Ois & Nix

Mirek recently released a great Android 5.1 ROM for the Teclast X98 Plus Dual OS . Based on my tests so far, the performance has improved and the battery time is much better than with the original ROM. All the Chinese apps you usually don't need were removed. You can find the download files, the change log... here:  http://techtablets.com/forum/topic/x98_plus_android_5-1_mirek190_v1-0-rom/ The installation is very simple: Double cehck that the tablet is fully charged before you start Download the ZIP file and open it on a Windows PC with the latest version of 7zip Run FIRST_INSTALL_IT Run SECOND_INSTALL_IT Shut down the tablet (it should not be connected to the PC at this stage) Press and hold down the power button and the volume up/down until you see the Teclast logo with a "DnX" fastboot note in yellow above the logo Connect the tablet to your Windows PC Run FLASHER_v1.0 and follow the instructions on the screen. I would recommend the clean install. ...

Unfortunately, the Himedia H8 media box does not have an built-in microphone. If you want to use Google Voice Search and OK Google commands, you have to connect a webcam. I used a Logitech C270 . The webcam was automatically detected by the H8 and the OK Google command was immediately working after activating it in the Google Now launcher settings. According to other blogs/forums, other Logitech webcams should also be supported by the Himedia H8. Voice control can be extremely powerful if you combine it with Tasker, AutoVoice and AutoInput. You could command your LED lights or your music easily. See also  Start Spotify radio with shortcut .

I started to test firmware 1.0.9 yesterday. Overall I am quite happy with it so far. Positive: Quick and easy upgrade A bit strange but some of the settings and files were still there (e.g. documents in the download folder) The status/notification + navigation bar is back - also in the normal Google Now launcher. That is already a huge improvement. The image in the previous firmware version seemed to be very pale & colorless. With the new firmware version I found out why: The default brightness level is relatively high. In the old version you did not have the notification bar, so brightness could not be changed. In the new version you can adapt it and now the colors look way better. No lip sync issues so far Room for improvement: What is still problematic is the internal storage reserved for the system & apps (the default location) which is still limited to 2GB. If you install new applications the message about not enough storage still appears - although there...

It took a bit, but Himedia just released a new firmware (1.0.9) for the Himedia H8 octacore box. The firmware can be downloaded here . More information and a short manual about how to do the upgrade can be found on the Himedia support page .

Goal: I have two Android devices (a smartphone and a streaming box). I wanted to start a Spotify playlist on my streaming box, triggered by an NFC action on my smartphone. The streaming box is connected to my AV receiver, so it was important that the music is not played on my smartphone but on the streaming box. What you need: Two Android devices (e.g. a smartphone which supports NFC and an Android streaming box) NFC tags Tasker AutoRemote Trigger Spotify How it is done: I don't want to go through every step in detail, mostly it is selfexplanatory once you have the different components. On the streaming box: Install Tasker, AutoRemote, Spotify Create the task which should be triggered on the streaming box (e.g. Spotify play - see my other blog posts). Create a new profile in Tasker using AutoRemote on the streaming box to listen to a specific input (e.g. "spot") from the second device. On your mobile phone Install Tasker, AutoRemote, Trigger ...

I recently bought a  HiMedia H8 64bit Octa-Core  and want to share my first impressions. This short review is based on firmware version 1.0.7: Audio & Video I mostly use 720p MKV files from an SMB share via WLAN and have no problems with video and audio quality. Dolby digital works fine. One time I noticed some lip-sync issues with Kodi but I now mostly use Mizuu +  MXPlayer  and I am quite happy with it. I have not tested any 3D content. EDIT: The lip-sync issue sometimes happens on MXPlayer and Netflix as well. I could not figure out when unfortunately. The box works in general fine for Netflix or Spotify streaming. Be aware that you will not get Dolby Digital with Netflix for Android. It is not supported. Android & the box in general I am using the normal Google Now launcher. The problem I see here with the current firmware version (1.0.7) is that you don't have a navigation bar on the bottom or a status/notification bar on top. Especially the ...