest you go to the tf300t forum as the info is the same for tf700t. Great thing about asus is they provide you with a boat loader unlocker free, voiding warranty yahda, yahda applys here. I personally just unlocked the boot loader and got access to root, no custom roms and i was happy.
If you are looking for a tablet that does not limit you to one proprietary port, then this is the one. Supports usb hubs, external hard drives, game controllers, usb keyboard, usb mouse, Bluetooth mouse, bluetooth keyboard,bluetooth speakers and full screen mirroring over hdmi so this is basically a smaller laptop. Read about rooting android, android sdk, fastboot, android screen cast, clock work mod aka cwm, or twerp, and better terminal emulator. Good luck.

 

[skyrider2]

I bought my first Android device (ASUS Transformer Infinity TF700T) on 8/2/2012 and found this forum on 8/4/2012. My history with computers goes back to 1962 when I wrote programs for UNIVAC I & II computers. I worked on various computer systems until I retired in 1984. I've been using PCs since 1990 - started with MS DOS and finally Win7. With this background, I felt I could make the jump to an Android tablet with little trouble. WOW! what a surprise when I found how much I have to learn/unlearn to get comfortable with this new (to me) system. I have the TF700 manual and Google's Android manual and I guess I'll figure it out after a while. Thanks for an informative forum. skyrider2

 

[takehiro12]

I bought my first Android device (ASUS Transformer Infinity TF700T) on 8/2/2012 and found this forum on 8/4/2012. My history with computers goes back to 1962 when I wrote programs for UNIVAC I & II computers. I worked on various computer systems until I retired in 1984. I've been using PCs since 1990 - started with MS DOS and finally Win7. With this background, I felt I could make the jump to an Android tablet with little trouble. WOW! what a surprise when I found how much I have to learn/unlearn to get comfortable with this new (to me) system. I have the TF700 manual and Google's Android manual and I guess I'll figure it out after a while. Thanks for an informative forum. skyrider2

Your history with computers is fascinating and goes back quite a way. I hope you will grow to love Android as much as we all do. If you like to tinker and tweak, then this is the OS for you!

 

[novox77]

I bought my first Android device (ASUS Transformer Infinity TF700T) on 8/2/2012 and found this forum on 8/4/2012. My history with computers goes back to 1962 when I wrote programs for UNIVAC I & II computers. I worked on various computer systems until I retired in 1984. I've been using PCs since 1990 - started with MS DOS and finally Win7. With this background, I felt I could make the jump to an Android tablet with little trouble. WOW! what a surprise when I found how much I have to learn/unlearn to get comfortable with this new (to me) system. I have the TF700 manual and Google's Android manual and I guess I'll figure it out after a while. Thanks for an informative forum. skyrider2

Did you ever get to work with any Unix-based operating systems during your tenure? I ask because if you ever decide to root your tablet, you might find yourself in very familiar territory. Android runs on top of Linux, and it can be enjoyable to play with the tablet via a terminal shell. Rooting an Android device basically gives you su rights, so you can have full access to everything.

 

[skyrider2]

I was briefly exposed to Unix while working with Bell Labs on a cooperative development but I don't have any expertise. It was so long ago I've really forgotten anything I knew.

 

[Podivin]

Hmm... I'm used to being one of the old farts on the site, but here I was 2 when skyrider was programming Univac computers.

I've been messing with computers since 1992 or thereabout, and have been a making a living as a programmer for the last 10 years.

I've had 3 android phones and 3 tablets (counting the Nook Color as a tablet, which it is after you root it). Up to the TF700, everything I've had was rooted and rom'd. So far I've not found a reason to root it. The UI is fine the way it is (and if it weren't, a different launcher would probably make it so), and the bloatware is not 'in your face' enough to make me want to delete it.

 

[novox77]

this is kinda cool; didn't expect the thread to evolve into people's comprehensive computing experiences. But definitely cool to hear!

My computer exposure is pretty straightforward:

Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer
Apple ][e and Mac (in elementary school)
First PC was a 386sx IBM-clone
Followed by pretty much every Intel iteration: 486, pentium, p2, 4, etc
Unix-based systems: Solaris, Sun OS, Linux, etc. (in college)

I graduated college when the dotcom boom was going strong, and I managed to get hired by a consulting company. Learned a lot of programming languages and best practices. Most of my professional experience therefore revolves around architecture and development of enterprise-level web applications. I also take interest in user interaction design.

I wax nostalgic for the days of DOS applications, tweaking autoexec.bat and config.sys, and dialing into BBS's hoping to find nudie pics. Oh and playing insane amounts of Doom/Doom2 via dialup and LAN.

 

[Podivin]

I wax nostalgic for the days of DOS applications, tweaking autoexec.bat and config.sys, and dialing into BBS's hoping to find nudie pics.

lol
I'd forgotten about all of those things.
I ran a BBS for a few years (on a Commodore 64), lots of fun to be had there.

