Review: W1060 7-inch MID by WireLession

[pphilipp]

Originally Posted by pphilipp

One week with Android and I'm back with Wince. I finally located 1.8.11 firmware and it is better and apparently more stable than 1.8.9. Better keyboard, suspend works, and better memory management.
If your W81 has 1.8.9, you should definitely update to 1.8.11. It can be found at Witstech's site.

Update...
firmware 1.8.11 is a must!
Suspend finally works correctly.
Another thing noticed is the off/on button now works as it should.
Also, the keyboard doesn't constantly pop-up any more. Much better!
Far fewer crashes!
If yours shipped with 1.8.9 (as mine did... groan), you owe it to yourself to update.

(Last time I checked, the Wirelession website still has 1.8.9 update... don't download it. Instead, head over to Witstech site and get the more current one.)

[free-lexx]

A81 E andriod2.1 ROM for A81 and A81-E
http://bbs.witstech.com.cn/dispbbs.a...did=10&Id=3033
Can somebody try it?

[free-lexx]

English version http://bbs.witstech.com.cn/dispbbs.a...did=10&Id=3104

[bassman3401]

Does anyone have a video of the mid a81-e in android mode to see if it's good or not??

[pphilipp]

Originally Posted by free-lexx

A81 E andriod2.1 ROM for A81 and A81-E
http://bbs.witstech.com.cn/dispbbs.a...did=10&Id=3033
Can somebody try it?

This version is strictly for the new A81-E. I spent several hours attempting to put it on the A81 and it will not run. The installation instructions even mention using a key/button which the A81 does not possess.

If anyone else has found an A81 installation work-around, let me know.

[mervsduh]

@freelex
Philip's right. that's strictly for a81-e. it is however no different from android 2.1 for the normal a81, except for added language. so any apps you find for a81-e android should work fine on normal a81

hey a81 android users, recommend me a widget.. I got news and weather, weather forecast and currency exchange.. because we're using android 2.1 we have access to newer apps. I'll post one if I find something cool..

[pphilipp]

Mervsduh, Have you found a way to navigate around without using the 'ol power button? I no longer have 2.1 loaded on my A81... mainly because of the navigation troubles using just one control.
Thanks.

[Intri]

Sorry if its been solved somewhere in this thread, its just too long for me to read. Has anyone managed to run the GPS, pls? Im considering the tablet and thinking about purchasing it with GPS built-in, only if its funcional, though.

[bassman3401]

shanzai started to analyze the tablet!

http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/ban...eatures-galore

tomorrow we will see the android test!

[pphilipp]

Am I missing something or does the A81 NOT come with Outlook or any other contact/address application? I hadn't paid any attention to this until today and when I went to add a contact I couldn't find an appropriate app.

I guess the the little email app is supposed to be it. So, is there an easy way to transfer 100s of vcards to it?

[FriendOfEntropy]

Originally Posted by pphilipp

Am I missing something or does the A81 NOT come with Outlook or any other contact/address application?

I've been digging deeper into CE land and need to backup, take a deep breath, and stick with compact framework and a little native interop, and actually write myself some more useable apps. I've been rolling my own little htmlish biblereader, and working on a few games to learn about the differences in the old Pocket PC OS and plain ole raw, but light years newer version of CE.

I've been down many rabbit holes of basic chunks of tech..trying not to have to rewrite it myself (c# wrapper for webkit for a better html viewer, RTF display controls, gdiplus, gradients, etc) POOM was a big one on my list..Pocket Outlook Object Model.

I've been violating the spirit and temporarily the letter of license agreements left and right with Platform Builder, every SDK and Rom Extractor I can, and have played around with various combinations of pimstore.dll, pimres.dll, pimutil.dll, even poutlook.exe I scarfed from somewhere just to see if I could get it to run.

If I had been able to figure out the right combination of legal dll files to work on the Wits build of CE, or write the implementation myself if I had to, then I was going to forgo the poutlook.exe for legal and ethical reasons and code my own front end.

I just wanted to attempt to get all the functions legally going there and put an interface so ActiveSync would shove things in the DBs on the device and then my app would use them just like Outlook would.

I think I've determined that it would be quicker and much more legal from a platform builder perspective to just use RAPI, and write my own. I figure, if I used Compact Framework 3.5 to quickly write a Windows CE 6 version of an e-mail/contact manager, then I would just build a desktop "syncher" that talked to various version of the real Outlook Object Model on the desktop, then synched with my homegrown app databases on the tablet.

Aggravating, but then it would be customizeable and fill a missing niche, apparently. I just want it to synch with my main Outlook on the desktop, I don't care if it's Outlook or homebrew on the tablet itself. Surely if I hunt around, I can find some open source e-mail/contact management type system I could just do a Win CE C# port of so I didn't have to write from scratch and could contribute it back as a port. (I may not find such a beast as a starting point since everyone is obsessed with html mail instead of real store and forward apps anymore.)

Oh well, it's been interesting, plenty of research black holes. For example, on all the PIM dlls and such, I've been using Dependency Walker on the desktop searching against the Wits SDK and a generic Arm emu OS I built with Platform Builder, trying to find out why some of these mix and match dlls don't work.

So for a couple of hours yesterday, and today at lunch at work, I decided I needed to plumb dependencies right on the tablet so I could see exactly what Wits dlls are compatible with as far as exported functions and dependencies. You can't copy them out of rom to put on the desktop for the regular dependency walker to interrogate.

I just figured nobody had cared enough to write a dependency walker that ran on a CE device, so I looked into that. I finally determined that it was the ROM issue that was the deadend. I couldn't read the PE headers from coredll.dll since it was marked by windows as a rom module. So then that lead to digging into the platform builder to see how the os itself extracts file images from rom, stitches them back together, decompresses them, etc. My C++ is just too too rusty to get into that, even though the pieces are there in the actual OS code.

[nor11wan]

Hi there,I am planning to buy a unit under discussion here,however I am confused by
the announcement by some retailer:Witstech announced a new device A81E but on
checking the spec.in the web-site its still the same old WinCE ??Wirelession is still the
same W1060.If I buy a unit now how do I ensure that I am getting the latest device
from the retailer.

btw:how do I tell the difference:new and old unit Technical and physical changes!!
Any forum members have got the latest unit??maybe we can get some comments
tks

[zapikoe]

@nor11wan IMHO the difference lays in different three hardware button placed on the front side. Seems to be A81 E also sports a different Wifi module

[sandhudrone]

I got my A81-E couple of days ago. I now have it flashed with Android 2.1 firmware. The firmware can be found here:
http://bbs.witstech.com.cn/dispbbs.a...did=10&Id=3104

The process for flashing A81E is the same as that for A81. After you format the sd card with the HPUSB tool, copy the firmware and insert the card, hold down the left volume control button that is next to the power button and then press the power button. Release the left volume control button when the unit goes into firmware update. When the firmware update starts, the screeen goes from a four colour grid to a screen that looks like a TV with no antenna attached. Make sure your unit is plugged into AC power supply and leave it for 5 minutes. When it's all done, you should see the screen calibration menu.

Sorry, if all this is already known. I just joined the forum and found it hard to follow different instructions posted all over the place.

Next stop, how to get more apps for Android 2.1 on A81E?

[nor11wan]

Hi there,sandhudrone,thanks for the technical tips,understand that some retailers are
offering the A81E with Android pre-installed and that WinCE 6 as an option,in SD card
I am a non-technical personne,how do I install tha WinCE 6 as first choice O/S and
Android as option
thanks