Messages

226

Gemini PDA - Android / Any tips for making the Gemini battery last as long as possible?

« on: June 26, 2018, 05:35:13 pm »

To Root or Not To Root; That is my question.

Depends what you want to do with your Gemini, really, what you know, and how much effort you want to put into it.

Pros:

• It gives you full control over your Gemini: the ability to read and write any file, and access any device.  This includes things like deleting apps, letting other apps access more files, ad-blocking, taking full backups, and much more.

Cons:

• Rooting is an awkward procedure (especially if you have a Mac), and you can easily wipe all your existing apps/files/data if you're not careful.  (It doesn't seem possible to permanently brick a Gemini, but a couple of people have got it into situations that needed a serious amount of research to fully recover from.)
• Over-The-Air firmware updates may no longer work.  (They haven't so far, though I hear they should do so once the latest firmware is installed.)
• Root access is powerful and lets you do more damage to your Gemini if you don't know what you're doing.
• Root access may allow malware to do more damage (or so I hear, though I don't know how accurate that is).

For me, the risks and hassles were worth it.  I'm very familiar with the command line &c, and the inability to do things such as fix file timestamps, write to the SD card, and edit /etc/hosts, was starting to seriously limit me.  I've seen no ill effects so far.  But it did take hours to work out how to flash my Gemini (and I've just spend a good while reflashing it with the latest firmware).

Rooting is probably less necessary on the Gemini than most other Android devices, because it's so open to start with: you don't need to root it to install other OSs or customise things, and it's not loaded down with stuff from a carrier.  (Or so I understand; the Gemini is the only Android device I've used…)

227

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Best charging practice?

« on: June 26, 2018, 05:09:01 pm »

What's the best way to preserve the Gemini's battery lifetime?

I charge mine overnight; I have a charging cable on my bedside table, and plug it in when I go to bed.  Is it best to use the power adapter supplied with the Gemini, or a standard USB adapter?  The supplied adapter is a fast charger; will that stress the battery more?  (A standard USB adapter charges much more slowly — though fast enough for my usage, as it's always fully charged when I wake.)

228

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Instability

« on: June 26, 2018, 11:54:51 am »

I'm now trying rubber strips.

I bought some 1MM Black Garage Door Weatherstrip Rubber Sealing Strip for Sliding Windows Sliding Doors; 5 metres is overkill, of course, but it does give lots of room for experimentation.

This is a thin rubber strip, with a slight indentation running down the middle, and one half is self-adhesive; that half is very slightly wider than the plastic case at the side of the Gemini, so I simply stuck some on the underside and trimmed it to size.  The black matches the plastic it covers, so it looks reasonably good, though the edge shows a little.

With that on, the Gemini is much more stable, both closed and open.

Time will tell if it remains attached longer than the rubber feet…

229

Gemini PDA - Android / Entering other characters

« on: June 26, 2018, 10:38:34 am »

I've found another special case: in vim, you can enter a wide range of characters as digraphs, by pressing Ctrl+K and then the digraph.  For example, a curly left single quote is Ctrl+K ' 6.  You can see the whole list by typing :digraphs<Enter>.


Pete's suggestion is valid — in fact, I've written programs like that myself, but such a program is always approximate, as there's no general way to be sure what was intended.  So it's only useful where you're going to be carefully reviewing the output.

Also, it's only suitable for batch-type processing, where you create the file, then stop and convert it.  So it's far too awkward to use while entering text.

And, worst of all, it only applies when you're working on a file.  So it's no help when composing, say, a post on your favourite web site…

230

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Keyboard label wear

« on: June 26, 2018, 04:21:11 am »

I can't see any signs of that on my 6-week-old Gemini…

231

Gemini PDA - Hardware / LED brightness

« on: June 25, 2018, 01:49:22 pm »

Yeah, that was my impression, too.

I also found another gotcha: if one LED is set to exactly the same value in every frame, it may not light at all!  The fix is just to tweak the colour very slightly between frames.

232

Gemini PDA - Android / notification LED for missed calls / texts

« on: June 25, 2018, 01:42:55 pm »

I am not sure if LED of the Gemini is RGB. Maybe it is restricted only to certain colors (green, red) and it can not change to any of whole spectrum of colors.

My impression (from a few minutes with LEDison) is that there's a good range of hues, but that the overall brightness is fixed.

Which would be a shame; no smooth fades or other effects.

233

Gemini PDA - Android / Entering other characters

« on: June 25, 2018, 01:40:12 pm »

fn+, will open up the onscreen symbol keyboard.

Yes, I know -- I mentioned that.  But it doesn't include curly quotes or any of the other characters I asked about.

234

Gemini PDA - Android / Entering other characters

« on: June 25, 2018, 12:49:39 pm »

In Android, you can directly type all the characters you can see on your physical keyboard (assuming it's set up correctly): letters, digits, and all the common symbols.

You can probably also type some extras: for example, in some apps, Alt+E seems to be a dead key for an acute accent, so Alt+E followed by E enters é (just as on a Mac).

And you can also type many more characters using one of the pop-ups; in my UK layout, Fn+. pops up a list of emoji that you can tap on, and Fn+, pops up a list of symbols.

However, there are still many other symbols not covered by the above — including some I use a lot, such as long dashes, curly quotes, hard space, ellipsis, degree, and fractions.  How can you enter characters such as those?

