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Post by Gordon on Mar 12, 2015 18:22:45 GMT
Hi guys great discussion.
Yes, as long as the apps is developed for Android (using Android SDK, NDK support will be added in the future), the app can already run in full screen mode inside Andromium OS. However we encourage developers to use our SDK to add multi-window and UI element scaling to their apps via Andromium SDK (a set of support libraries), so that it is optimized for use with keyboard and mouse in a desktop/laptop environment.
The reason that we going to have an app store as well is so that it is easier for users to discover Andromium OS optimized app (using our SDK), as well as a central location for developer to promote their Andromium apps.
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Post by Gordon on Mar 12, 2015 18:16:18 GMT
Greeting to all our supporters We just got back from MWC and have a lot of exciting developments
As many of our forum visitors notice, the Andromium team has been a little bit quiet over at the forums since mid February. Rest assured that the project is moving forward, and in fact has been picking up steams since we ended the Kickstarter campaign and launched our public beta on the google plays store in early February. We have gotten amazingly positive feedback from our demo at MWC. Many of the Android headset manufacturers that saw our demo at the booth expressed strong interested in bring the platform to market in the emerging countries. In fact we already have a potential partner we are in serious discussion with that could launch the platform in late Summer. Our vision for Andromium/smartbook platform is to be able to allow the user to purchase a single package that include both a entry level smartphone and the smartbook dock for around $200-$300 USD (final price is set by the launch partner). By selling both the smartbook and smartphone in a single package, it will allow uses to get a streamline sales and support experience (in case there are any warranty or services issues). Additionally we can also guarantee 100% compatibility between the Android phone and the smartbook. We believe that for the emerging market where we targeting the Andromium Platform, this will provide the best channel to help us get mass adoption. What about users in the developed markets (US, Europe...)?Since we launched the public beta in early February, we have gotten over 3k downloads and great feedbacks and encouragements from many of our testers. From looking at the users statics, I know that many of our testers are from US and European countries. So we are definitely looking for ways to bring the smartbook dock to those markets as well. However for the developed markets, it present a specially challenges for our team, since many users in those market tend to use mid range to high end devices, and might not be happy (or willing) to switch to a lower end smartphone just to use the Andromium OS. So we are currently actively talking with manufacturing partners to design a different smartphone dock(a hardware limitation prevent us from reusing the existing dock) that can support most of MHL enable smartphones in the markets today (and in the future). We have a couple concepts that we are exploring that are promising, but nothing ready yet for public announcement. Please stay tune, and visit our forum for the latest updates. Another Kickstarter/Indigogo campaign to launch the smartbook dock for existing android phones are a distinct possibility What about the current public beta on the Google Playstore?Our testers having giving us great feedbacks through our forum about the public beta. We are also continually focusing on bug fixes, and streamlining the user experiences. We are please to report that we have fixed majorities of the bugs that users has reported (but still battling a couple annoying, stubborn, and hard to find bugs), please continue to post bug reports to our forum as you find them. Since the beginning of the public beta, we have always had the firmed requirement we will not required ROOT access to use Andromium OS. But after some serious discussion with our internal testing team, and with device manufactures, we started to realized that there are a few very basic but important UI functionalities that can help streamline the Andromium OS further. Unfortunately we haven't found way to bring those functionalities to our users without ROOT level access. We are currently evaluating the possibilities of of making ROOT access optional to enable those UI functionalities. So don't be surprise is future version of the beta suddenly ask you for superuser approval. Finally we also changing some internally development priorities. Originally we were suppose to be working on the Andromium OS custom notification framework starting in March, But due to strong demand by our partners to have the Andromium SDK and App store ready for the smartbook bundle launch this summer, we are going to first work on the SDK and App store, before going back to develop the custom notification framework and enhance the widget framework. We are very optimistic that with our own developer SDK and App store, we can quickly grow the Andromium OS ecosystem to bring many new functionalities to our users. Please continue to support the Andromium OS/Platform project. Sincerely, -Gordon Zheng CEO Andromium Inc. PS: check out those press coverage we got during MWC. www.displaydaily.com/videos/16809-andromium-mhl-dock-brings-notebook-functionality-to-smartphoneswww.androidiani.com/news/mhl-le-nuove-soluzioni-presentate-al-mwc-2015-233865www.coolsmartphone.com/2015/03/03/mwc-mhl-bringing-smartbook-to-the-market/
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Post by Gordon on Mar 6, 2015 9:33:52 GMT
Hi Kahun, sorry we been busy at the MWC, at lot of exciting things happening, but unfortunately didn't have the time to pull away to do some posting yet, check out the other post about our partnership with MHL to see some of the latest exciting developments.
