[clug] Vaguely off topic: iPeds and other Android tablets - availability and comparisons to that Apple one

[Andrew Boyd]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 3:13 PM, Angus Gratton <gus at projectgus.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-08-04 at 14:49 +1000, Andrew Boyd wrote:
>> ...and this is an interesting point. I think that it is fair to say
>> that some hackery is not only possible but necessary with Android
>> iThings
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> In this, I guess, it is like every other Linux-y thing.
>
> Well, it is and it isn't. For example, Rockchip (the SoC manufacturer
> who aren't porting Android 2.1 to the APad's chipset) haven't released
> any source code to manufacturers or to the public. This means there is
> no Linux BSP (board support package) so no existing kernel will boot,
> let alone access the peripherals integrated in the SoC (video, bus
> controllers, etc.)
>
> AFAIK, this is true for every manufacturer except VIA (who are in the
> process of releasing sources for WM8505) and the TI OMAP-based devices.
> See my blog post, linked in the other post in this thread, for gory
> details.
>
> Worse, in my experience with the WM8505, manufacturers often put some of
> the hardware-specific functionality into the Android layers, so porting
> a new version of Android running on the original binary-only kernel is
> not always possible.
>
> So "some hackery" can easily end up meaning "porting Linux and then
> Android to the platform from scratch".

Hi Angus,

thanks once again. So, reducing this to terms that my
hasn't-done-anything-seriously-geeky-for-years brain can handle, if I
want to play with an Android tablet that I can have some hope of
upgrading to the latest version of that OS, I would stick with an
WM8505 CPU machine like an Eken M002 and be prepared to get my hands
dirty? I know that is an oversimplification, but that seems to be
where the evidence is leading.

Best regards, Andrew

-- 
---
Andrew Boyd
http://uxbookclub.org -- connect, read, discuss