Big Lots Releases Polaroid 4.3" Touch MP3 With Android 2.2 - PTAB 4300 - $60

[mrshoe]

Bob,

Sorry for not getting back to you on this. I knew you had a lot in the kitchen. As I had said I was not sure if this unit was going to be of use to me. Another of my PMID700 units broke and I need a to replace it. I am looking at the iView 760TPC which I believe is also called the Ployer momo9. Today is my last day to return and I think that is what I am going to do. Before I reflash to stock here is what I ran today.

Also, any suggestions on a relacement to the PMID700 for around $120?

Sorry I could get this finished, but I thought I was the only one interested. Glad to see someone is interested in pick it up where we left off.

TEST11 - Same as TEST9 but Gplay market files are pre-installed. MrShoe said Gplay just force closes. Maybe someone can test again please.

I get the same result as before.

TEST12 - This is my first attempt at a RW /system using AUFS like other RK28 ROMS that give write access to /system. It also has Gplay files installed. YES PLEASE... test this and see if you can get Gplay working with your account. Also please let me know if in fact /system can be written too!

Talk does not appear in the app list. However Play does. When I run it I get asked it I want to set up an account. No matter what I chose it does not launch the app. I attempted to allow root access to ES File Explorer and it stated that it is a beta feature and that the ROM would not allow it. I don't know of another good way to teat root.

TEST13 - Since Mrshoe seemed to not be able to use Gplay I took a Froyo ROM from XDA and pulled out known working Google Market files. These are older market files but should work and at some point it should auto upgrade you to Gplay. Again Mrshoe seemd to not be able to get the market working? Again, YES please let me know if in fact /system can be written too!

Re-flashed this a few times with the same result. Play will launch and allow me to enter my account, update and then after it gives a server error. Same thing with root test.

[morgaine]

Just checking...

I just found this thread on PTAB 4300, so my appologies for not jumping in earlier. I will also test, but after reading some of the preceeding I want to check that the most recent test files (12 and 13) are full flash roms. That I don't need to download anything or have special settings in place before I flash.

Thanks to everyone for all your hard work on this!

[Finless]

Yes per my post #178 all the ROMs in that list are full ROMs. Flash tools are included with them.

Bob

[morgaine]

OK... I'm stupid!

Alright, I've tried to do flash the new ROM test files and for some reason I'm unable to do so. So... here's what I did:
1 Backed up the contents of my SD card.
2 Wiped the SC card and replaced it with the unzipped contents of one of the ROM tests.
3 Turned the tablet off, and inserted the SD card.
4 Turned the tablet on.
With the earlier ROM change up that I did (granted this was one of the old chinese M001 tablets) the above initiated the re-install of the ROM, but with this tablet I get booted back up to my existing ROM with all the programs/widgets/etc. installed.

I'm sure there's something I'm not doing correctly! Anyone have a good link I can check out or willing to give me baby steps.
Sorry to ask stupid questions!!

[mrshoe]

I have never attempted to flash them from the SD card.
Read the "read me" file from the zip. It has the instructions there.

Flashing is Via a PC. You need the Tab to be in recovery mode attached to the PC.
Have you done that before? There is a driver that needs to be installed for the PC to recognize the Tab as a RK28 device.

[mi1224]

google play

did anyone ever get google play to work on the 4300?

[warmachine]

For me, the most important thing is Root access. Is this working yet? I'm not too pressed about getting the Market to work, because for now at least, the Amazon Appstore is good enough. I imagine that at some point I'll come across something that I "need" which can only be gotten through Google, but for now...

Thanks in advance.

[mrshoe]

I returned the Tab. It did not fit my needs. Great little unit, but needed the $$ back.
We were able to get root....and at one point I had the market setup.

If Finless gets some testers I am sure that he will get you something you'll be VERY happy with.
We have the stock img file so noboby will be unbrickable if a particular ROM does not work.