 

[jerofld]

Oh, we're listing our computer resumes? (I don't feel like getting the character map out to figure out the correct accented keys) Mine is similarly straight forward:

I started on a Tandy 2000 with DOS and what was a pre-cursor to Windows 3.1. Then I upgraded to something else (HP I think...) which ran DOS + Win 3.1. I've ran every version of Windows, save for Windows 8 and Windows Server, since. Ironically, one of my computers ran better with Windows ME on it. It was the only computer ever to do so. I should have kept the computer as World Wonder and placed it in a museum.

I have a little Unix experience. While in the Navy, I had to work with an HPUX server, which was fun. </sarcasm> Plus a Linux GUI (I forget which variant, I think it was a GUI of RedHat, though). In my current job, I have to work on devices that have the CLI version of RedHat.

I've also hacked gaming consoles. Namely the first Xbox. That was a fun console to tweak!

About 3 years ago, I decided to get an iPod Touch. I liked having a touch screen and having apps. I was then ready to get a smartphone. A friend recommended Android, and listed off the features that made it better, and I got a Droid X. I loved that phone. I may consider another one if Google forces them to drop MotoBlur (although Blur never really did bother me all that much) and go full vanilla. But then I decided to switch to Sprint and get the HTC Evo 3D. I stuck with that phone for awhile and then picked up my first Android tablet, the Acer A500. I enjoyed my Acer (until recently) as it had a Tegra2 in it, and a few games were being developed for it. I recently picked up a Galaxy S3 and the Asus Infinity, as I've managed to wear out both my Evo 3D and my A500. I consider myself mostly an expert on Android related things, although mostly on the user side. I don't know much about developing for it, although I've decompiled framework-res.apk and have changed icons that I've disliked and have also played around in /system tweaking this and that.

 

[Transfusiionz]

My first android phone was the LG Esteem (got it about 6-7 months ago)
Since then, I've learned a TON about android.
My first handheld device was (of course ) was an I-Pod touch 2nd gen.
I was a complete idiot with it for a while.
I stopped using it for a year or so, then I took it back out and started messing with it again. After realizing how awful it was, I decided to jailbreak it.
That held me over for quite some time (it gives you su right, basically. It gives you an app called cydia that allows you to tweak the absolute crap out of your device)
After that, I wanted a bigger screen and faster, so I got an ipad 2. (also jailbroken) and I loved it. My phone was getting quite old (old flip-phone we got for 40 bucks) So I went looking for the cheaper carriers and I found MetroPCS.
I was extremely disappointed they didn't have an iphone. (I didn't want to go to verizon or at&t because I have to pay my phone bill.)
So I just eventually bought the LG Esteem. I hated it for the first few days, then I rooted it and installed a custom rom.
It. Was. Amazing.
After I unleashed the true power of my Esteem, I decided to replace my ipad with something good. (Note, I build and fix computers quite a bit, so I know a good bit about the newer hardware. Since I always use nVidia, I decided I wanted something with Tegra 3.)
I found the Transformer prime.
I decided I'll wait until they up the resolution so it competes a little more with the ipad 3's hardware.
I forgot about it for a month or two, then I looked on amazon, and saw that it was available. I checked my wallet and I had 50 bucks
So I traded my ipad into amazon for 300 bucks and did some chores.
By then I had enough for the Infinity.
*Immediately bought it.
When it first arrived, I was somewhat displeased with the performance of it. So I rooted it. It helped, but I didn't want to tweak it much since I didn't have a recovery installed (if it bootlooped, I'd be screwed!)
So I was very careful with any build.prop tweaks, and removing Asus apps.
Finally, I fixed the unlock error, and installed twrp.
First thing I did was install a custom rom from xda. Then came tweaking to my liking, I spent days tweaking the build.prop and removing apps and whatnot.( I have 40-50 build.prop edits!)
Eventually, I got it to it's full potential.
I love it!
^^^ right there is about 10 minutes worth of reading on my whole life of Android.
Enjoy
TL;DR
I got an ipod, sort of cool, forgot about it for awhile, started playing with it again, and hated it. So I jailbroke it and it was better. So I bought an ipad 2 which I also jailbroke.
Wanted a better phone, so I tried to get an Iphone, didn't have it on the carrier I wanted, so I got the LG Esteem. I didn't like it until I rooted it and got a custom Rom on there. Wanted to replace my ipad so I got an infinity and rooted it. Love it.
There ya go

 

[johnlgalt]

I started with Android on the Motorola DROID, then moved to the Motorola Droid BIONIC. This is my first Android-based tablet that I've owned, but I've worked on a number of them, including Galaxy Tab, Xyboard 10, and Iconia.