Yet Another Entry into the J-720 Replacement Contest

The Sony Tablet P. Is this a replacement for the J-720? No, but it's the closest I've come.

This is a good overview:

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/Sony-Tablet-P-Review_id2979

Purchasing Background: in terms of 3g and an unlocked sim, be careful what you buy. The US model is AT&T-specific (it has the AT&T logo on device cover) and is difficult to unlock. Furthermore, the US model can not be updated from stock Honeycomb to ICS.

This seller http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Tablet-P-SGPT211US-S-4GB-Wi-Fi-3G-AT-T... states that the US model is unlocked, but I'm not certain the 3g specs will work with TMobile. And of course, the OS can't be upgraded.

I ended up buying from this Osaka seller http://www.ebay.com/itm/SONY-TABLET-P-SGPT211JP-S-3G-WIFI-DOCOMO-5-... who delivered a machine with these network specs:

* 2G Network: GSM GPRS EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
* 3G Network: WCDMA HSDPA 800, 850, 1700, 2100 MHz

and the device works with my normal-sized TMobile sim card: 3g and messaging. Rule of thumb would be this model: SGPT211JP/S with “unlocked” in its description

He sells the unlocked Docomo version and upgraded the P to ICS before shipping. His selling is attentive, his price competitive.

Here’s a pic of the phone’s dual screens when word processing. And a screenshot of same. (Sorry about the poor quality. Can't figure out how to make image more detailed) Below is the actual text on the P screen.





"This is Arial 14pt Bold. I’m using an older version of QuickOffice (ver 5.7) which can be toggled to full screen, without the menu or program bar. OfficeSuite 8 will also allow a complete full screen. Textmaker HD’s full screen has that annoying floating balloon-toggle to escape full screen; I’d rather have it off-screen, available by keystroke, obviously.
As for the on-screen keyboard, I’m using Hacker’s Keyboard, heavily customized: it’s Gingerbread-based, 5 rows, with ctrl, alt, and fn key. Also, I have customized punctuation available on the yellow 6th row: tab, smart quotes, em dash and ellipsis for manuscripts.
The date and other stats to the right of the yellow punctuation is courtesy of Status Bar Mini Pro, minimizing the use of the stock status bar, whose read-outs can be too dark and cannot be adjusted unless the device is rooted.
Though the Sony Tablet P can be rooted, I wouldn’t advise it since there are no custom or stock roms to be found…"

Edited by Jake 2015-07-27 8:20 PM

Yes, Sony Tablet P is a really neat device, I have one, right now but the screen is busted as I dropped it from my bed a while ago.
BUT, I managed to find one with a decent price, and it's coming tomorrow!

I'm going to try the Hacker's Keyboard myself when it comes and maybe write a review on my blog...

I think I will use the Docomo's MVNO someday with the Sony Tablet P, as finally here in Japan, cheap data SIMs are getting popular and available.

Congratulations. It's a machine that still has me finding new things on it.

Jake

Update on what I can do with the Sony Tablet P!

It runs Debian noroot almost flawlessly in landscape mode.

Here's a video of it in action:
https://twitter.com/stingraze/status/1001006142196101120

This is very cool. Can you start X, get to a desktop? Does Deb noroot recognize the wifi and 3g modem?

Jake

Yes, I could get X working and get to desktop. That is a terminal window displayed in full. The WiFi is recognized (via Android I think) I don't have a working 3G SIM card so I can't confirm if 3G connection will work, but I think it will since Debian noroot is running on top of Android 4.0.

The tiny problem that is irritating me is that the cursor is moving on its own... I think it can be fixed by getting a Bluetooth mouse?



Edited by stingraze 2018-05-28 1:41 PM






Attachments
----------------
sonytablet-p-debian-noroot.jpg (42KB - 0 downloads)

Oh wow cool. On my gemini pda had opted not to go with the dual boot linux + android and just stick with android. Upon reading this thread and learning that there's this thing called debian noroot and also reading about the sister app that targets newer android versions is available and called gnuroot debian with xsdl ... well I foresee another several hour excursion in my near future

Good to hear!

