Asus Chromebook C302 with Android Apps

I got an Asus Chromebook 302 that comes with an Intel core m3, 64Gb, 4Gb of memory.

Some problems I got on my device:

After I enabled the android app store the laptop started to reboot randomly. I tried removing the apps and switching chrome os channels, but it did not fix the problem.

So I decided to create a recovery SDCard using chrome recovery utility. I re-imaged the laptop with the SD card, using the instructions from the chrome recovery utility.

After that the laptop booted in stable channel, I update the laptop to the latest stable image.

List of Applications I am running:

Pandora, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, Hangouts, Play Newsstand, Hangouts Dialer, Calendar, Photos, Npr One, Voxer, Twilight, Firefox, Youtube, Google wifi, Hipchat, 3Dmark.

Here is a screenshot running 23 Android applications at same time.

This is screen shot running twilight, for those of us missing a blue light filter.

3DMark and Octane

The score below is running in the ChromeOS dev channel. I only able to get octane scores between 15000-17000, but the machine still feels really fast.

UnKilled

Alto

The Asus Chromebook C302

This post was written on the Asus C302. I am very impressed with it and would highly recommend it.

Pros:

• Amazing performance,
• Very good build quality, a great keyboard, very nice screen, and just a premium solid feel to it
• Android apps on
• Great backlit keyboard (Mac-book Pro feel)
• Convertible
• Some Android apps like calendar, Pandora, photos, YouTube, Firefox support bigger screen, but most apps still don't, and these apps render in landscape or portrait more like they look on a phone, but without using the extra space of the big screen.
• I like the USB C cable and being able to charge the laptop from both sides, avoids awkward cables when the charger is on the wrong side, like my other laptops.
• Fanless, silent, love that.
• Charging is fast.

Cons:

• Android apps only support 2 sizes, full screen or phone size. In full-screen mode the majority of the apps are just a large super sized version of the phone version, offering very little extra functionality.

Chrome OS advanced commands, settings, expert features

Chrome OS advanced commands, settings, expert features

All features described here where tested on a Asus C302 Chromebook, but should work on all Chromebooks, screenshots are from the Asus C302.

Recovery

Install new factory image for your chrome book
https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1080595?hl=en

Perform a Hard Reset

Go to settings select the reset section, you can do a reset or a powerwash.

Force-Boot Into Recovery Mode

If you’d like to reinstall Chrome OS and you don’t see the “Chrome OS is missing or damaged” message on your screen, you can force your Chromebook to boot into recovery mode.

First, turn off your Chromebook. Next, press Esc + Refresh on the keyboard and hold down the Power button. Your Chromebook will boot straight to recovery mode.

Enable Canary

First, turn off your Chromebook. Press Esc+Refresh+Power and, when the recovery prompt appears, press Ctrl+D and accept the prompt that appears to disable boot verification. When the Chromebook reboots, press Ctrl+D again. Please note that this will powerwash your Chromebook, so be sure all your local media files and screenshots are copied to Google Drive before you attempt this.

Once your Chromebook has ended up in developer mode and you log in, press Ctrl+Alt+T. This will get you to a "crosh" prompt. Type "shell" as mentioned above, then run "sudo su" to get to a root shell. Once running as root, run this command:

update_engine_client --channel=canary-channel --update

The first parameter ― "-channel=canary-channel" ― sets the channel to canary via the command line. The second ― "-update" ― will run a "ForcedUpdate" app version command, which will, as you'd expect, force an update without checking. It of course will take a while, so be patient. It's also not for the faint of heart, because the progress is shown as a long decimal between 0 and 1 instead of a percentage.

Revert back to verified mode

When you do end up logging in (you need to press Ctrl+D every time you reboot, of course, until the end of this step) you'll want to go back to verified mode for security reasons. So, when you are prompted to reboot when the update is completed, you'll see a prompt to hit the spacebar to disable developer mode. Press it, and you'll be back in verified mode.