The only options I know about so far are:

• Copy and paste from somewhere, e.g. a file in an editor or browser: very slow and awkward.
• Install an app providing a special on-screen keyboard with those characters: very awkward, and limited to a particular selection.
• Install an app providing key shortcuts, and configure it for the characters you need: not sure if that's possible, and again necessarily limited to a small selection of chars.

Are there any better approaches?

(On the Psion 5 series, you could press Shift+Ctrl+Fn+C at any time to get a pop-up list of every character.  Though that used CP1252 AKA Windows Latin-1, so there were only 128 chars not already covered.  And you could also hold down Ctrl and type the decimal number of the character — less intuitive, but it did provide a way of entering any possible character.  Does Android have any equivalent to either of these?)

235

Gemini PDA - Android / Gemini MassStorage App?

« on: June 25, 2018, 04:09:07 am »

load up termux and scp the files between the Gemini and a Mac?

By an odd coincidence, that's exactly what I'm doing.  

One complication is that sshd is best run as root on the Gemini, to avoid issues with not being able to set timestamps or write to the external SD card.  But there's no way to set up file permissions on SSH's config files so it's happy.  (The entire Termux hierarchy is under a directory which is writable by your normal user, but to run as root SSH wants its config under a hierarchy not writable by anyone other than root.)  The only solution I've fond so far is to disable SSH's strict checking (by adding the line 'StrictModes no' to /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/etc/ssh/sshd_config -- which seems dangerous).

However, this does have several advantages: you don't need to plug in a cable, you get full access to the entire filesystem, and you can script it.

I also found a neat way to set up a shortcut on the home screen which starts sshd as root: create a ~/.shortcuts directory, write a file in there with the line 'tsu -s sshd', install Termux:Widgets, and then that script can be selected as a widget from the home screen.

(Termux has no 'sudo' command, but it has a nice wrapper around 'su' called 'tsu', and its '-s' flag takes a shell to run.  Turns out it doesn't have to be a shell!)

236

Gemini PDA - Android / Hotkeys for App Launching?

« on: June 23, 2018, 01:13:24 pm »

How do you upgrade to the premium version of Buttons remapper?

I installed it, enabled the accessibility service, and can set up simple shortcuts.  If I tap on the ‘Premium features’ or try to create a Combination shortcut, it shows a ‘Premium upgrade’ dialog — but when I tap on its UPGRADE button, nothing happens!

Do you need to be signed in to Google?

237

Gemini PDA - Hardware / Gemini PDA - Accessories - Pouches/Covers

« on: June 22, 2018, 12:58:41 pm »

I just carry mine in my pocket.

Me too.

I carried a Psion in my front-left trouser pocket for 20 years (not always the same trousers, I hasten to add — not always the same Psion, for that matter!), and it never got scratched or damaged as a result.  (I never carried anything else in that pocket, of course.)

So I'm not worried about the Gemini on that score.

An advantage of that is that I can whip it out and have it ready for action in a couple of seconds — which is great for jotting down notes and ideas as they occur, or checking info, or whatever.  And I use it a lot.  Having to open a case, remove it, put the case somewhere, and then open it (and then do it in reverse when putting it away) would have a major impact on its availability.  As I've said elsewhere, the more time and effort it takes to access, the less you're likely to do so, and the less useful it is.

As for damage, I'm more worried about its underside getting scratched by sliding around on a desk…

238

Gemini PDA - Android / Hotkeys for App Launching?

« on: June 21, 2018, 04:07:34 pm »

Can Button Mapper recognise specific combinations (such as Ctrl+Fn+F, without also recognising Ctrl+F or Fn+F)?  (Its page isn't clear, but none of its examples suggest that.)

And does it slow the keyboard down if it's set to recognise many different combinations?  (I thought I'd seen a report of that, but I can't find it now.)

239

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / Gemini PDA Gen 2 Features Request

« on: June 20, 2018, 06:21:43 pm »

I've found the keyboard key action on my later order Gemini (47xx) to be perfect

Having done some more typing on my second-batch Gemini, I can say that it's keyboard is clearly not as good as the Psion's.  The keys are noisier (and I mean the physical clicky sound, as I've turned off the haptic/vibration and software sounds), they're more likely to stick if you don't press them near the centre, and they're relatively insensitive (many presses don't register).

And the spacebar is particularly bad.  Not in the obvious way, though; it works at most points along its length, but you have to hit it pretty close to the middle of its width.  If I hit it just a few mm too far up or down, it sticks and won't press.  (On my 5mx, you can the spacebar anywhere along any edge or corner.  On the Gemini, anywhere near the Voice Assistant label sticks solid.)

It's not bad, and better than some keyboards I've used, but there's still clear room for improvement.

And on the software side, far too many apps don't recognise PgUp/PgDn/Home/End; and there's no way to type characters such as curly quotes and long dashes (and anything else not listed in the Sym or emoji pop-ups).

Plus (as discussed elsewhere) it could do with key shortcuts in the AppBar or elsewhere.

240

Gemini PDA - Hardware / WiFi Only Think's It's a Phone...

« on: June 20, 2018, 06:04:08 pm »

It's a shame there's no way to hide the eSIM but still show the hardware SIM if that's present.  (I'm stuck with two triangles in my to bar, one permanently dark.)