[redbeardintc]

First time reader, I was thinking of getting one of these for my son. He wants an iPod touch but I'm an Android/Linux guy and I was looking at the price tag. Was the device able to play Angry Birds? Really my son is looking for something besides his DS for portable gaming, maybe music playing and I don't want to keep loaning him my rooted Galaxy Player...and don't want to fork out $200 to get him a tablet if something like this will work for him.

[SingleDad]

First time reader, I was thinking of getting one of these for my son. He wants an iPod touch but I'm an Android/Linux guy and I was looking at the price tag. Was the device able to play Angry Birds? Really my son is looking for something besides his DS for portable gaming, maybe music playing and I don't want to keep loaning him my rooted Galaxy Player...and don't want to fork out $200 to get him a tablet if something like this will work for him.

I bought one for my son..for pretty much the same reason. He likes it but I tried talking him into returning it for their larger Polaroid tablets

My son's plays Angry birds...but it runs painfully slow and is almost unplayable if you don't turn off the background graphics. Once you turn off the background graphics things speed up and smooth out a little. It takes a while to load as well.

It's fine for playing music, browsing the web, and watching YouTube videos. I've found a lot of games downloaded from the Amazon market won't work.

Won't even attempt to stream Netflix either. It just crashes hard every time.

The tablet is pretty slow and I honestly haven't had time to see if there is much that can be done to speed things up. It's a great bargain tablet for showing pics, playing music and watching youtube videos. Acceptable enough for the web as well. It's not the best choice if he will be predominately gaming on it.

I've found out of the box it is just too slow for many games. If he needs something to play Angry Birds smoothly on I'd highly recommend one of Big Lots' Polaroid PMID 701C or PMID701i. They're still priced at $99.99 as far as I know.

I have the 701C and it runs Angry Birds and countless other games the 4300 won't run just fine. It's a much more enjoyable tablet to use for an extra $30-40. The extra cash gets you a world of difference. The larger tablets are much faster and the capacitive touch screen on them is soooo much nicer than the crappy resistive touch screen on the 4300. Your son would likely want to keep his DS stylus handy to use with the 4300. A stylus makes it much more usable for those with larger fingers.

My son likes the small size of the 4300 so he can shove it in his pocket etc. The larger 7" size of the other tablets isn't so good for that.

If he likes the $99.99 7" tablet and you have the extra cash, it's a decision you won't regret. Leaps and bounds above the small 4.3 incher!

[redbeardintc]

Thanks for the notes, I was looking at the larger 7" one too and I think the better processor would make a big difference. If I didn't love my Galaxy Player 5 so much I'd get the 7" for myself and give him my Samsung...but I use the GPS feature on the Samsung in the car.

[warmachine]

Nice one!

Bob--
I just wanted to let you (and everyone else who hasn't tried this yet) that you've done a great job on the rom for this tab! It flashed without problems on the first try, and now it does everything I want. The first thing I did was get rid of all the stuff that makes the tab think it's a phone, like the dialer and whatnot. And then I chucked all of the YouTube/Twiter/Facebook type stuff that I'll never ever use. I don't know exactly how much memory that freed up, because I was too preoccupied to look at the before/after, but I do know that my boot time is now a full 12 seconds shorter, and the tab seems to run a lot faster, too. Thanks for all the time you put into this!
Oh-- and my battery life should now probably be measured in years. After about an hour and a half of reading an ebook on Aldiko, by battery level drops by only 1%, and that's after the unit being on standby for about 7 hours. Voodoo, man... it's just voodoo.

[Finless]

Can I ask which ROM you flashed?

So them you are able to read and write to /system?

Bob

[warmachine]

The last one-- 13, I think it was. And it seems like I can read from/write to system. I also haven't gotten a chance to test google play-- the wifi system at my apartment complex uses MAC address filtering as security (I know, I know...) and I don't have this tab registered with them yet.

Do you have a specific task you'd like me to try?

[Roger45]

.img

i see where southern telecom has posted an update.img for this tab.idid the update can.t tell any difference.