Messages

1

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Hairline crack in display case

« on: February 19, 2020, 03:05:41 am »

Hello tpp,

the 'hairline cracks' I showed then are no problem at all, too. Though there seems to be one Gemini owner who reported that those cracks spread and split the cover.

What's problematic is cracks in the hinge between screen and keyboard half, which seem to be much less common, but may lead to a structure failiure, thus having the Gemini fall apart.

If you only observe the the cracks shown in my picture: no worries.

2

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Hairline crack in display case

« on: February 07, 2020, 01:49:25 pm »

Perhaps you're treating it more roughly than I do?

No critics intended, but I have heard that not shutting is problematic, but opening and stressing the hinge when the device is open. I have read someone telling here in this forum that s/he very often taps and wipes the screen and that while doing that a lot of force is applied to the hinges. Noticable by a lot of "wobbling" between the keyboard and the screen part.

For myself, I nearly exclusively use the keyboard, and open and close the device gently, guiding the procedure with my fingers, and not relying on the stop provided by the hinge-spring. And it is the same here: no visible wear on the hinges.

3

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Gemini won’t charge

« on: February 04, 2020, 10:15:40 am »

Hello,

just to hint to a common mistake: only the left side USB-port can be used for charging.

4

Gemini PDA - Android / strange outgoing connections on port 10000

« on: December 30, 2019, 01:00:07 pm »

Hello Ninji,

thank you for your work!

Do you happen to know what causes that "Firmware OTA"-message on the Gemini? As I said, I don't want to update, but can't deactivate the "look for updated firmware". The only think the device allows me to do is setting the nudging period to one month, and then the darned thing appears again and stays.

I searched the process list for "ota" and the like, but didn't find anything. Do you perhaps know where that message comes from?

P.S.: Oh, I think I found out myself: I need to select the message, which makes the firmware update app open. Then I go to the process list, look for the com.fota.wirelessupdate process and kill it. Annoying message gone   I'll just see when it comes back again, but then I know how to tackle it.

P.P.S.: That killing the process is only shorttime, alas. The next day or so the stupid message is back. How do I permanently disable the "search for wireless update" feature?

5

Gemini PDA - Android / strange outgoing connections on port 10000

« on: December 29, 2019, 09:52:33 am »

Shouldn't then more people have that suspicious port 10000 traffic?

The OTA updater nudges me again about updating, which I don't want but can't disable, so apparently I have to live with those annoyng messages, but I don't have that traffic.

6

Gemini PDA - Android / strange outgoing connections on port 10000

« on: December 29, 2019, 04:04:37 am »

Just the promised update: No "com.mediatek.bluetooth.dtt" process anywhere, no connections to port 10000 in the firewall logfile.

Maybe just get rid of "com.mediatek.bluetooth.dtt".

7

Gemini PDA - Android / strange outgoing connections on port 10000

« on: December 26, 2019, 12:45:55 pm »

i am just surprised to be the only one to use a firewall on gemini...

ah, no, you aren't, I use it, too, or at least I used it for quite a while, until I found out that it interferes with VPN-connections (because it establishes an internal VPN-connection of its own), so I only can have the firewall or VPN, but not both at the same time. But since I never saw any suspicious activity, I still felt safe to deactivate the firewall. Now I activated it once again, and I'll watch for connections of the kind you described. I'll report in a few days.

Somewhere I read the advice to deactivate all "MTK" apps and services possible. They seem to "phone home" so much that they might be considered spyware. I am not suggesting that you do that, but you might consider investigating what "com.mediatek.bluetooth.dtt" actually does and whether it is neccessary.

I wouldn't be surprised if any of all those shiny apps and services - not only the MTK ones - established connections to who knows where. So called "app development" nowadays is mostly pasting together preconfigured modules from a software development kit, and mostly noone seems to bother or ask what those modules do besides what there are meant for. I had a harsh discussion with a supplier of a product coming bundled with an Android app about unwanted network connections, and they finally admitted that they had just taken modules, let's say for "cloud storage", from some kit and put it in, without knowing what they got in addition. The "addition" were at least five different connections with unknown purpose to servers in China and the like.

Well, you seem to make progress, and I wish you good success to finally get a port-10000-free Gemini.

P.S.: on my Gemini no "com.mediatek.bluetooth.dtt" service is running, bluetooth on or off. When I activate bluetooth - which I usually haven't - there is a "com.android.bluetooth" process running, which vanishes again when I deactivate bluetooth.
Strange enough there are a lot of place where you can download the "Mediatek Bluetooth Tool" apk, but I found no explanation so far what it actually is supposed to do.

8

Gemini PDA - Android / strange outgoing connections on port 10000

« on: December 23, 2019, 12:34:34 pm »

Looking forward to it.

Peacefull Christmas!

9

Gemini PDA - Android / strange outgoing connections on port 10000

« on: December 23, 2019, 01:50:46 am »

Hmm, right, seems to be no single app that is connecting through port 10000, but a service all of the listed apps and services make use of.
Port 10000 seems to be a standard port for a "Webmin" protocoll, that is a remote configuration service through TCP/IP, as far as I understand it.
Since you blocked it and if there are no other suspicious activities in the log, maybe it's not worth too much worry, but I would observe the firewall log and check it once in a wile for more things going on.