Change Chrome OS flags

chrome://flags

Features I enable:

• Material design settings can be enable here (Enable all)
• Experimental Chromecast support for Video Player
• Simulated hardware 'Ok Google' features
• Tab audio muting UI control
• Print Pdf as Image
• Android Wallpapers App 
• Show Android Files app 
• Media Remoting during Cast Tab Mirroring

Manage google cast devices

chrome://cast/#devices

Tools

System Info Viewer

SSH terminal

Google ssh plugin

Do a barrel roll

When you hit the Reload button, the Chrome OS browser refreshes the active web page. Hold down Alt+Ctrl+Shift while pressing it, and you’ll see a much more entertaining effect.

Key commands

Press Ctrl+Alt+/ within Chrome OS to view a handy visual guide.

The Chrome OS keyboard is designed to be simple, but if you’re used to a desktop keyboard, you may feel like you’re missing several useful keys. The good news is that almost all of them can be simulated in Chrome OS by pressing the right key combinations:

Applications

Task Manager           Search+Esc
File Manager            Shift+Alt+m
Message Center        Shift+Alt+n
Status Menu              Shift+Alt+s
Stylus tools               Shit+Alt+p

Screen shot

Screenshot                Ctrl+Switch window

Screenshot region     Ctrl+Shift+Switch window

Screenshot window  Ctrl+Alt+Switch window
Print Screen              Ctrl+Switch Window

Monitor

Swap primary Monitor      Alt+Full screen
Mirror Monitor                  Ctrl+Full screen
Rotate Screen 90 degrees  Shift+Altf+Refresh

Useful Keyboard shortcuts

Caps Lock                Alt+Search (press again to cancel, or hit Shift)
Page Up/Down         Alt+Up/Down or Search+Up/Down
Home/End                Ctrl+Alt+Up/Down or Search+Left/Right
Del                           Alt+Backspace or Search+Backspace
Insert                        Search+>
F1-F12                      Search+1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/0/-/=

You can reconfigure the behaviour of certain keys from the Keyboard Settings dialog, accessible from the main Settings page. There’s also a huge number of additional shortcuts available.

Terminal (crosh)

Open a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T

Find debugging commands: help
help_advanced

top
tracepath
dmesg
route
uname
ping

Trace a network path (like traceroute or tracert):

tracepath www.google.com

To run standard network diagnostics:

network_diag 

References:
http://strawn-04.blogspot.in/2013/12/chromebook-howto-update-to-hidden.html

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo

Setup openvpn in Ubuntu 15.10 tested using ibvpn.com and openvpn

sudo apt-get install openvpn easy-rsa network-manager-openvpn-gnome

goto http://www.ibvpn.com

setup a free account

extract openvpn.tgz where you want

On UbuntuGnome goto settings->network->add
select vpn->Import from file

Select ibVPN-US-Dallas.ovpn

Type your email
Get the password from the ibvpn website, this is not you ibvpn account password.

Select Add.
And try it out.

How fix corrupted SDCARD partition table

sudo apt-get install testdisk

run testdisk

Android LG optimus v factory reset

NOTE: didn't worked for me, I returned the phone in the end.

Android LG optimus v factory reset
1. Turn off your LG Optimus V.

2. Press and hold the following keys for over 5 seconds: Down volume key + Home + Power

3. When the power turns on, release these keys.

3G Drops & Standby Battery Drain (Solutions)

The steps were as follows:

* Check "Time Without a Signal": Home, Menu, Settings, About Phone, Battery Use, click "Cell Standby" and not the value. It should be close to 0% if you've been in 3G range. 50% indicates a definite problem.

To "Fix" - Note the original poster says this change will reset if you reboot the phone and need to be redone:

* Dial *#*#4636#*#* which will go to the phone's "Testing" menu.
* Click "Phone Information", then Menu, then click "Select radio band".
* Click "Force Close" and return back to "Phone Information"
* Scroll down to "Set preferred network type:"
* Click the "Set preferred network type:" button and select "CDMA only".
* Click the "Set preferred network type:" button again and reselect "CDMA auto (PRL)".