I might get a small bluetooth mouse soon for the Sony Tablet P soon to use with Debian noroot.

Good idea, my favorite small bluetooth mouse is the HP Bluetooth mouse z8000. Very pocketable. Other mice in pockets might look unbecoming. Image attached, credit to http://www.mynewsdesk.com/no/hp-norge/images/hp-spectre-13-ultraboo... for hosting it. attaching in case they change urls or go offline in future.

ASUS
Well, I dipped the toes in the water with debian noroot to familiarize with before leaping to the sister app on a device that I prefer not to wipe. So, put it on a ASUS TF103CE-A2-EDU-BK 2 GB Memory 16 GB eMMC 10.1" with keyboard tablet which has an old enough OS to support debian noroot and also is reflashable to stock in case I got into a jam.

Adventure:
1. installed it and poked around. nice!
2. updated apt-get
3. installed gcc
4. made and ran a helloworld
5. installed inkscape and observed crash on startup
6. Reviewed the error message by doing inkscape 2> figureout
7. opened figureout and saw a GC error and searched about GC
8. Downloaded inkscape source to find the error and missed
9. Did nm -D inkscape and reviewed dependencies and located libgc
10. did some research on libgc and hit a wall (figuratively)
11. wrote a test app to do allocations in libgc using c++ as inkscape uses
12. Realized i didn't install a c++ compiler after gcc failed to compile it and installed the c++ compiler
13. Ran the test to allocate 1MB at a time until failure (failed at 7MB)
14. Ran a test to allocate 64MB and go backwards decrementing a MB until a successful allocation (succeeded at 15MB)
15. Wrote a C app to malloc 90MB and it succeeded
16. Figure the GC allocation problems are both way short of what inkscape would require and wondered if somehow Android's apk limit was limiting me
17. Went to legoland and thought of typing about debian noroot and inkscape crashing into my phone and did it
18. found that the debian noroot author figured out a solution to inkscape crash on startup already and added his github to my bookmarks to try later

Resisting the urge to buy this Sony tablet product on ebay for $70 or thereabout. Have a lot of devices around here already

PS: started wondering whether this debian noroot and sister app will allow for me to cross compile the ESP8266 nonos SDK and do IOT development with phones and things.

Edited by smb_gaiden 2018-05-29 6:43 AM






Attachments
----------------
hpmouse.jpg (26KB - 0 downloads)

Thanks for the suggestion for the Bluetooth mouse.

I am thinking of something a little smaller though. :-)

This looks cool, I wonder where I can find it lol.
http://www.gadgetking.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/image17.png

Nice to hear about your adventures in Debian noroot!

[See below posts]Amazon (Unfortunately, it's out of stock.)

Edited by HPC:Fan 2018-05-29 8:15 PM

Sponsored links!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2kzyqKC
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2snyocu

Thanks, I would have bought from the sponsored links if they were in stock.

Edited by stingraze 2018-05-30 1:28 AM

It's been a while since my last post.

I got the bluetooth mouse from ELECOM the other day, ELECOM M-BT12BR to be exact.

The Debian noroot works very smoothly, I'm quite amazed.
The mouse cursor shows (and does not move on its own ) on Android 4.0 and on Debian noroot. I was very pleased by this result.

Here's a video I uploaded on YouTube:


I haven't tried surfing the web with this device.

-stingraze

Edited by stingraze 2018-07-31 2:18 AM

Wow that looks imptactical to type on. I always get a twang of annoyancce seeing a device with potential let down by screen bezels. If both screens were full width and height, wow that would be one hell of a device.

Does it have pen input on either/both screens?

Edit: I just learned from your YT channel that you can make tag clouds in MatLab. Who knew?