Sorry for not being able to offer more help.

10

Gemini PDA - Android / strange outgoing connections on port 10000

« on: December 21, 2019, 11:03:42 am »

Hello,

"Firewall without root" usually also lists which app is trying to connect. What does it say?

11

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Hack The Planet! ... Gemini PDA

« on: December 06, 2019, 04:05:14 am »

Hello,

it sooo much reminds me of myself reading this. The much younger me, though   I really wrote my own text processor in 6502-assembler for my beloved Atari 800XL, which I even used to write my diploma thesis.

Unfortunately I allways was slow, and by the time I had figured out how to code things there were kids half my age who were into serious software development. So I didn't follow that path so vigorously anymore.

Though I see now that especially when it comes to Android apps, I could be the shark in the pool again. If I only was eager enough to learn the depth of application devolopment. When I see what heaps of crap is out there, I can't understand how people couldn't do better. But I learned that many people who call themselves software developer just are kids playing with Lego: all they can do is puzzle together preconfigured modules from a software construction kit, mostly without even knowing what they put in there, and what goes on under the hood.
I had an increasingly angry (on both sides) discussion lately with a supplier of a product coming bundled with an Android app, after I had found out that even for the basic functionalities the app would connect to several servers out there, most of which I could not figure out where exactly they are and what the heck they were doing. The first few answers from the supplier were down the lines of "No, we don't do that! You are wrong! There must be something else on your device that connects to external servers!", and first after I sent them a log list showing plainly that is was their app that connects to servers together with IP addresses and some information I had found about those servers, they started to even take my question seriously. After they explained one server out of at least five they connected, I asked - grindingly politely - to get to communicate with someone who actually knows what they are talking about.
The long and the short of it, they didn't even know what their app was doing. They finally admitted that they had just taken modules, let's say for "cloud storage", from some kit and put it in, without knowing - and what I blame them for: without even asking - what they got in addition. They then even went as far as whiningly asking me for advise how to solve the problem. Well, I couldn't give them any, maybe I could have earned some money  

And I have given up asking people, even suppliers and developers, for extended information of anything. Last time I tried was when I stupidly bricked an Android tablet, unfortunately one of a not very widely used brand, so there was no community keeping busy with it. Finally I wanted to know how that "bootloader" thingy actually worked and whether there is a way to fire up a device with a certain processor and chipset undependently of the Android flavor that is planned to run on it. All I got was some superficial information and references to "flash tools" and the occasional hint to getting the firmware from the supplier (which the supplier was unable or unwilling to provide). All that showed me that 99,99% of the people didn't even understand the question, or thought that their ability to use a flashtool - which they didn't understand a thing about - to put some firmware - which they knew even less about - onto some device - which they had no idea of how it works - made them "experts", and that I was asking the stupid questions. Unfortunately the 0,01% of the people who read my questions and might have been able to provide some really useful information didn't do so. Maybe they looked at their knowledge as their capital, thus not being willing to share it for free.

So, it is nice to know that there are still people out their who try to really understand the wonders of modern technology and use that knowledge to make something useful and maybe even better. I wish you all the luck and success in the world on you journey!  

12

Gemini PDA - Hardware / A year with the Gemini

« on: November 08, 2019, 02:58:09 am »

Very interested to see how you get on, will you be able to document your activities with photos as well please? I'm sure we could all benefit from your experience.

Definitely!

13

Gemini PDA - Android / Pretty full-featured BASIC interpreter for Android and other programming languages

« on: October 23, 2019, 03:49:26 am »

Hello graynada,

thanks for the hint to UserLAnd. I tried Gimp, but it said "unable to open display". Also "Idle" seems to have problems with the display and doesn't run.
Anyway, could you perhaps direct me to some intsructions on how to get "Android Studio" into UserLAnd and how to run it?

Kind regrads

14

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Car mount kit.

« on: September 24, 2019, 09:20:34 am »

Hello Daniel,

here's my stupid question   : To what purpose do you want to mount the Gemini on a tripod?

Hälsningar till Sverige  

15

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Hinge cracks

« on: June 29, 2019, 05:53:48 am »

I have now gone through several Geminis that all eventually start getting cracks in the plastic that covers the hinges.

Strange; I use mine countless times every day, and it's survived a year without any apparent deterioration of the hinges.  How are you treating yours??

The hinges (and associated cables &c) are always the weak point of any clamshell device.  But the scale of your problem does make me wonder whether you're doing anything to exacerbate it.

(BTW, I think they said Cosmo Communicator will have a stronger hinge.)

As for waking-up time; mine has always taken a perceptible time for the screen to turn on after opening it, but it's usually around half a second; I don't think it's ever been more than a second or so.  I don't know what causes the delay, so I can't suggest anythijng there.

Same here: apart from the tiny hairline cracks in the lid where the magnets sit I don't see any damage, not at the hinges nor anywhere else. I do open and close the device carefully, not letting it "snap" open or close. Allways.
Yes, it would be helpful to have a thorough description of how the jornada720 uses and stores the device.

Kind regards