As mentioned in the link, now charge your phone to reset the battery usage statistics and after an hour or so monitor the "Time without a signal" value. The problem seems to be from an incorrect network type value that is originally set/saved despite it showing the correct value.

Some people also note that they get better battery usage with WiFi left on vs 3G. I'm not sure if this is due to this issue or not, but I'll do further tests leaving WiFi on tonight after a full recharge.

The default WiFi "Sleep Policy" on the Optimus V is set to turn WiFi off "When screen turns off". If WiFi is truely better, then one would need to set this to "Never". (Note on some other phones WiFi defaults to "Never" sleep.) To change the setting:

* Home, Menu, Settings, Wireless & Network, Wi-Fi Settings
* Click the Menu button and select "Advanced"
* Select "Wi-Fi sleep policy" and change to the desired value


Note: this information was copied from the links below for personal reference.


3G Drops & Standby Battery Drain (Solutions)
http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus-v/293583-3g-drops-standby-battery-drain-solutions.html

LG Optimus V Factory Reset
http://www.lg-phones.org/lg-optimus-v-factory-reset.html

G2 review, rooting and Wifi tether.

I got the new G2 from TMobile (full price), It sounded like a great device when I got it according to the specs and the standard android build.

But HTC and TMobile got together to remove some functionality from the hardware and software and deceive the their customers by never document these restrictions, in the store or the documentation that comes with the device.

The bad:
- The G2 has a anti root mechanism
- The 4Gb internal storage is consumer fraud, the device might have a 4G internal storage but the user is only allowed to use 1.3Gb from the 4GB. Terrible deal for the price and similar devices like the Samsung Vibrant has 16Gb built in storage available and visible to the user, except for OS binaries. The G2 is missing 2Gb, the OS reporting tools don't even display 4Gb anywhere.
- The G2 has built in apps that you can't remove, twitter, web2go, quickoffice and photobucket. It's ok to pre-install these, but blocking the customer from removing these apps is a terrible idea.
- Tmobile changed market to have a useless TMobile tab and make it more difficult to get to your downloads.

The G2 uses a standard android build without any UI changes and I love that, but TMobile went the extra mile to block the customers that own the device from installing a new version of OS on the device or removeing stock apps. Rooting the device and removing stock apps is disabled on the G2.

With the new OTA, Tmobile WIFI calling was added to standard android 2.2 OS, at least this is a positive change for owners of a G2.

The Hardware:
- The network speed is fast, see the image below.
- The device is Fast.
- I love the keyboard.
- Camera and video is good, but it is a little slow if you need a fast picture, but the camera button and the LED flash are very useful.
- The screen is great.
- Only has one microphone, does not have sounds cancelling with multi microphones as other devices on the market, but it works fine.
- Battery lasts a day, depend on the usage some times not even a full day, but compared to my G1 is similar.
- The power button is not that great, difficult to press and seems like it might break easily, and since you have to press it multiple times per day, does not look like is going to last. It is very similar to the Nexus One.
- I love the volume button, big and usefull.
- I like the camera button.
- I like the 3 configurable buttons on the keyboard, I associated the gtalk, maps and browser to these, but you can associate any apps.
- I love the phone look and the metal back.

What would I change if I could:
- I would install a standard vanilla android build with 2.1, with root access so I can do whatever I want with my device.
- HTC should send a CD or USBKey with a software to restore the phone to the standard android OS image to save user from bloat-ware, spy-ware etc.

How to get root on the G2.
- Paul O’Brien has created an application that will provide quick one-click rooting for users. Get VISONary Paul's website.
- You might need to shut-down the G2 and remove the battery and restart to make VISIONary work, but after this it works great, and you can start blue-tooth tether.
- You can also use my backup pro or titanium backup to backup your device now that you have root on the device.

