A New WITS A81G, Good Bits, not so good bits

baldilocks

Member
Jan 2, 2011
5
0
After some research bought a WITS A81G from HOTMID. Turned up as described and with a car charger as well so all good there.

Booted into 2.2 with a fair number of useful apps already loaded, I wanted an APAD as an ebook reader, watch the odd video in car, bus or plane and as a backup GPS for our Landies. Aldiko was there already and I am happily reading the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. YX player was also there and happily plays my DIVX encoded AVIs so watching Firefly is going nicely.

GPS worked although is slow to lock in can often take well over a minute or 2 which for a warm start is not good. Google maps/nav worked but on checking it was only V4.3. The Market did not list it and Market was only V1.8. Checking further Market seems to list very few apps compared to son Sony X10, I have tried clearing cache etc and even a 2.3.2 APK but it would not install. Anyone managed to get fully functioning Market on an A81? SLide Me and AndApp were also installed and have helped some, but in the main have been sideloading after download from the net.

I was keen to get an offline nav app as 3G in NZ does not cover where you really need your nav outside the cities. I tried Osmand and Navit but both had issues, Osmand was great when connected but failed to read its own downloaded maps and pois. Navit worked and has a nice interface but search for an address is really flawed a complete lottery. GPS took me to my own address shown clearly but try a search using exact syntax as per OSM and no result. Also on the addresses that did work if distance was over about 120km no route showed? Navdroyd however proved worth the mere $6.49, downloaded its own maps and the worked. Display is not as good as Navit, it really struggles with for example Auckland Harbour as it draws a shore line across the harbour entrance and Navits customisable xml was really nice. So for now using Navdroyd but will keep an eye on Navit.

Z4root happily rooted the WITS so titanium backup also running well. Next step improved ROMS, other than the ones from WITS is anyone less making them? I have tried searching but failed so far, hoping that may address Market issue.

Web browsing and wireless work fine and widgetsoid lets me turn off bluetooth, wireless etc on home page easily. I borrowed a 3G dongle but only for an hour and was unable to get a connection, anyone had more success or are they very dongle specific?
Also tried connecting visa USB to my slightly elderly Sony P1i, no luck. Hoping to get a ZTE Blade (aka Orange San Francisco) in a few weeks so will then play with tethering or an access point.

Overall fairly happy, got everything I wanted so have now ordered a car holder for it.
 

baldilocks

Member
Jan 2, 2011
5
0
DOh, dont you hate it when you post that you have an issue and 5 mins later its gone! I had been trying the market cure of clear cache etc and reboot, done it 3 times no joy, then by chance sawa modified version that mentioned market had to be running before you started the process and now I have all apps, or pretty much most of them. WOuld still like to figure out how to get market to upgrade?
 

fatmanwalking

Member
Mar 26, 2011
38
4
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