android

The Sero 7 tablets got cheaper last week and I missed it

Dave Farquhar Android ,

Amid competition from newer, faster tablets like the 2013 model Nexus 7, Hisense cut the price of its low-cost 7-inch Android tablets. The low-end Sero 7 now costs $79, and while the reviews on that tablet aren’t all that great, it’s much better than last year’s $79 tablet. The Sero 7 Pro, which I own, now costs $129.

They’re imperfect tablets–the Sero 7 Pro, even with its recent update, still crashes from time to time when I use a keyboard with it–but they were fine for the money at their old prices, and at their new prices, it’s hard to go wrong. I expect that eventually they’ll attract enough third-party development that there will be ROMs available to address their shortcomings.

Hisense pushes out a Sero 7 Pro update

Dave Farquhar Android

My Hisense Sero 7 Pro asked to update itself this morning. The update billed itself as a stability update. Indeed, afterward, it still reports itself as running Android 4.2.1.

That said, I’m all for a stability update. My Sero 7 Pro sometimes has issues coming out of sleep mode, so I let it update. Whether it makes a difference will take a while to figure out–I tended to have the issue once or twice a week. A day is too little for anything but a first impression, and my first impression is that this was a very low-profile update. But mainly I’m happy to see that Hisense seems to be supporting the tablet with updates. Not every update needs to make a big splash.

Reports of the Droidpocalypse have been greatly exaggerated

Dave Farquhar Android, security , , , ,

I was listening to the excellent Risky Business analysis of the Droidpocalypse  this week, and I’m happy to report that the vulnerability that affects 90% of Android devices ever made, while serious, is vastly overstated. Read more

Cyanogenmod 10.1 runs surprisingly well on a Nook Color

Dave Farquhar Android , , , , , ,

Cyanogenmod–the open-source distribution of Android for undersupported/abandoned devices–went to version 10.1 this week. Version 10.1 is based on Android 4.2.2, so it matches what’s in stores right now.

My Nook Color was sitting unused, so I figured I had nothing to lose by loading Cyanogenmod 10.1 on it. It was slow and laggy and crashed a lot under 7.2, so it wasn’t like it could be much worse.

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This week in mobile

Dave Farquhar Android , , , , , ,

I have zero intention of doing a mobile roundup every week, but it sure seems like there were a few noteworthy developments in the mobile field this week that are worth mentioning. So, here goes.

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How to disable animation on a Hisense Sero 7 Pro (or anything else running Android 4.2)

Dave Farquhar Android ,

Disabling animation is one way to make a Hisense Sero 7 Pro, or anything else running Jelly Bean, feel faster and smoother. That’s a hidden feature, but it’s not difficult to make it visible and selectable.

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The $99 Android tablet of 2013: The Hisense Sero 7 LT (or Lite)

Dave Farquhar Android , , , , , ,

So when I decided to bring myself into the current decade, tablet-wise, I opted for the $150 Hisense Sero 7 Pro, though I was certainly curious about its $99 little brother. Unfortunately, information on the Sero 7 Lite hasn’t been as easy to come by–people are understandably excited about getting a Nexus 7 clone for $50 less that actually includes two desirable features that the real thing lacks. This must be what it felt like to be in the market for an IBM PC/XT when the Leading Edge Model D came out in the summer of 1985. Read more

More thoughts on the $150 Hisense Sero 7 Pro tablet

Dave Farquhar Android , , , , , ,

Steve Aubrey wrote in with a link to a useful site dedicated to the Hisense Sero 7. It collects all the useful information that’s surfaced from xda-developers and other sites, including custom ROMs, rooting instructions, and where to get accessories.

He asked if I recommend rooting. The short answer: Yes, if you know what you’re doing. If you’re willing to read the prompts when an app requests root access and understand what it’s asking for, then sure. If you just blindly click yes to everything, then no, by all means, leave the tablet stock.

But if you know what you’re doing, one nice thing you can do is install a firewall, so a rooted Android tablet can be safer than an unrooted one. Have fun wrapping your head around that slice of counter-intuitiveness.

Let’s talk about my impressions of the tablet itself.

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Where Microsoft lost its way

Dave Farquhar Windows , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

John C. Dvorak wrote an analysis of how Microsoft lost its way with Windows 8 this week.

All in all it sounds reasonable to me. His recollection of DOS and some DOS version 8 confused me at first, but that was what the DOS buried in Windows ME was called. But mentioning it is appropriate, because it shows how DOS faded from center stage to being barely visible in the end, to the point where it was difficult to dig it out, and that it took 15 years for it to happen. He’s completely right, that if Microsoft had pulled the plug on DOS in 1985, Windows would have failed. Read more

The good-enough $99 Android tablet

Dave Farquhar Android , , , ,

Last month, low-end television maker Hisense introduced two new 7-inch Android tablets. The $149 Hisense Sero 7 Pro is a fairly close clone of the Google Nexus 7 that adds an SD card slot. With its quad-core processor and 1280×800 display, a lot of people are excited about it. Overall, the reaction I’ve seen on xda-developers has been very positive. The $99 Sero 7 LT, which is decidedly below the Nexus 7 in capability, hasn’t gotten as much attention.

But I found this teardown. Their verdict: Nothing to get too excited about, but it’s good enough for the average user most of the time, much better than the other sub-$100 tablets on the market, and as good as or better than most of the sub-$149 tablets on the market. The two weak spots are the wimpy camera and weak battery.

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