Topics

1

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / Leaving the family

« on: July 01, 2019, 07:25:20 am »

I have decided to but my Gemini up for sale.  It has been my daily driver for about a year and I have enjoyed using it.  The keyboard is great and made typing so so much easier but on recent reflections I have noticed I have effectively stopped taking pictures over the last year.  This is a combination of the quality of the external camera, the ease of use and the default orientation (the latter probably fixable).  Furthermore my main use case for the Gemini (coding on the go) never really materialised due to screen size not really working with the IDEs available.

So I have spent a week reverted to my previous phone, a Wileyfox Swift 2X, and have adapted back to the lack of physical keyboard easier than I thought I would.  With the other conveniences of this actually very good phone have led me to the decision to part ways with my Gemini.

This will mean I will no longer be able to continue development of my 2 Gemini apps, GeminiLED and GeminiTorch but I will leave them in the Google Play and the source code is on GitHub for anyone to pick up and develop.  I will help where ever I can, but won't be in a position to test.

I will probably still pop by the forums occasionally but good luck everyone with your Geminis and Cosmo futures where applicable.

2

Gemini PDA - Android / 8.1 observations

« on: May 10, 2019, 03:18:22 am »

Thought after a couple of days use I'd drop my thoughts on 8.1 into a thread for others to add to add detect common themes.

Biggest concern I would say is that battery life has diminished noticeably.  Completely unexpected but on 7.1.1 I am on at about 30-40% at the end of the day, 8.1 15% has been the best so far and that was on a day I used it much less than normal.

Slightly frustrating that the Plant apps are now hard wired in so you can only disable.  I preferred the evenly spaced icons on the app bar to the bunched left/scrollable version we have now.  I would disable app bar but I use the force rotate (must work out how to achieve this and map the Planet key to do it   )

There are some nuances that come with Android 8.1 I find irritating like 'app x is using battery' nice idea but I want to be able to swipe it away rather than have to disable it.

3

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Screen issues

« on: March 28, 2019, 03:47:24 am »

Just recently I have noticed the quality of the display has deteriorated.  This seems to be mainly associated with displaying dark colours (but not pure black).  It is most noticeable on the home screen, icons and wall paper and when watching videos on Kodi.  On the home screen it makes the wallpaper look very light and loses sharpness as do the icons.

Changing settings in Display, Miracast(?) has some effect but I can't get it perfect.

Has anyone else seen this? ie has a software update introduced this 'feature' or is my screen potentially on the way out?

4

Gemini PDA - Linux / Key board mapping

« on: July 28, 2018, 04:21:10 am »

I'm sure I'm missing something very simple somewhere but in Linux (Debian running in UserLAnd) I have 2 keys not mapped correctly.  They are / and £ which both currently produce ? as does ? so not sure if that means don't know what to return or all 3 are mapped to ?

£ isn't too crucial for how I intend to use my Linux environment but trying to work in CLI without a forward slash is lets say 'interesting'!  

Anyone able to point me in the right direction please?

5

Gemini PDA - Android / Turn WiFi off completely

« on: July 23, 2018, 07:51:36 am »

I've had this issue on other Android devices so it's not a Gemini issue as such but has anyone found a way to get the WiFi to actually turn off completely when you switch it off? Mine usually shows as being on in the battery usage more settings even when it is showing off every where else?. If I reboot my device while WiFi is off this normally corrects until  next random time.

I've done all the usuals, turned WiFi scanning off and even setting the WiFi off while asleep function was helping for a while but it's gone back to the old behaviour. It really shouldn't be this difficult!!

6

Gemini PDA - Linux / GNURoot debian keyboard map and other questions

« on: July 23, 2018, 07:50:34 am »

I'm messing around with GNURoot debian to try and satisfy my (small) Linux requirements from my Gemini rather than dual booting.  I am struggling with a couple of issues making life difficult at the moment.

1.  The keyboard is fine with the exception of the forward slash /  This comes a ? as does the ? key.  Trying to work in Linux without / is like trying to juggle with both hands tied behind your back!

2.  I don't seem to be able to set the execute permission for scripts.  chmod +x is accepted without error but the permission remains unset.  Is this an issue with overall permissions within the Android file system?

3.  I can't resize XTerm or UXTerm font size.  To get a size I can see anything at all in XTerm makes everything else gigantic and unusable.  LXTerminal does't want to run.  Is there another terminal someone can recommend that is usable in GNURoot debian?

4.  And a minor one, the clock is set to UTC and any attempts to open time and date settings calls a permission error.

Any help greatly appreciated because using a mouse in this environment seems extremely usable as a make do replacement for my laptop while out and about while retaining all the phone and Android functionality for my communication needs that dual booting would hinder.

7

Gemini PDA - Android / Torch app

« on: July 09, 2018, 01:40:02 pm »

As requested by a couple of people I have knocked up a rudimentary torch app for the Gemini called GeminiTorch.  It has basic functionality to light all 5 LEDs white. It's not very bright but the best available. It will cancel GeminiLED notifications at this stage but at next release I will put a torch function in that app.  Apk is at https://github.com/graynada/GeminiTorch/releases/tag/v1.0

8

Gemini PDA - Android / Google search on any character key

« on: July 05, 2018, 05:54:17 am »

Does anyone else have and know how to overcome this Gemini 'feature'?  If I press any character key while on the home screen Google Search pops up with that charter in the search bar.  This invariably leads to GS being on when I first open the device to some inadvertent button pressing by me and/or the screen.  Does anyone know how to turn off this feature as on the very rare occasions I would need it I'm very happy to go to the very considerable trouble of opening my browser to do a Google search?

9

Gemini PDA - Android / GeminiLED notification app

« on: June 30, 2018, 11:44:42 am »

As discussed in other threads I've been working on a notification app to use the 5 LED on the Gemini.  I have called this app GeminiLED and a version now available for people to try if they wish.  

This first version will light each of the 5 centre LED for notifications colours as follows from left to right:

Viber - magenta
WhatsApp - green
K9 Mail - red
Handcent Next SMS - blue
Dialer (call and missed call) - cyan

NOTE: This app needs access to notifications to work. Select Settings, Apps, Settings (gear wheel), Special access, Notification access slider on for GeminiLED

Due to the (sensible) way Android goes in to a 'doze' mode when the screen is off, I have not been able to implement reliable flashing.  If Planet release develop tools as they have said they are going to then there may be some methods available that I am currently unaware of which will allow me to revisit that. I've done some rudimentary testing and having the LEDs lit continuously does not seem to have any discernible affect on battery life.

The app to LED configuration is hard coded in this version.  User configuration of what LED responds to what app and in what colour is now under development.

The apk is available here

GitHub here

Feedback welcome but please go easy on me, this is the first time I have ever tried to release any of my projects in to the wild!  Hope it works for you.

10

Gemini PDA - Android / OTA and dual boot

« on: June 22, 2018, 12:27:28 pm »

Trying to install the OTA firmware update and it fails due to partition mismatch.  I guess this is due to me having flashed a dual boot with Linux.  Am I missing something or does this mean if you have dual boot you won't be able to store OTA updates any more?

11

Gemini PDA - Android / Picture colour mode

« on: June 17, 2018, 04:19:33 am »

Having now received my Gemini and setting up the Android side I've come across a 'feature' I wondered if anyone else had encountered.  Under the Developer options I normally set Picture colour mode to Use sRGB on however on the Gemini every time I leave the Developer menu it reverts to off.  The main reason I set it is the colours on Clash of Clans appear garish to me otherwise.  Has any one else expierenced this?