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Post by Gordon on Mar 6, 2015 9:31:22 GMT
Thx Joe for sharing, if possible, would love it if you can give us a quick video walk through on your Vigica Box. we don't currently have any set top box on hand to test, so always love to see how Andromium OS work on devices we haven't test it on yet.
Thx.
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Post by Gordon on Mar 6, 2015 9:29:36 GMT
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Post by Gordon on Feb 26, 2015 19:22:49 GMT
Would be good if there was an ability to run all android apps in windowed mode without the SDK, would it be possible if it was emulating a mini android environment in a window just for the app to run? Running android apps / emulating android environment inside a resizable window might be possible, but all the solutions i seem done on that area require special rom support. So not a option for for a stock (non-rooted) android devices
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Post by Gordon on Feb 20, 2015 19:19:33 GMT
Thank you for the feedback aaltieri. Ya unfortunately Galaxy Nexus is really dated hardware platform at this point, many of our users have had luck running Andromium OS in device with 1gb of ram, but the dual core CPU in the GNex really hold it back a bit. If you are able to use a MHL adapter to hook the GNex up to the TV/Monitor, it will provide a much improved experience (much lower latency).
Newer Snapdragon 800+ devices have special design hardware functions that allow video compression that can vastly improve/reduce Chromecast latency, but unfortunately it is only available for very high end SoC.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 17, 2015 19:42:39 GMT
Hi Ragnvald, does this happen every time when you relaunch, or just once in a while (If so how often?)
I seem this problem before when I undock, and then quickly redock the phone, therefore shutting down then immediately restart Andromium OS desktop again. But I can only reproduce it very rarely. I wounded if you are seeming it more often.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 11, 2015 22:49:24 GMT
Hi Jeufke11, unfortunately, OPO does not have the necessary hardware in the device to use any type of video out dock. So that dock will not work for your device.
Hi Laurent, this is strange, and unexpected, let me dig a little bit further to see if there is anything strange with Andromium OS keyboard settings. I will get back to you if I find anything.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 10, 2015 21:54:32 GMT
Hi Laurent, unfortunately, the problem you are describing is a Android keyboard driver issues. On some devices there are ways to changes the keyboard mapping it via the keyboard setting. But the settings is available for only some Android devices.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 10, 2015 0:48:26 GMT
Hmm interesting video, but unfortunately according to their blog, their way to force Universal DPI changes require root access, which is what we don't want to do. It is unfortunately there is no alternative to the Root DPI change APIi in android, it is probably one of the most useful things we can do to make Android Apps more useful in Andromium OS desktop environment.
Keep those post coming guys.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 10, 2015 0:40:49 GMT
Hi Volle, unfortunately Andromium OS only support 4.4 and above. We need some newer functionalities in the newer version of Android to make Andromium OS work.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 10, 2015 0:39:25 GMT
We will be looking providing a setting's app in a few week. Currently we have been focus on primarily bug fixes and also getting ready for MWC.
PS: we are currently in discussion with a partner that will allow us to demo Andromium OS in one of their booth in MWC. If things goes well, we might even be able to land some hardware partners to bring Andromium OS to main stream consumer market.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 8, 2015 2:15:33 GMT
Hi guys, unfortunately Andromium is not designed to be shutdown completely, because it has many background process that manage the internal memory, process lifecycle and and other OS level events, even when the Andromium Desktop is not currently running. If we allow our users to completely shutdown, we won't be able to properly startup Andromium OS again until user restarts the phone, which is not very desirable behavior. Unfortunately the persistent notification is a security restriction on android. By design Android doesn't allow any background processes to stay running permanently unless user is aware that the process is always running. If we remove the persistent notification from the notification bar, the host Android OS will randomly shutdown Andromium OS, which again could prevent Andromium OS from running correctly again until the phone restarts.
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Post by Gordon on Feb 8, 2015 2:06:13 GMT
Hi techjunkie, rollin37, unfortunately since we didn't manufacture those adapters/docks it is hard to know what is the problem. I suspect that you have either got a bad dock, and or issue with the micro-usb connector on the phone/dock itself. Try returning/exchanging for a different unit to see if that solve the issue.
rollin37, try to make sure that the power is plugin into the adapter before attaching the adapter to your phone, to see if that changes anything. Sometime the phone is very particular on the order of the external devices are attached, specially on the older MHL chipsets.
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