Don’t
be content with a slow or limited device. Neil Mohr spins $159 hardware into
gold
Have you been left with a feeling of
buyer’s remorse after an impulse tablet purchase? Fear not, we’re here to show
you how to turn what may seem like a run-of-the-mill device into something
wonderful. Well, perhaps just workable, but let’s reach for the stars.
The beauty of Android is that it
enables any number of companies to produce affordable Android devices for us
all to buy and delight in. The bad side of Android is it enables any number of
companies to produce poorly devised or implemented devices for us all to
despise.
Access
to the full Android Market is key to getting a full tablet experience
In between the two extremes lies a
myriad of devices that just require a little tweaking to take them from
mediocre to marvellous. This can be something as basic as adding a new theme or
tweaking the interface to make it more useful. A slightly more advanced option
would be adding the Google Android Market, which many device manufacturers
leave off either for legal reasons, or in attempt to cash in with their own
Market alternatives. The extreme end of things is to entirely replace the
existing installation of Android with your own build from one of the many
possible alternatives like CyanogenMod.
Any of these hacks can take a weak
tablet and transform it into something you’ll want to use, hut the addition of
the real Android Market is a particularly handy one, especially if you already
own apps on it. As you’ll gain access to your purchases, among the 300,000+
other Android apps the full Market provides. As useful and fun as these are,
it’s the last and most complex option that we’re going to explore. If community
spirited hackers have managed to gain the correct root-access exploits for your
tablet and someone has created a suitable built of Android for the device, then
you can use a system such as CyanogenMod, which comes with a host of high-level
features to transform it into something amazing with features and overclocking
waiting to be exploited.
A
One alternative Android build for the Archos tablet is Uruk Droid. It offers an
1.2GHz overciocking kernel and gives the device Linux functionality
Tempt me
Before you can get your hands on these
tempting features, it’s first necessary to find out if your device has a
suitable Android port available, has one in development, or hasn’t anything of
the sort. Typically a good working port will include three vital items: a way
to inject the OS onto the system, a boot loader and the replacement operating
system itself. As usual, Google is your best friend and searching for your device’s
name along with the term “root” or “Android build” can help you discover
solutions or blogs that will link to the right sources.
Besides this scattergun approach,
reliable sources for community projects include www.cyanogenmod.com
itself, because it has both an active forum and lists many in-progress builds
alongside completed ones. More general sites include www.xdaddevelopers.com
and www. rootzwiki.com, which host forums for avid mobile fans dedicated
to creating builds of Android for specific devices. These gals and guys have
created an armoury of tools that people can then easily reuse for a host of
devices, be they phones or tablet. Getting the new OS onto the device via the
injection stage usually involves hijacking the manufacturer’s own built-in
firmware upgrade or recovery process. While most devices provide a low-level
recovery mode that requires you to hold down a combination of hard buttons as
it’s turned on, devices like the iPhone can have this initiated via the
software itself. The exact process varies from device to device, so you’ll have
to read tip on your own model. Often your PC will require a special version of
the device driver (but not always), along with a terminal command to push over
the correct files.
The build of Android itself doesn’t
have to be a complete one. As with Windows, a missing driver doesn’t
necessarily break a device, but renders that part useless - the GPS or Wi-Fi
for example.
In other cases it could be
semi-functioning, often working but lacking power- saving features. If you use
a part-finished build, you’ll often come across issues like these. Lastly, the
boot loader kicks the whole thing off. For many systems multi-OS hoot loaders are
available, this enables you to keep the native install alongside the custom
port that’s installed either on the internal storage or on an SD card. It’s
very useful to keep the original OS, largely as it’s an emergency fall-back
position to rescue the device, but also because experimental builds may not be
usable.
Tackling a tablet
The spirit of this guide is to take a
cheap tablet, ideally under the magic $160 mark, and turn it into something
that works far better than that price tag would indicate. To keep things
practical we’ve chosen to work with the Archos 70 Internet Tablet. The
recommend retail price is $318.4, but places like the Carphonc Warehouse sell it
for a bargain-pitched $160. It’s perfectly placed as a cheap tablet with a
7-inch 800 x 4.80 capacitive touchscreen, 8GB of storage and Android 2.2. This
older operating system is far from ideal and doesn’t conic with the Android
Market, so it’s missing out on a vast catalogue of Android apps.
.One solution that can be applied to
the Archos and many other devices is to simply install the Android Market APK
file, but as with any system, doing so requires root access to the system. You’ll
also need a suitable version of the APK file that will work on the rooted
device.
The holy grail for us it to be able to
install our own custom build of Android OS. Archos is slightly different to
other manufacturers in that it embraces, modding of its devices to a certain
degree. For example, the Archos 101 comes with a dual-hoot system and the
Archos alternative OS called Angstrom and is a Linux-based distribution. As
part of this, Archos extends the hoot-loader to its other devices with the
proviso that installing it voids any warranty on the device.
This does help with one job, and
that’s getting the operating system injected onto the device, the Archos comes
with a combined hoot-loader and recovery system that’s accessed by holding down
the volume button when it’s first turned on. Using this it’s far easier to copy
over the required files and get them flashed. Other devices can have an assault
course of driver installs, command line sequences and more to achieve the same
result.
The last stumbling block is that minor
issue of an operating system. We tend to favour CyanogenMod. To say it’s better
than other options is a bit black and white, but as it’s a mature distribution
if it’s used as the basis for a fresh port saves having to reinvent the wheel
for many of the features you’d want. A handy page on XDA Developers at www.bit.Iy/tR4f2Q
has a complete rundown of the available Archos alternative operating systems,
from the stock Archos Android build to Uruk Droid and the Gingerbread 2.3
openAOS CyanogenMod 7 release that we’re going to use. There are also Linux and
Ubuntu options among others, so as far as choice goes you’re pretty spoilt with
an Archos device.
Finally where do you install this new
operating system? Your device has various forms of storage: its internal memory,
its internal storage, any additional expansion (usually via an SD card) and its
own firmware. Most options will repartition the internal storage to contain a
swap file and OS storage, while the generic remaining storage space will remain
untouched to store any files you might have, remaining accessible to both
operating systems. Internal storage is often preferable to SD cards as it
avoids potential speeds issues with slower cards and write errors that are more
likely with an older SD card. Having said that a spare high-speed SD card say
Class 10 or better will provide enough throughput to be perfectly usable and is
a good way of testing out a custom ROM.
