Usability Issues - Annoyances, wish-list, etc

[Pluto]

I've opened this thread for the sake of making the best use of our devices.

Some of us, if not most, may use the device as a daily driver. Things have changed in the last 5 years, the fact that we interact with phones more then with desktop computers shows that the Desktop will be the area of gaming enthusiasts.
DAILY APPLICATIONS do not need oomph anymore, and android covers them quite well.

As i said, most of us browse, chat and view movies with this device, things that make the X7 more as a 2nd peripheral at home. And that is exactly my problem.

Desktop Experience, that is the summary of the major annoying fact, it is not device related of course, the problem is Android, which isn't thought to use it with a keyboard to begin with.

What i mean by Desktop Experience is not performance, it's Usability.

All of you can come up with a list of things that just make life harder.

-Right Mouse Click is everything but its sole reason.
-Enter key on a few messaging apps does not actually send the SEND command (have they never actually though of keyboard???), or F5, it doesn't refresh
-i use a logitech k400, the scroll is uncontrollable, and pisses off most of the browsers, where as holding the click and moving the whole page is flawless (stupid, i think the mouse emulates touch rather then being something)
-Plug & Play - a feature that is around, but not at its full. it shouldn't be all hard to fully support exfat & ntfs purely.

What annoys me most though are the browsers, no matter what UserAgent changing method i tried, they just don't seem to work for me. Just until lately was the scale of websites fixed (i think it is on pre006c stock), websites open normally at the 1080p, i just couldnt stand a website treating my X7 for whatever the device was spoofing, it seems that websites track device id rather then resolutions, that's not the case in Windows/PC.

Devices attached for usage purpose should have a more refined mapping, from keyboard buttons to a universal joystick/controller support, something that doesn't have to make you a rocket scientist to map things around, just create a few templates, PS3, xbox, 3rd party android controllers and generic unsupported stuff.

Please guys feel free to enrich around, i think this USAGE FEEDBACK can help devs a lot.

Basically, everything that annoys you while using the device is of great help to write it down here.

[Jbardi]

Usability Issues - Annoyances, wish-list, etc

The problem is, 99.9% of android users are using it on a phone or tablet, so you want a mobile, touch based OS, and its applications to act like Windows, and it is simply not going to happen. Neither Google, even with the Google TV, nor android app developers are going to put a lot of time and effort into trying to make your set top android device act like a Desktop computer. PCs are on their way out, other than for professionals and businesses, so although we are required to use a mouse on our android set top boxes, it is outdated, and continued support for them will only be supplied by 3rd party enthusiasts and tinkerers on boards such as this, so the idea of plug and play with all the peripherals on the market that were not designed for a mobile OS is pretty much guaranteed to be cobbled together and not very elegant if at all, as that would need to be done more so in the underpinnings of the OS. Why implement NTFS support out of the box for a very, very, very small minority of people that would even consider using it. Besides, where NTFS is concerned, Paragon already covered this with their app in the Google Play store. The fact is, these devices fall in the hobby market of geeks and tinkerers rather than mainstream, and the idea is to get you away from trying to make the new devices act more like your PC when there are already mainstream mini PCs that you can buy for your TV without having to worry about it, which kind of sounds like more of the device you should have bought instead of an android. Reminds me a bit of the reviews of these devices on Amazon. A lot of people are buying them and complaining that they are not more easy to use like an Apple TV. These devices are simply not for everyone and one should expect to fiddle with and work at it to make it the way they want, knowing all along it will never be exactly right. Time, effort and patience are a must, but the last thing I want for a set top entertainment device is for it to act more like Windows.

[Pluto]

Sorry mate, i think you've misunderstood the concept.

Do i want a Windows clone? not at all, i myself have avoided Windows since a few ages ago, been using the quite healthy OS X community for PC's and am windows headache free, except that i use it limitedly at work, and that's it.

I agree with you on the "Mobile OS", but right now i have a phone in my hand that has 1080p, plays games that i would not by logic accept to be able to, which makes me question all your effort you wrote up there.

As i said earlier, all i asked was what annoys you while using the device, what's a must to have and etc, etc. It is called feedback, and that percentage you have mentioned is a result of hard work being documented down here. You do want to get the best of your device dont you? Unfortunately i know nothing about mathematics let a lone programming, so i cant help as a developer, but i can help as a tester and observer.

[Batfink32]

Re: Usability Issues - Annoyances, wish-list, etc

Sorry mate, i think you've misunderstood the concept.

Do i want a Windows clone? not at all, i myself have avoided Windows since a few ages ago, been using the quite healthy OS X community for PC's and am windows headache free, except that i use it limitedly at work, and that's it.

I agree with you on the "Mobile OS", but right now i have a phone in my hand that has 1080p, plays games that i would not by logic accept to be able to, which makes me question all your effort you wrote up there.

As i said earlier, all i asked was what annoys you while using the device, what's a must to have and etc, etc. It is called feedback, and that percentage you have mentioned is a result of hard work being documented down here. You do want to get the best of your device dont you? Unfortunately i know nothing about mathematics let a lone programming, so i cant help as a developer, but i can help as a tester and observer.

The fact that there has had to be so much development put into the Rk3188 so that it plays videos properly is fairly shocking. As you said, I have an 1080p Mtk6589T 1.5ghz quad core phone which plays 1080p videos very well. I think Rockchip messed up quite badly in the 3188 and also in the fact they used an underpowerd GPU. As has been said, I think these devices are quite specialised and I wouldn't recommend one to someone who doesn't known what they're doing. I love flashing Roms etc and I believe I have the box working almost optimally now. For $120 I can't really complain, its not prefect but it pretty great.

Sent From My FAEA F2s Using Tapatalk 4

[Pluto]

Precisely, we have managed to tweak a device for normal use, which an average Joe wouldnt be able to do, but yet we can offer some help to not-so-average Joe's.

We've come quite good so far to be honest, the device is sufficient for the applications i use, it shouldnt take another firmware release to stabilize things to ground. Some focused pressure to the manufacturers, and teaming up with them to squash the most of RockChip would benefit all of us.

PS, if you havent noticed, a few ROMs support Multi-Windows capabilities, i havent found the best use of it since i am not much interested to multi-task directly with the device, probably not the most used feature, but i bet it eased the life to someone. At the end of the day, it is not a touch device, and even air mouses are not an option for anyone, where as a keyboard and mouse (or a combination) is a must.

[Pluto]

Just thought of a few ones

- Multi-User Environment, except on custom SDK 2 roms, it's an alien feature in X7
- Also a solution to run apps made for phones only (non-tablet apps), i.e opening the Facebook App in a limited window (scaled phone-like)

Any hint really on browsing, im just stressed by the fact that i have to switch from 4 browsers to get the best experience, some websites just open as they should in Chrome Beta, where as in Chrome and Stock Browser they seem like zoomed to 150%. Oh yea, and the text input zooming, by far the most annoying wall when it comes to browsing.