Cruz Reader Howto: Upgrade the internal microSD memory.

First, we need to open the device, start left and right of where the SD/MMC slot is, use your fingernail (if stable enough) or a flat plastic tool, in order to start popping the back off:

Second, work your way all around the back, carefully lifting the part close to where you already haveopened it a little. You will hear are little popping noise, be careful not to go to fast, or you might break off one or more of the little plastic hooks on the inner side of the back cover.

Third, once you worked your way all around and you have increased the space between back and front frame carefully, listening for the popping sounds, you can take off the back.

Fourth, locate the small opening where the micro SD card sits. The card is held by a metal clamp that locks by sliding to one side, and opens by sliding it to the other side. Slide the metal clamp open, remove the 4GB card, and put the new faster, bigger card in (shown here with an old, slower, but larger 8GB class 2 card, buy 16GB or 8GB, but class 6...)

 
And here is the new card:

Finally, if someone is interested in the wifi card, this shows what is written on the sticker:

Replace the back, essentially by doing the reverse, push the back carefully on to the frame, it will pop again, work your way carefully around...

Good Luck!

What do you use your tablets for? Not for Blogging...

Hi again,

Highly recommended: Install Android System Info (authored by electricsheep) from Market.

This will give you a lot of information on what is going on inside of your cruz reader / android device in general. It also displays the androidID under the OS menu entry on the second tab.

Also, do not use your tablet for blogging, it does take forever to load the edit applet, and you cannot edit anything other than the Title line.... Editing the main blog entry window is not possible on my zt-180.

Highly recommended: Install barnacle wifi tether. It is available on the Market in some countries. I could not get this to show on my US based phone. Had to copy from another device and ./adb install it.

The FixCruxReader-0.04 hack described in this SlateDroid post finally gets some feedback of successful Market, Maps, Gmail installs on the Cruz Reader.

Now, with two tablets and a phone we have a bit of variance in terms of Android OS versions (1.6, 2.0, 2.1) it is time to get the Eclipse based development started, which is a bit of a problem since I am a programming fossil and am used to bare-bones development in assembler and Ansi C. Having some Borland GUI builder development under the belt I found the Eclipse environment (while certainly more capable) somewhat more messy. Eclipse/Android SDK will certainly give me some trouble.

Cruz Reader calibration issues, upgrading Micro SD

I use the LAPUTA reader on my Cruz reader (sorry Borders) a lot, and I found that the soft keys that show up all the time when swiping are a bit annoying. Calibration (in settings.apk) helps a little bit. Also practicing helps, but it is sure not the same 'swish and flick' feeling you get on a cell phone screen or so.

Nevertheless, it is a nice tablet that will be a good alternative for the form factor and the battery life alone.

Micro SD upgrade is simple, just open the back carefully, and replace (while the cruz is shut down of course) the 4BG micro SD card by an 8GB or 16GB card.

I'll try to take some pictures later.

Fix Cruz Reader 0.04

Some posts reported that Market does not get installed with 0.02:

I have uploaded another version that is reverted to the original set of apps I used in the pushgoog.rar. It seems the vending.apk was not working for some people who tried FixCruzReader-0.02.exe.

Here is the one with the apps that worked (for me, at least):

http://rapidshare.com/files/42206484...eader-0.04.exe

This one seems to install ok. Market, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, ... can bee found and started. Market should also be able to download, since a modded framework.jar advertised as 'non-ugly' market fix also gets installed.

If Market does not allow downloads immediately, wait overnight until the required databases get fixed automagically, or try this fix:


http://www.slatedroid.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fix_Market_For_Slates

Fix the Cruz (Borders) Reader: get Market etc. working

Download this file (UPDATED TO 0.04 on 9/29/2010):


http://rapidshare.com/files/422064841/fixcruzreader-0.04.exe

and run it.

This will start a script that will guide you through the installation of Android Market, Gmail, Maps, etc.

After the first screen, please plug in your Cruz Reader to a USB port of your PC. Try to navigate to the usb_driver directory within the FixCruzReader directory and select it. This will install the USB driver used to install the GoogleApps on the Cruz.

Seems to work fine. Tried it on my Cruz reader.

See also

No alternatives to Market on the US version X10...