References:
http://phandroid.com/2010/10/14/visionary-gives-t-mobile-g2-users-a-one-click-root-solution/
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

Detailed review with pics:

http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=425

My speed test on the G2:

Updates after the OTA:

- I got the OTA, I've been running it for 2 weeks now. The phone is more stable, I don't have a freeze or reboot for 2 weeks.
- USB and WIFI tethering is enabled in this new OTA.

- There is also a WIFI calling feature from tmobile and it works.

The 2 things that stills annoys me is after the OTA are:

- that I can't remove the bloatware that tmobile injected in the OS. (So I might change it to another ROM later because of this, I always have to get all the updates for the bloatware to avoid the android notifications for those.

- The phone has some ROM write protection, to disallow the owners that payed the full price of the phone, to install a new version of the OS, this makes no sense and should be not be legal. But this is the mobile market we have today.

- I just wish that HTC or TMobile learned that I am the customer and the phone I payed full price is mine and I should be able do whatever I want with the phone, without having to find hacks and exploits. Give me a clean standard OS image without mods or bloatware that I can install, put it on HTC website or on TMobile web site and allow me to remove the bloatware from the phone, and only support that in case I call for support.

- The 4GB I payed for are still not available with the OTA, I can only see 1.8GB of internal storage, sad so sad :(

All that said:

This phone is amazing. Super fast, lasts me all day with WIFI/Bluetooth/GPS on. I use it to play podcasts for 6 hours or more per day and play these with stereo blue-tooth headsets. I also do normal usage of calling and web-browsing. Somehow the battery seems to last longer with the new OTA update. :)

Android Phone - TMobile G1

Today I replaced my iPAQ hw6515 with a android phone - The TMobile G1 from HTC.

For now the experience has been very positive.

Good:
- OS is amazing, compared with my PocketPC device. Supports WIFI, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, USB connectivity, charges thru USB cable, visible on Ubuntu has a USB hard drive.
- Browser supports multiple windows
- IM support for gtalk, yahoo, msn aol
- Voice Dialing.
- Google Maps, GMail, Regular Email, Goggle Calendar, Google Contacts, GTalk
- Automatic sync of gmail, calendar, contacts, with your google account.
- keyboard, search keyboard key, Configurable key short cuts to start any App

Apps I Like:
- imeem mobile is so COOL. Web Radio/Music, on the android. Built-in amazon Music Store App.
- "Compare Everywhere" and "ShopSavvy" are very useful apps to check for store and web prices near where you are, just by scanning product bar codes.
- Web Browser, youtube, The weather Channel
- PicSay (Add text to pictures using the android)

Not so Good:
- When charging the phone you can not use the headset to listen to music. Both the charger and the headset use the same plug.
- On heavy use using GPS, 3G, Bluetooth, wifi doing music/web/IM the device lasted 5-6 hours.
- Can't talk on the phone and browse web at same time (this is probably a network restriction shared by all other phones, but is still very annoying).
- Device does not have a lot of internal storage, so if you install a few apps from Market, it's very easy to run out of internal storage.

Remarks:
- The G1 is an amazing phone. It works well doe snot crash or freeze like my pocketpc used to.
- Goggle Sync is so useful and amazing.
- Market is easy and you can find hundreds of useful apps (the bad thing is that you might run out of space if you install them all)
- The combination of all the apps on Market and the default Apps in the phone, make this the most user friendly, and useful phone I owned till today.
- I use the phone every day for non-phone related issues. Checking prices in the web why I go to a store. Find stores, restaurants. View a review before going to a restaurant. IM a friend. Check Maps for directions, check the dictionary on the web, check wikipidea, view my gmail, call thru skype, kill some time playing games, listen to web radio, podcast, utube videos, npr programs, npr web radio, my mp3 collection, buy music from amazon, scanning a book bar-code and perform a text search on the book.

This is truly a awesome phone. For next iteration would add a battery with higher capacity, allow charging and listening to music at same time, more internal storage or run the OS from the SDHC card, stereo bluetooth, tether data connection using bluetooh or USB.