I thought I try SlideMe, an Android community supported alternative Market app.

http://slideme.org/
 
It installs (through the debug interface using adb install sam2.apk)

But once you try to use it, i.e., download and install an app, the US X10a tells you that the feature to install non Market apps was disabled on the device.

Thanks Sony & Ericsson!

Companies just love handicapping Android Devices

There I am, having recently changed my cell from an iPhone to a Sony Ericsson X10a (US version), and having purchased a Cruz Reader from Velocity Micro (also available from Borders). Both devices need some TLC to get them up to a level that one could call them useful:

1) The Sony Ericsson phone runs Android 1.6, somewhat outdated, but still useful. However, the smart engineers at Sony Ericsson (or was it the even smarter marketing department or even the  'branding' guys) decided to cut out the ability to install Apps from sources other than the Android Market. This seems to be true for the US version. It is not disabled in the menu, the menu entry is missing on the US X10a!!! Who knows what will happen with the long awaited (and longer delayed) upgrade to Android 2.1.


http://www.xperiax10.net/forum/applications-f7/installation-from-unknown-sources-not-showing-t961.html

2) The Cruz (Borders) Reader does come with the CruzMarket, and you can install SlideMe, but the Android Market and Google apps are missing (because the marketeers 'position' the device as a reader, not a tablet or so! Nice work, again.) You have to hack the device in order to get Market installed. I tried and succeeded as shown here:

http://www.slatedroid.com/velocity-micro-cruz/7581-cruz-reader-specific-howto-root-device-6.html#post65894

Conclusion: Well done Android devices companies! How do you intend to further handicap your hunt for market-shares, this certainly makes people think twice and potentially decide in favor of an iPhone, an iPad, or both...

Someone should make a device where GoogleApps are missing and installing from other sources is disabled (or wait, that IS an iPhone!).

One more: Improve the antenna on the ePad zt-180

The zt-180 is a Android tablet that looks surprisingly similar to the Apple iPad, it runs 2.1, it is a great device to experiment with, gives you the hope that there will be full blown, sleek Android tablets that are better than the iPad.

However the zt-180 hardware is kind of not what it should be, for example it has a somewhat serious Wlan issue: The hardware is a USB wlan stick that was stripped of the plastic casing and soldered to the internal USB port.

There is a forum on slatedroid that tackles the problem, and I contributed the following solition using a short AP antenna that provided some improvement.


http://www.slatedroid.com/zt-180/4310-how-improve-your-wlan-17.html#post58158

Android native (ansi C) development on OSX

There is a script agcc that allows compilation of native C code for Android devices.

Support for OSX as a development platform exists,

http://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html

but is somewhat spotty, except for some links I found:

http://droidhacks.com/2009/05/compiling-c-code-for-android-using-os-x/ 

and


http://www.justinlee.sg/2010/01/08/compiling-android-source-on-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard/

The agcc  script expects to run on a linux box, and does use GCC 4.2.1,  even though the Android NDK already contains 4.4.0.

I modified the agcc script to make it work for the mac (OSX) and to use gcc.4.4.0 (well arm-eabi-gcc-4.4.0). The modified script is available at:

agcc for the NDK arm-eabi 4.4.0 on OSX

http://rapidshare.com/files/421366660/agcc.html

Someone else may find this useful as well. Please post comments or updates.

Enable Market on the Borders (Cruz) Reader

I just got my Cruz Reader (the full color Android eReader from Borders / Velolicty Micro. After some playing with the device, here are some first observations:

a) Do use OSX, since it will enable the USB ADB interface without checking which specific Android device is connected.

b) If you have to use Windows, use XP and download the Android SDK, and change the usb driver android_winusb.inf file as described in

http://www.slatedroid.com/velocity-micro-cruz/7581-cruz-reader-specific-howto-root-device-5.html#post64826

c) you can get Market working without much trouble. You may need some familiarity with (DOS / Windoze) batch files (or with running shell scripts on linux or OSX), and have some confidence (or better, have some read-up on Android devices under your belt). How to get Android Market and Gmail running on the Borders Cruz Reader is described here:


http://www.slatedroid.com/velocity-micro-cruz/7581-cruz-reader-specific-howto-root-device-5.html#post65146